Architectural Portfolio

SKKARAN SOLANKI

ATLANTA’S TRANSIT

LOUNGE

A Gem in The Jungle

This project focuses on redefining Marta Stations of Atlanta that will give a new face to such transit systems. The Marta Stations of Atlanta currently cater to thousands of people daily who use it for transit. They are non-stop singular focus functioning entities. The commuters have no additional reason to be there. The redefined Marta Stations will give a new face to such transit systems. Their designs have additional programs in focus which include various social and economic needs of the adjacent communities. Hence such facilities will enhance the user experience of daily commuters through these stations and will work simultaneously for economic upliftment and communal harmony of the surrounding neighborhoods.

Parking

Design Strategy

The main design strategy initiated from reinventing the identity of 5 Points to help enhance the community and economy for the neighborhood. To do so the project was required to think further ahead from just redesigning the station site. So that the design further was developed by including the two adjacent sites from the station’s location through which one was unused barren land and the other was the peach tree fountain Plaza,

Important Nodes

Walkable Edges

Reconnecting

Redefining the transit Station and surrounding site

Major Landmarks

Climatic Study

Reinventing the identity of the 5-points Neighborhood

Site division

The sports park :

1. Peripheral jogging track

2. Football turf

3. Tennis court

4. Skate Board park

5. Underground parking

The community park :

1. The Marta farm

2. Open Community plaza

3. A performing stage

4. Water fountain show

5. A unique viewport

This rendering mainly shows the fare-gates located on basement level to which restricts people from entering on the Concourse levels. Its placement was thought about well so that all the spaces before the faregates including the basement level 2 to First ground floor could be a free access to everyone and be a better commercial plaza for all the people.

The walking passages on the ground floor just offsetting the commercial shops looking down on the basement two level Plaza where people are wandering around and making most of the community space and many are seen in rush to catch the train they come to travel for at the station

Figure - Top perspective from inside the station building.

Figure - Interior render - From concourse lvl atrium to the food plaza Author

Figure - commercial passages of ground lvl looking down to basement 2, Author.

B

Figure - Interior render - Basement lvl 2 , Food and commercial plaza.

Figure -Interior render - Ground lvl , entrance atrium.

The Floating Port

A Futuristic urban port for Savannah

Description of The proposal presented -

In 200 years, it is predicted that Savannah won't be as habitable as it is today, but due to its geographical location it will still serve as a strategic point for the trade and transportation in national interest. The Floating Port takes into account the changing topography due to global warming and other hyperobjects surrounding this site and proposes a futuristic solution that combines the urban transit system and the port, for the same.

The challenges we had to face doing this project were mostly transit-based, as we had to keep the movement of the ships on Savannah port active with also having people and workers on the site to be able to access the port after the city was underwater.

So the two scopes of the project were to :

1 Port Reclamation

2 Futuristic Transit Hub

The automated conveyor belt mechanism reducing the heavy requirement of human presence on such a site.

A large retaining wall with a walking beltline on top with scope for further increments in climate

Aquaculture patch which mainly focuses on aquatic plants, algae, and other organisms.

Water level after 200 years from now and increasing.

solutions then?

To adapt to nature's force and move to the possible high land of the existing city premise.

To Landfill the required area and uplift the existing site to raise its topography.

To build around the projected site a stretch of water retaining wall to protect the port from rising waters.

Road network inside the designed tube for vehicular access

Train network inside the tubes for both the peoples movement and the shipments.

The transition and pause points inside the tubes for and intermediate stop for rest areas.

The platform actually sits exactly in the middle of the bigger station space and this form that you see in the render in the podium that takes people to lower level connecting to the other station and such transition was planned for the easy movement of the commuters on this heavy congested site.

Rendered Section of the Station

This section talks about the interaction of the road network and train platform to the other station context like the green patch surrounding the roads and the movement of the people on an open cafeteria plaza.

Internal platform podium taking people from the main station to the substation through the underground level connecting to Savannah.

Bridge for traffic in-flow of People coming from I-16 and west which goes vice versa on the opposite end of the station.

