Aishwarya Goel

LA4002

Weaving extremes: Urban|Wild

‘Changing perception through knowing the unknowns’Cities are often perceived as antithesis of wilderness. It would be fair to say that wildscapes exist in cities, but not the mindset for ‘character of wilderness’. It either has been tamed, neglected or lost. For people, such vegetation in dense urban fabric is alien and hence they overly depend on exotic and ornamented vegetation. In the case of Ahmadabad city, kinds of wilderness like heritage and ancient, land form, railway lines, vacant and empty and hidden mysteries exist but are never explored due to either no access or pre-conceived notions of wild. On the other hand, neighborhood parks are formally separated in a setting and are only used deliberately, certainly not being a part of bio-physical environment of constant interaction. Whereas, people use residual urban voids as thoroughfare which ends up being their bio-physical environment. This project aims to reclaim what had been tamed and neglected in an urban neighborhood to bring constant interaction between people and their bio-physical environment. An urban void programmed with the wilderness to change the mind set of co-existence and perception of wild in wilderness.


Report Content

Local Geo-cultural and Ethno- botanical identities: Site is located in Memnagar, Ahmedabad which is unattended and unnoticed, a vacant and empty landscape typology of wilderness. It doesn’t hold value to the people living adjacent or across this land (site) as it is bounded on all four sides and doesn’t involve any interaction. People notion’s towards this land is equivalent to a void with no associations. Certainly, it holds potential to make spatial and social interactions, simultaneousl

Setting agendas : Imagining design directions: People’s perception of void which is empty needs to be transformed into a sense of an urban oasis which is in the centre of a drastically different surrounding and away from all sorts of immediate interactions and interference. To initiate this change, first design direction is to activate the void by involving people with urban oasis which will be formed by enhancing wilderness and modulating in a way which will allow people to associate wit

Crafting the garden : Translating agendas to space: Wilderness is categorized based on the scale of the site and the level of human interference, with this then movememts are devised. Thereafter, other zones are explored so that wilderness can thrive despite external influence almost on daily basis. Option 1 This zoning iteration started with the idea to extend existing wilderness patches as core and provide thoroughfare movement as shortest distance from all three entry poin

Crafting the garden : Translating agendas to space: To translate these zones in the form of space, typologies of core, buffer and edge are decoded spatially to understand that it’s not the density which defines core, rather it’s the wilderness construct from least to maximum interfered which define such spaces using physical and visual barriers. Typologies of constructs explored are: Edge (Maximum interfered): 1. No physical and visual barrier | low height grasses, herbs, shrubs or c

Crafting the garden : Translating identity to form: Character of wild species is understood to translate the form as spatial character of space. Mostly deciduous trees are used. Understorey is mix of combinations of perennials and annuals. Grasses, sedges, herbs and shrubs are used which were observed in the natural setting of the region to ensure their existence together. Primary pathway divides all zones. Secondary pathway is above ground level to avoid disturbance in ground conditio

Preface to Planting Composition: Planting strategy Strategy of planting is to instigate few species to attain specific spatial character through natural process and it’s dynamism to let wild species thrive or undergo dormancy period. For an instance, seeds of wild species can remain dormant under soil for many years (depending on individual traits) and will germinate when all conditions required for germination are met. Such understanding is explored through site conditions and d

Planting Design and Composition: To understand the planting composition zone 4 is explored. Zone 4 character view (Figure 47) Explains the spatial construct as dense and clearance, also in the form of core, buffer and edge. (Figure 48) Explains understorey character with movement lines and sequence of change in spatial sense. This particular zone consists of all three movements: 1. Primary movement through edge. 2. Secondary movemet through buffer. 3. Tertiary movement throu

Planting Structure and Palette: Structure and palette decisions 1. Predominantly acacia spp and capparis sepiaria to majorly create impenetrable thicket. Extracted from a kind of character of wilderness of this region: small leaves species and subtle colored small flowers. 2. Following the same character idea, other perennial shrubs and herbs are chosen with no popping of bright colored flowers. 3. Annuals are randomly mixed as summer and winter annual both to have specific bloom in the b

Seasonality: Seasonality of the same zone 4 is explored with respect to all three movements to establish the idea of selecting palette on the basis of sensitivity of wild species cycle as well as cycle of butterflies, birds and bees. Once the experience of accepting and appreciating the character of wild is achieved through stages of movement, seasonal variation will play it’s role to constantly have more chances of wonderment throughout year. Observation of the stages and cycle of flora as w

Visualizing the garden