through my learning of 6 years as a design student and 3 years as proffesional , I have come to believe Design is a holistic process which is a culmination of various small entities such as responding to context, material detailing,ones way of living, cultural understanding and space making. When woven together meticulously, it creates stories that are distinctive to each other and stand true to itself.
Along with this I strongly believe in the art of collaborations,which engages people from different fields and contribute in creating unique experience in field of Design and art.
Pooja shah|Spatial Designer
About me: 15|November|1999 Edinburgh, Scotland, UK
+44 7586935787 poojashah.1722@gmail.com
poojashah_1511
Languages: Gujarati,Hindi, English
Education:
MA Heritage and Exhibition Design |ENU 2023-2024
Bachelor’s of Interior Design, CEPT University |2017-2022
Interests: Photography Traveling
Reading
Museum and Exhibition musing Understanding Textiles and documenting Heritage
Volunteer at Exhibitions Under Arthshilla ,CEPT University, Raw Collaborative
Hand-on Learning Flooring Under Hunnarshala|Oct,2021
balance is the key and the beauty lies in balancing the imperfections
Experience Softwares
Independent Exhibition Designer- JID with John Ennis |Jan, 2024 - Sept,2024
Design Executive - Coordinator- DFI Under Siddharth Bathla|March,2023- Aug 2023
Exhibition Curatorial Assistant-TMC Under Manvita Baradi|Feb-March,23
Lead Designer- Compartment s4 Under Compartment s4|March,22 - April,23
Research Associate-DRP Under Amala shah|Jan-may, 2022
TA for Design Research Methods Under Rishav Jain|Aug-Dec,2022
Office Training- Studio Saransh Under Manish Doshi and Kaveesha Shah |Dec,20 - Sept,2021
Understanding Bawa Gardens, Srilanka Under Divya Shah and Anjali Jain|Dec,2018
Cept Co-curricular Installation 2019 and Lamp Design 2021
Archaeology Experiential Museum
Professional Practice Experience UK
Dynamic Dialouges - MA Dissertation
Back to Nature - MA Exhibition Design
Professional Practice Experience India
DRP|Directed Research Project
New’s Co Lab
Design , the Indian context
Internship|Studio Saransh
Masala Bag
Unwind
Archaeology Experiential Museum
at Vadnagar, Gujarat
Architecture by:Meinhardt
DFI-Design Factory India
Experiantial Interiors
Partners: Siddharth Bathla and Prashasti
Chandra
Archaeologist-V.N Prabhakar
Story Teller- Atul Tiwari
Researcher : Niharika, Karan Kshiti
Designer- Swarnika, Abhinav, Pooja, Nimisha
The first gallery displays the renowned personalitied from diffrent eras such as Kshatrapa period, Solanki period, Sultanate period, the Gaekwads acting as virtual guide to entire musuem.
The excavations have brought to light that Vadnagar was a Buddhist centre, with monasteries, a stupa and cells that housed monks.Artefacts in terracotta from the excavations depict scenes from then period
This gallery displays the history and story of vadnagar which represented through the map and the important monument of the city as displayed through walls and floor.
Vadnagar was a big manufacturing centre, noted for its bangles and columnella from conch shells. Shell bangles of remarkable artistic beauty were made especially during the rule of the Solankis.
This gallery displays the the pre rampart and post rampart period along with artefacts from that time.
Sultane Periord shows development over the phases of civilization and relationship to other religions and the continuation of diffrent materials.
This gallery displays the the pre rampart and post rampart period along with artefacts from that time
Story of Vadnagar | First Floor | Visualisation
Pre- Rampart and Post- Rampart period | Third Floor | Visualisation
Kshtrapa and Post- Kshtrapa Period | Second Floor | Visualisation
Solanki Dynasty | Second & Third Floor | Visualisation
Gaekwad Period | Third Floor | Visualisation
Sultanate Period | Third Floor | Visualisation
The Gaekwad dyanasty shows vadnaagr during British empire in India.