The design intervention for the floating under water tube offering people modes of transport from cars, buses, trucks and trains to the site.

Huge train platform offering people around it a free movement

Open floor podium for the free movement of people around the cafeteria and restaurant spaces covered with the trees.

Rejuvenation And Hospitality Retreat

Island Of Optimal Well Being

Aim: An experience that aims for the optimal well-being of body, mind, and spirit. Objectives: The foundation of the design experience rests on three intertwining pillars, creating a platform from which you can reconnect with life’s potential:

• The Place...Connect with nature, the elements and the universal energies

• The Holistic Wellness...Connect body, mind, heart, and emotions

• The People...Connect with a diversity of people, healers, teachers, and guests

The Ayurveda Island Resort is an innovative endeavour that is being designed to work with the difficult topography and steep slopes of the island in order to produce an atmosphere that is conducive to relaxation. The villas will be constructed on metal piling, which will enable it to rise above the terrain’s natural contours and provide guests with an unimpeded view of the natural scenery in the surrounding area. This framework will also ensure that the living pods are lifted off the ground, giving an environment that is safe and secure for all of the guests. The process of designing this project is difficult since it involves careful thought of how to make the greatest use of the contours of the land while also creating an environment that is serene. It is possible to finish this project effectively and provide guests an experience they will never forget while they are immersed in a picturesque environment if careful preparation and attention to detail are given.

A site where the built and Unbuilt are not defined by ‘Boundaries’. The idea is to fade from interior to exterior through transitional passages.

Stage I - Find supporting contours to place the built masses divided all over the site.

Stage II - emerging out the built masses but yet keeping them very much rooted to the ground.

As it sits at the extremity of the island, opening up to the Arabian Sea, this location has full vision and is thus designated as the rehabilitative activity zone of the project proposal.

The entrance to the site and thus, Here one will get all the assistance.

The entire island in the central portion, from top to bottom, is intended as an accommodation space.

This section of the property is available to the mountain valley as an expanded raised platform for people to accomplish sublime activities.

BAKERY STOCK EXCHANGE

BAKER’S ABODE

WAKE UP AND BAKE UP

This project, created for an emotional vocation such as baking, brings to life the life of a retired couple settling in Charleston. The site is in Charleston's historic neighborhood, where the local context is one Arts & Design school bringing in a lot of millennial and another tremendous quantity of tourist footfall brought in by the port's proximity.

The project caters to a contemporary mixed-use residential unit, therefore the architectural massing confirms to its contemporary usage, yet its industrial elements correlate to its historic site.

Baker’s Abode.

To come up with a live, work, retail kind of business idea.

Draw back of Rivalries.

Competitiveness

Cafeteria and the bread exchange restaurant

Reception to bakery and kitchen area

Design Appproch and Innovation

Innovative business idea

Service

Spatial Design

MINIMIZING THE VISUAL BARRIERS

Try to open up the building spaces to the max and give as much open vistas as possible

In order to fit the programming structure within the well-woven massing section, several different design iterations were thought about and examined. At the beginning, my intention was to construct the residential portion of the building towards the back of the site, leaving the commercial portion of the building in the front.

Thereafter, I merged and separated the two different programmatic spaces vertically and horizontally, which resulted in an interwoven design section that positions the restaurant on both sides of the street while maintaining the upper level for residential use.

AMALGAMATION OF

• PROGRAMMATIC SPACE

• THE MATERIALS

• ATMOSPHERES OF THE SPACES

MAKING THE DESIGN INSIDE-OUT

To make the users feel like they are with nature and still be in a kind of enclosed space

MOTORIZED SKYLIGHT GIVING REFRACTED LIGHT

BEAM TO FLOOR CONNECTION FOR THE EXTENDED SLAB CALL-OUT DETAIL OF STRUCTURAL CONNECTION

CAFETERIA - THE INDOOR AREA OF THE CAFE GIVING WITH EXPOSED STRUCTURAL AND COOLING SYSTEM, ALSO SHOWING THE SPACE WITH PERFORATED NATURAL LIGHTS.

