Harsh Shah | Urban Design - Planning Portfolio | CEPT University by Harsh Shah

PORTFOLIO Selected Work 2016-2021

HARSH 2 0 AH 2 1

Hi, I am Harsh Shah who strongly believes, design is a evolving journey just like mine. While I have a comprehensive design background, my passion lies in making a city an interactive space and a better place to live in. My major interest is drawn towards sustainable Planning & Urban design for cities of the future. In the process of being an agnositic learner about cities, in my spare time, you would find me reading, exploring and traveling across cities to understand and experience their complexities. Hence, it would be a pleasure to discuss any opportunities you may have.

Harsh Shah

Urban Designer | City Enthusiast

''I'm here to make the city an interactive space and a better place to live in.''

About Me Address

553/7, Adenwalla Road, 1st floor Madhukunj, Matunga (e) Mumbai- 400019

Date of Birth 10th of November, 1998 Languages

English (Fluent) | Hindi (Fluent) | Gujarati (Native) | Marathi (Basic) | German ( Basic)

Nationality

Indian

+91 9920941107 harshsshah18@gmail.com | shah.harsh.bud16@cept.ac.in www.urbanspacedesigns.com

harshshah1818

Skills

Education

Advance Level

Intermediate Level

• • • • • •

Autocad Adobe Package Microsoft Office Sketchup Lumion V-ray

Grasshopper Arc GIS Revit Tableau 3ds Max Twin Motion

Soft Skills • • • • • •

Conceptualization Storyline Visualization Project Management Data Analysis Data Scheduling

Centre of Environmental Planning and Technology (CEPT) Ahmedabad, India June 2021 Mithibai College of Science, Commerce & Economics| HSC Mumbai, India April 2016 Shishuvan High School | ICSE Mumbai, India April 2014

Dissertation Conserving Image & Character of a Neighborhood Undergoing Redevelopment: Dadar - Matunga Precinct Guide: Vidyadhar K. Phatak Mumbai, India 05.2021

Work Experience

Competitions | Projects

Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs | New Delhi, India Data Analyst Intern - Smart Cities Mission Planning and phasing of 109 smart cities & analizing data 10.2019 - 12.2019

Ultratech Indianext Village 2047 Ahmedabad, India 03.2019

Archohm Consults pvt ltd. | Uttar Pradesh, India Design Intern Masterplanning, landscape design, street design, Urban design 05.2019 - 10.2019 Jatin Parekh and Associates | Mumbai, India Design Assistant Residential facades and landscape design for township project 05.2018 - 07.2018 Haresh Mehta Architects | Mumbai, India Design Intern Detailing of working drawings and drafting of plans 05.2017 - 07.2017

Micro Housing Delhi, India 10.2019 Reading and Narrating the Fort City of Jaisalmer Jaisalmer, India 12.2016 Aakar Design Competition Mumbai, India 02.2019 Railway Station Redevelopment Project Lonavala, India 09.2019

Academic Experience City Form and Emergence Workshop Spring, 2017

Humanities : Culture & Society Workshop Spring, 2018

Interactive Cities Workshop monsoon, 2017

Earth Construction: Honarshaala Construction Technology Workshop monsoon, 2017

Border Redefining Jaroslavice, Czech Republic Summer School at TU Wien 05.2018

President : Student Council Faculty of Planning CEPT University

Appendix: The work in this document includes work from academic studios, professional training, competitions and private projects undertaken during the Bachelor's of Urban Design graduate program at CEPT University, Ahmedabad.

Acknowledgement: The projects included in the portfolio wouldn't have been successful without the guidance of the program chair Prof. Melissa Smith and the urban design department at CEPT University, Ahmedabad. It was my pleasure working with great minds on such a diverse categories of projects and learning about the on site challenges which are to be faced during the process. This diversity of experiences wouldn't have been effective without the continuous support of my parents, family members and friends, always pushing me above my capabilities to help me grow. Lastly, the administration at Faculty of Planning, technical assistants and coordinator's support at each point in time was incredible and without their cooperation, the dealines couldn't have been met.

contents

//Foodista Central Productive Urbanism

//Tribal Research Institute Vernacular Architecture

//Experience Humane Humanizing Urban Spaces

//Local Area Planning Conserving Image and Character of a Neighborhood

//Heritage Street Design Heritage Fort Precinct Redevelopment

//Computational Design Parameteric Design & Analysis

//Safe Intersections Street and Junction Design

01.

