Narratologies of Ahmedabad - Design Report by JJForde

ESALA MASTER OF ARCHITECTURE 2019-2021

N A R R A T O L O G I E S O F A

D A

B A

DESIGN REPORT Pamela Feng, Jamie Forde and Vsevolod Yurchenko PARA-situation [Ahmedabad]

NARRATOLOGIES OF AHMEDABAD DESIGN REPORT

Pamela Feng Jamie Forde Vsevolod Yurchenko Project website visit https://architecturesaltmarch.myportfolio.com/

PARA-SITUATION [AHMEDABAD]: “PAST, PRESENT AND POSSIBLE”

ABSTRACT Narratologies of Ahmedabad is an architectural proposal based on the inquiry into stories that haunt the city. Traced through narrative figures, structures and places, as well as our own narratives, our proposals draw out a possibility for the future while remaining grounded in the enquired narratologies of past and present. As outsiders, we uncovered Ahmedabad through the event of The Salt March, an act of non-violent resistance led by Mahatma Gandhi in 1930. Through the study of body and building posture the relationship between the perception of narrative event and architecture was discovered. The anatomy of narratological absence and presence resulted in a series of tectonic speculations in hauntology. Through exploration and measuring, the unique constitution of the present Ahmedabad was revealed. On a city scale, when put in series, the analyses of the various city territories display narratives of past visions for Ahmedabad, which today are sensed like disparate fragments strewn across the carpet of the city. The proposed Sabarmati City affords the space to bring the fragments together constituting a new possibility for Ahmedabad. The new assemblage for the Sabarmati City hauntology is tested technologically and ecologically through three projects: Dandi Crematorium, Sabarmati Pol and Sabarmati Business District offer programmes of life and death, dwelling and community, and economy and environment. The new series of enzymatic territories parasite as an architecture of non-violent resistance to neo-liberal compulsions along the riverfront wall to re-engage with wetness to reintroduce the liminality between city and Ganga.

PARA-SITUATION [AHMADABAD]: “PAST, PRESENT AND POSSIBLE” Intergrated Pathway 2019-2021 Course Organiser: Dorian Wiszniewski Course Tutors: Dorian Wiszniewski; Kevin Adams “The brief sets out to operate principles of Ecosophic Urbanism, developed from a selection of key philosophical positions that drive theorisation on how architecture is situated in socio-political, environmental contexts1... We will be interested in relations between places of work, civic amenities and dwellings and how each of these categories engage with the environment2... We will be exploring further the notion of Ocean of Wetness... and the Patrick Geddes’ “City Survey” approach to city engagement3.” Timeline of 4 semesters4 Semester 1 [September 2019-December 2019] The studio began researching the Sabarmati riverfront wall and the Ahmedabad old city wall from Minto House, Edinburgh. We focused on the body, building and the metropolitan scale, developing a tectonic language and our understandings of rhythms of wetness. Semester 2 [January 2020 - May 2020*] Visiting Ahmedabad at the beginning of this semester saturated our previous enquiry in the experience of the city. As complex territories revealed themselves this clarified the riverfront city as the site of speculation. Semester 3 [September 2020 - December 2020] This semester provided the opportunity to test the design thesis through understandings of technology and environment through the body and building scale. Semester 4 [January 2021-April 2021] The developed three agencies reconnect as a series of enzymatic territories in the proposed Sabarmati City. The thesis is framed through the complete range of scales in film, folios and this design report.

1 Wiszniewski, Dorian. Para-situation [Ahmedabad]: “Past, Present and Possible”, Introductory Document. Edinburgh School of Architecture & Landscape Architecture. September 2019. p.5. 2 Ibid. 3 Ibid. p.7. 4 Ibid. p.40-41. *Due to Covid-19, we to worked remotely from March 2020.

CONTENTS Preamble

2 The Loving Metropolitan Landscape [TLML] 7 Wall Wells and Well Walls Narrativity of The Salt March The Cities’ Posture Series of Enzymatic Territories [SET] 41 Seriality of The Salt March Articulation of Series of Enzymatic Territories Three Agencies Building and Body 91 Sabarmati Ashram Laundry Dandi Crematorium Sabarmati Pol Delhi Gate market Sabarmati Business District Glossary Narratives in Ahmedabad

Epilogue

195

Studio Glossary

208

Acknowledgment

209

Image Reference

210

Selected Bibliography

211

Agencies in Ahmedabad.

T[L]ML

SET

Building and Body

Existing

Sabarmati Ashram

15, 30-32, 34-37, 74-75

66-71

94-99

14, 16-17, 22, 44-45

Dandi Crematorium

32. 34-37, 74-75

66-71, 76-81

100-127

46-49

Sabarmati Pol

34-37, 74-75

66-71, 76-77, 82-85

128-155

52-57

Delhi Gate

15, 30-32,34-37, 74-75

66-71

156-161

10-11, 16-17, 22, 50-53, 58-61

34-37, 74-75

66-71, 76-77, 86-89

162-193

58-63

Sabarmati Business District

AGENCIES NAVIGATION AND AUTHORS’ NOTE This document is organised to present a comprehensive understanding of the city of Ahmedabad and its designed agencies through different scales. We aim to discuss the stories that haunt the city of Ahmedabad for they inform our design methodologies which have been developed over these two years. Therefore, this document provides the reading of the thesis through the architecture of each agency. For the possibility of each individual reading, we provide the page numbers for each agency at its various scales above.

THE CARPET OF THE CITIES

PREAMBLE “In every age someone, looking at Fedora as it was, imagined a way of making it the ideal city, but while he constructed his miniature model ... and what have been until yesterday a possible future became only a toy in a glass globe.” - Italo Calvino, Invisible Cities This carpet captures narratologies in Ahmedabad’s past, present and possible. Our Narratologies of Ahmedabad carpet is about how we perceived the Riverfront, and the phenomenal relation between architecture and its geography. Showing the encountered city’s geometries and destinations, this carpet presents how we, as travellers in Ahmedabad, depict the journey and the elevations of the encountered architecture, rather than the geometry of a satellite map. The carpet portrays four current cities in Ahmedabad: The Walled City, The Neo-liberal city, The Outer City and The Post-independent City of Modernity; two possible cities: The Salt March City and The Sabarmati City.

Narratologies of Ahmedabad Ahmedavad City Carpet.

THE CARPET OF THE CITIES

Printed carpet and unfolding motion.* Material: Chenille.

*The size of the carpet is 1607 mm height by 825 mm width, and it is printed on chenille fabric [330gsm].

THE CARPET OF THE CITIES Key

Jama Masjid Mosque and Ahmedshah Tomb

Delhi Gate

THE WALLED CITY Ahmedabad was founded in 1411 as a new capital of Gujarat Sultanate by Ahmed Shah. The city of Ahmedabad represented the ambition of its Sultan to start a great lineage of Kings to be hosted in the city. It was positioned on the crossroads of caravans and ports moving in and out of India. The walls were supposed to protect the wealth of the Gujarat capital from invaders. Yet, over a hundred years later it came into a decline and by 1572 Ahmedabad became a part of the Mughal Empire.1 Over the centuries the capital of Gujarat turned into rather a regional centre

supplying ambitions for other cities, such as Agra, Delhi and London. As the wealth was leaving in form of taxes and trade for geopolitical reasons, the walls became of no use and fell into disrepair. The carpet presents the current state of the walls and gates, as they were surveyed by our design studio during the visit. It also presents the few places of Sultanate heritage which are now mainly a tourist attraction.

1 Gillionm, Kenneth. Ahmedabad. A Study in Urban History (Australian National University Press: Canberra,1969). p 14.

Old City Walls

THE CARPET OF THE CITIES Key

Sabarmati Ashram

Calico Mills

THE OUTER CITY The outer city of Ahmedabad emerged on the grounds of the city’s talent for commerce. The hard working entrepreneurs saw the opportunity in the textile industry and soon textile mills started emerging. By 1930 there were 51 mills across the city and it became known as the Manchester of India.1 The success of the textile industry was also driven by a will for independence. One of the most prominent

mill owners - Kasturbhai Lalbhai (Arvind Mills) was a follower of Swadeshi - the independent movement started by Gandhi. The mills were an important part of the movement, according to which, Indian industry had to be self-sufficient to boost the economy independent from British rule. The outer city is not just the city outside of the walls, but it is the city looking outwards, to the future, and envisioning the strong and independent India driven by Gujarati textile industry.

1 Gillionm, Kenneth. Ahmedabad. A Study in Urban History (Australian National University Press: Canberra,1969). pp.74-80. 2 Ibid., pp. 153-157.

Arvind Mills

THE CARPET OF THE CITIES Key

Villa Shodan

Sanskar Kedra Museum and Tagore Hall

THE POST-INDEPENDENT CITY OF MODERNITY After Indian independence in 1947, a new city emerges in Ahmedabad. Driven by finance and ambition of the Mill Owner Association and, particularly, by its head Kasturbhai Lalbhai, this modern city of Ahmedabad was constructed on the West Bank as a progressive city, overlooking the old walled city from over the river. Lalbhai convinced the mill owners to finance the creation of the Indian Institute of Management, which then was built in Ahmedabad by Louis Kahn.1 A few more

universities such as The University of Gujarat and CEPT emerged at that time. The Mill Owner Association also invited Le Corbusier to complete a series of projects, out of which, Mill Owner Association Building and Villa Shodhan in 1950s. The patronage of the mill owners make up the most fragmented of the cities, yet one of the most significant, as the institutions of progress founded at the time still carry their influence over Ahmedabad.

1 IIMA Archives. “Shri. Kasturbhai Lalbhai”. Accessed in 2021. https://archives.iima.ac.in/firstdecade/ Shri-Kasturbhai-Lalbhai.html.

Academic institutions IIM and CEPT

THE CARPET OF THE CITIES Key

Sardar Patel Stadium

Riverfront Flower Park

THE NEO-LIBERAL CITY This city presents the vision of Ahmedabad by the current Indian government as a Smart City. It dwells on the impression made by a rapid economic growth expressed in numbers of projects, budgets and work orders. The biggest manifesto of the ideology based on a global economy integration and technological progress is the Riverfront Project. This city, aimed “to drive economic growth and improve the quality of life of people by enabling local area development and harnessing technology”, which does not often consider local ontologies. It works on the scale of large plots

and concrete walls, while the liminal conditions found in other cities of Ahmedabad are often lost as rounding errors. This is why the Sabarmati City emerges on the walls of the Riverfront.

1 Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs. Government of India. “Smart Cities. Vision”. Accessed in 2021. https://smartcities.gov.in/?fbclid=IwAR3fve7lrlavwInjWwWHIsBxXAp0D8twlXXpTMlo9QBIu_ t3KSje_euGkVg.

Vasna Barrage at the end of Riverfront

THE CARPET OF THE CITIES Key

Dance School and Food Court

Temple

THE SALT MARCH CITY The Salt March City is positioned along the path that Gandhi and his followers took through Ahmedabad in 1930. By transposing our Narratologies of Ahmedabad architectonics, we have brought to presence the possible Salt March City. 24 programmes were created to reenact The Salt March in the year 2021 with a possibility of 24 stops along the city, and 24 new narratives for each day of The Salt March.

attempts to connect The Salt March to the Sabarmati River. As we have the factory on the 6th day of the journey, the amenity compliments it on the 7th day of the Salt March City, borrowing the existing programme of a food court on site. We project the new agencies by imagining what would The Salt March posture be like if it were to host the current programme at each stop.

The programme for each stop is the projection of the surrounding narratives. For instance, the existing dance school positioned on the 6th day of the Salt March City, also situated parallel to The Salt March path and the Sabarmati Riverfront. Therefore, creating a programme of extending the dance school, while the architecture Salt March City near Delhi Gate

THE CARPET OF THE CITIES Key

Dandi Crematorium

Sabarmati Business District

THE SABARMATI CITY The Sabarmati City is a counter proposal to the neoliberal compulsions of The Sabarmati Riverfront Development. Along 11km expanse - on both East and West banks - the new series of enzymatic territories parasite as an architecture of non-violent resistance against the monolithic riverfront walls. With a variety of programmes and scales of intervention, we project the ghosts of the other fragmented cities, which in turn reengage with wetness and reintroduce liminality between the cities and the Sabarmati.

Sabarmati Pol and surrounding cities

AMDAVAD

THE SALT MARCH

SABARMATI

LIMINALITY

EXHIBITION

LUSHNESS

PARASITUATION

Economy

Dwelling

Rituals

Four Cities

Film slides

Intensities

Transmission

Hauntology

Transposition

Posture

Parasituation

Lushness

Wetness

Walls & Wells

Ground

Exhibition

Liminality

Sabarmati

Satyagraha

Delhi Gate

Ashram

Salt March

Amdavad

Edinburgh

GLOSSARY NARRATOLOGIES IN AHMEDABAD

EDINBURGH

POSTURE

In order to navigate the design report, the Twenty Four narratives (one for each day of The Salt March) further elaborate on the hauntology of the city. MEASURED INTENSITIES 2

35 MM FILM SLIDES

FOUR CITIES OF AHMEDABAD

SABARMATI ASHRAM

DELHI GATE

SATYAGRAHA

GROUND

WALLS AND WELLS

WETNESS

TRANSPOSITION

HAUNTOLOGY

TRANSMISSION

RITUALS

DWELLING

ECONOMY 3

fig.1 EDINBURGH

Famous for its swelling and contracting flow the river was a key part of life to its folk.

SABARMATI

A city which is currently a place of neo-liberal compulsions and a harbinger of market led changes throughout India. A city with major infrastructural projects and a stronghold of PM Narendra Modi. fig.2

A biological and philisophical understanding of the parasite/ host relation or something that sits alongside something else.

LUSHNESS

PARASITUATION

Research by familiarisation through drawing, photographing and recording in selected territories in the city. To understand the measured intensities through intensely measuring.

Found in the Sunday Market. These objects take Ahmedabad to the world and back. They operate as optical devices of transmission.

MEASURED INTENSITIES

35 MM FILM SLIDES

Economy

Dwelling

Rituals

Four Cities

THE SALT MARCH

Exhibition is a method of developing design methods through repeated presentations. This was physically set up in Minto House and is now digitally set up to continue the testing of means.

