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ARCHITECTURE AND DESIGN
PORTFOLIO RIJUTA CHAKRABORTY
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CIRRICULUM VITAE RIJUTA CHAKRABORTY NEW ZEALAND CITIZEN
021 02651502 rijutac95@gmail.com 09 2999811 15 Redmount Place, Red Hill, Papakura, Auckland I am an architecture graduate, who has completed my MArch(Prof) with a specialisation in Heritage Conservation from the University of Auckland. Having finished my thesis, I’m eager to join the architecture industry in finding work that involves a collaborative approach to design and could help me grow my keen interest in research and history. My work is reflective of my interests in history and art but more than anything, I am mindful about the acute needs of people first. More recently, I have grown an interest in small, flexible spaces and its potential in contributing towards more sustainable housing without compromising on lifestyle. Other than design and drawing, I enjoy other artistic ventures such as creative writing, cooking, baking and occasionally also dabbling in music such as classical piano, guitar and ukelele. I enjoy travelling and find it to be a great source of knowledge and inspiration, having visited countries in South East Asia, Australasia and the UK. There, the historic architecture and the tangled, contrasting lives of people – often starkly different to my own here in New Zealand – have continuously encouraged me to pursue architecture as a course of study and a means to understanding the importance of our built environment on our identity and an ever-evolving culture.
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EDUCATION
SKILLS
INTERESTS
SKETCHUP PRO PHOTOSHOP INDESIGN ILLUSTRATOR
Painting
History
Cooking
Film
RHINOCEROS REVIT MICROSOFT WORD SKETCHING
WORK EXPERIENCE
Travelling
Reading and Writing
Music
REFERENCES
Nov 2019 - Present
Treetops Botany Junction ECE Relief Teacher (Part time)
Marian Macken - Thesis Supervisor Phone: 021 1335050 Email: m.macken@auckland.ac.nz
Nov 2016 - Mar 2019
Lollipops Botany Town Centre ECE Teacher (Full time)
Lisa Yandell - Former Treetops Centre Manager Phone: 021 373493
Mar 2011 - Apr 2013
Frost and Sutcliffe Solicitor Junior Office Assistant (Part time)
Craig Moller - Advanced Design 1 Tutor Phone: 09 3570686 Email: craig@mollerarchitects.com
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Please note, drawings are not to scale as they have been reduced due to the size restriction of this book. Therefore, scale indications on drawings are incorrect.
CONTENTS
CIRRICULUM VITAE MITRANGAN
2 - 3 6 - 17
WORKSHOP AT CITY WORKS DEPOT
18 - 29
CHRISTCHURCH CATHEDRAL
30 - 3 7
CHRISTCHURCH CEMETARY
38 - 43
TRAVEL PHOTOGRAPHY
45 - 55
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THESIS PROJECT
MITRANGAN This thesis substantiates my design proposal for a cultural hub that will accommodate festivals and activities related —but not limited— to the Bengali diasporic community present in New Zealand. This thesis considers the precedence that an intercultural experience can impart on all individuals, especially in a country such as New Zealand where immigration is a large part of its culture and history. Mitrangan is a community building, centrally based in Wynyard Quarter, primarily taking over the current Jellicoe Street car park that considers what the effect of intercultural architecture that encourages social cohesion and mutual inhabitation could have on Auckland city. The incentive of this thesis is to create a greater understanding of the Indian Bengali —and by extension— the many immigrant minority communities present in Auckland to increase the ‘sense of belonging’ felt by these individuals by exposing non-Bengalis in Auckland to Bengali culture through place and an immersive cultural experience. Closely following a personal journey, this thesis reflects how the sharing of different cultural experiences can shape architecture and become a device in building better communities. This motivation drives the central themes of this thesis which explore how intercultural ideologies can overlap with sociology and architecture to create a better built environment that serves to bring diverse communities together. The methodology behind the design proposal of Mitrangan therefore draws from my own personal cultural experiences in the form of the ‘worn experience of a sari’. As explored in this research, the form, function and worn experience of saris, as well as the annual festival of Durga Pujo, serve as primary forces to convey the community of the Bengali diaspora in Auckland. In applying methods of design exploration such as collage, watercolour drawings and model making, this research cultivates an engaging experience that can appeal to all people to recognise and find value in a variant cultural environment and asks ‘How can architecture enable intercultural understanding between diverse communities and reclaim ‘sense of belonging’ to immigrant minorities in Auckland?’
