Ephemeral_Architectural Portfolio_ Sneha Aiyer_2020

EPHEMERAL

PORTFOLIO OF ACADEMIC AND PROFESSIONAL WORKS

Sneha

ARCH sra2163@columbia.e MS AAD ‘20 | GSAPP B Arch | School of Architecture | C

a Aiyer

HITECT edu | +1-317-560-3407 | Columbia University CEPT University, Ahmedabad, India

02

RE-INVENTING BUELL HALL THE CLASHES

03

page # 39

INFRASTRUCTURE: THE FOOD COLLECTIVE & FIRE STATION page # 49

01

UNDERSTANDING STRATA OF TIME THROUGH LAND WATER RELATIONSHIPS

04

page # 9

MEDIATIC DEVICES OF MEASURING VIETNAM WAR page # 73

ACADEMIC WORKS

06

SHARDASHISH SCHOOL, CHHAPI VILLAGE, INDIA

07

page # 123

05

G. I. A. N. PAVILION: NATIONAL INNOVATION FOUNDATION page # 107

LIME HOUSE #4, AHMEDABAD, INDIA

page # 137

PROFESSIONAL WORKS

ACADEMI

C WORKS

SUMMER 2019

S I

O

A K

T U

!

Studio:

On Strata Ecology, and Metaphorical Perceptions of the

Critics: Jorge Ambrosi & Gabriela Etchegaray Student: Sneha Aiyer

City

P

K

P

9

01

UNDERSTANDING STRATA OF TIME THROUGH LAND & WATER RELATIONSHIPS

A 100-year flood plain map indicating the territories water will take over the island of Manhattan has been a cause of concern for a while now. Often met with schemes of resilience. Through the immediate and distant history of the Island, one concludes that this relationship has always been viewed as a binary - either water or land. However, it is a territory of a gradient where instead of a singular normal, several normals can be defined such that this ephemeral relationship is justly represented.

So, how do we embrace the fact that the definitions are ever changing? Instead of thinking of how to hold it what if one is to pivot this idea and think from water.

How to let it flow? How do we design for time rather than space?

The manifestations of influences over time are clearly seen in the land water relationships and they will continue to shape the ever-changing territory that it shares. The project is a speculation over time and looks for an ephemeral and temporal architecture that can assimilate and evolve rather than resist.

01

Bathymetry of the river bed and Topography of the island: speculated flooding over coming 100 years

Topography of the island and its relationship with the speculated flooding over coming 100 years

The looming skyscrapers that form the image of the metropolis are anchored in the rocky bottom of its geological past. The solidity of Gneiss, Granite and Manhattan Schist has allowed construction of such engineering feats.

New York is primarily composed of sediments that were metamorphosed during the Taconian and Acadian orogeny about 400- 500 million years ago and during the ice age about 1.8 million years back large sheets while melting displaced and scraped those rocks creating sediments and striations resulting in formation of smaller islands.

In this way the island had a relationship with water that is not static but rather constantly changing either by human intervention or by forces of nature.

Central Park hosts evidences of this geological past are present in the city and interacting with the urban space with the people of the city.

It became essential to understand the fear inducing planar lines of the 100- year flood in relationship with the topography of the island to critically examine the future speculation.

The georaphical strata of the island would determine the anthropogenic strata of the city.

Topography and location of the island amongst a moraine carrying river – Hudson and a tidal East river were ideal for the Dutch settlers and the Lenape before that.

Owing to the Sailboats, there is a natural ground and water edge relationship. No hard edge between water and land… but rather a shared territory As trade was well established—retaining edges in wood framing were made to dock the sailboats. Hence trade influenced the shaping of the waterfront.

Land use map shows the presence of industries, mills and shipping yards.. Producing and shipping – iron, ceramic soap sugar etc.

Industrialisation influenced the relationship of land and water.

Robert Moses and the surge of infrastructure development after WWII shapes the relationship of the island to its waters Politics shaped the relationship of island to its waters Public urban spaces on the waterfront…

More infrastructure and development of business districts on the waterfront Land reclamation meant making piers on the sedimentary silty edges of the river. Pile foundation … silt dredging… filled at the Hudson River bed Through the immediate and distant history we can conclude that this relationship has always been viewed as a binary either water or land. However, it is but a territory of gradient where instead of a singular normal, several normal can be defined such that this ephemeral relationship is justly represented.

