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ARCH-AID PRACHI SHAH

School of Environment and architecture

ABOUT ME Education ICSE : 2007-2018 Lilav at ibai P od ar Hi gh S ch ool H SC :2018-2020 M it h ibai Col le ge

Profile I am a h ard workin g an d a passion at e st ud e n t , st ud y i n g i n Th e S ch ool of En v iron m e n t an d Arch it e ct ure . M y in t e re st s lie in e xplorin g about m at e rial it y an d it s af f ord an ce s in t od ay 's t im e , h ow it i s af f e ct in g v arious e n t it ie s an d t h e ir surroun d in gs. M ore ov e r, I work wit h t h e id e a of h ow ge n d e r an d it s role h e lps in t h e m akin g of space .

Contact 202,M un sh i M an or,10t h Road , Kh ar ( We st ) +91- 7738439513 prach sh ah 292@ gm ai l.com Arch -Ai d

B . A R CH : 2020-O ng o i ng S ch ool of En v i ron m e n t an d Arch i t e ct ure

Workshops/Courses A do be M a s t er Cl a s s es : R a j Co mp ut ers (August 2021 - Oct obe r 2021) 3D M o del l i ng a nd Pri nt i ng ; Pra t i k M o di (Oct obe r 2022- Nov e m be r 2022)

Skills Aut oCAD Ad obe P h ot osh op Ad obe I llust rat or Ad obe I n De sign Ble n d e r Fusion 360 Rh in o 7

TABLE OF CONTENT CORE COURSES

WORKING DRAWING

SUPPLEMENTARY COURSES

1. 3D MODELLING AND PRINTING 1. TYPESTUDIO

1. LOCALISATION

LIVE PROJECTS 2. SELF AND STRUCTURE

2. SYSTEM ONTOLOGY 1. URBAN INFORMATION SYSTEMS AND GIS

3.USEFUL AND UNUSEFUL OBJECTS

3. ENVIRONMENTAL FLOWS

2. URBAN HOUSING 4.GENERATIVE DESIGN

TYPESTUDIO

SEMESTER 3,MUMBAI, MAHARASHTRA, INDIA

This project looked closely at the revised practices of everyday life during the course of the pandemic and propose safe and humane extensions for physical, social and health infrastructure within localized conditions, in turn articulating what we loosely call a “pandemic type”. I closely study the new practices and spatial exigencies of the pandemic and create a localized facility that may extend as a temporary shelter, center, public infrastructure or even an information hub. The site for the project was within a one-kilometer radius from my house. In a pandemic-free future, the facility is expected to become a public space that may take newer roles as an open-source infrastructure for the neighborhood.

Pre-covid

Pre-covid

Post-covid

Post-covid

OBSERVATION Observing a few changed practices in different localities of my neighborhood such as the feeding of pigeons in the ‘kabutar khana’ and emergence of the ‘1-rupee medical shop’ . Based on the observations, I introduced a number of programs which can function and co-exist in a single space.One of which was the food exchange program. I also improvised on the exisitng program of the ‘vachnalay’. Merging the syntax of the ‘vachnalaya’ and feeding place as well as keeping in mind the common and major activities of the same, I established a honeycomb structure on a human scale.

Pre-covid

Post-covid

DESIGN Merging the syntax of the ‘vachnalaya’, feeding place as well as keeping in mind the common and major activities of the same, I established a honeycomb structure on a human scale.

While making the hexagonal element of the structure I used the logic of anthropometrics and used it in various ways and scales. The smaller one at a feeder scale and the bigger one at a reader scale. My structure emphasizes on it being an interface at various levels: donor and receiver, slum/public shelter and the road.

The stairs on either side allows a person to climb up to the higher level to donate or receive food. To store the food temporarily I have created a network of small hexagons that act as storages and a thin wall between the donor and the receiver.

A small flight of stairs is attached from the back of the space to the top of an enclosed sewage where people can go and feed birds and animals.

