LANDSCAPE ARCHITECTURE PORTFOLIO 2022
RHEA
PATEL
CONTENTS
I n d e p e n d e n t
W o r k
P r o j e c t s
PEACE AND PROSPERITY GARDEN
Kitchen Garden for the Community, Government House of Victoria
MARKET CROSS
Civic Space Renewal, Queen Victoria Market, Melbourne
CREEK EDGE REVITILISATION Moonee Ponds Creek, Travancore
GRASSLANDS REPAIR
Australian Institute of Architects, Venice Architecture Biennale
NANI KORAL Weekend Retreat Master planning, Karjan ULTIMA PEARL Multi dwelling Residential Project, Ankhol NIRAV PATEL Residential Project, Vadodara Miscellaneous
PEACE AND PROSPERITY GARDEN
Community Kitchen Garden, Government House of Victoria University Group Competition, 2017 Group Members: Xirui Feng, Elyssia Hicks, Siyun Huang, Rhea Patel, Yuheng Tao, Thuong Vo and Tao Wang My contribution: Hand drawings, Conceptual Framework establishment, Site Analysis, Film Editor for Final Presentation
The project is being personally funded by the Honourable Linda Dessau AM, Governor of Victoria, as a gift to the people of Victoria. Currently, the garden provides the foundation for a program of activities designed to provide connections and support aimed at building participant’s sense of welcome and belonging in the Victorian Community.
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Our team came up with the slogan - Embrace The Old to Create New, that captures the essence of what the kitchen garden program aims to deliver for all who visit. The design elements that form this project will cater to a variety of functional purposes such as providing a statement point of entry, and providing seating and shade. The vision is that these elements - entrance arch, gates, central table, arbour and deck convey the title and theme of Peace & Prosperity subtly but respectfully.
1. Primary entrance – becoming a transition between the old and the new. 2. Shade structure, seating and table - accommodating the multi functional space for wide variety of users. 3. Secondary entrance – isolating the garden from the surroundings. 4. Utility Room – for the convenience for kitchenware and wheelchairs to move around the site. 5. Arbor and Deck – softening the edge. 6. Existing Shed – retaining the heritage building.
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‘EMBRACE TO CREATE’ CONCEPTUAL SKETCH PLAN
THE HEXAGONAL DECK The use of hexagonal panels was to symbolize communication, interfacing, balance and unity.
ENTRANCE ARCHWAY The symbolism behind the entrance archway stemmed from the theme of embracing the old whilst creating the new in terms of materiality, form and gesture for a significant element of the garden.
Different identities suggested in columns carved from timber
Water portal between the old and the new Landing Concrete Stairs
CONCEPT FOR FENCING
Water harvesting source from Govt. House Roof
FURNITURE DESIGN TABLE JOINERY
Perspective render
Plan and elevation
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DESIGN PLAN AND SECTIONS
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SECTION A-A’
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PERSPECTIVE NIGHT VIEW OF THE KITCHEN GARDEN
MARKET CROSS
Civic Space Renewal, Queen Victoria Market, Melbourne Academic Individual Studio, 2017
Melbourne’s Queen Victoria Market (QVM) is well known for its traditional representation of the food culture where the locals buy fresh produce and enjoy the market experience all together. The project envisions what shape would QVM likely take in the near future with increasing population and their demand. This project involves redesigning the most important nodes of the market and the place they intersect is the Market Cross. Its form can be depicted as an analogy of heart line - giving space a meaning - central for life. The concept aims to have programs for various events that occur at different times of the day – highlighting its significance further. The programs are set on the basis of the framework of how corridors, edges and different street types can be used differently across a large site as QVM.
DEVELOPING SPATIAL PROGRAMMES Queen Street acts as a funneling channel into the different layers of street that one can come across walking through the site either way – West to east or North to South.
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SITE MAPPING FOR STREET RENEWAL
MAIN ROAD NETWORK
LANEWAY NETWORK
Queen St.
PEDESTRIAN DENSITY
DESIGN STATEMENTS 1. Open Queen Street into a “public plaza” - seating, plants and amenities with temporal programs. ZONING PLAN
2. Create versatile spaces such as pavilion and lane way - diversity and hierarchy of spaces an experiences. 3. Redesign the edges and nodes into funnelling zones which create better connections and circulation. 4. Design for life - typology in detail such as entrances and exists and increasing frontage.
