Ar.

Dong-
Ping
Wong
UNIT 2

SEMINAR/ ACTIVITIES VI ATHARVA BENDRE

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Our Takeaways from the talk:

Ar. Dong-Ping Wong starts the talk with how the economic recession has
had an impact on the field of architecture.
The time before the 2008 recession was when architecture had hit its
peak, with "iconic" projects coming up all over the world.

The iconic projects' objective was to have a dominant, sleek design

language, and Mr. Dong talks about the flaws in this design language
which was also evident after the recession, which was the obsession with
objects rather than spaces or buildings, the designs were meant to look
bigger, posh, etc.,

One of the good things after the recession as explained by Mr. Dong, was
the opportunity to build back the lost philosophies of architecture.

It can change literally the meaning of architecture and change the

meaning of a space, building, and city.
He talks about making "Productive architecture" And how architecture
can contribute to the city in a way of providing services like solar cell
array, or clean water, etc.,

He talks about a 600 apartment in Dallas, and how climatology has

played a role in the design, leading to mountainous peak inspired design,
with the facade providing a space for renewable energy, hence
contributing to saving costs and a greener way of living.

This leads to him talking about the PLUS POOL project,

which redefines the public floating pool notion. Historically there have
been public baths and pools and Mr. Dong wanted to revisit and include
it his vision. Hence the introduction of a pool in a midst of the city where
a river passes by would really be beneficial to the city. This came with a
major problem - "River cleanliness" Hence, Mr. Dong, had his challenge
cutout, providing a public pool in the midst of a river in the city, where
the water should be clean enough so that the locals can use it. Mr. Dong
collaborated with engineers in order to work on a filtration system .
 The filtration system works on layers, as water from the river enters the
pool, it flows through various layers before entering the pool space.
Once all the wastage is filtered out, all that is left is clean and pure water
which meets the standards of the Government body.

Thus, he started a Kickstarter Campaign, raised funds of about USD 41K,

initialized the lab tests for water filtration, materials used, etc., They
began a collaboration with labs and universities such as Columbia
University, Bluemont Earth Observatory, 19 different parameters were
tested, interns were called, they were made to test river quality in labs.

Speaking on the design, Mr. Dong continues,

The PLUS design is again based on the productivity of the pool usage, it
could be separated with individual sectors of the pool, or combined to
form athletic size pools.

And productivity-wise, the pool has the capacity to filter and clean 500
thousand gallons of clean river water, just by swimming in it and using it.

Hence the architecture design is something that gives back to the city.
And also the raised by the city, about 1500 people of the city and
worldwide who wanted the project to happen, the people who
supported it, get a worthwhile mention.

Hence, we understand that we have got an opportunity to build back a

new design language that can literally change the notion of architecture,
and, Mr. Dong is doing his part of the productive architecture and he
sure is happy about it!

SEMINAR/ ACTIVITIES VI ATHARVA BENDRE

UA18BA358 PES1201801214
Ar.
Thomas Bryans
UNIT 2

SEMINAR/ ACTIVITIES VI ATHARVA BENDRE

UA18BA358 PES1201801214
Our Takeaways from the talk:

Ar. Thomas Bryans starts his talk with the fundamental things of a
building, which is to provide shelter and provide experiences hence
improving lives.
Hence, Mr. Thomas talks on the impact on the lives of people, an
architecture design has.
He explains in different layers such as:
Around the building is the site, which affects the surrounding residents
and people in the building design as well as the people surrounding it,
which affects the economy, and the environment as well.
Hence we can observe a ripple effect happening surrounding a building
design.
And building tend to stay for decades and centuries having a lasting
effect on the residents and people around it.

Hence he talks about the history of how the impact has been.
150 Years ago, around the time of industrialization, the buildings we see
today are an impact of modernism, which liberated architecture from its
past, a major cause for this was cheaper fossil fuels, and hence leading
to thinner walls, usage of glass because of easy availability, and the
architects and building planners didn't care about the heat radiation at
that time. The introduction of cars changed the way we use roads and
interact with buildings from a street level.

Architects weren't limited to the materials around them, hence this

impact still persists today which the adamant of comfortable lives we
have today.

But this came with the negative impact of heat radiation which has had a
negative impact on society. Buildings consume a huge amount of natural
resources, labor, leading to huge amounts of carbon footprint.

So architects have a vested responsibility to change the ripple effect in a

good way.
 One way which has been working efficiently is to include greenery, trees,
and plants in our design. Buildings that support and uplift the
community, which improve health and overall improve the economy. He
gives out three examples of his own designs, explaining the positive note
of the design and its impact.

