Ishita Rakesh Singh

UR3005

The project Dwellers redesigns the core street of the sector and parts of public lands to create a continuous urban biodiverse network. Currently, in Gandhinagar, in a typical sector, up to 40% of the land is under public domain, and around 20% of that public land is green cover. Some green is defined and formalized under tree plantation lands and parks. But many unrecognised thickets of trees on other public lands are disparate, fragmented, or unformalised. Therefore, the project creates a system of design addressing these parcels. It does this through 2 main strategies, CONSTRUCT:  Where groups of tree thickets in the public lands are identified as new tree plantation zones grouped with more species. Neighbourhood space garden designs are devised alongside suggestive guides as policies and incentives. The current tree plantation lands are introduced with new native species. Thus, this strategy constructs habitats at different scales in the public land. CONNECT: This strategy redesigns the core streets as corridors of continuous green cover and introduces trail networks. The streets primarily use bioswales as a medium for plantation, and trails are continuously lined with trees which acts as a continuous pedestrian walkway that fits the residential context. Constructing and connecting will create a resilient, biodiverse network, becoming a habitat for various species. Through management, it will introduce two more strategies, i.e., essential to the working of this; a) CYCLES protecting natural cycles (of seasonality, food web, and energy) through regulations, phasing strategies, incentives etc.b) COMMUNITY participation, where incentives will be awarded for installing biodiversity-supporting infrastructures on private land.  
Together the four strategies, construct - connect - cycles - community, dismantle the top-down anthropocentric model to embrace biodiversity as an indispensable layer to a healthy ecosystem. If the 4c armature is multiplied across the city of Gandhinagar in other sectors, it will create an extensive range for biodiversity to traverse and connect the larger city ensembles.