This project summarizes the Life Insurance Corporation housing development in Ahmedabad, India designed by architect Balkrishna Doshi in 1973. The development consists of 324 row houses arranged in duplex terraced units across 54 plots. There are three house typologies ranging from single bedroom to double bedroom units. The houses are designed to accommodate extended families and allow for flexibility over time. Shared courtyards and communal spaces encourage community and social interaction among residents.

1. HOUSING
AMAL DAYAL
FREDRICK STEPHEN RAJ.J
HARSHINI SUBRAMANI
LIKITHA RAJ

2. The woodside/
morphogenesis
ARCHITECT:- MANIT RASTOGI, SONALI
RASTOGI
LOCATION:- KASAULI, HIMACHAL PRADESH,
INDIA
CATEGORY:- HILLY ARCHITECTURE

3. MORPHOGENESIS
• Morphogenesis was started in 1996.
• According to them, Morphogenesis
essentially means ‘horizontal development of
firm and responds to nature.’

4. • ARCHITECTS:- MORPHOGENESIS
• LOCATION :- KASAULI, HIMACHAL
PRADESH, INDIA
• CATEGORY :- HOUSING
• LEAD ARCHITECTS :- MANIT RASTOGI,
SONALI RASTOGI
• AREA:- 125000.0 sq.ft (2.86arce)
• PROJECT YEAR:- 2016

5. • The Woodside is a low-density luxury residential mountain villa
development comprising of 37 villas built on a 12-acre site in
the picturesque environs of Kasauli, India.
• Kasauli falls in an interesting topographic and climatic zone
where one needs to deal with mountainous terrain and cool
winters, while summers can get as warm as the plains.
• The site is a highly contoured piece of land with level
differences of about 100 m within the site.
• The neighborhood is predominantly used for agriculture and
vegetation, and hence the site exists within a vast green and
mountainous landscape.
• Living spaces are generously sized, with floor-to-ceiling
windows leading out onto lawns and terraces. There’s also an
eco-friendly element to the homes, with the water supply
designed to minimise water wastage and utilise rainwater.

7. The villas and the internal road networks are
strategically placed in order to minimize the
amount of cutting and filling to the natural
terrain as well as to retain maximum existing
vegetation. Morphogenesis designed each
cottage in a two-wing format that is connected
at a pin joint, which can swing open or close,
depending on how and what the ground would
allow one to engage with at that point.

8. This leads to some level of uniformity
even though all these houses are
different from each other. The
cottages are positioned on the slope
in a manner that ensures
unobstructed panoramic views of the
scenic hills of the Shimla valley
The largest ones enjoy a view right
up to the city of Chandigarh on a
good day. This is achieved by
maintaining a minimum height
difference between the roof level of
each cottage and the ground level of
the preceding cottage uphill.

9. • This project also aims at developing a community, hence special features have
been incorporated to pledge the exclusivity of the site; including overhanging
cliffs, a glass Tea House on the summit, referencing the British legacy of this area
and the evening tea ritual.
• The clubhouse sits in a way where 360-degree views are enjoyed on all sides.
• Morphogenesis approach to this design was to change very little in the land
formation, to “touch the earth lightly”, quoting Glenn Murcutt.
• An existing water body on the site is retained and the onsite vegetation is
maintained as well in order to preserve the sanctity of the site.
• In addition, locally available materials like stone, timber, slate, and rubble are
used for construction.
AMENITIES

11. The site is well equipped with rainwater harvesting facilities that help to reduce water
wastage.
Rainwater harvesting pits are established at
regular intervals within the site, which further
helps in the storage of surface runoff.

12. The 350- mm-thick outer walls of the cottages provide
thermal mass that keeps the cottages cool in the summers
and traps much-needed warmth in the winters, considerably
reducing energy consumption.
The collected water is then used for the purpose of
irrigation downhill and the remaining water is channelized
further downhill to be collected in a sump to be reused
later.

13. • COTTAGE-A is also known as ASHOKA.
• Maintaining constant balance between earth cutting and earth filling, building entry
at the ground floor level.
COTTAGE A

14. COTTAGE B
• COTTAGE-B is also known as the BANYAN
• Entering at the first floor level of the building,
The lower levels sit within the slope. Earth scooped out
Are used to re-grade landscape slopes.

15. COTTAGE-C
• COTTAGE-C is also known as CHINAR.
• The C- Cottage are embedded into the
steep
• Contours with the rear side entirely
locked in earth.