1609 1800

1916

1965

1980 2019

Strata as manifestation of time-scales How the land was shaped over the years and what have been the influences?

Steamboats replace sailboats on the harbor of East River

1613 AD

2100 2075 2050 2025

Sailboats at the Dutch settlement of New Amsterdam

ARCHIPELAGO

NOW 1960 1840 1700 1600

2125 1600

8 Million years ago

ARCHIPELAGO

TOPOGRAPHY

TRADE

TOPOGRAPHY

TRADE

ARCHIPELAGO ICE SHELF

SHAPING

WATER

1679 AD

450 Million years ago

earl street and the wooden retaining edge of the river bank

SYMBIOTIC

Broadway looking south from St. Paul’s

1835 AD The

WINTER

2125 2100

FALL

1880 AD

ISLAND AND WATER

1848 AD

SKYLINE

changing landscape of waterfront

SKYLINE

2075 2050 2025 NOW 1940 1840

2125 1600

1700

SUMMER

SPRING

lion ago ARCHIPELAGO DEMOCRATIZATION OF INDUSTRIAL EDGE

INDUSTRIALIZATION

FOR THE PEOPLE

INDUSTRIALIZATION

PUBLIC

WATER

on ago ICE SHELF

SPACES

SKYLINE

29.7 DAYS

SKYLINE

29.7 DAYS

ISLAND AND WATER

1922 AD

Broadway looking south from St. Paul’s

SHAPING

CHANGING WATER EDGE WITH THE LUNAR CYCLE

1600

Thinking...

...Drawing

How do we embrace the fact that the definitions are ever changing?

Instead of thinking of how to hold it what if one is to pivot this idea and think from water … how to let it flow?

How do we design for time rather than space?

Can our optical orientation in design be nudged towards temporality?

What would be an architectural gesture that allows for that?

Now, through a viewfinder I look at the Museum of the city of New York as the unit that in a way becomes an object to manipulate over time in future and in the past as well. The manifestations of influences over time are clearly seen in the land water relationships and they will continue to shape the ever-changing territory that it shares. The project is a speculation over time and looks for an ephemeral and temporal architecture that can assimilate and evolve rather than resist.

Now the museum exhibits the social and cultural history and future of the city.

This will be the year of awarness and critique. So, the interiors of the public buildung are revealed while preserving the memory of a landmark. Excavating the ground allows for the building to soak up the water and harvest it.

As the proxi increases, a clo is established and water. Res become scarce an The museum now of action and spatially movab respond to cha and sea level down as the degr the environment

imity to water oser relationship d between land sources have now nd thus valuable. becomes a place d activism. The ble volumes that anging functions rise move up an ree of wetness of t increases.

Natural resources now equate power and economy.

The museum now becomes a natural resource reserve and grows as the requirement changes or increses.

Part of the built form is a green house that hosts an edible landscape of the near extinct plant species. It is also an aviary and the water saturated ground hosts various aquatic species.

As we move towards 2100, the degree of wetness increases and the built form grows.

The project is a speculation over time and looks for an ephemeral and temporal architecture that can assimilate and evolve rather than resist.

An environment that is designed for time and assimilates the water that will invade the territory of land

2025 AD will be the year of awarness and critique. So, the interiors of the public buildung are revealed while preserving the memory of a landmark. Excavating the ground allows for the building to soak up the water and harvest it.

Part of the built form is a green house that hosts an edible landscape of the near extinct plant species.

It is also an aviary and the water saturated ground hosts various aquatic species.

Rainwater collecting umberalla roof modules

Water Tanks

Expandable Grid for future growth

Museum Facade Preserved

FALL 2019

A N E

W

TY PE O F

. . .

Studio:

Concept and

“The New Type of”: New Programs For The 21st Century

Critic: Bernard Tschumi Students: Sneha Aiyer, Jolene Jussif

A

E

.

39

02

RE-INVENTING BUELL HALL THE CLASHES

This “handshake” was introduced to explore- how site and program provide the constraints to investigate the notion of hybrid program out of alternate typology (or vice versa).

