Priyank_Shah_Portfolio by Priyank Shah

portfolio

Priyank Virendra Shah

Introduction

For me architecture is the spirit of the times. Its the Zeitgeist. Whether we land up in doing a manifested, scripted, prescribed architecture or we do something that fills in the cracks in the manifested architecture, the one that is more experimental and thought provoking and makes an important place for architects in the constantly changing cultural, intellectual, spiritual, political world. It is the addition of the new layer into already existing layers of architecture that is build by great visionaries and thinkers from time to time. The evolution of the work from a context like India, a country that embraces ‘Unity in Diversity’ to a graduate of SCI-Arc I have seen a lot of changes in my work in terms of aesthetic,tectonic,formal,technological,programmatic, representational,contextual,etc. Architecture too has multiple paradigms. From the Introduction to architectural design till the mentorship of Sir Peter Cook, Wes Jones and Jeff Kipnis for the Jugaad Project, the learned and the explored is a huge palette which defines the portfolio. The Portfolio aptly brings myself to the table and the underlying values of my work learnt by me in an effort to combine, juxtapose, layer, mashup different worlds. Thus, the presentation of the portfolio is a non-prescribed, non-manifested experimental overview and understanding of the contemporary architecture, it’s education and it’s needs clubbed with the impacts of technology, form, tools and research. Associated Themes

Thesis, Antithesis, Conceptual, Material, Beauty, Function, Adaptation, pre-adaptation, Architecture, Proto-architecture, Avant-garde, Mainstream, Form, Program, Certainty, Uncertainty, Field , Space, End, Means, D.I.Y, Fabrication, 3D Printing, Makeshift Innovation, Socio-Centric, Retail and Hospitality, Urban Design, Smart-city Solution, Social Entrepreneurship, Event Management,Street Art, Movable Parts.

Project: CNC Milled False-ceiling, NYC Year: 2007 Project at Gage Clemenceau Architects, NY

Category: Residential Interiors

S SMALL

The special highlight of this project was learning different digital modeling

techniques using softwares like Autodesk Maya and using different tools like CNC Machines,etc

Located in the desert landscape of Ras-Ul-Khaimah, which is one of the Emirate of the United Arab Emirates, the proposed Spaceport would house activities related to Space Tourism and Space Information. With a Site area of about 95,000 sq.mts., Its located at Ras-Ul-Khaimah International Airport, With an already existing runway and supportive facilities for Space-flight.The reason for proposing this project in Ras-ul-Khaimah is its development plans for the future, Its proximity to Dubai, Which Is till date the most popular and the biggest tourist destination with emerging and the most acceptable to change government moreover, it supports space-flight and space-port facilities.Along with space-flight and space-tourism the project will also house programs like space information centre, which will educate the International visitors every thing about space and space-travel. Although the design was done using sophisticated 3d making softwares, the physical model making process was explored in a diďŹ&#x20AC;erent way by use of clay and fibre-glass moulding due to unavailability of 3d printers and other 3d model making tools in the local context.

Project: Spaceport at Ras-Ul-Khaimah, U.A.E. Year: 2009 Advisor: Prof.Percy Pithawala Arvindbhai Patel Institute of Environmental Design, India Category: Spaceport, Institutional.

This course looked at the historic relationship between structure and surface in architecture through the lens of contemporary digital fabrication, intricate tectonic assembly and advanced materials, focusing its emphasis on the research, design and development of complex and integrated building envelopes for specific performances and applications. With the support from technical tutorials and theoretical lectures and utilizing both computer modeling, digital fabrication and hands on material assembly, the class developed a series of evolving instantiations of a project: a series of structural, material and tectonic scenarios considering issues of design, fabrication and assembly. Course: Advance Tectonics - Surface, Structure and Material Assembly Material: Fabric Form - Fabric formwork with plaster Instructor: Marcelo Spina Year: 2011 Project done in collaboration with Prajakt K, Rohit B, Arman M & Pouria K. Southern California Institute of Architecture SCI-Arc

Introduction to Digital Design

The First part of the semester conducted a series of highly focused experiments dealing with the relationship between geometrical relief, coloration, surface treatment and materials.We explored the way in which texture and color is reflected and refracted throughout matter: as painters utilize particular techniques of contrasting scales of luminosity and texture through brush stroke to invoke volume within the two-dimensional pictorial frame, the class looked to this medium for its methods of capturing and materializing light deep within the compositional and material qualities of the painted canvas. The class as a whole compiled a Still Life Collection of floral dis/figures. During the second part of the semester the class focused on fabrication from digital models. We created a feedback loop relationship between the form of analog and digital matter, establishing a rich geometrical and material vocabulary. we learned how to design with developable surfaces in Maya and unfold them in Rhino.

