Our first Advanced Studio explored water issues in an urban environment in one of the poorest cities of the world: Kolkata, India. The sections below highlight the investigative process that our class pursued as we attempted to create an “Atlas” prior to travel to Kolkata in March 2009. This Atlas was our attempt to understand the region, urban area and culture from afar and test them on the ground upon our arrival. Our program was to design a Eco-Cultural Retreat in Kalighat, not far from the Kali Temple, on the Adi Ganga Canal.
My contribution to the Atlas
Upon our return to Providence in the beginning of April, we sought to quickly investigate site strategies in teams. We effectively had a month and a half to design our intervention. I would eventually split off and go solo because I wanted to explore an idea of multi-tiered structures with overgrown plant material. In essence, the plant material would be defining the architecture and space in the retreat.
But, I started with the concept of retaining canal water to use for both urban agriculture and focal point for the Living Units of the Eco-Cultural Retreat. That concept was developed while in the group. Each Living Unit had to meet the minimum dimensions and we needed to have enough units to house 150 guests.
Design Statement
The program for the site is to design a new ecological and cultural retreat and community center along the Adi Ganga Canal to be run as a neighborhood cooperative. The facility would be a stopping off point for travelers on their way to various sites in the region such as the Sundarbans or Nepal. It would also provide local community opportunities for self employment with a training institute focused on entrepreneurship, business management skills, sustainable building practices and materials, water management practices, urban agriculture, a literacy program and written local histories archive, and an incubator for new business for local artisans engaged in textiles, ceramics and furniture using local or recycled materials. Finally, the retreat and community center would serve as a model for sustainable urban living producing, managing, and reusing the facility’s food, water and waste.
Kalighat is the site of the Kali Temple, one of 52 sacred areas of India. The confluence of pilgrims and locals at this significant site creates an amorphous and untapped cultural exchange. The concept intends to investigate how to create public space to influence stewardship of culture (local histories) and the environment as an improvement of livelihood. The purpose of this is to reverse the trend of Kolkata’s state of advanced urban decay. Doing so would create a renewed sense of identity in the city, theoretically leading to a renaissance of cultural and oral histories.
A primary concern is how to tie the site’s rich cultural tradition of exchange – as an economic market, as a spiritual shrine and as a place of social gathering – with an eco-cultural idea of an “urban rainforest”. Realizing that the final destination for the retreat’s visitors is highly likely to be the mangroves of the Sundarbans, and understanding Kolkata’s existing jungle typology (i.e., located on a tropical delta and the opportunistic nature of plants growing in this region), the design seeks to physically define program by a field of “plants as architecture”. This intention is meant to strengthen the visitor’s relationship to the site; that the ecological systems of a wetland, whether in an urban condition or in a rural context, play an integral role in changing the perception of flooding and water management from a problem into a celebrated gift. Furthermore, it is a hope that the visual strength that this adds to the retreat as an immersive experience would contribute to the dialogue of idea and oral history exchange.
The Experience
A 20 minute shuttle takes you from the airport to the Howrah River. You embark on a hi-speed catamaran water taxi bound for Kalighat. In half an hour, you find yourself gliding down the Adi Ganga Canal in view of a dense canopy of trees hiding multi-storied structures embedded in the canal bank with a few piers stretching across the canal. You dock at the terminal, noting the local merchants loading and offloading their wares into smaller boats. Signs direct you to the Retreat – the direct route for guests guarded by a Retreat Reservations Officer, or a sinuous route that takes you through the heart of Kalighat to the main retreat building.
Feeling adventurous (after all, you’re in India for a sense of exotic adventure!), you head off to the indirect route. You begin to notice the market and food stall fragrances wafting through the air. You look up, and see local residents engaged in a spirited discussion on the veranda of a Community Center. The path hooks a right and you’re brought past rows of market stalls surrounding water inlets filled with boats of all manners and sizes.
You look back to where you’re going and suddenly realize the grade change and that you’re in the air passing communal roof gardens and incubator spaces. You soon pass a “training institute” overlooking a public space pocket which connects to what seems to be a busy street parallel to the canal. You spot a craftsman working on clay figurines. The path keeps changing weaving you around the neighborhood, periodically walking into open public spaces above the ground. There are signs pointing directions everywhere – it’s a city above a city! The presence of water is everywhere, seen and unseen. The gurgling of water directs your eyes in a searching manner looking for its source. You fail to find it, but you are suddenly aware of the profuse amount of vegetation – down on the ground, or what looks like the ground. It looks like a soft fluffy bed that you wish you could sink into after a long arduous journey. Your eyes travel upwards to the middle layers – vines embracing walls and corners and then up to the top with shimmering foliage in the light breeze. You realize that air is not as thick and heavy as it was before you arrived. Your eyes slowly slide back to the path, and see the gate to the retreat not far off.
