Design Portfolio S m it Pa te l M.Arch 2 Applicant
The works presented in this portfolio represent the authors process of engagement with a multitude of contexts.
CONTENT 1.0 - Place Oddity : The Building 1.1 - Place Oddity : The Garden 2.0 - Areas of Exception: Sound 3.0 - Nashik: Slum Redevelopment 4.0 - Porous Scaffold 5.0 - Pavilions by the River 6.0 - Documentation: Bayul Demazong 7.0 - {+}R.O x Tisser : Samagri 8.0 - NH7 Weekender: Bacardi x Design Fabric 9.0 - Sacred Space : Temple Grotesque 10.0 - Modernism Memorial : Come Toy With Me! 11.0 - The Black Taj : Ghost of Taj Present 12.0 - A(nother) Red and Blue Chair : Gestalt 13.0 - Work Experience : Offices 14.0 - Detail Work
1.0 - Place Oddity : The Building Undergraduate Thesis, KRVIA - October 2016 Site : Hiranandani Gardens, Powai, Mumbai
“ Whether agora, castle, piazza, or downtown, the idea of a city of centers stands, at a minimum, for the idea of a spatial city, a city in which order is a function of proximity. This physical city has historically mapped social relations with a profound clarity, imprinting in its shapes and places vast information about status and order. Whether the other side of the tracks in a small town in New England commons, or the bar-graph of real estate values visible in the Manhattan skyline, social order has long been legible in urban form. In the new recombinant city, however, the legibility of these orders has been dramatically manipulated, often completely obscured. Here, anything seems to go with anything - hierarchies are both reinforced and concealed, at once fixed and despatialized. Value is still a function of location, but the invisible hand has learned a new geometry� - Michael Sorkin, Variations on a Theme Park
Hiranandani Gardens, Powai, Mumbai, India \\ Hiranandani Gardens Website
The project is a critical response to the creation of alternate realities in developing countries by the use of neo-classical imagery from the developed world. An exploration into formulating an architectural response, considering this actualised alternate reality as an apparent context for the future. Where imagery is used as a display of affluence and self sustenance. Whence the purpose of ornament is not only that of decoration, but a threshold of sorts. The structure and order of these elements coming together, create this aura of opulence where only people of a particular class belong, and everyone else who comes in contact with it is just a fleeting character. Dissecting these structures and orders into a stratification of individual rules of creating an image and strategically regurgitating it into the existing fabric as a source of disruption and parody was the primary intent of the project. The disruption is meant to work as an architectural polemic in this strict order .
Thresholds
1A - Thresholds
Beyond
Arcade
Pastiche
Cavity
Hat
1
The Interaction
Perspective The Perspective is a constant, unchanged by the objects that pierce it. The object breaks, adheres to the objectivity or morphs into the delineation depending on it’s relationship with the idiosyncratic perspective. Subsequently the morphed meets the broken which further meets the adhered to materialize a landscape of anomalous situations.
Tableau
2
Plan
Model - Final
The program coils around the Colannade with evident struggle to fit into an existing order, failing and succeeding in parts. Mass turns into Void and vice-versa, balcony works as an entrance, and circulation as program. The facade reinforces these aberrations by irksome distortions that obscure what is meant to be structured.
Classroom
Classroom
Atrium
Transverse Section - Building
3
Organization The program interacts with The Perspective in the form of three distinct masses. Canopy : The Void of a canopy is occupied and separated by the Colannade to house the administrative programs. A serpentine staircase navigates through the void and leads to the First Level, continues as a connector between the three masses. Toy : The Library and Play Area is encompassed in an extrusion of the colonnade, like a pair toy blocks connecting back to the ground plane. A Gazebo and an array of mesh columns veil the intersection of the colannade and the block, internalising and intensifying the experience of the interaction between the two. Building : Programs that require proximity such as Classrooms, Staffroom, Toilets etc coalesce to take the form of a cuboid mass unloaded on site. A structural grid and staircase mask The Building. Each staircase landing is an access to a level. The landing determines the opening and the colonnade is the frame. The composition of the two create a broken facade of openings across the surface.