A ramp is also attached to the structure at the back that helps old and handicapped people to get easy access within the structure. The structure is open from the front so as to be accessible at any time and to anyone.

A cupboard is fixed at the center of the two seating spaces where objects kept inside can be kept secured during the night.

Moreover, the structure itself can provide a safe shelter for the homeless to sleep as compared to open areas and for street animals as well.

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SYSTEM ONTOLOGIES

SEMESTER 4, AURANGABAD, MAHARASHTRA, INDIA

DESIGN

A systemic and material response to specific spatial engagements. Moreover, it allows understanding relationships between systems/materials and life (behavior, experience, and relationships) via the idea of space - the premise here was that form articulates space and hence the structure of the form was instrumental in this articulation.

The orientation of the structure is along the north and the openings are mainly in the east-west direction such that maximum air and light can ventilate throughout the structure.

The structure is mainly made up of stone except for the roof which is made up of RCC and cladded with stones for a complete experience of the cave. the two side domes have a small oculus also covered by a chhatri to avoid water to enter the structure but allow light and air to enter the space.

The water flows from the chhatri to the bigger domes then to the semi-domes and then through PVC pipes to the ground away from the structure.

PROGRAM IDEAS Local library for the colleges People around the area can come and read the books of their interest and students from nearby colleges and private institutes can come and study.

This will also incorporate information such as the history of Ajanta and Ellora caves for tourists and locals.

Human Library Instead of books kept on shelves, people orally read a book of their choice out loud and others who are interested in reading the same books can sit together and listen to it.

DESIGN To make it according to the topography and geography of Aurangabad, I decided to make the structure partially underground, so it remains cool during summers and warm during winters.

The height of the structure is slightly higher than 3 meters to make the structure look grand from within. This automatically gravitates a person down and helps one focus on oneself better.

The structure comprises of three domes. The central dome is from where a person enters. It is a common space where multiple exhibitions can take place. The periphery domes are libraries for group reading and private reading spaces. Spiral staircases and ramps are used for vertical circulation of space.

Small courtyard spaces with toilets are also given where people can relax and study under natural light. The toilet uses the reed bed system to purify the grey water and the rainwater which can be re-used for sanitary purposes.

ENVIRONMENTAL FLOWS

SEMESTER 5, DAMAN, GUJURAT, INDIA

This course aimed to capacitate me to experience the environment as a set of interconnected networks that balance each other to constantly generate rhythmic flows of resources. These networks include the negotiations between the human, non-human, socio-cultural, socio-economical, and socio-political flows that are dynamic in nature. This course investigated to understand how architecture participates in these interconnections that alter, interrupt, break, prolong, hinder, stunt certain cycles that privilege or suppress life forms? What are its subsequent repercussions for the interspecies? How do they alter the existence of different life forms?How can these activities continue despite the seasonal obstruction? How do human interventions change or create situations in the surroundings?

SUMMER

WINTER

During the times of monsoon, the Tatawadi Phansa region floods heavily. Though the wetlands help a lot in controlling these circumstances yet the area is prone to flooding during this period. In addition to that, it makes it the workers difficult to commute, transport goods and graze cattle. Further, being secluded from the other parts of the city it faces difficulties during power cuts which increase during monsoons. The dairy products thus tend to spoil due to the warm and humid climate of that place.

MONSOON

The observations denote the different plantations in the area, temperature, and the flow of water due to the topography which makes the area a flooding zone. During monsoons, the water level rises to an extent where it ruins the crops grown in the wadi. The floods disable any form of accessibility to the outside and being far away from the main city faces a lot of power cuts.

PROGRAM The program consists of reusing the current foundation & columns of the existing guest house in Tata Wadi to create a Storage Unit. The storage units would act as a reserve for crops, dairy products, and other types of equipment. Apart from that, it would be combined with Ponds & Gardens creating a different experience making it habitable for various Recreational Activities and channelize the flow of rainwater making it easily accessible for irrigation purposes. Since the area is susceptible to flooding, the storage units would convert to create Temporary Shelters for the cattle & workers.

