The Indian Institute of Architects, Nagpur Centre (Maharashtra Chapter)

11th Prof. S A DESHPANDE STUDIO DESIGN COMPETITION 2019

The Gulliver Project

aka The Elephant Project

A Project about
MEASURE
DISTANCE
SCALE
object autonomy
subject reversal

Dev Bildikar 2019

S A DESHPANDE STUDIO DESIGN
COMPETITION 2019

the gulliver
project
a MICROMEGA project......a trick of perspective &
manifold metaphors
about BIG & SMALL.....about defunct scale....about
blurred perception....about measure.....about
satire......about politics.....about architecture

OBJECT AUTONOMY
…….about

& SUBJECT REVERSAL……

about BINARY SIGNIFIERS……..about
DIFFERENCES......about
COMPARISONS.......about understanding one thing
against the existence of the OTHER......
Dev: “Do you like elephants?”
Ved: “As autonomous objects.....or in the Architectural
sense?”
Dev: “As BIG creatures.....as scale disrupters.......also as
enormous animals.”
Ved: “In the Jim Corbett national park.....I did see them
as autonomous objects.......from a considerable
distance.....thoroughly unable to devise a measure with
whatever visual device was available to me in that
instance. The panorama stretched at least four
kilometers across & in that scene there was this herd of
elephants......devoid of measure & scale. That the
animal weighs 5000 kilograms and is at best 4 meters
CONVERSATIONS ON
tall was all lost out to SCALED perception.”
Dev: “Object autonomy is always natural to the
MEASURE, DISTANCE &
object.....as in the case of the elephant. But SUBJECT
REVERSAL as in the case of the herd placed in the SCALE
resultant scenery sets up a set of BINARY
SIGNIFIERS.......there is the elephant & there is the
panorama.....& the idea of its scale & measure begin to
make some sense”
Ved: “If not for the resultant scenery it would be
difficult to put a fix on the scale & the measure of
things .”
Dev” “Yes it is ....SUBJECT REVERSAL is the act of
putting the Elephant in the Resultant Scenery”
Dev: “Not so much the city of Manhattan; a man made example.....its magnitude, its scale, its enormity is always under
BLURRED perception. Because of its enormity the city is almost mythical......almost delirious. Its decipherment is one
continuous deferment. Its scale & enormity always slips you by.....it never lets you understand it.
Dev: “Seen from across as a skyline..... It appears as one monolithic mass of architecture......it defies Subject Reversal......the
binary references are simply not there......everything is BIG....BIG....BIG.”
Ved: “Our conversations are about OBJECT AUTONOMY on the one hand & SUBJECT REVERSALS on the other.......the
elephant & Manhattan examples are both about understanding scale, measure, enormity & its place in architecture…….one
as a Binary Construct & the other as an Autonomous Object.”
Dev: “And then there is this book by Jonathan Swift, ‘Gulliver’s Travels’......even though it is about political satire....about
Humankind’s undeflatable ego......about a trick of PERSPECTIVE.......it is enormously about Architecture.......simply because
it is about scale & measure.....it is about BIG & SMALL....the book must be read….no doubt”
Ved: “It is essentially about differences & comparisons.......about the Other. The discourse on size, scale, magnitude in
architecture is best understood if we can develop binary constructs.......how big is Big will privilege itself in the company of a
small object.”
Dev: “True....this is understood as a condition in its inherent Difference.....a sort of ANALOGY OF OPPOSITES construct.”
THE COMPETITION PROJECT
Dev: “I am looking at the possibility of an Architectural Project......a project that could be called THE
ELEPHANT PROJECT or better still THE GULLIVER PROJECT to study the phenomena of Scale & Measure.”
Ved; “Here is the project.......Select a site that will
best suit its purpose.....a found object…..a place of
your imagination…..a real place….
Select a project with 2 objects; one big…..one
Project Criteria : Deploy a
precise, clear narrative to begin with......inexorably
small…… that will best take in its purpose....it should connected to your architectural project that is to
deploy the BIGNESS/SMALLNESS proposition as the follow.
essential construct. Site location will be declared on 04.08.2019 (Sunday).
Develop a narrative.....a story.....a premise.....an Devise a completely commensurate architectural
ekphrasis. project.
Design both projects as DICOTOMOUS…..BINARY Design the project to fully explain your GULLIVER
PROJECT.
SIGNIFIER conditions......clearly pitting the big one
Draw it in the most beautiful manner.
against the small one, thereby making the difference Give your project an appropriate title.
obvious……thereby explaining the obviousness of No restriction on Area & Scope.
Scale & Measure.
Conceptual forms with the possibility of infusing
them with purpose & function will help to reinforce
the narrative.
The PROJECT must possess exemplary status…….it
must be extant, explicit & incredible.
The project will be about 2 objects….. Conceptual
Architectural Objects……one small….one
big……designed in the place of your
imagination…..bringing forth the idea of MEASURE
SCALE & DISTANCE…….
S A DESHPANDE STUDIO DESIGN COMPETITION 2019
This project ABOUT THE
MAKING OF 2 OBJECTS
measures
scales
locates

