Landscape Architecture Magazine LAM-2017-51

2017

bD;kou

lajournal.in

ISSN 0975-0177

`400.00 |

51

REDESIGNING

MAHARASHTRA NATURE PARK MUMBAI COMPETITION WINNING ENTRY

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The section View from within explores various meanings of the words “Indianness” and “indigenous” in the realm of landscape design. History is never absolute. Continuing research and explorations give it new meanings.

The study of pedestrian circulation and street patterns from Manasara, the ancient Indian treatise on architecture and town-planning, adds a new temporal dimension and brings to light new findings in the area of urban design and planning. Harshad Bhatia’s essay calls for a more nuanced approach in the public participatory frameworks in planning sector with greater transparency.

In Pune, a part of the country where “landscape design” was often related to “horticulture”, the landscape practice of Ravi and Varsha Gavandi—now more than twenty five years old—has been able to provide informed direction to clients and users in understanding the meaning of landscape design that is linked with natural science, design and aesthetics. On the way, their projects offer many creative ways of engagement with nature. A special feature in the issue shares their journey.

A perspective regarding the issues and potentials concerning landscape architecture is presented by Alpa Nawre. This is a timely wake up call for the profession taking in account the much anticipated development that the present government is projecting in the years to come. The urgent need for resource management, addressing environmental issues such as land degradation, air and water pollution calls for a proactive action from the profession, in the form of research, discourse and practice where it engages directly with these challenges on a larger scale. Recently, landscape design competitions have been organized for the development of significant citylevel public spaces such as the India Gate area (National War Memorial and Museum), New Delhi and ecologically crucial areas such as Mahim (Maharashtra Nature Park MNP), Mumbai. This is a positive step that gives opportunity to landscape professionals to enlighten allied professionals and development authorities about their value on a larger scale. In this issue, we feature the first winning entry of the MNP competition.

EDITORS | contact: lajournalindia@gmail.com

COVER | View of the Bridge | THIS PAGE | Part of Water History Maps | Both from the First Winning Entry of the competition ‘REDESIGNING MAHARASHTRA NATURE PARK, MUMBAI’. Sameep Padora & Associates (sP+a) & Design Cell

E D I T O R I A L

n these times of change, political discourse and public engagement about the idea of nationalism, and development for masses rather than only for classes make it important to talk about issues of “identity” on multiple scales and public participation in the decision-making processes. Narendra Dengle reviews a book on the subject of heritage management in South Asia which may have lessons, as the authors observe, for a global context.

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contents 12

reports | IGBC’S GREEN LANDSCAPE SUMMIT 2016 CHANGING CLIMATES, EVOLVING LANDSCAPES, ISOLA-GOA 2017 LANDSCAPE AND CONSERVATION, SKNCOA-PUNE, 2017

PUBLIC PARTICIPATION IN DESIGN WORKS

URBAN FOREST, GURUGRAM

963% $VVRFLDWHV RESORT 76 MANA RANAKPUR, RAJASTHAN

CLUES ON STREET NETWORK FROM MANASARA FOOTPATH OR SIDEWALKS ARE NOT A BRITISH LEGACY TO INDIA

GOING FORWARD

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LANDSCAPE ARCHITECTURE IN INDIA

Alpa Nawre

FIELDS 86 CLOVER WEEKEND HOME, BANGALORE

view from within |

Genesis Architecture

IDENTITIES AND BOUNDARIES Geeta Wahi Dua

seeing the unseen |

TATTVAS 92 PANCH THE ROAD AHEAD

SURĆOH _

40

3DUXO .LUL 5R\ VATIKA 82 SWASTIK MARRIAGE VENUE, ANAND

directions |

36

Deeproots Design

Harshad Bhatia

Archana Sharma

32

URBAN LANDSCAPES 64 TRANSFORMING FUTALA LAKE, NAGPUR

THE NIMBY, BANANA AND LULU SYNDROMES

learning from the past |

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OF DERELICT URBAN SPACES 70 REVITALISATION BUNDH REJUVENATION AND ECO-RESTORATION OF

public participation |

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51 2017

AESTHETICS, UTILITY AND ENVIRONMENT

Dilpreet Bhullar

PRACTICE OF RAVI-VARSHA GAVANDI, PUNE book review | competition |

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REDESIGNING MAHARASHTRA NATURE PARK, MUMBAI

INSPIRING VISUAL REFERENCE 100 AN #91 RESIDENCES CONTEMPORARY INDIAN HOUSES #3 5HYLHZ E\ 0DGKX 3DQGLW

EDITORS

Brijender S Dua Architect | New Delhi Geeta Wahi Dua Landscape Architect | New Delhi

ADVISORY EDITOR

Adit Pal Landscape Architect | USA

ADVISORY BOARD

Savita Punde Landscape Architect | Delhi NCR Rohit Marol Landscape Architect | Bangalore

INDUSTRY COORDINATOR

DESIGN ADMINISTRATION PRINTING ADVISOR

Jitendra Pawgi Landscape Architect | Pune 0 6KDK $ODP JUDĆQLWL Avdhesh Kumar Atul Naahar Paramount Printographics

REGISTRATION NUMBER: DELENG/2000/2943 | PRINT DURATION: Quarterly, 4 issues per year EDITORIAL AND SUBSCRIPTION OFFICE: C-589, Vikas Puri, New Delhi 110 018 INDIA TEL: +91-11-28547652, 41584375 | E-MAIL: lajournalindia@gmail.com WEBSITE: www.lajournal.in | ISSN 0975-0177 OWNED, PRINTED & PUBLISHED BY Brijender S. Dua, C-589, Vikas Puri, New Delhi 110 018 INDIA 2017.05

| PRINTED AT Kaveri Printers, 4634/19-A, Daryaganj, Delhi 110 002 INDIA

POST COLONIAL PARADIGM OF UNIVERSAL INTEREST 102 ACULTURAL LANDSCAPES OF SOUTH ASIA: STUDIES IN HERITAGE CONSERVATION AND MANAGEMENT 5HYLHZ E\ Narendra Dengle

105 BOOKS landscape industry |

While every effort is made to trace copyright holders and obtain permission where required, it has not been possible in all the cases. $Q\ FODULĆFDWLRQ LQ WKLV UHJDUG ZRXOG EH UHPHGLHG LQ IXWXUH LVVXHV 9LHZV H[SUHVVHG LQ WKH MRXUQDO DUH WKDW RI WKH DXWKRUV DQG GR QRW QHFHVVDULO\ UHćHFW WKRVH RI WKH (GLWRU RU WKH 3XEOLVKHU 7KH (GLWRUV GR WKHLU XWPRVW WR YHULI\ LQIRUPDWLRQ SXEOLVKHG EXW WKH\ GR QRW DFFHSW UHVSRQVLELOLW\ IRU LWV DEVROXWH DFFXUDF\ 1R SDUW RI WKH MRXUQDO PD\ EH UHSURGXFHG RU XWLOL]HG LQ DQ\ IRUP RU E\ DQ\ PHDQV electronic or mechanical or by any information storage or retrieval system, without written permission from the editors.

DIGITAL VERSION AVAILABLE AT http://in.zinio.com

LIGHTING 106 OUTDOOR Steve L. Aries

110 AUTHORS+CONTRIBUTORS

STAY IN TOUCH WITH US AT OUR FACEBOOK PAGE

http://www.facebook.com/pages/Landscape-Journal/117673848275490

HERITAGE AND DEMOCRACY 11-15 DECEMBER 2017 | NEW DELHI

CALL FOR PAPERS AND PROPOSALS for Scientific Symposium “Heritage and Democracy” ST01

Integrating Heritage and Sustainable Urban Development by engaging diverse Communities for Heritage Management

ST02

The Role of Cultural Heritage in Building Peace & Reconciliation

ST03

Protecting and Interpreting Cultural Heritage in the Age of Digital Empowerment

ST04

Culture-Nature Journey, Exploring the Complexities of Human Relationships with Natural and Cultural Places

Deadline for abstract 1 April 2017 http://icomosga2017.org/call-for-papers/

Deadline for proposal 30 April 2017 http://icomosga2017.org/call-for-proposals/

REGISTRATION http://icomosga2017.org/

E: GA2017-Symposium@icomos.org W: www.icomosindia.com

www.icomos.org

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IGBC'S GREEN LANDSCAPE SUMMIT 2016 CALLS FOR CONCERTED EFFORTS TO FACILITATE 33% OF GREEN LANDSCAPE COVERAGE BY 2020

5TH EDITION OF IGBC GREEN LANDSCAPE SUMMIT, 23-24 NOVEMBER 2016, NEW DELHI

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ndian Green Building Council (IGBC), part of Confederation of Indian Industry (CII), plays a catalytic role in spearheading the green building movement in the country. It partners with various stakeholders to facilitate the adoption and promotion of Green Landscapes LQ WKH FRXQWU\ KLJKOLJKWLQJ WKHLU QHHG DQG EHQHĆWV $V SDUW RI LWV PLVVLRQ RI GLVVHPLQDWLRQ of knowledge about the subject, it organises the Annual Green Landscape Summit, an intellectual discourse towards transforming landscapes into greener, healthier, inspirational and recreational places. For the year 2016, IGBC, in partnership with ISOLA, organised the event in New Delhi.

Sonali Bhagwati, Member, Delhi Urban Art Commission underlined the need and importance of creating green spaces in the concrete jungles of the cities, in the form of developing greenways and pedestrian walkways, which in turn can enhance social connections in the community. She called upon exploring the possibility of Delhi Urban Art Commission (DUAC) and CII-IGBC collaborating for the same. Dr Prem C Jain, Chairman, IGBC informed that India with over 4.45 billion square feet is the second country in the world in terms of largest registered Green building footprint. IGBC aspires to facilitate 10 Billion sq.ft of Green building footprint by 2022. Dr Jain also said that IGBC through its holistic Green Building Rating Systems is encouraging projects to incorporate Green Landscape practices and approaches.

Rohit Marol, President, Indian Society of Landscape Architects (ISOLA) hoped that ISOLA and IGBC will work together in spreading more awareness and knowledge in this common ĆHOG Anil Kumar V Epur, Chairman, Green Landscape Committee, CII-Godrej GBC underlined that incorporating Green Landscape concepts and techniques in all forms of built enYLURQPHQW FDQ KHOS DGGUHVV QDWLRQDO SULRULWLHV OLNH ZDWHU HIĆFLHQF\ HQKDQFLQJ ELRGLYHUVLW\ ZDVWH PDQDJHPHQW HQHUJ\ HIĆFLHQF\ DQG TXDOLW\ RI OLIH 7KHVH FRQFHSWV FDQ FUHDWH KHDOWKier places for people to live, work and play, he underlined.

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Key messages at Green Landscape Summit Achieving 33% of green cover in urban spaces by 2020 is technically feasible and ȟŶüŶĚŏüŪŪǟ ǘŏüĘŪĪӯ ºƂ ƬňƂǙĚüƬĪ ƶňĪ ĘĪŶĪȟƶƬ üŶĠ value associated with Green oüŶĠƬĚüƠŏŶŀӯ Focus on new and innovative futuristic green landscaping ƶĪĚňŶƂŪƂŀŏĪƬӯ Exploring possibility of all concrete roof structures to be ŀƣĪĪŶ ƣƂƂĿƬӯ Urban horticulture to be ƠƣƂŴƂƶĪĠӯ Preserve and protect gardens of ňŏƬƶƂƣŏĚüŪ ŏŴƠƂƣƶüŶĚĪӯ RŏŀňŪŏŀňƶ ƶňĪ ĘĪŶĪȟƶƬ ƂĿ ŏŶĠƂƂƣ landscapes on health and ǙĪŪŪԁĘĪŏŶŀ ƂĿ ƶňĪ ƂĚĚƾƠüŶƶƬӯ Need to identify and protect ŶüƶŏǘĪ ƶƣĪĪƬӯ

Savita Punde, Chairperson, Green Landscape summit 2016, called on the need to incorporate landscape design as one of the key features in building design. It will facilitate in increasing the urban green cover. She also added that naturalized and ecologically appropriate species should be considered while designing landscape areas. Samir Mathur, Co-Chair, Green Landscape Summit 2016 said that adopting and promoting Green Landscape activities will enable in restoration of biodiversity and promoting native and drought tolerant species. This augurs well for a greener India, he added. He reiterated that IGBC and ISOLA should work more closely in taking forward the Green Landscape movement in the country.

S Raghupathy, Deputy Director General, CII highlighted that Green Landscape will provide business opportunities to various stakeholders. It would enable in introducing latest Green Landscape technologies in the country. CII-IGBC would continue to partner with various Government departments in further enhancing green cover in urban areas.

The summit was marked by sessions including /DQGVFDSHV LQ WKH ,QGLDQ &RQWH[W 3HUVSHFWLYHV 8UEDQ /DQGVFDSLQJ å 3URVSHFWV 2SSRUWXQLWLHV (QKDQFLQJ %LRGLYHUVLW\ LQ 8UEDQ /DQGVFDSHV /DQGVFDSH 3HUVSHFWLYHV DQG /DQGVFDSH $SSOLFDWLRQV 3URIHVVLRQDOV IURP WKH ĆHOG LQFOXGLQJ Sekar James, Nina Chandavarkar, Sujata Kohli, Dr Priyaleen Singh, Mohan Rao, Nandita Parikh, Pradip Krishen, David Roger Gunn (AECOM), Tarun Nanda, Dr Sunanada (Indian Institute of Horticulture Research), Sanjay Pant (Bureau of Indian Standards), Chandramohan Reddy (Chairman, APUGBC), scientists from the State of Andhra Pradesh among others gave insightful presentations of their works during the event.

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CHANGING CLIMATES EVOLVING LANDSCAPES INDIAN SOCIETY OF LANDSCAPE ARCHITECTS (ISOLA) 12TH ANNUAL CONFERENCE | 20-21 JANUARY 2017, GOA

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ith the background of—as also in response to—the changing climatic conditions, the 12th Annual Conference of Indian Society of Landscape Architects (ISOLA) was organised on the theme Changing Climates, Evolving Landscapes on 20-21 January 2017 at Kala Academy, Panaji, Goa. 7KH FRQIHUHQFH ZDV FODVVLĆHG LQWR WKUHH EURDG WUDFNV Challenges, Mitigation and Adaptation.

Challenges Peter Head, Founder Director of Ecological Sequestration Trust, London advocated the idea of adopting sustainable development principles to make the investment of public and private money more effective in the built environment. Peter argued that it can only be achieved with a focus on distributed green infrastructure. He called upon a step change, systems approach, in the evolution of the art and science of landscape architecture through a new holistic approach to planning and design for sustainability and disaster risk reduction (an evolution from the conventional Master Planning approach). The idea is to mainstream improvements in ecological health and human well-being, including culture, in urban-rural systems development. Peter also introduced the audience to the concept of resilience.io – a computer-based platform that provides an integrated systems view of a city-region and is an analysis and decision-support tool. The platform combines computer representations RI UHVRXUFH ćRZV KXPDQ DQG EXVLQHVV DFWLYLWLHV DQG LQIUDVWUXFWXUH V\VWHPV DQG HQDEOHV HFRQRPLFDOO\ EHQHĆFLDO UHVRXUFH PDQDJHPHQW WR EH IXQGHG WKURXJK QHZ GLUHFW LQYHVWPHQW into a wide variety of projects, which use and contribute to the data in the platform. It also insures against extreme risks, especially in energy, water and food security.

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“As landscape architects we play a pivotal role as part of large teams ĆŹĹˆĂźĆ Ĺ?Ŝŀ ĆžĆŁÄ˜ĂźĹś Ä ÄŞÇ˜ÄŞĹŞĆ‚Ć Ĺ´ÄŞĹśĆśÓŻ ĂœÄŞ work at various scales, from regional planning studies to designing for infrastructure or institutional ÄšĂźĹ´Ć ĆžĆŹÄŞĆŹÓŻ ĹśÄ Ç™ÄŞ ßƣĪ Ĺ?ĹśÇ˜Ć‚ĹŞÇ˜ÄŞÄ ĆŁĹ?Ĺ€ĹˆĆś down to addressing the very basic concerns of residential and civic Ć‚Ć ÄŞĹś ĆŹĆ ĂźÄšÄŞ Ä ÄŞĆŹĹ?ŀŜӯ ĂœÄŞ Ç™ÄŞĂźÇ˜ÄŞ livability and environment to enrich ĆžĆŁÄ˜ĂźĹś ĆŹĆ ĂźÄšÄŞĆŹÓŻ ĆŹ Ăź Ä Ç&#x;ŜßŴĹ?Äš Ä Ĺ?ĆŹÄšĹ?pline, in response to the changing climatic conditions, we are organizing a thought provoking exchange, of theory and practice leaders across the nation and the world, to reinstate our role as professionals and frontƣƞŜŜĪƣƏ Ĺ?Ĺś ĆśĹˆÄŞ ƣßĚĪ ƜƂ ĹŞĹ?ǘĹ?Ŝŀ ĆŁĹ?Ĺ€ĹˆĆśÓŻÔ‹ —Conference Brief

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723 52: _ /()7 72 5,*+7 SPEAKERS Peter Head, Anumita Roychowdhury, Kelly Shannon, Rohit Jigyasu and Kate Cullity 6(&21' 52: _ /()7 72 5,*+7 WORKSHOP / WALK LEADERS Tallulah D’silva, Ketak Nachinolkar, Aaron Lobo, Krishnachandran Balakrishnan, Suhas Gaonkar, Anthony Gaskell, Rajiv D’silva and Miguel Braganza )$&,1* 3$*( Winners of ISOLA Professional & Students’ Awards 2016

Anumita Roy Chowdhury, Executive Director, Research and Advocacy, Centre for Science and Environment observed that there is a lack of understanding of the interventions needed to minimize ecological footprints, environmental degradation, resource depletion, negative impacts on safe access, health and pollution burden in urban growth programs. These connections need explicit recognition in urban planning to prevent and mitigate potential damage in climate and pollution constrained world. With climate change—as the extreme weather HYHQWV VXFK DV KLJK LQWHQVLW\ UDLQV VWRUP VXUJH DQG ćRRGV HWF DUH EHFRPLQJ FRPPRQÌFLWLHV are increasingly becoming more vulnerable to disruption and health risks. This requires detailed mapping of high risk areas, and more deliberate adoption of adaptation measures for climate-resilient cities. In this regard, she showcased the works of CSE in context of environmental activism for the city of Delhi and called upon the design professionals to join hands to ĆJKW WKH FDXVH RI FOLPDWH FKDQJH

Mitigation Kelly Shannon is Professor of Architecture and Director of the Graduate Program of Landscape Architecture+Urbanism at the University of Southern California. In her talk, Forests and Water Urbanisms, she observed that progressive policies and territorial landscapes will play a vital role in supporting worldwide decarbonisation. She presented few of her works based in Belgium and Vietnam where the team employs two primary mitigation strategies. First is a strategy of water urbanisms, which learns from indigenous systems and creating new ways to work with the forces of nature via a combination of soft engineering and urban design. Second is a strategy of forest urbanisms, reinforcing one of the built environment’s greatest legacies— the interweaving of urbanism and forests, of urban tissues and structures of plantation. The design strategies generate varied and rich environments for everyday life structured across various scales and logics—from large scale regions and territories (watershed and large vegetal mosaics) to the natural and man-made systems of waterways, dikes, sluices, pump stations, embankments, and forests, orchards, parks, tree-lined boulevards and gardens.

