Architectural Portfolio | Keerthana Venkatesh

CONTENTS

SEMESTER

SEMESTER 09

Architectural Thesis: MIND, BODY AND SPACE

Studio Guide: Prof. Shantesh Kelvekar

Studio Mentor: Aabid Raheem

IntroductionMental health is a broad subject often viewed under a narrow stereotypical lens. We are either partially or in most cases, completely wrong about it. It is a widely discussed topic with poor awareness. The primary reason for this is the mere ignorance of the fact that it is as much an aspect of a person’s wellbeing as physical wellness. And hence requires inputs from an expert in the field. In a parallel conversation design and architecture are similarly ignored as subjects better left to professionals.

Space : Body :: Body : Mind

Mental disorders affect everyone, irrespective of age, gender, residence and living standards, even though some groups are at a higher risk for certain illnesses; only the impact varies. They are known to be caused by a complex interaction of biological, social, environmental, cultural and economic factors.

In India, the social determinants of health like employment, education, living standards, environment, access, equity and others contribute significantly to both causation and recovery.

An alarming fact which has been recognised for several years, is the huge gap, often referred to as the treatment gap, in the care of the mentally ill in Indian society. This is due to the poor awareness among people and the availability of limited resources.

Mental health has often been accorded a lower priority amidst competing health and social priorities.

There exist health centres and help centres for one to go for treatment or help, but with the notion in India, of treating mentally ill people differently and not considering the smaller mental frustrations of the one right beside you going through has been a major issue in our country. Could there be a place for a woman who is always busy with taking care of everyone and household chores to go to, sit in peace for while around neighbourhood? Could a kid who was not able to finish his assignment because he was bullied at school go to a different space sit by himself, get the work done? We have been learning how buildings effect one and how spaces are created for one to experience it and use it in a certain way. This study majorly lies in understanding how architecture could affect one mentally, irrespective of the program the architecture holds.

Abstract

One being the container of the other. The relationship between the three is what I have attempted to understand better in order to design a space that eventually contains the body in sufficient equilibrium that the mind experiences peace. I Hypothesize that the body here becomes a link between my two primary objects of study, i:e Mind and space.

The conversation around creating awareness is addressed the moment an appropriate program is formulated. What follows is to what extent the design aligns with its intent to capture a troubled mind and not imprison it.

Hypothesis

a. To what extent can the physical environment influence one’s health? What is the relationship between the following and the health of certain urban and suburban populations? Residential density, housing features, land use mix, quantity and quality of public space, connectedness, and transit networks can all be considered examples of neighborhood- and community-level factors.

b. After establishing architecture can make difference on someone’s well being, one of the major aspects of this study would be to understand how one feels in different spaces, irrespective of the activities that happen in the space.

Research Questions

The aim of the study is to understand and execute what architecture could do for one’s well-being, physically and mentally.

- To understand if architecture could bring in comfort to one, irrespective of them surrounded by people.

- how can being at the state of flow help with mindfulness.

To develop a program in a way to articulate architecture, based on the understanding, surveys and research on state of flow.

Aim Objectives Research Methodologies

The research took place through various perspectives; shown here in an order: made easy to understand, as follows.

What is being at State of flow?

Being at flow is an optimal experience, to feel a sense of exhilaration, a deep sense of enjoyment, relaxation. It could be a feeling of accomplishing something difficult, challenging and worthwhile that is realistic goals.

To be in flow and understand flow are two broad psychological process:

body activities: sports, dance, yoga, martial arts, nusic, fasting, developing new skills.

mind: gain control over mental process, physical activities with rules, goal, constraints

leveraging memory: remembering enjoyable memo ries, nostalgia communication: conversation, writing, analyse and understand experiences, self-communication

ways to achieve flow

Learning of a skill, primary enjoyment

- Roger Caillois, French Psychological Anthropologist

There are 4 types - based on experience

a. AGON - competing is the main aim, includes sports evenyts, atheletic event

b. ILINX or VERTIGO - alters consciousness, changing or scrambling per ception. eg: riding merry-go-round, skydiving etc.

c. ALEA - games of chance, dice, activities involving probability, estimat ing situations

d. MIMICRY - activities that turn one into something more than them selves, includes fantasy, pretending, involving into something to an extent it stretchs limits of ordinary, acting, transporting oneself into a new reality.

