VARUN AMAR KAUSHIK Principal Architect SIDE, New Delhi
contact +91-7728044943 varunamarkaushik@gmail.com
Varun is an architect from TU Delft, Faculty of Architecture, Urbanism and Building Sciences, Netherlands. His professional interest lies in working on redefining the role of architecture as a motor for social and cultural regeneration. After growing up in the North Western state of Rajasthan in India he received his Bachelor degree from School of Planning and Architecture, New Delhi in 2010. He has ever since been involved with diverse academic and professional projects that range from remote Himalayan towns to extreme urban centers like New Delhi, Hamburg, Chicago, Capetown and Amsterdam. His works start with accepting the diversity of cultures as is encountered by architects today and he enjoys submitting to it. He has worked for 3 years with Mr. Nishant lall, at nila-A Architecture and Urban Design Studio, New Delhi. During this time he worked on projects that focused primarily on urban placemaking exercises. Some of the key projects were National Tax Headquarter, New Delhi: Ganga Riverfront Re-development, Patna, School of Planning and Architecture, Bhopal and Forest Department Headquarter, Patna. In the past few years he has been actively involved in architectural and social workshops and humanitarian missions. Flood Re-construction in Leh with SEEDS India, Em-power Shack Cape Town Project with Urban Think Tank, ETH Zurich and Fab Lab with Terreform ONE, New York are a few worth mentioning. His academic research primarily focuses on developing a Typological Framework that guides the project and beyond. The main aim is to understand and reduce the divide between urban and architectural discourses by giving priority to process over preconceived images of the end result. During his Master studies he primarily worked under Prof. Roberto Cavallo at the Chair of Complex Projects. Here he constructed his Masters as a process into re-defining the relation between Urban and Architecture while always focusing on the transition between scales. Key projects that helped test this research were South-works Urban Research Initiative, Chicago and Hamburg Ring Re-vitalisation, Hamburg. Varun currently heads the Studio for Interdisciplinary Design (SIDE) in New Delhi and also work as a Research Consultant for the Urban Think Tank, Chair of Architecture and Urban Design at ETH, Zurich.
ACADEMIC PROJECTS 01.
SOUTH-WORKS URBAN RESEARCH INITIATIVE MASTER THESIS PROJECT 2013-14, TU DELFT
ROLE: DESIGN LEAD CHAIR: COMPLEX PROJECTS GUIDE: ROBERTO CAVALLO + HUBERT VAN DER MEEL LOCATION: SOUTH-CHICAGO NEIGHBORHOOD, CHICAGO
02.
THAME VALLEY RE-DEVELOPMENT PROJECT
DESIGN AND BUILD RESEARCH (ONGOING), ETH ZURICH
ROLE: PROJECT LEAD CHAIR: URBAN THINK TANK, DARCH GUIDE: PROF. ALFREDO BRILLEMBOURG AND PROF. HUBERT KLUMPNER LOCATION: EVEREST NATIONAL PARK REGION, NEPAL
03.
HAMBURG RING REVITALIZATION
SEM-2 DESIGN PROJECT 2013, TU DELFT ROLE: DESIGN LEAD CHAIR: HYBRID BUILDINGS + URBANISM DEPT. GUIDE: ROBERTO CAVALLO + CONRAD KICKERT LOCATION: DEICHTORPLATZ, HAMBURG
04.
PAROOL TRIANGLE INFILL PROJECT SEM-1 DESIGN PROJECT 2012, TU DELFT ROLE: DESIGN LEAD CHAIR: HYBRID BUILDINGS GUIDE: OLINDO CASO LOCATION: AMSTERDAM
PROFESSIONAL PROJECTS 05.
URBAN AANGAN
ROW HOUSING (ONGOING) ROLE: PROJECT LEAD OFFICE: SIDE, NEW DELHI LOCATION: KOTA
06.
HOUSE AT THE CROSS-ROADS PRIVATE RESIDENCE (ONGOING) ROLE: PROJECT LEAD OFFICE: SIDE, NEW DELHI LOCATION: KOTA
07.
