Design Principle

"Both form and function are interwoven. The aesthetic experience is a part of the function of architecture.." - Me! :)

Grow Your Food: Grow Your Food - Lets start!

I have recently started the Grow Your Food project with an aim to help reduce the growing food burden through community participation, wh...

What I learn by watching Masterchef Australia..

I rarely watch television but there's one show that I love and don't like to miss, and that is Masterchef Australia..

I don't cook.. I don't like to cook.. I don't plan to cook, Ever!! So why do I watch a show about food? It could be because I love food.. :-) but that's not it..

I think this particular show teaches a number of things starting from the right attitude to team work to good design and presentation, love and passion and hard work, achievement and humility, innovation and damage control, aspirations, dreams, life-changing experiences, leaving your present life for the one that you truly want.. There's so much to learn, it's amazing and inspiring!!

The last episode had Chef Marco Pierre White on the show to mentor the contestants. Some of his quotes were fabulous.. Things to remember for life and while he said them in the context of food, they could be applied anywhere.

"Mother nature is the true artist. We are just the chefs. The more u do to food, the more u take away from it" - Marco Pierre White

"Keep it simple"


"In a very short while, I'll know who u are; by the way to hold a knife, by the way u touch food, by the way u plate it. U can't hide." Marco Pierre White to the contestants.

....which translates into "Our true nature lies in how we do things!" - N Chandramouli     There's a lot to learn there.. and so, for me, it is not just a show. It's lessons about life..

Eco-Art Resort as 'Habitat'

As part of the Environmental Architecture Studio (EAS) project of our second semester in the M. Arch in Environmental Architecture programme at Rachana Sansad's Academy of Architecture we've been asked to design a sustainable Eco-Art Resort.

The objective was to create a resort based on the lines of eco-villages which would also act as an Art hub.

We started off by comparing resorts and eco-villages as the idea was to design a resort that would resemble an eco-village and incorporate all relevant principles of one. As part of my  contribution to the project, I mapped the various aspects in a table given below:

After this was done, we understood the basic principles and started working on what exacly the Eco-Art resort would do. The function was to be derived from the client brief itself (which was to create an Eco-Art resort in Pali, Raigad, Maharashtra, India for visitors who would be interested in ecology and / or art as a weekend programme as a kind of get-away from their daily routine)

I decided to look at visitors who would visit the resort as migratory birds who were moving from a harsh, inhospitable environment to a better, more suitable and conducive environment for a short period of time. This led to the development of the theme of 'Habitat'.

Habitat - noun ---->  the natural environment of an organism; place that is natural for the life and growth of an organism.

This habitat had to be sustainable and so mapping the four components of Habitat viz. food, water, shelter and space against the four components of sustainability, Environmental, social, economic and cultural was the start point.

        

 

This mapping led to the creation of a matrix mapping the various components with specific reference to the site and the region and gave many points for thought and action:

Who is the visitor and what is he looking for

The visitor profile may be as follows: (Typically from nearby cities) 

• An artist who is looking for the perfect get-away for his work
• A budding artist who wants to learn something new 
• A person who likes to try new things when he travels 
• A trekker or wildlife enthusiast who travels to the region for it’s forts and hills 
• Pilgrim visiting the various pilgrimage sites

 What is he looking for when he travels? 

• Space
• Peace and quiet 
• Break in routine
• A different experience to enhance that sense of break-away and do something different 
• Travel to experience a different culture and way of life 
• Opening the mind to new ideas and horizons 
• An inspiring experience that gives him the impetus for indulging in Art 
• Training and a new experience for his children

Again this was tabulated based on who will visit the resort, what activities they would be interested in and what type of accommodation would suit them best..
After this back ground study, the next step is Land Suitability Analysis.. That's underway now..


(All information and ideas are the intellectual property of the author and may not be replicated or used without permission)