CAFETERIA - THE OUTDOOR SITTING AREA WHICH IS ALSO THE DIRECT ENTRY TO THE NEIGHBORING BUILDING AM COLLABORATING WITH AND SHARING THAT FLOOR SPACE.

Thermal Heating Study

Day Light Study

Night Interior Illumination Study

The Urban Spiral An Image Of The City

The project aspires to break the rigidity of the surrounding context and bring in an innovative iconic language of its own. It would be the first of its kind of such a free-form organic built form which will be an attraction for people in the context.

The informality of the plaza takes over the built form and grows with the participation of people. The spaces would transform from day to night with different uses and automated vibrancies.

The contextual studio seeks to record physical elements while also recognizing theoretical factors such as behavioral patterns and public ambition, which allows for a full grasp of the problem that goes beyond the surface. The practice was divided into four stages: dispute discovery, critical analysis, identification of an appropriate plan, and architectural solution to identified obstacles. Essentially, the project's goal is to catalyze the revival of a big metropolitan region by transforming the surrounding large-scale event facilities into more human environments.

Image of the City

The municipal corporation headquarters would act as a unique addition to the monotonous skyline of the area that would loudly stand out as an image of the city.

Crowded Footpaths

Due to lack of public gathering spaces, the residents are forced to use footpaths as a socializing Space leaving them overcrowded that leads to traffic mismanagement.

Concentrated Public Spaces Gopi Talav being the only major public place around the whole settlement makes it too congested especially on weekends.

The axis takes one through various spaces generating exciting experiences and spontaneous participation through movement. Scale emphasizes the importance of relation between Public building to Public platform.

PUBLIC WAITING ATRIUM VERTICAL CORE FOR CIRCULATION ASSISTANT STAFF CLERICAL AND HELPING STAFF OFFICERS AND COMMISSIONERS

The lines of power and separation somehow disappear in a heavily patterned ground, as the ground springs back as a space of multiple uses, multiple trajectories, and multiple public, simultaneously freeing and circumscribing social experience of the urban commons.

LEISURE SPACE FOR STAFF TOILETS

The central shaft minimizes the circulation in the building and takes one through interactive environments to the workspace. Each department is organized maintaining the hierarchy of officer grades. The toilet cores protrude out giving a solid massing expression from the road. The bridges create an interesting visual play of levels.

keeping in mind the free-flowing language of the building, a definite order is generated to maintain the working discipline of the SMC headquarters. space has been planned with minimum partitions by controlling the area and its direct relation to the meeting and leisure spaces.

Design School

Abode Of Creative Folks

The design is intended to foster reciprocity and variation while also allowing students to learn from one another, both professionally and informally.

The open and closed relationship in this intervention is divided in such a way that the space formed in between the blocks can be used for a variety of purposes.

Conceptual Ideas

The site provided us with a significant advantage because it faces the east side of the open land and enjoys a magnificent view and early sunlight, in addition to the dense foliage of trees, which enabled us to develop the concept amongst the confines of the trees.

Studios Cafeteria Students Recreational Plaza

Library

Pond Rejuvenation area Staff Room

This open to the sky room created on the first floor is at a corner that combines with the corridor and the outside of two studios.

The stacked floor slabs on the west side of the site produce continuous natural shed from direct sunlight in the studios while yet allowing natural light and wind circulation through the passage and the studios.

This is a semi-open space encircled by two building masses, with the stairs transforming into a meeting, showcasing, and sitting space, and the pond morphing into an engaging spot.

The paths on each floor are stacked in the same manner as the building on the west side. But, the goal here is to generate interactive space and unlimited visibility.

Its entrance avenue is primarily intended to display a large inviting atrium and the expression of the design language that is used throughout this intervention.