EUROPAN 13 EUROPEAN YOUNG ARCHITECTS COMPETITION (SHORTLISTED ENTRY) 2015 ROLE: DESIGN LEAD TEAM MEMBER: AGATA MAJCHERSKA LOCATION: LINZ, AUSTRIA
08.
NATIONAL TAX HEADQUARTERS
NATIONAL COMPETITION(SPECIAL MENTION) 2010 ROLE: TEAM MEMBER OFFICE: nilaA, NEW DELHI LOCATION: NEW DELHI
09.
STATE FOREST HEADQUARTERS
INVITED COMPETITION (WINNER) 2011 ROLE: DESIGN LEAD OFFICE: nilaA, NEW DELHI LOCATION: PATNA
10.
LEH RECONSTRUCTION
HIMALAYAN FLOOD RELIEF PROJECT 2011 ROLE: SITE SUPERVISOR NGO: SEEDS INDIA + LEDeG LOCATION: LEH, LADAKH
01
SOUTH-WORKS URBAN RESEARCH INITIATIVE MASTER THESIS PROJECT 2013-14, TU DELFT
Developing an urban strategy to reactivate 600 acre site of US Steel Industry in South Chicago. Further testing the same through critical architectural interventions
US STEEL WORKING south-chicago an industrial enclave
US STEEL MOVED OUT south-chicago enclaved by means of restricted opportunities
SOUTH-WORKS MASTERPLAN 2006 neglecting the neighborhood project
REAL SOUTH-WORKS PROJECT bottom-up input from neighborhood + top down influx from city
CONCENTRATING EFFORTS
Due to their walkable accessibility and overlap of infrastructure, 87th and 83rd streets were chosen to perform an inventory of potential urban nodes and linkages.
KEY NODES + PEDESTRIAN LINKAGES
THE URBAN STRATEGY
focuses on finding a kick start for the urban development. The anchor projects capitalizes on the positive aspects of the site like its proximity to the lake and opportunity to be the pioneer settlers of the development. The morphology and phasing of this anchor should take into account, the image of the city and the unpredictable nature of the events to follow. It should be able to adapt and manifest in response to failures or even unexpected success. To find this transition in scales and its continuity is to create a TYPOLOGICAL FRAMEWORK. It restricts urban insensitivity and promotes matter of factness of contemporary urban conditions and critical analysis of the same.
THE DESIGN CONCEPT
revolves around three key nodes and the public domain connecting the same. Programmatic allocation at these nodes makes sure that there is an emphasis on communal overlap while maintaining the domain of ownership that is necessary to avoid abrupt collision of the old and new residents. A framework of open spaces is designed to act as the receptor for future built spaces. A hierarchical dual-loop park system, interspersed with supporting public buildings, is at the core of the open space network.
ARCHITECTURAL INTERVENTION
PROJECT SELECTION Personal fascination and challenges
URBAN PIVOT Translating urban movement into architecture
THE ARCHITECTURAL ASPIRATION
for the project is to become an unexpected extension of the urban journey that seems to end at the site. The building perform as a pivot around which flows the urban movement.
ARCHITECTONIC EXPRESSION
emulates the transition into the third dimension as these lines twist around the pivot. The building appears to catch these linear lines and process them into an upward rising spiral. This extension of urban into the architecture is exaggerated as the Research Institute is accessed through a ramp that climbs 12 m. This also integrates the Public Forum on the ground with the Lakefront Plaza while raising the more quiet work zones above.
SHARED FACILITIES align along the spiraling facade to emphasize the extension of urban movements within the building
ENTRY LEVEL PLAN
B
TYPICAL RESEARCH FLOOR
SECTION B
FACADE DYNAMICS
PUBLIC SPIRAL cracking open the facade along the shared facilities
CLIMATE CONTROL minimizing solar exposure on N-E-S segment.