Project: Visual Studies Disfigure, Modeling, Tooling and Computation Year: 2011 Advisor: Elena Manferdini Project done in collaboration with Ashley Sholder Southern California Institute of Architecture, SCI-Arc

Sound Suites: Nick Cave

Re-Surfacing Heterogeneity: Contemporary approaches to Geometry in Architecture

The studio aimed at the ideas of developing a new geometry in architecture with the idea of re-surfacing heterogeneity. The idea of understanding and combining the qualities of plane geometry, projected geometry and topology was considered. Project: BlackBox Theatre at LACMA, Los Angeles Year: 2011 Advisor: Florencia Pita Southern California Institute of Architecture, SCI-Arc

Series of Formal experiments

Vase Series:Brendan Tang

This studio interrogated the incongruous in architecture. Departing from recent characterizations of architectural heterogeneity that situate the morphological manifold as 驶intrinsically diverse rather than a representation of diversity,始 the approach exploited the potential for extrinsic diversity to emerge through architectural figuration.The seemingly incompatible alliance between techniques conventionally used for manipulating solids (lathing, scooping, intarsia, etc.) with the logics of surface based modeling were used to amplify the production of incongruous effects. As a whole the whole studio worked on the same project with same site and deliverables and the studio was divided into three sections led by one faculty. Each section explored a range of design strategies and techniques within the maya platform. The semester was structured into three stages: Formal experimentation, Research and design.

The formal experimentation stage consisted of development of digital techniques in relation to formal strategy. Site and program were abstracted and reduced to basic quantitative parameters in order to focus on the geometry and transformative operations.The research stage consisted of understanding the program, its related requirements, and cataloging relevant precedents. The program was analyzed in terms of quantitative criteria and logistics issues. Precedents were included in form of range of relevant buildings, paintings, and sculpture. This stage was organized to produce a collective body of research. The design stage consisted of the synthesis of the first two through a conceptual framework. Each student selected their formal strategy with the quantitative parameters into a qualitative architectural proposition.

Visual Studies: Scripting,Tooling and Computation:

The seminar focused on scripting as a tool for producing complex architectural geometry and using it as a precedent for generating novel architecture forms. Project: Mixed use building, Santa Monica Year: 2012 Advisor: Satoru Sugihara & Tom Wiscombe Project done in collaboration with Yong H Kim and Rohit B. Southern California Institute of Architecture, SCI-Arc

Exercise 1: Intricate lines, Scripted drawings

The assignment revolved around the manipulation of an intricate drawing into an instrumental tool to create incomplete yet highly articulated morphologies of architecture. Such drawings were characterized by an overall macro organization and displaced local micro features. The drawings produced suggested an implied depth. Exercise 2: Deep Surfaces,Envelopes and Cavities.

The exercise aimed to find/read implied micro and macro dimensional qualities of the coded drawings and transform them from flat into deep convoluted 3d modeled surfaces and networks. Particular emphasis was given to the notion of cavities and developing systemic and non-linear relations between the original lines and the deep surface morphology that the exercise generated. The raw material generated from the various programming exercises were carefully analyzed and developed in order to generate novel architectural forms and materiality. The second phase intended to build design sensibilities and suggest geometrical and material features, maintaining a certain level of detachment from the architectural project. Exercise 3: Synthetic materials: Artificial and natural

The focus of this exercise was to develop a physical model from the previous two exercises. This thick model will challenge the traditional interpretation of true materiality applied to architectural field and its mode of productions. Layered techniques of several finishes, tooling and machining will be applied during the construction of such models. This studio interrogated the incongruous in architecture. Departing from recent characterizations of architectural heterogeneity that situate the morphological manifold as 驶intrinsically diverse rather than a representation of diversity,始 the approach exploited This studio interrogated the incongruous in architecture. Departing from recent characterizations of architectural heterogeneity that situate the morphological manifold as 驶intrinsically diverse rather than a representation of diversity,始 the approach exploited the potential for extrinsic diversity to emerge through architectural figuration.The seemingly incompatible alliance between techniques conventionally used for manipulating solids (lathing, scooping, intarsia, etc.) with the logics of surface based modeling were used to amplify the production of incongruous effects.

