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Aatam Hostel has a residential program mix, containing hostels rooms for students along with a residence for the family that owns the plot. Six years in the making, the project is located in the dry and hot climate of Kota, Rajasthan. The town of Kota in Northern India is a coaching hub for training students to take entrance exams to study at the coveted IIT engineering colleges in India. Every year around 200,000 students move to Kota spending a minimum of a year at coaching classes living in private hostels specifically made for student housing in the town.

 

 

 

The economy of the Kota is driven by this temporal population. For the IIT aspirant Kota occupies center stage, so much so, that it spawned a popular OTT show which highlights the travails and tribulations of student aspirants living there. While the coaching centers are as state of the art as any other such educational institute in the country, student housing is neglected and devoid of much thinking. Natural Light, ventilation social spaces are mostly absent. There is a high risk of failure in getting through the IIT exams which when coupled with the severity or lack of sympathetic living spaces can be psychologically oppressive. The Kota hostel is a small beginning in reimagining student living in the town. 

Working with elements of the traditional haveli ( Rajasthan house form) like vertically proportioned courtyards, Jharokhas ( look out balconies) and stone Jali’s ( perforated screens) the project is a remaking of the haveli form suited to the programmatic needs of the students. In stark contrast to the surrounding row house types which together form an impervious wall to the street, the Kota hostel opens up, animating the street with views of the courtyard and then to the playground beyond the plot. The combination of social space of terraces and courtyards creates a wind tunnel enabling breeze to flow through the building. The open to sky courtyard is spanned above by a bridge that connects the two arms of the residential unit for the owners. The building structures through the section multiple stepped erraces of shaded social spaces for the students to creates a visual connect across the other levels as well as with the street and the courtyard. 

Drawings

Images

 

Photography: Suryan//Dang & Kunal Sharma

Project Facts –

Client: JSW Cement

Area: for a small township for 600 people in the industrial belt of Jharsuguda Orissa,

Architects: Sameep Padora & Associates

Design Team: Sakshi Gulati, Sadhvi Vanjare, Raj Kachalia, Vami Sheth, Aparna Dhareshwar

Project Description: 

Industrial township housing often referred to as housing colonies, carries with that etymology a typical hierarchical spatial segregation. Choosing to build only in open pockets of a verdant site the built form, articulated at the edge allows us to create a continuous green central community space erasing hierarchies of user groups and class. The site is planned with common programs of the sports facility, market, etc., at the center of the community space. Roads are kept peripheral to enable the entire township as pedestrian and car-free. The landscape strategy retains the verdant forest landscape as a contiguous buffer enveloping the built form while retaining all embedded ecological networks. Check dams on this partially contoured site are planned as a landscape strategy to retain surface runoff recharging groundwater.

The scale of the housing is maintained as G+3 at maximum retaining a connection with the landscape. Load-bearing cyclopean masonry using locally sourced rubble is the primary building block for the project.

Context:

Escalating land prices in Mumbai is forcing out the families that serve the privileged classes. The domestic help, drivers, sweepers, peons etc are the invisible cogs that daily ensure smooth running of the city. Currently they are being dis-housed from their decades old housing, since this has caught the eye of developers; and they are forced to relocate further from their primary sources of income. Currently, this segment forms 50-60 % of the urban population of Mumbai. The commute between home and work thus becomes a critical factor in site selection. If this isn’t handled adequately (eg, the commute is a 2hr+ journey each way), the new homes get rented out and the people return to squat closer to their places of work.

The issue at hand is to provide:

I. well connected

II. low-cost 

III. mass housing

IV. matching growing aspirations 

for the large service sector population. This should also have the capacity to grow incrementally as these new settlements grow in popularity. 

Thus, for site selection, connectivity to public transport networks becomes a critical factor. If such land parcels, which have clear

records, can be identified, procured and ear marked, the entire project can develop in tandem with the MRTS network.

The Solution: 

The solution is multi-pronged-

A. Site- Well connected, adequately sized to upscale

B. Execution/Technology- Precast concrete modules/wet pods serving as structural elements 

But most critically,

C. Design- a modular, but non-repetitive scheme, with a mix of 1 Room Kitchen (RK) and 1 Bedroom Kitchen (BHK), which can be combined to form permutations suiting the fluid requirements of users, with a minimum area of 300sq.ft as mandated.