LIMINALITY

This narratology concerns with the life of plants and the paradigm of the vegetable being.

Film slides

Historical event led by Mahatma Gandhi from the 12th March 1930 to the 6th April 1930. Gandhi and the followers marched from Sabarmati Ashram through Ahmedabad Walled City, towards Dandi village in Navsari. fig.3

AMDAVAD

It is the in-between space of the two opposites such as the top and bottom of the riverfront wall, the interior and exterior, or the private and the public.

Intensities

Transmission

Hauntology

Transposition

Posture

Parasituation

Lushness

Wetness

Walls & Wells

Ground

Exhibition

Liminality

Sabarmati

Satyagraha

Delhi Gate

Ashram

Salt March

Amdavad

Edinburgh

NARRATIVES IN AHMEDABAD

We researched Ahmedabad from different archives in our studio in Edinburgh. It’s where Ahmedabad takes presence as we work on the project.

EXHIBITION

Through tracking of The Salt March, we envisioned how the marchers perceived the architecture by studying both the marchers’ and architecture’s postures.

POSTURE

When visiting and researching Ahmedabad it became apparent that it wasn’t a single cohesive city but a collection of fragments strewn across a carpet. fig.4 FOUR CITIES OF AHMEDABAD

An Ashram is a spiritual hermitage for a religious community. The Sabarmati Ashram was built by Mahatma Gandhi in 1915 after his return from South Africa. Overlooking the Sabarmati River, it is where The Salt March began.

While the gate originally served as protection from marauders, the gates are now left in isolation often functioning as no more than a roundabout. Gandhi entered Delhi Gate into the old city during The Salt March.

The Salt March was an act of Satyagraha, a particular approach to nonviolent resistance used by Gandhi. Satyagraha extended beyond this act and served as a guide to life and our architecture.

SABARMATI ASHRAM

DELHI GATE

SATYAGRAHA

The research and investigation of the ground. The primary element of architecture, Ahmedabad’s ground is understood through temporalities of salt, wetness and the city walls.

The line of the old walls is still evident as a ring road circumscribing the old city, which retains the arrangements of old and streets within its perimeter.1 Wells are the Ahmedabad’s rich history of water architecture.

From the manifesto of Oceans of Wetness.2 The conceptualisation of wetness is a paradigm shift to the flux of wetness through immersion and saturation of Ganga’s Descent.

GROUND

WALLS AND WELLS

WETNESS

The presence of the past in Ahmedabad is often seen through the posture of the Salt March and other methods that were used to unveil the ghosts of Ahmedabad’s stories.

Transmission system dragged the three territories, together with programmes onto the riverfront using pivoting joints, through the optical device.

A methodology we have employed to trace The Salt March narrative through this particular reading of architecture postures.

TRANSPOSITION

The events related to the annual, climatic, religious, cultural and traditional cycles.

HAUNTOLOGY

Found within pols the enclosed space offers sanctuary, without the gates it becomes a safe space through community.

TRANSMISSION

The history of Ahmedabad is the history of its commerce and entrepreneurship. Therefore, the economy of the city, its distribution and structure always played a major role.

fig.5 RITUALS

DWELLING

ECONOMY 5

The Salt March on Riverfront Collage.

THE LOVING METROPOLITAN LANDSCAPE [TLML] WALL WELLS AND WELL WALLS NARRATOLOGY OF THE SALT MARCH THE CITIES’ POSTURE

Economy

Dwelling

Rituals

Four Cities

Film slides

Intensities

Transmission

Hauntology

Transposition

Posture

Parasituation

Lushness

Wetness

Walls & Wells

Ground

Exhibition

Liminality

Sabarmati

Satyagraha

Delhi Gate

Ashram

Salt March

Amdavad

Edinburgh

TLML WALL WELLS AND WELL WALLS

Past section through typical Sabarmati bank with activities during monsoon season past.

Present section through typical riverfront development with annual activities.

SABARMATI RIVER The Sabarmati river, famous for its swelling and contracting flow was a key part of life to the surrounding locality. The riverbank was a space for dwelling, markets, industry, agriculture and religious ceremony. All this has been lost with The Sabarmati Riverfront Development nearing completion.

“It’s name, said to be derived from the word ‘shvabhra’, meaning ‘fissure’, suggests a cavity, appropriately, for the Sabarmati is marked by recurrent spells of dryness that turn it into a thin trickle of mica and sometimes cause it to disappear altogether. But it is also a temperamental river and there is no telling when it will bloat and billow and froth over its banks, toppling trees and houses and swallowing cattle and people in its furious wake. The shallow, capricious Sabarmati is not navigable. No great pilgrimage centres line its route and no prayers are intoned in its honour. Encyclopaedic references find it worthwhile to mention that the great city of Ahmedabad was established on its banks in 1411.”1

Proposed in the late 1960s the plan for the Sabarmati was to dam it, creating a constant flow and to reclaim bankable land, in sharp contrast this concrete wall has not only created a divide between the city and the water, but the dam has caused dangerous stagnant water.

fig. 6 Le Corbusier’s Mill Owners Association.

Economy

Dwelling

Rituals

Four Cities

Film slides

Intensities

Transmission

Hauntology

Transposition

Posture

Parasituation

Lushness

Wetness

Walls & Wells

Ground

Exhibition

Liminality

Sabarmati

Satyagraha

Delhi Gate

Ashram

Salt March

Amdavad

Edinburgh

WALL WELLS AND WELL WALLS fig. 7 Dariapur Gate Aerial Photograph by Robert Stephens

DELHI GATE “From the Dariapur Gate eastward to the Delhi Gate, the long Wall Street seems unbroken, though Pol entrances may be found.....I see no vandalism, but only the commonsence renewal of what was a frequent medieval practice in peace-time, in piercing the walls wherever desired, defending the opening by an iron grill and gate only. Picturesquesness may thus be notably increased, and the main architectural effects left quite uninjured.”

Patrick Geddes engaged with Ahmedabad with his “City Survey”. In his Note on Ahmedabad, he stated that the walls should be preserved. “The more this patient study of the walls and their neighbourhood is continued, the less does the proposed demolition maintain itself in any way, whether as a business proposition, an aesthetic or a sanitary one.”2

Delhi Darwaja is one of the twelve surviving Gates of Ahmedabad. It is located to the north of the walled city where the Salt March entered. At this point the amassing crowd and marchers were funnelled into the narrow streets of Ahmedabad. The Gates of Ahmedabad are the most prominent remains of the city perimeter as they have been preserved unlike much of the surrounding walls. While the gate originally served as a protection from marauders, the gates are now left in isolation often functioning as no more than a roundabout.

Patrick Geddes, ‘Note on Ahmedabad’, 1915.

1 Shah, Amrita. Ahmedabad - A City in theWorld. 2015. p.30. 2 Stephens, Robert. From the Skies, an Architect Retraces a Century-old Survey of Ahmedabad’s City Wall. Posted in 2018. Accessed in 2021. https://scroll.in/magazine/900418/from-the-skies-an-architect-retraces-acentury-old-survey-of-ahmedabads-city-walls

Delhi Gate’s Traffic.

WALL WELLS AND WELL WALLS Sabarmati River Front. Drawing: Riverfront Development Proposal, Sabarmati Riverfront Project by HCP, India, 2004-onwards

Economy

Dwelling

Rituals

Four Cities

Film slides

Intensities

Transmission

Hauntology

Transposition

Posture

Parasituation

Lushness

Wetness

Walls & Wells

Ground

Exhibition

Liminality

Sabarmati

Satyagraha

Delhi Gate

Ashram

Salt March

Amdavad

Edinburgh

TLML NARRATOLGY OF THE SALT MARCH Gandhi’s Dream [Posture Drawing].

THE SALT MARCH To protest against The Salt Act through Satyagraha1 Gandhi planned to march with volunteers of the Sabarmati Ashram for 24 days south to Dandi – a coastal village with a natural depositary of salt. On the evening before their journey, thousands of people held an all-night vigil outside the Ashram there was apprehension that the colonial rulers would not allow Gandhi and his followers to march, believing that he would be picked up in the dark of the night. After a peaceful night as Gandhi slept on the vestibule of the Ashram, 80 volunteers set off with Gandhi on their first days march. They were encouraged by thousands of supporters, many joining in. A few kilometres along the road where they hoped to cross the Sabarmati but the bridge was already filled with supporters waiting in anticipation, so full the bridge was the marches were forced to climb down to the dry river bed of the Sabarmati, 14

nearing the other bank just before reaching Delhi Gate – their entrance to the walled city of Ahmedabad. The marching made a sharp right hand turn as they were then funnelled into the narrow street of Ahmedabad. They were given a rousing send off by the citizens of Ahmedabad as thousands accompanied Gandhi and his marches on the day’s to come.1 They marched ten miles a day covering 240 miles in total, in the evenings Gandhi would give speeches to the marchers and the villages they rested in. While they rested Gandhi would weave Khadi2. On the last day the marchers arrived in Dandi where they then entered the sea, Gandhi scooped up the salt laden mud and declared the act was broken.

The Salt March Unfolds in Ahmedabad. 15

NARRATOLGY OF THE SALT MARCH The Sabarmati Ashram.

1 Delhi Gate.

2 Dandi Salt Pan.

16 fig. 8 aerial image of salt pans.

Economy

Dwelling

Rituals

Four Cities

Film slides

Intensities

Transmission

Hauntology

Transposition

Posture

Parasituation

Lushness

Wetness

Walls & Wells

Ground

Exhibition

Liminality

Sabarmati

Satyagraha

Delhi Gate

Ashram

Salt March

Amdavad

Edinburgh

Salt March T[L]ML from Ashram to Dandi.

Economy

Dwelling

Rituals

Four Cities

Film slides

Intensities

Transmission

Hauntology

Transposition

Posture

Parasituation

Lushness

Wetness

Walls & Wells

Ground

Exhibition

Liminality

Sabarmati

Satyagraha

Delhi Gate

Ashram

Salt March

Amdavad

Edinburgh

NARRATOLGY OF THE SALT MARCH GROUND Dandi was chosen to be the destination village of the Salt March because it was a natural depositary of salt. The salt forms through a cyclical change in the ground condition as wetness advances and recedes with the tide of the sea. As the remaining water evaporates a salty residue is left behind in the creeks. Not dissimilar to how the banks of the Sabarmati changed annually the daily change in the ground condition of Dandi creates a natural source of richness, wellness, and wetness. For pursuing the ground richness from Dandi to Ahmedabad, we aim to ground the metaphysical salt of Ahmedabad on the landscape of our architecture. The ground here can be understood through particular interpretation of meaning that things hold once they appear in a local context. Perception of things is shaped by events, which take place. As we can define events through places, we could also define places through events. Therefore, the events intrude locations and redefine ontologies.

On the phenomenological level this is a twofold situations. On one side, it means that groundness of local dwellers and local objects in defined time is delivered by infinite events. On the other side, it makes strangers recognise places as other than the ones, where strangers reside. As we are the strangers of Ahmedabad, our aim is to understand the other. Therefore, we ask the question “What constitutes the ground?”. Also, as strangers, we understand, that our experience is as powerful as the other and as weak as the one of a stranger. Therefore, the task of uncovering ontologies of Ahmedabad is the task of excavating its ground. Research-by-design, therefore, is an archaeological process, that requires our perception and knowledge, our skills to articulate. While we don’t know what we may find, we dig in and with each step get more grounded in Ahmedabad. We began by looking into the walls of Ahmedabad. One that used to protect the city and one that now defines the river.

fig.9 Gandhi in Dandi Salt Pan.

Fig.11 Gandhi and spinning wheel.

POSTURE BODY As we started looking into places of the Salt March, we attempted to understand how the event of the Salt March can further affect the perception of the architecture. Drawing inspiration from initial photographs of people working on a salt pan led to the idea that building anatomy and human anatomy act in a similar way. The notion of human posture is delivered and restricted by skeletal system. Similarly, the perception of architectural form depends on circumstances in which one interacts with architecture and on narratology of the architecture. The narrative declares architectural posture, which is delivered and made possible by building’s anatomy. This chapter is an attempt to understand momentary posture of architecture through what is revealed of its language in narrative reenactment.

Fig.12 Gandhi during The Salt March Protest.

Economy

Dwelling

Rituals

Four Cities

Film slides

Intensities

Transmission

Hauntology

Transposition

Posture

Parasituation

Lushness

Wetness

Walls & Wells

Ground

Exhibition

Liminality

Sabarmati

Satyagraha

Delhi Gate

Ashram

Salt March

Amdavad

Edinburgh

TLML THE CITIES’ POSTURE Fig.10 Salt Pan Workers.

Salt March Posture Drawings

Economy

Dwelling

Scale 1:50

Section Through Delhi Gate,

BUILDING All the posture drawings can be found in Archive 1 with respective titles, postures and anatomies.

Series of Ashram postures portray how Gandhi inhabit the space within: brick flooring for the terrace where Gandhi used to sleep; the spinning wheel which is the part of the Ashram activity and Indian textile industry; the window screens to provide comfortable shading for the house. Series of Delhi Gate posture drawings imagined past and present function of the walled gate: the connection and the separations between two areas by the existed wall; the traffic oriented gate with the demolition of the wall; circulation travel through space in/out/up/down the gate. Curious about the Ashram and the Gate, Studio 4 Minto House’s postures were explored. With us being nonstrangers to Minto House, its postures are familiar. We presented our own postures of how we enter Minto House with our research and archive on Ahmedabad.

Rituals

Four Cities

Film slides

Intensities

Transmission

Hauntology

Transposition

Posture

Parasituation

Lushness

Wetness

Walls & Wells

Ground

Exhibition

Liminality

Sabarmati

Satyagraha

Delhi Gate

Scale 1:100

Ashram

Salt March

Amdavad

Edinburgh

THE CITIES’ POSTURE Section Through abarmati Ashram,

Section Through Minto House,

Minto House Exhibition.

