INTERPRETING THE LANDSCAPES
- ISOLA BANGALORE CHAPTER
- Sep 13, 2016
- 6 min read
The ISOLA Thesis Open Day, in collaboration with the INDIA INSTITUTE OF HUMAN SETTLEMENTS (IIHS), was held in Bangalore on the 20th of August 2016. It was the second such event hosted by the ISOLA Bangalore Chapter, following its lasts year’s event, to nurture and discuss on the ideas of the landscape profession through academic cases. This year the notion of the event was conceptually expanded, allowing students from both undergraduate and post graduate courses to submit their thesis cases that intersected with the landscape profession at large. A two-stage selection process witnessed a fairly inter disciplinary collaboration of projects being submitted for the event, from which a total of 14 (Fourteen) cases were selected for the event.
What precipitated was an intense discussion on contexts from varied bio-climatic regions - ranging from Gujarat to Karnataka, from Mumbai to Jharkhand – each poignantly positioning their thesis to respond and reciprocate the landscapes of their selected region. Such an eclectic mix of projects also broadly aligned themselves to certain landscape associations - NATURAL, CULTURAL and the URBAN. A similar categorization was then established to consolidate the projects into sessions – with the primary focus on creating an effective and critical dialogue on the profession and less on the individual works of participating students.
The first session – NATURAL Landscapes - projected 4 cases, two of which discussed the idea of Natural Habitats and the role of landscape in creating natural enclosures for animals and its responses to various species. While one of the cases restricted itself to follow only prescribed guidelines, the other limited focused more on the interaction of environments and the animals, keeping the visitor experiences in minimal focus. Both explorations articulated the design considerations in a precise manner, though the larger considerations of connecting these enclosures with their regional biomes needed sharper interpretations. The other two projects in the session addressed risk and degraded landscapes. One dealt with the region in Himachal, discussing the impact of slate quarries. The other in Uttarakhand addressed the risks of flooding and both engaged effectively with the larger regional ecosystems. Both these projects strongly reflected the engagement of landscape at the regional scale and how its careful understanding and mapping of resources can effectively address issues of planning and development - both of which are pressing issues in today’s fast paced urbanization. As in most cases, looking at landscapes independently always surfaces questions of engagement with the politics and the culture of the space – but in this case both the projects reflected a certain tendency of not reading landscapes in isolation but as a continuation of the living culture of the community.
The CULTURAL Landscape session in itself was a great study model for the profession. The session intersected deeply with not only the ideal of tangible culture but included folklore, mythology and the transcending of ritual landscapes. A body of work that is unfortunately under explored not only in the landscape architecture profession but also in the Indian academic sector. Even when explored, it is often read with a certain dismissive attitude. Working within two mythological landscapes –one on the landscapes of Rameshwaram and the other on Govardhan, generated quite a remarkable study, analysis and interpretation of the notions of rituals associated within these landscapes towards a contextual proposal. In the case of Rameshwaram, the overview was to improve the quality of the place based on mythological understanding, reflecting a certain limitation to the approach. The case of the Govardhan landscape manifested these studies into a physical form that responded ecologically to the context while still bridging the past and the present needs. Interpretation of these symbolic landscapes was in itself a great learning curve for most in the audience, and the propositions in both cases seemed a more academic ritual that even if avoided would still position itself as a comprehensive study. The other projects in the session focussed more on knitting landscapes in culturally sensitive spaces – one in the Tiruvannamalai – a sacred space; the other in old fort of Bidar – a historic space. Each project carefully redefining landscape as a both an emotion and a tool to reinforce and strengthen resources and thereby utilizing the landscapes towards a more productive – both ecologically and culturally, to enhance the quality of urban life. The final project in the sector was the physical manifestation of the notion of culture and landscapes that through expressions and abstractions of forms of traditional elements looked towards creating a continuum experience of the past – a more common strategy towards the integrating culture and landscape that lends one always towards debating questions on tradition and contemporary; extend the past or express the future; reflect the past or merely interpret to suit the contemporary - a series of plaguing questions noticeable across the design profession.