Community spaces like a ration shop, crèche, a gym, a gathering space that have been built into the design to foster a sense of community.

The Site: 

A 19770 sq.mt plot is within 10 minutes walking distance from Bhivpuri station, Karjat. This is on the Central railway route between Neral and Karjat. It is also connected to NH4 and has road links to both Panvel/Navi Mumbai and Badlapur/Thane.

The FSI for this area is 1.2

The Design: 

The approach explores the flexibility available in clever repetition of a module. The project, being precast pods, can be executed with speed and allows for a number of units that can be configured to suit individual requirements of space for individual families over time.

At the same time, rather than consolidating the 10% amenity into the de-facto club house disconnected from daily use, the design integrated it as a series of dispersed common social programs throughout the building. Since residents would pass by these on a regular day to day basis, the chance of these being maintained well were also much higher.

Being a low-rise building the users experience a closer connection to the ground.

Total BUA proposed: 19080 sq.mt

Total Units proposed (assuming 300 sq.ft): 522

Phase wise allocation:

Phase 1: 255

Phase 2: 267

Unit Design- Many iterations to the 300 sq.ft unit finally led to a module that served the requirements of a low income, yet upwardly mobile family. 

Learning from the research into indigenous housing typologies, for migrant workers in Mumbai, led to four variant designs based on the same grid. Each satisfied the requirements of a particular type of family. 

A. 1 RK

B. 1 BHK

C. Mezzanine Unit

D. Mixed Unit

All the unit types are clubbed together in the same building, allowing a mix of user groups and creating a richer social fabric. All units have an identical width of 3.6mt (approx 12ft) which is generated by the Wet Pod requirements 3.6×1.5m. 

Climatic considerations: 

Based on extensive studies of housing typologies in Mumbai, with its humid climate, the most effective way to ensure comfort conditions is by providing cross ventilation as far as possible. The design addresses this by using the staggered corridors to have cross ventilation through each unit and vertically ventilate the community/corridor areas by staggering the corridors and generating a stack effect cooling through the sloping roof over the circulation zone.  

Scalability:

The idea of scalability works at many levels here. There is already preset 4 typologies that can be selected depending on the current needs of each family, using the same module width of 3.6m

The individual unit is scalable by joining adjacent units when the family scales up in size and economics. The precast building technology ensures that the building phases can be scaled up with minimum disruption to the existing structure.

 

 

Feasibility and Speed of Construction: 

The design is modular. The Wet Pods also act as structural, precast, loadbearing modules between which the slabs are spanned and eliminate the need for extra columns and beams. Since part of the building module is fabricated off-site and simply put into place on site, the actual time taken for construction is much less than a conventional RCC framed one both in terms of time and labour involved. Different techniques of precast technology were explored before settling for the load bearing, precast pod system. Through this method, we are able to build upto G+4 in 21 days as opposed to casting one slab in 21 days using conventional RCC frame construction.

The precast method of construction also has the potential for production at an industrial scale with integrated basic services.

In this competition, the plots under consideration were separated by a thoroughfare, and the Mosques were to be the anchor points of this community development. After various iterations of grid planning, street development, row house development, etc., we settled upon a mixed cluster development plan.

Climatically, shaded pathways provided maximum benefit to the community as they went through their daily activities, to the mosque and back many times a day and thus became the cornerstone of the mixed cluster development plan.

The peripheral main road or highways led off onto vehicular accesses which were situated at the rear of each plot, and were mostly shaded by an apartment typology that straddled the road. Other accesses were the pedestrian-only streets and green pathways, punctuated by the square and the plaza which were scaled up open areas for community interaction and gathering.

The community facilities and amenities were organised strategically on the junction of inner roads so they would serve clusters well. The Bohri community is known for their community-centric approach, and this was emulated in all aspects of this design – from the street level to the amenities.

The housing typology was a kit of parts with its internal courtyard irrespective of the house size; the main programs were aligned around this core, depending on how the rooms needed to be oriented based on their religious beliefs.

The typical narrow pointed arch was made performative, with the face peeling up to form the base of a balcony in some places, and as a privacy screen in others. The language of the architecture was made identifiable by this module, which found its way in at many different scales.

The sustainability strategy ensured enough grey water recycling to maintain the proposed green cover, which is not usually seen in this weather, but is beneficial nonetheless.

In all, the scheme proposed was responsive to the climate and the community equally.

