MASHA ALLAH

Concept :
Symbiosis
Interaction between two different organisms living in close physical association, typically to the advantage of
both.
A mutually beneficial relationship between different people or groups.

கூட்டு வாழ் வு in Tamil

Origin

 Close interaction
 Live and practice together
 All the organisms survive with this process
 A kind of intelligent life making
 Both the organisms benefit and thrive.

Hermit crabs and sea anemones:

 share an unusual and intimate underwater relationship.
 Young hermit crabs will often pick up a young sea anemone to attach to their shell and they become
partners for life. They even grow at roughly the same rate.
 When hermit crabs outgrow their shell, they often take the sea anemone with them to the new one.
Some sea anemones have gone so far as to cover most of the surface of the hermit crab’s shell so
when the crab eventually outgrows the shell, he doesn’t have to move.
 The relationship of the hermit crab and sea anemone serves both a multitude of purposes.
 They live in harmony together. It’s a stable connection that sidesteps the typical prey and predator
relationship found in nature.
 The type of symbiosis they engage in is called commensalism. Commensalism means one organism
benefits and the other organism isn’t harmed by the partnership. Neither the hermit crab nor the sea
anemone is negatively affected by their symbiotic and commensalistic relationship.

Protection:
 The hermit crab gains protection from predators by its relationship with the sea anemone.
 Scientists aren’t certain if the hermit crab uses a mechanical or chemical means to communicate a
potential threat to the anemone, but the anemone responds to the alert just the same.
 The sea anemone spreads out long stinging threads over the hermit crab like a bright pink curtain.
The anemone also extends its stinging tentacles out as additional protection. A hermit crab is less
likely to be eaten by a larger predator fish if he has an anemone on board.

Food :

 So what does the sea anemone get in return for protecting the hermit crab? Since the sea anemone
will eat just about anything in the sea, it gets to eat whatever titbits the hermit crab leaves behind.
 The hermit crab does the work of capturing dinner and the sea anemone cleans up the leftovers. It’s
a steady food supply for the sea anemone.
Mobility:
Sea anemones move very little, if at all. An added benefit of hitching a ride on a hermit crab’s
shell is getting exposed to a much larger area to forage for food.
 While the hermit crab is trolling around on the sea floor, the anemone can make use of the time
traveling on his mobile home to trap and collect plankton and small fish.

Characteristic features :
 Size and scale matters – Both the species should be able to bear the capacity of both.
 Since both the survivors depend on each other, the scale / pace has to be average of
both ( neither of it dominating or being submissive )
 Beneficial from both the sides of the survivors to each other.
 The relationship continues and ends till the life on the survivors.

How will this concept impact my space ?

Symbiotic relationship in all aspects.

Spatial Requirements:

1) Co-operative society and designing area :

TOTAL AREA = (4039 SQ.M)
NO OF WORKING HEADS = 50 nos

i) Temple tank and space for festivals along the temple tank with Ghats - 645 sq.m
Seating area - 177 sq.m
Centre Thepakulam with Mandapam depicting Kaikolar community

ii) Open Looming area - 25 looms ( Occupants – 50) - 450 sq.m

( Loom area = (3 x 3 )m
Pit size (2 x 2) m
Storage area for Thread bundles while weaving
Niches for storage of weaver’s glasses, money, purse, lunch box.
Small attached stand for placing shuttles and pirns.
Hangers for hanging their shirts.

WHAT WILL I DO FOR MOSQUITOES ?

iii) Storage for materials – 40 sq.m

1 saree = 20 bundles of threads
1 bundle = (0.3 x 0.1)m
Shuttle storage
Shuttle size = (0.3 x 0.05 )m
Malka sticks = Bamboo sticks storage ( used for dyeing) ( 5 sticks used for one saree)
Length of the stick = 1.2 m in length
Bobbin storage
Bobbin size = 0.145 in length x 0.03 m radius
Pirns = to fit into the shuttles ( 0.1 m in length x 0.0125 m in radius) – Similar to neils

iv) Spinning Area: 40 sq.m

Wheel size = (1 x 0.5) m

v) Reel used for threading :

