The Design Gesture

Author: Eeti Goel

Washroom Design Ideas Every Interior Design Lover Should Know
A beautiful bathroom is everyone’s dream. Designing a bathroom is an exhilarating task for several, yet daunting for a few. Here are a few tips and tricks every interior design lover should know while Washroom Design.
Essential Elements for a Bathroom
Fixtures
The major fixtures of a toilet – sink, bathtub, shower, and toilet – are often regulated by the dimensions of the space and, therefore, the location of the plumbing connections. Within those broad limitations, however, there are many various design choices.
Sinks
Wall-mounted, freestanding, and inset models are all available. The most common shapes are round and oval, but seashells, squares, and other unique dimensions can be found at specialty stores, and both depths and colors vary. Many couples prefer dual sinks for his-and-her customization, but make certain the toilet has enough space to accommodate both sinks comfortably.
Bathtubs
Simple bathtub-shower combinations are common for many bathrooms, though more luxurious whirlpools and jetted models are favorites for master suites. Rectangular and oval models are most popular, and tubs may be set along a wall, angled into a corner, or even centered in the room. Surrounds are often customized with tile, marble, or rock and should feature integrated shelves or niches.
Showers
Showers can be a part of the tub or can also be a separate area. They are available in many shapes, namely round, rectangular, and corner, many of which offer a choice of showerheads – detachable, rain, and massaging are favorite choices depending on the user’s preferences and needs.
Toilets
Toilets are the most functional fixtures in a bathroom, but there are still different design options available. Heights and water flow vary, also as basic shapes and descriptions to suit different style preferences and space limitations.
Lighting
For a relaxing atmosphere, soft, muted light is a perfect option. Natural light while maintaining privacy via glass brick windows or other privacy glass is another good option. Studio lights are popular, particularly near vanities where women may have to use makeup, and warmth lamps are popular choices to reinforce the steam and soothing heat of a warm bath or shower.
Storage
Storage may be a concern in many bathrooms, but shrewd choices can make it a complementary a part of interior design for bathrooms. If towels are colorful and plush, it’s going to be suitable to possess them visible on decorative racks or open niches, whereas more prosaic linens and other items (bubble bath, body products, etc.) may be in a small closet inset into the walls. Some products may very well be stored within the bathtub or shower on corner racks, while over-the-door hooks provide additional storage options for pajamas or robes.
Accents
Once the required features are accounted for, interior design for bathrooms can specialize in decorative accents. The walls and floor may be designed to set the mood with soft colors – aquas, blues, whites, and other pastel shades – and tile patterns. Colors, patterns, and prints like abstract waves, bubbles, fish, or other aquatic motifs are some of the more popular choices. For a more sophisticated look, many of us address marble or granite in stark yet simple shades with a minimalist theme.
Accessories for a Bathroom
Accessorizing a bathroom is a crucial step to adding an extra element to the bathroom. It is as important as in the bedroom or kitchen. A combination of recent accessories or fixtures will uplift the functionality of your bathroom. Here are a couple of accessories that you simply must incorporate into the foremost important space of your home.
Grab Bars
Grab Bars are perfect to ensure safety for elderly members. It can be used in a family washroom or a guest washroom where people of a different age groups visit. These are often fixed near the restroom seat or shower areas.
Towel Rods
A must-have accessory in every bathroom to stay your hand towels, bath towels beat place! You will need nothing else to stay your linen organized.
Shower Niches
The latest in bathroom interiors and shower niches are built-in storage accessories that enter the wall of your shower area to store your care essentials handy and tidy.
Materials For Bathroom Flooring
Picking the right material for your bathroom floor design is much more than choosing a color scheme or just some shiny tiles. The idea is to style a floor that’s durable, low on maintenance, immune to moisture, and appears stylish too.
Ceramic Tiles
Ceramic or porcelain, first invented in China within the 15th century, has come an extended way since. Modern-day ceramic tiles are dense, strong, extremely durable, and can be used in wet areas like showers, bathrooms, or kitchens. Variety of shapes, patterns, and sizes are available for these tiles. Such tiles are resistant to water, heat, and stains and therefore are the best choice when looking for some non-slip bathroom flooring ideas.
Anti-Slip Tiles
Anti-slip tiles are made with a coating that forestalls the danger of slipping. The coating allows a high level of friction even when the tile is wet or soapy. They are ideal for poolside spaces and bathrooms, especially once you have kids or old-aged folk reception. Anti-slip tiles have the strength of other tiles, like resistance to heat, stain, and water aside from being quite durable too. These tiles are available in a variety of shapes and colors, so you will not be compromising on aesthetics if you choose them for your bathroom interiors.
Vitrified Tiles for Washroom Design
Vitrified tiles are manufactured by vitrification, which is the strengthening of tiles by combining them with quartz, silica, or feldspar at high temperatures. A coat of a layer of glass is done on the tiles, which give them a sleek finish. The tiles are water and scratch-resistant. The sleek finish makes them look elegant and perfect for modern bathroom flooring.
Granite Flooring
Granite may be a hard and present stone used commonly within the housing industry. Known for its high strength and sturdiness., flooring made out of granite is resistant to water and heat, and this material is almost impossible to crack or chip. Granite is available in a variety of colors, such as white, pink, green, and shades of brown or grey. This is a material that will blend into the color scheme of your bathroom easily.
Marble Flooring
Marble may be a present stone that has been employed by artisans in the past. Known for its luster, it is predominantly white in color with veins of a darker color mixed in. A variety of colors such as pinks, blues, blacks, and greys are available in marble. It is immune to water and warmth, but it’s not a durable material. Marble does add slight luxury and sophistication to any space and maybe a good selection for a master bathroom.
Slate Tiles
Slate is a naturally occurring metamorphic rock. It is commonly used for roofs but also it can be used as a flooring material. These finely foliated tiles are highly durable and are available in a wide selection of colors. The rough texture makes them anti-slippery in nature and hence a great choice for black floor bathroom designs.
Tips for designing a washroom
Multiple Light Sources
Proper lighting is a must throughout a home, especially in a bathroom. Ideally, there should be three forms of it in space — overhead, close-up, and task lighting, which can be moved or adjusted so you can use it for specific activities.
Aim for a universal, functional design
It is vital to possess a toilet that’s safe and sustainable, especially since major renovations are often expensive, so one has to be especially careful when choosing the height and measurements of your most-used bathroom pieces.
Short mirrors make a space seem smaller
Many people spend time in the bathroom styling their hair, applying makeup, and getting dressed — all of which require the right mirror. Short mirrors are neither efficient nor do they add to the depth of the space.
Try to match lines
One should try to match the lines in the washroom as much as possible. For instance, the mirror can align with the tile lines, or the shower curtains can align with the tile line or the door lintel, and so on. If the lines are haphazardly placed, it takes away the focus from the rest of the beauty of the washroom.
Enough storage options
Without proper storage solutions, the shower area can quickly become cluttered with bottles and sponges. Washrooms need proper and variety of storage because of the nature of the things being stored. Ranging from shampoo bottles to extra supplies to buckets, a washroom needs large and small storage spaces.
Use Colours Carefully
Colorful bathrooms are often fun, but one would possibly be happier adding pops of color with art rather than using vibrant tiles, tubs, and sinks, which will be costly to exchange. Adding too much colour without any rhythm can result in a chaotic and non-welcoming bathroom.
October 29, 2024
Vernacular Architecture of Kerala: Learning Sustainability from the Best
Introduction to Vernacular Architecture
Vernacular architecture is a style of architecture that is designed and built for the needs of people, with locally available materials, reflecting upon the culture of the place. Vernacular architecture is specific to a region and climate. In theory, a vernacular building is built without the guidance of a professional, like an architect. Thus, vernacular architecture is cost-effective, climate-responsive, modest, sustainable, and a reflection of the culture of the place.
Introduction to Kerala and its Architecture
Photo from Architectural Digest
Kerala is the twenty-fifth largest state in India, in the area surrounded by Karnataka on the northeast, Tamil Nadu on the east, and the Arabian Sea on the west. With a coastline of around 600km of the Arabian sea, Kerala is known for its spectacular flora and fauna, backwaters, and respect for its culture.

Kerala prides itself for being the flag bearer for not just how a culture can respect its past, but also march forward with growth & progress as well. Kerala’s vernacular architecture, which is still heavily practiced throughout Kerala and some of south India, is one such inspiration for all. It is in striking contrast with the Dravidian Architecture followed in other parts of South India and is strongly influenced by Indian Vedic architectural science (Vastu Shastra).
History and Origin
Kerala gets its indigenous style of architecture from all climatic, geographical, and historical factors.

Favored by generous rains because of monsoon and bright sun, this land is lush green with foliage and rich in beast life. In the uneven terrain of this region, mortal habitation is distributed thickly in the rich low- lands and sparsely towards the hostile mounds. Heavy rains have brought in presence of large water bodies in form of lakes, gutters, backwoods, and lagoons. The climatic factors, therefore, made its significant benefactions in developing the architecture style, to fight the wettest climatic conditions coupled with heavy moisture and harsh tropical summers.

Geographically, Kerala is a narrow strip of land lying in between the seacoast of peninsular India and confined between the towering Western Ghats on its east and the vast Arabian ocean on its west.

History also played its benefactions on the Kerala architecture. The towering Western Ghats on its east have successfully averted influences of bordering Tamil countries into present-day Kerala in after times. While the Western Ghats insulated Kerala to a lesser extent from Indian conglomerates, the exposure of the Arabian ocean on its east brought in close connections between the ancient people of Kerala with major maritime societies like Egyptians, Romans, Arabs, and so on. Kerala’s rich spice polish brought it a center of global maritime trade until the ultramodern ages, helping several transnational powers to laboriously engage with Kerala as trading mates. This helped in bringing in influences of these civilizations into Kerala’s architecture.
Different types of Kerala Architecture
The architecture of Kerala is divided into two parts, Nalukettu and Ettukettu.
Nālukettu is the home of generations of joint family kinfolk or Tharavadu, where many generations of a matrilineal family lived. These types of structures are observed in the Indian state of Kerala. The traditional architecture of Kerala is a rectangular structure where four blocks are joined with a central, open to the sky courtyard.
The four halls on each side are named Vadakkini (northern block), Padinjattini (western block), Kizhakkini (eastern block), and Thekkini (southern block). The architecture was especially provisioned to large families of the traditional tharavadu, to live under one roof and enjoy the commonly owned facilities and services of the marumakkathayam homestead.
Ettukettu, which is eight halls with two central yards) or Pathinarukettu, which is sixteen halls with four central yards, is the further elaborate forms of the same architecture. Every structure faces the sun, and in some well-conditioned designed nalukettu, there’s excellent ventilation as well. Temperatures, indeed in the heat of summer, are markedly lower within the nalukettu.
Elements of Nalukettu and Ettukettu
Photo from Archipasta
Padippura
It’s a structure containing a door, forming part of the boundary wall for the house with a tiled roof on top. It’s the formal entry to the site with the house.
Poomukham
It’s the porch of the house led by steps. Traditionally, it has a pitch-tiled roof with pillars supporting the same.
Chuttu gallery
In Kerala architecture, the poomukham is accompanied by an open passage, the chuttu gallery, which leads to either side of the house surrounding it.
Charupadi
Along the chuttu gallery and the poomukham are traditionally sculpted, rustic, wooden, or cement benches. These benches are called charupadi.