Transverse Section - Toy
4
1.1 - Place Oddity : The Garden Undergraduate Thesis, KRVIA - October 2016 Site : Hiranandani Gardens, Powai, Mumbai
The Thesis also investigates the implications and response to such environments for progams that are public in nature, such as The Garden and The Marketplace. The Marketplace is designed as an axis enclosed by an Arcade, engulfed by a lumpy carpet of grass that shelters the marketplace underneath. The Market weaves across the site, beneath the fabric of The Garden, inverting the logic of the garden being separate from the program as interstitial space. The tessellated surface breaks the sanctity of the arcade, to form a public space without hierarchy.It creates disruption in an otherwise complete fabric. Takes away from the satisfaction of a roundabout surrounded by structures of a similar fashion and retains the incomplete. The two hovering structures environ the nursing home and vocational training centre, detached from the Garden as separate entities to keep the garden plan as an uninterrupted surface to traverse on. They also act as providers of shade and shelter from the tropical sun.
Model - Final
5
Plan - Ground
Transverse Section
Plan - Second
6
2.0 - Areas of Exception: Sound Academic Project : 2015 - 4th Year Second Semester Site : Vanvihar, Bhopal, Madhya Pradesh, India
Space, Elements and their Composition have an inherent effect on Human behaviour and the amount of control excercised. The studio dealt with the study of one physical parameter in relation to an Anthropometric parameter and its relation to use of space and human behaviour. The research included the study of various Public buildings from the lens of these tangible parameters. The Bhopal Public Library is a case of interest I wished to explore further. The instance you enter a library, the presence of sound becomes particularly evident. A small thump on the desk, or the spinning of the fan, each sound is distinctly heard. In such a case, the factors that affect the propagation of sound within a space, and how that determines planning and volume of space is what was chosen to document. Measuring wall thickness to estimate the amount of mass sound encounters and the materiality of surface, and it’s effects on sound quality. Sound also defines the public and the private as it does mass and void.
DATA ASSIMILATION / AREAS OF SILENCE END OF THE LIBRARY
dB
dB
N O I S E (dB)
TIME (s)
LECTURER
ELECTRONICS
HUMAN SOUND
ELECTRONICS HUMAN SOUND
AZAAN
HUMAN SOUND
FURNITURE
FURNITURE ELECTRONICS
FURNITURE
DATA ASSIMILATION / AREAS OF SILENCE BEGINNING OF STAGE
- AZAAN
Vanvihar is a site situated on a hill, adjacent to a biodiversity reserve. The project is intended to be a visitor’s centre for the city of Bhopal, Madhya Pradesh. The program is located on the basis of quality of sound , its effects on privacy and nature of program. The operative of walls and boxes allow the control of volume of space vs material encountered while traversing through the landscape.
N O I S E (dB)
TIME (s)
LECTURER > ELECTRONICS > HUMAN SOUND > FURNITURE HUMAN SOUND > ELECTRONICS > FURNITURE AZAAN
> ELECTRONICS > HUMAN SOUND > FURNITURE
DATA ASSIMILATION / AREAS OF SILENCE CENTRE OF LIBRARY
dB
-
dB
LECTURER > HUMAN SOUND > ELECTRONICS > FURNITURE ELECTRONICS > HUMAN SOUND > FURNITURE AZAAN > HUMAN SOUND > ELECTRONICS > FURNITURE
Sound & Volume Study
Diagramming
Transverse Sections
7
The walls form a central axis that is public in nature with a ramp winding up the hill. The ramp is flanked by a market on one side and beautiful vista of the lake on the other. The Market is sloped to form an accessible roof garden for the public. The walls sheild the more private programs that form internal private courtyards as smaller public spaces. Each wall is carved and hollowed to house leisure spaces, circulation and exhibition displays.
8
3.0 - Nashik: Slum Redevelopment Academic Project : 2014 - 4th Year First Semester Site : Amardham, Nashik, Maharashtra, India
Amardham slums lie within the tight fabric of the city of Nashik, India. Currently the slums function within work live conditions producing enough to sustain the slums. The work going on in the slums includes small scale industries like pottery, brick making, wedding card printers, wedding services, retail, recycling units, pawn shops. The slum improvement scheme being implemented in Amardham is RAY (Rajiv Awaas Yojana) which aims to improve conditions in the slum by providing basic infrastructure on site. The water supply to the site comes from a common overhead tank located at a higher elevation on site and the drainage of the site goes along the alley ways on site. Instead of redevlping the site, Site and Services scheme was proposed under RAY which later on provided adequate water supply and efficient drainage system along the site.
