The studio started with understanding what one means by Environmental Flows or just Environment in general. Different Eco-systems existing together? A relationship that one forms with its surroundings? While also being simultaneously being creative and destructive; all of these can be ones idea of Environment and understanding the different flows of the Eco-systems that exist in one was what this studio dealt with. It was a process that made one realize that the colonial belief of nature and culture being different entities somewhere or the other explained the existence of the bigger problems and hence it was also important to understand that there is NO DISTINCTION.
Asking questions was a important part of the process.
What kind of relationships do we want to build? These relationships have a spatial form.
What builds the environment? Transforming of materials, transforms a built space.
How flows intersect one another?
What is flowing into other?
How you as an architect would make change and what change would that be?
What experiments do these flows produce?
FIELD WORK PROCESS
The field we were observing was the north-eastern part of the Dahisar Mangrove Park where a feasible amount of concrete jungle had developed with two bridges running between two parallel road and the mangroves starting just after the second bridge there. It is a commercial space that housed a number of different occupations and other smaller occupations supporting those like for example the slight isolation of this particular area to the main street made it possible for a rickshaw parking space to develop over the period of time and then so did the rickshaw repairing workshops eventually developed as well. Similarly there were a lot of these garages and automobile shops that had been established and continue to with the latest one being opened back in 2018.
With a group of 14 forming pairs of 2, we then divided these sites in 7 sections trying to understand the built conditions, topography and climate in general of the field we were venturing in.
Process of Flows:
The flow we choose to observe was the FLOW OF RAINS. How rain affects the area of our site the small moist spaces created by rain the soft sound of water trickling and objects the thud when water hits the metal sheets the soft puddle formed below a tree which splashes every time another rain drop hits it. The rain when it comes its hard on the tree but it softens down as it hits the tress and slows down and trickles town the tree instead of flowing directly down. The wind when it gusts in the rain and made a gust sound. The garbage that collects rain the small new vegetation that comes up in the rain. The increase in the flow of river when it rains and the sound of the rain water hitting the river water with a strong flow.
Deriving the design
So thinking about rain and the sounds it produces we thought of making a rain censorious that would make different sounds when rain hits different surfaces it was a leisure space where people can sit and enjoy the flow of rain and its different sound while they can just sit around and feel the rain through the sense of ears.
Our first design was a cylindrical censorious which would be made of different materials hence producing different sounds and as ot would be places a bit in the river it will also make sound when the river water clashes the structure.
The second iteration of a hemisphere with the top made up of wood with small spaces in between that can help water to pass down in small amount. Slowing down the water and hence giving a seance of tree in small area in the center it was to be places as an extension of the bridge but the sound of the rain wont be eminent as the flow of water down the bridge and the flow of vehicles on the bridge will be more stronger
Our Final iteration was a similar structure who frame work was made up of iron bars and wood was cl-added in the structure with small spaces of about 2mm in between two mods. The rain when it flows down will slow down and pass slowly through the wood and will still rain a bit after the rain stops outside.