university of plymouth

m arch / ma architectural design

Shivaraj Shankar
overarching themes
- Disparity and deprivation
- Future Flooding
- Water’s edge as a contested site
- Loss of identity

key discourse
Historically Man has always tried to assert dominance over the forces
of nature and has always failed. “Man is an integral part of the
environment, and that it can only lead to human alienation and
environmental disruption if he forgets that” (Norberg-Schulz, 1996)
Barbara Allen outlines that the identity of a community living in a
particular place is largely influenced by the action and activities that the
people of the community do in their daily life. The architecture of the
space is given meaning through the social and cultural practices of the
people which is dependent on the location and context of the place.
“People’s identities are constituted more by what they “do” and less by
what they appear as or “see”. Any Investigation of regionalism must
begin with an investigation into what people actually do in that region
that marks as a part of that place.” (Allen, 2007)
“The Value of architecture lies dormant and has “to be reactivated by
social practices which will, as it were, revive it”. Human practices give
meaning to built form”. (Allen, 2007)
Historically the relationship between man and the water’s edge has
always been inextricable, Humans are possessed with an innate
tendency to connect with the water (Nichols, 2015)
key methodologies
Spirit of the place – Contextual analysis of the place relating the socio-
cultural, economic and environmental shift in its past, present and
predicted future.
Identifying barriers, boundaries and connections between the urban
and the the natural. dentifying and analysing the direction and
orientation of these connection to arrive at grids.
key projects
P0 – focused on Royal William yard being redeveloped as an isolated
territory to recapture economic investment and attract people by
capitalizing on the undisturbed view and staging various recreational
activities, which do not recognize the historical context in which these
spaces functioned or the original inhabitants of Stonehouse.
P2a - The relationship between man and the water’s edge has always
been inextricable with the edge being viewed as part of the public
realm. This relationship of the urban with the water, which is explored
through the means of an urban design strategy.
key questions
- How to rethink the relationship of the urban with the water and
live by accepting the future environmental shifts?
- Why is water’s edge a contested site and how does it affect
performative regionalism of the space?
- What are the effects of displacement of programs on identity
of the place?

critical self-reflection