SEA Newsletter 7

SEANEWSLETTER a bi-annual chronicle of the School of Environment and Architecture, Mumbai.

ISSUE 7. Monsoon Semester 2018

Editorial

Contents

This phase at SEA was marked by several new initiations and experiments. The History-Theory modules attempted to foray into new territories by making collaboration with community based organizations within the city to augment architectural thinking while lending them the tool of spatial mapping. Further, it charted a landscape of South Asia onto a poster with works of practitoners, all women, across the region. The Form and Space studies modules in the latter years explored new formats of learning. The pre-final year has begun to investigate emerging urbanities of second tier cities that integrate strongly into the practice of thinking architecture. The presentation of final year undergraduate dissertations challenged conventional university closed-room review formats by opening student research to the city, as a day long symposium.

The event opened up questions curated into the different domains of urbanity, housing, institutions, materiality and memory. This has lent a unique character of discourse and dialogue to the otherwise inert architectural student thesis research, and we hope to evolve it in the future. Through such reworkings, SEA continues to challenge pedagogies in architecture, and create a momentum towards contextual and relevant discourse.

1 \ Editorial

Anuj Daga Editor

Cover image: Shreyansh Gupta, Final Year B Arch.

cover image: Siddharth Chitalia, Fourth Year B. Arch

2-17 \ Student Work History, Theory, Methods Form & Space Studies Technology Design Dissertation Allied Design 22 \ Monsoon Electives 2018 23 \ Settlement Studies 24 \ SEA City and SEA Assembly

CREDITS Editor: Anuj Daga Co-ordination, Layout & Design: Anuj Daga, Shreyank Khemalapure

2 modules

Sem 3 \ History Theory Methods Text: Anuj DAga Mumbai Neighbourhood Studies Over the last three cycles of Mumbai Neighbourhood Studies, the focus of our studio has been to approach the field through its physical fabric. The studies document the physical character of the built environment by studying neighbourhood settings and building typologies as a historical process. The intent of these studies has been multifold: to create a repository of neighbourhood morphologies within the city; to record the history of urban transformation within Mumbai; to learn suburban growth patterns; to introduce oneself to architectural negotiations; to familiarize with distinct building typologies. Students became research collaborators in the process, and created a rich, growing archive of neighbourhoods that remains available for further research, pedagogy as well as an entry point for soft interventions – architectural or otherwise.

Methodologically, the documentation is conducted within a week by student groups, in a focused workshop mode that involves orientation lectures, field study, drawing and writing sessions. While on the one hand, participants introduce themselves to the diversity of living forms in the city, on the other, they also learn

tools and techniques of spatial mapping. In the process, they establish a relationship with their city, as well as architecture.

As a practice intrinsically tied to urban processes, the question of architecture cannot remain insular to its immediate surroundings. Mumbai Neighbourhood Studies aims to locate the practice of architecture within the field by recognizing urban neighbourhoods not just as sediments, rather as living organisms.

The sites chosen for documentation so far, are thus sites of learning, seen from a contemporary standpoint. The first cycle focused on the Western Suburbs of Mumbai, the second looked at Eastern suburbs while the third focused on inner cities.

In this semester, we attempted to undertake the Mumbai Neighbourhood studies through a community approach.

In order to do so, SEA collaborated with Youth for Unity and Voluntary Action (YUVA) – an organization that works towards empowering marginalized groups that exist within the city. It is our belief that architects need to participate in community action in order to partake in the shaping of spatial form the city. Our responsibility towards the marginalized and vulnerable within the city must prioritize existence over their

political status. While YUVA informs such dimension of social concern, SEA supported it through its knowledge of spatial mapping. The interwovenness of the social and the architectural was examined through studying the ground conditions in seven sites spread across the city: Ambojwadi, Vashi Naka, Bhim Nagar, Homeless groups in Dadar, Coal Bunder, Baba Nagar and Ambedkar Nagar.

The study focused on understanding the community structure that bears into the eventual neighbourhood resulting into distinct organizational forms within the city. Further, a preliminary mapping of access to health and sanitation infrastructure within these communities led study groups to suggest the immediate action plans that could strengthen their presence within the city.

This compilation reminds one that architects can partake responsibility in social transformation through their agency of spatial understanding. Architecture can play an integral role in negotiating urban interests in turn, shaping a city that is resilient and generous to everyone.

The Sem 3 History Theory Methods module was conducted by Anuj Daga, Rupali Gupte and Mitra Parekh

below: Study of Homeless groups in Dadar conducted as a part of Mumbai Neighbourhood Studies-IV

modules

3

Sem 5 \ History Theory Methods Text: Rupali Gupte Political and Ethical Agendas in Architecture While putting together the course structure for History Theory Methods, we realized how little we knew about the South Asian context. Most canons of architecture through which history has been studied come from European and American contexts. Last year we began focusing on South Asia in the fifth semester. The students made a timeline of architecture projects in South Asia from the 1940s, to understand a common postcolonial discourse and practice across the region. This year as we embarked on an exercise to put together a list of South Asian architects that could potentially challenge modern and contemporary canons of architecture, we realized the

list mostly comprised of male architects.

