Designing a School in Africa-Part 2

Stage 1: Site Study

Since the proposed school can be located in any out of a list of countries in Africa, we were not given a specific site. So, we had to work with two points of focus:

1. The site was in Africa
ii. It had tropical savannah climate.

It doesn't sound like much, but even something like this can take lots of research.

First of all, I have never been to Africa. Nor do I know anything about it's architecture. I was relying on the Internet, and the Internet can be pretty annoying sometimes.

Let's start out with the first point. Africa. What does that mean? What needs to be studied?

What I did first was study the traditional forms of architecture that prevail in Africa. No matter how modern we become, it's not very respectful to replace thousands of years of knowledge with just a few decades of technological know-how. If Africans have been building their structures a certain way for a long time, there must be a reason for it.

One of my sources was africanvernaculararchitecture.com. Following are some pictures which might help you get a better understanding of architecture in Africa:

I didn't go much into the details at the pictures stage, because sometimes, not knowing too much helps you learn. For example, from here I learnt  (without readind a single line of text), that mud would be a more feasible building material than bamboo (which would have been ideal for, say, Bali). Also, I learnt that that there's a fluidity in vernacular architecture design, that voids in the walls are a repeating characteristic, thatch-roofing may just work etc. These were just clues picked up by my subconscious.

But the pictures couldn't dictate my design. My design needed to be my own, and to make informed decisions regarding my design, I started with the online research phase. And this included lots and lots of text.

The truth is that this stage can go on forever. There's no end. You might be halfway through drafting your design and then you go, Oh, can this tree really be here? And that leads to an hour on the Internet researching the fauna of Africa.

So, what did I learn during this stage?

1. That I was right. Mud really is my best friend. I decided to go with adobe brick construction with mud plastering.
2. That Africa isn't the jungle we all believe it to be. In fact, it's got lots of grasslands and deserts, which meant that picking out trees would be a task.
3. Walled compounds fit better with the context.
4. Water is a huge problem in Africa, which meant finding a solution to provide drinking water for the students in the school.

Four points of focus. That's enough to work with for now. Stay tuned to know how these four points eventually affected my design.

Sources:
www.africanvernaculararchitecture.com
http://www.architectural-review.com/essays/the-fabulous-diversity-of-vernacular-architecture-along-the-west-coast-of-africa/8603280.article
Pinterest
and more....

Designing a School in Africa- Part 1

It's rare to see a girl doing her internship also participating in competitions. For a lot of architecture students in India, internships are the first away-from-home experience and that can be stressful for a lot of reasons. But my first such experience came a long time ago, and now, coming to an unfamiliar environment isn't quite unfamiliar anymore. Also, after eight years, I returned to Delhi for my internship, and even though I found the city to be quite different this time around, I was also more at home than my classmates. I discovered I had enough time to work and cook and clean and participate in a couple of competitions.

The first one was IGBC Design Competion, for a theme to design GREEN TRANSIT SHELTERS FOR CONSTRUCTION SHELTERS. Our team lost, but that's okay because this was my first competition, and my first experience designing something with joy. Before submission, I was happy with my work, and the truth is that it helped me learn a lot. Sometimes, I believe that the fear of being judged at vivas keeps us from taking risks with our designs. When that fear is gone, we're all capable of more creativity than we know. Was our design perfect? Of course not. Frankly, it sucked. But I learnt a lot nevertheless.

After IGBC was over, I started looking for more competitions. My criteria were i. Nothing too big (like IT Park in Silicon Valley or Human Shelter on the Freaking Moon) and ii. Nothing that has a registration fee. I came across this competition that was open to all and taking place on an international platform. It was to design a school in the tropical savannah climate of Africa. I had just helped out with the design of Takhel Children's Home, and this was something similar. So, I decided this was what would keep me occupied for the next month.

I knew I wouldn't be able to give the competition the time it deserved, because I was just a month away from the deadline. But sometimes it really is more important to just learn.

The countdown has begun. Submission is two weeks away and I am almost finished with my work. Now it's all just photoshop and rendering and presentation.

For the next two weeks, I will be blogging about the process that went into designing the school. I don't know if it will be helpful to anyone but I hope it is. Think of it as my guide to designing a school in Africa. I'll be talking about the research that went into it and my own thought process and ideas. From the study stage, I'll move to the concept stage and then on to the final stage, where I'll show you the sheets I prepared.

Stay tuned for more.

Shelter for Construction Workers- A Concept

Here's another concept for temporary housing made by a couple of my classmates.

(Click for full size image.)

My Model Making Skills

I've already lamented over the inevitability of making miodels as an arhcitecture student. I hoped that this semester, with it being my internship and all, I'd get a break from making models. However, what happened was the complete opposite because I ended up making the biggest model of my life.