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Adaptation Rohit Jigyasu, conservation architect and risk management professional presented few of the case studies highlighting the issue of destruction of landscapes that has increased the vulnerability of human settlements to disasters exposing them to greater risks than ever before. He elaborated on the measures at policy, planning, management and technical levels for disaster risk reduction and climate change adaptation of cultural landscapes. He emphasized on the need for coordination among various stakeholders, engagement of local communities and strategies and procedures for emergency preparedness, response and recovery of cultural landscapes.

Kate Cullity, landscape architect and environmental artist based in Australia in her talk, %HDXW\ $HVWKHWLFV DQG &DUH 0RUH WKDQ MXVW ORRNLQJ JRRG called upon the professionals for an understanding of beauty as a poly-sensorial experience; one with multilayered associations.

Her presentation examined how the conduit of care encourages a sense of social, cultural and environmental ideals that hopefully reverberate outwards to people. It also explored and examined the nexus between beauty, care and sustainability by showcasing a number of projects.

Other than the speaker sessions, the conference over the two days was structured to involve interactive workshop sessions and walks moderated by landscape and related design professionals.

Cultural Landscape of Khazaans at Goa by Tallulah D’Silva with Fraddry D’Souza, The Energy and Resources Institute (TERI) The workshop introduced the participants to the cultural landscapes of NKD]DDQV — salt SDQV RI *RD WKDW IRUP D VLJQLĆFDQW SDUW RI ORFDO FXOWXUH 7KH VWUXFWXUHV RI ZDWHU PDQDJHment create a landscape which has been in existence for centuries but is now on the brink of being lost to the present urban growth and insensitivity of decision makers.

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/()7 72 5,*+7 City-Geothermal. Building value into city regions with resilience.io (Peter Head) New Landscape and Settlement Morphologies, Mekong Delta Region-2050, Vietnam (Kelly Shannon) National Arboretum, Canberra, Australian, 2013 (Kate Cullity / TCL)

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Archaelogical Landscape at Old Goa by Ketak Nachinolkar with Rohini Pande, Archaeological Survey of India (ASI) and Rajesh Naik, Department of Town and Country Planning, Goa A UNESCO World Heritage Archaeological Site has historical monuments and is under constant pressure of contemporary development. The workshop, initiated by a heritDJH ZDON LQWURGXFHG WKH SDUWLFLSDQWV WR WKH DUHD LWV KLVWRULF HYROXWLRQ DQG VLJQLĆFDQW features discussed the issues and challenges of managing history, heritage and archaeology.

Mitigating Disasters by Rohit Jigyasu with Jaya Kumar Seelam and Mani Murali. R, National Institute of Oceanography (NIO) 7KH QXPEHU RI GLVDVWHUV FDXVHG E\ QDWXUDO KD]DUGV VXFK DV ćRRGV ĆUHV DQG HDUWKTXDNHV has increased exponentially in the recent decade causing immense loss of life, properties, livelihood and heritage. Climate Change has further exacerbated the frequency of K\GUR PHWHRURORJLFDO KD]DUGV VXFK DV ćRRGV DQG F\FORQHV 7KH ZRUNVKRS LQWHQGHG WR deliberate on practical ways for mitigating disasters through sensitive interventions at various levels to reduce risks to disasters and for restoring ecological balance.

The conference also included the Award Ceremony of ISOLA Professional & Students’ Awards 2016 and an exhibition of all winning entries. Also included in the two-day event were book release of two past conferences — A Sense of Place: Region | City | Place (Delhi, 2014) and Wisdom, Values and Landscape Architecture: Towards Smart Cities (Pune, 2015), and 50th issue of LA, Journal of Landscape Architecture.

Coastal Ecology by Aaron Savio Lobo with Maryann D’souza, Department of Forestry The participants were introduced to the coastal ecosystem of Goa that comprises of LWV ćRUD PDULQH IDXQD DYLIDXQD HVWXDULHV PDQJURYHV VDQG GXQHV DQG LWV HFRV\VWHP and outlined various challenges for managing Goa’s coastal and marine biodiversity by taking case studies of Dr. Salim Ali Bird Sanctuary and turtle nesting grounds. The presentation also elaborated on the complex dynamics of socio-cultural and ecological system of coastal Goa and the aspect of climate change and shifting baselines, intersectoral dynamics and linkages in coastal habitats.

Research in Landscape Architecture by Krishnachandran Balakrishnan 7KH ZRUNVKRS GLVFXVVHG WKH QHHG IRU UHVHDUFK LQ WKH ĆHOG RI ODQGVFDSH DUFKLWHFWXUH The discussion included the types of knowledge required in the practice of landscape architecture as well as the potential of research as a professional choice for landscape architects. It also explored the idea of “research� in the context of design by taking three hypothetical sites and proposing design strategies for them, connected with a discussion on the types of research/knowledge required for these approaches.

Climate Change and Landscape Education by Suhas Gaonkar with Sujeetkumar M., Centre for Environment Education (CEE) ,W IRFXVHG RQ SURFHVVHV ZKLFK GLUHFWO\ RU LQGLUHFWO\ LQćXHQFH PLWLJDWLRQ HIIRUWV Ì emissions generated, energy reduction, less water use or carbon sequestration and imagining alternate realities and introducing them in contemporary debates. It also focused on the ways in which landscape architects re-imagine, visualize and communicate alternate realities pivoted upon current trends in landscape education.

Two separate workshops were also conducted by representatives from the landscape industry. These included Working with Water by irrigation experts from Rain Bird and Hunter Engineering and Sustainable Lighting Design by lighting experts from K-Lite and Ligman Industries.

Guided walks during the conference included Khazaans at Goa by Tallulah D’Silva, Archaeological Landscape @ Old Goa by Ketak Nachinolkar, Revisiting History @ Fontainhas by Anthony Gaskell, Birds at Miramar by Rajiv D’Silva with Mandar Bhagat and Tree Stories by Miguel Braganza.

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Ajit C Madkaiker

NATIONAL CONFERENCE ON

LANDSCAPE AND CONSERVATION SMT. KASHIBAI NAVALE COLLEGE OF ARCHITECTURE, AMBEGAON, PUNE 27-28 FEBRUARY, 2017

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two-day National Conference on Landscape and Conservation focusing on varied subdisciplines—&RQVHUYLQJ &XOWXUDO DQG +HULWDJH &RQVHUYDWLRQ /DQGVFDSH ,PDJHV 3HUFHSWLRQ and Memories, and (PHUJLQJ /DQGVFDSH 3UDFWLFHV—was organised by Smt. Kashibai Navale College of Architecture (SKNCOA), Pune. It was supported by Indian Society of Landscape Architects (ISOLA) and INTACH Maharashtra Chapter.

Emerging Landscape Practices Ravindra Bhan talked about the idea of balance between man, nature and design process.

He elaborated that for healthy landscapes there needs to exist a mutual balance between these elements for which it is essential that the natural processes which are responsible to create a particular landscape should be understood where design opportunities will be preserved and strengthened and constrains are either removed or minimized by taking appropriate measures. In this context, he showcased his landscape projects including ITDC Hotels at Varanasi, and Trivandrum, Mughal Sheraton Hotel at Agra (winner of the Aga Khan Award for Architecture, 1978-1980 cycle) among others.

Rohit Marol in his presentation Experiential Landscapes talked about the experiential qualities that can be created by design elements or can be experienced through existing elements on the site – quiet, meditative, warmth, playfulness, surprises, textural relations, dynamic, excitement, serene, relax, romantic and curiosity among others. He stated that landscapes are combination of living and non-living things that means landscapes change over time, over season. The fundamental approach to designing 'Experiential Landscapes' is to conceptualize outdoor environments as holistic human experiences rather than mere spatial compositions of a physical setting. The characters of spaces are derived from social, FXOWXUDO DQG HFRORJLFDO FRQQRWDWLRQV DQG WKH H[SHULHQFHV JHQHUDWHG E\ WKH VSDFHV VLJQLĆFDQWO\ LQćXHQFH WKH KXPDQ EHKDYLRXU KHDOWK DQG ZHOOQHVV 7KLV ZDV LOOXVWUDWHG WKURXJK KLV works of residential, hospitality and public typologies which vary in function, scale and the intended user experience.

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SKNCOA, Pune was started in 2014 for shaping the future of built environment dealt by ĆŹĆ ĂźĆśĹ?ßŪ Ä ÄŞĆŹĹ?ŀŜ Ć ĆŁĆ‚ÄżÄŞĆŹĆŹĹ?ƂŜßŪƏӯ ČŞÄŞ Ĺ?ŜƏƜĹ?ƜƞƜĪ Ć ĹŞĂźĹśĆŹ ƜƂ ƏƜßƣƜ Ăź Post-Graduate Degree Course in Landscape Architecture shortly with the objective of creating opportunities for architects to gain knowledge and specialize in ĆśĹˆÄŞ Č&#x;ÄŞĹŞÄ ÓŠ Ăź Ĺ´ÄŞÄ Ĺ?ƞŴ Ć‚Äż (ÄŞĆŹĹ?ŀŜ ĆśĹˆĂźĆś engages Urban Design, Ecology, "Ć‚ĹśĆŹÄŞĆŁÇ˜ĂźĆśĹ?Ć‚Ĺś ĂźĹśÄ ÂŚĹŞĂźĹśĹśĹ?Ŝŀӯ

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/()7 72 5,*+7 _ Dr Sudhir Chavan (Principal, SKNCOA), Ravindra Bhan, Rohit Marol, Ajit C Madkaiker, Manguesh R Prabhugaonker, Swati Sahasrabudhe, Kishore D Pradhan, Dr Priyaleen Singh, Sharvey Dhongde, Dr Ankur Patwardhan and Dr Erach Bharucha

Ajit C Madkaiker presented the landscape design of New Maharashtra Sadan in Lutyen’s Delhi. The idea was to create a distinct identity in the strong historic context of Lutyen's Delhi. Landscape design is in harmony with building design while respecting historical, cultural, social, and architectural values of Maharashtra.

Manguesh R Prabhugaonker introduced the audience to the natural and cultural landscapes of Goa. He showcased his project – Restoration and Reuse of the Convent of the Miraculous Cross Old Goa, which was a collaborative work of architects, landscape architects and conservation architects.

Swati Sahasrabudhe’s presentation on People, Place and Time – A Journey through Pune's Landscape described the city through various aspects – context, natural setting, evolution, people, experience and its future. The physical, spatial, ecological, visual and utilitarian relaWLRQVKLSV DUH GHĆQHG E\ WKH GHVLJQDWHG ODQG XVH DQG DOVR E\ WKH SHRSOH LQ D FLW\ 6KH FDOOHG upon the need of landscape architecture practice to get informed by a view from within and needs to resolve in the roles of initiators, facilitators and participants in the process of building or shaping the future of the city.

Landscapes: Images, Perception and Memories Kishore D Pradhan observed that all landscape surrounds us, be it natural or manmade.

The active and passive recreation areas including streetscape and street furniture, all synthesizes to give us an ‘image of landscape’. Landscape is an ever-changing and evolving element. Our associations and perceptions of landscape are inseparable, forming a ‘memory’. He showed the progressive development of landscape design through a series of images from his practice including the projects of Reliance Green Township at Jamnagar, Samsara Luxury Resort and Camp at Dechu, Rajasthan and SP Info City, Pune.

The Convent of the Miraculous Cross Old Goa (Manguesh R Prabhugaonker) Samsara Luxury Resort and Camp at Dechu, Rajasthan (Kishore D Pradhan)

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Cultural and Heritage Conservation In Demystifying Conservation, Dr Priyaleen Singh explained the value of individual, collective, immediate and distant memory for human beings. She further stated that historic cities, with their past, have the potential to become major generators of revenue as they are the repositories of craft and as knowledge systems have much to offer to contemporary city planning. The heritage is a non-renewable and an irreplaceable entity, which cannot be recreated. She gave the examples of Chanderi, a traditional weaver’s settlement, an underground canal system in Burhanpur, Anguri Bagh in Agra Fort and the Kesar kiari at Amer which were recreational gardens that were highly evolved in cultural and aesthetic form.

She further referred to the examples of Islamic gardens in context of traditional design vocabularies which encouraged a participatory relationship with nature. She also presented two of her landscape conservation projects Moolsagar in Jaisalmer and Chokhelao and Mehrangarh Fort in Jodhpur.

Sharvey Dhongde, in his presentation Layers of Culture on the Landscape of Khuldabad elaborated on the evolution of a multi-religious cultural palette in the region in which people make association with certain landscape, use landscape as a setting for their activities. He unfolded the layers of landscapes on Khuldabad, as a cultural region, history of the region, geography of the region. He also elaborated on landscape management plans and discussed YDULRXV LVVXHV DQG FRQćLFWV RI GHYHORSPHQW FRQVHUYDWLRQ DQG QDWXUH

Conserving Biodiversity Dr Ankur Patwardhan shared his research experience of working on the sites of Western Ghats. He emphasized on the idea of using more and more native plants and grasses in the landscape design projects in order to have a healthy biodiversity like reserving nectar weeds, opting for indigenous species instead of exotic ones and planting larval food plants and nectar plants in home gardens or commercial complexes. He also talked about various cultural aspects of biodiversity conservation citing examples of sacred groves, oral histories and belief systems.

Dr Erach Bharucha explained the evolution of natural scapes to cultural landscapes and the key elements to bring about this change. In his presentation Biodiversity Conservation in Cultural Landscape, he stated that biodiversity not only consists of the wild, but also includes the traditional cultivators and livestock breeds. The increasing need of land has threatened biodiversity due to an array of new land uses with a loss of traditional values. He listed the concerns of recoverable and degraded areas and also the reversible – irreversible changes.

He emphasized the idea of creating alternative land use to reduce and divert the use of resources and to reduce the land pressures; by implementation of sustainable land use strategies of eco-development, eco-restoration and eco-tourism. He also presented a case study on Pashan lake restoration in this context.

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Moolsagar, Jaisalmer (Dr Priyaleen Singh) Western Ghats Biodiversity Assessment and Management Plans (Dr Ankur Patwardhan)

p u b l i c p a r t i c ip at i o n |

Harshad Bhatia

PUBLIC PARTICIPATION IN DESIGN WORKS THE NIMBY, BANANA AND LULU SYNDROMES

the policy makers seem to keep the people not misinformed but dis-informed, that is, show tangential causes rather than direct effects of any development proposal

ike all incoming flights from overseas that first set foot in the international airports in India’s metropolitan areas, the NIMBY syndrome begins here. NIMBY, an acronym for “Not In My Back Yard” began in the West in the 1960s when local protesters might chain themselves to trees to protect a park.

The first visible sense of NIMBY in Mumbai came with the local residents across the Oval maidan forming a group to thwart the proposal of allowing underground car parking under the vital open space.

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It was the group of residents across Oval maidan that made sure that this proposed car park would not see light of day despite being underground in idea and concept. The physical proximity of the underground parking with eight entry-exit points to the road would have become a nightmare for the local residential community. Today, the maidan is efficiently used for the purpose of recreation, provides two points of access but exercises access control in terms of time and activity. While the problem of parking in the fort CBD area remains, the maidan has been secured. It has been cleared, cleaned, made visually accessible but gated. The precedent has been set - Not In My Back Yard, and it worked wonderfully, for the local lobby.

However, the 1990s in the West had moved from urban activism of the 1960s to participatory planning. While the laws for such planning do exist in the State of Maharashtra, it is the lack of their knowledge that really makes things seem difficult to control when development for the city is envisaged. This absence of knowing, poor understanding and neglect of updating oneself about such provisions is a cause for concern. Sensory disturbance seems to provoke some reaction when the tide has washed over and it’s a trifle too late for anything. Taking advantage of this low level knowledge, the policy makers seem to keep the people not misinformed but dis-informed, that is, show tangential causes rather than direct effects of any development proposal.

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The current legislation that brings development planning and public participation in Maharashtra is the Maharashtra Regional and Town Planning Act 1966 (MRTP1966). Under various sections, pertaining to preparation of Regional Plan and Development Plan (Plans) related proposals undertaken by the planning authority, the public are invited to send their 'objections and suggestions' (O&S) within a stipulated time after the draft plan is published.

This is where law lays out the process of people participation in a democratic society. After receiving the O&S from the public, they are heard by a committee constituted to then provide their recommendations, on the basis of which the plan is notified. Having said that, the process seems to have little merit when the draft plan proposals are watered down to minimize a NIMBY impact and public outcry. And so it seems that the contents are not shown in full or in common language to make referencing difficult for the layman citizen.

In short, the Plans are undecipherable in simple terms and seem to screen a proposed reality in the visuals and between the lines of dogmatic terminology.

For the unaware citizen then, a sudden a-wakening happens when the road drill screeches early in the morning in his locality. It dawns then that the problem of perception is the aspect that seems to affect a citizen’s thought process about the city. For example, a common lay citizen would be more concerned about a direct effect, on a one-to-one basis in terms of benefit. In terms of time too, he would expect to understand an effect that would be short term and once again, directly to the self. It is in this respect that the environmentalist finds a difficulty in perception with the instant, quick fix proposals that are often levied in the urban environment. At the environmentalist’s extreme is a longterm view of cause and effect that stretches imagination and understanding over time. No wonder then that the environmentalist prefers no development to any development. This is termed the BANANA approach.

BANANA being “Build Absolutely Nothing Anywhere Near Anything”. It is a total full stop to city development. This worries the progressive thinkers about the city’s economy. Instead of curing the old inconsistencies, this measure says prevent new illnesses on the city landscape. Existing problems, particularly those affecting human rights, health and living conditions take a back seat and tend to exaggerate over delayed response to their timely treatment. This public and planning misperception between conservation and development needs to be pragmatically dealt with.