Typologies:
Occupation Mapping
Existing Road and Alley Fabric
Establishing Possible networks
Contour Mapping
Kumbharwada - Pot and Idol making community. The houses are ground+1, with the ground floor as the work space and the first floor as living space.The verandah on the ground floor is used for storage and as a pick up point for small rickshaws and trucks. Mixed Use - The slum has many such network of roads and further leading to many allies and staired pathways which links these nodes of social spaces at different levels.The shops and other crafted workshops like idol making, tailoring, etc. this also spill out of the extended plinths of their houses, thus breaking the sense of a physical boundary and establising a relationship between inside and outside space of their house.
Activity Mapping in Plan \\ Drawing by - Aiman Mukhtiar, Smit Patel
Activity Mapping in Section \\ Drawing by - Aiman Mukhtiar, Smit Patel
Demographic Studies
9
Existing Layout \\ Drawing by - Smit Patel, Chintan Gala
Four typologies are represented in the Proposed masterplan are Kumbharwada : The cluster layout is designed as a chain that facilitates and makes provisions for pot making activities and storage on the ground level and living on the first.
Interior Clusters : The clusters with no road frontage or any occupation that they follow as a community are designed in a way to encourage the possibility of various activities like rice crisp making and drying etc. The clusters are interlinked with a heirarchy of courtyards that spill onto terraces of houses at lower levels.
Commercial Edge : The clusters adjoining the vehicular streets can convert into shop & home conditions or convert a module into a workshop space, providing freedom to expand the house for the purpose of business.
Steep Contour : The site is heavily contoured and some areas on site required the designing a special typology to negotiate the slope with the entrance and living area at the first level and the private bedroom spaces at the lower level.
Master Site Section
Proposed Masterplan
10
Cluster Section
11
4.0 - Porous Scaffold Academic Project : 2014 - 3rd Year Second Semester Site : Pahurat, Bangkok, Thailand
The language and identity studio in 2014, was conducted in Bangkok, Thailand. It involved studying Pahurat, a predominantly Indian resident area. The Language and Identity Studio focuses on how Indian communities residing in foriegn nations, express their identity, through architecture, clothing, events and activities. The Sikh community in Pahurat is involved extensively in the textile industry, and has helped Pahurat become the largest textile hub in Bangkok. India Emporium, a mall of sorts selling Indian textiles, and a Gurudwara adjacent to the India Emporium are two structures and entities of power that controlled the workings of Pahurat, both in purpose and their physical manifestation. The site was analysed as a set of values that are seen of as important and to be preserved as we propose our architectural intervention. I arrived at the word Porous as a value that I felt should be preserved on site. The built form of the India Emporium and Gurudwara made them appear as exclusive structures meant for certain people only, but the nature of business and the activities inside were of a complete opposite nature. As an architectural tool to operate on site, scaffold allowed me to bring an openness to the site. A scaffold that is unaltered and used to define the formal and the informal, the public and the private etc.
Site Collage
Scaffold
Diagrammatic Sketch
Site Drawing \\ Drawing by a group of 5 students
12
Design Diagrams
13
Exploded Sectional Axonometric
The scaffold acts as a universal framework for expression, in art, in advertising, in the creation of identity. A conscious decision was made to internalize the scaffold as service and circulation cores. They define the nature of each block they cater to, and become an integral part of the movement through the building rather than being an aesthetic element on the exterior. They also bring in porosity vertically into the depths of the built form and allow light to sieve through the shifting platforms and cutouts that interact with the scaffold.
14
5.0 - Pavilions by the River Academic Project : 2013 - 2nd Year First Semester Site : Vajreshwari, Mumbai, Maharashtra, India
The studio functioned around the idea of syntax in architecture. Design explorations were carried out through a series of models, beginning from massing and adding layers of complexity and detail. The core program is an alternative healing and research centre. The site is located on the banks of the Tansa river, accessible through a cluster of settlements with only pedestrian access to the vehicular access. Traversing through the narrow alleyways between clusters and reaching the banks of the river, a sudden sense of release was appreciated and welcome. The project tries to retain the sense of release by treating each program as a pavilion, some public, some private. The multi-purpose hall is an open structure that allows for an unobstructed vista of the river and the rolling hills in the background as well as wind and light to flood the expanse of the hall. The public programs form an interface with the banks of the river, creating a space for festivities. The private programs are separated from the public programs by a ramp slicing through the building. The private programs organise themselves around courtyards. The private programs are modules interlocked with each other to form courtyards that weave across the building.
