Thesis

SITE ANALYSIS

macro level study

Figure 31: Site Plan with context

About The Site Location: Sector 132, Noida, Uttar Pradesh ( 28°30’40.98”N, 77°22’14.82”E) Population: 8.2 (projected as of 2022) Dimenstions of site: 6ac (24,503 m2) Permissible Ground Coverage: 40% (9800 m2) Permissible F.A.R: 1.50 (36,000 m2) Permissible height: 24m VIDYA is a non-profit NGO. Over 35 years, they have impacted the lives of 4,00,000 people, more than half of which include girls and women. Founded in 1985 by Ms. Rashmi Misra, it began with her teaching a class of five girls in her home on the campus of IIT Delhi. Now, they have 78 projects and growing, spread across Delhi, Gurugram, Bangalore, Mumbai & Pune. They build capacity to surmount limitations, achieve goals and become leaders of social change. Their method is to address literacy as multifaceted – encompassing academics, vocations, mental and physical wellbeing, life skills, awareness to a fast-evolving global society, communication skills, and values. Their vision is to be the fountainhead for empowering and transforming lives through education.

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SITE ANALYSIS

macro level study

Figure 32: Master Plan of NOIDA -2031

They dream of seeing an India where every child gets quality education, every youth an opportunity to succeed, and every woman achieves economic and social independence.Their team of about 350 people includes local and foreign volunteers, teachers and staff and a large circle of committed friends, donors and well-wishers.

The Vidhya School, Gurugram

Sponsors span across India, the US and Europe, some providing constant support to them, and thousands of volunteers have worked with them over the years.

Architectural Thesis: A School For The Underprivileged

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SITE ANALYSIS

macro level study

Figure 33: Site Plan Satellite View

Approach The site is adjacent 2 arterial roads and 1 collector road, one of them directly connecting to the NOIDA- GREATER NOIDA highway. NOIDA has roughly 11,510 slums, in which population of 49,407 resides. From each of the dense residential clusters present around, there are direct routes that connect to the site. This also encourages enrollment from nearby cities.

The above plan is not to conventional scale, and the ratios are marked below in the plan. Each ripple represents 500m. From this plan, it is clear that the main traffic will be coming from the northern direction, due to its connection with the highway and the built area density.

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SITE ANALYSIS

pictures

Site Plan (Not To Scale)

View from ‘A’ looking towards Paras Commercial center

View from ‘B’ looking towards the Site

View from site looking towards Paras Commercial center

Service Road along site from ‘C’

View from ‘C’ looking towards Commercial building

View from ‘B’ looking towards Paras Commercial center

Architectural Thesis: A School For The Underprivileged

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SITE ANALYSIS

climate analysis

climate analysis: The climate of NOIDA, experiences a hot and dry conditions for major portions of the year. In Noida, the wet season is hot, oppressive, and partly cloudy and the dry season is warm and mostly clear. Over the course of the year, the temperature typically varies from 47°F to 103°F and is rarely below 42°F or above 110°F. Marked below is the duration range of a student’s average day at school.

Movement of the sun across the site 1.(22 JUNE) 2.(22MAY-23JULY) 3.(20APRIL-23 AUGUST) 4(20 MARCH-23 SEPTEMBER) 5.(21 FEB-23 OCTOBER) 6 (19 JANUARY- 22 NOVEMBER) 7.(22 DECEMBER)

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SITE ANALYSIS

neighborhood analysis

Architectural Thesis: A School For The Underprivileged

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SITE ANALYSIS

neighborhood analysis

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SITE ANALYSIS

traffic and swot analysis

Traffic Analysis Shown below are the traffic condititions of weekdays and weekends respectively.

Architectural Thesis: A School For The Underprivileged

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SITE PROFILE SECTIONS AND ELEVATIONS

Section B-B’

Section A-A’

Perspective section at Y-Y’

Perspective section at X-X’

Section Through Academic Block (1)

Section Through Academic Block (2)

Architectural Thesis: A School For The Underprivileged

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CONCEPT spirituality

Everything is energy, according to scientific studies and quantum physics. Numerous therapeutic traditions are thought to be built around the idea that energy moves. Numerous ancient traditions, including Reiki, QiGong, and Tai Chi, as well as yoga, place an emphasis on the appropriate operation of the energy system to attain health and well-being.