Ambal Kulam
Nearly every Nalukettu has its own Kulam or Pond for bathing of its members. At the end of Chuttu verandah, there is a small pond constructed with debris on sides where lotus or Ambal is planted. The water bodies are maintained to maintain energy flow inside.
Nadumuttam
A typical Nadumuttom of Kerala Nalukettu is a courtyard placed at the prime center of the Nalukettu. This is surrounded by an open corridor square-shaped, in the exact middle of the house dividing the house into its four sides.
Key Features of Vernacular Architecture of Kerala
Orientation and Planning
Photo by Amit Murao
Kerala experiences a hot and humid climate and hence the orientation of the building becomes one of the crucial aspects of planning.
The building should face the direction of the prevailing winds rather than the sun. This helps in maintaining cross ventilation in a humid climate. Houses preferably face East direction according to the direction of prevailing winds.
Cross ventilation
The juxtaposition of open-and-closed spaces in a way to allows a continuous flow of air.
Cross VentilationPhoto from Benny Ku r ia Kose

Being in a tropical climate, cross ventilation plays an important role in creating comfortable spaces. The presence of high moisture content in hot air causes discomfort for the user.
Courtyard spaces are extensively used in houses of Kerala of all scales. It helps in achieving passive cooling and reduces the dependence on HVAC systems. It also helps to induce continuous air movement.
Openings in walls facing each other and internal partitions help in increasing cross-ventilation. Using vertical louvers and large window shutters helps to reduce thermal discomfort with ample daylight.
Solar Shading
Photo from Spiderkala
The temperature in Kerala can rise to up to 40 degrees Celsius in summers. Therefore, sun shading strategies and elements become vital.
Traditional buildings in Kerala have an internal and external verandah. The external verandah acts as buffer space to reduce direct exposure to sunlight, whereas the internal verandah allows light to enter the building via a courtyard.
The east and west façade should be least exposed to the sun to prevent late afternoon and early morning heat. One way is to have dense tree plantations around these façades.
Overhangs, louvers, canopies, and so on are used for shading. Shading devices for doors and windows are also used to avoid solar heat gain.
Roof Insulation
Photo from Architectural Digest India
The most distinctive visual form of Kerala’s architecture is the high, steep sloping roof with eaves constructed to shade the walls of the house and to repel the heavy thunderstorm, typically laid with tiles or thatch, and supported on a roof framework made of hardwood and timber. Structurally, the roof frame is supported on the pillars standing on a raised platform from the ground, for protection against moistness and insects in the tropical climate. Many times, the walls are also made of timber, locally available in Kerala.
Gable windows were introduced at either end of the roof to maximize attic ventilation of the room when the ceiling was incorporated for these spaces. Most structures of Kerala appear to be low height visually, because of high, steep sloping of roofs, which cover walls from rains and direct sunshine.
Prevention from Rain
Photo from Architecture plus design
Kerala receives heavy rainfall for a significant part of the year which requires effective solutions to endure the extreme climatic conditions.
Buildings should be placed at a high plinth to restrict water from entering inside. Sloping roof should be provided to avoid the accumulation of rainwater on the surfaces.
Commonly Used Materials
Kerala architecture uses local materials that are locally available and also sustainable. Some of the commonly used building materials in the Kerala area are bamboo, earth, lime, timber, leaves, and so on.
Laterite
Laterite is a hardened earth layer formed because of the weathering action of acid jewels. It is dug out from the earth and its compressive strength can be significantly higher than that of burnt clay bricks. It is non-porous and has poor water retention capacity. It is found 3 to 15 meters below the ground. The top one to two meters is soft, and the bottom merges with the clay layer. Laterite can be called the “Blessing of Kerala” since 80 percent of the state is covered with it. In Kerala, the foundations were erected with laterite blocks.
Laterite has been extensively used for constructing the superstructure. Using burnt bricks for construction was rare, except with a few palaces. Currently, the laterite blocks can be machine cut as well. The advantage of these machine-cut blocks is that they have much higher compressive strength. The disadvantage is that these have to be transported over a long distance, ergo the process involves further energy.
Lime
Lime, which was obtained from shells, was burnt in kilns and used as mortar in structures in Kerala. It was produced by beating it round with a stiff bristle encounter, after adding water. It was beaten with a special rustic tool in tanks specifically made for this purpose. This process helped to increase its strength and plasticity, reducing the amount of water to be added. This is beneficial as the strength of lime further improves when lower water is used, and when it’s air-dried. Many organic details were also added to increase the strength of the lime, hence the mortar.
In theory, it is believed that lime has a lot of disadvantages like slow setting, not having enough strength, and so on. But, in contrast, lime is significantly sustainable as a binding material, as various studies show that it is much lower energy-consuming when compared with cement. Cement is a high energy-consuming material with limestone as one of the main constituents for its manufacture. When cement is used as mortar in a wall, the bricks cannot be recovered for play, if the structure is demolished latterly. If lime is used, the bricks can be reused, which eventually makes lime mortar more sustainable.
Granite
Granite is the most common stone used for construction in Kerala. Traditional Kerala houses use a granite slab below the ground to avoid the risk of dampness. Whereas thatch or clay tiles on the sloped roof, keep it dry.
The state does not have deposits of limestone or sandstone. Granite is a hard stone and is used in the foundations. It has been infrequently used for the superstructure until lately.
In the olden days, it was a locally available material, but now big quarries have come up in the western ghats, many of whom are present in vulnerable and fragile areas. Granite that is being excavated from these places is not sustainable, because of the adverse impact it causes on our terrain as landslides and other natural disasters.
Timber
Timber is one of the most used structural materials in Kerala. It was extensively available in many kinds and with high durability as well. Teak, jack wood, Anjili wood, and Thembavu were some of the commonly used types of timber.
Structures with timber walls were constructed in Travancore till about 100 years ago. The vernacular architecture of Kerala considerably uses timber for walls, doors, windows, intermediate floors, and roofs.
The biggest advantage of timber is that by using them in our buildings, the carbon gets locked. Trees are the only things that can convert carbon dioxide in the atmosphere into oxygen. If timber is allowed to decay or used as firewood, then the carbon is released back into the atmosphere, completing the carbon cycle.
Every timber that we use in our structures needs not be sustainable. However, also it is less sustainable if the source of the timber is from cutting down virgin forests.
Earth/Mud
In earlier times, several large structures were constructed using earth or mud. The sun-dried mud bricks may be used for the alternate story of a two-story structure, with the ground bottom made of laterite. They may also be used for the less important corridor of structures. Using earth blocks (without ramming or sun-dried bricks) was popular among the poorer sections of society.
Many structures constructed with laterite also use earth as mortar to save the cost of construction. The general print of the public is that a structure with earth blocks is sustainable. But most times, it need not be true.
The cost of the superstructure of a structure is only 15-20 percent of the overall cost of construction, meaning the rest of the structural units need not be sustainable at all. When the earth from the structure point is used, it becomes very sustainable. But if the material has to be transported over a distance, also the embodied energy will go over, reducing the sustainability factor. Strengthening of earth blocks by cement will also reduce the sustainability aspect. If interlocking earth blocks are used, also the sustainable character will be more since no cement mortar is involved.
Influence of Vastu Shastra
One can notice the strong influence of Vastu shastra’s study on the architecture of Kerala. The basic underlying belief is that every structure erected on earth has its own life, with a soul and personality which is shaped by its surroundings. The most important wisdom which Kerala has developed purely indigenously is Thachu-Shastra (Science of Carpentry) as the easy vacuity of timber and its heavy use of it.
From cattle sheds to trees, everything used to be planned and laid according to the ancient texts of shastra.
In traditional houses, the kitchen is strategically placed in the northeast corner as the prevailing winds blow from the southwest direction. These houses have pitched roofs and if the roof catches fire at any point, it will be blown away by the prevailing winds. A well would also be constructed close to it. In a house with a courtyard, the main living area is always in the southwest part, away from the fireplace. The puja room of the house is placed in the northeast corner and the idols face either east or west direction.
In two to three-storied houses of Noth Kerala, the northeast part is usually a single storey because of the kitchen. The bedrooms are present upstairs in the southwest direction.
Conclusion
There has been a rapid change in the architectural fraternity in the past two decades. The new trend has been fast-paced racing towards quantity over quality. Using craftsmen has declined considerably.
Therefore, to get out of this present crisis, an architecture typology, like the vernacular architecture of Kerala, that suits the environment, climate, and the people, should be developed. A blend of vernacular architecture with modern needs seems an appropriate solution.
October 29, 2024
Video Game Designing: Fascinating Relation Between Architecture and Game Design
A lot of individuals might imagine that the characters, the gameplay, or the problem levels during a computer game are what make it interesting and exciting to play. Still, people do not understand that the architectural aspects of virtual games are one of the most vital corridors of a good design. From the background of the game to the sound, character costumes, and light effects, virtual game architecture is single-handedly one of the most ignored yet essential aspects of game design.
Relation between Architecture and Gaming
Architecture has always been a really broad term to use in any language. It is related to building a structure while also getting used to creating a nation. Yet architecture was always a medium that was experienced actually using the skin, our eyes, and our soul. But now, during the digital age, building a structure might not always be the answer.
Restoring buildings to their former glory could seem to serve the aim, but it’s just a replacement way of covering up the scars of their destruction or decay. Therefore, a replacement path opened for architects, designers, and illustrators to explore their visions, actually, but virtually. Video Game designing, which has been present since the late 1950s, only had its breakthrough within the 1980s.
Photo by Wallpaper Flare
Since games like Mario Kart, Road Rash, and Pokemon Red and Blue, video games are taken to a subsequent level by several designers or ‘architects’ who have designed these arenas. The creation of games like Pong and Asteroids has led us to the realm where the architecture of the game could change itself or the player could make the world. The advancements of those games make us dream of achieving them in actual reality but also give us a shake of the strictness and hierarchy that’s oppressed us in the real world.
Architecture in Terms of Video Game Design
What we all know as “architecture” in our world isn’t equivalent to the gaming world. Architecture within the gaming world refers to a setting or mood that’s created within the sport. It’s how gamers witness the world within a game and how they interact with it. The architecture of a game design is often defined as this erected-in air and terrain.
This is the job of a game architect. These talented individuals create a sensible virtual background and scenery for every computer game, making the interaction and knowledge for the player more realistic and exciting.
The experience of a gamer hugely depends on how well the sport architecture is made and designed. Moreover, good gaming architecture has the power to convey subtle emotions, thoughts, ideas, and ideas to the player without using overt signs and signals.
Importance of Architecture in the Gaming World
Photo by Archdaily
In video games, architecture plays a way bigger role than simply being a backdrop of a virtual city or an authentic render of an existing one, it is, in fact, a fundamental component of transcending gamers into a virtual world that feels even as authentic because the world does, but with extra adrenaline.
One might think during a virtual environment where anything is feasible, that the architecture of those ephemeral environments might reach new heights. That it’d break away from the bonds of physical and budgetary limitations and become something such a lot greater.
Architecture can finally be liberal to become wholly narrative, filled with meaning, instigate a strong user experience, and convey a deep connection to the sports plot and player perception. Occasionally it gets there, but rarely. In fact, it’s usually worse.
This pervasive phenomenon of architecture that permeates nearly every frame of gameplay, deeply impacting player experience, is at the best a background support mechanism. Beyond multi-million-dollar triple-A budgets, game architecture is essentially a knee-jerk regurgitation of a number of the worst habits and vestiges of real-world design practice, suffering from cliche and after-thought design gimmicks.
