Wastewater management tends to be a big problem in rural India. In villages like Kundli, located on the outskirts of Dehli, hundreds of factories have popped up in a matter of decades, often releasing water contaminated with chemicals directly into the ground. The problem is that these factories, which manufacture items like plastics, rubber, jewelry, and polyester, typically don’t have enough space for high-tech water treatment solutions, even if they could afford them. The pollutants in turn make their way into groundwater and nearby waterways, contaminating the local bathing and drinking water.

The Indus tile system’s algae-based bioremediation process involves placing a wastewater tank on top of the building and then allowing gravity to funnel the water though “veins” in the “leaves.” The designers traveled to India and observed the production processes of textile dyers in Panipat and bangle makers in Kolkata, where various processes release different types of heavy metals into the wastewater. The team found that one particular type of algae was able to reduce cadmium levels in the water by 10 times within 45 minutes.

Fabricated in Khurja, India, which is known for its ceramics, the Indus tiles are made of clay and deeply textured to hold onto a viscous hydrogel containing the most promising pollution-busting species of algae. The vein-like channels are shaped by an algorithm to optimize their ability to absorb pollutants. As the water flows over a tile, the microscopic algae cells absorb and store the substances for energy. The hydrogel acts as a “biological scaffold” that keeps the algae alive, and it’s biodegradable. The materials required to prepare the hydrogel and algae cells can be supplied in a powdered form and reapplied to the tiles as needed.

The modular tiles fit together into a beautiful pattern using half-lap joints, so individual tiles can be replaced as necessary without disassembling the entire wall. This also makes it easy to scale the wall size up or down, tailoring it to each site. In the future, the designers hope to integrate a second phase in which the saturated hydrogel packed with heavy metals is removed and sold to high-tech companies, which can use the metals in their own manufacturing processes. The Indus tiles are set to undergo performance tests in the UK and then a pilot project in India itself.

The creators imagine adapting Indus wall tiles to different regions and needs, making them from local materials like stone or even waste materials. Different tiles could be tailored to different pollutants, infused with the particular type of algae that works best in that context. Given that the end result is so beautiful, it’s not hard to imagine the concept extending to residential applications, too. Just imagine installing a wall of these at the edge of your own roof instead of a gutter, cleaning rainwater for personal use later on.

The post Leaf-Shaped Wall Tiles Full of Living Algae Absorb Pollutants from Rainwater first appeared on Dornob.

Enter the Community Design Agency (CDA), an architecture and design agency with a vision to create “an inclusive world where every human enjoys access to vibrant, safe, and healthy spaces to live, work, and play.”

An initiative of the Curry Stone Design Collective, the sustainably-minded CDA recently worked with both the Ahmednagar Municipal Corporation and non-profit group Snhalaya on a project meant to revitalize the housing blocks in the city of Ahmednagar, India. The city’s Sanjaynagar neighborhood in particular is plagued by subpar living conditions, including homes built from unsuitable reclaimed materials like scrap metal and a lack of adequate sanitation facilities.

The community’s residents directly contributed to the design of the buildings’ interiors. As CDA Managing Director Sandhya Naidu Janardhan explains, the overall process “evolved at different scales of the neighborhood [from] the masterplan…[to] each family designing their apartment interiors.” The result is an “apartment typology [that] allows for multiple combinations and iterations based on the preference of families.”

The new housing will literally transform the area, creating a vibrant multipurpose living space that continues the neighborhood’s community-minded ethos. Built with locally-made bricks and understated decorative features, the units are so much more than the cookie-cutter constructions commonly associated with affordable housing. And the residents’ input did prove to be invaluable, as their requests for good lighting, ventilation, and adequate space for their families, pets, and livestock helped the designers envision a space where real people could live, work, and thrive.

Over 30 families have already moved into the completed homes, but they’ll eventually house almost 300 families, with construction of the remaining homes beginning in November 2022. With the completion of the development, Sanjaynagar will be one step closer to becoming a vibrant and affordable place for the locals to call home.

The post CDA Revitalizes Indian Neighborhood with Resident-Designed Community Housing first appeared on Dornob.

Studio SAAR, a young architecture firm based in both England and India, was commissioned to design the Secure Sanand electronics manufacturing factory in Sanand, Gujarat, India. The firm is dedicated to creating sustainable solutions centered on the needs and aspirations of both local people and the environment. That directive is front and center at the factory, which houses state-of-the-art production facilities, visitor spaces, and comfortable areas for employees connected by open-air walkways across a lush green campus.

