Undergraduate Architecture Portfolio

SAKSHI CHHEDA

Hello, this portfolio consists of selected works from 2018 - 2023. The projects are the product of research, observations, theories and experiments.

ACADEMICS

2018-2023 Balwant Sheth School of Merit Holder Architecture

2016-2018 Mithibai College of Science

2016 City International School

WORKSHOPS

2022 NUDES in the classroom Filippo NassettiSuperabundance Fibrous Tissue

2021 BIM and Revit Workshop BIM it, Architecture Collective, Barcelona, Spain

2019 Psychology

Bayside Media SEAL

2019 Leadership and Management Program ( Finance, Marketing, Operations)

D.O.B - 27.01.2001

Contact No. - 9167633955

Email Id - sakshihchheda@gmail.com

Address - Mumbai, India

Bayside Media SEAL

2015, Delegate - Harvard Model UN 2014 HMUN, Hyderabad

SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY

2023 Pagna Cambodian Education Fund

Sept Volunteered in Cambodia

2021 Muskurahat Foundation

May Volunteered for Project Keytaab

2014- Samarpan

2016 Volunteered for a teaching 2 yrs Programme.

WORK EXPERIENCE

2023 Malik Architecture

Mumbai Architectural Intern

April-July

2023 Architect Hafeez Contractor

Mumbai Architectural Intern

March

2022 TA Fourth Year Studio - BSSA

Mumbai Building Construction Technology

June - October

2022 Spiti Ecosphere

Kaza Architectural Intern

April - June

COMPETITIONS

2022 Artuminate - Notion of Space

2022 Volume Zero - Tiny House

2021 Solar Decathlon India Office Building

2021 Archmello - The Brewed Bar

2018 Redesign Play - BSSA Esquisse Intra Class Competition for Architecture

EXHIBITIONS AND DOCUMENTATIONS

2022 The Brand Britain Magazine Shooting Star Studios, UK

2022 Thesis Bazaar Research Exhibit at BSSA

2019 Emergence Installation Exhibit at BSSA

SKILLS

ADVANCED SKILLS

Adobe Photoshop Adobe Illustrator

Adobe InDesign

McNeel Rhinoceros

Autodesk Autocad

iMovie

Microsoft Suite

INTERMEDIATE SKILLS

Grasshopper Autodesk Revit

Sketchup

Vray

BASIC SKILLS

3DS Max Blender

Adobe After Effects

Adobe Premiere Pro Lumion

QGIS

Twin Motion

LANGUAGES

English Hindi

Gujarati Kutchhi

Marathi

Spanish (A1) Including other skills like modelmaking, hand drafting, sketching, film making, photography, fabrication works, wood working, laser cutting, 3d printing etc.

AUTOMATED LANDSCAPES AND USER CUSTOMISATION

Academics - Year 5, SEM 9 Design Dissertation (Research Phase)

Anthropocene is viewed as the period during which human activity has been the dominant influence on climate and the environment. We live completely in a world surrounded by data. Data that tells us about our life and the world we are in, in an age that we could define as Digital Era. Progressive automation and emerging technologies are now faster and more present, far beyond the human capacity to keep up with them. Architecture has always been defined by the prevailing means of production.

The current era and technological influence have led to two major emerging typologies of buildings - the one made by humans for machines and the one made by machines for humans. The automated machine landscapes like data centres, are the places where the internet lives, where human lives are stored in form of digital avatars, yet they are empty of any humans. This research aims to explore the dialogue between these post human landscapes and human beings in form of new emerging typologies and re-defined constructions. Some of these aspects like 3d printing, high level user customisation in choices of living, design of spaces like flexibility, scalability, modularity and participatory design have been looked into along with new trends of living, working, growing and caring in the backdrop of Technology and Artificial Intelligence.

Internet and Digital connectivity has revolutioned lives of people along with onset of Globalisation. This is also the age which revolves around human perspective and spacemaking was based on human scale. It is hence very human - centric.

