Portfolio

BHAGYASSHREE RAMAKRISHNA URBAN DESIGN PORTFOLIO PROFESSIONAL + PUBLISHED

Milan’s Design Districts

San Francisco’s Grid

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Mumbai’s Coast

HARVARD URBAN REVIEW

SALONE DEL MOBILE 2025

TACTICAL URBAN INTERVENTIONS

URBAN DESIGN GUIDELINES

CAPACITY BUILDING WORKSHOPS

ACADEMIC RESEARCH GRANT

BHAGYASSHREE RAMAKRISHNA bhagyasshree1@gmail.com| Ph: +1 510 7742 871| California, USA| linkedin.com/in/bhagyasshree-ramakrishna

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10 years of work experience as an Urban Designer, Architect + Research.

Led and implemented low-cost tactical urban interventions, streetscapes, public parks.

Contributed to journals, book chapters, and conferences focused on spatial equity.

Key Professional Experience Urban Designer |Egis Group + Van Leer Foundation (VLF), URBAN95 (2023-24) Designed and executed child-friendly cities through low-cost tactical urban interventions school streets, playparks, school yards, primary healthcare center yards, crèches Capacity-building workshops with the Government, led community-participation events Urban Designer , HCP, Ahmedabad, India (2019) Mumbai Port Trust, Brownfield Project, Regeneration of a Commercial District Architect, Katerra, India | Townhomes in Santacruz, CA, Prefabricated Construction Architect, BRIC Design Pvt. Ltd., India | Primary School Design, Villa Housing Scheme Architect, Urban Interventions, India |Conservation of Portuguese Churches

Education UC Berkeley, California, USA | Master in Urban Design (MUD) (2024-25) Thesis: Redesign of the Civic Center in San Francisco, CA Mobile Home Parks, Santa Cruz, CA Pinnacles National Park, CA| Presented to the City of Hollister, CA Improving Street intersection at Sliplanes| Presented to the City of Berkeley, CA Garage as the startup space for home-grown businesses, Richmond, CA

Certifications “Mapping Cultural Resources: A Tool for Strengthening the Future” “Public Policy Research”

Skills and Focus Interests Drafting and Visualization tools Adobe suite, AutoCAD,Sketchup, InDesign, Photoshop, Illusrator Urban Infomatics ArcGIS, MS Office, Python Interpersonal Skills: Equity Leadership, communication collaboration, decision-making

CEPT University, Ahmedabad, India | Master in Urban Design (M.Arch) (2016-18) Politecnico di Milano, Milan Italy | Master in Urban Design (Thesis Exchange) Thesis: Examining transformation of Industrial Districts: Case of Art Districts in Milan,Italy Mumbai University, Rizvi, India | Bachelors in Architecture (B.Arch) (2009-13)

Awards and Research Grants Berkeley Energy & Resources Collaborative (BERC), UC Berkeley Finalist Research Grant: Awarded the Saint Gobain Research Grant Program 2022-23 Grant Awarded Urban Studio Research Project (USRP) Council of Architecture CEPT University Excellence Awards: for Studio Unit “Ungendering the Everyday City” Citizen ‘Spirit of Mumbai’ Award for aiding rescue operations for flood victims

Academic Positions Assistant Professor, Mumbai University | Masters in Urban Design Lead Studio Co-Tutor, CEPT University, Ahmedabad| Bachelors in Urban Design Thesis Advisor, CEPT + Mumbai University, India| Bachelors in Urban Design

Peer-Reviewed Urban Design Research Publications Harvard Urban Review: The (In)visible Aides of the Tenebrous Urban Networks.

