Architecture | Design Portfolio Shwetank Maheshwari
T A B L E O F C O N T E N T S
KINETICS OF THE EVERYDAY : MAPPING AND RE-IMAGINING THE EVERYDAY WITH TRANSFORMABLE ARCHITECTURE. PROJECT TYPE: UNDERGRADUATE THESIS.
The project endeavours to develop a form of architecture which can respond to the changes in the physical environment as well as adapt to the urban sociocultural climatic variations that take place as the city expands. The city constantly takes from its public space. An attempt has been made to formulate an adaptable infrastructure responding to the zestful everyday life of the city; to accommodate the everyday and yet add an urban prop to the public space. A stretch of varying activities are looked at within the city which are associated with the daily/monthly and yearly events of the city. It visualizes the space as becoming a part of the kinetics of the everyday and allowing the structure to incorporate those adapt abilities. In today’s time, each element within the city might be static but is used within itself in several different ways. If the form itself allows for that degree of transformation, then everyday can become a form of celebration which adds a layer of public space landscape within the city.
An urban infrastructure insert, which is able to absorb these changes continuously and form a part of the city landscape, which adds energy to the city’s public spaces and enhances the experience of public architecture which is deteriorating in the present scenario. It is multifacetted and incorporates various functional needs which are essential in the daily dynamics of the city while also trying to imitate it in its formal exploration. The other aspect of the thesis is to look at the use of technology which will cater to this form of architecture; the challenges which look at multiple formal organizations and their varying possibilities, where the adaptable spatial configuration can be re-imagined in this form of kinetic architecture as an adaptive form to the site conditions. It tries to respond to maximum variations to form imagination of such objects which reappear along public spaces and form an identity with the language of the programme present in its architectural detailing.
SITE MAPPING: ACTIVITY TIME LINE. For understanding if the site is apt for this form of intervention the most important study is to understand the change in activity with respect to time- daily | monthly | yearly. The edge of the Maidans is the most dynamic aspect and has a number of ever-changing functions attached to it. In order to capture these change in activities, I’ve built-up a chart diagram which runs across
Various transect which are the most active on site across 24 hours of the day and maps all the varying activities on site. Another layer also tries to understand the events which change across a larger span of time and not on daily basis. The drawing concludes with a bar graph giving the categorical differentiation of the programs for the project.
LANDFORM STRATEGY DIAGRAMS.
SITE PLAN. (EXISTING)
The site plan tries to map all the existing conditions of the site. Its an amalgamation of the activities mapped within the earlier diagram. The diagram maps all the actors which influence the particular area and the transformations it causes to the same.
GROUND FLOOR PLAN.
FOURTH FLOOR PLAN.
TYPICAL FLOOR PLAN.
COME TOY WITH ME!!!
PROJECT TYPE: COMPETITION. A memorial in its conception is an idea to create a picture of history in a manner that it chooses to be remembered, usually reduced down to a single line representation of history to make you feel a particular way about an event or person. . The proposal for the modernist memorial gave us an opportunity to make the architectural movement into a pop culture movement that represents the idea of what the movement stood for. By using media like gaming and the internet the memorial is something that gets delivered to your house and you have your own version of the memorial. The idea of the project is to release a series of popular games like monopoly, Lego, life, SimCity, Farmville etc. with a modernist version of each.
SHAUCHALAYA SOCIAL - MAD(E) IN MUMBAI ARCHITECTS.
PROJECT TYPE: PROFESSIONAL. The project was a competition entry for the slum sanitation project organised by Avishkaar and M.C.G.M. Shuachalaya social is an attempt to imagine public toilets in slum communities as landmark of civic amenities. It’s a marker, a landmark where civic infrastructure is easily accessible. The architecture of the public toilets take form of a landmark that can be easily identified in the slum fabric as a public building due to its iconic imagery. The design originates from the design brief. As per the requirements the two toilet blocks are placed one above each other and staggered around the service duct. The ground plane lifts itself over this section to make space for an amphitheatre. While the street enters the building to carve a niche for a public vachanalay. Through the amphitheatre and the vachanalay the building marries itself with the city and the community. We imagine the building as a screen, where porous surfaces allow the building to breathe with natural light and wind.
Front Elevation.
Rear Elevation.
Ground Floor Plan.
First Floor Plan.
Side Elevation.
Side Elevation.
Design Development. Two toilet blocks above one another.
Staggered along a common core.
Connected to the street.