VEGETATION
PROPOSED SITE PLAN Points (red markers) placed according to a point-grid coordinate system with 120m intervals where neutral space that can be transformed into specific programmatic needs. This is also a great way to integrate rhythm (heart beat) inside the market. Lines create the grid which is related to larger coordinate structure - high density pedestrian movement that marks the site with a cross. Envisioning entry through Elizabeth Street. Onlookers can spot I LOVE QVM sign as a welcoming element.
LANEWAY ATMOSPHERE - Shed J showing the contemporary shaded structures with translucent material allowing light
Market Cross – Live Performance, Street Furniture – making it a ‘sticky spot’.
Pavilion on Therry Street with its robust design as a modular shed – still respecting the heritage colours and providing a sense of familiarity.
CREEK EDGE REVITILISATION Moonee Ponds Creek, Travancore Academic Individual Project, 2017
Normal Flow
Moonee Ponds Creek, once a natural flowing river is currently a concreted creek along the Tullamarine Freeway, Melbourne. The focus of the studio was on the ecological water processes and biodiversity as performative design by re-designing a section of the creek. My design concept involved deconstructing the harsh edges and opening the space to the neighbourhoods by manipulating different edge conditions. These were tested out through programs like Rhino and Grasshopper to accommodate flooding and drying.
Flooding 5-10 Years
The design shows 100m sections of 5 different edges strategies throughout the linear site which are undulating landforms, separation, disruption, increasing the surface area and twisting the edge where the water meets the ground plane. It also changes the user experience throughout the 1.5km stretch, making it an exciting, playful and constantly evolving landscape. In the process, mapping responses to change, water flux, ideas of resilient designing, social factors were put into play. Landscape architecture projects involving waterways mostly comprise of the real designer being the water i.e. nature and it governs the world we live in.
Flooding 100 Years
CHRONOLOGICAL CHANGE IN THE ECOSYSTEM Diagrammatic simulation representation of the temporality of flooding on an undulating creek bed working as a performative landscape to accommodate flood water
LANDSCAPE EDGES Creek is the arterial point of the design, however the change in geological conditions create an augmented design for the edges - draping, flattening, separating, dividing and overlaying. The channel goes through five different variations in landforms stitched into one, allowing the water to flow in different directions, quantities and rate within the landscape, shaping the wetlands for the future.
PROPOSAL OF RE-ACTIVATING THE EDGE
SEPARATION
UNDULATING NATURAL LANDFORMS
INCREASED SURFACE AREA Excavation Separated of new flood edges plain
Channel edge
Fill
Cut
DISRUPTION
Dyke improvement by high edge
TWISTING FORMS Disrupted edge surface
Water channel
WORKING MECHANISM: RESPONDING WATER LEVELS 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6.
Victorian bluestone – Indigenous and having a sense of belonging and familiarity. Fiberglass lily-pads for habitat on the edges of water. Metal cattails as artwork and also for bird perching – e.g. Magpies and seagulls. Australian native re-mediated vegetation including rushes and sedges throughout the edge. Sandstone rockery formation creating an active space. Boardwalk alongside opposite freeway made out of locally sourced timber – for pedestrians and cyclists.
Edge Improvement – Good quality will withstand floods. The new edge would be on a higher level.
Excavation of flood plain done by separation of the channel into two and low lying parts will allow the creek to accommodate and hold more water during flood.
Lowering of the river bed by excavation in some parts which improvise on the conveying capacity of water.
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GRASSLANDS REPAIR
Australian Institute of Architects, Venice Architecture Biennale Work Experience, 2018
Responding to the theme “Freespace” at the 16th International Architecture Exhibition of La Biennale di Venezia, Repair at the Australian Pavilion aimed to expand the view of architecture, to the way it operates in its context. My role involved interacting with the visitors and explain the representation of pre-European settlement of Victorian Plain Grasslands species. Presently, only 1% of these species remain, making the environment vulnerable and in turn allowing us to re-think about the value of land in architecture. Watering both the indoor exhibition plants and plant nursery, checking soil moisture, pruning, collection of seeds for the seed banks and also engaging with visitors were the primary tasks. There was an immense sense of responsibility to keep the plants alive so it was crucial to check if any pots needed more care . For example, the temperature difference, disease or over-watering could have made the plant susceptible to them losing leaves or discoloration.