Figure Ground Explorations
Sliced Perspective
Model - Light Studies
15
Plan - Ground Level
The local women of the region were skilled at making bamboo matts that help keep the interiors of the space to an optimum temperature. Each Pavilion uses this indigenous technology to climate control the room as well as a part of the facade. The timber fins extend into the interior to form furniture and the environment of the room depending on the program.
Render - Final
16
6.0 - Documentation: Bayul Demazong Academic Work : Measure Drawings of Tashiding, Sikkim, India Team: KRVIA, Batch of 2016
Plan - Tashiding Monastery Complex \\ Drawing by Group of 5 people
Yuksom, a small village in the heart of west Sikkim, was originally the capital of Sikkim, India. The landscape is considered to be sacred to the buddhist people living in the state of Sikkim. Yuksom, Tashiding and Khecheopalri are a part of the sacred landscape. The Tashiding Monastery is located across the valley from Yuksom. The site is on the ridge of the mountain and is located above the nearest village. The study and documentation of Tashiding engaged with the entire Monastery precinct and the houses that dot the path leading up to the Monastery gate. The path circumambulating and leading upto the monastery is lined with white flags. These white flags are hoisted after the death of a person as a mark of respect. The buddhist religion does not consider death as an occasion for grieving, but an ocassion to celebrate the
life lived and praying for a better afterlife. The houses are arranged around the monastery in a hierarchy of importance. Only the Priests House and the Kitchen are located at the same elevation as the Monastery complex. The other houses terrace down the site according to social - economic standing in the community. The documentation of the site involved a lot of measure drawing on site and interaction with the local community. North East India is a part of the nation that has not been documented in previous years and hence it is a conscious decision to document architecture and culture in these states and submit them to the government of the state as official documentation of these sites.
Site Section \\ Drawing by - Smit Patel, Deeksha Nathani
17
Plan - Tashiding Monastery Kitchen
Section - Tashiding Monastery Kitchen
Axonometric - Headmasters House \\ Drawing by - Smit Patel, Lipika Kosambia
18
7.0 - {+}R.O x Tisser : Samagri Design Team : 2016 - Present Team : {+}R.O (Smit, Akshay, Maitreyi)
{+}R.O : Architecture, Design, Discourse Research Office is a collective of three individuals (including myself) that work on research and competition projects to keep the discourse on architecture and academics an integral part of the conversation after graduation. We have taken part in multiple competitions earning citations, honorable mentions etc. and most recently winning a competition to design and build an art installation at one of India’s largest music and art festival NH7 Weekender in Pune, India.
Samagri : Samagri, a word for commodity in Hindi, is a collaboration between {+}R.O and Tisser India as a grass root level intervention initiative. The products made by artisans around India are not always commercially viable from the design or quality aspect. {+}R.O has taken up the responsibility of designing products and furniture for artisans to work on and engage with them personally to develop their skill and also learn about their restrictions and inputs needed to achieve the goal set by Tisser India.
Tisser India pvt ltd : Tisser India is a private limited company with a charitable component that has established a network of artisans from 29 states in India. They eliminate the middle man from the process of selling traditional Indian artwork, which increases profit made by the artisan. The company also funds basic education for the artisans children. It has been an integral part in the effort to revive the Indian Handicrafts industry and provide sustainable livelihoods to artisans across India.
UNDP x Samagri : Samagri is currently working with the United Nations Development Program on 4 different projects. The UNDP has collaborated with Samagri and given us the responsibility to develop and train 10 female artisan clusters in the state of Maharashtra. The training concludes in a festival called Saras in Mumbai, India where they display their products alongside designer brands etc. The aim is to develop their products to a competent level and provide marketing, packaging and cataloging assistance eventually.