There is need for change, ane cannot enjoy the same thing at same level for a long time, leads to boredom and frustration, repetition. Flow is strongly influenced by objective conditions.

Architectural Concerns for a Human :

What do we expect to experience?

1. Refuge and Prospect

- shelter, ceiling height, to belong, have an idea of future events, familiarity spaces that provide unobstructed views from multiple vantage points; and spaces that provide a sense of safe ty and concealment. The preference for these elements is heightened if the environment is perceived to be haz ardous or potentially hazardous.

In natural environments, prospects include hills, moun tains, and trees near open settings. Refuges include enclosed spaces such as caves, dense vegetation, and climbable trees with dense canopies nearby. In human-created environments, prospects include deep terraces and balconies, and generous use of windows and glass doors. Refuges include alcoves with lowered ceilings and external barriers, such as gates and fences. The design goal of prospect-refuge can be summarized as the development of spaces where people can see without being seen.

2. Exploration

Knowing there is opportunity to explore, curiosity, antici pate a variety of possibilities.

This is another basic important concern seen from evo lutionary perspective is the need to explore. We need to search for new sources of food and to secure ourselves for possible threats.

For example standing in a dark alley we see a bright space ahead, a promise of new information.

We start fantasizing what kind of space it will be, will it be a big open court to trees or to an empty space, Wee are curious of new information which is waiting for us to discover.

Refuge and Prospect Exploration

Enticement

Thrill

Dramatized Space

3. Enticement

Explore from dark (refuge) to light (prospect), from en closed space (refuge) to open space (prospect), narrow to vast – “we see without being seen”, our curiosity is triggered by partly revealed features in the distance.

Humans prefer to explore from dark to light. We move from the dark refuge to the bright prospect, so we can always retread back in our safe refuge. This phenome non is called enticement. A very important aspect of this preference to explore from dark to light is that we see without being seen. The opposite – exploring from light to dark makes us feel unsafe. For example in horror movies this is used with the scary darkness on top of the stairs.

4. Thrill

- Fear + pleasure, but avoidance of them exists within our control

Thrill can be described as a combination of emotions. We’re talking about the combination of fear and plea sure. With thrill we try to explore the boundaries of real dangers, seen or sensed, but avoiding them rests within our control.

Appleton says in How I Made the World: Shaping a View of Landscape (Environmental Studies) :

“[…] Seeking the assurance that we can handle danger by actually experiencing it is therefore itself a source of pleasure.”

“If we were to be interested only in those features of our environment which are suggestive of safety, cosiness and comfort, and not at all concerned with those which sug gest danger, what sort of recipe for survival would that be? Seeking the assurance that we can handle danger by actually experiencing it is therefore itself a source of pleasure.”

5. Dramatized space

- Exaggerate a space or importance, could be by the nearness of discomfort or vastness.

In each case the sense of security is dramatized by the nearness of discomfort and even danger. The value of the shelter is intensified by giving evidence of what it protects against.

“They intensify the value of the refuge by giving evi dence of what it protects against; the haven becomes more dramatically a haven. “

– HILDEBRAND, G. (1999) Origins of Architectural Plea sure

Yelahanka Satellite Town

Area: 102.56 km²

Population (2020): 401793

Population Density: 3917 people per km²

Male Population: 209088

Female Population: 192705

Population change 1975 to 2015: +3,738% 2000 to 2015: +158.2%

“this place is so dead and empty, we are too scared to come to this road, we’re only here because we are 5 of us.”

“after they started constructing this, this place is dead, kids used to play cricket here.”

“past few years all I have seen is trucks and buses parked out here.”

Locals about the site selected.

Yelahanka, Site surrounds schools, colleges, some of the major streets of yelahanka. The school opposite to the site previously used to host various events that used to take place in Yelahanka, now does not perform as it used to as the school has been privatised.