PARK ALMANSA AT SAN JAVIER

Redesigning for The Mass

Description and justification of The proposal presented

The proposal seeks reconfiguration, management, and harmonization of uses in the park Almansa, making it grow in terms of urban integration, values, users and re-discovering everything that is valuable and what is already part of their urban identity as some of Its different architectural styles and patterns geometric. Clear and fluid connections are proposed within the place and environment, contributing to establish the greatest number of meetings and relationships Possible, creating spaces of relationship and Transition with the environment and the urban landscape, melting inside with exterior, open with closed, natural with artificial. The proposal raises a new look at the style Of the park, and which characterizes its main elements, such as the auditorium, the pergola or the aqueduct and it is clear of the characteristics geometry and forms of The bows and materials with which they are solved, by making it collide with new forms, colors, materials.

Next to the current open air auditorium is inserted a New module in which the cafeteria/terrace is Located that gives service to the park and kiosks. This piece has a profile in arcade integrating Formally with the rest of the park’s elements. This set is completed with a new space Outdoor.

New Civic Center: Indoor Auditorium+Multipurpose room

The civic center is reset to house the proposed new uses. To do this, the eastern part is reordered, emptying its contents but preserving the facades that are currently being treated to improve their benefits and integrate them aesthetically with the new image of the park. In this reconfigured area

The new winter auditorium is inserted with capacity for 600 attendees, a scenic box and ancillary services. To do this, a new truss structure is inserted that allows covering this space and on which a new higher volume is inserted, That will house the new classrooms of multi-purpose character and space Top of the scenic box, The cafeteria area and the billiard club, which will complement the new uses of the building.

This new volume shares the same architecture based geometry present in the rest of the park, enhancing its identity character and becoming a visual reference point.

Querencia

An Ethereal Metonymy of public Realm

Group members

-

Karan Solanki

Darshil Bhayani

Riya Gajjar

Yash Patel

Hetali Patel

After studying various tangible as well as non-tangible aspects a plausible site was selected. With the urge to expand further without realizing the lack of space available led to congestion and an ecological imbalance. Hence sustainable communities needed well-designed everyday spaces and places that are well managed, well serviced, safe and activated by different forms of economic, cultural and social exchange.

Urban voids are undesirable urban areas that are in need of redesign. To fill in such voids, a walkable grid acts as a standard, a rule against which any form can be compared. It provides an often invisible structural pattern representing perfect order. The grid represents a mastery of order over the chaotic natural world.

Legends

1. Main Entrance Plaza

1.1. Pedestrian Entry

2. Meditation Area

3. Children’s Play Area

4. Children’s Esplanade

5. Art Installation

6. Contour Lawn

7. Food Plaza cum Shelter Space

8. Jogging/Cycling Track

9. Open Plaza

10. Chabutra

11. Leisure Garden

12. Fountains by the Bay

13. Stairway to Heaven

14. Casual Seating

15. Parking Space

HAVELI ARCHITECTURE

Competition Entry

Group members -

Karan Solanki

Darshil Bhayani

Riya Gajjar

Ishita Chauhan

Theoretical

and Typological Aspects of Haveli Development of Typology: With a growing economy, small, simple envelope like dwelling evolved into an aristocratic mansion to flaunt power and status.

Yash Patel

The traditional architecture in the World has always taken nature into account. One can observe the harmony and respect for nature in terms of form, design, construction material of the building or settlement. The Competition aimed to document traditional architecture and to foster the appreciation of specifically designed historical structures. The outcome encouraged physical documentation and mapping of these buildings and their understanding as an example of engineering design and creative manipulation of materials and forms.

The houses were constructed in such a way that in summer, the court and the ordo remained cool during day time whereas in winter, the ordo on the upper floors stayed warmer and during the nights the terrace are used to sleep and in winters, the ordos are used.

VITHHALDAS AMIN HAVELI

This Haveli had it all that made the difference. The basic principle followed here while ornamenting the haveli was ‘To Ornament Construction And Never To Construct The Ornament.’ This prominent characteristic is perhaps the continuity and plentitude of the ornamentation which usually fills up the surface to be decorated with things almost replicating its nature.

The space division of the haveli is done in such a way that the upper floor obstructs the heat from penetrating the lower floors. Hence the lower space remained cooler even during hot noon whereas the upper floors are cooler at night in winter and monsoon. Orda is used during the day and in summers, tarraces are used to sleep at night. Struts

+1-9127555471 solanki.karan21@gmail.com