in memory of...

in memory of...

Graduate Thesis 2022

Shraddha Kemse

Graduate Thesis 2022 Provocations Positions Project

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Thesis Statement Thesis will revolve around the word 'decomposition'. Such is a word, even though man-made, describes a state of life. But at this stage, there is no life left.

BIrth, death, after life, rebirth.

Yet, the word decomposition holsd a greater fear in the heart of a huma more so than the word death itself. Death being the end of experience whereas, decomposition is experiencial.

Studies will be conducted in order to perform such a cycle to experience the new found state of decomposition.

How does one end up in the state of decomposition?

What happens after it? Are some of the questions asked & answered through this

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thesis.

Spectating, acknowledging, discussing, ignoring, forgetting, eroding, experiencing, spectating, scknowledging...We have taken life & death for granted to a level that death has become a commodity . Such action has led to erosion of human & architecture's life.

A story with a beginning & a definite end will be enacted, as by the great many actors a column, a wall, an interior & an exterior. These actors will be born in an confined space & then die , to be re-born. Showing the world 'state of decomposition'.

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Provocations

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Someone lays ill , poorly , crooked on an old bed, wishing to be cured, whispering prayers to be saved. there is someone else in the room, that's a witness.

Behaving like the fly on the wall , waiting for the sick to succumb to its faith.

The faith? may or may not lie in the hands of the 'non-sick'.

Such is my depiction of Edvard Munch's 'the sick child' painting . which in fact was his memory of his sister Sophie's death from tuberculosis.

This raised the question of death and the person next to it.

The person next standing, waiting , watching.

This thesis will explore the co-relation of the sick and the spectator.

Right : The Sick Child by Edvard Munch

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#Sick

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#Dieing Who is Dieing?

Sick is the child hungry for a single grain of rice in Yemen , sick are the citizens of Venezuela from the country's food crisis. #Eroded are the human hopes #Vanished are the human rights

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Hunger ridden child, Afghanistan Congolese army soldiers walk near the city of Goma, Congo Public Protests, Venezuela mother holding her malnutrition child, Yemen

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#Eroded

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What is Eroding?

Sick are the walls of the Syrian home, which, now lay as debris in their once front lawn. Sick are the great heritage landmarks #crumbled by the Taliban. #Eroded are the hopes to make new memories in these rooms #vanished are the human rights that once led to creation of such architectural marvels

Citizens of Aleppo,Syria in what is the remains of their once a home

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#Spectator In any case human is the spectator, witnessing the erosion of humanly life, erosion of architectural luxury. The position of the human standing, changes with every situation but the human function stays the same, spectating.

Spectating, acknowledging, discussing , ignoring, forgetting, experiencing, spectating, acknowledging ...

The story narration may change but the result is the same , human greed leading to disasters.

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1. Spectating from the outside 2. Spectating from the inside

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#Spectator Spectating from the #OUTSIDE

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9/11 Memorial & Museum's permanent collection is an unparalleled repository consisting of material evidence, first-person testimony, and historical records of response to February 26, 1993 and September 11, 2001 and the ongoing repercussions of these terrorist events. To date, the Museum has acquired more than 70,000 artifacts that document the fate of victims, survivors, and responders Museums are empty spaces filled with objects to be looked at, the sole purpose of Museum as an architectural piece is to give a platform to the unheard voices, to let the dead speak to the alive. This platform helps promote a certain narrative.

A museum also helps unite the divided human world through sympathy and empthy towards the lose lives. The memories gathered by the curators play a certain role to promote the stories of the helpless.

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Interior views Cae Lique Dolest Aboof the 9/11 Memorial & Museum

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#Spectator Spectating from the #OUTSIDE

Holocaust Museum , Los Angeles presents a small yet powerful space to display the horrific history of Holocaust. With concrete interior , curved edges and soft walls, the focus lies entirely on the displays. It is a good example of how architecture takes a backstep in order to highlight the pieces presented in the museum.

A separate outdoor space behaving as a courtyard with holes on varioud diameter on the walls is an interactive display where a visitor can write a personal note to the children lost in holocaust. these personal notes then can be rolled and tucked in the holes on the walls, as a permanent proof of compassion and a lesson of the innocence lost.

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Interior views Cae Lique Dolest Aboof the 9/11 Memorial & Museum

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Architect Christian Kerez has built an inhabitable structure inside Switzerland's Biennale pavilion, featuring a cloud-like exterior and a cavernous interior.

Zurich based Kerez created the project, named Incidental Space, to raise the 'controversial questions' about how architecture is produced and experienced.

