Selected Works Portfolio 2024_Saloni

CONTENTS

Freedom Skatepark, Recreational

Thamesmead Regeneration, Urban Housing Policy

Jindal Plaza, Commercial

Ganga Goel School, Institutional

Maki Textile Studio, Industrial

Resource Centre, Urban Regeneration

Matruashish, Housing

Vana Villas, Vacation Homes

In The Name of Housing, Urban Housing Book

FREEDOM SKATEPARK

SHAPING PUBLIC COMMONS THROUGH ADAPTIVE REUSE

Project Phase: Planning & Architectural Design, Design Development, Construction Drawings

Land Area: 1,350 sq m.

Year & Status: 2021, Partially Built

Location: Accra, Ghana

Collaborators: Limbo Accra, Wonders Around the World, Alaska - Alaska

Description: Freedom Skatepark, the first of its kind in Ghana, delivers afro-utopian spatial justice by creating an inclusive urban recreational ecosystem. In Accra, a rapidly urbanizing West African metropolis, a community-led design process informed the programming constituting of a skate arena, a skate hub, and a landscaped park.

The design straddles between the two big ambitions for the project: one where everything is “skate-able” and the other where everything is green. The design intertwines these seemingly distinct programs to allow for social ex-change and cohesion.

Role: As the architectural lead, I was involved in planning, hub design, landscape design, 3D - modelling, renders, coordination with consultants and client.

The site was a low-lying piece of land with an existing structure on it. Through the design process we focused on developing a park landscape in rammed earth elements responsive to the existing natural rainwater drainage system. We also chose not to demolish the existing the building and modified it to make it fit for purpose.

Design iterations explored infill systems to occupy the space in-between columns and systems of extensions both at the plinth level and the roof level. The materials chosen for the project are readily available, cost effective industrial / recycled materials like metal columns, brick, wood paneling and concrete. We worked with Alaska - Alaska courtesy of Virgil Abloh to develop the interiors of the skate hub which house a cafe and skate shop with a flexible layout.

THAMESMEAD REGENERATION

REVITALISATION WITHOUT DISPLACEMENT

Scope: Research, Text & Graphics

Land Area: 40,000 sq m.

Year & Status: 2018, Academic

Location: London, United Kingdom

Co-Authors: Juan Pablo Corral, Natalie Thompson, Rebekah Taft

Description: Thamesmead, a council housing estate being regenerated due to its perceived depravation has led to the displacement of many inhabitants. This studio project through policy action explores an alternate future which enables social renters to congregate, form a Tenant Managed Organisation (TMO), sublet their empty rooms, and engage in creative community and retail strategies to revitalise the area.

Role: Research, drawings, text, and presentation.

TRANSPORT NETWORKS

INTERLINKAGES EXTENDED

EXCHANGE WITH PARKVIEW

INTERLINKAGES TO PEABODY PLAN

The Intervention: To Converge and Redistribute Utilising surplus spaces, the intervention seeks to strengthen social renting tenure. Integral to our project are three agencies and one spatial inter-

Subletting Agency: Considering the surplus internal space, we propose Peabody forms a subletting agency to help tenants legally and seamlessly access the economic potential of their homes by subletting their surplus bedrooms.

Rent Reporting Agency: would allow renters to opt into having their rent payments reported to the credit bureau, build their credit rating and access more affordable credit in the long term.

Tenant Management Organization (TMO): Allows housing association tenants the right to manage, and to decide how to activate the surplus green space.

4. Spatial Intervention: After the TMO is established, it could be involved in activating the western edge of Parkview, implementing services of value, and connecting Parkview to the Peabody plan.

SUBLETTING AGENCY RENT REPORTING

JINDAL PLAZA

MIXED USE COMMERCIAL DEVELOPMENT DELIVERING URBAN PUBLIC SPACE

Project Phase: Conceptual Architectural Design

Area: 14,500 sq m.

Year & Status: 2015, 2nd Place in Competition

Location: Ahmedabad, Gujarat

Studio: Sameep Padora Associates

Description: Jindal Plaza is a multipurpose commercial, retail and hospitality project breaking away from a traditional commercial block typology. A series of blocks step back from the street to create large terraces, breaking down the volume and elevating the ground plane. Walkable ramps connect terraces making them easily accessible allowing restaurants, cafes, and retail activities at a higher elevation. Thus the two different programmatic requirements are met by providing insular yet connected commercial spaces at the back with inviting retail upfront along the increased visible surface area.

Role: As the project lead for the competition, I was critically involved in conceptual design, 3D - Modelling, diagramming, renders and client presentation.

GANGA GOEL SCHOOL

ARCHITECTURE AMALGAMATING THREE DISTINCT SCHOOLS

Project Phase: Conceptual Design

Land Area: 50,000 sq m.