It hit us how little we knew about South Asian women’s practices. On digging into various archives and libraries, the class started excavating practices of some of the most interesting women architects in South Asia like Minette DeSilva, Urmila Eulie Chowdhury, Parveen Rehman. A list of about thirty Modern and Contemporary Women architects was put together.

Students chose to write papers on one of the thirty architects each. A parallel architectural theory course on ‘Political and Ethical agendas in Architecture’ helped develop the frameworks of this paper. Some of the thematics in this seminar course included looking at the ‘Politics of Place’ through a reading of ‘Critical Regionalism’, at Questions of Gender through a reading of Mary

McCleod’s ‘Every day and Other Spaces’, Questions of New Media through a reading of Marshal McLuhan’s ‘Medium as Massage’ and Questions on the Environment through a reading of the ideas of ‘Bourgeois Environmentalism’ by Amita Baviskar. The students put together a poster of the biographies and works of the thirty women architects in South Asia but chose to drop the term ‘women’ in the title they initially chose for the poster. They instead called it ‘South Asian Architecture’ where all the architects would be women. They argued that this was a much more powerful political statement.

The Sem 3 History Theory Methods module was conducted by Anuj Daga, Rupali Gupte and Prasad Shetty.

How a collective body moves?

Akansha Rastogi

This course considered the proliferation of artists’ collectives in the last few decades, and collaboration as a mode of art-making in the global contemporary art scene seeking the philosophical inquiries of such formations. Why have so many artists been drawn to a collaborative or collective modes of production? What could be the methodology of approaching the works produced by a collective or a group? How ‘working together’ or ‘in conjunction with another’ or participatory artistic practices be a political tool? How to look at the alignments between the movement and actions of a collective body with multiple authorships / reconfigurations and activist interventions in public spaces? What kind of spatial formations happen with the movement of a collective body? With examples of works of various artists’ collectives, temporary collaborative forms and participatory art across the world, students investigated a series of key concepts and questions while working towards a public event.

Through choreography, speech, gestures, performance, research, images, playful constructions and text students produced performances and installations explored the idea of collaboration and interactivity.

Left: Snapshot of South Asian Architecture poster

4 modules

SEM 1 \ Form & Space Studies Text: Dushyant Asher The first part of the exercise was to understand form through modelling a surface geometry. A ‘nose’ on a face was considered closely to understand notions of form. Students were asked to analyse it through geometrical drawings on one hand, and physical modelling using a sheet of paper/card paper on the other. They were introduced to several concepts and techniques like tessellations, contouring, geometrical fragmentations and surface developments.

The ‘Nose’ allowed for a variety of unique formal conditions, as the students had to select the noses of their own classmates.

The exercise lent them a method towards formal analysis of objects around them and in nature.

The following step of the exercise was to understand ‘formations’. In order to mobilize this, the studio decided to study the phenomenon of “bulges” in nature. Students made visits to the Sanjay Gandhi National Park, and collected samples of natural products where bulges were observed. These were then studied by means of drawings and physical models, as learnt in the previous exercise. This analysis became the base logic of its material formation that were diagrammatised into new forms.

The Semester 1 Form & Spaces Studies Module was conducted by Dushyant Asher and Milind Mahale

on the right: collage of noses

modules

2.

1.

images on this page: 1. Dhanvi Shah 2 & 4. Dhruv Sanchala 3. Diwakar Motwani 5 & 6. Govinda Agrawal 7 & 8. Shreya Mehta

4.

3.

5.

6.

7.

8.

5

6 modules

SEM 3 \ Form & Space Studies Text: Anuj DAga In this studio, four transforming sites in the inner city of Pune were studied closely towards understanding their typological evolution. These included: Tulsi Baug Tulsi Baug is a temple complex that came up in Pune in 18th century. Located in the city centre, the temple of Tulsi baug has come to be enclosed in a ring of shopline and stores that have historically served the temple. This perimeter of shops screens the inner courtyard from the busy street on on side, and the overflowing wholesale market on the other, making it a peaceful space for small gatherings, rest or community events. The intervention aimed to work out an appropriate typology for transition from the “outside” into the “inside” of this temple precinct.

Mahatma Phule Mandai Mahatma Phule Market is the biggest vegetable market in the city of Pune originally built by the British. The large warehouse type market has eight arm-sheds that meet into an octagonal core. Different types of products are neatly classified into these arms. A new market has been built behind this mandai to accommodate the overflowing

scale of operations here. A patch of shopline opposite to the mandai, under consideration for redevelopment was chosen as the site for intervention.

