Constant dependence on groundwater, coupled with diminishing recharge capacity, make urban water bodies vulnerable. Many of these unacknowledged, often temporal water bodies are affected by untreated sewage and garbage dumping. Thus, they go through the cycle of negligence, degradation, and diminish to become an eyesore. With climate extremes and a dearth of open spaces, there has never been a more urgent need to restore these damaged ecosystems than now - both socially and environmentally. Hence, the studio explores Nature-based designs around these degraded urban water-holding sites of varying capacity and wetness as potential catalysts to generate innovative social spaces. Keeping water positivity as a focus, the unit shall identify a site in Ahmedabad to first analyze and define a problem. Then it will weave in the water calculation models along with contextual parameters to establish a conceptual framework, that will reconnect these sites with people. The studio is structured in three modules - site vision, master plan development, and detailed site design, moving through the L, M, and S scales of intervention. Students will have to construct the multi-dimensional problem and then craft adaptive solutions around these disturbed water site/s that can be tested across time and adverse scenarios.
Studio Unit
Studio Process (Week 1to 16)
Module I: ABSORB (L scale) The first module builds understanding and recording the dynamics of the site and people. This leads to crafting a water positive vision along with detailed typologies of strategies across different scenarios
Module II: REFLECT (M scale) Moving along the framework set by the vision strategies, the second module focuses on water calculations, site programming, and design iterations to create a strategic plan
Module III: DISSIPATE (S scale) Taking a part of the strategic plan, the master plan is developed with program and change in vegetation. The selected part is then tested for landscape resilience through seasonal and extreme fluxes
Design progress across modules - demonstrating resolution across scales