D-03
02 THAME VALLEY RE-DEVELOPMENT PROJECT
ONGOING DESIGN AND BUILD RESEARCH PROJECT AT ETH, ZURICH
Developing a holistic rural re-development scheme as a post disaster response. Further installing new construction knowledge base and skill sets in the remote valley through design and construction of three community buildings.
THAME VALLEY RE-DEVELOPMENT
The project is an interdisciplinary design research project between research groups at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (ETH Zurich), US based NGO Thame Sherpa Heritage Fund and associated partners. The project aims at multidimensional impact without being restricted to disaster mitigation. Instead it tries to work on the opportunity, that arises out of a devastating natural disaster, to invest in safer and improved ways of living and skill set development within the region.
ARCHITECTURAL STRATEGY [TERRITORY]
CONSTRUCTION SYSTEMS [BUILDING]
The main objectives of the project over the next one year include: •
Combine local know-how and international expertise to install community resilience and sustainable construction practices in Thame valley.
•
Design and build three key community buildings in the valley, 1. Thame School and Student Dormitory, Thame 2. Hostel at Dechen Chokhorling Monastry, Thame 3. Thame Valley Community Center, Thameteng
•
Develop and assess sustainable construction techniques and materials that would help improve the seismic performance of un-reinforced stone masonry and reduce dependence on prevailing labor intensive ways of construction in the Thame valley and other remote alpine settlements in the Sagarmatha National Park Region in Nepal.
•
Focus on establishing an enhanced and robust construction knowledge base within the region that is accessible to all.
LOCATION PLAN
CONCEPTUAL FRAMEWORK
The school achieves both structural stability and functional vitality by organizing spaces for intentional use (boxes) in a flux of shared facilities and outdoor environment.
SCHOOL SITE PLAN
NEW AND IMPROVED CONSTRUCTION SYSTEMS
03 HAMBURG RING REVITALIZATION SEM-2 DESIGN PROJECT 2013, TU DELFT
Identifying network and to it while on adjacent
a missing link in Hamburg’s public developing a comprehensive response colaborating with students working sites.
THE MISSING LINK IN HAMBURG’S PUBLIC NETWORK.
RE-CONNECTING DIECHTORPLATZ AN EXERCISE IN URBAN PLACEMAKING.
PROJECT IDENTIFICATION The Historic Market Halls of Diechtorplatz have now been turned into cultural centers and I chose to position myself benefiting and contributing to this new intermediate phenomenon at the junction of historic Hamburg Center, the industrial character of the railways and the contemporary Hafen City development.
URBAN PLAN
THE UNDERLYING IDEA
for urban regeneration is to guide people to the waterfront and other cultural establishments on Deichtorplatz. The urban place making exercise focuses on creating a campus style park system in the diechtorplatz after reclaiming a part of public space overtaken by traffic currently. The movement pattern is guided by urban vistas and view corridors marking key lines of access.
THE ARCHITECTURAL PROGRAM
includes a hotel and a small library on the Diechtorplatz with the overall development and maintenance of the park undertaken by the hotel in return for subsidised land prices. A small apartment building is built on the City Center side of the development to draw a curtain on the heavy traffic and make it possible to develop more small lower scale plazas that characterize the historic center.
BUSINESS HOTEL, DIECHTORPLATZ
A
ENTRY LEVEL PLAN (BUSINESS HOTEL)
SECTION A
BUILDING DYNAMICS - entry level of the hotel works in tandem with the library to activate the public park and the waterfront. - pedestrians are drawn towards the park along the curve of the library adjacent to the hotel lobby entrance. - waterfront is activated by the restaurant and its terrace opening on it along with the raised parks and exhibition center opening its adjacent edge. - the rear vertical circulation is used for night club entry and for offices during the day.
LATERAL SECTION
04 PAROOL TRIANGLE INFILL PROJECT
SEM-1 DESIGN PROJECT 2012, TU DELFT
“Masterplan is Dead” was the starting assumption to rethink the urban adaptive reuse of Parool Triangle.