Cidades. Comunidades e territórios |Affordability in the habitat planning of new towns Tekton Journal|Case of Industrial Design Districts in Milan Cultplay | culture of play for children in informal settlements edging the highways Metropolitan Tourism | changing tourism patterns for the expanded metropolis Mumbai Geographies of the Anthropocene| Negotiations of Cultural Markers along the coast Blurred Boundaries | Role of Beaches in Reclaiming Women’s Right to the City CAMOC-ICOM| Curating Informalities: Syncretism of Social Innovation in the Museum 3

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01 child in the city

02 off the main street

child friendly cities professional on-site Pune, India Egis + Van Leer Foundation

garage as economic equity model academic studio Richmond, California UC Berkeley

03 paradoxes of lake development

04 resurging bridges

05 integrating industrial districts

06 geographies of incineration

water equity research on-site Mumbai, India Council of Architecture

form and morphology academic thesis Milan, Italy Politecnico di Milano

making of a Lake + Tech district urban design competition Cleveland, Ohio UC Berkeley

spatial equity and landuse policy Journal Article Harvard Urban Review

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01_CHILD IN THE CITY (constellation of spaces) Programming urban interventions for child-friendly public spaces Project Type: Office Work Role: Urban Designer, 2022-2023 Organization: Urban95 program Egis India in collaboration with Bernard Van Leer Foundation, Egis International and Pune Municipal Corporation Site: Pune, India Theme: Community-Participation, Child-Sensitive Urban Design

5 # URBAN DESIGN PROJECTS

KIDS’S FESTIVAL

7 # TACTICAL URBAN INTERVENTIONS

3 # URBAN DESIGN GUIDELINES

CAPACITY BUILDING WORKSHOPS

COLLABORATION WITH COLLEGES AND SCHOOLS

As a part of Pune Municipal Corporation’s Urban95 program, supported by the Bernard van Leer Foundation, Phase 2 of the Project focused on scaling up Child-centric urban interventions across the city of Pune.

Infant, Toddler and Caregiver destinations like pre-primary and primary school, day-care centres, maternity homes, dispensaries, vendor kiosks, safe public transport facilities were identified and examined to create a fostering safe play in neighbourhoods, crime prevention, and providing a clean and healthy environment.

The guidelines are targeted to assist a range of stakeholders with an interest in working towards creating safer environments for ITCs. These include urban practitioners, Pune Municipal Corporation officials, Relevant District and State Departments, Local communities, activist groups, NGOs, working in any field related to safety in an urban environment, and ITC welfare.

The present neighbourhoods in our cities are not primarily designed to manifest this perception and hence, many instances of crimes, road accidents are recorded every year. Also, due to rapid urbanization, our environmental quality (air, noise pollution, etc.) degrading, therefore, impacting the health of the surroundings. Growing up in unsafe or unhealthy urban environments will negatively impact the ECD of our next generations. Hence, it is important to include this vision of providing a safe and healthy environment while designing and planning our urban spaces.

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spectrum of child-centric urban spaces in Pune City

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Workflow, Processes and Projects

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Capacity Building Govt. Dept

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Tactical - School Streets

Low-Cost Design Testing

Brainstorming tactical design with Students

Kids Festival

Childcare + health workers

Community Participative Survey

Tactical - School Yards

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A neighbourhood with a network of child-centric anchors

Improves social skill development

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Improves Sensory & Fine motor skills development

Builds balance and muscle coordination

Builds a sense of alertness

Creates a calming effect

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Existing Planter Bed

SECTION BB'

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Planter Bed

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Existing Tree

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NOTES:1. All Dimensions are in meters, Dimensions to be verified on site.

2. The Drawing is Not to Scale, unless specified.

Curb: brickwork 300mm height Seating: Brickwork 600mm ht, finished with granite

14. Sandpit

NOTES:1. This drawing is a property of Egis India Consulting 1 Engineers and may not be reproduced without written consent.

2. Do not scale the drawing. Only written dimensions must be followed.

3. All dimensions must be verified at site.

4. This drawing is not to be used as a construction drawing. 1.10 5. This drawing is prepared as per the survey provided by PMC.

Plinth: PCC +150mm level

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Sandpit

Seating: Brickwork A B 300x450mm finished with granite 50mm

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Vetrified tile flooring finished with carpet 500x500

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Roof with 300mm overhang.

