Apoorva Singla

1697

When our eyes are drawn to something that is different, something that stands out from its environment. It drives our attention. Directing people's eyes to a certain place is called contrast. Contrast thus, highlights and emphasis on features that breaks the monotonous character of the forest. These contrast acts as focal points for the forest. Forest is a large ecosystem and this ecosystem has a lot of focal point which enhances the experience of the forest. Focal point refers to the one stop point that focus on the foreground and background elements. It can be achieved through various means, more intense focal points are created through the use of balanced, consistent arrangements of elements. These focus points changes and varies as per the scale and elements. Without these focus points forest will become monotonous. These focus points are the points that are part of forest system and these systems together form forest ecosystem. For e.g. Mosses grow on rocks is a small element of the system. The undulations in the rocks on the trails is next element of the system. The view of the Aravalli Range from the trail is the largest element of the system. These focal points at different levels are in hierarchy and are correlated as well. Focal points at middle level can be characterised into three focal conditions. 1. Variation in Rocks 2. Variation in Ground Cover 3. Variation in the storeys These focal conditions are also correlated and in some instances are in chronological order. For e.g. Undulation in rocks has lichens, mosses, ferns, shrubs and trees growing in hierarchy. Understanding the characteristics of the focal conditions and then indentifying them on site. "In order to create these focal points these elements are placed at the vanishing points, between radial or approaching lines. Vanishing points can strongly be depicted while looking at railroad tracks and seeing them converge at a distance. So the effect of converging railroad tracks is the focal point. Straight lines create much stronger focal points than curved lines. The viewer’s eye is quickly forced along straight lines. (Proportion,rhythm and focalization by John Longhill)" At site, the character of the forest can represent these vanishing points, the point of pause can be the focal points and the connectivity of these focal points will represent the connectivity in the forest. The vanishing points will have visual connectivity and all the focal points will at the end will getting connected to the last biggest vanishing point i.e. Aravalli Range. For the focal point variation in rocks vertical surfaces needs to be highlighted. Identifying all vertical surfaces on site and creating the connection of network between them.