The 25-acre site is a former lakebed that was adapted for industrial use (though exactly how that conversion fits into the sustainability aspect of the plan is unclear). The architects have set aside a portion of the campus as a seasonal lake that shifts in size from one to three acres depending on rainfall. This lake helps cool the site, manage flooding, and replenish underground aquifers.

Trees planted at the edges, along with thousands of additional plantings planned in the near future, help soften the facility’s concrete exterior and integrate it with the surrounding fields. Solar panels provide about half of the facility’s power, while insulation and an integrated floor cooling system help reduce energy needs.

The masterplan includes four main buildings: the manufacturing hall, a utility bay, an employee canteen and recreation center, and a reception building. The walkways that connect them are covered in white fabric canopies that flutter softly in the wind and create a geometric effect when viewed from above. Sawtooth facades on the large, open-plan production facilities let in lots of natural light and nod to the history of industrial architecture. The visitor welcome building is an elongated oval topped with a tilted open canopy, and includes meeting rooms, a training room, changing areas, locker rooms, and a medical center.

This reception zone leads to directly to the heart of the facility, the circular employee hub housing a recreational area, canteen, kitchen, and gym with 300-degree views of the lake and greenery. Wide extended eaves cantilever out to provide shade and add architectural interest. Designed and built during the COVID-19 pandemic, the facility also includes both passive and active ventilation for safer conditions.

“We are standing at a crossroads and architecture is not the answer in isolation, but it is a part of the solution,” says Studio SAAR. This is true when it comes to both human rights and the climate crisis. Integrated as part of a holistic effort to improve labor conditions and elevate workers out of poverty worldwide, architecture can help transform the world we live in and bring the interconnectedness of human well-being and environmental health into focus.

The post Studio SAAR’s Employee-Oriented India Facility is Redefining Factory Work first appeared on Dornob.

This portable modern cabin is based on the firm’s RCA-03 design, available in either 225 or 375-square-foot versions. Manufactured off-site and capable of being assembled within just four weeks, the fully furnished cabin consists of a system of both fixed and flexible elements. The layout of each cabin is the same, with a bathroom, kitchenette, and living space with built-in storage, but elements like lighting, fixtures, and material finishes can be customized.

The A24 itself is a 225-square-foot RCA-03 cabin tucked into a lush hillside on a coffee plantation in Bettagere Estate, Coorg, India as part of an upcoming resort called Betta Living. Clients Sunny Watwani and Adithya Roongta dreamed of building a series of cabins near their home city of Chennai, but didn’t want to go the usual route of building a resource-intensive, environment-disrupting vacation home. “There’s little or no regard for the surrounding nature,” Watwani told Architectural Digest. “People have blocked natural streams, cut down trees, and damaged the local biodiversity.”

Watwani and Roongta were adamant that not a single tree be cut down to accommodate the cabin, which was initially conceptualized by SPASM Design Architects with design development and execution completed by DDAA. As a result, the cabin sits lightly on the carefully chosen site, supported by four adjustable legs. The reflective glass and ACP metal siding panels help it blend into its environment, but the cabin feels thoroughly contemporary thanks to its sleek materials and jewel-like silhouette.

Inside, it offers guests a full bathroom with a shower, wardrobe, queen-size bed, and kitchenette foyer. Service equipment like the condenser unit is hidden behind the bathroom block. Walnut wood flooring, matte finish interior cladding, glowing amber pendant lights, and bespoke furniture give it a refined yet cozy atmosphere with incredible views of the surrounding mountain range.

“While the initial concept for A24 was designed by Spasm, DDAA worked to develop the design and prefabricate it in record time,” say the architects. “Every corner in the cabin strives to visually if not spatially connect with the natural context, be it the bathroom which comes furnished with all the modern amenities, or the kitchenette in the living space that captures stunning views of the valley.”

“The cabin’s most prominent features are its large, open facades that frame gorgeous views of the natural beauty outside. The 225-square-foot interior space reflects a minimal abode prioritized for comfort and design. A coherent design language resonates with all other cabins as well, and is perfect for sites located in the woods, the mountains, or along the shore.”

The post Off-Grid Living Gets Luxurious in This Tiny Modern Cabin by DDAA first appeared on Dornob.

“This isn’t a call for an extreme return to the wild,” the CoExistence website explains. “Look around you, wherever you are. Who do you share your world with? Can we increase our coexistence everywhere, and rewild ourselves? Nature is intelligent and adapting. Other life forms will meet our efforts halfway, if only we give them the chance.”

Each elephant was crafted deep in the jungles of India’s Tamil Nadu region by indigenous communities who actually come into regular contact with the real-life giants. The sculptures were modeled after those herds that roam the southern Indian hills.

