271_Karan Gajjar: Incidental Comics
From India — CEPT University, Ahmedabad, India
About You: "Incidental Comics"
Design Thesis Project
2015 Winter Semester
CEPT University, Ahmedabad India
'Incidental Comics' is an outcome of my inquiry into architecture's fast evolving roles in the society and translating the program into an architectural form.
Well, I am Karan Gajjar, an architectural designer, graduate from CEPT University, Ahmedabad, India.
Project Description: INCIDENTAL COMICS:
India is the largest democracy and second largest nation in the world. Journalism in India has been playing an important role in all kinds of media; role of Journalism has become a significant part of the society. Hence, Journalism in India is an extensively & critically debated profession. Journalism has a tremendous impact on the way people form their opinions about something. Moreover, Journalism has a wide spectrum of coverage, which includes social, political, economical, cultural & sports sectors, nationally as well as internationally. The quantum of masses to which Indian journalism reaches out is gigantic, this power brings enormous responsibility for the professionals and the profession, to cater to all classes of people in society with unbiased point-of-view & balanced content. Ethics in journalism practice has been debated a lot in past few years in the country.
Ironically, the state of journalism in India as perceived by laymen, remains a forte of ‘intellectuals’. The platform that addresses and caters to ‘all classes’ of society appears to have reached a low where it merely remains inaccessible for certain classes of society to contribute their opinions. There seems almost an absolute absence of a platform in Journalism, which involves ‘every one’ in the discourse. Thus, Journalism in India seems to be active behind the doors; to an extent, barricading ‘a common man’ from discourses and opinion forming.
The idea of an institution was spurred due to the above-mentioned state of Journalism in the country. The attempt here is to develop an institution, which would perform as a catalyst to redefine & improvise the roles of Journalism in the society. The intent is materialized by the tool of Architecture. A programmatic insertion of ‘public sphere’ in the predetermined program of Publication House in the form of debate center & other activities allow a controlled public access in the institution.
The proposal is inspired by the idea of journalism in the form of comics. A group of American cartoonists are willing to collaborate with Indian cartoonists to establish a monthly magazine “Incidental Comics” to raise & encourage a dialogue about contemporary issues of the nation (social, political, cultural etc.) using comics as a medium. Medium of comic/cartoon is chosen because comic captures emotions that can be indirect, hence intense. In this institution, programs of ‘Debate Center’ and peripherals would allow visitors/people to have conversations with Editor, Cartoonists, Reporters & Writers, in order to make the procedures and operations of publication house more transparent and faithful for people.
The project is sited in the city of Mumbai, most populous and cosmopolitan city of India. The scale & nature of the city has over the years made media & journalism flourish in the city. Thus, Mumbai city creates preferable demographics to anchor the site for this project. The location of the site is strategic, attracting natural footfall of people and visitors; Girgaon Chowpatty (Beach) in south Mumbai. This spot in the city receives extremely high number of visitors and passers-by, which strengthens the viability of anchoring the building program of this institution at this site. Such ‘landmark’ location of site holds a very strong potential for making journalism more transparent through this institution because of high influx of visitors. The site has a public space of beach right across the road (Marine Drive). Although, the site is devoid of any other public place in the surrounding. This institution would provide the neighborhood with one such public place that would create an anchor of gathering and movements of visitors. Flow of people would naturally float to-and-fro between the beach and an institution.
The program of publication house is combined here with other programs that are more ‘public’ and informal. Thus, a ‘public sphere’ is inserted in the institution with the architectural expressions of double heighted volumes, which becomes the plaza. This feature becomes a physical threshold between the institution and the city. The sense of shelter in double heighted plaza encourages people to drift towards the institution. The plaza submerges with the level of the street aside; this relieves the boundary between the city and an institution. This gesture is articulated to dedicate the plaza to the city and not demarcating it in institution’s territory. This ‘public plaza’ mediates between the city and an institution; negotiating and re-defining the public nature of the institution.
An abstract reference to ecology is made here, since it is a best reference for any self-sustained system for a long run. Referring an institution to Ecology; the building program is divided into three attributes: Source, Life & Stabilizer.
Source (The Sun): The source of information in publication house is seen as the ‘source’ here. An Exhibition Center, Debate Center & Publication House are part of this programmatic attribute.
Life (The Earth): Against the source, program that defines life is that of a public sphere; including plaza & elevated plaza.
Stabilizer (Tree): Stabilizer binds the above two attributes: source & life. So this attribute can be seen as a binder of a program and a place, which includes Library and Academic Institute for Editorial Cartoons.
The Source and a stabilizer are expressed as a physical form of individual building blocks. Where as, the third attribute, is expressed in the form of open-natured public realm of plazas. Major public activities & events would take place in both the plazas. Thus, this realm would truly act as a binder of remaining two programmatic components. Overall expression of the program & the institution had been a major challenge through the design process, which was achieved by deriving an ‘architectural form’. The quest of translating the program into an architectural language & form for such building type has been a continual inquiry in the project.
‘Incidental Comic’ leans toward wit, sarcasm and satire. Naturally, comic form of journalism would enhance the wit in their publications. Often comics are expressed as a subtle form of sarcasm in the media industry. Here, since the entire publication house is dedicated to ‘comic’ form of journalism; the architecture must express those qualities of wit and satire. ‘Can a building form be humorous?’ This phenomenon was tried to be achieved here in the ‘making’ of the architecture. Concrete structured building blocks (source & stabilizer) are enclosed by a very deceiving skin/façade. Both the building blocks, which are cubes, are same in size and shape but are made to be perceived very different by changing their finishes and materials. One building block is a white solid cube; where as the other one is a perforated & light black cube. These contradictory characters superimpose the ‘satire’ to the expression of the building form. In the backdrop of marine drive’s predominant art-deco façades, these cubes would visually compose themselves as pure forms contending with each other. The building block of ‘source’ is enclosed by U glass on façade, which would allow skin to illuminate during night time. From outside, this would allow partial visibility to inside, where as, the nature of program suggests vice-versa. The building block of ‘stabilizer’ is enclosed by black perforated panels on façade. This depicts inherent qualities of trees: perforated mass, porosity and transparency. The Publication House block ‘source’ has an access to terrace where various activities can take place. The Academic Institution block ‘stabilizer’ isn’t as tall as the other block & it houses a provision for the future expansion.
The site-specific responses strengthen the institution’s anchorage to the urban fabric. The building would develop a new public network on its ground plane, which would knit the fabric together; holding institution in the center of the surrounding, still symbolizing the typical street character of the city. The proposal thus would respond to a program, building type, profession of journalism as well as the microclimate and context of the site. Such building type will be able to bring back people’s faith into journalism through their physical, perceptual & actual involvement in the institute.
Instagram Username: @krapee