Foodista Central Productive Urbanism Unit: Eco Warriors Year: Monsoon 2020 Location: Gandhinagar, Ahmedabad Theme: Edible Productive Public Space Role: Individual Work Site Area: 145 Acres Proposed Built up Area: 1,01,171 SQM Built Up: 17%

Foodista central envisions celebrating food at the center of the city. The project tries creating a total food scene at a city level public space that integrates food production, harvesting, and consumption by bringing food to the city centre. In a world that is dominated by processed foods, I believe a city should be equipped with producing at least a certain percentage of its food requirements with its available public open spaces for a more healthy and a sustainable living. Hence, the premise of the project is to use landscape and exterior programs as a catalyst for urban productive development. The vision of the masterplan is to connect people to food by making production visible within the city realm. This is achieved by creating a food centric landscape environment in the middle of the city where food is being grown, consumed and celebrated. The main hypothesis is to reimagine the central vista public space into a playful, socially engaging with a sound space for productive landscapes.

Master Plan

Grazing Field

Vista Farm

Commercial Plaza Visualisation: Everything grown around needs to be traded as well for the economic cycle to function. The commercial retail space ha

Sector Farm

Urban Forest

Rain Garden

Biodiversity Farm

ave food stores on its grade level with eateries and restaurants that provides seating space on the plaza as well as on its roof top.

Site Plan: Central Vista

Embracing with a new identity for the city, the vista emerges with the concept of a free flowing landscape form creating vibrant public spaces with edibl functions are strategically placed to respond to the edge and the grow patches.

Part Plan 1: Expanding on the productive theme, the grow areas are supplemented with urban forest corridor that stiches up the central vista and provides means of food and shelter for other urban fauna.

le landscapes that attract various functions and activities across user groups. The site plan depicts the geometry of the spaces and how different

Part Plan 2: The site is divided by four experiential plazas, which create hotspots for different functions and experiences for daily and occasional users.

Experiential Catalogue _ Programmatic Functions

User Experience: Grow Areas The view shows people sitting in the centre of the grow patches doing their daily chores and enjoying edible landscape as their view. The plaza and the e maximizing safety.

entry points also allow a huge flow of passer-by to move across the edges and help eye on street function for children playing the plaza area for

Conservatory: Open Cafeteria The cafeteria outside the conservatory serves food that is grown with hybrid crops that are experimented and grown within them. People can view them

Ground Relation: Sections

The section shows the varied ground conditions and the height to width ratio along the central vista edge for a better understanding of the quality of spa access both above and below the space making it a multi-usable space opposite the landmark building of Vidhaan Sabha. This space gives a clear view but will take over more of the city reaching the river alongside Gandhinagar. It will allow and provide more opportunities to local suppliers to meet growi

m while eating outside in the café.

ace. It also shows the largest attractor point, the food convention centre, which has an underground facility and an over ground green turf. People can w to the central vista as well as the Vidhaan sabha making it an iconic spot. Gradually Foodista central will not only confine itself to the central space ing demands and help Gandhinagar self sustainable in terms of its food requirements and make it a food heaven.

02.

Tribal Research Institute Vernacular Architecture Unit: Professional Training Year: Monsoon 2019 Location: Shillong, Meghalaya Theme: Institutional Complex Masterplan Role: Collaborative Work with a team of three Site Area: 25 Acres Proposed Built up Area: 13,967 SQM / 1,50,000 SQFT Built Up: 14%

The site region consists of a large flat valley, in the middle and steep slopes on the sides. A one lane road conects to a district road by the name of Babadam road, the nearest settlements are 4 kms away and the site lies in isolation with thick vegetation and fully grown trees. From the site of the existing museum one can see the Tura peak in the distance and a vast valley below. The site also has an HT line, and a few revenue roads /pagdandis passing through the site.

Institutional Block

Residential Block

Design Development

Institutional Block

Residential Block

Garo Architectural Elements

One edge of the house rests on the ground the other rests on stilts

Pitched roof

The Tribal houses use local materials like bamboo, wood and thatch, creating an earthy, raw houses with teraaces and verandahs.

Modern Interpretation of Garo Elements

Residential Module Development

The view is from besides the museum block in the plaza area, where the sports complex is shown. The plaza is in the centre of the site, connecting al ketball court in the centre surrounded by a running curcuit. The section show, how would the ground level looks like and how those spaces created ar

ll the blocks. This space is a common area for recreation and people come down to relax. It consists of a football court, Volleyball court and a basre prospected to be used.

03.