URBAN REACTION
existing typology and undefined open space
new typology of transition and spaces within
layering of parool plaza
THE
EXISTING modernist built fabric on the site appears to be incomplete as it abruptly encounters the historic closed urban block typology. The clue lies in an urban surgery adding critical masses and facade extensions that help in the transition from one typology to the other.
PROGRAMMATIC ARRANGEMENT
THE URBAN MOVEMENT
is organised in two levels segregating cars and pedestrians. However, the functional intensity is dispersed along the pedestrian movement to promote un-intended use of public space and to give reasoning to the social movement across Wibautstraat. The Parool Plaza celebrates the presence of immense functional diversity in order to create an active public place.
PAROOL PLAZA
LIBRARY AND THE ART SCHOOL
URBAN BRIDGE
A PARALLEL DOMAIN
second floor plan
- the project is organised around a continuous pedestrian link through Parool Triangle that connects the communities on either side of Wibautstraat. It meanders among the existing and new buildings transforming in size and expression depending upon the changing context. - the bridge is designed as a place to stop and enjoy the new vantage point to view Amsterdam and also to act as a gateway to mark the entry to the boulevard.
DESIGN DEVELOPMENT
05 URBAN AANGAN
ROW HOUSING, KOTA
The project aims to rethink the developer model for row housing in Kota. The design is for 10 duplex houses each 1500 sq.ft.
CONSTRUCTION PHASE
06 HOUSE AT THE CROSS-ROADS PRIVATE RESIDENCE, KOTA
The house plays up with the corner location. The design uses long linear volumes that weave together to exaggerate the tension at the crossroads.
GROUND FLOOR
FIRST FLOOR
07 EUROPAN 13
EUROPEAN COMPETITION 2015, SHORTLISTED ENTRY
The project aims at re-imagining the housing typology in the post industrial city of Linz in Aurtria. The focus is on establishing new genetic code for a creative city.
URBAN MOVEMENT AND LINKAGES
URBAN MOBILITY
HIERARCHY OF USE AND ENTRY SEQUENCE
RE-CONNECTING TO THE PAST: The design takes crucial clues from the edge conditions and pedestrian connections with the existing courtyard housing. The proposal focuses upon developing the Dorfstrasse as a consolidated and free flowing park while highlighting the entry portals to the courtyards in order to mark the un-interrupted connection of every private house with the new public domain on Europastrasse. Also, the sound barrier on the Europastrasse is re-configured to become the link between old and the new development along Europastrasse.
STRATEGIC URBAN FRAMEWORK: The design is an attempt to strengthen the public domain by introducing an active pedestrian street cutting through the already prevalent lines of movement. The intervention is aimed to establish a new center for the entire neighborhood and hence, finds its core ideology in tying up the loose ends of the pedestrian network.
FORM EVOLUTION
- extending the central public domain to create semi public niche. - fails to contain the scale and character of the central street
- extending the central street to create an entry plaza for residential apartments in the West.
- 4 housing slabs intersect and overlap to create two courtyards on the street scale and another larger enclosure in the higher dimension. - apartments face north and south
- critical extrusions from the facade to highlight shared living, community rooms, cultural and work modules.
PROGRAMMATIC DISTRIBUTION COMMERCIAL AND PUBLIC
shops and commerce public and collecitive facilities health care work at home offices
HOUSING TYPES
courtyard level apartmets duplex aparmtents gallery housing single floor apartment startes studio work at home apartments student housing
INTERPRETTING THE ENTRY TYPOLOGY This building goes beyond being the building at the entrance. It is concieved as a family of genetically identical buildings that vary in size, status and functional intensity. This goes beyond being a gateway to the new Oed Sud center. It aspires to re-purpose the Europastrasse. It aspires to accompany you along the street. It aspires to be a regular occurrence along the street rather than a Gateway.
