s4/ c1
Sabaa Giradkar, Milind Mahale, Shreyank Khemlapure, Suhas Chande, Malak Singh Gill, Prasad Shetty School of Environment & Architecture
Course Brief
This course enables the student to develop a systemic and material response for specific spatial engagements. The key objective of the course is to enable students to understand relationships between systems/materials and life (behaviour, experience and relationships) via the idea of space - the premise here is that form articulates space and hence the structure of form is instrumental in this articulation. (For example, a natural cave and a human made cave have two different structural logics; a trabeated system and a framed system produces different proportions of voids and give a different sense of material; a domed roof is different from a trussed roof in spatiality). The course will be conducted in the following stages:
Historical development of systems and material technologies (Lecture Sessions)
Case studies and lectures on existing structures where the link between systems / materiality and life (via production of space) is made apparent. (for example, how do large span structures and their details create a sense of mass by producing a non-hierarchical space)
Undertaking a design exercise with objectives to arrive at spatiality, systems and material detail via an analysis of contexts and defining the nature of engagement / intervention. (For example, if an institution for blind people was to be made in a monsoon-heavy context, then what could be its spatiality and what would be appropriate systems).
This would be done through four steps:
a. Setting up a provocation (defining place of intervention and programme). This context will be then analysed for scoping of the architectural interventions - the main question here would be - what are the primary coordinates to produce the required spatiality(Will the architecture be developed with a single / dominant material? Does the place require a lot of private / individualistic spaces or non-hierarchical large spaces or series of in between spaces for various purposes? Are there any dominant modes / technologies of creating buildings in the region that the interventions should use? What should be the light condition in the space? etc.)
b. Strategising appropriate systemic and material responses for the above defined engagement / intervention (What would be the most appropriate system and material to develop the space as per the defined needs / purposes / requirements?). This would be done through an overlapping of contextual conditions (in drawings) with the proposed engagements so as to define geometries of the expected system.
c. Developing systems using scaled models and testing the systems.
d. Detailing the systems in all other aspects of envelope, serviceability, etc.
Provocation : This studio intends to understand the relationship between behaviour, experience, meaning and living that is crafted through the structure, materiality and systems thinking for any configuration of space. The module shall explore communitarian, artisanal, exploratory, temporal dimensions in the process of design thinking and building making. This shall be attained by a studio exercise to design a space that provides for an individual or a group of people to read, gain and share knowledge, deliberate, reflect. The architectural imperatives are derived from these intangibles. The materiality and structure that are the derivatives of form and experience of the space at the same time requires to provide thermal, visual comfort to the users. The climatic response here hence becomes inherent to the design process. In addition, the design shall respond to the site imperatives and cater to the water aspect (rain, potable water requirement, management )through spatial thinking. A pair of students shall be required to design one structure for one of their own climatic contexts (city/ town/village) . The chosen 600-750qm site and defined user group by the student pair will define what will the designed space and structure be used for and as. The build area of 450-500qm shall accommodate 150-200 pax. As a given requirement the clear span of the structure should be minimum 15 metre.
Objectives:
● To develop a historical attitude to the contemporary architectural practices and contemporary attitude to the historical architectural practices.
● To broaden the idea of tools in the practice of architecture.
● To demonstrate how tools organize groups, practices, and buildings.