ARCHITECTURAL PORTFOLIO Mridula Swaminathan
CONTENTS
Porous Living
01
Revival
05
Undergraduate Thesis
09
Archaeological Campus
13
Exhibition Pavilion
17
Art Gallery
21
Cafe Design
25
Grad First Year
Grad First Year
Semester X
Semester IX
Semester VI
Semester II
Office Project
POROUS LIVING
GRAD I YEAR
Community Housing for Drug Abuse Victims
IV FLOOR
III FLOOR
II FLOOR
g
din
ng
isti
Ex
il Bu
I FLOOR
BASEMENT
ion
t ven r e Int
01
Existing brick wall between the old and the new intervention
Rear Dead Wall as a transition between Old and New imbing Porosity
This Adaptive Reuse project is a community housing in a century old linear building located in the heart of Downtown Providence.
The intent of this project was to design a space that did not exclude the users nor expose them from their context. The 12’ narrow building in itself produced a sense of density due to its dead south wall. The idea was to bring in porosity by introducing a central light atrium along with a stair core. POROSITY PUNCTURES
OLD - Existing building NEW - Building after intervention
00 Visual Porosity stopped by rear dead wall
01
Iterations in bringing visual porosity through the dense mass
Total Number of Deaths in Rhode Island in 2017
02
Source: CDC
Context and layout guides varying level of porosity
84%
Drug Overdose
11%
Firearm Deaths
5%
Homicide
02
The stair core and the subsequent ‘corridor’ space cease to function as just circulation spaces but open 1 up as community spaces or transitional semi private space for the residents. The play of openings on the dead wall helped in manipulating the porosity brought into the life of the building and the residents.
2
3
03
BREAKING LINEARITY AND DENSITY WITH POROSITY EXISTING BUILDING GRID AND INITIAL CONCEPT PROCESS
OLD - Existing building
Third Floor
Light Well Atrium
EXISTING BUILDING GRID
INITIAL CONCEPT STRATEGGY OF INTERVENTION
Fourth Floor Second Floor First Floor
NEW - Building after intervention
2
BAY 1
BAY 2
Multifunctional Terrace
BAY 3
BAY 4
BAY 5
BAY 6
BAY 7
Basement
Roof Level G + 44’7”
Fourth Floor Level G + 34’3”
Community Area
Community Area
Nurse’s Station
Third Floor Level G + 23’11”
3
Second Floor Level G + 13’7”
Community Area
1
First Floor Level G + 0’0”
Elevator/ Staircase Lobby Service Room
CROSS SECTION
Resident’s Lobby
04
REVIVAL
GRAD I YEAR
Community engagement through Farmer’s Market This Adaptive Reuse project is aimed at bringing out the community and connectivity aspect of a city into the core of Downtown living. An existing car rental building which was a gas station in early 20th century, is situated in the part of Downtown Providence which sees a large commuting population.
OLD - Existing structure retained
05
OLD - Existing structure extent retained
NEW - Intervention extent
The Residences Providence
City Hall
Biltmore Hotel
Superman Building
One Financial Building
Terrain across Exchange Terrace from Burnside Park to Biltmore Park Proposal suggests to increase height of structure in site to better visual access and enable a new landmark.
NEW
ing
llow
- Fo
ions
ort prop
d
of ol
OLD - Structure OLD - Essence retained retained
Using the existing structure as reference and erecting the new as an extension of the old.
Street Level
Sidewalk
Indoor Dairy Product Area
Podium
Outdoor Vegetable and Fruits Area
Community Vegetable garden
Height increased to fit with context
Scale of built form across the Open Public Space
Street Level
Exchange Terrace
Do
rra
Burnside Park
nc eS tre
et
y Edd
Site to be the meeting point between the North and South Downtown - generating scope for intentional open public space activity
e Stre t
Old Structure
New Structure
South Downtown
North Downtown 06
The site is located in an area of the city which is also prone to unsafe activities in the park opposite the site, mainly due to lack of activity surrounding the park. The purpose of having a function such as Farmer’s Market is to liven up the space and engage in continuous people involvement.