1. Lower Marsh, Water Loo, London.

A temporary forged (previously library) building in London, which
can have a positive impact on the streetscape and the
community
They wanted to give a radiating vibrant outlook to the exterior of
the building. On the inside, it was meant to be a space for startup
incubations, community housing, etc., The building which would
have been sitting idle, is now used to uplift the economy of the
locals and the smile design on the exterior gives a sense of pride
to the locals inside.

2. St. Teresa School, Effingham, Surrey.

The project began with how the construction budget can have a
design education impact on the students as well which will open
up huge learning insights and opportunities to the students.
The design incorporates greener ways of design such as solar
rooftops, green surroundings which enhance the local
biodiversity. The school provides so much to the community and
education for society.

3. Joseph Walsh Studio, County Cork, Ireland.

The project to create a holistic greener context of an old barn
house, which has created a diverse cultural and creative
environment with high skilled laborers and jobs.
The furniture design hub (the client) had physical limitations
because the scale on which the projects they worked on, were
huge. Hence again, sustainable and greener ways were the best
options to provide a solution, which was the incorporation of
sustainable energy sources, boreholes, and bio features for
water, which filters wastewater. The interiors inside will have a
visual link to the trees outside.
Thus we always need to work on having a big picture in mind, its
impacts, and consequences before designing a space, concludes,
Mr. Thomas.

SEMINAR/ ACTIVITIES VI ATHARVA BENDRE

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Ar. Sameep
Padora
SEMINAR/ ACTIVITIES VI ATHARVA BENDRE
UA18BA358 PES1201801214
Our Takeaways from the talk:

Ar. Sameepp Padora, talks about living in cramped houses with limited
ventilation due to the migration in search of jobs in Mumbai.

When tragedy struck, the disease spread due to the cramped societies.
In the early 1900s, official bodies were set up to develop healthier
societies and modest living societies.

The architect talks about his case study, The buildings, centuries ago, on
how people have used common sense incorporating with the building
by-laws.

He talks about Swadeshi Market which has a mix-use purpose with

residential and commercial. With streets going through the building
connecting one part of the city to another.

The "chawls" or the community housing were an essential part of

residential living during the 20th century. This fostered a sense of
community belonging within the residents, any individual resident would
feel a part of the family of their residential living due to the architecture
of the spaces, which had shared courtyard spaces enhanced the
community living within the residents.

Bhatia Chawl, another living society where residents would still prefer to
live here in this day rather than living in a high-rise apartment with an
elevator.

The furniture used in these buildings has a huge sense of practicality

where the simple mechanism of ladders has been used to access the
mezzanine.
Another rule drawn by the government was the rule of 63.5 degrees
which made sure that enough light enters the houses through the
courtyards or the roads.
Considering two building's height next to each other, one building's
height, the line from the height to the road level shouldn't make an angle
more than 63.5 degrees.
 But in today's day and age, Mumbai's architecture is killing the locals due
to the poor light and air ventilation.

Where the government built Slum Rehabilitation Projects resemble more

like warehouses for people residing in it.
This has a negative impact on the residents as it gives rise to lung
diseases. According to the survey, One out of every 10 residents living in
these societies suffers from respiratory diseases which can have a fatal
effect.

And this isn't limited to government projects. Private developer-built

projects which cost around 50L to 90L. have the same story regarding
poor ventilation and lighting. The only source of lighting for the interiors
is the light ducts towering 30 storey with very small dimensions resulting
in worse conditions in the interiors.

Mr. Sameep enables our thinking and questions; what went wrong in the
development. He continues and blames the codebooks which allow poor
ventilation and lighting as long as they are providing good profit for the
developer.

Talking about his own project, Mr. Sameep talks about " UDAAN" based
on all their previous case studies.

ONE PRINCIPLE USED WAS HAVING TWO WINDOWS; ONE FACING THE
EXTERIOR, ONE OF THE INTERIOR, WHICH ALLOWED COMMUNICATION
AS WELL AS ALLOWED THE HOT AIR TO ESCAPE AND ESCAPING
THROUGH THE DUCT ABOVE.

The people living in small houses generally depend on the space right
outside their respective houses. Hence the clubhouse model which is
generally kept aside, their design embraces the design and has been
introduced within the building which has been laced along with the daily
circulation pattern of the residents.

Hence, while designing, people's health and well-being, fostering a

community become an important role while designing spaces, and
architecture has a huge impact of the daily lives of everybody.

SEMINAR/ ACTIVITIES VI ATHARVA BENDRE

UA18BA358 PES1201801214