Designing Unusual Buildings in Fall Studio – A Different Experience!

By Bhakti Shah

In Graduate Studio of Fall 2010, we worked on two projects. The first project was to design a house for Lady GAGA and the second one was to design a Crematorium and a Chapel for Bellefontaine Cemetery in St. Louis, Mo. Both of the projects were quite interesting for me with some challenges.

I am an international student from India. My social, cultural and educational background is different from the local students. I know it is somehow different for international students from other countries also. So I would like to share my experiences during designing both these projects.

A House for Lady GAGA – This project is different as its name suggests. The name ‘Lady GAGA’ is famous and in discussion with lot of controversies. She is well known in some other countries also. But, in certain way I was not familiar with her name, her type of music and her personality because I hardly listen to any American music. When first I came to know about this project, I was a bit confused, unhappy and I felt a bit disinterested. But, I then realized that in our profession we have to deal with different people, clients, building typologies, concepts etc. So, ultimately, we have to study the given project with its background, its components, users etc. Thus, I started taking an interest in the project. As it was a conceptual project, flexibility and freedom of imagination was given to us without any limits. Using the resources and information, I stretched my design ability and was able to propose an option for the Gaga House!

The second project was designing a Crematorium and Chapel for Bellefontaine Cemetery in St. Louis, Mo. This time I was even more nervous with the building typology. I had never imagined that I would have to work on such a design project. When I was in India, I was not at all familiar with these kinds of buildings. Rather, these buildings are not considered as places to visit often, unlike here in United States. When I first came to USA and saw many Cemeteries in and around the town and also came to know that people here often visit cemeteries, I was surprised. In India, these buildings are considered untouchable zones due to some religious background and customs. According to old customs & beliefs, females usually do not to go to these buildings during funerals. Activities related to cremation, burials, funeral and the related rituals and ceremonies are predominantly done by the male society. Also, in India, open-air cremation is usually preferred. For that, open grounds especially sites nearby the river in town/city are reserved. In earlier times these grounds were located outside the city/ town. But, these days, due to limitation of space, the crematoriums and burial sites are within the city limits.

I became more interested in the design after seeing different precedent studies, studying some philosophical background behind the facts of death, after life, body-soul relation, emotions associated, mourner’s physical and psychological needs, flow of activities and sequence of funerals/processions etc. Use of existing site, ambience creation, relation between buildings, use and effectiveness of light- shade - shadows, flow of emotions through the building and a few more important factors focused during the design process.

Ultimately, I was able to successfully complete my design after 7-8 weeks of efforts, inputs, guidance, and inspiration, a bit of frustration, touch of irritation, fun, enjoyment and satisfaction. I guess I should not use the word ‘complete’ – as someone said, ‘Designing never ends ‘, it gets revised and altered and imagined newly every time with some new ideas!

Now I can say that I am done with one design option and eagerly waiting for the long break to freshen up for upcoming challenges of Thesis in the coming semesters!