Students were expected to develop and appropriate response to the public nature of activities and the scale of historical structure while accommodating the existing shops within their proposal.

Pataleshwar Caves Carved out of a single rock, the Pataleshwar caves in Pune date back to the 8th Century ACE. While it was originally located outside the town, the growing city brought the complex within the city limit.

Dediated to Lord Pataleshwar (God of the Underground), the caves are below ground level. The building complex served as an independent temple until the 1990s, when it was announced as a national monument.

Subsequently, the Archaeological Survey of India has built its office within the campus and conducted some restoration work. The large patch of garden in the foreground was considered for a careful re-negotiation between the busy road and the archaeological monument while sensitively creating spaces for ASI office, public actvities in the poorly-planned garden and introducing an informative

program for orienting the city to the cave’s history.

Raste wada Raste wada is the traditional courtyard house for the family of Rastes who have been one of the key land lords of Pune. The building is situated within a large complex that consisted of agricultural patches of land, horse-stables, houses and temple owned by the Rastes. With independence, the nature of property rights changed, leading to the weakening control of Rastes over the land. Due of economic pressures, the land was sublet to different kinds of people for housing or small economic activities. The ground floor of the wada itself is lent out for a primary school, rented to various government agencies.

These transformations have led to uneven development of the entire precinct. The project was situated on the plot next to the wada and looked at bringing together a few housing units while affording space for the school, and the government agencies that otherwise occupy the wada.

The Semester 3 Form & Spaces Studies Module was conducted by Anuj Daga, Rupali Gupte, Samir Raut and Pratyusha Suryakant.

Tulsi Baug

Pataleshwar Caves

Documentation of Tulsi Baug

modules

Ronak Soni: Pop-up market opposite to the Mahatma Phule Mandai

Nikeita Saraf: Market opposite to the Mahatma Phule Mandai

Manthan Chandak site at Pataleshwar Caves

Grishma Mehta’s intervention at Tulsi Baug

7

8

modules

SEM 5 \ Form & Space Studies Text: Dipti Bhaindarkar & Sabaa G. The Resource Question The Semester 5 Design Studio focused on understanding urban built form and its dependency on resources like land, water, forests, fossils etc .The objective was to address these questions through spatial explorations.

The project was an extension/ addition to an existing Architecture school building in Borivali West, Mumbai.

The students investigated and took informed decisions on whether to retain and extend or redesign the entire built environment.

With the given brief and program, students asked questions like, ‘What is a school?’, ‘What are the precedents of a good practice which negotiate the translation from environmental concerns into an aesthetically provocative space and form?, ‘Can user patterns and buildings be designed to have neighbouring communities as stakeholders and participants?’

By qualitatively analysing the existing spatial language and the comfort factors like light, wind and energy the students investigated possibilities for their design.

This was followed by a resource optimization study and spatial and volumetric iterations, which led to the final derivation of the architectural expression for their ideas and concerns. The students worked with issues of water, green cover, energy production, land optimization, equitable spaces and more. Some used intuitive decisions whereas some used simulation softwares to quantitatively evaluate resource management (eg. light and wind) for their designs.

The process and the arguments raised were strengthened by readings and discussions of papers like “Indian Urban and Infrastructure and Service Delivery” by Isher Judge Ahluwalia, “Post growth economics: A Paradigm Shift in Process” by Samuel Alexander, “Towards Circular Economy” by Ellen Macarthur Foundation, “The economics of ecosystem and biodiversity” from the TEEB Report. This helped to further understand the concepts and concerns of economy, equity, social well being, healthy livelihood faced by the communities. Through the development of their ideas, systems manifested into architectural expressions and spaces. The challenge for the students was to culminate their design trajectory into a single narrative with exploratory diagrams and to support it with technical drawings. The studio culminated with a review with Prof. Ravi Hazra, Nidhi Gupta and Aalok Deshmukh.

The Sem 6 Form & Space Studies module was conducted by Ravindra Punde, Dipti Bhaindarkar, Sabaa Giradkar, Faizan Khatri, Gauri Satam and Malak Singh Gill

Aditya Verma

modules

Saloni Soni

Akshay Savla

Manish Shravane

Shrushti Karale

9

10

modules

Sem 7 & 9 \ Form & Space Studies Text: Shreyank Khemalapure This semester’s Form and Space Studies studio was seen as a choice based vertical studio for the 7th & 9th semester. The three choices offered to the students were: 1. Housing, 2. Difference and the City & 3. Emerging systems and organisations.

