Flood Resilient Community – A prototype for Flood Prone Areas

Author: Aashita Thaker
Site Location: Dhubri district, Assam
Institute: SAL School of Architecture , Ahmedabad
Advisor: Ass. Prof Roma Almeida

description

Due to climate change, there are large number of disasters taking place in India. It faces recurring atmospheric phenomena like floods, heavy monsoon rains, cyclones, earthquakes, drought etc. These natural disasters take thousands of lives, cost millions of money, and result in loss of large number of lives.
Out of all these natural disasters in India, flood is one of the most affected and dangerous disaster. Assam having the Brahmaputra River with more than 50 numbers of tributaries causes the flood devastation in the monsoon period each year. Out of all the districts in Assam, Dhubri district has river Brahmaputra flowing through the centre of it and faces flood almost every year which adds to the vulnerability of people and building stocks.
The main aim is to create resilient house design by using different flood resilient strategies which can sustain itself in the situation of flood and can save lives of people during these difficult times and can ensure that the impacts of disaster are manageable and short-lived. The built community and houses are a prototype which can be repeated to flood prone areas and can sustain itself.
The built community and houses to become resilient, have to be climate responsive and rebound during the events of floods.

drawings

supporting video

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Introspection Forest

Author: Utkarsh Arun Jagtap
Site Location: Satara, Maharashtra
Institute: CTES College of Architecture
Advisor: Kirti Desai

description

There are two sections to the project: introspective programs and residential spaces. The section on introspection is designed to help the user connect with their inner self.
The property is 32 acres in size. The goal is for users to explore the site as they explore a part of themselves.
The light pavilion, reflection cube, introspection cave, bamboo forest, and unbuilt are all part of the Introspection program, and they all incorporate the five elements of nature.
Residential units are classified into three types: single occupancy, double occupancy, and dormitories.
Site preservation, wind direction, afforestation, retaining/maintaining ground water table, and greenhouse effect reduction have all been effectively addressed.

drawings

supporting video

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[Re]figuring Social Security

Author: Somesh Nadkarni
Site Location: Mumbai
Institute: School of Environment and Architecture (SEA)
Advisor: Rupali Gupte & Apirva Talpade

description

The thesis explored the different spatialities of Social Security that emerge in informal neighbourhoods in Mumbai. It was a comparative analysis that intended to study how security in a neighbourhood changes when the existing spaces get institutionalised. Therefore, I looked at new ways of rethinking this spatiality that promotes the growth of security while also asking what an inhabitation in the forest might be like, instead of insecurities caused by displacement.

The design creates this sense of security through particular spatial configurations where the home is a set of interconnected, porous and dense spaces; where the neighbourhood becomes one home. Through the concept of collective memory, the intervention is created around the Nodes of Social Security by which the inhabitants navigate around the neighbourhood. The design creates opportunities for the forest to merge with the home and sustain itself eventually, thereby also retaining the resident’s agency and practices. I am arguing that instead of such Rehabilitation schemes that displace people, an intervention like this could be a speculative future for the residents by the PIL (Public Interest Litigation Act).

drawings

supporting video

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Livability for all, exploring aspects of community & climate in Shinde Vasti, Pune

Author: Shruti Shrivastava
Site Location: Pune
Institute: Dr. B.N. College of Architecture
Advisor: Dr. Chetan Sahasrabuddhe

description

Livability could be defined as the degree to which a community is suitable for living, which is rather subjective. However, certain components and qualities are universally acknowledged as vital for making the community more livable. Better homes, streets, roads, infrastructural amenities, and other visible aspects are necessary for a livable society, but intangible factors such as a sense of security, happiness, satisfaction, a sense of community, togetherness, and family are also crucial. All of the characteristics that informal communities like Shinde Vasti-Pune already have.
Together in a typical scenario, a slum redevelopment project compromises the intangible qualities of such communities all the while providing poor quality infrastructure and poor homes in the name of development, thereby losing the positive aspects of community and climate; however, does this have to be the case?
This plan aspires to develop this informal community by conserving and enhancing the key elements, both tangible and intangible while putting Community and Climate at the forefront.