A methodology employed to trace The Salt March narrative was through reading the drawings as ghosts of architectural posture and a palimpsest of event. The transposition drawings presented the liminal condition where ghosts took presence in-between the layers. 24

Economy

Dwelling

Rituals

Four Cities

Film slides

Intensities

Transmission

Hauntology

Transposition

Posture

Parasituation

Lushness

Wetness

Walls & Wells

Ground

Exhibition

Liminality

Sabarmati

Satyagraha

Delhi Gate

Ashram

Salt March

Amdavad

Edinburgh

THE CITIES’ POSTURE TRANSPOSING POSTURE

THE CITIES’ POSTURE

Economy

Dwelling

Rituals

Four Cities

Film slides

Intensities

Transmission

Hauntology

Transposition

Posture

Parasituation

Lushness

Wetness

Walls & Wells

Ground

Exhibition

Liminality

Sabarmati

Satyagraha

Delhi Gate

Ashram

Salt March

Amdavad

Edinburgh

THE CITIES’ POSTURE

Economy

Dwelling

Rituals

Four Cities

Film slides

Intensities

Transmission

Hauntology

Transposition

Posture

Parasituation

Lushness

Wetness

Walls & Wells

Ground

Exhibition

Liminality

Sabarmati

Satyagraha

Delhi Gate

Ashram

Salt March

Amdavad

Edinburgh

Haunted tectonic model

The method of transposing posture was initially developed through extracting modules of architecture from the ghosts of posture, but quickly developed into its own tectonic language of a hauntology. As an investigation of The Salt March’s posture was this tectonic inherently an architecture of Satyagraha? To test this, the tectonic would need a hegemonic space of invervention in which the architecture, could too, be an act of non-violent resistance. 30

Ghosted modules

Economy

Dwelling

Rituals

Four Cities

Film slides

Intensities

Transmission

Hauntology

Transposition

Posture

Parasituation

Lushness

Wetness

Walls & Wells

Ground

Exhibition

Liminality

Sabarmati

Satyagraha

Delhi Gate

Ashram

Salt March

Amdavad

Edinburgh

THE CITIES’ POSTURE TECTONIC OF HAUNTOLOGY

Tectonic artefacts along The Salt March

In the new possible Salt March City, the 24 programmes are haunted by The Salt March’s ghosts. The programmes facilitates FABB Agencys which contains factory, amenity, bed, and water butt.

32 Salt March City 24 Programmes.

THE CITIES’ POSTURE THE SALT MARCH CITY POSTURE Economy

Dwelling

Rituals

Four Cities

Film slides

Intensities

Transmission

Hauntology

Transposition

Posture

Parasituation

Lushness

Wetness

Walls & Wells

Ground

Exhibition

Liminality

Sabarmati

Satyagraha

Delhi Gate

Ashram

Salt March

Amdavad

Edinburgh

Programme Q, Restaurant, from Salt March City.

Economy

Dwelling

Rituals

Four Cities

Film slides

Intensities

Transmission

Hauntology

Transposition

Posture

Parasituation

Lushness

Wetness

Walls & Wells

Ground

Exhibition

Liminality

Sabarmati

Satyagraha

Delhi Gate

Ashram

Salt March

Amdavad

Edinburgh

THE CITIES’ POSTURE SETTING THE SABARMATI CITY’S POSTURE The Sabarmati river on the carpet is straightened.Yet, from the satellite map, the river runs through the 6 cities in small curvatures. It attempts to implement our perceptions of the continuous riverfront; The Salt March postures and hauntological architecture onto our narratologies and the possible cities. The straightening of the river is phenomenal.We sliced the river into 24 segments which resonated with the 24 days from The Salt March. The segments were then patched onto continuous straight line, while understanding the context of what we are patching through. By studying a series of 24 city sections, we have further enquired the city. It is also to expand the architecture relationships and the narratives to the riverfront and to configure the overall possible urban proposal.

City Drawing & Straightening River with 24 City Sections.

Salt March Territories Projected onto Sabarmati City.

Economy

Dwelling

Rituals

Four Cities

Film slides

Intensities

Transmission

Hauntology

Transposition

Posture

Parasituation

Lushness

Wetness

Walls & Wells

Ground

Exhibition

Liminality

Sabarmati

Satyagraha

Delhi Gate

Ashram

Salt March

Amdavad

Edinburgh

Similar to the Mughal map, this carpet is a phenomenal map, as such, it presents things through the way we perceive them, rather than through satellite images. The straightening of the river “relaxes” the city, while bringing the incidentality of The Salt March onto the riverfront. With the new economy of Narratologies of Ahmedabad, they informed the new liminal condition of the relation between the river and the folk.

Ahmedabad City Carpet Sections and Elevations.

THE CITIES’ POSTURE THE SABARMATI CITY

Ahmedabad City Carpet.

Dandi Crematoruim

Sabarmati Pol

Sabarmati Business District

SERIES OF ENZYMATIC TERRITORIES [SET] SERIALITY OF THE SALT MARCH ARTICULATION OF SET THREE AGENCIES

POINTS AND LINES Stations and paths together form a system. Points and lines, beings and relations. What is interesting might be the construction of the system, the number and disposition of stations and paths. Or it might be the flow of messages passing through the lines. In other words, a complex system can be formally described. - Michel Serres, The Parasite During our retracing of The Salt March on site [year 1 semester 2], ninety years after the event, we recorded our own journey. Taking a photo every second for the 7.88 km walk we compiled these into a video capturing the manifestation of the banal that is not perceived but shapes the everyday experience of Ahmedabad. Using key parts of the everyday such as folk, animals, food, traffic, kites, dust and water this has been transcribed into an etching of the march. To trace The Salt March through contemporary Ahmedabad, the infraordinary offered a means to think about conditions of the city. From the Salt March Film key aspects of the everyday were engraved creating a plan of the present track of The Salt March, using the below slides of traces. We started tracing The Salt March route from Sabarmati Ashram. Along the road parallel to the river, we paused at a local crematorium. Subsequent to the Crematorium, passing through the Delhi Gate there is the stretch of wall that The Salt March passed on the circumference of the old city. When tracing the march in this area we found a phenomenon of urban life where folks dwelled, conversed, played, produced and exchanged. This stretch of intrigue coincided with Measured Intensities as it was an intense site requiring intense measuring.

Dust

Vehicles

Animals

Folk

Food

Water

Kites

Shop Owner with His Stereo.

Economy

Dwelling

Rituals

Four Cities

Film slides

Intensities

Transmission

Hauntology

Transposition

Posture

Parasituation

Lushness

Wetness

Walls & Wells

Ground

Exhibition

Liminality

Sabarmati

Satyagraha

Delhi Gate

Ashram

Salt March

Amdavad

Edinburgh

SET SERIALITY OF THE SALT MARCH

A MARCH THROUGH NARRATOLOGIES

1 2 Using our opportunity of the visit, we researched by drawing, photographing and meeting locals in selected territories in the city. This established the serialities of place, conditions and objects, offering their unique qualities as items in series. Plan of the present track of the salt march.Tracking the salt march, from Sabarmati Ashram to Jamalpur Gate.

Economy

Dwelling

Rituals

Four Cities

Film slides

Intensities

Transmission

Hauntology

Transposition

Posture

Parasituation

Lushness

Wetness

Walls & Wells

Ground

Exhibition

Liminality

Sabarmati

Satyagraha

Delhi Gate

Ashram

Salt March

Amdavad

Edinburgh

SERIALITY OF THE SALT MARCH Ashram Section.

THE SABARMATI ASHRAM The name of the Ashram is derived from Sanskrit. It means “a step in the journey of life”. While the location of an Ashram is usually within the countryside the goal is not to find tranquillity but is a place to live as a selfsustaining community. Within four months of Gandhi’s return to India from South Africa he set up the Sabarmati Ashram on the outskirts of the Walled City of Ahmedabad. The Sabarmati Ashram consists of a group of low, whitewashed huts in a grove of spreading trees. A mile away stands the Sabarmati prison where fighters for India’s freedom were later incarcerated. Below the ashram compound is the river in which women wash their laundry, and cows and buffaloes wade. All around, the scene is a gentle pastoral, but not too distant are the closely packed houses of Ahmedabad hedged in by expanding industry. Ashram Perspective Posture.

Sabarmati Ashram.

Salt March Tracking Ashram.

Weaving Lessons in Ashram .

Economy

Dwelling

Rituals

Four Cities

Film slides

Intensities

Transmission

Hauntology

Transposition

Posture

Parasituation

Lushness

Wetness

Walls & Wells

Ground

Exhibition

Liminality

Sabarmati

Satyagraha

Delhi Gate

Ashram

Salt March

Amdavad

Edinburgh

SERIALITY OF THE SALT MARCH Overlook Towards the Crematorium.

VADAJ CREMATORIUM In traditional Hindu pyre cremations, the body is placed on top of a pile of wood. The body is then covered with more wood and burned in the open air. This method requires around 500kg of wood to burn a single body, a process that can take as long as six hours. Important rituals are carried during cremation. One Mokshda cremation system uses 150kg of wood for each cremation. Yet the system has two obstacles of acceptance for others. For one thing, improving cremation methods is a low priority for cash-strapped municipalities facing a host of public health issues. The other obstacle is the resistance of traditionalists who do not want to mess with a matter as sensitive as the fate of a loved one’s soul. Gas cremation system is considered to be more ecological. Yet, it is not many people’s choice as it diminished the rituals that take place around the body. After two hours, families can collect the ashes.

We came across the existing Vadaj Crematorium by accident. At the end of Dandi Bridge, we walked past an Islamic burial cemetery which arranged toward the Sabarmati River. And it subsequently led us to a fenced area where we were immediately surrounded by fragments of construction sites. On our way towards the Ashram Road, two folks waved at us intended to show us something beyond the half-covered metal sheets. It was to our surprise that beyond those sheets, there was a fully functional crematorium. There are around 7 traditional pyre cremation systems, 3 Mokshda cremation system, a gas cremation system and offices. We have mapped our own journey, starting from the Dandi Bridge to the Crematorium through plan and elevations. This series of the tracking of The Salt March reminded us how the crematorium is very much isolated from the Riverfront Development. And yet, this situation provided an opportunity to create a new crematorium as a territorial agency which will re-engage the territories and the Sabarmati River, while preserving the cremation rituals.

1 2 3 4 5

Sabarmati Ashram Laundry* Ashram Road Dandi Bridge Islamic Burial Cemetery Existing Vadaj Hindu Cremaotium

* Sabarmati Ashram Laundry is our year 1 semester 1 design project to re-initiate the Ashram to the Sabarmati River. Project will be discussed further in Building Chapter.

Dandi Bridge.

Plan Tracking of Ashram - Dandi Bridge - Vadaj Crematorium.

SERIALITY OF THE SALT MARCH

48 1

1 2 3 4 5 6

Dandi Bridge Burial Cemetery Mokshda Cremation System Traditional Cremation System Gas Cremation System Radial Water Collector

A Mapping of the Journey between Dandi Bridge to Crematorium in Elevation.

Economy

Dwelling

Rituals

Four Cities

Film slides

Intensities

Transmission

Hauntology

Transposition

Posture

Parasituation

Lushness

Wetness

Walls & Wells

Ground

Exhibition

Liminality

Sabarmati

Satyagraha

Delhi Gate

Ashram

Salt March

Amdavad

Edinburgh

THE SALT MARCH CONSEQUENTLY INTRUDED THE PLACE AND REDEFINED ITS ONTOLOGIES BY EMPHASISING THE CONNECTION BETWEEN DANDI BRIDGE, THE CREMATORIUM AND SABARMATI RIVER.

5 7 6

IN-BETWEEN SHAHPUR GATE TO DELHI GATE In Measured Intensities research, we focused on the area between Shahpur Gate and Delhi Gate. As the wall was in varying states, a seriality of wall condition was studied. The first condition we approached was the presence of a void; in place of the wall was the metro underground construction. The next condition was the absence of wall, but the creation of communal amenity, used by locals as a place to play, chat and dye kite strings. The final condition was the existing wall encrusted in a new skin of construction with space for mechanics workshops and local retailers. Map of Journey from Shahpur Gate to Delhi Gate.

Economy

Dwelling

Rituals

Four Cities

Film slides

Intensities

Transmission

Hauntology

Transposition

Posture

Parasituation

Lushness

Wetness

Walls & Wells

Ground

Exhibition

Liminality

Sabarmati

Satyagraha

Delhi Gate

Ashram

Salt March

Amdavad

Edinburgh

SERIALITY OF THE SALT MARCH

Journery Photographs.

SERIALITY OF THE SALT MARCH

52 Underground Metro Section [Absent/Butt*]. Workshop [Factory*].

Step Section [Amenity*]. Thickness of Pols [Beds*].

UNDERGROUND METRO [BUTT] THICKNESS OF POLS [BEDS]

Economy

Dwelling

Rituals

Four Cities

Film slides

Intensities

Transmission

Hauntology

Transposition

Posture

Parasituation

Lushness

Wetness

Walls & Wells

Ground

Exhibition

Liminality

Sabarmati

Satyagraha

Delhi Gate

Ashram

Salt March

Amdavad

Edinburgh

The old wall no longer serves as a boundary of the city, between inside and outside, but has become grounded. The ground is manifested through the seriality of void, stepped and encrusted ground conditions. In addition to the ground conditions there is the wall created by the thickness of the pols. The quality of the pols is reliant on public space. The seriality of ground created a spine of amenities for the housing surrounding it, offering the a programme of pols that connects the territory together, as our second agency. The first condition approached was the metro underground construction site. While in its current territory it is for transport infrastructure, its qualities can be repurpossed for the riverfront. The quality of cutting into and subtraction of ground, gave way to its morphology as an infrastructure of wetness in creating a channel for water.

The thickness of the pols is a key quality of urban life in Ahmedabad. The density was most explicit when led through a doorway to be shown a hidden Hindu Temple. The tree and temple sharing the small courtyard in tight proximity is a testament to the thickness of the pols. This is an essential consideration when transmitting the qualities to the expansive Sabarmati Riverfront Development.

The final condition was the existing wall encrusted in a new skin of piecemeal construction creating space for mechanics workshops and local retailers. The adaptation of existing ground as structure through encrustation is the quality this ground condition possesses for using it as a design tool.