Considering these aspects the programme is developed. `

acknowledge learning engage awareness help & care Program Development

PROFESSIONAL TRAINING | Field Atelier, Goa

INTERNSHIP Programme with Ar. Teja Amonkar & Ar. Yatin Fulari

SALVADOR DO MUNDO

Presentation drawings made for a completed project. Measured on site to complete the drawing to the hand over to the client.

GROUND FLOOR PLAN

KITCHEN

DINING LIVING

BEDROOM FLOOR

BEDROOM

SIT

NACHINOLA - I

Working drawings in progress.

NACHINOLA - I

PRANAVI - Pergola DetailStaircase Railing Detail

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OTHER WORKS

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SEMESTER 07 Jaipur

PLAZA | LIBRARY | MUSEUM

Studio Guides:

Asst. Prof. Shantesh Kelvekar

Prof. Anand Krishnamurthy Prof. Manoj Ladhad

Brief Requirement: To design a city museum, a public library and plaza.

Site Area: 16920 sq. m Buildable Area: 11730 sq. m

The site is located close to the old(fort-walled) city of Jaipur To the north of the site runs Agra-Jaipur-Ajmer Highway. To the west runs the main road, main axis all the way from the palace to the Albert hall Museum through Sawai Mann Singh statue circle, who planned the layout of the city.

To (re)look at architecture as a rescue from the impacts of these three ecologies, ‘The Three Ecologies’, Felix Guattari, from the framework of social ecology, mental ecology (including that of human subjectivity) and environmental ecology, questions the disastrous legacy of modern town planning, the (neo) liberal markets, cultural reshap ing, and its impact on social and environmental mediations.

The studio shall focus and intend to take a route beyond a stylis tic or an aesthetic sense (that is biased) on one side and merely meeting programmatic or functional requirements on the other. The studio intends to strongly focus on developing and shap ing architecture that responsibly positions itself within the context and yet is free from the confinement of the past baggage.

In this context to look at architecture in a multi-sensorial manner also becomes crucial. Rather than looking at the eye as a guid ing factor for navigating through an architectural space, the in tent of the studio is to use sight as an alleviating factor between the other physical senses – that of touch, sound, smell and taste. Further, to explore other colloquially termed, but non-physical senses such as sense of time, sense of space or sense of memory will be delved into during the course of the studio.

the above diagrams represent the intent of the design, to have flexiblity in spaces for activities to happen.

Proximity of the site, it includes most of the types of land use. Built with respect to the contour.

Plinth modulation done with respect to contour.

Programmes function hand in hand.

where open air theatre, library, workshops, museum meet

SECTION FF’

museum and library spill out to the multi-purpose hall and second entrance, plaza

connect from museum and library to workshops, com mon meeting rooms to plaza across multi-purpose hall

connect from durgah to the project, to plaza, direct connect and also visual connect

SEMESTER 06 Mysuru CAMPUS DESIGN

Studio Guides:

Prof. Prashant G Pole

Prof. Vidyashankar S

Asst. Prof. Pallavi Dhomse

INTENT:

To make spaces more interactive and break the idea/notion of rigidity in a sci ence institution.

PROGRAMME:

Spatial arrangement based on privacy yet clash with respect to function and activities.

SITE

program development based on contours and privacy level

GROUND FLOOR PLAN

FIRST FLOOR PLAN

SECOND FLOOR PLAN

ROOF PLAN

Professor’s Private Laboratories

nursery canteen labs, chambers, storage, visiting seminars, lecturesfaculty students and exhibition

Student Laboratories, Lecture Rooms, Seminar Halls

Library Laboratories for students with assistance and equipments Computer Access Station

Herbarium and Storage for experiments Herbarium Study area Courtyard

Species Museum and Exhibition Admin Office

connect to the nature when stepped out, mainly out of labs, because students and professor spend most of the time in labs ex perimenting or researching. this provides them small intervals of refresh ment

SEMESTER 05 SHORAPUR, Yadgir

RSP Documentation | Design: Town Centre

Studio Guides:

Prof. Nagaraj Vastarey

Asst. Prof. Akash Rai

Shorapur, officially known as Surapura is a headquarter of a talluk, with the same name in district of Yadgir in the Northeastern part of Karnataka. Located between the valley/ delta of Krishna and Bhima rivers, the town oc cupies an important position in the cultural and historic landscape of the Deccan.

