In the Border Securtiy Force (BSF) campus of Gandhinagar, the Swadhyay Reading Room, designed for the children of BSF wards, sits nestled amidst a beautiful green canopy. Mimicking the ancient ashram tradition of studying under the trees, the simple, relatable form, both in terms of its spatial arrangement as well as its structural form, adds a layer of cover to the vibrant setting. The 160 square meter project was constructed in a short span of ten weeks, made possible by the efforts of a dedicated construction team, and a design that is optimized for speed. The building comprises of two parts: a heavy, articulated ground and a light, traditional yet modern eccentric shade perched upon it. The undulating brick plinth clad with kadappa stone holds users close to ground, merging with built-in tables and benches. A ventilated roof sits atop a steel framework, with extended eaves to protect the plinth, and a series of geothermal earth tubes draw air in through the ground, maintaining the structure's coolness. In addition to that, a mezzanine floats above brightly coloured bookshelves, accessed through a camouflaged stair. Planks of pine wood, hemmed in with rope nets for relaxed reading, adds to the playful vibe. As the dusk approaches, the vivid space inside reveals itself through the sheltered glass, inviting the children in, to read.Project Environmental and Comfort Strategies: The structure uses geothermal earth tubes that draws air from the ground, keeping the interior of the structure cool. These are a simple system that uses a ventilation fan to draw fresh air through an extended intake that passes three meters underground, cooling the air through passive convection as it moves along the tube. Resting under the canopies of trees, the reading room is sited so that the additional layer of shade can increase the effectiveness of passive cooling strategies in the building. This allows the building to maximise performance will still maintaining a frugal budget. The roof uses an assembled roofing system, which allows the structure to be light-weight and therefore use less material overall, while still giving good water proofing performance, and controlling temperature better than a typical GI sheet roof.

Border Security Force (BSF) campus

Swadhyay Reading Room

 The Row Office is located in a typical neighborhood of row houses. Practices of expansion are common in this typology and are aided by grey areas in the local building code, which allows for various types of extensions for sun shades and parking. This design leverages that ambiguity to double the area using marginal increases, and inventively applies the rules of engagement for a bold new form. The design adapts an old, dark row house to create a narrow new workspace full of light. As an intervention to extend the life of aging building stock, it is representative of the great potential for transformation that lackluster, dated buildings can have. Lines between furniture, interior, and architecture are blurred to generate a seamless habitable space, structured by the demolition of walls and insertion of a steel frame, which stabilizes the opened structure. A bi-centric spiral staircase of steel fills the cut-out that allows light to fall through all the floors. The workspace extends above the building under the shade of an enveloping roof, which also ties the new framework and completes the operation.  

Row Office

 This project celebrates the unintended outcomes that arise when a building lives beyond its program. In 2014, the Tower House was an experiment in vertical living. A small plot in an area whose building height limits had recently risen, this five story bungalow leveraged the newfound air space, taking advantage of the benefits of moving vertically with efficiently organized services, views across the city, and potentials for both stack and cross ventilation. On a tiny floor plate, the design generated the experience of a house, with a diversity of spatial types throughout its section. A concrete frame provided the skeleton, while central vertical circulation allowed openings on all sides, and an outward looking entry to every room. The building changed hands, and was converted from a multigenerational family home to a nuclear family residence, and then to an open plan office space. In 2021, it changed hands again, we were asked back to the project to recreate it as a library and design center, after the previous owner himself had made a series of modifications. We took the building as an artifact to be extended, and used the opportunity to rethink how the concrete frame, built to exploit code limits, could be applied to a new program.   To shift from private to public, the ground floor is opened to a create a continuous, yet contained, public amphitheatre for outdoor events. The aggregate plaster used to finish them was created by crushing excess stone flooring we removed from the building. Public space moves up through a carefully inserted staircase that opens to public galleries on the second floor and library reading rooms on the third and fourth. The public nature of the space is reinforced by a five-story cut in the slab &ndash; the building`s five story water-jet cut steel bookshelf has become its backbone, anchoring the shifting spaces on each floor. The depth of the bookshelf and a well-protected window creates a focused, intimate, seat within the shelf. The section of the building is literally visible through a glass cut adjacent the shelf - a response to the removal of an errant stairway, and an opportunity to tie together each floor with a bit of a thrill. The double frame steel negotiates the varied beam and surface levels while providing support for the cantilevered shelf. The new building has a transformed fenestration system, which accommodates slight alterations in the enclosure. With small moments &ndash; the insertion of a terrace stair, the subtle extension of the fenestration &ndash; we play with accidental adjacencies and exploit unintended intersections. The facade wrapping balconies are moments to break with the logic of the vertical structure. 