CONCEPTUAL IDEAS The wadi has a set of guest houses that are mainly abandoned. The condition of the houses was dilapidated The houses were facing towards the sea and though at a higher level prone to floods due to no proper channelization of water.With respect to the program we came up with a conceptual idea for a storage space where each form is broken into tiny modules. Each module is connected to the others with the help of plinths. The height of each space keeps varying as per the requirement.

DESIGN The design aims to mixed spaces where it acts both as storage for the crops as well as a temporary residing space for the workers mainly during the monsoons. It also contains garage space for loading and unloading of goods, a cafeteria, and leisure space that can be used for recreation. Moreover, the ponds and the roof is designed such that the water is efficiently channelized and a new flow of water is created. This flow will decrease the probability of water clogging that area.

The open and the closed spaces are oriented such that the structure receives maximum ventilation and optimum sunlight.

The entire design is friendly towards the blind that reside there, with the help of multiple indicative textures. The level between two spaces is kept limited only to one step. The spaces gradually turn from open to close space with the veranda acting as the buffer.

There are no doors provided until required to maintain the room temperature within the space.

LOCALISATION SEMESTER 6, TROMBAY, MUMBAI, INDIA

This course equipped me to carry out detailed development and refinement of building design through technical resolution of structural systems, material performance and experience, member assembly, threshold-enclosure details and process of construction. The student is expected to comprehensively resolve the design from concept to actualization and generate a construction documentation set along with specifications, quantities and estimation.

OBSERVATION The site being very compact allows stairs to be used in multiplicity. The most common ones being: **seating spaces** (to view the surrounding activities or to engage with people without crossing the threshold of the houses) **storage spaces** (to grow plants, to stack shoes, to keep objects used to clean the house) The deep narrow well formed between two houses provide **comfort and a sense of security**to the women of the community to meet and gossip due to the overlapping **eyes on the streets**and the stretch of the sight lines which are more intense in the ‘gallis’.

Different parts of the site is populated by various types of sight in terms of gender and gaze. The analytical drawings show precisely how men women and children observe gaze or surveil depending on where they are located in the area.

After choosing the path of the site lines that can enter the space, multiple forms at various places across the site were achieved. The space requirement of each exiting program on site and new additional programs the spatial layout was decided.

Merging a few achieved forms and orienting them on site according to the wind direction and the sun path, two builtforms were achieved.one of them being G+2 and the other being G+1.

Due to the site being compact the process is being planned in phases and the remaining site is being accommodated by the basic amenities that must be given to the laborers. Keeping in mind the larger sequencing of the building bar graph and the Critical path diagram were generated.

The steps of building making are shown in the above diagrams and its spatial relation with the existing site.

The area is slightly uplifted due to the high ground water table and to allow connectivity with the gutter line. Area around the building will be pavered with a slight slope such that the water does not remain stagnant.

The building towards the road is a pathology lab while the building towards the residential part is a ‘balwadi’ as well as a common toilet for the community. The central space forms a recreational/community gathering space.

The plinth of both the buildings have been extended outward for people to rest. Entrance of the pathology lab is from the road edge giving access not only to the nearby community but also the entire settlement.

The ‘balwadi’ is given at the back such that it becomes a safe place for students and their parents can keep an eye on them while staying at home.

A series of metal stairs from the outside the ‘balwadi‘ takes you up to the caretaker’s house. It becomes easier for him to take care of the common toilet being giving him an easier access. The house extends as a balcony from where he can access the roof using a ladder.

The inner building is connected to the building near the road edge via a ramp such that the people accommodated in the pathology lab can use the common toilet. The pathology lab has a lift for the stretcher to fit in easily to help the patients go to the above floors.

The shear walls come up to continue as load bearing walls of the structure. Since the structure is load bearing, The wall thickness decreases by half a brick as you go up according to the number of floors. Here, the ground floor has a wall thickness of 345mm, and first floor has a thickness of 230mm. There is metal staircase that allows a person to access the first floor from outside the building.