Theme: Bring yourself to the table

The semester was divided into three different design problems interconnected with the central theme of ‘Bring yourself to the table’ 1.Bring yourself by the way of Display of your work/ Portfolio and the underlying values of where you come from. Plus : A display of own home region,city or district. Plus : A display of favorite home architect or architecture. 2.A Pavilion about own place at Denfert- Rochereau,Paris 3.A Residential block for the people of our place in Paris

India SCI-Arc DOBV/MIT JUGAAD -

Kitsch - diversity,vibrancy,playfulness,mix-match,etc Avant-garde - tools, techniques, research,design,etc Bizarre - India,DoBV Kitsch,Avant garde, Bizarre - Solution ( Jugaad - Frugal Innovation)

Project: Kaleidoscope - India pavilion at Denfert- Rochereau,Paris Year: 2012 Advisor: Sir Peter Cook and Richard Nguyen Credits: Satoru Sugihara for the help in Scripting Ecole Special d’ Architecture, Paris

Multifaceted Kaleidoscopic Mirror Pavilion

Multifaceted Pavilion

Design Documentation

Project: Theatre, NY Year: 2013 Advisor: Herwig Baumgartner & Scott Uriu Project designed by: Brielle K & Peter W Design Documentation in collaboration with Brielle K, Peter W and Ronny E Southern California Institute of Architecture, SCI-Arc

Structural Steel Fixture

Cable Support

Continuous Support angle Compressible Gasket

Drywall Cross Tee Drywall Beam Drywall Screw GFRC panel Detail of Plan of the GFRC Wall ﬁxing Detail at False Ceiling

Pavement

Flashing Cap

Exterior Pedastal

Support Angle Bracket Additional Compressible Gasket

Drain duct I-Section Angled folded metal Isometric view of channels and exterior and intrior wall ﬁxing

A HVAC

Gypsum (False Ceiling)

Water prooﬁng

I-Section (With outer waterprooﬁn GFRC Panels

Rigid Insulation

Metal Channels

Steel Angles

Compressable Gasket Continuous Steel Angles

Detail at A GFRC Paneling Detail at Jn. A

Above:DETAIL AT JUNCTION 1 (Refer Section Diagram)

BJPPRV Architects Brielle Kotecki, Jennifer Wu, Peter Park, Priyank Shah, Ronny Eckels, Varouzhan Adamian

Structural Steel Fixture

Cable Support

960 East 3rd Street Los Angeles, CA 90015

G.I.Channels

(P) 212-353-3534 (F) 212-353-2342

Continuous Support angle

Rigid Insulation

Compressible Gasket

Drywall Cross Tee

M3 Architectural Consulting, Inc. 1642 North Bosworth Avenue Chicago, IL 60642

GFRC Panels

Drywall Beam

Styrofaom Balls

(P) 773-289-4670 (F) 773-289-4675

G.I.Channels

Drywall Screw GFRC panel Detail of Plan of the GFRC Wall ﬁxing Detail at False Ceiling

Support Angle Bracket

CONSULTANTS

Circular Plate

Herwig Baumgartner Jeffrey Landreth Matthew Melnyk Scott Uriu

Additional Compressible Gasket

15”-15” I Beams Fabric Form Concrete

ISOM THE (Refe

GFRC Paneling Rigid Insulation

BLOWN UP DETAILS AT JUNCTIONS X AND Y

PLAN SHOWING THE INTERIOR AND EXTERIOR WALL

Pavement

Flashing Cap

Exterior Pedastal

I-Section

OUT

Drain duct

Junction Y

I-Section

Junction A Floor Junction

Angled folded metal

A Gypsum (False Ceiling)

HVAC Water prooﬁng Rigid Insulation

Isometric view of channels and exterior and intrior wall ﬁxing

Detail at B Flashing Cap detail

DESIGN DEVELOPMENT ISSUE April 8 2013

I-Section (With outer waterprooﬁng coat)

