Mindscape - Localisation

BUILDING AS A THRESHOLD

Community Unit at Goregaon, Mumbai

Building Making

Neha Mhadolkar | Semester 6 | 2023-24

Course brief:

The course explored the building making process. It started with drawing out the site, coming up with conceptual ideas through which the building designs were explored and then detailing out the technical ascpects of the designs in the form of working drawings. These technicalities sought to explain the processes involved in the making of the buildings, the various agencies taking part in it, how it is managed, worked upon, the fininacial aspects of it, the stages it is carried out it and how spatialities can further be questioned once the actual requirement of building making are put together with it.

Site:

Ganesh Maidan, Bimbisar Nagar, Goregaon (East)

Bimbisar Nagar is a mixed type of colony, which has both residential and small commercial units within it. The commercial units exist in the form of small shops, which are mostly owned by and cater to the people living within the colony itself.

There are two types of housing that are provided here - MHADA houses and transit camp houses.

The site of intervention, Ganesh Maidan, is a shared open ground which is used by all the people living in the colony.

The ground is adjacent and shares a common wall with a school. The ground itself has various programs like a vachnalay, vyayamshala, a shakha, a pump room, stage and a public toilet. Along with these, numerous small hawking stalls are set up on the periphery of the ground.

Field Observations:

Spaces of extensions, insertions and commons become the thresholds between social and private spheres of the lives of people inhabiting here. They provoke pauses and detours in the cycles and rhythms of their lives, becoming major nodes of activities at particular times of the day while allowing them to move fairly unobstructed in the space.

Shops attached to a blank wall - exchange happens

The extension of a temple - conversations are initiated

Seating added in the dead spaces of a building - for leisure and to observe

A bench flushed to the edge of the building, offering not just itself but the surface it is flushed to as an inhabitable space

Small shops set up in the empty spots between the parked vehicles on the road. People passing by go ‘inside’ this in-between space themselves to buy goods from the sellers. The system does not interrupt the flow of people and vehicles on the road

Series of benches seem to be tucked among the vehicles parked near the building edges. These benches become a gathering spot for the people of all age groups. People passing by these spots may or may not stop to converse, but this space always offers them with an oppotunity to do so

Design Intent and Spatial Detail:

Buildings having setbacks in certain area, which become spaces of pause

The building becomes/has a thoroughfare which connects the groung to the road outside

Multiple levels of plinths, which happen within and outside the buildings, creating a sense of boundaries- though directly accessible- between the two spaces

Pathways into the ground that go through the communal spaces

Play that happens at multiple levels, while allowing passage from underneath itself

Temple has a closed, solitary space which extends out to become more social

A cluster of these units creating an experience of meandering through the building.

Spatial intent - Thresholds - Library

The buildings act as thresholds between the road -with its rush and density- and the driftness of the ground. Thresholds here are the spaces where one starts experiencing change, a place on the verge of two distinct systems. Pathways leading to the ground go through the communal buildings. These communal buildings become the ‘detours’- as recess spaces in the form of seatings, gathering spaces, play areas, shops and libraries. They provoke pauses, rest, conversations and leisure.

Program and scope:

Community Hall (for 80-100 people) as a recreational space - 300 sq. m.
Temple and open precint - 100 sq. m.
Convinience stores - 150 sq. m.
Public toilet and drinking water facility - 60 sq. m
Vachanalay and library - 200 sq. m
Vyayamshala / Gymkhana - 100 sq. m
Stage and green room - 100 sq. m
Pump room - 40 sq. m
Clinic and nursing home - 100 sq. m
Nursery - 100 sq. m
Hawking spaces - 100 sq. m
Play area - 125 sq. m
Balwadi - 75 sq. m
Circulation - 150 sq. m

Conceptual Design:

Program Diagram:

Explains why a specific program was placed in a particular space, keeping in mind the duration of inhabitation of people in the space, the nature of inhabitation and to keep the circulation through the space easier.

Design drawings:

Ground Floor Plan

First Floor Plan

Sections

Elevations

Design development and detailing:

Zoning of site and drawing out forms of building in terms of the concept

Developing the form to further bring out the idea of thresholds

Developing the form to further bring out the idea of thresholds on the first floor

Detailing internal spaces to get the experience of thresholds on a smaller scale too

Detailing internal spaces

Developing the form further on an overall scale to bring out the idea of thresholds

Sloping roof considering the climatic conditions of the site

Exploring the form of the roofs to create varying spatial experiences and indicate thresholds

Breaking the roofs with rainwater gutters required for such large spans

Creating a language out of the newly developed roof form

Fenestration Diagram

Internal Layout Diagram

Construction Sequencing:

The GIF shows the entire process of construction of the building, starting from barricading the site up until it's handover.