Two openings in the craggy fibre-cement form allow visitors to clamber inside the space, which - while completely artificially formed - alludes to structures found in geology and anatomy.

The ambivalent form intentionally leaves the structure open to wide interpretation.

"What we were looking for here is an openness in terms of meaning; its not a symbolic space, it is not a referential space, it allows you to initiate a pure encounter with architecture."- Kerez.

This non traditional form with concave interiors makes a human appreciate the traditional way of interior spaces. The 'regular' 'modular' and the 'old' way of living is the first thought in mind while one looks at such geometry. The lack of human ergonometry in such a space makes one question the very need of ergonometry in architecture.

1, 2, 3. Interior views of the 9/11 Memorial & Museum

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#Spectator Spectating from the #INSIDE

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1, 2. Exterior view of Incidental Space project by Christian Kerez

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#Existential Architect Christian Kerez has built an inhabitable structure inside Switzerland's Biennale pavilion, featuring a cloud-like exterior and a cavernous interior.

Mohamad Hafez (1984) was born in Damascus, raised in Saudi Arabia, and educated in the United States. A New Haven based architect, Hafez uses plaster, rigid foam, paint and found objects to create three dimensional architectural streetscapes, installations and wall murals of his native Syria that are deeply personal, photorealistic and surreal. Expressing the juxtaposition of East and West within him, Hafez’s art represents the urban fabric of the Middle East, and serves as a backdrop for his own political and social expression.

Open display of the realism might be a way to discribe Mohamad Hafez's work in his Unsettled Nostalgia exhibition. The imprinting on the real onto the canvas to create an art piece which conveys a story without any other human intervention, without any media manipulation lays raw in front of the audience. The minute detail work on this art piece helps humanise Mohamad's memory , helping the viewer understand Mohamad's perception.

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Interior views Cae Lique Dolest Aboof the 9/11 Memorial & Museum

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#Existential

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Jorge Otero-Pailos (1971, Spain) is a New York-based artist and preservationist best known for making monumental casts of historically charged buildings.

Otero-Pailos draws from his formal training in architecture and preservation to create artworks that address themes of memory, history and transition, inviting the viewer to consider monuments as powerful agents for cultural connection, questioning and understanding.

odologies, as part of his creative process.

He employs the material residues of our modernity - including airborne atmospheric dust, waterways, traces of sweat and body sounds, maps, even embassy security fences, to render their invisible meanings visible. Notably, he has used experimental preservation cleaning techniques designed to restore landmarked buildings, as well as reenactment meth-

Jorge Otero's 'The Ethics of Dust' is a simple way of regenrating history.

While we move historically important pieces around museum to museum, Jorge instead has quite literally imprinted the very essence of these pieces and laid in front of us by capturing the brick edges , broken corners onto a latex fabric, hung from the ceiling, gives importance to the very detail

His site-specific series, The Ethics of Dust, is an ongoing, decade-long investigation resulting from cleaning dust and the residue of pollution from monuments such as the Doge’s Palace in Venice; Westminster Hall in the Houses of Parliament, London; the U.S. Old Mint in San Francisco; and Trajan’s Column at the Victoria & Albert Museum, London.

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1, 2. Jorge working on his Ethics of Dust exhibition 3. view of one of the pieces presented in Dust Exhibition

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Cae Lique Dolest Abo

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#Man-made Bait Ur Mosque by Marina Tabassum

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Bait Ur Mosque is designed by Marina Tabassum and completed in 2014. A colonnade, a group of light wells and perforated brickwork allow light and air to reach the prayer hall of this mosque in Dhaka. Located in densely populated neigbourhood of Bangladeshi capital. The mosque sits on a raised plinth, which protects it from floodwater and creates a communal area for relaxing that also separates the building from the busy streetscape.

Terracotta bricks used for the structure are left exposed internally and externally.

They lend the building a character that references the architecture of nearby buildings, as well as religious architecture of

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the past. "built in brick, this mosque is an attempt at creating a language of architecture that takes its essence from the Sultanate period and gives it a contemporary expression."- Tabassum.

The Site's dimensions informed a square plan, within which the prayer hall needed to be positioned so it faces towards Mecca.

A cylindrical volume was inserted into the square, with the prayer hall rotated within this cylinder so the qibla- a line pointing towards the Kaaba in Mecca is aligned at the centre of one of its walls. The rotation of the prayer hall a the centre of

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2. Plan of Bait Ur Mosque 3. view showing combination of concrete and brick

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4. Exterior view of Bait Ur Mosque 5. Interior view of Bait ur Mosque showing high ceiling promoting natural cool air for the hot Bangladesh climate

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#Man-made Hutong rennovation by Hu yue Studio

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1. Bird's eye view of No.8 & 9 Hutongs 2. Before & after comparisons of the courtyard transofrmation 3,4.