Reel size =( 0.9 x 0.3 x 1.5 )m

vi) Warping area : 50 sq.m

Vertical warping = Diameter is 0.3 m
Height = (0.6 to 1 )m
vii) Relaxing space/ dining space for weavers 30 sq.m

Various positions that will be followed

viii) Admin office : 20 sq.m

Locker + storage area
Seating area with desk
Display area for saree folding and counting and parceling with seating space

ix) Public Toilets – 20 sq.m

Gents toilet : 2 IC , 3 urinals , 1 wash basin
Ladies Toilet : 3 IC, 1 Wash basin
Physically Challenged toilet – 1
Cleaning area

x) Designing space for designers + Designer’s personal space 100 sq.m

The area will induce the inspirations taken up for the designs in weaving and replicate it in
architecture too.
The space should also induce certain kind of creative thinking process that is inspired and
delivered into the craft.
A small dorm attached to it in case of designer staying and working of a day or two. ( refer
vinu daniel’s project for small home)

Designing space with desk

 Storage and display area with samples
Hangers for hanging the sample sarees
Punch holes area ( Moulds for saree design)
Storage area ( punch sheets)
Color combination display area
Mezzanine area (Personal dorm)
Meeting area with clients overlooking samples and gallery area
Photo wall (Memories of weaving )
Small Kitchenette

xi) Workshop space – 100 sq.m

A kind of community space where people sit at various level (individual entity)
Small podium
Space should depict the stories of weavers ( architecture representing it)
Direct platform from weavers to public
Informal Seating spaces for both teacher and the weaver
A small book stand to introduce the public to this craft
Display stand ( portable or transformable)
Small spinning box = (0.6 x 0.3)m
Storage area equipment ( mats, spinning box, display stands etc)
2) Heritage houses and Co-operative areas :
i) Gallery of Real Madras Hand Kerchief
Display area for arts, craft , photographs

ii) Adaptive reuse of old house – Retrofitting it

First courtyard – gallery
Second courtyard – weavers

iii) Meeting areas / community space for weavers

Mats storage area

iv) Heritage walk followed into the co-operative spaces

Walk will be in the open area ( closed areas will be used in case of storage for the temple)

v) Extraction of fibers - 45 sq.m

The fiber is washed, dried in shady region. It is then extracted using thick knife but a blunt
one to prevent the fibre from cuts and tears.

It is then soaked in water and treated with starch and tamarind mix.

In certain cases, Neem and Tulsi tree extract is added (in case of fiber having larger starch
content)Raw material extraction: Requires area for people to sit, work, on fibres.
Preparation of Natural Fibre

Fibre Extraction area with washing zone

vi) Drying area = 60 sq.m

vii) Starch deposit area = 30 sq.m
viii) Washing and cleaning area = 62 sq.m

ix) Disposal of waste fibres

Barriers to prevent smell
 Barriers to prevent mosquitoes etc.

x) Dining / recreational area - 137 sq.m

Same as above

xi) Dyeing area - 146 sq.m

Dye storage ( boxes of 50 to 100)
Dye making area with provision of water
Dye bath tanks
Boiling area
Hydro Extractors ( water removing machines)

xii) Bags and mat weaving area – 334 sq.m - in combination to sale area
With Back rest and lighting is must
They sit in the position with stretched legs
xiii) Lanterns weaving area

xiv) Stitching area

xv) Display and sale area

Gallery
Display area
Storage and Lockers

xvi) Admin area - 40 sq.m

Locker + storage area
Seating area with desk
Display area with packing crafts with seating space

Area for outsiders to sit and view the making of the mats, bags
Route map for tourists. – 125 sq.m

xvii) Souvenir shop – 60 sq.m

3) Public Square : Capacity 200 people

i) Transformable market spaces ( During once a week)
Work sheds
Display area

ii) Paavu making area (23 m in length and 1.2 m in breadth)

iii) Open recreational spaces / Maidan

To maintain the street character, where people play etc

iv) Temporary stalls and shops

v) Parking area ( limited)

4) Heritage Walk / To promote walkability and retain the character of the village core :
Road width 8m to 9m

i) Pedestrian design – Streets of Mettu street , Sanathi Street , Alleys (2), lanes leading to the
site, Pammal Main road

ii) Regulation of Traffic

iii) To minimize urban sprawl and regulate the growth factor
 iv) To maintain the street character
v) To manage parking facilities
vi) Paavu making time 6:00 am to 8:00 am

During Market days, the part of Sanathi street can become an area for parking.
On the other occasions, without market spaces, the maidan will become a part of parking space with limited
parking in nos.
There will also be provision of parking space, in the new neighborhood in Mettu street.

