Portfolio_Niva Shah

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01 MS. Urban Design SEMESTER 3 SUMMER

PI XE L S O F R E DH O O K ‘ Un tested u rban typol ogi es w here nature meets ar ch it ecture’ MENTOR: AR. ERIC SCHOENENBERGER SITE: REDHOOK, BROOKLYN PROGRAM: RESIDENTIAL + PUBLIC REALM

The project design aims to push the boundaries of how neighborhoods develop, grow and sustain, testing out futuristic typologies for how cities could potentially grow within the site of Red Hook. The design hopes to combat several primary challenges and address certain goals including: 1. Flood resiliency: Make the flood-prone neighborhood resilient enough to sustain life and minimize damage due to flooding.

2. Community-centric design: Create spaces that promote social interaction and imbibe a sense of belonging within the residents.

3. Artistic expression: Preserving art and promoting new artist to use art as a medium of expression as well as creating an identity for the Redhook neighborhood.

4. Modularity: To create units that could be populated as required across the neighborhood to achieve desired configuration.

5. Sustainable and adaptable living: Creating green terraces that promote sustainability and tie in science through agriculuture.

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DESIGN DEVELOPMENT: A mindful permutation and combination of modules, developed via a series of operations carried out on basic geometries, varying in terms of scale, orientation and typologies was deployed to create this multilayer- neighborhood urban density. A series of nodes extruded vertically were used as circulation cores and density was aggragated around these nodes. The idea of raising the bar above ground level is to safeguard the low-lying coastal neighborhood, from flooding. The horizontal desnsity was aggragated tactically to enable continuous movement between the layers and across the layers. The vertical striations were created programatically moving from more public spaces towards the bottom that turn more private as you move upwards. This gradation was also seen in terms of density with finer, granular spaces towards the top.

REDHOOKS’ CHARACTER: The idea of the standardised Redhook plot sizes was populated all across the bar and the fabric was made to replicate the existing urban grain and fabric Redhook possesses. The standard plot sizes dedployed were 25ft x 50ft and 50ft x 50ft plots. This enabled the standardization of layout but still provided the flexibility to build the desired configuration according to the users requirements. The modules provide a mix of three elements: massing to house program spaces, multiple connectors to create various possibilities of massing orientations as well as ensure seamless circulation within the module and sufficient open, green spaces to provide breathing voids within the dense urban neighborhood.

LAYER 5 +500FT

LAYER 4 +400FT

LAYER 3 +300FT

LAYER 2 +200FT

LAYER 1 +100FT

DESIGN DEVELOPMENT FRAMEWORK

REDHOOKS’ ELEVATIONAL CHARACTER 2

The Pixels of Red Hook project envisions a flood-resilient, vibrant, and culturally rich neighborhood

Mixed-use units

Residential units

that serves as a model for urban design in the face of climate change.

By combining stilted architecture, community engagement, artistic expression,

and

sustainable

practices, Red Hook can thrive even in the most challenging environmental

conditions

while

fostering a sense of unity and creativity among its residents.

The columns were designed as sustainable water carrying systems, with water filtration bulbs, that could enable the flooded water to be reused and pumped back up to the green terraces achieving multiple goals of resiliency, sustainability, structural stability as well as adaptability. The columns have a flared top to provide structural support and support coherency in the design language.

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SECTION

+300 FT

+150 FT

+0 FT Towards waterfront

Towards NYCHA housing

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02 MS. Urban Design SEMESTER 2 SPRING

R E - T(ER )R A CIN G R E DH O O K ‘ R ecla imin g Red Hook one step at a ti m e’ MENTOR: AR. OLIVER SCHAPER & VALERIA CEDILLOS SITE: REDHOOK, BROOKLYN PROGRAM: RESIDENTIAL DENSIFICATION + PUBLIC ART AND SCIENCE REALM

The project aims to create a high density, residential dominated development interspersed with public realm programs that are of varied density in response to contextual cues in terms of function and existing infrastructure.

The main aim is to create a “living lab” which revives the “art” realm, reintegrates the “socio-cultural” spaces into the urban fabric and retrofits existing “historic” infrastructure to inhabit processes and programs required to revive RedHook.

The idea is to create a mix of spaces within these three realms that enable a user to dream, make and do actively and could serve as a possible growth module for the rest of RedHook. The dream spaces would manifest in the form of art spaces that could produce as well as showcase ideas of what the artist footprint in RedHook aspires to be and dreams to create the visual image of the area. The make spaces are envisioned as programs that add socio-cultural value to the are and enable them to make RedHook what it should be. Lastly the do spaces manifest as alterations that could be done to the existing infrastructure to transform RedHook. These programs would serve to aid the additional residential footprint while also the existing population of RedHook and deal with the pertinent problems of RedHook such as flooding tactfully through design operations.

