curriculum vitae Rewa phansalkar
Education
dOB: 14th June, 1994
2010
Arya Vidya Mandir, Bandra East., Mumbai. (Indian Certificate of Secondary Education: 95.7% Passed with A Grade)
2012
Army Public School, Kirkee, Pune. (Central Board of Secondary Education: 96.4% Passed with A Grade)
2017
Bachelors in Architecture, from Rachna Sansad’s Academy of Architecture, Mumbai. (CGPI 8.27 Passed with first class.)
contact: Address: Aaj, 3- Kalanagar, Bandra East, Mumbai-400051, Maharashtra, India. Ph: 9769677347, 022-26591722 Email: rewa@sea.edu.in rewa1994@gmail.com
LANGUAGES KNOWN: English, Hindi,
academic achievements
Marathi.
INTERESTS:
Design and Ideation
2012-17 First Class in Semester I, II, III, IV, V, VI, VII, VIII, IX, and X examinations.
Drawing and Representation Research and Analysis
2013-17 Architectural Design Project Selected as a part
of the Institutional Entry to the Annual Reuben’s Trophy by the National Association of Students of Architecture (NASA) in Semester II, IV and X.
Architecture Urban Theory
software proficiency: Autodesk Auto Cad Google Sketchup 3D CorelDraw Adobe Photoshop Adobe Indesign VRay & IRender Microsoft Office
2014 ||||||||| |||||||| |||||| 2016 |||||||| ||||||||| | | | | | | 2017 ||||||||||
Architectural writing Course work “Cinema as a Medium of Creative Expression”, published in the official publication of the Council of Architecture, India. Class Valedictorian, Semester 9, B.Arch and distinction obtained in Design Thesis 2nd Position with a Silver Prize for overall excellance in B.Arch Course 2012-17
2017
Final Year Thesis Shortlisted in the top 10 entries for Ar. Charles Correa Gold Medal, a national award, by Urban Design and Research Institute, Mumbai.
2017
Winner of All India Student of the Year Trophy by the National Association of Students of Architecture for the year 2017-18.
2018
Student Presenter at the Kurula Varkey Design Forum at CEPT for Architecture Theses across SAARC Nations
1
1 2 3
Thesis
Competitions
4 5 6
Architectural Design
The Holy waters of Banganga: Urban Intervention
A Place for Play in Dharavi
Urban Convention: A Convention Center in BKC
HUDCO Trophy: Housing for All
Louis I Kahn Trophy: Documentation and Analysis
Fairytales: When Architecture tells a Story
Storytelling through Architecture: Curating a Cabinet of Curiousities
Contents
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8 9 10
Allied Design
Post Intensive Landscapes
A House by Nari Gandhi
A Place in Shade: Emotive landscape
Engaging with the City: Urbn studies
The Mango tree Cafe in Hampi
An architect’s fuelling station
Homegrown Neighborhoods in Dharavi
11 12 13 14
Professional work
1
storytelling through architecture Undergraduate Thesis | 2017
The thesis establishes an analogy between a story and the palimsestous fabric of old buildings that accumulate traces of the past, serving as cultural archives. By “lending a narrative to traces”an archive is created.
S
ELL WE T
E.
ST
NG
IV
N LI EL YT OR
B EI
AL
OF
IES TO FEEL
THE CONTEXT
TO R
HoW IS A STORY FORMED?
S A PART G I
Communicate the ‘interior’
Communicate function.
OVERT ISM SE A: OL 1. CA TIVE SYMB ATION A T T N O E N M DE NA GH OR THROU
BIAS THE CONNOTATIVE MEANINGS F ION O CRIPT THE S N I SE B: ES IN 2. CA ATIVE COD T O N CON X SYNTA
STRUCTURE
MEDIA ORAL WRITTEN FILM COMIC ARCHITECTURE
NARRATION A+B
RE-TELLING B B
B
B A+B
}
EXPRESSION = B
A+B
THE CONNOTATIVE MEANINGS
interpretation layered meaning collective consciousness
OMIAL C NTENT NOTATIVE I : C SE ON 3. CA TION OF C SPACE A H C G I U N O U R M S TH G N I N MEA
NG GGERI : TRI OUGH D E S 4. CA ATION THR S N M IMAGI ATIVE FOR C PROVO
C
A+B
A+B=C
THE CONTEXT
C
BUILDING AN ANALOGY
-
C
HOW DOES ARCHITECTURE TELL STORIES? REC
OGN
ITI
ON
OF
PAT
TER
NS,
QUA
LIT
AND
BEH
AVI
OUR
CODIFICATION
THE S ENSO
}
r unte o y c n ver ce e n o a h c C is ld n a t tio en a d i t en acc ir m pe ex THEM NEW-FORMED
IES
EANIN
VISUAL CODE
ROCKY (MATERIAL)
G
LINGUISTIC/PHONETIC CODE
CURVY (FORM)
RY IN PUTS
SHELTER (FUNCTION)
ASIATIC LIBRARY PARTHENON LAMINGTON ROAD BHULESHWAR BANGANGA PYDHONIE JER MAHAL TRAM TERMINUS CAMA HOSPITAL
with change in function, and layering of traces, meanings get attached to places with time.