Characteristics of Video Game Architecture
Video game architecture is full of secrets and focuses on four characteristics of architecture that architects of real buildings will be very familiar with: space, construction, material, and light.
Architecture can tell a story, elicit emotion, and shape player experience more effectively than any other aspect of your game. You can have stylish characters, plot, and UI plates, but without an inversely considerate approach to the armature, your player experience will always fall suddenly to its fullest eventuality.
By balancing and contrasting different types of spaces, architecture can unfold and choreograph the player experience to supply a way more powerful emotional impact and reaction to gameplay.
Video game architecture is full of secrets and focuses on four characteristics of architecture that architects of real buildings will be very familiar with: space, construction, material, and light.
Use of Light
The use of sunshine in architecture is often utilized in an identical way, to draw attention to a crucial piece or subsequent area the player should move to. A space that’s well lit with many windows and skylights can feel uplifting and contrast (or balance) your darker scenes. Transitioning between the two can enhance the qualities of every. Even if you would like your game to feel damp, dark, and scary, those sensations are often more apparent and defined when occasionally contrasted by spaces filled with natural light.
Use of hierarchy
Photo by Arc h daily
Another important and incredibly useful tool in game design is the use of hierarchy. An architectural experience where all design elements carry an equivalent visual weight is not as meaningful or organized as when some elements are differentiated through scale, color, texture, shape, etc. By contrasting rhythm with hierarchy, the player can enhance the game’s wayfinding strategy by making it easier for the player to ‘read’ a building to assist remember their relative position in space and to know where important elements of gameplay are often found.
Sky and Ground Interface
Another useful connection to consider is the interface architecture of the ground and sky. The wall face of a structure infrequently dives straight into the terrain without any transition, the way most video games portray. There’s nearly always a concrete foundation or else solid plinth upon which the structure stands. Accentuating this base plinth can be a way of conveying a kind of strength, endlessness or sense of being forcefully predicated (useful when you want a structure to look fortified or imperishable). In discrepancy, a structure with a weak foundation can feel temporary, transitory, or weak.
Use of materials
Photo of Archdaily
Understanding the use of materials beyond the aspects of shades and texture is also a vital player in architectural design. Materials can contribute much further than simply helping to achieve literalism. The emotional and physical impact of soft and warm materials is fully different from hard and desaturated materials. Using the cerebral impact of different face textures and colors can shape a player’s experience and attract or propel them to or from colorful gameplay rudiments.
Exteriors and Urban Setting
Urban design and the way building exteriors work together to shape outdoor space can also play a role in the design of your game. A yard girdled by 4 story structures feels well defined and enclosed, even though it is an exterior space. Placing a monument or statue at the end of a visual axis can help acquaint the player, and make it easier to remember where the player is located in relation to the rest of the position.
These are just a couple of the various aspects of architecture that will be wont to design simpler video games and virtual worlds, but it barely scratches the surface.
Video game architecture can be perpetually dynamic, potentially shifting shape of real-time inputs and conditions. It is often laced with interactive features, bringing the architecture to life in ways no physical building could ever achieve.
The Current Image of Virtual Reality
The current technological advancements created and used in the gaming assiduity are breaking walls. It allows the contrivers to suppose and imagine a whole lot of lost mortal surroundings. The term virtual architecture has been now chased to understand the spaces created in these virtual games as well.
Virtual architecture as an amalgamated entity
Virtual architecture has now become an amalgamated entity between the items that are real, that would be real, and which are fictitious. The complex part is to segregate the particular reality and computer game within the game that causes difficulties thanks to entanglement and thus, creates huge differences within the game environment and the gamer as well. The solution might be how one uses architecture to differentiate both realities while also allowing the user to flow within the built environment without breaking the rhythm.
Hence, the reflection of the gaming industry has become focused on making the sports plunge into the game to make an invigorating environment. It, within the end, this reduces the excellence in what it’d feel in virtuality and what it seems like in reality.
Diverse and Futuristic Virtual architecture
The other viewpoint toward gaming industries is totally diverse and futuristic. One school of thought practices the rebirth and cultivation of the past while the opponent tries to make several such planes where the longer term is clear in each unit and element.
These futuristic games are based in several projected worlds where an apocalypse, dystopia, and utopian occurrence dictate the entire world or storyline. Basic genres like horror, fantasy, sci-fi, thriller, and drama also are utilized and woven through these complex simulations.
Mirror’s Edge, Cyberpunk 2077, Control, Remember Me, and Quantum Break features these nuances where the gamer can create changes within the virtual environment which will desire to generate impact in the world. Most of the architecture depicted in these games are brutalist, modern, and post-modern era buildings, which in a way give the user satisfaction in either damaging them or destroying them.
Storytelling through Architectural Details
All video games are created with one objective storytelling. The story can only come to life when the small print within them is embedded to determine authenticity and reality. Tangible aspects like weight, mass, texture, materials, exteriors, and finishes play an enormous role in allowing the user to perceive and knowledge of these spaces. Contrast, scale, proportion, appearance, and quantity; these intangible aspects allow the user to grasp and relate to spaces created to immerse themselves in.
Architecture and Interior Design play a crucial role in creating these details within the environments. Environment Designers got to think within the sort of three-dimensional compositions and configurations instead of two-dimensional figures and graphics. Therefore, tons of architectural design and interior design principles are an inherent play in assisting in understanding the space and the way people use it. The basic three principles that require to be abided by are:
Order
Establishing the orientation and spatial configuration to permit the player to locate themselves within the built virtual environment.
Enrichment
Enhancing the shape and its complex, manipulative nature for the rationale behind the spaces.
Expression
The visual storytelling narrative suggests the mood, story, or gist of the space.
The virtual environment can work as intended only when these principles are holistically incorporated, else, it might result in the user getting frustrated or losing interest in the game.
Learning from Video Game Designing
Virtual Reality could seem a world distant, but it is present within the current dynamic world. We could seem ignorant of its influences, but it dictates our day-to-day life. Architecture, on the opposite hand, which is now a highly saturated artform, has found a totally different platform through video games. Architects, who want to build for this and the future, are now ready to build their pasts within the present timeline while also adding their personal imaginative touches thereto.
Virtual Reality through the computer game industry has not only created employment for the highly saturated market but has also allowed dreams and imagination to become “real”, an escape. The often-overlooked subject concerning the gaming industry is the diversity of data that one acquires through video games.
Languages, influential figures, history, art, technology, weaponry, architecture, interior design, urban design, photography, physics, and various other fields have culminated thanks to such cohesive singular environments created in these video games. It allows colorful openings for literacy and makes sure the knowledge does not stay retired. And now, further than ever, knowledge has been a growing demand for people.
October 29, 2024
Adaptive Reuse Architecture: Breathing New Life in Structures
Numerous metropolises and sticks are home to old, abandoned structures — from storages to lighthouses. A rising armature approach called “adaptive exercise” offers a way to breathe new life into empty major structures.
It’s frequently hard to imagine that a structure can be used for anything other than what it was intended, yet when they’re left abandoned, having outlasted their original purpose, many dilapidated structures cry out to be converted rather than fall foul to the obliteration ball.
Photo by BigRentz
Adaptive Reuse Architecture
Adaptive Reuse (also called structure reuse), in architecture, refers to the repurposing of a living structure for new use. For illustration, converting an old church into an eatery, an old train station into an office space, or an old windmill into a home.
In architecture, adaptive reuse breathes new life into major structures by converting them into commodities useful for the girding, like low-income casing, pupil casing, community centers, or mixed-use creative venues. Marketable real estate inventors most generally handle adaptive reuse systems because they have the financial means and construction moxie needed to patch these structures successfully.
Significance of Adaptive Reuse Architecture
Adaptive reuse architecture maintains artistic heritage
In communities with major heritage architecture, adaptive reuse is a form of major preservation. It restores culturally significant spots that would else be left to decay or demolished to make room for new structures or parking lots.
Slows civic sprawl
When builders search for new construction spots, they must frequently choose land farther outside of a megacity center since the land within a megacity is generally claimed by old structures or more precious real estate. This energy the process of “civic sprawl,” a term for the unrestricted expansion of civic areas, contributing to air pollution and other environmental impacts, dangerous business patterns, advanced structure costs, and social insulation. Adaptive reuse offers a counter to civic sprawl.
Creates a new community lamp
In architecture, adaptive reuse is functional and frequently incredibly beautiful. For illustration, the Tate Modern art gallery in London is housed in a structure formerly known as the Bankside Power Station, a decommissioned electricity factory. Taking an adaptive approach allowed builders to produce a unique and beautiful art gallery that’s now a new artistic lamp in the megacity.
Advantages of Adaptive Reuse
Lower construction costs
When compared to traditional structure systems, adaptive reuse has several significant financial advantages and cost savings. On the whole, adaptive exercise uses further labor than it does structure materials, and while material costs have soared in the last many decades, labor costs have increased only slightly. It also forgoes all obliteration charges, which are frequently precious and a significant portion of a construction budget. Original duty impulses and civil major duty credits for the adaptive exercise of structures ease budget enterprises for builders repurposing major structures.
Faster Construction
Erecting a new structure generally takes significantly longer than rehabbing a being structure. Numerous spaces in an old structure may be inhabitable after only minimum refurbishment, so indeed, if the design is still ongoing, possessors can open a corridor of the structure for the business.
Popular with the community
Creative adaptive reuse systems are an incredibly popular option within communities because people enjoy the literal preservation of significant structures in their neighborhoods and new unique landmarks. However, reusing an aged structure can be a crucial factor in driving client interest to your establishment, whether it’s a cafe If you’re a marketable builder.
Issues that might arise with Adaptive Reuse
Structure canons are the biggest chain when converting an old structure to a new use. Safety and availability are the two biggest enterprises with old structures. Redesigning the structure is occasionally needed to ensure all preventives are taken for the new use. Moment, erecting accouterments are better than what was used in the history as well. Electrical, plumbing, and HVAC generally need to be eviscerated and replaced entirely. In some cases, icing the exercise is both safe and functional are precious to replace and upgrade. As with all construction, a strong analysis of the specific position should be strictly reviewed.
6 Examples of Adaptive Exercise
Whether due to conservation issues, the limited vacuity of space for new gambles or because public juggernauts are successful in saving cherished milestones, adaptive reuse systems are on the increase. Old structures breathe new life, albeit in an altered state, offering a chance to embrace one designs while looking to the future. These six excellent examples of adaptive reuse from around the globe will definitely inspire some.
Soro Village Pub, Goa
Photo by AecCafe
The Soro Village Pub is a bar in Goa that was formerly an artificial storehouse erected in the 1940s. The original structure of the storehouse has been saved as much as possible by Raya Shankar Engineers, who shouldered this design. In addition to this, a hipsterism and pop storehouse look has been given to the bar. This has been done by painting colorful graffiti on the interior walls and leaving all the electrical wiring exposed to cleave to the artificial theme of the bar.
Alembic Industrial Heritage development, Vadodara
Photo by AecCafe
The oldest Alembic Industrial structure in Vadodara, now nearly 113 times old was repaired in 2018 by Karan Grover and Associates. Firstly, developed to manufacture penicillin, this corner is now a gallery with spaces devoted to art workrooms, exhibitions, and displays. While several differences have been done to this artificial structure, the utmost care has been taken to save its true spirit. The original materials, physical quality of spaces, and the concentrated trusses in the roof weren’t altered significantly to keep complete the conventional physical appearance of the artificial structure.