The next condition was the absence of ground which created a communal amenity. The noticeable height difference between the new and old city creates the necessity for steps. The removal of the layers of the city in this area created a unique public space, which otherwise would not be possible in the swollen Walled City.

STEP [AMENITY]

WORKSHOP [FACTORY]

Economy

Dwelling

Rituals

Four Cities

Film slides

Intensities

Transmission

Hauntology

Transposition

Posture

Parasituation

Lushness

Wetness

Walls & Wells

Ground

Exhibition

Liminality

Sabarmati

Satyagraha

Delhi Gate

Ashram

Salt March

Amdavad

Edinburgh

SERIALITY OF THE SALT MARCH “The shifting section of the terrain reveals its multiple ground planes intersecting, reinforcing, or else contradicting one another to produce a new set of volumes, linking these fragments of the past to conditions of the present.” - Robin Dripps, Groundwork

Ground Condition Tra

ansmission Model.

Sabarmati River

River Bank Reclaimed Land

East River Bank Road

UNDEVELOPED RIVERFRONT SECTION As The Salt March traced the old wall, it opens a dialogue between the present territory and the proposed territory of the new wall of the Sabarmati Riverfront Project. To play out the transposition of the territory it will be influenced by the cosmological scale of the film slides as it goes towards the river. It is an architecture of the ghost of Gandhi through The Salt March and seriality through the ground condition and slides. An urban proposal of seriality and event to add the texture of the Narratologies of Ahmedabad to the Sabarmati riverfront.

Location infrastructure diagram

Economy

Dwelling

Rituals

Four Cities

Film slides

Intensities

Transmission

Hauntology

Transposition

Posture

Parasituation

Lushness

Wetness

Walls & Wells

Ground

Exhibition

Liminality

Sabarmati

Satyagraha

Delhi Gate

Ashram

Salt March

Amdavad

Edinburgh

SERIALITY OF THE SALT MARCH

Fig 13.

2 6

10 11

Transmitted Agency

1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10. 11.

Marine Land (L.A.) The Chinese Theatre (L.A.) East India Frigate (Unknown) Castle Esplanade (Edinburgh) Encrusted (Ground) Stepped (Ground) Void (Ground) Workshop (Ahmedabad) Square (Ahmedabad) Butt (Ahmedabad) Pols (Ahmedabad)

Sabarmati Pol Concept Plan

DELHI GATE Around the Delhi Gate there is a second-hand clothing market. The market consists of approximately 150 vendors, which occupy a part of the road adjacent to Delhi Gate every day, mainly selling second-hand clothing. It is hard to determine the boundary of the market, as it extends to the kite sellers on the other side of the road and lari carts selling food, which move around. The market is a situative entity, as by the time it ends in the evening almost no trace of its existence can be found. It can also be said, that the market is a singular event, that renders itself as new every day, at least it is an impression that it leaves. The intense condition between the road and the traffic creates a chaotic clash of territories. This situation encouraged us to relocate the market (which in the absence of space was actually occupying two lines of a big traffic road) to some other place as the third agency. The contrast between the overwhelming old and the underwhelming new made us choose the Riverfront as a point of destination for the Delhi Gate Market, which was based on our discovery of the steps phenomena - in Ahmedabad, in order to create a place out of a chaos, it takes one to take something away, rather than to add. 58

Economy

Dwelling

Rituals

Four Cities

Film slides

Intensities

Transmission

Hauntology

Transposition

Posture

Parasituation

Lushness

Wetness

Walls & Wells

Ground

Exhibition

Liminality

Sabarmati

Satyagraha

Delhi Gate

Ashram

Salt March

Amdavad

Edinburgh

SERIALITY OF THE SALT MARCH Second-hand Clothing Market & Kite Shop.

Delhi Gate Elevation.

Delhi Gate Section & Delhi Gate Site Plan.

SERIALITY OF THE SALT MARCH Market Papadom Seller 1/2.

Economy

Dwelling

Rituals

Four Cities

Film slides

Intensities

Transmission

Hauntology

Transposition

Posture

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Lushness

Wetness

Walls & Wells

Ground

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Liminality

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Satyagraha

Delhi Gate

Ashram

Salt March

Amdavad

Edinburgh

Market Papadom Seller 2/2.

Economy

Dwelling

Rituals

Four Cities

Film slides

Intensities

Transmission

Hauntology

Transposition

Posture

Parasituation

Lushness

Wetness

Walls & Wells

Ground

Exhibition

Liminality

Sabarmati

Satyagraha

Delhi Gate

Ashram

Salt March

Amdavad

Edinburgh

SERIALITY OF THE SALT MARCH Sunday Market and the Riverfront.

SUNDAY MARKET AND RIVERFRONT The new location of the market on the Riverfront City was found through manipulations of the optical devices and transmission systems. Delhi Gate riverfront market was dragged into the area between the river and the Sunday Market, both relocating the Delhi Gate market and altering existing topography of the site. The project preserved its serial position within the Narratology of Ahmedabad in regards to the fragments of the Salt March and the relation to other Delhi Gate stories. At the same time, it enters the new relationships between Sabarmati riverfront development, the biggest flee market in the city and the space that presents large economic and commercial potential for the city. The Sunday Market was designed as a part of Sabarmati Riverfront project. The site is a 1km long strip laying 62

between Sabarmati river wall and the old walls Ahmedabad. The area hosts around 10,000 vendors every Sunday. It seems like the trees would eventually grow to form an almost continuous canopy of the market, but currently, been trapped within a large thermal mass, the area heats up a lot during the day and the hot air strolls through the market. The riverfront at the site is a series of concrete walls filled in with land on the upper level in order to prevent the city from flooding. The land mass in the middle separates the Market and the Riverfront by almost 200m and is a site for future development of the area.

Riverfront Sunday Market

Sunday Market and Transmission Plan.

THE [LOVING] METROPOLITAN LANDSCAPE SERIALITY OF THE SALT MARCH - MEASURED INTENSITIES

FIGURE 8. Kite String Dying Workers.

NARRATIVES THE SALT MARCH; MEASURED INTENSITIES

Economy

Dwelling

Rituals

Four Cities

Film slides

Intensities

Transmission

Hauntology

Transposition

Posture

Parasituation

Lushness

Wetness

Walls & Wells

Ground

Exhibition

Liminality

Sabarmati

Satyagraha

Delhi Gate

Ashram

Salt March

Amdavad

Edinburgh

SET ARTICULATION OF SET Transmission Experiment.

TRANSMISSIONS AND SITUATIONS The sites involved in transmission model: Sabarmati Ashram Dandi Bridge and Crematorium Perimeter of walled city: mechanics, public square Delhi Gate Clothing Market

These Measured Intensitiy sites stood out by the condition of their extent in the urban fabric. They are not just objects or combinations of objects, but agencies in relation to each other. Something with almost ecstatic effect weaving into the urban context of the city. All of them also present systems of curious complexity to us. We spoke to folk who dwelled there, we surveyed them verbally, optically and conceptually, photographed, flimed, and drew. Through making them present, we aimed to establish the relationships between things that constitute the places. Each place has its own territories boundaries. The territories are in relation to each other through the narrative of The Salt March. The narrative gives them orientation and angle. Each exit from each territories, the Ashram, Dandi Bridge, Crematorium, Workshop, Public Square, Delhi Gate, Clothing Market is narratively connected to the entrance of the consecutive territories. That puts the

places in series. Carrying this in mind, we came back to Edinburgh and tried to elaborate the two ways to represent the seriality of how one site progresses to the next one. 1. Through fragmentation, which is the inevitable fate of places in a narrative. By modelling the fragmentated elements that spoke to us in each consecutive territory, it provides a way of exploring the seriality of the places. 2. Joints at the gaps. They are how one place extends into another. While there are gaps in between territory fragments, between exits and entrances of places, there might be joining pieces of the transition. Just like chapters in a book, our territories show spatial separations. But the chapters can be bound together by narrative, which in relation to our architectural gaps can be bounded together by the physical connections derived from our haunted architectural language.

Territories: Sabarmati Ashram, Dandi Bridge, Crematorium, Workshop, Public Square, Delhi Gate, Clothing Market, unjointed.

Economy

Dwelling

Rituals

Four Cities

Film slides

Intensities

Transmission

Hauntology

Transposition

Posture

Parasituation

Lushness

Wetness

Walls & Wells

Ground

Exhibition

Liminality

Sabarmati

Satyagraha

Delhi Gate

Ashram

Salt March

Amdavad

Edinburgh

ARTICULATION OF SET Slides in Flea Market.

35 MM FILM SLIDES Our aim is to transpose the old city of Ahmedabad to the Riverfront city, by transmitting the territories. The fragmented territories from The Salt March path are dragged towards the Riverfront, the joints between territories act as pivot points. As they move through the Riverfront, a question was raised: what is it that is left behind, and what is it that gets taken? In the Sunday Market next to the Riverfront, we bought 15 picture slides. The slides are about tourists from Ahmedabad who were taking sightseeing pictures as souvenirs around the world. One can imagine the routists being away and trying to gather something memorable to bring back home. In a similar fashion, we aim to bring those places that were captured on the slides to Ahmedabad urban fabric. The slides hold the narratives of travelling, they intend to curate the wonderer through the architecture, by the use of frame and distance. They surpass the distance of the presented places by being means of communication of the 68

images. The slides also hold architectural quality within themselves. They have a scale which is a concentrated ratio of the actual scale of their projection. They have strict proportionality of the margin to the film, as they are meant to be re-enacted in a dark room with a use of a projector. Slides as objects are also optical devices. In such capacity they can be incorporated into architectural production as a reference point of view, forming a vector of projection. We managed to allocate the locations of each slide, and we positioned them to our transmission drawing according to the world position. The titles and the detail on the slides can be found in the respective chapter in Archive 2.

Slides’ World Position to The Transmission Model.

Economy

Dwelling

Rituals

Four Cities

Film slides

Intensities

Transmission

Hauntology

Transposition

Posture

Parasituation

Lushness

Wetness

Walls & Wells

Ground

Exhibition

Liminality

Sabarmati

Satyagraha

Delhi Gate

Ashram

Salt March

Amdavad

Edinburgh

ARTICULATION OF SET The movements, projection and transmission systems are presented on the drawing of the model.* The model aims to form materiality around slides and territories. The model was articulated with the following scales: 1:500 the territories’ urbanscape fragments 1:200 the objects’ relationship in the territories. 1:10,000 the metropolitan 12km of the Riverfront, which runs across the model and holds the territories off the ground. 1:10,000,000 the global scale which is curated by the slides. The slides as optical devices formed projections onto the territories. And it is the vector of the projections that transmits territories into the Riverfront. Projection systems are designed with our understanding and investigation of the slides. For instant, Ashram is allocated with Jaipur’s astrological device slide. The optical device is dragged onto the axis of the Ashram, it appears that the Ashram crosses the condition of the wall, towards the river. The change of territories’ boundaries is the consequence of the homecoming narrative.

* The model was first proposed through digital means, we were not able to finish the physical model due to Covid-19 lockdown. Movement, Projection and Transmission Before and After, in Plan.

Transmission Digital Model Axonometric Drawing, Looking from Sabarmati Ashram.

Economy

Dwelling

Rituals

Four Cities

Film slides

Intensities

Transmission

Hauntology

Transposition

Posture

Parasituation

Lushness

Wetness

Walls & Wells

Ground

Exhibition

Liminality

Sabarmati

Satyagraha

Delhi Gate

Ashram

Salt March

Amdavad

Edinburgh

ARTICULATION OF SET Transmission Model on The Tracking of The Salt March.

THE HAUNTOLOGICAL SERIES Deconstructing narratologies of Ahmedabad allows us to understand and methodologies its narratives. The hauntological series of the Salt March investigates the perception of places as well as the trace of events through posture and transposition. The transmission system dragged the three territories, together with programmes, onto the Riverfront using pivoting joints, through the Slides’ optical device. As such, the haunted new programmes of the Sabarmati City are proposed: Vadaj Crematorium - Dandi Crematorium; Workshop/Public Square - Sabarmati Pols; Delhi Gate/Clothing Market – Sabarmati Business District. A frame from Tracing Salt March film

TLML drawing of Narratologies of Ahmedabad.

FIGURE 11, 12&13. Territories, Transmission & Transposed.

ARTICULATION OF SET

Economy

Dwelling

Rituals

Four Cities

Film slides

Intensities

Transmission

Hauntology

Transposition

Posture

Parasituation

Lushness

Wetness

Walls & Wells

Ground

Exhibition

Liminality

Sabarmati

Satyagraha

Delhi Gate

Ashram

Salt March

Amdavad

Edinburgh

Territories, Transmissioned and Transposed

SET THREE AGENCIES

76 76

Economy

Dwelling

Rituals

Four Cities

Film slides

Intensities

Transmission

Hauntology

Transposition

Posture

Parasituation

Lushness

Wetness

Walls & Wells

Ground

Exhibition

Liminality

Sabarmati

Satyagraha

Delhi Gate

Ashram

Salt March

Amdavad

Edinburgh

Dandi Crematorium Elevation, Sabarmati Pol Elevation, Water Department Building and River Market Elevation. [Arrangement from North to South]

77 77

Economy

Dwelling

Rituals

Four Cities

Film slides

Intensities

Transmission

Hauntology

Transposition

Posture

Parasituation

Lushness

Wetness

Walls & Wells

Ground

Exhibition

Liminality

Sabarmati

Satyagraha

Delhi Gate

Ashram

Salt March

Amdavad

Edinburgh

THREE AGENCIES Dandi Crematorium Elevation from Sabarmati River.

DANDI CREMATORIUM

SET Clay Model.

