Colaba Restaurants:
Interior Design. Site Practice. 2019 .
A Site to Store:
An alternate system for fossil sites in India. Bachelor’s thesis. 2019.
Holy Writ: Architectural Design. sP+a. 2017
Floating Voids: Porto Academy, ‘19 with Frida Escobedo. Summer School Studio. 2019
The ground floor of a colonial-era bungalow in the heart of Mumbai’s historic Colaba district was set to be transformed into two new restaurants.
The brief required us to redesign the single space into a Levantine and Mexican restaurant, with designs rooted in their sources, and yet working in unity.
The project remains unbuilt but an extensive drawing set was prepared, as a young firm’s forays into the built world.
Bachelor’s thesis.
The remains or impression of a prehistoric plant or animal embedded in rock and preserved in petrified form.
Field tools used by palaeontologists.
The branch of science concerned with fossilized animals and plants.
Fossil Sites
Geological Monuments
Rock Monuments
Other Monuments.
The 26 Geological Monuments in India.
Palaeontology in India
In India, fossil sites fall under the category of Geological Heritage. The most prominent authority for the protection and study of these monuments and other geological resources is the Geological Survey of India. As of 2016 there were 26 Geological Monuments in India each managed by the GSI.
However, apart from declaring sites as Geological Monuments, no framework or policy exists for the protection of fossil sites. Hence, the sites lie in deplorable conditions being neglected for long periods of time without maintenance.
Littering around the Peninsular Gneiss at Lalbagh Botanical Garden, Bangalore.
The protection around the petrified wood at Akal Fossil Wood Park.
Drying of dung cakes on the rock bed. This is an extreme case of ignorance at Pillow Lavas, Maradihalli. The site is also used for open defecation.
Granitic Outcrop exposed towards the bank of Hasdeo River can have potentially devastating effects. Marine Gondwana Fossil Park Manendragarh.
First Accidental discovery of Sauropod Egg.
Further excavations yielding great number of specimens.
No regard for protection and heavy vandalism.
Site was fenced and declared as a fossil site by the state government.
Without laws or a framework for protection, the site was heavily plundered with a lot of specimens being stolen and sold.
Museum constructed but not used.
Fossil Park, Ahmedabad.
The Balasinor (Raiyoli) Fossil Park, located around 90 km to the East of Ahmedabad in the Mahisagar district of Gujarat. Raiyoli is placed prominently on the world palaeontological map as it is one of the best places in the world to see dinosaur nests and eggs. After its ‘accidental’ discovery, many more dinosaur eggs were found throughout Gujarat, Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh by the GSI. However, Raiyoli still remains the largest and most prominent dinosaur nesting ground discovered in India and perhaps in the world. Sadly, as soon as the news about the findings spread, the site was looted and vandalized with several specimens being removed by vandals.
Specimens added to the museum and inaugurated.
The System: Arriving at a Solution.
Given the political and academic predicaments that paleontology is facing, the thesis aimed to develop an alternate approach for the field.
By looking at case studies, frameworks and programmes that exist internationally, a system was amalgamated that would aid the propagation of knowledge and interest about fossils and simultaneously protect the valuable scientific resources.
The system developed, utilizes existing processes within the field of paleontology to generate an interest among visitors and also aid the site financially.
In-Situ Enclosures
In-Situ Protection/Display.
If a fossil has to be left at the site, a protective enclosure is built around it that prevents physical and climatic damage.
The replicas can then be sent to multiple universities and laboratories for research.
Dig Site.
Once a fossil has been discovered, the paleontologists, based on a number of factors including size, fragility, abundance and value determine if the fossil has to be extracted or left in-situ.
Preparation Laboratory.
The Preparation lab is responsible for cleaning the extracted fossil at a microscopic level that is not possible on field.
Significant specimens could be used for museum display and education.
Casting/Molding Laboratory
In order to ensure that the actual fossil is not damaged, “copies” of it are made that are then available to researchers and universities for study while the fossil itself is safely stored. This process of replication plays a key role and digital copies using 3d scanning are created.
Storage Stray Fossils.
Since fossils may also occur elsewhere in the region, locals can be trained to idtentify and secure fossils and recover them safely.
The original fossil is then deposited in a secured storage facility only accessible to researchers. The unpredictability of size and number is tackled at the storage level with room for the space to expand and variable storage containers.
Replicas could also be used to engage visitors in new and exciting ways that changes their relationship and understanding of a rare and valuable resource.
Ex-Situ Facility and Information Centre.
After studying the process a fossil goes through from the time of its extraction, one realizes that the need of a permanent, well equipped facility exists to prepare and store the fossils. However, this facility has to be sited bearing in mind that no further damage is caused to the fossils buried under the surface.
During the process of uplift and erosion, gravity causes the fossils to gradually move downhill. Hence, a great number of fossils are discovered on cliff faces or bottoms. Due to the comparatively higher chances of finding fossils near the low lying areas, the facility would have to be sited away from these regions.
