atelier01 by Shantesh Kelvekar

atelier01

2015

This is published for atelier01, a travel workshop, held in July 2015 between France, Belgium and Netherlands, and finally culminating in India.

Foreword The book is a compilation of the remarkable works of the winning participants expressing their diverse thoughts and views. The journey started with a group of individuals and ended as a team. The winning works is somehow a perception of the participants’ travelogue and documents their imagination as a unified narrative. However, it conveys a message beyond literal - a string of thoughts and their relatedness to space and time during the journey and that leaving a mark of their experience. The book is divided into two parts viz. ‘Imagination Translates Experience’ and ‘Interpreting The Perceived’. Imagination Translates Experience understands an individuals’ perceptions about the space he/she experienced, while Interpreting The Perceived on the other side looks at a tangible substance emerging through their perceptions. In both sections the individuals’ works are credited duly. However, when one looks at this as a collective narrative too, one would probably be able to perceive and try and fit the pieces of the stories and make sense of beyond what is seen at first glance. Shantesh Kelvekar

At Centre Pompidou, Paris Art work by Mona Hatoum PC: Shantesh Kelvekar

CONTENT

Foreword

Ground Research | Reading Grounds

Team background

About atelier01

Introducing our guests & organizations

Participants

Imagination Translates Experience (Winning entries)

Interpreting The Perceived (Winning entries)

Our experience

INTRODUCING

Ground Research, a non profit organisation is a reflection of Reading Grounds; a unit that firmly believes in collaborating with a multidisciplinary team. Ground Research is a research team involved in urban and spatial research. It is rooted and indulges itself into fundamental and deep research. The research provided becomes a datum for designing a process, and that evolves and enriches design. Ground Research also involves itself into evaluating and post-rationalising finished projects or designs to learn from and evolve from them. Ground Research is a think tank that constantly is enriching the works of Reading Grounds.

Our belief Our belief is that only when we amalgamate academia with practice one can stay in a state of constant motion - constantly evolving and re-adapting. The process challenges the accepted and hence has always a new perspective to offer. Therefore we are constantly involved with academics while practicing in the real domain of landscape urbanism, urban design and architecture. We also publish our research works. 6

GROUND RESEARCH

READING GROUNDS

Reading Grounds is a practice in Landscape Urbanism, Urban Design and Architecture with its design studio based in Bangalore, India. Reading Grounds was started as a small research platform in London in 2010. It soon evolved into a deep-seated and a radical design practice with a multi-disciplinary and an integrated design approach. Reading Grounds is known for its design methodology which takes a leap forward in looking beyond evolving forms, and it truly believes in designing processes which in-turn are evolutionary, and shape the design.

Our intent Our intention is to cause a difference to our community, however small or large, through every project we develop. The intent focusses on how as an opportunity in every project of ours we can involve communities beyond the realm of a project. The involved community can be the reason for several aspects of a project - from design to materiality, or from technology to spatial expression. We are obliged to ourselves to consider this as a social responsibility, and we believe all of this can be done without an additional investment. Our intent is to cause a difference to the community we live in. 7

TEAM

SHANTESH KELVEKAR

Partner

I’m a Landscape-Urbanist | Theorist, and I’m a faculty of history & design and an architect based in Bangalore. I believe that multi disciplinary approach is the key for the future of design. As an architect, my perception is that we live two lives - one as an artist and the other as a designer - and my attempt is always to balance between the two. My interests lie in designing spaces by analysing and operating them at diverse scales. I enjoy backpacking, nature photography and spotting aircraft!

PREETANSHI SINGH Partner

Architect | Landscape Architect | Urban Designer by profession, I am a designer and a land artist involved with projects of diverse scale from graffiti walls to ecological restoration. My interest lies in landscape conservation and management, ecology restoration and environmental planning. As a designer I’m constantly involved in creating artwork from recycling materials. My strong suit lies in strategy planning and detail design. I am an avid traveller with an inclination towards photography.