Year & Status: 2016, 2nd place Competition

Location: Pune, Maharashtra

Studio: Sameep Padora Associates

Description: The project houses three different schools on one site. Each block caters to the requirements of individual schools while public programs like the library, sports facilities, extracurricular rooms, and canteen are situated at the base to unite them. A central pathway runs through the ground level connecting these public programs and forms an active common space. The public program blocks are individualised to appear less daunting, interactive, and playful, similarly, the classrooms are broken down into clusters to encourage student interaction and create a sense of belonging.

Role: As the project lead for the competition, I was critically involved in conceptual design, iterations, 3D - modelling, diagramming, renders and client presentation.

COMPRESSED COMBINED

To keep the built environment uninitimidating it was crucial to explore the volume distribution across the site and the scale of the classrooms, the school, and the amenities. Our solution for the site combines campus like spread out programs with the stand-alone individual buildings by locating amenities on at the ground level above which are stacked three individual school blocks. Further the volume of the school blocks is rationalised by stacking ‘L’ shaped blocks over each other enclosing a space shared between the primary, junior, and secondary divisions of the school respectively.

SCHOOL BLOCK AMMENITIES

CLASSROOM BLOCK AND SITE PLANNING DIAGRAMS

SCHOOL BLOCK MASSING

CLASSROOM BLOCK

MAKI TEXTILE STUDIO

HANDLOOM WORKSHOP FOR JAPANESE DESIGNERS AT THE FOOTHILLS OF THE HIMALAYAS

Project Phase: Conceptual Design & Documentation

Land Area: 2,000 sq m.

Year & Status: 2012, Built

Location: Dehradun, Uttarakhand

Studio: Studio Mumbai

Description: Japanese textile designers Chiaki and Parva chose a site at the foothills of the Himalayas for their new workshop. Their minimalist textiles and approach to life inspired the design process and manifested in our architecture. Multiple material, spatial, indigenous architecture references were scoured to understand local building techniques, climate, and cost. The formal language of the project thus derived from their juxtaposition is a series of blocks and verandahs encircling a shared courtyard.

Role: I was the co-project lead and was involved in conceptual design, research, documentation, sketching, planning, coordination with carpenters and site visits.

OWNERS LIVING SPACE

VERANDAH

SPINNING AND YARN PROCESSING

SUMMER VERANDAH

WEAVING STUDIO

WASHING AND INDIGO POTS

SPILL OUT VERANDAH

MANAGERS LIVING SPACE

1:1 scale loom mock-ups were created and placed against a metal wall to arrive at the sacred dimensions for the space. The distance between them and the wall was adjusted, and each time the resulting space was experienced. A mock-up of a rat-trap bond brick wall was built to understand its texture and details. It was deemed ideal for Dehradun’s climate as it traps air, keeping the interior spaces warm during the winters and cool during summers.

URBAN

RESOURCE CENTER

CONSTRUCTION & DEMOLITION WASTE PROCESSING PLANT WITH A PUBLIC MARKET

Project Phase: Research & Design Dissertation

Land Area: 5,000 sq m.

Year & Status: 2010, Gold Medal Citation

Location: Mumbai, Maharashtra

Dissertation Guide: Vandana Ranjit Singh

Description: Daru Khana along Mumbai’s Eastern waterfront, is at the threshold of impending change since its industrial activities have been pushed outside the city. Urban regeneration and the inevitable production of waste are perceived as opportunity through a prism of sustainability. The intervention a resource rationalisation centre houses a recycling facility, a marketplace for repurposed goods, a conference centre and a sculpture garden. The building is designed using modular elements that can be dismembered at the end of its life span. The centre attempts to rethink, reduce, reuse, and recycle waste to create sustainable urban environments and close looped design processes.

CONCEPTUAL

MODEL (IN PLAN VIEW)

MODULAR BUILDING PARTS

SCRAP MARKET ACCESSIBLE FROM THE STREET

SORTING FACILITY SEGREGATES WASTE AND BINS COLLECT IT AT THE LOWER LEVEL

COMMUNITY INTERFACE WITH AN AUDITORIUM AND PLAZA FOR PUBLIC GATHERINGS

MATRUASHISH

MULTI-STOREY REDEVELOPMENT HOUSING WITH VARIED TENURE

Project Phase: Design Development to Construction

Area: 4,000 sq m.

Year & Status: 2017, Under Construction

Location: Mumbai, Maharashtra

Studio: Sameep Padora Associates

Description: Matruashish, a 14-storey redeveloped housing project programmatically has two storeys of commercial and rehabilitation housing each and 10 storeys of open market housing. Sited on a tight plot with strict regulations the design exploration was restricted to the facade. A peripheral structural system of modular sun shading elements was designed and built in Glass Reinforced Concrete (G.R.C), having sampled multiple materials due to its light weight, desired finish, and easy assembly.

