PORTFOLIO_Tulsi Vadalia

Retro tting Tarmac Wastelands

Agriculture Institute: House of Cooks and Farmers

Urban Garden and Co-housing

Paris Pavilion | The art of Peace. Competition by Archasm

Shyamal Heights. Residential Building Project

House for Lancelot Sequeria. Restoration project

The Global Village of Watchmaking

Aanganwadi and Village Community Centre

Organic Farming Institute

The Mandovi Fishermen Jetty

Serendipity: ice, light and void

Masters of Architecture

University of Waterloo. Cambridge

September 2019 - August 2021

Bachelors of Architecture

CEPT University. Ahmadabad

June 2013 - December 2018

Student Exchange Program

Swiss Federal Institute of Technology. ETH Zürich

February 2017 - June 2017

Architectural Designer (Residential and Mixed-use)

Turner Fleischer Architects, Toronto | October 2021 - present

Serendipity: ice, light and void.

(Exhibition ‘Sight and Sound observations of the Morteratsch Glacier’)

Switzerland. ETH Zurich. 2017

Communes : Architecture of Territories.

Switzerland. ETH Zurich. 2017

Student Architect (Co-op)

Diamond Schmitt Architects, Toronto June 2020 - August 2020

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Winner of the Urban Strategies Inc. Graduate Award

University of Waterloo. 2021

Awarded Scholarship for Student Exchange Program by ETH

Swiss Federal Institute of Technology. Zürich. 2017

Nominated for Kohler Design Scholarship Award

CEPT University. Ahmadabad. 2017

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• Junior Architect

Adarsh Developers, India | January 2019-July 2019

Earth Construction Workshop. Hunnarshala. Kutch. 2013

• Revit

• Bluebeam

• AutoCAD

• SketchUp

• Enscape

• Rhinoceros

• Adobe Creative Suite

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• Teaching Assistantship

CEPT University, India | January 2018 - April 2018

• Architecture Internship

Mozaic Design, India | May 2016 - November 2016

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Jain Heritage in Bengal.

Exhibition at CEPT University. Ahmedabad. 2015

Registered as OAA Intern Architect

Registered as licenced Architect with COA, India

Retro tting Tarmac Wastelands

Designing for Ecological and Social Permeability

Leaside, Toronto

This thesis investigates urban strategies to restore ecological and social permeability in under-utilised tarmac surfaces of commercial and industrial areas built on ecologically sensitive sites. One such site is the Leaside Industrial and Business area that sits on the path of the buried Walmsley brook, a part of the Don River watershed. This site is surrounded by the Don Valley on three sides has been facing major ecological challenges like ooding due to the presence of vast areas of impervious surfaces. With the Eglinton LRT coming up and the development pressure, the land values have gone up dramatically. The design strategies explore the aspects of permeability at di erent scales— from surface permeability, designing for ooding, reviving parts of the buried hydrology and parallelly strengthening the social aspects. They are:

1. Imagining a post-automobile city and a future of retail which is not car-centric, which focuses more on pedestrian movement and public transit.

2. Promoting Anti-Asphalt Parking Lots and utilizing all the strategies to increase surface permeability, starting from the scale of surface design of the parking lots to the overall perception of parking lots (as parks, gardens), moving away from the alienating continuous asphalt surfaces.

3. Ecological Restoration of a part of the creek and designing for Flood Resilience, with green roof infrastructure, constructed wetlands and retention ponds.

4. Incorporating sites for local food production in the form of community agriculture and local cafes, for increasing food security and parallelly catalyzing social permeability between the two neighbourhoods.

5. Balancing the Real Estate development pressure due to the Eglinton LRT, with proposals for Public housing and addressing the lack of a ordable housing.

Graduate Thesis ( Winner of the Urban Strategies Inc. Graduate Award)

Supervisor: Prof. Rick Andrighetti

University of Waterloo, Cambridge

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Pedestrian zone street parking for Industrial Road Permanent Local Retail

Zone for local markets + Park Cafes + food stalls + temporary/seasonal businesses

Floodable area with recreational spaces and hiking/ bicycle routes connecting to the Don Valley

Pedestrian zone for Commercial Road Greenhouse and Food retail

Agriculture Institute:

House of Cooks and Farmers

Rare Preserve Site, Cambridge, Canada

This project is an Agriculture Institute that accommodates spaces for di erent legacy skill-sets of di erent guilds like: sawyers, weavers, cooks/farmers and smiths. The building has wood, metal and weaving workshops, but primarily focuses on the House of Cooks where farming and cooking activities form the heart of the project. It provides spaces for experimentation and research on di erent types of farming and cooking activities, allowing visitors to engage with all the aspects of food, from its production to preparation on site. The building is located on the Rare Preserve site in Cambridge, and is placed at the Rare trail starting point, in front of the agricultural land. It had dense woodland on the North and the West side, and open agricultural elds on the South and east sides. This project acts as a compact linear transition between the woodland and the agricultural land. It strives to be a passive house and therefore maintains an airtight envelop supported with heat recovery ventilation units. This project acts as a social merger as it provides a platform for people to experience the relationship between humans and food, right from its cultivation to its artful preparation.