Haveli Dharampura, Chandni Chowk, Delhi
Photo by Zomato
Located in the vibrant Shahjanabad area of Old Delhi, Haveli Dharampura was erected in the 1887 Bulletin in the Late Mughal style of Architecture. It was designed in a mixed-habituated pattern, with the ground bottom for marketable purposes and the first bottom for places. The alternate bottom was latterly developed in the 20th Century and has influences from the European style of Architecture.
During its addition by Mr. Vijay Goel and Siddhant Goel in 2011, the original rustic doors, windows, marble jali work, and classes were restored. The moment this Haveli is an exquisite Mughal Restaurant, that in its pleasurable setting gives sapience into the traditional Mughal culture. The eatery also consists of a rooftop that offers astral views of the Chandni Chowk and hosts several classical music and cotillion performances.
Café Restaurant Amsterdam
Photo by Time Out
Housed in a former water-processing factory, Cafe Restaurant Amsterdam is one of the megacity’s snappy beaneries. Dating back to the late 1800s, the structure is left substantially complete, with the main pumps proudly on display in the main part of the eatery. The large space is lit with huge floodlights in the gloamings, reclaimed from the former Ajax and Olympic football colosseums in the megacity. The interior may look crude to some, but to others it offers a unique dining experience, and will always give a talking point when there’s a pause in the discussion.
Sewage Silos, Netherlands
Photo by Inhabitat
Beforehand in 2009, Amsterdam megacity planning ran a competition for an adaptive exercise design concerning a former sewage treatment factory in the Zeeburg quarter of the megacity. The winning design was an offer for a multifunctional artistic center, which would house exhibition spaces, a media center, a movie theatre, and a theatre hall, culminated by a rooftop eatery in one silo and an open rooftop playground in the other.
The winning plan was inspired by Holland’s most popular children’s book author, the late Annie MG Schmidt, hence the prankishness of the design. Arons en Gelauff, engineers involved in the design, said the main end was to “breathe new life into the silos, transubstantiating them into an inspiring and lively place, which will help shape the character of the new Zeeburgereiland casing quarter.” The Annie MG Schmidt House is marked for completion in 2011.
Battersea Power Station
Photo by Wilkinson Eyre
Fluently one of the most recognized milestones on the banks of the River Thames in London, Battersea Power Station has been lying abandoned for decades. As the old power station is just around the bend of the swash – the Tate Modern–there have been calls to pull down the dilapidated structure, for a number of reasons.
Some said that due to its size it would be too precious to redevelop, others claimed that the rudiments had given it such a bettering over the times that it had come fairly unsound. Now, after multitudinous failed attempts to revive the structure and immediate area, plans for one of the biggest redevelopments on the south bank of London is yet to see are proceeding, and they clearly look emotional.
Proposed by Dublin- grounded Treasury Effects, the new design will see a substantially artificial area of London go green, which is what the potential economic Nine Elms area around Battersea has been crying out for. The new £5.5 billion scheme includes plans for homes erected alongside services, shops, and cafes on the 40-acre point.
The notorious chimneys are to be restored to their former glory and the corner structure will house a conference center, among other effects. The new plans will also offer continued views of the Palace of Westminster on the contrary banks, one of the reservations of the new development, and the reason Treasury Effects before plans, which included a huge eco-dome’, were rebuked.
October 29, 2024
Architecture in Composite Climate: Effective Design Considerations for Composite Climate
India is home to an extraordinary variety of climatic regions, ranging from tropical in the south to temperate and alpine in the Himalayan north, where elevated regions admit sustained downtime snowfall. Climate can influence the planning of towns, buildings, and settlement designs and may evoke strategies to market the efficiency of thermal comfort. The built environment affects local and regional global climate change and influences health and luxury.
Nature of the Composite Climate
The composite climate is neither constantly hot and dry nor warm and sticky. Their characteristics are ever changing, interspersing between long, hot, and dry ages to shorter ages of downfall and high moisture. There’s a significant difference in air temperature, moisture, wind, sky, and ground conditions throughout the time.
Designs here are guided by a longer prevailing climate. The duration of ‘uncomfortable’ periods in each season has got to be compared to derive an order of priorities.
Physiological Objectives
The objectives set for composite climate apply to the objectives of both warm-humid and hot-dry climates.
During the cold season, effective temperatures are much less than within the warmer seasons and therefore the physical comfort will depend on heat loss, especially through the night.
In the warmer season, cooling is insufficient and designers attempt to increase it, the other happens during the cold season. The dissipation is excessive, hence heat retention is important.
Design Criteria
Solutions for one season might be unsuitable for another.
Thermal design criteria recommended for hot-dry climates apply to both the hot-dry season and cold season of composite climate. For the monsoon, buildings should be designed consistent with the standards of warm-humid climate, which might require an entirely special solution. This duality of the matter has got to be handled tactfully by the designer. An analysis of the location climate will help the designer prioritize the requirements.
Design Considerations for a Climate Zone
Building Orientation
The building should be located preferably in the North-East and South-West direction. This helps in receiving less radiation and more natural light & ventilation.
Form and Planning
The building must be compact and low-rise. Buildings with a courtyard are more suitable. A moderately compact internal planning of the house is going to be of benefit for many of the year. Buildings should be grouped thanks to cash in of the prevailing breezes during the short period when air movement is important.
A moderately dense, low-rise development is suitable, which can ensure the protection of outside spaces, mutual shading of the external walls, and shelter from the wind during the cold season. Shelter from dust and reduction of surfaces exposed to radiation. Shading walls are desirable, provided the roof features a low transmittance and good thermal capacity.
Compactness
The building form also determines the airflow pattern around the building, directly affecting its ventilation. The compactness of the building is measured using the ratio of area to volume (S/V). The depth of a building also determines the need for artificial lighting. The greater the depth, the higher the need for artificial lighting. The circular geometry has a rock bottom S/+ ratio thus the conduction gains from the building envelope also as solar gains from windows are the smallest amount, in circular geometry in comparison to other building geometries which is the most energy-efficient in composite climate.
Sheltering or self-shading
The built form must be designed such that it self-shades through massing or articulation, resulting in cutting off a large amount of direct solar radiation. In a composite climate, with the help of external walls, the envelope should be designed so that it shades for the greater part of the day.
Building Envelopes
Roof and walls
Roofs and external walls should be constructed of solid masonry or concrete to have a 9 to 12-hour time lag in heat transmission. The thermal capacity will be beneficial for the cold and hot dry seasons. The roof pond system can be used as an insulator. Resistance insulation should be placed on the outer surfaces of the external walls or roof. Low rise development is the greater contact of the walls with the ground; thus, the ground will also act as thermal storage.
Colour and Texture
The external surfaces should be painted in medium-tone colors. The prevention of warmth entering through the outer surfaces of the walls and roof may be a fundamental rule. A light-colored or shiny polished metal finish is preferred for surfaces exposed to the sun during the hot and warm seasons.
Fenestration and Ventilation
Large openings (preferable with solid shutters on opposite walls are suitable which helps in cross ventilation. Recessed windows help in reducing solar heat gain in the external facade.
Orientation of the openings is determined by two factors–first, towards the breeze prevailing during the warm-humid season, to utilize its cooling effects and second, towards the sun during the cold season, to utilize the heating effect of radiation entering through the windows; If the two factors lead to a contradiction, the analysis of comfort will aid in reaching a final decision.
Reasonably large opening within the opposite walls is suitable, preferably with solid shutters which may be opened when cross-ventilation is important, possibly during the recent and humid season or cool evenings in the hot-dry season. The area of the openings shouldn’t exceed the world of the solid walls at an equivalent elevation. On the adjacent walls, the windows should not occupy more than 25% of the total area. Shade is required for external openings during the hot and warm seasons.
Daylight Integration
Daylighting has a major effect on the appearance of space and can have considerable implications on energy efficiency if used properly. Its variability is subtly pleasing to the user in discrepancy to the fairly monotonous terrain produced by artificial light. It helps to make optimum working conditions by bringing out the natural contrast and color of objects.
The presence of natural light can bring a way of well-being and awareness of the broader environment. Daylighting is vital, particularly in commercial and other non-domestic buildings that function during the day. Integration of daylighting with artificial light brings about considerable savings in energy consumption. A good daylighting system features a number of elements, most of which must be incorporated into the building design at an early stage.
Optimum Window Wall Ratio (WWR)
Window Wall Ratio is the ratio of the vertical window opening area to gross exterior wall area. The gross exterior wall area is measured horizontally from the outside surface; it’s measured vertically from the highest of the ground to the rock bottom of the roof. The optimum Window Wall Ratio would achieve a balance between cooling energy demand and lighting energy demand due to the integration of natural daylight.
External Spaces
Brise-soleils, louvers, and other sun breaks used to protect openings during the hot-dry period also are advantageous within the season, serving as a protection against rain. During the cold season, when solar gain is important, all shading is undesirable. Vegetation is easier to maintain because of the high rainfall, consequently also reducing dust. Deciduous plants are advisable.
A courtyard is the most pleasant outdoor space for most of the year because it excludes the wind and raps the sun during the winter. Deciduous plants on a pergola can be used to cover the courtyard.
Landscaping
Landscaping is a crucial element in altering the micro-climate of an area. It prevents reflected light from carrying heat into a building from the ground or other surfaces. Additionally, the shade created by trees reduces the air temperature of the microclimate around the building through evapotranspiration. Properly designed roof gardens help to scale back heat loads during a building.
Planting deciduous trees on the southern side of a building is useful during a composite climate. Deciduous plants like mulberry or Champa stop direct sun during summer, and as these trees shed leaves in winter, they permit the sun to heat the building in winter, which is suitable in a composite climate.
Summer setting sun can be avoided by planting dense trees and shrub plantings on the west and northwest sides of a building. Natural cooling can be encouraged by locating trees to direct southeast summer breezes in composite climates. Cooling breezes are going to be ready to undergo the trunks of trees placed for shading.
Location of Water Bodies
Water is a good modifier of micro-climate. It takes up an outsized amount of warmth in evaporation and causes significant cooling. Water features a moderating effect on the air temperature of the microclimate. It possesses a very high thermal storage capacity, much higher than the building materials like brick, concrete, and stone.
Large bodies of water in the form of lakes, rivers, and fountains generally have a moderating effect on the temperature of the surrounding area. This is because of the variation in airflow caused by the higher thermal storage capacity of water in comparison to land.
During the day the air is hotter over the land and rises, drawing cooler air in from the water mass, resulting in inland breezes. During the night, as the landmass cools quicker, the airflow will be reversed. In humid climates, water should be avoided because it adds humidity.
Traditional Shelter
The character of the homes during a composite climate depends upon the relative predominance of hot-dry or hot-humid conditions during a year. A typical solution is to surround the ground floor with massive earth walls or masonry walls with large fenestrations. The building is laid around a courtyard to encourage ventilation.
Earth walls or large fenestrations allow cool air to come inside the house. The first floor is made out of lightweight materials, which helps in reducing the heat gain due to built mass. This type of planning cools quickly in the dark, to permit fairly comfortable sleeping conditions during the most well-liked parts of the year. In such a hybrid structure, the family shifts its activities throughout the day with seasonal changes in the climate.