Ambawadi

Arthshila Architecture and Design Library

 In many ways, this project is more about its making than anything else. For us, an opportunity to reflect on the contingencies of the design process&mdash;where they happen and how, at what scales they interact, and which points we must fix to let others remain loose.   The house in the landscape was recreated from the pieces of a 300 year old haveli. In this structure we merge new and old systems of assembly, combining 18 inch brick walls in concrete frame with gutai lime plaster and restored telpaani finished teakwood elements. The basic form follows the original courtyard layout, flanked by bedroom, kitchen and mezzanine, while the wrapping terrace and sunken entry extend into the spaces outside, to transform the original row house layout into a part of the landscape.   The process began with a video, taken by an owner ready to demolish a termite damaged but beautiful row house in northern Gujarat. Normally when this type of house is destroyed its parts of value are sold to various antique dealers. Instead, our client acquired the entire house, packed up all its parts, and stored them on his property near Ahmedabad. We began the conceptual design process with the video and a short list of elements with their basic dimensions. Only after agreeing on the direction of the design did we take one day (because we couldn`t risk the damage or theft associated with leaving elements out all night) to unpack as much as we could and measure critical dimensions. Already there we found many pieces not present in the list, and barely covered in the imagery. From those basic measurements we drew up the elements and developed the design. The first time we could completely open the elements and start to puzzle them out came after the columns, roof and plinth were finished. It was then that we began the conversations with our carpenters about what, where and how, given the basic framework of the courtyard we had seen and planned. As elements were unearthed, projected locations shifted to accommodate new pieces, or to hold related parts. We gradually moved away from drawings, making more decisions on site, because the argument couldn`t be divorced from the place and the artisan`s perspective.  Here the logic of new and old coming together was reflected in the process by which they were made. Old elements needed conversations, placements, and at most, hand drawings. Their unique form and dissimilarities rendered digital drawings complicated and unnecessary, while the new elements, inserted alongside old in the structure, were designed, drawn and executed according to a more typical practice of construction drawings and site checks. These parallel processes resulted in an intensely site driven design, which evolved as much during its process of construction as during its so-called design phase. 

Regenerate Haveli

 Perched on the edge of town, along with a buffer of potato farmlands, is a residence, Shoonya (meaning zero) designed for a young family. The brief was to design a house that would naturally withstand the harsh climate conditions of northern Gujarat and create various scales of openness within the house. In response to these aspirations, the project balances experimental design methods with traditions of the neighborhood and locally available construction skills, materials, and knowledge. The protective house uses thick walls, insulated slab strategies, and smartly controlled openings to shield its inhabitants from the hot summer sun. The plan is oriented to the entrance on the southern side while potato farmlands stretch along the northern end. The design is revealed through solar strategies of closed mass on the south and open terraces for transparency on the northern side, strategic cutouts where light and shadow can play, and walls of different materials and porosities. The house is constructed through a combined structural system; with load-bearing external walls and an internal frame structure. Lime plastered walls, exposed brick jaali (screen) facades, steel frame fenestrations, and flowing terrazzo flooring come together to bring coolness into the space and form a sense of familiarity. In the earthy tones of the built house, the furniture and fabricated staircase add a pop of color and eccentricity. Shoonya is powered through solar panels,  installed on the terrace.                 

