MY PERSONAL POSITIONS/
Over the past two years my perception of what architecture is, should be and what it should provide has changed. I see architecture as a tool for social and economical development and am interested in our perception of the mundane, the beautification and romanticization of the every day. I am intrigued by the prospect that architecture has the ability to revive or celebrate the once mundane. This notion first became inspired for me while spending time in India last year (2014) while working on my March 1 project. While being in India for two weeks at a time I spend just under a week in the Dharavi slum in Mumbai. Here around 1 million of Mumbai’s residents live and work. Resourcefulness here is a necessity with mass over population, and low income, the people of Dharavi make do with what they have. Hundreds of lives here are sustained by the simple collecting, processing and/or resale of what we as westerners perceive as waste, the trade of plastic bottles, used oil tins and waste recycling are common place. With ever growing global concerns about sustainability It is the application of this principle to architecture that I am interested in, to up-cycling, recycling and reuse.
THE DESIGN STUDIO CONTEXT/
Throughout my time on the March course I have been working in The Cinematic Construct of New Commons studio, (Cinematic Commons). The studio frames and articulates a filmic and scenographic way of thinking through our architectural designs. The unit investigates the process of the design, mediated through a new combination of filmic, essayistic and scenographic constructs - of what is real and what is ’common’ - as a new approach to architecture making. By doing so sensory impressions are conveyed or physical forces are transmitted through the use of set building and essayistic film in parallel with axonometric drawing – exploring the common as a public domain. As does the studios, my interests lie in the interstitial common space that is created by existing infrastructure within the context of the city. The site for the project sits on the periphery of the slum to the west, just North of Mahim junction train station, this area is physically divided by the western line railway, leading to cultural and economical sub-divisions. The slum sits to the east of the track and the city to the west. The area profuse in activity is ideal for a filmic recording, this in conjunction with the studio method of exploration and data recording through the medium of film has allowed me to critically interrogate the urban conditions and implications with the common as current.
THE DESIGN THESIS/
The project aims to be used as a redevelopment tool for the Dharavi Slum in Mumbai in association with the plastic recycling industry, re-establishing Dharavi’s position within the city of Mumbai. The slum is currently seen as a segregated and deprived area of the city that needs redevelopment. The project will catalyse the evolutionary development of the slum, redefining its status within the city. Its social and economical re-establishment will begin with the redesign of the Mahim Junction station. This node along the Western Line is of particular interest because it is at this point where the slum meets the city and the slum dweller meets the city dweller.
Secondly will be the introduction of a larger plastic sorting, treating and recycling facility. This will allow the slum workers to generate a self-sustaining, consistent income. The facility will sort 95% of all Mumbai’s waste plastic, producing plastic flakes, pellets and Polli brick to be sold globally.
The Polli bricks produced are a sustainable and profitable building material that will allow the slum to develop, forming a new architectural typology for the slum and the surrounding city.
The building itself will strategically host an array of materials that will be recycled, or reused everyday objects. Recycled architectural elements such as doors and windows from the demolished buildings in the area will be used in façade systems. Car doors and windows from the many hundreds of disused Mumbai taxis will be up-cycled and reused in the energy producing facade systems in the building. In conjunction with the recycling facility is the creation of the new commons, the building will
Provide a place of refuge, eating areas and washing facilities for the street children that currently occupy the site.
TECHNICAL AND TECHNOLOGICAL QUESTIONS/
Through the design process I have constructed a number of film sets, film essays and axonometric drawings alongside work produces in studio workshops. Initially sets and films were produced as a way of understanding the programme of the building, by physically building and critiquing key spaces or moments within the project thought the medium of film it allowed me to critically understand the necessary spaces required. Key spaces in the building were then remodelled and filmed, relating the program back to the design. To understand how the building would respond to the different users I created a large format montage, this composite drawing depicted the story of two characters that occupy the spaces but experience it in very different ways. The first was the workers, a middle aged man that works in the building who travels by train to the site, the other a young street child in search of refuge. The drawing allowed me to design spaces where these two users may cross paths, a place to rest during the warm Indian days or a small corner to wash. This was then filmed in parallel with additional set models produced to construct another short film.
The building will be predominantly constructed using an open steel frame system allowing for a more porous building. A steel frame construction allows for a relatively quick and easy construction and allows for a more adaptable structure, as the building will expand over time. The openness of the structure makes the working conditions more pleasant, with light, open and naturally ventilated spaces. There are however spaces within the bundling that generate large amounts of heat such as furnaces and chimneys. The architecture of these spaces is defined by the function, one meter think concrete and masonry walls are uses as a thermal blanket around these spaces.
FURTHER DEVELOPMENT/
As a tool for redevelopment the project provides resources for the people of the slum providing may jobs while generating an income that is directly fed back in the slums economy. The project also tackles some of the issues with over populating by freeing up more spaces in the slum where the existing recycling factories were originally located. If I I had more time to work on the project I would like the to combat more of the problems associated within life in the Dharavi slum. Open sewage and water-bond decease is rife in the slum and there is an ever-growing need to electricity. The project could use some of the bi-products of the plastic recycling process in aid of these problems. Coal ash for example produced by the buildings furnaces can be used in the production of cement and flay as (substance relieved in the air when burning coal) can be collected and used in the fertilization of soil. This could be used in agriculture or urban slum farms.