PORTFOLIO MALAVIKA GOPALAKRISHNAN research + design | selected works 2018—2022
CONTENTS SPATIAL ANALYSIS 1
On the map
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Professional project, Deltametropolis Association (VDM) 2021 - 2022
PLANNING, POLICY AND ADVOCACY 2
The New Planning
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Professional Project, Deltametropolis Association (VDM) 2019 - 21
RESEARCH BY DESIGN
MALAVIKA GOPALAKRISHNAN Urban researcher and project coordinator at Deltametropolis Association (VDM), Rotterdam with a keen interest in sustainable urban development focusing on the intersections between ecology, urbanism and community. Passionate about creating positive changes in the urban realm, my work focusses on using research by design as a tool to address complex urban challenges through participatory processes. This portfolio is a visual narrative of my works from both research and practice.
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Renewal of Ring Rotterdam Professional Project, Deltametropolis Association (VDM) 2021
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Appropriation of Water
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M.Sc. Thesis, TU Delft 2019 - 20
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Ecocentric Realities Annotation Project (Infrastructure & Environment
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Design), TU Delft 2019
Other works
M.Sc. Urbanism | TU Delft, The Netherlands B. Arch | University of Calicut, Kerala, India
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28 - 29
1| On the Map | Research Project
━━ The Netherlands faces a growing crisis of high water at the same time dryer lands. The ministries are responsible protecting the country from the sea level rise and for sustainable and safe use of the water-soil system that is resistant to flooding, drought and subsidence. The mapping shows possible subsidence and flood-risk areas against newer planned housing locations.
Subsidence
Exploring the future of new housing developments in the Netherlands to address challenges of mobility, affordability and impacts of climate change.
Predicted subsidence due to gas extraction and low groundwater levels until 2050 (Without restrictive measures and without additional decrease by climate change) 3 - 20 cm 20 - 60 cm 60 - 150 cm Existing built-up area Housing plans
Housing plans within an area with flood risk Housing plans outside areas with flood risk This map is part of the national interest 'Guarantee and promote of a healthy and safe physical living environment. Source: Deltares.
Water safety Maintain and/or strengthen primary defenses/dijks 1 Large, medium or limited amplification task Reinforcement task to be determined and/or ongoing project No reinforcement task storm surge barriers River widening Long-term river widening reservation area: Meuse and Rhine branches Flooding Area with flood risk of 50cm in 2050 Area with flood risk of 200cm in 2050 Housing plans
Housing plans within an area with flood risk
Analysis and mapping of various major challenges with common, and conflicting interests in the Netherlands to inform policy decisions for the Dutch Ministry of Infrastructure and Water Management (I&W) and the ministry of Interior and Kingdom Relations (BZK). Commissioned by the ministry, the aim of the project was to analyse various spatial and socio-economic data to understand conflicts and inform future developments on housing on mobility and climate adaptation. This research aimed to provide insights into climate challenges to provide feasible and future-proof policy as a guiding foundation for the physical living environment.
Housing plans outside areas with flood risk Overlay Existing built-up area 1 Image reinforcement assignment of primary flood defenses is based on insights from 2016. This map is part of the national interest 'Guaranteeing flood protection' and climate resilience (including vital infrastructure for water and mobility). Sources: Rijkswaterstaat, I&W.
Project Location | Netherlands Team | Arjan Smits, Malavika Gopalakrishnan, Thomas Dhillon, Paul Gerretsen (VDM) 2021 - 2022
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Main infrastructure
Urban Network Netherlands, urbanization regions and housing plans
Main connections Main railway network Main road network
Urban Network Netherlands
Main waterway network
Linking urbanization to the development of (public transport) infrastructure
North Sea shipping routes
Housing plans
Ferry connections North Sea Airports, Port Areas and Terminals
Indication of current plan locations (EIB and New Map)
Airports of National Importance
Planning capacity per municipality until 2030, adds up to 120,00,00 homes in total
Large-scale port areas
Share of planning capacity for hard plans per municipality compared to total plans (0.20-1.44%)
This map is part of national interest 'Maintain and develop of the main mobility infrastructure. Sources: TEN-T Core & Comprehensive Network, Rijkswaterstaat.