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common lay citizen would be more concerned about a direct effect, on a one-to-one basis in terms of benefit. in terms of time too, he would expect to understand an effect that would be short term and once again, directly to the self. it is in this respect that the environmentalist finds a difficulty in perception with the instant, quick fix proposals that are often levied in the urban environment

p u b l i c p a r t i c ip at i o n |

public participation plays fair if the dp proposals are done with diligence in the spirit of the citizens socioeconomic needs balanced with local residents rights of light, air and privacy

Amid this confusion between short term solutions to long term gains, or individual problem fixing to large community benefits, new strategies have been devised by the public bodies. Paradoxically, not to bridge the divide but to keep them at bay. By law, the draft Plans have to be notified to the general public through Notice in the daily newspapers. Although this is done, at times the popular dailies are kept out. Also, as the MRTP 1966 instructs that any major revisions in the Plan shall be done by following due procedure of inviting O&S from the public, there is a clause that prevents 'minor modifications' from being open to such participation. Hence, using this guise (viz. minor modification), many major revisions are notified directly after the Plans are published.

For example, situations like parking lots under existing playgrounds like Oval maidan are not seen in the published draft Plans. They are passed as Government Resolutions and merely bundled as policy that the Development Plan (DP) has to deal with and handle its impact at the location when implemented.

This is where citizen participation matters. Nonetheless, citizen means the larger settlement and not the mere locality. This is a cause for concern at both ends - city dweller and locality resident. While the former needs a parking space the latter wants to secure the playground. And this dilemma can be addressed with a stakeholder analysis in an unbiased manner. Hence, public participation plays fair if the DP proposals are done with diligence in the spirit of the citizens socio-economic needs balanced with local residents’ rights of light, air and privacy.

Similarly, in planning the location of the city's new needs, the LULU label puts a spoke in the wheel when it comes to public participation. LULU is the brief of “Locally Unwanted Land Use”. For example, site for a new airport will be contested due to restrictions in building height, or a plot for a cemetery is shunned as incompatible in a residential area, or even an imminent utility like a STP or waste treatment unit for a growing city is looked at with contempt.

Furthermore, inequality raises its head on the other hand, when strategic plots with scenic views or westerly breeze and sunset facing, would be kept for housing the ruling classes while the masses would be riddled with the LULU’s that support infrastructure like vegetable markets and ‘hawking zones’ patronized by the city at large.

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the absurdity of tree protection In protecting the ecological ŪüŶĠƬĚüƠĪө üĚĚƂƣĠŏŶŀ ƶƂ ȪĪ Maharashtra (Urban Areas) Preservation of Trees Act 1975, a Tree Authority has been appointed in Greater Mumbai, for regulating the felling, chopping, pruning etc üƬ ǙĪŪŪ üƬ ƠŪüŶƶŏŶŀ ƂĿ ƶƣĪĪƬӯ ȪĪ üƾƶňƂƣŏƶǟ üƠƠƂŏŶƶƬ ԍºƣĪĪ ĿȟĚĪƣƬԏ who have the responsibility of protecting and preserving trees ǙŏƶňŏŶ ƶňĪŏƣ üƣĪüӯ Ŷ ƣĪĚĪŏǘŏŶŀ ƣĪƢƾĪƬƶƬ ĿƂƣ ĚƾȫŏŶŀ ĠƂǙŶ ƶƣĪĪƬ for big projects, the Tree Authority will put up a Notice in the local newspaper to invite objections ŏĿ üŶǟ ĿƣƂŴ ƶňĪ ƠƾĘŪŏĚӯ XĿ ŏŶ ĚüƬĪ any objections are raised, the Authority conducts a hearing, for which a decision is taken in üĘƂƾƶ ƶǙƂ ǙĪĪťƬӯ ²ƂŴĪƶŏŴĪƬ ƶňĪ Public Notice is published after ŀŏǘŏŶŀ üƠƠƣƂǘüŪ ƶƂ ƶňĪ üƠƠŪŏĚüŶƶӯ Ironically, the reasons cited for allowing felling of the trees by the very authority with goals to protect and preserve the trees, üƣĪ üŪüƣŴŏŶŀӯ ȪĪǟ üƣĪ ƬňüŪŪƂǙ üƬ ŏƶ üŪŪƂǙƬ ƶƣĪĪ ĚƾȫŏŶŀ ŴĪƣĪŪǟ ĿƂƣ 'Coming in the way of driveway of proposed construction work' and ƬƾĚň ŪƂŀŏĚӯ IƂƣ ƬƾĚň üŶ ƾƶňƂƣŏƶǟө there is a lack of inventory of trees, their location (on city plan), age, condition, value etc in the form of a Tree Census, if any, which should be kept in the public ĠƂŴüŏŶӯ ȪŏƬ ĪŶüĘŪĪƬ ƶňĪ ƠƾĘŪŏĚ ƶƂ relate the contents of the Notice Ǚŏƶň ƶňĪ ŀƣƂƾŶĠ ƣĪüŪŏƶǟӯ

p u b l i c p a r t i c ip at i o n |

to work within such a politically complex situation, designers – architects and planners have to be extremely astute to understand the players and issues involved

Such aspects – the NIMBY syndrome, BANANA public and the LULU label, are affecting the planning process for people participatory urban development. While some of the debates in them are triggered by a sense of collective concern, others are individually motivated local stand-offs. In this melee are projects that can be termed as contentious development. These need to be identified and dealt with on a priority. Lest the city development be plagued with the pressures of either of these two opposite sides of the citizenry.

When the existing approved and finalized DP is being crossed over by specific plans and isolate policies notified by the Government, the planning efforts are undermined. Participatory planning cannot work under such duress. And inclusive design becomes a misnomer. As in a stakeholder analysis, this system of actors that caution all forms of development needs to be checked and controlled before it gets unwieldy. To the extent that today even Non Governmental Organizations (NGO) could be suspect in their being and doing as most of them have arisen from NIMBY associations. And much like expropriation, local PIMBY (Please, In My Back Yard) and DUDEs (Developer Under Delusions of Entitlement) will capture values of public policy for private gain, under the guise of public participation.

Hence, to work within such a politically complex situation, designers – architects and planners have to be extremely astute to understand the players and issues involved. And at the same time the decision-makers, planning bodies and implementing agencies of the State have to keep the people informed about development proposals. For, people can be involved if they are informed.

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learning from the past |

Archana Sharma

CLUES ON STREET NETWORK FROM MANASARA FOOTPATH OR SIDEWALKS ARE NOT A BRITISH LEGACY TO INDIA

espite the common myth, especially in the Western realm, footpath is not a British legacy in India. I agree with Menon’s1 lament on the lack of studies that might prove or disprove this and such myths, as systematically originating from Indian institutions and by Indian scholars. This observation resonates with my sentiments shared on Quora2 with regards to Murthy and Murty Classical collection saga. This piece, reviews content in Manasara as brought to us by Prasanna Kumar Acharya and Shailendra Sharma, in attempt to investigate whether the construct of footpath came to us via British and to unravel the level of attention to streetscape design in Vedic times in India3.

For this study, we look at Manasara as re-presented by Acharya in 1934, 2011, 2015 and Sharma in 2008 for clues.

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Manasara is the ancient Indian treatise on architecture and town-planning, said to be resonating with content in various puranas such Agin-purana, Garud-purana, Matsya-purara and Kamikagama, but as abstracted from Brihat-Samhita with attributed date of c550 CE.4 There is a room for further investigation on publication exact date of original texts, the emergence of these texts during Vedic period is clearly established. The Vedic period is quoted as approximately ranging between 3300-500 BCE/ before Christian Era5. Note, that the British influence started making inroads to India only in 1600 CE / Christian era through East India Trading Company.

In order to acquire an understanding on street pattern, village and town layout plans in Manasara are considered. Layout plans are typological with eight types — Dandaka, Sarvatobhadra, Nandyavarta, Padmaka, Svastika, Prastara: Kshatriyas, Karmuka: Vaishyas and Chaturmukha: Sudras.6 Each type varies in size, shape and form, and each can be scaled up from village to town level

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manasara is the ancient indian treatise on architecture and town-planning, said to be resonating with content in various puranas

learning from the past |

each type varies in size, shape and form, and each can be scaled up from village to town level with increment in size but in correspondence to original shape and form. the typological distinction is also governed by the purposes attributed to the settlement in addition to bearing an association with various “classes”

with increment in size but in correspondence to original shape and form. The typological distinction is also governed by the purposes attributed to the settlement in addition to bearing an association with various “classes”. Keeping the focusing on street and road layout, the Dandaka village layout is said to have a three carriage-road with width of 1-5 rods (rod is 27 angula as stated on page 63 in verses 8-9, further explained in verses 49-57 on page 8) as major circulation artery, with optional small streets running from end to end.

Small streets when included are recommended to have same dimensions (this speaks to standardized, systemic thinking on transportation planning), with a discretion allowed in terms of street width decision to keep it just the same as the interior carriage-roads (verses 97-104) or narrower. Reference to footpath7 is also made in description of carriage-roads (verses 103-104) — “the two carriage-roads running from end to end (through the center of the village) may have one footpath each for the shelter (of the passers by), but the main street should have two footpaths.”

In Sarvatobhadra typology “there may be one, two, three, four or five carriageroads, together with surrounding street; (of these) the internal carriage-roads should have one footpath each, and the external one, two footpaths (verses 132-133),” whereas in Nandyavarta typology, “one foot path (running) from the root (base) to top should be attached either to the two internal streets running from south to north or to the two internal streets running from east to west; and the remaining two at the two sides (of the other two) are stated by the ancient (architects) to have two footpaths each (verses 188-190)”. Sharma8 offers a visual illustration of these typologies.

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learning from the past |

DANDAKA

SARVATOBHADRA Interpretation on location of carriageroads and footpaths for corresponding town-layout as per Mansara, drawn over Mansara town layout plans in top row from Sharma (Sharma Shailendra ' 9DDVWX 6DUYDVYD 5DQMDQ 3XEOLFDWLRQV 1HZ 'HOKL

MAIN CARRIAGE-ROADS FOOTPATH

The scalar classiďŹ cation of roads and streets is made in terms of: Ă“ Maha-marg (main street) reference here is perhaps to primary axial street which should be wide enough to allow carriages/ rathas to pass. Ă“ Vithi (street with footpath), reference here is perhaps to secondary streets. Ă“ Marg (street without footpath), reference here is perhaps to trails. Ă“ Kshudra-marg lanes (narrower marg), perhaps reference to service alleys or narrow straight easy entry-exit connections in between internal margs and vithis.

The width of these roads are stated in terms of rods and also in terms of relative size to each other, with Maha-marg as 3/4th times wider than all other vithis and Kshudra-marg as 3/4th or 1/2 times narrower to Maha-marg or marg.6 A large vithi could be the same size as Maha-marg and a large marg could be the same width as a regular vithi. This implies that the designation of roads and streets was not simply based on dimension but the location of those in reference to the layout plan on the village/ town, and the importance of the settlements they connected. Main streets such as Maha-marg and vithis were required to be “consolidated with kankar (modular limestone)� and Kshudramarg could just be akin to contemporary trail of compacted or uncompacted earth.

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the designation of roads and streets was not simply based on dimension but the location of those in reference to the layout plan on the village/ town, and the importance of the settlements they connected

learning from the past |

another presentation on roads and street layout, comprehensible in contemporary terms are said to have been derived from mayamata, manasara, kautilya arthashastra and other ancient texts

NANDYAVARTA

NANDYAVARTA

(QUADRANGULAR)

(CIRCULAR)

Another presentation on roads and street layout, comprehensible in contemporary terms are said to have been derived from Mayamata, Manasara, Kautilya Arthashastra and other ancient texts. This interpretation renders a scalar understanding of layout typology in terms of Jyestha/ Uttam (large), Madhyam (medium) and Kanishtha (small).8 Uttampur, is said to have seventeen margs (including footpaths/ janghapath). Madhyampur has thirteen margs and Kanishthapur has nine. Margs are said to run from east to west with a mandate on a corresponding number of margs running from south to north.9 The hierarchy of the roads and street network, as widest to narrowest, is — Raj-marg (24 hasta wide for Jyesthapur, 20 hasta wide for Madhyampur and 16 hasta wide for smallest settlement Kanishthapur) and then the range of 60 feet to 135 feet. The Raj-marg to be used for royal and army processions and has footpaths on both sides (Sharma 2008, pg 206). This primary axial road is to be complemented with two Maharathya on either side and are of 12, 10, and 8 hastas, for large, medium and small settlements respectively, which are then flanked by two Yaan-marg of 4 hastas with footpaths (Jangha-path) on both sides of widths 3, 2.5 and 2 hastas. Two Ghanta-margs are paths parallel to external roads, akin to ring road (pg 207). There are further distinctions to these margs or hierarchy within the road and street network. Mangal-path is the one that runs both ways and Raj-vithi is the one that has gateways at two ends; both these are prescribed to be “pucca” or compactly constructed.

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learning from the past |

With regards to association between streets and water infrastructure6, a water carrying canal/ gutter, covered with lose stone tiles or timber planks, is said to flank the marg which should have a convex curvature along central spine, so as to divert the storm water to side-gutters (nalikas). Mention of design elements or installations of prapanga “prapa - (prapanga)—a shed on the road side for accommodating travellers with water, a place where water is distributed, a cistern, a tank, a building”, “nala – a canal or gutter”, “nali / nalika nala-geha/ nalika-griha - a canal-house”, “pushkarini (tadaga and vapi) - a tank, a lotus pool” and “purta - a well, a pond, a step-well”, is indicative of thinking on the streets, punctuated by lily pools and wells, as a facilitator of water collection and distribution system. References to water features such as kreeda-jheel, nalikas and phowarras (water fountains) on road intersections8, need to be further investigated for insight into corelation with the street-facilitated water system.

References to trees in terms of Asvattha vriksha - the holy fig tree, Karnikaraa tree (120) and Pushkala - a tree (357), orients us to thinking about greening of streets in villages and towns. However, in my reading so far, neither text by Acharya or Sharma, goes into more detail. Whether Manasara offers some rules and criteria for tree-planning and settlement-greening, needs to be unraveled. Also, more research is needed to discover guidelines on lighting infrastructure and waste disposal systems that street-networks are usually associated with. Functional description of kshudra-marg gives us clues on waste disposal route but not on the system and its sub-components.

Although, there are questions on spatial organization and details of various street components, there is sufficient information to conclude that footpath is not a British legacy to India since it has featured in Vedic texts from anywhere between 3300-500 BCE or 550 CE in the latest, centuries before the arrival of East India Company in 1600s and establishment of British Raj in 1757 CE. If there is lack of the same in contemporary cities of India, it is not because “footpath” is one of the foreign construct that the country is struggling to incorporate in the vernacular urban planning but for other economy based reasons, where corruption other social restructuring takes priority over walkability related city infrastructure.

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whether manasara offers some rules and criteria for tree-planning and settlementgreening, needs to be unraveled... more research is needed to discover guidelines on lighting infrastructure and waste disposal systems

learning from the past |

I also take the liberty to diverge from the topic of this article, to raise another important question — why is this critical treatise not being taught with due diligence in Architecture and Urban Planning institutions in India? Is it not time now to address these gaps in curriculum, to take pride in indigenous knowledge and to continue reďŹ ning and generating more rather than relying on laurels of past?

Key References $FKDU\D 3UDVVDQD . 0DQDVDUD 6HULHV $ 'LFWLRQDU\ RI +LQGX $UFKLWHFWXUH ĆUVW SXEOLVKHG LQ 1934, reprinted in LPP 1995, 1997, 2008, 2015, Low Price Publications: Delhi, India Acharya**, Prassana K. Manasara Series: 3 - Manasara on Architecture and Sculpture - Sanskrit text with FULWLFDO QRWHV ĆUVW SXEOLVKHG LQ UHSULQWHG LQ /33 /RZ 3ULFH 3XEOLFDWLRQV 'HOKL India

is it not time now to address the gaps in curriculum, to take pride in indigenous knowledge and to continue refining and generating more rather than relying on laurels of past?

$FKDU\D 3UDVVDQD . 0DQDVDUD 6HULHV $UFKLWHFWXUH RI 0DQDVDUD ĆUVW SXEOLVKHG LQ reprinted in LPP 1995,1998, 2006, 2015, Low Price Publications: Delhi, India Sharma, Shailendra D. Vaastu Sarvasva, Ranjan Publications: New Delhi, 2008 1. Menon, A. G. K. The Complexity of Indian urbanism,http://www.india-seminar.com/2007/579/579_a_g_ krishna_menon.htm, last retrieved on 10th June 2016 2. Sharma, Archana. In ouster petition for Sheldon Pollack: real questions that got shadowed, https://www. quora.com/Indology-What-do-you-think-about-recent-Murty-Classical-Collection-saga, posted on March 27, 2017, last retrieved on 11th June 2016 3. Acharya, Prassana K. Age of the Manasara - Chapter V, Manasra Series 2: Indian Architecture - According WR 0DQDVDUD 6LOSDVDVWUD ĆUVW SXEOLVKHG LQ UHSULQWHG LQ /33 /RZ 3ULFH Publications: Delhi, India 4. Via another researcher Professor Kern, in Acharya**, Prassana K. Manasara Series: 3 - Manasara on $UFKLWHFWXUH DQG 6FXOSWXUH 6DQVNULW WH[W ZLWK FULWLFDO QRWHV ĆUVW SXEOLVKHG LQ UHSULQWHG LQ /33 1995, 2011, Low Price Publications: Delhi, India, pg 161 5. As per popular resource Wikipedia and the online post updated on December 16, 2014 on “The Rig Veda: The Book of Mantraâ€? by Subhamoy Das with Manoj Sadasivan (Hinduism dot about dot com, retrieved on 12th June 2016). $FKDU\D 3UDVVDQD . 0DQDVDUD 6HULHV $UFKLWHFWXUH RI 0DQDVDUD ĆUVW SXEOLVKHG LQ reprinted in LPP 1995, 1998, 2006, 2015, Low Price Publications: Delhi, India, pgs 56, 63-69, 73, 120, 317, 318, 356, 357, 358, 369, 7. In Sanskrit text, the foopath is referred to, as “Padyaâ€? = for foot, as derived from “padaâ€?= foot (in reference to Sanskrit verses in Acharya**, 2011). In one instance, the meaning is given in Acharya**, 2011 as “A SDYHPHQW RQ WKH VLGH RI D URDGĂŤ SJ EXW 6DQVNULW WHUP LV PLVVLQJ VR WKLV LV D FODULĆFDWLRQ EDVHG RQ OLWHUDO Sanskrit translation.

