Bengaluru Arch Open '18

Perhaps the architecture of a city is the first indication one has of its culture and careful design seems to pervade the built form of Bengaluru perhaps like no other city in India. Not having to deal with baggage of history, nor carrying the burden of being either the National Capital or the Financial Capital allows architects a unique freedom and so the practice in Bengaluru is rich with experiments.

The Bengaluru Architecture Open is our continued effort at experiencing architecture and urban design within the city and to connect practitioners of design with consumers and design enthusiasts. We bring another set of really interesting and carefully curated buildings and urban design projects in Bengaluru.

The projects on the schedule range from three schools that have their own unique takes on the typology of education. The Neev primary school by 100 Hands is a play on the mat building typology where the spaces in between the classrooms like the courtyards and the break-outs become informal learning spaces. A large roof above reinforces the misaligned grid on the ground and mimics the canopy of tree to enable gurukul like learning.  While in the Atelier by Biome Environmental Solutions Pvt Ltd the entire project is cocooned under a large roof and the building consists of four classrooms, a studio and a childhood stimulation centre around a central piazza, with filter spaces allowing transition between the rooms and the piazza. What is unique about the approach at the Atelier is that the designers have challenged the notion of permanence of the building and envisioned it to be completely salvageable -from the roof to the partition walls and even the flooring. The Neev Academy by Venkataramanan Associates is formed by two interlocking courtyards that are surrounded by the programs. The interlocking built form is modulated into a series of terraces so that the courtyards are not completely cut off from one another and the modulated mass forms an amphitheater that overlooks the courtyard on one side. The classrooms open into larger spaces thereby facilitating unplanned interaction between students.

The Nirvana Films Office by Shimul Jhaveri Kadri Architects is a unique embodiment of the Maison Domino diagram and then some- flat slabs that extend into infinity and only connected by the staircase that cuts the space while simultaneously connecting the floors effortlessly. Spatial flexibility truly allows the project to break out of the box that is the result of narrow urban plots as well as blurs the divisions of formal and informal programmatic elements and at the same time allows for natural light and ventilation through the building. The same flexibility is embodied in the operable louvers that help shade the large glass façade. The project by Between Spaces is an apt rendition of the design philosophy of the firm – apparent in their name while at the same time an exploration of an all too common typology found in Bangalore. Several suburban houses are getting rebuilt with the owners adding extra capacity to their house to lease either the upper or lower unit. At Between Spaces the separate units are a residence on the lower floor and the architects’ office on the upper two floors. The entire project is then conceived as a set of spaces that flow into one another.

B.One by Cadence architects also deals with a similar suburban context as Between Spaces. Dealing with the dense residential neighbourhood and the busy street in front prompted the architects to conceive an introverted building. Diagrammatically, the program of the house was laid out in the form an ‘H-shaped plan’ that wraps around a courtyard such that each arm of the ‘H’ flanks the courtyard. The open to sky courtyard, becomes the point of interest and activity within the house while the courtyard becomes simultaneously the inside and the outside for the inhabitants.

The final project is the redesign of Church Street by Venkataramanan Associates. Church Street is a complex street housing several entertainment establishments, businesses and residences in the Central Business District and despite its financial importance it was suffering from apathy and disrepair. The design by VA prioritized the area allotted to pedestrians by increasing the pavement and providing additional infrastructure such as garbage bins, streetlights, street furniture, and other services at regular intervals. Services have been moved to the periphery and adequate service chambers along the length minimize disruption due to repairs. But perhaps the most humanizing aspect of the project is the ‘Kasuti’ patterned cobble stones that reduce the scale of the street and act as a traffic calming measure.

With the projects cutting across the spectrum of Residential, Institutional, Commercial and Urban planning we hope to see very interesting and enriching discussions emerge between the architects and the audience. Hope to see a lot of you joining us on the 24th and 25th of March!

KINDLY NOTE: Register for these FREE events at - www.indiaarchopen.com . There will be NO on-site registrations.