While using the methodology of Transmission, the existing crematorium is transmitted towards the Sabarmati River with Dandi Bridge as a pivot point. The proposed crematorium is named Dandi Crematorium after The Salt March’s destination, as the crematorium is an extension of The Salt March and Dandi Bridge, as much as the Dandi Bridge becomes the extension of the crematorium. The Salt March narrative consequently intruded the crematorium and redefined its ontologies by emphasising the connection between Dandi Bridge, the Crematorium and Sabarmati River. It aims to reclaim the connection to the Sabarmati River with a water creek while preserving the cremation rituals. It also established a series of liminal boundaries between the public and the private with a wood management programme. The crematorium territory revolved around axes’ connectivities. They establish the boundaries of more private within crematorium with ritual activities, and the boundaries of more public within woodland. The Salt March axis starts from Dandi Bridge, through crematorium, into woodland [park]. The journey

between Dandi Bridge to crematorium is more private for the visitors to cremate their loved ones. While the journey between crematorium to woodland is more public as the visitors finish the ritual ceremony and proceed to chai stall to relax. Yet, there is an intersection between The Salt March axis and the public axis. The public axis starts from Ashram Road, through woodland, to Sabarmati River. In which, the public reside in chai stalls or in the public pavilion which is elevated above the Sabarmati River. The ecological posture of the axes co-existing and their mutual para-situation constantly transposes the boundaries and merges one into another.

Dandi Crematorium Location Plan.

THREE AGENCIES Riverfront Drawing Projection Series.

The Sabarmati City Section.

Economy

Dwelling

Rituals

Four Cities

Film slides

Intensities

Transmission

Hauntology

Transposition

Posture

Parasituation

Lushness

Wetness

Walls & Wells

Ground

Exhibition

Liminality

Sabarmati

Satyagraha

Delhi Gate

Ashram

Salt March

Amdavad

Edinburgh

SABARMATI POL

SET Clay Model.

Having crossed the open banks of the Sabarmati, The Salt March entered the brimming old city. The urban thickness that Gandhi and his followers met were the pols, the housing unique to the Walled City of Ahmedabad. Derived from the Sanskrit word pratoli meaning to enter an enclosed area or the Greek word polis connoting a city of common good, the characteristics of the vernacular housing align with both these conceptions. The communities within each pol are tied together through a commonality; usually a religion, a profession or caste, perhaps this shared relationship could be of something equally connective. The new assemblage for the Sabarmati Pol is an architecture of non-violent resistance to neo-liberal compulsions along the riverfront wall, re-engaging with wetness to reintroduce the liminality between city and Ganga.

Economy

Dwelling

Rituals

Four Cities

Film slides

Intensities

Transmission

Hauntology

Transposition

Posture

Parasituation

Lushness

Wetness

Walls & Wells

Ground

Exhibition

Liminality

Sabarmati

Satyagraha

Delhi Gate

Ashram

Salt March

Amdavad

Edinburgh

THREE AGENCIES Sabarmati Pol Elevation from Sabarmati River.

FIGURE 11. Sabarmati Pol Sabarmati Pol Location Location Plan. Plan

PRODUCED BY AN AUTODESK STUDENT VERSION

THREE AGENCIES PRODUCED BY AN AUTODESK STUDENT VERSION

The Sabarmati City Section.

84 0 1 3 5 10

PRODUCED BY AN AUTODESK STUDENT VERSION

Riverfront Drawing Projection Series.

Economy

Dwelling

Rituals

Four Cities

Film slides

Intensities

Transmission

Hauntology

Transposition

Posture

Parasituation

Lushness

Wetness

Walls & Wells

Ground

Exhibition

Liminality

Sabarmati

Satyagraha

Delhi Gate

Ashram

Salt March

Amdavad

Edinburgh

Economy

Dwelling

Rituals

Four Cities

Film slides

Intensities

Transmission

Hauntology

Transposition

Posture

Parasituation

Lushness

Wetness

Walls & Wells

Ground

Exhibition

Liminality

Sabarmati

Satyagraha

Delhi Gate

Ashram

Salt March

Amdavad

Edinburgh

THREE AGENCIES Riverfront Business District Elevation from Sabarmati River.

SABARMATI BUSINESS DISTRICT SOUTH-NORTH EAST-WEST

Delhi Gate

SET Clay Model.

Sunday Market

The new transmissioned River Markets from the Delhi Gate take up the space in-between the Riverfront area and the Sunday Market. Water creeks cut into Sunday market in order to connect the two territories as well as to provide a hospitality condition. This East-West connection carry the hauntology of the Delhi Gate where the promenades on both sides of the creek are the gateways from one space to another and the trafic bridge overarches the connection. Through the hauntology of the Delhi Gate the relationship of the Northern and Southern walls of the creek were discovered. As the gate allows the passage through the creek, it also turns the landfill mass into a yet another set of wall, therefore bridging the gaps with the gate circulation and the above lines of connection.

The thickness of the newly-established walls turns their tectonic constitution from the walls of seclusion to the walls of PARA-situation. Therefore, the project establishes another set of liminal levels - the bed of the river creek; the level of commercial property roof; everything that goes in-between the two levels.

Sabarmati Business District Location Plan (red dash - Markets).

THREE AGENCIES Riverfront Drawing Projection Series.

The Sabarmati City Section.

Economy

Dwelling

Rituals

Four Cities

Film slides

Intensities

Transmission

Hauntology

Transposition

Posture

Parasituation

Lushness

Wetness

Walls & Wells

Ground

Exhibition

Liminality

Sabarmati

Satyagraha

Delhi Gate

Ashram

Salt March

Amdavad

Edinburgh

BUILDING AND BODY SABARMATI ASHRAM LAUNDRY DANDI CREMATORIUM SABARMATI POL DELHI GATE MARKET SABARMATI BUSINESS DISTRICT

BUILDING AND BODY KEY

Sabarmati Ashram

Dandi Crematorium

Sabarmati Pol

Delhi Gate Market

Sabarmati Business District

Economy

Dwelling

Rituals

Four Cities

Film slides

Intensities

Transmission

Hauntology

Transposition

Posture

Parasituation

Lushness

Wetness

Walls & Wells

Ground

Exhibition

Liminality

Sabarmati

Satyagraha

Delhi Gate

Ashram

Salt March

Amdavad

Edinburgh

BUILDING AND BODY SABARMATI ASHRAM LAUNDRY fig. 14 Dhobi (Washerman).

Ashram Water Collection Sketch.

SABARMATI ASHRAM LAUNDRY Satyagraha for Gandhi is self-discipline and selfsustaining. The perception of self-rule is the one where people discipline themselves by honest labour, but also contribute to the local community. That is the basis on which the Ashram was built. That is what we aim to revive in our programme. The unrestrained Sabarmati is a seasonal river. When dried, it was a road, a playground and a market. Whilst in Monsoon season Sabarmati would fill up, women would wash their laundry, and cows and buffaloes would wade. Water butt in household provides drinkable water. This everyday practice is essential to the daily routine, and the programme aims to bring this together. In addition, tectonics of wetness is investigated to aid our designs.

The daily task of washing clothes is part of the Sabarmati Ashram proposal, this is to function in parallel to the market to wash the worn clothes in preparation for Delhi Gate market, reintroducing the engagement of washing clothes in the water of the Sabarmati.

Ashram Posture Drawings & Ashram Posture Drawings Transposed

Water is collected through various means for different purposes. In the laundry campus water is collected from rain and the Sabarmati river. During the monsoon water is attained through the courtyard of the Ashram, filtered for drinking throughout the year. To provide water for the washing of clothes, water is collected from the river as the level fluctuates and the underground filters clean it through.

Sabarmati Ashram Laundry Monsoon Section.

Economy

Dwelling

Rituals

Four Cities

Film slides

Intensities

Transmission

Hauntology

Transposition

Posture

Parasituation

Lushness

Wetness

Walls & Wells

Ground

Exhibition

Liminality

Sabarmati

Satyagraha

Delhi Gate

Ashram

Salt March

Amdavad

Edinburgh

SABARMATI ASHRAM LAUNDRY WATER COLLECTION

SABARMATI ASHRAM LAUNDRY Sabarmati Ashram Laundry Cross Section.

Sabarmati Ashram Laundry Plan

Economy

Dwelling

Rituals

Four Cities

Film slides

Intensities

Transmission

Hauntology

Transposition

Posture

Parasituation

Lushness

Wetness

Walls & Wells

Ground

Exhibition

Liminality

Sabarmati

Satyagraha

Delhi Gate

Ashram

Salt March

Amdavad

Edinburgh

Sabarmati Ashram Laundry Model on Ground Model.

Economy

Dwelling

Rituals

Four Cities

Film slides

Intensities

Transmission

Hauntology

Transposition

Posture

Parasituation

Lushness

Wetness

Walls & Wells

Ground

Exhibition

Liminality

Sabarmati

Satyagraha

Delhi Gate

Ashram

Salt March

Amdavad

Edinburgh

BUILDING AND BODY DANDI CREMATORIUM Dandi Crematorium Riverfront Collage.

NARRATOLOGY OF RITUALS Gandhi and his followers marched from the Ashram through Dandi Bridge and the crematorium site before entering the old city. Similar to how the Ashram Laundry parasites the riverfront and the Sabarmati River, Dandi Crematorium acts as a part of the Sabarmati Riverfront City proposal to re-engage the Sabarmati River with narratology of rituals and narratives of the in-between spaces. Indian rituals are always respected, and they never completely disappear. In Hinduism, the belief is that life is based on illusion of being in samsara, which is conditioned by karma. Yet souls are able to liberate from samsara by cremation. Cremation is a part of the rituals that is able to reincarnate the souls to the next level, and to give the souls the freedom from their past life’s sins. In this rite of passage, it required the combination 102

of fire and water – fire for escape, and water to rebirth. Therefore, dying in Hinduism is not the end of life, it is the beginning. Carrying this main narrative, this project aims to renew the journey of the existing crematorium by reestablishing the relation between the city of living and the city of death through water, boundaries and ecology. The in-between condition of the living and the dead makes up a series of soft boundaries as they rely on each other. One of the liminal transpositions across the territory is the local trees planted on site. Some are coppiced as demand to provide the firewood, and yet, they provide the space for the living, shaping a park with chai stalls.

Dandi Crematorium Ground Floor Plan.

103

In Islamic culture, people believe in physical resurrection of the body on Judgement Day. “To God we belong and to Him we shall return” (Quran 2:156). It reminds one of their origin and ultimate destiny. And deaths becomes a part of a continuum where it stretches to infinity. Therefore, the faith prohibits cremation. And the rituals involve burial and prayers. Whilst, in Hinduism the belief is that life is based on illusion, enabling a person to believe he is an autonomous being in samsara (cycle of life) which is conditioned by karma. Yet, some souls would break through the illusion of samsara from the present life to achieve moksha (liberation). Moksha is freedom from karma and samsara. In Hinduism ritual, reincarnation and cremation are tightly connected. Cremation is to free the soul from the body, enabling its journey to the next level, which aim to let the reincarnated soul liberate from the repeated sins of samsara. Therefore, the rituals would combine fire (escape) and water (rebirth).

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fig. 15 Gajendra Moksha.

Economy

Dwelling

Rituals

Four Cities

Film slides

Intensities

Transmission

Hauntology

Transposition

Posture

Parasituation

Lushness

Wetness

Walls & Wells

Ground

Exhibition

Liminality

Sabarmati

Satyagraha

Delhi Gate

Ashram

Salt March

Amdavad

Edinburgh

DANDI CREMATORIUM The illustration “Gajendra Moksha” is a symbolic tale in Vaishnavism. In which, the elephant named Gajendra, a human being, enters a lake, samsara, where a crocodile, his sin, clutches his leg. Gajendra remembers Vishnu, who liberates him, rather than his pain and suffer.

In-between Render.

105

Economy

Dwelling

Rituals

Four Cities

Film slides

Intensities

Transmission

Hauntology

Transposition

Posture

Parasituation

Lushness

Wetness

Walls & Wells

Ground

Exhibition

PAVILIONS The final step for the cremation ritual is rebirth. It involves the act of spreading ashes. Pavilions are designed to accommodate this part of the journey. The three pavilions parasited the edge of the river creek. Through the section below the pavilions are programmed from left to right: community pavilion, ritual pavilion and public pavilion. The three pavilions are connected with a continuous timber footbridge elevated above the river creek.

they arrive to the ritual pavilion, where they scatter the ashes closer to the river. The footbridge continues and arrives to the public pavilion. This pavilion is an intersection between the private axis and the public axis. The pavilions’ posture is portrayed as edges of the territory. The overall pavilions and footbridge structures are a reference to the architectonics from Gandhi’s Ghost.

The journey of the pavilion starts from the staircase next to the office. It leads the visitors up to the community pavilion overlooking the crematorium. Consequently,

Pavilion Collage from the Film.

Cremation system

Community Pavilion

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Liminality

Sabarmati

Satyagraha

Delhi Gate

Ashram

Salt March

Amdavad

Edinburgh

DANDI CREMATORIUM

“When you spread the ashes in the river, you know it is over. A deep acceptance of death happens for the living – and it is also for the dead.” Sadhguru

Ritual Pavilion

Public Pavilion

Pavilion Perspective Model.

107

Economy

Dwelling

Rituals

Four Cities

Film slides

Intensities

Transmission

Hauntology

Transposition

Posture

Parasituation

Lushness

Wetness

Walls & Wells

Ground

Exhibition

Liminality

Sabarmati

Satyagraha

Delhi Gate

Ashram

Salt March

One of the in-between narratives is the combination of the water and the fire. A new cremation system is designed in order to bring the continuity of structure on site, while residing next to the Sabarmati River. The concept of the new cremation system is an adaptation of the existing Mokshda cremation system. It also aims to have a series of cremation system constructed under one canopy. Pre-cast concrete canopy is designed to hold the series of chimneys together, supported by metal columns. With the slanted canopy, it gives shading and provides operative temperature under the structure. The cremation system operates similarly to the Mokshda system. The body would be placed on top of wood logs. The wood logs are piled on a metal apparatus, which is placed on a small concrete platform. Each cremation takes around 2-3 hours. The remains would then be collected and handed to the families.

Cremation Render.

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Amdavad

Edinburgh

DANDI CREMATORIUM Cremation Collage from the Film.

