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Digital Crafts: Pavilion Project won the iDAC Intelligence Series award

15.11.2018

Workshops

Digital Crafts pavilion is a project conceptualized by the students during the winter school workshop, “Digital Crafts, Customized bricks 1.1,” held in December of 2016. A pavilion is a relaxing place located in the Riverfront Park, Shahibagh; the eastern bank of the Sabarmati River, Ahmedabad. Digital Crafts is a series of workshop that aim to integrate advanced technology, local material and crafts in the built environment.This workshop primarily focused on rethinking the use of bricks in a contemporary context. The pavilion’s form was generated through computational tools to create a funicular structure using software, Rhino Vault. A prototype of the design was made at a scale of 1:5 by the end of the course. Moreover, post the workshop, the project went through eight months of research and design lead by Ar. Urvi Seth (Director of Workshops and Exhibitions, CEPT), and Shri Kiran Vaghela (Director, Hunnarshala) on construction technique and skill development. The challenge was to build the pavilion using a technique called the Catalan Vault, which didn’t need any scaffolding. 12mm thick clay tiles were used instead of brick to reduce the dead load in the structure. A scaled 1:1 prototype was built and was physically tested with 6 tons of load, 300 sandbags each weighing 20 kilos at Hunnarshala, Bhuj. This led to the structural certification of the 1:1 prototype which was then ready to go to the site. The construction process only took 30 days from the foundation until the finish of the structure.

About iDAC intelligence Series
The iDAC Intelligence series of 2018-19 is a parallel measure to iDAC 2018-19; fashioned to capture the true essence of information, Innovation and Technology in the fields of Infrastructure, Development, Architecture and Construction. It is conceptualized to bring new technology and services to Tier 2 cities in order to build awareness. The series travels through 9 states, while engaging the brightest of minds to participate in the realm of architecture, construction and engineering. http://www.idacexpo.in/intelligence/

About Ahmedabad Presentation
Urvi Sheth speaks about the presentation of the design in Ahmedabad and says that after understanding the purpose of the series, she had felt obliged to submit the project of the pavilion. She had submitted the project under the last and special category, “Innovation,” because it didn’t fall in any of the other suggested categories ranging from infrastructure, transport to building types that were mentioned in the application form. Mrs Sheth expresses her concerns whether her design would be appreciated in the commercial world of today, stemming from her past experience with similar organizations. She proceeded to present the design with hardly any expectations of winning. To her surprise, there were 12 presenters from Ahmedabad, including herself. Two parallel sessions were evaluated by a panel of the eminent jury (15 in number per session). The panel of the jury included architects, developers, structure engineers, services consultants and a lighting designer.

The juries focused on the entries that placed an emphasis on cohesive efforts in Architectural, Structural, Mechanical, Electrical, Plumbing, Life & Fire Safety, Traffic, Facade development, Vertical Transportation, Environmental Concerns and other Technocrats involved in the said presented projects. Tangible, Exemplary, Functionality, and Innovation garnered extra weightage. Mrs Sheth faced a challenging Q n A round after her presentation ranging from the details of development including construction techniques, services and legislation. In the end, their collective measures were recognized, and the presentation was highly appreciated by each of the members of the jury; including Ar. Yatin Pandya.

About Mumbai Presentation
She was appreciated after the jury as one pioneer who was the exemplary presenter. Urvi Sheth requests everyone to mark February 15th, 16th and 17th, 2019 to be present for the presentation in Mumbai. http://www.idacexpo.in

Credits
Project: CEPT University, Ahmedabad
Key personnel: Urvi Sheth

CEPT University team:
Co-Teacher and Teaching assistant - Shehzad Irani and Avishek Das
Students - Esha Jaiswal, Rajendra Vegad, Smriti Dhawan, Tanmayee Wagle, Chaitali Arora, Faisal Mansuri, Ekta Samani, N Hariraman, Naindeep Kaur, Nupur Bhadra, Radhika Thacker, Parv Modh, Vishwa Sahu, Rushabh Sachdev, Sudarshana Babu, Shubhangi Purani, Anand Shah, Nikhil Bang, Stuti Bandish, Riddhi Kumar, Rishabh Wadhwa, Aakash Jain, Arunima Sen, Bahar Patil.

Structure design and Construction: Hunnarshala Foundation and students of Karigarshala, Bhuj
Key personals: Shri Kiran Vaghela, Shri Tejas Kotak
Hunnarshala and Karigarshala team: Shri Sunil Dheda, Shri Bharat Chauhan, Shri Pangu Sinh Bamania, Shri Jignesh Gor, Shri Itesh Dhadhar, Students of Karigarshala (Batch of '17-'18).

Digital Crafts: Pavilion Project won the iDAC Intelligence Series award