Columns: B 75x75-mm an baseplate 3 (black pow to be fixed on w

Existing PCC layer

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Existing Tree Ramp: Concrete ramp 1000x1200mm 1:12 gradiation

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Brick Curbing flushed to ground lvl

Con 100 1:12

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Existing compound wall Existing chainlink

finish LVL +0.1M

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1.00

8. Seating along Planter beds 7.Mound (EPDM)

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Mound: shaped by Compacted Earth/ Brickbat Coba

11. Reflexology Path

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LVL +0.12M Concrete 75mm thk

Columns: Box section 75x75-mm anchored with baseplate 2 (finish: black powder coated)

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Columns: B 75x75-mm an baseplate 3 (black pow

0.30flooring 40mm thk EPDM (colour ref: flooring layout)

12. Seating around Tree

Reflexology path 10. Painted Floor Track

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2.00

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Open Yard within a Health Care Center

Stroller parking

Existing com Existin

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3. MS chainlink fence 1.2m ht

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REFERENCE DRAWINGS:-

DRAWING NO. DRAWING DRAWING TIT TITLE

DRAWING NO.

7 3 .0

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CLIENT:

CLIENT: URBAN95 PUNE MUNICIPAL CORPO ITC-Friendly Creche at CISF F Pune SUPPORTED BY:

CLIENT:

BERNARD VAN LEER FOUN NETHERLANDS

PUNE MUNICIPA

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0.251.20

Technical Partner -

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SUPPORTED BY:

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www.egis-india.com

Technical Partner DRAWING TITLE:H Concept Masterplan- ITC-Friendly Rec CONSULTIN Space at Lumbini EGIS Park, Yerwada, Pune

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APPROVED:-

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Accessibility Ramp

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EXISTING ROAD

24.02.202 Concept MasterplanITC-Frie REV Space at Lumbini Park, Yerwa

EUID1SN004-BvLF-U95-CISF_02

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C

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SCALE:-

1:250

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SHEET

EUID1SN004-BvLF-U95-CSH_MP-01

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PROJECT REFERENCE NUMBER:EUID1SN004 G

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MASTERPLAN (SEMI-PERMANENT INTERVENTION LIST)

C FRIENDLY PRIMARY HEALTH CARE CENTER AT SHIVRAY HOSPITAL, YERAWADA, PUNE

CHECKED BY:Sandeep Dixit DATE:05.09.2023

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APPROVED:-

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Bhagyasshree R

DRAWN BY:-

DATE:-

NTS

DRAWING NUMBER:-

EGIS CONSULTING ENGINEERS 7 PVT. LTD. Fitted with Jali Egis Tower, Plot No. 66, Sector - 32, MOUND DETAIL WITH TUNNELSTILT001,Haryana, LEVEL India Gurgaon-122 PCC layer ITC FRIENDLY CRECHE AT CISF FACILITY, LOHEGAON, PUNE www.egis-india.com PVC pipe connection below G H I J ground DRAWING TITLE:Line out for EPDM flooring 40mm thk Primary Health Center, Shivray Hospital , Yerawada, Pune (colour ref: flooring layout) DESIGN BY:APPROVED:Existing Paved Flooring Tanmay Kapoor

0.30

1

F

DESIGN by

DRAWING TITLE:-

SCALE:-

MOUND DETAIL WITH TUNNEL- STILT LEVEL

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PVT. LTD.

Egis Tower, Plot N Bhagyassh Gurgaon-122 001

CHECKED DRAWN BY:www.egis-india.c Sandeep D Bhagyasshree R

BERNARD VAN LEER FOUNDATION, NETHERLANDS

PVC Pipe 100mm dia/4" ITC FRIENDLY CRECHE AT CISF FACILITY, LOHEGAON, PUNE ht 800mm/with elbows Technical Partner -

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SUPPORTED BY:

EGIS CONSULTING ENGINE PVT. LTD. BERNARD VAN L

NETHERLANDS Egis Tower, Plot No. 66, Se Gurgaon-122 001,Haryana

PUNE MUNICIPAL CORPORATION

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1.20

DRN

URBAN95 ITC-Friendly Creche at CISF Facility, Lo PROJECT NAME:Pune

2.59

2.59 0.25

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DRN. CKD. APP

DESCRIPTION

PROJECT NAME:-

ITC Friendly Primary Health Care Center, (Outdoor space within) Shivray Hospital at Yerwada, Pune

