SIDDHARTH NADKARNY SELECTED DESIGN PROJECTS
ARCHITECTURE COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT STRATEGIC PLANNING
Siddharth Nadkarny Bachelor of Architecture | KRVIA Mumbai Master of City Planning | UC Berkeley siddharth.nadkarny@gmail.com +1.302.430.2033 | +91.9820102870 673 10th Street #5, Oakland, CA 94607
institutional __ Interpretation Center for the Prince of Wales Museum, Mumbai as Associate Architect, RMA Architects __ Community Toilet for SPARC, Mumbai as Associate Architect, RMA Architects __ Visitors’ Centers for the Taj Mahal Complex, Agra as Associate Architect, RMA Architects __ Maisha Performing Arts Center, Kampala as Associate Architect, RMA Architects
housing __ Laguna Farms, San Francisco with UC Berkeley, Bank of America Low-income Housing Challenge Awardee __ Incremental Housing in Dharavi, Mumbai with KRVIA/SPARC __ Shantiniketan, New Delhi as Associate Architect, RMA Architects __ House by the River, Goa as Associate Architect, RMA Architects
urban design and planning __ Sustainable Tourism for Oaxaca, Mexico with UC Berkeley/Oax-i-fornia __ Armory Crossroads, Minneapolis with UC Berkeley, ULI Gerald D. Hines Urban Design Competition Entry __ Reclaiming Public Spaces in Juhu, Mumbai with KRVIA Design Cell/Mumbai Waterfronts Center
CONTENTS
The Prince of Wales Museum (now known as the Chhatrapati Shivaji Vastu Sangrahalaya) in South Mumbai is a hundred year old state-run museum located in a heritage precinct. Owing to heritage guidelines that did not allow new construction within its campus, the Museum sought to retrofit an existing concrete structure at the entrance of the Museum Complex to accommodate an interpretation center, and enhanced security and ticketing procedures. The existing concrete structure was retained as the interpretation center, and appended with a verandah and a steel-clad security kiosk that housed other functions. A 3-inch thick steel roof supported by custom-designed steel columns integrates these structures to form a building that materially contrasts the Museum’s black granite while complementing its curved lines and spherical dome through its form. As Associate Architect for this project, I led design and design developoment, and managed a team of architects and engineering consultants through public approvals, construction drawings and construction.
Interpretation Center for the Prince of Wales Museum Mumbai, India 2009-2011
The Society for Promotion of Area Resource Centers (SPARC) is a nonprofit that works with residents of informal settlements in cities in India to secure rights and provide access to sorely lacking infrastructure in their communities. SPARC sought to create a community toilet model that could not only provide safe access to clean public toilets in various communities in Mumbai, but also become a space for community interaction. As a part of this project, a prototype community toilet was designed with input from SPARC’s volunteers and community leaders from across Mumbai. The first community toilet based on this prototype was built in an informal settlement in Govandi, Mumbai. The building features toilets for men and women, a separate children’s toilet, and a community gathering space on a covered terrace that has since been used for small gatherings and family events. A green wall composed of steel mesh panels with fragrant Thunbergia creepers provides privacy for toilet windows and becomes a place making element in the neighborhood. Construction of the building involved labor and skills from the community as well. Metal columns and railings for the terrace, and bamboo screens for weather protection were designed and built by metalworkers and carpenters who lived in the community, with input from structural engineers. As Associate Architect for this project, I led the design of the community toilet prototype along with the design, construction and project management of the first toilet in Govandi. I was also deeply involved in community organizing and skill building activities.
Community Toilets for SPARC Mumbai, India 2009-2011
section through entrance and security
section through central courtyard and visitors’ facilities
The Taj Mahal Complex in Agra is a UNESCO-certifed World Heritage site with over 1.5 million visitors every year. Its status as a protected historical site requires any development within 500 meters of the site to obtain approval from the Supreme Court of India. A substantial portion of Agra’s 1.25 million people live within this 500 meter radius. Moreover, the land in and around the monument is owned by eight different central, state and local government entities that frequently have contradictory plans for the area around the monument. A Tourism Management Plan for the monument was prepared for the Archaelogical Survey of India (ASI) in light of the high tourist load and subsequent impact on the monument. The ASI also sought to incorporate security measures and rest facilities for tourists as part of this plan. Two identical Visitors’ Centers were designed at the Complex’s East and West gates to accommodate enhanced security measures and work as holding zones, allowing the ASI to limit the number of people within the monument complex at any given time.
