Modularity in spaces: learning from nature

                Normally when we design a space, say a dining room, with a height of 3 m or above, there’s always a whole lot of things that we ignore, or we are unaware of. In a typical room, have you ever thought of the space which is left unutilised, yet always in front of us? In a typical room of 3m height, the 1.2 m that is left vacant above us, what is the role of that space? How can such spaces be made more efficient? I always had this though in mind. And if this problem can be solved, or if this model can be made efficient then the same can also be applied to a whole city or on a much bigger scale.

                Nature teaches us a lot of things. Trees can be considered similar to buildings. They don’t move, but they provide for us. The trees are also really dynamic in a certain sense. In nature all the flora follows a special hierarchy.

In the image shown here, a typical plant hierarchy in terms of space occupancy is represented. Here some plants fill the spaces between the other plants. The floor between couple of trees is always filled in by grass or some other kind of plant life. The space above a grass or a small bush or plant is never left un-occupied. Bigger trees always cover up these vacancies and thus the voids are always filled by one plant or the other.

That means plants will never grow in the way shown here:

The space above a particular plant is not left dedicated to that plant and I always filled in by bigger plants or vice versa. This represents efficiency and to an extent it tells us how to make even architecture spaces follow modularity. Unlike this our mane made world I full of inefficiency.

Like in the image shown here, the area above a particular building is always left vacant, no matter how small or big the building is. If the buildings are to follow the nature’s model, the same would have looked completely different.. May the inspiration for a better world, or a more efficient world could come from nature herself. I always looked in to nature for answers and the nature did always provide. A simple cob web or hummingbirds nest is the answer to this situation according to me. Let me show you an example:

This is demonstration of a spider web in the wild and here what I’m trying to show is way nature spins her fabric. The simple dwelling (in this case a spider web) uses the existing trees as pier or support columns and hangs or suspends the structure from there. This thus ensures that the area or the space in between is also rightly utilised.

If this is applied our architecture model then the above thing can be transformed to something like this:

               This might seem like a total blue sky ideation at this point, but I really feel this is the future and it’s not going to be long for this to become a reality. Of course feasibility issues and other technical and legal issues might strike you at first but, just for the time being let’s think beyond that. I believe this ain’t going to take much time now. Design should always break boundaries; design should think the unthinkable and take the path of glorious and sublime dreams without the constraints of human fear and prejudice.

                This is where the theory of diagonal growth comes to the picture, I would name in INFECTIONISM. People have visualised or predicted much kind of development plans for the future. Some say hour cities will grow more horizontally and horizontal skyscrapers are the future, and then came the vertical growth predictions. Vertical cities and skyscraper and towers started filling the world, but it just doesn’t seem to hold much future. One of the major reasons is the huge investments and they are not feasible everywhere and where will you build once all the land is gone? The climatic and legal factors are also there. Construction and civil developments over water and thus contaminating or polluting them for ever and ever have also been part of the plans. Puncturing the globe and building inwards, space dwellings and what not. Well but I tell you for real what is going be the case with future cities. Once the cities will have more skyscrapers than they can possibly chew, then the cities will grow diagonally. Means the people will start fillings the voids in between the cities and the rules will all change for ever. For the first time instead of selling land, void space or simply plots of air will be on sale. Infectionism will be explained in detail in the coming posts. But all this is drawing inspirations from nature herself like I mentioned before.

                The next thing to learn from nature is her strategy for an open ended growth. It’s like the foundation is there by default for all the plants to grow (in this case fertile soil), except the hot and cold deserts. Now this actually means a plant can grow anywhere and everywhere if conditions are right. This also tells us about the ambiguity and predictability and the invisible grid in the nature that holds the answer to all the questions man can ever raise. We will discuss this in detail in the future, but for now let me tell you, the open ended growth can also be implemented in buildings if the proper sense of modularity is incorporated. Imagine, buildings that can grow vertically, and diagonally and in any other direction it may wish to, depending upon the demand and need. To cut brief, the idea is to grow denser and efficiently with opportunities for the generations to come.