Ranwar village is a place where stories are woven into the built form, and people’s imagination of it.
RIWA FORT
SEWRI FORT
THE GAONTHANS
Places that are repositories of meaning are threatened by the trend of standardized redevelopment today. Their stories exist, but cannot be ‘read’. An ‘archive’ is reimagined as a typology that brings curates these memories in Ranwar Village, Mumbai, a setting of history and culture. The fragmented archive, spread over the fabric of the urban village, will serves as both the teller and container of stories and create an environment that inspires people to form their own mental stories and imaginings.
UNITED MILLS
APOSTLIC
HOLY FAMILY
CARMEL
HOSPITAL
SLUM SETT LEM
COLLEGE
MIXED USE HIGH RISES
FERN’S
EN TS
MANSIO
N
ST. ANDREW’S CHURCH
CEMETERY
HILL ROAD
A1 BAKERY
WA
RNA LN .
TALL RESIDENTIAL BUILDINGS
DA
LANGHA
RO
ZAFFRAN
RO
ROSSES N
D
W
C LS, AL
NWAR SQ AU R
ROTTOS
UG U E S E CO PO R T M PU
AN DST
AGNA SQ.
RA
,G RY
SB
TO
AR D
A
TOW
BIRD SONG CAFE
O R
HOUSES
ELEMEN TS:
D AN
E ET STR
E
AN D
AD
site 1: Community archive near a1 bakery
1 The plot has the dilapidated A1 bakery, Maryville, and a Parsee Mansion facing main road.
2 The chimney isnt used, has symbolic value. The buildings are run-down.
3 Parsi Mansion disused for 40 years. Back has recycled book-shop.
MATERIAL SALVAGE
4
GROUND FLOOR PLAN CUT AT 2.00M
1
2
3
4
roof Roof forms derived to connote activity. Trusses taken from mansion inverted over verandah.
first floor Stay for artists and collaborators. Parsee Mansion forms central reading space. A1 Book Cafe gets a mezzanine around old chimney.
ground floor Bakery at street front. The community living room. The ornate walls of mansion encased in glass
basement Archive of architectural motifs. Archives in vaults.
The watchtower has a secret entrance from underground.
The framed old chimney in A1.
The skylight in the vault archives.
The spiral staircase Oratory.
The Anthropometric watchtower.
Reading space in Parsee Mansion.
site 2: Main reading room in fern’s mansion
3
7 out of 12 tenements are lying vacant in the building.
The ground floor has the Yatch Restaurant.
4 Though it’s dilapidated, the facade is distinct, with iron railings and arches.
MATERIAL SALVAGE
1
2
GROUND FLOOR PLAN CUT AT 1.50M
1
2
3
4
roof Form derived from inverting original. Tenement roof retained. Skylights and stairs highlighted.
second floor admin aresa of library on mezzanine. trapdoor connects ares externally. Skylights introduced throughout the height. Cozy attic, recalls pirate story.
first floor Reading room is double heighted with long arch walls. Quiet areas have attached verandahs for interaction. Occupied enements left undisturbed. Big stairs for library.
ground floor Paving recalls gravestones. church and landscape flow into each other.
The double heighted reading room.
The surprise courtyards behind the stairs.
The inverted roof as a play on the original.
Fern’s mansion with strategic insertions.
The arched colonnade at the street junction.
site 3: the junk shop
site 4: co-working space
Objects in the existing junk shop hold stories of their past. The glass shelves become walls that show the curious objects.
Two shear walls inserted outside the existing bunglow,
GROUND FLOOR PLAN
treating it as an artifact in the gallery on the ground.
GROUND FLOOR PLAN
The Archive displays stories to be read, and allows new ones to be collected as traces through wandering and imagination.
Along with tangible material like old books and junk, intangible archives like memories and festivals store ranwar’s stories. avenues are created to ‘store’ ‘read’ and ‘collect’ more material through program and architecture.
SALE
S
B:
1-4 ANNA
LADIES CL U
-UP
C
B
AL GO
E P OOR
N UT
P PO
LOC
RI
NG E
O
: FEEDI
JU M B L
25
N
OD
JUDE BAK
U A RE
GYP
SA
T
TH
SQ
RO
TCHEN IN
LU
KI
OF
AR
RY
E
S
AT RANW
HE
RY
SY
Memories and activities
meanings and motifs
SITE 2:Main Library in Fern’s Mansion
The overall scheme of the fragmented archive
SITE 1:Community Centre at A1 Bakery
W
AD
OR
A
SITE 4: Coworking Space RO
AD
SITE 3:Junk Shop
SITE 5: Amphitheatre RANWAR SQ.