After coordination with different government agencies, the ideal location for both Visitors’ Centers was identified on land owned by the central government’s Forestry and Tourism departments, surrounded by forests and horticulture plantations. Keeping with the immediate physical context and a desire to maintain minimal presence on the site, the two Centers are designed to be partially underground and concealed within the vegetation around it. The concrete roof of the structure is sloped up and covered with soil to continue planting or allow natural vegetation to cover the structure. Apart from security and ticketing functions and acting as a holding zone, the Centers also include reviously lacking tourist facilities like restrooms, lockers and emergency medical care facilities arranged around a central courtyard. As Associate Architect for this project, I led a team of architects, engineers and conservationists in the design of the two Visitors’ Centers. I also presented the scheme to the Supreme Court of India for approval, which was obtained unanimously.
Visitors’ Centers for the Taj Mahal Complex Agra, India 2010
Overlooking Lake Victoria, the site for Maisha is a heavily sloped, densely wooded hill on which the client - a film director - wanted to house a performance arts center that could be expanded over time in independent increments. Instead of designing modular, multi-purpose buildings, a site-localized, program specific plan was worked out. Using the natural contours on site, programs were housed in compact, partially buried structures that shared large pitched roofs for open-air performance spaces. Each large roofed set of structures encompassed a single phase, connected to other phases with winding, low-key pathways. The proposal incorporated shared facilities within a single structure built in Phase 1, with each additional phase dedicated to a different set of performing arts. The large roofs encouraged expansion of programs within each phase as well. The hidden programs and large roofs appear as pavilions in this hilly, forested site and have a minimal impact on existing vegetation and slopes. The compact nature of individual phases also minimize the impact of construction on the site. As Associate Architect, I led a team of architects in conceptual design and design development for this project.
Maisha Performing Arts Center Kampala, Uganda 2008
After the 2008 recession, the city of San Francisco has seen dramatic rent increases, causing an exodus of long term residents from the city. Unaffordable rents for a wide section of the city’s workforce has led to neighborhood instability. New residents tend to be single, younger, mostly high-income technology workers and this new demographic has led to the closure of many family support providers in these neighborhoods, leading to higher migration of low and middle income families from traditionally working class neighborhoods.
ground floor plan
Laguna Farms is located in the Hayes Valley neighborhood of San Francisco and has experienced similar gentrification over the last decade or so. The site for this housing project was originally an on-ramp for the Central Freeway, which was demolished in the early 1990s. Since then, an urban farm operates on site and is a popular community resource for the neighborhood. As a part of the city’s neighborhood development plan passed in 2008, this site was to be converted to housing. The proposal seeks to retain housing for low and middle income families in Hayes Valley by providing a wide range of family support services within the building, including daycare and skillbuilding services. Recognizing the importance of the urban farm in the neighborhood’s stability, this 105-unit apartment building accommodates a large community garden on the ground level with additional gardens on terraces throughout the building. The project is financed through federal housing tax credit programs and an innovative community garden subsidy offered by the city. As a member of a five-person team, I was responsible for preliminary design, community support and financing models for this project. Laguna Farms was submitted as an entry for the Bank of America Low Income Housing Challenge 2013, and awarded second place.