Construction Documentation:

Site Management:

Site Management is an important part of the building making process. It involves managing the quality and quantity of materials - keeping an inventory to record what and how something used , training and taking care of the well being of the workers, making sure they have adequate safety gears while working, making sure resources like water and electricity are always running on the site of construction.

By making a bar chart and a critical path diagram, we get an estimate of long it will take for the completion of the project. Likewise, to complete my project, a period of 34 weeks was estimated for its completion.

Site Management Plan

Critical Path Diagram

Shows the critical path, that is, the events that need to be done within it's stipulated time wihout fail. It is calculated using EEP - Earliest Event Time and LET - Latest Event Time

Site Development Plan:

Site Development Plan shows how the space surrounding the building - the landscape - is to be made. Here, the plinth is paved with 30 mm thick rough shahabad stones, while the footpath is finished using stamped concrete.

Site Development Plan

Line Out Plan:

Line out plan draws two critical points - datam points, which are considered as a fixed level compared to which the rest of the measurements are taken during construction. It has to be a fixed point that won't move throughout the work. Here, the edge of the existing school wall is considered as the datum point.

It also marks the point where the columns are to be constructed.

Line Out Plan

Foundation Plan:

Line out plan draws two critical points - datam points, which are considered as a fixed level compared to which the rest of the measurements are taken during construction. It has to be a fixed point that won't move throughout the work. Here, the edge of the existing school wall is considered as the datum point.

Foundation Plan

Ground Floor Plan:

Line out plan draws two critical points - datam points, which are considered as a fixed level compared to which the rest of the measurements are taken during construction. It has to be a fixed point that won't move throughout the work. Here, the edge of the existing school wall is considered as the datum point.

Ground Floor Plan

First Floor Plan:

Line out plan draws two critical points - datam points, which are considered as a fixed level compared to which the rest of the measurements are taken during construction. It has to be a fixed point that won't move throughout the work. Here, the edge of the existing school wall is considered as the datum point.

First Floor Plan

Roof Plan:

Line out plan draws two critical points - datam points, which are considered as a fixed level compared to which the rest of the measurements are taken during construction. It has to be a fixed point that won't move throughout the work. Here, the edge of the existing school wall is considered as the datum point.

Roof Plan

Sections:

Line out plan draws two critical points - datam points, which are considered as a fixed level compared to which the rest of the measurements are taken during construction. It has to be a fixed point that won't move throughout the work. Here, the edge of the existing school wall is considered as the datum point.

Sections

Elevations:

Line out plan draws two critical points - datam points, which are considered as a fixed level compared to which the rest of the measurements are taken during construction. It has to be a fixed point that won't move throughout the work. Here, the edge of the existing school wall is considered as the datum point.

Elevations

Spatial Detail:

Line out plan draws two critical points - datam points, which are considered as a fixed level compared to which the rest of the measurements are taken during construction. It has to be a fixed point that won't move throughout the work. Here, the edge of the existing school wall is considered as the datum point.

Spatial Detail

Staircase Detail:

Line out plan draws two critical points - datam points, which are considered as a fixed level compared to which the rest of the measurements are taken during construction. It has to be a fixed point that won't move throughout the work. Here, the edge of the existing school wall is considered as the datum point.

Staircase Detail

Toilet Detail:

Line out plan draws two critical points - datam points, which are considered as a fixed level compared to which the rest of the measurements are taken during construction. It has to be a fixed point that won't move throughout the work. Here, the edge of the existing school wall is considered as the datum point.

Toilet Detail Plan

Toilet Detail Sections

Door - Window Schedule:

Line out plan draws two critical points - datam points, which are considered as a fixed level compared to which the rest of the measurements are taken during construction. It has to be a fixed point that won't move throughout the work. Here, the edge of the existing school wall is considered as the datum point.

Door Schedule

Window Schedule

Bill of Quantities:

Bill of Quantities is a tender document that is used in the construction process to list down the specification, amount and rate of the materials, sources and labour that is used in it. Before the construction of any project is started, an approximate cost is computed using the drawings, model, rates and other information regarding it. These rates are referred from the Schedule of Rates, a document which has a list of cost of various construction items published by the PWD. Specifications describes the workmanship, quantity and quality of material used in detail, basically telling the contactor how a particular element is to be made and with exactly what material.

Bill of Quantities_Neha Mhadolkar.pdf