Shah Ishita Manish

AD4017

A built environment is a lot more than just buildings. Whether it is enclosed, semi-open, or open, every space constitutes and impacts the built environment. The process of designing it, involves exploring multiple relationships and how each impacts the activity around it. With that contemplation, the new CEPT University masterplan proposal involves rigorous analysis of the existing condition and further proposing pertinent resolutions to the identified problems. 

The CEPT Library is termed as a ‘living case study of passive climate mitigation strategies’ for the Aga Khan award nomination. The Library stands as an object, with an air-conditioned core, with no consideration to the specific context it is located in, and fails to carry through and translate itself as an example of passive climate mitigation strategies. To establish a formal identity, the Library building does not engage with a deeper meaning of the function it holds, which is Browsing. The intervention tries to re-examine the meaning of Library, and its study at multiple scales to propose a design that adheres to its purpose.