Various iterations of themes and programs were tested to rethink the building on the site of Buell Hall. The types explore the notion of clash as seen in these dualities of program and formal themes. Each concept has two opposing ideas that are articulated through formal moves. The concepts challenge the normative relationships expected and therefore generate new architectural type. An emphasis on collective and individual relationships is placed in conceieving the new concept of a public space.

02

Inspired by the representation of spaces in the miniature painting, the attempt here is to investigate ---How one can read this as architecture?

The two characters evoke a sense of performance within the spaces.

This is an immersive theatre space where the oppositions of audience and the performer is blurred.

The clash between the bubble and orthogonal forms here defines the type. The structural grid allows for the freedom of such organization. The awkward clashes between the organic form and the orthogonal form are aimed at creating a sense of awareness of the duality that we live in.

COLLECTIVE & INDIVIDUAL

DIGITAL & ANALOG

PERFORMERS & AUDIENCE

Day Care | Planned Parenthood | Sexual Violence Response Center

Presentation & Seminar Spaces

Immersive Theatre Pavillion

mation to befrom usedresearch by ut the earth at the Earth Institute. Visitors learn about things news.

The form is section is we cannot. Individual learning sessions occur along the cores and in the fficeshappens for information.

The of where Buell Hall once was, as a projection ning in the absence only ut theallows thingsfew weapproved cannot see. The form of the building is a product of the om a cube.

se bsence and Presence A Place for Learning and Demonstration

True and False

Absence and Presence

TANGIBLE & INTANGIBLE

TRUE & FALSE

ABSENCE & PRESCENCE

A Center for Sharing Ideas

The Truth Nucleus is a place for fact checking and movement of information to be used by administration as well as Politicaal Science majors researching political news. The form is section is similar to its diagram in that there is an input, output, and processing offices for information. The public is invited to the open space however, the building is secure and only allows few approved persons.

A Truth Nucleus

A Truth Nucleus

A Place for Learning and Demonstration

This is a place to learn about the earth from research at the Earth Institute. Visitors learn about things we can see, and things that we cannot. Individual learning sessions occur along the cores and in the upper level. Collective learning happens in the absence of where Buell Hall once was, as a projection on the ceiling learning about the things we cannot see. The form of the building is a product of the subtraction of Buell Hall from a cube.

A Place for Learning and Demonstration

We were interested in the Triple Chaser video from Forensic Architecture at the Whitney. The video flashes between different images of tear gas on top of different backgrounds that were used to teach the computer how to recognize them. Our interpretation of this was to use this idea of clash, camouflage and legibility against an opposing background. The buildings clash and at times camouflage with elements of Columbia campus.

Digital and analog exist together. The bubble form represents isolation and disconnect from the immediate context while the semi-open sense of the analog spaces allows for connections with the surroundings.

The oppositions of mass and void is seen through the chase in the miniature painting (The seduction of Prophet Yusuf) and re-interpreted as chase (to engrave) in the making of the pavilion. The movement within these spaces represent the audience that interacts and physically clashes with the performers in the spaces within the pavilion.

The form is a subtraction of Buell Halls form extruded from a cube. The absence and presence are reversed here where the solid form now occupies the space of Buell Hall’s void.

FALL 2019

A N E

W

TY PE O F

. . .

Studio:

Concept and

“The New Type of”: New Programs For The 21st Century

Critic: Bernard Tschumi Students: Sneha Aiyer, Xutian Liu

A

E

.

49

03

INFRASTRUCTURE: THE FOOD COLLECTIVE & FIRE STATION

We are proposing a new type of infrastructure that is embedded in today’s context. This project is one of the six categories (Educational, Recreational, Environmental, Political, Social, Infrastructural) enlisted by Prof. Bernard Tschumi for his studio investigating type and program within the typical Manhattan Short Block.

Infrastructure is defined as the basic physical or organizational structure required for the operation of society.

To define what is infrastructure for a society it is important to establish the shared ethics of the society. Although, our lives have become easier with the advent of online platforms that deliver all the products of consumption to us, the journey is responsible for a majority of fossil fuel consumption.

Lately, the frequency of natural disasters has increased in the past years. It has become important not only to have a resilient built environment but also to be prepared to combat such situations at the organizational level.

How can architecture gain agency over such organizational infrastructure?