Instructor: Prof. Colin Cathcart

University of Waterloo, Cambridge

M.Arch Studio

The Herb Garden occupies a pocket that is connected to kitchen, cafe, residential tower and opens out to the south in the agricultural elds. Herbs like parsley, thyme, basil, rosemary and chamomile grow here.

The Vertical Farm occupies a double volume and is overlooked by the exhibition space. It grows strawberries, lettuce and other leafy greens, using hydroponic medium.

The Greenhouse acts as an indoor public vegetable garden for growing of tomatoes, cucumbers, peppers and radishes.

The Experimental farms holds space for school children and visitors to learn and experiment di erent farming techniques.

ENVIRONMENTAL DESIGN STRATEGIES

This building uses a heat recovery ventilation system, geothermal heat source and photo-voltaic integrated glass facing south, to optimize energy usage. It reuses natural resources like rainwater and agricultural elds for cultivation.

Rainwater collection

Rainwater storage

Rainwater ltration with sand

Using ltered rainwater for irrigation

Puri cation of rainwater for domestic use

Collection of gray water

Wastewater treatment and ltration

Root-zone ltration of treated water and used in irrigation and vertical farming

Gray water

Filtered rainwater

Potable water

Geothermal heat source

heat pump

Conditioned spaces

Semi-conditioned spaces

Heating system

Supply air

Extract air

Under oor radiant heating

Radiant heating panels

ENERGY USE CALCULATIONS

NIGHT VIEW FROM THE SOUTH-WEST

This calculation shows the net energy usage of the public zone of the building. The net energy use intensity is 134 kWh/m2yr. But it does not take into account the energy generated on site using photovoltaic integrated glass panels on the south facade and the roof. Photo-voltaic panels cover 1800 sq.m. of area on the roof (tilted 15 degrees towards south) and south facade. Primary calculations of the energy generated by the PV panels amount to 404675 kWh/yr. If its use is restricted to this speci c zone of the building, then it results to 50 kWh/m2yr, therefore bringing down the Net Energy use intensity by 50 kWh/m2yr.

SOURCES FOR CALCULATIONS

https://pvwatts.nrel.gov/pvwatts.php

https://matchboxenergy.com/matchbox?

Since the building strives to be a passive house, air tightness and insulation become important factors to address in envelope design. The conditioned spaces on the north uses 250mm thick EPS insulation that provides an R value of 40. The semi-conditioned spaces on the south that uses triple glazed glass curtain wall (integrated with photo-voltaic cells) gives an R value of 8. Triple glazed windows are also used on the north facade but in smaller dimensions.

Wall Section

Detail 3

Detail 1

Detail 2

Urban Garden and Co-housing

Farming + Cooking + Living

St. Claire Ave West, Toronto

Urban Garden and the Co-housing project is a combination of an urban community garden, a co-housing community and a market housing tower in Toronto. It is a mixed-use project located at the intersection of Vaughan street and St. Claire Avenue West. The parti of this project is to promote ‘farming, cooking and dining’ as a heart for bonding with the community and the neighborhood.

With a range of spaces from private, to community spaces that encourage informal encounters among the community members and people of the neighborhood, the idea of this project is to promote an comprehensive lifestyle, where the members of the community gather for growing their own food in the vegetable garden and greenhouse, learn preparing food in the cooking workshop integrated with a fully functioning cafeteria; and live in cohousing units facing a courtyard and a community garden. The ve important design criteria are:

- Diversity of residents - accommodate di erent patterns of living.

- Connecting the living spaces to the nature and the city

- Generating spaces for random encounters and gatherings to strengthen the community bonding

- Strengthening the integration of living and community spaces through spatial hierarchy.

- Promoting ‘farming, cooking and dining’ as a heart for bonding with community and the neighborhood.

M.Arch Studio

Instructor: Prof. Val Rynnimeri

University of Waterloo, Cambridge

Paris Pavilion | The Art of Peace

Design competition by Archasm

This competition was about designing a Peace Pavilion that aims to stimulate people about the values of social and religious harmony and allow them to reflect, contemplate and and introspect. The site is Champ de Mars near the Eiffel Tower.