IS (R

Circular Plate

GFRC Panels AJ Pires Alloy Development New York, NY (P) 718-222-8155

Metal Channels

Steel Angles

CHELSEA THEATER New York, NY

Styrofoam balls

165 10th Avenue New York City, NY 10011

Compressable Gasket

Junction X

Junction at curved and internal wall

Continuous Steel Angles

TITLE

Above:DETAIL AT JUNCTION 1 (Refer Section Diagram)

Detail at A GFRC Paneling Detail at Jn. A

Fabric Form Concrete

Title

1. ---- detail at junction 1 (Wall Section) 2. ---- detail at junction 2 (Wall Section) 3. ---- detail at junction 3 (Wall Section)

2D Wall Section

PROJECT 2013-04-08 SCALE N/A DRAWN BY Priyank Shah DATE April 8, 2013

Junction B

SHEET NUMBER

A20.0

Above:DETAIL AT JUNCTION 2 (Refer Section Diagram)

The city is gone.â&#x20AC;¨ Urbanism no longer exists.What is left is architecture. Architecture turns into the ground for architecture. The city becomes an aggregated object.

Within the city, architecture was considered an anonymous mass and the ground was carved out of this mass as a figure (Nolli). Within urbanism, the ground becomes a grid of circulation and architecture becomes the left over figure for inhabitation (Cerda). Modernism transforms the city into projects. Architecture becomes a figure liberated from its continuous ground. (Le Corbusier). Within the 21st century architecture becomes the ground for architecture. Architecture is figure as well as ground. The city turns into an object of aggregated architecture.The boundary was the model of the pre-capitalist city. The grid was the model of capitalist urbanization. The diagram was the model of the welfare state. Now it is time for The aggregated object to become our model. - Peter Trummer 2012

Project: The City as an Aggregated Object, Barcelona Year: 2013 Advisor: Peter Trummer project done in collaboration with Aida Hassan project was done together with a seminar on Aggregated figure by Peter Trummer Southern California Institute of Architecture, SCI-Arc & IAAC Barcelona

II जुगाड़ II

Pronunciation: \ju-gaad\  Function: Noun,Adjective,Adverb  Etymology: Sanskrit meaning Jugati ,Hindi meaning Yukti

n.The gutsy art of overcoming harsh constraints by improvising or creating an effective solution using finite available resources. An off-the-cuff or jury-rigged solution,inventiveness,ingenuity,cleverness Jugaad is an antidote to the complexity of India. A country with mind boggling diversity,pervasive scarcity and exploding interconnectivity. Jugaad - Noun - Name of an invention made using jugaad techniques and workarounds.

A bi/tri/quadracycle that is an aggregation of automobile parts with multiple functions.

Above: A Jugaad vehicle designed using makeshift techniques. A farmer designing a truck using readily available automobile parts and a diesel pump also used for running water in the farms and sometimes also used to carry passengers from the farm site to the rural villages in India.

1 square meter DESIGNED HOUSE

1 square meter JUGAAD HOUSE

Jugaad - Adverb - When the going gets tough, the tough gets Jugaad - Adjective - Often termed as Jugaadu - referred as the one who uses jugaad for his means and ways of going…

living everyday.

An Ingenious way to ‘game the system’ Above -Left: A construction helper taking a hot shower in a construction vehicle with available resources at a Above-Top: Local residents of chhenai in India using makeshift construction site in India. Above - Right: The innovator has modified the normal pressure cooker and made it into a coffee making machine. A transportation techniques during floods. simple attachment of a metal pipe along with pressure releasing valve made using a screw-driver is used. Cooker with water is heated over stove.Tea and coffee stalls play an important role in generating revenues as street food and tea is Above - Bottom: A group of Indian soldiers preparing an Omelet at the border camp using the construction tools and the wood on site. an integral part of Indian lifestyle.

How the new comes into being: The answer is that we get them by manipulating, shifting,repurposing and adapting it for new use.