8. Sharma, Shailendra D. Vaastu Sarvasva, Ranjan Publications: New Delhi, 2008, pg 199, 200, 206, 208 9. The nomenclature associated with town such as “Pur� in Uttampur and Madhyampur et al, is decided based on occupants and thus descriptive of type/class of inhabitants (Acharya***, 2015, pgs 293, 313, 333; Sharma, 2008, pg 200-201)

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Alpa Nawre

GOING FORWARD LANDSCAPE ARCHITECTURE IN INDIA

n the next ďŹ fty years, India is projected to be become the world’s most populous country with a population of 1.6 billion. What does this mean for the landscape architecture profession in the country? It is a moment of pause and reection for the profession as we examine the direction where we are headed, as a discipline and a country. With what are we welcoming our future generations? Piles of plastic? Polluted air and dirty water? Life in degraded environments with mismanaged resources is the normal human experience in many parts of India, where access to clean water, clean air, and efficient systems of waste disposal is a daily struggle. Water, especially, is a severely contested resource, both in terms of quantity and quality. Over 100 million Indians lack access to safe water, and diarrhoea causes 1600 deaths daily. Where water maďŹ a and water dacoits are a grim reality, where suicides, murders, and streetďŹ ghts over water scarcity are a serious issue, and where commuting back and forth from work could involve wading through chest or knee-high ood water, the problems associated with water management in India point to a crisis, which is only expected to get worse with impending climate change, rapid urbanization and population growth. In this context of mismanaged resources, landscape architects must step in to do what we can to restore and re-establish healthy relationships between humans and their environment. While some problems clearly fall outside the scope of a landscape architect, there are many issues that can be addressed through better water management landscapes.

This is where the agency and action of landscape architects at both systems and site scale becomes critical, applicable not only to water but also to other contested resources.

I

How can landscape architects change societal and social paradigms in India? Consider Turenscape’s Shenyang Jianzhu University Campus design that brings attention to societal values related to food production. Similarly, Houtan Park on a brownďŹ eld in Shanghai's Huangpu riverfront is a project that demonstrates the restorative power and ecological performance of a welldesigned landscape, and addresses with great aesthetic sensitivity, the region’s extreme water pollution issues. Such projects are needed as desperately in

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HOUTAN PARK, SHANGHAI %XLOW RQ D EURZQĆHOG RI D IRUPHU LQGXVWULDO VLWH Houtan Park is a regenerative living landscape on Shanghai’s Huangpu riverfront. The park’s FRQVWUXFWHG ZHWODQG HFRORJLFDO ćRRG FRQWURO reclaimed industrial structures and materials, and urban agriculture are integral components of an overall restorative design strategy to treat polluted river water and recover the degraded waterfront in an aesthetically pleasing way.

Architect & Landscape Architect: Turenscape

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one successful project can open doors to many possible projects that landscape architects, can lead in a country that can benefit immensely from the expertise that landscape architects have and can also be transformational in the positive change it can bring to the lives of million of people

India as they are needed in China for our ideas about food production, and our water pollution levels need no less attention than those in China. Landscape architecture practice in India may well benefit from taking a step from the nitty-gritty of every-day practice and taking a close, hard look at the larger picture about the ‘kind of work’ we do, instead of who or what or how we do it.

The parks, gardens, malls and office landscape projects that landscape architects undertake in India, despite being well-designed, miss a big opportunity to engage with critical questions that deal with how we manage our resources at different scales. These issues often fall outside a landscape architect’s traditional scope of work in India, which is a missed opportunity for the discipline.

Landscape architecture practice operates in so many different ways all over the world. By working through current governmental initiatives, practitioners and professional organizations in India can seek to build meaningful relationships between the landscape architecture discipline, the public and the country’s authorities. For example, by getting involved into existing governmental initiative, such as the Sansad Adarsh Gram Yojna (the Member of Parliament’s Model Village Scheme) projects can ride on a wave already in place and set examples, which can be replicated in over 1,000 such villages, targeted to be developed in the next three years, and in over 5,000 villages by year 2024.

Similarly, the Smart Cities program by the Government of India implemented by the Ministry of Urban Development provides opportunity for landscape architects to stake out new territory. The emphasis on physical infrastructure development and community engagement in projects under this program is especially applicable and of interest to landscape architects as it can be used to argue for engaged public participation on green infrastructure projects.

There are many well-documented economic, environmental and social values of green infrastructure that a country such as India will immensely benefit from. Such projects could set significant precedents for the design of resilient resource management landscapes and systems for those regions in India, which suffer from acute resource problems due to mismanagement. One successful project can open doors to many possible projects that landscape architects, can lead in a country that can benefit immensely from the expertise that landscape architects have. Such projects can be transformational to the general practice, education and ambition of landscape architecture in India. They can also be transformational in the positive change it can bring to the lives of million of people in India while improving the environment for the better. There are many possible paths of doing something whether working with municipalities, with the central or state governments or with institutions and private clients, but it is of relevance only if we as a profession decide to be proactive about chasing and creating transformative projects.

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Deteriorated state of water landscapes in India – Budha Sagar in Rajnandgaon, Chhattisgarh

Before we engage in design, we must understand and evaluate existing systems. There are so many lessons to be learned from historic, vernacular landscapes in India, on alternative definitions, paradigms, and culture of resource management, all of which are rapidly being transformed and degraded as we speak. We urgently need to understand the various existing ecologies of resource management in the country. We must retain what is valuable in the historic paradigms, and build and adapt them to provide for the needs of contemporary culture in India. As designers, we have two avenues of intervention for addressing resource issues. The first is through design to improve existing resource landscapes, and the second is to create alternative paradigms for better resource management through the structuring of new built environments. In the next fifty years, India will be adding more than 400 million to its urban population—about twenty more Mumbais. The development of urban territories to accommodate these millions desperately needs the expertise of landscape architects equipped to design urban landscape systems for better resource management. It also presents unprecedented opportunities for design experimentation.

Part of the challenge ahead is not only to address resource management issues head on but also to make the general public, especially the decision makers and the public, aware of the contribution that landscape architects can make in improving resource management. Unless we change the perception in peoples minds that landscape architecture focuses on aesthetic improvements only, the profession will forever be limited by a narrow scope, servicing merely the needs of a clientele unaware of the potential of the field to address pressing issues of resource resiliency. In many parts of India, the phrase landscape architecture itself is either transformed to ‘landscaping or gardening’ or translated

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we urgently need to understand the various existing ecologies of resource management in the country. we must retain what is valuable in the historic paradigms, and build and adapt them to provide for the needs of contemporary culture in india

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today’s landscape architecture students live in a complex, networked world and must be prepared to meaningfully engage in and to craft India’s built environment to better deal with resource issues related to water, food, and waste

to mean the more familiar word ‘architecture’. Not surprising because there are very few landscape architects in the country and landscape architecture is a little known profession. Less than a thousand landscape architects serve a total population of more than 1.25 billion and of this handful, fewer still engage with issues of resource scarcity and/or mismanagement. Landscape architects must actively make opportunities for engagement to happen by better preparing themselves with alternative design solutions and communicating them to the public. Efforts must be made to develop outreach programs and on increasing as well as diversifying their ranks. And finally, they must work on developing an accreditation system for the profession that is recognized by the Government of India. This will help establish a validity and voice for the profession, sorely needed to allow the registration of licensed Landscape Architects, set accredited qualifications and develop recognized standards of practice. The Architect’s Act of 1972, provided a legitimacy to architecture in India that is sorely lacking in landscape architecture.

Not only do landscape architects need to engage with critical issues related water, waste, food and similar, urgently but the future generation of landscape architects must also be trained to address these issues through spatial designs at different scales. Today’s landscape architecture students live in a complex, networked world and must be prepared to meaningfully engage in and to craft India’s built environment to better deal with resource issues related to water, food, and waste. It is an exciting time to be a landscape architect, but only if the discipline embraces the opportunities and challenges ahead. Nowhere is this truer than in India. Landscape architects working in the context of a developing country such as India, must rise above territorial predispositions, and disciplinary comfort-zones to address the very real issues of water, air, food, and waste, with which India now grapples. There must be a crusading determination on the part of landscape architects to address the real issues of resource management that the country faces if we are ever to permanently establish and realize the true potential of our discipline.

Part of this article is adapted from an essay commissioned by the Landscape ƣĚňŏƶĪĚƶƾƣĪ IƂƾŶĠüƶŏƂŶ ĿƂƣ ȪĪ |ĪǙ oüŶĠƬĚüƠĪ (ĪĚŪüƣüƶŏƂŶӨ ²ƾŴŴŏƶ ƂŶ oüŶĠƬĚüƠĪ ƣĚňŏƶĪĚƶƾƣĪ üŶĠ ƶňĪ IƾƶƾƣĪ ňĪŪĠ ŏŶ ¦ňŏŪüĠĪŪƠňŏü ƂŶ hƾŶĪ ҒґԁҒҒө ғґҒҗӯ 4üĚň ƂĿ ƶňĪ ғҖ ŏŶǘŏƶĪĠ ƬƠĪüťĪƣƬ ǙĪƣĪ üƬťĪĠ ƶƂ ǙƣŏƶĪ ü ҒөґґґԁǙƂƣĠ Ԋ(ĪĚŪüƣüƶŏƂŶԋ ƂĿ ŪĪüĠĪƣƬňŏƠ üŶĠ ideas for how landscape architecture can make its vital contribution in response to ƶňĪ ĚňüŪŪĪŶŀĪƬ ƂĿ Ƃƾƣ ƶŏŴĪ üŶĠ ƶňĪ ŶĪǞƶ Җґ ǟĪüƣƬӯ ňȫƠƬӨӳӳŪüĿƂƾŶĠüƶŏƂŶӯƂƣŀӳƬƾŴŴŏƶ

Images courtesy the author

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Geeta Wahi Dua

IDENTITIES AND BOUNDARIES ºŏŴĪƬ ĚňüŶŀĪӯ ²Ƃ ĠƂ ǙĪӯ ȪĪƣĪĿƂƣĪө ƶňĪƣĪ üƣĪ ŶƂ absolute truths. Every truth is half, made complete Ǚŏƶň ŏƶƬ ǘüŪƾĪ ŏŶ ü ƠüƣƶŏĚƾŪüƣ ƶŏŴĪө ƬƠĪĚŏȟĚ ƠŪüĚĪ üŶĠ context. Change is the only constant. Travel light.

his profound fact of life can actually guide us professionals in resolving many mental conflicts, ideas regarding identity and self and our role in the larger frame of society. One realizes that many of our pre-conceived notions, perceptions and attitudes which we have stayed with for so long are now outdated and irrelevant. World views need to be updated in every new cultural era, and at every new place and in every new context. Wisdom lies in the understanding of which components will change and which values and principles or which part of the truth is constant.

T

Western versus Oriental In the past, there have been erudite deliberations by experts, thinkers, designers and policy makers on the idea of identity. In recent times, the idea of Nationalism has again caught a larger imagination with people and political leaders. Many political parties in India are taking pride in the ancient tradition of the Vedas and crediting classic epics as the supreme source of applied science, much before Western civilizations invented it. There are debates and discussions about separate identity of each State.

In the spatial design circles, matters are equally muddled. On one hand, we oppose the engagement of consultants based abroad to design our living places on the grounds of their cultural alienation. On the other hand we ourselves create inert designs with no cultural roots, in many cases copied in toto, from our fellow nations, both from East and West. We practice the idea of monoculture with a single design template for all geographical and cultural regions across the country — spatial organization, design elements and even planting palette. We contest our cultural conditioning, strive hard to be part of a larger

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wisdom lies in the understanding of which components will change and which values and principles or which part of the truth is constant

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world order, so as to adopt a global identity, elitist and exclusive. Of course, the conditions in far West are no better with the new air of protectivism and exclusivity.

Economy, Ecology and Spirituality: Toward a Theory and Practice of Sustainability (1992)* paper states that spirituality, community and a bonding to place or habitat are central values that have unified Asian cultures over centuries.

Okakura Kakuzo, eminent Japanese scholar, in his book on Asian artistic and cultural history — The Ideals of the East with Special Reference to the Art of Japan (1903), sees a spiritual unity throughout Asia, which distinguishes it from the West:

many western scholars have created exemplary works while studying art, architecture and spirituality of indian subcontinent. they have most credibly documented structured and detailed knowledge and formats of eastern culture studies specifically, india

“Asia is one. The Himalayas divide, only to accentuate, two mighty civilisations, the Chinese with its communism of Confucius, and the Indian with its individualism of the Vedas. But not even the snowy barriers can interrupt for one moment that broad expanse of love for the Ultimate and Universal, which is the common thought-inheritance of every Asiatic race, enabling them to produce all the great religions of the world, and distinguishing them from those maritime peoples of the Mediterranean and the Baltic, who love to dwell on the Particular, and to search out the means, not the end, of life.”

In our recent history of discourses, we have debates about Western versus Oriental, bashing the former for its capitalist system of economic theory and destruction of natural resources and emphasizing superiority of Eastern civilization.

Many Western scholars have created exemplary works while studying art, architecture and spirituality of Indian subcontinent. They have most credibly documented structured and detailed knowledge and formats of Eastern culture studies specifically, India. Scholarly works about India, of many prestigious universities located in the Western countries are still the source of reference and connect for students and scholars undertaking research about various facets of the country. In 2010, N R Narayana Murthy, Chief Mentor of Infosys Technologies donated $5.2 million to Harvard University to establish a new publication series called the Murty Classical Library of India, a dual-language series featuring contemporary English versions of works originally composed in classical Indian languages. In the spatial design discipline of landscape architecture in India, the foundation was laid by professionals, who either studied in Western universities or worked with professionals practicing there. So, we conclude that in reality, there is no cultural war between Eastern and Western worlds; there are too many nuances to allow such a simplistic description.

* Produced by participants of the Asian NGO Regional Fellows Program held in Baguio, Philippines in October, 1992 under the joint sponsorship of the Asian NGO Coalition and the Institute for Development Research with funding from the Ford Foundation.

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Indian Identity Indian identity has been stressed far and again by many scholars and intellectuals including Mahatma Gandhi , Jawaharlal Nehru and Sri Aurobindo. In his book, Renaissance in India (1918), Aurobindo states: “When we look at the past of India, what strikes us next is her stupendous vitality, her inexhaustible power of life and joy of life, her almost unimaginably prolific creativeness. For three thousand years at least—it is indeed much longer—she has been creating abundantly and incessantly, lavishly, with an inexhaustible manysidedness, republics and kingdoms and empires, philosophies and cosmogonies and sciences and creeds and arts and poems and all kinds of monuments, palaces and temples and public works, communities and societies and religious orders, laws and codes and rituals, physical sciences, psychic sciences, systems of Yoga, systems of politics and administration, arts spiritual, arts worldly, trades, industries, fine crafts — the list is endless and in each item there is almost a plethora of activity.”

India with a large culturally and linguistically diverse population is spread over an area of more than three million square kilometres. It has survived as a unified whole for the past five millennia. It is also true that this whole is comprised of many smaller parts with a large variety in cultural connotations, attitudes towards nature, geographical diversity, linguistic differences, and a chequered past, giving each a distinct identity.

So, there is no one identity, but multiple identities for the word “Indian”, depending upon the geographical, cultural and past bindings. There is no final word that can describe India is a single term. It is nearly impossible to define the word “Indian” in a tangible, comprehensible way in any spatial design exercise. Of course, philosophy comes to rescue in such a condition and we have plethora of thought about this idea as discussed earlier. Therefore, the argument of monism in defining “Indian identity” in design is defeated.

A World with no Boundaries In landscape, nature defines regions with its own boundaries. Nature does not respect a political word “country” or “state”. Thus, for example, states of Rajasthan (India) and Hyderabad (Pakistan) share common natural evolutionary factors and within the country, the states of Uttrakhand and Himachal Pradesh fall in the same geographical zone. Each region with a specific natural context dictates the types of soil, water, vegetation, climate and supported ecosystems and biodiversity. This natural context will change over a larger time

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there is no one identity, but multiple identities for the word “indian”, depending upon the geographical, cultural and past bindings. it is nearly impossible to define the word “indian” in a tangible, comprehensible way in any spatial design exercise

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dimension — of centuries, or of millennia, but not immediately. These can be termed as objective and factual aspects of any landscape design exercise.

The design program will change; it will depend precisely upon time, place and context — all subjective and changing aspects. And so, landscape design is a combination of two aspects — one that remains same and one that changes.

Landscape designs in an arid region should be same on the regional aspect: harvesting water, stabilizing soil, use of xerophytic plants and addressing other aspects of micro climate, but will be different in respect of their design typologies depending upon the creative sensibilities, skills and cultural conditioning of the designers. There can be innumerable permutation and combinations.

While the objective factors blur the boundaries of design, the subjective define them. They bring a sense of identity, an intrinsic essence of a design, which defines it, a distinct sense of self, which is very personal and unique.

while the objective factors blur the boundaries of design, the subjective define them. they bring a sense of identity, an intrinsic essence of a design, which defines it, a distinct sense of self, which is very personal and unique

So landscape designs will have an inherent indigenous identity, a defining factor, that stems from both objective and subjective factors — a site with its natural factors responding to a specific design program by a designer.

Knowledge and ideas are place, time and context specific. It is the way to learn lessons from our past, our history to make it contemporary and relevant. It should not be frozen. The element of nostalgia while it nourishes our mental space should not hold us back. It is a living knowledge.

The same holds for studying cultures, located in different geographical locations and learning from them. There are no boundaries for learning. The only important point is that we should be looking for the right set of values. If professionals from abroad are able to design in ways that hold the ethos of an indigenous identity for a site, then their efforts are no less valid than those of local designers. A thorough research of the natural features, natural history, detailed cultural studies along with a collaboratively (with client, stake-holders, end-users) well-structured design program can pave way for conceptualizing and designing spaces with indigenous identities.

What matters most is that the designer needs to be honest in addressing the forces of nature and subtleties of culture and be able to bring those together with his or her skills of art. And travel light in all sense of the word.

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AESTHETICS, UTILITY AND ENVIRONMENT PRACTICE OF RAVI-VARSHA GAVANDI, PUNE

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Pune of 90s in context of Landscape Profession On completing our Post Graduation in Landscape Architecture from the School of Planning and Architecture - SPA, New Delhi in 1988, we worked at the offices of Kanvinde Rai & Chowdhury and Shaheer Associates in Delhi. After two years, we took a decision to start our own practice, in our hometown, Pune. The decision was partly influenced by our mentor, Prof. Shaheer’s advice, “Go back to your hometown, you have a better future there”.

When we returned to Pune in 1990, our friend Jayant Dharap had already set up his practice and was trying to create awareness for the profession which helped us.