Ms Shiante Lobo 32-A St Paul’s Road
Decorative Cakes for all occasions
Ms Maria L Alburquerque 402 Ranwar
Crochet Work
Ms Victoria Periera 9 Ranwar, 1st floor
Confectionary
Ms Jeanette Rodricks 20 Ranwar
Small Plant Nursery
Ms Margaret Murthy “Shelter” 3rd flr St Francis Road
Ladies Dressmaking
Ms Jennifer Miranda 13, 2nd Floor Veronica Road
Sweets and Easter Eggs
Mr Neris D’Cruz 7 New Kantwadi Road
Table and Car Decorations
Ms Jeanette Rodricks 20 Ranwar Village
Bridal headgear
2
blankspace fairytales: The GLITCH Competition Group Entry | 2018
The story, ‘The Glitch’ saw the protagonist breaking a wall down in a methodical, mundane space, setting up in motion a chaotic spiral of events that completely warp space and geometry, like a ‘glitch’ in cyberspace.
1. The stranger meets the structure. 2. The repetitive monotony of space and activity. The breaking of the wall.
1
3
3. The disruption of space. An architectural glitch.
4. Finding a new order, familiarizing with the new.
4
5
5. Acceptance of the chaos.
2
3
NASA LOUIS I KAHN TROPHY Competition Group Entry | 2012 and 2015
Historic settlements were documented through a two year association with UNESCO’s LIK Trophy. Being in the analysis and drawing team, my role was to understand their intricacies and evolution, and create documentation drawings to communicate them.
pochampally | 2012
1. Figure Ground
2. Street Configuration
3. Intersections
Pochampally is a 400 years old weavers’ settlement in Andhra Pradesh. It was shortlisted as a study of ‘Earth Architecture’, which the trophy brief demanded. Stout rammed earth walls that make the three distinct castebased clusters of this settlement support heavy timber roofs with country tiles and central skylights. With a socio-economic fabric consisting of varied occupations, the settlement is now being adulterated, with newer constructions in RCC cropping up amidst the old houses. The technology, wconstruction system and planning, that has emerged from the earth, and can easily be adaoted to modern needs as well, to ensure that the benefits sustain.
The farmers’ cluster
The weavers’ cluster
The Brahmins’ cluster
The houses in each cluster differ in size and ornamentation, however certain features such as the narrow streets that stay cool in the summer heat, front verandas, and nodes where water can be collected become common features. The lanes in the weavers settlement are unpaved, and become outdoor corridor’s to untangle long thread.
Shops opening onto verandahs.
The nodes have bore wells.
Equipment for weaving is installed in lanes.
In the Harijan’s or Farmers’ cluster, planning is characterized by a very basic division of internal space to meet requirements of living and storage. Mud walls also become built in furniture.
Details of openings
The weavers house follows a pattern of planning called ‘Bhawanti’, characterized by three bays adjoining the kitchen, spilling into backyard. The weaving machine is accommodated in a central weaving pit.
Details of the weaving machine and pit
Gneiss blocks form the foundation.
Compacted earth plinths & mud walls. Roof Timber members are assembled.
The completed home.
In the ‘Reddy House’ within the upper-caste Zamindar Cluster, social standing is directly manifested through architecture. The scale is larger in terms of volume and footprint. The motifs carved within the timber structural members are another indication. Load bearing walls get thinner at the upper story. Lime plaster holds the walls in shape, and patterns are embossed within it. The front of the house serves as a gathering space, the back is more private.
Wooden floors supported by thinning mud walls.
Flooring supported by mud walls and wood posts.
The skylight visually and volumetrically connects the two floors.
Thicker walls are built to take the additional load of an added story.
Posts and binders also have greater The house serves as a symbl of cross-section. affluence upon completion.
DIWAN CHOWK, Junagadh | 2015 The brief in 2015 asked for the documentation of an architecture that had responded to functional change, and undergone alterations due to changes in it’s socio-cultural context. The nature of adaptation became an important factor for site selection, where spontaneous need based, people induced change in function took precedence over a conscious administrative change such as the conversion of a palace into a museum. The royal complex of Junagadh and Diwan Chowk, in it’s 300 year history, has adapted to become an inextricable, integrated part of the built fabric of the city.
The evolution of the settlement.
The Nawab’s administrative Building | School and Museum
Durbar Hall | Regional Commissioner’s office
‘karkhana’ Safe House | State bank of India building
4
The site is located between lavish unsold flats on one side and dilapidated chawls.