second floor plan
Laguna Farms
San Francisco, USA 2013
Dharavi is popularly considered to be Asia’s largest slum, but is a group of 85 active live-work communities housing over 400,000 low income residents with each neighborhood showing unique urban typologies. A state government plan for redevelopment of Dharavi planned to re-house current residents in cramped skyscrapers or evict them from the site, while changing development guidelines to allow developers to construct four times the allowable area on the site. An alternative plan for redevelopment was prepared with the nonprofit organization SPARC, involving community resident groups and undertaking extensive surveys of the neighborhood. A part of the alternative plan was the preparation of sample free housing typologies and housing design for specific neighborhoods. I worked on a new housing design with residents of Chambda Bazaar, a neighborhood with 608 households with a wide variety of spatially and temporally mixed use activities in their existing tenements that a single typical apartment layout would not be suitable for. At the same time, financing constraints did not let the typical unit size from being larger than 300 square feet. Households in Chambda Bazaar were mainly engaged in some form of trade or skilled construction
section through multilevel public space
labor, and earned relatively higher incomes than some other neighborhoods. The neighborhood also showed interesting space sharing strategies, where neighbors would rent a few square feet of space from each other at certain times of the day or year. To account for the variety of uses, interesting tenancy forms and residents’ desire to increase the size of the housing unit, the housing type was designed with a structural grid placed at a four foot distance from the building facade. Households could build extensions of their choice using the grid, and add upto 150 square feet of space to their apartments as needed. These extensions could also create a dynamic facade for the building and set up unusual forms of tenancy between neighbors, similar to the current situation in Chambda Bazaar. A large, two-leveled public space created multiple opportunities for community activities, like festivals and political meetings. This project was 1 of 6 recommended housing typologies presented to the state government as part of the alternative redevelopment plan.
main street elevation
Incremental Housing at Dharavi Mumbai, India 2006-2007
Three siblings and their families lived with their mother in a sprawling two-storey house on this site located in a dense residential neighborhood in New Delhi, and desired independent houses that still allowed interaction and common living. In the last fifteen years, the neighborhood had experienced substantial redevelopment of similar houses into eight to ten storeyed apartment buildings which was not desired by the siblings. The design for this house emerges out of these concerns, and in creating a housing typology that reflects modern family structures in New Delhi. The house is designed as four independent duplex apartments that envelop each other around a concrete spine and a multistoreyed courtyard that extends up to the terrace. The apartments have access to different levels of the courtyard facilitating visual and physical interaction with members of the extended family, and share a common circulation area along the concrete spine. Smaller courtyards and unique layouts for each apartment let the families personalize space within their apartments. As Associate Architect for the project, I was responsible for conceptual design, design development and client communications.
Shantiniketan
New Delhi, India 2010-2013
CRZ
conceptual transverse section
UNBUILDABLE SPACE
LINE
BUILDABLE SPACE
The site for this 16,000 SF house lies at the mouth of river Zuari. More than 80% of the site lies within the Coastal Regulation Zone (CRZ) where no construction is allowed. The original topography of the site was heavily damaged by a previous owner who sought to build a hotel within the CRZ portion of the site, until the work was stopped by local environmental activists. The new owner was committed to minimizing environmental damage to this picturesque area but had a fairly large set of programmatic requirements. The design packs a dense program within the buildable area of the site, while allowing natural vegetation to re-inhabit the CRZ portion of the site. The house offers broad vistas to the mouth of the river and the Arabian Sea beyond it, with large wooden louvered panels that act as sunscreens and create a dynamic facade within a concrete portal. As Associate Architect, I was responsible for conceptual design, design development and coordinating local approvals.
