CONTEMPORARY ARCHITECTURE (18ARC64)
4. Modern Architecture in India - 3
Ideas and works of Raj Rewal (Pragati Maidan, New Delhi and Asian Games Village, New Delhi), Achyut Kanvinde (IIT, Kanpur and Nehru
Science Centre, Mumbai) and Uttam Jain (Lecture Theatres, Jodhpur and Engineering College, Kota)
ARCHITECT RAJ REWAL
ARCHITECT RAJ REWAL
ARCHITECT RAJ REWAL
ARCHITECT RAJ REWAL
INFLUENCES
• Role Models: Le Corbusier, Charles
Correa, Louis Kahn.
• Influential Places: Rajasthan, old towns,
old haveli house, modern buildings,
western theory of urban planning and
building technology.
PHILOSOPHY
• Architectural Theory: They reflect a
concern for rapid urbanisation, climatic
and cultural sensitivity.
• Concept:
o For housing traditional architecture
and dual concern for a buildings
expressiveness by means of
incorporating historical precedents into
urban deign.
o His building design included pure
structural expressions, cubic volumes.
o Honesty in expression.
o Emphasized on topography, light and
climate rather than scenography.
HALL OF NATIONS AND HALL OF INDUSTRIES, PRAGATI MAIDAN, NEW DELHI, 1970
HALL OF NATIONS AND HALL OF INDUSTRIES, PRAGATI MAIDAN, NEW DELHI, 1970
SITE PLAN
HALL OF NATIONS AND HALL OF INDUSTRIES, PRAGATI MAIDAN, NEW DELHI, 1970
Southwest – summer winds
N
Northeast – winter winds
HALL OF NATIONS AND HALL OF INDUSTRIES, PRAGATI MAIDAN, NEW DELHI, 1970
• Located on Mathura Road, next to Purana Quila, Pragati
Maidan (190 acres of ground), is rated as the finest
exhibition complex in Asia. 15 giant exhibition halls
across the site.
• The Permanent Exhibition Complex is designed to form
the focus of 130 acres of exhibition ground.
• The design was evolved to meet the constraints of time,
availability of materials and labour, but above all, to
reflect symbolically and technologically, India's
intermediate technology in the 25th year of its
independence.
HALL OF NATIONS AND HALL OF INDUSTRIES, PRAGATI MAIDAN, NEW DELHI, 1970
GROUND FLOOR PLAN • The depth of the structural system was utilized as a sun
breaker and conceived of in terms of the traditional 'jali', a
geometrical pattern of perforation that serves to obstruct
directs rays of the harsh sun while permitting air circulation.
• The plan of these pavilions is square with chamfered corners,
providing eight anchoring points. The corners were inspired by
the tomb of Mughal Emperor Humayun and the Taj Mahal.
• In the Hall of Nations an uninterrupted volume is achieved
where the height varies from 3m to 30m. This permits the
display of such diverse objects as aircraft, earthmoving
equipment, tractors and cranes.
• In the Hall of Industries the height varies from 2.5m to 15m.
The square plan adopted permits additional units to be added
as needed.
HALL OF INDUSTRIES
HALL OF NATIONS
HALL OF NATIONS AND HALL OF INDUSTRIES, PRAGATI MAIDAN, NEW DELHI, 1970
• The main pavilion of the Hall of Nations has a clear span of 78m and height
vary from 3m to 21m, thereby providing a vast capacity for items to be
exhibited from books to bulldozers.
• The Hall of Industries is a combination of 4 smaller pavilions by ramps
enclosing a central area for open air exhibit; utilities, toilets and other
services are located under the ramps.
• Although each of the halls was initially convinced as a full pyramid the
truncated form was adopted in order to avoid unnecessary constructions.
PLAN
HALL OF NATIONS AND HALL OF INDUSTRIES, PRAGATI MAIDAN, NEW DELHI, 1970
DETAILED PLAN AND SECTIONAL ELEVATIONS –HALL OF INDUSTRIES , PRAGATI MAIDAN
HALL OF NATIONS AND HALL OF INDUSTRIES, PRAGATI MAIDAN, NEW DELHI, 1970
• The most prominent cluster
of buildings in the complex –
the Hall of Nations, the Hall
of Industries and the Nehru
Pavilion – was designed by
architect Raj Rewal and the
celebrated engineer
Mahendra Raj. They were
conceived as a space-frame
structure that could allow for
vast, unobstructed areas,
permitting the display of
everything.
• The strength of steel required
to execute the space-frame
design was hard to come by
and formidably expensive.
Labor, on the other hand, was
inexpensive and aplenty. The
system was conceived,
analysed and built in RCC,
creating the distinct web of
beams overhead.
HALL OF NATIONS AND HALL OF INDUSTRIES, PRAGATI MAIDAN, NEW DELHI, 1970
• Designed as space frame in
reinforced concrete; the first of its
kind in India, and perhaps in the
world.
• The 'Hall of Nations' provides an
uninterrupted exhibition area of
approximately 6,700 sqm in a 82m x
82m x 27m high truncated pyramid
supported on eight points.
• Each of the four 'Halls of Industries'
is similar in design and is 44m x 44m
x 16m high.