                Another major thing is to improve the life of architecture, and here I’m not talking about prolonging the life of all the buildings unnecessarily. The character of the building and its efficiency and all other factors should evolve and improve according to the requirements of the time. Now what generally happens is an architect or more aptly a sculptor sculpt his so called building and users and all the other things just adapt to it. Should it be left like that? Is this how architecture is supposed to work? The arrogance and selfishness of a sculptor should be given so much attention and care? I don’t think so. When we look at trees, if you have noticed while you cut a tree trunk in to sections, there you will come across annual rings. With every growing year the tree itself will have a lot of changes not often noted by people and then there is an internal and more specific change, which is the addition of annual rings. This is a very interesting feature and that can be adapted in to architecture. Wonder how? Let me tell you something, the place I’m from used to be a good old fashioned village until very recent, and something I have seen or noticed around here is the way poor people around here built there houses. These houses start with a single or a couple of rooms at the centre, mostly a kitchen and a common room that could be transformed to a bedroom or any other room at will. Then in course of time whenever they find the money and chance to expand, they expand this nano house to become a full fledge house with all the room required but yet, the powder room won’t find a place inside and will be housed in a separate room somewhere outside. My own parental house was built this way, at least that’s what my dad told me. Now, the thing I’m referring to here is the annual ring model of the trees is unknowingly inherited in our architecture from the time in history and is something which we completely failed to notice. Well this to me looks like the most efficient way of open ended planning. This will ensure efficiency like never before.

                It’s a general tendency in Kerala, India people built there houses so big for no obvious reason and would answer if asked that it’s for the future convenience of theirs kids and their kid’s kids. Well what such idiots fail to notice is that their overly worked upon houses will be some 35 years old by the time the younger generation will be at age to know anything about this out-dated building. And honestly speaking, with the kind of cheap and substandard construction in this place, no building will stand for more than 25years even with extensive renovations and maintenance. It just seems people are so stupid to do such things. A modular approach like I mentioned in earlier posts is the answer. A building that can add on new layers or rooms as per requirements; something that will never hesitate to update or grow. The future generations or the future users just got to change the components (wall panels, floor and roof panels, wire harness or utility grid etc.) which will all be modular thus easy to replace. This house or the building then will be as good as new. This is also how you can prevent a building from aging, by following an idea that will never wither.  A house is a machine to live in, said Le Corbusier more than 80 years ago, apart from endurance, was he looking at the efficiency of the spaces and design itself, not sure. But when I look at machines, what I find is efficiency of the model and purpose associated with each and everything inside. I haven’t seen a machine with things in it that doesn’t do anything and the space is efficiently planned inside with no voids. But architecture as we know is just so loosely planned and executed. Almost everything we see around is pure shit. The space wastage is sometimes intentional and mostly not noticed or not understood. Evolution of architecture is long due and I’m sure of the path it is going to take.

Used good market for architecture:

Something we have seen recently is the obvious and tremendous increase in interest for used the products. It will be right to say that the used good market is booming these days, at least in the case of countries like India. Sites like quikr, olx and other automobile resale sites give enough and more evidences to suggest that. Well I can see the world has picked up these clues and evolved or moved accordingly. But somehow, the common man’s biggest investment, i.e. construction and real-estate seem to have missed these points completely. Like I’ve been saying, if modular architecture is realized in its true sense, with efficiency, precision and durability of an automobile cabin, then it is very much possible to find a resale for these units too. May be the less fortunate or the people who wouldn't want to invest too much on houses might get to buy and use the used ones.

Sometimes the term sustainable and efficient is used very liberally in the architecture world, were on one side people prefer to ignore the enormous energy and space wastage that has become synonym with modern day architecture. While our architects get too busy in creating new and elaborate sculptural wonders by the name of architecture, we are losing much more than what we could have ever imagined. In the process of an extension, renovation, modification or demolition of a structure to make way for new ones, nobody seems to give a damn about the embodied energy associated with the old one. How can we achieve efficiency without accounting for the embodied energy wastage? Demolishing something, or knocking down a building is easy, finding new use for the old ones and not wasting it is the difficult part. May be all of us are getting too busy, or lazy or rather selfish. When we look at the nature’s way of knocking things down, she always make sure that whatever came down will always nurture and nourishes the existing ones. Why can’t we follow this model, and make sure that the part of an old building is reused in another building or becomes the part of a new one. This is possible only if they are designed in such a way. This is where the importance of modularity explained before comes in to application. For example: Imagine if a 20 storey building when demolished can give rise to 20 individual houses. The panel and the frame work are reused to bring about those houses.

