India - Heinsdorff, Markus

07 • May 2012 SPASM / ETT / Heinsdorff / Sundaram / Home-for-all / Ma’anqiao / Nayak / Bhatia / Patwardhan, Garimella
Volume 01 • Issue 07 • May 2012 / SPASM Design substantial architecture / ETT blooms, reeds, petals, fronds / Heinsdorff
travelling gems / Vivan Sundaram making strange in fragile landscapes / Home-for-all: Ito, SANAA, Kuma, Yamamoto
and Naito design post-tsunami housing / Ma’anqiao back to earth / Ajay Nayak struggles in a ravaged landscape
/ Gautam Bhatia in times of delirious architecture / Sudhir Patwardhan, Annapurna Garimella measuring bodies in space
India
R150

Volume 01 • Issue 07 • May 2012 / SPASM Design substantial architecture / ETT blooms, reeds, petals, fronds / Heinsdorff
travelling gems / Vivan Sundaram making strange in fragile landscapes / Home-for-all: Ito, SANAA, Kuma, Yamamoto
and Naito design post-tsunami housing / Ma’anqiao back to earth / Ajay Nayak struggles in a ravaged landscape
/ Gautam Bhatia in times of delirious architecture / Sudhir Patwardhan, Annapurna Garimella measuring bodies in space
India
R150
domus 07 May 2012
07
Contents
07 • May 2012 SPASM / ETT / Heinsdorff / Sundaram / Home-for-all / Ma’anqiao / Nayak / Bhatia / Patwardhan, Garimella
Editorial
Op-ed Dr. Jyoti Hosagrahar
Architectural narratives for
India’s moment
Op-ed Johan van Lengen
How I lost my shoes
Journal
5
9
10
15
Photoessay Sachin Bandukwala, Melissa Smith
We move the ground
Gautam Bhatia
In times of delirious
architecture
Sudhir Patwardhan, Annapurna Garimella
Measuring bodies
in space
84
92
96
Cover
Travelling gems,
Construction of a mobile pavilion
designed by Markus Heinsdorff
(Photo by Manoj Patil)
Photoessay
SPASM Design, Kaiwan Mehta, Suprio Bhattacharjee
Substantial Architecture
17
27
Reinhard Mende, Philip Ursprung
The planned design of
socialism
100
ETT, Jude D’Souza, Suprio Bhattacharjee
Blooms, reeds, petals, fronds
40
Massimiliano Gioni
The Machine Civilisation
106
Markus Heinsdorff, Roshan Kumar Mogali
Travelling gems
46
Godrej Archives
Making a machine
110
Vivan Sundaram, Kaiwan Mehta
Making strange in fragile
landscapes
54
Clemens Weisshaar, Reed Kram
Force feedback
Azimut Yachts, Kalyani Majumdar
Design Craft
112
116
POST-DISASTER DESIGN KISYN, Julian Worrall
Shelters for all
62
Rassegna
Furniture
120
POST-DISASTER DESIGN Kazuyo Sejima, R. Nalini
A world without walls
70
On the future of mobility
124
POST-DISASTER DESIGN Ma’anqiao
Back to earth
72
POST-DISASTER DESIGN Ajay Nayak
Struggles in a ravaged landscape
78
13

Travelling gems
As part of the year of Germany in India celebrations, a set of mobile pavilions were created by a German
designer based on his study of fabrics and gemstones from India. These pavilions form the Urban Mela
that is set to travel to five Indian cities, exploring questions of mobility, technology and city spaces
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domus 07 May 2012
Design
Markus Heinsdorff
Text
Roshan Kumar Mogali
Photo Vipin Pawar
Pavilion as architectural manifesto—A set of mobile pavilions,
which is hosting an Indo-German expo in five Indian cities this
year, seeks to question architecture’s identity as permanent,
monumental entities by making an argument in favour of a
new nomadism. The temporary, transportable multipurpose
structures use the pavilion’s capacity to be a vehicle for
architectural manifestos, and to exploit the freedom in design
it offers.
Architecture and design need to respond to evolving economic,
social and cultural conditions. The mobile pavilions take
account of this responsibility and address the fluidity and
transience of the modern information age, and hope to fulfill
the demands that existing built forms cannot. They embody
the values of sustainability with their use of low-cost,
environment-friendly, locally-produced material, and their
minimal impact on their surroundings.
•
The pavilion setup
confronts the city skyline
to shock the viewer
•
During the night-time, the
lit-up pavilions give the
impression of lampions in
a village
Photo Markus Heinsdorff
Dissecting forms—The mobile pavilions, 16 in number and
of six different types, are the result of the coming together of
German high-technology, and Indian gemstones as a design
inspiration, hoping to appeal to its end-users – the organisers
and participants of the Indo-German Urban Mela. Markus
Heinsdorff, the designer behind the light, portable textile
structures, tried to marry the German steel wire structure
and hi-tech joints with the Indian symbols of marriage
tents and elephant howdahs. “I was inspired by the Indian
gemstone cuts, their reflecting qualities. Each pavilion is also
a sculpture, and to design it like a gemstone means working
with light and shadow, making it different from a tent, which
is mostly flat,” Heinsdorff says.
47

