contents 4
Biography
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Building with Bamboo
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Living with the Storm
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A Writer’s Home
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School for Life
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The Public Realm- A manifestation of Lived Experience
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Screen Exploration
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Personal Interests
Kruti Shah
Bachelor’s Studio Project 2011 Institutional | Rural | Sustainable | Material Exploration
Maternity Home in Sunderbans | Master’s Studio Monsoon 2015 Insitutional | Rural | Sustainable
Master’s Foundation Project 2014 Residential | Urban
Bachelor’s Capstone Project 2014 Institutional | Semi- Urban | Sustainable | Material Exploration
Master’s Capstone Project, Madrid, Spain Research | Urban | Public | Exploration on Space
Internship 2014 Residential | Urban | Detailing | Material Exploration
2009 -2016 Paintings | Tribal Mud Wall | Graphic story
Kruti Shah krutishah127@gmail.com India : +918291414801
Birth : 12.07.1991 Nationality : Indian OBJECTIVE : Seeking a job as Junior Architect/Designer
Education Spring Semester 2016
Masters degree ERASMUS+ exchange program At Superior Technical School of Architecture of Madrid (ETSAM), Universidad Politécnica de Madrid, Spain
2014-2016
Masters degree program Majors in Advance Architectural Design Minors in Sustainable Architecture At Faculty of Architecture, Centre for Environment, Planning and Technology (CEPT) university, Ahmedabad, India
2009-2014
Bachelor of Architecture, Academy of Architecture Mumbai University, Mumbai, India
Work Experience Jan - April 2009
Samira Rathod and Design Associates, Mumbai, India
Publications 2016
Shah, Kruti : Master’s thesis, The In-between Realm- A Manifestation of Lived Experience, 2016.
2013
Photograph featured in the “Story-tellers” section of the magazine Indian Architects and Builders August Issue,2013
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Competitions Jan 2013
Transparence National Level Student’s Design Competition - Design of a Clubhouse - Won 2nd Prize
Dec 2011
Participation in National Association of Students of Architecture (NASA) competition Category : Back to Basics Documentation of a settlement that evolved around a indigenous water system. - Qualified for Finals
Worshops/ exhibitions/ seminars Feb 2013
Attended the 361 degree design Conference conducted by Indian architects and Builders.
Nov 2012
Participated in a 9 day workshop at Laurie Baker Centre conducted by COSTFORD
Jan 2012
Research and survey of the fishing village in Versova, Mumbai in collaboration with URBAN DESIGN RESEARCH INSTITUTE, Mumbai, India
Jan 2011
Research on Films and the city.
Jan 2010
My project ‘Building with Bamboo’ Bachelor’s Studio 2011 was chosen to be presented in an exhibition held by Ar.Kaiwan Mehta.
Professional Skills AutoCAD 2d Rhinoceros with V-Ray Adobe Photoshop Adobe Indesign Drafting Sketching Model Making
Language Skills English
Speak Fluently and read/write with high proficiency.
Hindi
Speak Fluently and read/write with high proficiency.
Gujarati
Native Language
Spanish
A1 level
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Building with Bamboo Institutional | Rural | Sustainable | Material Exploration Bachelor’s Studio Project 2011 This Studio project was my first introduction towards natural materials and the immense potential they have to build beautiful architecture. The project was carried out in two parts, the first being, in depth research on the material assigned to us, in my case it was bamboo. Types of Bamboo, sizes, joineries possible, structural detailing and various aspects were researched upon. The second part was to pick a region in India to design a community based school. I chose Nagaland, in the North-East region of India as bamboo is largely available in this region. A further study was carried out on the traditional Bamboo architecture of the region and the deep relation of the architecture to its community and lifestyle ,the design was developed such that it would carter to dual functions of being a school in the morning and a community space in the evening as two classes would open into a large space for gatherings. Being a school , the play areas were included as part of the structure above and below it as the structure needed to be raised on stilts it created a provision for usable area below as well. Also, analysis of the local climate helped in developing architectural features to keep the micro climate of the structure comfortable throughout the day. The aim of this project was develop an understanding of bamboo as a building material with a focus on detailing of the structural joineries.