NASA hudco TROPHY
Competition Group Entry | 2013 and 2014 As a part of the analysis and design team, my role in the trophy was to understand housing trends, and find solutions. After analyzing the nature of housing shortage in the city, the project aimed to integrate the private builders into the scheme as the implementors of the project; the user is involved in the planning of his home and neighborhood through micro-finance schemes.
Road perpendicular to main road establishes connect between contrasts.
Rectangular module placed along main street having retail on either side.
Modules are repeated along both the axes in to create interactive spaces in between.
The buildings are connected at a height for better accessibility of spaces.
The areas of intersection of different blocks become interaction venues for the people.
Housing shortage is not just a result of unmet demand. Empty unsold flats exist in the city due to lack of access to these through affordable housing strategies. The housing supply is directed to creating high-end residential housing that possess comparatively a lesser demand, thus creating a stark imbalance. The new emerging ‘Lower Parel’ district was selected as a site, where this trend is prevalent, and strategies for afford-ability were explored.
The provision for incrementality.
Customization configurations.
EWS module
Typical floor plate for EWS income group
LIG Module
Typical floor plate for LIG income group
MIG Module
Typical floor plate for MIG income group
housing along the eastern water front | hudco 2014 The following year, a new approach was proposed, and the newly opened up dock lands along the industrial Eastern Water Front of Mumbai were proposed as an oppotunity to make housing for all a reality. Dishoused families along Sewri were understood as proposed users.
5
urban convention Architectural Design | Fifth Year
VE
HI
Gated complexes, wide heat absorbing roads, and false, foriegn facades make up BKC, Mumbai’s prime commercial district. The architecture of the convention center aimed to counter this through a distinctly modernist approach.
The overall volumes of convention and exhibition spaces.
C
UL
AR
EX 5. IT 5M RA W MP ID E FRO
The volumes begin to get articulated through subtraction, as functions are inserted.
Terraces and interior open spaces are introduced so that they remain shaded in the day.
The circulation cores emerge from the courtyards and common spaces.
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REAR ELEVATION (SCALE 1
The porous exhibition facade.
First floor plan The connecting volume of Admin block.
HIBITION HALL (SCALE 1:350) VE
The shaded terrace spill-out.
HI
second floor plan
CU
LA
R
EX
IT
Roof skylights of exhibition space.
The circular ramp to the exhibition mezzanine.
The convention courtyard.
Elevations
1:350)
The roof system
The space-frame above the courtyard.
SEction through exhibition space
SEction through AUDITORIUM
Niches
SEction through convention Courtyard
Concrete louvres one side glazed.
Kota stone flooring in varying shades of gray.
The walls are faced with un-plastered concrete panels.
The horizontal massing is balanced by emphasizing verticality in the facade.
Simple black railings with close spaced rods run along the balconies and terraces.
The glitzy facades and show-y architecture that is a characteristic of BKC, was consciously contradicted in the purely modernist ‘form follows function’ approach to the design. The gated-ness of the development was challenged by having porous edges, transperancy of material, and large interconnected public space.
RCC COPING CONCRETE PANELS AS CLADDING GUTTER SILICON STRIPS RCC LINTEL
BEAM AT 3M HEIGHT 230 MM THK WALL GLAZING
PLINTH BEAM
STUB COLUMN
entrance pergola detail WATA LAYER OF WATERPROOFING SLOPING RCC SLAB RECESSED FRAME OF R.C.C SKYLIGHT
The entrance plaza.
INSULATED GLASS ALUMINIUM TRANSOME WATA CONCRETE UPSTAND
EXHIBITION SKYLIGHT DETAIL
PRIMARY BEAM SUPPORTING EXHIBITION HALL ROOF
CIRCULAR R.C.C RAMP CAST EX-SITU 200MM THK EXPOSED BOTTOM SLAB
STONE SKIRTING
BBC, SCREEDING AND KOTA TILES
Inside the Convention Courtyard.
ANCHOR BOLT BETWEEN RAMP AND MEZZANINE ALUMINIUM TRANSOME
a place for play in dharavi
6
Architectural Design | Second Year
This project aimed at analyzing the recreational needs of the people residing in the complex settlement of Dharavi in Mumbai, and designing a sports complex that would fulfill the same. Gymnastics marbles
Cricket
kattas
courtyards between homes
Lanes Niches
intermediate spaces
socializing
recreation
Elements of the street fabric like staircases become seating spaces.
Celebration
Residual spaces between massy volumes are shaded areas of congregation.
Gateways mark important public nodes.
Temporal light structures create avenues for circulation.
Thick walls become elements of space that can be inhabited.