There were few landscape agencies doing a lot of work in the region. So the idea of appointing a separate agency for “landscaping” was known to a few but the idea of appointing a qualified consultant was new. Apart from nurseries, the landscape industry was nonexistent.

In retrospect, we realised that Pune was the perfect city to start our own practice. It is strategically located with its proximity to Mumbai, the economic capital of India, and other smaller towns like Aurangabad, Kolhapur and Nasik which have their own independent economies. The year 1990 was also the time when foreign capital had just started flowing in the city in various sectors which boosted real estate development. Initially, we worked on a few architectural projects before fully focusing only on landscape architecture. Establishing landscape architecture as an important and independent discipline in the region was a gradual process. There was no separate budget allocated for landscape and the role of a landscape architect was obscure. This proved to be an advantage as it allowed us the freedom to experiment, explore, learn and grow. It gave us time to build a suitable team and increase awareness about the profession in the city amongst professional and clients. It gave us ample opportunity to research and strengthen our basic ideas and concepts.

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Having studied Architecture in Pune with a good academic background, we were able to get quite a few projects from some of our former professors, who themselves had flourishing practices at the time. These proved to be excellent stepping stones in our journey towards establishment. With its variety of natural landscapes on the periphery, Pune proved to be a good place to work and learn the peculiarities of various settings.

Overall, the journey from 1990 to the present day has been a lot of hard work but has also been an enjoyable experience. Probably, we were also lucky to be at the right place at the right time.

Design Approach Our design approach is largely contextual, predominantly analytical and in rare instances, intuitive. So in a project, factors like setting, siting, built form and project typology influence our approach towards three main aspects of landscape architecture — aesthetics, utility and environment. Designing for different types of clients influences one’s design expression, which is also related to the client’s ability and willingness to spend, execute and maintain the project.

We like to experience natural landscapes and cultural landscapes which provide a lot of clues to design. We find it very interesting to travel to various places to observe and learn how man has intervened and negotiated with his natural surroundings over the years. At times, experiencing works of other landscape architects is also very inspiring.

35(&(',1* 635($' Nanded City Residential Development, Pune Image credit: Manik Sharma

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7+,6 )$&,1* 3$*( Textures, details and forms...

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Patronage of Real Estate Today in Pune, more than before, a large number of landscape practices survive on real estate development so we surely cannot deny their patronage. In a majority of real estate projects where the aim is only “build and sell”, the services of a landscape architect are sought mainly to boost sale. Regardless of the developer’s intentions, it is a good opportunity to embed certain values in one’s design that can help build awareness about the value of landscape architecture in the lives of people. Over the years, we have worked with several real estate developers. We have had a chance to work on projects of all scales and have been fortunate enough to have worked on large scale developments for the mid-segment, like the Magarpatta Township, that were the first of its kind in the region. These developments are “build, sell and maintain for life”.

So, along with aesthetics and utility, resource management, value engineering, sustenance over a long period and time induced changes become important drivers for the main design concept.

Due to the real estate developments, the designed landscapes have become more accessible to people from every segment of the society. This was restricted to only a selected few in earlier times. It has immensely increased the visibility of the profession.

We have also worked with Government agencies in the past but our experiences have not been very satisfactory. The slow pace of work, tedious sanctioning process, low fee structure and undue demands for changes in design are few aspects with which we have not been able to cope up. Though we understand the importance of the engagement of professionals in public works, the patience and skill required to work within the government system is something we are yet to master. At some point in future, we would like to explore the possibility of working in the public realm once again.

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TOWNSHIPS, PUNE )RU WKH SDVW HLJKWHHQ \HDUV WKH RIĆFH KDV EHHQ HQJDJHG E\ WKH VDPH developer for the landscape development of two large-scale multiuse developments—Magarpatta City and Nanded City Residential Development (400 acres and 700 acres)—both close to Pune for a mid-segment market giving us a unique perspective of various issues and values related to the designed as well as existing landscape.

7+,6 3$*( Open spaces at Magarpatta City ,PDJHV FUHGLW /HIW Manik Sharma, %HORZ Ravi Gavandi )$&,1* 3$*( 723

A typical street scapes at Magarpatta City ,PDJHV FUHGLW 5LJKW Manik Sharma, )DU 5LJKW Ravi Gavandi )$&,1* 3$*( %(/2:

Open space at Nanded City Image credit: Manik Sharma

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Landscape Education Today, with the introduction to various subjects through electives and further easy access to information, students get a broader exposure to various topics and issues. But effectively translating that information and exposure into knowledge and application is a bit of an issue. The curriculum needs more emphasis on understanding natural elements and processes and the ways to integrate them in design. An initiative towards thorough thinking and good graphical communication is also necessary. All this is only possible when there are enough trained and dedicated professors. Having an architecture background before pursuing landscape architecture for a short period of 18-24 months, has more advantages than disadvantages. With the current education system at schools and junior colleges, where there is no freedom to choose subjects from various branches and subjects are taught in isolation, probably four years of intense education is what one needs to become a landscape architect without having an architecture background.

ESTATE DEVELOPMENT, MAHABALESHWAR (Ongoing) Spread over 12 acres, the development proposal aimed at strengthening natural landscape over the total plot area, which was mainly allotted for cultivation and less for designed landscape.

Strategically located interventions like moon garden, wind pavilion, padvi are intended to be the settings to experience the nuances of the existing landscape and the forces of nature.

LEGEND 1. Entrance Court 2. Guest Room 3. House 4. Natural Landscape: Trail, Wind Pavillion 5. Cultivated Landscape: Farms, Padvi 6. Designed Landscape: Performance Area, Play Area, Moon Garden

Issues of Landscape Practice It is true that currently aesthetical and functional aspects govern most landscape works in India. There is an urgent need to bring in natural processes and environmentally beneďŹ cial systems at the centre stage of the design process.

This would be a major paradigm shift but may take some more time for acceptance not only by the end users but also by our own fraternity. We can already feel the change coming with a few projects that are attempting to adapt to this way of thinking.

Second important issue is of working with architects. Our experience of working with architects and as a part of a multidisciplinary ďŹ rm has been mixed.

In the early days, we were never choosy about the work that came our way and worked on almost every type of project. This exposed us to a variety of architects, urban planners, etc. each with their own set of values and working styles.

For example, in 1997-98, in a small yet signiďŹ cant project the architect gave us complete freedom, right from locating the structure as per the plot, deciding the proportions of spaces between the structures and so on. In some of our early projects, the architects showed full faith in our inputs and abilities and stood by us all through the process. Though rare, working on such projects was extremely fulďŹ lling and enjoyable as there was synergy between the two teams and respect for each team member. At the same time, we also experienced complete disregard by fellow professionals who sent us plans where all we had to do was design the setback areas and leftover spaces.

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I.T. CAMPUS , PUNE (Ongoing) With environmental concerns at the centre stage, the project is a challenge to effectively weave in other values of landscape architecture, aesthetics and utility.

LEGEND 1. Arrival Court 2. Water Management System: Quarry, Holding Pond, Bio Swale, Check Dams 3. Native Forest 4. Spine 5. Amphitheatre 6. Raised Garden 7. Pocket Gardens 8. Future Expansion

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Till date, the full potential for landscape architecture has not been recognised, especially at times when it should be at the forefront of the planning and decision making process. However, we strongly believe that as landscape professionals, small yet significant steps, in any given situation, will slowly but surely pave the way to bigger and more holistic opportunities.

Role of ISOLA ISOLA has done a magnificent job of bringing the landscape architecture fraternity together. Having been part of the Organising Committee for a brief period of time, we are well aware of the struggles it has been through to come to this stage. We believe that ISOLA, by setting up an Education Committee and a Resource Centre, has laid the foundation for some very important work like teacher’s training, building and compiling country relevant data and research in landscape architecture.

Profession of landscape architecture in the region has come a long way over last thirty years. From one landscape practice in 1988, today we have grown to over thirty busy practices with two landscape education programs in the city.

Many times, for projects of all typologies, the landscape architect is engaged from an early stage of development. Though a lot of good work is happening over the period, it is time we see some path-breaking, thought provoking and trend setting work in the region.

Techpark, Pune (2010)

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Contemporary interpretation of the traditional Indian lamp deepstambha at the “Garden of Progression”, Jinzhou, China

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“GARDEN OF PROGRESSION”, JINZHOU, CHINA (2013) The garden was among twenty gardens designed by twenty landscape architects from different countries for the world landscape expo held in Jinzhao, China in 2013. The garden design is symbolic of man’s journey from wordly to spiritual where landscape elements are metaphors to strengthen the idea and enhance the experience. The entire journey of getting the work done remotely (with a lot of communication problems), interacting and sharing ideas with landscape architects from different countries was extremely refreshing and encouraging.

Images and drawings courtesy Ravi and Varsha Gavandi

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REDESIGNING

MAHARASHTRA NATURE PARK MUMBAI ȪĪ zƾŴĘüŏ zĪƶƣƂƠƂŪŏƶüŶ ©ĪŀŏƂŶ (ĪǘĪŪƂƠŴĪŶƶ Authority (MMRDA) announced the winners of its international competition to redesign the city’s Maharashtra Nature Park and the pedestrian/cyclist ƣŏĠŀĪ ƂǘĪƣ ƶňĪ zŏƶňŏ ©ŏǘĪƣӯ ȪĪ šƾƣǟ ƠüŶĪŪ ŏŶĚŪƾĠĪĠ UPS Madan, Metropolitan Commissioner, MMRDA, (ƣ ¦ňĪƣƂǨü JƂĠƣĪšө |üƶƾƣüŪŏƬƶ üŶĠ ƣƶ "ƂŶƬĪƣǘüƶƂƣө Sudheendra Kulkarni, Ton Venhoeven, Bimal Patel, Dr Rakesh Kumar, Ethan Kent, Pravin Darade and Gautam Kirtane. From thirty multi-discplinary teams ĿƣƂŴ üƣƂƾŶĠ ƶňĪ ǙƂƣŪĠө ƶňĪ ĪǞƠĪƣƶ šƾƣǟ ƬĪŪĪĚƶĪĠ ü longlist of eight teams, a four-team shortlist, two ȟŶüŪŏƬƶƬө üŶĠ ȟŶüŪŪǟө üŶ ƂǘĪƣüŪŪ ĚƂŴƠĪƶŏƶŏƂŶ ǙŏŶŶĪƣӯ Winner Sameep Padora & Associates, Design Cell & Ratan J Batliboi Consultants Pvt Ltd (Mumbai) with Schlaich Bergermann Partner (Germany) and Ladybird Environmental Consulting LLP ȪĪ ǙŏŶŶŏŶŀ ƶĪüŴ ǙŏŪŪ ǙƂƣť Ǚŏƶň ƶňĪ zz©( ƶƂ ĠĪǘĪŪƂƠ their master plan to meet the environmental guidelines and construction regulations required to allow the ƠƣƂšĪĚƶ ƶƂ ĘĪ ĪǞĪĚƾƶĪĠ ĿƂŪŪƂǙŏŶŀ üƠƠƣƂǘüŪ ĿƣƂŴ ŪƂĚüŪ authorities.

Rooftops of Dharavi the foreground, broken by the green cover of MNP along the Mithi River with modern-day architecture of BKC in the background. Image source: http://www.letsmakemumbai.org/

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Background ȪĪ ƶǙƂ ŴüšƂƣ ĚƂŴƠƂŶĪŶƶƬ of the competition are – the comprehensive makeover of the Maharashtra Nature Park (MNP) and a pedestrian-and-cyclistƂŶŪǟ ĘƣŏĠŀĪ ƂǘĪƣ ƶňĪ zŏƶňŏ ©ŏǘĪƣӯ ÜňŏŪĪ ƶňĪ züňüƣüƬňƶƣü |üƶƾƣĪ Park is a unique 37-acre forested park established upon a former garbage dump along the south bank of the Mithi River, Mithi River Bridge would be a vital pedestrian connectivity expected ƶƂ ƬĪĪ ƂǘĪƣ Җґөґґґ ƾƬĪƣƬ ĠüŏŪǟӯ ȪĪ ĚƂŶƶĪǞƶ ƂĿ ƶňĪ ĚƂŴƠĪƶŏƶŏƂŶ ŏƬ further shaped by plans to clean the Mithi River, to develop the Bandra-Kurla Complex (BKC) and by the future urban renewal of (ňüƣüǘŏ Ӿ XŶĠŏüԏƬ ŴƂƬƶ ƠƣƂŴŏŶĪŶƶ ŏŶĿƂƣŴüŪ ƬĪȫŪĪŴĪŶƶӯ

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Competition Brief ȪĪ ҒҘԁüĚƣĪ ĿƂƣĪƬƶԁŪŏťĪ ĚƂƣĪ ƬňƂƾŪĠ ĘĪ ƠƣĪƬĪƣǘĪĠ üŶĠ ƬŏŀŶŏȟĚüŶƶŪǟ ĪŶŪüƣŀĪĠӯ Plans must take into account that the after the makeover, the park will cater to much larger number of visitors which must not disturb the ecological balance and carrying capacity of the Maharashtra Nature ¦üƣť ӻz|¦Ӽӯ Nature-inspired designs for the proposed Knowledge Centre and ƂƶňĪƣ ĘƾŏŪƶ ŏŶĿƣüƬƶƣƾĚƶƾƣĪӯ Development of a low-impact waterfront promenade over the natural walkway between the MNP boundary and the Mithi River in keeping with the larger vision for an unbroken pedestrian corridor üŪƂŶŀ ƶňĪ ĪŶƶŏƣĪ ƣŏǘĪƣĿƣƂŶƶӯ Minimise impact on the river, estuary, mangroves, the Maharashtra Nature Park itself, and other environmental assets in ƶňĪ ǘŏĚŏŶŏƶǟӯ Factor in equal and balanced measure, the needs and aspirations of those living and working across ĘƂƶň ĘüŶťƬ ƂĿ ƶňĪ ƣŏǘĪƣӯ Affordable and practical solutions for operations, maintenance and ƬƾƠƠƂƣƶӯ Bridge to the Sion-Dharavi Link Road, taking pedestrians and cyclists towards Sion and "ňƾŶŶüĘňüȫŏ ²ƶüƶŏƂŶƬ ƂŶ ƶňĪ ²ƾĘƾƣĘüŶ ©üŏŪǙüǟ |ĪƶǙƂƣťӯ

LOCATION 1. BANDRA-KURLA COMPLEX (BKC) 2. MITHI RIVER 3. MAHARASHTRA NATURE PARK (MNP) 4. DHARAVI 5. MAHIM BAY

Winning Entry

Context: Maharashtra Nature Park and Mithi River This competition is an opportunity to rejuvenate one of the rare parcels of urban forest that lie forgotten within the city and from there on, cast a spotlight on a much larger area, reaching from the upper reaches of the Mithi and Vakola nallahs to the forgotten Mahul-Eastern waterfront connect. The fortunes of the MNP are inextricably linked to it’s upstream reaches, so even though not part of the core brief of this competition, one important part of our proposal looks to re-mediate the contaminated waters that flow through the estuarine delta, creating a more conducive environment for engaging with the river edge through the bridge and the MNP river front edge.

ȪĪ (ĪƬŏŀŶ 4ŪĪŴĪŶƶƬ Waters’ Edge as Soft Infrastructure The winning design proposal at the regional level proposes a re-imagining of the existing waterways edges as a dynamic ecosystem that absorbs the monsoon overflow and serves as a green filter remediating outflows into the water from the immediate surroundings. Simultaneously, physical filters are proposed at the estuarine end to filter out some of the solid waste being thrown back by the sea tides. This is aimed at improving the quality of estuarine water, which will make this area more attractive from all banks — BKC and MNP.

Bridge as a Destination The proposal imagines the bridge as a series of linked nodes; place making for people. The moment the quality of estuarine water improves, the bridge has the potential to become a destination rather than a simple cyclist/pedestrian connect, developing a new format of urban space missing from the city fabric today. It supports activities as diverse as bird watching and Equal Streets initiatives, where Mumbaiites can celebrate this forgotten connection with the water and open spaces. The bridge will not only serve as a non-vehicular visual icon connecting BKC and Dharavi but also an infrastructural addition to create social equity and access given its place in the implementation of the Dharavi Redevelopment Plan.

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Spaces for All: Maharashtra Nature Park The Maharashtra Nature Park was developed with the best intentions but has never lived up to expectation as it was viewed in isolation and not within the larger urban context. Our aim is to integrate the MNP into popular perception through a two-pronged strategy of upgradation/ intensification and notional expansion, without disrupting its flourishing ecology. Carefully planned educational and leisure activities include a boardwalk connector along the mangroves and mudflats expand the scope of the MNP, landscape interventions along the road front to create a more engaging interface with the city to see the hidden beauty of the estuarine ecosystem that is supported by the MNP.

Comprehensive Strategy Summary Treating the water flowing through the Mahim Estuary will create a more pleasant environment on both the BKC and MNP banks.

Linking the two banks with not just the pedestrian bridge but also a mangrove boardwalk creates a recreational pedestrian/cyclist loop that will also rejuvenate the unused BKC cycle trail and make the entire area a vibrant community space.

Creating attractive landing points at both ends of the bridge—a plaza/ amphitheatre at the BKC and an overview into MNP at the other end—will invite more people to use the bridge, avoiding the fate of the foot over bridges that fail due to low foot fall.

Integrating the pedestrian bridge as one part of the MNP built structure brings more connectivity to the Park, and reduces the amount of net built mass in the park.

Providing amenities, albeit temporary, for the local residents at the presently encroached eastern end of the MNP, in the form of public toilets and a public park in the serves to mitigate the perceived threat to the slum redesign by the redesign proposed and address the current issue of open defecation. The bridge embedded in a series of re-mediating landscape of reed beds etc, forms a sensitive boundary without being an obvious hard edge to the park.

Attempting to understand and alleviate the ecological issues that ail the MNP, the interventions will include measures like detention that will aid and educate visitors on rain water harvesting, reed bed technologies to treat waste water of the toilets etc.

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A skywalk shelters the public park while providing the security missing SUHYLRXVO\ 7KH IRUHJURXQG DUHD ZLOO JR WKURXJK UHGHYHORSPHQW LQ WKH ĆUVW stage of the Dharavi Redevelopment program. The pavilion-like built program is almost subsumed by the existing tree cover. Offering vantage views into the Park, the structures are subtly visible from the road. Landscape interventions create a more engaging interface with the city to see the hidden beauty of the estuarine ecosystem that is supported by the MNP.