Artisan Working on Samagri x Tisser Sketchbooks
Pattachitra Coasters - Work in Progress
Pattachitra Cushion Covers - Work in Progress
Pattachitra Coasters - Finished Product
Pattachitra Sketchbooks - Work in Progress
19
Samagri Furniture - Stool with Phulkari fabric rim
Samagri Furniture - Indian Seating with Applique cushions
Samagri Furniture - Side Table with Indigo Print fabric
Samagri Catalogue
20
8.0 - NH7 Weekender: Bacardi x Design Fabric Competition : Your Happy Place Awarded : Winner Team : {+}R.O (Smit, Akshay, Maitreyi)
Social media is an integral part of everyday life now. Entire experiences are scripted around shareability and perfect settings for the perfect images and stories. We attend parties, concerts, weddings etc. in search for these perfect settings. Social media playground is a installation that attempts to create an interactive space with a plethora of settings for perfect images. flat-lays, floors, backdrops, perspectives and objects; the entire installation is a stage for experiencing the happiest music fesitval in an interactive manner with picture perfect backdrops.The installation is a critical examination of a cultural condition where our social media presence becomes a factor by which real life
Axonometric
experiences and interaction are judged, measured and understood. The social media playground is composed of an array of picture perfect objects layed out on an elevatedgrid of cubes. the installation is then cut, carved and deformed to create spaces, axes, nooks and crannies. Each of the elements of the playground is placed to create perfect conditions for perfectly shareable images. The installation is designed to function not as a flat back drop but rather as a space. when occupied, it creates multiple conditions for viewing, interaction, experiencing the festival and simultaneously provides a setting for the social media dream.
View of Installation during the Music Festival
Proposed Lighting
21
Image after completion
Installation in use
Installation in use
Image after completion
22
9.0 - Sacred Space : Temple Grotesque Competition : ACA IDC Awarded : Citation Team : {+}R.O (Smit, Akshay, Maitreyi)
There exists above us, as most people believe, a plane; which is considered to be sublime, diaphanous and somehow associated with divinity. This plane is placeless, timeless and in most cases relative to personal choice, however it’s existence is unquestionable. This transcendental plane manifests itself in various forms across our plane of existence; a point in space which gains prominence due to an association with divinity, this association maybe historical, geographical, topographical or anything else. This association which divinity makes the point in space, a projection of the transcendental into our existential plane, a “plane of immanence”, this projection and its association with divinity carve out a niche for the space wherein it occurs , creating a “sacred space”. Sacred space, Therefore exists as an abstract notion wherein neither the architecture nor the program matters, it’s association with divinity is what is the primary reason for its existence , and it’s with this association, that it claims a higher position with respect to traditional space. This elevated position, allows it to not adhere to norms, but rather dictate them and to become not just space, but an object of desire. The experience of a sacred space depends heavily on this sense of pleasure that is drawn from its association with divinity. Even the idea of the pilgrimage, a visit to a sacred
Section \\ Drawing by - Smit Patel, Maitreyi Phansalkar
space, derives its existence from the perverse pleasure that people extract from travelling, walking, trekking on their way to be in the presence of divinity. The visit, therefore isn’t essentially different from peeking through your window to watch your neighbour undress, it’s voyeurism. The voyeuristic pleasure within sacred spaces is not just about the wait, the climb or the travel, it’s also about the phenomenological, the light, the quiet, the somber. All these elements come together to create the architecture of the sacred space, an architecture that’s much like the pornographic set with dim lighting. The project is an attempt to disrupt this relationship and understand the architectural relationship between sacred space and divinity. The one-way voyeuristic condition is inverted by introducing into the space, ‘pods’ for various activities associated with the so called “perverse”, the pods also create new entities to be looked at, while being looked at. The voyeuristic condition is multiplied, as everyone becomes an object of desire and everyone a voyeur. The pods also become exhibits in themselves, by replacing established ideals of pleasurable form and becoming a grotesque monstrosity which in this case takes over a typical temple. Temple grotesque is not just a temple, it’s the ultimate form of cultural provocation.