Finding soul in Mumbai’s noise

The Mumbai Architecture Open that was held over the weekend of 10th and 11th February 2018 was in many ways an extremely encouraging event. Organised by ThreeFlaneurs in cohorts with the Urban Design and Architecture events of the Kalaghoda Arts Festival, we extended the boundaries of the discussions and the precinct to involve the city of Mumbai and the practice of Architecture in the city at large. The event called for the participation of a carefully curated list of five projects that had been recently completed and would generally be inaccessible to people without permission. The turnout of people to view these projects as well as the participation from the architects and clients to open up these buildings alludes to the generosity that this city and the Kalaghoda Arts Festival is famous for. However if one were to extend that discussion to the city and its architectural practices, the similarities and differences that emerge are worth exploring in more detail.

As an architect in Mumbai, opportunities to engage on institutional projects in the city are few and far between and most young practices find themselves working on interior projects or residential projects, hence it was interesting to be able to find five institutional projects that were extremely varied in nature. The patronage of institutions in India at large has shifted from the State to non- governmental stakeholders like private educational trusts and therefore the client is an equally important participant in the architectural production of institutions in the city.

The pre-tour presentation by Tushar Desai and associates in the pause space of the Green Acres Academy.

Moving on, the projects that we looked at over the course of two days ranged in program from two educational institutions (Green Acres Academy school and KJ Somaiya IT college extension) to a private office (Synergy Lifestyles) and a neighbourhood development (Godrej Trees) –  both engaging the ideas of adaptive reuse in the city and lastly an architect’s own residence (Smriti 57) that was a commentary on the nature of residential redevelopments taking place in the suburbs. In all the projects one could read the underlying nature of responsibility that was attempted towards the users of the project as well as the city of Mumbai.

The courtyard at the KJS IT extension forms a pause space between the labs and the classrooms

Both the educational projects looked at challenging the typology of such institutions. At Green Acres Academy, architects Tushar Desai and Associates attempted to blur the rigid boundaries of learning and circulation spaces within a school by allowing flexibility of program and encouraging imaginative use of the expanded circulation spaces. Clearly the building has skillfully dealt with the unforgiving mathematics of Floor Space to its advantage to be able to achieve the above goals. Similarly the KJS IT extension by Sameep Padora+associates is surprisingly humane in scale and sharp in its contrast to the ubiquitous vertical-ity of buildings in Mumbai. It was designed to meander between trees and hug the ground. The heart of the project lies in how it connects to the green spaces of the central courtyards. In the Green Acres school,  pause spaces travel through the building vertically, while in the IT extension pauses punctuate the project horizontally, accentuated and modulated by the large parasol like roof that dances over the building. Another striking similarity between the two projects was the deliberate and responsible adoption of green building technologies to increase comfort and reduce operational energy costs. At Green Acres the architects have actively investigated and adopted cross ventilation throughout the project thereby eliminating the need for air-conditioning and the Somaiya IT college has embedded chiller pipes into the floor to air-condition the classrooms. The experience of user comfort could be felt first hand by the visitors. Finally the use of material in its most natural and honest form is what completes the similarities between the two projects. Exposed finished concrete is used in the school as a way to control economics and the college uses exposed brick infill in between a completely steel column and beam structure.

The manipulated roof that brings in controlled daylight into a space of muted monochromes at Synergy Lifestyles

The next two projects challenged the ideas of Conservation and Adaptive re-use – the Synergy Offices at Kalachowki by Shimul Jhaveri Kadri and Associates and the Imagine Studio in Vikhroli which was a collaborative effort by the GPL Design Studio and Studio Lotus. Perhaps in both these projects it is impossible to draw the line between the architects’ and clients’ vision. One, is a paean to the history of Mumbai’s textile industry and and the latter pays homage to the local history of the client’s manufacturing businesses. At Synergy offices the project deals with the neighbourhood in a very sensitive manner by completely avoiding an ostentatious facade and simply retaining the old structure while manipulating the roof for natural light. The internal floor-plate and structure has been retained in order to avoid engaging building permissions. The interiors are also largely an exercise in space making with muted monochromatic palettes and earthy materials and carefully crafted details in sync with the manipulated abundance of natural light. At Vikhroli perhaps the client- designer partnership is completely fluid with the GPL design studio acting simultaneously as designer and client  while mentoring the aesthetic vision of Studio Lotus that gives the renovation its character. GPL Design studio chose to retain the defunct industrial buildings and rehouse their marketing functions within, so that the site could retain its history as well as context and was not just relegated to a tabula rasa. The project is intended to later be handed over as a legacy to the future community that would inhabit the site. Perforated Corten steel is used to punctuate the industrial character of the past but also highlight the trees which form the concept of the project with the more neutral materials of natural stone and glass.