0.25 1.20

DESCRIPTION

REVISIONS:-

REV

DE

PROJECT REFERENCE NUMBER:-Bh EUID1SN004

DRAWN BY:Bhagyasshree R

1. Parking for Visitors (2-wheelers)

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DRN. CKD. APPD. DATE

Funnel opening

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Granite Platform 1.2mx0.6m/ht 450mm

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DRAWING TITLE Tender Drawing

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planter box: ht 300mm 1 brick thk

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2. The Drawing is Not to Scale

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Granite Platform 1.2mx0.6m/ht 450mm

1 brick thk

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PROJECT NAME:-

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Underground pipe connection/300mm depth

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Underground pipe connection/300mm depth

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0 3.Parking for Staff (4-wheeler) 1.20 1.20 Playful waiting area 0

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AMBULANCE ONLY

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91 1.

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STAFF ONLY

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Underground pipe connection/300mm depth

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4. Ramp Child-friendly washroom 1

2.41

CC with raised etal shutter for anhole cover/ finished with granite tile

1.40

6. Sound Tubes: PVC pipe 4"diameter/ht 800mm

CC with raised 6. Sound Tubes: PVCetal shutter for anhole cover/ pipe 4"diameter/ht finished with 800mm granite tile

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Underground pipe connection/300mm depth

3. MS chainlink fence 1.2m ht

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DRAWING NO. 01

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Granite Platform 1.2mx0.6m/ht 450mm

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Brick Curbing flushed to ground lvl

3. MS chainlink fence 1.2m ht

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REFERENCE DRAWINGS:PVC TUNNEL PIPE 600MM DIA

Existing Covered Waiting Area

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5.20

NOTES:1. All Dimensions are in mete verified on site.

2. The Drawing is Not to Sca

LEGENDS:-

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Mound: shaped by Compacted Earth/ Brickbat Coba

Brick Curbing flushed to ground lvl

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K

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PVC TUNNEL PIPE 600MM DIA

Concrete 75mm thk

Existing PCC layer

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EPDM flooring 40mm thk (colour ref: flooring layout)

Mound: shaped by Compacted Earth/ Brickbat Coba

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Concrete 75mm thk

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Underground pipe connection/300mm depth

7. Tot-Lot II

SCALE:-

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NTS

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DA 24

DRAWING NUMBER:-

EUID1SN004-BvLF-U95-CISF_02

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PROJECT REFERENCE NUM EUID1SN004

01_CHILD IN THE (IN) FORMAL CITY Culture of Play at the intersection of the highway and slum Project Type: Research Publication Book Chapter 2021-2025 Publisher: The People, Place, Project Site: Mumbai, India Collaborator: Shruti Ramesh Theme: Child-Centric Urban Design CHILD URBAN SAFETY DESIGN

3 # URBAN DESIGN GUIDELINES

KNOWLEDGE CENTERS

TRANSIT CORRIDORS

SLUMS AND INFORMAL SETTLEMENTS

COLLABORATION WITH COLLEGES AND SCHOOLS

How is play experienced when a highway CUTS through your house?

The everyday experience of play for these children entails unsafe avenues of playing along these spill-over spaces on highways and expressways. The severe strain on land presents a deficit of safe, uncrowded and uncontested permanent playscapes. The defining attribute of playscapes for children here is the ‘openness’ of accessible spaces on the routes between home and school, often found along open streets/highways. The street is the familiar landscape for play in Mumbai, with children utilising street infrastructure such as ramps, drainpipes etc. as playscapes.

The role of knowledge centres as critical agents of play-based learning is pivotal for creating safer avenues of play.

The act of learning through play is vital for cognitive development in children. This modality of play is especially relevant for slum children as the built environment deprives and endangers them and intends on spoiling their future[PK2] . The concept of knowledge centres designed for children has evolved to propagate ‘learning through play’ in safe and stimulating albeit formalised public spaces. Their location within sanitised urban precincts generate sanctuaries of privilege and exclusive environments, detached from informal settlements. Such institutions in the city can only extend conditional access for children in marginalised communities. The acts of ‘play’ for children in informal settlements are posed with the challenges of accessing ‘formal, sanitised’ parts of the city for play and learning. Spatial segregation widens travel distance; exclusions of income by ticketed access and adverse socio-economic conditions limit adult supervision and resources. The chapter examines various scales of knowledge centres in Mumbai as playscapes facilitating ‘learning through play’ for children residing in slums. The research further explores possibilities of play-based learning to create safe playscapes along transit corridors.