As we began the search for answers, we realized that collaboration and reciprocity has been missing from most infrastructural projects. Our attempt was to create a prototype that can be replicated and serves as a network of infrastructure to the city.

THE MANHATTAN BLOCK

Relationship to the city

Freeing the ground

Service bay & movement

Circulation of material through structure

Bringing public to the core

Storage of material & formal type

How can architecture gain agency over organizational infrastructure? As we began the search for answers, we realized that collaboration and reciprocity has been missing from most infrastructural projects.

Instead of a centralized program that is isolated from the city, our attempt was to create a prototype that can be replicated and serves as a network of infrastructure to the city.

Two programs are proposed next to one another in a typical and hypothetical Manhattan block. The food collective is a place where food is grown (farm), and stored (warehouse), processed (factory) and sold (market). While the fire station is a place that becomes a safe space in case of a natural disaster but on a regular day, it benefits in terms of public participation drawn in by the food collective.

SERVICES

CORE: TRAINING AND INFORMATION

FACADE: EXTINGUISHER TANKS

FIRESTATION

THE FOOD COLLECTIVE

ROOF: FARMLANDS

STAIRS: MARKET

FACADE: HERB GARDEN

ENCLOSURE:FACTORY

STRUCTURE: WAREHOUSE

Our food usually takes a long road trip before it is set on our plates! From farm to processing in a factory to a storage warehouse and then to the supermarket. This journey from production to use has been responsible for a major consumption of fossil fuel. This will now be cut short.

In an attempt to bridge the gaps between the means of production, storage and sales, a new type of infrastructure emerges. The new type is a result of the overlap of farm, factory- the production space, warehousethe storage space and the market.

The stepped roof and the facade dedicated to farming while the enclosed spaces are production and packaging areas. The structure is hollowed out and it enlarges at places to create space for storage (warehouse) The movement intersects with the production areas and opens on to the public space creating an internal market street. The large staircase is interrupted with these small shops that break the monotony of the movement to create a sense of a street.

GROW

PROCESS

PRO

OCESS

PACKAGE

SELL

GROW

ROOF AND COLUMN

GRAIN THRESHING

FLOUR MILL

FOOD PROCESSING

PROCESSING & PACKAGING

MARKET

The movement intersects with the production areas and opens on to the public space creating an internal market street. The large staircase is interrupted with these small shops that break the monotony of the movement to create a sense of a street.

FIRE STATION

The porosity at ground level encorages better relaionship between the street and the firestation in case of a disaster

B’ Ground Plan

B

First Floor Plan

A’

A

Second Floor Plan

Roof Plan

SPRING 2020

LO O

MODUL Studio:

Cultural Agents Orange, Vietnam

Critic:

Mark Wasiuta

Student: Sneha Aiyer

T P

HE &

MOB

ILE

ES

73

04 MEDIATIC DEVICES OF MEASURING VIETNAM WAR

The documentation of war seems to be as important as annihilating the enemy’s environment. How do you visualize the war? How do you visualize winning a war? cartographic practices have been effective in translating the destruction and consecutive occupation of the enemy’s territory into visual data.

During the Vietnam war, the camera became an asset to these practices. It was quick visual evidence of the military activities that could feign precision of action.

The research looks into the analogous means of survey and documentation and the creation of visual and spatial data.

The project commemorates the mediatic devices of the military and marks the histories of bombing as mediated by -scopic and informatics systems explicating ongoing decontamination processes. The juxtaposition of the two ends on the spectrum of the history of data visualization creates a symbiotic system- i.e. the exhibition loop and decontamination plug-in mobile modules.

”

’-0

00

15

2000’-0”

The pilot has controls of the armament as well as the camera.

This is a KB-18 still photography camera. It is a panoramic strike camera - documents high resolution images- 180 degrees vertically and 40 degrees laterally. This camera would run for a preset length of time between 2 to 32 seconds.

The aircraft becomes a mediatic device itself and the pilot has an additional role of documentation. As he deploys a bomb, the camera captures the image.

The aperture of the prismatic lens was controlled by an internal light meter and one or two still pictures can be taken each second.

With 250 feet of film 300 exposures could be made.