• Free standing coffered mezzanine
floors cantilevering out of
cylindrical shafts provide additional
exhibition area in each hall.
HALL OF NATIONS AND HALL OF INDUSTRIES, PRAGATI MAIDAN, NEW DELHI, 1970
• A special 9 member joint was evolved
for precast construction but the builder
preferred in-situ construction. The joint
was modified to suit the adopted
technique.
• The 'Halls of Nations' is supported on
pile foundations tied together with
post tensioned plinth beams stressed in
stages.
• The 'Hall of Industries' rest on spread
footings tied together with high tensile
steel bars. The entire complex was
analysed, designed and built in a period
of fifteen months.
HALL OF NATIONS AND HALL OF INDUSTRIES, PRAGATI MAIDAN, NEW DELHI, 1970
• The buildings had an effective system of environmental control, thanks to
the three-dimensional structure, with solid triangular panels at regular
intervals providing sunscreens – a modern equivalent of the traditional
jali ubiquitous in Indian architecture.
• In addition, the pavilions had chamfered corners inspired from Humayun’s
Tomb and the Taj Mahal. This reinterpretation of building elements using
contemporary technology set the Pragati Maidan buildings apart as
examples of an indigenous modernism unique to India.
ASIAN GAMES VILLAGE, NEW DELHI, 1982
ASIAN GAMES VILLAGE, NEW DELHI, 1982
• Site Surrounding: LOCATION MAP
o Tofhe Wala Gumbad
o Nili Masjid at Hauz Khas
o Barakhamba Hauz Khas
o Tomb of Firoz Shah Tughlaq
• Total Area: 35 Acres
• To house athletes for the Games.
• 500 housing units were designed as a group
housing in 35 acres.
• In the Asian Housing, the urban pattern of
Jaipur and Jaisalmer has been explored.
• A network of streets and squares with
vehicular access at either end of the site, its
morphology resembles a traditional village.
Asian games village is located in the Siri Fort area,
near Hauz Khas in New Delhi, India.
The site was developed as the athletes village for
the 1982 Asian Games held in New Delhi.
ASIAN GAMES VILLAGE, NEW DELHI, 1982
ASIAN GAMES VILLAGE, NEW DELHI, 1982
• The cubic solids and voids are characteristic of the Indian
urban fabric.
ARCHITECT ACHYUT KANVINDE
ABOUT THE ARCHITECT
Name Achyut Prakash Kanvinde
Life Period 1916 - 2002
Birth Place Achare, in the Konkan region
of Maharashtra
Graduation (B. Arch) Sir J.J. School of Arts, Mumbai in 1942
Harvard University
Training and Influence under Walter Gropius
Context Modern Indian Architecture
PHILOSOPHY
• Kanvinde played with space and forms. His designs were slender, balanced, proportionate, neat and well crafted.
• The building is important but most important is the gate of the user. Example is “ISKCON Temple”.
• He gave much more importance to the natural light. He gave such a form to the building that it can solve the problem of
ventilation as well as excessive heat.
• He believed in Vernacular Architecture.
• He believed that the image should be such that can set the mood and interest for which the building stands for.
• Both inherent values and historical influences contributed towards good architecture.
ARCHITECT ACHYUT KANVINDE
DESIGN PRINCIPLES
FUNCTIONALISM
His buildings always gave first priority
He rejected symmetry.
to its functions, and social values.
MODERN ARCHITECTURE AND BRUTALISM
Elimination of unnecessary detail. Visual
Developed to create functional structures
expression of structure, as opposed to
at low cost.
the hiding of structural element.
REGIONALISM
Social conditions, sound climatological
Local climate, building materials
principles.
ARCHITECT ACHYUT KANVINDE
DESIGN CONCEPTS AND IDEOLOGY
• An art can be to nourish the senses. Art is purely an aesthetic exercise.
• He believed that a grid of columns forming a matrix giving structural
and spatial aspect would turn a design to more sophisticated and faceted.
• He treated his building with “Vastushastra”.
• The Bauhaus Style: Studying under Walter Gropius, Kanvinde developed
a whole new outlook towards architecture. He was greatly influenced by
the Bauhaus style, which later on was adopted in his various buildings.
• His buildings were simple and he used to tell the students “Architecture
is not a museum of material”.
INDIAN INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY – KANPUR, 1970
INDIAN INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY – KANPUR, 1970
INDIAN INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY – KANPUR, 1970
INDIAN INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY – KANPUR, 1970
INDIAN INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY – KANPUR, 1970
INDIAN INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY – KANPUR, 1970
NEHRU SCIENCE CENTRE, MUMBAI
NEHRU SCIENCE CENTRE, MUMBAI
NEHRU SCIENCE CENTRE, MUMBAI
NEHRU SCIENCE CENTRE, MUMBAI
NEHRU SCIENCE CENTRE, MUMBAI
ARCHITECT UTTAM JAIN
INTRODUCTION
• Born: 1934
• Qualification:
o Advanced Study Scholarship from the National University of Tucuman,
Argentina, 1959
o First Class Honours Degree in Architecture – Indian Institute of Technology,
Kharagpur, 1958
ARCHITECT UTTAM JAIN
PHILOSOPHY
• In the operational realities, if an attempt is made to highlight the ideological postures leading to the directions of value as
accepted in all design-decisions resulting into tangible architectural ambient, the efforts are also directed towards creating a
preference in the public mind for consumption of good design in their day to day living.