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02_OFF THE MAIN STREET A racial-equity model for home-grown BIPOC-Owned Businesses Project Type: Urban Design Graduate Studio Master of Urban Design Summer Semester, September 2024 University of California, Berkeley Instructor: Pol Fite Matamoros, Andrea Gaffney Site: Richmond, California Collaborators: Ayesha Ateekh, Shivani Atre Theme: Spatial Equity, Ephemeral Urbanism

SOCIAL EQUITY

VACANCIES

BLACK-OWNED BUSINESSES

GARAGE AS A POTENTIAL ECONOMIC STARTER SPACE

INCREMENTAL HOUSING

LIVE-WORK-LOFTS

This is a study of the spatial inequity faced by BIPOC small business owners in the historically marginalized city of Richmond, California. The research examines the survival strategies of the lowest economic denominator. Richmond’s turbulent history of corporate land controls and commercial powerplay has subjected BIPOC businesses to its present landscape of vulnerabilities and vacancies. The research taps into the alternate ‘non-traditional’ markets by relying on incremental, impermanent and temporal units of infrastructure integrated within support networks.

The study uses systems-thinking to address spatial and economic challenges through models of co-ownership and co-sharing. Our fieldwork traced the spatial geographies of surviving BIPOC businesses through an extensive ethnographic study. Despite the main-streets challenged with foreclosures due to high rents, dominance of developer ownerships and changes in taxation systems, there exists an alternate market operating off-the-main streets and anchored within the houses, the street frontages and communal flea markets.

Our study recognises the varying stages of economy for micro-businesses, and proposes an alternate spatial-economic model growing gradually through time and spatial visibility. With the help of community associations that can enable flexible, ground-up policies and design interventions, the proposal advocates for a shift of power from the hands of corporations to small, self-empowered business-owners.

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Community+Spatial reliance networks to support small-businesses The Garage, the Church and the Street 15

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ALTERNATE MARKET ECOSYSTEM

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BETWEEN MARKETS AND CONSUMERS WITH THE ALTERNATE URBAN SYSTEMS.

SPATIALIZING DYNAMICS + RELATIONSHIPS

ALTERNATE MARKET ECOSYSTEM

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What if maps could distort our perception of the Main Street?

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Kit of Parts- Strategies

The (incremental) Garage

The (makeshift) Parking Lot

The (collapsible) vending cart and the Flea Market as a space for visibility 21

03_PARADOXES OF LAKE DEVELOPMENT Changing values of small, water bodies in a growing metropolis a spatial memory project Project Type: Urban Research, 2022-2023 University of Mumbai , University of Berkeley Site: Panvel, Mumbai, India Research Grant Award: Saint Gobain Research Grant Program 2022-23 Research Grant Award: Urban Studio Research Project (USRP), Council of Architecture, India Research Symposium Presenter : Berkeley Energy and Resources Collaborative, Berkeley Collaborators: Students of Pillai College of Architecture, Mumbai, India Theme: Land Solutions for Decarbonization and Resilience

ENDANGERED SMALL WATER BODIES

HERITAGE WATER TANKS

UNESCO WATER WE WANT CHILDRENS’ ART CONTEST

LAKE-EDGE DEVELOPMENT PROJECTS

LAND-CENTRIC GOVERNMENT POLICIES

COLLABORATION WITH COLLEGES AND SCHOOLS

The research examines the challenges of governing and spatializing small water bodies in a pro-development metropolitan context in India. The project traces the socio-spatial modifications of heritage water tanks or talavs, in Panvel, a 17th century port town in the outskirts of the Mumbai Metropolitan Region. The talavs were built under the patronage of influential families and spatially anchored religious communities within a tight-knit urban cluster.