0-20 20-40 40-60 60-80 80-100 Overlay Existing built-up area Sources: EIB, BZK, CBS
Built environment and mobility Connection of built-up areas to public transport and the highway (excluding business parks) Built-up area within 10 minutes by bike from a (light rail) station and within 2,500 m of the main road network. Built-up area within 10 minutes by bike from a (light rail) station and located more than 2500 m from the main road network. Built-up area within 2,500 m of the main road network and on more than 10 minutes by bike from a (light rail) station. Built-up area that is more than 10 minutes by bike from a (light rail) station and more than 2,500 m from the main road network. Infrastructure Main railway network and light rail connections (metro, light rail) main road network Overlay Business parks This map is part of the national interest 'Guaranteeing and realizing a safe, robust and sustainable mobility system. Sources: Vereniging Deltametropool, ARUP, I&W.
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2| The New Planning | Professional Project, VDM
A collaborative, co-creative research project for a paradigm shift in spatial planning
The New Planning Dialogue 1, Groundwork, July 2019, Photo by Aad Hoogendoorn
Project Partners | TU Delft, European Policies Research Centre (EPRC), University of Groningen, Studio Hartzema Project Location | Europe Project team | Alankrita Sarkar, Paul Gerretsen (VDM) 2019 - 2021
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logo
The New Planning Dialogues is an continuous, dynamic research project that aims to sketch the outlines of a new paradigm for spatial planning. The project uses the format of a series of interactive dialogues as a medium to bring together spatial planning professionals to share knowledge, experiences and inspirations from practice. Together with a wide range of partners and stakeholders, collaboration, conversation and inclusivity are at the heart of this project. The goal is to co-create a list of approaches and working methods that prove as inspiring planning practices through comparative case studies and reflections across different scales.
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Event timeline
The New Planning Manifesto ━━The New planning is a ‘movement’ that re-thinks planning as a profession. This Manifesto illustrates the results and lessons learned from ‘The New Planning Dialogue’ carried out as a co-creative and collaborative series of discussions. It aims to stimulate discussions and to bring a fundamental change in the practice of spatial planning.
manifesto
The New Planning COP and partners. (Image produced together with the team)
The New Planning ‘Community of Practice’ (NPCoP) ━━ The New Planning Community of Practice is an extensive network of practitioners and researchers in the field of planning in Europe that came together during the dialogues. By creating a consortium of academics, governments, private companies and civil society, and using insights from numerous international examples, we propose to create active ways of working in the field of planning to share knowledge and work towards shared challenges.
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3| Renewal of Ring Rotterdam | Professional Project, VDM The opportunities of an integral, future-proof development of the traffic ring Rotterdam and surroundings.
Comparitive study of international cases on infrastructural transformations divided in four categories; multiple-use cover-over downgrade make car-free
(objectives)
(initial typology)
(road function)
(multiple-use)
The project focused on developing integrated area development for the renewal of mobility infrastructure of Ring Rotterdam (A20, A16, A14, A10 highways) through research by design. The Dutch National Environmental Vision (NOVI) designates existing infrastructure as a carrier of urban development. This project focused on the Rotterdam highway ring, in particular on the A20 and the surrounding area. The focus was to shift infrastructure as a barrier and integrate more to the urban environment (space, mobility, social, nature and water) and densification of the area. Project Partners | Chair of area development, TU Delft Client | The Ministry of Infrastructure and Water Management, NL Project Location | Rotterdam, NL Project Team | Rien van de Wall, Malavika Gopalakrishnan, Paul Gerretsen (VDM) Dr. Tom Daamen, Jutta Hinterleitner (TU Delft)
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Perspectives for an integral approach to infrastructure and mobility and a future-proof Ring ━━ The project proposes eight examples of spatial elaboration of the perspectives that are suitable for the context of Rotterdam. These seem to us to be suitable starting points for design research at the interface between infrastructure and the city.