R

TE

US

CL MB

BO W AY

PA TH

SI

T GH

E

LIN

RELEASE ALTITUDE

CLUSTER BOMB PATHWAY : RELEASE PATTERN OF ONE TUBE

These are the photo squadron detachments where the films were processed and accurate or approximate notation was made and this format of the data passed on through appropriate channels. From Tan Sohn Nhut to Pentagon.

So these multi-scalar mediatic devices involved in measuring the war are reminiscent of the beginnings of the techniques that we are so used to these days of visualizing territorial/geospatial data.

The historical aerial photographs are geo-referenced and used to assist the machine learning process of detecting bomb craters in post-conflict territories. The photographic evidence is also used to unearth the history of bombing in areas where the affected landscape has been infilled.

Thus, the visual data produced then, which facilitated the violence on the enemy’s environment also becomes an important archive that is now used to decontaminate or reverse the violence caused by the war.

The project commemorates the mediatic devices of the military and marks the histories of bombing as mediated by -scopic and informatics systems explicating ongoing removal or decontamination processes.

The juxtaposition of these two ends on the spectrum of the history of data visualization creates a symbiotic system expressed via distinct schemes that work in consonance.

Represented here as the loop and the plug in modules.

The loop stems from the idea of a film loop that can also run in reverse projecting the notion of reversal of the violence.

The aircraft that became a documentation device viewed the landscape from a distance of 2000 feet and took vertical panoramic images spanning 1500 feet. Flipped and scaled-down this gives the viewer an insight into the imaging technique and therefore the resultant visual data.

It also contains the physical imprints of the destroyed post-conflict environment it encircles.

The 2-degree tilt of the loop emulates the flight path and its encounters with the images of the war. This takes the viewer along the same trajectory as the aircraft that perceived the environment.

As one looks down the projection is interrupted to give a glimpse of the imprint of bombing left on the ground. Perceiving the way the images were captured ingrains a better comprehension of the process and dimensions, across which these techniques were employed. It removes the documentation device and replaces it with the human body to experience the profusion of violence in first person.

The journey continues as the flight ascends and the camera fitted at the base captures the cluster bombing s ramp allows one to see through as they walk over.

strikes, shown here by a curved LED screen hanging at the base of the loop while the ascending transparent

The control room is the quintessential operational unit of the decontamination network headquarters wherei

in the maps are generated, constantly updated, archived, and also exhibited.

The LED screen runs a loop of film and images captured from a height of 2000’ scaled down to a viewing distance of 500’

The viewing gallery to see the exterior of the loop

The flexibility of the deployable module dimen It is transportable and can go on to another post-conflict en

nsions makes it adaptable to various functions. nvironment to perform decontamination and UXO removal.

Various facilities of surveying, documenting, mapping, and eventually detonating the rem loop and engage in the exchange

mains of the unexploded ordnances are housed in the units. Some units connect with the e and exhibition of the visual data.

The plug-in modules offer multiple possibilities of configuration and fun

nction, oriented towards the aim of decontaminating the environment.

PROFESSION

NAL WORKS

2017

I N T S HA

H E DO

Professional Project: at Gandhinagar, Gujarat, India Client: National Innovation Foundation, India Architect: Sneha Aiyer

W S

E

107

05

G. I. A. N. PAVILION: NATIONAL INNOVATION FOUNDATION

Grassroots Innovation Augmentation Network (1997) led by Prof. Anil Gupta is an organisation that works towards commercialisation of viable grassroots innovations and provides with required linkages to modern science and technology, market research, design institutions and funding organisations. Its goal is to generate new models of poverty alleviation, rural development, employment generation and conservation of natural resources without impairing the ecological balance. The GIAN pavilion is a place wherein localised solutions to issues of Indian rural life and activities are discussed, developed, exhibited and eventually made commercially available.

The site is within the National Innovation Foundation campus amongst a thicket of many local species of trees. It is an ‘open for all’ place wherein the sense of inside and outside dissolves as the spatial experience of the pavilion resonates with the feeling of sitting under a foliage of trees with light filtering through. The idea is to have a porous spatial sense where one function flows into the other and employs the transitional spaces and the shaded courts with multiple levels to negotiate the blurry boundaries, presenting ‘coalescence of parts to form a unified whole’.

lage r vil To A mar amp u

NIF Campus SIte

Agricultural Land

Site Plan with neighboring settlements and agricultural milieu

N 50’

0

100’

The human scale of the built form is analogous with the scale of dwellings in neighbouring villages. The built form responds to the natural landscape of the site with variations in the connected plinth levels without altering the topography.