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PROGRAM DEVELOPMENT

DESIGN BAR ON SITE

BAR ZONING

DESIGN DEVELOPMENT

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COMMUNITY LEVEL PLAN

TRANSPORT LEVEL PLAN

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SECTION

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03 MS. Urban Design SEMESTER 1 FALL

L A Y E ( R E D) H O O K ‘ R econ n ecting the di sconnect ed narrati ves’ MENTOR: ARIANE HARRISON SITE: REDHOOK, BROOKLYN PROGRAM: COASTAL RESILIENCY STRATEGY

RedHook as a site is rather complex and has several layers and gradients across it. Each of these layers have specific characteristics owing to the different problems such as flooding, isolation and lack of transport connectivity, that have arisen in RedHook over time and disconnected the once cohesive narrative of RedHook.

The project aims to deploy a mix of blue green infrastructural approach in a layered urban context. A combination of terracing and 75,000 sq ft of public walkways interspersed with “pause” moments attempts to re-weave a narrative that has been tethered over time across RedHook anchored at multi-functional nodes.

The terraces create a series of retention ponds that function progressively in stages creating a temporal water landscape which could deal with flooding and can hold up to 80,000 cubic m, 120,000 cubic m and 160,000 cubic m in the three stages respectively.

The intervention aims to revitalize and re-engage the area adding to it cultural, recreational as well as maintaining its historic value each as independently functioning layers yet interconnected and cohesive to form the urban fabric.

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GRADIENT ACROSS SITE

NODES ON SITE

SITE DESIGN PROPOSAL

SITE CONTEXTUAL FEATURES

RETENTION POND 1 CAPACITY: 72, 000 SQ FT x 10 FT = 20, 400 CUBIC M

RETENTION POND 2 CAPACITY: 90, 000 SQ FT x 12 FT = 30, 582 CUBIC M

PROPOSED GREEN SPACE AREA 540, 800 SQ FT

PROPOSED GREEN ROOFS AREA 90, 800 SQ FT

PROPOSED SHADED PATHWAYS 51, 000 SQ FT / 1350 FT LENGTH 10

UNFLOODED SCENARIO

MID LEVEL FLOODED SCENARIO

FULLY FLOODED SCENARIO 11

04 B. Architecture YEAR 5 THESIS

R E C ON F IG U R IN G CIT Y N E T W OR K S - DES I GN DI S S ER TATI ON MENTOR: AR. ATREY CHHAYA SITE: LOWER PAREL PROGRAM: HYBRID PUBLIC SPACE

In the last decade the city has seen a drastic reduction in open public spaces along with an unprecedented boom in construction. Along with not being able to match universal guidelines of required open space per capita, the exisiting urban fabric is already pressurised and unable to cope with the rate of urbanization and provide quality life for the residents of the city.

High rises and skyscrapers that create the illusion of a progressing city have suffocated the city, and replaced smaller, integrated and complex settlements, leaving the city with very little relief space that can actually foster interactions, connections and exchange amongst the public disrupting the areas.

This thesis aims to study extensivley the evolution of ever-present streets and squares over the years and how their transformation has changed the character of the urban fabric. Taking this study forward my thesis aims to redefine urbanism and create a potential way for the city to grow which not only reintroduces these public spaces into the urban fabric but also reintegrates them cohesively.

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05 B. Architecture YEAR 4 SEMESTER 7

UR B A N DE S IG N KIN G S ’ R I N G

Matunga, although being Mumbai’s first planned suburb, the infrastructure was never built to support its burgeoning population.

Crowded with cars, flanked by hawkers and diminishing in trees- has resulted in a problem that has accompanied gentrifiction around the world.

MENTOR: AR.ATRE Y CHHAYA, AR.PR ACHI DONDE, AR.PR AKRITI MEHTA, AR.NISHANT MODI

The addition of the infamous flyover dissected the neighbourhoods encompassing King’s Circle and simultaneously snatched away prime public space breaking the centrality of the radial planning and engendering a slew of dark, vehicle dominated spaces, perilous for the pedestrian.

GROUP: AHAN DASGUPTA, ROZ AL MEHTA, AMMAR R ASSAI, AYUSHI PRITAMANI, K AIR A BHALL A

Through our urban insert we aim bring back the centrality of the neighbourhood and harness the variety of surrounding programs to activate the urban space.

