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Roadside shrines are small entities around the city being focal points for local economies in an urban landscape. They are found at many corners of the city often going unnoticed unlike temples. These shrines are on the everyday route of many, changing the their daily movements, becoming stop points, a safe refuge for the community attracting local economies around it.
LOCATION
The site is outside Maxus mall in Gorai, it is on a footpath under a banyan tree there’s a shrine on one side of Shiv idol and on the other side there’s a hanuman idol, both shrines have been there since about 30 years, built incrementally with the help of donations from locals. This footpath is on the daily route of many people due to the residential buildings and restaurants, the shrine becomes a part of their daily route, as they stop pray and continue their journey. The shrine also plays a key role in supporting local economies like a tea stall and smoking area on one end and an open garage on another. It is also surrounded by a rickshaw stand and parking because of the mall. The tree holds the shrine together, along with serving as the roof to these economies. The locals pray here mainly on Mondays, Tuesdays and Saturdays. The shrine is looked after by the owners of the garage and the tea stall.
SITE ELEVATI0N
SITE PLAN
A collage gives us a way to read the site in another way, in the site's experience, the expression, scale and textures of the site. The shrine and its surroundings are often messy and patchy not just in appearance but also the programs that are conduced in and around the shrine, which can be conveyed in the form of a collage
COLLAGE 1
COLLAGE 1
COLLAGE 2
COLLAGE 2
FINAL COLLAGE
FINAL COLLAGE
I observed the site’s patchiness and materiality, noting how the garage adjacent to the shrine creates clutter, turning the area into a stopping point for pedestrians. The low boundary wall is utilized for cooking, storage, and resting, while the space behind the tree has become a dumping ground for the garage and tea stall, creating a barrier.
DEVLOPING A SYNTAX
The tree being the main element on this site holding both shrines together, becomes a focal point of the site, with it's branches becoming the roof, a place of shade and refuge with activities growing under it. I looked at these activities and space like fragments coming together incrementally built by the locals forming the activities, the roof and the floor.
Just like these bits and pieces holding the shrines together I have interlocked fragments together as my design intervention. These fragments have come from the site itself , I tried creating small forms in and around the tree. The idea of interlocking came from the sense of entanglement that the tree branches have, the overall form of the structure allows thoroughfare which incorporates small pockets for these economies. The interlocking allows it to give the visual sense of entanglement and even the sense of experience a person would feel in it will be different in each pocket creating different ways you could move through this space.
ITTERATIONS
DESIGN DRAWINGS
PLAN
ELEVATION
SECTION
FINAL MODEL
Both shrines stay at the original place, no longer remaining objects placed but as a part of the structure following its language. The same is done for the boundary walls as well. For the material on site, I thought of using metal sheets which will be cut and interlocked together.
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