Experience Humane Humanizing Urban Spaces Unit: Humanizing Cities Year: Spring 2020 Location: Paldi, Ahmedabad Theme: Residential Master Plan Role: Individual Work Site Area: 35 Acres Park Area: 3.2 Acres Built Up: 82%

Unlike conventional designed neighborhoods, how can human experience act as the main focus while building spaces in harmony with the social & cultural lifestyle through urban forms & design. The Project is a speculative design intervention for neighborhood level existing urban space (neighborhood park) to create a community place in new urban development of Ahmedabad city. The design intervention is for humanising and redeveloping the urban space and the built edge using the place theory approach. I am developing a theoretical position & program and design response to the future needs of the community. The scope is to redesign the urban space and the existing built urban edge. The neighborhood is sparsely dense with a house type of bungalow typology on its immediate periphery and row houses and apartments towards the periphery. Being an Indian community, a lot of social daily patterns take place and the project focuses on how those patterns occur through various user groups and celebrate them.

Spot Activities

Karate/Yoga Classes : Trees | Grass | Shade

Vendors visiting : Junction | Entry Point | Shade

Otla/ Verandah : Direction of Opening | Visual Access

Gymming/Exercise : Health | Shade

Health Juice vendor : Entry Point| Health | Time

Commercial/Grocery : Node | Grade Level | Porous

Neighborhood Existing View 1

Existing Systems + Patterns

Existing Housing Typologies

Master Plan - Proposed

100

The master plan doesn’t limit itself only to the ground floor connectivity but also takes vertical connectivity in role. There is a pedestrian sky walk connecting periphery built to the central space directly, creating heirarchy of spaces through it at intervals for seamless pedestrian connectivity and accessibility.

Two Dead edges facing the central open space.

Limited houses connected to the central open space

Rigid compound walls + gated communities

Limited decentralized Amenities

No rigid compound walls

Centralized Amenities core

Separate Vehicular and Pedestrian Access, Connectivity Across

Maximum built edge connecting to the central space

Functional Spaces - Visualization

Floating Library

Grocery Store along Central Axis

Kids Play Zone

Workout Lawn + Deck

Commercial Built Typology

Amphi - Seating

Central Space - Plan Conceptualization

Temple Existing Central Space with same quadrant of spaces but all with same functions.

Adding another layer to create activities on various levels .

Grocery

Increasing the central space area to to accomodate more activities and public amenities.

Accessibility conn hotspots on site the and transit sto

Pedestrian overhead bridge connecting major hotspots and to the edge for enhanced activity experience.

1. Temple (Derasar) 2. Upashray (Ladies) 3. Upashray (Gents) 4. OTS Lecture Hall 5. Festival / Processions Open Corridor Space 6. Symbolic Structure 7. Residential Connections 8. Gazeebo

Defining the ext street as vehicu smooth loop

9. Waiting Area 10. Vending Zone (Upashray + Temple) 11. Kids Play Area 12. Amphi - Seating 13. Outdoor Cafeteria 14. OTS Gymnasium 15. Workout lawn

Transit

26 2

4 5 6 30

9 1 11

School Existing Pattern

Central Space - Plan Proc

Temple

necting two major e school on the left op on the right.

Internal Street network enhanced connectivity within spaces with a central seating space for visibility.

Two public amenities, the temple and the upashray shifted to the central space for user accessibilty

Eateries Dairy Seating

ternal peripherial ular movement for of movement.

Defining the internal streets as pedestrian streets for vehicular free movement.

16. Indoor Cafeteria 17. Food Vending Zone 18. Dairy Store 19. Utility Store 20. Central Seating Space 21. Multipurpose sports court 22. Amphi-theatre 23. OTS Workspace

Making the edge porous and permeable for smooth movement and accessibility on site.

24. Elevated Pedestrian Bridge 25. Water Deck 26. Secluded Seating space 27. Amphi-theatre Stage 28. Study/ Reading Room 29. Forest Jumping ( Kids) 30. Entry/Exit – Pedestrian Pathway

Grocery

Upashray Library Vending

Transit

30 28

18 17

Utilities

7 29

Temple

7 Grocery

cess + Detail

School Proposed Pattern

Urban Edge – Form Finding

Maximizes Day light directly + Refractions Every opening faces minimum of three other openings, which are all exposed to maximum day light.

All openings connected to the open space The visual accessibility of this building edge is quite open as every extrusion has a view to the central open space.

Wind circulation and Visual Accessibility The gap in between act as a perforation for wind to pass by and the direction of it is according to the wind directions in that area.