Shorapura, as the town was known during its inception in the late 16 th century and name means a place of the brave and willful. It was a princely province, found ed after the fall of Vijayanagar dynasty in 1565 AD and was ruled by the Nayaka Kings, till its fall in 1858 AD. Raja Vankatappa Nayaka was the last king of this province and was seized by the British, in the late 19th century.

Shorapur is town situated in-between the hills. It is located at a latitude of 16’31’ and longitude of 76’48’. The population is about 43,591 people. It is about 52kms from the main town of Yadgir District of Northern Karnataka. It lies in the delta region between Krishna river and it’s tributary Bhima river, about 383mts above sea level.

The land has fertile black and red soil with an average rainfall of 150mm. It is surrounded by four hills, which naturally fortifies the town. The town is situated in an arid region with hot climatic conditions. The terrain of the town slopes from West to East.

The town is situated within four hills and gaurded by two consecutive fortification- massive in structure running over the hills and across the valley. The length of the fortification is about 6400mts, made of chisseled rounded stones.

LAND USE:

The town is almost divided into two halves considering the land use patterns- one half considering the residential part to the North of the temple and the commercial part towards the South east of the town. A hierarchy of movement is seen by observing the road widths. These roads are linked by small nodes. As one moves towards the residential area of the town, the privacy level of the nodes increases too.

AGE OF BUILDINGS:

The palace and The Temple are the oldest structures in the area documented. There is a longer con centration of older buildings along these two. The newer setllements and shops have come up along the street connecting the two. The residents now use the older buildings to suit their needs, like how a broken fort wall in the town has become a classroom.

The number of buildings abandoned buildings is just few, due to the fact that people are occupying the space to conduct their trade or reside here.

HEIGHTS:

The buildings respect the height of the Temple and the Palace, placeing these two structures at a place of power, above the rest of the structures. The idea of faith within the people united them and dictates the way they build their homes and respect their surroundings.

TYPOLOGY:

The north-west of the town remains rooted to its traditions and havn’t changed. The rest of the town has grown pre-dominantly after the technology of reinforced concrete came up.The newer one’s are closely packed while the old one’s are spaciously arranged.

From the high plinths of the temple, we could realize the large ness of scale with respect to the scale when we were below, on the streets.

In the midst of a mushy and humid street, with dusty winds, amongst the honking vehicles, grunting pigs and hundreds of babbling voices, a majectic and elegant entity stood out from all, with a divine Identity.

The Venugopalswamy temple along with it’s Kalyani in front of it, spread its divinity from the highest point to the lowest point being the home of Surapur.

The royal temple is located to the west of the Palace complex, on a high, elevated surface. The east facing Venugopalswamy tem ple was built by Raja Venkata Nayaka.

It consist of a Garbhagriha, an Antharala, an Ardhamantapa, a sabhamantapa, a pillared mukhamantapa, a rectangular pil lared verandah, a mahamantapa, a dvajastamba and a prakara enclosed within it’s high walls.

Narrow gullies on either sides and the front lead to settlement, houses where the Brahmins and the priests stay.

Garbhagriha Kalyani

VENUGOPALASWAMY TEMPLE

Street along the market. Palace Street Commercial Street

NORTH SIDE TEMPLE GULLY

This gully runs along the north of the temple, parallel to the temple. Silent, foul smell and congested. The gully slopes for about 10mts. This hasn’t prevented people with their actvities. they ride motorbikes, cycles all along these slopy gullies. These gulllies are the silent residentials part of the town. There are few narrow shortcuts that help us reach the back of the temple. There are small drains that rund along side of the narrow roads, the roads are either tarred or made of concrete, unevenly in texture.

The house entrances begin witha plinth and steps that lead up to it. the plinths are higher on one end as the streets are slop ing. The plinths offer a space for interaction with public and also may be a resting place for the passersby.

There are thorns and bushes grown on abondoned site with sights of pigs everywhere. There are few derelict structures, made of stone to be found along the streets.