The underlying method for all three studio was through field study where each student identified and followed a question around a peculiar emerging condition in Visakhapatnam and Vijayawada, respectively. Following the field study the students identify design questions and responses for their respective sites under study. The questions were broadly classified such that students could choose among the three studios offered. The Housing studio broadly looks at the various aspects housing stock, from present to speculative and from quantitative to qualitative.

The Difference studio broadly looks at operationalizing difference as a category of analysis for thinking about architecture and the city and the Emerging systems and organizations studio looks at the new systems of organizations and institutions emerging in the respective cities.

The Semester 7 & 9 Form & Space Studies Module was conducted by Shreyank Khemalapure, Kalpit Ashar, Rohit Mujumdar, Komal Gopwani, Arun Kale and Neera Adarkar.

Devesh Uniyal

Devesh Uniyal

modules

Riya Parekh / Difference Studio

Chinmay Gawade

11

12 design dissertation

Becoming Urban: Towards an agenda for research on architecture from South Asia Undergraduate Dissertation Symposium Text: Rohit Mujumdar As South Asian countries undergo an urban transition during the early 21st century, their existing city centers, and near and far peripheries have emerged as the new frontiers of urbanization. Today, there exists a widespread recognition that much of this change will be centered beyond metro-cities. In this backdrop, design practices are largely called upon to envision the spatial forms associated with the ‘urban transition’ narrative and attendant aspirations to make globally connected cities. Beneath the skein of such a metanarrative, however, South Asian cities present multiple forms of mixing, innovation and promiscuity, both old and new. Such multiplicities of the ‘becoming urban’ poke the design fields to ask new questions, and present new challenges as well as opportunities to consider. How can architectural research engage with society’s multiplicities and their spatial manifestations in South Asia?

Our premise is that if society’s multiplicity is at stake in the becoming urban, then architectural research needs to build capacities to engage with its multiple dimensions in ways that could constitute a critical and creative terrain for desigwn explorations. Provisionally, we have in mind, the associational dimensions of count and category, type and image, resource and organization, language and sound, smell and taste, fear and desire, property and law, event and everyday, memory and belonging, and so on. For instance, the construction of a category forms the basis for the organization of a count in speculating urban futures; multiple organizational forms engender diverse avenues of urban participation to stake claim to (un) built resources; objects and space acquire the character of property in the grammar of law; or, underlying the desires to project certain futures rest hidden urban fears. We, therefore, ask: What new fields and debates could architectural research open out in thinking about the multiplicities of the becoming urban in South Asia? What is research methodology in the design fields when we consider the above dimensions as concerns to probe into the city? How can research methodologies engage innovatively into the happening of the social?

Over two days, this symposium brought together SEA’s final year students’ design dissertations in conversation with faculty members and invited scholars to share their work and thoughts on urban questions, and initiated a dialogue on what might constitute appropriate agenda for research on architecture at the contemporary moment in South Asia.

Claims and Passage Vidhi Gandhi Objects of the street Shrushti Jain Architecture of humanisation and claims Karan Dalal Mumbai’s street religiosities Riya Parekh Architecture of Watching

Memory and Belonging Chinmay Kadwadkar Architecture of a Monument: Vasai Fort Dhruv Chavan Remembering home in involuntary dislocation Rutu Kelekar Civil war and the inversion of public space in Borella, Colombo

Densities and Porosities Deep Shah Architecture of Congestion Nishi Shah Architecture for mobile densities

Systems and Organisations Prajyot Mulye Organisational architecture of agricultural nodes Shubham Gaikwad Space for Digital Nomads Divya Gyanchandani Persistence of Guilds in Pune’s inner city

House and Typology Shreyansh Gupta Reimagining the transforming bastis Trisha Salvi Of Queering Households Aagam Shah What makes a home? The homeless in Mumbai Institutions and TYPOLOGY Sandeep Saive Learning Ecologies and Spatial Form Archit Chatterjee Architecture and Power Akshata Shenoy Architecture of Transactions Sitanshu Rawal Architecture of a Police Stationz

Skins and Thresholds Priya Jalan Building Skins Kaushal Vadake Threshold Stories Yash Vadher The Routine of Happiness

Drawing below: Akshata Shenoy

design dissertation 13

Yash Vadher The Routine of Happiness

14 modules

Sem 1 \ Technology Text: Dushyant Asher The brief of the module was to make a system comprised of configurations of material, with a specific focus on understanding forces prevalent in the geometry of the configuration. The module is based on making and discovering with an additional support of conceptual understanding of different kinds of forces in structures and the relationships within them set by the materiality of the configuration.

A parallel inquiry of the module involved studying simple assemblies from which students were asked to derive certain force relationships / principles for their individual projects where they had to create stable free standing structures.