Modularity in architecture and the relevance:

Let me share an experience with you, which I encountered recently. I had to extent my house to add a bedroom and a couple of powder rooms. That reminded me literally how out-dated and old is our construction and building design techniques. Making dwellings of all kind has always been there since the origin of mankind, but how old the first man made dwelling, no one knows for sure. And even if we know it, it doesn't make any difference now. Because although everything evolved in course of time, the human dwelling and its design and construction characteristics have not changed much except for the sheer size of the thing. The evolution in terms of material might have reached somewhere, but the technique is jeopardizing all the developments and innovation. It’s the system which has got to change, the way we look at buildings and architecture in general has to change. Knocking down walls, building new ones, enormous time and money wastage, the dust and the delay and in the end the overall stability is also at stake, just what happened with my house. Well why can’t we move on. Imagine if you could just re-arrange or re-configure a couple of panels and the building just grows without even leaving any correction or modification marks.

Also while dealing with the wiring and plumbing lines, it was all a mess and the major part is the labour spent on it. 65% of what I spent was just the labour charge. I was wondering if the buildings had the precision and standardization of an automobile, the time and money that I could save would have been immense. People do talk a lot about sustainability and efficiency, but in the case of a renovation or an extension, what about the energy, material and the time getting wasted? And what about the initial effort and energy wasted on the structure in the first place? If industrial precision and standardization can be incorporated, then it is also possible to make building units with integrated solar panel and thus making the future green and secured. It can also be enforced as a law and since the production and use will be more, amount spent on the manufacture could also be reduced.

Learning from cars:

               Cars are the product of industrial revolution. It seems the world just learned something all of a sudden, and grew up accordingly. Around 1779 the first steam powered road going vehicle was developed. More than a 100years later the diesel engine was developed and then came the automobile almost similar, but yet different to the automobiles we know of today. Initially the development was slow as you can see, but in the later stages inventions and developments started happening faster and cars have now become the face of human invention and sophistication. But somewhere I still believe car design and the industry has not moved an inch in terms of real inventions. Cars when invented were just cabins on wheel and they still are, although the cabin design has shown physical refinements and updations with time. Cars that can take you anywhere and everywhere and that can literally save your time and energy is still an unrealised dream. Well, let me not get carried away, the topic here is what is that cars have got to teach us, just because they are comparatively more sophisticated than architecture.

             

              Since my bachelors, I have been thinking like any other architecture student with passion, that architecture is the mother of all arts. But now I am starting to question that blind conviction. Well architecture might be the father for real, but he is a very conventional and very orthodox father for sure. And he is so reluctant to learn or change, architecture doesn’t seem to learn anything from his kids and descendants. An automobile cabin is designed in panels like: bonnets, tail gate, fenders, doors etc. if one part gets damaged, just that single panel and your vehicle as good as new. Now I wouldn’t say it’s a completely flawless system, but yes this is something which we can start working with.

Now the issue with cars are the maintenance and most of it owes to the moving part inside, and since that is not the case with architecture, that won’t happen. The panelling idea could be implemented here with a frame work of columns and beams which will just act like the chassis of a vehicle. Like the wiring harness of a vehicle, the wiring and plumbing harness could be preinstalled with the chassis. This will ensure standardisation and create quality and durability. The wiring and service line hence would run longer too. Even though a vehicle’s cabin despite of all its specialities ages. And that is something unacceptable in case of a building, at least not at the same rate as a vehicle do. Well, let’s worry about all that later. All I’m trying to say here, it’s high time for us to think differently.

             

             To sum up, what I mean to say is with world-class industrial grade, mass manufactured column and beam frame work and interchangeable modular panels, we can develop an architectural wonder which will be as sophisticated and advanced as an automobile and durable and long-lasting as the earth herself!!

Affordable mass production: mass production technique for EWS housing:

        Everyone these days talk about affordable houses and caring for the poor, but the result is always pitiful. Sometimes I feel that it has become a cliché and the term affordable is used very liberally. Just like how food and shelter is just not the only necessity of human kind, a cheap shack is not the only requirement for the poor. I’m quite sure that our designers are forgetting the “empathy” part involved in design when it comes to affordable houses!

Various mass production techniques for rural housing

The initial study and the necessary information required to carry out the project was provided by the affordable housing project team, shenoy innovation studio, IDC,IITB. On the basis of these information and case studies, the problems and the possibilities were identified. A lot of work has already been done in this direction and the team already had collected a lot of data in this direction. Enough emphasis was given to the parallel development and innovations happening in other parts of the country and outside. Even though money constraints and affordability was major concern, the end emphasis was always on providing a good standard of living and a durable yet affordable shelter.

