Pace Place Shreya Nagrath, 2014
Table of Contents 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9.
Social Anthropological Approach: the body and/in the city Concept Model Derivations, Mindmaps Constructing a Narrative Expected outcome of Diploma Sustainability &TTA Aspirations References means/ methods Timetable + Curriculum Vitae
Table of contents 1.
• • • • • • •
The body ; the city • the biological body, • the mechanical body, • the architectural body, • the body of mind • other bodies ;The mobile bodyre • Decay, growth and distress. • The virtual body
2.
The city ; the body
3.
The fictional city
1. THE BODY AND/IN THE CITY Introduction
This essay Investigates the applicability of the metaphor of the human mind and body to the city. In order to do so, an attempt is being made to recognize the presence of the comparison of varied entities (people, objects/ infrastructure, systems of operation) in different scales. It is also important to acknowledge the obscurities to this analogy. I aim to understand the relation of the body to the city and then be able to derive a narrative using fiction as a tool to conduct an archetypical exploration of Mumbai through text ,drawings and installations taking inspiration from Italo Calvino’s Invisible cities. To use fiction to lateralize the understanding of emerging truths I know only moments, and lifetimes that are as moments, and forms that appear with infinite strength, then “melt into air.” I am an architect, a constructor of worlds, a sensualist who worships the flesh, the melody, a silhouette against the darkening sky. I cannot know your name. Nor you can know mine. Tomorrow, we begin together the construction of a city. (Woods 2002)
1.
The body ; the city
The medicalization of the city
Since the early nineteenth century, the human body has been an implied metaphor to the city; the green public parks as lungs, the roads as the arteries and veins of movement through the city, by urban designers. Metaphors of systems with each other make it easier to use the attributes of one to understand the other.The analogy of park to lung was, as the modern urbanist Fortier observes, simple and direct: the people flowing through the city’s arteries were meant to circulate round these enclosed parks, breathing their fresh air just as the blood is refreshed by the lungs. (Sennett 1994)In both Paris & London, these strategies where applied in the master plan with parks and a hierarchy of the roads In Haussmann’s triple street network plan for Paris, the streets of the first network were equated to the arteries, those of the second to veins and the third consisted of both arteries and veins. Walter Benjamin in his study of Parisian culture also describes the glass-roofed arcades of the city as urban capillaries. The laying of the London underground as well created a new flow as though pumping blood to and from the centre. “The underground system of arteries and veins in London created a more mixed city; yet this mixture had sharp limits in time. During the day, the human blood of the city flowed below ground into the heart; at night, these subterranean channels became veins emptying the mass out of the center, as people took the underground home” (Sennett 1994) In the eighteenth century, the intention was to create a healthy city modelled on a healthy body, here looking at the body as a user of the built environment and hence concentrating on achieving conditions of light and ventilation optimal for the well-being of a person. Hence while the body was being used as an example of a functioning system of parts, it was also considered as an entity inhabiting this very system.
The biological body
Under a microscope, the human body is made up of constantly mobile cells which exist in close proximity to each other bound by attraction and held in place by complex skeletal and muscular matrices. The joints are vitalized by constant exchange of fluids and pressure. Cells are constantly being regenerated and in a period of seven years all cells regenerate entirely in a human body.Within the body there exists a hierarchy of organs some more vital , more powerful , more susceptible and more precious than others. The entire human body is formed by the division of a single cell.
The mechanical body
A machine is an assembly of parts which each have similar or distinct roles which act together or in a series to make possible a larger action. Machines have an on switch and an off switch which asserts that their running is completely under control. One can equate the cyclical function of machines to the human bodily systems like circulation, digestion, excretion etc; only they remain functioning perpetually.
The architectural body
The basic structural framework of a body consists of the skeleton. Inside which are nestled the delicate organs made with cells, surrounded by tissue layer and then insulated from the framework by a mesh of muscle. This system is designed with joints and a set of movements with varying degrees of flexibility. The skeletal system works in conjunction with the muscular system to bring the body into equilibrium in space. The weight of the body is distributed on each bone which has a certain carrying capacity. Incase of overloading, deformations take place to allow for a new equilibrium to be acheived.There is one main function in the body which is handled by the lungs i.e. Circulation of air through the lungs which intern is vital for the heart to pump blood through the length and breadth of the body to assure movement.