The artists there used vines from the lantana camara plant (one of the world’s 10 most invasive weeds) as their primary medium. The weed particularly plagues India, as it competes with native plants for space and changes the soil composition. By removing this unwanted vegetation from the area, the artistic project also benefitted local wildlife.

“CoExistence is a call to change the global conservation paradigm,” says Dr. Tarsh Thekaekara of The Real Elephant Collective. “From saving nature in far-away pockets to living well with nature around us. To value the human connection with nature and celebrate all life forms around us by sharing space. To encourage people to remember that they are of, and for nature. We have the capacity to heal, grow, thrive, and support symbiotically with nature, as other species do.”

The exhibition herd migrated from its birthplace in India to England’s Sudeley Castle before moving on to The Mall in London, Chelsea, St. James’ Park, and Berkeley Square. When the showings were complete, each pachyderm went on sale for $42,000 a piece, with the proceeds being given to grassroots organizations in India that promote harmonious cohabitation between indigenous peoples and the surrounding wildlife by providing technological solutions and training to local inhabitants.

The sculptures were also captured in illustrated form by British artist George Butler. Before the pandemic, his art focused on documenting the warzones of Syria and Iraq. The shutdowns pivoted him toward another conflict, that of man and nature. Butler created a limited edition print of the lantana elephants juxtaposed with The Mall in the background.

“CoExistence is confirmation of a moment when society realized they had to do more,” Butler said in an interview with My Modern Met. “And the realization that this is an issue bigger than ourselves, bigger than individuals, and indeed bigger than the human race.”

All the participants behind this migrating art hope that it will help people to see the necessity of peacefully living side by side with Earth’s other animal species. “It’s a matter of mutual survival,” said Ruth Ganesh, Elephant Family’s principal trustee in an interview with Reuters. “Saving them is really about saving ourselves.”

The post Full-Scale Elephant Sculptures Stampede Across London for Conservation Awareness first appeared on Dornob.

And this apartment building in New Delhi, India is no exception.

While not designed by Kahn himself, he certainly inspired it. The firm responsible for the over 2000-square-foot space, Amit Khanna Design Associates (AKDA), certainly invoked Kahn as a muse when conceiving the bold and dynamic building. Though located on an otherwise-nondescript residential street, the building’s eye-catching exterior is striking, to say the least, and immediately echoes Kahn’s singular design approach.

Amit Khanna, the founder of AKDA, says that the building “is an ode to Kahn and his idea of how a building should be.” Discussing the late architect’s impact on the architecture of the Indian subcontinent, Khanna adds that “crucial to his form-making was the act of puncturing seemingly vast brick and concrete walls with soaring geometric voids, creating dramatic shadows as the harsh Indian sun made its way through the sky.” This poetic assessment is surely true of such buildings as the Indian Institute of Management at Ahmedabad, designed by Kahn and highly representative of his way of “evok[ing] a mystical, yet calm monumentality” in his works.

The facade of the new apartment building is what one immediately associates with Kahn’s “soaring geometric voids”: the cut-out brick, rounded as if to soften the hard lines of the steel it surrounds; the dramatic shape and scope of the brick “screen” itself (it covers the top three stories of the building); and the way it both seems to hover and anchor the building itself. The interior of the building is equally as striking, as the openness revealed by the lens-like brick screen allows for plenty of light to stream through the windows. The upper floor also has an area that’s open to the sky, further allowing light to filter through. The layout itself is almost like a split screen, with bedrooms, bathrooms, a kitchen, a staircase, and an elevator on one side, and the other areas, such as the living and lounge areas, on the other.

The muted colors of the interior decor are the perfect backdrop for the dramatic confluence of more raw materials like brick and concrete, with the exposed brick especially adding a homey and charming feel to the otherwise sharp and angular space. There are surprise bits of light throughout the apartment that peek through and further add a feeling of warmth to the scene, softening it against the space’s more industrial elements.

This striking building in Safdarjung Enclave, New Delhi, with its geometrically attractive brick facade whose thinness belies its strength and whose openness encourages meditation, rises majestically on its stilts and emerges from residential conformity like a great prow of a ship — or like a monument to the late, great architect Louis Kahn. Embodying the monolithic structure and modernist lines and shapes that defined Kahn’s work, this New Delhi space is a fitting homage to one of the most acclaimed architects of the late 20th century—and shows his continuing influence into the 21st century.

The post Modernist, Louis Khan-Inspired Apartment Building Perfectly Evokes the Architect’s “Calm Monumentality” first appeared on Dornob.