Inside the erstwhile Industrial buildings at Imagine Studio at Godrej Trees Vikhroli.

The final project that we visited was Smriti 57, the residence of architects Nitin Killawala and Nimit Killawala. The house is situated in the dense suburban Juhu scheme which is in many ways a victim to the careless and expedient redevelopment policies encouraged by the BMC that benefit only developers and is a commentary on the changing needs of a growing suburban family, neighborhood, redevelopment economics and building technology to expedite construction. It is unique in that the architect is his own client and that came across in not just how the project is designed but also in the documentation of the construction process that the Killawala’s were gracious enough to share. They several times acknowledged the cooperation they received from their neighbours and community during construction. The project is a panoply of minute and painstaking details that one discovers around every corner and is characteristic of the architect’s oeuvre.

Details abound at Smriti 57 at Juhu Scheme

The conversation between the designers and the visitors was not merely critical or complimentary but truly about the toil of the craft, the challenges of building, sharing of new technological ideas and detailing. It was refreshing to find architecture with a soul once again within the noise that one encounters everyday in the city. The overwhelming take away from the Architecture Open was the responsibility that the profession feels towards itself, it’s projects and the city. We hope to undertake more such discoveries in Mumbai and other cities in India in the near future.

All photos by Sahil Latheef  | A version of this write up by Ekta Idnany was published in the Domus magazine (March 2018, India edition)

Open (up) Architecture

At ThreeFlaneurs our main goal is to inspire people to travel with the objective of experiencing architecture and the culture and urban habitat that fosters it, which cannot happen within the pages of a magazine or an online website. Architecture and architects have many roles to fulfill beyond just the clients’ brief and it is very difficult to appreciate the complexity of a project without experiencing it in its context and especially without inhabiting it. Experiencing Architecture in the flesh also deepens one’s understanding spatially, temporally and tangibly.

The possibility of an interesting dialogue between people and architects, inspired us to setup a Mumbai Open House event in collaboration with the Urban Design and Architecture programme that happens at the Kala Ghoda Arts Festival annually. The idea that design curious individuals could visit a project and get a guided tour by the architects, we hoped would foster a regard for design in the city and allow citizens to contribute their voices to the dialogue about the aesthetic and urban concerns addressed by architects. This would also help design discourse to move away from being within the purview of the architectural community alone. Design is consumed daily via restaurants and cafes however not many are privy to design within private domains or institutions which is where we find that the voices are most interesting and diverse.

The buildings that we present in the event have been carefully selected to represent a variety of different practices and largely different programmatic and typological concerns. The projects participating in this event are privately owned and generally not open to the public. They consist of a school, a private residence, an IT institute within a college campus, a private office set within the erstwhile mills of the city and a defunct industrial space converted to a studio that can be used as per the clients’ imagination. All the projects deal with the dense fabric of the city and address concerns of legacy, adaptive reuse, economics, construction, aesthetics and conservation and are extremely unique in their approaches to solving problems that are endemic to architecture in Mumbai.

The different projects on offer also address the various inhabitants of the city. From school children to teenagers and a single family owned house to a larger residential development. The IT project at the Somaiya campus has never been published or seen by the public before. Our hope is that the discussions about these projects open up questions about the various concerns of the city that range from from how one can generate an aesthetic architectural approach in spite of the existing building laws as addressed at the Green Acres academy, to how redevelopment projects within the city can be addressed at Smriti 57. The Synergy office project provides answers to how effectively one can adapt and reuse the existing infrastructure of our mill lands, while the Imagine studio project addresses the idea of conservation in a very interesting way outside the usual south Mumbai confines of where conservation is usually looked at. We hope that the event can raise a few more interesting questions if not at least provide answers to some.

KINDLY NOTE: Register for any two FREE events at - www.indiaarchopen.com - There will be NO on-site registrations.