COIMBATORE AIRPORT PROJECT

       When functionality meets technology, the marriage of reason and resource. From the abstraction of a bird signifying flight, this master piece stands out as simple and elegant!

Designed for Coimbatore, the southern hub of India's textile industry, It reflects the vernacular Architecture of Exposed Concrete, interwoven in glass. creates the perfect landing spot for tourists and business travelers as well as it leaves a warm signature in the heart of the departing traveler to which he longs to return.

design software:

produced with Revit Architecture 2012 (student version)

MAKING OF MODEL SATELLITE TOWN FOR ABUJA (SECOND REVIEW)

HERE COMES THE MASTER PLAN

SALIENT FEATURES
·    Phased development, having sustainable districts at each phase
·    elimination of the traditional grid iron pattern and its attendant thorough fare traffic
·    and replacement with the super block model.
·    provision of private as well as communal green spaces
·    shared communal facilities encourage social interaction and are cheaper to maintain
·    turn to alternative revenue sources
·    car-less community thus less carbon emission = cleaner air
·    cultural   promotion through football
·    provision of well connected service roads, cycle and pedestrian ways
·    a fine blend of the garden city concept, and the neighborhood planning concepts with Le-corbusiers centralized business district model

HOW DO YOU FEEL ON A DESIGN REVIEW DAY

 So how do Architects really feel just before a presentation..what am I thinking just before its my turn. Is it confidence, too much of it or less of it. is it fear of getting Bashed or is it calmness?
For most it is either of these sometimes and at other sometimes a combination of them, in a random order.

You are sure you have done your homework, but you are not sure how  the client would receive it. would it be ecstacious satisfaction or sad disappointment, would he throw arms around you in joyous praise of the work or frown at your beautiful ideas?
For me, its a mixture of those feelings. But what is common with us all is that before the meeting, we always feel confident.

Such was the case right here today.

The second review on the Abuja Satellite Township project, Spirits were high, we all peered critically at each others works.
however there seemed to be a dive in the mood after the review, egos had either been shattered or boosted!
Envy sets in, momentary depression happens some how you feel you have been misjudged or under-graded.
But you take a resolve to go back and do more work and bounce back stronger!!
..to be continued

MAKING OF A MODEL SATELLITE TOWN FOR ABUJA (first review)

SRM UNIVERSITY,SCHOOL OF ARCHITECTURE

I just came back from a rather long walk. It hadn't been long I woke up from a nearly 8 hours day-sleep. Pretty un-like me, but the reason is simple, I was tired from the more than two- hours- per- student design review today.

It was the first, for this Dissertation, and it was in many ways like the very first Review I had in India. I had taken  gray-scale, A-1 printouts and I had under-estimated the requirements.

Detailing; in the sense of data, facts and figures. I had a pretty superficial database, which told nothing in depth other than the obvious and very basic observations.

for example when I said that the Chengdu-Tianfu District Great city, had a total acreage of 800Acr but had only used 320 for urbanized development, that was an observation, but I could have gone the next step to draw an inference which would arrive at the fact that the 320 Acres represented about 40% of the total land size.

the visiting guide, a young man, just newly  married, and a former student of the school, was more concerned with the why behind every stroke of the pencil.Other than this, my process had been logically developed, I was on the right track,.

I have to do some more in-depth study on existing conditions in order to justify the study as well as enrich it.

MAKING OF A MODEL SATELLITE TOWN FOR ABUJA(STAGE 1)

So having said that, lets take a look at the progress so far. Just as i recommended in my book(LEARNING TO BE AN ARCHITECT) I've been reading and searching deep to get a firm gasp of what is required in a satellite town as well as to justify the need for it in Abuja.

A lot of documents on the internet have given various enlightening meanings for the term as an English phrase as well as an element of urban design.

But here's my own simple definition;

a satellite town is a smaller community mostly consequential but sometimes planned, mostly residential but sometimes lightly commercial too, located close to a larger metropolis connected via available transport channel and which may or may not contribute to the economic viability of the bigger city but largely solves the problem of its urbanization.

I have also aswered a number of important questions such as, what are the xtics of a satellite town, what is the origin of satellite towns, why do we need a satellite town in abuja, what has the government to say about this need, what sustainable approaches could be implemented, and of course what are the town planning standards for allocation of amenities in an urban area?

In this light, I have studied three satellite towns ; satellite town Lagos, Nigeria, Gurgaon, India and Chengdu Tianfu, China. Of the three the most remarkable one has been that of china's Chengdu and that is the one I have shared here.

image: The satellite city chengdu tianfu, Chian. excerpts from my Research work.(go here to read more about the design.)

The concept is absolutely sustainable and is hopefully going to inspire my own design to a great extent. Some of the salient features of this modern self-sustaining town include;

· It has a well designed cultural and performance center
· pedestrian-ism is greatly encouraged: one can walk from any part of the city edge to the centre in less  than 15minutes
· 48% less energy and 58% less water. 
· 89% less landfill waste
· Generate 60% less carbon dioxide.
· commercial,Residential,Office,Light manufacturing & a medical campus are included in the town making it easier to live and work there,
· ECO-PARKS


Next I have to carry out a site suitability analysis. This would involve identifying potential sites for the proposed town, and will culminate in selection of the most viable one.

THE MAKING OF A MODEL SATELLITE TOWN FOR ABUJA NIGERIA (intro)

OK..so am just a semester away from a masters degree, with my Thesis being the only separation. The journey which started some 18 months back somewhere in the south of Conservative India, was about to end. my academic performance so far has been wonderful; with a cgpa of 8.5/10, it has really been a swell outing.

but you know what they say, that the end is always the hardest part of any task, seems to be quite true in this case with the planning of a satellite town for Africa's fastest growing city, Abuja.

For a start, I think its important to mention that I didn't choose anything on this level,myself, in fact  the first synopsis i submitted was a proposal for an intercontinental restaurant, a hotel or a ...i cant remember the third,but you get the level.I just wanted something i could finish off easily because i was  writing my first book  and was also working at the time.

It certainly didn't get approved, when dean Thirumeni asked me to consider transit-oriented developments, I was excited though but never imagined it on a Town scale, which brings us back to HOW I MADE IT?