PRIYANSHA SINGH Intern

I am a NLSIU (Bangalore) graduate. I am a dedicated person and a keen observer. Having a legal background, I am always ready with arguments for like everything. I am quite into reading and writing and love to have discussions and conversations on various issues. Besides this, I love music of all genres and cooking really soothes me. Though I love to spend time alone, but I am always eager to meet new people. 8

ABOUT atelier01

atelier01, a Ground Research initiative is a travel workshop designed for students of diverse disciplines of design from across India. The workshop started by short listing a group of eighteen individuals. These eighteen participants coming from various fields, areas and stages of grasping design sense come under one roof to work cohesively towards a larger goal of exploration of their innermost interest.

atelier01 truly started four weeks prior to the journey itself, with students reading through several articles, essays, watching videos, documentaries, interviews. This was intended to incubate them and bring them to the same level, and leave them with heightened inquisitiveness prior to their journey. These questions were to set a precinct to their journeys ahead. During the journey there were the guest speakers and organisations that provided us with diverse viewpoints. A series of eight discussion sessions designed deepened the questions further, which eventually provided a support to each individual to explore their reason of being designers. This provided two things - one is it reinforced their belief in what theyâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;re doing with going past further the mere liking of what they do. Two, it opened up an access to each one of them to discover their personal areas in which they would evolve and flourish. The outcome what one sees is a mere byproduct. However, this byproduct is an outcome coming from their evolved thoughts and their profound understanding of design.

PC: Ground Research 9

OUR GUESTS

NISHANT UPADHYAY

Leuven, Belgium

Nishant Upadhyay is an architect and practised earth architecture before being a field researcher for an international research project on post disaster occupancy evaluation in Latur. Currently working as a member of board for Indian National Trust for Art and Cultural Heritage(INTACH) Belgium chapter, his main field of interest is cultural sustainability and settlement conservation. He pursues his Master’s degree in Conservation of Monuments and Sites at Katholieke Universiteit Leuven, Belgium.

“Atelier 01 visited Leuven on 16 July 2015, where I guided the tour on behalf of India House Leuven and the City of Leuven. We arranged for a bike tour for the students to show how the university is integrated within the town fabric of Leuven. The tour started with the presentation about the urban renewal of the canal zone of Leuven, Vaartkom by Ms. Veronique Charlier, head of Urban Planning Department of City of Leuven. Post presentation we took our bikes and following the ring road in Leuven reached the castle of Arenberg where an explanation was given to the students about the evolution of Arenberg estates and their inclusion in the university. The students also visited the KU Leuven urban planning department to see the exhibited annual work of the students of Masters in Human settlements. We then left to experience the core city on bikes via Grand Beguinage (a UNESCO protected site) and then Naamsestraat which forms the main spine for the University of Leuven. Stopping at the Center, Grote markt for a while to appreciate the beauty of the town hall and surroundings we then left for the Kaisersberg Abbey via Vaartkom (the canal port). After seeing the view of Leuven from the abbey viewpoint and discussing the city evolution we finally ended our trip at the Opek, which is an old storage building for the port and have been refurbished into a cultural center and café. And the student delegation then enjoyed some quality beer tasting for the finale. This trip was made possible because of Mr. Geert Robberechts from India House Leuven and Ms. Patricia Schoolmeesters, Head of economic department of City of Leuven. This idea of travelling together through all these European cities as a design student can be most educating in terms of understanding global trends and exemplary practices in Europe. I had a most fantastic time with the dynamic group of students in showing them the city of Leuven. I hope Atelier revisits the city in future - Nishant” 10

VIPUL VERMA

Leuven, Belgium Vipul comes from Ajmer in Rajasthan and was trained as an architect in Jaipur. After graduation heâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s been actively involved in both practice and academics. As an effort to experience different social and professional cultures, he has worked and lived in Bangalore, Jaipur and Mumbai over a span of 5 years. He is highly critical to himself and world around. Critical thoughts about cities and how they work made him start to travel in Europe and perusing higher studies in Urban Design and Human Settlements in Belgium. He travels to understand cultures and people through lens of sketching, music and design, and to find new music for his collection. Being an assistant professor of architecture in Jaipur, he aims to bring the international experience and knowledge to the students and the architectural profession in Jaipur via. his practice through time.

I saw a post on Facebook about the backpacking workshop in January. Since they were also visiting Belgium, intuitively I wanted to be a part of it in some way and was figuring out ways as to how can I be involved. A friend of mine introduced me to Shantesh and Atelier01 a few weeks later and it was agreed that I would be their guide in Belgium, somethingâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s are meant to be. Shantesh and Preetanshi are highly enthusiastic, positive individuals and visionaries on a mission. Their work with Ground Research workshop has been phenomenal, from conception, logistics and the trip itself, everything was comprehensive. All the students always seemed cheerful and both Shantesh and Preetanshi blended in the group, there was no sense of hierarchy. We had some good conversations with students thanks to the lecture sessions mediated by Shantesh. Like true architects there was attention to detail, I was gifted a book based on my profile and current education track, I was very pleased. I wish both Shantesh and Preetanshi luck and success in their adventures and travels with Atelier01 and wish to collaborate in future.