Vertical Interactions with minimum of three openings This enhances vertical interaction and promotes it in all sense. This built form is aiming at socializing at maximum levels.

Central Space – Section (Longitudinal)

Central Space – Section (Latitudinal)

Central Space - Human Eye View

er est

High - Rise Typology

ral

t Cen

lw Rai

High-Rise Typology

Mid - Rise Typology

Low-Rise Typology

T D R Receiving Zone

Khodadad Circle

T D R Sending Zone

04.

Local Area Planning Conserving Image and Character of a Neighborhood Unit: Humanizing Cities Year: Spring 2020 Location: Paldi, Ahmedabad Theme: Residential Master Plan Role: Individual Work Site Area: 640 Acres Ward: F North Built Up: 53%

Mixed use Typology

King Circle

Mid-Rise Typology

ow-Rise Typology

The project focuses on bridging the gap between the Development Plan of Mumbai to its implementation in the island city by understanding the neighborhood at the micro-level employing the Local Area Plan. However, in the current planning process, the document reads more like an argument towards offering free houses to existing tenants, increasing the built-up area, rather than a careful approach towards enhancing public life and identity. Focusing on the neighborhoods that are prey to redevelopment, the government has eased its process by introducing incentive FSI, inviting privatization to take over as an economically viable solution. However, due to lack of attention to details and development codes, this has resulted in tall buildings on marginal-sized plots. Being my capstone project, this thesis aims at providing recommendations that can be used to preserve the image and character of the neighborhood of Dadar- Matunga precinct.

Built form Policy Recommendations Exisiting Condition (1960s)

Redeveloped Co

Neighbourhood Plan (Existing)

Neighbourhood

Plot Area: 1084 m2

Ground Coverage: 390 m2

Ground Coverage: 25

Total BUA: 1170 m2

Number of Storey: 18

FSI Consumed: 1.01

Total BUA: 4878 m2

Gross FSI: 4.5 | Net F

Neighbourhoo

Image and Character before Redevelopment

ondition (2000s)

Expected Condition (Proposed)

Plan (Expected)

Neighbourhood Plan (Recommended)

G1 Plot Area: 5350 m2 (5 Plot Amalgamation)

50 m2

Ground Coverage: 4190 m2

Number of Storey: 6

FSI: 3.0

Total BUA: 25145 m2 Gross FSI: 4.7 | Net FSI: 3.0

od Elevations

Human Life on the streets of Matunga Precinct

05.

Heritage Street Design Heritage Fort Precinct Redevelopment Unit: Professional Training Year: Monsoon 2019 Location: Patiala. Punjab Theme: Street and Plaza Design Role: Collaborative work with a team of six Site Area: 1.5 kms radius Around the Fort Street Length: 2.5 kms No. of Plazas: 6

This project is an initiative of the Govt. of Punjab to construct a Heritage Street around the Qila Mubarak, Patiala. To undertake the same, Patiala Development Authority has been appointed as the nodal agency. The precinct is located in the heart of the city around the Qila Mubarak (as marked on the map). The area under the scope of this project includes the stretch from Samania gate to shahi samadhan, bartan bazaar, main Qila Mubarak font, Darshani gate, Jutti bazaar upto tank road, covering a total stretch of approx. 1860m. To prepare a comprehensive planning, additional length of approximately 950m has been covered in the Masterplan. This includes stretches which extends from junctions, road which extends to Sanauri Gate Complex and the road behind Qila wall (2 sides). The scope involves designing six plazas within the stretch making it an over-all site of attraction and tourist friendly, for smooth convience of both, the local stakeholders as well as it’s visitors.Being an old city neighbourhood, there were complex conditions like limitation of space with high population density, making it more challenging and interesting.

Street Design

Existing Condition

Proposed Condition

Author’s Interpretation

Central Plaza

Working Drawing adjecent the fort wall

The focus of this iteration is the materiality, frontages and heritage facade which in this case is the fort wall, is to be restored. The ground, is to be paved by 200x200 sized red cobble stones throughout the plaza area on a single level.

Exisitng shops

Street

Open Cafeteria

Viewing Gallery

Shops

Temple

Planters + Seating

Proposed Visualization

Cultural Plaza

Grade Level

Street Cafeteria The views show how the space is imagined. This space earlier was an under-utlized space where chunk of it was a school and the remaining area was just a broken waste structure. We refurbished it with glass bricks if you closely see to make it an innovative space not destroying an losing its history and nature.

