Aastha Prakash Maheshwari

AR3013

Humanizing the vertical: Exploring flexibility for personalization and adaptation.The housing industry of India is one of the fastest growing sectors. A large population base, rising income level, and rapid urbanization lead to growth in this sector. Adding to this, a home is the most intimate affair for a person. It is a personal asset whose value increases over time. In India, there are added layers that stay in place. The feeling of a community, social life and an environment of the public realm together constitute a good housing.  The act of meeting people and having a habitat which continuously engages in social activities is what represents the drama of life in Indian housing projects. When we build high-rise residences, this character is fairly lost. High-rise apartments end up taking the form of a box which further isolate people from one another, completely denying them their original way of life. Looking at all of these aspects together, it becomes essential to take a stand and look at housing design from a different perspective. This project looks at high-rise living through a very sensitive lens. The act of humanizing the box like isolated tower, by creating a public realm on a range of various floors and providing platforms for social and communal gatherings. Taking this idea further, to provide a sense of individuality and identity which drastically gets lost while you live in a sky-scraping building, aspect of flexibility in a high-rise has also been explored.