Inhabiting Wetscapes

by Neha Dalvi and Aditi Kawade

Water Dripping

The Space is exaggerated such that it becomes a rain shower with water dripping from ceilings and walls.

Walking on Muddy Soil

The effort and sluggishness, density, wetness and heaviness while walking through wet mud

Phenomena Drawings

Water Dripping

The Space is exaggerated such that it becomes a rain shower with water dripping from ceilings and walls.

Walking on Muddy Soil

The effort and sluggishness, density, wetness and heaviness while walking through wet mud.

Principle

The learnings and observations of the phenomena generated a principle:

Creating dripping water through air pressure and this pressure is generated by walking on a soft ground that creates undulations due to the friction created while walking. This principle further drove the apparatus.

Mechanism

In a large water tank there would be layers of latex sheet at specific intervals which would float on water and a foot pump would be placed between those layers.

So there is constant undulation in the ground which affects the pace of movement and also the hidden foot pump pours water.

Apparatus

The apparatus formed inculcates the principles and creates a pavilion that works on this principle. The pavilion has different intensities of wetness and a series of soft and hardscapes as spaces of pause. The pavilion also senses the program of leisure or recreational space.

Site

Keeping in mind, the programs of a water garden and bath, the site chosen is the Lotus Talav, located in Rathodi Village, Malad west, Mumbai

Choosing a site with a water body, would allow possibilities for the new space created to blend in with the existing water landscape rather than acting as an alien entity on the site.

Site Sensorium

The site sense the never-ending landscape of the lotus leaves which almost lay like a illusionary carpet onto the large volume of water.

Deploying the Apparatus

The process starts with mapping out the densities of people in the site, their movement and which part of the site do they influence the most

At the same time, the large landscape of the lotus leaves starts informing the form such that it blends into the existing landscape

The space thus starts becoming a never-ending landscape and now starts integrating smaller water ponds in it as well

The water pipes which would ooze out water then start getting placed at certain specific intervals and largely follow a grid for their placement.

Iterations

Using the above concept and the principles of air pressure, the most active part of the site is chosen for the design intervention which is the south-western edge.

The first iteration becomes one large landscape which almost runs along with the existing edge. The second iteration thus attempts in breaking this continuous form by creating islands in the water. However, these islands start becoming individual entities in the landscape. Thus, the third iteration integrates both the ideas of the continuous landscape and the individual islands and worked out a form that responds both to the continuum of space and the isolated nature of its parts.

Plans

Diagrammatic Plans:

Latex sheet ground plan

C-Bracket joint plan

Column placement plan

Roof plan

Sections

Joinery Details

Space as Sensorium

All in all, the space thus becomes the experimental sensorium of the phenomena and holds the ability to integrate newer programs as well thereby making it a technological sensorium.

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