Role: As project architect, I worked on the facade design iterations, physical models, working drawings, detailing, material selection, coordinating with MEP and structural consultants along with client and site coordination.

COLUMNS PLASTER & SILL DETAIL

MODULE DETAILS

The diagrams display the assembly sequence. First, a layer of plaster is applied in the designated area, then the horizontal sun shading element is plugged in followed by the vertical element in line with the plaster.

A few different types of modules were identified along each elevation. Modules vary in height mainly due to the differing lintel levels and vary in width due to the differing column spacing in response to the program.

CORNER (UP) & TYPICAL GRC MODULE

VANA VILLAS

FIVE LUXURY VILLAS FACILITATING INDOOR & OUTDOOR LIVING

Project Phase: Conceptual Design to Construction

Area: 2,750 sq m.

Year & Status: 2017, Built

Location: Goa, Goa

Studio: Sameep Padora Associates

Description: Vana Villa’s are 5 houses built on a narrow linear site with a dense grove of trees. The houses are planned lengthwise around a courtyard with a pool opening to the forest land at the rear. Built in locally available laterite stone and glass they engage in a dialogue between the indoors and outdoors. A staircase along a blank wall at the entrance, elevates from the driveway onto the plinth which opens to the views.

Role: As the project lead, I was involved in conceptual design, 3D - modelling, diagramming, physical models, renders and client presentation. We pitched successfully to win the client, after which I was involved in working drawings, detailing, material selection, coordinating with MEP and Structural consultants and site visits.

SECTION 01

SECTION 02

IN THE NAME OF HOUSING

BOOK ON AFFORDABLE HOUSING ARCHETYPES IN MUMBAI

Project Phase: Research, Text, Graphics, Exhibition Design, Publication Design

Case Study: 11 Housing Projects

Year & Status: 2020, published by nai010, Rotterdam, 2017 published by UDRI, Mumbai Location: Mumbai, India

Research Organisation: SPARE

Description: In the Name of Housing provides a framework to question the approach to housing in Mumbai, where recent top-down prescription of policy has resulted in models like the Slum Rehabilitation Authority (SRA). On paper, they offer a parity of space but result in inhuman and apathetic living conditions. The research sieves through the fabric of Mumbai, excavating functional historical, and current context specific examples of affordable housing to redress the current practice. 11 housing projects are compared across metrics of open space, social space, circulation space, built area and density, through drawings, sketches, and models. Findings on Extended Domesticity, Shared Spaces, Social spaces, Flexible systems, and Detail show how these native archetypes have been appropriated by users evidencing their bottom-up projective capacities for housing policies.

Role: As a senior researcher I led the research, methodology, diagramming, exhibition design, book design and coordination with the publishers. The work was exhibited at five venues in India, Delft University, Netherlands, and the South Korea Biennale.

HOUSING

URBAN FORM OF THE BDD CHAWLS (ONE OF THE ELEVEN PROJECTS STUDIED)

The mass of chawl buildings covers 59 acres of land. Often compared to army barracks, each chawl building is a rectangular block split down its length by a spacious corridor and with a toilet block at its far end. They were constructed out of precast RCC blocks in the interest of mechanisation and standardisation. All buildings are four storeys and each floor has twenty rooms or units - ten on either side of the corridor. All units are 16.6 sq m. in area and each is provided with a wet area called a mori.

The BDD chawls constructed by the government differ from the courtyard centric mill - owner built chawls. The open spaces between the regularly spaced blocks although non-hierarchical, today show distinct uses. A more public pop-up market occupies the open spaces along the steet while more private social spaces are identified in-between the buildings.

CHARACTER ANALYSIS: BDD CHAWL GROUND FLOOR APPROPRIATION TO SUPPORT MARKET ACTIVITIES

The vitality of the BDD Chawls lies in their appropriations. Originally built as social housing in colonial times, they have been appropriated today with bulging cantilevered extensions on their facade, some as deep as 2.2 m. Used as kitchens, sleep spaces and service areas they are direct commentary on the need for habitable space as demographics of families change.

Units at the end of corridors have two external faces and protrusions from both. In the diagram alongside, a 1.4 m deep projection facing the external road is used as a utility space, while that on a perpendicular face is used to extend the living room. In the unit across the corridor a kitchen nearly half the size of the unit has been added.

The floor plate extensions are a result of the construction of cantilevers as I-beams laid on existing slabs and are embedded within the stone and cement walls.

FACADE MODIFICATIONS TO EXTEND DOMESTIC SPACE BOX