GYMNASIUM badminton court
offices
akhada Toilets
CANTEEN library
Care was taken to inculcate functions and spaces that responded to the context, as well as the aspirations of people. The design process was preceded by a period of documentation of existing conditions and recreational facilities. Dharavi, as a settlement is very compact, and nodes and lanes usually double up as recreational spaces. Materials such as brick, asbestos sheets and wood are amply available for construction.
The arcade becomes seating space for viewing activities in the akhada.
The quiet library spills out into a balcony.
Ground Floor Plan
First Floor Plan Wooden fins keep the space naturally ventilated.
The vault as a volume is conducive to the heights needed.
The internal spaces can be fully opened out.
Elements like the steel staircase bring continuity with street.
7
the holy water of banganga Architectural Design | Second Year
The 400 year old fresh water tank sits right by the sea, surrounded by slums and Site stories. As the people lose their connection with he tank, the heritage is threatened. The intervention is a community space that aims to revive it.
The tank has a fresh water inlet, and according to mythology, was filled up with water when lord Ram shot an arrow into the ground, and the river Ganga sprung out of it. Owning to it’s religious significance, temples and Hindu settlements sprung all around the tank, and religious activities are performed in the water. Locals also use it for washing clothes, utensils and bathing, leading to problems of pollution. The intervention aims to revive the tank by calling forth it’s sanctity and connecting it to the sea. The inlet is separated from a reservoir, where washing activities can happen, after which water is let out into the sea. A dedicated washing area is created, along with community space in the dense settlement. A public toilet, connected to formal drainage, forms an important part of the intervention.
The architecture and locations of temples
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banganga | 2013 Bandra kurla complex is a commercial district, and a CBD for the city of mumbai. Presently, it lacks a mixed landuse, Section A-A’
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8
an architect’s fueling station Semester 5 Architectural Design | 2014
Santiago Calatrava’s philosophy and design approach were studied, and applied to the design of a suburban fueling station and car show-room. The design takes the form of a simply supported bridge, with the station below, light and dynamic.
The Site-plan channels familiar motifs from Calatrava
Ground Floor Plan
First Floor Plan
9
MANGO TREE CAFE
Semester 5 Architectural Design | 2014 The approach was to create an atmosphere in the space that was once the ‘Mango Tree Cafe’, in sync with an over-all theme of local handicrafts, and symbiotic with the mood and environment of the historical city, rich in its unique culture.
Handicrafts for promotion of their sale.
Rough white wash allows the colourful handicrafts to stand out.
Elements such as the “Wishing Tree” make the design interactive
A white cement rough flooring and wall finish creates a rustic feel.
The furniture layout, the reflected ceiling plan and the flooring layout showing the types of flooring.
Tourists are directed through the handicrafts display to different seating spaces. The rooms and walls display have delicate mirror inlay work.
The sections make most of the existing stepped landscape.
10
engaging with the city Urban Studies | 2014-2016
The precincts of Byculla and BKC (Bandra Kurla Complex) were mapped and studied through various layers in groups of 8, in order to suggests tactical interventions, propose new development trends and changes in planning in the 4th and 5th years.
bycullaI | 2016 The layers of the many years of colonial development and migration in byculla were mapped in order to redesign the station, and propose a new model of housing and transport that put it’d culture first, and accomodated it’s chaos. Figure-Ground
Building Heights
Byculla over the years
Transport
Social Infrastructure
1800: Low lying flats
Organising the Station
1850: Grand british houses
Building Age
Bus-Routes
1890: Railway station started
Transit Nodes as Culture
1900: the first races held
Economic class
Heritage Fabric Promoting walkability
1940: World war II strikes
currently holds mixed people
Building Typology
Slopes and Gradients
Inclusive housing and green space
Bandra Kurla Complex was mapped for physical, economic and social layers present to identify the intangible aspects that lend the region its character. The study threw light on problems of ‘Gatedness’, a lack of imagibility, and standardization leading to a lack of identity in Mumbai’s commercial hub. Small-scale interventions were proposed in order to further usage of the ample infrastructure by the locals in the area.
URBAN DESIGN
14
The gated, foriegn commercial complex of BKC is connected to the nearby residential area of Kalanagar through Curb extensions to the side walks make intimidating, publiccrossing space andless street infrastructure.
DESIGN COMEURBAN GROUPS
AGE MAP
MAP OF INCOME GROUPS
MAP URBAN DESIGN MAP OF INCOME GROUPS
SOCIO-ECONOMIC ANALYSIS
AGE MAP
MAP OF INCOME GROUPS
LOCATION MAP
FIGURE AND GROUND MAP
13
URBAN DESIGN
and encourage permeability.
URBAN DESIGN
FIGURE AND GROUND MAP
BKC, MUMBAI | 2015
14
14
Curb extensions to the side walks make crossing less intimidating, and encourage permeability.
