Building Details : Localization

Ansh Shetty
Nov 30, 2022
2 min read

Updated: Apr 26, 2023

ARCHITECTURE OF PRESSURE AND RELIEF

Trombay Public High school, Trombay.

detail from the site

the children align themselves in invisible thresholds on the basis of familiarity, comfort and gender, leading to most of the boys occupying the ground for their more physical games and the girls using the classrooms to spend their recreational time.

how can architecture respond to the idea of an informally segregated playground and examine the heterogeneous nature of an assumed homogeneous public?

the gullies that line the edge of the school have encroached over the space by creating doors in the classrooms and covering the gully with tarps, essentially making it a private space leading to their activities of the home spilling outwards, hence applying pressure onto the school.

how can architecture interrogate the form and spatiality of exchange, leading to a transformation from encroaching to enriching?

site diagrams

as the negotiations on the playground and in the gully settles, there exists a pressure between the various groups that leads to a sense of controlled entropy, the project aims to investigate and redirect this pressure on the site.

process

in an attempt to release and redirect this pressure, the segregation of the ground is methodically done by mapping the invisible boundaries.

The children often prefer playing on the stages and staircases that they find vacant,

vertical relief is provided by raising the plinths to various heights.

the form is further modulated and slopes are formed to generate the experiences of the staircase and bring a sense of continuum to the site.

Exploration of the possibilities of providing relief and releasing the pressure of the ground by providing controlled segregated, semi private spaces and also having a controlled exchange with the gully, transforming the narrative to an enriching one than an encroaching one.

design detail

Transformation of the edge condition from

encroaching to enriching through the idea of surveillance by stacking courtyards and playgrounds.

Folding of the plinth and the boundary wall to form various programs and conditions that hold the gully together as well as create spaces for children to learn, exchange and connect to the gully through the forms of a seating space, shopfront, canteen etc.

Vertical grid established using the scale of

a single classroom bench that allows for 2 students to sit, leading to the creation of differently leveled classrooms, courtyards, playgrounds and balconies.

2mx2m grid plan on which the logic of the classrooms, various playgrounds at various heights, courtyards and amphitheaters come together to form a segregated yet flowing continuous space.

Stacking of the classroom on a 1mx1m grid with an offset that helps create an overhang playground and cascades the school into the leveled playground and community edge.