The image of the barefoot entrepreneur is a wonderful vehicle for the neoliberal state. If people can pull themselves up by their own bootstraps there is little need for the state to wade in with things like effective training, cheap credit, and a decent public infrastructure. Its truism that everything is relative, and the force of Jugaad too depends on the larger context on which it is found. Behind all actions lies a complex of pre-mediations, ranging from those relatively fixed or useful over a period of time due to others more variable and affected by the immediate events. By bringing together various, immediately - to hand resources in an effort to satisfy particular need, jugaad may satisfy the specific problem with a juxtaposition of part - to -full solutions. In all the above examples an ingenious use of the old and new is done for the right purpose for some really amazing grassroots experiments. It may be necessary to solve a problem without the usual materials or experts. Often an impromptu combination including unnecessary ingredients, or leaving over waste can fulfill the need more economically then having to with for the usual supplies. In place of experts, an emergency team or a committee of ingenious volunteers can do the work instead - sometimes using bizarre methods that notoriously prove a lesson later to those with special skill or training. To get things by hook or crook may require more resources than usual. Materials may have to be combined, selected, or dissected; people may have to be recruited and tried out in new roles, also they may have to be allowed initial mistakes, which perhaps can be justified by their enthusiasm and potential development of fresh methods.

Extracts from the Movie - The Jugaad Shop filmed by Me and Brooke Brodack in India between April-October, 2013. The film is a promo of the journey of the two into different flea markets of India. We also working on the next movie Either/Or filming flea markets around the world including Japan,United States and India followed by visits to China and Brazil. India is a bundle of interesting contradictions. Its a multi-cultural mosaic that can never be defined. People in emerging countries like India are well-known for their spirit of Jugaad. One of the question raised is where does this spirt come from. One of the main hubs of Jugaad lifestyle is a Flea Market. To discover the ingenious ability of the scrap vendors and barter merchandise sellers, I did a video making journey with famous You-Tube filmmaker Brooke Brodack. Brooke visited India for a span of six months and we filmed flea markets and hubs of Jugaad lifestyle around different parts of India.

Challenge Brief:

Augment existing environment/conditions/systems by using Jugaad as a tool/principle and create/juxtapose/alter an environment with an innovative quick fix.

SELECT a site,topic,problem for jugaad intervention and start by sharing existing stories or conditions and formulate/document through visuals or any other media the case studies of that particular environment for a collective understanding of the group IMPROVISE Find the problem in that specific environment and locate the problems and conduct interviews,document areas,float spontaneous competitions or research by analogous experiments to find the problem DESIGN a jugaad solution for that problem. conceptualize the jugaad solution based on case studies and problems counting public opinions and polls and submit to our competition submittals section UPLOAD on www.facebook.com/jugaadproject or email on thejugaadproject@gmail.com upload under general upload page and we will moderate your entry on the main section of competition entries PARTICIPATE in online voting by likes and comments participate and refine your projects by likes,comments and feedbacks from the online social community and the appointed team. after these five steps from your side, we will take care of the other three by the help you your participation EVALUATION - of the best entries and coming up with the top entry. But, the other entries will be kept online for the social communities to see and improvise on it and to execute those ideas when and where the opportunity is created. REALIZATION - A conceptual realization of the best entry would be done and would be documented and exhibited at various platforms. EXHIBITION - An exhibition of all the selected entires and also the participant entries.

Jugaadu (The bricoleur) - The Jugaad Innovators

Unsung boffins- Mavericks - Ingenious machismo - spoof-hero - An opportunist- loud- authentic - flawless - bricoleur

Quick-gun Murugen: Character created by channel V, India (stills from movie - Quick-gun Murugen

Definition: One who practices jugaad to develop his/her innovative idea with respect to problem in the time of scarcity or highly constrained and chaotic environment and creates an opportunity to make market relevant contemporary products and service s that are inherently affordable, economic and sustainable. A jugaadu is a modern day alchemist/adhocist who transmutes adversity into opportunity and in doing so creates a value for his or her organization and communities on a smaller or larger scale. He exists everywhere around the world from a roadside barber to a scrap hunter in Africa to the street artists in Germany or the musicians and filmmakers around the world. Context: The anthropologist Claude Levi-Strauss has discussed this activity of creation and its characteristic in tribal culture under its french label, bricolage: … the ‘bricoleur is someone who works with his hands and uses devious means compared to those of a craftsman…The bricoleur is adept at performing large number of diverse tasks; but, unlike the engineer, he does not subordinate each of them to the availability of raw materials and tools conceived and procured for the purpose of the project. His universe of instruments is closed and rules of the game are always to do with ’Whatever is at hand’… the engineer is always trying to make his way out of and go beyond the constraints imposed by a particular state of civilization.While the bricoleur by inclination or by necessity remains with them.