Basement Level

Terrace Lounge The plan above show the entry and exit of the underground parking area and the movement of people which is anticipated as per the design. It is a cultural space where people can spend time within the western style heritage complex. This plaza will act as a landing point after the entire heritage street tour.

Visualized Plan This plaza was considered to be the biggest FnB hub in the entire city. It is envisioned to become a place where cultural shops on the grade level and terrace cafes above them are built for attracting maximum tourism at the heritage street. This place has the most important function which is no where present on site, i.e the parking area which can accomodate around 250 cars.

Sectional Elevation

06.

Computational Design Parameteric Design & Analysis Unit: Generative Techniques for Urban Place Making Year: Monsoon 2018 Location: Manhattan, New York Theme: Urban Block Design Role: Collaborative work with a team of two Site Area: 500 m walkable block size Street Length: 2.5 kms No. of Genepool Parameters: 7

In the next 20-30 years urban population explosion will demand 3000 new cities, with maximum of these in South Asia. A major concern within these is to incorporate density and a mix of program without compromising spatial quality and comfort in order to cope with climatic changes. The site chosen for the main project is the derelict area of Calico mill lands and its surroundings. Through the studies of urban tissue samples and the analysis made of the interactions across various hierarchical levels within the built fabric, develop a generative set of rules at neighborhood scale, using a strategy for urban intervention based on the readings of the site and the context. Eventual aim was to design an urban tissue and its systems, and the detailed design of one ‘cell’ within it. Computational Design helps in bringing out the fittest solution to the corresponding context and help define the master plan and the urban functions across the neighbourhood.

Decoding Manhattan

Climatic Analysis Isovists Isovists is the sets of all points visible from a given vantage point in space with respect to an environment. Its shape and size is liable to change with position. The method seems relevant to behavioural and perceptual studies in architecture, especially in the areas of view control, privacy, defensibility, dynamic complexity and spaciousness judgements. Sky View Factor The sky view factor (SVF) denotes the ratio between radiation received by a planar surface and that from the entire hemispheric radiating environment and is calculated as the fraction of sky visible from the ground up. SVF is a dimensionless value that ranges from 0 to 1. Surface geometry has a complex influence on the urban atmosphere. The most important geometric effect is that of sky obstruction as it delays the cooling of the surface during clear, calm nights The thermal properties in built-up areas and the counter radiation from obstructions affect the net radiation and consequently the temperature pattern. Solar Radiation It is the amount of radiation recieved on any given surface from the sun, measure as the power per unit area recieved in specific time. It is useful for acknowledging thermal comfort and energy efficiency of any built environment. Sunlight Hours We can use these metrics within the generative design process to automatically ‘evolve’ building forms that perform better in relation to the sunlight hours and surfaces that receive the maximum/minimum amount to decide organization, orientation, material of form. Sun Shading Shadow analysis using DIVA can give resultant values for surfaces measured for, this can help us to see ground conditions and evaluate why certain spaces may function well as public open spaces during different months of the year. Wind Analysis Wind simulation at pedestrian level in the streets of Ahmedabad, is done using Computational Fluid Dynamics. It measures the velocity of wind (m/s) flowing through the built form along with the pressure (Pa) that the wind has on the built surfaces.

06.

Safe Intersections Street and Junction Design Unit: Streets and the City Year: Monsoon 2018 Location: Ahmedabad, India Theme: Street and Junction Design Role: Individual Work Site Area: 765 acres Street Length: 1.7 kms No. of Junctions: 5

Due to the immense travel demand, the streets are turned into the conduits for personalised motor vehicles and as a consequence the streets started losing their multi-functionality to a single use i.e. to move motor vehicles. Most of the Indian cities design their streets which are primarily deliberated for vehicles with a lack in holistic people-oriented design approach. The adverse effect of this approach has made the pedestrians, cyclists and public transport users as the most vulnerable users of the streets in any Indian city. This project focuses on rightsizing and re-designing of existing streets to turn them into Complete Streets which enables safe, attractive and comfortable access and travel to all the users of the street. The primary aim of this project is to bring the sensitiveness and importance of anthropometry and ergonomics in the process of street design. With the intension of designing safe streets, the most unsafe segments are the point of collision being the intersections. Hence, this project attempts to focus more on intersection design and make it safer for smoother transits.

Existing Condition

Proposed Condition

Existing View

Proposed View

Technical Intersection Plan

Proposed Aerial View

Existing Aerial View

Proposed Human Experience 1

Proposed Human Experience 2

Portfolio

Harsh S. Shah Selected Works 2016-2021 harshsshah18@gmail.com +91 9920941107

harshshah1818