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redesign of crossings
use parallel roads
reduction of speed and narrowing of highways
green-blue connections
multimodal mobility hubs
use of renewable energy
area development in the ring zone
space for pedestrian and bike lanes
15-minute city
Conceptual elements as objectives for developing strategic perspectives
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active public spaces
green punctures multimodal mobility nods
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downgrading secondary roads new housing development
active public spaces
connecting green/ blue infrastructure in the city
eco-bridges
Eight spatial typologies of integrating nature and the mobility infrastructure based on the context of Rotterdam Ring; 1) Creating immersive routes for active mobility, 2) Multi-modal ring space, 3) Making city in the highway zone, 4) Smart handling of nuisance contours, 5) Designing infrastructure tailored to the city, 6) Designing high-quality public space, 7) Activate underused space on, under, along and between infrastructure, 8) Embedding green chips in a cohesive landscape
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highway as a park
green corridors
animal crossings
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How can mobility infrastructure integrate and transform into active urban spaces? ━━ Rather than the mobility infrastructure being a hard barrier, the perspectives for integrated development shows the ways in which highways can transform and co-exist along with urban environment in a way to create active public spaces. These transformations also shows the importance of weaving public spaces and nature areas as part of the mobility structure rather than being separate entities. Here is a an elaboration of different points along the Ring Rotterdam visualised according to the eight design principles elaborated in the previous page.
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4| Appropriation of Water | M.Sc. Thesis, TU Delft
Globalisation of fresh water through supply chain of products like cotton
Exploring the impacts of global supply chain of cotton virtual water in Marathwada in central India
Globalisation of water ━━ European Union (EU) is the biggest importer of Indian virtual water when comparing the net virtual water flows of the global market. With the most water scarcity footprint from cotton, it dominates the supply chain of virtual water from India.
Fieldwork and workshop with cotton farmers in Beed, Marathwada with local NGO, SOPPECOM, Pune
The thesis was part of the final graduation studio of M.Sc Urbanism, TU Delft under the research group, Urban Metabolism. The thesis investigated the socio-environmental impacts of large-scale agricultural production of cotton on local water resources in the Marathwada region in central India. Based on the notions of planetary urbanisation and territorial metabolism, the project explored the extents of urbanisation across distances. This involved spatial analysis using GIS as well as fieldwork, to look at the availability and use of local water resources related to cotton production. Project | Academic Research, TU Delft, NL (2019 - 20) Project Location | Marathwada, Central India Supervisor | Dr. Alexander Wandl andDr. Diego S Carmona, TU Delft
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Vision: ‘Joint Action for Local Water Rich Initiatives or JALWaRI’
Model village showcasing rural transformation through sustainable farming practices
━━ The vision is for rural transformation and social empowerment by achieving water resilient local communities for the future. The term ‘Jalwari’ which loosely translates to ‘love for water’ is a playful take on inspiring grassroots movements aimed at decentralisation of water governance and management systems and creating resilient self-organising communities. It is formed by elaborating on the principle for water resilience and strategic actions for local adaptation. This promotes self-sufficient and sustainable farming to safeguard and nurture the cultural heritage of rural communities.
circular water cycles
sustainable agriculture
equitable distribution and allocation
Regional Water Grid: A participatory model of water governance Village
Area
Watershed
Region
landscape integration and agro-tourism
social infrastructure development
participatory water governance
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Strategic actions for water resilience and circular resource flows
Research by Design ━━ Using the method of ‘research by design’, two test cases where elaborated at the local scale in the region of Marathwada. The design focused on creating circular water cycles by optimizing resource flows.
