An Urban Repository
A Scaffold amongst the trees
Architectural Design Studio
Studio 3
The forests of Vrindavan have been an integral part of the myths and stories of the city. Today however, the foliage of these forests has receded and in parts been commercialized for religious purposes. The project intends to create spaces that grow and are timeless in nature. It looks at the daily rituals, activities of people and dissects these cycles of time into varying scales - from daily to mythic time cycles. Inferring the nature of these activities then leads to formulation of spaces which then gives shape to the building. The design starts off with the intent of recreating the idea of a timeless space for the city of Vrindavan, a forest and design spaces for the community that would participate in the act of growing it. To create an ecosystem of activities that function in conjunction with each other and helps create a scaffold nestled amongst the trees, alongside the Yamuna river.
Vrindavan, India
2018
Mentors - Jude Dsouza &
Mayuri Sisodia
How can architecture respond to the multiplicity of activities happening throughout the day and the year?
The drawing is a distortion in time spiraling into an endless loop of different activities happening through the day, in an attempt to help infer a mix of programs created in the pockets of spaces.
The building is imagined as a thin sprawling scaffold meandering around the trees, creating courtyards and several vantage points to the Yamuna River. The form essentially emerged out the multiplicity of activities on the site in the form of an organized chaos.
Program List
Community Gardening -
Shops, Admin, Greenhouse Storage,
Wash Area
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Visitors Center -
Library, Exhibit Space
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Ecological Research Center -
Workspaces, Auditorium, Classrooms,
Library, Pantry
Surrounding the main courtyard is the Community Gardening program. It houses a market for buying plants-seeds-tools, a small scale greenhouse storage facility and central gardening space with stepped gardens.
The income generated from the market rental and the from the revenue for the products and plants sold, helps sustain the people and the environment in a circular manner.
Public Space along the River's Edge
The projects imagines an extension to the ghats as a stepped garden pushed back to create a pocket of public space facing the river
The water level keeps changing across the entire year. The building is insetted with a buffer near the rivers eedge as a flood plain and also for several passsive ecological strategies to improve the water and soil quality.
Terristrial and Partially submerged plants near the river's edge would help in the process of Phytoextraction and Phytofiltration. These strategies applied using species like Poplar Deltoids, Populus, Camelina Sativa, Sorghastrum Nutas would help in the process of extraction & removal of toxic pollutants from the water and the soil.
Situated along the Parikrama path, the plinth creates insets for people to sit along the street and watch the Bankey Bihari Jatra pass by.
Cross section facing the river
The project is situated in front of a primary school. This creates opportunities for children not only in the school opposite but for schools across the city to cross learn and have field trips and allotted classes in the project to learn more about the environment.
Along the edge of the south - east face of the building, is a small scale greenhouse which stores and grows the intrinsic and extinct species of the city. The ceiling of the volume is glass enclosed and the front face is a wooden lattice layered with a breathable mesh.
Classrooms & Auditoriums
Excess wooden discards are used as a shading system for the South facade. The discards are turned into wooden slats of irregular thicknesses at varying distances which lets the light- ventilation enter the building in interesting ways.
The main material used for the project is locally sourced wood from the city and for the structural members - Steel. If in the near future, the building were to be deconstructed, the material extracted from the building can be recycled for other purposes. Hence increasing the life of the material.