Use of any kind of adhesives was not encouraged so that these configurations could be developed simply with junctions and joineries appropriate to the material used. Wood, metal wires, strings, paper, plastic pipes and other variety of materials were composed in geometric configurations to make these structures.

The Semester 1 Technology module was conducted by Dushyant Asher and Milind Mahale.

Images on this page: 1. Shreya Mehta 2. Dhruv Sanchala 3. Bhumi Bakrania 4. Diwakar Motwani

5. Tejal Patil 6. Riya Shah 7. Dhanvi Shah 1.

2.

3.

6.

4.

5.

7.

modules 15

sem 3 \ Technology Text: Milind Mahale

Ronak Soni and Parth Solanki

Taking further their previous understanding of ‘Force-GeometryMaterial’ the third semester technology module initiated with ‘Material Sense’ that explored properties of concrete. Here, the primary aim was to explore plasticity of the material. Students were introduced to basic properties and moulding techniques for concrete after which, they developed single point structure-forms in concrete for a maximum span.

Having understood concrete through such smaller experiments, students were asked to design an exhibition hall of around 250-300 sq. m. with only 3 points touching the ground. To facilitate better understanding and designing, some case studies using distinct structural systems in concrete such as dia grid, shell structures, folded plates, ribbed structures etc. were discussed.

Neha Kesari and Abhilasha Patil Above iterations are from the Material Sense exercise

Raghav Gupta, Alisha Jain, Helee Doshi

Over the last two weeks students designed the exhibition area and incorporated their learnings from climatology towards designing the facade for their building.

The Semester 3 Technology module was conducted by Milind Mahale and Komal Gopwani

Somesh Nadkarni, Exhibition Space Design

Sanjana Habde Exhibition Space Design

16 modules

Sem 5 \ Technology Text: Sabaa Giradkar Buildings & Energy In this studio, students were introduced to the concept of “resource audit� through workshops and lectures on sustainability and building design. The lectures discussed principles of passive design, the National Building Code 2016 and Energy Conservation Building Code which the students referred for design guidelines and performance specifications. This study was further applied to analyze and audit the buildings at hand.

Students spent the first part of the module in precedent studies of about 13 projects in India and abroad. This acquainted them with the various methods, measures and components implemented to attain near net zero status in the structures. The examples chosen for precedent study were 1. Development Alternatives, Delhi, 2. Bullitt Foundation Cascading, 3. Centre for Sustainable Design and construction,Seattle, 4. Cornell’s Bloomberg Centre, Roosevelt island NYC, 5. Torrent Research Center,Ahmedabad, Abhikram, Ahmedabad, 6. Modular Mountain Centre, 7. Bertschi school Science wing, Seattle

8. Zedd Homes,Bangalore, 9. Indira Paryavaran Bhavan, Delhi 10. Gandhi Ashram, Ahmedabad, 11. Govardhan Eco-Village, Mumbai, 12. CEPT-A living laboratory, Ahmedabad, 13. TVZEB Zero Energy Building/Traverso Vighy and 14. Solar Kitchen, Auroville.

Further, the studio conducted resource audit of distinct building types within Mumbai. The framework was devised to understand building orientation, envelope materiality, energy and water cycle within each chosen project. The students also conducted empirical study of building skins of seven distinct typologies: Walk up-Residential; High Rise-Residential, Hospital, Hotel, Academic Building, Mall and an Office Building. The aim was to study the material composition and technical details of the elements like walls, roof, openings, shading elements, which together form the envelope of the building .The study lead to further understand the details of the skin along with the assembly of the facade systems. Students designed a new skin by addressing the concerns on the old one.

Working with physical models helped students to experiment as well as take

design decisions and further structural details and systems. They validated their design decisions (shading device design, U value of the materials and solar heat gain coefficient of the fenestration) with softwares and manual calculations. Market research intended to engage the students with various concepts of materiality and tectonics. Key aspects were to understand materials in terms of their types and Specifications, Application & Use, Lifespan & Maintenance, Embodied Energy, Assembly & Details.

The Semester 5 Technology module was conducted by Dipti Bhaindarkar, Ravindra Punde and Sabaa Giradkar.

modules 17

Sem 7 \ Technology Text: Komal Gopwani Semester 7 Technology and Services module aimed to familiarize students with construction and services of high rise buildings, acquaint them with building bye-laws and preparation of approval drawings. A series of lectures on these subjects were strung through the module, and students applied the learning through a design project for a high-rise building.

The brief was to develop a high-rise, mixeduse building for the Film and Technology Institute of India at Pedder Road, which would serve as an extension to the existing campus. The programme required integrating performance spaces, theatres, studios and workshops, library and offices in a maximum total built-up area of 19,260 sq m. As a foundation exercise, students worked in groups to structurally analyse selected case studies of existing complex high rise buildings and made physical models of the structural system and service cores to understand structural elements and acting forces.