Exterior view of the renovated courtyard additions

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For centuries, Hutongs have been recognized as one of the most treasured types od vernacular housing in China. This term was given to small streets that originated during the Yuan Dynasty when the emperor attempted to organize the urban fabric in a grid like pattern in order to manage properly property ownership and to form an efficient trasnit system.

This led to formation of courtyards around the walls. Over the time, the hutongs grew exponentially, as their owners kept changing and new additions and rennovations were constantly taking place in a haphazrd manner.

Struggling to fit into the fast changing urban context, the rural desnity is losing out on the hutongs.

In order to celebrate the memories of the city and its rapid urbanization, Hu Yue stu-

dio aim to accomodate the resident's daily needs with its completion of project in NO. 8 & 9 courtyard at Caichangdi, 2015.

While preserving the spatial layout of the traditional courtyards by partially demolishing and expanding the existing structure, he hoped to bring harmony and dignity back into the long nglected Hutong. Many rooms were demolished & re intergrated into new multifunctional space. Connected with the existing two spaces, and oriented towards the east & west, the new structure is abox like building that not only enlarges and enhances the courtyard area but also generates a patio that allows the residents to enjoy the scenery of traditional hutongs and lanes while standing on higher ground.

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5. Isometric view of the before & after renovation additions into Hutongs 6. Sections showing the old & new multidisciplinary spaces

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#fabric BWall House by Anupama Kundoo

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Wall House is situated outside the planned city limits of Auroville, an area designated for research & experimentation. It attempted to not only re-define the building program for a provate residence, it tested various spatial & technological innovations to inform other projects. Spatially, it redefined borders and trasnitional spaces in response to the climatic conditions and contemporary culture.

Technologically, it involved local materials in new and inventive ways given the global resource crunch and rapid urbanisation. Landscape design, an integral and inseparable part of the overall architecture, worked with the topography to intergrate the indoor-outdoor transition as an integral experince.

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1. Interior view of Wall house 2,3. Natural resources & its production into structural elements 4,5,6. Views of the wall house

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#fabric The Great Mosque of Djenne

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Graduate Thesis 2022

As one of the wonders of Africa, the Great mosque of Djenne, in present day Mali, is also the greatest achievement of Sudano- Sahelian architecture. It is also the largest mud-built structure in the world.

We exprience its monumentality from afar as it dwarfs the city of Djenne.

Djenne Mosque has become the epicenter of the religious and cultural life of Mali, community of Djenne. It is also the site of a unique annual festival called Crepissage de la Grand Mosque (Plastering the Great Mosque).

During the annual festival of the Crepissage de la Grand Mosquee, the entire

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city contributes to the re-plastering of the mosque's exterior by kneading into ita mud plaster made from a mixture of butter and fina clay from the alluvial soil of the neaby Niger & Bani rivers. The men of the community usually take up the task of mixing the construction material. As in the past, musicians entertain them during their labors, while women provide water for thee mixture.

Over the years Djenne's inhabitants have withstood repeated attempts to change the character of their exceptional mosque and the nature of the annual festival.

Djenne's community has unrelentively

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Exterior view of Djenne mosque 2. Djenne citizens re-building the mosque as a part of Crepissage de la Grand Mosquee festival celebration

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For prostitutes Vatsyayana, author the Kama Sutra, advised: “Sleeping with strangers for gain does not come naturally for women. Yet to succeed as a prostitute, you must disguise your love of money as natural desire for the man himself. Prove to him that he, not his money, inspires your divine lust by always seeming selflessly devoted. Don’t be too obviously grasping; use your wits to fleece him intelligently.”

Jayaji Krishna Nath, M.D. and Vishwarath R. Nayar wrote in the Encyclopedia of Sex-

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uality: Purchasing young girls and dedicating them to temples, the Devadasi system, was an established custom in India by 300 C.E. These girls often served as objects of sexual pleasure for temple priests and pilgrims. The current knowledge about female sex workers is mostly gained from studies done in the red-light districts of metropolitan cities. Generally, prostitutes tend to come from the less-educated class of women, including single abandoned girls, and economically distressed women. [Source: Jayaji Krishna

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#de-generation Nobody's children

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1.Budhwar peth , old city area of Pune , India 2.Co-relation of problem area to selected site 3,4,5. Exterior views of selected site

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#decay The beauty of decay by Azuma Makoto

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Graduate Thesis 2022

with a combined interest in this unavoidable temporality, and the creative medium of botanical species, japanese arrtist auma makoto has represnted nine stages of decomposition using flowers and leaves. the project 'box flowers' follows the visual journey of a sculptural square made up of colourful blossoms as is slowly wilts and dies over times. The vegetation gradually morphs from a lush and vibrant shape filled with small red roses and pastel purple florets to a flattened, dull object that secretes a brown fluid on the ground surround it. 'Human live with flowers on their birthday, for the marriage or anniversary, as a greeting, and of course their funeral, makoto says.' here the viewer can see the transformation as the flowers go through their life, instead.'