Drawings – 

Model View –

 

 

Escalating land prices in Mumbai is forcing out the families that serve the privileged classes. The domestic help, drivers, sweepers, peons etc are the invisible cogs that daily ensure smooth running of the city. Currently they are being dis-housed from their decades old housing, since this has caught the eye of developers; and they are forced to relocate further from their primary sources of income. Currently, this segment forms 50-60 % of the urban population of Mumbai. The commute between home and work thus becomes a critical factor in site selection. If this isn’t handled adequately (eg, the commute is a 2hr+ journey each way), the new homes get rented out and the people return to squat closer to their places of work.

 

The issue at hand is to provide:

1. well connected
2. low-cost
3. mass housing
4. matching growing aspirations

for the large service sector population. This should also have the capacity to grow incrementally as these new settlements grow in popularity.

Thus, for site selection, connectivity to public transport networks becomes a critical factor. If such land parcels, which have clear

records, can be identified, procured and ear marked, the entire project can develop in tandem with the MRTS network.

 

 

The Solution:

The solution is multi-pronged-

A. Site- Well connected, adequately sized to upscale

B. Execution/Technology- Precast concrete modules/wet pods serving as structural elements

But most critically,

C. Design- a modular, but non-repetitive scheme, with a mix of 1 Room Kitchen (RK) and 1 Bedroom Kitchen (BHK), which can be combined to form permutations suiting the fluid requirements of users, with a minimum area of 300sq.ft as mandated.

Community spaces like a ration shop, crèche, a gym, a gathering space that have been built into the design to foster a sense of community.

 

 

The Site:

A 19770 sq.mt plot is within 10 minutes walking distance from Bhivpuri station, Karjat. This is on the Central railway route between Neral and Karjat. It is also connected to NH4 and has road links to both Panvel/Navi Mumbai and Badlapur/Thane.

The FSI for this area is 1.2

The Design:

The approach explores the flexibility available in clever repetition of a module. The project, being precast pods, can be executed with speed and allows for a number of units that can be configured to suit individual requirements of space for individual families over time.

At the same time, rather than consolidating the 10% amenity into the de-facto club house disconnected from daily use, the design integrated it as a series of dispersed common social programs throughout the building. Since residents would pass by these on a regular day to day basis, the chance of these being maintained well were also much higher.

Being a low-rise building the users experience a closer connection to the ground.

Total BUA proposed: 19080 sq.mt

Total Units proposed (assuming 300 sq.ft): 522

Phase wise allocation:

Phase 1: 255

Phase 2: 267

 

 

Unit Design– Many iterations to the 300 sq.ft unit finally led to a module that served the requirements of a low income, yet upwardly mobile family.

Learning from the research into indigenous housing typologies, for migrant workers in Mumbai, led to four variant designs based on the same grid. Each satisfied the requirements of a particular type of family.

1. 1 RK
2. 1 BHK
3. Mezzanine Unit
4. Mixed Unit

All the unit types are clubbed together in the same building, allowing a mix of user groups and creating a richer social fabric. All units have an identical width of 3.6mt (approx 12ft) which is generated by the Wet Pod requirements 3.6×1.5m.

Climatic considerations:

Based on extensive studies of housing typologies in Mumbai, with its humid climate, the most effective way to ensure comfort conditions is by providing cross ventilation as far as possible. The design addresses this by using the staggered corridors to have cross ventilation through each unit and vertically ventilate the community/corridor areas by staggering the corridors and generating a stack effect cooling through the sloping roof over the circulation zone.

Scalability:

The idea of scalability works at many levels here. There is already preset 4 typologies that can be selected depending on the current needs of each family, using the same module width of 3.6m

The individual unit is scalable by joining adjacent units when the family scales up in size and economics. The precast building technology ensures that the building phases can be scaled up with minimum disruption to the existing structure.

Feasibility and Speed of Construction:

The design is modular. The Wet Pods also act as structural, precast, loadbearing modules between which the slabs are spanned and eliminate the need for extra columns and beams. Since part of the building module is fabricated off-site and simply put into place on site, the actual time taken for construction is much less than a conventional RCC framed one both in terms of time and labour involved. Different techniques of precast technology were explored before settling for the load bearing, precast pod system. Through this method, we are able to build upto G+4 in 21 days as opposed to casting one slab in 21 days using conventional RCC frame construction.

The precast method of construction also has the potential for production at an industrial scale with integrated basic services.