The body of mind
All cognitive power comes from the brain. Memory and desire are born in the brain. Memory functions as a collector of references, exposures and experiences. These in time come back as imaginations and desires and possibly practices. Multiple manifestations of these practices help create facets to the persona of the body. The body then may display one or more of these facets at a given moment. One may not share all facets with all other bodies, but just some similar facets. At this point I would like to use the concept of assemblages by Deleuze & Guattari which proposes an “open system” that stresses fluidity, exchange and multiplicity in function. The system acts as a whole, but also as a kit of consistent parts that can be moved around/ removed or inserted into another system. These systems then don’t have inherently singular goals but are open. They utilize processes described as coding, stratification and territorialisation. Coding is the process of ordering matter as it is drawn into a body; by contrast, stratification is the process of creating hierarchal bodies, while territorialisation is the ordering of those bodies in “assemblages. The configurations do leave imprints on the mind. I would like to imagine the human being and the personas that one develops as such assemblages or open systems; susceptible to interaction, shar-
ing and exchange. The city then becomes a complex system then consisting of these open systems and forming networks between them using the same rationale.
The mobile body
The body flowing through the arteries and veins of the city encounters other moving bodies in its journeys. Bodily movement first took on its modern importance as a new principle of biological activity. The medical analysis of circulation of the blood, of the respiration of the lungs and of the electrical forces moving throughout the nerves created a new image of the healthy body, a body whose freedom of movement stimulated the organism. Introduction of trains was the first instance of gathering people without being social doing so by aligning the seating in a traditional classroom pattern where each one face the back of the person in front of them.The railway carriage filled with closepacked bodies who read or silently looked out the window marked a great social change which occurred in the nineteenth century: silence used a protection of individual privacy. Archigram’s walking city, designed by Ron Herron, 1964, also seemed to preemptively corroborate with the assemblage theory with mobile cities docking for
resources or collaborating with other walking cities to form metropolises.
Decay, distress, transplant
As the planks of the ship of Theseus decayed they were replaced by new planks, until ultimately there were no old planks left. Was it then the ship of Theseus or a new ship? (Gandhi 2013) The human body is an assembly when unable to function anymore in its original configuration it can be separated carefully and spread among other deficient bodies. Does the city function in a similar way? Nothing ever is fully replaced in a city, it morphs and evolves and gets renewed. Replacement , prosthetics in a body and in a city.. whta is it?
The virtual body
Changing economic trends give rise to new work situations. The call centre boom in Mumbai in the early 2000s gave rise to the development of a new city of the night time. The employees spoke American English, functioned on a different time zone creating new demands, new markets and new service industry to cater to these night birds. It is a geography that explodes the boundaries of contextuality. The local now transacts directly with the global. The global installs itself in locals and the global is itself constituted through a multiplicity of locals.
It becomes interesting to place the body in-between real physical space and other connected spaces inspired by these connected geographies. Sociologist Bruno Latour’s discussion of liminality
recognizes this dilemma vividly. From his study of tribes, liminality is described as the inbetween adolescent phase when young boys went away from the village and returned as men. When one is betwixt and between, in two places and not one. When applied to the technological advances that this new globalized market heavily relies on, what is the idea of place when one is on a call resolving issues from an American client which place does the person occupy? Also the caller? Are they both in
the same in liminal space?
Also in casual relationships the idea of distance has been distorted with the introduction of easily accessible video calling. Are the two people engaging in this call on thresholds at either ends? This technological revolution seems to have created a hierarchy within the senses, sight, speech and hearing have been prioritized as essential in the experience of the real; touch, smell lagging behind. Speech, hearing and sight complete the notion of the human presence in this/these liminal space/s.
The linguistic body
The body is capable of many tongues. It’s one thing that the body takes along with it everywhere it goes. It learns new tongues at every stop. It can form assemblages with similar tongues. But that is not its only network. The body is not a linguistic representative. It is not the highest attribute of the body. The body is free to create its own
hierarchy of statuses. 2.