5) Alley : ( 50 people)
i) Gallery of handloom
ii) Café
iii) Awareness about native cotton species
iv) Small Pantry and Service area
Kitchen space
Disposable area
Washing area
v) Seating area and recreational space
vi) Walkthrough the gallery

6) Co-operative space :
i) Adaptive reuse of existing structure
ii) Yarning area
iii) Spinning area
iv) Looming area
v) Recreational area/ Dining area

7) Work sheds with Residential units ( 50 in nos) :

Typology of houses: Weaving area + Residential unit ( 50 families)
Processing, Dyeing and preparation process (work shed + recreation space) [50 families]

i) Common foyer space/ community space inviting the public for the entire community
ii) Courtyards
iii) Thinai
iv) 2 bedroom
v) Looming area
vi) Kitchen and service area
vii) Storage for raw materials
viii) Co-operative work space ( 2 nos)

8) Open working space :

i) Dyeing area
ii) Starching area
iii) Spinning area
iv) Yarning area
v) Drying area
vi) Spinning, yarning , Looming , Street sizing
vii) Jute plant used as a tool that is required for Bobbin winding
viii) Warping and Beaming
A place for drying the threads and also accessibility of materials used in this process.
Sizing and preparation of yarns – from rice starch, tamarind water which is been taken from
every household in the street makes it an activity where the entire street participates in
making of the craft.
Winding :
Warp : After which the yarn prepared is wound onto pirn like jute hollow stick for easy
bobbin winding.
Weft : The weft is prepared by winding it using pirn on a hank using a winding wheel.

Drumming the warp : The bobbins are attached and stacked vertically on a stand called
creel, and the individual threads are wound on a cylinder attached and drawn to a straight
line for a length of the saree / or cloth to be woven.
The drum is rotated manually or is machined or pedaled.
 The process of transferring the warp sheet to warp beam for looming is done in the next
stage and is called beaming.

Drafting and denting is done – to check in for the alignment of warps which is mounted on a
shaft and is fixed on a certain height. ( eye level)

Next stage is weaving. While weaving, the weft is designed to give extra patterns on to the
saree or cloth woven. It is often mistaken to be embroidery.
Preparation of raw materials for weaving (for co-operative spaces)
i) Store for Yarn

ii) Dye house

The dyes are usually stored underground and mixed manually ( large earthen pots are buried
into the ground and is stored in for dyeing vat).
After the process of fermentation, it is then transferred to a larger bowl through passages
and then used little by little for dyeing. The cloth is dipped in the dye for few minutes and is
put to shady dry process.
More oxygen and ventilated the cloth will drying, more the colour and texture will be
present in the fibre.
A stick is used in for mixing the mixture and is usually covered with mats / jute vessels.
Two types of dyeing process : Threads and fibre dyeing
Cloth dyeing ( in this case it require the stone setup for dyeing the cloth and allowing it to
dye).
 Bamboo sticks that is used for dying
iii) Starching area
iv) Wrapping area
v) Winding area
vi) Weaving and looming
vii)
 ix) Fair/ Exhibition
x) Finished Goods storage area
xi) Pattern card making area

9) Multipurpose hall/community hall

10) Street Character of the community:

i) Alleys and roads
The same street alleys and human settlement pattern that induces weaving into the urban fabric.
Most of the houses require pit loom as the earthen pit, helps to keep the cotton moist that increases
the strength of the fibre. This thereby enhances the quality of the cloth woven.
The pits – capturing more space and it cannot be used after the use of loom. How can it be
transformable.
Will the streets, alleys, houses, spaces of the village core reflect the craft hidden inside?

ii) Promoting social cohesion

iii) Walkability
iv) Open and recreational zones
v) Separate area for parking and motorways

11) Small shops related to allied occupations of handloom :

i) Soap nuts / Acacia
ii) Organic store / clothing
iii) Tea and snack shops
iv) Groceries etc.

