IDEAS
Cities are engines of productivity.
We see this phenomenon distinctly in global cities like London, New York, Mumbai etc. In India, we are also inspired by a rich spatial and socio-cultural legacy. We are interested in ways of improving the performance of cities while engaging with its diversity.
Our ideas reflect on the changing living & working environments, sustainability and politics of city design.
COVID-19 Quarantine Camp
Abstract: The idea of a quarantine camp is driven by the current need for building health infrastructure capacity in cities to manage the Covid ‘19 pandemic. As the infection known to spread through droplets is highly contagious, Infected patients are required to be isolated until they no longer transmit the disease. It requires standard pressure (S class) isolation rooms with appropriate sanitation facilities.
The emergency sanitation measures taken to create or expand treatment facilities for the infected are divided into two categories:
(1) quick-assembly temporary installations such as mobile sanitation units, inflatable and pre-fab hospitals like Wuhan’s temporary hospital and
(2) adaptation of pre-existing structures such as market centres, sports fields, and schools in order to convert them into medical centres. The physical design of an isolation centre is an essential component of its infection control measures to minimize the risk of transmission of any infectious disease.
The geometry of shipping container modules offers a suitable environment for accommodating patients, while following the best practices for isolation to keep the patients and medical personnel safe during this period. The advantages of this form of accommodation include temporariness, speed & cost of construction, reusability which additionally brings down the cost, durability and modularity. The geometry and structure allow for stacking vertically and horizontally for increased efficiency. The components of the container include a steel framework & corrugated metal sheet enclosure. This also gives rise to the basic challenge while converting it into low cost isolation rooms - thermal comfort. How can we create a comfortable living environment within the containers ? How do we think about the geometry, surfaces, and construction of the container for better thermal performance? Container centres have an added advantage of being set up in remote locations. Making it self-sufficient and off grid, can aid the flexibility in use. Solar energy could be an alternative source for electricity and heating. For remote centres, the design must also incorporate solid waste management and water supply systems.
Research Credits : Solachi Ramanathan, Ajay Dev, Vijayaraj Ramalingam
Camps as Seeds of Urbanism (Housing and Urbanism 2015)
Abstract: The project is an individual exploration resulting from collective research that deals with the rethinking of construction labour camps in urban areas and their role in the development of cities. The argument put forth through the investigation is that rethinking camps as legitimate parts of the city requires variation in the typology of camps based on urban conditions. Additionally, It necessitates rearrangements in the institutional procedures and the involvement of public sector along with market forces in the development of cities.
The design exploration addresses camps associated with new areas undergoing development in the urban fringe. Camps in the urban fringe are part of a process associated with urbanizing new land driven by the Masterplan.
They are located in the periphery of new developments, opening up new lines of movement as they move between worksite and camp. However due to a lack of an integrated system of planning that addresses all the camps in the area through time, their impact on the territory is negligible. The project explores the potential of reorganizing the camps into a network of centralities in order to structure the movement and facilitate new relations in the territory. Ecologies that are created initially based on temporary activities can become more permanent over time, having an impact on the long-term development of the area.
Research Paper Credits : Sharmila Kamalakannan, Piyush Makwana, Solachi Ramanathan
Productive Territory (Extension of Old Kent Road, London, 2014)
Abstract: Augmenting productivity understood in its purely economic dimension has become a central concern of cities undergoing rapid transformation and change. However, urban growth and transformation exclusively based in these parameters often leads to an intangible increase in land value, resulting in the expulsion of local communities and activities.
The territory around Old Kent Road (OKR), London becomes a key site where an alternative logic of transformation can be pursued owing to its particular conditions and strategic location close to the city. It is an important thoroughfare that contains a significant percentage of low value industrial land.
With the proposed extension of the Bakerloo line to OKR, the development pressure on the existing industrial land may lead to the expulsion of local economic activity.Therefore, it is important to understand Old Kent Road as a territory where productivity could be stimulated besides the infrastructural investments, taking into account its economic, social and cultural aspects.
Research Paper Credits : Asli Arda, Yolanda Nayeli, Galindo Cano, Magnus Thiemer Jensen, Gayathri Kalyanasundaram, Sharmila Kamalakkannan,Livia Rita Klemencsics, Sabrina Kösters, Piyush Makwana, Mariana Moro, Meruert Isaevna Zharekesheva, Solachi Ramanathan
Urban Mobility & Social Housing (Recife, Brazil, 2015)
Abstract: Brazil is a country undergoing accelerated urbanization on the one hand with dominant conditions of informality on the other. Institutions like Minha Casa Minha Vida and PAC have been established to support the large-scale provision of housing and infrastructure development in cities to create a more socially and economically inclusive form of development. Recife still falls behind the national urban population growth rate by almost 0.6%, despite significant investments in economic productivity and private housing that on the contrary alleviates conditions of social and economic inequality.
In order to accelerate growth and develop in a more inclusive manner, it becomes crucial to improve accessibility between the fragmented parts of the city in effort to encourageconnections among segregated urban territories. Rather than a retrospective exercise, it should be done simultaneously with the economic, social and cultural development to provide long-term benefits.
Research Paper Credits : Asli Arda, Natalie Clemens, Sharmila Kamalakannan, Keval Kaushik, Livia Klemencsics, Solachi Ramanathan, Vitor Silva in collaboration with students of the Universidade Federal da Pernambuco
Illustration Credits : Fig 01 Urban Centre - Asli Arda, Fig 03 Productive Sequences - Livia Klemencsics
Re-imagining the ‘Minimum Dwelling’
Abstract: The collective lifestyle is changing as a result of the economic prosperity, shortage of urban space, the general need for mobility, the firmly entrenched individualism and phenomena such as working from home and flexible working.’ (Kloos and Wendt, 2006:summary)
There is a need to rethink urban housing strategies, as good quality living environments are essential for cities to attract and retain young professionals. Teige’s theories about the ‘minimum dwelling’ serve as a springboard for a discourse on the evolution of dwelling types to suit the needs of todays working professional.
While collective living serves as a compelling format of dwelling for professionals, especially those who live alone or away from their family, how can we design a more innovative and sustainable form of collective housing than established forms like hotels and hostels? What are the challenges in implementing these forms of housing?
Research Paper Credits : Solachi Ramanathan
Illustration Credits: Alyn Griffiths via Dezeen
An Urbanism Driven By Conflict
Abstract: In search of a more inclusive form of planning, I turn to ‘agonistic conflict’ as a democratic and dynamic driver of development. Modernist masterplanning in its utopian mode has exacerbated the very conditions of inequality and informality it sought to eradicate. There is a need to develop a different social imagination-one that is not modernist but that nevertheless reinvents modernism’s activist commitments to the invention of society and to the construction of the state (Holston, 1995).
Sources of this new imaginary lie in the spaces of insurgency, which are in opposition to modernist spaces.
Since transgressive practices exist outside the rule of law, can we then transform itinto a new set of citizen rights and rules that protect citizenship through the logic of empowerment? How can we develop an urbanism driven by conflict to create a democratic city building process?
Research Paper Credits: Solachi Ramanathan
Illustration Credits: Fig 1. P6. Teddy Cruz , Fig 2. P7. Teddy Cruz