The deep concept of yoga was extensively explained by ancient yogis using symbolism.

This philosophy includes knowledge of “Kundalini” as one of its tenets. In Sanskrit, ‘kunda’ means “pot” (the ancient language of yoga). The kundalini shakti, or life force, is present in the body like a pot (kundalini energy).

Figure 34: The Presence of 7 Chakras in our bodies

This ethereal energy was once symbolised by a coiling serpent.The coiled serpent represents the kundalini shakti in its resting or dormant form. Your root chakra, at the base of your spine, is where it is located.Life starts to feel more and more like a celebration as this energy is awakened and begins to rise. We don’t worry about little things as much. When you awaken your own force of consciousness, the entire universe seems more lovely and amazing.

To integrate this into the project, The qualities resonating with each chakra is associated with an architecture block and arranged as shown. However, locations of the blocks are altered to be efficiently placed.

Shown below are the buildings with their associated qualities: Chakra Quality Building Mooladhara Innocence Kindergarten Swadhisthana Creativity Vocational Training Center Nabhi (Manipura) Health Canteen/medic Anahata Energy Sports field Vishuddha Speech OAT Ajna Awareness Library/ Meditation hall Sahasrara Knowledge Academic Block

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CONCEPT conceptual development

Using the Hexagonal Tesellation Grid The Planning started by setting up a 6x6m hexagonal tesselation grid overlayed onto the site, aligned to the main entrance (N-W facing) .The shape is chosen for its ability to efficiently allocate and define spaces.

Zoning Areas The areas are zoned by relating the qualities of all blocks ( from the area statement) with their corresponding chakra qualities. This is then integrated into the plan.

Setting a Voronoi Parameter Following the zoning, a voronoi parameter is set up to integrate all spaces with each other.This lays the foundation for understanding movement through the site.

Extruding blocks Forms are then extruded, now that the overall zoning has been realised. Based on area statements, the academic blocks are extruded to greater heights than other departments. The Open Air Theater is a void in the ground.

Architectural Thesis: A School For The Underprivileged

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CONCEPT conceptual development

Detailing the blocks Each block is then detailed out, by defining floors, walls , pavements, facade, roofs, furnitures, etc. Pathways are highlighted by virtue of landscaping, which is done by honoring the hexagonal grid. The double facade for the academic block similarly follows this concept.

Setting up the shading elements After analysing the solar gains across the site, shading features are set up in spots that are open. While these spaces reduce the overall temperature of the site, they also serve as good hangout spaces for the children during recess or after classes.

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SITE PLAN

Scaled Site Plan

Site Plan Drawn to Scale (Roof Plan)

Nodes of the Site

Movement across the Site

Architectural Thesis: A School For The Underprivileged

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SITE PLAN

block plans

Academic Block

Upon entry, students can be conveniently dropped off directly in front of the academic block, which is G+3.

Labs are present on each floor. While the ground floor has 6 classes, providing 2 classrooms for each grade, each subsequent floor has 8 classes. The administration department is located in the ground floor itself, with the principal’s room located directly above it.

Ground Floor Plan

The school has a fairly open planning with a courtyard in the middle to experience cross ventilation, and has a false facade to which reduces each class’ demand for cooling. The block overall has excellent circulation for egress.

The Academic Block First and Second Floor Plan

Conceptual view of the false facade

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Third Floor Plan

Conceptual view of the courtyard

Kindergarten

Vocational Training Centers

These training centers are used to learn basic activities like: • Computer Studies • Crafting • Construction • Stitching • Electronics • Knitting • Beauty training • Hydroponics/Aquaponics • Candle/Soap making • Fashion

Canteen/ Medical bay The canteen caters 100 people in one sitting at a time. It opens towards a common space as ‘spillover’ that connects this to the sports ground and OAT. Located adjacent to the field is the medical room.