NEW SERIALITY OF CREMATION

109

With the development of the cremation system structure, the wood usage per cremation is similar to that of the Mokshda system. In the old Vadaj Crematroium, they have the transported firewood placed on the floor next to their office building and waiting to be used. And the amount of wood being used and being transported creates unnecessary energy waste. Thus, a new programme for Dandi Crematorium is revised. a) wood is produced on site and across Sabarmati Riverfront City; b) a route for wood transportation, open plan to unload fresh cut wood; c) building envelope for wood to dry and to be stored; d) office to manage wood production system, security and archive. The woodland between the Ashram Road and the crematorium is planted with Gujarat local trees. Workers cut the wood on demands. An 18-meter height tower is designed to store 6 months’ worth of wood supply. By the tower’s entrance, there is an open space for wood logs being taken in the tower, and out of the tower to the cremation systems. Adjacent to these activities, there is an office for record keeping.

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Crematorium Back Render.

Economy

Dwelling

Rituals

Four Cities

Film slides

Intensities

Transmission

Hauntology

Transposition

Posture

Parasituation

Lushness

Wetness

Walls & Wells

Ground

Exhibition

Liminality

Sabarmati

Satyagraha

Delhi Gate

Ashram

Salt March

Amdavad

Edinburgh

DANDI CREMATORIUM WOOD SUPPLY FOR CREMATORIUM

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A total of six types of local trees are planted around the crematorium, in which, four types are for firewood productions, the other two types are planted to improve the surround environment. The four types of firewood are: Arabic tree, East Indian Walnut, Axlewood and White Bark Acacia, for their easy accessibilities, approciate heights and good firewood qualities. The other two species for environmental purpuse are: Palash and Candahar tree. a. Acacia. nilotica subsp. Indica [Gum Arabic Tree] b. Albizia lebbeck [East IndianWalnut] c. Anogeissus latifolia [Axle wood] d. Acacia Leucophloea [White Bark Acacia] e. Butea monosperma [Palash] The orange coloured flowers are crushed and used to make dyesfor religious festivals such as the festival of colours (Holi), interior paint and even has a role in funerary rituals. f. Gmelina arborea [Candahar tree] This plant species can be used to grown to protect environment against increasing concentrate of CO2.

112

Economy

Dwelling

Rituals

Four Cities

Film slides

Intensities

Transmission

Hauntology

Transposition

Posture

Parasituation

Lushness

Wetness

Walls & Wells

Ground

Exhibition

Liminality

Sabarmati

Satyagraha

Delhi Gate

Ashram

Salt March

Amdavad

Edinburgh

DANDI CREMATORIUM a

Tree Elevation Study.

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The trees grow around the site and are cut using coppicing method - the trees are cut at around 30cm above ground. It allows tree stump to grow more branches much quicker. The locally planted wood would be cut, stored and ordered in the wood storage tower. When the quantity of wood is demanded from the on-site cremation, the dried wood logs from the tower would be

Wood Burning [d]

114 114

Wood Transportation on-site [c]

Wood Storage

Economy

Dwelling

Rituals

Four Cities

Film slides

Intensities

Transmission

Hauntology

Transposition

Posture

Parasituation

Lushness

Wetness

Walls & Wells

Ground

Exhibition

Liminality

Sabarmati

Satyagraha

Delhi Gate

Ashram

Salt March

Amdavad

Edinburgh

DANDI CREMATORIUM

This wood management programme generated a new narrative of cycle of life as one of the in-between narratives. It sits between the cremation system and the growing trees, offering architectonics of the cycle of life [trees, humans].

transported down with a pully system and be wheeled to the designated cremation system. All trees are spaced at around 3x3m to 5x5m allowing them to breath and grow. At the same time, arrangement of trees offers liminary spaces for stone pavements in the woodland for public and visitors.

Wood Cutting [b]

Local Plantation [a]

Grid: Combined with 1x1m squares, arranged as a measuring device

[c]

[b]

[a]

Coppicing

Foliage: It is an important feature of a forest ecosystem. Foliage would invite micro-organism to decompose and positively impact the quality of the soil.

One Tree Manual.

[e]

ONE TREE MANUAL

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The freshly cut trees or trees that are transported from the Sabarmati Riverfront City plantation, are stored in layers of the 18-meter-tall tower. The tower is designed to store up to 6 months of wood supply for all 6 of the cremation systems on site. It is constructed with concrete framework and perforated brick skin to provide air ventilation to dry the wood. The wood logs are arranged cord by cord, on top of the concrete shelving. The roof platform offers an amenity space to overlook the city. The tectonic of wood storage system is referred to as the Delhi Gate Market Storage design. The shelves on both Delhi Gate and the wood storage tower run along the wall structure. And they both have circulation dictated by the shelves. The wood storage tower also has a pulley system suspended from the horizontal beam allowing workers to bring the supply to and from the ground level. 116

Economy

Dwelling

Rituals

Four Cities

Film slides

Intensities

Transmission

Hauntology

Transposition

Posture

Parasituation

Lushness

Wetness

Walls & Wells

Ground

Exhibition

Liminality

Sabarmati

Satyagraha

Delhi Gate

Ashram

Salt March

Amdavad

Edinburgh

Wood Storage Tower Collage from the Film.

DANDI CREMATORIUM WOOD STORAGE TOWER

Wood Storage Tower Model.

117

DANDI CREMATORIUM

118 Wood Storage Tower Perspective Model.

Economy

Dwelling

Rituals

Four Cities

Film slides

Intensities

Transmission

Hauntology

Transposition

Posture

Parasituation

Lushness

Wetness

Walls & Wells

Ground

Exhibition

Liminality

Sabarmati

Satyagraha

Delhi Gate

Ashram

Salt March

Amdavad

Edinburgh

The perforated brick envelopes the tower and diffuses sunlight during the day, allowing natural wind to speed up the drying process. The wood logs become yet another skin of the tower. The are constantly required throughout the day, and the layering becomes more significant as the movement of the wood logs presents through the perforated brick skins. Each floor has a walkable timber surface and two layers of shelving. The circulation takes place in the middle of the tower. The tower’s roof collects the monsoon wetness. During the season, the rainwater runs down to the lower roof adjacent to the tower, consequently to the gutter in the middle of the cremation ground thus forming a series of rainwater walls.

Crematorium Ground Floor Plan, 2nd Floor Plan, 4th Floor Plan.

Tower Skin Detail Render.

VERTICAL LAYERING

119

DANDI CREMATORIUM

122 Crematorium Exploded Drawing.

Economy

Dwelling

Rituals

Four Cities

Film slides

Intensities

Transmission

Hauntology

Transposition

Posture

Parasituation

Lushness

Wetness

Walls & Wells

Ground

Exhibition

Liminality

Sabarmati

Satyagraha

Delhi Gate

Ashram

Salt March

Amdavad

Edinburgh

LONGITUDINAL CONSTITUTION While each timber system presents the possibility for one or another narrative to be played out, the tower is where multiple narratologies come to be, as such, the tower holds a much thicker material presence.

Community Pavilion Tower and Office Elevation.

Footbridge Staricase

Crematorium Ground Floor Plan.

The timber architecture along the axis aids two narratives. One is the narrative of guiding The Salt March, and another narrative is the narrative of the rituals. The rituals take place parallel to the timber, and the timber structure creates the possibilities of seclusion as well as openness by the nature of the frame. Behind the frame one can choose whether to be absent through its thickness, or present throug its voids. The breathing tectonics of the timber screens transposes different situations of human postures.

Office

Open Space forWood Transportation

Wood Storage Tower

123

DANDI CREMATORIUM Between the Rituals of Life and Death from Film Act II.

124

Economy

Dwelling

Rituals

Four Cities

Film slides

Intensities

Transmission

Hauntology

Transposition

Posture

Parasituation

Lushness

Wetness

Walls & Wells

Ground

Exhibition

Liminality

Sabarmati

Satyagraha

Delhi Gate

Ashram

Salt March

Amdavad

Edinburgh

125

LIMINARY BOUNDARIES The continuation of The Salt March narrative and the ritual narrative intersect with the narrative of liminary boundaries. The woodland around the crematorium site can be seen as a park for the public. Yet it is not an ordinary park as the trees that are planted are for firewood production. The chai stalls in the park offer the intersection between the public and the private. For the crematorium visitors, it offers the final chapter for the ritual ceremony.

126

Economy

Dwelling

Rituals

Four Cities

Film slides

Intensities

Transmission

Hauntology

Transposition

Posture

Parasituation

Lushness

Wetness

Walls & Wells

Ground

Exhibition

Liminality

Sabarmati

Satyagraha

Delhi Gate

Ashram

Salt March

Amdavad

Edinburgh

DANDI CREMATORIUM Woodland|Park Collage from the Film.

127

Economy

Dwelling

Rituals

Four Cities

Film slides

Intensities

Transmission

Hauntology

Transposition

Posture

Parasituation

Lushness

Wetness

Walls & Wells

Ground

Exhibition

Liminality

Sabarmati

Satyagraha

Delhi Gate

Ashram

Salt March

Amdavad

Edinburgh

BUILDING AND BODY SABARMATI POL Hauntology on the Riverfront

SATYAGRAHA AND THE SABARMATI Narratologies of Ahmedabad provides a connective tissue for Sabarmati Pol using the hauntology of The Salt March as a tectonic. While this programme could not previously exist on the temporal Sabarmati, the riverfront wall provides a new space for parasitic intervention of liminality. This proposed architecture is of thickness, thresholds, texture and lushness, antithetical to the current condition. The territory mediates the two adverse infrastructures of the stagnant Sabarmati and polluted road through the programme as a FABB Agency. Sabarmati Pol is a community with an e-rickshaw conversion workshops [factory], market and community space [amenity], contemporary pol dwellings [bed] and systems of wetness [butt].

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Ground Floor Plan

131

SABARMATI POL Wall relief

Riverfront approach

EDGE CONDITION

Using the seriality of the Measured Intensities with its unique qualities of territory the site of the riverfront wall is encrusted, stepped, and cut to create relief.

132

Economy

Dwelling

Rituals

Four Cities

Film slides

Intensities

Transmission

Hauntology

Transposition

Posture

Parasituation

Lushness

Wetness

Walls & Wells

Ground

Exhibition

Liminality

Sabarmati

Satyagraha

Delhi Gate

Ashram

Salt March

Amdavad

Edinburgh

Worms eye view

133

Whether it is inside the dwellings or in an adjacent space pols typically have a productive functionality. With the polluted east bank road next to the site the workshop space is an ideal place to test the possibility of an e-rickshaw conversion workshop and charging stations. Not only is this a unique offering to the city, but fits in with Sabarmati pols environmental strategy of traversing wetness.

134

Detail Model and Film Stills of workshop spaces

Economy

Dwelling

Rituals

Four Cities

Film slides

Intensities

Transmission

Hauntology

Transposition

Posture

Parasituation

Lushness

Wetness

Walls & Wells

Ground

Exhibition

Liminality

Sabarmati

Satyagraha

Delhi Gate

Ashram

Salt March

Amdavad

Edinburgh

SABARMATI POL E-RICKSHAW CONVERSION WORKSHOP [FACTORY]

Rickshaw approach

135

Economy

Dwelling

Rituals

Four Cities

Film slides

Intensities

Transmission

Hauntology

Transposition

Posture

Parasituation

Lushness

Wetness

Walls & Wells

Ground

Exhibition

Liminality

Sabarmati

Satyagraha

Delhi Gate

Ashram

Salt March

Amdavad

Edinburgh

SABARMATI POL KITE PLATFORM

PUBLIC SPACE [AMENITY] While Sabarmati Pol offers private spaces for dwellings and quiet spaces for contemplation there are also plenty of public spaces of amenity. Similar to Measured Intensities there is a stepped area in which kids can play, people can meet and where kite strings can be dyed. In addition to this there are public toilets, cafes and market space. The walkway serves to shelter the amenity spaces from the hot sun, and serves as high ground where kites can be flown and folk can occupy if the promenade is flooded. 136

STEPPED SQUARE

RICKSHAW WORKSHOPS

137

Traditional Pol housing has a range of names used for particular rooms, however, these designations are not so much functions of spaces but thresholds of privacy.The experience of entering into the pols should have the perception of increased privacy. This is a key spatial feature, where boundaries aren’t separated by gates and doors but by a tightly connected community.

138

Pol near Delhi Gate

Economy

Dwelling

Rituals

Four Cities

Film slides

Intensities

Transmission

Hauntology

Transposition

Posture

Parasituation

Lushness

Wetness

Walls & Wells

Ground

Exhibition

Liminality

Sabarmati

Satyagraha

Delhi Gate

Ashram

Salt March

Amdavad

Edinburgh

SABARMATI POL POLS [BEDS]

Paper section visualising the height change through the enclosed street and courtyard of the pol

139

Taanka is the traditional name given to rainwater collection butts. The tanks were traditional systems of Pols collecting rainwater to use within the dwellings. The surrounding roofscapes were designed to harness the maximum surface area.

140

Detail model of courtyard and taanka

Economy

Dwelling

Rituals

Four Cities

Film slides

Intensities

Transmission

Hauntology

Transposition

Posture

Parasituation

Lushness

Wetness

Walls & Wells

Ground

Exhibition

Liminality

Sabarmati

Satyagraha

Delhi Gate

Ashram

Salt March

Amdavad

Edinburgh

SABARMATI POL TAANKA [BUTT]

Site section and building section highlighting a similar relation to wetness with the Sabarmati, channels and tanks.

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POSTURE OF WETNESS Da Cunha challenges the conception of the line separating land and water in plan. The tidy demarcation of this boundary is in contrast to the ubiquitous reality of wetness. The Riverfront Development is this line that separates land from water. As part of this project an aim is to reconnect the city and the wetness through discontinuations in the line. When illustrated in section wetness regains a new capacity in which precipitation becomes its key manifestation. This shift from bodies of water creates a different dynamic within the four stages of wetness in operation. This sectional understanding of the cycle should be how wetness is conceived within the wetness of Ahmedabad.

