Reminiscence: A Museum of Indian Struggle, Kevadia, Gujarat

Author: Milan Bhupendra Bhai Patel
Site Location: Kevadia, Gujarat
Institute: College of Architecture, Sardar Vallabhai Patel Institute of Technology (SVIT)
Advisor: Prof. Pallavi Mahida

description

This year marks the 75th anniversary of Indian independence. It is a source of immense pride and celebration for us Indians. Should it only be slogans, cliche publications, and festive programmes? Rather, it is to continue to inspire youthful minds. Understanding the freedom struggle and colonial forces constitutes the basic paradigm for post-colonial India. The memory of any collective effort, any struggle, and any willing sacrifice will strengthen our national unity, express our aspirations, and display our diversities of approaches and action toward the one united goal of national liberation need to be taught. This memory of struggle needs to be preserved so that each young mind lives through the struggle that their forefathers underwent and begins to value the idea and feelings of freedom. A proposal for the museum was identified and the main aim of the project was ”Revisiting the events and phases that impacted the freedom struggle of India to imbibe patriotism in the new generation on the event of Azadi ka Amritmahotsav. (75 years of Indian independence)”

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Modality of Spatial Narratives: Proposed film archive & Museum

Author: Mayuresh Pradhan
Site Location: Mumbai
Institute: Lokmanya Tilak institute of Architecture and Design Studies, Navi Mumbai
Advisor: Prof. Harish Shetty

description

The project began as a quest to understand if one could navigate through a structure like one navigates through a story? This simple quest led to further investigations of what is a public space at its core. The structure attempts to juxtapose various narratives along with the primary program which was essentially ‘A Film Archive and a Museum’. While the three floating blocks cater to the primary programs, the ground becomes an open public space, which is merely a passage between the abutting primary roads on both sides of the site. Here one has elongated that passage and tried to orchestrate a narrative within the ‘Urban Passage’ where the essential programs intertwined with the temporary events but at the same time secluded. This creates a micro climate, within the structure that doesn’t completely rely on active techniques of lighting and ventilation. And is rather a garden within which a structure is curated.

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Rethinking Habitat for Cattle

Author: Harikiran V Alva
Site Location: Neelavara, Karnataka
Institute: Nitte Institute of Architecture
Advisor: Palaksha Shetty

description

Cattle are one of the earliest domesticated animals by humans. Once often left to wander about in the open gradually started settling in alongside human settlements. Thus began the journey in the change in raising of cattle. To conserve them, many organizations are currently providing food and shelters designed based on human perception—the thesis questions the conventional design approach, which is majorly human-centric.

The primary approach of man towards nature was passive, which gradually changed due to man’s excessive desire. Man’s sensitive wisdom towards nature slowly started shifting towards material prosperity, money based in the present era, which affected not only humans and their habitat but also other living creatures, and created a gap between man and nature. In Asian countries like India, where anything that sustains a person’s livelihood is valued, cattle have been considered sacred due to their contributions to humanity. Humans used them for their daily needs and were respected as one among them.

The Design Proposal will be to create a Sustainable Village for Cattles, and its caretakers will be based on understanding cattle’s perception of space and its natural behavior. Spaces designed are based on various methods of understanding a cow and its natural wandering and creating a healthy habitat to live its intrinsic lifestyle.

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Decoding Cultural Trauma: The Case of Girangaon, Mumbai

Author: Prachi Kadam
Site Location: Girangaon, Lalbaug, Mumbai
Institute: LS Raheja College of Architecture, Mumbai
Advisor: Ar. Mridula Pillai Gudekar

description

Cultural trauma occurs when the locals feel their place is threatened by an event that leads to irreversible damage and changes the space that was once theirs in turn redefining its identity. One such event which lead to a cultural wounding in India was the mill owners strike of 1982 which changed the place identity of the mill abode of Girangaon from its rich girni culture to a pure consumer culture.

In order to counteract the trauma of urban violence, a common trend of redevelopment, this project was conceptualized keeping in mind the true impermanent nature of the site. It attempts to heal the cultural trauma by “designing for informality” and by working out simple solutions to the existing adversities on site.