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Winning Design Team Sameep Padora & Associates (sP+a) ²üŴĪĪƠ ¦üĠƂƣüө zǟƶňŏŪŏ ²ňĪȫǟө Harshad Verma, Manasi Punde, Shravanthi Kumar, Vishal Jayan, Sandeep Patwa, Aniket Umaria, Saachi Mavinkurve, Akhila ƣüťťüŪө ¦ƣüŶüǘ ȪƂŪĪө Kriti Veerappan, Subham Pani, ©ňĪü ¦Īšüǘüƣө hĪŴŏŶ zĪňƶüө Amaya D'souza, Akhil Mulay, ²üŶšüŶü ¦ƾƣƂňŏƶ Ratan J Batliboi Consultants Pvt Ltd Ratan J. Batliboi, Rashmi Parkar, Sohni Rao, Binoli Zaveri, Shubham Deshmukh, Priyanka zĪŶƂŶө ¦ƂƂšü "ňüƾĠňüƣŏ Design Cell Ravindra Punde, Shilpa Chandawarkar, Netra Palkar, Tanvi Modak, Sailee Bhandarkar Schlaich Bergermann & Partner (Engineering Consultants) Ladybird Environmental Consulting Ecopreneur Shubha, Jyoti Palekar Knowledge Partners Ayala Phytotechnology Applications

Text, proposal sheets and drawings courtesy Design Cell, Mumbai

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Deeproots Design

TRANSFORMING URBAN LANDSCAPES FUTALA LAKE, NAGPUR WINNER OF ISOLA LANDMARK AWARD 2015

ԊȪĪ ŪüťĪ ƬŏĠĪ ƣĪĠĪǘĪŪƂƠŴĪŶƶ ňüƬ ĚƣĪüƶĪĠ ü ŴƾĚň needed vibrant open public space in Nagpur. ȪĪ ĪĚƂŶƂŴŏĚ üŶĠ ƬƂĚŏüŪ ŏŴƠüĚƶ ƂĿ ƶňŏƬ ƠƣƂšĪĚƶ is witnessed by the change that has occurred ŏŶ |üŀƠƾƣ ƬŏŶĚĪ ŏƶƬ ŏŶĚĪƠƶŏƂŶӯ ȪŏƬ ƠƣƂšĪĚƶ ƬĪƶƬ an example for municipalities all over India to renovate their public space portfolio in collaboration with landscape architects. It is hoped such a move will encourage other cities to initiate similar change.”

—ISOLA Jury

he project aimed at creating a visible impact on the city fabric and increase the vibrancy of the place. It was commissioned by the Nagpur Improvement Trust, Nagpur. The challenge was to create a landmark in the city that till 2003 did not have any central community space for families to enjoy or a prominent congregation space or as we say “soul” of the city.

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Till recently, Nagpur has been a sleepy town where life is led at a leisure pace.

People here are very family oriented and would step out to the surrounding forests and places as a family and in many situations in large groups. Nagpur is blessed with numerous ponds or talabs. Futala is one of them. It dates back to the Bhonsale times and was built for water harvesting.

Fountains in the Evening

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Redeveloped lakeside road and promenade at night

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The challenges in the project were more than the actual design itself. It had to be simple, extremely economical due to limited budget and honest to its location and history. The landscape architects had to manage people working on the project, their perspective of landscape, its execution and the understanding of the end-user needs and expectations. The design had to understand the organic growth in public spaces and celebrate it and generate revenue for its maintenance.

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Context VEGETATION

The project is based on the context of rapid urbanization and fast growing population of Nagpur city, which has resulted in the degradation of lakes and its environment. The site—a heritage site, a famous public open space and a lakefront—required a more sensitive approach towards its design. The objective of the design was to create a landscape that respects the heritage aspects of the site and enhances its value, its natural advantages and its utility options by molding the present needs within historical and traditional parameters.

HARDSCAPE

The project identifies the potential of the lake precinct as a significant urban water resource, incorporates design strategies for its restoration and management and transforms the surroundings into an urban public recreational space.

HYDROLOGY

Necessity of Waterfront Management This was a heritage site with the most beautiful sunset views. Though the lake remained full of water, it was covered with intruded vegetation of hyacinths and lotus. Banks were eroded and the lake wall was dilapidated with the road along it being used by trucks that would disturb the stone embankments due to the vibrations. The site was used by certain section of people for fishing and presence of anti-social elements deterred families from visiting the place.

Thus, the challenge also was to create a central community space for families.

MASTER PLAN

DESIGN MORPHOLOGY

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Interventions ĂœĹ?Ä ÄŞĹśĹ?Ŝŀ ĆśĹˆÄŞ ĆŁĆ‚ĂźÄ ĆśĆ‚ ĹĽÄŞÄŞĆ vehicles away from the ÄŞĹ´Ä˜ĂźĹśĹĽĹ´ÄŞĹśĆśÓŻ

REPAIRED BASALT STONE WALL

PROMENADE

STONE PITCHING

ROAD

Conservation of the ƏƜƣƞĚƜƞƣĪӯ Convincing local authorities to restrict the truck and heavy vehicle movement ĆśĹˆĆŁĆ‚ĆžĹ€Ĺˆ ĆśĹˆÄŞ ǨƂŜĪӯ Footpaths, ramp access, parking for ease of accessing the space for physically ÄšĹˆĂźĹŞĹŞÄŞĹśĹ€ÄŞÄ ĂźĆŹ ǙĪŪŪӯ

FOOTPATH

REPAIRED BASALT STONE WALL

PROMENADE

PLANTATION ON BERM

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Dedicated space for food stalls and shops to allow revenue generation and to ŪĪŀßŪĹ?ĆŹÄŞ ƏƜƣĪĪƜ ŴßƣżĪƜƏӯ More activities like boating ĿƂƣ ĆŁÄŞÇ˜ÄŞĹśĆžÄŞ ŀĪŜĪƣßƜĹ?Ć‚ĹśÓŻ

CENTRAL PLAZA

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PATHWAY ROAD

SECTIONS THROUGH THE PROMENADE

Strict guidelines provided to Ĺ´ĂźĹ?ŜƜßĹ?Ĺś ĆśĹˆÄŞ ǙßƜĪƣ ƢƞßŪĹ?ĆśÇ&#x;ÓŻ Seating, dust bins and proper lighting along with landscape offer public a space that is utilitarian and Ć ĆŁĂźÄšĆśĹ?ĚßŪӯ

LANDSCAPE DEVELOPMENT MASTERPLAN LEGEND 1. Gate for Temple Complex 2. Kund 3. Nana Nani Park 4. Boat House 5. Parking 6HDWLQJ ZLWK \HOORZ ćRZHULQJ SODQWV 6HDWLQJ ZLWK ZKLWH ćRZHULQJ SODQWV 6HDWLQJ ZLWK UHG ćRZHULQJ SODQWV

Â˛Ć ÄŞÄšĹ?Č&#x;Äš ƜßŜż ĿƂƣ JĂźĹśÄŞĆŹĹˆ visarjan designed to reduce Ć Ć‚ĹŞĹŞĆžĆśĹ?Ć‚Ĺś Ć‚Äż ĆśĹˆÄŞ ŪßżĪ ǙßƜĪƣӯ

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Hawkers’ Zone Steps / Ramp Entrance Planting on berm Central Plaza Promenade Stone pitching Food Plaza

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Fountains Heritage water supply Retaining Wall Footpath

ÂŚĆŁĆ‚Ć Ć‚ĆŹÄŞÄ ĹŞĹ?Ĺ€ĹˆĆś Č&#x;ǞƜƞƣĪƏ were classical in theme and entire landscape was in a black / grey and white tones keeping the heritage theme Ĺ?Ĺś Ĺ´Ĺ?ĹśÄ ÓŻ

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Summary The design aimed at creating a landscape that respects the heritage aspects of the site and enhances its value and its natural advantages by molding the present needs within historical and traditional parameters. The place now provides a platform for various events like musical concerts, ash mobs, street plays and other social events. Over the past few years, the place has become one of the most visited tourist attractions of the city.

Futala Lakefront is an urban insert in Nagpur, which has eventually led to social and economic gains. It can be said that the city now has a safe, vibrant central place that all can visit and enjoy amazing sunsets too.

Daytime views of the lakeside promenade and road and an evening sunset view of the fountains.

Two sets of colored fountains and a hundred feet white fountain have been set up in the lake. As per Wikipedia, the lakeside has become one of the most attractive spots of Nagpur city and on an average one thousand people visit the place daily.

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Project

Waterfront Development of Futala/Telankhedi Lake

Location

Telankhedi Temple Precinct, Amravati Road Northwest Nagpur

Total Area

4.0 Acres

Client

Nagpur Improvement Trust

Landscape Consultant

Deeproots Design | Rajalakshmi Iyer

Other Consultants

Mr. Sarma as the main contractor for all works

Time Period

2000-2003

Project Cost

` 1.00 Crore

Text, drawings and images courtesy Deeproots Design, Nagpur

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VSPB Associates

REVITALISATION OF

DERELICT URBAN SPACES BUNDH REJUVENATION AND ECO-RESTORATION OF URBAN FOREST, GURUGRAM

WINNER OF WRI CK2017 AWARD IN THE CIVIL SOCIETY CATEGORY WRI (WORLD RESOURCE INSTITUTE), A GLOBAL RESEARCH ORGANISATION HAD THREE CATEGORIES OF AWARDS FOR SUSTAINABLE URBAN MOBILITY

cross the world, several projects are aimed at rebuilding derelict urban environments to transform and rejuvenate marginalized places into vibrant public spaces for the city. The revival of such neglected spaces can serve to energize urban landscapes and create healthy environments for outdoor leisure for city dwellers.

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Initiated by a local NGO Iamgurgaon (IAG) along with the Forest Department, Haryana, the Bundh Rejuvenation project is being developed on a public-private-partnership model, funded by corporate bodies like American Express with CSR funds.

The bundh was historically used as a check-dam in a water collection system.

The 5.2 kilometre long stretch of the bundh along a nullah, is an existing forest strip, belonging to the Forest Department, Haryana. It traverses alongside several high-end residential neighbourhoods as well as squatter settlements.

Presently this long stretch of forest land, in the midst of high-end residential housing enclaves, lies in a sad state of misuse.

View of the entrance area from the road-side boundary

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Existing Landuse and Activities The site for revitalization, in Sector 52/53, Gurugram, is currently a solid waste dumping ground and an open defecation area with a number of scattered encroachments within the forest land. The stinking nullah carries a lot of sewer discharge from the neighbourhood slums. A lot of invasive, thorny vegetation of vilayati kikar, which covers a major part of the area, makes some stretches fairly inaccessible. The waste dumps make it a home ground for a large number of pigs that are seen all over the site area. Presently, the bundh is used by domestic help and daily wage workers to commute from nearby slums to the residential neighbourhoods in DLF and Sushant Lok. The forest corridor offers a fairly long cross-connection within the city without getting onto the busy vehicular roads.

Design Ideas MOBILITY & ACCESSIBILITY ECO-MOBILITY CORRIDOR A linear park with walking and cycling tracks, providing nonmotorized linkages through the city UNIVERSAL ACCESSIBILITY Ramps for people using wheelchairs, strollers, walkers, crutches & for the visually impaired TACTILE PAVING in the direction of pedestrian movement for the visually impaired

Design Proposal

ECO-FRIENDLY DESIGN

A design proposal was conceptualized to create a public place and mobility corridor in the form of a linear park, with walking and cycling tracks as nonmotorized linkages through the city, promoting pedestrian movement as well as cycling as an environment friendly circulation system for short distance travel from one part of the city to another.

PERMEABLE PAVING for effective water percolation

A short 200 metre stretch (in front of Paras Hospital) was taken up as a pilot project for implementation and this has been a model for revival of the complete derelict stretch of the bundh, cutting through the prime areas of the city.

Resilient and maintenance-free paving materials have been chosen for longterm durability. Stone aggregate concrete paving is used for cycle and wheel chair movement while pervious paving of gravel pavers for pathways reduces storm water runoff and allows for good infiltration through voids.

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Reduce impact on the natural environment

² o © ¦ Ü4©4( oXJRº² ĿƂƣ Street Lighting REVIVE THE FOREST and Biodiversity with planting of native, indigenous species SAFETY & COMFORT Enclosure of site with transparent fencing to allow visibility In & Out Adequate street lighting for pedestrians and bicyles CLIMATE SENSITIVE DESIGN ¦ŪüŶƶŏŶŀ ĿƂƣ ƬňüĠĪ üŶĠ ĘĪȫĪƣ microclimate

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MATERIAL LEGEND

SECTOR 52

Sandstone Pavers - Entry Court / Deck HDPE Gravel Pavers - Walking Track Planted Strips Concrete Paving - Cycle Track Concrete Paving - Wheelchair Track

)$&,1* 3$*( Context Plan showing the extent of the 5.2 kilometre bundh along the nullah from Chakarpur Village to Sector 56 with three major intersecting points on E-W arterial roads Bundh before starting of the project

7+,6 3$*( Landscape layout of the pilot stretch of the project Proposed Conceptual Section through the bundh

Approximately 9000 tractors of construction debris from landďŹ ll and construction sites in Gurugram were utilized for earth-ďŹ ll operations and in preparation of base layers of paving of a kilometre long stretch of the bundh. Trenches and recharge pits ensure percolation and ground water recharge and zero discharge into the municipal drains. Micro STPs are now proposed at various points along the nullah to restore the quality of water in the nullah. Compost pits have been made for collection of bio-degradable waste, for on-site generation of plant manure.

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Specially designed gates for cycles and wheel chairs have been installed at all entry and exit points to meet the challenge of intrusion by stray pigs/ cattle, as well as motor-bike users, who ďŹ nd the stretch a convenient cross connection within the city.

Native plant species, suitable for dry, arid climate and requiring minimal water after establishment have been used. A plantation drive was organized by IAG in August 2016, where about 200 employees of American Express participated and planted close to 1000 saplings of trees and shrubs, native to the Aravalli region.

It is envisioned that the proposed forest corridor will create a ‘green lung’ for Gurugram and provide a natural setting for leisure facilities to the adjoining residential areas.

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7+,6 3$*( _ 723 52: Entry for the physically challenged with barrier free access.

Paved deck overlooking the water channel %27720 /()7 Plantation drive by volunteers %27720 5,*+7 )$&,1* 3$*( Meandering gravel pathway along the water edge for walking with parallel concrete tracks for cycles/ wheel-chairs

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Project Name

Bundh Rejuvenation Project

Location

Sector 52/53, Gurugram

Total Area

Pilot Phase: 200 m long stretch (1 acre approximately) Phase II: 820 m long stretch (4 acres approximately)

Project Initiators

Forest Department, Haryana

XüŴŀƾƣŀüƂŶ գ oüƶŏťü ȪƾťƣüŪө ²ǙüŶǨüŪ küť küƠƂƂƣ

Landscape/ Urban Design Consultants

VSPB Associates

Design Team

Vina Verghese Biswas, Suptendu Prakash Biswas, Chinmay Yuvraj Kulkarni, Ashik Raj & Ashish Ranjan

Horticulture Consultant

Vijay Dhasmana

Year of Commencement

2015 (Ongoing)

Cost

` 2.75 Crores

Text, drawings and images courtesy VSPB Associates, New Delhi

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Parul Kiri Roy

MANA RESORT R A N A K P U R ,

R A J A S T H A N

ԊӯӯӯƶňĪ üƣĚňŏƶĪĚƶƾƣĪ ƶƣŏĪƬ ƶƂ ĚŪüŏŴ ƶňĪ ŪüŶĠө ƶňĪ ŪüŶĠƬĚüƠĪ ƶƣŏĪƬ ƶƂ ƣĪƶƾƣŶ ƶƂ ŶüƶƾƣĪӯӯӯԋ

n the core of the distant green valley of the Aravallis, skirting the rivulet Sukri and enveloped in the solitude of the surrounding forest, nestled in the gentle landscape, the Mana Resort seems to rise from within. The changing experience of the natural environment of Ranakpur region lends itself to be a spectacular setting for people to unwind. The lush green forests in the monsoons forming protective canopies, to dry arid in the winters which lie naked with silence and the spring offering the beautiful red carpet of flames of the trees when in full bloom is wherein the inspiration lies. The design intent emerged from core thoughts of paying respect to nature while not denying human intervention. The landscape of the resort was conceptualized to softly echo the flow of the glistening waters of the river, as the building settles on the riverbed.

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ȪĪ ²ĚňĪŴĪ The design is in reverence to the river and the journey formed, a reminder of it. Entering into the site, along the pathway, sits a narrow symbolic element of water being reminiscent of the memory of the river. The linear character of the spatial structure is imbibed from the course of the river and finds its way into both hard and soft articulations in the landscape designed. The calm flow of the waters is metaphorically echoed by recreating it through the gentle meandering movement of the user through the site. At times, the allegoric stream takes physical form becoming water pools in the open or entering into the built at other. The site edge towards the river opens up towards the water, quietly letting the wandering mind to reflect in itself.

Mana Resort – In continuation of the surrounding forest

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As the natural ows are allowed to permeate through and denotes the element water, what holds the scheme as an integrated whole, is the sacred grid of 9x9 metre aligned to north-south axis, symbolizing the earth element. This strong human gesture brings in a sense of order, with the grid intersections further emphasized by housing the existing large native parahu (Erythrina indica) tree blossoming red in spring. Long stone masonry walls reinforce the linearity of the grid and the built spaces of the cottages happen along these walls. There are framed thresholds accentuating the act of entrance into the built spaces and green foliage walls demarcating open space. There is a search for a balance of the arid and the green to create harmony between the built and the open.

A square geometry is used to deďŹ ne courts as pause points in the expanding landscape. These courts offer a variety of experiences and are used as active nodes for gatherings or events. A huge, existing barh tree (Ficus benghalensis) on the site with its unique characteristic of a large spread of about 28-30 metre diameter, is identiďŹ ed as a focal point and designed as a shaded community space, a remnant of the traditional tree-chaupal. This space becomes the

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common cultural space serving as the spill out for the entire resort. The paved areas are permeated by the innocuous presence of flowering trees and plants, leaving the breeze with a subtle fragrance adding to the soothing quality of the experience.

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LANDSCAPE PLAN LEGEND 1. Rivulet Sukri's Riverbed 2. Entrance 3. Entry Court 4. Main Building Block 'HĆQHG &RXUW DV 3DXVH 3RLQW 6. Villas 7. The Barh Court

Water intersecting the built

Sustainability Not only is the design process, environmentally conscious, there is also sustainable thinking in the use of local material, native vegetation and manpower that dictated the intervention. The earth as it turned inside out while working on the site, revealed it’s inner layers. Large river pebbles reclaimed from the site during digging of the foundation are used lavishly on the sandy soil, creating a porous and low maintenance layer, while only indigenous plants are used reinforcing the character of the local. Minimizing hard paved area and maximizing porosity as well as greens on the sandy soil are core ideas for rainwater strategy. The result of applying these ideas is that seventy percent of the site facilitates natural percolation.