The human-centric system is progressively shifting into one where data and machines play a fundamental role. Today automation’s is in a comfortable environment - bubble of the factory, where humans (away) from potentially dangerous robots and where robotics grows sheltered from both vandalism and conventional expectations of how occupied areas should be programmed.

Meanwhile certain Automated Technology has mingled with human life, hence entered urban and rural conditions like Automated Speech, Vision, Retail and Automated Vehicles.

Era of Digital Connectivity, Humans connected though Post - Human landscapes of Internet. Transmission wires in background.

Human in a box, Human Centered Design.

Stonemasons once carved column capitals and modern architects harnessed the prefabricated components made possible by industrialization. Now we have AI and Technology. These non-human landscapes are more than just computational infrastructures, they are becoming the defining cultural constructions of our age.

Automation and Technology led to two new emerging typologies - Buildings made by Human for the Machine and Buildings made by Machine for the Human.

Every photo, message, user profile, research contain data collected in an ethereal container that we know as Cloud. This idea of a light, ethereal cloud materializes in form of landscapes of wires, satellites and data centers.

They are places which store and process our data. It is where the internet lives, Human excluded Infrastructure. Necessary for the modern world to function.

If we were to stroll through the screen and follow the fiber-optic tentacles across the planet we would find ourselves in unfamiliar places like this.

If customization of institutions were the potential outcomes of urban technology in an earlier era then today, with even smarter systems at play, the promise to rescript the city is more plausible. Industrialization and Urban Planning lead to banal urbanism where any two cities ended up looking the same. Digital infrastructure and technology provides an alternative to the industrialization and standardization of life. That is, accomplish 1960s radical and anti-establishment pledges of an independent lifestyle based on self-management and a personalized relationship between work and production, bring back old craftsmanship.

THE HEALER

Academics - Year 4, SEM 8

Programme - Hospice Space

Site - Sanjay Gandhi National Park, Mumbai

The concept of Evolution is studied by Elevation, Contour, Drainage Channels and Watershed Basin maps which are generated on QGIS Software. Mappings and Tracings infered that sudden elevation gain had shorter drainage channels, hence less scattering of channels than when present on a wider plane. Line drawings are made from these inferences.

The Pandemic played an important role in helping us understand the importance of health both mental and physical. Mumbai being a hustling city, has sufficient health infrastructure but lacks an additional facility which takes care of the recovery phase or a facility which deals with mental and spiritual concerns of the body. Hence it is necessary to introduce a step between a patients jouney from hospital to back home.

An attempt is made to introduce such a facility in the core of Mumbai, in its urban forest - the Sanjay Gandhi National Park, the site fits the programme perfectly as Mumbaikars can consider this facility as a getaway amidst the hustles and monotony of a city landscape. Inspired by the lagoons, mist and calmness of the forest, a similar vibe of zen is replicated in this hospice center situated by the Dahisar river on a contoured terrain, with views of the forests and hills.

Contours : 20 - 40m

Elevation Map

Drainage Channels

Watershed

Drainage Channels

Drainage channels with Watershed

SPOTIFY WAREHOUSE

Academics - Year 4, SEM 7

Programme - Music House and Mediatheque

Site - Kalaghoda, Mumbai

Over time, the way we percieve, listen and make music has changed. Earlier we used to have records, a certain sense of memory linked to those physical discs, right now those music holders are converted into cloud files, with everything being digital. Apps like Spotify have revolutionised the industry of music making, delivering and advertising.

Rhythm house was one such store which sold vinyls and could not bare the wrath of revolution. Hence revamping it into a physical warehouse of Spotify, this project becomes consolidation of rethinking ways music can be percieved in today’s times. Innovative programmes like ‘The living room’ where strangers can sync music and identify common tastes are inserted, hence creating an important node in the city of Mumbai.

SITE - RHYTHM HOUSE

The store was founded by Suleman Nensey in 1948 and sold music equipment and vinyl records. By the latter half of the 2000s, the store was beginning to feel the heat from MP3s, downloadable music (legal and illegal), Apple’s music store, subscription-driven services and the latest threat at that time – from organized retailers.

