Wallroom - installation
Back

project image a wall as room
Location : jaipur
Status : Completed
Design Team : Samira Rathod
Year : 2018

Walls are used to define space and outline edges, to contain a space within which humans operate. What if this was inverted? Can the wall become a space? Experimenting with anthropometric norms, passive energy systems and salvage material, this installation ties the ideas together with a poetic that plays with the idea of embodiment; both objects and memories. In reference to using space as a resource, Charles Correa in his essay 'The Blessings Of The Sky' questions, "How do we increase the supply of urban land?" Taking a cue from this idea, it may be postulated that everything man needs to survive can be accommodated within three feet; a table, a kitchen platform, and a bed. Every human need can be addressed in simple gestures, with a small footprint. A single wall can become a room, a house, and as it meanders, a housing cluster. The idea of possession fades to be replaced by sharing, to facilitate the growth of a community. Each individual section is designed to hold a multitude of objects within its body, including a vegetable garden on top of the structure. The wall holds water in its belly, supporting both its thermal mass, and as storage. Recycled as rain along the edge, the installation uses evaporative cooling to lower the temperature of the house and small coal burning pits to heat the structure on cooler days. Designed as a frugal self-sustaining system, the small footprint implies a less abusive impact on the environment. The wall can exist at the edges of forests, woods and parks to form lifelines, for greener and more humble housing system. This is the first of a series of experiments, that can be further developed and refined, to create a series of walls as cost effective, self-sustaining shelters. The installation attempts to incorporate the idea of passive energy systems to the design process. The roof is designed to work in tandem with the forces of nature. Using the natural phenomenon of evaporation the entire installation uses a water, as both an aesthetic and functional element.