Exhibition extending outside the pavilion
Dichondra pruned back
The living indigenous grassland in the Australian Pavilion is a poignant tool that brings architecture into an active dialogue within it’s designed environment, cleverly mimicking an overarching global situation.
A NANI KORAL
Weekend Retreat Master-planning, Karjan Ongoing Work Experience – March 2021
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Situated on the banks of River Narmada, Nani Koral is a small agricultural village away from the city’s rustle and bustle. The client brief includes developing a masterplan for a weekend retreat getaway. Although it would be semicommercial for visitors to live in luxury tent like dwellings, it will also feature the client’s private residence.
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The current site’s purpose of agriculture will be incorporated in terms of large productive farming, kitchen garden beds, fruit orchards and rare species of tree avenues such as Lal Chandan (Pterocarpus santalinus). The vertical linear space is subject to be transformed into 4 large levels stepping down towards the river This level difference will allow for multiple vantage points from tents and other sit-out areas. Concepts such as Verandah living and Outdoor Living were explored in great detail to reinforce living amongst nature by respecting the native land. The next page summaries the design ideas for planning.
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indoor/outdoor experience.
vernacular.
blurring boundaries with soft grasses, rushes and sedges.
Locally sourced hardscape materials such as bamboo, rammed earth, mud & stone.
Verandah Living.
forming social landscapes.
private courts with seating.
- informal gathering area. - bird watching. - walkways.
shaded canopy.
land art – playing with contours.
maximizing river front views.
reshaping the environment.
The Outdoors. from farm to table.
indigenous vegetation.
space for reflection. central kund-like water feature
DIAGRAMMATIC CONCEPTUALISATIONS Landscape design iterations are created to understand different ways of circulation, vegetation, orientation of the built form, etc. through the site.
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SECTION –AA LEVEL 4
LEVEL 3
LEVEL 2
LEVEL 1
Direct connection to the river with pathways and coconut trees planted along the length the river
16mx 36m sized tents, swimming pool and cacti gardens
16mx36m sized tents with clients residence on the far right. The boundary will be softened by native grasses, hedges and rushes to provide privacy while still retaining the view of the river front.
12mx24m sized tents with kitchen and dining on the same level
Recreational zone/farming/horse stales and fruit orchards
9m wide approach road
Softening the boundary with tree avenues
MASTERPLAN
ULTIMA PEARL
Multi dwelling Residential Project, Ankhol Ongoing Work Experience – January 2022
A multi dwelling premium high quality residential complex required a common space for recreational purposes for all age groups to use. A clubhouse containing a gymnasium, open to sky courtyard and a movie theatre will central . The 3D (below) shows a birds eye view of the common plot area designed by the developers. However, my vision of such a space (as shown in the sketch on right) takes into considerations – safety measures for the kids play area & outdoor adult gym through dense planting and curbs, unobstructed circulation pathways running throughout the perimeter of the space, large tree avenue surrounding the walkways for shade and privacy and areas for different planting needs such as herb garden, sloping rockery garden, maze garden and a large central gathering lawn.
NIRAV PATEL HOUSE
Private Residential Project, Vadodara Ongoing Work Experience – March 2022
Lagerstoemia speciosa (Crape Myrtle)
Residential garden designing is relative to each client – one such house is on the verge of construction and the brief is to create an adaptable, well functioning and calming landscape. Taking this into consideration – a planting palette (on the right) is being currently developed to suit the clients requirements. The design below corresponds to the building orientations, openings and treatments. Spaces are going to be crafted with the help of planting - knowingly.
Manilkara zapota (Chikoo)
Nyctanthes arbor-tritis (Harshingar)
Bauhinia purpurea (Kaniar)
Thevetia peruviana (Yellow Oleander)
Plumeria rubra (Frangipani) Drypetes roxburghii (Putranjiva)
DESIGN OPTION
Muraya paniculata (Kamini) Neolamarckia cadamba (Kadamb)
MISCELLANEOUS Sketching has been a constant medium through which I can envision spaces clearer. I find it to be most evocative whilst designing for spaces and people. Below are a few examples -
Ian Potter Café, University of Melbourne
Upper House on Swanston Street, Melbourne
MISCELLANEOUS
Clay Model used to represent a space for congregation, shelter and rest as part of my University Curriculum Studio - Designing Environments.
Isometric and Axonometric Projection of a Studio Apartment
Mandala Drawing For a Book Cover
R H E A PAT E L PORTFOLIO 2022
LANDSCAPE ARCHITECTURE