PM Park, 3 Hanuman Road

Shoonya House

 A delicately balanced weekend home in the outskirts of Ahmedabad provides respite from the limitations in the city. Located at the cusp of urbanization, its neighborhood of residential plots weaves between agricultural tracts, and birds from a nearby wetland drop in.   The house is perched on a plinth, and a light steel exoskeleton holds the roof, whose open courtyard cantilever is hung and tied from four tall masts. Living spaces surround three sides of a planted courtyard, opening onto it so that the whole house feels like one big verandah. Cozy corners are nestled inside boxes punctuating the perimeter, where a carefully contained zone holds a sofa, reading nook, and kitchen alike. The fourth side steps down into a small, young orchard, to create a living space that seamlessly moves between indoors and out.   The 127square meter structure has three prominent layers - a heavy plinth finished in polished kadappa stone, an MS exoskeleton framing the volume of the structure, and brick in-fill walls making the floating cabinets, finished in aggregate plaster. The sloping corrugated roof, the glazed doors, and the brick-paved variant veranda seating - all surround the central court. The house was constructed on a rapid schedule and built on the fly, largely from leftover site materials and unused prototypes. The client himself is a contractor, and the work a collaboration to use what he had available in ways that did not aestheticize repurposing, but rather seamlessly integrated it into the building system.  

Karmabhumi, Ahmedabad

Verandah House

The Chidambarum House is an evolving place, layering phases of history onto its structure, shifting as its family matures and grows. When the site was first acquired, a small Art Deco structure stood in the land. Behind it, the original house designed by Gira Sarabhai opened toward the Sabarmati River. Over time, Sarabhai`s house has expanded, extending back toward and finally wrapping all the way around the old Art Deco structure. Architects of varied approaches have brought new life and ideas to the place. What we have contributed to the layered campus is a project in three phases that uses the existing Art Deco Structure as armature, and reaches out into the trees to develop a light, airy home within a home for Mohal and Christina Sarabhai, their children and Great Dane. Phase 1: floating a new terrace A new open terrace, hovering between openings of the old Art Deco facade, reclaims the space above an old garage to create a three sided elevated court. The steel frame rests on a raised beam, and projects over the existing facade, anchored in the ground below, to create a shaded arcade at the ground level, and a railing above. Simple teakwood, planks, polished with linseed oil and water, complete a surface that floats in the branches of an old neem tree, flanked by a row of marble shelves. Phase 2: reclaiming an art deco verandah The glass faced verandah glows warmly and operates as a visual connection between the house and the open terrace. Delicate teakwood frames touch ornate columns lightly, subtly articulating a threshold while amplifying the beauty of the view. Inside, a sleek white light tray suspended from brass pipes ties together the stylized art deco elements to create a contemporary space. Phase 3: building rooms in the trees Moving out from the building, floating above wall and walkway, a new set of light-filled rooms hangs from a steel truss, winding around aged trees. A thin floor plate turns the corner to a lit ceiling below, highlighting the thin columns from which it is suspended, no larger than the straight trunk of a young aso palav tree running up through its private courtyard. Volumes open at the corner, peering into the leaves through alternating sheets of glass and marble. Washed with dappled light, warm jaisalmer stone flooring anchors cozy rooms inside.

Usmanpura

Chidambarum Incremental House

Melissa Smith co-founded BandukSmith Studio in 2011, and is the Program Chair for the Bachelor of Urban Design program at CEPT University, Ahmedabad, where teaches in the school&rsquo;s Architecture and Planning faculties. Her interests, explored through the investigation of the incremental, unplanned transformation of aging modernist planned cities, and continued through the examination of settlement formation in India, follow how inhabitants tend to restructure their built environments over time, with an eye toward how these unplanned, recurring interventions could inform design processes for the public realm.  Smith received her Master of Architecture and Master of City &amp; Regional Planning degrees from the University of California, Berkeley, and received her BA with concentrations in German, Asian Studies and Art History from Calvin College, Michigan. 