Travelling gems
Mumbai, IN
30 o Membrane
Entrance
20 o
Entrance
tensioning beam
façade truss
welded structure
Column Verticle, inclined
Entrance
Upper cable
Connection ring
Entrance
0 1m
plan
0 5m
elevation
0 50cm detail of skin structure
A
B
C
D
E
detail of truss
isometric view
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Entrance
Opening
Opening
Opening
Opening
Opening
Opening
Entrance
Entrance
Opening
0 5m
Opening
Opening
plan
A
C
detail isometric view
spatial truss (entrance)
section
B
D
isometric view
Opening
Opening
49

Travelling gems
Mumbai, IN
45 0 45 0
Roof frame girder
Horizontal beam
Welded tube to
tube connection
Bracing diagonal
Zinc drainage opening
Façade truss,
welded structure
Façade frame consisting of
welded tube to tube connections
0 1m
plan
A
C
connection roof frame
girder/façade column
0 5cm
section
B
D
isometric view
50

domus 07 May 2012
Roof frame girder
Entrance
Entrance
Cable bracing
36 0
Threaded rod M33
for adjusting
Roof structure
Open swaged fitting
for bracing 6
Cable bracing
Façade truss
Façade truss,
welded structure
Façade frame consisting of
welded tube to tube connections
0 1m
plan
elevation
cross section
A
B
C
D
D
detail central node
0 5cm
compression ring segment
across two fields
51

Travelling gems
Mumbai, IN
Photo Manoj Patil
The pavilions take their forms from diamonds, sapphires
and emeralds. The sections of the faÇades are made using
translucent fabric such that daylight flows in, and at night
interior light illuminates the outside area of the pavilion
– creating a beautiful interplay of light and shadow. Each
individual pavilion is equipped with its own portable floor
made of steel and a wooden framework that can be dismantled
and used on various surfaces such as fields, muddy ground,
flagstone and concrete. The textile pavilions have openings for
air circulation, and double walls to keep the inner membranes
cool. Component materials — membrane, steel and wood — are
lightweight, easy to assemble, repair and recycle. The pavilions
are modular and can be assembled to create larger units.
Clashing skylines—At the first site of their installation — at
Cross Maidan Garden in Mumbai — the pavilions confronted
the city skyline, making it an uneasy interaction. During the
day, the structures appear more futuristic than any of their
surroundings, while in the night they shine like lampions in
a village – very different from the concrete, steel and glass of
the neighbouring buildings and skyscrapers. As Heinsdorff
explains, “With this new skyline, I wanted to shock the people
– making them think that something came from outside and
fell down here. At first glance, it appears a little bit foreign
to you, but then you notice the textile fabric, the colours – I
used gold, silver, red and copper – all colours of Indian jewels.
However, all the pavilion designs are very reduced, and the
structures become a stage for the visitors – who are the real
actors of this show. Their responses show how we are touched
and stimulated by city design and how we interact with it.”
Transportable lives—One of the great concerns of
architecture in urban spaces is to attend to aesthetics
while helping the city conduct its many cultural and social
functions by bringing people together and reinforcing their
citizenry. Heinsdorff proposes that mobile pavilions could aid
the city in this matter and bring back those people who have
been forced to move away from the city centre to escape rising
costs. “As cities are concentrated with offices in the centre,
and many cities have this problem, so people move away from
the centre and then the cities ultimately don’t have a centre.
It is also not very sustainable that we commute such long
distances for work as we consume a lot of energy,” Heinsdorff
says. “We need to arrive at the idea of how we could have our
working place near our homes, reduce energy usage and not
waste our lifetimes sitting in a train. With this project, I hope
to start a discussion about how we can create a future in a
more efficient way.”
Heinsdorff, who was trained as a goldsmith and a sculptor,
says that he enters the scene with his perspective as an artist
and hopes to start a conversation about whether textile
buildings could be one of the ways in which we have our own
houses on our backs as we move between places. “Tent cities
have existed in the past in India, and what’s interesting to me
is how we can bring a lovely thing such as this textile tent/
pavilion to our time, while making them sustainable and
useful for our daily life and festivals,” he says. The case for
the usefulness of these mobile structures also gives a new
meaning to the pavilion as a place of repose. Heinsdorff says
the textile pavilions could be future models for low-cost,
temporary housing for migrant workers, and could also have
uses during post-disaster rehabilitation.
The Urban Mela is scheduled to be set up for 10 days each in
Bangalore, Chennai, Delhi and subsequently Pune, as part of
celebrations to commemorate 60 years of the establishment
of Indo-German diplomatic ties. The pavilion modules will be
arranged and adapted to the local conditions to create a unique
temporary festival venue at these cities.
—
ROSHAN KUMAR MOGALI
•
The pavilion roofs are
designed using light steel
poles
Opposite page above:
Heinsdorff has designed
16 pavilions of six different
types for the event.
Opposite page below: White
Crystal pavilion is the
result of three hexagonal
structures put together
52

domus 07 May 2012
Photo Tapan Pandit
Photo Manoj Patil
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