The team’s design approach was to create a pavilion on a plaza that responds to the confluence of the 6 pathways that cross the central axis. These lines form the internationally recognised symbol of peace. The pavilion is an oval shaped shield with the cut out of the peace symbol, creating channels for visitors to walk through. It encloses facilities like shops, exhibition halls, workshops surrounding a central open space. The roof from each of these spaces cantilevers into the courtyard partially shading it and offering the profile of the peace symbol when one looks skyward from the courtyard centre.

work as an Intern Architect

Designer : Ar. Dean D’Cruz Mozaic,

Goa

(this competition was a part of the Mozaic design team work under the guidance of the Principle Architect)

Shyamal Heights designing a residential building

Shyamal Heights is an 11 storey resedential building accomodating 22 three-bedroom apartments. In the first stage of the project, my role was to work on different options for the typical floor plans of the apartment and later prepare drawings for execution on site, like Foundation drawings and Centre line plans. The second stage of the project involved coordinationg with different construction stages on site, especially during the Foundation stage, cross-checking the reinforcement details and materials on site.

working as Junior Architect Employer : Adarsh Developers

Valsad, India

(work on design options as a part of the o ce team and trained to coordinate with di erent construction stages on site)

TYPICAL FLOOR PLAN

Excavation stage and marking for the spread footings

RCC (Reinforced Cement Concrete) Step footing foundation

House for Lancelot Sequeria

Restoration of a Goan Portuguese house

The House of Lancelot Sequeria is located in Maupsa, Goa. It is an old Goan Portuguese house, now to be restored.

FEATURES :

50cm thick Laterite walls.

High plinth entrance porch with elaborate seating.

High walls with many openings.

A well adjacent to the kitchen window.

OPTION 2

O ce Training

Designer : Ar. Dean D’Cruz

Mozaic, Goa

(measure drawing and work on design options under the guidance of the Principal Architect)

Ground Floor Plan

First Floor Plan

Site Plan

The Global Village of Watchmaking

Commune of Le Chenit, Switzerland

The commune of Le Chenit is famous for its watchmaking heritage and is set in the picturesque Vallée du Joux. Today, however, the watch-making industry is part of a global ecology of workers and customers. This has lead to a growing divide between the industry and the village itself, as companies build large, impermeable compounds suited to a car culture. This is creating a condition within the commune that is increasingly ‘suburban’ and devoid of local character. The result is a constant flow of two groups of barely interacting people, in and out of the commune. As such, Le Chenit is left as a ‘road-side town’ with infrastructure focused on accommodating the car. There is little area for public life or activities other than commuting.

The project addresses the condition of Le Chenit as ‘two towns’. By reinterpreting the boundaries of the currently hermetic watch-making buildings and utilising inefficiently organised outdoor areas, the project will propose multifunction spaces. The intervention intends to integrate the landscape into the village and develop a strong, local identity for the commune. These new public spaces with provide new a orientation for communal growth.

Student Exchange Program

Instructors: Milica Topalovic. ‘Architecture of Territories’

ETH, Zurich

(group work: Bess Larring, Daniel Krogskov, Tulsi Vadalia)

Historical Evolution : From Local Craft to a Distant Industry

The watch-making industry grew from small workshops in farmhouses to a global industry. Consequently, large areas are given over to industrial activity and its large cross-border workforce. Companies expanded into factory like buildings, in addition to their historical premises.

1700s present The Elite Existence

Layers of watchmaking industry

The present Watch-making Industries

The character of the Watch-making valley

Commuting Culture

Red: Swiss Jobs Occupied by Foreigners as % of Jobs

Grey: French Crossborder Workers as % of Population

Watch-making Valley : A Commuting Destination Village : From Locality to a Commuting Suburb

Le Chenit is a commuter town. The amount of cross-border workers who arrive in the commune each day is more than the working population of Le Chenit. Both the cases are of factories surrounded by fences and out of proportion car parks (tarmac surface) within the surrounding residential fabric.

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Over 35% 20-35%

10-20% No Data

Watch-making Car-parks and Main Commuter Roads

Residential Use and Local Tra c

Breguet

Two towns

Audemars Piguet

Project : Intertwining Locality with Commuter Ecology

With a view to intertwining locality and the commuter ecology, three sites are chosen that are strategic for intervention. These sites are situated to benefit existing housing and guide new growth. The intention is to create facilities that will lead the closed off industry to act as social enterprises.

Intervention: Softening the Boundaries

Create a public space as new centre to bene t and relate to the suburb condition and provide new orientation for future development.

1. Innovation Centre with workshop facilities and accommodation for invited artists and specialist watchmakers.

2. Rethink the boundaries around the watch-making building.

3. Create a public space to reinforce connections between existing public areas and facilities opening up pedestrian access possibilities.

4. Develop connection to river through access points and water channels. Proposed

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Aanganwadi and Village Community Centre

Champapada Village, Dadra-Nagar Haveli

Part one of this project is Measure drawing the vernacular settlement of Champapada Village located in Dadar and Nagar Haveli, India. This was done by 40 students divided in groups of 3, studying, documenting and measure drawing smaller clusters to understand the typology of the built form.