The architects identified three major needs in the city of Pune, which itself is one of the fastest-growing cities in all of Southeast Asia. With a burgeoning population, a thriving IT industry, and increasing demand for education, high quality schools are a top priority. Though it’s quite compact in size compared to other major Indian cities, with decent access to public transit, few areas are walkable, and there are no cycling tracks to speak of. Like many industrialized cities around the world, Pune also struggles with poor air quality.

NUDES’ design addresses all of these common urban issues. Forest School can accommodate a large number of students and help boost Pune’s reputation for both innovation and high quality of life. A double-height auditorium occupies the lower two floors, while the rest are dedicated entirely to classroom space. The rooftop cycling track, which features two bridges for crossing between the towers, offers a fun place to ride a bike with unforgettable views.

The infinity symbol on the roof may be this project’s standout feature, but those stepped balconies covered in plants are definitely eye-catching, and they’re functional, too. NUDES envisions them as one big “green living skin” that can help remove pollutants from the air through phytoremediation.

“The design explores the relation between nature and pedagogy in dense urban settlements built on the foundations of ‘Grow,’ ‘Learn,’ ‘Reuse,’ ‘Plant’ and ‘Play,’” explain the architects. “Sited in Pune approximately three hours by road from Mumbai, the city has witnessed dramatic urban growth in the last decade. The project harbors two ‘green’ cylindrical volumes stitched by a rooftop ‘infinity’ loop track.”

“Each cylindrical volume represents the stage of phased construction with planned programmatic activities. The project explores the dynamics and logistics of a vibrant space for student-centric interaction and learning. The ‘green’ skin can be serviced and maintained by a peripheral service track that is accessible from both landing and mid-landing levels on every floor by horticulturists.”

Forest School is just the latest unusual educational design from NUDES. The firm previously designed a conceptual school in Malawi with sinuous curving walls made of stacked straw bales in response to an architectural competition by Archstorming on behalf of an NGO called Active Africa. The brief called for the use of local materials and construction systems, a focus on sustainability, and a modular solution that can be built in phases. Straw Bale School features a modular “ladder” component to form a structural system that’s fluid and easily expanded.

NUDES is led by architect Nuru Karim, who received his Masters in Architecture and Urbanism from the Architectural Association London in 2006 and has previously worked for Zaha Hadid Architects. He explains that “NUDES operates within the realm of cross-disciplinary cultures of art, architecture, and computational design powered by digital ‘making’ tools addressing larger social, cultural, and environmental networks.”

The post Forest School: Twin Vegetated Towers Topped by a Looping Bike Track first appeared on Dornob.

Hundreds of decorative drinking fountains – or “pyaus,” as they’re called in Hindi – were erected in the middle of markets and along tram routes by wealthy Indian philanthropists during the British colonial era. Many of these were donated to their surrounding communities as gifts and often constructed as tributes to the patron’s family members.

At the time the fountains were built, water would flow freely and continuously from the city’s underground pipes. However, Mumbai’s 20th-century population explosion taxed the available water supply so much that by the 1960s, fountain use was restricted to just a few hours a day. The inconsistency and lack of upgrades even caused some of them to dry up completely.

As indoor plumbing started to become standard for middle and upper-class residents, public reservoirs were further strained. Bottled water also gained popularity as a drinking option. Subsequently, most of the pyaus have been forgotten and fallen into disrepair.

As access to water remains a constant problem for Indian’s poorer residents, city officials and activists are currently leading an effort to restore the public fountains. Back in 2008, BMC, Mumbai’s municipal corporation, commissioned architecture firm Vaastu Vidhaan, led by architect Rahul Chemburkar, to restore two pyaus, including the Keshavji Nayak fountain, named in honor of its original sponsor from the 1870s. It’s a grand edifice to be sure, towering over the market square with its 30-foot columns and ornately carved canopy. The base is adorned with statues of sacred Hindu bulls, which point visitors up to stone pots containing the life-giving liquid (which today comes from a municipal connection installed in 2015).

“It’s like a cultural oasis,” Chemburkar told NPR in an interview, estimating that about 50 people an hour come to the fountains for a drink. And most importantly, the water is available to anyone, no matter their religion or caste.

“In wide contrast, all over the country you see a lot of discrimination over the ownership of water,” he adds, pointing out examples of minority Muslims and Dalits being physically attacked for trying to drink from public wells. He says these pyaus come with an implicit understanding, though, that they are open to all.

Greater access is needed more now than ever, with the pandemic intensifying water inequalities among Mumbai’s 18.4 million residents. A November 2020 study from the NGO Committee for the Right to Water found that the city’s poorest residents were spending more on the essential liquid than they were before COVID hit, as their normal sources (places like schools and workplaces) were locked down. Today, many of those low-income inhabitants are forced to pool their money just to pay for water from private tanker-trucks.