Traditional Bamboo Houses- Nagaland
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Thatch Stage 3
Bamboo batten Dia : 100mm Bamboo Truss
Dried up wheat husk 300mm thick
Bracing Member
Stage 1 Stage 2
Detail showing tying of blades
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Steel joint Wooden Peg Bamboo frame member
Circular Bamboo sections Bamboo frame member
Bamboo Post Dia- 200mm
Flattened Bamboo Bundle
Bamboo panel flooring Bamboo Posts Dia- 200mm
Stone with hole drilled to insert column, later filled with cement
Bracing member Dia- 100mm
Rubble Packing
Stone foundation
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Living with the Storm Maternity Home | Insitutional | Rural | Sustainable Master’s Studio Project | Monsoon 2015 The Sundarbans mangrove forest, one of the largest such forests in the world (140,000 ha), lies on the delta of the Ganges, Brahmaputra and Meghna rivers on the Bay of Bengal. The people living in this region battle the monsoons every year rebuilding their lives after every passing storm. With water as their friend and enemy, the people have been trying to make peace with nature but in vain. Women and children of this region require special care as basic facilities are lost and sometimes non-existent. Maternity homes have become very important in looking after the well-being of women and their children, A project floated across several rural areas of the world by the UN could be a way to save the future of many mothers. This studio project has been taken up as an opportunity to design a maternity home that could help shelter mothers and their children even in a flood. The main aim of the design was to build with materials that could be easily replaced by the locals and to build with water and not against it! The design was based on an understanding of their home and the use of various spaces to create the same comfort to the women whose lives revovlve around their homes leading to a greater number of women coming to the maternity home for regular health care, which they did not receive previously leading to home births.
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Buffer Zone to protect the inner living areas from the strong winds.
Spaces provided for women to interact and relax leading to emotional support.
Central axis within the home helps in ease of access
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Thatch
Eucalyptus Battens
Eucalyptus Principle rafter with steel cross bracings to withstand high winds.
Treated boat planks made out of Xyocarpus mangrove tree used as floor boarding.
Split bamboo openable 3 part window.
Tension rod to tie down the roof
Wattle screen
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A Writer’s Home Residential | Urban Insert Master’s Foundation Studio Project | Monsoon 2014
Passing through the narrow unwinding lanes of the once walled city of Ahmedabad, lies a rich heritage of the Pols. The Pols is one of the oldest neighborhoods of the area with courtyard houses and an eye for craftsmanship from the timber columns to the brackets all carved with intricate detailing. With Urbanization catching up, the pols are rapid changing with the houses being torn down at a great speed to be replaced by apartment buildings! In this context, We were asked to design a home for Architect, socialist and writer Arundati Roy. A woman who loves to read and who is a strong independent individual. A dog and nature lover. My take on this project was to see how the courtyard homes could evolve to fit the contemporary lifestyle and still keeps its old charm. The first step was to maximize the open space in the small plot with minimum massing. This was achieved by dividing the plot vertically as shown in fig.2. Once the minimal dimensions of the spaces are placed on the plot, the open space is modified to use the extra space available. The interior spaces are such that the common areas are placed on the ground floor opening into the garden and have been given double volumes creating an interaction vertically. The first floor is solely dedicated as a space of reading with a n option of an extra room for when there are guests while the last floor is the private space.
Kitchen
Fig. 1 Plot - 7.5m x 15m
Fig. 2 A thorough fare
Modulation of the traditional courtyard
Study Space
DN Book Shelf
UP Common Space
Ground Floor Plan
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DN
UP
Personal Space
Double Voulme
First Floor Plan
Second Floor Plan
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Inner Courtyard
Section AA
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Key Plan
B
A
Section BB
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School for Life Institutional | Semi- Urban | Sustainable | Material Exploration Bachelor’s Capstone Project 2014 With a keen interest in spaces that help in the development of education, this project started as an inquiry on the current architecture that catered to schools in rural India. With government schools being the main focus as most children could not afford private education. My quest took me back to my mother’s home village in the region of Kutch, Gujarat in West India. Kutch is the known for it’s handicrafts. After researching on the schools in this region and speaking to various NGOs, it came to light that children had access to education up to high school after which they would stop their education and are made to help their parents with handicrafts, but girls were sent to school only to finish their primary education after which they were made to join their families to help with embroidery. This project therefore looks at giving every child an opportunity to learn in an alternative education system that looked at an amalgamation of maths and science with handicrafts. Where in parents would not have a reason to stop their children from going to school but could in fact themselves become a part the teaching process. The school is designed as a complex of various modules that reflects the morphology of the village and responds to the extreme climatic conditions. Another issue that came across during my research was that no teacher was willing to come to this region as there were no infrastructure facilities in terms of accommodation which is incorporated in the design program.
Wood and Lacqer Studio
Library
Admisnistration
Animal Husbandry
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Dyeing and Drying Studio
Common Studio
Weaving Studio
Volunteer Accommodation
Mud Studio
Student Accommodation
Faculty Accommodation
Common Dinning Space
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Accommodation Module
Room
Terrace
Plan at 5.5m
Room
Kitchen
Faculty Accommodation Module
Terrace Room
Plan at 1.5m Courtyard
Common Space
Student Accommodation Module
Schematic View of Staircase
Cattle Rearing
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The Residential modules are deisgned to reflect the intimate inner courtyards of their present house structure and community level courtyards to provide for interactions between the people living there.
The Modular design helps in ease of maintainece and making the construction low cost. A combination of 3 or 4 modules is used to provide a common space between them as seen in the image on the right
Detail A
Detail B
Detail C
Detail B Detail A Detail C Administration
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The Pit formed on excavation is filled with blocks of sand stone. The excavated earth is used with additional soil to make the rammed earth walls.