The city ; the body
The city exists because there are bodies to inhabit it. A city is composed of different kind of men; similar people cannot bring a city into existence. When the body is used as a reference to study and qualify and understand a city it is possible to discuss the city in a more intimate way. One becomes as aware of the city as one is of one’s body. Aware of the strengths and weaknesses , tendencies of the city. However we are only aware of the condition of the parts of the body which fit within our own sensory perception. Other conditions require external analysis. When we know that the city is alive and awake dreams can be realized. It is also then possible to acknowledge the dependence of the body on other bodies that occupy the city.’ Is the city conscious of all its parts? Must it try to have an identity? These bodies however will come to pass and there will be new bodies, new appropriations and new adjustments. Will the city be the same then? The city is never the same it is the constant breeding ground for assembled innovations. Plurality is a natural result of assemblages. It is possible for the body to
have a multitude of statuses which collectively produce a plural identity. No single status is a complete identity. How must the city acheive and encourage this plurality. 3.
The fictional city
The fictional city is full of stories. Stories of the past and stories of now. There are new stories all the time. There are stories about people, about places about the in – be- tweens that make events, about the everyday interventions and tactics. Stories of where they have travelled from and where they would like to go. Intervening with fiction as a tool to explore, analyse, utilize and represent the existing networks will make it possible to address the assemblage in its entirety. Eventually, venturing to device systems to aid more dynamic assemblages.
2. CONCEPT MODEL
Maps of places hitherto unknown
These maps are created by mapping the movement of oil moving through water on paper. They are maps of fictitious places , places we havent encountered yet but they exist. Where they exist is questionable and one can only be able to answer that on studying them. One may find that one is on the map or that it is a place far far away.
3. DERIVATIONS, MINDMAPS
4. CONSTRUCTING THE NARRATIVE
Retrospective personal geography mapping. This exercise of mapping personal geographies intends to derive a narrative which provides architectural situations in three different time periods; by drawing relations between my memories/ experiences and synchronous socio-political & economic events. The juxtapositions bring to the fore existing relations and highlight networks. These explorative examples will serve as sites of study and possibly intervention. As a theme this timeline will explore the change in nature of markets, salable services and goods with respect to the shift towards capitalist model from socialist model in mumbai, India. This is the first step towards a spatial exploration of instances of increase in privatization , commodification and display of lifestyles in the media and the city. I aim to identify an assemblage within these events through time and distance. The timeline has been divided into phases in keeping with my own phases of growth, the liberalization of the indian economy, the linguistic movement affecting the change in name of Bombay and the scientific understanding of complete regeneration of the cells in the body every seven years.
The Bombay I was a child in(1987-2000) The Mumbai I grew up in(2001-2012) The Mumbai i see from here(2012-2013)
Bombay (1987-2000) food: local produce and markets transport: low ratio of big cars to small cars on the street no loan for car clothing: nationaly produced shelter: property not looked at as an investment, not so many loans entertainment: movies, drive in cinema, art district town news: liberalization of economy people going to dubai to make money
Mumbai ( 2000-2011)
food: supermarkets replace small grocery shops but fresh street market still popular supermarkets with imported foods clothing: international brands in malls, gentrification within malls shelter: self development and rise of the builders & developers advertisement for second home of arriving locked terraces, enclosing ducts transport: JJ flyover, bombay pune expressway Tata Nano, Rolls Royce skywalks entertainment: chor bazaar, bandstand, carter road, movies, multiplex news: media revolution people returning back- two country global architectural practices climate change discussions coming up muslims not being able to buy or rent a house in wake of global terrorism observation: very obvious display of wealth encouraged by media. extreme consumerism encouraged
Mumbai, from here(2012-present)
food: celebrating urbanity with food diversity though isnt accessible to all clothing: more brands names making it into the market w growing similarity shelter: portals , windows, elevational perspective transport: cables new monorail, eastern waterfront highway train prices change for the first time in 20yrs entertainment: recognition for small budget films news: a more aware people that use and abuse the media but are anyway in the loop I have through these timelines pointed out development which are a cause of or result of the changing nature of the indian consumer. Especially now architecture’s relationship to the economy seems strong in the growingly capitalistic society. Values are constantly being estimated speculated and negotiated. Our administration system is expressed and understood as democratic. This democracy is however questionable and open to redeinfition and re interpretation
