Sakshi Maeen, Shruti Nikam

Sem 04 | Technology

New Modularity

Semester 4 technology module addresses the question of modularity in architecture. Modularitytoday, is understood today only through the lens of an industrially manufactured assembly system,where every component is expected to fit together with a highest degree of precision only. Instead,this technology module explored a more communitarian, artisanal, exploratory, temporal and at times playful dimension of the idea of modularity.

The project was to design a community centre for 300sqm approximately for an informal settlement in the Northern suburban region of Mumbai. The need for a large interaction space , space for celebrating festivals, having a facility of a community kitchen  and so on were arrived at as informed decisions taken based on the site study.  To these events the need for catering to the resource of water and its management on the site also became central to the spatial requirements and form of the structure.

So as to be able to cater to the different inherent questions of construction, scale, space, techne, water management, form all embedded in the primary question of what is modularity, students designed a traveling food collective that can cater to 15 people at once as an esquisse project for the first two weeks. Model making became the primary tool to explore the unit to module development of construction systems, joineries that can be put together, dismantled and transported in a small truck and re erected on another site.  This nature of the project demanded for the sensitive and efficient material palette catering to above needs. While some of the students started studying the material  and its characteristics to understand the load possibilities and hence the span of the spaces while some other started with designing inside to outside where the furniture and the structure collapse as one systemic logic and reemerges as multiple possibilities on the site depending on seasonal and varied spatial requirements.

Neha, Avinash, Sakshi

Rachit Raj Somani, Darshan Dedhia