The Walled City
urban housing / research
Mentor
Ar. Yatin Pandya (Footprints E.A.R.T.H)
Year
2016
Team
Krithika Balasubramanian, Shixing Li, Magdalena Weiland, Gaurav Chaurasia
Issue
Urban Housing
International Studio '16
Situation / Problem
It is imperative that we stop assuming housing to be a product whose worth lies in the relationship between the object and the user; a perception that will help us transform houses into homes, shelters into symbols, clusters into community, enclosures into events, and buildings into living environments. In the stifling realities of urbanization, growth, and migration should our dreams of shelter remain confined to four-walled boxes only? Can we conjure a retreat that comforts our body, makes our mind tranquil, and nestles our reveries?
Ahmedabad, India
The walled city can be called the symbolic heart of the metropolitan Ahmedabad. Despite having become extremely crowded and dilapidated, the city’s community and guild based settlement patterns have survived in an unbroken manner along with the succession of its trading communities and the survival of its age-old settlement patterns of “Pols” and Havelis (old mansions). The structure of the old city is a direct manifestation of the socio-cultural and economic conditions as exhibited in its compact and climatically responsive urban housing.
Gujarat, India
N
Mandvini Pol
Ahmedabad
Old City of Ahmedabad
Explore Ahmedabad Here!
Step 1: Settlement study
We conducted our study on one of the clusters or 'pols' within the Old City of Ahemdabad. We documented the streets, the typology of houses, the activity of the people and their behaviors through means of photographs, diagrams, drawings, and conversations.
Mandvini Pol
Analysis
Longitudinal section along Mandivini Pol
street
Transversal section across Mandivini Pol
Pros
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Each pol has its own identity with conformity
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The network of cul de sacs controls vehicular movement
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Quality of private space
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Streets gives way for interaction towards a community living
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Street character
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Crime rate
Cons
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Open spaces as parking
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Open spaces and play area as cow paddocks
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Abandoned neighboring houses
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High density leaves no place for new development
Unit Typology
A
A
B
Lower Level
Upper Level
Axonometric view
Section A
Section B
Step 2: Focusing on a selected issue
In our next step in the process, we selected an issue / a concern that renders mass housing humane and sustainable to explore it in spatial terms to evolve design strategy, module, and direction in short design responses.
Street organization
Step 3: Design Solution
In this step of the process, we demonstrated the evolved design response on a specified site context.
We were given a site, right outside the old city of Ahmedabad, India. It bounds an area of 30,000 sq.mts abutting the Sabarmati riverfront. Here we compare the given site and Mandivini pol in terms of scale and density.
Pol house
Trees
Culture
Site Analysis
We studied the context of the new site located a little outside the old city of Ahmedabad. We analyzed its accessibility and potential ground for development. Based on the analysis, the insights, and the experience from the study of the pols, we proposed a sustainable design solution for urban housing.
Site within site
Exisiting features
Land use
Access points
Conceptual section along proposed site
Design process
Site Boundary
Identifying major accessways
Identifying potential communal spaces
Proposed site plan
Housing module
Calculating the necessary space required for a two-member household, we chose a modular space of 2 by 5 meters. Based on which we devised an incremental housing system which will allow the users to configure their space according to their needs. As the units grow, the blocks are spaced in such a manner that the space between units will act as common shared spaces for multi-level congregations / a multi-level pol culture.
Concept sketch
Common ground
Incremental housing
Massing of house blocks
Punctures
Breathing spaces
Multi-level pols
Section along proposed site plan