You check-in, and find your way to your room. If it can be called that – it’s a winding road to that as well but the scale is smaller and more intimate. As you open the door, the cooler air spreads over you and you see the bright sunlight beyond through some vines. Dropping your bags, you quickly walk to this strange veranda – it is covered by vines and yet allows plenty of light through. Back in the hazy sunlight, you take in your breath at the sight of the stepping upper topography of the retreat. You see many gardens and what appears to be water holding tanks. You can just make out the boat terminal out in the distance – wait – you look at your watch – it really took me that long? No, that can’t be, it’s only a short walk from here… Interesting – this built environment actually made me slow down from all the fast travel I just experienced. You smile wistfully and then turn back and settle in.
Urban Systems: Narrative Flows, Spring 2009
My contribution to the Atlas
Upon our return to Providence in the beginning of April, we sought to quickly investigate site strategies in teams. We effectively had a month and a half to design our intervention. I would eventually split off and go solo because I wanted to explore an idea of multi-tiered structures with overgrown plant material. In essence, the plant material would be defining the architecture and space in the retreat.
But, I started with the concept of retaining canal water to use for both urban agriculture and focal point for the Living Units of the Eco-Cultural Retreat. That concept was developed while in the group. Each Living Unit had to meet the minimum dimensions and we needed to have enough units to house 150 guests.
The program for the site is to design a new ecological and cultural retreat and community center along the Adi Ganga Canal to be run as a neighborhood cooperative. The facility would be a stopping off point for travelers on their way to various sites in the region such as the Sundarbans or Nepal. It would also provide local community opportunities for self employment with a training institute focused on entrepreneurship, business management skills, sustainable building practices and materials, water management practices, urban agriculture, a literacy program and written local histories archive, and an incubator for new business for local artisans engaged in textiles, ceramics and furniture using local or recycled materials. Finally, the retreat and community center would serve as a model for sustainable urban living producing, managing, and reusing the facility’s food, water and waste.
Kalighat is the site of the Kali Temple, one of 52 sacred areas of India. The confluence of pilgrims and locals at this significant site creates an amorphous and untapped cultural exchange. The concept intends to investigate how to create public space to influence stewardship of culture (local histories) and the environment as an improvement of livelihood. The purpose of this is to reverse the trend of Kolkata’s state of advanced urban decay. Doing so would create a renewed sense of identity in the city, theoretically leading to a renaissance of cultural and oral histories.
The Experience
A 20 minute shuttle takes you from the airport to the Howrah River. You embark on a hi-speed catamaran water taxi bound for Kalighat. In half an hour, you find yourself gliding down the Adi Ganga Canal in view of a dense canopy of trees hiding multi-storied structures embedded in the canal bank with a few piers stretching across the canal. You dock at the terminal, noting the local merchants loading and offloading their wares into smaller boats. Signs direct you to the Retreat – the direct route for guests guarded by a Retreat Reservations Officer, or a sinuous route that takes you through the heart of Kalighat to the main retreat building.
Feeling adventurous (after all, you’re in India for a sense of exotic adventure!), you head off to the indirect route. You begin to notice the market and food stall fragrances wafting through the air. You look up, and see local residents engaged in a spirited discussion on the veranda of a Community Center. The path hooks a right and you’re brought past rows of market stalls surrounding water inlets filled with boats of all manners and sizes.
You look back to where you’re going and suddenly realize the grade change and that you’re in the air passing communal roof gardens and incubator spaces. You soon pass a “training institute” overlooking a public space pocket which connects to what seems to be a busy street parallel to the canal. You spot a craftsman working on clay figurines. The path keeps changing weaving you around the neighborhood, periodically walking into open public spaces above the ground. There are signs pointing directions everywhere – it’s a city above a city! The presence of water is everywhere, seen and unseen. The gurgling of water directs your eyes in a searching manner looking for its source. You fail to find it, but you are suddenly aware of the profuse amount of vegetation – down on the ground, or what looks like the ground. It looks like a soft fluffy bed that you wish you could sink into after a long arduous journey. Your eyes travel upwards to the middle layers – vines embracing walls and corners and then up to the top with shimmering foliage in the light breeze. You realize that air is not as thick and heavy as it was before you arrived. Your eyes slowly slide back to the path, and see the gate to the retreat not far off.
You check-in, and find your way to your room. If it can be called that – it’s a winding road to that as well but the scale is smaller and more intimate. As you open the door, the cooler air spreads over you and you see the bright sunlight beyond through some vines. Dropping your bags, you quickly walk to this strange veranda – it is covered by vines and yet allows plenty of light through. Back in the hazy sunlight, you take in your breath at the sight of the stepping upper topography of the retreat. You see many gardens and what appears to be water holding tanks. You can just make out the boat terminal out in the distance – wait – you look at your watch – it really took me that long? No, that can’t be, it’s only a short walk from here… Interesting – this built environment actually made me slow down from all the fast travel I just experienced. You smile wistfully and then turn back and settle in.
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