Curb extensions to the side walks m and encourage permeability. Wide hostile footpaths interspersed with seating Curb extensions to the side walks make crossing less intimidating, and encourage permeability.
sound barrier becomes site for wall-art and seating. The sound barrier becomes a site forThewall-art and aseating. Organising the StationA FOURTH YEAR YEAR A STUDY STUDY OF OF BKC, BKC, MUMBAI| MUMBAI| FOURTH
Bandra Kurla ComplexAGE was mapped forMAP physical, economic and FIGURE AND GROUND MAP BandraMAP Kurla Complex was mapped for physical, economic and social social OF INCOME GROUPS
layers layers present present to to identify identify the the intangible intangible aspects aspects that that lend lend the the region region its its character. of aa lack character. The The study study threw threw light light on on problems problems of ‘Gatedness’, ‘Gatedness’, lack of of SOCIO-ECONOMIC ANALYSIS imagibility, imagibility, and and standardization standardization leading leading to to aa lack lack of of identity identity in in Mumbai’s Mumbai’s The proposal was to encourage people from the residentialinterventions zone to commercial hub. Small-scale were proposed proposed in in order order to to commercial hub. Small-scale interventions were cross the iplied barrier in order to liven up the commercial zone. further usage of the ample infrastructure by the locals in the area. further usage of the ample infrastructure by the locals in the area. Better street furniture, shorter crossings, cycle tractks, street art, and
Curb extensions to the side walks make crossing less intimidating, and encourage permeability. Compound walls along open spaces are made into “katta’s”
The sound barrier becomes a site for wall-art and seating.
curb-extensions were used to achieve this aim.
Graffiti for friendly streets
sound barrier becomes a site for wall-art and seating. The sound barrier becomes a site fo Compound walls along open spacesTheCompound are made into “katta’s” walls along open spaces are made into “katta’s”
The proposal was to encourage people from the residential zone to cross the iplied barrier in order to liven up the commercial zone. Better street furniture, shorter crossings, cycle tractks, street art, and curb-extensions were used to achieve this aim.
FIGURE AND GROUND MAP
AGE MAP
The proposal was to encourage people from the residential zone to cross the iplied barrier in order to liven up the commercial zone. Better street furniture, shorter crossings, cycle tractks, street art, and curb-extensions were used to achieve this aim.
MAP OF Compound wallsINCOME along open spaces GROUPS made into “katta’s” Edge conditions to promoteareinteraction
SOCIO-ECONOMIC SOCIO-ECONOMIC ANALYSIS ANALYSIS
SOCIO-ECONOMIC ANA
The proposal was to encourage people from the residential zone to cross the iplied barrier in order to liven up the commercial zone. Better street furniture, shorter crossings, cycle tractks, street art, and curb-extensions were used to achieve this aim.
A STUDY OF BKC, MUMBAI| FOURTH YE
ential zone to mercial zone. treet art, and
Bandra Kurla Complex was mapped for physical, economic a layers present to identify the intangible aspects that lend the character. The study threw light on problems of ‘Gatedness’, imagibility, and standardization leading to a lack of identity in M commercial hub. Small-scale interventions were proposed in further usage of the ample infrastructure by the locals in the are
Compound walls along open spaces
11
a place in shade
Third Year Landscape Studio | 2015 A small backyard was to be transformed to a garden, and the qualities of the wilderness were explored and applied to imagine an emotive, experiencial landscape.
What does it feel like to get lost in the woods....
Textural variety, encouraging movement, volumetric variation and an absence of apparent order became the key principles of design, to evoke the feeling of occupying a patch of wilderness in the woods. The lawn doubles up as a pathway, widening in places to demand a pause. A single bench under a curved, old tree, occupies the far corner, subtly beckoning a wanderer towards it. The textures of moss on walls, and natural decay and algal growth were observed for the steps of the porch and the back wall, which would be cool and soft to the bare touch of hand and foot. The wanderer would have to bend to occupy the cozier spaces within the shorter trees, that form small grottos around the main clearing with the bench, almost forming volumes that can be occupied, connected through the winding pathway that is the lawn. Some plants are thorny, dry and intermittently flowering, unlike in the manicured garden.
The Plan
Bending and sitting in the grotto
The Section
The clearings provide space for play
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homegrown neighborhoods Internship at Urbz, Dharavi | 2015
The A small internship backyard at Urbz, was toanbeexperimental transformedresearch to a garden, collective and the for qualities urban neighborhoods, of the wilderness involved mapping were explored the wells and in applied the Dharavi to imagine Koliwada an as emotive, the first experiencial step to revival. landscape. I also worked closely with local contractors to design their dream homes.