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Architecture with Uncertainty & Certainty : Change in wetness

Author: Jacob Babu Alappatt
Site Location: Alappuzha, Kerala
Institute: Avani Institute of design
Advisor: Ar. Aditya Nambissan

description

The project tries to reimagine a tropical monsoon architecture of a water landscape (wetlands) by providing the community with the infrastructure it needs and fostering a conversation between land and water to assist people in better adhering and adapting to change.


Are tropical architectural forms bound to evolve or adapt to the shift in wetness, considering architectural uncertainties and certainties related to the change in wetness? How can we develop structures that can assure a safer future by making them impervious to rain and flood?


Architectural design should change to accommodate the needs of the site and the environment by supporting duality in programming. It should be able to adjust to the transient states of the water landscape centered around the demands of the destroyed or missing public. So, the research and study must be located in a region where changing wetness conditions might cause natural disasters that can impact people’s lives and livelihoods. Here the Wetlands in Kuttanad are taken as a broader context, and Kainakary village is the micro context.

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Designing Architecture for Humanitarian Purposes

Author: Abhishek Rameshbhai Donda
Site Location: Slums (J.K.Puri) , Jajmau, Kanpur
Institute: Sarvajanik College of Engineering and Technology, Surat
Advisor: Prof. Niraj D. Naik

description

The project looked at how architecture could be used as a tool to empower and improve the living conditions of tannery workers in Kanpur, Uttar Pradesh.

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Housing For Migrant Construction Workers

Author: Rishabh Verma
Site Location: Mandala Metro Depot, Mumbai
Institute: Pillai College of Architecture, Panvel
Advisor: Ar. Kavita Sawant.

description

The proposal explores the current state of construction workers housing/accommodation and how this scenario can be countered by providing a solution based on quick planning and its execution on multiple sites. This is achieved by utilizing principles of Design for Disassembly in combination with a field volume generated aggregation. This has been done while also maintaining the comfort factor by ensuring existing techniques and materials specific to a climatic zone are used.

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Designing a Social Housing in Vadodara

Author: Kairavi Gandhi
Site Location: Squirrel Circle, Vadodara
Institute: SEDA, Navrachna University
Advisor: Pratyush Shankar

description

The project aims to design a better living environment and to bring social communities instead of individual living in an affordable housing. The nuclei of the proposed intervention are based on the idea of the coexistence of collective and private.

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Reinterpreting Communal Spaces In Neighbourhood Development for Community Living

Author: Shreya Manoj Sulgekar
Site Location: Venketeshwar Nagar, Hubli, Karnataka
Institute: KLS Gogte Institute of Technology, Belagavi
Advisor: Ar. Amit V Prasadi

description

The project looks at how we could reinterpret the spaces in built and unbuilt forms with new ideas and characteristics that enhance communal living.

In the context of India’s rapidly urbanisation, there has been a wide negligence on communal spaces in contemporary housing neighbourhoods. ‘Communitiy’ came from familiarity around families and neighbours, familiar places, a daily rhythm, social systems and customs that people understood. Now with emigration and greater physical and social mobility, many of the people find themselves in places far from home, living in communities defined not by common acquaintance, knowledge and culture, but by geography or economics. This loss of defined communal spaces has also diminished the feeling of belonging and privacy.  

By creating spaces where all members of the community can engage naturally and get to know one another, communities can become places where people live together, care about one another and share hope. The project looks at how the development of communal spaces in residential complexes creates social stability and a sustainable way of life in a community.

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Makaan: Affordable Rentals for Migrant Naka Workers In Pune

Author: Ravi Varma
Site Location: Rahatani Naka, Pune
Institute: VIT’s PVP College of Architecture, Pune
Advisor: Ar. Shekhar Garud

description

This thesis looked at migrant workers who look for construction work through a Naka (an informal roadside labour market), their kin and other migration-source-area-based social networks crucially shaping their pathways, thus influencing the housing location and typologies by improving their living conditions and make them feel as a part of the city.

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Pre Fab City

Author: Danesh Patel
Site Location: Gujarat International Finance City (GIFT) Gandhinagar, Gujarat
Institute: SAL School of Architecture, Ahmedabad
Advisor: Zubin choksi

description

This project aims to prove that, for high-rise buildings, prefabricated modular systems can be used. This would allow for greater flexibility of design in a prefabricated modular framework and to construct a structural judgement process that can be used for the construction of a prefabricated high-rise reusable modular building with a personalized geometry.

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