Advanced Passive Cooling Systems
Passive cooling systems believe in natural heat-sinks to get rid of heat from the building. These systems achieve cooling from either evaporation, convection, and radiation without using any mechanical device. All passive cooling strategies believe in daily changes in temperature and ratio. The applicability of every system depends on the climate. The relatively simple techniques that can be adapted to provide natural cooling in the building through solar passive design strategies have been explained earlier.
Ventilation
Efficient natural ventilation requires openings in opposite pressure zones. Natural ventilation can also be enhanced through tall spaces like stacks, chimneys, and so on in a building. With openings near the highest of stacks, warm air can escape whereas cooler air enters the building from openings near the bottom.
Wind tower
In a wind tower, the recent air entering the tower through the openings within the tower gets cooled, and this becomes heavier and sinks down. Cool air movement is induced as a result of the inlet and outlet of rooms.
After an entire day of air exchanges, the tower becomes warm in the evenings. During the night, cooler ambient air comes in touch with the rock bottom of the tower through the rooms. The tower wall absorbs heat during the daytime and releases it at night, warming the cool night air in the tower. Warm air moves up, creating an upward draft, and draws cool night air through the doors and windows into the structure. In thick civic areas, the wind palace has to be long enough to be suitable to catch enough air.
Courtyard effects
Due to the incident of radiation in a courtyard, the air gets warmer and rises. Cool air from the bottom level flows through the louvered openings of rooms surrounding a courtyard, thus producing air flows. At night, the nice and cozy roof surfaces get cooled by convection and radiation.
If this heat exchange reduces roof surface temperature to wet-bulb temperature of the air, condensation of atmospheric moisture occurs on the roof and the gain due to condensation limits further cooling.
If the roof surfaces are sloped towards the interior courtyard, the cooled air sinks into the court and enters the lebensraum through low-level openings, gets warmed up, and then leaves the room through high-level openings. However, care should be taken that the courtyard doesn’t receive intense radiation, which might cause conduction and radiation heat gains into the building.
Earth air tunnels
Daily and annual temperature fluctuation decreases with the increase in depth below the ground surface. The temperature inside the earth remains nearly constant at a depth of about 4m below ground and is almost adequate to the annual average temperature of the place.
A tunnel within the sort of pipe or otherwise embedded at a depth of about 4m below the bottom will acquire an equivalent temperature because the surrounding earth at its surface and thus the ambient air ventilated through this tunnel will get cooled in summer and warmed in winter and this air is often used for cooling in summer and heating in winter.
Passive downdraught cooling
In this system, wind catchers guide outside air over water-filled pots, inducing evaporation and causing a big drop in temperature before the air enters the inside. Similar wind catchers come as the primary rudiments of the architectural form as well.
Conclusion
The composite climates are a culmination of the characteristics of hot-dry and hot-humid climates. The dominant prevailing climatic condition analysis helps choose design solution priorities. The places which experience a composite climate are central India, central South America, and south-eastern North America.
October 29, 2024
Architecture in Extremely Cold Climate
Nature of the Cold Climate
Regions that dwell in the cold climate zone are situated at high altitudes. States such as a Jammu and Kashmir, Himachal Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Arunachala Pradesh, Sikkim, and the northern part of UP have a cold climate. The temperature ranges between 20–30 degrees Celsius in summers, while in winters, it ranges from negative 3–8 degrees Celsius, making it quite chilly. The cold climate can be further divided into two categories.
Cold and Sunny
Experienced in Leh (Ladakh), the region is mountainous, with sparse vegetation. This is one of the reasons why it is also considered being a cold desert. Solar radiation is usually intense with a really low percentage of diffuse radiation. In summer, the temperature reaches 17–24 C during the day and 4–11 C in the dark.
Some more examples of places that experience cold climates are Otacamund, Shimla, Shillong, Srinagar, Mahabaleshwar, and so on. These places are usually highland regions with abundant vegetation in the summer. The intensity of radiation is low in winter with a high percentage of diffuse radiation. In summer, the maximum ambient temperatures are in the range of 20–30 C during the day and 17–27 C at night, making summers quite pleasant.
Cold and Cloudy
In winter, the values range from -7 to 8 degrees Celsius during the day and -14 to 0 degrees Celsius in the dark. Winters thus are extremely cold. The low relative humidity, ranging from about 10–50%, and less precipitation than 200 mm per year, marks this type of climate. The sky is fairly clear throughout the year with a cloudiness of but 50%. In winter, the values range between 4 and eight degrees Celsius during the day and -3 to 4 degrees Celsius in the dark, making it chilly.
The ratio is usually high and ranges from 70 to 80%. Annual total precipitation of 1000 mm is disturbed uniformly throughout the year. The sky is overcast for most of the year except during the brief summer.
Physiological Objectives
The main criteria for design in both climate regionalism at resisting heat loss by insulation and infiltration and promoting heat gain by directly admitting and trapping solar radiation within the living space.
Design Considerations for a Climate Zone
Building Orientation
The building should be located on the South slope of a hill or mountain for better access to solar radiation. Cold winds can be avoided by locating the buildings on the leeward side.
Form and Planning
In cold climates, indoor air is cooled within the process of it flowing from inside to outside. This could lead to excessive water vapor condensation if not considered during the design. Air-tight construction should be considered as it will help in capturing hot air inside the building envelope and prevent cold air from entering it.
Open spaces must be shielded from prevailing cold wind. Interior spaces inside the building need to be zoned based on the needs of each space regarding the solar and ventilation requirements.
Building Envelopes
Roof and walls
The walls should be insulated. The South-facing walls (exposed to solar radiation) could be of thermal capacity (such as Trombe wall) to store daytime heat for later use. An efficiently designed sloping roof enables quick drainage of rainwater & snow. Skylights with shutters on the roof admit heat and lights in winter.
One must style the building to face up to the additional weight of snow (if it is a snowy region) and/or to make sure it would not create puddles that will cause leakage, and worst-case scenario, the collapse of the roof. Rooms with very high ceilings must be avoided as heat travels up and it will be wasted where none can feel it.
Colour and Texture
The external surfaces should be dark so that they absorb heat from the sun. Especially the roof should be painted with darker colors as dark colors absorb heat and allow to passively warm the inside of the building.
Fenestration and Ventilation
In colder climates, windows can be allies and foes at the same time: If too many windows are put, one loses heat, and if too few are put, one would not receive any heat from the sun. The windows must be placed strategically, facing the sun (north, when building within the hemisphere, and South when building north of the equator). It is advisable to have a maximum window area on the Southern side of the building to facilitate heat gain.
Glass with low thermal transmittances, like hermetically sealed double glass, must be preferred. Sealed and double-glazed windows help reduce heat loss. Skylights are also a good option, as they bring in more natural light (sometimes scarce in colder regions) and are easier to point to the sun.
Doors and windows should all be completely airtight to form the use of passive heating and to prevent the heat from leaking back out. The more layers of glass, the higher the window is at trapping interior heat and preventing outdoor air from entering.
Entrances
Entryways are often a blessing or a curse, counting on the quantity of shelter they supply. Trying to get in the front door during a snowstorm will be a hassle unless the entrance is covered. Covered outdoor spaces will help protect against the weather and stop snow accumulation in walking areas.
Covered entrances and open spaces prevent excessive cold air from disrupting the comfort of the users while entering or exiting the building. Recessed entryways help protect the doorway from prevailing winds.
Pathways
Snow melting systems, also called radiant heat systems, are useful in cold climates. The cables or mats are installed beneath the sidewalks or driveway and use radiation to supply enough heat to melt snow to give a steer a secure path.
External Staircases
Ice and snow are often a serious hazard when it falls on stairs. Poor weather makes climbing stairs dangerous. Handrails must be strategically placed along outdoor stairways in order to stabilize as you walk.
Insulation
Insulation is one of the foremost important features to think about when designing for a chilly climate. All insulation configurations are not made equal, and what works for one climate might not work for the opposite, which is why choosing the right insulation becomes important.
Condensation
One has to make sure that walls, roofs, and floors do not condensate in-between; different configurations using equivalent materials may result in very different condensation patterns. Differences between the surface temperature and therefore the surface temperature of the weather during a configuration causes condensation to take place.
Thermal Transmittance
One has to make sure that walls, roof, and floor configurations are appropriate for the climate. Colder climates enjoy a really low thermal transmittance, expressed in W/m2K; meaning configuration must transmit rock bottom quantity of warmth possible.
Daylight Integration
Make the foremost out of the available natural light on the location and style openings to let in maximum light. Use of glass facades and roofs for appropriate daylighting for spaces that need the lightest.
Shading
Cold climates often need highly glazed facades for max natural lighting. Right shading systems got to be designed to scale back the cooling demands of a building. Installation of automatically controlled shading systems helps the users choose the proper amount of shade required at the proper time. Roofs must even be shielded from direct radiation through coatings, vegetation, and so on.
Ex: Overhangs, Louvres, Awnings, vegetation, and so on.
Materials
Insulating materials like timber and dirt plaster are often used on the walls to make facades that prevent heat loss in the maximum amount possible. Timber paneled walls and windows help reduce the speed of transfer of warmth and also are mostly available in cold climatic spaces.
Landscaping
Use trees as natural wind barriers or buffers by planting them near windows to dam cold air from entering the building. Plants and trees chosen for landscaping must be ready to survive the tough climatic differences.
Other Thermal Strategies
The heat from existing appliances inside the building, like the burner and fireplaces, must be efficiently used.
Rock beds help increase the thermal mass of the building by making use of existing heat to make more heat.
Earth berms, that is, utilizing earth against building walls to scale back the quantity of warmth loss from inside the building.
Sunspaces help store solar heat centrally for uniform distribution into all spaces inside the building.
Conclusion
With a chilly climate passive design, the focus is on retaining the warmth gained by the building. That doesn’t deduct from the very fact that there got to be strategies to assist prevent unwanted climatic differences.
Finding the proper balance between both the requirements of the building is where lies the success of the planning.
October 29, 2024
Facade Cladding Systems: Is Cladding Important for Energy Efficient Structures?
The cladding of structures is one of the most suggestive and complex points in any structural design. The facade surely is an elegant element of the structure, but the part it plays in reducing the structure’s energy consumption, perfecting natural lighting, and offering a better tailwind within the structure is also noteworthy.
Several concrete jungles are cropping up almost everywhere around us, and designers now got to check out a more holistic strategy when it involves designing facade cladding systems. Over the last couple of times, facade engineering has gained a lot of significance and fashionability, further and further structure systems are now incorporating cladding systems into their design.
Choosing the right building Facade Cladding System
Getting facade construction right is extremely important as it will considerably affect the structure’s lighting, heating, and ventilation. While many factors require consideration in building a facade, one among the foremost daunting ones is–Choosing the proper material. Also, your decision on the proper facade material must be made after considering a variety of things, like:
- Water-Resistant
- Energy Efficiency
- Aesthetics & Texture
- Versatility
- Eco-Friendly
- Durability
- Cost
Different Facade Systems
ACM (Aluminium Composite Material)
Photo by Architectural Cladding Modern Façade Systems
ACM or aluminium composite material is a type of high-strength coating that comprises a three-layer panel with two pre-painted aluminum plates connected to a polyethylene core (PE). ACM panels are applied to interiors and exteriors, with good dimensional stability, low weight, and a chic appearance that will have endless colors and textures.
