Reediima Uppal

Reediima completed her B.Arch degree at the University of Bath in 2019. She has worked with several practices globally, including David Chipperfield Architects (London,2018), KSR Architects (London, 2018), SCDA Architects (Singapore, 2017), and Morphogenesis (New Delhi, 2015), ranging from master planning, resorts, and hotels, high-rise residences, commercial and institutional buildings.

Born and brought up in New Delhi and received architectural education in the United Kingdom, she is interested in the role cooperatives in India play to provide opportunities to women to organize themselves. In her first and second year at the Royal College of Art, she looked at how various groups of people in different cultures construct and inhabit structures. The projects explore the permanent and transient aspects of architecture.

The project responds to how women’s cooperatives in New Delhi, India, act as a form of resistance as they go against the existing social norms and help facilitate new ways of collectively living and working together. They work as anti-types as they are different from the original typologies of living and working together. The strategy and forms to sustain this way of living are taboo. The cooperatives are based on the concept of an alternative approach where the people live, learn, work, love, play together.

The majority of Delhi’s working class are daily wage earners and “migrant workers”. Most migrant workers in India are undocumented, work without contracts where they are paid a minimum daily wage. Women-led community kitchens provide food for them. They work in several modes, some cook in large kitchens and deliver across cities, others set up makeshift ones within populated neighborhoods, engaging community volunteers. People often pay what they can afford for such meals.

Distinctive, recognizable forms that allow for the collectivization of people are borrowed from the case studies of the Fatehpur Sikri and Tamil Nadu’s women collective and are juxtaposed with a layer of blurriness that creates a varying experience depending on the climate, humidity, and temperature.

As the boundaries of the building are determined by the volumetric light and spatial conditions, there are no walls, and it proposes a large space to live, play, share, and work with each other through methods of collaboration. As taken from the case studies, the members of the collective live together, the work is shared equally and all decisions are collectively made and the ground is a keyspace for all the activities to take place.

The humidity in the air and volumetric lighting create divisions spatially. The light is used to veil and mask, in turn creating varying degrees of exposure and permeability. The structure of the building itself facilitates and controls the conducting and misting of water.

Physically the space is completely free and open, and the divisions inside are phenomenon-based. Activities such as cooking, open-air tandoors, and bathing contribute to the volumetric light and mist. The layers of volumetric lighting, mist, and pipes are used to create an environment that improves the living condition of the inhabitants.

The Tamil Nadu Women’s Collective — The Tamil Nadu Women’s Collective is a group of Dalit farm women who neither own land nor are able to lease land on their own. They pull together and lease land collectively to grow food. Each Collective in a town has between five and 10 members, and the work is shared equally and all decisions are collectively made.

Matter in the Air — A series of drawing showing the existing environmental conditions on the site.

Environmental Condition Plan — Distinctive, regocnizable forms that allow for the collectivization of people are borrowed from the case studies of the Fatehpur sihri and tamil nadu’s women collective and are juxtaposed with a layer of blurriness that creates a varying experience depending on the climate, humidity and temperature. The environment is modified as a way to organise space.

Plan — As the boundaries of the building are determined by the volumetric light and spatial conditions, there are no walls, as it proposes a large space to live, play, share, and work with each other through methods of collaboration. As taken from the case studies, the members of the collective live together, the work is shared equally and all decisions are collectively made and the ground is a key space for all the activites to take place.

Catalogue of Activites — The pavilions and their activities are classified according to the lighting condition, air movement, relative humidity, air temperature, and ground conditions. Each space pavilion can cater to a number of activities depending on the time of the day.

Blurred Boundaries — Environmental conditions and volumetric light lead to the divisions of the space, which are constantly moving and chaning.

Building Emerged in Mist — The structure of the building itself facilitates and controls the conducting/misting of water as well as the source of light.

Fragment Section — A network of pipes connect the pavilions to each other and the pipes become columns and form the substructure for the canopy.

Connections — The project steps down to the river, and the pavilions, each individualistic in the spatial conditions that they create and cater for are connected through a system of walkways are pipes.

Collective Cooking Rituals — As the cooking takes place early in the morning, the area surrounding the courtyard is used more, and the light produced is due to the tandoors and the cooking

Collective Eating Rituals — The courtyard in the center of the pavilion acts as a collective eating space, whereas the space around it is the serving space. They come and sit together on the ground to eat food collectively. It is sunken down as it creates a distinction from the serving and cooking area, whilst still getting a view of it

Misting Devices — Through volumetric lighting and humidity, veil-like spaces, such as the jaalis (screens) in the Fatehpur Sikhri , are created. This veiling and light determine the changing boundaries of the space and create climatic qualities provide different environmental conditions without completely blocking the complex from the rest of the city.

Light Sources — The volumetric lighting shapes and form the space and is continuously changing due to the changing light source, from the sun in the day to light-producing activities, hence creating varying levels of permeability.

Reediima Uppal

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Royal College of Art