The symbolic triad of the temple-tree-tank of the hindu precinct to the tranquil canvas for the Bene Israel Jews Jewish burial ground, the talavs represented a cosmopolitan nature in a historic setting. The study further decodes urban historic spatiality to community values. The houses faced the market street, opened into the talav through the rear end, creating a seeming decentralized enclave for each community. These alleyways leading to the tanks, passed through smaller water wells, as a liminal pause. Post-independence, on the pretext of lakefront development projects, new concepts of leisure were imposed through ‘placemaking’ attempts. It significantly altered the talav boundaries, erasing the meaning of the local community’s everyday urban interactions. The micro scale of the water clusters within the expanding region excluded them from the eligibility of state and national funding. The need to create geometric centrality and axiality of the talavs to the city were outcomes of them being illegible and insignificant to the oblivious planning municipality. The municipality’s physical interventions are a result of misaligned definitions of ‘lakes’.

The research attempts to re-theorize definitions of small urban water bodies. Lake development has connotations focusing on the ‘built’, while lake conservation encompasses aspects that enable continuity and preservation. The research attempts to shift the focus of lake edge modification to the urban fabric leading up to the lake as demon22

HARD EDGE DEVELOPMENT SCHEMES AND CENTRALIZATION

KRISHANLE LAKE’S AND THE NEW LAKE DEVELOPMENT HARD EDGE

Decentralised Cluster of Small, Water tanks their community specific association disassociation with the hard edge development schemes

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LAKES AS CLUSTERS WITH DIFFERENT COMMUNITIES

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STREAM NETWORK AND CATCHEMENTS CLASSIFICATION OF LAKES

RESEARCH PROJECT SCHEDULE AND PHASING

present 1985

THE 1926 BRITISH SURVEY MAP INDICATING NICHES ALONG PATHWAYS CONNECTING THE LAKE RECONSTRUCTION OF THE LAKE THROUGH TIME CLOSING BOUNDARIES OF THE LAKE

1994

MEMORY PROJECT The social aspect of the lanes that used to connect the houses to the wells to the lake

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Reconstructed Spaces

THE MEMORY PROJECT Mapping lost association with the community

Temple and the Well The Well and Niches between the street

The Lake and the Market Street

The lake and the temple precinct

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Existing Edge Conditions

Temple and the Well Lake as a traffic junction

Temple and the Well Vendors along the lake edge

Temple and the Well Edges opening into the Lake

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Drawing credit student: Rohini Govindrajan

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Lakes Panvel

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Creating ‘open-source’ urban data enabling a feedback loop with civic authorities

Setting up an Integrated Institutional-reliant knowledge network

Adaptive Reuse of domestic Heritage co-op development policies

Shifting agency, ownership and accountability to the community through collaborative decisions

Cultivating potential open-access, barricade-free public spaces

Tactical placemaking to enable equitable public spatial design

Drawing credit student: Dhiraj Jadav

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04_RESURGING BRIDGES Lake and Tech as a Bridge between the City and social history Project Type: Urban Design Competition Entry 2025 University of Berkeley Site: Cleveland, Ohio Collaborators: Ayesha Ateekh Theme: Environmental Equity and Social Inclusion

SOCIAL EQUITY

LAKE ERIE

BLACK-OWNED BUSINESSES

ENVIRONMENTAL AWARENESS

TECH AS A STARTER DISTRICT

LIVE-WORK-LOFTS

Cleveland’s urban image and value represent a complex patchwork of cultural diversity, environmental assets, and emerging growth corridors. Developments such as the Opportunity Corridor and advancements in health technology highlight potential avenues for employment and economic revitalization.

This project explores the existing patchwork growth, not only as a framework for development but also as a series of implicated boundaries and barriers that challenge cohesive and unified urban progress. The city’s divide—caused by the river and central industrial valley, which segregates the east and west, and the shoreline separating the city from its lake edge—presents opportunities to “bridge the gap” and foster connectivity.

Historical segregation and redlining, exacerbated by infrastructural and environmental pollution, have deepened divides, limiting access to employment opportunities and increasing vacancies. However, the energy transition at the lake edge offers a transformative opportunity. This project identifies the lakefront as an origin point for reimagining Cleveland as an environmentally conscious lake community.

