Contents 1. Deconstructing Place-making in fictional literature 2. Shifting Landscapes 3. Recreating Memories 4. Project Zbayul
Introduction Storytelling is something everyone enjoys doing. Some tell funny stories, some spin tales of epic adventures and others just go on and on about their mundane everyday lives. All of us have visited a place that doesn’t exist. We believe in magic and superheroes, go on unexpected journeys on flying carpets to galaxies far away. We wait for our letter from Hogwarts and hope to train a dragon on the way there. We walk through wardrobes and peep into rabbit holes in a hope to escape into an alternate dimension. We know that winter is coming, we are prepared to storm the castle and save the princess. What I observed was that though these places don’t exist, authors weave stories that make them very tangible in our minds. That’s the magic of good stories. There is something about these fictional places that connects with people and makes them visualise the place in their minds. So much that without ever really seeing it you can be there, be a part of the story. That’s how the idea of deconstructing a place in fictional literature and understanding how these experiences are built came from. The objective was to understand what makes these imaginary places tangible and what associations to a place authors use to make these imaginary places relatable. Also how these narratives and stories can be used to understand and create experience of a place.
How places are read If the box is a place, then it is read as a series of frames.
Frames are the views of the place a person sees from where they are standing. The frames comprise of overhead plane, background, and foreground, middle-ground and ground plane.
There are mainly 3 types of Frames: Pause Frames, Transitional frames and Memory frames.
Pause frames Pause frames are the important views of the place that define the character of the place. These are the points in the place where a person pauses and spends time to understand the place.
First thing a person does is breaks down the frame he is viewing into its constituent forms. After breaking down the frame into its constituent forms we start gauging how far they are (distance) and how they are organised (where what comes). This organisation happens in x, y and z axis. Humans tend to visually analyse a space, try to understand where what is placed to understand their surroundings and context. That’s usually the first step of understanding a place.
Factors (in pause frames) that lead to understanding the character of the place Once we understand the context and surroundings we start noticing the details of the place. These finer details determine the character of the place. The details read are: Colours and textures: Following is the example how leaves are read differently because of difference in colour, shape and texture. They are all leaves but you’ll never read them as same because of the difference in thier colors, shapes and textures.
Scale of the forms: People tend relate to place by comparing the forms of the place with what they have seen before. It can be in form of number of forms present or the height of the forms. For example in the below image when its two or three trees they are just seen as pretty trees in a park or on the street but when their numbers increase the place is read as wilderness or a forest depending on the density of the trees. Another way scale is read in reference to the height. They both are the same tree but the way they are perceived is different because of their heights in reference to the standard height.
Order of the forms: The manner in which the different forms are arranged defines the system of the place. For instance if there’s a waterbody flowing through dense trees it becomes a river system in a forest. If a vast waterbody and land meet it becomes a sea and a beach and if there’s a small piece of land in middle of a vast body of water it becomes an island. We may not be able to see how these forms are arranged exactly but knowing what kind of system it is defines how see the place. You would see a forest with a river differently from a beach or an island. Knowing how these forms are arranged gives you the larger view and context of the place.
Change in light and Shadows: Colors we see are a reflection of light from the forms in the frame. Light quality in a place can affect how you view the colors and textures in the place. Below are examples of how change in light and position of light can change the perception of the place. How one place looks in the morning and how it looks by evening can be entirely different. Change in light over the course of the year will lead to different views during different times of the year.
Position of Pause frames Placement of pause frames in a place determines how much of and how you’d view the place. Frames can be placed in a way that you see the entire place in the first go or see it in parts. Position of pause frame would influence your perception of the place. For example if you consider the below square as a place then it can be viewed in a multiple number of ways depending on where the pause frame is placed in x, y and z axis. The graphic below illustrates 4 ways in which the place can be experienced with different placements of pause frames.
Transition frames Transition frames bridge the gap between pause frames. Two pause frames can be spatially very different from one another, transition frames make this change smoother. You interact with a place while transitioning from one pause point to another. Hence all of your senses notice the changes. The changes that happen are – Change in Spatial orientation and topography: as you are transitioning between pause frames you will notice the changes that are happening in the organization of forms in the x, y and z axis. Change in Light: the light in a space keeps constantly changing with the movement of sun. As one moves through the space you would notice these changes Changes in Color and texture are also observed and while moving through the space. These are the visual characters of a space which one notices while walking through a place.