The plinth is made of compacted earth, lined with rubble masonry beneath the walls
Mud walls are erected with help of a form work to help to ram the earth mixture to make it compact and uniform.
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Timber roof members are put in place
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Thatch battens are tied one by one to form a thick roof insulation.
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Completion of the learning space in mud and timber roof.
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The Public RealmA manifestation of Lived Experience Research | Urban | Public | Exploration on Space Master’s Capstone Project at ETSAM, Madrid, Spain
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Spain
Madrid District
Madrid is a southwestern European city, the capital of Spain, and the largest municipality of the Community of Madrid.
1. Puerta del Sol 2. Palacio Real de Madrid 3. Parque de El Retiro
The Plaza Mayor (English Main Square) was built during Philip III’s reign (1598–1621) and is a central plaza in the city of Madrid, Spain.
The role of ‘Space’ in architecture has always been pivotal. But, is it space that makes Architecture or architecture that makes space? Or to go one step ahead based on Philosopher Henri Lefebvre’s book “The Production of Space’, do people make space? Architecture is what translates our daily activities into a social space with character that goes beyond its functions, mathematical dimensions and the visual aesthetics. In cities today, it’s these social spaces that become the living “in-between realm”, from streets, public squares, plazas or chowks. Social space is not just an abstract location, it is about materials, texture, colour, activities, and sounds to name a few things that contribute to make the character of a space. The
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character of a social space changes from person to person based on each one’s perception, situation or needs, making it subjective in nature. This thesis would like to create an understanding of theoriy of space by Henri Lefebvre in his book ‘The Production of Space”, Based on which, the thesis would like to explore a methodology to document, understand and analyse the experiences people build as they are unconsciously involved in the production of space. The methodology would be tested by taking up the plaza Mayor in Madrid, Spain. In conclusion, the thesis hopes to bring forth a mutual link between the otherwise subjective experiences which could be further developed upon to create a holistic base towards an architectural design methodology.
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Representation of Space Conceived space Physical space
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The makers of Plaza Mayor, conceived it to have an economical strong hold in form of an institute that represented the society, while demonstrating a change of political power from the Moors to King Philip II. The physical characteristics like the entrances, windows, lights, the 4 towers and arcade, that make up the plaza are cataloged extensively to understand which elements determine and help in the production of space by the people that become part of the plaza.
Spatial Practice Perceived space
The users of Plaza Mayor ensure the functioning of the plaza, the production and reproduction of space that carter to various activities is carried out on a daily bases. From the many tourists that flock to the plaza to click that one selfie or picture use the space as a back drop to the many street performers that self allocate spots for themselves, where for example the artists occupy the south arcade of the plaza turning the space into an art gallery of sorts.
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spaces of representation LIVED Space
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This chapter is about ‘moments’ of presence The plaza in the first instant seemed like a very quiet one when compared to plaza Sol, but as I sat there longer I felt like I was seeing a live theatre show! People turned into characters that made the space come alive. The plaza become a living organism because of the way people interacted with various elements creating their own moments. As seen here the life of the lamp post in the plaza has many lived experiences of it’s own.
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The study of Plaza Mayor based on Lefebvre’s Trilectics of space helped in the deconstruction of the space and the interactions each kind of space had within itself and with one and another. The biggest advantage of his theory is that one is not just analyzing what is space but how the space that is being produced through a combination of the physical, mental and social space. The methodology developed in the process of this thesis has been helpful in understanding how space is produced in relation to a larger understanding of history, human behavior and social interactions. Cataloging as a process helped to see each element or category individually helping in understanding its stand-alone value.
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In step 1, while studying and documenting representations of space, I was able to see beyond the architectural features and was able to relate the physicality of the space to the history, socio-economic conditions and the power hold through its conceptualization process. In step 2, The categories of users were studied collectively to determine how they use the space making it easy to break down perceived space. Finally in step 3, the reality of space was studied were in the conceived space and perceived space come together to produce the ‘real space’.
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Screen Exploration Residential | Urban | Detailing | Material Exploration Internship 2014 While at Sameera Rathod and Design Associates (SRDA), a Mumbai based firm, I was part of a township project based in Kolkatta , the brief from the client was to have duplex houses in a G+3 structure. The conceptual design was developed such that it was a modern take on traditional pitched roofs. Multiple screen designs were developed in various materials such as terrecotta blocks, terracotta fins, mangalore tiles and GRFC panels.
Plan of Residential Unit
Vertical GRFC Fin
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Horizontal Louver
Vertical Terracotta Fin
Mangalore Tile Louver
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Personal Interests Paintings | Tribal Art | Graphic story 2009 -2016
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Mud art or traditionally called ‘Lipan’ comes from the Kutch region of West India- As part of an elective called tribal art the workshop wall on campus was used to demonstrate this traditional art form.
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