The post-Independence project of nation-building in South Asia (the countries that are now India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, and Sri Lanka) after 1947 was marked by architecture that was often influenced by the International Style led by architects patronized by the newly-formed sovereign states. The current exhibition at the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA), The Project of Independence: Architectures of Decolonization in South Asia, 1947–1985, notes that while the predominant mode of design was defined by the principles of high modernism, there existed parallel design movements by architects who sought to utilize local materials, knowledge of indigenous craftsmanship, and motifs from pre-colonial culture.For the past three decades, India’s architecture has been defined by the economic and socio-cultural shifts of its transformation from socialism towards a market economy: rapid urbanization, densification, capitalistic development, and privatization. Today, the state of architecture in India is characterized simultaneously by the use of newer typologies, materials, and technologies, and the critical question of how to deal with edifices from the post-colonial past. This program seeks to look at the work of both internationalist modernists as well as more regionalist architects and explore the issues of public perception, preservation, and legacy, as well as the factors influencing architectural development in contemporary India.The program is divided into three sessions. The first is a critical retrospective on post-Independence architecture in India and its changing identity and purpose today. The second panel will focus on the experiences of architects from the United States who have, and continue to, engage with development in South Asia. The third session will be led by contemporary Indian design firms and young architects, who will be encouraged to present recent works and discuss their influences.9:00 AM (6:30 PM IST) — Welcome Benjamin Prosky, Assoc. AIA,&nbsp;AIA New York | Center for Architecture9:15 AM (6:45 PM IST) — Keynotes Martino Stierli, MoMA Rahul Mehrotra,&nbsp;Harvard University Graduate School of Design9:45 AM (7:15 PM IST) — Session 1 – After Modernism: Influence, Impact &amp; Identity of Post-Independence Architecture in India&nbsp; Nondita Correa Mehrotra, Charles Correa Foundation David Stein,&nbsp;Urban Planner; son of Joseph Allen Stein10:15 AM (7:45 PM IST)&nbsp; — Session 2 – Global Practice, Local Outlook: American Architects Working in India Michael Manfredi, FAIA,&nbsp;Weiss/Manfredi Marion Weiss, FAIA, Weiss/Manfredi Diana Kellogg, AIA,&nbsp;Diana Kellogg Architects Paul Schulhof, AIA,&nbsp;Tod Williams Billie Tsien Architects11:00 AM (8:30 PM IST) — Session 3 – Contemporary Indian Architecture&nbsp; Brief Presentations and Panel Discussion with Indian ArchitectsAbin Chaudhuri,&nbsp;Abin Design Studio Anupama Kundoo,&nbsp;Anupama Kundoo Architects Robert Verrijt &amp; Shefali Balwani,&nbsp;Architecture BRIO Anupam Bansal &amp; Rajesh Dongre,&nbsp;Atelier for Built-environment Research &amp; Design Melissa Smith &amp; Sachin Bandukwala,&nbsp;BandukSmith Studio Bijoy Ramachandran &amp; Sunitha Kondur,&nbsp;Hundredhands Sameep Padora,&nbsp;Sameep Padora and Associates Kapil Gupta, Serie Architects Sangeeta Merchant &amp; Sanjeev Panjabi,&nbsp;SPASM Design Architects Ankur Choksi &amp; Sidhartha Talwar,&nbsp;Studio Lotus Vinu Daniel,&nbsp;Wallmakers12:00 PM (9:30 PM IST) — Questions and Discussion12:20 PM (9:50 PM IST) — Closing Remarks

IndiaNOW: Architecture in the Contemporary Landscape

Rahul Mehrotra is a prominent architect and academic known for his work in urban planning and design. He is the founder and principal of RMA Architects, an architecture firm based in Mumbai and Boston. His practice engages with projects across India, including corporate campuses and restoration of historic sites. In academia, Mehrotra is a Professor of Urban Planning and Design at Harvard University’s Graduate School of Design. He has held the position of Chair of the Department of Urban Planning and Design and has been the Director of the Master in Architecture in Urban Design Degree Program. Mehrotra’s work is characterized by a commitment to engaging disparate worlds with each other, often focusing on “softening thresholds” between different sectors of society. He has written extensively on these topics and has been a critical voice in the discourse on contemporary architecture in India.

 Michael A. Manfredi is the co-founder of WEISS/MANFREDI and a Senior Design Critic at Harvard University. His New York City-based multidisciplinary practice is known for the dynamic integration of architecture, art, infrastructure, and landscape. Notable projects include the Seattle Art Museum: Olympic Sculpture Park, recognized by TIME Magazine as one of the &ldquo;top ten architectural marvels.&rdquo; His work has been exhibited at the Venice Biennale, the Sao Paulo Biennale, the Guggenheim Museum, the Cooper-Hewitt, the National Building Museum, and the Museum of Modern Art. His firm has been recognized with the New York Center for Architecture President&rsquo;s Award, the Cooper Hewitt National Design Award for Architecture, and the 2020 Thomas Jefferson Foundation Medal in Architecture. Princeton Architectural Press has published monographs on WEISS/MANFREDI&rsquo;s work, including PUBLIC NATURES: Evolutionary Infrastructures. He is a founding board member of the Van Alen Institute and a board member of the Storefront for Art and Architecture in New York City. He is also a fellow of the American Institute of Architects and a National Academy inductee. 