Library/ Meditation Hall

Architectural Thesis: A School For The Underprivileged

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MATERIAL ANALYSIS

exploded views

Bamboo Roofing

U - V Bamboo Mesh

Basic Framework Columns Second Floor

First Floor Walls ( recycled concrete blocks) Ground Floor Exploded view of the Library/ Meditation Hall

Bamboo Roofing

Fink Truss Howe Truss First Floor Ground Floor

Exploded view of the Vocational Training Center 58

MATERIAL ANALYSIS

materials used in the project

Recycled Concrete Recycled concrete is a concrete aggregate manufactured using preexisting concrete from demolished structures, sidewalks and roadways. Recycled aggregate is used as an alternative to sending used, non-biodegradable concrete to landfills

Figure 35: Recycled Concrete

Bamboo/Timber Shading Bamboo is a versatile shape with high flexibility. Yet when bound, they are rigid enough to form structures usually 5m high.Well treated bamboo has a life expectancy of 50 years, and it can be used in conjunction with concrete, glass and aluminium. Due to its high compressive strength, it is usually used in scaffolding. In this case , it forms the basic framework for supporting the roof.

Figure 36: Bamboo Structure

Tensile Fabrics Tensioning a membrane system,typically using wire or cable, defines tensile fabric structures. The membrane receives crucial structural support from the use of tension across the whole structure. The most typical type of thin-shell constructions is tensile architecture. The structures can span unsupported lengths of up to 150 feet and up to twice that amount with steel cable nets.

Figure 37: High Tensile Fabric

Brick/Recycled Brick Brick recycling is simpler when it is planned from the start. Brick recycling is simple if preparations are made in advance. There are various ways to recycle bricks. They can be used in landscapes after being chipped. Bricks can also be used in place of sand or even utilised to make new bricks when they are crushed into an extremely fine substance.

Figure 38: Recycled Brick

Architectural Thesis: A School For The Underprivileged

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GEOMETRY ANALYSIS

Hexagons Being one of the most flexible of shapes, it has been used to effeciently design spaces in the site. A hexagon is one among three shapes that can be purely tesselated, and is hence used to create the foundational grid.

For the same perimeter, it can be observed that the hexagon encompasses more area than a larger triangle, which shows how it optimises spaces. 2 triangles joined on one face form a paralellogram, the paralell sides hence forming a corridor for people to move through.

Geodesic

Geodesic Dome

In geometry, a geodesic is commonly a curve representing in some sense the shortest path (arc) between two points in a surface, or more generally in a Riemannian manifold. The term also has meaning in any differentiable manifold with a connection. It is a generalization of the notion of a “straight line”.

In a Riemannian manifold or submanifold, geodesics are characterised by the property of having vanishing geodesic curvature.

Geodesics are of particular importance in general relativity. Timelike geodesics in general relativity describe the motion of free falling test particles.

Hyperbolic Paraboloid A hyperbolic paraboloid (HP) can be parametrically defined as the union of the lines joining two points moving at constant speed on two non coplanar lines.The 4 sides of any skew quadrilateral are therefore included in a unique HP; unfortunately, this HP is not the surface with minimal area supported on this contour

A Hyperbolic Paraboloid with support

Voronoi Tesselation Parameter In mathematics, a Voronoi diagram is a partition of a plane into regions close to each of a given set of objects. In the simplest case, these objects are just finitely many points in the plane (called seeds, sites, or generators). For each seed there is a corresponding region, called a Voronoi cell, consisting of all points of the plane closer to that seed than to any other.

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Triangular Tesselation

Voronoi Diagram

SCIOGRAPHY

Sciography, is a branch of science of the perspective dealing with the projection of shadows, or delineation of an object in perspective with its gradations of light and shade.

One of the major professional fields that use this technique is the architectural field. In architecture it is defined as a study of shades and shadows cast by simple architectural forms on plane surfaces.

