Projects | Studio
UG - BUD - Studio - 3 | Spring 2021 | Sahaayak Kendre
  • Student Bhavya Trivedi
  • Code UG180109
  • Faculty Planning
  • Unit L2 Studio Unit
  • Tutor/s Kruti Shah,Sebastian Trujillo
  • TA Aakash Jain

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Sahayaak Kendre aims to be focal points of community interaction and social bonding. They provide essential services to the community through the built form, such as training centres, schools, medical clinics and so on. Project Nirdaliya proposes them in a manner that its uses extend beyond those of programmatic functions and work towards enhancing community living in transit camps - which are usually a mix of different cultural and economic groups. The EPA acts as a bridge between these various communities within the transit camp and aims to become a centre of thriving socio-cultural and economic activity where community members can start to feel a sense of belonging and create their own identity, to become a cohesive community which is more than just a ‘transit camp’. 

Sahaayak first establishes the various needs of the community through which it then derives appropriate functions that can take place in the EPA in its proposal.
Whereas most of these functions cater to the ‘emergency’ and ‘public’ aspect of the project brief, the spaces are inherently built to create social and community bonding, primarily through the participatory nature of the design process which requires community members to come together and make decisions about their Public Architectures.
Through the process of site analysis and design development, the proposal derives three specific typologies of Emergency Public Architectures that would be appropriately suited to serve the needs of the community which are detailed according to the user groups they cater to as well as the functions they provide. These typologies - the Women’s, Youth, and Sub Centre - emerge from the need to provide essential services to specific populations such as the women and the youth, who are especially vulnerable to crime, violence and financial dependency in the community.
The different typologies of Centres compliment each other in the transit camp neighbourhood through their response to the street as well as their ability to interact with other projects such as the Laari and Transit Kit.
The spaces are made as an assembly - a kit of parts- which can be mixed and matched, added or subtracted and modified according to the community members’ needs and decisions.
This flexibility in design is portrayed through a catalogue which indicates possible design outcomes and phases which can be used as a guide by the community while they engage in the process of developing their Sahaayak Kendres.
The story would begin once the community starts growing, as more families move in and transit kits are set up, the EPA committee is elected and decides on when to start building the public architectures and which units to be chosen from the catalogue.
The construction process in itself is a collaborative process. With the step by step construction pamphlet attached, the aim is for the EPA to be constructed by all the members of the community as a community building exercise. Various members of the community are hired as construction workers, children help as a part of their educational curriculum and this becomes a way for the new families to get to know each other.
The Sahayak Kendre pamphlet is a construction guide that talks about the construction process that is carried while building the first phase of the EPA. The process includes 7 Stages to achieve the desired structure.
The EPA becomes a collaborative and inclusive community space for the different user groups which exist on the site, not only through the programmatic uses of the space, but also through its participatory requirements in the design, management and the construction of the centres wherein the The women’s centre Becomes a space for job opportunities for the women of the community, helping to develop social and bonds and skills.