Part two was individual design proposal for the Aanganwadi, at the village chowk. Anganwadis are important institutions that provide preschool facilities in most of the rural and urban communities across India. They are literally translated as a courtyard shelter in Hindi. They were started by Government of India to provide basic health care, preschool facility to children below 6 years of age and mothers in marginalised communities. The site proposed for the Aanganwadi is at the junction of the main chowk at the centre of the settlement.

Measure Drawing is a part of Related Study Program

Instructors: Sachin Soni, Rathin Ghoghari, Punit Mehrotra, Jitesh Mewada

CEPT University, Ahmedabad

(measure drawing of cluster : Aarsi Gelani, Sarthak Patel, Tulsi Vadalia) image credits: Jitesh Mewada

The existing chowk was the main area for children to play. So the idea was to create a strong diagonal connect by using open and semi open spaces of the program to complement the spatial continuity of the existing aangan.

1. semi open play space

2. kitchen

3. open play area

4. closed learning space

Organic Farming Institute

a palette of farming experiments and co-working spaces

The Organic Farming Institute was to design a farming and research institution that accommodates many activities like farming, co-working, kitchen and cafeteria, so as to allow the visitor to engage with the process of farming, meet the researchers and enjoy the dishes prepared at the cafeteria. The aim of the studio was to develop a design concept and explore the idea by designing the details, preparing a set of working drawings and understanding the materials and construction process.

The design approach taken was to make a palette of experiments that provides different spaces and conditions of farming: like hydroponics, aquaponics, fogponics and coir pith farming. The building is steel structure, accommodating these different plates of farming activities floating at different levels. A set of Working drawings was prepared for this project including typical construction details.

1. courtyard

2.coir pith farming

3. aeroponics farming

4. fogponics farming

5. aquaponics farming

6. kitchen

7. cafeteria

8. co-working spaces

9. polishing pond

Working Drawings

Instructors: Sachin Bandukwala

CEPT University, Ahmedabad

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CONCEPTUAL DESIGN SECTION

The Mandovi Fishermen

Jetty

approach to reinforce the existing shermen community, Goa

The Mandovi Fishermen Jetty and Cooperative is located beside a dense cluster of busy trawlers on the Mandovi estuary, under the Panjim-Porvorim bridge, Goa. What used to be a high functioning fishing jetty with 150 trawlers, a chaotic fish market and a family of supporting economies (net mending sheds and gear shops) scattered in this fishing village, is right now ‘fitting-out’ in its context of luxury resorts and off-shore casinos dotted on and along the Mandovi. This gradual encroachment has led to many fishermen shifting to the tourism sector. Right now the site has lost its rigour in functioning, with the western half of the site bought by Deltin Royale casino.

The project builds around the idea to restore this dynamic, energetic character and functioning of the Mandovi jetty, by adding a layer of reinforcement, in the form of a series of dining decks run by the local fishermen and their families, as an extension to the same cooperative. This diversion would run parallel to the fishing activity on the jetty, with controlled overlap in the movement patterns of both these diverse functions, complementing the working of both. The building aims to set an example for the many marginalized fishing communities in Goa.

Undergraduate Design Thesis

Instructors: Uday Andhare, Sankalpa

CEPT University, Ahmedabad

Location of the Mandovi Fishermen Jetty

Primary Trawler Landing site

The Net loading platform

The helper-boat landing site

The loading-unloading bay

The site Mandovi Jetty

O -shore casinos

The Existing Cross section of the site

SECTION AA’

SECTION BB’

SECTION CC’

Serendipity: ice, light and void

Investigating glacier landscapes of Swiss Alps through Analog photography

Glaciers are an important part of the perception of Swiss landscape. It has a wild aesthetic experience. But due to the climatic changes happening in the past years, they are slowly disappearing. In this course, the primary focus was to examine the glacier terminus, coming in direct contact with the ice, and understanding the spatial characteristics of the landscape - topology, depth and surface.

A weekend trip to Morteratsch glacier located in southern part of Switzerland, involved taking pictures with an analog middle-format photo camera and recording sounds of the movement under the ice surface, to understand the spatial perception of the vast landscape of Morteratsch. The following part of the course involved working on and developing the prints in a dark room, and communicating the space through photographs.

Student Exchange Program

Exhibition ‘Sight and Sound observations of the Morteratsch glacier’ at ETH, Zurich

Instructors: Prof. Cristophe Girot, L. Berger, M. Vollmer

ETH, Zurich

(group work: Bess Larring and Tulsi Vadalia)

Jrebsame. “Elective Course FS2017: Serendipity: Ice Light Void.” Professor Christophe Girot, September 12, 2018. https:// girot.arch.ethz.ch/courses/elective-course-fs2016-serendipityice-light-void.

other images: developing prints in dark room, setting exposure and contrsast.

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image 1,2 and 3: by Ralph Rosenbauer