makes amends
sizes

decides
Notes
The Gulliver Project
predicts
disrupts
suspects
About SCALE & REVERSALS
protects
pre empts
disposes
dispossesses
assures
pre supposes
senses
formalizes
structuralizes
makes
unmakes…….effaces…..defaces…..concocts figures
firms up things….. bequeaths
spaces….volumes….shapes….forms
relents
performs
articulates
intones
disappears
appears
Fancies
In Book 1, Swift

Notes
created the
Lilliputians to be 12x
smaller than humans,
while in Book 2, the
Brobdingnagians are
12x larger than
humans. The
Lilliputians were
people who were
petty. They had a
long-standing dispute
with their neighbors
over which end to
crack open an
egg. Swift was
showing that the
stature of the people
matched their small-
minded ways. The
Lilliputians were self- SWIFT'S use of scale as a technique
centered and
ridiculous in many
ways, such as
of satire with reference to
GULLIVER'S TRAVELS
choosing their
leaders by...
Voltaire’s MICROMEGAS
The story is organized into seven brief chapters. The first describes Micromégas (small/large), an
inhabitant of one of the planets that orbits Sirius. His home world is 21.6 million times greater in
circumference than Earth. Micromégas stands 120,000 feet (37 km) tall. When he is almost 450
years old, approaching the end of his infancy, Micromégas writes a scientific book examining the
insects on his planet, which at 100 feet (30 m) are too small to be detected by ordinary
microscopes. This book is considered heresy, and after a 200-year trial, he is banished from the
court for a term of 800 years. Micromégas takes this as an incentive to travel around the Universe
in a quest to develop his intellect and his spirit.
After extensive celestial travels he arrives on Saturn, where he befriends the secretary of the
Academy of Saturn, a man less than a twentieth of his size (a "dwarf" standing only 6,000 feet
(1.8 km) tall). They discuss the differences between their planets. The Saturnian has 72 senses
while the Sirian has 1,000. The Saturnian lives for 15,000 Earth years while the Sirian lives for
10.5 million years; Micromégas reports that he has visited worlds where people live much longer
than this, but still consider their lifespans too short. At the end of their conversation, they decide
to take a philosophical journey together.
Eventually, they arrive on Earth and circumnavigate it in 36 hours, with the Saturnian only getting
his lower legs wet in the deepest ocean and the Sirian barely wetting his ankles. They decide that
the planet must be devoid of life, since it is too small for them to see with the naked eye. In the
Baltic Sea, the Saturnian happens to spot a tiny speck swimming about, and he picks it up to
discover that it is a whale. As they examine it, a boatful of philosophers returning from an Arctic
voyage happens to run aground nearby.
The space travellers examine the boat and, upon discovering the lifeforms inside it, they conclude
that the tiny beings are too small to be of any intelligence or spirit. Yet they gradually realize the
beings are speaking to each other, and they devise a hearing tube with the clippings of their
fingernails in order to hear the tiny voices. After listening for a while, they learn the human
language and begin a conversation, wherein they are shocked to discover the breadth of the
human intellect.
The final chapter sees the humans testing the philosophies
of Aristotle, Descartes, Malebranche, Leibniz and Locke against the travellers' wisdom. When the
travellers hear the theory of Aquinas that the universe was made uniquely for mankind, they fall
into an enormous fit of laughter. Taking pity on the humans, the Sirian decides to write them a
book that will explain the point of everything to them. When the volume is presented to
the French Academy of Sciences, the secretary opens the book only to find blank pages.
Notes
Projects
Projects
Archigram/Sir Peter Cook
Yesterday’s Future/Juxtaposed Utopias
Walking City

Plug-In City

Old Imaginations
SITES & IDEAS
SITES & IDEAS
SIZE MATTERS
Star Wars: Battle Scenes
Cosmic Scale
SIZE MATTERS
SCHEDULE OF THE COMPETITION
25.7.2019 (Thursday) -
Introduction of the Competition Brief without the
site

25.7.2019 to 04.08.2019 -
a) All students are expected to prepare for the
Competition by studying the Competition Brief and
catching up with reading, watching movies and/or
videos recommended by the mentor/faculty or
otherwise.
b) In addition to the above, students are free to begin
work on the design in their respective studios, at
home, etc.