AKSHARA VERMA

Rotterdam, Netherlands

Akshara Verma graduated cum laude from The Berlage Centre for Advanced Architecture and Urban Design, The Netherlands in 2015. An alumnus of RV School of Architecture, Bangalore India, she went on to work with SRDA in Mumbai, India where she was offered an opportunity to spearhead a research initiative for SPADE India Research Cell. Here, she also assisted with the graphic-design of SPADE journal (volume 04) titled of Architecture and Opium. The energetic pace of Mumbai was an experience vastly different from her previous work environment in Colombo, Sri Lanka - where she had much to learn from the office of Sumangala Jayatillake and the country’s unpretentious landscapes. Currently in the Netherlands, she dabbles in independent publications and academia aiming to help shape the identity of an India-based architectural practice in the future.

“Ground Research/ Reading Ground is addressing a crucial aspect of integrating travel with architectural education with this initiative. While I personally staunchly believe that travel is the most powerful didactic medium, it was fantastic to witness this come alive during my time in the Netherlands with the group. What was most incredible about the trip was the ideal of taking the excursion beyond a conventional checklist of must-sees. The group explored (by every sense of the word) a wide range of building typologies from various times and eras, they broadened the scope of travel to include visiting schools, universities and offices – opening up the participants understanding of the practice of architecture. But what I found most fascinating was watching the groups’ active participation in pertinent discussions about a series of questions that provoke the realm of architecture today. I will always remember sitting on the roof of Renzo Pianos’ Science Centre NEMO in Amsterdam, looking out on the bustling city against the rather typical Dutch gray sky debating why architecture was coined to be the ‘mother of all arts’. Just as I will always remember bidding goodbye to the group at the end of the day, almost at the end of their European adventure, marveling at the camaraderie they shared, half-knowing that in their time abroad they’ve made friends for life! I’m happy to have been associated (even though such a small contribution) to GR/RG’s lead – and wish them the best in years to come. -Akshara” 12

URBAN PLANNING DEPT.

ORGANIZATIONS

Leuven, Belgium We acknowledge Ms. Veronique Charlier, head of Urban Planning Department of City of Leuven, for the informative presentation about the urban renewal of the canal zone of Leuven, Vaartkom. Also, Ms. Patricia Schoolmeesters, Head of economic department of City of Leuven, for their warm welcome.

INDIA HOUSE LEUVEN

Leuven, Belgium India House Leuven wants to bring people from Leuven and India closer together. Special thanks to Geert Robberechts from India House Leuven for arranging the bicycle tour of the city and extending their utmost support and enriching the atelier01 experience in Leuven, Belgium. www.indiahouseleuven.be/en

OMA

Rotterdam, Netherlands Office for the Metropolitan Architecture (OMA) provided an evocative insight into their studio space thereby inspiring our entire team. OMA is a leading international partnership practicing architecture, urbanism, and cultural analysis. A special thanks to Peter Smisek from OMA for organising this visit. www.oma.com or www.oma.eu 13

PARTICIPANTS

AARTI BHATNAGAR Bangalore

ABHISHEK JAIN Bangalore

ANIRUDHA DIGHE

ANJALY HAREENDRAN

ANJANI CHAUHAN

ASHWATHA CHANDRAN

Nashik

Bangalore

CHAITANYA DANG Bangalore

MANASA KESAVARAJU Manipal

MAYA RENGANATHAN Bangalore

DEVANSHI SHAH Nashik

MANJU VANI

Ahmedabad

MEGHA NAGARAJ Bangalore

MIT SHAH Bangalore

NIRUPAMA M. VIDYARTHI Bangalore

RANJITHA YAMINI Ahmedabad

MOHIT HEDA Nashik

PRATIKSHA HALAGI Nashik

UMANG SUNIL MITTAL Surat

At MusĂŠe du Louvre, Paris PC: Preetanshi Singh

Imagination Translates Experience

The Man in Paris

A dialouge between the man and the space MITTAL, Umang A traveller with a Euro coin and vitruvian man on the tail side, travels to Paris with the intention to compare the parks of the city (Parc de la villette and Luxembourg garden). The vitruvian man has the power to speak to architecture and spaces. Here is a journey of the vitruvian man from Parc de la villette enroute Luxembourg garden, where there is dialouge between the man, space and architecture. At Parc de la Villette

Enroute Luxembourg Garden...