Stone Façade
Photo by Cultured Stone
The Stone cladding system is one of the most expensive building facade cladding systems. They are available in 2 different options, real stone, and pretend stone. Installation of stone facades may be a very labor-intensive process drives up the value. This cladding system gives a really expensive and natural look to the building structure and it also carries higher lasting value. These also are immune to extreme temperatures, moisture, fire, and insects and also require zero maintenance.
Metal Façade
Photo by Architizer
Metal facade claddings are more commonly utilized in retro and modern styles sort of buildings. Aluminum and steel facade cladding are the foremost common metals used here. Starting with the plus points, metals are safe from water damage as they are doing not mold or rot. They require very less maintenance, do not fade, are eco-friendly, and are fire & insect resistant. Now the negatives, if these aren’t sealed and finished properly it can cause discoloration and rust. Aluminum facade cladding being a soft metal is prone to dents from rocks, baseballs, and rocks. Coming to the steel facade cladding, these are heavy, hence requiring more installation time increasing the general cost.
Wood Façade
Photo by Architizer
Wooden cladding systems are available in shingles and planks. The wood used for this sort of cladding usually comes from cedar, pine, and oak trees. Wood is an environment-friendly option, and it also offers good insulation, durability, and weather resistance. But when it involves maintenance, wood demands more maintenance, which is an annual yearly chemical treatment to cover against termites.
Clay Façade
Photo by Andrew Prokos
Clay facades are environmentally friendly and hard modern facade that enhances the worth and therefore the design aspect of the building structure. Clay facades aren’t only beautiful to seem but also have many advantages over the opposite facade materials, like durability, minimal maintenance, thermal insulation, long-lasting and immune to the weather. They also offer an everlasting appeal. Clay facades are a popular choice of architects who want to leave their environment-friendly thumbprint in the world.
Argemax Façade
Photo by Twitter
Argemax Facades are made from composite fiber panels; these are an innovative alternative to contemporary facade materials. Argemax facades are large format panels that may be easily converted into any size or shape, providing you with many design choices. These panels offer a spread of advantages: low tide absorption, zero warpage, high strength, fire resistance, dry cladding, simple installation, and zero maintenance are few to call.
Ceramics
Photo by Architizer
Ceramics are formed through the burning of clay. Most modern processes add several other components to the mixture, resulting in extremely sturdy products which can take on any shape. The Coverlam products from Grespania include a 0.5 mm fiberglass mesh that leaves the fabrication of pieces of up to 1000 x 3000 mm, which may be installed on the metal mounts of ventilated facades.
Natural Slate
Photo by Cupa Pizarras
With shades starting from dark gray to black, natural stone facades like slate give sobriety and class to any facade. In addition, the fabric adds thermal comfort and simple installation for ventilated facades. The slate supports extreme temperatures, barely accumulates snow, has fire resistance, and is completely waterproof. In addition, because it is 100% natural, it has a reduced environmental impact, and each piece is made by hand without chemicals or additional treatments.
Anodized aluminium Façade cladding
Photo by Pinterest
The process of anodizing consists of “making an oxide film on certain metals through immersion in an electrolytic bath during which the metal to anodise is attached to the positive pole of a source of electricity, turning into the anode of the electrolytic Cuba.”
Precast Concrete Panel Façade
Photo by Archello
Precast concrete panels are known for their quick and easy installation, resilience to weather, and as an affordable, sustainable option in new builds. They take a “functional aesthetics” approach, meaning they consider performance and appearance equal.
Green Facades
Photo by Archdaily
Green facades could be an unexpected category, but this contemporary facade design idea is capable of giving life to any space or structure. Vertical trellis panel and planter combinations can be a planted alternative to plastic and concrete barricades, plexiglass, or other hard surfaces, as they can also divide spaces. “Tree” and column wraps from greenscreen can create shade, filter light, and funky the encompassing air.
These facades are great for establishing different areas and settings in a physical space. They are often used on rooftops and courtyards to screen mechanical equipment, while restaurants use them to make boundaries between outdoor seating spaces and public walkways. These are often customized to suit needing by cutting at angles, notching, and curving.
Conclusion
In addition to these options, there are still several other options of cladding materials for facades. When making the selection, it’s important to think about whether the fabric meets the functional and performance requirements for the project, its resistance, the way it’ll behave over time, as well as the desired aesthetics.
October 29, 2024
Dharavi: The World’s Largest Slum right in the heart of Mumbai
Slum creation is so widespread that we may speak of it as a trend in architecture. The architectural debate won’t go there often, as there are not any glossy magazines, no cocktail table books, and no architectural institutions which promote its design and elegance, but the time is certainly ripe to look at the ways of buildings that provide housing to quite a billion people. This chapter is about the conditions under which slums (Dharavi) arise, the place of this style in architectural theory, and therefore its relevance to the planning profession.
Slums and their formation
Slums develop during high urbanization. The influx of labor from the countryside to the town goes far beyond the housing and absorption capacity of the town. Industrialization may be a powerful driver of urbanization. During the economic revolution, many slums emerged in Western cities. People lived in high-density factory towns, under miserable conditions. This side effect of the economic revolution was overcome by introducing legislation that set conditions on the standard of housing. In addition, many manufacturers arranged an honest home for their employees.
Violence is another major explanation for migration. Besides the flow of migrants from rural to urban, the migration of refugees may be a major explanation for slums. One difference between groups who migrate because of urbanization and who migrate because of violence is that folks within the first group prefer to migrate at a selected moment, while the latter is on just one occasion forced to go away, thanks to circumstances. This migration is a result of natural disasters or human violence.
Natural disasters like volcanic eruptions, floods, and wars drive people from their homes. If the home is not already destroyed, a life-threatening situation is a reason enough to migrate. By its nature, the forced displacement of a refugee means a neighborhood of the gained property can’t be brought within the migration. In the hurry, refugees take all which will be taken. A rural migrant features a better starting position. Possessions are often taken and purchased assets are often sold. The motive for economic migration is the lure of the town. The motive of expulsion is a reason for refugees to migrate.
The third type of migrants that feed into slum formation is caused by deportations. These forced migrations are literally a mixture of the previous two forms. Under its segregation policy, the apartheid regime in South Africa forced many native Africans to go away from their territory. They came up in townships like Soweto near Johannesburg and, therefore, the Cape Flats in Cape Town. Under an equivalent regime, many forced removals to the so-called ‘homelands’ happened, which has led to acute overcrowding.
About Dharavi
The Dharavi slum came into being in 1884. It had been originally inhabited by fisherfolk when the world was still creeks, swamps. It became attractive to migrant workers from South Mumbai et al. when the swamp filled in thanks to natural and man-made causes. The world grew as poor rural Indians migrated to urban Mumbai.
History
Pre-Colonial era
Before colonial rule, the Koli fishing community had settled at the northernmost tip of the island of Parel. Their community was right next to the Mahim Creek, which provided their livelihood for hundreds of years. Remember, this is often the pre-colonial Bombay- a gaggle of seven islands on the coast of the Arabian Sea .
Colonial Era
In the 16th Century, the Portuguese colonists built a little fort and church at Bandra, the shore opposite to Dharavi, but didn’t interfere with the Koli fishermen community. In 1737, the British built the Riwa Fort at Dharavi, also referred to as the Kala Qila, on the orders of their second British Governor of Bombay, Gerald Aungier. The fort served British forces as a watchtower, guarding them against any attacks from the Portuguese or the Marathas.
The turning point within the history of Dharavi came within the 18th century, when the swamps of Bombay were reclaimed. All the seven islands were joined into one landmass, with Parel on its outskirts.
The Mahim Creek dried up soon afterward because of the reclamation project. The Koli community had lost their source of livelihood and dispersed towards brighter locations.
Post-independence
At India’s independence from colonial rule out 1947, Dharavi had grown to be the most important slum in Bombay and every one of India. It still had a couple of empty spaces, which continued to function as waste-dumping grounds for operators across the town. Meanwhile, Bombay continued to grow as a city. Soon Dharavi was surrounded by the town and became a key hub for the informal economy. Ranging from the 1950s, proposals for Dharavi redevelopment plans periodically came out, but most of those plans failed because of a scarcity of monetary and banking and/or political support.
Population of Dharavi
Photo by Cool Geography
Dharavi covers a neighborhood of only 2.1 square kilometers, which is home to about 1 million folks that come from a good range of religions, races, and castes- many of whom are second-generation dwellers. While this might sound sort of nightmare for countries that boast a way lower population density, the people of Dharavi sleep in perfect harmony, making the slum an epitome of secularism.
Children running through anthropometrically incorrect narrow alleys, open drains, and garbage dumps during a sloppy settlement may be a visual often seen in many Bollywood and Hollywood films- a still usually captured during this mangrove-turned-squatter jungle to portray Mumbai or maybe the whole country of India.
Dharavi’s socio-economic status
Photo by Dreamstime.com
Dharavi is on the brink of the Bandra Kurla Complex, which is one of the richest business hubs in Asia. Its propinquity to Mumbai’s two main suburban rail lines makes it accessible for people to go to work. It’s a multi-religious, multi-ethnic, and different agreement. Dharavi is said to be one of the most literate slums in India, with a literacy rate of 69%, according to Wikipedia.
The commercial sector of Dharavi is home to varied, thriving small businesses belonging to people of various backgrounds. Dharavi’s massive annual turnover results from about 20,000 single-room factories, terracotta potters, plastic recyclers, metalsmiths, embroidery workers, leather tanners, and even the papad-drying business and so on.
Products made in Dharavi are not just distributed all over the country but are even exported to markets abroad such as the United States and the UAE. In fact, the widespread concept of “small-business” that exists around the globe today prevailed in Dharavi much before it became popular. Today, several businesses like these operate successfully out of Dharavi through online ventures.
Condition of Dharavi
Photo by Unsplash
The entire residential district lacks any kind of infrastructure, like roads, public conveniences, and toilets. With an average of 1 toilet per 500, most residents use alleys or the local river as a toilet, even though the river is also a source of Dharavi’s freshwater. Open sewers become playgrounds for children, while dead rats line the alleyways, and live ones run up and down.
Dharavi has experienced severe public health problems, with an extended history of epidemics and other disasters. Dharavi has suffered from many epidemics and other disasters, including a widespread plague in 1896, which killed over half the population of Mumbai. While India’s anticipation is 67 years, the typical lifetime in Dharavi is a smaller amount than 60. Virtually all housing has been constructed illegally and is extremely crowded and little. Each tiny bedroom accommodates up to 5 people.
Sanitation of Dharavi
Sanitation is one of the most important concerns of this settlement because the mangrove streams that run through the fishing village are replaced by sewer lines and contaminated streams. To one’s surprise, according to a study done in 2006, there is only one toilet per 1440 people in this settlement. This scarcity in sanitation facilities has led to the contamination of the Mahim creek that runs through Dharavi, which has been heavily polluted by sewage and garbage, which also adversely affects other parts of the town that the creek flows through, ultimately resulting in the contamination of the Mahim Bay.
Dharavi’s rise to fame
The movie industry has played a key role in bringing this slum to prominence. It was featured in films just like the Oscar-winning Slumdog Millionaire and therefore the newer Gully Boy.
Dharavi plays host to tourists who need a whiff of what life is like for slum-dwellers in India. Tours for tourists are organized through the narrow alleyways of the slum to showcase the recent business hub that it’s become over the past few years. The sprawling Dharavi became the favorite tourist experience of 2019 in India and even beat the Taj Mahal, says travel site TripAdvisor’s Travellers’ Choice Awards.
