NIDians come up with models to renovate Calico Dome

AHMEDABAD: The Calico Dome, a rare structure, which collapsed in the 2001 earthquake, has inspired students of National Institute of Design (NID) to suggest ideas for renovating and rebuilding it. The students have taken up a hypothetical project for renovating the heritage site and will be giving a presentation to state coordinator for the National Mission on Monuments & Antiquities of the Archeological Survey of India (ASI), Debashish Nayak.
As a part of their academic curriculum called 'Design of Spaces', 13 final year students from the undergraduate programme of the Textiles Design department at NID, have done a study on the Calico Dome.The students have come up with various ideas on how the space should be developed so as to preserve its essence and significance as a heritage site as well as public place.
Suggesting a new kind of roof while renovating the dome, one of the students, Rohit Goyal has designed a roof made of numerous rhombus shaped panels which could be opened and closed to allow the passage of air and light. Goyal said, "When the various panels are opened, the ray of lights falling on the floor will give beautiful patterns changing with the changing position of the sun." Another student Surabhi Gangrade has designed the space of the dome to be partly separated from the nearby roads through a semi see-through wall of foliage that will circle around the dome. "The first thing I notice in the area was the absence of greenery," said Gangrade, who has suggested the space be used as a combination of public and commercial space in her design.
Apart from the aesthetics aspects of the space, the students have also incorporated suggestions on how the space should be used based on their research which included knowing the history of the place, mapping the space, current activities around the space, interaction with the local people and so on.
Another student, Swati Venkat, suggested that the space could be used as an eatery where local women can come and sell food which they have cooked at their homes. While, some have also suggested various ideas like converting the place into an interactive space where workshops are conducted along with the local artisans and visitors can buy their work. Some of the students have even gone focused on details in their designs for the space and designed the furniture and fixtures for the space with traditional elements.
The project which was guided by faculty of NID Aditi Ranjan and architect and visiting faculty at NID Kinny Soni had undergone a six-week long course. Ranjan said, "The course aims to sensitise students about the larger goals of design. The students were thus exposed to the contemporary concern of Ahmadabad's architectural heritage to learn how design can play a role in reviving the space and to redefine such places through social design to bring together people from various backgrounds.