BRRESIDENCE
Thedouble height courtyard house
THEBIRDHOUSE
Anaviary exploring spatial qualities of tensegrity
BBHOUSE
AWesAndersoninspired whimsical house
THEDESIGN POD
Thedouble height courtyard house
THESARI SHOP
Skewedperspectives in retail design
KCGOFFICE
Anincubator spacefor aninstitution
THESHRINE
Awall relief shrine at a residence
FORMDESIGN
Avirtual machinethat generatesa species of forms
CadenceArchitects, Bangalore
Role: Project Architect
Responsibilites : Designdevelopment+ execution, Interior design + presentation, Project coordination, Guidedtheteamtoproduce detail drawings
A home with different persepectives from each corner of the site. The conceptualisation began with subtraction of volumes from a cube that eventually became the green pockets. This lead to a dynamic experience inside the house with varying scales of negative and postive spaces giving a sense of grandeur. The same design approach was extended to the interiors of the house - a scandivanian design style was envisioned to keep things minimalistic and a subtle color palette with occasional color accents. The central vista of the house leads to a double height internal and external courtyards which blurs the distinction between the inside and the otuside.
The volumetrical subtraction of the cube eventually became green pockets,a spillover space between the internal and external. The puja facing the east was designed to seem like an indent from the residence and connected with the landscape outside but accessed from the inside. These niches create a dynamic experience and the cone of vision keeps shifting when moved through one space to another in the house.
The private dwelling is a particularly favorable place in which to enjoy double-height spaces. This design strategy not only allows vertical spaces to be connected, but also enriches the functional and aesthetic possibilities of a building.
These spaces are designed to generate encounters between occupants. This living room with the tall volume is layered with differently sized rectangular spaces thatbring loads ofdepth to the area. The open living area is bathed in the natural light coming in from the double height courtyard as well. A stairway, behind the wall, visible on the upper level, also adds more graphic complexity to the room.
Wood, metal and concrete govern the materials palette here. While concrete binds theroom’s volume together from two opposing sides, wooden accents and warm colours and textures add softness.
Architectural DesignStudio Semester06, Year03
Thedesigndelvesintoanexplorationoftensegritystructuresandperceiving how tension and compression elements could co-exit as seamless entities. The extension of this exploration led to utilising the system of structure to design a prototype for an aviary that could be built in any warm-humid climaticregionacrosstheworld.Thespatialqualitieswereanalysedthrough this way of form finding. The hypothesis of the project was to not design an aviary with just struts (members in compression) and strings (members in tension), but to create a homogenous space that wraps around the struts members and create a canopy with levitating branches - a visual metophor of the birds’ natural home. Theidea wasto createa seamlessexperience for the viewers bydesigning varying levels of viewing decks that aresupported by the floating struts. without causing any hindrance to its inhabitants.
The genesis behind the evolution of the aviary was a basic Tetrahedron structure. A tetrahedron envisioned as a tensegrity module, further gave way to the morphosis of the form. Different iterations were realised to implement the spatial qualities of an aviary - varying heights, open spaces and overseeing bridges. Combining two such modules and conceiving the tension members as a tensile fabric that wrapped aroung the struts, evolved into the birdhouse.
CadenceArchitects
Role : DesignTeam
Responsibilities : Schematicdesign development,Facadedesignand 3dMassing, Construction drawings(PhaseI)
A house of colors as the client preferred, this project drew inspiration from the visual style of Wes Anderson, the works of Architects Luis Barragan and Ricardo Boffil. The arches added to the visualistic drama of the houseand createvaried viewof frames from both inside and outside of the residence.
The color pallete was again specifically chosen from the same family of colorsand yetadd awhimsical touchtoit.Theideatopaintdifferent colors on different surfaces of the facade was made as it added visual chaos and curiosity to one’s mind.
Architectural Thesis
Semester10, Year05
A space for the design industry to nurture the city’s (national capital) emerging talents that provides a communal working facility with flexible contemporary studio spaces. The Design industry hasevolved over the past years from being a mere function of styling or aesthetics (where form and function are the focus) to design as a process (where design thinking is integrated into the development process). Today it has become a strategic elementandaninnovationleadingprocess.Frommodestbeginning,Indian Design Industry is on a maturity curve now and a lack of development is distinctively seen.
Therefore, the Design Hub will act as a facilitating center that connects, engages and involves people who deliver design, people who commission design and people who use design. It will function as a network provider which linksand bringstogether sets of people/agencies that can engage in dialogue. It is aimed to engage the public via dissemination of information through exhibitions, talks and events and other suitable mediums. The district is a network aggregator which capitalizes on what is already there and create new interventions to conceive, design and implement new products.
The innovative hubs for the high-tech industry have extended beyond the conventional office setting.
Hence. the unconventional workplaces are called the ‘ThirdPlaces’, borrowingthetermfromOldenburg’sclass book - Great Good Places (1989). The Third Places, which comes after home, first, and office, second, are informal public gathering spaces that encourage interaction.
Third Places are important catalysts for the success of innovation districts by becoming the physical venue for social interaction, interfirmcollaboration, idea exchange, and extended office spaces. Interaction among the different environments – clustering, talent, built, cultural and natural –stimulates the dynamics of the zone.
Hubs are ‘fusion places’ where different uses coexist, such as business or entrepreneurial, research and development, education and learning, shopping and entertainment or community functions.
The Design Hub will contribute to reinforce the conjecture of Hall (2001): the cities of the future will be a creative conjunction of technology, arts and community. Thus, this project talks about ‘cities within cities’ as breeding places in an experimental phase.