While transitioning from one pause frame to another is when you interact the most with the place. As all your senses are engaged while transitioning you tend to notice the changes in smell, touch and sounds. These details are useful in reading and understanding the character of a place. The following phrases/Sentences give an example of how the descriptions of sounds, touch and smell can help in understanding character of a place. “the grass we were lying on was so soft we didn’t realize when we fell asleep. After walking on the hard stone pathway, this was a relief for our feet.” And “while walking I could smell the fragrant flowers along the side of the road.” And “everything was suddenly dead silent. I liked it better when I could hear the birds chirping, this silence is uncomfortable.” These descriptions of the place involving how you feel tells you a lot about the character of the place. These “feelings” are usually read in comparison to the feelings you have had before in similar places. The illustrations below mention some words people use to describe their feelings in a place.
Types of Connections The way the pause frames are connected determines how you’d experience the place. It’s a guided trail if you know where you’re going, exploratory if you can easily find your way and haphazard if you are just searching everywhere. The below example shows three ways in which the pause frames are connected to give an overall experience of the place.
Memory frames Memory frames talk about earlier experiences of a place. Landscapes are constantly changing, nothing is ever static. Seasonal change of a place could be the genius loci of the place. Memory frames inform you about these changes. They’re usually told in form of a story, poems, narratives, myths and histories. They tell you how the place came to be which can be useful in understanding the place. For instance the below example illustrates the changes the beach has gone through over time.
To understand how the beach came to be getting to know its earlier memories is important. Humans always have a tendency of finding out how everything came to be. Knowing the history of the place tells you a lot about why everything is the way it is. They say that your experiences are what make you who you are. It’s the same with landscapes. Understanding its earlier memories helps architects predict how the place would probably change and how best to design for that change.
Stories A combination of these frames form the experiences of a place. I have taken the examples of experience of two forests from Lord of the Rings – Old Forest and Lothlorien to demonstrate how these frames are used to create experience of a place. In this portfolio only the analysis of the how experience of old forest is created has been shown.
Deconstruction of the story – Old Forest The words Tolkien uses to describe old forest are queer, mysterious, confusing and hostile. Its hobbits’ first time outside their hometown, they’ve never crossed the borders of shire and are completely unaware of the happenings of the outside world. The image the author is trying to create is that of 4 scared little hobbits who have been forced to leave their home, who are just hoping that they’ll somehow find their way out of the forest. Their journey is a constant play between hope and hopelessness. Words Tolkien uses to describe Old forest. The flow chart describes the order of transition, memory and pause frames to create the experience of old forest.
The graph describes the change in visual character between the pause frames. As the author wanted to create a scared, confusing experience spatial orientation and light quality of the place keeps constantly changing. The hobbits can never make out which way to follow and can barely guess what time of the day it is. Every-time the come out of the forest into a clearing they’re surprised. The hobbits have no sense of time or place. This graph describe changes in touch, smell and sounds. Author describes how silent the forest- giving an idea that there’s no other living thing in the forest. Lack of sounds makes the place creepy and uncomfortable.
In their journey through the old forest they can only see what’s immediately in front of them. Only when they reach the top of the hill do they get a larger a view of the place.
As they can only see things that are immediately in front of them the transition frames between them are exploratory or haphazard. The hobbits are constantly trying to figure their way out. When they reach the top of the hill and finally figure the way out, though they aren’t able to reach it
Memory Frames: Merry’s experience and his story of how hedge and bonfire glade came to be acts as a disclaimer on how scary the forest is and gives you tips on how to find your way within the forest. Stories of Barrow downs and River Withywindle introduces you to the places they’ll go to next in the story.
Learnings from the Stories
If one wants to design a sensory experience of a place the way Tolkien builds experiences of his places the steps to follow would be: According to the intended experience and program define the pause frames of the place.
Depending on how you want the view of the place to unfold decide how much of the place you’d see at the pauses.
Depending on experience intended define the visual characteristics of the frame (organisation of forms, colour, texture and scale of the forms). The entry frame must give a vague idea of the character of the place.
Based on the views intended decide the heights of the pause frames
Putting the pieces together. Depending on the intended views define the orientation and character of the place.
The last step is to add the additivesmemory frames, sounds, smells and touches. They are defined to enhance the intended experieAnce of the place. In this experience I would add memory frames at the entry and at the view point. The one at the entry would tell them what experience to expect in the space and the one at the view point would tell them how the place came to be.
Our first impression when we saw the river in Vadodra was how can this be a river? The river had been reduced to a small nalluh flowing through the city. After talking to people we found out that this river was special because it is a crocodile habitat. You could spot crocodiles at certain locations in the city. (A lot of people gathered on bridges hoping to spot one). The river had one major problem, it flood almost every year during monsoon. Our site was upstream of the zoo, one of the few plots of land along the river which hadn’t been encroached. The design idea was that rather than looking at floods as a problem to be solved we could consider it as an opportunity to design a landscape that is constantly shifting and evolving. The idea is to let the river carve out its space; to let it flood the site and try to absorb the water. The resulting design would be a landscape that changes through seasons and through years (through flood cycles) giving the people of Vadodara a glimpse and an understanding of the dynamic character of Vishwamitri.