This started off when I was given a repeat for my Project 1, which was the professional training project during my masters. I badly needed a topic and I couldn’t leave the campus at that point, that is when I realised that IDC innovation studio is working on affordable housing and I could work with them as a trainee on the same project. Well but the affordable housing is done by a lot of people and places, and the particular project at IDC was no different and it didn’t interest me. So I decided to think in a different direction, incorporating the idea of modularity in to cheap and affordable houses to mass produce such houses. If mass production is carried out for various house components then standardisation of such projects will be easier and efficient. This what led to selection of this title and I worked on this project for 30 days. The idea is to use recyclable materials, with high technology for mass producing the components or parts required for putting up a low cost rural house. During this project I have also taken in to consideration the development and experiments that are taking place in places like IIT Madras. The GFRG panels IIT madras came up with also is a very promising material for future. The fly ash bricks and other alternatives of ash with gypsum also is a very innovative material.

Even though during the course of this project, which was a brief period of course, the idea was in to look in all possible components and domains that is related to rural housing. Even though this could only briefly address the issue and possibilities, on a superficial level of course, the main idea was to address the huge possibilities and potential in the field. The work shown here is not detailed to the full extend, nor is it tested in this regard. The idea was to explore the options and since the time was also limited, the work has to be seen as exploratory and conceptual and not final.

Here each element has been considered differently and detailed differently. Various possibilities in terms of materials, design and installation details has been considered and then is applied to a residential template to understand the feasibility and overall compatibility with the topological language. Manufacturing methods and the material library is not explored to the full extent as that would take time and in the meanwhile, emphasis was on to touch upon all the possible components and option.

The idea here was, a template house or a sample house was setup and its each and every structural elements and basic utilitarian components were identified based on virtual model. These elements were visualised and the installation method was looked upon by doing role plays and the number options were considered using brain storming technique. A single unit or dwelling was further divided in to various components, namely; footing, foundation, roofing, wall, storage, joinery etc. based on this. General arrangement pattern of spaces and options for further growth was also considered and tested upon using cad models.

Apart from affordability, the factors like durability, easy installation and easy maintenance and replacement is also given priority here. The design is also done in such a way that local material and local labour could be employed in this process. New technology and materials can give us more flexibilities and options.

Special and new materials like ACC special wet joining cements are also to be used in this. Geo textiles can also be used, in foundation and wall panels, and techniques like compression bonding has to be addressed too. These might not always be cheap if the new technologies are used. But it’s going be efficient, durable and quality controlled, and this would above all ensures, mass production techniques can be successfully used in housing, to an extent, in which it has never been used before. Tata bluescope steel also has variety of options and products that can suit the context.

Geotextiles are permeable fabrics which, when used in association with soil, have the ability to separate, filter, reinforce, protect, or drain. Typically made from polypropylene or polyester, geotextile fabrics come in three basic forms: woven (looks like mail bag sacking), needle punched (looks like felt), or heat bonded (looks like ironed felt). Geotextile composites have been introduced and products such as geogrids and meshes have been developed. Overall, these materials are referred to as geosynthetics and each configuration—-geonets, geogrids and others—-can yield benefits in geotechnical and environmental engineering design.

Introduction

Affordable housing has always been a dream for an average Indian. A demand which was never properly met. The business and the opportunity this field or demand offer designers like us, is a huge chance to make a difference. A consumer community that will never go dry. The field is a near virgin in terms of good design and has enormous opportunities for the designer. Another important factor would be the poor state of already existing affordable houses and inefficiency of its design.

This is a field for which every designer must feel responsible for and this project is about some design ideas which might fall in to this category and can come handy for further development in the field. Even though the design are not detailed out to the pin, they holds good for a concept level and sincere effort has been put to make it near flawless at least in terms of design. This here is an effort to understand the issues involved in the present approach and design and to come up with new concepts for affordable rural houses along with mass production as a main constrain. Here a template model is considered and based on which individual components involved in a rural dwelling is identified and analysed and designed, keeping in mind the requirements of Indian rural community.

Design brief

To apply the technique of mass production in rural housing to bring about affordable, cheap and yet durable and aesthetically strong houses for the needy, that can be put out in minimum time and can be maintained and installed and repaired by local labour, which can also project vernacular architectural nature of an area.

