B.Arch - 4th Year (Semester 7)
In 7th Semester, the students are exposed to urban level – issues, designing and inserts and the complexity of the design project is increased where students handle various aspects ranging from cultural and sociological studies to application of advanced construction technologies and site and building services and design projects accordingly.
Each year Indian Institute of Architects (IIA), Nagpur Centre, conducts the Prof. S.A. Deshpande design Competition for 7th Semester Students from all Architecture colleges affiliated to RTMNU.
The students of SMMCA are not only encouraged to participate but guided and supported to excel in this.
This year’s competition brief was about The theory and invention of territory. The reciprocal framing of object/s and place.
TOP 3 PRIZES were won by SMMCA students in this highly prestigious 12th Prof. S. A. Deshpande Studio Design Competition.
This is a competition in which 7th Semester students of all 10 schools of architecture under RTMNU & VNIT compete.
Morph Anomaly (Salt Catcher Pavilion)
‘A Territory That Harness’
“Conjure up a territory that benefits & befits the reciprocity of both”- Excerpt from S.A. Deshpande Trophy brief 2020
The design was inspired by the site, Rann of Kutch’s ever-changing state of being. The territory here for the most part is undefined, the sea takes over the land and submerges it completely for 3 months, and then the land eventually rises for the next 8 months. The main idea of the pavilion was to take into action the same process, a pavilion that submerges in the water beneath for 3 months becoming one with the territory and then slowly emerging upwards naturally, being a spectacle for the tourists.
The main essence of the design was to create an ‘ever-expansive architecture’ that merges seamlessly with the territory, undefining a ‘physical segregation’ between both. This ‘undefining’ was done by morphing the land and the sea seamlessly with the form and bringing the very essence of this white wonderland, the ‘salt’ into the design.
‘Territory as a set of possibilities’
As humans we always want to understand how the world works. We make models with quantifiable variables and box it into systems of math and science. This means we can
reasonably predict what will happen if any of those variables were to change. But a lot of the world is not so quantifiable or predictable. Its rather chaos or propagated by chaos. When chaos gets induced into a system, it can radically transform and diverge from the ‘present’ to introduce newer possibilities to an existing system. This new set of possibilities is what I call a territory.
This analogy applies beautifully to the desert which I’ve taken up as my site. Let’s say the desert is a territory and every time there is a gush of wind, the sand dunes move to create newer dunes of different forms and shape. There is a new possibility of a different form of dune shaping itself in a way that is ever so slightly different from any dune ever formed before. Here the wind is the chaos that is propagating the sand to form new dunes i.e., newer possibilities. Therefore, a territory is a set of possibilities in process of being realised.
‘Territory Moulding Territory’
Is there a need for a bounded or defined territory? What if it changes its boundary as a result of the very forces that define its limits? There is the territory of context … the site … and there is the territory of the object within the territory of context. The territory of context has the potential to change the territory of the object and thereby consequentially changing its surrounding territory of context as well.
There are infinite possibilities of how forces of nature can change the form of an object and also its territory. Like a tree standing proud and tall. But as soon as the force of nature hits, it surrenders to the forces and changes its form.
I have designed an adventure pavilion that changes its shape according to the forces of nature, wind moulding it’s form and nudging it to the territory of water and waves of water sculpting its form and nudging it back to the land… achieving a form as a cube after the entire suspense about what actually the shape will end in after all twists and turns .. after which it starts to unfold again. Thus territory moulding territory.
This is a type of building complex where people across society gather for various forms of celebrations; be it weddings or parties or conferences or any other form of social gathering. Not as simple as it may first appear, the students were made to realize the complexities involved in designing this. The deep understand of the idea of celebration, various types of spaces required for each category of celebration were understood by the students. The structure of social fabric of city was studied by students – social, economic, cultural, religions, traditions etc. This study was used to design appropriate celebration spaces catering to the city’s needs. To make the project economically viable, other revenue generating activities to go along with main activities were intelligently integrated.
Each year Indian Institute of Architects (IIA), Nagpur Centre, conducts the Prof. S.A. Deshpande design Competition for 7th Semester Students from all Architecture colleges affiliated to RTMNU
The students of SMMCA are not only encouraged to participate but guided and supported to excel in this. The 2019 IIA Trophy was WON by SMMCA Student Khadija Behrainwala. Another student Radhika Agrawal received a special mention.
Research is the basis of any design process. A good design outcome requires the deep understanding, which, a detailed technical research provides. Research skills help students later on also when they pursue post graduate courses and also in their Doctoral pursuits.
The students individually identified topics for research and carried out the study. They made research posters with interesting graphical representation of their research topics. The posters show issue identification ideas, their concepts, the process using interesting layouts & designs.