5. OUTCOME OF THE DIPLOMA I dont know what the outcome will be but it plans to add to the discussion of nature/responsibilities of architectural practice in Mumbai at the moment. It is too early in the process to find out. I am mapping individual geographies that make and break a city and the current changing nature of these geographies. I want to explore the spatial implications of the archived and redefined geographies. I will be exploring the idea of liminal space ; if it is liminal place and how it imprints on traditional understanding of space & place. I will attempt to explorethis liminality in the democratic capitalist phase that the country is living now. In geographies created by tactics and strategies. Mumbai is being used as an example to understand the concept and the intervention could be siteless or rooted in Mumbai.The diploma will possibly suggest a paradigm for architectural practice in mumbai
6. SUSTAINABILITY & TTA ASPIRATIONS It is uncertain what architectural dimension this diploma project will take at this moment; however there are some aspirations with respect to sustainability in method, execution, material and functioning. Since the intervention will be in the public realm and engaged in public response, I imagine an active, mechanical self-maintaining structure. i.e. taking care of its own power, water, drainage needs while performing other functions.How this sort of machine/organism/ building could then take from and give back to its immediate context? I would like to also explore experimentations of bio mimicry in structural development and sustainability technology application. Innovative energy generating and storing systems; dynamic transfer systems; balancing systems.( for example the understanding between Norway and Denmark where energy can be transferred from one grid to another when excess is generated) Having said that, I uncomfortable with spending large amounts of money to acquire sustainable features as understood in popular media. I feel the design must be climate responsive and not very material intensive and local, optimizing on its contextual resources and skill. Hence would like to focus on holistic design approaches.
7. REFERENCES
The Emperor’s castle Thomas Hiller The Emperor’s castle originates from a mythical and ancient tale hidden within a woodblock landscape scene created by Japanese Ukiyo-e printmaker, Ando Hiroshige. This tale charts the story of two star-crossed lovers, the weaving Princess and the Cowherd who have been separated by the Princess’s father, the Emperor. These characters have been replaced and transformed into architectonic metaphors creating an Urban Theatre within the grounds of the Imperial Palace in central Tokyo. This piece of narrative architecture was the vehicle to examine current day cultural and social issues in Japan such as unconditional piety, relentless work ethic, and conservative attitudes towards love.. The aim of the Emperor’s Castle was to provoke thought but never patronise or attempt to solve all the world’s problems.
Tactical City, Tenali Rama and other stories of Mumbai’s Urbanism Rupali Gupte Tactical City in a nutshell is, an attempt at reconceptualising the history of Mumbai s (Bombay s) urbanism, so as to, one : understand the context one is operating in and two: attempt to formulate a position, based on this understanding, for urban practice in the contemporary context. Tactical City, Tenali Rama and other stories of Mumbai s urbanism is then, a fictitious history of Mumbai. The thesis sees the city as a playground of TACTICS and further formulates a manifesto of urban practice for architects and planners as one that learns from these tactics and in the process becomes TACTICAL/OPPORTUNISTIC. Having said that, I shall present this paper in four parts: The first part will layout the context of Mumbai/Bombay on which Tactical city is based. The second part will explain the idea of the Tactical . The third part will discuss the methods and tactics that reinforce the tactical position and the fourth part will go into a story telling mode that will test out the idea of the Tactical through semi fictional means.
8. MEANS/ METHODS modelling the movie, Ship of theseus to make a spatial exploration of the conflicts and dilemmas discussed i.e. sight & vision, Identity & change. developing storyboards for the maps from the concept model
9. TIMETABLE + CURRICULUM VITAE
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31
JAN
FEB
research via reading on phenomena
Program development read:arjun appadurai models from a movie
CLEARANCE MEETING
research on phenomena and possible sites
writing a narrative about the maps
MAR exploring mumbai and another place
CONCEPT- MODELS, DWG, DIFF. SCALES
concept design study trip study trip
SOCIAL ANTHRO ESSAY reading and discussion
SUSTAIN+TTA PAPER
Installation
concept model Program development
SOCIAL ANTHRO + DIRECTION AHEAD
1:1 PRESENTATION
SUSTAINABILITY
APR
APR testing out possibilities read elaborate the narrative from before
MAY design development read
JUN START exhibition
elaborate the narrative from before Finish the book
STOP
PROJECT DESIGN MODELS, DWG
SHREYA NAGRATH ACADEMIC RECORD Aug2012- Present Aug2005- May 2011: July 2003- Jun 2005: Jun 1993- April 2003:
+4798300261 /+9199202 88495 shreya.nagrath@gmail.com Master of Architecture Bergen School of Architecture Bachelors in Architecture( Mumbai University) Kamla Raheja Vidyanidhi Institute for Architecture Higher School Certificate Examination St Xavier’s College, Fort, Mumbai. Secondary School Certificate (Maharashtra Board) St Anthony Girl’s High School, Chembur, Mumbai.