 Marion Weiss is co-founder of WEISS/MANFREDI and the Graham Chair Professor of Practice at the University of Pennsylvania&rsquo;s Weitzman School of Design. Her New York City-based multidisciplinary practice is known for the dynamic integration of architecture, art, infrastructure, and landscape. Notable projects include the Seattle Art Museum: Olympic Sculpture Park, recognized by TIME Magazine as one of the &ldquo;top ten architectural marvels.&rdquo; Her work has been exhibited at the Venice Biennale, the Sao Paulo Biennale, the Guggenheim Museum, the Cooper-Hewitt, the National Building Museum, and the Museum of Modern Art. She is a National Academy Inductee and recipient of Architecture Records 2017 Design Leader Award. Her firm has also been recognized with the New York Center for Architecture President&rsquo;s Award, the Cooper Hewitt National Design Award for Architecture, and the 2020 Thomas Jefferson Foundation Medal in Architecture. Princeton Architectural Press has published monographs on WEISS/MANFREDI&rsquo;s work, including PUBLIC NATURES: Evolutionary Infrastructures.  

 Based in New York City, Diana Kellogg founded Diana Kellogg Architects in 1992. Her work is rooted in sustainable design and has evolved from residential projects into working with nonprofit and community groups to create a sense of place and interconnectivity. A guiding core principle of the Company is its deference to an existing sense of place and history - creating spaces that provide for communal interconnectivity. Kellogg received a Master of Architecture from Columbia University and a BA from Williams College. Prior to establishing her own firm, she was associated with the firms of Gluckman Tang Architects and Selldorf Architects. Her work has been featured in various publications including The New York Times, Dwell, Architectural Digest and New York Magazine and has won multiple international design awards. 

Abin Chaudhuri founded Abin Design Studio, which is exploring the &lsquo;unknown&rsquo; journey, experimentation with materials and technology, and the engaging art and culture, aiming to create &ldquo;places &ldquo;for the people. He founded Kolkata architecture foundation and Kolkata design collective. 

Shefali Balwani is co-founder of Architecture BRIO, established in 2006. Born in Mumbai, she studied at the CEPT&rsquo;s School of Architecture in Ahmedabad. After graduating she worked with Rahul Mehrotra Architects (RMA) in Mumbai on a variety of projects including the first phase of the Magic Bus campus in Karjat. She later joined the office of Channa Daswatte in Sri Lanka, where she worked on some of the office&rsquo;s prestigious hospitality projects. Shefali is a frequent speaker at institutions and forums around the world. She has lectured at the KVD forum at CEPT in Ahmedabad; the Landscape Architecture conference in Sydney, Australia; the MASA conference in Bengaluru; the Malaysian Institute of Architects in Kuala Lumpur and at Columbia University&rsquo;s GSAPP in New York. She appeared in the BBC documentary World&rsquo;s Most Extraordinary Homes together with Robert Verrijt. 

Robert Verrijt is a founding partner of Architecture BRIO, established in 2006. Born in the Netherlands, Verrijt received a Master of Science in Architecture at the Technical University of Delft in 2003. Fascinated by Geoffrey Bawa&rsquo;s architecture, he moved to Sri Lanka shortly after graduating and joined the office of Channa Daswatte, where he assisted on a retrospective exhibition of Geoffrey Bawa and worked on a variety of residential and hospitality projects prior to relocating to Mumbai. Verrijt has taught at various colleges of architecture in Mumbai and lectures extensively in India and abroad. He is one of the founding members of the Bandra Collective. With billionBricks, an NGO committed to eradicating homelessness, he established and leads the bB Design Studio. Verrijt is a registered architect in The Netherlands. In 2020 Architecture BRIO established an office in Rotterdam broadening the practices field of intervention even further. 