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Pop-Up Structures For Temporal Scenario

Author: Jaswanth NS
Site Location: Palani, Dindigul, Tamil Nadu
Institute: CARE School of Architecture, Trichy
Advisor: Ar.Balaji Rajasekaran

description

Pilgrimage is a part and parcel of the culture of the sub-continent and takes innumerable and sometime specific forms based on the religious centre. Palani is one such unique pilgrim city in India, wherein people from all parts of Tamil Nadu take a padhayatra (walk) to Palani, after the Pongal festival ends, which is called Thaipusam. Dedicated to Lord Muruga, people carry colourful kavadis and walk up the hills of Palani for the darshan of the lord. Lakhs of people conjugate at one place but the infrastructure is minimal. This is a seasonal event and hence permanent structures are mostly underutilized. It is in this premise that the thesis looks at a type of architecture that is temporal and ephemeral.

The thesis attempts to provide temporary pop up structures like a kit of parts which can be assembled and serve as places to sleep, places to refresh, and medical facilities required for the pilgrims who undertake the padayathra during the event. Post the event, the flexibility and temporal nature of these structures can be used to facilitate multi-dimensional and varied requirements.

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Infrastructure for Artistic Practice

Author: Manish Shravane
Site Location: Thane, Maharashtra
Institute: School of Environment and Architecture, Mumbai
Advisor: Milind Mahale & Sabaa Giradkar

description

This project explores potential methodology for urban interventions in an informal settlement in Thane city. It proposes a number of innovative strategies for regenerating the existing socio-cultural practices through a catalogue of urban tools that support artistic practices, solve the lack of cultural infrastructure and preserves the traditional life that creates intensity of living through participatory construction methods.

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Centre for Arts and Sciences Originated in India University

Author: Vivek Eadara
Site Location: Hyderabad
Institute: Jawaharlal Nehru Architecture and Fine Arts University, Hyderabad
Advisor: M. Vinod Ganesh

description

This project is a pursuit of seeding our arts and sciences into modern Indian societies, as a cultural phenomena.

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An Archaeological Experiential Museum, Vadnagar

Author: Ravi Modi
Site Location: Vadnagar, Mehsana district, Gujarat
Institute: MS University, Baroda
Advisor: Prof. Percy Adil Pithawala, Ar. Ashish Amin, Ar. Niketa Moghe, Ar. Mitesh Panchal

description

The objective of this thesis is to raise awareness about the rich history of Vadnagar and evoke a sense of pride and belonging amongst the younger generation through cultural heritage. The challenge is to provide a solution for new intervention without disturbing the foundations of the existing and future ruins which remain yet to be excavated.

Hence the project has tried evolving to an appropriate system of construction which provides inherent flexibility for ease of construction and adaptability to emerging conditions at site during assembly and erection.

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Anantshodha: An Interpretation and Research Centre for Western Chalukyan Temples

Author: Parwati Patil
Site Location: Lakundi, Gadag district, Karnataka
Institute: Goa College of Architecture, Panaji
Advisor: Ar. Sidhi Tendulkar

description

The Interpretation and Research Centre for Western Chalukyan Temples is located in Lakundi, a village in Gadag District of Karnataka. Anantshodha thus, befits a center that aims to build awareness and promote knowledge of the Western Chalukyan temples while also acting as a means to preserve these temples through documentation and research.

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Oikya-Tirtha: A Center for Cultural Unification Commemorating Bengal Partition, Kolkata

Author: Oishik Chakraborty
Site Location: New Town, Kolkata
Institute: Jadavpur University, Kolkata
Advisor: Ms. Sanghamitra Sarkar, Dr. Sanjib Nag

description

A Center for Cultural Unification Commemorating Bengal Partition essentially talks about two most important things: Oikya or Unity, and Bengal Partition. This Center aims at providing a platform for this Unity through public interaction. This has been achieved through the site designing, and taking the urban context of the site into consideration in the process.

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Lokmanch: A Citizen Narrative of Democratic India

Author: Harshit Narnoli
Site Location: Central Vista, New Delhi
Institute: University School of Arch and Planning, GGSIPU, New Delhi
Advisor: Prof. Baljeet Khurana

description

The thesis questions and tries to establish the sensitivity of the relationship between the state and civilians with architecture as the medium. The project was an attempt to envision a contemporary institution within the rich contextual and cultural heritage of India that focuses on the idea of democracy.

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National School Of Drama

Author: Madhushree Maji
Site Location: Newtown, North 24 Parganas, Greater Kolkata
Institute: NIT Rourkela, Odisha
Advisor: Prof. Dr Soumi Muhuri

description

The aim of the project is to create an architectural icon and learning hub that provides better opportunities to a vast multitude of people to excel in the field of dramatics. It also tries to blend the traditional drama forms and modern technologies to inculcate the bonding between society, culture, and dramatics.