Pvt.well
Office
Pink well
Market
60 FEET ROAD
Shops
RAJAB ALI CHAWL ROAD
Pvt.well
URBZ
MAHIM - SION LINK ROAD
Taxi std. T-JUNCTION
Curating an exhibition of work at the office
The Dharavi well project aimed at understanding the ancient water system that supported the establishment of the Koliwada in Dharavi, and the reasons for the subsequent pollution and redundancy of the wells. It resulted in an extensive database which was used to make plaques and curate an exhibition about the wells in the office space within the settlement, in order to raise awareness about their condition amongst the locals. The second project involved the co-creation of the Dharavi ‘dream home’, the ideal house as envisioned by the local contractors that operate in Dharavi, who are cheifly responsible for the creation of it’s eclectic, dense built fabric. The contractors are aware of the systems and deviations in the framework of the law, the services and materials that constitute the settlement’s architecture, as well as the tight constraint of space, with which they are working for years. This knowledge and experience manifested in the design of three houses by three local contractors, each located on a plot of 20 square meters, and possessing the ability to be vertically incremental. The nature of space produced and syntactic organization of program is widely different from the prevalent BHK model of housing in Mumbai, yet very typical of the adaptation and need-based improvisation that homegrown neighborhoods like Dharavi exhibit every day. Models of these homes were made in local construction material, which were exhibited in Maxxi Museum in Rome. The self-made home: Mallesh House
Dream homes in different locally sourced materials
Joseph House
Mallesh House
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post-intensive landscapes
Research at School of Environment and Architecture | 2017-18 The research aimed to establish a definition for Post-intensive landscapes, and set up parameters for identifying the same. It explores various ways in which lands are altered, and responses generated.
In a time when ‘nature’ in its most pristine, untouched form has been pushed to the periphery of human inhabitation, how must one re-examine this understanding of nature corresponding to our reality today? How can these ‘new natures’ emerging from altered landscapes be understood in terms of ecologies, relationships and transactions that emerge from them? How are these manifested spatially over time and what is their future? Can stories of their varied histories and operation become learnings through to provide an entry point to design? Are such Post-intensive landscapes representative of the human-nature relationship and disconnected fragments that are symptoms of the larger affliction of environmental degradation? Can they become means through which the larger processes are understood?
Land, both as holder of valuable resources and a resource in itself, is often a subject to such alteration after intensive, prolonged, human use. Such lands, will eventually get utilized to the point of exhaustion and lose productivity, leading to their subsequent abandonment. As the original stakeholders involved in this process of use and disuse find greener pastures, these landscapes lie as marginal ecologies, awaiting an anxious future. Since it becomes difficult to determine how to deal with these lands in terms of what they should become, their present state poses serious architectural and environmental questions to planning and development authorities, and to society at large, especially if land itself is a scarce resource in a particular region. Once the resource is exhausted, what does one make of ‘land’? In India, presently, all lands that are unproductive, irrespective of how they came to exist, are put into a single category of ‘Wasteland’, the definition of which is limited. ‘Treatment’ and ‘restoration’ of degraded lands is a concept that has largely deals with restoring agricultural productivity, and does not account for the spatial and socio-cultural alteration, especially in degraded landscapes in urban areas. If one hasn’t already abandoned the notion that landscape should somehow be beautiful too and imposing, one will surely have difficulties getting something out of such ravaged landscapes. This research, assigned the term ‘post-intensive landscape’ to describe wastelands resulting from intense human activity, and tries to set-up criteria to identify the same. It aims to examine the factors that lead to the creation of such landscapes and the larger processes they symbolize, through a case study of 8 landscapes. By acknowledging such lands and the circumstances of their production, the research seeked to investigate the relationship between man and nature today, and understand and challenge our current understanding of what ‘nature’ means. It aimed to examine the new spatial types and uses that arise in relation to these lands, and the architectural questions these posed. It is published as a part of SEA archives, and was exhibited at the Tongji Design Week 2017 - “New World”.
The northern-most of the three ‘bunders’ at Mazgaon was used for the transportation of coal. Today small boats dock here.
Being man made extensions to the eastern coastline of the city, this land is almost entirely reclaimed. The whole dockyard is akin to a large industrial godown.
Migrants from all over the country came here to work almost four generations ago, and still continue to arrive each day. Those who come alone make their homes in the very sheds in which the work duing the day, and voids between stacks of iron pipes become spaces to live in.
Temporay sheds made from steel sections and metal sheets become workshops for segregation, inspection and repair.
2 main roads extends all the way uptil the far end of the jetty to the sea. Large vehicles carrying all manner of metal parts, make their way up and down these roads.
The workshops open out to face the main vehicular road.
The ship stays docked for as long as six to eight months, as parts of it are removed, and repaired, till it is either completely dismantled or made ready for it’s next voyage.
Metal parts comprise the fundamental units from which the built environment is constructed here.
The strip of sea between the last two bunders is deeper and larger ships can dock here. The central bunder or ‘Darukhna’ is the main site for ship breaking got it’s name from a either a gunpowder factory .
