Ahmadabad a college trip [Part- 3]

Gandhi Smarak Sangrahalaya

Entire Ashram site plan

Site plan for Gandhi Smarak Sangrahalaya

• Site Location and hierarchy- Sabarmati Ashram is located along the west bank of the Sabarmati River on the Ashram Road. (click here to view it on Google Maps)

• Client- Sabarmati Ashram Trust which was established in 1951

• Architect- Charles Correa

• Site Analysis- First Ashram was established in Kochrab area in 1915. It was shifted to this 36 acres site near river Sabarmati adjacent to British prison and a graveyard. WHY??. The Museum is covering an area of 0.55 acres.

• Building Type- Culture and Entertainment [Memorial Museum]

• Ideology- To preserve the essence of life which Mahatma Gandhi carried (religious community life reflecting the simplicity of a village life having prayer as the main source of strength) and preserving his teachings.

Section showing the
grids of Modularity

• Concept- Historic Home of Gandhi which acts as a memorial, centre for Gandhian scholars.

• Structural System- Square units of 6 m span has 0.92 m load bearing brick columns that support RCC channels (beams and rainfall conduits) which further supports wooden roof making it flexible for future additions because of its Modularity. The wall widths were varying from 0.3 m to 0.45 m. The foundation is of concrete and is raised about a foot from the ground.

Site Section and Elevation for
Gandhi Smarak Sangrahalaya

• Facade- A pattern of tiled roof, in a typology analogous to a village. There was no use of glass but wooden louvers as the medium of light and air to flow in the structure. The interiors had a different approach to transparency. Stone flooring, wooden doors and brick walls were used in the interiors.

Facade at the entrance embracing the Three Monkeys

View of the shallow pool and the inside facade embracing
 the portrait of Mahatma Gandhi out of Silver film.

Wooden Roof

RCC Channels

Seats between the columns

Use of wide columns as display area

Showing the connection of brick column
with beam and stone floor

An organisation of Gandhi's work this best was dazzling to my eye's. The column's bore statements and some memorable pictures of the legend. Here are some of the quotes that I found extremely useful.

To be continued about the Entire Ashram in the future posts*

Ahmadabad a college trip [Part- 2]

CEPT Campus

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.

Site Plan (click here for details)

• 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

1. Architecture (1962)
2. Planning (1972)
3. Building Science and Technology (1982)        
4. Interior Design (1991)                 

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.

Undulating topography towards West

Parking space towards East

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.

Undulating walkway connecting
school of architecture and planning

Right side of the school of architecture front facade

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.

Sketch emphasising the ribbon window

Some pictures clicked on site

Main staircase in the school of architecture

Multipurpose hall

Studios and the balconies
(via secondary entrance to school of architecture)

Diagonal skylight

Roof

Inwards view from an accessible roof

Outwards view from an accessible roof

These shafts were present everywhere
providing ventilation

Spiral staircase connecting
1st-year and 3rd-year studios

Studio

Steel Jali adjacent to flight

Ahmadabad a college trip [Part- 1]

Train memoirs

Fortunately, I was able to grab the perfect seat for the journey the only two problems that I faced were that we started in the evening ruining my maximum time as it was pitch dark and I couldn't see anything and as soon as sunrise occurred my first picture was this because of dirty fixed windows.

-UNFORTUNATE FORTUNE

Swarna Jayanti Rajdhani connecting Ahmedabad and New Delhi (the distance of approx. 940km) departs from New Delhi at 7:30 pm and reaching Ahmedabad at 5:40 am. At a speed of 70km/hr.

The Cloud Hotel

Study Table, Television set, and a stand

Toilet

Bedroom

The water conservation being managed very well in Ahmedabad made me think whether the water that came through the tap or shower was processed properly or not btw they used percolation wells for their irrigation, water-scaping which was a very good process. I could see pebbles, coarse grains and mesh in the plantation area near the party hall in the rear end of the hotel. 

The air flowing wasn't polluted by dirt or dust and was soo clean that eating outside than in a closed environment was very preferable most of the time excluding time of noon because of extreme heat.

The windows weren't one way which I realized when I saw a worker on the adjacent building gazing me when I was jumping on the bed in my underwear. 

The HDMI cable was missing on the television, I had to see normal quality television. COME ON!!

Hotel Heaven

Luckily my faculty gave me the opportunity to visit the kitchen and study the services they might provide.

The first thought occurring my mind was Ramsay Gordon and Kitchen Nightmares OH YESS!!

Storage

The Chef 

Cleaning Area

This kitchen was clean had a decent layout but the food wasn't authentic i.e. I expected sweet food in Ahmedabad but the food was very basic excluding delicious Gujarati kadhi, palak baby corn, and a fried vegetarian spicy wing.

Aspects to take care before designing a successful kitchen-

• Proper Hygiene by providing vents, water drainage, electricity supply properly.
• Storage (Cold and Dry) easily accessible with ingredients placed carefully without affecting other products. 
• Runners area and pickup zones to be spaced out without hindering the cook or other interlinked services.
• Separating different zones like cooking, cleaning, storing smartly giving priority as per the access, giving focus to the equipment layout and material.

Measured plan of the current layout of kitchen
(Each square side- 316mm)

Emergency Escape plan of ground floor

I'll upload the information related to equipment's material and use in the future post.