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Library Space
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C O N C E PT W O R K
Imprinting fabric into plaster
Spatial layering - Plaster models of the ‘worn experience’
FLOORPLAN
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Raft foundation detail
LONG S
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Fixed skylight detail
ECTION
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C O N C E PT W O R K
Watercolours of ‘the worn experience’
RENDERS
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Walkway to Cafe, perforated wall
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Market in the Courtyard
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Night time festivities
Vermillion installation at Karanga Plaza
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Open kitchen and seating
Jellicoe Street main entrance
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ADVANCED DESIGN 2 - ADAPTIVE REUSE
WORKSHOP AT CITY WORKS DEPOT How do we enable ‘choice’ of space in our architecture? This design is rooted in creating an open and welcoming space that provides opportunities for learning, growth and encourages self-empowerment and choice through adaptable spaces. With a design theory that came from the personal memory of my grandmother who had dedicated her entire life to her family, it challenges what feminine architecture could be, moving away from buildings that are interpreted as ‘delicate’ and ‘fragile’. The layout of the new design opens up at street level at Cook Street and grants pedestrians more access to City Works Depot. The design has three different programs that function to focus on social interaction (chai stand), self-empowerment (workshops, performance space and courtyard), and personal support (counseling rooms). This design is dedicated towards individuals in society who lacked opportunity to pursue their own interests due to societal or financial restrictions, lack of awareness and those whom might require reinforcing of their own confidence and inner ability. The predominant use of concrete to cast the design now reinterprets feminine architecture; as though being solid and rigid, the material has the ability to be molded into anything, therein lies it’s adaptability. The ideas of being nurtured and supported is emphasised with its lasting material properties which has connotations of security. Additionally, two movable elements such as the glass and mild steel retracting roof and the hinged timber panels that transform the concrete platform into a seatable workshop, provide the space be to adapt according to its inhabitants, fulfilling the brief of enabling choice through its flexible programming within the building.
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Chai in the morning
C O N C E PT W O R K
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Plaster models
Sectional Diagrams
Counsellor chambers
Retracting roof
Transforming panels
FLOORPLAN
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ROOF PLAN
RENDERS
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below: Courtyard performance
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opposite: Thresholds
above: Chambers
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Terraces across the courtyard
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opposite: Chai stand
above: Footbridge on Cook Street
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ADVANCED
DESIGN
1 - ICONIC DESIGN
CHRISTCHURCH CATHEDRAL Christchurch Cathedral has been the heart of Canterbury and an icon to the city of Christchurch for well over 100 years. This new design in Cathedral Square proposes a new space that celebrates the local community and serves as a symbol of Christchurch’s future, whilst acknowledging the presence of the iconic cathedral. It introduces a more responsive space to the current dynamics of the city, inviting people of all backgrounds and interests to engage with a site that accommodates a public gallery which has now been incorporated within part of the retained cathedral. The methodology of the design process explores how contrasting materials with different weights, purpose and context can be brought together and captured in a way that is both complimentary and contrasting. The new geodesic domed structure encompasses a part of the retained cathedral and treats it as an ‘artefact in a museum’, featuring it to the public as a nod to Christchurch’s heritage. The additional public spaces flanking either side of the retained cathedral inside the dome are built of Oamaru stone and soften the contrast of geometries and material of the interior, bridging the transition between the architecture of Christchurch’s past, to its future.
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View from reflection pool
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C O N C E PT W O R K
Stone models
SITE PLAN
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RENDERS
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top: Entrance gallery interior
centre: View to Reflection pool bottom: Undulating landscape
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above: Preserved cathedral interior
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Study and cafe space
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ADVANCED DESIGN
1 -
ICONIC DESIGN
CHIRSTCHURCH CEMETARY
For the 3 week design project of ‘One Room Building’, it was key to establish a design that remained iconic through its use of materiality and form. Thus the design of a circular space that could be easily distinguished from the surrounding cemetary complex that also follows a labyrinth circulation layout. The path within the interior creates a sombre journey to the central room, interrupted by circular voids in the walls that connect the ring of corridors visually from the deep interior, to the exterior landscape. The voids in the walls through each layer are imperative in creating dialogue between the different spaces that link the series of circular hallways to the central room. Along the perimeter of the roofs is a thin skylight that allows a single beam of straight light to fall on the curved stone walls, accentuating the form of the one room building. As the site is within a cemetary complex, the design also considers the space as a place of gathering with the central room becoming the focus of the building. and creating a quiet space of reflection for visitors from the community.
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New entrance to Christcurch cemetary
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C O N C E PT W O R K
Initial design development of One Room Building
FLOORPLAN AND CROSS SECTION
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RENDERS
left: Outer ring interior top: Looking out from central void
middle: Through the lens below: Beaming light
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TRAVEL PHOTOGRAPHY
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Imambara Mosque, Kolkata, INDIA
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Boat across the Ganges, Kolkata, INDIA
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Katra Mosque, Murshidabad, INDIA
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An ancestral connection, Kolktata, INDIA
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Trinity College Library, Dublin, IRELAND
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Lonely Cottage, Inis Mor, IRELAND
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Scottish Parliament, Edinburgh, SCOTLAND
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Kilchurn Caslte, Dalmally, SCOTLAND
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Ta Prohm Temple, Siem Reap, CAMBODIA
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Tuol Sleng Genocide Museum, Phnom Penh, CAMBODIA
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