Since the workshops occupy the space adjoining the main streets, workers who brought their families along settled in the margins, in temporary hutments, only a few of which have official ‘permits’.
Soon, all activities will be shifted to Vashi, to make way for large commercial projects, and the land will transform yet again.
The Dockyards of Mazgaon - Backyards of an Industrial City The land in this area, along the western edge of the suburbs of Mumbai, was originally entirely part of the inter-tidal zone, comprising marshes and wetlands that flooded twice a day.
The mangrove lined estuary that is the Malad Creek, opens into the Arabian ocean right beside a reclaimed region called ‘Mindspace’.
The city begins almost immediately, precariously close to the soft edge of the land and sea. This edge has extened outward year after year, as reclaimation in the creek over the years created more land for development.
The large dumping ground was filled and layered with earth after it was closed in 2002. This development was preceded by the large-scale demolition and relocation of slums.
Much like the rest of the suburb of Malad, Mindspace is home to IT parks and a new demographic of whitecollar middle class from various communities.
The mangroves have given way to manicured hedges and flowering creepers. Carefully designed landscaping elements perfectly frame the glitzy new skyline, that is representative of popular aspiration.
The water tries to take back the land every monsoon, and the areas that are not located upon raised ground, flood frequently. A number of water-filled construction sites dot the main Malad-Goregaon link road, which promises to connect Mindspace to 6.5 million people in a short radius.
North of the creek, the banks of the Poisar river continue to be used as garbage dumps, with large scale encroachment. Even the formal development that has occured along the river’s edge releases greywater into the river, which ultimately reaches the creek.
Heaps of grabage, covered in soil and vegetation, are seperated from the wide roads and grey footpaths using high compound walls, and form many other gardens and recreation spaces between the scattered office buildings.
The floating complex of Mindspace Malad The under-construction high-rises of the Eastern Suburbs of the city define the horizon against which the vast, empty expanses of salt-pan land lie.
The grass huts of migrant labor from interior Maharashtra who come leaving families behind in their villages.
The more permanent Mangalore tiled houses of the retired laborers who have been ‘gifted’ this land by the Agri Sheth.
Rugged stone paving, and reclaimed ground constitutes the make-shift terra firma of the estuarine landscape.
Freshwater pools provide water for Daily use in a place where resources are scarcely supplied.
A mini-ecosystem, of the grass used to make the huts being grown in the settlement, with waste supplying it nutrition. Firewood is loaclly obtained.
The Estuarine Salt-pans of Bhandup The salt-pan road probably existed when the pans were in use, and the settlement was along it. It forms the spine of the crescent.
A sizeable scarp and waste-recycling industry operates at the edge of the settlement.
Highrise constructions continue on reclaimed land in the background, an industry in which a lot of the migrant settlers are employed.
Distinctive, 20 m long G+1 and 2 structures cantilever onto the wasteland, ending in a singular window that lets in light.
The original saltpan is now a muddy wasteland, to which the waste from the settlement is directed, interfering with salt production processes.
The Wadala Chembur reclamation scheme cut the ties of the Bhakti Park Saltpans and the Mangaon creek.
The reclaimed marshes of Wadala Basic amenities such as electricity and water are illegally obtained.
The settlement is more that 40 years old, a mix of structures constructed from all materials, clustered protectively along the beach.
Old mining equipment and broken machinery lie scattered on the beach, becoming follies that allow various transactions.
Quarrying activity occurs in the hills beyond the customs office. .
The boats that ply for mining in the dawn lie moored at the beach through the day, and migrant laborers live in them.
The sand-mining settlement at Gaimukh Point The houses in Shivaji Nagar came up over time, built by local contractors who have learnt to work with the bureaucratic constraints.
Shivaji Nagar is planned in a distinct grid, with lanes that are oriented towards the ground, which constantly looms in the horizon.
Shivaji nagar came us as a site and services scheme next o the dumping ground when most of the poorer residents ere moved here from the inner city.
The Homes within a garbage dump in Deonar
A canal connects the settlement to the creek, and all the waste from the illegal tenements is directed into it.
The older houses are a level below the street, due to the raising of the ground overtime from reclamation.
The tenements closest to the edge of the ground are temporary, illegal, made of scrap metal found in the dumpyard itself.
A broken, low wall separates it from Rafiq Nagar, enabling people to enter into it for ragpicking, the chief occupation.
The Deonar dumping ground goes upto 9 storeys in height, and has over-shot its capacity by atleast a 50 years, presently wanting closure.
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a house by nari gandhi
Internship at Blank Slate Architects | 2013 Nari Gandhi’s unique design at Madh Island, Mumbai lies unused and undocumented for the past 20 years. Having taken over 20 years for construction, a summer internship allowed me to study and draw the house.