Envisioned as a foundation for a new urban identity, the project proposes infrastructure that supports small-scale economic initiatives, emphasizing flexibility, incremental growth, and live-work spaces. These incubators for environmental technology aim to integrate water sensitivity, sustainable energy, and cutting-edge innovation to regenerate the city and redefine its relationship with Lake Erie.

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SITE ANALYSIS SITE ANALYSIS

RESURGING BRIDGES 1907956 RESURGING BRIDGES 1907956

BRIDGING BOUNDARIES BRIDGING BOUNDARIES

To create a public space that represents cultural diversity and inclusion

To create an image of the city that reflect environmental lake consciousness

Create affordable infrastructure that kickTo starts create economy a public space that represents for small-businesses cultural diversity and inclusion

A place that blurs the boundaries between To create anthe image thethe citycity that reflect lakeof and environmental lake consciousness

Create affordable infrastructure that kickstarts economy for small-businesses

A place that blurs the boundaries between

the lake and the city What connects? the downtown, the lake, the east side and the west side?

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Housing - as a hub of mixed typologies, transit hubs and commercial

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Examining the Economic Systems of the Main Streets in Richmond/ McDonoald Avenue

Apartment-style - Type 1 Unit Area = 800 sq.ft Total No. of units = 800 Market rate units: 300 Affordable rate units: 500

Townhouse-style - Type 2 Unit Area 1500 sq.ft Total No. of units = 48 Market rate units = 48

Condominiums Unit Area 2000 sq.ft Total No. of units = 40 Market rate = 40

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Live-Work-Loft Districts - as a space for economic starters, collaborations, workshops

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Examining the Economic Systems of the Main Streets in Richmond/ McDonoald Avenue

Live-Work-Lofts - Type 3 Unit Area 2500 sq.ft Total No of units = 54 Market rate units = 30 Affordable rate units =24

Live-Work-Lofts - Type 2 Unit Area 2500 sq.ft Total No of units = 76 Market rate units = 50 Affordable rate units =26

Live-Work-Lofts - Type 1 Unit Area 1000 sq.ft Total No of units = 180 Market rate units = 100 Affordable rate units = 80

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05_FROM RELICS TO CREATIVE NETWORKS Integrating the Historical Core to Industrial Art Districts in Milan, Italy Project Type: Urban Design Graduate Thesis Master of Urban Design (M.Arch) Politecnico di Milano, Milan, Italy CEPT University, India Instructor: Guilia Setti Site: Lambrate, Milan, Italy Theme: Spatial Equity and Open-Access

ADAPTIVE REUSE

FORDIST PLANNING

ART DISTRICTS

COURTYARDS AS POP UP EXHIBITION SPACES

DESIGN WEEK MILAN

CREATIVE NETWORKS

The deindustrialization process in Europe resulted in many large-scale factories to be shifted out of their city-limits and aimed to redevelop cities as centers of creative productions. In Milan, Italy, this process left distinct voids in its urban fabric due to its defined urban morphology and separation from its heritage core. The process of re-adapting this industrial infrastructure into sites of innovation resulted in a new typology of public space. The juxtaposition of the two notions of public spaces; the traditional, mixed-uses at the heritage core and the institutional industrial districts called for integration strategies to be formulated at a city-scale. The paper analyses Lambrate Industrial Design District as a model for adapting public functions within its built forms, inclusive creative networking at a cityscale and sustaining local micro-businesses. The transformations include maintaining the structural integrity of the industrial morphology as a key to conserve its industrial past. At a city-scale, vacant pockets allow for flexibility in the master plan that caters to the inclusive needs of cities in constant flux.

The nature of the public space is in the form of fragmented courtyards, visually disconnected from the main axis. The courtyards provide a semi-public interaction space for the offices during the daily working hours, while the shopfronts anchor the public space. In the faceof the ‘functionalistic top-down strategies of traditional urban planning’, this allows for alternative urban functions. They signify a bottom-up approach, representing the local neighbourhood and utilizing art as a method to bring to light the temporal nature of cities.