Pod Infiltration \\ Render by - Smit Patel, Akshay Aditya
Pod Infiltration \\ Render by - Akshay Aditya, Smit Patel
23
10.0 - Modernisn Memorial : Come Toy with Me! Competition : Conducted by Archstudies.gr Awarded : Finalist Team : Smit Patel, Disha Vanzara, Shwetank Maheshwari, Jhanvi Sanghvi
Thumbnail
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 idea of the memorial is also one that allows you to choose when to remember and commemorate and when not to, almost like an exclusive activity that is supposed to be done by going to a particular place, almost like a picnic. Memorials become redundant when they take an architectural form so permanent and associated to a place, like palaces of consolation and pleasure in some cases where you’re nothing but a voyeur to the event. The modernist movement took place in an era of mass production and post industrialisation, and although it aimed to apply these new ideas in architecture, it was still a very exclusive movement. 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. By doing this we change the idea of memorials being an exclusive place of commemorating to a commodity that everyone can have and make and play. Instead of reducing an event to a single line in history, it becomes a part of game nights and family nights and the topic of conversations between school kids. The lego blocks are designed keeping modernist proportions in mind the number of blocks of a particular type are decided in a way that they are used in a particular way and in connection to certain elements. The end product isn’t of relevance but the process of creation and rules followed during the making are the ones that are of importance. The modernist edition of monopoly is like a traditional game of monopoly with all the property snatching tragedies and clever city planning of monopoly city with the strict planning principles of Le Corbusier’s idea of a modernist city. The memorial doesn’t assert the importance of the movement itself but makes it a play of relevance of the movement and its adaptation with current time.
Monopoly set \\ Drawing by - Smit Patel, Disha Vanzara, Jhanvi Sanghvi
24
11.0 - The Black Taj: Ghost of Taj Present Competition : Conducted by unFUSE Team : {+}R.O (Smit, Akshay, Maitreyi)
The myth is always greater than its reality. It is a collective manifestation of stories, rumours ,objects, places, spaces and experiences. The myth of the Black Taj, is therefore not merely one of a mirror image of the Taj. Over the years, the myth and its remnants have fuelled intrigue, interest and created an aura of ambiguity on site. Whether it was ever real or not, the story of its attempted creation, and Mehtab Baug’s remains are now the only reality of The Black Taj; and whatever is built on site will never satisfy its myth and the Taj.The proposal, is a ghost. An ephemeral representation of space, experience and of the several stories, memories and alternate histories of the Taj. By creating an abstract representation of these multiple conditions, the ghost of taj present allows for space onto which several interpretations can be projected. Mass, vectors, voids and landscapes converge to create space that transcends myth and arrives at representation as a methodology for creating a ghost. A veiled surface creates a new datum, morphed into existence on the basis of the Taj’s char baug, the veil acts as an unstable ground for the entire project. Caricatured figural elements follow; extended arcades, massive arches, sharp water bodies and arabesque patterned floors all evoke loose memories of The Taj complex while simultaneously subverting them. Two monoliths, doubled originals similar in proportions to the Taj frame the site, one blurs the edges by existing as a vector wireframe while the other disconnects the site from its counterpart across the river. Views are cut off, scales are skewed and convoluted paths are introduced that eventually lead to the river edge. A filigree is draped onto a sunken public plaza, partly concealing and partly reavealing the intense activity in this open public space. In its essence, the project attempts to create space that rejects functionality in favor of an approach that allows multiple interpretations and opens up the entire site for public occupation.
Sliver
Chaar Baug
Axonometric \\ Drawing by - Akshay Aditya, Smit Patel
25
12.0 - A(nother) Red and Blue Chair : Gestalt Inverse Competition : Hosted by ICARCH Featured on website Team : {+}R.O (Smit, Akshay, Maitreyi)
Though it was made at the peak of the De-Stijl, Reitveld’s chair deviates from the manifesto. The diagonal lines, externded edges, and surfaces with a slope, all stand apart fromDe-Stijl’s essential program. The manifesto is an almost suppressive call for crating a relationship between uniformity and chaotic reality. The project is an attempt to reframe this discussion around art, De-Stijl and the chair by questioning the possibility of it’s existence as a dual natured object. The new chair is composed of a primary structure ( the cage), ie. the lines and surfaces to occupy. The cage becomes a frame, instead of occupying a solitary object, it creates space. The planes become opportunities to occupy the space. The chair attempt to be deviod of any connotations associated with a chair. It tries to take the identity of a chair out of the Reitveld Chair and retains only the essence of the movement. The result is a chair which embodies the gestalt of De-Stijl, and creates space.
