Botanical Garden

INTRODUCTION

The idea of the botanical garden is an extension to the existing idea of the nursery where people from the community have been looking after the space and developing different systems to hold, drain water along with taking care of the flora and fauna on the site. A botanical garden can thus draw visitors and serve as an interactive hub for the neighborhood, a great relief from the bustling urban life. The botanical garden serves as a place for visitors to learn about, craft, and interact with nature in addition to urban life. It provides a unique opportunity for individuals to reconnect with nature and learn about various plant species through guided tours and educational programs. Additionally, the botanical garden serves as a hub for local artisans and craftsmen to showcase their work inspired by the natural surroundings, creating a vibrant cultural space within the community.     

ZONING 

The site contours were analyzed to know the swampy, steep, and ridge zones of the site and therefore drainage pattern of water from the various locations to the stream. Thus the zoning was done considering these objectives and various functions were decided upon accordingly. Majorly the site was divided into three zones according to the degrees of publicness of public, semi-public and private space. The public spaces were clubbed together in Zone A where the cafe, workshops, and training centre are placed for the people to interact and occupy the space. The semi-public zones are located in Zone C where the amphitheater, resource centre and nursery are located where visitors can visit and host various private gatherings and functions that can be managed by the organization. The private zone B includes all the admin office spaces where the organizational work takes place along with the road front shops. The shops can be managed by the community to showcase and sell their products and can be locked up during other times for security. 

PROCESS 

Initially, we started with identifying the existing trees on the site and while doing that we noticed the pattern in which the trees are currently planted. As we enter the nursery one sees perfectly framed tall ashopalav trees planted in a single line on either side of the entrance road. While walking on the other parts of the site one can notice a lot of shade giving dense canopy trees protection from direct sunlight and rains during monsoon. The central part of the site has a shed that has many fruiting trees alongside the smaller patches of the farm where a few vegetable crops have been grown by the villagers. Considering this already existing pattern of trees we added trails made up of halfcut bamboo platforms spanning through the various zones of the site. Along with that, the botanical garden has been planned through different flowering, fruiting plantation zones as well as different zones of species of grass. The proposed plantation zones are planned according to the slope of the terrain and the water-draining capacity of the soil on the site. Therefore the sloping parts with well-drained soil are planned as flowering zones while the flatter parts of the site are made into grasslands and other ornamental canopy trees plantation zones.    

 SITE PLAN 

DESIGN STRATEGY

Working with the idea of a botanical garden, an additional program of a greenhouse was required. Agronet, which is widely used for its construction, allows the space to hold the heat required for the plants and vegetables grown inside. 

This zone has been thought of as a knowledge zone with the nursery, resource center, and greenhouse being connected to each other. 

The shops have been thought of as a partial temporary structure. The roof is made of canvas. A part of the shop can be locked up to store the things, as inspired by the one-foot shops. The structure can be closed up as a box when it is to be shut. This unit is then arranged on a plinth with the lattice to have different possibilities of extending the shop towards the road or having back open space. The shops are located at the edge of the road allowing more people to interact with them. 

The training center is a space for conducting workshops, interactive sessions, etc., as they are arranged for now as well on site. the space opens up into semi-open spaces to hold larger crowds as required.  This space is located at the comparatively open and flatter part of the site, next to the existing shed. The area has tall fruit trees, mainly mangoes. The space in front of the workshop thus is designed to have seating areas, and decks at different levels for people to hang out. 

With a similar logic, the other spaces are designed. The lattice is introduced in the existing structures which allowed an upgradation to the existing form as well. 

Lavanya Navale, Nidhi Bhoir, Sakshi Maeen, Shreya Mittal