Semester 3, 2023Architectural design studio

Water Given Back

Barod, Madhya Pradesh

Before drawing a single plan, I filled a 63-page sketchbook about water in Barod, in pencil. This is all of it. Open any page to look closer.

63pages, one sketchbook
Isometric of the folded green roof with people walking on it, the museum below, and the round kund in the forecourt.

A green roof you can walk on, folded around a kund that saves the rain. This one is in my family's town in Madhya Pradesh.

01The site

A village that runs on wells

Barod is a village in Madhya Pradesh, and my family comes from there. There's no river and no piped water, so the whole village runs on wells. The brief I gave myself was simple: let people walk up onto the roof, move around freely, and give the water back to the village.

One continuous drawing of the corner site, read left to right: as it was, as the project arrives, and as it changes the place.
02Design manifesto

Nine rules before I drew anything

  1. Use open and semi-open spaces well.
  2. The verandah connects the spaces.
  3. Local materials: Malwa stone and lime.
  4. Space for both personal and community use.
  5. Different plinth heights for different activities.
  6. Roofs that keep the inside cool.
  7. Trees and planting for shade.
  8. Space for weekly cultural events.
  9. Traditional elements, used in a new way.

I wrote the manifesto first. Then I found the form in eight small block models: raise, enclose, cover, shade, fold and lift, climb, carve and cool. Scroll and it builds itself.

Form development, step 1: raise.
03Physical model

My favourite part of that semester

The physical model, on a faint drawing of the site.
04Floor plans

A museum underneath, a roof on top

The museum, archive and workshops sit on a 1.5 m stone plinth around two courtyards. The roof over them is one continuous green surface that slopes all the way down to the kund, so you can just walk onto it.

Ground plan, +1.50 plinth. 1:400.
  1. 1Museum +1.50
  2. 2Reference library +1.50
  3. 3Archive +1.50
  4. 4Shop ±0.00
  5. 5Café ±0.00
  6. 6Workshop 01, hand-making +1.50
  7. 7Workshop 02, pottery +1.50
  8. 8WC
  9. 9Stage +0.20
  10. 10Viewing deck +1.50
  11. 11Bathing, washing, drinking water ±0.00
  12. 12Cattle trough
  13. 13Community well
  14. 14Tree courts
  15. 15Kund, stepped to water −1.85
  16. 16Ramp to the roof
  17. 17Chadar, rain chute to the kund
05Mini game

Make it rain

06Sections and wall section

From the main road, over the roof, down to the water

Fig. 1Sectional perspective A–A', through the roof ramp, from the main road to the kund.
Fig. 2Section B, through the kund, looking north. 1:300.
Fig. 3Wall section: plinth, wall and walkable roof. 1:60.
  1. 1300 mm soil and grass: the walkable roof
  2. 2Drainage layer, protection board, waterproofing
  3. 3150 mm RCC roof slab
  4. 4RCC upstand with stone coping
  5. 5Spout: rain runs to the kund
  6. 6Clerestory, timber frame
  7. 7300 mm stone masonry wall, lime plaster both sides
  8. 8Kota stone floor on PCC
  9. 9Malwa sandstone plinth
  10. 10Stone steps to the forecourt
  11. 11Stepped stone footing on PCC

Next site · Malleshwaram, Bengaluru

A Laboratory for Presence