Presenting my model of Takhel Children's home:

Materials used: Thermocol, sunboard, bamboo sticks
Time taken: 1.5 weeks

Movies About Art and Architecture

To be frank, art and architecture, especially art and architecture schools, don't feature very prominently in the film business, which explains my excitement upon finding any reference to architecture as a course or profession in a movie. I have complied this list with a great amount of difficulty, and if you are lucky enough to know a few more names, please leave it them in the comments section.

1. In Which Annie Gives it To Those Ones

A lot of people don't know that writer, Man Booker Prize winner and activist Arundhati Roy actually made graduated from School of Planning and Architecture, New Delhi. She served as scriptwrited for this movie and even acted in it. The movie is about Annie, a student who has been failing his final year thesis for the past five years. He spends most of his time fantasizing about innovative solutions that may or may not be practical, but can't graduate. The film has a variety of interesting characters, each of which you can identify with in case you are an architecture student. Also, this movie feature Shah Rukh Khan's first credited role and it's fun to spot him sitting bored and possibly high in a smoke-filled room, surrounded by guitar strumming classmates. Unfortunately, no good prints are available and the movie can only be caught once in a while on Doordarshan.

2. Art School Confidential

This is not a very famous movie, and I caught it on TV once. It stars Max Minghella, whom you may recognize as Diya Bharati from The Social Network. All I can say is deserves to be more famous. It has a quiet, dark sense of humour that is missing in the age of Hangover sequels. Then there's a mystery brewing underneath all the humor, and you can't guess the ending until it's too late. Mostly, it's about an art student who just wants to make beautiful paintings. But upon entering art school, he discovers that the art works may be a little bit more pretentious that he ever imagined. My favourite lines from the film are as follows:

Student: (eyeing framed paintings of simple triangles on teacher's office walls) So...how long have you been making triangles?

Teacher: (wearing an it-takes-time-and-hard-work-kid expression) Twenty years.

3. (500) Days of Summer

This was not a movie about architecture per se, but Joseph Gordon Levitt's character's foray back into architecture is key to the storyline. He's a naive guy who's qualified to be an architect but designs greeting cards instead, and following a break-up with Summer (with whom he's more infatuated with than in love with), he's faced with growing up and getting his priorities back in order. There are scenes with him putting together his architectural portfolio, drawing his favorite building on Sumeer's arm and going for an interview at an architectural firm. The fact that being an architect is put up on a pedastal in this movie made me feel great about myself, of course, and you must watch this movie for some great simplistic visual effects.

Architecture In Old Town, Innsbruck

I have already told you something about modern architecture in Innsbruck. Now it's time to discuss the architecture in the older parts of town.

Old Town, Innsbruck attracts thousands of tourists every year, and I can see why. Think of a colourful, historic square framed by snow-capped mountains. Now I was there in summer, so of course I saw no snow, but that didn't make the place any less charming. Unfortunately, like I have said before, I was only there for a day, so I had very little time to explore. Here I have done my best to document the superficial architectural features I noted in Old Town and I would really appreciate it if anyone can add to my observations.

Me and my mom in Old Town

The architecture in the Alpine parts of Innsbruck tends to be very colorful. I guess it's because when it snows, the architecture becomes the only source of color in the landscape. I am a huge fan of color, and that's why I took a liking to the buildings here.

Just look at all the color:

The first building of note is the Golden Dachl, a royal box constructed by Emperor Mixmilian I and decorated with exactly 2,657 fire-gilded copper tiles. I didn't find it especially exciting in terms of massing or elevation design, but the colorful exterior, complete with a mural featuring the king and his two wives, makes for a colorful display in the city centre. Murals in the exterior are, according to me, an ignored form of architectural decoration, and I fully encourage it.

The Golden Dachl

The second building on note is Helblinghaus, and it is an architectural specimen representing several architectural movements as it was renovated several times over the centuries, with many additions.

Helblinghaus, which stands right across Golden Dachl

I didn't get to see the interior, but what's fascinating about the exterior is the 'icing' like decorative mouldings, a characteristic of Rococo style as seen in the Tyrolean region. For more information, go here.

A characteristic of the streets here, besides the burst of colours, is the verticality of buildings that enclose it. Just picture narrow street with narrow, high buildings on either side, each with it's own unique facade. Most of these streets open out to a square (a planning feature ignored in recent times, due to vehicular traffic etc.).

Streets of Innsbruck

In terms of structure, you see ample number of pointed arches, vaulted ceilings (especially ribbed vault). Glass windows sans sunshades are common for obvious climatic reasons, and their colors and shapes are varied for elevation design.

That's all for now. Stay tuned to the blog for more architectural information I gather on my travels.

Takhel Children's Home- A School for the Differently Abled in Manipur

Our firm designed this school in Takhel, Manipur. It's the first design I've helped out with from start to finish. it's currently in the presentations stage, which means that a lot of changes are yet to happen, but this is our first presentation. I made pretty much everything in presentation. The views are not yet Photoshopped, but they give an idea of the design.

Click on images for full size.