Competition Brief:
Childhood is a fascinating challenge for designers. Adults perceive architecture according to a functional logic: every space has its own use; every element has its own purpose. However, this is not how children think. For them, space is exploration, an ongoing and limitless opportunity, a background for their extraordinary adventures. Every space can be something else; every place can be somewhere else. Consequently, when a place cannot be made functional for adults anymore, it can still be suitable for children. As naturally as a battered empty box can become a house or a castle, an industrial archeology –even more so- can become the perfect score to sol-fa the notes of childhood.
Team Members: Prof. Percy Pithawala, Pranav Rastogi, Audarya Bansal, Nishi Shah, Parthiv Parikh, Siddharth Jain and Purvish Thakkar
Note on the Proposal:
Curiosity Constructs: a journey through childhood experiences and memories
Innocence is what we are born with, as a child we were never bounded with what the repercussions of our actions could be. We were only enthralled in taking actions that could take us somewhere, anywhere that could be interesting, any place that could be engaging. With absolutely no inhibitions we would keep walking in the physical realm while being totally engulfed in the non-physical. Our innocence in the cycle of life, has in this day and age become ephemeral, reality often strips us off our care-free nature of being inquisitive and curious. Something that the next generation of children must not face. This scheme tries to re-capture that very innocence with which a child would walk, the very innocence with which an adult could walk and take them through a journey of experiences that would stimulate the minds of all. The structure of the factory is also preserved in most places as it shares associational value amongst the people of the city, whereas the pods of stimulation are suspended below the shroud of canopy in a manner which allows them to at times playfully intersect with both the existing structure and the spaces above.
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