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Site with peak flood level

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SABARMATI POL Sabarmati Pol and 35mm slide: Marine Land, L.A. collage

Monsoon Section

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TEXTURE To respond to the environmental thickening, the elevation facing the river front is correspondingly compact and castellated.With brick as the primary vertical construction material the residential elements are rendered with lime to indicate the function and provide a visually concise appearance. While the building appears monolithic on the west elevation there are still intended to be moments of timber frame that hount the front, behind and around.This textural appearance is key to delineate the vast expanse of the Riverfront offering shading and amenities. Unfolded elevation study

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SABARMATI POL Thick exterior facing building elevation

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The two speculative cores of Delhi Gate proved a valuable resource as it re-framed this building thetically. Through the process of scaling and transposing it gave way to an early conception of this building. With the thick walls creating a traversable thickness it created a tectonic device that could be used for the water gutters and courtyard balconies.

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Seriality of section

First Floor Plan

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SABARMATI POL TRAVERSING WETNESS

Roof Plan

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SABARMATI POL

Retaining wall module

Sketch of fragmented elements and drainage channels

PRODUCED BY AN AUTODESK STUDENT VERSION

Existing riverfront wall

GROUND HAUNTOLOGY An 83m stretch of the recently poured reinforced wall will need to be removed to open up the Sabarmati Pol site. With consideration for the volume of these elements, this creates 688m3 of potential material for re-purposing. Unfortunately due to the weight they cannot be moved as whole, however, it does provide the opportunity for it to be broken up and used as fragments. With consideration during deconstruction the breaking up of the Riverfront wall can be arranged throughout the site to lead like The Salt Mach did. While this may be laborious task there are benefits such as it is an already available resource which, once its laid, will provide a permeable surface that can channel water during the monsoon. 150

Surface Hauntology Schedule

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PRODUCED BY AN AUTODESK STUDENT VERSION

SABARMATI POL

PRODUCED BY AN AUTODESK STUDENT VERSION

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Timber

Load Bearing Brick

Concrete Floor Slab

CONSTRUCTING HAUNTOLOGY The primary structural elements and their connections are investigated in the Parts Schedule. The series of drawings are conceived as a translucent sections for each primary construction material Planted balconies and roof garden

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SABARMATI POL

Precast Concrete

Ghosted Materiality

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Textile Market.

DELHI GATE MARKET From Sabarmati Ashram to Delhi Gate, other than The tracking of The Salt March, we are reconnecting them programmatically. We designed a shelving in Delhi Gate to offer storage for new textile or second hand clothes which were washed in the Sabarmati Ashram Laundry. Investigating Delhi Gate wall thickness through its posture, we came up with a method to remove the inside of its towers and place a market storage in, thus reviving the guearding funstion of the gate.

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BUILDING AND BODY DELHI GATE MARKET Dandi Crematorium Exploded Axonometric.

Delhi Gate Posture Drawings & Delhi Gate Posture Drawings Overlay.

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The Delhi Gate canopy serves as means to collect water during the monsoon season, channelling it into the left hand side (when entering the city) volume within the gate, providing needed water for the market stall workers. The volume is internally lime lined and externally is structurally retained.

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Delhi Gate Market Monsoon Section.

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DELHI GATE MARKET WATER COLLECTION

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DELHI GATE MARKET Delhi Gate Storage Section & Delhi Gate Wate Collection Section.

Delhi Gate Market Plan.

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Delhi Gate Storage Model.

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BUILDING AND BODY SABARMATI BUSINESS DISTRICT b

Hauntology of the Riverfront

HAUNTOLOGY OF IN-BETWEEN The creeks reaching the Sunday Market are boundaries of transition. They separate the axes of North-South, East-West, river-roof, yet they bridge them together, establishing a system that conditions the transition. The two main narratives at play are the one of neo-liberal global economy and the Satyagraha that stands for the benefit of local economy and community. Amdavad’s narrative of the current Riverfront creates a separation of classes, spaces and positions on the landfill site as an exclusive premium, resting above all as a fortress. By contrast, the Sunday Market seems more like a political compromise between the folk and the government, to prevent losing voters. Its past condition was a situational space emerging as traders and folk gather 164

each Sunday to the dried riverbed. Its new condition is a massive concrete infill restrained by two walls. The Salt March narrative brings the language of the older fortification of Delhi Gate in order to create the liminal condition of the two territories and relieve the boundary. The posture of the gate in the narrative imagined to be a relief as Gandhi passed through it on the day of the March, gathering the Walled City dwellers to join. Yet, the in-between architecture of the creeks does not try to undermine the importance of high-value land for corporations and administration, but rather establish a mutual parasitation as a new urban condition of the Sabarmati City.

Layers of the District: a - Sunday Market b - Business Gardens c - Delhi Gate Circulation d - Delhi Gate Market e - Breathing Promenades f - Creeks

b c

d e f

Liminal wetness and hauntological condition

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5 4 2

3 1 Creek Elevation a

AHMEDABAD WATER DEPARTMENT The liminal levels on the elevation and plan: 1.First level is the average Sabarmati height. 2.Then comes the breathing promenade (a). This is the level of an open public space that allows the transmission between the Sunday Market on one side and the Riverfront on the other. 3.This is the level to which Sabarmati rises during Monsooon. 4.The next level is the level of public spaces, such as Delhi Gate River Market (b). This level is positioned on the edge of rising monsoon wetness and is occupied in relation to seasonal and social cycles. 5.The next level is the Business Garden. Pools (e) and trees ensure a cool environment. As this level is divided by the creeks, it bridges across them with a series of circulation paths (c). 6.The last level is the offices themselves, this chapter will look closely into the office for Ahmedabad Water Department (d).

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SABARMATI BUSINESS DISTRICT

In the Business Garden, the building, through which the Hauntology of In-Between can be better grasped is the Ahmedabad Water Department. Positioned on the central creek and connected with the Delhi Gate Market, the building hosts multiple relationships between the city and the water, the government and the public, the market and the garden, and so on. In the further chapters the relationships are to be dissected to reveal, how the narrative of the in-between hosts the narratologies of Ahmedabad. As a water department, the building also plays a role in the Sabarmati City.

a 2

Water Department in the Business Garden

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DEPARTMENT STRUCTURE Ahmedabad Water Department roles and hierarchy are presented on the right. The department has two branches: water project and water production. The former branch deals with new projects such as construction of new plants and development of strategies, while the latter is responsible for operation on the existing water plants. As such, it is only the water project branch, that would be permanently residing in the building together with department head. The hierarchy is maintained by the allocation of head offices (on the right). In turn, keeping the rest of the layout open to possibilities of splitting it by project teams, providing different arrangements. The public part of the building allows for meetings with members of public as well as with other members of the department. Public Interaction Spaces: a. circulation passage b. market storage c. entrance d. public bathroom e. reception office f. public meeting room

j i

i i

d c j i

g i h

b a

Office space hierarchy: g. cooling circulation h. archive i. regular office j. head office 168

Water Department Plans

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SABARMATI BUSINESS DISTRICT

City Engineer

Head of department.

Water Resource Management

Additional City Engineer Inspection & supervision of all works & administrative works etc.

Inspection and supervision of all office works. Deputy City Engineer Water Project

Deputy City Engineer

Assistant City Engineer

Supervision of all allotted works, administrative works, partial checking of quality control & measurements etc.

Water Production

Supervision of allotted works, Preparing estimate, tendering and 100% checking of measurements & quality assurance of work etc. Assistant Engineer

Correspondence regarding on going works,checking & recording 100% measurement, maintaining all registers, quality assurance of work etc.

Assistant Engineer

Technical Supervisor

Assistant Technical Supervisor

Supervisor

Junior Clerk

Surveyor

To assist the Assistant Engineer, maintaining all registers, quality assurance of work & all the works assigned by dept. etc.

Office Administrator (Peon)

Majoor

Other office staff Main office department allocation Allocated to WTP

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SABARMATI BUSINESS DISTRICT PUBLIC SEMINAR ROOM

170 ENTRANCE

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PUBLIC BATHROOMS

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Entrance Collage from the Film.

This is the space that one first encounters when entering the building. It starts from the road, directing one through the pathway among the trees. The assembly of the space takes reference from Gandhi’s terrace, where he used to receive visitors. Water Department policy states that any visitor is welcome from 3 to 6pm on working days. This space tries to facilitate such policy. While the reception space or the office of the person allocated to the area can be used for smaller discussions, there is a provision of an additional platform, which can be opened up to the reception area with sliding timber screens.

Public office plan.

Sabarmati Ashram

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The space also provides a public bathroom to be operated during the operation of the office. Transparency of the circulation aims to facilitate a safer environment, however, is screened enough to offer relative privacy. Public areas: 1. public bathrooms 2. entrance 3. walkway to the office 4. reception office 5. reception 6. conference extension

PUBLIC RECEPTION

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Sabarmati

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SABARMATI BUSINESS DISTRICT

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LIMINAL PROGRAMMES From left to right: the road is faced with the soft layers of vegetation, which blocks the noise of the road and becomes the threshold for the Business Garden. Next boundary is the public reception with the open conference room seen behind the trees on the section above. The permeable pathway runs all the way from the reception to the circulation area, where the building takes advantage of the wetness and lets it in through perforated brick skins. To prevent the sun from hitting the building, the staircase with the pathways that lead to the offices on the upper floors is offset to the right and its structure forms a sun-shading grid of timber layers.

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The building remains connected to the city as from the top staircase flight the old city can be observed through the opening in the structure. At the same time, the building is positioned in the garden in such a way, that a series of soft boundaries allows a place of seclusion and concentration in the offices.

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SABARMATI BUSINESS DISTRICT Monsoon Section

Circulation Model

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OFFICE INWARDNESS The offices are oriented towards the inner microcosm of the department. The circulation shields them from the inside and their windows face inwards towards the pool. The detail drawing shows the perforated skin between the office (1) and the circulation (2), which can be seen under the light rays penetrating the timber walkway, behind the camera. 176

Breathing detail

Rendering of the office

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SABARMATI BUSINESS DISTRICT 1

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WETNESS TRANSMISSION The tectonics of wetness of the Business Gardens is formed through the relationship between the office buildings (a), the water pools (b) and the river creeks (c). The Water Department architecture reaches down to the river through the plant room on the lower level. The room contains a lab for water testing (1) that ties back to the idea of management of the overall economy of the Sabarmati City. To keep the pools clean there is also a water filtration system installed (2). This system operates through the anatomy of the roof, which is angled to gain solar energy with the PV panels system (4). For that reason the third room in the plant room is related to solar power management (3). Rain water management can be seen here through the series of gutters (5). The gutters collect the water from sloped roofs and channel it into the pool, so that the pool takes advantage of both sky and land water sources.

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3 2 1

Transmission of wetness in plan

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SABARMATI BUSINESS DISTRICT

2 1

Posture of technology of wetness in section

4 4

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Drawing investigate the breathing tectonics of the office spaces creating light and lushness. One can see how the perforations and assemblages of material systems affect the quality of space. While brick and timber build up a specific thickness of walls, they maintain the transparency of layers and allow air exchange. On the higher levels, the lighter blue structures of the timber are absent from under the roof to allow more ventilation. At that stage the PV panels also reach to cantilever over the interiors, while allowing deflected sunlight in.

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SABARMATI BUSINESS DISTRICT LIGHT AND LUSHNESS

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FRAMES AND FUNCTIONS Through the study of the Sabarmati Ashram’s posture a series of timber structures developed. Each one a superposition of thicker and thinner elements and each taking an appropriate form of function within the building. Each frame is a breathing space, as the constitution of them allows the air to pass through and the limited scope of view to occasionally look out into the Business Garden or the Creek.

roof supporting structure (2)

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SABARMATI BUSINESS DISTRICT office wall (1)

section through the liminal programmes

Series of breathing frames: 1. North facing office walls and shelving 2. roof structure 3. market storage shelving 4. external circulation 5. breathing promenade pavement 183

SABARMATI BUSINESS DISTRICT

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section through the liminal programmes

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4 7

9 11

The rotunda footbridge on the right of the Department is the presence of S. Jung Museum from the 35mm films. The building accommodates the uninterrupted wandering through the Business Garden. The Department building makes way for the garden continuity through to the North wall of the creek, while the Delhi Gate haunts the area below, thus creating an opportunity for a performance public ground.

plan through extended territories

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The Water Department channels other territories through itself. The sections on the right present the different ways, in which the boundary of the office become the envelopes for hosting programmes throughout the creek.

The Department also accommodates the Delhi Gate River Market storage, which is not connected to the main office, but is hosted within its walls and extends the hospitality of the structure.

Transposition

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OTHER TERRITORIES

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rotonda footbridge Render (7)

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SABARMATI BUSINESS DISTRICT

11 sections of other ghosts

territories hosted by the Water Department:

territories beyound:

1. entrance 2. reception 3. public conference room 4. Delhi Gate River Market storage 5. passage through to the circulation

6. Delhi Gate circulation to the promenade 7. rotonda footbridge 8. performance area 9. audience 10. large corporate office 11. wetness pool

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SABARMATI BUSINESS DISTRICT Pathway between Storage and Delhi Gate River Market. Collage from the film.

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Market Plan: 1. market storage 2. water department lab 3. pathway from the storage 4. courtyard 5. ramp to the promenade 6. Delhi Gate market

3 6

2 1

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DELHI GATE RIVER MARKET The Market is located on the liminal boundary between the level of the Business Gardens and the level of the Riverfront promenade. The liminal condition of it allows cyclical flooding of two main forces of the Sabarmati City - Ganga and Folk. The Folk is brought by the original Delhi Gate clothing market and floods the space with fabric and clothing every day, while retreating the ribbon stock to the storage at night. Ganga claims the territory every monsoon, making the folk retreats. The path between the storage and the market is shaded and elevated above the flood level, so that the operation is not interrupted by Monsoon.

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SABARMATI BUSINESS DISTRICT Market rendering from Film Act II.

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EPILOGUE

EPILOGUE KEY

Mill Owners Association

Premabhai Ha

all

Kankaria Lake

Calico Mills

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EPILOGUE Proposal for Mill Owner’s Building

Proposal for Premabhai Hall Proposal for Calico Mills

Proposal for Kankaria Lake

EPILOGUE

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Working on the Ahmedabad Carpet we learned of the new territories of the city that have not been enquired before. One of the ways to uncover the new narratives was to cut the sections through the city.