A rural entrepreneur in Gujarat, India Below: A Jugaad dog-cart created as a social media Jugaad campaign by me and Brooke Brodack. Brooke filmed and measured the dog in India and the Jugaad card was designed by me in Los Angeles and the dog cart was assembled by the locals in Vadodara, Gujrat India at a NGO for animals in India

The Department of Benign Violations

The Department of Benign Violations aims to create shifts in the city patterns and environments by examining the potential of hacking peripheral architectural infrastructure.The department targets auxiliary systems that provide buildings with the artificial environments required for their daily operation.These systems are highly designed as to afford an elevated level of install-ability replacability and manipulability allowing their use across a huge range of building platforms and urban environments with shifting requirements. It is these same qualities that make these objects perfect prey for a Benign Violation.Each element often participates in a greater web of similar and dependent systems allowing the DoBV to create large scale affects through the manipulation of small- scaled, vernacular objects such as heating and cooling units, telecommunication connections, fire provisions as well as food supplies and waste removal systems.Primarily interested in the generation of pleasure, the DoBV aim to retool these objects and systems so that their unutilized bi-products can be used to create and manipulate the temporal atmospheres and events of the city.

The Department of Benign Violations(DoBV) is Working within a conceptual framework that intends to detour the contemporary city by augmenting its climatic conditions - using the waste heat generated by the city to transform urban weather. The design interventions are at scales that seed potentials for change and transformation, but do not fall prey to design agenda based Utopian Planning ideologies or Landscape Art. The goal is to realize the potential for diffused, domestic scaled architecture to perform a process of adaptive re-use, using the entire city as its existing conditions.

Jugaad & Architecture The whole notion of working around conventional methodologies seems like a way of breaking through political oppression. In a way convincing the individuals that their limitations are not inhering but, rather applied by external forces like government, environment, climate, religion, media, entertainment, etc. It seems like conventional practices of Jugaad have resulted in manifestations of favelas in Brazil, Shacks in slums of India and makeshift elements of housing in China. The goal of this project is to allow people to look at architecture in a way that trains them to understand that their immediate environments do not have to be restricted. That through actions, changes can be made with limited resources.

Project: Jugaad housing for immigrants of India ,Paris Year: 2012 Advisor: Sir Peter Cook and Richard Nguyen Ecole Special dâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; Architecture, Paris

Transformable and expandable housing modules.

The design of housing modules was based on movable, transformable train cars.

The stacked housing created on railway car with an idea of expandable spaces for living

Community gathering space, garden, swimming and bathing centre based on same movable railway cars that can be transported anywhere on the circular railway track.

An illustration showing how the hacked sites would be used for the community spaces.

Project: London Express Restaurant & Cafe, Vadodara, India Year: 2014 Meraki Design Studio

Category: Restaurant The special highlight of this project was use of Found objects and Makeshift interiors. All the furniture was acquired from abandoned furniture sites and was renovated with the help of local carpenters.

S SMALL

Jack Daniel meets Heineken Upcycled Hybrid Water Tap

Oil-Lamp tins reused as a partition wall

A Tea Kettle reused as a Ceiling Lamp

An Abandoned Coal-iron re-used as a door handle

M Project: SNOB, Vadodara, India

MEDIUM

Year: 2014 Art Beat

Category: Pop-up Store

SNOB is a concept, an idea of collaborative studio, a crowd sourced workshop, a museum, art gallery, pop-up studio, that is formed by likeminded artists, architects and designers. The approach behind SNOB is to endorse fresh art at a place where it reaches out to both the classes and the masses, specially in a place like a shopping mall. The studio transforms and itself every week housing art exhibitions, pop-up bazaar-flea market, photo-booth, live-tattooing and portrait sketching, aligning the very cultural elements with a contemporary approach. The studio is set up in a manner which has a potential; to transform into anything creative. The idea of having a photo-booth is to highlight the social media and the likeness of a contemporary mallgoer towards photography. Indoor walls have been designed by doing graffiti to craft the aura of present-day evolution of art. The flea market presents craftsmanship and designer collections every week bringing in new collections that are eye-catching to the customers. The Art gallery is set up in a manner that contrasts the vibrant graffiti wall on the other side of the studio. The subtle whites adds to the ethnic elegance . SNOB has also introduced items such as post- cards, antique-lockers and oil cans that brings back the memories of good old times.

