Seminar for the ENSO – 59th Zonal Nasa Convention

Talk / Seminar on ‘Form Follows Context’ – a look at architecture informed by the context through the projects of our office – Prashant Pradhan Architects in Gangtok.

The premise – ‘Form follows function’ is irrelevant today since there is so much similarity in building styles, forms and designs. On the search for the factors that give shape to a building, our office has been working on different projects that are formed based on parameters defined by the context. The context in this case is defined by – geography, topography and climate.

The seminar began with showing my final year project – the Museum of Sikkimese Culture that was almost entirely shaped by following the contours of the site. This set the tone for the rest of the talk – moving on to an urban scale – ‘Walkways and Allied Facilities at Namnang’ – a pedestrian walkway on a steep incline of Gangtok. A slum rehabilitation project also in Gangtok was followed by a Organic Farmers Market in Namchi. The final project was set in the urban setting of Ahmedabad where the context was defined by the network of streets. This led to a triangular plot thereby defining the form of the building to be triangular. The lecture was concluded with a manifesto for building in the hills – highlighting the best practices to be followed for design on a contoured site.