key plan
House by the River
Goa, India 2011
Populated primarily by the indigenous Zapotec community, the Tlacolula Valley in Oaxaca, Mexico has a rich heritage in agricultural production and related small-scale industry, closely interlinked through specialization and trade in this uniquely urban region. One of the products of agriculture in the Valley is Mezcal, a form of artisanally produced alcohol whose popularity in the USA has spurred industrial production and Mezcal Tourism in the area, with adverse effects on the economy and lifestyle in the Valley. As part of a studio that prepared a sustainable tourism plan for the Valley with the nonprofit organization Oax-i-fornia, the need for a transportation plan for the Valley was felt. The towns in the Valley share a historic market system where a weekly market is set up in different towns on different days of the week. Facilitating this system was a network of internal roads that worked in conjunction with an old colonial highway called the Camino Real. The construction of Highway 190 or the ‘Transistmica’ in the 1960s led to reduced maintenance and eventual disrepair of these internal roads. The highway also sees one of the highest number of fatalities in the Mexican highway sysyem, since a wide range of vehicles from donkey carts and bicycles share undifferentiated road space with high speed buses and cars. The main goal of the transportation plan was to reduce the primacy of the highway for intra-Valley transportation, and create grade separation along the highway and internal roads. This would improve safety for residents and tourists, and improve access to towns for tourists who currently mainly patronized industrial mezcal hubs along the highway. The renewed focus on historical routes could also promote the existing weekly market system in the Valley. Another aspect of the transportation plan was creating transport micro-hubs at the intersection of key internal roads with the highway. The microhubs were designed around existing pedestrian overpasses, adding busstops, wayfinding and rest programs, and transition points for ‘mototaxis’ or three wheeled taxis popularly used in the region. The microhubs could facilitate maintaining grade separation and road hierarchies in the Valley. As a member of this team of designers, planners and consultants, I designed the transportation plan along with formulating economic development strategies for artisanal mezcal producers in the towns. proposed grade separation and road hierarchies
view of microhub near Matatlan
Sustainable Tourism in Oaxaca Tlacolula Valley, Mexico 2012
proposed north-south cross section through Downtown East
Armory Crossroads is an urban design proposal for the revitalization of the Downtown East neighborhood of Minneapolis. Historically an industrial area, the neighborhood has seen blight and disuse since the 1970s and is deserted except for fourteen days in a year when there are football games in the Vikings Stadium. The Stadium was the centerpiece of a previous revitalization plan in the 1980s but is considered a failure, similar to other stadium-centered redevelopment plans from the time. The proposal takes advantage of the neighborhood’s location at the crossroads of two critical industrial flows - a nascent arts and crafts movement in neighborhoods to the north and south of this area, and increasing investment in startups, mostly employing students from the University of Minnesota located west of the neighborhood.
The plan proposes a re-use of the Armory Building - a historic building originally used for timber storage that represents the city’s industrial past - as a catalyst for revitalization. The Armory’s new use as artists’ studios and exhibition space along with new artists’ housing built near the armory will catalyze the revitalization of Downtown East. After the completion of two new east-west light rail lines in 2016, Phase 2 of the revitalization will include tech incubator spaces along with the market rate housing mandated by the competition guidelines. The project was selected as one of four entries from UC Berkeley for this national competition. My role in this team of five involved strategic planning, conceptual design and preparing financing models.
Armory Crossroads
Minneapolis, USA 2012
expanding the scope of public spaces, one step at a time
While it is now considered one of Mumbai’s most affluent suburbs, Juhu was historically a swamp that served a critical role in the city’s natural stormwater control system. Owing to changes in development guidelines, the suburb has seen its population increase by about three times since 1991. The observed effect of this growth has been frequent flooding during monsoons in addition to other infrastructural issues. The biggest impact of growth has been on the 40% of the suburb’s residents who live in old agricultural settlments and informal settlements in ecologically sensitive areas near the coast and along natural stormwater channels. The Mumbai Waterfronts Center sought to create a plan to preserve and upgrade the rapidly depleting public space in the suburb. Their brief restricted the definition of public space to formal recreational spaces only. A study of the current pattern of recreational space use suggested that the lack of formal recreational space was augmented by the use of
public infrastructure and informal spaces for recreation. The scope of the project was enlarged to accomodate all public infrastructure spaces, with the intent of creating dual use public spaces that serve recreational and infrastructural uses; for example, lining natural stormwater channels with vegetated recreational spaces that become overflow zones during monsoon flooding. The plan also proposed integrating recreational spaces with transit infrastructure to create equitable access. The plan proposed carrying out public space improvements over four phases, beginning with improving access to Juhu Beach and negotiating access to public spaces with educational institutions in the suburb. The plan also created a pedestrian/bicycle network through the suburb that integrates with the proposed Metrorail line running through the suburb. As Project Coordinator, I oversaw community organizing, design and strategic planning for this project.
Reclaiming Public Spaces in Juhu Mumbai, India 2008