16. COTTAGE- D
• COTTAGE-D is also known as DEODAR.
• Leaving the existing contours undisturbed in order to
reduce intervention whenever possible .building entry
from second floor.

21. Life insurance
corporation (lic)
housing

22.  Project Name : LIFE INSURANCE CORPORATION
HOUSING
 Location : AHMEDABAD,INDIA
 Architect: BALAKRISHNA DOSHI
 Team : VASTUSHILPA CONSULTANTS
 Project Type : MULTIFAMILY
 Project Scope : NEW CONSTRUCTION
 Year Completed : 1973
 Shared by : AYDA AYOBI
 Project Status : BUILT

23. Balkrishna Doshi
• Vāstu-Shilpā Consultants was set up in Ahmedabad in 1956 by
Balkrishna Doshi, an Indian architect, planner and educator. Doshi is
considered one of the leading exponents of appropriate technology,
whilst also being a key figure in the development of a modern Indian
architecture, combining modernist influences with traditions from
the East, specifically Doshi's interest in Hindu philosophy. The name
of the practice refers to the Vāstu-Shilpā Shastras, the Hindu
metaphysical design philosophy based on a system of rules related to
the environment, cosmology, proportion and directional alignment.
Doshi combines these influences with his experience of working
with Le Corbusier, and his later collaborations with Louis Kahn, to
produce an architecture that is adapted to its context, both in terms
of climate and culture. He is also a founding member of the Vāstu-
Shilpā Foundation, a non-profit research institution that deals with
issues of sustainable design, appropriate technology, vernacular
architecture and urbanism.

24. principleS
DOSHI HAS CATEGORIZED 8
PRINCIPLES IN TRADITIONAL
ARCHITECTURE WHICH HE BELIEVES
WOULD GREATLY ENRICH
CONTEMPORARY PRACTICE.
1. doSHI BELIEF IN THE “mythical sense”
OF SPACE IS OFTEN EVIDENT IN
TRADITIONAL ARCHITECTURE WHICH
IS NOT SIMPLY CONFINED TO OPEN
OR CLOSED AREAS. ACCORDING TO
HIM,SPACE CAN BE MODIFIED
ACCORDING TO THE DESIRE OF THE
PERCEIVER AND IS NEVER STATIC.

25. principles
2. THE STRUCTURAL AND FORMAL SYSTEMS THAT DOSHI
HAS ADOPTED LED HIM TO ASSIMILATE THE SECOND
PRINCIPLE OF VASTU-PURUSHA MANDALA TO ENSURE
MINIMUM STANDARDS OF HEALTH AND HYGIENE IN
EACH PROJECT.
VASTU (ENVIRONMENT), PURUSHA (ENERGY), AND
MANDALA (ASTROLOGY) ARE COMBINED IN THE
DIAGRAM THAT HAS EVOLVED TO ASSIST BUIL DERS IN
DETERMINING PROPER ORIENTATION. NORTH RELATES
TO THE LORD OF WEALTH, SOUTH RELATES TO THE LORD
OF DEATH,EAST TO THE LORD OF LIGHT (THE RISING
SUN), AND WEST TO THE LORD OF WIND.THE CENTER IS
ATTRIBUTED TO THE LORD OF THE COSMOS.

26. PRINCIPLES
3. TRANSFORMATION OF ENERGY BETWEEN THE BUILDING
AND PEOPLE USING THE SPACE FOR FUNCTIONAL
USE. THE ENERGY TAKES PLACE BETWEEN THE
WALLS , COLUMNS AND SPACE OF THE BUILDING.
THE NATURAL ENERGY PRODUCES THROUGH SUN
RADIATIONS OR NATURAL ELEMENTS,
SURROUNDINGS, SPECIES AROUND IT ETC.
DOSHI PROVIDED IN HIS ARCHITECTURE BY
PROVIDING OPENNESS IN BUILDINGS THROUGH
COLONNADES , PERGOLAS, PORTICOS, SKYLIGHTS ETC.

27. PRINCIPLES
4. DOSHI HAS PERSISTED A DEEP BELIEF IN
IMPORTANCE OF HUMAN INSTITUTIONS , JUST AS
LOUIS-I-KAHN DID BEFORE HIM. THIS BELIEF, IS
AMPURED BY HIS OWN DEEP CULTURAL EXPERIENCE
AND POPULAR EVOLUTION OF NEW INSTITUTIONS.
THE NAME OF HIS OFFICE ITSELF, THE “VASTU-SHILPA
FOUNDATION”, IS A RINGING AFFIRMATION OF
DOSHI’S FAITH IN THE DIALOGUE BETWEEN PEOPLE
AND ARCHITECTURE OF WHICH HE SPEAKS AND
POWERS OF DIALOGUE TO BRING ABOUT OLD
INTITUTIONS AND CREATE NEW ONES.