Photo-collage as a medium to visualize the spatial experience of the project The site is within the National Innovation Foundation campus amongst a thicket of many local species of trees. It is an ‘open for all’ place wherein the sense of inside and outside dissolves as the spatial experience of the pavilion resonates with the feeling of sitting under a foliage of trees with light filtering through.

SECTION BB’

SECTION AA’

Services

Culinary Workshop

Offices

Pavilion

In

Arrival Space

Exhibition Space

nnovation Workshop

Workshop Court

+6’-6”

+5’-6”

10

+7’-0”

+8’-0”

up

9 +6’-0”

+5’-6”

+5’-0”

8

A’

up

7

up

+7’-6”

+1’-6” +1’-0”

6

1 +2’-0”

B

+5’-0”

+3’-0”

2 +2’-0”

+7’-0”

+1’-6”

up

5

3

+7’-6”

4 +2’-0”

N

B’ GROUND FLOOR PLAN 0

15’

30’

A

+0’-6”

+0’-0”

1. Arrival space 2. Exhibition 3. Passage 4. Innovation workshop 5. Mezzanine workshop 6. Exhibition court 7. Pavillion 8. Waterbody 9. Toilets 10. Culinary workshop

View from arrival space looking north

Sectional perspective: Exhibition space

Sectional perspective: Pavillion

View of the workshop and exhibition spaces from the external courts that become places for people to congregate

Steel roof structure with onduline roofing and insulation Horizontal wooden louvers to cut glare and allow ventilation Steel and wood pivot window

RCC coping 14” thick rammed earth wall

Coursed rubble stone masonry wall

Wall Section showing relationship of the rammed earth wall and plinth to ground and the light framework of the window and roof

The culinary workshop on northern edge of the site is a steel framework enclosure perched on the raised stone plinth negotiating the natural topography of the site. The framework is expressed while the plinth recedes back.

2015

WI T H T LAND Worked as:

H E S C APE

Project co-ordinator and design team member at Indigo Architects

Client: National Innovation Foundation, India Site Area: 10 Acres | Built area: 60,000 sq. ft.

Role: Complete project management including conceptual development, client meetings production of working drawings, service and structural consultants coordination and site co-ordination.

E

123

06 SHARDASHISH SCHOOL, CHHAPI VILLAGE, INDIA

The project was part of the “Corporate Social Responsibility” initiative of Torrent Power Ltd. based in Ahmedabad.

The site admeasuring 10 acres was barren and contoured. The overall region is fertile while ravines mark the earlier paths of water and define the larger grazing zones.

The program for the school campus was to include, a pre-primary, primary, secondary and higher secondary school, administration, an assembly hall, playground, library, and congregational spaces. The higher secondary block, assembly hall and administration block were completed in the first phase.

The broad design strategies address the following issues.

Ecologically and technically appropriate strategies for achieving thermal comfort, judicious use of water and improving the bio diversity of the site and adjacent lands.

Recycling all water from wash zones except soil waste to the planters and soil using French- drains feed water loving grasses and plants such as canna and bananas. Storm water is guided and directed away to follow the natural terrain, slowed by pits along swales to encourage percolation and prevent run off.

CHHAPI VILLAGE

SCHOOL

Satellite image of the completed site in 2018

Site model: Initial proposal

Library and street edge

Grey water for irrigation

Rain water harvesting

Passageways as thermal buffers Movement: passageways and staircases Services: Toilets

15

B 17

16

18 5

8

A

VILLAGE ROAD

8 8 8

6

8 5

4 +0

8

3

.75

+2.4 lvl

+0

7

.90

lvl

lvl

6

2

+0

.6

8

lvl

8

1

+0

+1.7 lvl

.0

9

+2

.0

+2

.3

12

10

20

A’

