Thesis Project
Mikrokosmos: A cultural Centre
In ancient Greek, the word ‘MICROKOSMOS’ means ‘a little world’.(mikrós, means “small” and kósmos means “world”). There is also a song called 'Mikrokosmos' which promotes individuality and togetherness. The purpose of this cultural center is to virtually take the person into the journey and make them feel as if they just entered into a small Maharshtrian village/world where culture is a primitive factor. A CULTURAL CENTER to educate people about Maharashtrian culture with the help of interesting activities, various visual presentations and entertainment. The site is located at Mumbai.
The study was initiated to efficiently design a socio cultural center that promotes culture, arts and provides a platform for local artisans to showcase their artistry through workshops, craft bazaars and studios. It also provides community service through its open air theatres, recreational spaces and catering facilities where people meet and mingle together. The methodology included a wide array of tasks such as preparing research questions, conducting thorough research by referencing necessary journals and various sources, discussions with the guide along with fellow colleagues, case studies, site selection, analysis, design formulation and proposal etc.
Mulling over what I want to achieve at the end, I decided to travel to Jaipur and stayed there for some days conducting case studies. Jaipur being a very culturally rich and vibrant city, gave me many new perspectives. After visiting Jawahar Kala Kendra by a renowned architect Charles Correa, we went to Chowki Dhani which was a replica of a typical Rajasthani village with various activities.
In the design solution, modern redefined forms of traditional spaces were created, keeping the objective intact. Traditional spaces like courtyards were used in the modern context making the structure fit in the contemporary setup. I offered a vernacular touch in order to maintain the purpose of the structure. Common spaces were provided for gatherings and the whole project was designed in AutoCAD, 3d structures were made in Revit and then they were rendered in Lumion. For further presentation, we made a walk-through of the entire project in Lumion and executed the video editing with the help of DaVinci. The thesis video has been uploaded on YouTube which currently has over 1.2 k views. This project has further disposed my innate interests and zeal for visual compositions, architecture visualization, making 3ds, video direction, writing and research.
(P.S - The sculpture gallery in quarter 2 is given a shape of 'swastik symbol', it is a religious symbol in Hinduism. Please do not mistake it as something else. I do not mean to harm or offend anyone. And I'm genuinely sorry if anyone got hurt because of my actions.)