Project: Urban Bookshelf, Vadodara, INDIA Year: 2015 Meraki Design Studio

Category: Socio-Centric Urban Insert

M MEDIUM

SOCIO-CENTRIC All solutions and remedial executions centered on dealing with societal shortcomings or problems, through the medium of design intervention, preferably in a sustainable manner.

Primarily interested in hacking into underutilized or disused urban spaces which are slowly crumbling to oblivion, the design studio aims at reinventing and transforming these spaces into quality public spaces.     In case of urban bookshelf the concept was derived from architecture that uses existing public small-scale infrastructure to reproduce and to connect to a larger context solving various problems with low input and producing high outputs.

LOCATION

Wanting to champion a social cause, we decided to promote the joy of reading. A tiny bookshop housed in one half of the bus stop seemed perfect! Things fell into place, when Mr. Dilipbhai a bookseller agreed to set up his bookshop at the bus stop.   So we embarked on a design journey which not just intended to give the bus stop a face lift but also make the citizens sit up notice the change and ensure it does not go back to a state of derelict by actively using it.  The project started with sprucing and revamping the bus stop, which in its present condition was littered and extremely unhygienic.

EXISTING

The bus stop was purged of litter and dirt, followed by an illustration of ‘a reading girl in a garden’ that was painted on the walls. It was a community project where a group of artists transferred the bright, eye-catching illustration onto the walls.   Racks made from used wooden pallets were fixed to the walls to accommodate the books, and wooden waste sourced from local junkyard was used to build storage shelved underneath the existing seating space.

RE-DESIGNED

URBAN BOOKSHELF

The corner spaces on the outside were stuck with mirrors in order to discourage people from urinating and its function was altered from a stinky corner to a place where passersby now set their hair or adjust their tie!   The space is now a local attraction and not only do curious readers flock but the passengers waiting for their bus thoroughly enjoy the space.

Project: Smart Bus-Stop, Vadodara, INDIA Year: 2015 Meraki Design Studio

Category: Socio-Centric Urban Insert

M MEDIUM

The smart city bus-stop is a unique concept initiated by the government of India and Vadodara is one of the city selected . Considering that, There are various proposals that the studio is working on. One of the primary idea is smart transportation infrastructure.

M MEDIUM

The proposed smart bus-stop is made out of upcycled shipping containers and it is self sustaining in terms of its power usage and the running cost. For the Power usage, they are equipped with Solar Panels on the top. Being modular and easily available, the shipping container was the first design choice.

M MEDIUM

Project: Urban art, Vadodara, INDIA Year: 2015 Meraki Design Studio

Category: Socio-Centric Urban re-vamp

As a part of beautification program of the Government of India, the studio had proposed various ideas for beautifying the abandoned, unpleasant underpass and unused areas. Some of them have already been executed and some are under process of approval and material sourcing.

Project: Urban art, Vadodara, INDIA Year: 2015 Meraki Design Studio

Artists: Nikunj Prajapati and Siddharth Gohil

Category: Socio-Centric Urban re-vamp

Project: Frankie Station, Vadodara, INDIA Year: 2015 Meraki Design Studio

Category: Fast Food Restaurant

Project: Frankie Station, Vadodara, INDIA Year: 2015 Meraki Design Studio

Category: Fast Food Restaurant

Soft Serve City, LA Movable Parts Movable Parts is a collective of artists, musicians, designers, technologists, and community organizers with a shared mission to deploy creative practices to re-imagine the streets and public spaces of Los Angeles. Inspired by our research on global street cultures, our efforts augment the spatial and social flow of the public sphere at a human scale in the globalized city of Los Angeles. We promote communalism and believe in the power of pedagogy. We make available our design, implementation details, and other project-specific knowledge through workshops and online documentation. Experimenting with high-tech and low-tech modesâ&#x20AC;¨ of practices, we make and transform materials ranging from the cultural and embodied, to the mechanical and computational.

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Thank you