The Sangath Intervention of Transformational Affinities

Yashmita Subhash Rao

AR3029

Sangath today is surrounded by shopping centres, tall apartment buildings and the constant din of traffic and now this contact with the rural base has gone. The old Ahmedabad of the early Independence years with its philanthropic mill owners, its textile mills, its public civic culture and its organised labour, has been replaced by the smash and grab of developers, the impact of capital giants and corporate firms.

It is a reminder that architecture of authenticity is obligated to modify and adjust itself in the varying social conditions, cultural values and architectural intentions, and rather guide it if it is to come into being.

This project is based on such diverse learnings from the studio that focuses to use the formal gestures of the existing to uplift the programmatic and functional opportunities. The constraints are seen as potentials to solve problems of relevance and can be drawn through the following:

Perception and Architecture which is not focused on the object, but the behaviour in general.

Contents:
01. Examining the built behaviour
02. Building and the garden - the detached parallels
03. External Vs Internal - A Circulation Strategy
04. Modification of formal design gestures
05. Design Prospective
06. Sequence of Construction
07. Design Strategies implemented - Conclusion

Role:
The team for this project consisted of Dwij Hirpara (UA2416) and Yashmita Rao (UA7216), in the role of Project Lead. We worked closely with Kevin Low, Shubhra Raje and Manthan Mevada on design development, experimenting with forms, materials and details by building physical models, drawings, sketching and writing while dealing with the sensitivities of its context and the neighbourhood that it sits in.

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//Interdependencies and overlap relationships of functions: Proposed functions are classified into two major subsets - The Vastu Shilpa Foundation deals with the public realm, and the Design and consultancy studio is a more private function.

//Volumes and in-between spaces that are inherent to a common structural logic: Understanding the different volumes and in-between spaces created through the intervention while articulating vaults concerning the existing datum and built language of Sangath and through the mass model, understanding how to maximise the amount of light and the efficiency of vaults.

//Massing of the extension with existing: Hence, by moving the central studio, we remove the burden from the existing building and give it its sense of place, structure and organisation. And in doing so, the garden gets a sense of place that is not detached and revisited just from the outside.

//Design prospective: Redefining plans and sections while understanding the working of the new vaults in the built context. The design studio sits on the northern end of the site while the Vastu Shilpa Foundation is on the southern edge, while the classrooms occupy the existing building which is envisioned as a street of learning and varied dialogues, giving the pedestrian glances of the landscape beyond through slits and frames that perforate the building.

//Transitioning from old to new: As seen in the sections, the vaults continue the established datum of the existing building which can be realised through the courtyards. Hence the courtyard is an intersection to observe the meeting of the old and new.

//Meeting between the old and the new: The design workspaces orbit and revolve around the courtyard as the centre. A space to take a pause and observe the meeting of the old and the new.

//Program articulation: With the collection of archives growing, an extension is planned to accommodate the office and convert the existing workspace into a place of learning and library containing the architect’s body of work and lecture spaces to be shared with the community.

//An overview to understand the coming together of built spaces: While looking at the structure and material language as a medium that binds the design elements together, we have transitioned from the load-bearing mass to a more subtle and transparent in nature. The brick in its bare/ exposed form marks a soft transition between the soft-scape and the built while also continuing to the inside. Hence, the landscape of materials acts as a continuous threshold that connects the external and internal.

//Cognizance of the material and space: The reorganisation and intervention created a possibility to use materials to appraise the connection between the outside and the inside and as a tool of organisation and continuity. //Sense of belonging: The landscape is a continuous threshold that holds different experiences and provides for varied scales of gathering for a couple, for a group of people, and a crowd. Mapping instances on-site where these gatherings and events could take place to recognise that the landscape is not the mere soft-scape but the interwoven open spill out platforms at varying scales.

Concluding //AR3029: TOWARDS A CRITICAL PROJECT AND A PROJECT OF CRITICISM SITUATION: The Sangath Intervention