Chairs as Art
How to occupy
26
13.0 - Work Experience : Offices Internship at SRDA, Mumbai, India // May 2016 - September 2016 Architect - Samira Rathod Projects - Colombo Residential, Sri Lanka // School in Pune “The essence of design lies in bringing poetry into the building through the surreal ideas of the esoteric. All designs at SRDA go through a rigorous process of lateral thinking, group discussions and extensive research.Functions, program, user needs, site conditions, and climate responsive designs are understood to be pre-requisite factors that direct the course of design. In addition to this, all designs have a strong foundation of a “concept”. The initial concept is translated to the final product through exhaustive processes….” - Samira Rathod “An object, a word, a mood, an animal... any thought or idea is where the design begins. The idea is then thoroughly researched to grasp its complete potential so it can be developed into the language the design dictates.” - Samira Rathod on Concept and Research “The initial programmatic study and drawings are extruded to physical models to study, form, geometry, scale, proportion, light, opacity, mass and volume” Samira Rathod on Model Making as a process
Colombo Residential \\ Team Members - 3
This process and approach by the firm intrigued me to join the firm as an intern. To understand Samira Rathod’s organic and poetic process I decided to work at her firm. I experimented with incredible amount of detailing and material exploration. The intial projects of the firm were interior projects and holiday houses, but recently the firm has started working on projects of an urban scale such as commercial, educational and residential complexes. It was interesting to join the firm at this juncture where I could engage in how the firm translates the organic approach into a more fast paced, driven by forces like economy and time. I was involved in the design development of two residential projects in Chennai, India and Colombo, Sri Lanka, and a design presentation for a school complex in Pune, India. It was an enriching experience to work on multiple iterations of three varied projects and heading the design development of these projects as an intern.
Facade options - Colombo Residential
Concept Sketch for School in Pune
Render - School in Pune \\ Team Members - 2
27
Junior Architect at sP+a, Mumbai, India // January 2017 - April 2017 Architect - Sameep Padora Projects - ReGo, Goa // Holy Writ School, Mumbai “As a practice we at sP+a believe that India’s vast breadth of socio-cultural environments require multifarious means of engaging with the country’s varying contexts. Type, Program, Design and Building processes are subservient to the immediacy of each project’s unique frame of reference. The studio’s approach hence is to look to context as a repository of latent resources connecting production process and network’s, appropriating techniques beyond their traditional use while allowing them to evolve and persist not just through preservation but more so through evolution. Our practice questions the nostalgia involved with the static ‘museumification’ of craft and tradition as well as the nature of what today comprises the ‘regional’ in contexts amplified by their place in global and regional networks. This attitude enables the practice to look at traditional project types, projecting their formal / relational history within the paradigms of current socio-economic forces. The studio structure actively engages with research, collaborations and collective models of practice not as isolated individual formats but as symbiotic streams feeding into each other. We advocate this hybrid model as an alternative to the traditional architectural
ReGo - Rear Elevation \\ Team Members - 3
practice, believing that this enables us to respond to the specificity of the local by evolving methodologies of extreme subjectivity.” - Sameep Padora The firm engages with multiple issues on a national level along with design questions. Research on Housing and housing regulations compiled in a book called “In the name of housing” studies various typologies around the city of Mumbai and the history behind them. I engaged with multiple interdisciplinary collaborations to create a network beyond the architecture community in India and involve various other stakeholders in the conversations that affect the state of architecture in the country. The studio functioned like an academic studio where discussions were open and guest speakers were invited to have a dialogue with employees at the firm. The process of design involved exploring traditional techniques and pushing them with the help of parametrics. My involvement was in one such project that involved the use of laterite stone in an atypical way. Learning properties of material and their limits and capabilities to achieve desired results without venturing into using material that isn’t locally available was integral to the planning of spaces and the incorporation of modern amenities along with the use of laterite stone.
ReGo - Interior Option
ReGo - Front Elevation \\ Team Members - 3
28
14.0 - Detail Work Academic Work - Construction Technology
Bus Terminal Shell
Bus Terminal Section
Drainage Detail
Wall Section Detail
29