The Louvre having the maximum collection of Da vinciâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s work is considered his temple...

Running out of anxiety, he reaches the VILLA SAVOYE...

Last stop...

At Luxembourg Garden,

At last he compares both of them through a graphic.

ENCOUNTERS

Gustave’s architectural journey RENGANATHAN, Maya This mediacomic comicfollows follows travels of Gustave, a 19th century architect from France, who This mixed mixed media thethe travels of Gustave, a 19th century architect from France, who awakes awakes to find himself suddenly transported to present day Paris. The comic follows him on his architecture with today.architecture Gustave is shocked how much the worldathas changed 100world odd years, but in theinend encounters today.atGustave is shocked how muchinthe has changed all the seemingly foreign things he the seesseemingly seem to make sensethings to him. 100 odd years, but in the end all foreign he sees seem to make sense to him. Morning already? the night ended too soon! time to get back to the drawing table

Quelle horreur!!! how long was i asleep?! these buildings look like the work of aliens! where is the ornamentation?

The building you see looked like a Turkish Bath, but alas, ‘twas a garment shop for women. Something called ’Adaptive Reuse’ they said. I did not understand 22

Time for a much needed bath!

I take the humans of this generation have a keen interest in ships!

How wonderful! Museums on ships. Should have thought of that myself

Uhh, Sir, those are museums.

Wow...are you out of it or what?!

7 â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;o clock! time to go!

This all makes sense now. inspiration is inspiration Back in Paris, Gustave feels like everything is as it should be-except for the cars, and the mural, cautioning him to remain silent...

now, through this door...

Thingsback canhome be and decieving as they approached their cars parked in the THE BARTENDER...

Things can be decieving Dighe, Anirudha DIGHE, Anirudha

and made her way back It's a Saturda yinnight and a group of four Stan, Gwen, Finn and Iris somehow a hurry took a wrong turn managed to g get past the crowd at "Club 7" in order to celebrate Gwen's ey. This particular alley had promotion th at day. Whilst having a great time Gwen wasn't too comfortgination wasn’t helping her able with the bartender who looked odd. Now, a tipsy Iris needed to head e looking at her, trying to back home a ecieving nd as they approached their cars parked in the central area. ard footsteps approaching in

der ...

Gwen realized she left her purse behind and made her way back It'sIris. a Saturday andtook a group of four S leaving others to take care of Gwen, innight a hurry a wrong turn managed get This pastparticular the crowdalley at "Club and found herself isolated in anotherto alley. had 7 that day. Whilst a great an eerie feeling about it andpromotion Gwen’s imagination wasn’thaving helping her able with the bartender who looked odd. feel safe either as she imagined someone looking at her, trying to backashome and asfootsteps they approached theirin grab her and things got scarier she heard approaching the shadows of the dark alley.

erself helpless and weak, she gathered all the courage she thin herself and grabbed the iron rod that lay beside her.

wards oder, the Centre realizing the footnow up her pace but she tripped and ee... gathered all the courage she e iron rod that lay beside her.

At Parc de la Villette, Paris PC: Preetanshi Singh

Interpreting The Perceived

AT THE NODES

Adding character to the metro experience MITTAL, Umang As a part of my experience at the atelier01 workshop, apart from experiencing the places and using the local commute for commuting bagged-in as one of the new experience of my travel experiences. WHY? Other than infrastucture there metro station forms a major part of daily life so called the â&#x20AC;&#x153;inbetween spacesâ&#x20AC;?. The subway station, strung along with their invisible path systems, are strategic junction nodes. These nodes form the junction of the veins of the city, but the lack of visual interest, and disassociation of the subway node from the street crossing makes the waiting time at the station dull and boring.

The station themselves have many individual characterstics like Concorde station in Paris (image 1) and the station by OMA in Den Haag (Image 2), which makes them easy to recognise and a memorable experience.

Image 1

Image 2

Crossword claded on the entire platform

The architect has preserved the findings of the site because of the historical importance.

