Reshma Esther Thomas

HT4003

My paper: A tryst with tolerance is an exploration of how tolerance has been negotiated in the process of construction over the years. Two buildings in Ahmedabad, Kalyan Rath Bungalow, built by owner engineer, Kalyan Sheth and Newman Hall designed by Hasmukh Patel constructed in the years 1933 and 1965 respectively have been chosen for this study.
The pieces of evidence from the two buildings, Kalyan Rath Bungalow and Newman Hall reaffirms that they have been conceptualized very differently right from the design stage. This conceptualization has been the architect/engineer’s attempt at negotiating the tolerance across the building. The sequence in the construction inferred in the case of Kalyan Bungalow suggests that the coordination between the various agencies was on-site, supervised by the engineer. The sequence began from the masonry, then the flooring and finishes and finally at the laying of the services. Since the coordination was on site and had to be supervised, it was not possible for the engineer to supervise all the processes together. Hence, during each stage, the engineer supervised the smaller groups of labourers involved in the process.