Complete Report

North Gully Elevation

SITE

SEMESTER 05

SHORAPUR, Yadgir

Design: Town Centre

Studio Guides: Prof. Nagaraj Vastarey

Asst. Prof. Akash Rai

THE ONTOLOGY OF FAITH:

It is the theoretical/intellectual investigation of Faith as generator of Human conflu ence, in multitudes, for a common cause at a place. With PEOPLE and PLACE as com mon denominators, the study shall inend and architectural evaluation of faith and it’s eventuation thereon, through a project at and academic leve; and the said project shall be an intellectual proposition.

ONTOLOGY is the philosophical study of being. More broadly, it studies concepts that directly relate to being, in particular becoming, existence, reality, as well as the basic categories of being and their relations.

In the context of religion, one can define FAITH as confidence or trust in a particular system of religious belief.

The studio aim was to design a Town Centre.

Requirements: Gathering Hall, Library and Academy (about the town)

Duration: 12 weeks

SEMESTER 03 | RSP: UDAIYALUR

Studio Guides:

Prof. Nagesh HD

Prof. Srinivas

Asst. Prof. Shreyas Baindur

The study programme included documentation on site as collective work and eventually designing on prominent spaces of the agraharam called Udaiyalur. The intent of the Related Study Programme(RSP) studio was to understand the con text of villages/agraharams by observing the everyday actvities, materiality, etc.

UDAIYALUR

Udaiyalur is a town situated in the south of India, around 12km from Kumbakonam, TamilNadu. Udaiyalur being in the delta regions of the river Cauvery, the eastern part of the Indian peninsula, receives the Northeast monsoon. It holds nutrient-rich alluvial soils whose deposits are brought by the slowing river. This land is known for the growth of paddy and along with blackgram, sugarcane, banana, coco nut, redgram, greengram, sesame, and maize.

The house is located at the corner of the street. the entrance of the house faces the west hence getting harsh sunlight at that portion for most time of the day. the façade of the house is similar to any other house in udaiyalur, but the major difference is that the Thinnai was fenced by wooden railings. since it was a corner house which was subjected to 2 streets and harsh sunlight, the railings the protected the thinnnai to some extent. a part of the street in front of the house was cleaned using water mixed with cow dung which prevents dust, flies and insects from entering inside the house. the entrance to the house was placed to the southern side. there is a linear visual axis from the entrance of the house to the end of the site. as we enter the house, we have to pass through a small passage which opened to a much wider space which has been briefly divided into two parts, the shaded part and the non shaded part on the courtyard. the courtyard was in the southern side of the house which was subjected to winter sun. the first courtyard was a depressed path which can be visualised as a cuboid which has been pulled more towards the southern side. the roof is supported by a truss which is made of organic wooden members that are in tension or compression. this space is followed by two entrances. one on the northern side leading to the kitchen which had a small rectangular opening in the roof and the depression right below that. the other entrance is aligned to the main entrance which leads us through a narrow passage and bathrooms aligned beside the bath. the passage leads us into a wider space with lean to roofs around it which is pointing towards the centre at which the well is being constructed.again a door is being aligned to the main entrance opens into a semi open garage where the vehicles can be parked from the northern side next to the road. this strip is followed by a garden.

The second house, we were made to document was sandwitched between two other houses with an old women staying in the house was similar to the other houses in the village. It was oriented on the east west axis allowing thesouth sunlight to the courtyard. As you enter the house you have a raised plinth on which the thinnai is. The entrance of the house was through a narrow passage that leads you to the main thalavaram. this particular house had an inclined wall that we had discovered during our documentation. On either side of the thalavarm were the storage rooms and the kitchen. The kitchen had a depression in the plinth for the daily wash of utensils. The first courtyard is followed by another narrow passage with toilet towards one side. This then leads you to the secondary courtyard which then leads you to the backyard. like the other houses this house also has a well along with a lot of neem and coconut trees. The entire house had thick walls and wooden batten supporting the clay tiles. there is a small portion of the house in the second courtyard with bamboo battens. The columns were made out of wood just like another typical house in Udaiyalur.