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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Colonies of Anthropocene

Author: Devayani M
Site Location: Sundarbans
Institute: R V College of Architecture
Advisor: Anup Naik, Mehul Patel, Nagaraj Vastarey, U Seema Maiya

description

This project investigates the need to design a climate resilient and responsive form for the coastal communities in the Sundarbans with the aim of adapting to the devastating effects of climate change.


The site is located in Gosaba Island in Sundarbans which falls under the moderate to high risk zone. This island is constantly threatened by coastal erosion, environmental degradation and salt water inundation due to flooding thereby causing loss of livelihood.


The master-plan is developed to be implemented in a phased manner over the next 30 years. The
plan envisages responding to the identified natural conditions of the site and developing the design that proposes to selectively allow water flow through the site to create wetlands, and a natural mangrove buffer zone to mitigate the effects of floods and storm surges. The aim of the project is to create a prototype built form that is inspired by the local livelihood practices, skills and local typologies of construction. The design focuses on creating modular flood and storm resilient structures using bamboo as the primary building material. The buildings are raised on stilts and strategically located around the landscape and connected by elevated walkways to protect from the floods and harsh winds. The structure has modular components that can be easily customised to needs of the user.


The project is a response to the impending disaster that the people of Sundarbans have to face. Through symbiotically fusing the built environment within a natural ecology, the architecture is designed to positively sustain the landscape and its people.

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Flood Resilience in Mumbai

Author: Brendon Joseph Dlima
Site Location: Mumbai
Institute: L.S. Raheja School of Architecture
Advisor: Ar. Mridula Pillai

description

Mumbai undergoes a crisis from June to September annually. The city’s fast paced development has been at the cost of it’s vital blue-green infrastructure, causing its vast population to suffer a submergence during the monsoon months, due to increased rainfall and a rise in sea level, both attributed to Climate Change. The dissertation investigates whether an architect can make Mumbai resilient to floods and whether Mumbai can become a flood resilient city by learning to use the rainwater it receives.

The Oshiwara River Province was taken as a site to re-design for flood resilience. A masterplan of the Oshiwara River Province was designed to reduce and manage runoff. The most vulnerable building typologies along the river which were informal settlements and cow sheds were re-designed thereby providing more room to the river. The building typologies which were not as vulnerable were retrofitted for resilience.

Mumbai can thus become resilient to floods by learning how to use the rainwater it receives and by giving the blue green infrastructure the importance it deserves. Through this approach we will be able to eventually achieve ‘Flood Resilience in Mumbai’

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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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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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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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A.C.T.I.V.E. – Altering Cognition Through Interactive & Voluntary Engagement

Author: Kevin Shah
Site Location: Ice Factory & Fish Market Plot, Pandurang Ramle Marg, Versova
Institute: Rachana Sansad Academy of Architecture, Mumbai
Advisor: Ar. Snehal Gaikwad

description

The project method aims towards understanding and unraveling the traditional social binding patterns of Versova Koliwada and relating them with the cognitive capabilities. The daily routines of different categories of habitant users groups are elaborated and mapped in the context of the village. Personal discussions with the same group of users are collected and mapped, in response to their cognitive behaviours based upon the variables of WHODAS 2.0 questionnaire. A linear study of the findings from the social and cognitive mappings is compared.

The study finds out that there are overlaps between the places of occurrences of social and cognitive stimulation, and a majority of these activities occur in and around the livelihood common areas which are volatile in condition.

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Lost Spaces of our Cities

Author: Safiya Rehman
Site Location: Shahgunj, Aurangabad
Institute: School of Planning and Architecture, Bhopal
Advisor: Mr. Vikram Kohli

description

The aim is to understand the tangibles and intangibles that make a community and their well-being, improve their quality of life, create new economic opportunities by enhancing the existing functions and programs on-site in Shahgunj, Aurangabad.

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The Dialogical Milieu: In Situ Slum Rehabilitation Of Mohammadpur Slum

Author: Santrupthy Das
Site Location: Zone F of the Delhi Masterplan
Institute: School of Planning and Architecture, New Delhi
Advisor: Mr. Sambudhha Sen, Mr. Sushil Aggarwal

project description

The Dialogical Milieu: In situ Slum Rehabilitation of Mohammadpur Slum in Delhi is a proposal to relook at the social lives of slum dwellers from the lens of openness. When redevelopment projects happen, in the drive to formalize the housing, high-density towers are constructed which heavily take away from the dwellers’ right to their open spaces.

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Gender X Space

Author: Shreya Pathrabe
Site Location: Sanpada, Navi Mumbai
Institute: Rizvi College of Architecture, Mumbai
Advisor: Ar. Fatema Master.

description

The proposal is a public plaza for people with pods and a module system. It weaves the in between urban fabric making the space more porous. When you look at the plaza and the movement around it, you notice that the paths taken by people were the most important, i.e. entry and exit. As a result, the pods and modules are placed in zones in such a way that people’s movement remains linear and uninterrupted.

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Socializing Centre and Pavilion Design

Author: Rohan Milind Jaitpal
Site Location: Kharghar, Navi Mumbai
Institute: Dr. Baliram Hiray College of Architecture, Mumbai
Advisor: Ar. Shalini Shrimali

description

This project’s aim was to create an environment with a little bit of isolation from the remaining area but an environment which is soothing and beautiful. The courtyards act as light wells bringing in the diffused light throughout. The greenery and the water body surrounding it completely elevate the experience of any user.

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Sutra Suchak: Diversification of Textile Network

Author: Yashovanthi YA
Site Location: Molkalmuru, Karnataka
Institute: BMS College of Architecture, Bangalore
Advisor: Ar. Shradha M. Guggari, Ar. Vinya

description

Lighting up the thought of “Act locally, Think globally”, the project emphasizes textile network of Mollkalmuru. Conserving and capitalizing textile heritage of Mollkalmuru with technological intervention will create job and self-employment opportunities for the local people including migrants of all age groups and skill levels.

Project connects rural and urban ends of Molkalmuru which provides a platform for training, production, marketing, exhibiting, recycling textile waste and research on solar and biodegradable fabrics.

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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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Relooking Urban Responses in Government Campus

Author: Nihar Vijay Lalani
Site Location: Rajkot, Gujarat
Institute: Indubhai Parekh School of Architecture, Rajkot
Advisor: Ar. Rupesh Patel

description

This project aims to understand & demonstrate an appropriate built environment for a government building and its campus and the way it could respond to public spaces and urban issues.

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Placemaking for Urban Wellbeing

Author: Asmita Patnaik
Site Location: Lower Parel Station, Mumbai
Institute: Kamla Raheja Vidhyanidhi Institute of Architecture, Mumbai
Advisor: Vandana Ranjit Sinh

description

This thesis, set in Mumbai, is an exploration of experience to a spatial setting, where the urban environment is understood as an experience which has an emotional stimulus to understand what is necessary to facilitate urban happiness and wellbeing within the work-live paradigm in the socially incoherent city life. The analysis led to the relevance of ‘Pause to Interact’ in the daily work-live paradigm that constricts all of us.

The research concludes at the study of developing Lower Parel station precinct as a transit oriented nexus which could improve the eudemonic well-being of the precinct, and trigger a positive balance to the city at large.

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A Metamorphosis

Author: Tharagini V
Site Location: Koundampalayam, Coimbatore
Institute: Karpagaram University, Coimbatore
Advisor: Ar. Ramakrishnamoorthy

description

This project focuses on developing a pedestrian oriented environment and encourages the formation of informal communities. These will be achieved by following the principles of healthy place making and providing a sense of visual connection.

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