Such interventions improve the quality of the journey and quality of life in a city. The cultural impact withhold the users to the roots and a flare of vibrancy and dynamism is continuosly flowing through the dead and dull tunnels of the metro lines. 28

Proposal

These dead tiled walls could form a display for any 2D art form produced by local artists, where the displays could be funded under a common platform, where each painting could have a unique code and bought by a visitor/traveller using that code. These volume here forms excellent in-between sapces. The walls reflect the culture of the street/station and the neighbourhood. The volume in-between the user and art becomes the culture absorbing element.

Taking ahead the idea of Concorde station, the crossword could be replaced by linguistic assistance as illustrated in the above image. This helps the traveller travel and communicate well and more easily. PS note- The proposals for the underground stations could vary depending on the various parameters i.e. context, history, or any other targeted message or usage. 29

INTERACTIVE PODS PARC DE LA VILLETTE , PARIS INTERACTIVE PODS PARC DE LA VILLETTE , PARIS RENGANATHAN, Maya

RENGANATHAN, Maya The specific chosen forfor thethe intervention was the in Parcin deParc la Villete Paris. The square is The specificlocation location chosen intervention wassquare the square de lainVillete in Paris. The located in the 19th arrondissement of the city, an area known concentration square is located in the 19th arrondissement of the city,for anit’s area known for of it’simmigrants-specificoncentration of cally from the africanchosen nations. abutsnations. thewas peripheral highway, and near the outskirts the lies city. The specific location forThe intervention the in Parc delies laperipheral Villete in Paris. The of square is immigrants-specifically from thearea african Thesquare area abuts the highway, and located the 19th arrondissement near theinoutskirts of the city. of the city, an area known for it’s concentration of immigrants-specifi-

The serves more as a thoroughfare, than a destination apart from occaisional callysquare, from the african nations. The area abutsrather the peripheral highway, itself, and lies near the the outskirts of the city. meetup of dogwalkers, ﬁtness enthusiasts, etc. The intervention proposed is to combat two existing condiThe square, serves more as avsthoroughfare, rather than abut destination itself, apartfacetfromthe the tions in the square: Thoroughfare destination, anaunrelated nevertheless important The square, serves more as a thoroughfare, ratherand than destination itself, apart from the occaisional occaisional meetup of dogwalkers, fitness enthusiasts, etc. The intervention proposed is toin public The main function of the Interactive pod is to spread information about the area and park, meetupashtray. of dogwalkers, ﬁtness enthusiasts, etc. The intervention proposed is to combat two existing condicombat two existing conditions the destination, and anfacetunrelated terms upcoming events, photographs andsquare: videos past events, but asvs well as useful neighbourhood infortions inofthe square: Thoroughfare vs in destination, andofThoroughfare an unrelated nevertheless important the but nevertheless facettheInteractive public ashtray. The maininformation function of the the Interactive mation. public ashtray. The important main function of the pod is to spread about area and pod park,isin to spread information about the areaand and park,ofinpast terms of upcoming events, photographs and terms of upcoming events, photographs videos events, as well as useful neighbourhood information.of past events, as well as useful neighbourhood information. videos

P I

Picture above: Parc de la Villette square showing possible intervention along with guiding ‘road’ fading from red to blue, creating visual interest and inviting people into the park Picture above: Parc de la Villette square showing possible intervention along with guiding ‘road’ fading from red to blue, creating visual interest and inviting people into the park

Information dispersal

Information screen Features of the Pods Features of the Pods 30

Information screen Public Ashtray Public Ashtray

Intentions Intentions

Information dispersal Facilitating cleanliness of square Facilitating cleanliness of square

Colour scheme consisting of chirpy, bright colours, reminiscent of the playful nature of the park itself 400 mm screen (16’’) Cigarette butt collection box

P I

Openable from the bottom side

silhouette section of ashtray component

PI stands for Pod Interactif, which is the literal french translation of interactive pod. The screen is a touchscreen of diagonal dimension 16’’, comparable to a laptop.

View

Elevations Possibilities Over time, the pods could form a ‘hotspot’ of sorts. A physical facet of social media that enables one to share in public- be it photos, videos, new events, neighbourhood information, etc

P I

Head down Avenue Corentin Cariou for some excellent Northern African Cuisine!

DIGHE, Anirudha

At Den Haag Centraal PC: Preetanshi Singh

atelier01

At Louis Vuitton Foundation, Paris

GROUND RESEARCH initiative