Addition of Circulation Bar.
Community Programs Added.
Vegetation adding to the Wall Texture.
Shop and Hoarding for economic assistance.
Sectional Perspective.
Entrance to the Toilet.
Angular brick module used to create porous facade.
Community Terrace.
Solar panels added to cater to external lighting requirements.
Inserted at an Edge.
Rainwater harvesting system developed.
Inserted as a bar.
Design allows for maximum wind flow to eliminate foul smell.
PEDESTRIAN BRIDGE.
SHEN VILLAGE, UTTARAKHAND. PROJECT TYPE: PROFESSIONAL A light concrete structure community bridge built over a river with constantly changing water levels. The community bridge also acts as a pause point for students to sit, relax and interact which enhances the function of the institute and being a light arched structure does not overpower the Natural texture of the existing landscape allowing the students to also enjoy the natural beauty.
Axonometric View.
Bridge on Site.
Cross Section of Bridge.
Bridge Plan.
Transverse Section of Bridge.
STUDIO APARTMENT.
MURBAD, MAHARASHTRA.
PROJECT TYPE: PROFESSIONAL
Alternative Sketch Plans.
Design Plan.
Design Render.
THE DELINEATING APPROACH. BHOPAL, MADHYA PRADESH.
PROJECT TYPE: ACADEMIC. This inner city project of Bhopal, explores the system of existing terrain in order to formulate an entrance to the old city of Bhopal. It re imagines the Government Office which is due to be developed and tries to maintain the scale of the project with the scale of the existing city form. It uses the simple conceptual idea of establishing various viewpoints into the upper lake of Bhopal and also adding significance to an Old Mosque which is prevalent on site. The strategies adopted and form development exercises were the most important diagrammatic stages in design development which help in organisation of water courts and outer forecourts for the building.
THE MISSING LINK.
ALTERNATE HEALING AND RESEARCH CENTRE. USGAON RESERVOIR, MAHARASHTRA. PROJECT TYPE: ACADEMIC. The project intends to bridge the reservoir and the community, the present components of site, which appear to be disjunct . The route of movement for the project connects to the axis of the village and acts as the bridge formulating it into the recreational element between the two components on site which was missing currently.
The Connector.
Site Plan.
Site Section.
Aerial View.
Design Development.
Front Elevation.
Photo Montage.
Cross Section.
Library.
Wall Section.
THE MISSING LINK. BANGKOK, THAILAND.
Forming the Language.
PROJECT TYPE: ACADEMIC. The Project looks at the idea of identity and tries to find a word for the existing site condition (Dichotomy) and an operative (Graft) and experiments with the two performing together to form the identity and architectural language of the project. Postcards indicating current scenario of Bangkok.
Site Plan.
First Floor Plan.
Fourth Floor Plan.
Central Courtyard as Public Street. External Views.
Section through Library and Exhibition Hall.
Section through Auditorium.
Internal Views.
COLLECTOR BOX. TASHIDING, SIKKIM. PROJECT TYPE: ACADEMIC.
The Tashiding Monastery is the Epicentre of a Stupa Complex. It is a collector box as all the activities on site are directly associated with the Monastery. The building looks at elements from the monastery and its ideas in abstract forms and tries replicating those ideas right opposite the monastery so as to compliment and reinforce the activities that take place across the site. The box is a term which aptly defines the nature of the project as it tries to enclose and capture in most of the site experiences within a limited volume. The idea for which was developed from an installation which de constructed the monastery as this ‘Collector Box’.
Roof Plan.
Floor Plan.
Cross Section through Prayer Room.
Exploded Axonometeric.
Cross Section through Amphitheatre.
THE CORNER BUILDING.
HIRABAUG, C.P.TANK, MUMBAI. PROJECT TYPE: ACADEMIC. The project is designed as an annexe to the Hirabaug Trust, C.P. Tank, Mumbai. The edge was the trust building was re imagined taking the form from the adjoining road which marks the entrance to the project. The building is based on the principal of solid and void in which the built surrounds a central open courtyard, the consensus of which has been derived from the existing trust building. At a later stage, working drawings and interior elements were undertaken for the same project.
Ground Floor Plan.
Axonometeric View.
Initial Sketches.
First Floor Plan.
Interior Sketches.
Section.
Wall Section.
WORKING DRAWINGS.
Cross Section.
Site Development Plan.
Typical Floor Plan.
Wall Sections.
Tensile Canopy Detail.
T h a n k Yo u .