CEPT Campus
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| Site Zoning |
- Site Location and hierarchy- The school of architecture was established first at Vasant Vihar, Navrangpura, Ahmedabad, Gujarat in 1962 with adequate facilities of expansion. It is located in an institutional area.
- Architect- Balkrishna Vithaldas Doshi
- Site Analysis- The site area is 12.5 acres, measuring about 300 meters N-S and about 150 meters E-W. The general slope is towards the N-W corner. The campus area is 6 acres. The site is 6.7 km from Railway station, 6.9 km from Bus stand and 11.8 km from Airport.
- Ideology- They emphasised learning rather than teaching and saw the place of learning as one where there were no boundaries, no hierarchies and a complete atmosphere of free and unhampered inquiry.
- Concept- Tradition of thinking indoor as well as outdoor space as usable for teaching by creating an environment open both in spirit, use as well as physical form.
- Structural System- School of Architecture was Load-Bearing because there were no columns except the vertical transportation made out of concrete (shear wall), every material used was exposed. Brick Wall widths were varying from 450 mm to 675 mm. While the concrete beams were 600mm to 750mm.
- Facade- Local materials for low cost, easy maintenance, and expansion. Used bricks, concrete (natural coarse texture), Kota stone (flooring). The brick wall was made using flemish bond.
* I'll be uploading detailed sketches of the bond used and beam layout in the future posts.
- Blocks- The campus is divided into 4 separate schools
- Architecture (1962)
- Planning (1972)
- Building Science and Technology (1982)
- Interior Design (1991)
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| North Entrance |
There is a huge path to cover with parking and undulating landscaped topography on flanking sides before reaching the school building. Personally, the hideous entrance and confusing connections were not pleasurable as the first experience but I gradually realised the connection of the structure with contour and environment. I felt a sync with the energy and there were some mood changes which were promoting the innate creativity.
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| Undulating topography towards West |
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| Parking space towards East |
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| Sculpture and trees towards West |
The focus on sleek railings without balusters or other security wrapping caught my vision for a while. At first, I thought it to be unacceptable but when I was able to access one of such spaces I realised the beauty of freedom and realised the important interconnection between the age and interaction with an environment.
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Undulating walkway connecting
school of architecture and planning |
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| Right side of the school of architecture front facade |
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| Left side of the school of architecture front facade |
Continuous ribbon windows on the recessed ground floor were very weird at first because there were no possible sources of light reaching through that window but gradually after pondering I realised it's importance, which was to enhance the visual connection of studios with outside environment which were already lighted up by other fenestrations providing natural light.
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| Sketch emphasising the ribbon window |
Some pictures clicked on site
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| Main staircase in the school of architecture |
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| Multipurpose hall |
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Studios and the balconies
(via secondary entrance to school of architecture) |
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| Diagonal skylight |
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| Roof |
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| Inwards view from an accessible roof |
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| Outwards view from an accessible roof |
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These shafts were present everywhere
providing ventilation |
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Spiral staircase connecting
1st-year and 3rd-year studios |
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| Studio |
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| Steel Jali adjacent to flight |
The site was having many brick kilns the main reason behind the extra-ordinary brick bonds in the the school of architecture. The bond was meant to have Flemish bond throughout the run with English bond at the edges.
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