Dharavi and Redevelopment Concepts
Character of Dharavi
The residents of Dharavi are not any different from other city dwellers -their way of living is nearly as progressive as the average Mumbaikars. Every household features a continuous supply of electricity, a gas range, a mean cable connection, and slowly most of the residences are being accommodated with air conditioners, which is actually a luxury commodity.
One of the difficulties in proposing redevelopment plans for Dharavi is the unique and inherent character of its urban fabric. In fact, most buildings in Dharavi are designed verbally, with no architectural drawings. The general trend through Dharavi is that the client verbally expresses his needs and in response to it, the contractor verbally explains the design to the labour- a practice indigenous to the present slum.
Redevelopment Proposals
On several occasions throughout its history, many national, as well as international establishments, have proposed plans to redevelop and upgrade the slum. However, none of these redevelopment plans have been welcomed by the residents of Dharavi, as they seem to be quite comfortable and content with their lifestyle.
Most redevelopment concepts include the development of social housing within the sort of apartment buildings to exchange the individual slum dwellings on each plot of land, which is essentially a profit-driven motive for the builder. This would mean the abolishment of industries like plastic recycling and pottery, which is the main reason for the Dharavi-ites’ opposition regarding such plans.
Conclusion
It surely seems tempting for the government to succumb to the temptation of such development projects. But history shows that they are invariably heartless failures. Usually, former slum residents usually get boxed up into characterless apartment blocks. The whole sense of community is lost. And major industries like pottery and recycling disappear into piles of papers.
It would be far more humane to supply slum residents with adequate infrastructure, including titles to the property they occupy, and help them pack up the slum. De-slumification might then occur naturally in tandem with economic development, and obviate the necessity for simply demolishing whole communities.
October 29, 2024
Design Projects with Social Impact: 11 Buildings Making Effective Impact on Society
In all phases of our education, we’ve heard and realized the reality within the saying ‘Rome wasn’t inbuilt a day. Architects always progress in their design step-by-step, reviewing, changing, and improvising whenever.
The role of architects and their work in shaping communities has been much debated over the years. And though it’s since been proven that its influence isn’t as direct and complete as once thought, there’s little question that architecture influences communities in different ways.
Similarly, architecture may not have a social impact on the world in one single moment, but it surely has the power to influence the surroundings, little by little, every day. From changing the smallest element in design to shaping and designing large spaces, architects find out the ideas of moulding society in different ways.
Let’s discuss some of such projects built in India.
Design Projects That Are Making Serious Social Impact
Kalkeri Learning Centre, Kalkeri, Karnataka
Kalkeri Sangeet Vidyalaya is found in a quiet valley near the town of Dharwad in Karnataka, South India.
Established on three acres of land a brief distance from Kalkeri Village, the varsity comprises straightforward buildings made up of traditional materials. In this peaceful setting, the youngsters enjoy the tranquillity necessary for their academic studies, music practice, and humanistic discipline activities.
The intent was to make an adaptable set of spaces for the youngsters, within the constraints of a decent budget, logistics, and available resources. It was an exercise in creating a learning environment that’s resilient, energy-efficient, and richly layered while building in scalability and replicability.
Over 200 children and shut to 100 staff and volunteers use the training complex as a hub of daily activity. While the spaces are used as art workrooms, library, and staff spaces, the semi-enclosed spaces are regularly used as out-of-door classrooms for music and theatre, community meetings, and improvisational performance spaces.
Kutch Earthquake Rehabilitation, Kutch, Gujrat
Bhuj was hit by a deadly earthquake in 2001. The state government didn’t have guidelines for construction on earth technologies which meant that the affected villages couldn’t rebuild in their traditional format.
Hunnarshala, together with the government, tested earth technologies and helped issue guidelines for the same. Later they also worked towards issuing technical building guidelines for un-stabilized earth technologies.
Along with the guidelines, a manual for masons in Gujarati was prepared to educate them about safe construction practices. These technical guidelines and manuals enabled over 100 villages to rebuild using earth technologies.
Hunnarshala along with other partner organizations of Abhiyan, like Kutch Mahila Vikas Sangathan (KMVS) worked closely together to train the rural population in Bhunga construction so that they could rebuild their homes in a way that did not compromise on safety also as their cultural expression.
Avadh Shilpgram, Lucknow, India
Genrally, urban bazaars’ architecture works on a scheme of a mélange. The visual mélange produces an architectural scenario for the activity of leisure and pleasure, an indulgence in shopping also because of the feeling of partaking in actions associated with craft and culture. It creates a civic compass that inserts itself within a distinct reality; like in a recreation demesne, a bubble of reality within the everyday reality of the megacity outdoors.
During the planning process, the layout of the twenty-acre Awadh Shilpgram developed organically from the commercial, cultural, social, and leisurely interactions of individuals.
An elliptical form enables a smooth corner-free rotation; it narrows down while twisting inward and emulates the viscosity and sprightliness of the Lucknowi Stores of yesterday’s; the stores with the thoroughfares that got precipitously narrower. The built environment is an interpretative collage, a gesture of saluting the unique traditional architecture of the Roomi Darwaza and, therefore, the Imambaras.
Sufficient daylighting, proper cross ventilation further adds the dimension of comfort to the design. Its articulation has been realized through a contemporary interpretation of traditional rudiments of bends and Jaalis.
The unique concept alongside the shape, scale, materials, and elements that render the architecture give an iconic building to the town of Nawabs and therefore the people of Lucknow.
Aranya Housing, Indore, Madhya Pradesh
Photo by Architecture in Development
Indore, India, within the early 1980s, was facing a shortage of housing. It had been estimated that roughly families were homeless or living in illegal agreements. The Indore Development Authority initiated a reasonable public housing for 60,000 folks that would tackle this issue and at an equivalent time be affordable to the govt and concrete poor.
Previous efforts by the government to supply low-cost urban housing in India were aimed at supplying ready-built units. Still, it took too long to construct a complete house, and it came precious for the low- income group and also ate up too numerous coffers.
A rectilinear point of 86 hectares was designed to accommodate over 6500 residences, largely for the Weaker Profitable Section. This was an integrated approach for ‘a sustainable society’ where the combination of various economic levels of society could stick together .
Aranya Low-Cost Housing accommodates over 80,000 individuals through a system of homes, courtyards, and a labyrinth of internal pathways. The community comprises over 6,500 residences, amongst six sectors–each of which features a variety of housing options, from modest one-room units to spacious houses, to accommodate a range of incomes.
Balkrishna Doshi says, “they are not houses but homes where a happy community lives. That is what finally matters. It seems I should take an oath and commit it to memory for my lifetime: to supply rock bottom class with the right dwelling.”
Vikas Community Housing, Auroville, Tamil Nadu
Photo by Auroville
Vikas community housing built in 19992 till 1998 in Auroville is a type of incremental housing. In this community housing, the community kitchen was built first, then subsequently residential apartments. The creation of this community was supported the spirited lifestyle of Auroville’s ideal of life.
Environmentally appropriate materials, design, and methodologies are wont to build these environmentally conscious dwellings. Renewable energy also as advanced water management techniques, are incorporated into the project. Appropriate design and self-build methods have both been used in the project and funding of the project has mostly come from individuals who want to live there.
The project was inbuilt three phases: the primary was to create the collective kitchen and a block of 4 apartments, the second phase was for a block of six apartments, and therefore the third phase comprised a block of thirteen apartments on four floors plus some individual houses. Woodless construction methods have been used with 5 percent cement stabilization for compressed earth blocks, rammed earth, and other earth-based technologies.
M.A.C Community Centre, Tiruvannamalai, Tamil Nadu
The project originates from a partnership between Made in Earth and Terre des Hommes Core Trust, an ONG which takes care of youngsters in trouble (abandoned or orphans, disabled or abused), giving them a home, an education, and possibly following till thru the utilization age.
MiE and TdH share a technique made from small interventions to be spread everywhere in the region, so to make a network capable to multiply the positive effects of everyone.
The Community Hall (now M.A.C.) of Tiruvannamalai is one of the knots of this network. It’s an area where all the NGO community (children, parents, tutors) can gather together and also meet the opposite citizens of Tiruvannamalai. A place where the ONG opens itself to the entire town and tell its story: the building had to contain a permanent exhibition of the NGO evolution through the years, and occasionally guests’ public events.
The design approach of Made in Earth is relatively realistic and (conceivably) not tone-referential, which means trying not to put any pre-constituted idea this helps, for case, in the selection of the materials, that are chosen to keep in mind their cost and real vacuity, rather than a particular image of fantastic architecture.
The M.A.C. building (walls, pillars, roof) is simply made from one material, concrete. All blocks are handmade, with an assembling scheme that makes a sort of pattern while varying the wall density; the blocks are used also as a neighbourhood of the formwork for the pillars casting, then to quicken the method. But in the end, it reminds the & fashion, the great perforated defences of the traditional Indian architecture.
Valpoi Bus stand, Valpoi, Goa
Photo by Architects in Goa
This building was a response to a proposal by the government of Goa to construct a multi-utility public building in Valpoi. It had to include a Machine Stand, a Community Hall, and a Children’s Playground with a jogging track. The Building complex is required to be maintenance free and on a low budget, with all units independent in their operations, function, and administration.
Valpoi being nestled within the magnificent Western Ghats is usually frequented by a military of hovering clouds that carry with them an armor of lightning and thunder. The design tries to capture this wonder of nature. Valpoi faces a periodic downfall of 200 inches from June to October. The design evolved in response to the brief and, therefore, the climate. The plan thus is compact, less porous, yet open in its station, well breezy, and adequately lit.
The Community Hall
Through a maze of laterite wall passages, you reach the Community Hall, drinking you with its hugeness and silence. The scenery is minimum, the lighting cleverly restrained and the space wonderfully sublime.
The Children Park
Children’s Park, at the west end of the site, is a contrast in its attitude. The colors disaccord against themselves, fabricating purposeful chaos. The play outfit respects the chaos as “Child’s Play”. A well-leveled and paved walkway meanders around the play area and the estate, which when walked on unexpectedly covers half a kilometer, qualifying it to be Joggers Park too.
Shaam-e-Sarhad Village Resort, Hodka, Gujrat
Shaam-E-Sarhad village resort is an eco-resort inbuilt a Kutchi village-style setting using locally sourced materials and crafts of the region. A pastoral community in the grasslands of Banni, considered ‘backward’, built this resort to bring modern societies into their lives so that the community may sensitize them on the qualities of ‘living lightly on the land.
The resort, erected, run, and managed by the pastorals, is used as advocacy to espouse their values, which insist that commons make better economics than privatization; their knowledge systems in sustainable living, where it’s delicate to separate profession from custom and art.
Jetavan Centre, Sakharwadi, Maharashtra
Photo by Archdaily
The institute was conceptualized as a spiritual & skill development center for the native Baudh Ambedkar Buddhist community. The accreditation of Jetavana is to give a spiritual anchor for the practice of Buddhist allowed through contemplation and yoga while also conducting training and skill development for members of the community.
With the mandate of not harming one tree on-site, the sizable program was broken up into 6 buildings each situated in gaps between the heavy planting. Through the planning process, two courtyards emerged as links suturing these buildings into a standard identity.
The approach to the Jetavan project attempts to extend the idea of the regional paradigm whilst separating it from the pervasive ‘image’ of what defines the local. The construction process also sets out an approach that appears to develop construction techniques that supported local materiality, not necessarily used natively but appropriate for its context.