SEA core faculty Prasad Shetty took lectures on building bye-laws and codes, and discussed rights and acts, types of contracts, types of tenders, bill of quantities and approval process. This

Ankita Dhal, Tanishqa Rodrigues, Aurea D’Cruz

week the students completed their basic zoning on the site including entries, exits, basement access and exit, fire tender movement, provision of mandatory recreational green as well as design of the service core based on occupancy calculations. Quick sections were also explored to fix the number of floors and make provision for refuge areas and breakout spaces.

Chaitanya Mehta, practicing structural engineer acquainted students to types of loads on the building, concepts of stiffness, mass, stiffener storeys, and calculations of slenderness ratio and deflection. The students also visited two under-construction buildings to understand construction methods and Mivan formwork for high rise buildings.

For services, students were introduced to the basics of HVAC i.e. comfort conditions, components of AC systems, types of airconditioning systems and mechanical ventilation systems. Students also made visits to restaurants, malls, schools to identify the AC systems in use and identified the good and bad practices with reference to HVAC; SEA adjunct faculty Gauri Pandit Joshi discussed students’

Devesh Uniyal

observations in detail. Students also got a first-hand experience at Kalpatru Prime, a commercial project by Edifice Consultants; Senior Architect Nilesh Dongre explained mechanical ventilation and fire-fighting in the basement and the complete AC system including planning and working of chiller room, AHU rooms on the upper floors and cooling tower on the terrace.

Apart from the overall structure and service systems for their proposals, students resolved a part external wall section along with facade details. Each group prepared approval drawings and a part BoQ and specifications sheet for their projects.

The overall output was a functional highrise building responding to its context, with a focus on integration of structural system and vertical and horizontal distribution of services. Jurors Vijay Patil, Nilesh Dongre and Gauri Pandit Joshi reviewed the projects and gave valuable inputs on the final work.

The Semester 7 Technology module was conducted by Shreyank Khemalapure and Komal Gopwani.

Devesh Uniyal

18 modules

Sem 7&9 \ Allied Design

The Project Generation Matrix A. Contextual Technologies Urban spaces in Indian cities such as street edges, railway bridges, unused vehicles, small and large open spaces, on the one hand, and environmentally sensitive conditions such as hill slopes with habitation, on the other hand, often present us with contexts for the spatial manifestation of multiple kinds of objects and furniture. Most of these manifestations go beyond the conventional of well-designed edge conditions with street benches, lights, planters and so on. These innovations provide form to everyday, often mundane, activities of street economies, leisure, religiosity and even domestic and public life. This project explores the relationships that such objects mediate between space and everyday activity with the intention of generating new street elements/stalls/ personal objects. It develops intense relationships of densities of the hard and soft of the city with innovative adaptive spatial conditions.

This research project is embedded in the emerging complex conditions and densities make intense use of existing hardware and software in the city. This hardware is the applied micro infrastructural fabric of used in the everyday. These make innovative adaptations (the so called ‘Jugaad’) rise everywhere. Which do the job for the everyday, but the approach and outcome of such adaptations are primate

and uninteresting. In these intense relationships of densities of the hard and soft of the city a convincing need and desire arises to respond this evolving domain. Inserting objects/furniture into these dense urban contexts gives a scope to engage with the everyday, infusing a new utilitarian sense to urban life.

The module was anchored around a matrix developed on these fragile relationships of objects and urban space. A pattern of new economies, occupations, individual design and resilience strategies for the emerging urban ecology for new interventions and objects were the responses through a variety of student initiated projects.

The Semester 7 Technology module was conducted by Dushyant Asher, Milind Mahale, Chinmay Shidhore and Mihir Desai.

Individual Dwelling

by Devesh Uniyal, Eshan Pradhan and Radhika Rathi

modules 19

Deployable Delivery Box

by Arkdev Bhattacharya, Astrid Fernandes and Chinmay Gawade

The Bag - Seat

by Aakash Bhanushali, Siddharth Chitalia and Sitanshu Rawal

Off the Wall

by Jash Gohil, Karan Dalal and Manasi Thakkar

Baithak

by Dhruv Chavan, Divya Agarwal and Nirmohi Kathrecha

20 modules

B. Urban Studies Text: Ankita Dhal, Fourth Year B. Arch Brief The intent of the urban studies module has been to understand cities, in our case, Mumbai. The first year we tried to run two exercises simultaneously, one was field research and the second was readings, in order to understand what experts had said about the city. This was done through the works of authors like Doreen Massey, Henri Lefebvre, Manuel Castells, etc. The other exercise was field study where we had to find entrepreneurs in our own neighbourhoods operating small scale businesses through a 2m x 2m shop to those operating through networks.

