Catalysis Harleen Chatha
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CONTENTS INITIAL IMMERSION WITH THE PURPLE LINE 4 INITIAL IMMERSION WITH THE GREEN LINE 9 MAPPING 16 COMMUNITY RESEARCH 25 URBAN SPRAWL 32 EXPLORING MY OWN LIMITS 34 SEPTEMBER EXHIBITION 36 EXPLORING WITH FORM 43 ARRIVAL AT FINAL FORM 45 RAPID PROTOTYPING 51 3D DIGITAL MODELLING 53 PERSONAL STATEMENT 63
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INITIAL IMMERSION WITH THE PURPLE LINE
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Metaphor exercise The exercise was to create an artefact based on a metaphor about the purple line of the mero in Bangalore. The metaphor that I came up with was how all the passengers of the metro behaved like droids. But two kinds of droids. One the kind that would still go about their actions the same way, but take in more. The other, the people that would just focus on the task at hand. Anything could go on around them, and they wouldn’t even blink or look up and out of the way. My artefact was a small foam sculpture depicting this duality.
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INITIAL IMMERSION WITH THE GREEN LINE
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Metaphor exercise Similar to the first exercise done with the purple line, we had to make an artefact, one that depicted a metaphor that came up for us in our time there. To me, if the metro were a circuit, the power circuit of the city’s transportation system, the people would be the electrical current running through it, making it more than just a bunch of rubber-coated metal wires. The community would essentially be something that the metro would prove useless without. Here are the illustrations I did for those:
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MAPPING Yelahanka mapping While doing this exercise, Anusha and I tried to map through our senses. Sounds, smells and visuals that stuck with us. Color, volume, and pungency were our various parameters. Here’s the final draft of that map.
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Peenya mapping This we all conducted by ourselves. I chose to do it through the varying intensitues of sound, at 4 different times of the day; and eventually, it’s many sources. Here are both iterations of those.
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COMMUNITY RESEARCH I always started out with simple questions, or with photographs. I’d get into interviews only after knowing someone for a couple of days, or however long it would take for them to trust me enough to believe that I didn’t work for the BMRC or any media channel.
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A certain amount of reluctance was something I had expected to face. But some of the resident community of Peenya came to utright hatred. I got thrown out of houses, pushed away and had taken slammed doors in my face. But there were also the people who loved to talk. Who loved that I wanted their opinion. That somebody, an outsider, cared about what they thought. Here is a little transcription of one conversation: In one of the by lanes in the housing area behind the metro line, between Peenya and Peenya Industrial station, I asked a middle aged lady if I could photograph her house. She asked me why, very casually, to which I said because I like clicking photographs and sketching small beautiful structures. After she allowed me to take the picture, I showed it to her, and she smiled. I took this opportunity to start a conversation with her. “So your house is very close to the metro. Isn’t that convenient?” -- “No. It’s just disturbing. They’ve taken away our peace, especially in the afternoons. They don’t even take an afternoon break.” “What do you think about the metro? Do you like it?” -- “Does it really matter? We both know that my opinion, or anybody else’s opinion doesn’t matter. Not one bit. These people don’t care.” “What makes you say that? Don’t you think it’s made for the people? For your convenience. ” -- “It isn’t made for people like me. It’s made for people like you. And you use it. So they’re happy. Why would they care if they had to break down a few houses to do it? It’s poor people’s houses. They don’t matter.” “Break down houses? What do you mean?” -- “Yes. Break down houses. You see that row of broken buildings on the main road? They used to be houses. Of my friends. My neighbors. They’re gone now. Only half-broken buildings are left of their homes.” “Where have they gone? Your friends?” -- “Back to their villages, their hometowns. They understood it and so did we. People like us, don’t belong in such fancy places.”
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“Have you been on the metro even once?” -- “No. I would never.” “Why not give it a shot?” -- “No. No. Why would I? After everything they’ve done?! (Unintelligible mumbling) Go! Go away! Leave us little people alone here now. After which she turned away mumbling, walked into her house, and locked up. I had no option but to leave. And not just leave; be stared down by the entire colony for creating a scene. This lady was my first proper insight into the minds of the residents of Peenya, and my example in this area of exploration. She was followed by many such interviews and interactions. After a few more interviews and conversations with the resident community of Peenya, I came to realise a painful truth. They despise the Metro, and anybody who has anything to do with it. A few of the reasons I heard often were: 1 – It has claimed a lot of their transient space. 2 – Expensive and very sophisticated for the area, feels out of place. 3 – Houses were broken down to construct the metro. People were displaced out of their own homes. Right now, most of them are avoiding the metro space in general, which is keeping them stuck to their dislike towards it, or rather the idea of it. By giving them a space to be themselves, we can be an encouraging catalyst that allows them to venture more into that space - use it, talk about it, bring friends/family to the space and just basically initiate them to it, and use the scope there is to change their opinions about the metro itself, by replacing their negative associations with positive ones. So give them a space to claim, to turn into a community place.