Schematic section showing circular resource flows at the local scale
Leveraging existing sociocultural systems ━━ In the proposed stakeholder model, the civic society is envisaged as the primary stakeholder with most power to the farmers in close proximity with the local village councils (or panchayats). Thus, using a collaborative approach to stakeholder engagement and planning.
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5| Ecocentric Realities | Annotation Project, TU Delft
Climate change and a changing Arctic
Moving away from the capitalistic territoriality in the Norwegian Arctic
━━ With the ice caps melting rapidly, the traffic of shipping vessels through the Arctic ocean is likely to increase. This brings a lot of international attention to the presently uninhabited Arctic region. Less ice also means more access. The opening of the Northern sea route would mean, a reduced travel time for ships from east Asia to Europe as well as more oil exploration options.
towards a new paradigm of de-growth
Schematic map showing projected ice melt and oil growth from 2010-2060
This project focused on the geopolitical and territorial analysis of coastal infrastructure development in the Norwegian Arctic region led by extreme climatic shifts. As the Arctic ice melts, and with the depletion of the world’s most precious resources, this project proposes a new paradigm of growth, to reduce the catastrophe of ecological damage in the Arctic region. The design focuses on Tromsø, one of the northern most inhabited regions as a case study for further analysis at the local scale. Project | Group project, Infrastructure and Environment studio, TU Delft, NL with Oslo School of Architecture and AHO Tromsø, Norway (2019) Project Location | Tromsø, Norway Supervisor | Dr. Taneha Bacchin, TU Delft (Images shown in this project are produced together as a team output)
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Fishing zones and related flows
Oil extraction zones against ecological conservation
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Proposed strategic design for the Tromsø municipality
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local cooperative
1. Existing condition shows dominating oil industries and large fishery industries having their own export routes
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Legend Relationship Supporting Flow of goods Synergies
Ring Layers 1. Resources 2. Supporting 3. Production 4. Local cooperatives 5, Sales ng herri
1. Existing condition shows dominating oil industries and large fishery industries having their own export routes
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2. Clusteris are formed to promote significance of the fishing villages. erin This is done by rerouting all products to the hub, downscaling large cap w fishery tingindustries, and dismissing the oilateindustry r suppor
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2. Clusteris are formed to promote significance of the fishing villages. This is done by rerouting all products to the hub, downscaling large fishery industries, and dismissing the oil industry
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3. Introduction of polar permaculture as alternative means of resources for community resilience
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3. Introduction of polar permaculture as alternative means of resources for community resilience
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local cooperative
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oil industry large fishery industry/ aquacultures fishing villages downscalled aquaculture local distribution centres Tromsoya hub polar permaculture renewable energy
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Legend
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resources
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4. Polar permaculture are supported by means of renewable energy such as the micro-hydropower
4. Polar permaculture are supported by means of renewable energy Legend such as the micro-hydropower Relationship Supporting
Ring Layers 1. Resources
Legend oil industry large fishery industry/ aquacultures fishing villages downscalled aquaculture local distribution centres Tromsoya hub polar permaculture renewable energy
Typology of Nodes ━━ The typology of nodes focuses on the main strategic interventions. Sustainable fishery and polar permaculture are identified as the main production sectors for a self-sustaining community. The application of the concept into a real spatial means comes in several stages. By first allocating the existing fishery industries, it would then be possible to start establishing the clusters based on economic activity, supported by renewable energy resources.
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Other works
Blog and platform to share independent research on compelling narratives called, ‘The Undesigned’
Articles for the online journalistic platform of TU Delft, called TU Delta Paper publication for PORTUS, online magazine of RETE
Online working conference, ‘The Next Generation Podium for Eurodelta’
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Workshop ‘Atelier NL 2100’ on scenario planning
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Thank you. All maps/images are produced by the author unless specified. Malavika Gopalakrishnan email: malavikagk94@gmail.com linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mgk94/ Rotterdam, The Netherlands