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#fabric Im - print

Graduate Thesis 2022

On left are 15 small handprints left by the wives of the maharaja Man Singh before they immolated themselves on his funeral pyre. Such was a tradition called 'Sati', a historical Hindu practice that was followed in India around 510 CE. Sati is a historic funeral practice where the widow women sacrific her life by sitting on her husband's funeral fire.

Such a practice shows the inhumane rules society made to control and forcebly perish precious lives.

But, in 2022, these handprints lay a mark of feminism in India. These marks behave as an identity proofs of the females who

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faced the autrocites in the name of tradition.

In order to help identitfy the lives of the children of nobodies such an action of leaving handprints will be made as a part of the exterior form of the project. Children of nobodies, will be asked to dip their hands onto the wet POP walls of the structure, in order to help them value their identity as these marks will be be los only when the structure is lost.

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Images showing examples of the imprints

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#workshop Liam Young Provocations

Graduate Thesis 2022

Visualization of the hypothetical design in a hypothetical world in sucha way that every single element from clothes to the structure of the building has a single soul, a single aesthetic, a single meaning.

During the Liam young workshop i have realised that a designer is really a dictator, deciding onto the nooks and corners of the design as well as the freedom of the users. A world within a world is formed when one designs building. A political space determined by the designer.

This thesis will try to democratise the space, try to step away from the capitalist way of living.

Find a way to humanise the world in the current dystopian climate.

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Credits Edvard Munch, The Sick Child. The sick child, 1885 by Edvard Munch. (n.d.). Retrieved January 6, 2022, from https://www.edvardmunch.org/the-sick-child.jsp 10 humanitarian crises to know about right now. Save the Children. (n.d.). Retrieved January 10, 2022, from https:// www.savethechildren.org/us/charity-stories/humanitarian-crises-you-need-to-know-about#:~:text=Humanitarian%20 crises%20can%20be%20caused,and%20social%20consequences%20for%20children.

9/11 Memorial & Museum. The Collection | National September 11 Memorial & Museum. (n.d.). Retrieved January 18, 2022, from https://www.911memorial.org/visit/museum/collection Jessica Mairs |27 May 20167 comments. (2022, January 20). Christian Kerez installs Cavernous Cloud for Swiss Pavilion.

Dezeen. Retrieved March 22, 2022, from https://www.dezeen.com/2016/05/27/christian-kerez-cavernous-cloudinstallation-swiss-pavilion-venice-architecture-biennale-2016/ Magazine, I. A. (n.d.). Unsettled nostalgia, a solo exhibition by Syrian artist Mohamad Hafez. Islamic Arts Magazine.

Retrieved March 22, 2022, from http://islamicartsmagazine.com/magazine/view/unsettled_nostalgia_a_solo_ exhibition_by_syrian_artist_mohamad_hafez/ Alyn Griffiths |5 March 201710 comments. (2020, December 7). Bait ur Mosque by Marina Tabassum. Dezeen. Retrieved January 15, 2022, from https://www.dezeen.com/2017/03/05/bait-ur-rouf-mosque-dhaka-bangladesh-marinatabassum-brick-aga-khan-award/ Miao, S. (2020, October 15). The Hutong renovation in Beijing: Reimagining tiny spaces in a historic neighbourhood.

ArchDaily. Retrieved February 10, 2022, from https://www.archdaily.com/948157/the-renovation-of-hutong-in-beijingreimagines-tiny-space-in-historic-neighbourhood Anupama Kundoo Architects. Anupama Kundoo. (n.d.). Retrieved April 1, 2022, from https://anupamakundoo.com/ Great Mosque of djenné. Site - Djenne Mosque. (n.d.). Retrieved April 1, 2022, from https://www.zamaniproject.org/sitemali-djenne-great-mosque.html Practice as autonomous object: The plan journal. Practice as Autonomous Object | The Plan Journal. (1970, May 1).

Retrieved March 15, 2022, from https://www.theplanjournal.com/article/practice-autonomous-object Bois, Y.-A., & Krauss, R. E. (1998). Formless: A user's guide. Zone.