Through this, we were attempting to trace new forms of work in the city and the kind of spatiality these new work environments are generating. All of it got tied together through a semi-fictitious story. ‘Crime’ becomes an interesting entry point to understand the contemporary city because it sits in a grey realm of pushing the limits

of law, justice, urbanity, morals, space and so in. It happens in the backyards and niches of the city that go unnoticed in everyday life although being a crucial part of it. We stitched the narratives of new entrepreneurships and networks thus, through a crime story that takes a reader on a journey of experiencing the unattended strangeness of the city and its people.

Like a Regular Day Summary / Abstract This book ‘Like a Regular Day’ was written as an ode to the contemporary city and the new entrepreneurs emerging within it. The characters are born from an amalgamation of new work forms of regular people that all of us know, along with those who live in our buildings, work close to our homes or are friends of friends. We are in an age of super specialists and content influencers

and the idea of “work” has never been as fluid as it is today. Over the novel, we follow the murder of an event planner against the backdrop of a collaged city that is in hyper-flux. His friend, the fixer, a man that has a finger in every pie, tries to trace the murderer. Along with him an author weaves through the chapters hinting at the mechanics of the city’s skeleton and fabric. The title, ‘Like a Regular Day’, speaks of the normalcy of life spent in the metropolis but simultaneously questions whether an ordinary day is even possible in a city that is inevitably extraordinary.

‘Like a Regular Day’ serves as an ongoing investigation into the emerging urban context of Mumbai. The book follows stories of unusual entreprenuers through their emerging spatialities in the city framed against the backdrop of a murder mystery.

The module was conducted by Prasad Shetty. cover illustration: Yash Vadher

modules

C. Repair and Retrofit

The case of Mumbai demands a close study with regard to housing as it brings out the colossal disparity that exists between the demand for affordable housing and its supply. On one hand there are a large number of houses lying vacant because they remain unaffordable to the masses and on the other hand, millions of deprived citizens continue living in inhumane and squalid housing conditions. Further, inadequacies of investment by the state and limited capacity to build affordable housing for the working class makes it an acute crisis.

Statistics indicate that this shortage is caused due to a large percentage of existing housing being in dilapidated and congested conditions. At the outset, the intent of the three-partite Repair and Retrofit course is to initiate a dialogue on the repair of these everyday buildings.

While conservation studies for historically important structures is taught at architecture schools across the country (usually

as a full-time Masters course), there is no discourse on conservation and upgradation of everyday ordinary buildings.

Part 1 of the module identified four different housing contexts in the city - an informal settlement (Ganpat Patil Nagar), an urban village (Eksar village), a chawl (BDD Chawl) and old dilapidated inner city housing stock (Kalbadevi). This year in Part 2, the module aimed at documenting existing practices of repair and retrofitting and existing networks through which repair is carried out.

As a foundation exercise, the students carried out a condition analysis of their own buildings. With respect to practices, the course aimed at identifying what informs the practices of repair, who are the various stakeholders, what role does the housing board play, what are the delivery systems, what is the financial strategy and what is the process of repair. The course was

supported by lectures on building defects, repair methods and relevant readings including Patrick Geddes’ constructive surgery and Teresa Caldeira’s writing on peripheral urbanism. Conservation expert Vikas Dilawari presented his work on retrofitting and conservation, followed by a discussion with the students. The students followed this up with a short exercise where they proposed small interventions with the field-work as the basis.

The Semester 7 Allied Design module on Repair and Retrofit was conducted by Komal Gopwani and Apoorva Sharma.

21

22 electives

MONSOON ELECTIVES 2018 Text: Apoorva Sharma This year the students of second year and third year chose between four electives.

These were broadly under the themes of dance, theatre, furniture and virtual reality. They were able to step out of their architecture shoes for a week and explore different crafts and disciplines. With four passionate experts they got to experience first hand the different perspectives these disciplines offer. The expert mentors shared the explorations that they are making in their own practice.

Rakesh Semwal took Drama Games and Improvisations. He believes that drama is an essential part of our everyday life.

Through drama we formally and informally explore different dialogues, emotions and expressions in our everyday. In this elective, students explored space as a medium for performance through verbal and non-verbal communication. The elective was a confidence booster for many of the students. They got to know each other through drama games and learnt to relax in each other’s presence. They also got comfortable with the idea of a

performance. In the end they performed a play which they put together during the elective. They called it ‘Everyday at SEA’.

Sanjukta Wagh took Explorations with body, sound and space. The workshop introduced actors, movers and dancers to exploring space through movement, body, rhythm and varied approaches to embodiment with intent and focus.

Sanjukta drew from varied sources like improvisation as a studio based practice and voice movement therapy to give participants insights into body, space and sound. The students felt this elective led to them understanding themselves better and they understood the difference between dancing and ‘being in dance’. They ended the elective with a performance that expressed their insights.