The final session – URBAN Landscapes – probably the most inter disciplinary of the sessions – and understandably so, as it involved students from the graduate level and students from the Urban Design principle. The session raised some of the most effective and challenging questions that have become part of the contemporary discourse of urbanization and the pedagogy of landscape architecture. Two of the five projects discussed during this session focussed on landscape as a system - a system derived through a careful understanding of urban layers to develop a green infrastructure connecting urban voids. One looked at the industrial landscapes of Morbi and the other deriving postulates for the city of Delhi to both reconnect cultural, social and ecologically fragments of urbanization. Very interestingly, the two graduate level projects were not limited by the identification of urban voids but advocated to strategize these voids through architectural expression to connect with the urban. As in many other cases, they were constrained by limitations of academic requirements without allowing for a more a fundamental conceptual shift. However, the two projects located in Bhuj and Kochi used landscape more as an emotional connect - a virtue that is sometimes neglected by professionals on the premise of a more technical understanding of landscape i.e slope, vegetation, hydrology etc – to graft and position their architecture with the landscape setting. The architectural project in Bhuj was quite unique in its own exploitation of the topography to evolve a unique architectural expression. The architectural project situated in the heart of Kochi used landscape as a limiting corridor to introduce its proposed fabric. The other project in the session, though defined itself from the urban dynamics, addressed one of the emerging typologies of large-scale national institutions cropping up across the nation. The project addressed the allotted site for a large institution and carefully positioned landscape interventions in critical junctures of the site as if to critique the wasteful and irrelevant practice of allotting large sites for institutional campuses.
The event was well attended by a full house of landscape professionals, students, academics and people from allied fields. The very participatory audience engaged in critical discussions on the pedagogy of the landscape architecture in academia and its limitations. At the end of each session, an overview of professional relevance was conducted as an interactive dialogue. Inter-disciplinary learning is certainly a reality – one that is making its way into academic circles and one that certainly needs more careful and focused integration into the pedagogy. The academic sector needs to give its pedagogy more pressing attention to allow students explore the potentials of inter disciplinary learning. This should allow graduate design students to think more iteratively between the natural and the built components of their designs. There has certainly been a tectonic shift, especially in the landscape architecture studios, allowing one to move beyond the traditional frameworks of learning and to engage more with pressing challenges in the urban realm. One body of work that certainly needs more encouragement is probably to trace back into readings of landscape - a landscape not as a technical ground but one that is deeply grounded in culture, mythology, tradition, ecology and experience. An interpretation of landscapes from the roots - its symbolism, its philosophy, its existence – a body of work that continue to inspire arts, movies, poetry and literature and allied fields and can reinforce the profession of landscape architecture.
LIST OF THESIS CASES - READ FULL SYNOPSIS HERE
Habitat Design
RASHMI PARAMESH
School of Planning and Architecture, New Delhi
Wounded Landscapes
DIVYAJYOTI SHARMA
CEPT University, Ahmedabad
Zoological Gardens
CHERIA SANDRA
Dr. MGR University, Chennai
Study of Landscape Character and Intervention for the Vulnerable Areas along the path of Ganga from Koudiyala to Rishikesh
TANVI DESHPANDE
School of Planning and Architecture, Bhopal.
Landscape Design for a public realm at Rameshwaram
SHANMUHANATH S
ANNA University, Chennai
Landscape Proposal for an ancient Tamil Cultural Village in Madurai
A VIGNESWARAN
School of Planning and Architecture, New Delhi
Manifestations of Scriptural and Ritual Landscapes into Pragmatic Forms
KHUSHBOO ADHIYA
CEPT University, Ahmedabad
Creation of open space network to enhance the quality of urban environment in the walled city of Bidar
ADITI GALANDE
School of Planning and Architecture, Bhopal.
Landscape Intervention for Tiruvannamalai
G. ANNIE SILVIYA
Dr. MGR University, Chennai
Geo Corridor
SRUSHTI SHAH
RV College of Architecture, Bangalore
Transforming Morbi - from harsh industrial inheritance to a livable urban fabric
AMRITA SLATCH
CEPT University, Ahmedabad
Urban Revitalization of Old Ernakulum Railway Station
VARGHESE MOOKENCHERIL
School of Planning and Architecture, Vijaywada
Holistic Site Planning and Landscape Development of Educational Campus-Central University of Jharkhand, Ranchi,
Amit Bhattacharya
School of Planning and Architecture, Ne Delhi
Water and Green as a tool for urban Regeneration
INTEKHAB ALAM
F/O Architecture and Ekistics, Jamia Milia Islamia , New Delhi
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