Showcase Detail
Professional Practice Experience
Edinburgh,Scotland, UK
Journeys in Design-Edinburgh
Concrete Design to Thrive
Scope of work: Exhibition Design, Graphics and Install
includes exhibition panel design, curation, setting up exhibition, backends, event management
Our Linen Stories
Scope of work: Exhibition Design, Graphics and Install includes designing visualization drawings , curation, setting up exhibition, backends, and management
03|
Dynamic Dialouges museum and community relations
partners and all people involved through public acknowledgment and special events
Share success stories and highlight community involvement in museum communications and displays.
Community centric events
Host events that specifically celebrate community, culture , history and stories through cultural festivals , local history exhibitions and community appreciation days. Inviting community members to plan and execute these event could one more way to enhance their involvement and build connections.
9.Ensure sustainability
Long term planning
Dynamic dialogues: exploring relations between museums and community, is an initiative looking into the interdependency of museums and community on each other. Museums serve as repositories to showcase cultural heritage and diversity while providing education and communities provide audience, resources and contextual relevance that sustain the museum. It is essential to explore the relationship for enhancing the relevance of museums and cultural spaces in today’s times and fostering healthier communities who are main occupants and reciprocals of society.
Develop a long term community plan over the years that include sustainable practices and resources Integrate community engagement in the museum’s overall strategic planning and budgeting process. It is important to allocate financial resources specifically to community programs.
This was conceived as a MA dissertation for the course Heritage and Exhibition design studied at Edinburgh Napier University.
Resource allocation
Secure funding and resources to support engagement programs through grants, donations and membership opportunities.
Invest in staff trading and development to enhance skills in community engagement and outreach . This is crucial to ensure well informed staff are providing the correct information and services to the community involved making them feel comfortable and valued.
10. Promote equity and inclusion
Inclusive Practices
Ensure that all community engagement efforts promote quite and inclusion . Address barriers to participation and strive to create a welcoming environment for all community members. Include diverse voice in planning and decision making process to ensure that programs and exhibition reflect diversity
Cultural competence
Provide cultural competence training for staff to enhance their ability to engage with diverse effectively Respect and celebrate the cultural diversity within the community by ensuring inclusive nature of all programs and exhibitions.
diagram5 showing model of engagement
Through the above framework and above case studies , it is well understood that building community within one organization is a work of building internal capacity. It is important that the museum understands their existing capacity and the additional capacity that is required to match their vision. As the museum plans to launch themselves into museum - community engagement initiatives, it is critical to harness the excitement and plan and consider a step by step action forward. Each step is a way into modeling a new way of doing the same old things differently.
PLAN LAYOUT and ZONING
LIVING ON THE EDGE_ BACK TO THE NATURE
Typology: Exhibition Design
Guided Under: Stuart- Smith Gordon
Scope: Conceptual Storytelling, Visualisation
Back to Nature is an exhibition informed by the life of residents of Saint Kilda. Saint Kilda is a remote island situated 64 kilometres (40 mi) west-northwest of North Uist in the North Atlantic Ocean. It is recognized as an the UK’S only dual UNESCO world heritage site for it cultural and Natural Landscape. Saint Kilda has been home to a community for at least 4000 years until it was evacuated in the year 1930 with 36 last islanders.
The exhibition focuses on the journey of the evacuation of the residents of Saint Kilda. It aims to cater an experience that encapsulates the visitor to immerse in the panoramic views of the Kilda’s surroundings leading them to dive deeper into the challenges of living in the particular terrain of highlands. It covers various layers up followed by and immersive exhibit showcasing the personal stories from the people of saint Kilda themselves. The exhibition further moves into projected video experience that allows the visitors to immerse themselves into final days of evacuation leading to multitude of emotions and posing the questions to an uncertain future.
The Spatial from the Outdoorseamless The exhibition timed interactions learn and exhibition nature.
A map of Saint Kilda is introduced to the visitors in the beginning to help them understand it geographical location and associat themselves with the remoteness of the island. It also helps the visitors to navigater further and into the exhbition.
The visuals, sounds and atmospheric conditions are carefully designed to give visitors the experience of the island by highlighting the differences of living on a highland and challenges that come with it .The window cut out at the end of the walk through , frames the scaled model of the house, giving visitors a complete experience of being in the times when people resided at Saint Kilda.