Rhythm House was shut in 2016, after failing to revive its business and keep up sales. The current site had an open spaces dedicated to parking. An important art node of Mumbai, Kalaghoda was dead in terms of human activity.

MIGRANT WORKERS’ ABODE

Academics - Year 3, SEM 5

Programme - Construction Workers Housing

Site - Andheri, Mumbai

Out of the total labor in India, 4.5 Million belongs to the Informal work sector. They are the migrant workers who work on contract basis. In cities there are two kinds of workers, permanent and temporary, the latter ones trying their luck in cities, with no surity of shelter above them. The argument focuses on housing the construction workers of the Mumbai in the abandoned mills or warehouses of the city. Hence re-using the redundant space in the city which is already dense.

Research was done on the lifestyle, work and nature of shelters of these workers in construction sector and the vulnerabilites faced by them, along with Case studies of Mumbai and Ahmedabad were undertaken. A site in Andheri was selected to build temporary rent based housing for them and their families hence incorporating the needs of their kids as well.

Existing Warehouse Area – 960 sq.m Plot area - 2594 sq.m

Block orientation according to function, light and ventilation.

Blocks suspended from the truss, ground given for landscaping and recreation.

1. Creche, 2. Reception Area and 3. Workshop Space to practise craft.

1. 2. 3.

Unit for 4 people Area - 50 sq.m

Unit for 2 people Area - 30 sq.m (6m x 5m)

Unit for 2 people Area - 30 sq.m (6m x 5m)

Unit for 2 people Area - 25 sq.m (5m x 5m)

Unit for 2 people Area - 25 sq.m (8m x 3.5m)

Unit for 4 people Area - 45 sq.m (9m x 5m)

Ground Plan

Second Floor Plan

Section

First Floor Plan

Roof Plan

THE SPITI PROJECT

Professional Work

Role - Drawings, Visualisation, Assisting in Design, Site Visit and Coordination.

Programme - Coffee House and Dormitory

Site - Kaza, Himachal Pradesh

Kaza is a town in Spiti Valley, a cold desert, situated between India and Tibet. Due to its extreme climate conditions the locals just get a six months window to earn their annual income. Growing popularity in tourism and eco-tourism sector has enabled many locals to convert their homes into guest houses or cafes and dormitories hence welcoming and giving birth to backpacking culture in this geography.

The walls of the building were done in mud and bricks, allowing the place to remain warm even in winter months. The staircase was done in metal and plaster was also done in mud with walls painted in traditional Spiti Designs.

EMERGENCE EXHIBITIONCACTUS INSTALLATION

Academics - Year 2, SEM 3

Role - Design, Modelling, Making, Budgeting

Programme - Walkthrough Installation

Site - BSSA, Mumbai

Group - Anoushka P, Betina V, Divya B, Sakshi C

The model itself is concentrated in terms of experience given its volumetric nature. The various segments show varied turgidity levels in the cactus cells through cuts and folds. When there is water loss due to change in pressure and the shrinking of cells and skin, accordion like fold and formed. The formation of the accordion like fold is shown in the segment as well. The flow of these segments indicate the smooth transition between the various stages of turgidity. Rearrangement of cells during the process is shown in the second segment, in form of an interactive space. The project is an architectural take on natural process.

This Installation is an attempt to create a walkway that portrays the various stages of emergence that occurs in the cactus. Calculated cuts in 6 mm thick semi marine plywood are used to alter the rigid property hence achieve the curve.

URBAN DESIGNDE- DENSIFYING WADALA

Academics - Year 4, SEM 8

Site - Wadala, Mumbai

Area - 2,30,000 sq.m

PROFESSIONAL PRACTICE

Malik Architecture, Mumbai

GROUND LVL +70.8

Miscellaneous : Superabundance Fibrous Tissue Webinar

Miscellaneous : Dystopian City Kitbashed Montage

Generative Art using Grasshopper, Rhinoceros, Vray and Photoshop.

Modelling using Kitbashing on Rhinoceros, Render on VRAY and Photoshop.