Scope of the project

The project has enormous scope in terms of providing affordable housing for rural India, especially because of the condition of such projects in the country. Apart from that this approach and design can also come in handy were temporary shelter or calamity relief shelters are required. The process of fast installation can also be utilised in case of setting up of resorts etc.

Limitation

Major limitation here is the lack of availability of such constructions, which might fall in this domain. Also the time limitation makes it difficult to visit places or projects which are located in far apart places

Affordable housing in India

The housing shortage in India is enormous. 28 million homes are projected to be required by 2014 to meet existing housing need, and 99% of these homes are needed by households in the economically weaker sections (EWS) and lower income group (LIG)1. India is witnessing increasing levels of urban population. Nearly 28% of the country’s population lives in cities and urban areas -double the level of urbanization at the time of Independence in 1947, and is expected to rise to 40% by 2020.

Poverty, the sheer scale of population growth and the huge rates of urbanisation as people move from the countryside into the cities will add to the housing shortages. Faced with the prospect of housing that the poor cannot either afford or access in formal housing markets, millions of households around the world turn instead to the ‘informal’ sector, resulting in slums having become an inevitable part of the Indian metropolis landscape.

 Given the magnitude of the housing shortage and budgetary constraints of both the central and state Governments, it is clear that public sector efforts will not suffice in fulfilling the housing demand.

(Source: http://www.ricssbe.org)

Hence the need here is not only an affordable or low cost dwelling solution, but a faster and easily buildable one too. This insight would change the approach towards affordable housing for once and for ever. Is should also be user centred, cost effective and above all, mass producible. The approach will also have a major future in catering a yet bigger community of temporary shelter needs too. Based on these the concepts here are developed so that, it is not only cheap but also faster at installation.

                Each and every components that would make up the structure of a dwelling, here is considered separately keeping in mind its flexibility towards mass production. And here the focus is more on standard, good quality and durable, low cost housing solution which can only be guaranteed my mass production technique.

Building components

There has already been some local, yet big innovation happening in the field. This is an effort to look at what is already happening the market and how good are they, at tackling the general housing problems. Another reason behind doing this is to understand, what are the elements that goes in to a rural house and the general utilitarian areas and the basic furniture involved.

Initial ideations :Ideas explored here are based on the initial ideas that came to my mind and are not based on detailed study or references.

The idea here was to understand the use of interior and exterior spaces in Indian context, and the basic structural and aesthetic character.

 ideas

Column or pillar ideas:Interlock able “X” shaped columns and interlock able cross shaped pillars and various combinations possible with those components are shown here.

Images shown here explain how an “X” shaped column can be stacked over one another and the main images shows, how concealed duct and shading devices can be incorporated in to the unit.

Footing and foundation:Images here explains various explorations on footing to cater faster and stable footing needs. The image on the left is a normal column footing and the area acquired by it and reinforcement required for it, is enormous compared to this new option.

For better stability and grip, the same footing explained before can be further modified like these.

                       

In case of poles and fast structural system setup, all you need a solid modular precast foundation. The pole then can be inserted in to the receivers. The idea is explained here with the casting shutters. The precast footing has to be inserted in to a trench and the poles can be inserted. And if it is cast-in-situ, then you can cast it inside the trench.

                        

Images here shows easy joint footing options and how introduction or tie beam reduces the stress on individual footing.

Foundation:Images here shows cheap and effective foundation solution to prevent dampness and to provide stability in loose soil conditions.

Walls and partitions:

1.Incoperating used plastic bottles or pet bottles in to clay or thatched walls to provide lighting

2.Transportable masonry wall solution.

Walls and partitions:This is modification on existing technique to replace it with fiber wall panels. This eliminates the need of plastering and reinforcing the walls. The construction can also happen much faster.

Walls and partitions:This is a solution were clay and framed concrete structure can be merged. The second idea is to approach the wall by using same template every were.

Using a frame work of concrete as template, we can add any filling material to give a vernacular touch to the buildings. Shown here are the various configurations possible in this.

Storage cum joinery panels:This idea is to explain how can a simple, transportable shelf unit can be open up to form a wall or window, door and storage unit.

Roofing:Mansard roofing has the advantage of having an intermediate sitting position which can be used to provide a grip over the rafters. It can also be modified with integrated truss works as shown here.

Truss integrated roofing panels seems a promising idea since it can be transported and assembled at site easily. This can also be locked together and extended as per required.