Planting The trees, plants and shrubs are chosen wisely; to achieve a selective colour palette especially with the spring blooms- the flaming red, the peaceful white and the green foliage. The native red flowering trees — Indian coral tree (Erythrina indica) and lal lasora (Cordia gharf) are tactically located within the grid to bring in the forest and at the periphery to merge with it. The sweet scent of the white champa (Plumeria alba) flower imbues the air with a relaxing effect. Continuing with the concept of using indigenous vegetation for easy growth and maintenance of the natural ecosystem, even the shrubs used are the red flowering powder puff (Calliandra haematocephela) and the white flowering kamini (Murraya paniculata) forming a sheath over the soil as per design. This contextual approach works out effectively in terms of landscape expression with the surrounding forest appearing to come into the site.

Planting of vegetation was planned and a nursery was established on site to maximize growth, while the building was under construction.

The designed landscape merging with the natural provides a strong base from which the architecture emerges. The essence of the project lies within the way the language of architecture is formed through manipulation of space by design of the landscape and the building. It also lies within the means, by utilizing lessons from the indigenous and the local and applying in a global context providing an identity that is contemporary yet regional in expression.

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7+,6 3$*( _ 723 52: The Entry Court The Swimming Pool Court %27720 Pause points

)$&,1* 3$*( _ 723 52: Way to the villas Reclaimed river pebbles %27720 An ode to the river

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Plan and images courtesy Plan Loci, New Delhi

Project Name

Mana Resort

Location

Ranakpur, Rajasthan

Total Area

4.0 Acres

Client

Sheevam Comfort Hotels Pvt. Ltd.

Landscape Consultant

Plan Loci | Gauri Gandhi

Architect

Architecture Discipline

Plumbing Consultant

Deepak Khosla

Electrical Consultant

oŏƣŏƂ oƂƠĪǨ

Structural Consultant

Isha Consultants Pvt. Ltd.

Time Period

2011-2015

Cost

` 90 Lakhs approximately

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Karmavir Ghatge & Associates

SWASTIK VATIKA MARRIAGE VENUE, ANAND

nand — a small urban town in Gujarat has a unique and strong Gujarati character that is reflected in its architecture, culture and overall ambience of the place. Marriages here are extravagant big event — a typical “big fat Indian wedding”. As a norm, a good marriage party place usually undergoes renovation every third year. Thus, in this marriage venue project Swastik Vatika, apart from its design interventions, the challenge was also to fight this notion of ‘three years’.

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Design A ceremonial walkway towards the place terminates at a central water feature and bifurcates in two paths leading to the dining and marriage zones respectively. The outside gathering area is defined by two sets of feature walls that are twelve feet high and thirty to forty five feet long. These walls—designed with elliptical shapes and forms, finished with dual paint—create a wave illusion leading towards the ceremonial entrance.

A seamless flow of vision is planned with a continuous grid in the floor, the entrance gate and the entrance canopy. The water feature indicates a flock of saras birds, symbolizing flight and goodwill. Made from spring steel rods with laser-cut profiles on top, the birds are group of kinetic sculptures. At night, the cranes standing on the water feature above a pool of lighted glass bowls on pedestals depict floating diyas on water.

Enough space is left open in design, consciously so that the entire marriage plot can be draped up to express individual design theme. Thus, all events with their distinct decorations impart different expressions to the entire space. Patterned screen wall hides the services area behind.

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PHASE–1 (2007) Illusion wall and the entrance gate Laser-cut MS screen wall

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The design language adopted does not reflect any particular religion or depict any time period but simply follows an expression of contemporary design that caters in organizing a marriage event smoothly and efficiently for all.

7+,6 3$*( PHASE–1 (2007)

)$&,1* 3$*( PHASE–2 (2014)

Plastered patterned wall screening the storage room behind

Patterns in plaster screening the services behind

Kinetic birds sculpture

Strips with customized brass lights replacing the illusion wall 6DUDV FUDQHV ZLWK ćRDWLQJ GL\DV UHSODFLQJ the kinetic bird sculpture

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Project

Swastik Vatika

Location

Anand, Gujarat

Total Area

2.75 Acres

Client

Mr Rajan Patel

Landscape Consultant

Karmavir Ghatge & Associates

Architect

Design Consortium

Horticulture Consultant

Mr Kikani

Time Period

Phase 1: 2007 & Renovation Phase 2: 2014

Project Cost

Phase 1: ` 85.00 Lakhs approximately Phase 2: ` 18.00 Lakhs approximately

Text and images courtesy Karmavir Ghatge & Associates, Vadodara

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Genesis Architecture

CLOVER FIELDS WEEKEND HOME, BANGALORE

he site is located in the outskirts of the city of Bangalore, amidst the open country side and villages with farm lands, grasslands, fields, plantations, scrub vegetation serving as habitat for bird life. It is in the vicinity of numerous swamps, marshes, wet-fields, tank bunds and local ponds in the nearby villages which acts as a source of food and water for birds. There are many lakes of considerable size around in the region that form a bird habitat and serve as a spot of their local migration. Design of the the proposed weekend home within a gated community addresses the natural context of the site and its surroundings, assesses its potentials and addresses them.

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Design The landscape design uses a seamless blend of hardscape and softscape to effectively create vistas, surprises and highlights. It frames views and features and provides private and semi-private zones within the landscape. There are no direct views into the house from the main entrance. A short meandering drive, flanked by open spaces on either side and avenue trees lead to the drop off pergola, providing a sense of arrival.

The aangan—a surprise water body and transitional element—is hidden in a semi enclosed space of perforated stone walls and planting. It gives an experience of walking through a serene water body with the sounds of flowing and trickling water, plants, lilies and fishes. As the main door opens, one is welcomed by a large central courtyard. This courtyard brings in ample natural light and ventilation and the entire house looks into it. The courtyard is designed as not just a visual relief but also as a usable space with an open dining deck, a raised water body acting as an informal seating ledge and a balance of soft and hard paved areas providing for innovative informal usage of the space.

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View of drop-off pergola

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View of the courtyard

The formal living opens out to a covered sitout that looks upon the vast party lawn accessed by terraced courts. The open space of the party lawn offers the distant views of the trees, providing a sense of depth. It is a space for large gatherings and family functions. A bonfire area with a focal, tall sculpture acts as focus for this space. The fruit garden on the east and the ornamental tree court on the south flank the party lawn on two sides. The tree court provides a visual green backdrop for the party lawn and act as its extension with gravel below to reduce the lawn area.

Tree court at private gardens

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The family living opens into a more private garden on the south with tree court with gazebos, food court, food counter with a small paved plaza, outdoor jacuzzi, yoga pavilion and space for meditation etc. This zone is well screened with trees and dense planting all around. It is a comfortable space for family and small gatherings. The plant species chosen bring in numerous birds, butterflies, dragonflies, squirrels and other fauna to add to the ambience.

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LEGEND 1. Entry 2. Security Kiosk 3. Driveway 4. Vehicle Parking 5. Aangan 6. Entry Portico 7. Waterbody 8. Courtyard 9. Feature Tree 10. Sit Out (Under the roof) 11. Tree Court 12. Yoga Gazebo 13. Jacuzzi Gazebo 14. Service Yard 15. Grey Water Pond 16. Reed Bed 17. Peripheral Planting 18. Tree Court 19. Kitchen Garden 20. Party Lawn %RQĆUH 3ODFH 22. Fruit Trees 23. Waking Trail 24. Avenue Trees 25. Wind Turbine

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The servants quarters, utility space and grey water management structures, polishing pond, gas banks and kitchen garden are grouped together and hidden from the main gardens spaces.

Over three hundred trees of more than forty varieties were planted. All trees were planted when the construction of the house started in order to get a good tree cover on completion that was two years later. The plant palette was based on the following factors: Ó Drought resistance and hardiness. Ó Supports insects, birds and animal life. Ó Quick growth and ease on maintenance. Ó Native trees of the region and those that have adapted well.

Wild grass collected from lake beds where it grows naturally, is used for all lawn areas. The water requirement is, thus, less than twenty percent as compared to the exotic grasses. Many of the open areas are allowed to remain natural, with the growth of wild grasses and weeds to prevent soil erosion. A vermicompost pit is proposed to recycle the kitchen waste and dry leaves from the garden. The compost generated is used as manure for the vegetable garden.

Sustainable Practices There are no bore wells allowed in individual properties. Only 4000 litres is available per day per household through water supply from the community line for all. The proposal integrates many sustainable practices in regard of water, soil and vegetation conservation. Provision of an underground tank of 50,000 litres capacity in made under the garage for roof water harvest where it is reused for potable water, while the surface runoff streamlined through a network of swales with infiltration pits located at regular intervals, is channelled to an open well, at the lowest point. Waste water is treated in baffle tanks, reed beds and is stored in a pond for reuse for irrigation.

To reduce the overall cost, locally available building materials including rocks and boulders are used for functional and aesthetic purposes – as lining of grey water pond and as design elements. Wire-cut bricks, rough granite stone slabs and cobbles are also used. The proposal takes advantage of the abundance of sunlight and wind in the area with solar panels and windmill to generate power for the house and the landscape.

Text, plan and images courtesy Genesis Architecture, Bangalore

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Stepped terrace to party lawns Foodcourt looking towards yoga gazebo View of Aangan with the hand-plastered yellow cascade wall

Project

Weekend Home at Clover Fields

Location

ĿĿ ²üƣšüƠƾƣԁ ȫŏĘĪŪŪĪ ©ƂüĠө üŶŀüŪƂƣĪ

Total Area

2.00 Acres

Landscape Consultant

Priya Rangaraju, Genesis Architecture

Architect

Arjun Nambisan, Nambisan Associates

"ŏǘŏŪ ÜƂƣťӳ RüƣĠƬĚüƠĪ

NV Mohan

Softscape

Mohan Raj, Tellus Enterprises

JƣĪǟ ÜüƶĪƣ züŶüŀĪŴĪŶƶ ՚ ©üŏŶ ÜüƶĪƣ RüƣǘĪƬƶŏŶŀ

Biome

Pond Consultant

oŏǘŏŶŀ ÜüƶĪƣ ²ǟƬƶĪŴǨ

Time Period

2006-2008

Project Cost

` 50.00 Lakhs

seeing the unseen |

Dilpreet Bhullar

PANCH TATTVAS THE ROAD AHEAD

PHOTOSPHERE 2016 An interface between art and

sustainable development for its First edition

n recent times, the art of photography has made itself to be a popular means to raise awareness about the alarming environmental situation. The Visual Arts Gallery, India Habitat Centre (IHC), New Delhi instituted a grant award under its biennial photography festival, Photosphere in December 2016. Conceptualized as an interface between art and sustainable development for its first edition, Photosphere 2016, concerned with the issues of sustainable development, presented a new language of photography under the exhibition entitled Panchtattvas: The Road Ahead.

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The festival dedicated to the five elements of nature came in the crucial times, when the host city New Delhi was recurrently scanned by the environmental agencies in order to gauge its rising air pollution and entailing environmental issues. The year 2016 was punctuated by the events that brought the effects of the climate change to the fore — in the month of March, post World Cultural Festival (WCF), the natural catastrophe of its venue Yamuna floodplains caught the attention of the environmentalists across the globe; the author Amitav Ghosh latest release The Great Derangement: Climate Change and the Unthinkable (2016) talks of human incapability to grapple with the violence of global warming; the air pollution was at dangerous levels in New Delhi after Diwali celebrations in October. The festival with green conscience is a step towards promoting green arts: the photographs and photo-based installations moved many facets of the nature to the centre of discussions like rising pollution levels, global-warming, natural disasters, to name a few.

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SCARS OF THE RIVER Photographs by documentary photographer Monica Tiwari, highlight the impact of climate change led migration pattern in the Sunderbans.

The wide range of images focuses on the children who are left behind in their native lands, growing up without the presence of their parents, and the consequent effects on their physical and mental health, education and general well-being.

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seeing the unseen |

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ARAVALLI DECONSTRUCTION Installation by Aditya Arya looks at the grains from Aravalli Range that were used to create WKH PRGHUQ GD\ HGLĆFHV HVSHFLDOO\ WKH 1DWLRQDO Capital Region (NCR). The black and white photograph of Aravalli range is supplemented by the Aravalli stones which are kept on the ground surface in order to give its viewer a slice of reality.

seeing the unseen |

THE INDIC BIOSCOPE: FROM THE PANCHBHOOTA TO THE GANGAVARTAN Created by Alka Pande, the installation brings curatorial vision of Panchtattvas to the centre stage of her artwork. It takes Panchabhoota Sthalam as the epitome of natural habitation.

The human imagination and creativity are two sides of the same coin. Exemplifying the same, each of the artworks at display took the distinctive voice under conceptual theme of Panchtattvas. While the thematic structure of sustainable development remained at the core of the festival, nonetheless, watching from close quarters, a special importance was given to the emerging photographers who would create novel patterns in the discipline of photography. The four recipients of the grant: Monica Tiwari, Shraddha Borawake, Hari Katragadda and K.R. Sunil were mentored by the acclaimed photographers, Bandeep Singh, Prabir Purkayastha, Parthiv Shah and Aditya Arya respectively.

The displayed works included the artworks of the two invited artists of Photosphere. Illume — a multiple-media installation by Ashim Ghosh at VAG, celebrated light as the sixth element, and presented creatively engaging perspectives on issues of sustainable development. The outdoor installation Sustainable Love evolved from a hopeful thought, that sustained love for the Self, just might encourage a harmonious, non-violent, inclusive and sustainable balance on our planet. It also featured for the first time ever, a unique dynamic artwork crafted with new proprietary techniques. The 16’x16’ billboard-style artwork came to life in colourful animations when lit after sundown. It included different elements that respond to light and dramatically disappear, re-appear and transform the ambience and gradual degradation followed by a resurgent reversal, lit up with hope is witnessed. Deep Weather, a video essay by the Swiss artist writer Ursula Biemann, highlighted the impact of ecological imbalance across the continents. The visual narrative took the viewers through the devastating effect of tar sands of the boreal forests of Northern Canada, and hydrogeographies set in Bangladesh. Here, defying the geographical distance, the political ecology of oil, ice and water succinctly determines the temporal and spatial compression.

In this first ever photography festival in India that conceived the idea of representing permaculture through the art of photography, the awardees were trained by their respective mentors for more than six months.

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As an institute IHC is a perfect site of sustainable development and Photosphere could not have ĿƂƾŶĠ ü ĘĪȫĪƣ ňƂŴĪӯ XĿ ¦üŶĚňƶüȫǘüƬ Ƃƣ ȟǘĪ ĪŪĪŴĪŶƶƬ ƂĿ ŶüƶƾƣĪӨ üŏƣө ǙüƶĪƣө ȟƣĪө Īüƣƶň üŶĠ ether are the micro narrative of the festival, then sustainable development is its macro narrative.

—Alka Pande, Artistic Director of the Festival

seeing the unseen |

Various talks by prominent figures in the field of environment and ecology — Mike Pandey, Sunita Narain, Ajay Mathur, Amba Jamir, Madhav Gadgil and Alka Pande about the themes of art, ecology, environment, eco-feminism were also organized.

Until we wait for the second edition of Photosphere in the year 2019, the promise of first edition, built on the artists’ principles and climate change awareness, found its way through both artists and audience.

seeing the unseen |

7.83 HZ BOUND A collaborative lens-based installation of photography, concept by photo artist Shraddha Borawake and ceramics by artist Ruby Jhunjhunwala, recreates the notion of ecosystem survival on the universal harmony. Investigating WKH FRQWLQXDO GHSOHWLRQ RI WKH ĆYH HOHPHQWV RI nature, the mixed-media installation integrates the photo elements and ceramic arts to draw parallel between human’s demands to excavate natural resources and generosity of Earth that reclaims what has been fanned out.

RIVER STREET Photographs by Bandeep Singh emulate a sense of tranquility and offers a feeling of release. The photographs interestingly play upon the idea that cityscape is never far from the pace of the ZDWHUèV ćRZ DQG WKH EHDW RI LWV ODSSLQJ VRXQG The monochrome photography accentuates the idea of blurring, but the territories of nature’s vastness and human interventions never trespass each other.

Images courtesy the author

book review |

Review by Madhu

Pandit

AN INSPIRING VISUAL REFERENCE f a book were to be judged by its cover “Contemporary Indian Houses” would not measure up. However, since a book is more than its cover, once one gets past the tedious typography and layout design while introducing itself with references to digital and social media, it does fulfil the promise of an informative compilation of Indian residential architecture today.

It is fascinating to be able to see these homes as a group and many of them merit a special place for artful innovation.

I

At first glance there is sameness in them all across the country, since it can be argued that the architectural institutions become crucibles, where several generations of architects are trained, for setting styles and methods. But on closer look, these homes are not influenced by trends or fashion but rather by spacial sculpting, scale, structure, materials, light, climate and culture.

The design of a home is meant to be intimate and personal. It has to be said that it also presents the most challenging brief for architects. They have to address the multiple demands of space, material, aesthetics and environment. Over and above this, functionalist doctrine and response to cultural context very often is in conflict with a desire for monumentality or prevalent trends. While these homes encapsulate ‘modernism’ of the transnational world we live in, some of them are curiously ‘Indian’ in remolding the past to create layers of cultural mulch. #91 RESIDENCES CONTEMPORARY INDIAN HOUSES #3 Content & Editing Nithya Srinivasan & Kiran Venkatesh Published by XŶ"Xº4ө üŶŀüŪƂƣĪө ғґҒҗ Size 210 x 290 mm, 220 Pages ISBN-978-81-908238-4-5

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It is interesting to see this book bring together residential architecture which seems to have enlightened cross cultural patronage. From inner city urban boxes to outer city sprawl to independent country retreats, the book captures nuances of architectural solutions used by architects today. The collection does not follow any categorization of typologies such as climate, size, or style — and so do not look for any narrative or insights about house design in the Indian subcontinent. It can be glimpsed through in one sitting, or could be considered more carefully

book review |

as a documentation that offers a summary of coming of age architectural phenomenon that expresses the changing social rituals, living standards and personal taste with the rise of income and expectations of urban Indians. Either way, the material presented is energetic and fun. I personally enjoyed going through some of the drawings. The oor plans which seem simple unfold unexpected complexity in the photographs and vice versa.