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URBAN SPRAWL ‘Dispersed, auto-dependent development outside of compact urban and village centres, along highways, and in rural countryside’ as defined by Howard Frumkin, Lawrence Frank and Richard Jackson in ‘Urban sprawl and public health – designing, planning and building for healthy communities’. After speaking with the residents, I started secondary research. I came upon the phenomenon of urban sprawling, which is currently taking place in most developing countries. Literally, it means ‘to spread or develop irregularly’. It became clear to me that over the past decade, Peenya had been undergoing just that; with the highway, then the multiple flyovers; the construction of the metro had just pushed the resident community over the edge. Sprawling is something that is done with the future in mind. This leads to a certain disregard to the present, the experience of the space at a pedestrian level. Everything is now being designed to automobiles, in keeping with the new pace we are all setting ourselves up for. Yes it works better, and it serves the purpose, but in the phase that Peenya is in now, it becomes very difficult for the residential community to cope with all these things. And this is something I too, personally experienced there, and something the community didn’t talk about much but certainly struggled with. One cannot walk without feeling afraid of the many vehicles manoeuvering their way around them. And the noise. That is just too overwhelming. Yes, their landscape changed. Yes, it’s better. But in the moment, at the pedestrian level, did the change in scale sink in? Are the accustomed to it? Did they see it coming? The answers are obvious. I’m not out to change them. Or to fight for them. But how could I make this better for them? How could I possibly help them cope better? These are the questions I posed to myself, and continue to do even today.
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EXPLORING MY OWN LIMITS --How can an intervention in space change the general outlook of the community towards the metro station? Maybe not entirely, but giving them a starting point, a point of contact with the space. Something to initiate them into the metro space. But not something random, something familiar, in terms of material, something that is peculiar yet inviting, and comfortable enough for them to build positive associations with. Something that can help activate the space for further use. --How did I further understand the community and their relationship with existing space? Started by word of mouth, asking people what they do on their breaks, where they go, etc. Visited a bunch of places, from tea-stalls to benches, sidewalks to restaurants. Noticed where people sit, how they react to the sun, shade, lower seating areas, bigger and open spaces, or cornered and more quiet spaces. From all of this, I knew that no matter how my spatial intervention turned out, it would be something I’d do for the community. Something to bring them closer, make them feel more comfortable, even though it’s in their own space.
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SEPTEMBER EXHIBITION THE WALL: Due to the constant jarring noise from the traffic on the highway and flyover, one of the things I wanted to do to make the space inhabitable with an acoustic barrier. This in turn would also give it a back drop. For the exhibition at hand, we went with something that would give proof of concept more than something that would be fully functional.
Initial sketch of the wall
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DIgital render of the wall
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At the exhibition
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RE-WORKING THE WALL: A mathematical sequence. 30 degree angle, air gap behind, such that sound is either reflected or absorbed.
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THE JUNGLE GYM: Hoping to add an element of play to the space, maybe give the community something that they can use the way they’d like to. One thing I got down from my earlier observations is that people, no matter who and where, always prefer furniture that they can use their own way. Move it, sit in places they aren’t supposed to, etc. Nobody likes being told what to do - especially by stationary objects. So, give them something that has numerous ways of sitting, multiple combinations of seating, etc. One thing I did want to establish was that age wouldn’t matter for the jungle gym. It will continue to be playful, but not in the literal sense of a swing and a see-saw.
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EXPLORING WITH FORM
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ARRIVAL AT FINAL FORM Somewhere while trying to ideate through form, I started thinking about how this was something of permanence. Once established, nobody would move it. Nobody would take away anything from it, or even add; and how most of the time, it would just be by itself. THE UNDERBELLY: The jungle gym is situated right under the metro line. This got me thinking about all the other beings that inhabit the underbelly of the metro and how the jungle gym will nearly be a part of that group soon. After going through a plethora of beings, like lizards, rats, dragonflies, bats, and squirrels; I settled on spiders. I’ve always found them very intriguing, especially in the way that they move and the structure of their legs. I figured they would be my best inspiration for this space.
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RAPID PROTOTYPING
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3D DIGITAL MODELLING
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PERSONAL STATEMENT If the metro were a circuit, the people would be the electrical current running through it, making it more than just a bunch of rubber-coated metal wires. This is what I got to while doing a metaphor exercise in Peenya. Being in a project like this, and working in public space, I think I personally need to do something for the community of that area. Give them something they want. Also, through my experience in Peenya, in the past few weeks, this is what was most striking to me. The uprooting of people from their homes. All my life, I’ve seen family, friends and even strangers, just struggle to have somethingtthey can call ‘home’. Something that belongs to them. Something they can write to their children in their final testaments. And here, there are people who have that. Who have spent their entire lives achieving and polishing every detail of it. And then that’s it. Gone. Forever. There is no way I can make up for the community’s losses. Or change their opinion on this subject overnight. But what I can do is try to change the lens that they’re looking at the metro through. Public space belongs to the community, and I’d like to see them take it back, and hopefully facilitate this process. 63