Anu Tandon believes colour, form and texture trigger creativity and she explores this by incorporating and reusing industrial waste and discards to create an array of products. Her elective Weaving furniture, involved using waste

cloth to weave it on frames, tyres etc. to make pieces of furniture. Students tried different kinds of knots and learnt to compose their pieces of furniture. They finished the elective by making a lamp, a few stools, a magazine stand and a chair.

Kabir Punde took an elective to show the possibilities of virtual reality. This elective gave students an introduction to virtual reality and how technology can be used to understand key elements of design like scale, depth and manipulation of space.

The students used the models of their own designs and learnt what advantages making virtual reality part of their design processes would hold. They also realized its importance as an interface between the designer and the client. On the last day they invited the rest of the school to experience their projects through the virtual reality equipment.

Sanjukta Wagh: Body, Sound and Space

Results from Anu Tandon’s Workshop

Kabir Punde: Virtual Reality

Rakesh Semwal’s Drama Games

settlement studies

Sem 5 \ Settlement Studies Text: Divya Vaidya, Third Year B Arch.

Studies of Techne at Auroville The Technology studio revolved around introducing the ideas of resource consumption and sustainable architecture.

Auroville being a planned town space has been a field for experimentation and explorations for many through the years to come. Along with explorations in building techniques, Auroville has a strong socio cultural narrative which formed a base for the week long field visit.

Auroville is a township located in the Villupuram district in the state of Tamil Nadu with some parts in the union territory of Pondicherry in South India. It was established by Aurobindo Ghosh after his enlightenment and was implemented

by Mirra Alfassa, known as ‘the mother’.

It was defined to constitute unity among all on an international scale. It was ‘A Dream’ of the Mother to create “A place where the needs of the spirit and the care for progress would get precedence over the satisfaction of desires and passions, the seeking for pleasures and material

With John at Solar Bowl

enjoyments.” The plan now consists of a city core with four zones namelyInternational, Industrial, Cultural and Residential Zone surrounded by a Green belt.

utopian city as close to its conception as possible. Ms. Lata Hadeo, an urban planner explained Auroville’s galaxy plan and its translation on the real land. She spoke of Auroville as an integrated system.

Ms. Kelsang at the Tibetan Pavilion, in the International zone of the city briefed us about the ways of living in Auroville and the pavilion. Further, the group visited buildings that differed not only in programme and typology, but also the cultural background that shaped the way the spaces were designed. The movement in each of these spaces was very evidently articulated by the philosophical ideas of the inhabitants of the space. Auroville had built spaces dedicated to the community that housed cultural practices like art, dance and music.

Auroville as a town seemed quite experimental in both its architectural and building language and its socio-political structure. It is interesting how the same space transforms for an Aurovillian, a local villager and a visitor. The students were left with few questions on ideas of ‘local’ within the context of Auroville, the relationship between sustainability and structure, and the notion of formal experimentation at the local and city level.

Mr. Lalit Bhati was a town planner and also an Aurovillian who informed the group about the ideals of Auroville and how they have been building on the concepts and ideas of the mother even after her death, trying to uphold this

The Auroville trip was led by Dipti Bhaindarkar, Sabaa Giradkar and Mihir Desai

23

24 sea city / sea assembly

Sea City Monsoon 2018

SEA Assembly Sessions Monsoon 2018

Housing & Sanitation

By Rohan Chavan 15th June 2018

12/6/2018

Modernity, Identity and the role of the Photographer

By Randhir Singh 29th June 2018 Sleeping Exhibitions and the Excesses of an Event

By Akansha Rastogi 13th July 2018 Climate Responsive Building Design: Looking Beyond the Faรงade

By Shrikar Bhave 27th July 2018 Designed for Death

By Dr. Ravikant Singh 24th August 2018 Biases in Building: Campuses and Accessibility

By Chayanika Shah 7th September 2018 Becoming Urban: Towards an agenda for research on architecture from South Asia Undergraduate Dissertation Symposium

By Vishwanath Kashikar, Prasad Khanolkar & Shreyank Khemalapure 30th November 2018

School of Environment and Architecture a joint initiative of Society for Environment & Architecture along with Suvidya Prasarak Sangh Eksar Road, near C.K.P Colony, Borivali West, Mumbai 400 091 Phone +91 86550 02156 contact@sea.edu.in | www.sea.edu.in

14/7/2018 24/8/2018 7/9/2018 21/9/2018 28/9/2018

Need for deforestation in Array for providing a Metro Shed India - China Border Crisis (Sikkim - Doklam plateau) Kerala floods 2018 Gender and Society Vandalism of Statues Public transport in India: overwhelming needs from limited resources