“Even as public service announcements were issued reminding people to wash their hands regularly with soap, at least 2 million people in Mumbai wondered how to follow such recommendations without regular, adequate, and affordable water access,” the study adds.

Even though Mumbai has installed many water ATMs at railway stations as a means of making it more affordable, they still charge a fee. That’s why one of the study’s biggest recommendations was to build more pyaus, even if they are less ornate, to provide totally free H2O.

The BMC has also identified 30 existing pyaus to be restored over the next few years as part of a sweeping public works project. “[The decorative elements] give a lot of dignity to the simple act of drinking water,” says Chemburkar. “Today we … miss aesthetics in public architecture.”

The post Mumbai’s Historical Fountains Get a Revamp, Giving Indians More Access to Free Water first appeared on Dornob.

At the heart of the restaurant’s COVID-compliant layout is a steel framework supporting two levels of dining booths, staggered so separate parties aren’t ever seated directly beside or underneath each other. The metal is clad in teak-finish Russian Birch plywood so it looks like solid timber. In between each “node” is a collapsible shutter that can be closed for privacy and safety. Accented with living plants and soft, warm lighting, these eating zones feel cozy and welcoming, with the aim of making indoor dining feel comfortable again to the public post-pandemic.

Arora first got the idea for a two-level dining framework after traveling to Ho Chi Minh, Vietnam, where stilted houses made of bamboo line the streets and alleyways. But the layout of the restaurant is inspired by Dwarka, the neighborhood where the new restaurant is located. More specifically, the designers took an overhead view of the town’s grid and translated its houses into dining booths and its streets into aisles.

“Restaurants play a pivotal role in our collective post-pandemic future, and to be able to return to them safely, they must be empowered to be active participants in the building of trust,” say the architects. “It’s time we welcome you to our latest product: ‘Social with distancing.’ Masked waiters, tables placed six feet apart, and fluted glass are all the elements that realize a half Vietnamese-half contemporary space set in New Delhi, India.”

“Renesa’s new design introduces India’s first COVID response restaurant that responds to the ‘new normal,’ redefining the boundary between communal and booth seating in restaurants. Designed before the pandemic, the idea was translated and evolved into the benefit which seemed revolutionary at the time – but is now what the market is demanding. We call it a space conceptualized pre-pandemic, designed during and for the pandemic, and sustainable beyond the pandemic.”

The designers repurposed materials and furniture from other Social locations for this project, including granite tabletops, leather benches, and teak wood tables, to complement and contrast the new restaurant’s terrazzo flooring and concrete paver cobblestones forming decorative circles. Cane-back chairs, bamboo blinds, and bricks made with rice straw add to the desired “rural yet revitalizing vibe.” And of course, various parts of the restaurant are still being kept empty to comply with COVID safety guidelines, but in the future, they can be filled in with additional seating.

It’s a smart concept for a variety of reasons, even putting the (highly likely) possibility of future pandemics aside. The two-level dining concept makes excellent use of space, fitting in plenty of customers without making them feel crammed together, and the lower level still lends itself well to guests with accessibility needs. It’ll be interesting to see whether more restaurants follow suit with similar concepts as we all adapt to this new normal.

The post New Delhi’s “Social” Restaurant Adapts to the New Normal of Distanced Dining first appeared on Dornob.

These carpenters are said to be descended from Maya, son of the “divine engineer” deity Vishwakarma. For millennia, they’ve handcrafted everything from utensils to chariots to ships, organizing into guilds where fathers passed on their techniques as master craftsmen to their children. More impressive still, every family, religion, and region has its own style.

But, as the designers note, “traditions cannot outlive time,” and there are concerns that the Sutradhar art may not survive things like mass deforestation, the increasing cost of wood, and the amount of labor required to complete each piece. The government has even suggested that the craftspeople start using plywood in place of timber.

Occupying the first floor of a retail shop in a market complex, “Timber Rhyme” invites visitors to walk through and experience the piece in full and contemplate how the artform must evolve to remain relevant and accessible in the modern world. It’s made of digitally fabricated plywood ribs that are connected in a waffle-like pattern to achieve unique curvatures.

Once assembled, they’re almost self-supporting, with black metal bars connecting them to the ceiling in some areas and transparent acrylic supports holding them aloft in others. The design is reminiscent of the “Superdesk” created for an office by Clive Wilkinson Architects, but the possibility of functional use is far less important here — almost an afterthought.

