COMMUNITY PLUG-INS

Public Space Intervention

Artist // MEATS Students 2020 x NMIMS Balwant Sheth School of Architecture (Mumbai) 
Type // Workshop
Status // Completed
The Community Plug-ins workshop is a three week long collaborative program. During the first two weeks, the Mumbai team identified informal, organic, and self-managed collaborative logics among residents of the same neighborhood community in the city of Mumbai. In parallel, the Barcelona team explored spaces of opportunity in the Raval district where spaces promoting community life may be implemented to effectively improve social cohesion. Mumbai provided the programmatic exploration while Barcelona provided the socio-spatial framework.
The third week, both teams jointly worked on a 1:20 physical model of a site that epitomizes Raval's character, and use it as a test bed for micro-architectures that foster community-building. Given their prototypical condition, these solutions may be applied throughout the district, defining a new sense for the superblock model.
Deck of purpose-made cards, space cards on the left, action cards in the middle, reference cards on the right.
Side facing view of the game results in the physical model.
Close up of a section of the model from the outside.
Close up showing the details of the inside of the model made of balsa wood and a blue painted figure of a man.
Close up of an exterior addition to the physical model using balsa wood.
Overview of the community plug-ins in the model and how the connect with one another.
Close up of a section of the model from the outside.
Ground view perspective of the physical model facing a model of a neighboring building.
Students, MEATS: Alexa Nader, Assil Naji, Brentsen Solomon, Dalia Al-Akki, Eirini Sampani, Elena Caubet, Jad Karam, Jana Antoun, Joelle Nader, Juan Arizti, Kuan Yi Wu, Inés Fernández, Marta Borreguero, Mokshuda Narula, Montserrat Sevilla, Selen Kurt, Stephanie Ibrahim, Tanvi Gupta, Tiago Rosado, Tracy Jabbour, and Yunling Jin
Students, NMIMS: Dhruv Seth, Louis Kurian, Nishil Desai, Rupal Shah, Sajitha Varghese, and Sajol Kinariwala
Tutors: Atrey Chhaya, Bhavleen Kaur, Roger Paez, and Toni Montes

To read more about how play is used in design practices, click here; and scroll to sections 14-19 to read more about the workshop.
A group of students and tutors gathered around the model.