Shadows at 1hr intervals without shading elements

To understand how to place the shading elements, it is important to understand shadows. A shadow has 3 parts, the umbra, the penumbra and the antiunbra. If the source of light is not a concentrated beam of light, the object which will cast shadows in its presence will have these 3 elements (they wont have hard shadows).

This principle has been used in the design.

With the sun as the slight source, if the shading element is close to the ground, it would have a strong umbra, though for a short range. The higher the placement, greater the penumbra.

Shadows at 1hr intervals with shading elements

After analysing the shadow diagram of the site, the shading elements were placed to reduce heat gain on the surface of the site. Shadows have been captured at 1 hour intervals from 8:00 am to 6:00 pm. As we can see, the site is shaded for more hours of the day with the provided shading elements. This encourages safe movement under the scorching heat.

Architectural Thesis: A School For The Underprivileged

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SCIOGRAPHY

SHADING ELEMENTS

High Tensile Fabrics

Besides the Open Air Theater, they have also been used to cover the spillover zone between the canteen and the medical bay. They have been used to cover the kiosks at the entrance of the site.

One of the best shading elements is the high tensile fabric, known specially for its flexibily in shape and structure, needing no supports for spans upto 45m. Placing 2 of these over the open air theater keeps it mostly covered , while also giving acoustic diffusion.

Bamboo Tree Canopy Besides the Open Air Theater, they have also been used to cover the spillover zone between the canteen and the medical bay. They have been used to cover the kiosks at the entrance of the site.

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SCIOGRAPHY

SHADING ELEMENTS

Walkway These features create semi shaded walkways which is necessary to keep the children shaded and give them the freedom to move around. This also reduces the overall heat gain of the surface.

Waffle Structure

Architectural Thesis: A School For The Underprivileged

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BIBLIOGRAPHY

list of references

Websites: 1. https://biblus.accasoftware.com/en/how-to-design-a-school-the-complete-technical-guide/ 2. https://www.instituteshub.com/basic-amenities-needed-in-a-school/ 3. https://www.orchidsinternationalschool.com/blog/parents-corner/5-key-features-an-ideal-school-ofcbse-board-in-india-should-have/ 4. https://www.archdaily.com/search/projects/categories/schools/country/india 5. https://www.architecturaldigest.in/content/schools-india-design-architecture-pune-delhi-bangalore-rajasthan/ Case Studies: 1. https://www.archdaily.com/960824/the-rajkumari-ratnavati-girls-school-diana-kellogg-architects 2. https://www.deepalaya.org/ 3. https://www.archdaily.com/935934/the-rajasthan-school-sanjay-puri-architects?ad_source=search&ad_medium=projects_tab 4. https://www.archdaily.com/971024/ds2-madrassa-ds2-architecture?ad_source=search&ad_medium=projects_tab 5. https://www.archdaily.com/964138/akshar-arbol-international-school-ksm-architecture?ad_ source=search&ad_medium=projects_tab 6. https://www.archdaily.com/911906/avasara-academy-case-design-studio?ad_source=search&ad_ medium=projects_tab 7. https://nzeb.in/case-studies/nzebs-in-india/nzebs-in-india-case-studies-list/avasara-academy/

Publications: 1. The role of Space in setting the Educational Environment 2. Time Saver Standards for Housing And Residential Development 3. Compendium of Architectural norms and Guidelines For Educational Institutions 4. Appendix VI – Classroom Guidelines to UConn’s Design Standards 5. School Design Standards/Albuquerque Public Schools 6. Designing for adaptation: the school as socio-spatial assemblage 7. The Need For Integration Of ICT And Physical Infrastructure Of School Development For The Growth Of The Tamil 8. School Design Guide ,SDG 02-03, Post Primary School Design Guide

Softwares Used: 1. Autodesk:Autocad 2. Autodesk:Revit 3. Adobe: Photoshop 4. Adobe:Indesign 5. Trimble:Sketchup 6. Chaos Group: Vray for Sketchup 7. Sunhours 8. Lumion 11.0 64