FUNCTIONAL BREAKDOWN COMMERCIAL AND PUBLIC
The set of buildings is concieved as one typology but has further smaller sub sets that allow it to be built in phases.
wellness center climbing wall sport center neighbourhood promotion- and infopoint glasshouse
HOUSING TYPOLOGIES
URBAN CORNER AS PIVOT
glasshouse apartments single floor apartment short stay housing
WHERE OLD MEETS NEW
gallery apartments
08 NATIONAL TAX HEADQUARTER COMPETITION 2011
The project was to re-envision the headquarters for the Finance Ministry of India. An high profile office building with public interface connecting it to the urban setting of Lutyen’s Delhi.
UNDERSTANDING LUTYEN’S DELHI
DENSITY STRUCTURE
http://upload.wikimedia.org/
METRO CONNECTIVITY
PODIUM AS THE NEGOTIATOR OF URBAN SCALE
TYPOLOGY
A
ENTRY LEVEL PLAN
SECTION A
CENTRAL COURT
WEST ELEVATION
09 STATE FOREST HEADQUARTER INVITED COMPETITION 2011
The Forest Department of Bihar organised the competition for their HQ in Patna city. The design, inspired by the forest undergrowth, has free flowing public domain on the ground and interconnected offices stcaked above. I was the team leader and managed the overall architectural design and presentation.
The proposed Forest Bhawan is inspired by the notion of a “forest habitat� and the form of the tree where branches offer the physical structure for the leaves and canopy. The floors of the proposed building are like terraces on a branch of a tree and overlapping light cutouts allow light to filter down in a diffused manner, very much like in a forest.
LONGITUDINAL SECTION
DESIGN MEASURES
NORTH ELEVATION
LATERAL SECTION THE PROPOSED BUILDING
rethinks the public offices typology in India. It has been designed to maximize public interaction and urban views and achieve an enhanced working environment.
THE PUBLIC FUNCTIONS
such as Auditorium and Nature gallery are located on the ground for easy access. The 3 floors of office are raised above the public functions and can be accessed via visitors lobby and a grand entry stairs. The Lobby is perched on the first floor overlooking the entry area and the Nature Gallery.
THE CENTRAL ATRIUM
allows natural light to filter in the workspaces and has operable vents that provide ventilation in the cooler months.
THE OFFICE FLOORS
have been sandwiched between public floors below and guest rooms above. Passive cooling measures helps shade and ventilate the open plan work zone. A system of internal staircases have been superimposed on the office layout to increase the informal connectivity amongst the departments.
AFTER COMPLETION PHOTOS
10 LEH RECONSTRUCTION
HIMALAYAN FLOOD RELIEF PROJECT 2011
I worked as site supervisor to oversee construction of 6 permanent shelters in villages around leh, in the upper himalayan region of ladakh.(Project won CNN-IBN “Indian of the Year” award 2010: Public Service category)
THE DISASTER: LOCATION AND IMPACT LADAKH is a remote Himalayan region in northern India. It is a cold desert where winter temperatures plummet close to - 40o C. In august 2010 a flash flood hit the capital town of Leh and its surrounding areas leaving large parts of the area destroyed and submerged under mud slides. SEEDS INDIA and LEDeG took up the challange to develop 14 residential units trying to set up a model for future construction within the community.
VISION: To build safe, comfortable and environmentally & culturally suitable houses for affected families to help them survive the approaching winter.
HIGHLIGHTS OF THE PROJECT: • Use of locally available materials as far as possible to reduce environmental impact. • Incorporating new building techniques such Compressed Stabilized Earth Blocks and seismic bands to ensure safety from future disasters like floods and earthquakes. • To achieve appropriate thermal comfort levels, features like Trombe Wall and thermal insulation in exposed surfaces have been incorporated. • Promoting local building skills to reduce dependence on external aid. • Participation of families in design to help preserve local architectural and cultural heritage and also to provide a scope for expansion.
Southern facades were made entirely out of cseb and layered with trombe wall to increase the heat retention capacity.
Locally cultivated poplar trunks being used as rafters.
18 inch cavity walls were constructed out of local mud bricks and filled with saw dust before topping them off with a layer of compressed stabilised earth blocks.
Traditional roof construction using layers of poplar tree trunks and sticks under clay finish.
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