Biophilia , Environment , Landscape Urban Motelling By Rahat Varma Back in 2010, when New Delhi was all set to host the Commonwealth Games, the central government chose to respond to the city’s shortage of hotel room accommodation by employing the ‘Urban Motelling Policy’. The policy stated that those with farmland in Delhi on a main road could build a hotel, however regulations were put in place to ensure that very little volume could be built on this land so that these farmlands could ...
Biophilia , Landscape , Uniformity Jardin à la Française By Aakanksha Mehta Andre le Notre, the greatest French garden and landscape designer. Andre Le Notre followed his father as head gardener at the Jardin des Tuilleries in Paris and also studied fine art in Paris. The designer also enjoyed a warm relationship with his patron Louis XIV. Both were men of taste with a passion for gardens and architecture. The baroque style of garden design, which they brought to a crescendo, became widely influential ...
Institutional , Jaali , Sustainability Freshly Pressed: The British School By Rahat Varma Just finished last week we bring to you The British School, New Delhi. Morphogenesis’ design vision for this school, found inspiration in the school’s tagline- ‘An International education with an Indian soul’. With this project, we set out to provide a strong cultural context to the international format of education this institution provides. The principal challenge was to construct the new building on the existing sit ...
Building , Commercial , Corporate , Morphology , Sustainability Vertical Architecture By Rahat Varma With the rapid increase of urban density in our cities and land being a major constraint there is a need to look out for solutions that allow our cities to expand and not implode. High rise is a response to the paucity of land, without a doubt, tall buildings and compact living may be directly related. As a design ideology the high rise typology of construction has often been seated centre stage at a number of architectural di ...
Research Paper presented @PLEA 2016- Courtyards as Semi-Outdoor Learning Spaces By Aarushi Juneja “Well planned play, both indoor and outdoor is a key way in which children learn with enjoyment and challenge.” [1]. Interest in improving not only the school building but also the outdoor spaces is becoming significantly important as they play an important role in the school curriculum. Research has also highlighted that outdoor learning experiences are more effective in developing intellectual skills than indoor (clas ...
Building , Built Environment , Climate , Corporate Building Information Modeling: Revit By Munazza Akhtar with Rahat Varma Morphogenesis is going digital in a flash BIM is about taking the tools and workflows that people have been using and changing them to be a more transparent and collaborative, resulting in making the work process much easier. Understanding the benefits, Morphogenesis set out to implement BIM and adopted the Autodesk Re ...
Environment , Research The Bee Buzz By Anisha Chakrabarty We all must have come across a beehive hanging on a building, tree or a rock. Even the smallest sight of it must have immediately triggered a sense of fear of getting stung, followed by generation of innumerable ideas on how to remove it from our vicinity. But have you ever wondered how these complex structures are constructed and inhabited by such tiny creatures, which by the virtue of naturally inherited wisdom and construct ...
Built Environment , Cities , Research , Sustainability Socio-Cultural Manifestation in Built Form- Kerala By Susan M Thomas Sustainability has been the core concept in most well-conceived, upcoming projects in India. In the modern context, the methods to achieve it are validated by computer simulations to optimize the atmosphere in buildings. Vernacular architecture in India built sustainably by incorporating socio-cultural activities in its built form. This response provided a positive environment for the inhabitants. Interestingly, in Kerala, ...
Building , Workplace #ConstructionUpdate: Shoring Technique By Tanvangi Asthana An interesting shoring technique which we got to work with, for a multi-storey office building in Noida. The soil type in Noida is loamy and construction site has high water table. Such a combination of soil type and high water table creates the possibility of collapse (cave-in) of trench walls at the time of excavation. Hence, the shoring technique has to be designed to retain earth, water and adjacent structures. The b ...
Built Environment , Cities , Livability , Research , Residential Framing Views: Improving the User Experience of Spaces By Rahat Varma We, as users of the built environment, spend most of our days in heavily cordoned off spaces, attempting to both be productive during our work day and to turn-off the hustle and relax after work hours. The unpleasant truth is that we do not have enough time to be outdoors and experience what nature has to offer. With the prevalent introverted construction style being applied to most new developments, it is essential for us as ...