Embedded Files
The site is a service duct in an apartment building. The rhythms identified are as follows:
sound of water dripping through leaky pipes,
smell of water from the drainage outlet,
sounds produced by the lift,
housekeeping staff who clean the lift and staircase lobby,
murmurs from conversations of the people on floor lobby space
These are all cyclical rhythms which interlace with each other from inside to outside and produce what is called a service duct.
These rhythms are disrupted in an instance of men inhabiting the space to fix the drain. Since they are made to handle human waste manually, the act of scavenging accentuates the filth and produces another linear rhythm of ignorance, aversion and dislike-people shut the windows and doors to avoid the site of filth.
Typical Floor Plan
Drawing of Forces
A certain notion of dirt and residue causes one to deliberately neglect or quickly leave the space and clean oneself immediately after. It is a dominant rhythm that creates difference to those who inhabit it temporarily, not by choice.
Ground Floor Plan
Service Duct as an Art Gallery
The service duct as an art gallery space is a deliberate attempt to create discomfort to the people irrespective of their identity-residents and housekeeping staff alike. The body is compelled to inhabit a prolonged enclosure with moist and filthy surface in the lobby (before accessing the circulation core) to create an experience of being trapped and consumed by dirt as in the manholes and drainages of the city.
Longitudinal Section
The window overlooks the duct area installed with multiple pipe-like structures very close to each other making it extremely difficult for anyone to inhabit.
Before
After
The engagement is a satire directed to the casteist society we live in- the city uses them more than they use the city. These are outcomes of close knit consolidations of those who embody privilege and in turn impose severe constraints on the social lives of the ‘others’.
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