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08
X SEMESTER
UNDERGRADUATE THESIS De-institutionalised Dementia Care : Through Inclusive Housing
The subject of this thesis is to work on the idea of an inclusive housing that shall work toward bringing the Dementia patients closer to the society and help fight the stigma associated with the neurocognitive disorder.
09
Dementia is the collective name given to progressive brain syndromes, usually chronic, characterized by progressive deterioration in memory, learning, orientation, language, comprehension and judgment. Symptoms synonymous with type of dementia. Have problems doing familar tasks with ease.
Site and Dementia sensitive Design Influencing Factors
STAGE I
Start needing assistance. Memory and language start deteriorating at a quick rate.
STAGE II
Need 24-hour supervision. Start becoming withdrawn. Stop recognising familiar people.
STAGE III
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11
Single Occupants Block Plan and Section
12
IX SEMESTER
ARCHAEOLOGICAL CAMPUS
For this project, we were given the liberty of choosing what kind of college campus we wanted to design for. The Site chosen for the same was in the part of the city with most proximity to museums and Archaeological Survey of India Building in order to provide maximum relevance to the courses selected for the campus.
13
Iteration 03
Iteration 02
Iteration 01
Process Models
Through the process models, which started of as a representation of interaction between the campus and the public, the concept of SHARING KNOWLEDGE between the 7 departments and the campus and the public visiting the campus, came to the fore.
Concept incorporated into the Campus Design
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15
‘UNDER THE TREE CLASSROOM’ COURTYARD
1
MOCKUP EXCAVATION SITE
2
CAFETERIA - OUTDOOR SEATING FACING THE BACK OF THE AUDITORIUM
3
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VI SEMESTER
EXHIBITION PAVILION
Through this project we were to remind ourselves why we were pursuing architecture and design an exhibition pavilion from our mistakes, learnings and site context. Kolkata, The Cultural Capital of India is one of the oldest cities of our country. It has a rich cultural and historical heritage attached to it.
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TARGET USERS
Park/memorial Visitors
Exhibition Visitors
DESIGN LANGUAGE
Elements of existing Neoclassical Monument
Provide for public gathering to retain park essence.
This garden is one of the popular family parks in the city which overlooks the Hooghly, Vidyasagar Setu and a 20th century Memorial.
The site chosen for an exhibition hall dedicated to the history of the city, is located close to the Hooghly River, on one of its many ghats - Princep Ghat Garden.
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Image of Princep Memorial. Source : Google Images
The OAT and Cafe which is accessible to the park visitors.
View of Memorial and the park from the entrance.
Permanent Exhibits
19
20
II SEMESTER
ART GALLERY
This time problem was given with the intent of designing a gallery that would display any art of choice and help promote and encourage young artists.
The exhibits are therefore temporary and provide liberty to change in accordance with the artist.
21
Display Area I with access to outdoor displays Display Area II Outdoor scultpure display/ seating area
Criteria that led upto the planning of the design were : Space that accomodates for different kinds of displays.
Constant visual/ physical connection with the outside.
The form was articulated in a way where it accomodated for even outdoor displays as niches.
22
Form Generation BASIC FORMS Pyramid and Cuboids Section AA’
ITERATION I:
Section BB’
ITERATION II:
Section CC’
The intention was to achieve a form which would translate the nature of the exhibits - Modern Art.
Section DD’ 23
The floor plan, predominantly a rectangle with niches cut out, is an open and flexible plan which allows for continuous circulation between the two levels of display areas.
24
CAFE DESIGN
This interior architecture project was the renovation of a 50 year old residential building into a cafe for a popular brand in the city of Chennai. The brief was to convert the function of the existing structure without altering much and to make it contemporary.
25
G+3 apartment complex
G+3 apartment complex
G+2 residence
Site abuts a Main Road in densely populated residential area
26
To avoid the harsh western sun, the western side was blocked by wall, which would be treated with exposed brick to give the rustic yet fun ambience to the cafe’s Solarium terrace seating.
27
Since the only addition structurally to this building is the solarium for the terrace seating, the design is meant to reflect an outdoor-indoor seating kind of feel to the space.
The existing structure is an Art Deco residence which was being used as a parlour. The design intent was to celebrate Art Deco style visible in the patterns over the parapet and added bright colours to the exteriors, as seen along the Miami South Beach Street.
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