Design Process

Concept Formulation:

"Bridging the gap through an inclusive, barrier-free corridor of co-living"

The concept is formulated with a focus on two aspects to ensure the research question gets explored thoroughly.

• Designing adaptive solutions so that the Harijan people can reclaim their justified margin to meet their basic needs and make proper use of the provided land area in a planned way. Thus, coming up with an incremental grid.

• To promote communal inclusion, a barrier-free network is to be created that acts as a main spine and that can be introduced as a corridor of co-living.

Incremental Grid:

The incremental grid is chosen as a workable solution for its modularity and flexibility to address the problem of future expansion and adaptability due to them living in extended families and limited land area. By utilizing the most of the provided land area, they can reclaim their justified margin in society. This adaptive solution acts as a guideline to the settlement planning and promotes social inclusion and resilience, offering a pathway to a brighter future for generations to come. 

Phasing is considered in a way so that with the growth of the economic condition, the structure will grow. So, in extended families, the built form can adapt to much-needed future expansions if need be and make the most of the limited land area, which is crucial to the Harijan people. Here an 8’*10’ grid is chosen as the minimal room size, and as a result, a housing module of 480 sq. ft is set as the ideal accommodation size for a family. 

Here four patterns have been designated to make the most of the limited land provided to each family. The incremental grid allows a house form to adapt to the economic growth of a family. yellow indicates the increments at the upper levels, leaving another grid to act as a terrace at the same level. This method can repeat in the same manner if more living units are needed for the family. The toilet's placement and its ventilation are fixed in the service zone. The kitchen is set outside in the uthan area, as it is mostly in semi-outdoor zones contextually. Facilities provided from government funding will be a plinth and one room as a set guideline. This will help in rehabilitating them onto this site, as most of them are habituated to using one room as a house form. Later, pairing with their economic growth column layouts, utilities and means of vertical circulation can be funded mutually. In this method, the modules can ensure cross ventilation of each room by forming openings in their own grid.

Design Phases:

The design process is structured into four phases, ensuring that the resulting solution can be aaccommodated on sites of various sizes while considering the context.

• Module Fixing: In this initial phase, the basic modules of rooms and scopes of incrementality are explored. This involves determining its layout and placement of these modules to ensure functional efficiency and spatial optimization at the household scale. To meet the spatial requirement within a limited area of 480 sq. ft for the Harijan people, developing a module is a workable answer to explore the incremental grid. Its scalability and flexibility enable simple adaptation across various settings while optimizing available space and resources. This economical method is ideal for meeting the spatial requirement and also generating activities at a household scale in a limited margin.

• Cluster Coordination: The focus shifts to coordinating several modules to form a cohesive unit known as a cluster. This phase involves arranging modules in relation to each other, ensuring cross ventilation of every module, and establishing interconnections according to the ideal context of the cluster to generate activities.  Like an ideal cluster, the modules of 480 sq. ft are placed around a pocket court of 18’*24’. The modules are then shifted to ensure proper ventilation, creating an entry approach that connects to another cluster. Placing module types, making each orient toward the court for proper enclosure an adding adjacent ground space for each module to shelter homestead activities.

• Block Co-ordination: then the coordinated clusters are spatially organized to develop a block, which encompasses multiple clusters within a larger community setting. This phase emphasizes the importance of connected courts, integration of community facilities, open spaces, and infrastructure to support the collective needs of the community. In designing a block, as contextually both types of clusters were connected by facilities, according to that, the coordinated clusters are now connected, and facilities such as tube wells & toilets act as the connector. As the existing nature, a person can go about the block, through the connected courts. As the Harijan people do not adhere to the general need of privacy, that's why the connected court acts as an efficient space of community interaction at a larger scale. Before placing the coordinated blocks onto the settlement plan, it is planned using contextual statistical data from the previously analyzed four case studies which let me know how many modules should be used to form a block ideally.

• Settlement Planning & Landscaping: Settlement planning encompasses the structured organization of all designed and coordinated blocks. The blocks were placed alongside the road to maximize accessibility and visibility. A primary spine was developed according to the context; secondary and tertiary networks were established to ensure smooth access between the various blocks and the primary network. Peripheral common functions, like temples and bazaars, bazar multipurpose act as a pause to create social interaction with the mainstream community. As housing for 63 families is finished at phase 4, the remaining land is given as lease to the mainstream community for agriculture. The majority of the mainstream community are farmers by profession. This will help create a truly inclusive community. Later these agricultural lands can be replaced by future expansion of housing blocks if need be (as shown in the masterplan).