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Map of Milan Metropolitan region indicating the industrial pockets across the railway lines, the ring roads concentric to the heritage city core.

Project aims and objectives to anaylze of integration strategies between the periferal repurposed industrial districts and the heritage core.

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Tracing the Design Week path along Lambrate Design District

Mapping the porosity of edges across the changing spatial morphology

Lambrate Industrial Design District is analysed as a ‘model of a sustainable urban regeneration’ that inclusively integrates with the local community and the larger context of the creative city

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Tracing ‘access’ and opening up of courtyard boundaries during design week

Pop-up shops occupy the courtyards and industrial warehouses

The physicality of the space is characterized by blank compound walls that run continuous up till the junctions

The group of galleries and institutions at this junction becomes a congregation point.

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06_GEOGRAPHIES OF INCINERATION the (in)visible aides of the tenebrous urban networks Project Type: Research Paper 2022-2023 Site: Mumbai, India Publisher: Harvard Urban Review Collaborator: Shruti Ramesh Theme: Spatial Equity and Urban Policies

SOCIAL EQUITY

CASTEISM

FILM AS SOCIAL COMMENTARY

CREMATION WORKERS

COVID-19

UNTOUCHABLES

As the vehicles charge in bearing corpses, the cremation ground worker mechanically unloads them onto carts.

He scrapes out the ash and bone fragments in the pyres, resets them, prepares the firewood, places the body in its midst, and burns the pyre; a process he resets and repeats as the day erodes. The flames soar the landscape, engulfing the deceased, indistinguishable as a factory of mortuary rituals. He knows he has to keep going; his daily work, unattached, hoping against hope that it is not his loved one being propped on the pyre, and moving on with the next task.

Nagraj Popatrao Manjule’s Vaikunth- a segment of the anthology series Unpaused - Naya Safar explores the otherwise untold struggles of a marginalised, front line essential service worker - a cremation ground worker. The lens of visual narrative highlights the social apathy within an environment of urban systemic exclusion. It also brings to light the inequities within the superficial urban construct resting on a fragile network of invisible workers.

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07_VIEWPORTS OF A LANDSCAPE A Landscape Literacy Project Project Type: Urban Design Studio Fall Semester 2024 Site: Pinnacles National Park, California Collaborator: Ayesha Ateekh Theme: Improved access to Landscape experiences

DISABILITY ACCESS

SAN ANDREAS FAULTLINE

LINK BETWEEN SMALL CITIES

OBSERVATION TOWERS

COMMUNITY ENGAGEMENT

ALTERNATE WILDERNESS EXPERIENCE

A park is a place to discover and wander. What if you didn’t have the choice to wander? Our project is titled ‘Access and Abilities’ envisions a park of adventure for people with disabilities. When you visit the park, you plan for activities such as hiking, climbing, where your physical and mental abilities are challenged- within unguided paths- it gives you a sense of accomplishment. But are these activities for all? Are the trails accessible for all? Can the activities be performed by all people? Can all the areas of the park be experienced by all? Therefore, we ask how can the park be designed for all people?

Within the scope of our project, we consider 4 categories of disabilities and using terminologies defined ‘appropriate’ by the ADA- we studied the blind, the deaf, physically challenged and the neurodivergent. We had a chance to interact with experts in the field of disabilities such as the Center for Independent Living, Bay Area Outreach Program and Disabilities Rights Education and Defence Fund. to understand their barriers, desires and aspirations.

For the Blind, They stressed on the challenges of using temperature sensitive material, and continuous communication links - trails that are not overly simplified, with reductive experiences, to quote ‘a walk around the parking lot’ - while the neurodivergent- wanted spaces that are low-stimulating, serene and shaded.

That leads us to ask the question: how can the design improve experience for people with disabilities?

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The Preview point presents a space to introduce the main points of attraction at the pinnacles through the aids of design as mentioned in the taxonomy of design. We propose a diorama at the centre of the Bear gulch centre. giving the feelings of sensory experiences, wandering and informing at this point. - where you can touch and feel the wall of sensorial textures 49