Reference : Rem Koolhas’s workspace ideology
The clustering environment is strategically designed such that the formal spaces contstitute a lesser floor area compared to informal(third) spaces.
But when designed cross- sectionally, the strategy is reveresed creating double height informal work spaces - creating a visual dynamic and encouraging accidental encounters in the creative hub.
Ground
This acts as the centre for all the design disciplines in the industry. With a mix of informal coworking places and closed office spaces, the creative centre encourages accidental meetings and colaborations. The space is designed in a way were the floor plates intersect each other creative double height spaces for informal activities and single storey spaces as closed offices. A cluster of studios share spaces depending upon the design discipline such as digital lab, printing & prototyping studio etc.
Reference : Milstein Hall, OMA
The gallery acts as an exhibition space as well as a space that can accomodate talks and panel discussions. It is designedwith an inclinedroof that creates skewed views in different perspectives. The idea is incorporated so that the gallery stands out from the rest of the buildings in site - the main zone that promotes design.
The retail zone comprises of adaptable unit of 6.2m x 11.5m. Alternating units can be accessed from either side of the aisle with an inclined roof. The retail alley acts as the node for the entire site. All sectors converge here.
The makers zone comprises of 10m x 10m adaptable workshop units. The space is a semi-open column and roof slab stucture that can be customised according to use.
Workshop units are used as production units for Fashion Design , Product Design , Engineering Design. There are totally 16 units of 100 sqm each with 2 designated service cores.
The maker’s alley is strategically located between the creative and the retail sectors.
Revolution ByDesign, Chennai
Role : DesignTeam
Responsibilities : Designdevelopment+ Executiondrawings
The retail space was to come up as a tiny studio. Skewed lines that sweeped through the floor and the walls created an illusion of a bigger space as well as look aesthetically pleasing to go with the design philosophy of the fashion brand - passion in contemporary block printing and pattern design. The screen was a heterogeneous shop-front of cement oxide, carved wooden blocks and gold leafing (paint). Local materials and craftmanship was envisioned through computational design methods- thus connecting the past and the future of design theories and techniques.
Revolution byDesign, Chennai
Responsibilities : Designdevelopment+ ExecutionDrawings
An office and incubator space for the staff of KCG Engineering college situated on the OMR, Chennai.
It is a revamped space of an existing Lecture hall in the college that is designed to have an organic transition from the incubator cell to the administrative office. The mundane site is brought to life with some color scheme where the incubator cell has a yellow accent and the office has a magenta accent. The space under the false ceiling acts as the focal point that connects the Incubation centre and the Student Affair’s office. It acts as a shared space for meetings and conferencehence, a smooth transition between the two zones.An area of 2500 sq. ft, the interiors comprise closed executive cabins, workstations with storage, meeting and conference rooms.
CadenceArchitects
Role: Project Architect
Responsibilities : Completedesignto execution
The clients requirement was a hindu shrine that occupied the least amount of space and also included some storage. Inspired from the stepped wells of India, the design was developed and envisioned in solid teak wood that was part of a wall pannelling. A rule of pattern was set to conceive this idea and the pannelling was introduced both as a pelmet and to hide the storage behing the shrine. A strong sense of “process produces form and funtionality” was followed in the development of this design.
CourseheadedbyDeepti Zachariah Personal invovelement - TeachingAssistant
Using John Conway’s game of life as a starting point, students were guided to explore and play withthe idea of creating anartificial life for forms. These forms belong to the world they create and should abide by the rules they set. They could take cues from evolutionary biology. computation or nature to define either the process or the outcomes. The engineering design students used different computational tools such asRhino +Grasshopper, Rhino +Kangaroo and Z-brush to create their machines and their outcomes were 3D printed.
Data visualisation of stock market values. Data set for the project was collected for theyahoofinancewebsiteforthecompany “Facebook”. The dataset contains the financial history of the company for last five years. The spherical heads represen the profit gained by the company on a particularday, andtheconicalends (sharp ends) represent the loss company has to bear.
A zero player game whose evolution is determinedbyitsinitialstate.Theuniverse of this game is a three dimensional space withsimple spheres.Attractor pointsused as themain featureto createthis dynamic game, an iteration of forms were created with varying inputs. The concept was to captute the morphological essense of life forms and abstract them - a game that visualises the five elements of natures as forms.
Inspired from the nature, it is an interpretationof forms like clouds created using the rules of cellular automata and eddy whorl fractals. Inspired from Wolfram’s rule 30 of cellular automata, certain rules were created to generate a three dimensional pattern of pointclouds. The team followed the idea of process produces form and developed iterations of cloud patterns.
As a teaching assistant, I was involved in introducing the computational tools to the students. Assisted the student groups in developing their process diagram and refining their rules of form finding until execution. I was also incharge of collating the students’ work into a catalogue for their evaluation.
AAVisiting School2014
Role: Participant
Responsibilities: Model making+ Digital prototyping+ Construction of the Pavilion
The workshop focussed on compression only structures and aspects of Form finding and Parametrics in design. Curved Parper folding technique was used to explore the stability and structure of the forms that evovled. The 5-day design brief was to develop prototypes and iterations based on the techniques taught, while the next stage was to convert the prototype into a functional design (Rostrum). Groups of 4 students worked on different prototypes and different products emerged during the course of the program. Apart from this, a real scale pavilion was built and tested on site- using the concept of compression only structures and was designed by the mentors. A combination of reinforced concrete and prefabricated ateel was utilised to bring the structure to reality.
pleated form
structural evolution
Views of the final prototype of the Rostrum
