Semester 5, 2024On the bund of Ulsoor Lake, Kensington Road, Bengaluru

Halasuru Bridged

A civic project in Halasuru. A lot of trace paper and a lot of iterations.

A civic centre on the bund of Ulsoor Lake, with a library, a health and wellbeing centre, a cafe and workshops. The site had an informal settlement on one side, dense housing behind, four big trees and a canal at the corner. The site analysis was the part I was proudest of.

The design went through a lot of trace paper, from blocks around courts to two round courts joined by curving paths.

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Walls, with my group

Before the design, four of us (Dev Vohra, Soumya R. Patro, S. Lashwanth Arjun and me) studied how walls behave in public spaces, and did a streetscape study of Church Street.

Group study. WALLS typology sheet 1: ink sketches of the tunnel, lean, extrude and void wall behaviours, each with a reference photo and notes on what the wall does. — Group study. WALLS typology sheet 1: ink sketches of the tunnel.

Group study. WALLS typology sheet 2: support, path, code and shift - walls as storage and seating, maze-like paths, walls that carry messages, and modular walls that move between spaces. — Group study. WALLS typology sheet 2: support.

Group study. WALLS typology sheet 3: channel, shade, navigate, rise and territorial - walls as drains, as roofs and shading, as guides for movement, as stepped seating and as fort-like storage. — Group study. WALLS typology sheet 3: channel.

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The site

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A lot of trace paper

Early iteration in pencil over the printed site plan: dining halls, courts and rooms laid out as blocks, with a red line tracing a curved route through the site and handwritten notes. — Early iteration in pencil over the printed site plan: dining halls.

Iteration in pencil and blue pencil over the site plan: two circular courts linked by sweeping curved paths that run from the road into the site, with blocks around them. — Iteration in pencil and blue pencil over the site plan.

Butter-paper iteration: two round courts, one shaded green, pinched together by a curving spine and scattered triangular openings, drawn over the faint site plan. — Butter-paper iteration: two round courts.

Butter-paper iteration: an oval court and a round court joined by a curving path that bridges from the road, with blocks labelled for programme and furniture sketched along the edges. — Butter-paper iteration.

Loose pencil sketch of the same oval-and-circle scheme at a larger scale, with labelled blocks (library, reception, arena) and the path curving through. — Loose pencil sketch of the same oval-and-circle scheme at a larger scale.

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Where it ended up

'Design Approach' sheet: a Venn diagram of the users, the programme listed as library, health-and-wellbeing centre, admin, cafe and water/electricity, three zoning diagrams in colour, and a long section showing how the levels step down to meet people walking in. — 'Design Approach' sheet: a Venn diagram of the users.

Developed ground plan: a central open court with a stepped amphitheatre, workshop and dining halls along one side, and a long zig-zag edge of parking along the road. — Developed ground plan: a central open court with a stepped amphitheatre.

Sections AA and BB (Revit, with pen-style tree silhouettes): long low blocks and terraces stepping across the site, with the courtyard tree rising through the middle. — Sections AA and BB (Revit, with pen-style tree silhouettes).

Renders from the views sheet: the courtyard looking up past the tree through a round opening, a bird's-eye view, the pedestrian entrance from Kensington Road under curved white walkways, and an interior view. — Renders from the views sheet.

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