Normal thatched roofing is a promising idea, if they can be made in to panels with water proof joints. Here it can also be industrially processed and made in to panels.

Concrete framed slabs with hard filling material can also be a viable solution for flat roofs. It can also be replaced by cheap sandwich panels of various materials.

General typology:Even if the walls and the partition are to be thatched initially because of financial reasons, they can still do it with the same frame work.

When the finance is available the person can replace those thatched outer walls with concrete slabs and still leave the inner partitions thatched. As the strength is not a major issue in that case, it can still do.

The same components and frame work can be maintained and still account for more space and flexibility with a dynamic wall. The open able wall can account for future extensions.

The typical unit can be extended as in the image here, and can still stay a unified unit. This shows that the designs can be developed in such a way that they can account for future extensions, and still not compromising the aesthetics.

The idea is to replicate the vernacular architecture of an area, while sticking to the panel/modular concept. The image on the right shows the detail of how units are locked together without using a wet/weld joint.

The typical unit with all its details is shown here. The kind of foundation and the joinery details are shown here. All the components involved in this units are shown exploded here.

Shown here is a different unit with all the typical requirement with modular external toilet as an added feature.

This module can also be extended like the unit explained before. The exploded view on the side defines the various components involved in it.

Space management:The idea here is to utilize the normally unutilized areas and negative spaces for storage. This will eliminate the requirement of lateral storage spaces and will also provide thermal insulation.

Toilet based units:Toilet based units are very useful when time constrain is more and the requirement is to setup a decent low cost residence in minimum time. This is very suitable in case of calamity relief situation. It is also good for emergency camping and rural housing. This can eliminate the requirement any skilled labour at all, in a rural context. This approach will only require and outer wall and roofing, the rest is offered by a single open able unit.

Conclusion

The approach has proved that the possibility and design opportunity that this domain can offer to designers is enormous and it has to be dealt with passion and responsibility. It is also the call of time to come up with good and durable solutions in this field as the demand is not even half met. The situation and the demand is going to get swollen up and the condition is getting worsen with the present system and design.

The technology and the materials are already there, all what is needed is good design. With better understand and smart solution, this need can be catered properly and will ensure that the demand is met. These projects are not to be approach as architectural works, rather this is product design problem, and it has to be dealt as products. Industrial level mass production technique is inevitable if this demand is to be met. This ia a small approach, and the designs explored here are superficial and not detailed out properly. But all it did is, proving a point that, material and technology alone can’t account for these problems. Good designs and empathy for the user is what is missing. 

Perfection:

             When can you possibly say that architecture has achieved perfection? Architecture is a constantly evolving yet consistently updated art, or is it just a wrong notion. Has architecture evolved at all? Or is it still the same old wine in a new bottle? Some time I feel, architecture has not even taken a single step, haven’t moved an inch from where it has all started. The whole world has moved ahead; feel like architecture is the only thing that is dragging everything back. It’s just so reluctant to change or is it just that the designers have really failed to see the future? Architecture of present is just the illusion of the future, and the reality of future is just beyond its reach. Architecture is bearing a cladding of future on the reality of the past.  It’s been selling lies to the world all this while, and today more than ever… it has lost all its soul. Sometime I see buildings with soul but no brains. Some time it is too much brain and no heart.
                When I see design the trends of these days, I feel architecture is truly out-dated. It can’t hold on to its lies for ever. Time has come, for us to redefine architecture. Architecture and architects have followed a number of “isms” and design philosophies throughout the course of history. Well one thing that always caught my curiosity is, architecture has always followed the philosophies or trends that is practised and evolved through art or some other field. Art and architecture has really become inseparable. Should it really be always like that, or can there be a different approach? Architecture like art has become a reflection of lavishness of the rich and fortunate. Architecture yes, should always be work or the professional experienced and enjoyed by the user, and not just maintained by them.
                Following are some of the features and character that I believe would change architecture for ever. This is not the future of architecture I’m talking about, but is just the next step in architecture:
·         Total flexibility, in terms of design and use·         Modularity·         Freedom of expansion, extension and modulation without physically damaging or trimming the initial one.·         Standardisation·         Design for the present, keeping the future in mind·         Mass producible·         Any part can be replaced or changed when and as required without causing any ripple in the current form.·         Something that doesn’t age.·         Sophistication in every sense·         Globalised and contemporary·         Material standard and working efficiency of an automobile.