The architects explain: “Represented through the ribbon that pours itself into space, ‘variety in a unified continuum’ nourishes our concepts. The ribbon is envisioned to blur the boundaries between the static, the movable, and the art both in and on these components of the built space. [The] role of static elements like partition screens is obfuscated with that of movable furniture. Propounding as a functional art space, a series of ‘wooden ribbons’ twist and turn to form the display shelves, sitting spaces, meeting tables, and other design elements each flowing into the other. This transcends the interior into an art-landscape.”

“This amalgamation of technology for cost, time, and ease of making with an advantage of old craft is a win-win situation for all stakeholders of the project. The retail shop becomes a setting befitting for a dialogue between the carpenter, the end-user, and the retailer, [thereby] deepening social engagement. As plywood-carpentry meets its entropic spiral, ‘Timber Rhyme’ hopes to create an opportunity to re-imagine [the] craft of the traditional curves as an inexhaustible source of inspiration for the next generation of torchbearers of intricate carvings.”

Photos show the piece before it was put into use in its retail context, but it would be nice to see it in use, too. In any case, it’s a thought-provoking meditation on the resiliency of craft and tradition in a rapidly changing world.

The post Timber Rhyme: A Flowing Wooden Desk Inspired by Ribbons first appeared on Dornob.

Passive solar design is a no-brainer — yet the conventional way to deal with building facades that will be subjected to the hot, unrelenting sun is still just to insulate them, add some blinds, and plan to use a lot of air conditioning. It’s high time more architects and builders consider the ways the sun’s energy will affect a structure, and integrate some simple features that will make its interiors far more comfortable all year long.

Often low-tech and low-cost, passive solar techniques reduce energy costs and maintenance by tailoring designs to the climates around them. Orientation of the roof, windows, and facade with the position of the sun in mind, proper ventilation and insulation, shading, and thermal mass all make a big difference in interior temperatures.

The latter comes into play in a big (and beautiful) way in a new home by Manoj Patel Design Studio. Located in Gujarat, western India, the modern home uses clay roof tiles in an unexpected fashion, displaying them along the east facade in a pleasing pattern. What’s more, 40 percent of the tiles are reclaimed from the waste of other construction projects.

Clay is known for its thermal properties, retaining much of the energy it absorbs to cut down on the need for mechanical heating and cooling. It’s also highly durable, non-toxic, long lasting, and recyclable. Clay tiles on a sunny facade can absorb a lot of heat during the day, releasing it after dark when it’s cooler.

This isn’t the first time Manoj Patel Design Studio has experimented with clay roof tiles. Previously, the designers cut v-shaped clay tiles to create a wavy pattern on the facade of a house in Vadodara, India.

The architects add: “Here the ratio of 40 percent of waste clay tiles at free cost and 60 percent of new clay tiles at 10 INR per piece were collected, cut into six to eight one-inch wide parts, fixed in with [a] chemical solution against the available perpendicular surface of wall at 45 degrees, and crafted into a customized series for obtaining an everlasting beauty… Furthermore, the layering of th[ese] horizontal and vertical clay tiles is [based on] sun’s movement from south to west throughout the day as per Indian context, which keeps the area shaded by reduction in temperature.”

“An illusionist display is casted on the uniform surface of the wall through these angular patterns, which transform the solid form into more organic mass. Thus, this dwelling carved out its own character through contrasting red-colored earthy textures and volumetric masses, becoming a distinguishing dwelling among the surrounding street.”

In 2017, Manoj Patel Design Studio won a first place RTF Sustainability Award for its modular plantable screens made of clay tiles, which can be added to surfaces outside homes in places that receive a lot of solar exposure. Not only can you establish a vertical garden within these tiles, but you can also tuck lights into them for a look that’s even cooler after sunset.

The post Clay Tiles Bring Passive Heating to New House in India first appeared on Dornob.

A startup company with a vision for the future has recently designed a retrofit emission control that collects diesel particulates to keep them from entering the atmosphere, thereby preventing the dispersal of toxic air in the environment.

In India, a country that relies heavily on diesel generators, the air pollution is palpable to say the least. Generators emitting soot and unburned diesel into the air run eight hours a day in many areas that don’t have access to conventional power grids. These emissions, and their resulting pollutants, inspired Chakr Innovation to find a solution.

Step one of the process is actually collecting the particles. These particles are so fine that the human body can’t even filter them out, instead allowing them to deposit directly into the bloodstream. No wonder they’re credited with millions of deaths every single year. In many others, diesel emissions cause problems like “respiratory ailments, such as asthma and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease; cardiovascular diseases including stroke; and increases the likelihood of pre-term births by 18 percent,” according to the company website.

The Chakr Shield captures this death-material by collecting the particles right as they’re being released, absorbing them into a liquid and keeping them from floating back into the air.