04.08.2019 (Sunday)
Declaration of other project details including site at
the intervening hour between 4.8.2019 and 5.8.2019

05.08.2019 - 11.08.2019 (Monday through

Sunday) -
The 11th Prof. S A Deshpande Studio Design
Competition. During this period, students are
required to work in the studio only (24 x 7).
11.08.2019 (Sunday) -
Submission of shortlisted entries between 7:30 PM and
9:00 PM at the IIA - Nagpur Centre Office, Sadar, Nagpur
(stamped hard copies as well as scanned copies). Rules
for shortlisting entries will be communicated later.

Screening of entries by a panel of assessors at IIA

- Nagpur Centre Office
a) Rules - to be communicated later
b) Date - to be communicated later
c) Internal Jurors - to be communicated later

26.8.2019 (Monday) - Final Open Jury -

a) Wild card entry - All received entries (shortlisted for
the final jury or not) will be displayed on the day of the
Final Open Jury at the venue. Before the
commencement of the Final Open Jury (10:00 - 11:00
AM), the external jurors shall go through the ones
which are not shortlisted for the Final Open Jury. Any
non-shortlisted entry found suitable shall be treated as
a wildcard entry and the same shall be eligible for the
Final Open Jury. Hence, all the participants are expected
to be present at the venue at 10:00 AM.
b) Venue - to be communicated later
c) External Jurors - to be communicated later
The sequence of presentation will be by draw of lots.
Lunch shall be provided to the shortlisted participants of
the final open jury. At the end of the jury presentations,
the jury members shall retire for determining the awards.
During this time, there shall be an open house, where all
participants shall together participate in mutual discussion
and questioning. The open house shall be followed by the
awards ceremony. The decision of the jurors shall be final
and binding on all stakeholders.

PRESENTATION MODE , CONTENT & DISPLAY

To be communicated later.

PRESENTATION RHETORIC
A well rehearsed explanation narrated in a systematic
manner will always help. Explain the strategy of your
design, the concepts explained therein in a concise
manner. Emphasize in your rhetoric the idea of your
project. Also talk about the learning process.

PRESENTATION ETIQUETTE
Keep an amiable, pleasant and confident appearance. Be
patient with the jury. Listen to them, after all this is a peer
review. Questions are inevitable. Therefore your answers
are mandatory.
INTERNAL ASSESSMENT
Each participating institution is eligible to submit 3 shortlisted
entries per 40 participants. For example, if the intake is 120,
but number of participants is 65, the number of eligible
entries shall be 4.87, i.e., 5 entries (rounded off).

In other words, 1 entry per 13.33 participating students will

be eligible. However, in the event the number of students on
rolls/participating students are less than 13, even then 1
entry will be eligible.

The shortlisted entries shall be certified by the head of the

participating institution by stamping & signing the same. The
entries shall be accompanied by the list of participants, duly
stamped & certified by the head of the institution.

The mode of assessment shall be table jury. In the table jury,

each short listed student will be given 10 minutes to explain
his/her project. Only such entries deemed worthy shall make
it to the final open jury. The names of the short listed entries
for the final open jury will be duly conveyed.
The decision of the internal assessors shall be final and
binding on all stakeholders.
RETURNING OF ENTRIES
The shortlisted entries will be retained by the Nagpur
Centre. The remaining entries too shall be retained and
returned to the respective institutions after the final open
jury.
The scanned entries shall be presented in the final open
jury, which shall be an audio visual presentation.

PRIZES –
1ST - CERTIFICATE AND CASH AWARD OF INR 7500.00
2ND - CERTIFICATE AND CASH AWARD OF INR 5000.00
3RD - CERTIFICATE AND CASH AWARD OF INR 2500.00
CONSOLATION PRIZES - TWO, WITH
CERTIFICATECOMMENDATION CERTIFICATES SHALL BE
GIVEN TO THE SHORTLISTED ENTRIESRUNNING TROPHY
SHALL BE AWARDED TO THE INSTITUTION OF THE 1ST PRIZE
WINNING STUDENT

AMENDMENTS TO THE COMPETITION BRIEF –

The Indian Institute of Architects, Nagpur Centre reserves
the right to make amendments in the Competition Brief
without assigning any reasons whatsoever.