At the end of this stage of the project, what is left is to point out some possible PARA-situations, which were discovered while drawing the sections through the Narratologies.

Drawing the many kilometres of sections, cutting through old and new, different stories started to haunt us. We became more aware of the importance of Gandhi’s Swadeshi movement for the mill owners, far-right politics of current Indian government, the condition of the marshes South of the Vasna Barrage and a Mosque hidden in Pols - resembling an Italian Pallazo. These all constitute the new conditions for the Sabarmati City and new presences of Ahmedabad.

The three territories proposed in the epilogue are the initial attempts to uncover other possibilities within the thesis of this project. Each three of them belong to a different intersection of the cities of Ahmedabad, therefore present new stories within the haunted territories. The Mill Owners’ Association Building site works with the narrative of patronage and tries to re-establish the relationship to wetness as well as set up a new planning paradigm. The Premabhai Hall opens up the opportunity

for a new festival ground, where all the cities take presence within the recurring cultural framework. The Calico Mills site is developed in regard to the wider economy of the Sabarmati City and creates a self sufficient economy together with the Sabarmati Pol rickshaw workshops, while Kankaria Lake site elaborates the presence of the cities in regards to the tourist potential. The more territories, surveys, designs and enquirers are drawn and carried out, the more rich and vibrant the Sabarmati City becomes, uncovering and dwelling on the infinite Narratologies of Ahmedabad.

* 1, 2 3 4 5

7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15, 16, 17

* 1 Sabarmati Ashram/ Sabarmati/ Textile Museum 2 Dandi Crematorium/ Sabarmati/ AMCWater Facilities 3 Dandi Crematorium/ Sabarmati/ AMCWater Facilities 4 Sabarmati/ Sabarmati Pol 5Vadaj Stepwell/ Sabarmati/ Sabarmati Pol 6 Daparna Academy of Performing Arts/ Sabarmati 7 Delhi Gate/ Shahpur Gate/ Gandhi Bridge 8 Sangath/ Cricket Ground/ Sabarmati 9 CEPT/ Sabarmati 10 Sabarmati/ OldWall/ Old Town/ Church 11 Mill Owners Association/ Sabarmati/ OldWall/ Old Town 12 Sabarmati/ OldWall/ Old Town/ House of MG/ Hotel Alka Inn 13 Sabarmati/ OldWall/ Old Town/ Bhadra Fort/ Jama Masjid Mosque 14 Sabarmati/ OldWall/ Old Town/ Premabhai Hall 15 Karnavati Art Gallery/ Sabarmati/ OldWall/ Old Town/ Ahmed Shah’s Mosque 16 Sabarmati/ OldWall/ Bhadra Fort/ Arvind Mills/ Naroda Fruit Market 17 Riverfront Flower Park/ Sabarmati/ Delhi Gate Rivermarket/ Sunday Market/ Old Wall/ Old Town/ Qutbi Masjid/ Astodia Gate 18 Riverfront Flower Park/ Sabarmati/ Delhi Gate Rivermarket/ Sunday Market 19 IIM/ Sabarmati 20 Sabarmati/ Jamalpur Gate 21 Sanskar Kendra/ Tagore Hall/ Sabarmati 22 Sabarmati/ Hazrat Bawa Lavlavi Mosque/ Calico Mills/ Kankaria Lake 23 Sabarmati/ Laundry Campus 24 Sabarmati past theVasna Barage

20, 21 22

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EPILOGUE Mill Owners’ Building

trafic road

private association quarters

MILL OWNER’S PLANNING CENTRE Le Corbusier’s building was originally conceived as a place for the mill owners, where the patrons of the City of Post-Independence Modernity would gather as a society. Through the concrete frame hosting a hanging garden, over the basin of the Sabarmati, the Walled City would enter the building, constantly reminding its occupants of the other cities of Ahmedabad. The Riverfront Project added a strip of land infill in front of the Mill Owners’ building, therefore reducing the liminal layers of its architecture. The proposal is to take control of the territory and reestablish the relationship with Ahmedabad. The next step would be to bridge the two sites with a footbridge above the ground, so that after entering the Mill Owners’ Building, the pathway would carry on

200

constantly framing the Walled City until one would arrive to the secluded gardens of Ahmedabad’s patrons that rests on yet another river creek, providing a series of gardens and rooms to reside. While the association club functions are moved towards the river in a series of more private spaces, the Mill Owner’s Building acts as a signifier of the development of the patronage institution of the Post-Independence City (almost like Uffizi Palace in Florence at the era of Medici).The building can now take function of a centre for urban planning, where folk of Ahmedabad, together with professionals from the very institutions created by the Mill Owner Association members, and the city patrons can come together for the possible future of the city.

Proposal for Mill Owners’ Building Section Drawing

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Edinburgh

EPILOGUE Floating Stage

Festival Office Building

Premabhai Hall and Performance Training Center

CITY PERFORMANCES Premabhai Hall is a stop along the Salt March City, positioned in the very centre of the Walled City. Designed by B.V. Doshi in 1976, it is one of the later buildings that belonged to the City of Modernity. The performance spaces from the hall are imagined to extend from the interior to the old town, the old wall and onto the Sabarmati City through a series of architecture. The Narratologies of Ahmedabad’s architecture parasites on the wall of Premabhai Hall as an agency of amenity. A three-story building is designed adjacent to the building for a performance training programme. In addition, the nearby ground is vacated to accommodate an outdoor performance stage. The architecture continues to march to the Riverfront. The Satyagraha architecture continues to change the edge condition of the Walled City and joins its urban fabric layers.

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A floating stage is designed on the edge of the riverfront to house on-water performances with series of tower overlooking the stage.The building next to it is programmed to be a festival office. It attempts to reconnect the old wall and the Sabarmati River through a series of underground water channel. In which, the river again becomes seasonal with the water collection system in the building, and water cleaning mechanism in the underground channels.

Premabhai Hall Visualisation

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Economy

Dwelling

Rituals

Four Cities

Film slides

Intensities

Transmission

Hauntology

Transposition

Posture

Parasituation

Lushness

Wetness

Walls & Wells

Ground

Exhibition

Liminality

Sabarmati

Satyagraha

Delhi Gate

Ashram

Salt March

Amdavad

Edinburgh

EPILOGUE Calico Mills Industry Section

Kankaria Lake Leisure Section

INDUSTRY AND LEISURE Calico Mills was once a sprawling site of industrial activity under the ownership of Ambalal Sarabhai - who was an early financier of the Sabarmati Ashram and supported of Gandhi. The site included a large water tank on the used wells to distribute the water from the Sabarmati. With the site closing in 1997 the buildings have fallen to disrepair and workers housing have been almost entirely vacated as a result of the services being cut. The proposal for Calico Mills is to re-establish this site as an industrial territory of The Sabarmati City. With a large workforce available in the expanding Ahmedabad and a desire for cleaner transportation the output of this factory is to become the largest e-rickshaw parts manufacturer in India. This will offer the urban proposal a means as it will provide the supply parts to the satellite workshops (e.g. Sabarmati Pol) that will provide the facilities to convert existing rickshaws in a bespoke manner. This factory will once again utilise the existing water system as the surrounding

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riverfront proposal by using it, storing it and furthermore cleaning it and collecting its potential energy when there is a deficit of power. Further along this section is the narrative of the Kankaria Lake, completed in 1451 this decorative lakefront provides amenity to the city. With a redevelopment of facilities in 2008 this area is now a destination for leisure, tourism and events, however, the new amenities (faux trains, funfairs and balloon safaris) are perhaps insensitive to the stone carved stepwells, cupolas and viaducts with little consideration for the contribution towards the historical environment. Using the established function of Kankaria Lake the speculation is to continue the development of attractions with a proposal for an amphitheatre and a redesign of the current boating dock but with the consideration to design these amenities with the architecture posture and hauntology.

Calico Mills Visualisation

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Kankaria Lake Visualisation

STUDIO GLOSSARY

Agency An Enzymatic Territory or any part of it. Amenity That which is available for folk to arrange to suit themselves. Archive A place where things begin and where order is given. A series of drawings. FABB Agency Specific constituent buildings of enzymatic territories that reciprocally shape and are shaped by the ground and the relations of ground: Factory buildings, Amenity Buildings, Bed buildings and Water Butt buildings. Ocean of Wetness A (new) visualisation of the ground from the priority of wetness rather than dryness, from the opening provided by an understanding of “Ganga’s descent” as well as a critical review of the priorities focussed through “Alexander’s eye.” Parasite An unfamiliar co-existent “other” that necessitates a different appreciation of a host. Parasitic Chain A series of host and guest relations registered in specific places. Parasituation An unfamiliar co-existent “other” situation that necessitates a different appreciation of a host situation. Research-By-Design The what and why of research pursued through drawing. [Scale] Series of Enzymatic Territory The fluctuating fecund ground on which folk, ground, sky, buildings and Ganga’s descent continuously work in parasitically productive relations. Situation A connection of events between an outer continuously open ground and inner contained and limited ground. [Scale] TLML The Loving Metropolitan Landscape holds a non-risk-averse speculative impulse that situates enzymatic territories in a Biopolis in networks across the Metropolitan scale. Wiszniewski, Dorian. 2020. Wall-Wells and Well Walls in Series of Agency. Edinburgh School of Architecture and Landscape Architecture.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

Narratologies of Ahmedabad is produced by Pamela Feng, Jamie Forde, Vsevolod Yurchenko. Lead tutors: Dorian Wiszniewski and Kevin Adams; Danielle Morris Ricardo Flores and Eva Prats David Turnbull Andrew Leiper Jonathon Narro Adrian Hawker Ella Chmielewska Paul Pattinson, Neil Cunning and Leo Xian (Msc AUD tutors) Sam Barclay (Case Design, Mumbai) for his research lecture “A House to Collect Water” Bashabi Fraser for the lecture “Geddes - Tagore - Gandhi” Robert Stephens (RMA, Mumbai) and Tina Nandi for the exhibition, Ahmedabad Walls, The Matthew Architecture Gallery, 2-25 October 2019

IMAGE REFERENCE

fig 1. Edinburgh Narrative. Satellite image of Edinburgh from Google Earth Pro fig 2. Ahmedabad Narrative. Satellite image of Ahmedabad from Google Earth Pro fig 3. The Salt March. Gandhi During The Salt March Protests. Available from Getty Images. https://www.gettyimages.co.uk/detail/news-photo/during-the-salt-march-protests-mahatma-gandhi-and-his-news-photo/53165420 fig 4. Four Cities of Ahmedabad. Mill Owners’ Association Building. Available from: fondationlecorbusier.fr fig 5. Rituals. Gajendra Moksha Print. Available from Wikimedia Commons: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Gajendra_Moksha_print.jpg fig 6. Le Corbusier’s Mill Owners Association. Available from: fondationlecorbusier.fr fig 7. Dariapur Gate Aerial Photograph. Stephens, Robert Stephens. From the skies, an architect retraces a century-old survey of Ahmedabad’s City Walls. Available from Scroll.in: https://scroll.in/magazine/900418/from-the-skies-an-architect-retraces-acentury-old-survey-of-ahmedabads-city-walls fig 8. Aerial Image of Salt Pans. Edward Burtynsky, Salt Pan. https://www.edwardburtynsky.com/projects/photographs/salt-pans fig 9. Gandhi in Dandi Salt Pan. Wikimedia Commons, Salt March. https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Salt_March.jpg fig 10. Salt pan workers. Shreya Pareek. https://www.thebetterindia.com/23114/mumbai-girl-left-her-corporate-job-and-shifted-to-tamil-nadu-to-construct-toilets-for-salt-pan-workerstamil-nadu/ fig 11. Gandhi and the Spinning Wheel. Available from 100 photos: http://100photos.time.com/photos/margaret-bourke-white-gandhi-spinning-wheel fig 12. Gandhi During The Salt March Protests, Available from Getty Images. https://www.gettyimages.co.uk/detail/news-photo/during-the-salt-march-protests-mahatma-gandhi-and-his-news-photo/53165420 fig 13. River Bank Proclaimed Land. Available from HCP Design. N.D. Sabarmati Riverfront Development: https://www.hcp.co.in/project/sabarmati-riverfront-development fig 14. Screenshot from a video. Hand-Washing Millions Of Clothes - The World’s Largest Laundromat. Culture Trip. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TMRyzsl9UN8. fig 15. Gajendra Moksha. Gajendra Moksha Print. Available from Wikimedia Commons: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Gajendra_Moksha_print.jpg

SELECTED BIBLIOGRAPHY

Benjamin, Walter, One Way Street, translated by Edmund Jephcott, ed. Michael W. Jennings, Preface by Greil Marcus (Cambridge, MA and London: Harvard University Press, 2016). Calvino, Italo, Invisible Cities, trans. William Weaver (London: Vintage Classics, 1997). Coccia, Emanuele, The Life of Plants. A Metaphysics of Mixture, trans. Dylan J. Montanari (Cambridge: Polity Press, 2019). Da Cunha, Dilip, The Invention of Rivers: Alexander’s Eye and Ganga’s Descent (University of Pennsylvania: Philidelphia, 2019). Dripps, Robin, “Groundwork”, in Site Matters: Design Concepts, Histories and Strategies (London: Routledge, 2005). Gillion, L. Kenneth, Ahmedabad. A Study in Indian Urban History (Canberra: Australian National University Press, 1969). Guattarri, Felix, The Three Ecologies, trans Ian Pindar and Paul Sutton (New York: Athlone Press, 2000). Irigary, Luce and Madder, Michael, Through Vegetal Being: Two Philosophical Perspectives (New York: Columbia University Press, 2016). Lewis, Diane, Inside-Out, Architecture New York City (Milan: Charta, 2007). Richter, Gerhard, “A Matter of Distance: Benjamin’S One-Way Street Through the Arcades” in Walter Benjamin and the Arcades Project, ed. by B.Hanssen (London: Continuum, 2006). Serres, Michel, The Parasite, trans Lawrence R. Schehr (Minnesota: University Of Minnesota Press, 2007).

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