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The Interlace

Author: Nishanth Krishna
Site Location: Law Garden, Ahmedabad
Institute: CEPT University, Ahmedabad
Advisor: Jayant Gunjaria & Viral Bhavsar

description

When time passes by, there is a need for public interventions in the city to be re-interpreted so that it responds with its present urban conditions in a better way and also it can contribute to the city life around.

Thakor Bhai hall is the most used drama hall in the city which hosts events with a seating capacity of 721. While their typology requires performance spaces to be a closed box, they are also inherently public spaces. The challenge is to be able to house this instrument along with public spaces in this rich context i.e. Law Garden which is absent in the present design.

The design brief is to re-design Thakor Bhai hall considering the present issues faced by the hall and its immediate context. The primary function remains the same i.e. the auditorium.

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Architecture in the Emerging Urban Domain

Author: Arya Gupta
Site Location: Western Express Highway Station, Mumbai
Institute: Balwant Sheth School of Architecture, Mumbai
Advisor: Dr. Kaiwan Mehta.

description

This thesis project firstly aims at exploring this emerging Urban Domain. It aims to analyse the roots of, and understand, today’s societal lifestyle and psyche that invariably shapes this urban domain. Architecture is looked at through the ideas of a system, a typology and form, after which then project aimed to investigate how these ideas would be adapted to this emerging urban domain.

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The Chiguru Project

Author: Mandira Pai Maroor
Site Location: Car Street, Mangalore, Karnataka
Institute: Manipal School of Architecture, Manipale
Advisor: Prof. Sarmistha Chatterjee

description

The Chiguru Project is an urban regeneration project that focuses on the economic & cultural growth of the community through the revival of built heritage characters of Car Street. It intends to not only revive the economic well being of the area but also re-establish vanishing bonds between culture and community. It uses a ‘heritage-led-design’ approach to reimagine traditional structures into innovative cultural spaces that will increase the outreach of the community and the heritage of the site.

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Eternal Pilgrim: A Socio-Cultural Assembly

Author: Siddharth Hastimal Bapna
Site Location: Akruti Rising City, Ghatkopar, Mumbai
Institute: Lokmanya Tilak Institute of Architecture and Design Studies, Navi Mumbai
Advisor: Prof. Om Merchant.

description

This project consists of a proposal that is majorly temporary and partly permanent development, designed with the principle of ‘Design of Disassembly’ where modular construction can allow for easy disassembly through minimal amount of construction work and minimal impact after its intended use on the temporary rented site. An ephemeral intervention – a permanent building will continue to exist on the community purchased site after the four-month assembly.

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Cyclic Architecture

Author: Rahul Kustagi
Site Location: Minerva Mills, Bangalore
Institute: Wadiyar Centre for Architecture, Mysore
Advisor: Ar. Kukke Subramanya

description

The permanence of change.
In the 20th century due to rapid urbanisation, there are very few public spaces for the people in the city to slow down from their fast-paced urban lives.

The evolution of the cities lead to loss in relevance of the industries that initiated the city’s growth in the first place. These urban lands lie vacant due to lack of vision, and get labelled as urban voids. The voids have a distinctive landscape that have capabilities to absorb large public activities. The need of the hour is to create accessible public spaces and these voids can be the catalyst of change.

Climate change and pollution are global problems and cities contribute considerably, and the process of building is inevitable. The question becomes, rather do we need to rebuild from scratch every time we build? Or make sustainable what already exists? Why demolish when the built could be reintegrated into the fabric of relevance by re-examining the overlaps and divergences between, “necessity”, “program” and “function” of the already built? The ability to adapt to evolving programs, uses and culture is a great strength of a building. One can’t predict the future, but there is a possibility to design for change.

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Reviving the Forgotten Legacies of Agra

Author: Radhika Sharma
Site Location: Jeoni Mandi, Agra, Uttar Pradesh
Institute: Jamia Millia Islamia, New Delhi
Advisor: Ar. Madiha Rahman.

description

The project approached the site with the intention of celebrating the people and other significant moments past in the city, such as the heritage industries, concept and culture of bazaars, significance of the Yamuna and the colonial heritage of the city. The design would create an opportunity to promote the local crafts communities by developing the site into an urban anchor to scatter tourism across the city.

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