HANDS - ON - WORKSHOP AND COMPETITION ( 21.02.2020- 24.02.2020)
Design of a timber structure with Ar. Supriti, Pondicherry
Initial Preparation:
The intent of this workshop was to conceive/ imagine an appropriate form and technology for the Community Hall proposed for the Education/ Cooperative Centre at Lachung. Thus, students were encouraged to gain an experience of handling materials for resolution of the form with all necessary details required for construction. PVPCOA had invited Supriti from OVOIDS with twenty years of practice in architectural consultancy, to guide this workshop between 21/02/20 (Friday to 24/02/20 Sunday).
Preparation for the workshop on Thursday 20/02/20:
Each student was instructed to conceptualize a form for the proposed community hall of 200 sqm for the ongoing design project of Community Centre at Lachung. The conceptual form was represented on quarter imperial sheets. In consultation with Supriti, the faculty members categorized the eighty solutions into eight groups of technology namely - Folded plates, trabeated systems, shell structures, suspension structures, singly curved roof, doubly curved roofs. Around ten students per group were now required to take their approach to technology ahead. Around three best solutions per group were displayed for Supriti's review by Thursday evening. An overall feedback of the conceptual drawings displayed was given by Supriti.
The students of each group were told to select any one form best representing the given emphasis to technology (of that group) and come up with refined conceptual sketches for the next day. Thus the class was required to generate eight solutions
DAY 01(Friday, 21.02.2020): ART OF SEEING
The first day of workshop was dedicated to the approach of "The Art Of Seeing". Herein, "seeing" is linked to the phenomenon of perception and conception of technology as a function of space. Thus, the first day involved idea generation and development of concepts in following manner.
A review of output generated by each group was taken on the first day, beginning at 9 am, jointly with faculty members, Supriti and the students. The discussions involved in reinforcing the intent of the exercise, importance of group thinking, coordination and brain storming of ideas. The conceptual sketches presented by each group were discussed, resolved and requirements of materials and dimensioning inserted in the sketches. The students refined their concepts and were further discussed during the day.
At the end of the first day at 6 pm, the students were instructed to draft the resolved conceptual drawings to proper scale and dimension the same.
DAY 02 (Saturday, 22.02.2020): CRAFT OF THINKING
The second day was dedicated to the "craft of thinking". Thinking means to be able to translate ideas into some constructable form by appropriate use of technology/materials. Thus, this day involved exploration of ideas through technical drawings. This was done in following manner:
The day began at 9 am with a presentation on potential of timber material given by Supriti. This was done to generate further ideas to refine the drawings wherever required. All drawings on tracings generated from previous day's discussions, were pinned up for comments. The comments given by Supriti and the faculty team involved discussing the ideas put forth by the students, understanding the drawings, adding to the legibility of the idea, sketching some details by sketch pens and markers, drawing further constructible plans, details on tracings. This continued throughout the day for pushing the students to bring clarity in construction drawings.
Simultaneously material requirements (plywood, rubber wood, polycarbonate sheets, mild steel sections) were calculated for each group and material was procured from timber, steel sources to PVPCOA.
At 6pm, students were instructed to prepare a revised set of drawings - 1:50 scaled plans, sections, elevations, 1:5 scaled details. Further, it was decided to do models using representative materials of entire structure at 1:50 scale, and models using actual materials of construction at 1:5 and 1:1 scale.
DAY 03 (Sunday, 23.02.2020): CULTURE OF MAKING
Ideas need to be constructable and thus, the process of construction, its complexity, trials, revisions and development was emphasized. This was done in following manner:
Sunday began with a powerpoint presentation by Supriti. A set of slides were shown to the students and they were asked to examining the slides in terms of the beauty that the given design projects may have generated because of their simplicity. This value of design was told to the students for their refined output of work.
Based on the drawing output, as discussed on the previous day, further cycle of comments were given by Supriti and the faculty team to finalize the draings.
Within the group of ten people three started to work on 1:5 and 1:1 details.
DAY 04 (Monday, 24.02.2020): CULTURE OF MAKING
The Final Day of the workshop witnessed a hectic pace towards completion of drawings, models and mock ups using actual materials at 1:1 scale.
All concepts sheets, tracings (process drawings), execution drawings, models and mock ups of all eight groups were on display for the entire college from 5 pm onwards.
The jury members – Ar. Vikas Bhandari, Ar. Rashmi Joshi, Ar. Hrishikesh Ashtekar and Ar. Tushar Kothawade were invited to critically judge the eight entries. The winning entry was secured by ‘Dome of Threads’ group and Supriti Madam distributed the prizes that she had herself hand crafted from her workshop from Pondicherry.
The jury members were impressed by the process that was undertaken from design to resolution to construction and they commented that this would go a long way in developing critical skills required for an architect.
A Vote of Thanks was conveyed by Ar. Niranjan Garde to the Director of PVPCOA and the secretary to make this workshop happen, to jury members for taking their time to critically assess the output of workshop, to Supriti Madam for her valuable guidance, to faculty team members for design support and managing the workshop activity, to administration staff for required assistance and to the students for their enthusiastic involvement and making the workshop a great success.
