THE STEEL WEAVE

USING GALVANISED MILD STEEL TO CREATE A EXPERIENCE OF HEAVINESS AND ECSTASY THROUGH THE METHOD OF WEAVING

• Process:

While researching around for references, the process by looking around in nature where we could come across phenomena’s that could not only showcase the aspects of heaviness but also make one feel fascinated about it.

One such phenomenon that we came across was a canopy of trees.

A canopy is such that it has delicate members which create the density at the top and these members are held by the large sturdy tree trunks. Altogether, they form a dense space that feels heavy, almost like a long tunnel that one walks through.

Considering these understandings, the design process started by sketching sections. A vaulted structure whose form would help us bring in the experience of heaviness and at the same time density and delicacy of the canopy top would bring in the experience of ecstasy.

Next, we tried to add a play to the section of the vault by simply staggering it a level up.

We also created a play in the plan where we tweaked the plan keeping in mind the ideas of the longer and shorter sides of a rectangle, thus creating an ellipse of around the same measures.

Going back to the canopy and carefully observing the intertwined branches of the trees that almost weaved themselves with one another helped in deriving the module. The vaulted structure would have been a simply opaque closed vault, but it would not bring the experience of ecstasy.

By studying the intertwined branches and then smoothing it out helped in generating the module which would weave itself. This module is made up of galvanized mild steel hollow pipes.

These modules are then arranged along the periphery of the ellipse.

The form thus generated is a large canopy like space that creates an experience of heaviness when walking on the inside and the play of light due to the galvanized MS bars and the beaten-up steel sheets adds to the idea of ecstasy.

The site chosen for this pavilion is the Prathanalaya Bus Stop space near the Bandstand waters, Bandra as the space experiences a heavy flow of people around it.

All in all, the complete steel form generates the experience of heaviness and at the same time the play of light brings in the experience of ecstasy.

• Learnings:

Although, the structure that we designed is a complete steel structure, there were some learnings that we observed are important to keep in mind for further working:

One will have to integrate different kinds of materials into the making of a structure because a single material itself cannot really create the most favorable space of experience on the insides due to other factors affecting the material such as climate, material characteristics, material possibilities and constraints, etc.

For example, in our case itself, we had the possibility of creating a steel slab due to the fact that it is easily available in the building industry market.

However, the steel slab has very particular characteristics like:

1. It is subjected to vibrations at time due to external forces (here walking)

2. It would make the walk uncomfortable for the people walking on it due to it being a good conductor of heat thereby absorbing the heat from the sun if not roofed properly, etc.

Different materials have different properties and constraints which should be considered carefully while weighing the options to take a design decision regarding materials thoughtfully.