TYPE, SPATIAL PATTERNS AND MATERIAL PHENOMENOLOGIES
Batch: A20-34
Faculty: Rupali Gupte, Milind Mahale, Samir Raut and Anand Sonecha
Mentor: Samir Raut
NAVAPADA
Borivali, Mumbai, Maharashtra
The Sanjay Gandhi National Park area is located in the northern suburbs of Mumbai and it has a long history dating back to the 4th century BC.The Kanheri Caves in the center of the park were an important Buddhist learning center and pilgrimage site sculpted by buddhist monks
SITE MORPHOLOGY
There are 13 settlements inside the national park. The one we studied is called the navapada settlement . It is 1.6kms inside from the main gate. The settlement is 150-200 years old and 8 generations of people have said to live here. They also have a river that flows adjacent to the settlement.
SITE MORPHOLOGY
The settlement is located adjacent to forest department houses in Sanjay Gandhi National Park. It is connected to the main road on one side and the other side ends at a patch of fields and a river. The settlement opens up with a large open space ‘Maidan’ in the beginning. The morphology or the arrangement of houses in this settlement does not follow any particular grid pattern and does not have any specific arrangement of houses.
ANALYSIS - SPATIAL PATTERNS PHENOMENOLOGICAL READINGS
Every family has a separate wood storage area outside their house.
As people are not allowed to extend their houses some of the families have started dividing their space and creating rooms for different activities as the number of members in the families increase.
The interaction between the people depend on the placement of the varandas.
As the width of the gallies change the activities change.
Further tracing the activities of children.
This is the biggest courtyard in the settlement. It was a large open space with a lot of trees where wood storage was kept open in the courtyard. Children would be running around or climbing the trees or wooden logs that were stacked on top of each other or even the light pole.
SITE INTERVENTION
For the site intervention, I decided to choose this part of the courtyard as this is a mud plinth where the house previously existed but it was destroyed due to storm, also the other part of the courtyard is a rock-strewn terrain. Also I wanted to include trees in my design as including trees within their homes was one of the pattern observed in the settlement.
DESIGN PROCESS/DIAGRAMS
The idea was to create a space where children could study and play. Both of these activities to happen cohesively but not merge with one another. The steps become the roof where they can play and the room under it were they can study. The variation in the sizes of the steps create a playful space. The variation is such that one step is 100x60 cms where two children can sit . Multiplying this unit twice or thrice can allow more number of people to sit and more bigger steps which become small terraces can allow even larger groups to happen.
CUT PLAN: In the plan there is extended plinth which runs along the two rooms. Both this rooms have an access from the outside as well as inside.
ROOF PLAN: IN the roof plan the steps which rises from both directions act as roof for the two rooms. The foliage of the the trees provide shade on the majority of the steps. There are trellises for some of those steps that do not get the shade of the trees.
SECTIONS:
In this section the wall between the two rooms is made of karvi so that it becomes a porous wall between the two rooms. I t has seating space along the walls were the people can sit individually. This room can be used by children as well as adults, as I have provided storage space for indoor games and a newspaper stand. There is two level of seating space in step formation which go around the tree.
This part goes under the ground and as you walk down the stair. There is a small pocket space were two people can seat. THen you can enter the room which is one of the access from outside.
This is another small pocket space outside which faces the courtyard. This room has a storage space for books and other stationary items that children might require.
This other room is a library were this kind of stepping down allows more formal or an arranged seating where all children can seat facing in one direction. This can allow lectures or a class to happen. I decided not to provide chair or table as the children in the settlement prefer seating on the ground. Also providing small slits in the riser of some of these steps allow light to enter.
Speaking of the materiality, the shorter brick wall are the encour for the bamboo columns and the folded plat concrete stairs sits on this bamboo columns. The reason to use folded plate concrete stairs was to provide a specific height for the rooms under it. The karvi between the bamboos allows light to enter and also there are small window opening, if more light required. The brick paving is to walk on and also kind of allows the plinth to merge eith the ground.