• The immediate surroundings is source of construction materials; snow, stone, straw, reed, wood or mud is the indigenous
materials for constructing an enclosure.
• The relationship between human being and the building being established, what develops and grows around becomes a
measure for man and his society.
• There is a place for everything and everything has its place.
• Spatial configuration in his design is an attempt to invoke a spirit that will establish a symbiotic bond between the present
and the past.
• Form: Realization of shelter form and its content are in response to a given place, climate, and time.
• Aesthetics: It is the aesthetics of openness contrasted with enclosures that highlights the different features from the rest of the
façade.
DESIGN FEATURES
• His project shows lots of good architectural solutions and their implications in Indian climate and behaviors.
• The use of arches, vaults, domes, squinches, pillars, cutouts in facades, courtyards, pergolas, etc. are the major elements of
his design.
• His designs are mere a excellent response the site and surroundings.
• The stepped roofs, the sitting patterns, the use of stones, the use of cutouts for ventilation are his major features in it .
• Use of local materials with a good mixture of modern technology make his building an excellent response to climate.
• There are the 3 ‘P’s of architecture, namely, the personality of the architect, the product and the place.
LECTURE THEATRES, JODHPUR UNIVERSITY, JODHPUR
LECTURE THEATRES, JODHPUR UNIVERSITY, JODHPUR
LECTURE THEATRES, JODHPUR UNIVERSITY, JODHPUR
DESIGN FEATURES
• A small Ziggurat like structure.
• Each hall – rectangular plan with stone slab
supported on intermediate RCC beams resting on 2
parallel walls along its longer axis.
• This load bearing stone construction gives the building a
rigorous order and has generated its basic form as well
as scale.
• The building is entered by a ramp housed between
blocks – recalling the sloping streets and soaring castle
walls of Indian desert towns.
• Sandstone is the primary building material.
• The walls are of dressed masonry laid in lime mortar.
LECTURE THEATRES, JODHPUR UNIVERSITY, JODHPUR
DESIGN FEATURES
• Four lecture theatres made for demonstrative
studies on the Jodhpur University campus.
• It is an illustration of design decisions that
are rooted in traditions, craft and culture
of the locality.
• There is a magnificent ramp to climb, an
elevated court paved with stone slabs, a
'darwaja' (gate).
• Defined by a water hut on one side and a
masonry bench on the other.
• Cascading roofs, and pyramidal sit-out
steps on the north and the south for
summer and winter use.
• The robust forms intend to reinterpret the
city's architectural heritage without
aiming at revivalism of architectonic forms
or shapes.
• Philosophically spatial configuration in this
design is an attempt to invoke a spirit that
will establish a symbiotic bond between
the present and the past, between the new
city and the old.
KOTA ENGINEERING COLLEGE, KOTA
KOTA ENGINEERING COLLEGE, KOTA
DESIGN FEATURES
• The engineering college complex near Kota in Rajasthan is planned over 140 hectares site along the south east bank of the river
Chambal.
• The complex, with a built up area of 2,45,000 sqm is predominantly residential in nature.
• The campus lay-out can broadly be divided into three main zones:
o The Academic
o Faculty Housing
o Students Hostel
• The topographical conditions, and inter-relationships and functioning of the zones were considered while planning.
• The main concept revolves around the principles “interaction at every stage” and “man on foot”.
• Hostel
o There are 3 single-seated boys hostels (capacity of 325).
o 1 triple-seated boys hostel (capacity of 192).
o And 1 girl students hostel (capacity of 108).
o Hostel rooms are well furnished.
o Every hostel has TV room, Table Tennis room, mess and other recreation facilities.
• Student amenities
o College has one huge building which has well equipped gymnasium and two covered badminton courts.
o There is a football ground and an athletic track to encourage sporting activities in the institute.
KOTA ENGINEERING COLLEGE, KOTA
DESIGN FEATURES
ENGINEERING COLLEGE (KOTA,1984-1991)
• This necessitated evolving close knit pedestrian course which interspersed with landscape courts where students can pause
and establish contact beyond the teaching areas.
• The vaulted roof all along the main spinal corridor that connects different faculties and common faculties not only gives
visual cohesiveness but also creates an air cushion, keeping the movement area relatively cool and bearable.
• Evocative of the morphology of a desert settlement, the layout assimilates the architecture of street fronts and public
squares for learning, indigenous stone and surplus manpower, typical of the Indian situation, have been used to the maximum
extent possible.
• Considering the rock surface of the entire area and the hot climate, the site has been tropicalised with dense forestation,
especially in the areas outside the building zones.
• Kota stone being available, has been fully exploited in the campus building.
• Two natural shades of the stone have been used.
• Natural materials are left untreated, revealing their texture through a play of light and shade.
• A combination of load bearing stone walls and reinforced concrete frames has been used as the basis of structural system.
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