Ajay Singh Larr
About
As a student who is explorative or fields outside of Architecture, I am interested in a variety of disciplines, namely furniture design, graphic design, fashion, and food. I have started my own headwear brand, HAAT-ery. which I managed to launch with my partner during this academic year. I have also been working on the slow development of a supper club which got cut short in preparations due to the current situation.
All of these interests support my view on Architecture and vice versa. I am intrigued within the intimacy of architecture, more definitively homes, looking to blend my interests into something personal, activities of the home becoming something examined and given high importance. With this being said I would very much be interested in developing small scale housing, learning, and utilising what I have been doing this last year giving attention to the existing and already made structures.
Contact
- ajaylarr@gmail.com
- @haat_ery
Degree Details
Statement
In 2020 I am looking to develop my headwear brand in more depth, looking to work ethically within India to support local artisans and dyers. Within architecture I am hoping to work with small homeowners to intimately renovate and improve housing that is already there. It will be a process of close examining and considered actions, looking to reveal as much of the integral character of the home as possible. I believe that housing is a such a personal matter that we as Architects should help in making houses feel like homes.
Site Examination
Aylesbury Estate is a site that is set to be demolished following the phased removal of low income and council housing to make way for newer developments set at exceptionally higher value. The consideration of Ayurvedic principles can facilitate a more inclusive renovation. It gives way for the plot to renovated in most cases empowering the overlooked by bringing the notion of karma into the site which makes one decide carefully about how to approach all aspects. The Ayurvedic considers all at once, giving importance to every aspect. It becomes a slow process about learning what is already there and making the most out of minimal and considered actions.
Intervention Mapping
Urban development today looks to sell ‘products’ where the interventions mapped on this plot of the Estate shows ‘process’, snapshots of transformation on-site. They allow the plot to renovated, empowering the overlooked. De-function in Housing Estates is perpetuated through neglect, so by transforming the site’s value, interventions aim to improve the function and perception to both the site and residents.
Renovated Unit
Demolition Testing looks at the archaeological process of stripping to reveal information about each housing typology. It eases the space back to its essence, in a way becoming the resting place of what was already there. Having learnt from the demolition process, the renovated housing units can be properly treated to help the residents ground their homes. Renovations of housing units then balances the cause of demolition in improving the daily function of residents. Clearing internal partitions, inserting integrated storage, and re-configuring portions of internal height creates larger spaces allowing a free flow from one end to the other, helping to improve the health of residents in this process.
Staircase Conservatory
The staircase is an emblem to the site’s character and indication of time passed.
Enrobing it with its own dwelling preserves its character, giving value to these overlooked pieces of infrastructure. The Removal chute gives importance to the transportation and separation of materials to be delivered from across the rear balconies of adjacent units akin to the processes of cremation. It highlights aspects of the staircase where graffiti and mildew have value within this system.
Negative Collection
This space is formed at the newly pedestrianised entrance through a double height access route where a multipurpose space for the local community is provided. People are able to transform the perception of this Estate through their invested use, despite the decaying exterior. The entrance blows waste from Aylesbury Road, accumulating in this lower level where reclaimed gates help to gather and display this waste to outwardly transform value. The display of the forgotten becomes exposed to water. Where water can heal, it can also reveal flaws and so these forms of decay change through community intervention.
Maintenance Pooling Platform
A defunct building can become contemplative if seen from a different view. Clogged downpipes lead to water pooling over this maintenance building. It becomes a ‘contemplative pond’, rarely given to housing Estates. It is accepting of its errors. The space can eventually become whatever the residents need but speaks of the beauty in acceptance.
Functions of Water
The ritual necessity of water becomes pivotal in the cleansing process of the units.
Water functions under three motives: public in display on the walkways; private in the domestic setting of the bathroom; and spiritual in the presence of still water in the demo testing area.
Public
The flow of drain water becomes a public display integrated into the facade, floor level and through the air. The emphasis on the front entrance is emblematic of the flowing water framework over the public walkway.
Private
The private function and flow of water in the domestic is primarily through the bathroom. The sight and sound of water flow within pipework become hidden and revealed forming a conversation between what is for show and not.
Spiritual
The intimate act of present water emanates contemplation within the actions of demolition and renovation. It presents a bare reflection of domestic consequences.