28. PRINCIPLES
5. A MORE SPECIFIC PRINCIPLE IS TO FOLLOW ‘FLEXIBLE
RATHER THAN RIGID APPROACH TO THE STRUCTURE’. THIS
IS HOW TRANSFORMATION OF SPACE FROM THE MERE
STATIC CONTAINER; TO A PLACE WHERE PEOPLE ACTUALLY
FEEL A PSYCHIC INTERCHANGE IS BEST ACHIEVED. HERE
DOSHI REFERS TO THE MULTIPLE MIXED STRUCTURAL
SYSYTEMS, OF THE TYPE FOUND IN MADURAI TEMPLE
AND THE CITY OF FATEHPUR SIKRI.
6. THE IDEA OF FLEXIBILITY LEADS HIM TO A PRINCIPLE ,
OF INCORPORATING ‘SYMBOLISM’.HE BELIEVES THAT IT
CAN ONLY BE ACCOMODATED BY MIXTURE OF
STRUCTURAL SYSTEMS. SYMBOLICALLY CHARGED SPACE
MUST BE DESIGNED AS RECEPTACLE FOR HUMAN
ACTIVITY.

29. PRINCIPLES
7. DOSHI ALSO ADVOCATES ‘AMORPHOUS RATHER
THAN FINITE FORMS ‘; USED WITH MULTIPLE
STRUCTURAL SYSTEMS SO THAT EXPERIENCE WITH
THEM MAYBE LOOSE MEANDERING AND MULTIPLE .
8. AS AN EIGHTH AND FINAL PRINCIPLE, DOSHI SEEKS
‘TIMELESSNESS’ IN HIS ARCHITECTURE MUCH AS
LOUIS KHAN DID WHEN DESCRIBING HIS QUALITY IN
HISTORICAL PRECEDENTS AS ‘OPEN ENDEDNESS’.

30. • The internationally noted champion of
housing for India’s poor, Doshi was awarded
the Pritzker prize, in large part for the Aranya
low-cost housing project. It accommodates
80,000 people with houses and courtyards
linked by a maze of pathways in the city of
Indore.

33. This housing project for the Life
Insurance Corporation in Ahmedabad
was designed by architect BV Doshi in
1973. The development, known locally
as Bima Nagar, consists of 324 units
arranged in a duplex terraced unit
scheme on 54 plots.

34. Site plan of the row house unit

35. Site plan of the row house unit
• There are three types of houses
• Single bedroom house with a plot area of 10’x10’
• Double bedroom house with a plot area of 110
sq.yards 16’x60’
• Double bedroom house with 16’x60’ plot size and no
split levels
• The houses opening in the public square have a shop
in the front for facilities like groceries and daily needs.
The houses are smaller in size and this area acts as mix
of public and private zone, helping to make the place
more active and used.

36. “They are not houses but homes where a happy community lives. That is
what finally matters,” Doshi has said in the past of the organISING credo
for this project.

37. “The houses would be occupied by several
generations of the same family, that they would
identify with it, that there will be a strong sense of
belonging and that their needs will change, and they
may modify parts of it.”
To accommodate fluctuating sociocultural needs of
Indian families, Doshi reverses the typical order of a
multi-residential building, placing the largest
residence on the bottom and the smallest on the
top, allowing the upper unit to enjoy a terrace,
which can also be converted into an additional living
space.

39. The initial development was focused on
efficient provision of sites and services with a
phased plan for growth. The lower units are
around 200 square yards and cost 70-80
Lahks, the second level are 120 sq. yds. and
cost 50 Lakhs, and the upper units are 75 sq.
yds. and cost 70-80 Lakhs. This distribution
results in a mix of incomes and ownership
patterns in the community

41. • Rear courtyards are often filled in with extra
bathrooms or other rooms, and balconies are
often covered or enclosed. Because all
modifications occur within a shared green
space at the center of the development is
used by all residents. There are gated entries
at the front and back and the ends of all side
streets are enclosed with locked gates.

43. All units are accessed by a central exterior
stair and share roof access. Because
modifications occur internally or within a
given massing, there is room for
individualization without losing the essential
architectural form.