In all, the book is an inspiring visual reference for those interested in expanding their knowledge of contemporary architectural thinking by traipsing through more than a hundred homes with beautiful photographs, drawings and short personal texts written by the architects.

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landscape 101

book review |

Review by Narendra

Dengle

A POST COLONIAL PARADIGM OF UNIVERSAL INTEREST he book is part of a series termed Routledge Research in Landscape and Environmental Design which includes academic monographs for scholars working in the disciplines that overlap to cover the wide ranging issues of landscape, culture, and environmental design.

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The two editors and ten contributors with a background in academics in India and US have contributed papers from their rich experience in ďŹ eld studies and practice from six countries of South Asia. Rahul Mehrotra, in the prologue emphasises the importance of the book as an effort to ďŹ nd a strategic engagement base for the conservation movement and a conservation theory that is critical in its approach.

Conservation has become a major issue in dealing with city development plan anywhere in the world combining tangible and intangible issues where landscape becomes perhaps the most important layer. The major concern has been the varied pallet of imagination of the past-present and future, which drives citizens, bureaucrats, politician, and the so-called futuristic builders of economy in different directions. This complexity of imagery of time brings multiplicity in perception of sustainability, conservation and their impact on the development plans of cities. Past and future are seen as adversaries by many. So the battle is between a past and a future-both imagined and hence often far from the reality that is the present. For the developing world the future is too often an emulation of a pattern from the developed world while the past is a romantic nostalgia for an antiquated culture to get lost into.

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book review |

The book is divided in four parts entitled Reimagining South Asia cultural landscapes, South Asian historic urban landscapes, The Intangible heritage in cultural landscapes and Managing cultural landscapes.

Amita Sinha, explains in her introduction that “the chapters in the volume are case studies in conservation practices” and “proposals with framework grounded in fieldwork that charters a frontier in heritage management discourse in South Asia and by extension in the global context.” The history of architecture and archaeology has been written with an entirely western outlook and if culture is perceived not as an antiquity but as a performing culture, the issue of pastpresent-future would lead to a more sustainable alternative.

Françoise Pommaret writes that the Bhutanese understand the concept of cultural landscape. The case for Nepal discussed by Neel Kamal Chapagain is probably written before the 2015 earthquake of Nepal that devastated its CULTURAL LANDSCAPES I ² ÁºR ²X Ө STUDIES IN HERITAGE CONSERVATION AND MANAGEMENT Edited by küƠŏŪü (ӯ ²ŏŪǘü üŶĠ Ŵŏƶü ²ŏŶňü Published by ©ƂƾƶŪĪĠŀĪө |ĪǙ âƂƣťө ғґҒҘ RüƣĠĚƂǘĪƣ Size Ғҗґ Ǟ ғҕґ Ǟ ҒҘ ŴŴ ғҘҗ ¦üŀĪs ISBN 978-1-138-94757-3

built heritage. Destructions are caused not only by natural catastrophes but also wars as we have witnessed all over the world. ‘Living cultures’ undergo sudden ruptures and an enormous global effort is required to resurrect them but also their built heritage. The whole concept of conservation needs to be revisited when cities are brought down to rubble. Anila Naeem’s paper Enriching Heritage Diversity in Pakistan makes us aware that natural heritage belongs to the whole world; it is not bounded by artificial geo-political boundaries imposed on it.

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In the case study of Shahriyat: An urban renewal initiative in Delhi, Jyoti Pandey Sharma argues that respecting the past while catering to the present and future needs of people through active participation of professional and citizenry works as sustainable ‘culturally unified urban conservation districts’ for a city. Farhana Ferdous stresses the importance of the ‘generic rules of socio-spatial morphological organisation that define the cultural significance of the place’ for a historic city like Dhaka. Manish Chalanda’s paper throws light on the ancient routes like the Grant Trunk Road (GTR) that connected Afghanistan, Punjab, and Delhi right up to Bangladesh having tremendous cultural significance from the Mughal era where a wide range of communities associated with the GTR continue make an important narrative. Farhan Karim discusses the issue of conserving the modernist heritage of the city of Islamabad designed by Doxiadis.

Nilan Cooray laments that without strategizing to conserve the ‘panoramic landscape theatre’ of Sigiriya in Sri Lanka, which is ‘still active’ constituting both natural and agricultural elements, conservation efforts would not be holistic. Kapila D Silva in her paper on Candy, Sri Lanka, affirms that despite several aberrations to the place and culture certain symbolic associations continue to be shared by people weave important narratives. Every historical city has ‘static’ and ‘kinetic ’cities within its fold and major festivities within such cities demand them to be flexible as is experienced with Pohela Boishakh in Bangladesh state Nubras Sumayeen and Sharif Shams Imon. Festivities are also discussed of Bhutan by Wantanee Suntikul. Debashish Nayak’s research on traditional communities and their habitats in Ahmedabad shows that ‘many residents who had abandoned their homes in pols and shifted to the modern parts of the city are returning’.

In the epilogue, Kapila D Silva dwells on the ‘concept of cultural heritage and its conservation methodology’ as an effective tool to heritage management in South Asia due to ‘the region’s multi-layered and complex ecocultural heritage’.

The book on the whole makes a significant and researched effort in bringing together different strands of cultural landscape, tangible and intangible, subtle and symbolic that are integral to the notion of heritage. It also points out that modernist planning measures, infrastructural issues and flora-fauna make an entirely different zone for political thinkers and decision makers across nationalities. As is evident there is always a huge gap between the way sustainability and conservation are perceived by the academia and activists and the political will. The issues that further increase the tension are national issues versus global issues. It would have been even more instructive to learn from an evaluation of the struggle and achievements in the field undertaken by the scholars.

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books LANDSCAPE DESIGN & PLANNING, BIODIVERSITY, ECOLOGY Cultural Landscapes of South Asia: Studies in Heritage Conservation and Management (GLWHG E\ Kapila D. Silva and Amita Sinha 5RXWOHGJH Indica: A Deep Natural History of the Indian Subcontinent Pranay Lal 3HQJXLQ 5DQGRP +RXVH ,QGLD The First Garden of the Republic: Nature on The President’s Estate 3XEOLFDWLRQ 'LYLVLRQ 0LQLVWU\ RI ,QIRUPDWLRQ DQG %URDGFDVWLQJ *RYHUQPHQW RI ,QGLD A Work of Beauty: The Architecture and Landscape of the Rashtrapati Bhavan 3XEOLFDWLRQ 'LYLVLRQ 0LQLVWU\ RI ,QIRUPDWLRQ DQG %URDGFDVWLQJ *RYHUQPHQW RI ,QGLD Water Designs: Environment and Histories (GLWHG E\ Jutta Jain Neubauer 0DUJ )RXQGDWLRQ Nature in the City Harini Nagendra 2[IRUG 3UHVV Why I should be Tolerant?

Sunita Narain &HQWUH IRU 6FLHQFH DQG (QYLURQPHQW Not in My Backyard Solid Waste Management in Indian Cities Sunita Narain and Swati Singh Sambyal &HQWUH IRU 6FLHQFH DQG (QYLURQPHQW Ecology and Environment RN Bhargava, V Rajaram, Keith Olson and Lynn Tiede 7(5, 3XEOLFDWLRQV ARCHITECTURE AND PLANNING Achyut Kanvinde: Akar Tanuja BK and Sanjay Kanvinde 1L\RJL %RRNV Maps of Delhi Pilar Maria Guerrieri 1L\RJL %RRNV Learning from Delhi Practising Architecture in Urban India Gert Jan Scholte, Pelle Poiesz and Sanne Vanderkaaij Gandhi 0DSLQ 3XEOLVKLQJ

Le Corbusier: Chandigarh and the Modern City (GLWHG E\ Hasan-Uddin Khan *UDQWKD 0DSLQ 3XEOLVKLQJ Humayun’s Tomb Conservation Aga Khan Trust for Culture 0DSLQ 3XEOLVKLQJ Courtyard Houses of India Yatin Pandya 0DSLQ 3XEOLVKLQJ Brinda Somaya: Works and Continuities Ruturaj Parikh 0DSLQ 3XEOLVKLQJ Celebrating Public Spaces of India Archana Gupta and Anshuman Gupta 0DSLQ 3XEOLVKLQJ The Architecture of Hasmukh C Patel Selected Projects 1963-2003 Catherine Desai and Bimal Patel 0DSLQ 3XEOLVKLQJ 20th Century Compulsions: Modern Indian Architecture from Marg Archives (GLWHG E\ Mustansir Dalvi 0DUJ )RXQGDWLRQ A City in the Making: Aspects of Calcutta’s Early Growth Ranabir Ray Choudhury 1L\RJL %RRNV Princely Palaces in Delhi Sumanta K Bhowmick 1L\RJL %RRNV Baroda: A Cosmopolitan Provenance in Transition (GLWHG E\ Priya Mohaoy Jaradi 0DUJ )RXQGDWLRQ Nalanda: Situating the Great Monastery Frederick M Asher 0DUJ )RXQGDWLRQ Designing for Modern India INI Design Studio 0DSLQ 3XEOLVKLQJ #91 RESIDENCES: CONTEMPORARY INDIAN HOUSES #3 &RQWHQW (GLWLQJ Nithya Srinivasan & Kiran Venkatesh ,Q&,7( HISTORY, CULTURE AND ARTS Wanderings through the Garwal Himlayas Ganesh Saili 1L\RJL %RRNV The Kangra Valley Train Premola Glose, 3KRWRJUDSKV E\ Ram Rahman 1L\RJL %RRNV 51 | 2017

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l a n d s c ap e i n du s t r y |

Steve L. Aries

OUT DOOR LIGHT ING don’t you know yet? its your light that lights the worlds.

—rumi

l a n d s c ap e i n du s t r y |

Outdoor Lighting Fixtures Outdoor lighting fixtures are classified into different categories of lighting effect applications, either aesthetic or functional applications. Aesthetic lighting design creating a dramatic space that attract and experience each individual into a great lasting impression. Aesthetic lighting effect this includes lighting up circulation pathways no need to be uniformly lit but will serve only as a guide light or orientation for direction, tree uplighting or moonlighting effect (what light you perceived during the daytime, will also enhance during the nighttime), water feature or wall features and sculpture lighting. While the functional lighting the degree of brightness are more concerned, more on the technical applications like roads, public area walkways, building or park entrances, parking area and perimeter areas lighting for security purposes.

Selection To start with, one needs to know the space and the architectural outlooks of the entire project, then the following can be decided: Ó Understand area of application, for example, is it a pathway lighting, underwater application etc. Ó Lighting fixtures outlooks, shape and dimensions. Ó Lighting distribution which will determine the proper lighting effect and for aesthetic purposes and lux level requirements in a certain spacing recommended. Ó Robust and durability of the product that can last in a harsh environments like in outdoor scenario.

Types Uplighters, bollards, floodlights, post top, light column recessed wall or surface wall fixtures and underwater fixtures are some of the more used fixtures.

The standard lux requirements in outdoors it depends on the environment applications this varies in different parameters and condition. For this, IESNA (Illuminating Engineering Society of North America) or CIBSE (Chartered Institution of Building Services Engineers) handbooks can be referred.

IüĚƶƂƣƬ üĿĿĪĚƶŏŶŀ ƶňĪ üŀĪ ƂĿ ƶňĪ ȟǞƶƾƣĪ

Swaminarayan Akshardham Temple, New Delhi

Ó Ó Ó Ó

Quality, manufacturing, finishing and used raw materials.

Components and accessories.

Location and applications.

Proper installation.

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Steps to reduce maintenance requirements Ă“ Ă“ Ă“ Ă“

Know the correct applications of the outdoor lighting ďŹ xtures.

Investigate the site or area of installations.

Know the limitations of the ďŹ xtures.

Follow the instruction manual recommended by manufacturers.

LED versus Conventional Light Fixtures Ă“ #ONVENTIONAL LAMP ENERGY CONSUMPTION IS HIGHER AS COMPARED TO ,%$ Ă“ #ONVENTIONAL Ă˜XTURES ARE BULKY IN SIZE AND SHAPE TO ACCOMMODATE THE SIZE of lamp and ballast while LEDs can be accommodated into a small and compact outlooks and require less materials to manufacture. Ă“ #ONVENTIONAL Ă˜XTURESĂ? LUMEN OUTPUT DROP TREMENDOUSLY AFTER HOURS of operation while LEDs are very stable. LEDs lumen drop only 30% near the end of their life, will take around 40,000 hours. It may be noted that a human eye can only notice if more than 30% of lumen output drops. Ă“ #ONVENTIONAL LAMP CONTAINS 56 WHICH HAS DETRIMENTAL EĂšECT TO MATERIALS if exposed in a certain period of time while LEDs contain a minimal amount of LED which not threatening or harmful. Ă“ ,%$S LIGHT UP VERY QUICKLY AS COMPARED TO CONVENTIONAL ()$ LAMPS Ă“ ,%$S PERFORMANCE LARGELY DEPENDS ON THE AMBIENT TEMPERATURE OF THE operating environment. Driving the LED hard in high ambient temperatures may result in overheating of the LED package, eventually leading to device failure. While the conventional are proven to operate in high ambient temperatures and can withstand high environment temperatures. Ă“ /N AN INITIAL CAPITAL COST BASIS ,%$S ARE CURRENTLY MORE EXPENSIVE measured in price per lumen than more conventional lighting technologies.

Â˛Ć ÄŞÄšĹ?Č&#x;ÄšĹ?ĆśÇ&#x; ƜƂ "ĹŞĹ?ŴßƜĹ?Äš ÍƂŜĪƏ Outdoor lighting ďŹ xtures are tested for IP protection (Ingress Protection). which classiďŹ es the degrees of protection provided against the intrusion of solid objects, dust, accidental contact, and water in electrical enclosures. For example, Europe experiences snow almost through the year. This is a big advantage for LED ďŹ xtures since LEDs are dependent on ambient temperature.

So, as long they are IP protective, it would not cause any problem. In case of countries with humidity and hot temperatures, ďŹ xtures are designed to survive these conditions. For LEDs which are sensitive to ambient temperature, most of the good lighting manufacturers incorporate heat sink to the ďŹ xtures to neutralize the heat buildup. Also, they use a high-grade gasket that can protect from any ingress depending on the outdoor environment conditions.

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Amanora Town Centre, Pune

l a n d s c ap e i n du s t r y |

If fixtures are manufactured using a high-grade quality material and good process of finishing, they will last more than ten years before fading or deteriorating. Components like drivers always deteriorate first, though this also depends on the time of operations and environment conditions. Locations and applications are also one of the factors that degrade of outdoors fixtures. For example, ground uplights—which are subjected to cold and hot environments, humidity and condensation effects—will last less as compared to bollard of post top fixtures. Installation also plays an important rule in outdoors fixtures.

Installers that do not follow instruction manuals properly will cause early damage the fixtures.

New Innovations The new trend in the Indian market is the implementation of energy-saving fixtures by converting conventional lamps to LEDs. Most lighting manufacturers today are manufacturing fixtures equipped with LED lamp source and integrating intelligent drivers that can communicate with the controls. LED powered by solar panels—especially for remote areas where electricity is an issue—is also a new positive trend.

ƾƣŏüŪ ȟǞƶƾƣĪƬӰ ƣ üƣĪ ƶňĪƣĪ ŏŶƬƶüŪŪüƶŏƂŶ üŶĠ maintenance issues with these?

It really depends on the conditions and applications. As much as possible, we try to avoid using in-grounds, the reason being that this is one of the problematic fixtures — if the installation is not properly followed or the installing person is not skilled enough. Overall, these require a lot of considerations and preparations. And in short, it’s not easy.

XƬ ňŏŀň ƠƣŏĚĪ ƶňĪ ƂŶŪǟ ƬüĿĪ Ǚüǟ ƶƂ ĠĪȟŶĪ ü ƢƾüŪŏƶǟ ŪŏŀňƶŏŶŀ ȟǞƶƾƣĪӰ Of course, if the price is really cheap, one must surely be worried about the quality of materials and components. Product origin, manufacturer’s reputation and brand name is most important. I suggest before deciding for any outdoor product, find some information about the manufacturer first to know the background. Today, everything can searched through the Internet, go the manufacturer’s website and do a background check before deciding. I think this is a more clever way to choose a product assuredly.

Images courtesy the author ȪĪ 4ĠŏƶƂƣƬ üƣĪ ƶňüŶťĿƾŪ ƶƂ |ŏťňŏŪ (ňüƣ ĿƂƣ ňŏƬ ƬƾŀŀĪƬƶƂŶƬ ĿƂƣ ƶňŏƬ ƬĪĚƶŏƂŶӯ

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aut h o r s + c o nt r i b ut o r s |

51

authors contributors Alpa Nawre is Assistant Professor in the Department of Landscape Architecture and Regional & Community Planning at K-State, and Partner at her design practice, Alpa Nawre Design. Issues pertinent to the design of water infrastructure, and resource challenges in rapidly urbanizing developing countries inform her work. alpa.nawre@gmail.com Archana Sharma is Associate Professor with Graduate LA Program at Morgan State University. She investigates, challenges and articulates ecology-coginzant design and planning frameworks on greenway networks and open space planning towards sustainable urban environments through her research and practice.

DUFKVKDUPD #JPDLO FRP Dilpreet Bhullar works as an art coordinator at the Visual Arts Gallery, India Habitat Centre, New Delhi. She is also deputy editor of the Visual Arts Journal published by the same gallery. Her essays on visual ethnography, identity politics and Partition studies have been published in various books and journals. bhullar.dilpreet@gmail.com Harshad Bhatia is an urban designer and architect hired brain solo practitioner, educator, ekistics intellectual and writer-editor based in Mumbai. Currently Professor at the Rizvi College of Architecture, he is also an innovative communicator, invited speaker and advisor on Councils at various institutions. harshadbhatia@gmail.com Madhu Pandit is the principal partner at Neeraj Manchanda Architects NMA (founded 1990), an award winning architectural design practice based in New Delhi. She also teaches design as visiting faculty and is an external examiner and thesis guide at leading schools of architecture across the country. madhu@nma-design.com Narendra Dengle is a practicing architect, writer, and academician based in Pune. He has been the Chair of Design at KRVIA Mumbai, and Academic Chair at Goa College of Architecture. narendraden@gmail.com Parul Kiri Roy {B.Arch., M.F.A. (History of Art)} is Assistant Professor of Architecture at School of Planning and Architecture, New Delhi.

SDUXONLUL#KRWPDLO FRP Steve L. Aries is Lighting Design & Training Division Manager with Ligman Lighting Co. Ltd., Bangkok, Thailand. steve.ar@ligman.com

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