Concepts and creativity
Innovative designs and new materials are transforming affordable housing also
If I have to reference the current mix of our ongoing residential projects, we seem to be working mostly at two absolute ends of the spectrum. Ultra premium, iconic developments share the studio's bandwidth as much as affordable housing projects. What is interesting though is the demands of innovation are similar.
Premium developments focus on the needs and desires of design aware, quality conscious clients who demand a lifestyle solutions rather than mere square footage. Affordable housing clients want efficiency, value and an equally nuanced understanding of their requirements. We foresee greater focus on end user needs and intelligent customised solutions that respond to market and demographics better.
We are witnessing a certain maturing of client sensibilities and clean contemporary design with personality finds favour more often now. Technologies are reshaping design through newer materials, construction techniques, manufacturing processes, information technology and design creation tools. We are using scripting, parametric and generative software tools to create designs that uniquely cyber-architectural as they cannot be conceived with traditional tools. We are exploring use of additive manufacturing and 3D printing for rapid prototyping in our product creation venture.
A residential project in Bangalore is conceived as community that is linked not just physically but also as much virtually. We are embracing steel construction for residential applications, allowing thereby developers to bring products to market sooner with additional advantage of large column free spaces and smaller section sizes translating into higher efficiency.
We are exploring use of thermoformed solid surface acrylic panels as a cladding alternative to mitigate effects of monsoons on Mumbai buildings. For affordable housing, we are looking at industrial manufacture of modular components as means of improving quality, lowering cost and time requirements.
Everyone is talking green. It's hard to find a product catalogue, a trade publication, a design statement, a college curriculum or even a corporate manifesto that does not profess eco-credentials. However, an architectural program is like a multivariable equation that needs to be solved and sustainability is only one of the determinants that have to be factored in. While we do not dispute its relative importance, we certainly think that any project is more than one agenda.
We do not want to reduce the quality of our lives by living without air conditioning in humid tropical climate, live in small dimly lit homes, worry about the trickle of water while shaving, do without bathtubs or whatever else to reduce carbon footprints and save mother earth.
What we need is ideas that maintain or even improve the quality of our life using sensible amount of resources, something that should appeal to common good sense and self interest of all. What we do not require is needless moralising and tunnel vision too narrowly focussed on one agenda that is beginning to look faddish. I have always maintained that Indians are naturally green and should lead the way in bringing about a saner view, something not just obsessed with checking boxes in certification criteria.
A 'constraint set in context suggests opportunity' in design. We face challenges and constrains across architecture, interiors and even product design and those trigger the innovations that we do.
The essence of our way is to address the fundamentals through diligent programming, offer solutions that balance wit and wisdom, keep it fresh and never lose the visual appeal. The focus is always on the context, the constraints and the opportunity that a project presents. We like to create designs that maximise the positive impact of design on the environment, use appropriate technologies and materials and source labour locally.
We are light on ideology and heavy on creativity and innovation. We prefer solutions had that are intuitive, of equitable use, have flexibility, involve low physical effort, work within context and constraint, communicate ideas visually, are experimentally satisfying, conform to codes, demonstrate sensitivity and importantly, enable future-forward concepts. The stylistic representation of the ideas is what is best suited for the situation. For us, for any design to succeed, a clearly articulated line of thought should bind it all together that is consistent and careful.
The writer is director, Planet 3 Studios. These insights were shared ed during the seminar sessions organised at the first IIFF held recently in Goregaon
Innovative designs and new materials are transforming affordable housing also
If I have to reference the current mix of our ongoing residential projects, we seem to be working mostly at two absolute ends of the spectrum. Ultra premium, iconic developments share the studio's bandwidth as much as affordable housing projects. What is interesting though is the demands of innovation are similar.
Premium developments focus on the needs and desires of design aware, quality conscious clients who demand a lifestyle solutions rather than mere square footage. Affordable housing clients want efficiency, value and an equally nuanced understanding of their requirements. We foresee greater focus on end user needs and intelligent customised solutions that respond to market and demographics better.
We are witnessing a certain maturing of client sensibilities and clean contemporary design with personality finds favour more often now. Technologies are reshaping design through newer materials, construction techniques, manufacturing processes, information technology and design creation tools. We are using scripting, parametric and generative software tools to create designs that uniquely cyber-architectural as they cannot be conceived with traditional tools. We are exploring use of additive manufacturing and 3D printing for rapid prototyping in our product creation venture.
A residential project in Bangalore is conceived as community that is linked not just physically but also as much virtually. We are embracing steel construction for residential applications, allowing thereby developers to bring products to market sooner with additional advantage of large column free spaces and smaller section sizes translating into higher efficiency.
We are exploring use of thermoformed solid surface acrylic panels as a cladding alternative to mitigate effects of monsoons on Mumbai buildings. For affordable housing, we are looking at industrial manufacture of modular components as means of improving quality, lowering cost and time requirements.
Everyone is talking green. It's hard to find a product catalogue, a trade publication, a design statement, a college curriculum or even a corporate manifesto that does not profess eco-credentials. However, an architectural program is like a multivariable equation that needs to be solved and sustainability is only one of the determinants that have to be factored in. While we do not dispute its relative importance, we certainly think that any project is more than one agenda.
We do not want to reduce the quality of our lives by living without air conditioning in humid tropical climate, live in small dimly lit homes, worry about the trickle of water while shaving, do without bathtubs or whatever else to reduce carbon footprints and save mother earth.
What we need is ideas that maintain or even improve the quality of our life using sensible amount of resources, something that should appeal to common good sense and self interest of all. What we do not require is needless moralising and tunnel vision too narrowly focussed on one agenda that is beginning to look faddish. I have always maintained that Indians are naturally green and should lead the way in bringing about a saner view, something not just obsessed with checking boxes in certification criteria.
A 'constraint set in context suggests opportunity' in design. We face challenges and constrains across architecture, interiors and even product design and those trigger the innovations that we do.
The essence of our way is to address the fundamentals through diligent programming, offer solutions that balance wit and wisdom, keep it fresh and never lose the visual appeal. The focus is always on the context, the constraints and the opportunity that a project presents. We like to create designs that maximise the positive impact of design on the environment, use appropriate technologies and materials and source labour locally.
We are light on ideology and heavy on creativity and innovation. We prefer solutions had that are intuitive, of equitable use, have flexibility, involve low physical effort, work within context and constraint, communicate ideas visually, are experimentally satisfying, conform to codes, demonstrate sensitivity and importantly, enable future-forward concepts. The stylistic representation of the ideas is what is best suited for the situation. For us, for any design to succeed, a clearly articulated line of thought should bind it all together that is consistent and careful.
The writer is director, Planet 3 Studios. These insights were shared ed during the seminar sessions organised at the first IIFF held recently in Goregaon
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