Our strategy was to interject a multi-level public space between the road and the flyover as well as to push the park in the main circle below the ground in order to preserve the the generous headroom of a truly space for the people.

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EXPLODED VIEW 18

06 B. Architecture YEAR 4 SEMESTER 8

REVIVING MUMBAI UN I V E R SI T Y MENTOR: AR. PRIYANK MEHTA SITE: MUMBAI UNIVERSITY CAMPUS, KALINA PROGRAM: EDU- CULTURAL CENTRE

The main aim of the project was to revitalise and revive Kalina Campus- the largest campus of Mumbai and bring back to it a certain sense of identity as a landmark institute. The project aimed to not only bring in more visitors and reactivate the campus but also increase the efficiency of the functioning of it.

The state of the campus today is rather desolate and has large abandoned spaces that could be harnessed to add substantial value to the campus.

The project began with the idea of a redesigned masterplan that would help resolve the issues the campus is facing and then detailing out a specific module within the proposed master plan that could become a way for the future growth of the campus and could be duplicated across the campus to develop a whole network.

For the same, nodes were identified and designed around and then used as the basis for creation of axes that could enable a growth module design. The module can hence be replicated to populate the campus with a change of functions that are best suited for the location of the site and as per user requirements.

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SECTION AA’

PLAN AT +1.5M

0

3

15M

0

3

15M

B’

SECTION BB’

EXHIBITION HALL INTERIOR VIEW

B

A

A’

0

10

50M

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EMER GENT P ATTE RNS IN NATURE SP IN Y LO B STERS- INSTALLATION

B. Architecture

MENTOR: AR. ATREY CHHAYA, AR.MAHEK LALAN, AR DISHA SAIGAL, AR. HARSH SHAH GOWANI

YEAR 2 SEMESTER 3

GROUP: NIDHI SANGHRAJKA, NIKHIL KISHNANI, RUHI RATHO

DESIGN CONCEPT : Emergence in nature was used as a base framework to study the movements of a spiny lobsters that are social anthropods who move together in large, complex, co-ordinated groups such as queues, phalanxes and rosettes. These formations serve the primary function of anti predation. The muscle flexors and extensors of the spiny lobsters contract and relax enabling such pattern formations in the sea while migration which they can create as a group that they ideally would not be able to individually.

DESIGN EXECUTION: The execution of the installation was carried out by testing out a 1:1 scale prototype of one unit for experimenting with different materials and sizes. The prototype represented one spiny lobster and consisted of 6mm thick main frame steel rods with 3mm thick steel rings that acted as the fragments of the lobsters connected to the frame via custom designed wooden joineries.

Each of these units was assembled on the ground and propped up using custom fabricated wooden supports. The final threading that repreented the muscle fibres was done once the installation was propped in place and enabled the dynamism of the installation.

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MUSCLE FIBRES

Fig 1.1

INDIVIDUAL UNIT

FORMATIONS

PROTOTYPE

PROCESS

Fig 2.1 Fig 4.1

Fig 1.2

JOINERIES

Fig 5.1

Fig 2.2 Fig 5.2 Fig 4.2

Model 1.1

Fig 2.3

Fig 3.1

Fig 4.3

Model 1.2

Model 2.1

Model 3.1

Fig 4.4 Model 3.2 Model 1.3

Model 2.2

Fig 4.5 Model 2.3

Model 3.3 Final Form

Model1.4

FINAL INSTALLATION

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C OMPET I TIO N SOLAR D ECATHLON INDIA N e t- Z e r o - E n ergy-Wat er-Design

2020

PROGRAM: COMMUNITY RESILIENCE CENTRE

Semi- Finalists

TEAM PHOENIX: TEAM OF 10 ARCHITECTS + 3 ENGINEERS + CONSULTANTS AND MENTORS

The main objective of the competition was to design and calculate a building that is net zero energy, water and resources while still serving community resilience functions.

The proposed project must dual as not only an emergency shelter but also generate a sense of community and vitalise the diversity of the existing local communities (the Kolis and the local migrants).

The main aims to be achieved via the design include creating a multifunctional structure supported via an open plan along with the incorporation of thermal comfort and flood protection and prevention strategies to deal with climatic conditions such as heat gain and flooding.

India as a country has many housing related issues which were further highlighted during the cuurent pandemic. During these uncertain times, a large group of people, the urban poor usually suffer the most. As a group, we wanted to take effort to design a sustainable community resilient shelter to carter to the needs of the urban poor during such times.

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