Post monsoon
Existing flood levels and frequency
5 year flood
10 year flood
35 year flood
Existing vegetation
I worked on modifying land – how can land be modified such that the site acts as a sponge? The first step was to explore the various ways in which the land can be modified and how the flooding patterns would change. Landscapes are constantly changing. The design idea was to create a pattern of pools which appeared and disappeared based on the flood level.
Post monsoon
Exploration 1 - Swales
5 year flood
10 year flood
35 year flood
Vegetation Pattern
Post monsoon
Exploration 2 - Scoops
5 year flood
10 year flood
35 year flood
Vegetation Pattern
Post monsoon
Exploration 3 - Terraces
5 year flood
10 year flood
35 year flood
Vegetation Pattern
Areas identified where pools could be formed based on existing contours and water flow during monsoon.
Design Proposal The design was a mixture of the terraces and pools exploration. Pools could help with inundation and terraces were markers of the flood people could identify. Based on the flow of water and existing contours spots were identified along the active meanders where pools could be formed.
Existing flood levels
Modified flood levels
The photomontage depict the edge conditions and activities happening along the river Damanganga.
Recreating memories The design question was how would you design for a city that used to be rural but is quickly becoming an urban city? We were asked to explore the city of Silvassa and chose where we would want to intervene to create a landscape that would become a bridge between old and new. The city of silvassa is transitioning from a rural town to an industrialized urban city. One of the outcomes of this development is that a lot of farmlands are being lost to building industries and the rate at which urbanisation is happening Silvassa will soon turn into a unplanned urban sprawl. In the last 20 years Silvassa has lost a lot of forest cover and farmlands to urbanisation. The locals of Silvassa realise and lament this loss. They appreciate the development but are apprehensive of moving to the city. The locals are actively engaged with the landscape, it forms an integral part of their daily life. Whereas for people living in the city the loss doesn’t matter much because the landscape is just a backdrop-something the look out to from their windows. These guys had come to Silvassa to earn money, they never had any ties with the landscape. The intent is to create a space that would engage the city dwellers in a way that landscape becomes an integral part of their life and culture – a space where they can actively engage with landscape.
Urban edge of Damanganga
Rural edge of Damanganga
Site Selection : During our site visit we noticed that public parks and community spaces in Silvassa lack an identity, they don’t look anything like the landscapes described by the locals. There’s an image of Sylvan land which the tourism department is trying to promote though the parks look like they could belong anywhere. I chose the riverfront park to demonstrate how parks and gardens could mean something more. One of the things we noticed in our first visit to Silvassa was that the people living in villages and people living in the city have two different perspectives of looking at the river. For the people living in the village the river is the source of their livelihood; for people in the city river is a background image, it’s just vsomething that flows through the city. The idea was to design a park in which you could experience the landscape the locals described.
Existing views of the site
Design Process :
Graphical Map of Henasku (Nts)
Zbayul – The Invisible Village Project Zbayul was a 10 day-long design workshop in Henasku Village, Kargil-Ladakh. This workshop was conducted by Roots Ladakh and Little Local in collaboration with CEPT University Ahmedabad, as part of Summer Winter School 2019. We were 35 students from across India who lived in Henasku village in homestays for a week and documented the life, history and culture of the place. The workshop also engaged local volunteers and support teams who helped us with the research work. The workshop concluded with setting up of a community centric cultural museum in the historic Lhonpo Khang, a 500 year old structure situated in the heritage village. The museum was formally inaugurated at the hands of Haji Anayat Ali, Hon’ble Chairman, J&K Legislative Council in presence of Jinab Mohd. Ali Chandan, Hon’ble Executive Councilor (Health), Aga Syed Toha, Assistant Director, Department of Tourism Kargil and various other dignitaries, village heads and community of Henasku. The museum is now a permanent cultural asset for the community, which will serve as a unique cultural experience for travellers and lead to additional livelihood for the community. This workshop was part of a long term, integrated community development initiative known as “Project Zbayul” by Roots Ladakh and Little Local under which the aim is to preserve the lesser known heritage of Ladakh and create alternate livelihood opportunities for grassroots communities through eco-tourism initiatives. I was a part of the graphic design team with Sameer Kajale and Satyam Shukla. We were supposed to design posters, brochures which would be displayed in cafes in Kargil and Leh to attract visitors.
A centre-fold brochure depicting the experiences in the village
Posters - they will be put up in cafes in Leh and Kargil
A 8-fold brochure depicting the experiences in the village