Sachin Bandukwala co-founded BandukSmith Studio in 2011.  Before founding BandukSmith, he worked as an independent architect in Ahmedabad, and also documented a number of architecturally significant temple complexes and stepwells around western India. Throughout his career he has explored the subject of the person and his inspiration from nature. He is perpetually in pursuit of understanding through observation the aging of material and its effect on tectonics, and the institutionalization of rituals in architecture. Sachin holds a B.Arch from CEPT University. 

 Bijoy Ramachandran is a partner at Hundredhands Design, a Bangalore based architectural practice. He currently serves as the Design Chair at BMS College of Architecture, Bangalore. Bijoy has an undergraduate degree from Bangalore University and a masters degree (in Architecture &amp; Urbanism) from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, USA.  He has also attended the Glenn Murcutt Masterclass. Apart from architecture he has also produced two films on the celebrated Indian architect Sri B.V. Doshi and &lsquo;Architecture and the City: A Bangalore Perspective&rsquo;, a documentary on practice in Bangalore. 

Born in northern India, Sameep Padora established sP+a in Mumbai in 2007, and is the Director of sPare, a research initiative looking at issues of urbanization and architecture in India. sPare’s maiden project, a documentation and analysis of historic housing types within the city of Mumbai resulted in a traveling exhibition entitled ‘In the Name of Housing’ and a book published by the UDRI. He is one of the founding members of the Bandra Collective, an organization of architects focused on the design of public spaces in Mumbai. Padora is a member of academic councils for a number of architectural schools in India and is a member of the National Technical Committee of Habitat for Humanity, India. He completed his undergraduate studies in Mumbai in 1996, followed by post-graduate studies at Harvard University’s Graduate School of Design in 2005.

Ankur Choksi founded Studio Lotus with his two partners in 2002 and is a Design Principal at the practice.  He is a graduate of the National Institute of Design at Ahmedabad. Choksi leads the Integrated Architecture &amp; Interior Design initiatives for the firm with a focus on hospitality and residential design, rooted in the firm's principles of Conscious Design - celebrating innovation through local resources, cultural influences, an inclusive process, and keen attention to detail.   He has spoken at various national design forums such as Festival of Architecture &amp; Interior Design and has served as visiting faculty and juror at prestigious institutions including National Institute of Design and CEPT in Ahmedabad, and National Institute of Fashion Technology in Delhi. 

Sidhartha Talwar founded Studio Lotus in 2002 along with his two partners and is a Design Principal at the practice. A graduate of the TVB School of Habitat Studies in New Delhi, Talwar started his career with architect Gautam Bhatia in 1996. He has been a visiting faculty member at the TVB School of Habitat Studies, as well as part of visiting juries at the Sushant School of Architecture and other colleges.   At Studio Lotus, Talwar leads the Architecture &amp; Master Planning initiatives for the firm, working extensively on large scale developments for a diverse clientele. In 2011, Talwar won the National Architectural Design Competition held for the National Police Memorial, Shanti Path, New Delhi. 

 Born in Abu Dhabi, Vinu Daniel founded Wallmakers in 2007. The firm&rsquo;s name was christened by its first project &ndash; a compound wall &ndash; and is sometimes referred to fondly as a &ldquo;vagabond&rdquo; firm making poetic structures out of brick and mud. Daniel completed his B. Arch in 2005 from The College of Engineering in Trivandrum (now Thiruvananthapuram), and then worked with the Auroville Earth Institute for the United Nations Development Program&rsquo;s post-tsunami relief efforts in Tamil Nadu. This led to Daniel&rsquo;s resolve to devote his energies towards the cause of sustainable and cost-effective architecture.        Daniel notes that he owes interest in material innovation, design philosophy, and, indeed, his career, to a chance meeting with the pioneering British Indian architect Laurie Baker at his home in Trivandrum at a time when Daniel was considering a different career in music (Baker died in 2007). Daniel&rsquo;s work was featured in Rahul Mehrotra&rsquo;s 2011 book Architecture in India Since 1990. Wallmakers was elected by ArchDaily as the only Indian practice in the 20 Young Practices of 2020. 

Melissa Smith

SITES

DRAWINGS