The roof extends to form a chajja over the staircase.

Dado tile is used on the bathroom walls upto a height of 1500mm. Granite partitions are given for urinals and louvered glass windows have been provided for the bathroom windows. The windows in the bathroom differ from 300mm x 300mm (for cubicle & urinal openings) to 500mm x 500mm (near washbasin and common area). Brick corbelling is used as a method of creating fenestrations in the ‘balwadi’. .

These drawings talk about the various details at each level.

The waterproofing of the terrace slabs and the bathroom slabs, using multiple layers such PCC, brick bat coba and using china mosaic tiling.

Apart from the materiality it also focuses on the experience of the space made by trellis and the overhanging creeper. On the lower floors it focuses on the type of openings such as louvered windows for the bathroom whereas a sliding/panel window for the pathology lab. It also focuses on the plinth and its usage.

The toilet details have been thought through very thoroughly in terms of drop slab given to allow easy plumbing, dado tiles have been placed on each wall up to a height of 1500mm and openings given for each cubicle and even in the common dressing areas. The entire toilet is given slope at 1:100 to avoid stagnant water on cleaning. The plumbing lines have also been shown to give a clearer idea of the inlet and the outlet points. Plaster is done on the inner walls only in the toilets to avoid moisture seepage. tile drop has been provided for each cubicle, so the water does not flow out.

URBAN INFORMATION SYSTEMS AND GIS SEMESTER 7, AAREY COLONY, MUMBAI, INDIA

The course trained me to engage with nature as a major element in designing a space and develop strategies that accommodate or complement the green in the area. It also helped me explore eco-friendly materials and their affordances. It being a live project it helped me deal with the client and introduced the idea of negotiation for the first time with such importance. The idea was to reimagine the forest through a series of folds which blend in with the existing context. Each program was imagined as an individual pavilion which gets connected with the other through traversing pathways. The folds happen at angles of 15,30,45 and, 60 degrees.

The designs of the workshop spaces were developed keeping in mind the location of the trees. The structure folds at 15, 30 and 90 degree angles. This concept was followed throughout using modules of 3x3, 3x6 m. This is the pottery workshop space where the pathway turns into a pavilion. The pathway also acts as a resting and viewing space. The pottery happens inside the pavilion. It is also used a nursery for smaller plants The plinth is made using stone and lime mortar and the roof is made using hay that are naturally available on site. The vertical supports are 4 bamboos of 30cm dia bundled together and fixated inside the ground by digging a pit and filling it with tyres and sand. The structure hence becomes temporary and can be change by the client as an when required in the future.

The kitchen and the cafe run along the edges of the site to engage the passersby. The existing shelter on the site is redesigned go form a kitchen that is porous enough to allow light and ventilation. The opening is faced in the direction of the cafe.

The cafe is a pathway that folds into modules where a person can site and dine. The central courtyard space forms a recreational area. The entire structure is made such that it traverses through the landscape. For the pathway we have used rope to tie adjacent bamboo. For the vertical supports we thought of using fish mouth joint. Cross bracings are also used to keep the structure sturdier to withstand the live load.

URBAN HOUSING SEMESTER 7, THAKKAR BAPPA COLONY, MUMBAI, INDIA

In the course the housing question is redefined as the ‘problem of professional architects and state mechanisms being unable to enter the house production processes.’ The course trained me to engage with a settlement with poor habitation conditions and develop strategies of improvement which can be implemented through the cultural logics that operate in the settlement.