Continuous engagement of visitors with the space is facilitated through short films and the use of tablets for additional information. The persistent use of the color red serves as a consistent focal point, drawing visitors’ attention.
Introducing the actual residents of Saint Kilda through life size photographs along with their letters, based on research, becomes a significant aspect of a remote exhibition, engaging visitors to comprehend and empathize with the people of Saint Kilda
This gallery stands out as the most crucial space for visitors to immerse themselves in the diverse emotions of the residents of Saint Kilda during the evacuation of their home and land. The combination of visuals, lights, sounds, and projections contributes to providing visitors with a comprehensive experience of a remote place, leaving a lasting impact.
Professional Practice Experience
Ahmedabad, Gujarat, India
Theatre and Media Center - Ahmedabad
Gujarati Theatre Exhibition
Scope of work: Curatorial Assistant includes exhbition panel design, curation, setting up exhbition, backends, event management
Compartment s4 - Ahmedabad
Residences, Commericial and Office Spaces
Scope of work: Lead Designer includes designing visualization drawings , research and coordinating with client ,selection, site checking, site handover
Gujarat Theatre Festival at Ranip, Ahmedabad
Team
Partners: Manvita Baradi
Designer : Kiran Trivedi,Pooja
Marketing and Communication : Kanksha, Ritika
The exhibition showcased the history of Gujarati Theatre through pannels, books, scripts, costumes and many more. The event was held over the periord of 1 month which includes exhibition, shows, workshops and book selling.
free.form
art as functional aestetic Team
Partners: Krishna Parikh and Manuni Patel
Designer : Pooja
Intern- Tej, Vraj
Designed for a sample flat, the space encompasses furniture, art pieces and walls as exhbits in the overall space generating a notion of interiors.
The monolithic fucntional elements,geometric rugs and the spalsh of terracotta red defines the space by allowing the visitors to visualise space as well as encourage them to generate their own idea of a home.
Mood Board showing the overall experience of the space, highlighting furniture as functional elements and exhibits to the space.
The master bedroom is adorned with monolithic wall shelf with terracotta light. The wavy shelf is reflected in the rug, giving and overall essence of the space.
The circular ceiling marks the entry to the room which overlooks the geometric rug and the red chair with paintings along the wall to define the path ahead
Here the terracotta wall takes centre point with monolithic seating, a hanging light and a mirror. The geometric rug adds layer of playfulness by being in the background and highlights the other foreground elements.
The monolithic console with a metal rod goes straigt to the ceiling holding shelves. The repetative photo frames and rug pattern helps the visitor to expereince the space from floor to ceiling as they reimagine their own.
Eat Punjab | Restaurant
Chandkheda, Ahmedabad
Eat Punjab, a punjabi restaurant is designed which a material palette that consist of yellow piccolo tiles, the forest green sofa, jaisalamer stone surrounderd by terrazo and long hanging table made up of granite suited with beiger color chairs.
The view overloong the seating area and wall panelling as seen
This view overlook from the back end combining the center table and the seating on the either sides. The seating is divided with a display of brass utensils that are authentic to the punjabi restaurant.
On site photos showing the construction of the space with highlight of center table and its frame in ms and the fabric light testing. The first photo also shows the framework for sofa.
Traditional Color Sensibilities and the role of natural environment
Typology: Directed Research |Sem 10
Guided Under: Amala Shah
Scope: Field Study, City of Barmer
Understanding Light and Ethnography of the city and generating respective hand-done colour palettes
The study is categorized by two major keywordsColor and Light. The understanding of these was undertaken through regional research of Barmer city, located on the western side of Rajasthan, comprising mainly of the Thar desert.
Colors, as manifested to us, are in the totality of a holistic picture comprising of the natural environment and the man environment. This is seen as different layers juxtaposing on to each other to perceive the complete picture. The colors in the context of this study are not seen in absoluteness but are seen as a whole of living perception by studying one’s way of life contextualized within a particular region. Therefore, it becomes imperative to study the contextualized environment to connect through the dots to realize the interdependence of each topic discussed below and its direct and indirect connections with the natural environment.
scan the QR for complete PDF
map showing city of Barmer and de-markets area of study with respect to landscapes,communities and their crafts.