Narayantala Thakurdalan, Bansberia, West Bengal
Narayantala Thakurdalan, a concrete Hindu temple with a glazed corner that opens onto the road in Bansberia, West Bengal.
If all the glass doors are opened, the entire external corner is often opened to show the inside and therefore the plinth into a bigger haunt .
“This place of worship played a special role in each person’s lifestyle and this provided cues for the planning of the space,” added the studio.
The porous facade allows people to possess a visible reference to the shrine even in passant while maintaining a fanatical space for daily worship at a small remove from the bustling intersection.
The temple was completed in six months, from design to consummation. It hosted the community’s Durga Puja fests in October 2018. While the final outgrowth was well appreciated by the community, it must be noted that some feedback was entered where it was felt that the former structure, having had a long-term association with the members, sounded more ‘at home’ than the new bone.
Artists Village, Belapur, Mumbai
The design is characterized by the scale of spaces in terms of private and collaborative areas. Then 8 units partake in a common yard and three of these groups form a module with an ample quantum of green spaces to feed to the different requirements of the townies.
It is also an illustration of the incremental casing. The informal character of roads and common collaborative spaces give an identity that allowed enhanced relations that saved the substance of the village.
October 29, 2024
Megacity Singapore- A Fascinating Dream of Planner or Gleaming Dystopia?
About
Photo from Hyatt
Singapore is a sunny, tropical islet in Southeast Asia, off the southern tip of the Malay Peninsula. Singapore is a megacity, a nation, and a state. It’s about 275 square country miles, lower than the State of Rhode Island, and inhabited by five million people from four major communities; Chinese (maturity), Malay, Indian and Eurasian.
Since its independence on 9 August 1965, the country has espoused an administrative republic system. Presently, the government and the press are led by Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong while President Halimah Yacob is the Head of State.
Singapore is known as a City in a Garden and nearly 50 percent of the islet is green space. It’s a thriving megalopolis offering a world-class structure, a completely integrated islet-wide transport network, dynamic business terrain, vibrant living spaces, and a rich culture largely told by the four major communities in Singapore with each offering a different perspective of life in Singapore in terms of culture, religion, food, language, and history.
History
The story of urban planning in Singapore starts from further than 50 years ago. On 12 September 1965, shortly after Singapore had been cast out of the lately formed Malayan confederation and had latterly declared its own independence, Prime Minister Lee Kuan Yew stood before a crowd of city hall sympathizers and said, ‘We made this country from nothing, from mudflats! Ten years from now, this will be a metropolis. Never fear!’
By any mark, this was a bold prediction to make. Granted, 150 times of British social rule had created a thriving entrepôt around the port, a well- waxed civil service, and a rather graphic skyline of neoclassical and art deco piles clustered around the southern tip of the islet. But outside the central business quarter were mudflats and wetlands, and dirt-poor kampong townlets. Utmost of the population lived in squalid, crowded diggings. There was no dependable water force. In real terms, the average Singaporean in 1959 was as poor as the average American in 1860.
Against this sobering background – a megalopolis in a decade? Seemed impossible. But as history shows, Lee’s bold prediction came true.
History of Urban Planning
Urban planning in Singapore aims to optimize the use of the country’s scarce land coffers for the different requirements of both current and unborn generations of the population. It involves allocating land for contending uses similar to casing, commerce, assiduity, premises, transport, recreation, and defense, as well as determining the development viscosity for colorful locales. The way Singapore looks moment is, to a large extent, a result of the government’s effective perpetuation of its civic development plans, the most important of which is the Concept Plan and the Master Plan.
Colonial Town Planning (1819 – 1958)
Photo from Wikipedia
The first urban planning frame in Singapore began in 1822 when Sir Stamford Raffles returned to Singapore and saw the haphazard way the city center had grown. A Town Committee was formed to revise the layout of the agreement. The first detailed megacity plan for Singapore was known as the Jackson Plan, named after Lieutenant Philip Jackson, the agreement’s mastermind and land surveyor in charge of overseeing the islet’s development.
The Jackson Plan guided the growth of the megacity eight times, but the opening of the Suez Canal in 1869 brought more vessels and people to the islet, performing in overcrowded, dirty slums, poor hygiene, and sanitation in the megacity area.
In 1927, the Singapore Improvement Trust (SIT) was set up by the British social government to address the problem of urbanization and ameliorate the physical terrain of the megacity. The SIT worked to widen roads to manage the adding quantum of vehicles, created open spaces, and put in place ultramodern sanitation. Still, it could only make incremental development, as it had no authority to draw up comprehensive plans and control development.
By 1953, the social government realized the dire need for an overall plan to guide the physical growth of Singapore. This redounded in the 1958 statutory Master Plan that regulated land use through zoning, viscosity, and plot rate controls, and reserving lands for colorful amenities. The Planning Constitution, which is now known as the Planning Act, was enforced on 1 February 1960 to lay down the introductory legal frame controlling the use and development of land set out by the Master Plan.
Post-World War II Town Planning (1958 and 1965 Master Plan)
Photo from Singapore Sojourns
Singapore officially separated from Malaysia on 9 August 1965 and attained independence. As a new nation, the government had a new set of pretensions and precedences of public survival, achievement, making Singapore a global megacity. Survival was important to Singapore because of the communist competitions endured by the new administration in the early 1960s.
Also, the rapid-fire advance in information technology at the time made it essential for Singapore to come to a global megacity. These pretensions, combined with the drive to attain excellence collectively and organizationally as a new country, combine to produce the post-independence planning process.
Unlike the 1958 plan, post-independence planning was forcefully set within the boundaries of main and coastal plans. The need for profitable success was also urgently conveyed in the plans leading up to the 1980s. To this end, planning began to come to an institutionalized, professional act. Moxie was imported to prepare plans, specialist services were attained in the fields of planning, and the State and City Planning (SCP) Department was created.
The original professional staff was transferred overseas to be trained. Post-independence planning was characterized by egalitarian pretensions and icing optimal land use. The land was considered a scarce resource, and allocation of land was a collaborative or public act as opposed to an individual bone. The SCP was concentrated on optimization of the democracy’s land coffers and resolving disagreeing development proffers in the overall interest of the state for the common good.
The 1980s and 1990s
While Singapore’s development concentrated substantially on profitable success during the original post-independence times, as Singaporeans came richer in the 1980s, itineraries started taking into account quality of life factors. Fresh land within new municipalities was allocated for premises and open spaces, while auditoriums and common installations were incorporated into public casing estates to foster a sense of community between resides.
Also, from 1980, artificial planning shifted towards structure and areas suited for advanced value diligence, and artificial areas started to be constructed as” business premises”. These” business premises” had cleaner surroundings than before artificial areas.
The 2000s to present
Photo from Travel Triangle
Public discussion and feedback started playing a lesser part in Singapore’s civic planning from the early 2000s, and for the medication of the 2001 Concept Plan, focus groups were formed to bandy civic planning issues. The 2001 plan substantially concentrated on the quality of life, proposing further different domestic and recreational developments, and balancing the pretensions of liveability and profitable growth.
This included plans to make casing in mature estates, in the new town at Marina South, and at the western area of the islet. Green spaces would be expanded from 2000 to 4500 ha, with the opening of areas similar to Pulau Ubin and the Central Catchment Reserve, which will be accessible by Park Connectors. Sports installations will also be erected for recreational purposes, completing the opening of budgets, where residers can exercise and enjoy near access to nature.
The strategies to sustain a high-quality living environment include:
- Providing good affordable homes with a full range of amenities
- Integrating greenery into the living environment
- Providing greater mobility with enhanced transport connectivity
- Sustaining a vibrant economy with good jobs
- Ensuring room for growth and a good living environment in the future
Urban Systems for Liveability
Sustainable Mobility
Photo from Urban Redevelopment Authority (URA)
The “Lion City” has a character as one of the most strictly planned metropolises in the world. The LTMP 2040 aims for an accessible, presto, and well-connected transport network that can get residents around the megacity in 45 twinkles or less; an inclusive transport ecosystem; and a healthier, cleaner, greener transport terrain. One way they’ve been suitable to achieve and plan for such a cohesive structure is by using the Avoid- Shift- Improve (ASI) frame, a strategy that combines civic transport planning with land-use planning for the long run.
Avoid
The ASI frame aims to achieve GHG emigration reductions, reduced energy consumption, lower traffic, and generally more habitable metropolises. The first step, “avoid,” refers to perfecting the effectiveness of the transport system and reducing the need to travel. In Singapore, homes and businesses are being erected in advanced consistency near to metro stations, so it ’ll take no further than 20 twinkles for residents to travel from home to neighborhood centers.
Shift
The alternate step, “shift,” calls for a shift down from the most energy-consuming modes of transport, like buses, and towards further environmentally friendly modes, like walking, cycling, or public transport. For its part, Singapore has plans to develop a km islet-wide cycle track network by 2040, including a plenitude of places to situate your bike. Singapore’s public transport system is also excellent, and the megacity makes it easy to transfer between its 203 km of metro rail and its near motorcars via its effective chow card system.
Improve
Eventually, the third step, “Improve,” refers to sweats to ameliorate vehicle and energy effectiveness, as well as to optimize public transport structure. Singapore formerly plans to extend its metro rail network with newer and safer technology, as well as add further green motorcars to its being line over the coming decade, making it that much easier to choose public transportation over a passenger vehicle.
But Singapore takes it a step further and actually discourages auto power. The megacity places harsh conditions on both power and the use of particular vehicles. Anyone who wants to buy an auto needs to get a Certificate of Entitlement through a transaction process, which frequently tacks on charges equal to the price of an auto. Likewise, motorists have to pay road druggies charges that vary depending on the time of day.
Singapore is a perfect illustration of a megacity that has effectively combined transport and land-use plans with excellent public transport and disincentives in order to make the ASI frame function. As a result, Singapore has important cleaner air quality than numerous other Asian metropolises, as well as stronger profitable development and increased quality of life.
Sustainable Environment
Photo from EIAS
Singapore has come a long way on its trip towards sustainability. Over 50 times agone, Singapore was dirty and weakened, lacking proper sanitation and facing high severance. It was a small developing islet megacity- state with no natural coffers and faced an uncertain future after its unanticipated separation from Malaysia. Numerous were skeptical that Singapore could indeed survive on its own.
Singapore’s approach to sustainable development is guided by three crucial principles:
- an intertwined approach and long- term strategic planning;
- Investments in R&D and innovative results; and
- forging partnerships.
Through an alliance known as the Singapore Sustainability Alliance, a marquee conforming of government groups, non-governmental associations, and tutoring institutions, Singapore has been suitable to come up with programs that produce a sustainable terrain. Other than this, the alliance has overseen the relinquishment of systems that include proper water use, renewable energy, energy effectiveness, waste operation, etc. which have significantly better business growth.
Conclusion
One of the reasons that Singapore proves to be such a magnet as a home is the ease of living, particularly in terms of hearthstone, transportation, and governance system. Over time, Singapore has made significant strides in numerous areas and has attracted an encouraging number of transnational accolades, which fete the megacity as vibrant and world-class.
So whether it’s the trades and artistic exchanges, the creation of slice- edge invention to enrich the lives of the communities at home or abroad, or the coming together of world-class minds to spark new business openings locally and internationally, Singapore is simply, the place where worlds meet.
October 29, 2024