While collecting emissions in this way is an innovative process in and of itself, Chakr Innovation takes it a step further by turning them into something useful: printer ink. The end-product is created through a process of separation and addition. First, the original particulate soot liquid is separated from the harmful substances and heavy metals. Then the pigment is extracted and mixed with a binder to create the ink.

While finding a market for the useful ink end-product is a tangible benefit to both the company and the environment, it does require other companies to be willing to pay for and install the technology in the first place. Indeed, the Chakr Shield has already been installed in more than five dozen locations. Although it began as a solution for diesel pollution stemming mostly from generators, it’s proven useful in many other industries, too. The first Chakr Shield was installed at American Tower Corporation. Today, even computer giant Dell has begun using a by-product of the collected material as an ink to print text onto boxes.

Chakr Innovations also captured the attention of major players in the sustainability market when Arpit Dhupar, founder of Chakr Innovation, won the Young Champions of the Earth prize for Asia and the Pacific region. While they are proud of the Chakr Shield and its resulting ink production, the company’s focus is still firmly aimed at the future. They see themselves as innovators and continue to look for ways to filter air from chimneys, boilers, incinerators, and ships.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cZtF5TPQ0Gs

“Soot is very fine, almost 1,000 times smaller than the diameter of hair,” Dhupar says. “The carbon we are collecting has a high surface area and can be used to purify water. We would then be using air pollution to tackle water pollution! But experiments are still in their early phases.”

The post Chakr Shield Collects Diesel Emissions and Turns Them Into Ink first appeared on Dornob.

The post This Modern Student Housing Complex Embodies an Ancient Indian City’s Past first appeared on Dornob.

Back in 2006, ideas started to materialize for an Indian movie museum to be housed in the nearly 100-year-old Gulshan Mahal: an elegant 19th-century legacy cottage. However, as the project plans developed and the artifacts amassed, it was evident that more room would be needed to suitably display the remarkable genre’s history and key contributors. The decision to divide the collection between two buildings resulted in the nearby construction of a five-story building made almost entirely of glass. All in all, the finished version of the museum cost around $20 million.

Like any respectable museum, the NMIC traces Bollywood history back to its grass roots and is all-inclusive. Visitors can even learn the details behind the very first film to be made in India, director Dadasaheb Phalke’s Raja Harishchandra. Recordings of KL Saigal, hailed as the first megastar of Hindi cinema, are also available for listening. Elsewhere, the museum walls display magnificent hand-painted posters of archetypal films like Pather Pancihal.

When the expanded version of the museum was approved, the government quickly made a decision to include a wing devoted to Mahatma Gandhi. The historical icon, first hailed as “Father of the Nation” by Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose in his address on Singapore Radio on July 6, 1944, tremendously influenced a number of film industry giants, including America’s own Charlie Chaplain. This wing also includes details on the 11 films made so far about Gandhi’s life and legacy.

Embracing Andy Warhol’s notion that “the best thing about a picture is that it never changes, even when the people in it do,” the National Museum of Indian Cinema boasts a wing dedicated entirely to cameras, featuring both early models used to make silent films and newer ones used to create modern 3D and 4K resolution films. This section even includes a replica of the historic Mutoscope: the camera most famously used by the iconic Lumiere Brothers. The history of animated films is also honored here with a model of the Praxinoscope: a spinning cylindrical animation device dating back to groundbreaking 1870s French film creations.

While the museum does cover a great deal of India’s film history, it’s important to note that there are still some holes in its presentation, mainly because a sizeable portion of India’s earliest films were never protected or archived in the first place, and because many other works of Indian art have either been damaged or destroyed in the last century. One of the most tragic losses was that of Alam Ara (The Light of the World), India’s first “talkie” movie made in 1931, the last known print of which was burned up in a 2003 fire.

The post New Bollywood Museum Traces Indian Movies Back 100 Years first appeared on Dornob.

British architect Norman Foster (of Foster + Partners fame) has just released his concept video for his firm’s latest master plan: an entirely purpose built, sustainable, urban utopia in India’s Andhra Pradesh. The new state capital, Amaravati, will be a fine example of architects focusing on urban planning and creating spaces where everything has a purpose.

Architecture and nature will be fused together to create a harmonious living and work environment that people from all walks of life will be able to enjoy and benefit from. Clay-colored buildings will cover the city to create a picturesque scene, adorned with trees and foliage to harness the natural magic of India’s landscapes. Running through the center of “the people’s capital” is a long park encompassing a needle-like building, which itself will host the central government of Andhra Pradesh — the firm’s version of a “city centerpiece.”