12) Vocational Training Centre/ Self-Exploratory learning space :

i) Learning space
ii) Library about the craft

How to do self-exploratory learning process :

 Learning is intangible in nature. It cannot be revealed as in the way how modernity does it to it.
 It is a self –exploration process in a day to day life time.
 Modern learning : Our cognitive understanding has become words, phrases.
 In real life , the real learning takes place through senses – Experiential learning – the pathway to
learning process
 We have covered up the world and through books and other things we try to look into the world.
 Fundamental shift : Books to Experience
 We are formed by continuous cognitive experiences around us. We are basically conditioned by the
elements around us.
 Learning is not what we know but what makes us and what we are.
 What we are is what we learn.
 The whole being is involved in transforming to the process of learning.
 Structure of language/ words = is the structure of man
 We have to deal with reality rather seeing it as images.
 Is learning and unlearning different? True learning is happening learning is happening, true unlearning
is happening, learning is happening.
 Engaging children now and then – Can than bring in interest or experiential knowledge?
 How is the child going to be involved completely in the craft?
  How do we learn a language ? Why is mother tongue alone special? Language is an art where not
only communicates but also thinks in that code. For me to think, I should know the language code in
which the images are transferred to the code I am familiar with.

 This familiarity comes with intangible learning. A process of experience that I get rather siting with a
book. As the learning happens stage by stage which cannot be structured and taught.

 Example : English Grammar becomes a nightmare for all the middle school kids. As the code is not
understandable.

We have not bothered to study grammar in our mother tongue not just asking any one work meaning
we have asked in for, but we understand it so thoroughly because it is a process of being and
experiencing it.
Who knows to talk properly, the second language learnt through this structured language.

 In Tamil we call it kai pakkuvam etc.

 Children are body constructed and we the so called educated are mind constructed through books,
reading, words, phrases etc. This is the main difference that we talk on about generation gap.

 Nature is subtle and has hardly level of brightness (very soothing) This is the blue print of our
sensibility too. So to be our Children’s. This kind of environment will kindle thoughts and will nurture
one’s learning process.

 Modern world : Experience is the outcome of learning. We forget what we learn and pass on to the
next stage.

 Reality : Learning is the outcome of Experience. But experience never goes out of it, from mind.

 Example : You go to a village, what you see – Poverty

That is what is drilled into them.
Perspective comes from reading, as we see that rural areas are very much towards poverty and lack the
standards of living. So that’s what we see.
 Example 2 : We have terms called sustainability, waste management etc. But when u go to a tribal
village, everything exists and there is nothing like waste.
People who learn by experience makes it a process that the Nature uses and the terminology that
Nature uses. There is no terminology as in like waste in Nature, the same with people who experience
and learn things from Nature.

Observed Nature of Children in Anakaputhur :

 Experience of the child about the village core is minimal.
 The child hardly knows about the activities of weaving – there seems to be a gap that needs
to be fulfilled.
 The youngsters ( 16years to 30 years ) could recall the engaging streets and memories of
their childhood that talks about the place, the craft, their occupational standards etc.
 Disconnection and a kind of hidden story is the status of craft to the Children.
 Children of weaver’s kind of know about the craft, but rather questions about the future
approach that the craft will have from the world.
 Change the view of this approach that world has on to the craft.
 Modernity cannot handle experience, but should not either dump it.
 A situation of freedom that the child can move freely and understand through its own inner
intelligence will experience and understand Nature and the craft. Small looms to practice
and be a part of the craft will engage the children more and involve them into the craft.
Services for the new community
Water supply and Waste disposal

Social and aesthetic impact of circulation:

1) The path system affects communications between people. It appears that one prime way to
encourage contacts between neighbors is to put them in common path way with which their
dwellings have frequent visual contact and upon their entrances visibly open.
2) Friendships and interactions are made along streets rather along the parks.