The abandoned nursery was selected as the site of intervention due to its higher elevation, proximity to the road and alternate land use. Further, any fossils that may have existed below the nursery are likely to be highly damaged due to the roots of the trees that once grew there.
The essential functions of the fossil storage, preparation laboratory and the appropriate services are partially sunken within the earth. This reduces dependency on mechanical air conditioning systems to maintain the temperature of these spaces.
The public functions are located above these submerged spaces reducing the footprint of the structure, further insulating the space below and providing the visitors with a moderate vantage to view the rest of the site at.
0m 15m 5m 35m 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9
1.Geologic Section
The space is imagined as a massive void depicting the thirteen divisions in geologic time. Fossils from each of these periods are impressed into the plaster. The time period that fossils on the site are found is highlighted connecting the paleontological data to he site data.
4.
The ramp that takes visitors back to the terrace level protrudes into the laboratory allowing them to view the practices that occur in a Preparation Laboratory.
The roof of the archives doubles up as a watch point that gives visitors a better vantage to view the entire site at.
2. Species Cemetery
Forming a more quiet public space, the space consists of a series of walls with niches accommodating all the species of dinosaurs discovered with room to expand over the future for new discoveries.
The sole but central connection that the visitors have to the fossil storage is the periscope. It offers them a clear but restricted view into the storage space below generating awareness about the value of the fossils.
5.
With an inherent unpredictability in size and number of the fossils, the fossil storage is designed to expand over time to accommodate for future discoveries.
The 3d scanned fossils can be utilized to create replicas for scientific research. Capitalizing on this process, a range of products could be 3d printed and cold to visitors that seek to collect mementos and resort to picking up stones from the site.
6.
Kiosks enable visitors that are unable to travel through the site to take a virtual tour of the site allowing them access to the practices in paleontology.
9.
To engage children in play, the sand pit is dotted with miniature fossil replicas that they could “excavate” and collect.
Despite having a strong/looming formal expression, the structure was articulated with subtle, earthen tones in sandstone and marble to place it within its context without having it get lost within its surroundings.
A high-school campus that was inching its way towards completion.
The project in this phase required constriction drawings at various scales and complexities from the Site-Plan all the way down to window and railing details.
Floating Voids: Of Extractions and Depositions.
Academy, 2019.
Brief:
Building is carving out a space at least twice: The first time on the surface of the earth, to extract material, and the second by actually constructing a space “to hold and protect something” .1
The workshop aimed to work at a proposal that works in to spaces: Extraction Site and Construction Site. Both the sites were to inform each other exposing a reciprocity of void and mass.
The sites were to address each other functionally and/or formally exploring the possible relationships between the two spaces.
Proposal:
Our proposal aimed to root the question asked in the brief to the present context. The River d’Ouro that flows through Porto has several channels and tributaries that flow below the surface of the city. An overlay of the existing city plan and the courses of these channels shows a vague overlap between the two.
We attempted to utilize this initial question of the solid-void relationship to reconnect select public spaces to the concealed channels below, looking at historic references for possible functions.
1. In 1851, art Critic John Ruskin published “The Stones of Venice”. He divided architecture in two: the “Architecture of Protection”, or buildings intended “to hold and protect something” and “the Architecture of Position”, constructions whose purpose was to place or carry something”, such as bridges, aqueducts, road architecture, lighthouses, chimneys and staircases.
The interventions were located at key points along the path of the channel each with their unique expression of the solid-void relationship.
The first point of intervention was within a residential block near the center of the city. In this particular context, collective functions that would enhance a sense of community among the residents were derived.
The extraction was made in a wide shallow form creating a communal leisure pool and the additions were made to add seating and drying platforms.
The second point of intervention is the Jardim do Carregal where an artificial pond exists. A linear volume is extracted from one side of the pond and deposited at the diametrically opposite side indicating the direction of the flow of the underground river.
The third point is the Largo Alberto Salazar, a little square that connects Rio Frio with the Fonte dos Leões, a monument in front of one of the historical building of this area and represents the source of the stream that reaches Rio Frio beneath the Centro Hospitalar do Porto.
The intervention is in the form of a shallow, wide pool whose positive form is placed vertically creating a screen like surface.
The fourth point takes place on the highest level of the stepped Jardim das Virtudes, which contains the only visible portion of Rio Frio. A narrow flow of water pours out of the wall in the form of a fountain and disappears below the surface again shortly after. The extraction is in the form of a slender tower that permits the sounds of the river to be heard at the surface level. The addition is in the form of an obelisk that visually depicts the depth of the underground stream and also creates a strong landmark within the garden.
“Sorrowful
The fifth point is around the fountain in front of the Alfândega do Porto’s parking lot, almost at the intersection between the Rio Frio and Rio d’Ouro. The intervention is in the form of four lines of extraction and addition of bund walls around the fountain, providing a moment to simply pause and view the monument while also making the water symbolically central to the intervention.
