A DESIGN STUDY FOR A RESIDENTIAL FIELD IN LADAKH, INDIA

I want to show a design study for a high density  low-rise field based on the geography and related house typology of Ladakh, a province of Northern India sharing boundaries with Tibet, Pakistan, and China. 

The design study was done by Solomon Benjamin student at MIT at the time and presently at the faculty of the Humanities and Social Sciences Department of the Indian Institute of Technology Madras, in India.

The study as shown in the attached pdf document  is worth close scrutiny for its inspired and fully controlled way fo working:

The design process is subdivided in six phases; Different levels of intervention are distinguished allowing different parties to operate on their own level; There is a systemic variety of dwelling unit sizes by exchange of territory among initially same size units; A lower ‘fit-out’ level gives each unit the capacity of different distribution of functions as well as the possibility of change and adaptation over time; Local house typology is an inspiration but is not copied.

As such the study is a good example of the development of a high density environment within pre-determined principles of circulation and unit access. Apart from the specific local constraints that drive this example, the design approach as such is applicable to entirely different conditions.

John Habraken