13

11

lvl

lvl

lvl

+1

.0

+2

14

.7

+1

lvl

.5

lvl

1. Drop- off zone 2. Entry 3. Foyer 4. High school court 5. Toilets 6. Passages 7. Exhibition space 8. Classrooms 199. Principal’s office 10. Admin. offices 11. Teachers’ room 12. Trustee’s room 13. Records’ room 14. Assembly hall 15. Sports ground 16. Parking 17. Pump room 18. Security 19. Plantation 20. Central court

lvl

+2.7 lvl

B’ GROUND FLOOR PLAN

N 5m

0

10 m

20m

EAST ELEVATION

SECTION AA’

SECTION BB’

Process model : Phase I

Process models of high school building

Reflective china mosaic with lime concrete on roof

Mass produced mild steel railings

Pre-cast concrete block screen openings above lintel level Deep-set vertical louver windows reduce glare and bring in breeze Lime plastered walls reduce the internal temperature by 10C Local stone flooring and skirting

Exposed concrete soffits

Random rubble stone masonry of the retaining walls used to hold the levels of the contoured landscape takes over the ground floor of the building unifying the architectural expression and defining a datum against the lay of the land

South-west and North-east facade details

Passageway details

Arrival court between high school building and administrative block looking towards library on northeast. The sense of porosity at the ground level was important to connect the various structures experientially. On the upper floor all passage ways look into the court making it a conggregational space.

I T laboratory

Library Reading area

Arrival space

The entry forecourt to the school defines its urban response. The forecourt leads to the main entry; the access to the public reading area and its perch looking back into the forecourt and beyond completes the ensemble.

2011-15

H

A R

T H

E

V E ST

W A TE Worked as:

R

Project co-ordinator and design team member at Indigo Architects

Client: Bhrambhatt Family | Site Area:18000 sq ft | Built up area: 6000 sq ft Role:Complete project management including conceptual development, client meetings production of working drawings, service and structural consultants coordination and site co-ordination.

137

07

LIME HOUSE #4, AHMEDABAD, INDIA

T

R

The site for this nuclear family house is part of a gated community of affluent homes on the western edge of Ahmedabad. Many illustrious architects have built residences in this gated community over the years. Exposed brick and concrete houses are nestled deep amongst thick foliage of local species of trees in these prototypical plots of land. This leaves the streets empty and abandoned as no builtform attempts to engage with the streets.

In this project, an attempt to engage with the street is made by the gesture of siting the builtform on the street edge while opening the house inward to a defined landscaped court. The notion of a backyard is eliminated. The built mass is functionally divided into two partsthe served spaces on southwest while services on southeast. The living room is a visual connector for the northern garden court and southern street side court.

The challenge was to define an identity and address pertinent issues of - using appropriate materials and providing thermal comfort. Lime as a material is naturally emissive and Indian architecture has a rich history of traditional lime construction.

Trellis structure for terrace garden Lime plaster on composite lime brick masonry walls

Exposed RCC extruded opening

Strategically placed stair-shaft expels hot air out through gavity vent Double volume verandah unifies upper and lower floor massing

Wooden pergolas on walkway

Terrace garden with herbs and vegetation acts as thermal buffer

As the breeze passes over the lily pond and enters the interior spaes it brings the temperature down in hot summers

Exposed brick and concrete enclosure to the residence as a response to the neighboring modernist building

Schematic model of the house showing constituent parts of the built form and sustainable strategies employed

SECTION AA’

A

1. Entrance 2. Prayer room 3. Living room 4. Family room 5. Dining room 6. Powder room 7. Kitchen 8. Guestroom 9. Study 10. Kid ’s room 11. Bath 12. Kids play area 13. Utility 14. Kitchen store 15. Clothes drying 16. Verandah 17. Walkway 18. Garage 19. Gym 20. Quarters 21. Lap Pool and Change room

GROUND FLOOR PLAN

A’

N 0

5’

15’

Details: assembly of flitched section column of the walkway

Detail section of the terrace garden slab showing layers of materials used to protect the slab, hold earth and filter excess water from irrigation and collect in harvesting tank.

Details: assembly of flitched section column of the walkway

Material Details of the Terrace Garden

Exposed RCC projected window encrusting the lime plastered building mass

Horizontal fixed wooden louvered screen

Sliding glass shutters in wooden frame

Trough for potted plants

Sliding glass shutters in wooden frame

Exposed RCC projected window continues on lower floor

Detailed wall section through the window

Shaded walkway: Flitched wood and steel section columns and pergolas

Veranda on the northern facade opens onto the garden court