Situated by the river Krishna, Amaravati will span 217 square kilometers, with at least 60 percent of the city dedicated to creating green spaces, including a set of lakes and rivers that have been meticulously designed to interweave throughout the urban sprawl in order to provide its inhabitants with fresh water. Water taxis, electric car routes, bicycle paths, and covered walkways have all been incorporated to encourage future citizens to walk (or at least use public transport) rather than drive when navigating the city. For these reasons, Amaravati is one of the world’s first truly sustainable cities.

When, What, Who, Why?

Of course, the task of developing an entire city has placed a lot of responsibility on the firm, but the creative freedom that comes with such a paramount and influential project has also allowed Foster to break and rebuild boundaries that only a select few have ever been allowed to experiment with. The ambitious project was first reported to have been awarded to Foster’s firm back in January 2017, after they won a contest for their initial design of the central building.

Last week saw the unveiling of the official proposals. Set to cost $15 billion USD (or £11.2 billion GBP) to erect, the project will undoubtedly be one of steady growth, with news reports already commenting on the slow process of actually enacting the blueprints. But since the current village of Amaravati houses dusty farmlands, primitive dirt roads, and half-finished civic projects, it shouldn’t be any surprise that this new city’s development will take some time!

Locals fear that the developers’ initial promise to have the city housing “3.5 million dwellers” within the next five years isn’t so realistic — especially given the project’s lengthy timeline. Three years after President Narendra Modi laid the cornerstone for the government building, work still hasn’t seemed to exceed the planning stage. One political analyst even commented: “Nothing much has happened on the ground in Amaravati. It is still more dream than reality.”

Foster + Partners

Naturally, questions have arisen as to whether Foster’s sustainable fantasy will ever come to fruition for the people of India. Delving into the firm’s back catalog of civic projects, you’ll find that their execution and longevity in innovative builds remains unquestionable in terms of success. Foster + Partners’ work has been heralded all over the world, from their renovation of the Reichstag in Berlin to those of the Nazarbayev Center in Kazakhstan and the Treasury Building in the UK.

From libraries and public forums to labyrinthine office spaces and government buildings, the firm’s ability to devise and remodel diverse and dynamic structures that hold such ornamental power over the places they’re in lies in their unrivaled talent for fusing luxury and cutting-edge design. So keep your eyes on this space!

The post The Future of Cities: A Sustainable Man-Made Utopia first appeared on Dornob.

Let’s start with the house itself. Fittingly named “House with the Soaring Rock” by its architects at the Mumbai-based firm Spasm Design, the home places stunning views at the forefront of every space, and it’s easy to see why. Its hilltop location makes it an ideal place from which to fully appreciate the misty, mountainous landscape and the reflective body of water pooling around its peaks.

The design frames floor-to-ceiling glazing between two flat planes for a streamlined, stripped-down effect that emphasizes lines and angles. These glass panels slide open to allow the living and dining rooms to meld with the terrace outside, its red bricks complementing the vivid green of the grass and blue of the sky.

The master bedroom enjoys one fully glazed corner to take further advantage of those panoramic vistas, and it evens includes access to a private outdoor space on the side of the house. The back of the home enjoys similar views, while courtyards tucked into voids in the rectilinear design bring sunlight into the home’s core.

The rock in question is perched in the middle of an oblong rectilinear projection, which itself is echoed by a similar element that stretches from the base of the home out onto the hillside. Though they aren’t pictured from above, these elements seem sculptural in nature — almost like they’d create the effect of a sundial. It’s not unusual for boulders to be employed as sculptural details, but rarely are they positioned so precariously high.

Maybe it’s the pop of asymmetry in an otherwise symmetrical design, or the tension of the four-ton rock’s balancing act, that has some design lovers on edge. Its hefty proportions and rounded shape contrast with the light, angular house below it, making it stand out even more. Whatever your own feelings about the rock may be, there’s no denying that the home accomplishes the architects’ intention, and that it’s not a design that’s easily forgotten.

“HOMES celebrate LIFE,” they say. “They celebrate views, geographies, locales, climates… the emotion one feels on arrival at the crest of the site is of liberation, an expanse. The same emotion is distilled through the placement of the four-ton rock that soars on the prong of a six-meter cantilever…the home predominately faces the farmlands, a reservoir and the highlands, witness to the most color-saturated sunsets.”

“Living spaces are framed between two simple planes, framing the views as cleanly as possible. Another plane slips a bit under to become a terra-cotta terrace and pool…horizontal lines echo the nature of the PANORAMA. Stating more would be a waste.”

The post Divisive “House with the Soaring Rock” has Design Fans on Edge first appeared on Dornob.