MASTER COURSES Fall2013 City Secure, The city between security and freedom: Deane Simpson, Vibeke Jensen, Anders Rubing, Haakon Rasmussen Spring2013 Enquiring Urban Ambition in a Floating Everyday.Urban villages and the city, Guangzhou, China: Cecilie Andersson Fall2012 Private Utopias, Collective Landscapes: Deane Simpson, Gunvor Bakke Kvinlog WORK EXPERIENCE & INTERNSHIPS 2011-12- Project Architect at Anil Nagrath & Associates, Mumbai 2011-12 Visiting Professor, Architecture Design Studio, 1st yr at KRVIA 2011Worked on installation for Cinema City Exhibition by Majlis. 2010-11 - Interned for 6 months under Architect Marco Casagrande at Turku, Finland. 2010 Participated in a summer school program at the Bern University of Applied Sciences, Switzerland. 2010 Interned for one & half months with Stup Consultants, Mumbai 2010 Interned for two months with Chlorophyll, the green initiative, under Edifice Consultants, Mumbai. 2009 Part of a team to analyze and propose strategies for a new development plan for Vajreshwari. 2008 Interned with SP+a, Sameep Padora (principal architect), 2007Interned with Ashok Sukumaran (architect & media artist) & Shaina Anand (film maker), Mumbai. WORKSHOPS & EXTRA CURRICULARS 2011Certified Open Water diver, upto 18m depth, Scuba Schools International, Koh Tao, Thailand.
2011 - Bronze sculpting with Transylvanian Artist Bela Czitrom , Turku, Finland. 2009 - Teaching Assistant for first year architectural workshop, K.R.V.I.A. Research and study assistant for tansa river project, Vajreshwari, Design Cell, K.R.V.I.A. Participated in public painting initiative, The Wall Project, Tulsi Pipe Road, Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation., Mumbai. 2008- Workshop on Architecture for Safer Buildings in Earthquakes, K.R.V.I.A.. Workshop & Student Exchange, Alternative approaches to Housingthe Urban Poor, B.N.C.A (Pune University)+ K.R.V.I.A. (Mumbai University)+S.P.A.R.C.(N.G.O.). 2008, 2006, 2005 - Building Technology workshops, K.R.V.I.A.. Built life size bridges, stimulus responsive installations using bamboo. 2007- Make+ Shift Mumbai Exhibition for K.R.V.I.A.. Involved in college exhibition design and execution, designed logo for student newsletter 2006-2007- Rocking N Rolling with Kabir, dohas with rock n roll. theatre production, directed by Ramu Ramanathan. Participation in theatrical reading. Performances at the Kalaghoda festival, Prithvi theatre, Horniman circle and IDC, IIT, Powai, Mumbai. 2003, 2004 - Volunteer for Malhar, St Xavier’s College cultural festival. COMPETITIONS 2012Red Dot Design Award 2012 for Cicada, Urban Acupuncture, Taiwan, with C-Lab. 2007Shortlisted in YoUtopia- Design for a bus shelter, the architectural & design competition, times innovative media private limited. -Participated under architect Nuru Karim for international green building design competition. 2008Participated in International Student Design Competition, International Conference on Humane Habitat 2009(ICHH), Mumbai. COMPUTER SKILLS : AutoCAD, Google Sketchup+Vray, Adobe Photoshop, Ms Office, Windows Movie Maker. Rhino. INTERESTS : Travelling, Sketching, Reading, Salsa & Jive. LANGUAGES: English, Hindi, Marathi, Punjabi REFERENCES: Anirudh Paul, Architect, Director, KRVIA, anirudh.paul@gmail.com Anil Nagrath, Prof. Ar., Anil Nagrath & Associates, anagrath@gmail.com Marco Casagrande, Professor, Architect, C-LAB. marco@clab.fi