Light Study for the area
Ethnographic study for the area
Dusk Afternoon Morning Evening Night
Landscape (from left to right) //Natural environment and Mahabar desert
Flora and Fauna (from left to right) Rohida, aankdo, camel and peacock
Built Form (from left to right) Outside and Inside
Attire (from left to right) Men and Women
Crafts (from left to right)
Leather,Pottery, wood carving, Applique
Food (from left to right) Bajra, Ber, Butter Milk
Generating Swatches_Natural Environment Palette
Generating Swatches_Manmade Environment Palette
Conclusive Palette_Manmade Environment
News-CO Lab
a journalism library
Typology: Institutional Design|Sem 9
Guided Under: Prof. Ayaz Pathan Khan
Scope:Interior, Skin , context, Landscaping
In recent times, when we are surrounded by a lot of information every second of our lives- from papers to twitter (maybe true or fake), this public centre strives to enable a partnership between libraries and journalists.
Located among Ahmedabad’s modernist buildings, this library provides the city with a public hub that enables locals to submit their questions/ queries about the stories that they feel are missing about their cities and team here will research and come down to conclusions in form of papers, articles, posters or any other form of creative social media output. Every once-a-week media trials, debates and talk show can be held where latest topics of city could be discussed, debated amongst the interested audience.
montage showing the initial ideation for library with respect to interior, skin and context (riverfront here)
Model Photos- Process and Final
sectional perspective// interior courtyard and the skin
3DViews
Material Palette
Design, the Indian Context a journey of adaptation
Typology: Adaptive Reuse|Sem 7
Guided Under: Errol Ruebens and Ratna Shah
Scope: Space Planning, Existing and Built
With the backdrop of Ahmedabad’s heritage the design museum for India is another feather in the hat. Located near the airport, the museum celebrates the idea of design as homogeneous entity that reflects Indian culture and philosophy. Where indianness is a multi-faceted whole with interesting corners that hold complexity and diversity to be discovered within that whole. The design language talks about how these complex carved facets from the monolith engage people to showcase and experience diversity and complexity which is always part of a whole
There is a large pedestrian plaza which acts as a secondary entry in the museum during day lime, which is well it and is surrounded by greenery, creating an informal socializing place at night. It acts as a chowk’ where celebrations take place. which also connects to the rooftop cafeteria via a jutting out staircase. The museum aims to absolutely look at as present moment with an idea of a better future
montage showing the initial ideation for museum, quality of light with respect to the existing building
conceptual sketches
Terrace Truss system Cafe
Section c
Section
The render (left to right) shows permanent gallery, temporary gallery,reception area, plaza and the passages.
The new intervention which is juxtaposed with the existing building acts is with an offset creating a dialogue between new and old. The truss creates the play of light and shadow for the exhibits creating a perfect ambiance for a museum.
TVOI-the vibes of India
a multimedia office
Typology: Academic Internship|Sem 8
Guided Under: Kaveesha Shah|Studio Saransh
Scope: planning, working drawings, selections, executions and site visit
TVOI Office is a spatial experiment in colour. It is inspired by the RGB colour format, where spaces are colour blocked using these tints, combined with selected bursts of fresh white to cut through the saturated tones. The resultant impact of this use of colour is experienced while walking through the office, moving from one visual world to another, travelling through different experiences in the same space. The surprise and visual relief from the monotony of one colour is felt upon finding an opening, glancing into an adjacent space, dipped in a different colour.
It is the primary workspace of a newly established digital news and media platform in Ahmedabad. The client’s brief suggested the building of a space fit for a team of young and upcoming media enthusiasts, with a unique experiential value that inspires undaunted thought and promotes transparency.
Graphical representation of the office, showing RGB theme and its intersection with the objects of the office
(left) AKA Fitness Office,Iran by 4 architecture studio taking window workspaces as inspiration and creating
(right) Bonnefanten Museum MaastrichtWorkspace, Netherlands by Hollandse Nieuwe taking colors as inspiration how colors define and demarcate space, here
Conceptual Section
(left) Nanyang 5Lmeet, byDAGA Architects taking perforated material as inspiration to create transparency in the space
(right) Ideal Gas Lab, Taiwan by Waterformtaking inbuilt greens in furniture as inspiration to create a mix of built and greens.