Thakkar Bappa Colony is located in the M/W ward in the eastern suburbs of Mumbai city. Coming under the Bombay Municipal Corporation limits, it has a total area of 1,32,541 SQ.M. Its major connectivity is from the Eastern Express Highway, and is connected to suburban rail by the Chembur, Kurla and Tilak Nagar Railway stations. The Lokmanya Tilak Terminus connects the locality with inter-state trains. The initial population were predominantly Kutchi’s who migrated during the partition along with a few Rajasthani's. The locality I was studying. was Basant Wadi. The major vulnerability in the locality was lack of light and ventilation, inclination of staircases, the network tower and congestion inside the houses. All of the houses practiced shoemaking and hence the inside space became a mixed space used for both shoemaking and living.

The design intervention allows improvising the light conditions; increase ventilation in the houses and give an access to the roofs. It also acts as a medium for social interaction that is very less currently. The people live and work in the same space and so make the houses congested from within. These extensions will help to separate the living and working giving appropriate spaces for each program.

In order to address the light and ventilation problem in these houses, for the bottom floors one of the exterior walls or part of the exterior walls is replaced with aluminium movable louvres that might be kept at multiple angles accorsing to the time of the day.The top floors has a butterfly /one way sloped roof using existinf i sections existinf corrugated sheets and box section.

Apart from just improving the light and ventilation the roof allowsto direct the flow of water using a gutter channel at either in the middle or at the lower end, slightly extruding from the outer surface of the wall. The porousness will hence increase in the alleys if implenented by multiple houses making the gullies also cooler and better ventilated apart from the houses.

3D PRINTING AND MODELLING

GENERATIVE DRAWING

SEMESTER 5

SEMESTER 3

In this course, we briefly learned about the multiple ways of 3d modeling mainly using Blender (a tool to device objects in a virtual space) and Fusion 360 ( a mechanical software that allows us to make products along with its mechanics and gives us a virtual idea of how it may work). Later we moved on to how to 3d print the models using Chitubox and Prusa Slicer and derived a G-code necessary for the computer to understand what to print.

This workshop was an introduction to the process of developing visual encodings in a generative workflow. I learned the methods of writing instructions in the form of code (develop custom algorithms) that generate iterative graphics. I explored the process of designing/authoring parametric relationships between simple geometrical forms and automate the process of generating the resultants. A generative grammar thus defined exposed us to the emergence of complex behavior from a set of simple conditions. It inculcated logical thinking towards defining systems of design and in turn, towards thinking and producing form.

I started first exploring Fusion 360 and made a kinetic device that forms wavelike rhythms and produces chiming sounds on being moved.

Further, learning blender I designed basic objects like a donut, created interior and well as exterior still lives, and developed more in terms of parametric designing.

Lastly, I was given an individual project where I had to devise an object of play, an object with motion, virtual models, and much more.

SELF AND STRUCTURE

USEFUL AND UNUSEFUL OBJECTS

SEMESTER 5

SEMESTER 3

What is an organizational structure? What does it mean? How does it allow people to hold and design their form of life? These were a few questions that we attempted to answer during the four weeks of the course. I tried understanding these through multiple formats by observing the systems and organization in the day-to-day lives of certain professions and practices and exploring the multiple aspects of organizational systems through movies and readings.

Product design is an articulation of material details and functions. This course stresses that the understanding of material properties and in-depth knowledge of crafting and design are the most essential markers of a good product.

In the initial days of the module, we were asked to observe actions that we perform unknowingly and have become a daily habit .On observing oneself extensively, I realized how frequent fidgeting with my earphones causes them to break or get damaged in multiple ways, this allowed me to add an extension to protect the wire.

To decide the form of the wire extension, I kept in mind the required movement to fidget with it and then related it to the similar movements found in the already existing objects around me.

In the practices I studied and observed how the day of a female house help is structured, their connections within various circles, their method of working, and finally, the inefficiencies noticed in their method of working. The idea of a narrative to provide context for each practice was taken up, and along with-it wouldbe illustrations to provide a more visual understanding.

Using the appropriate materials for my idea, I started ideating multiple ways in which I can make my extension. The two iterations are done using the elastic rubber bands as the material and two distinct interlocking patterns that allow certain different movements.

PERSONAL INTERESTS

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