Planter space,designed in shades of green
Photo Credits-Ishita Sitwala
Workspace, designed as shades of blue
Photo Credits-Ishita Sitwala
passage to workspace relation
Photo Credits-Ishita Sitwala
Workspace, designed as shades of red
Photo Credits-Ishita Sitwala
PLUMBING DETAIL
Unwind by the canteen deployable seating system
Typology: Deployable |Sem 6
Guided Under: Jinal Shah
Scope:
The west facade of architecture building was chosen as the site. The association began from the extended part of the seminar rooms which are above the canteen from where one gets an overall view of the shreinakbhai plaza and the canteen. But the passage adjacent to facade was unused and was the point taken in consideration
The aim was to design something interactive with context to the facade for people sitting in canteen or passing by as that passage is mostly unused. The final design proposal was to create a graffiti along the wall with decks at different level where people can climb and have views of campus from different height and can sit and relax during their free time and hence add a playfulness to the facade. When the decks are not in use it acts a art installation on the wall which is anamorphic in nature
explorations for deployable systems as structure and origami as fabric upon it.
FINAL PLAN AND DETAILS
3d render showing deployable system with respect to facade
3d render showing deployable system and the activities around
Urban “living” spaces are growing smaller in size in the bigger cities. They are primarily inhabited by millennials - people who aspire for a “BIG” life in the present and future.
People reuse terraces, narrow tube houses, and basements of existing buildings, to find living space that is more affordable. It focused on looking at one of those scenarios, where the Millennials are now reclaiming roof-tops, where, these single room spaces on the topmost floor of existing buildings helps them connect with nature, yet living close to the heart of the city, whilst living far from the crowded streets below.
The aim was to design a perfectly functional house with the listed requirements along with it proving a experience as a whole.
graphical representation of ergonomic study of various spaces of a residence
ANTHROPOMETRICS AND ERGONOMICS
ANTHROPOMETRIC AND ERGONOMI
STRETCHING THE TIGHT
Taking the pivot box designed earlier,the excersice was to place the pivot box in an empty box of 5m*5m*5m which is hanged from a tree top in form of machan. Along with that a staircase and a toilet has to be introduced in relation to the pivot box and views around
ANTHROPOMETRICS AND ERGONOMICS
TESELLATIONS
The 3d view showing an overall view of the house. The mezzanine floor, staircase and the working area.
The 3D view showing the entry space, the window to the workspace and an informal seating created using stairs.
Co-Curricular
inside and outside CEPT
Typology: Co-curricular
Photography (left)
TAship-Design Research Methods under Rishav Jain
Understanding Bawa Gardens, Srilanka Under Divya Shah and Anjali
Hunnarshala Hand-on Workshop
Installation Design at CEPT Navratri
Lamp Design at CEPT Foundation Day
Freelance Projects
Gym Design
Office Design
Tutor-Rishav Jain
TA-Apurva Pandey, Pooja Shah
Bawa Garden, Srilanka
Photographs depicted as space making through landscape
Charcaol Sketches
Lime Plaster:
Flooring:
Ips Terrazzo
Foundation Day Lamp Design|2021
Design by- Ansh, Abhishai, Kushani
Pooja,,kashvi,bhavna
Gym Design:
Stepping Up or Stepping down
Area: 750 sq.ft
Concept: The staggered planes as seen in 3d gives user a experience of varying heights from inside while serves as two terraces at different levels to enjoy the view of site.
Gym Design: Through Curved Screen
Area: 750 sq.ft
Concept: The Curved screen along with the spiral staircase acts a abstract expression for the word ‘gym’ and while also providing a screen to the building.
Office Design
Area:300 sq.ft
This office for a digital marketing company was designed in a way that could act as canvas with no walls. The cabinets, tables and other furniture act as color coding elements to the space, while the wall and other built objects remains white.
