Echoes of an Ecos

An exploration and reconciliation with

ecology in an urban context,

as a scientific art or an artistic science

-------A poetic interrogation of Ecology

By

Anshu Choudhri

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1.Manifesto

Conflict is the easiest way to address a problem, offense is said to be the best defense.
Sadly so man has become offensive towards the very environment that he lives in. The
population pressure and insensitive construction boom is engulfing our ecosystems
bringing them to a point of not just a species but an ecosystem being endangered.

In these dark times when we have entered the ‘Twilight zone’ the only answer to our
questions is strategizing design through the realm of Ecological Coding not just as a new
way of viewing and valuing nature but as a ‘race to rescue’, to rescue our ecosystems

This renewed dialogue of Architecture with the natural forces that of it being a ricochet
of its environment is that which will sculpt an efficient intervention in the ecosystem
one that is driven to reconcile with the Marshlands.

Man for his urbanistic dreams has engulfed his environment what we need today is not
a catastrophe to establish the importance of an ecosystem even in an urban context.
This layering of the city and its inherent morphology needs to be understood by us so as
to avoid any further destruction of the same.

This interactive integrated system that wills absorb ecologic and eco intelligence from
the bios to the built will ‘Echo the harmony of the Ecosystem’

The future is not an extrapolation of the present.

The need is not of enlarging the existing but challenging the existing with innovative
ideas.New is not equivalent to change. Since we have been striving for the end more
architecture transforms to an object its necessary to emphasize the process, the means
and not the end.

Hence this architecture ecosystem relation is a medium to redefine the role of

architecture and the way it is perceived in today’s context; it has potential beyond a

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functional and formal derivative it had the power for social empowerment and policy
change.

2. Introduction

Indonesian writer YB Mangunwijaya quotes “You might not see things yet on the
surface, but underground it’s already on fire.”

The current context when mans overbearing acts are resulting in climatic imbalance and
we are under the cloud of the phenomenon called Global Warming we can say we need
to look beyond surface contribution and make contextual interventions.

The population pressure today has brought world to the brink, the current scenario is
that critical that the earth seems to be bursting at the seams. Man has crossed all
boundaries of nature and is swallowed up the natural world to fulfill his needs,
reclaiming natural ecosystems is a common scenario today is it in the developing or
developed countries, thus now is the time we respect, reconcile and restore our
ecosystems.

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3 .Scenario – Macro Scale

On a macro scale the thesis aims to address the role of ecology in the midst of this
urban explosion. It would not be too farfetched to state that the future lies in darkness;
if we do not sensitively address the appropriate alternative sources of renewable energy
and value the ecological heritage that we are blessed with.

We are fast depleting our sources such as fossil fuel, beyond depleting them they are
the reasons for the ecological imbalance on account of the large amount of CO2
emissions. So in wake of our so called creations we have paved the way for Global
ecological destruction. In these times it’s necessary to identify ecosystems that have a
great inherent potential of creating a self sustained society.

Isolated systems lead to disorder and open systems to higher level of complexity and
achievement. Hence the blurring of these various environmental constrains and
capitalizing on their strength in an integrated fashion would mean obtaining deeper
understanding of them and then embedding the same into the architectural and
landscape

3.a .Coded Cities

3.a.i. Color coding is a catastrophe

As I discuss my stance of ecologically driven development, I must state that the thesis is
not about ‘going green’. It does not deal with belting the city with lush landscapes but
deals with hybridized conditions that integrate the urban and the natural into a single
cohesive continuum.

A green belt, a designated open space a manicured open park is not the solution for the
harmonization of man and nature as these are piecemeal interventions trying to push a
green block to just complete the puzzle even if the piece is a misfit.The green
development as we pose most cities of today to become should be left to the emerald
city in the wizard of oz. The city should have an ecological character assigned not color.

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Green or lush landscape as projected by the views we observe is not the vision of
sustainable. This over inflated balloon of the green area needs to burst to stop incessant
greening of the urban landscape.

3.a.ii.An architects interpretation of a city

To Aristotle, the city was a way of life.

To Le Corbusier the city is a “tool”, a logistical device;

To Frank Lloyd Wright the city was “the only possible ideal machine”.

This mechanistic vision for a city at different times by innovative architects displays the
interest in the coded and principal guided working of a city.

This thesis is an exploration of the way a city does not need a blueprint but an intelligent
system that guides it growth and evolution. Sustainable systems are driven by ecologic,
eco-mimicry and eco integration.

This ecological coding that I have investigated through the thesis is necessary to
understand the working of ecology where each component has a unique form and a non
hierarchical relationship, a complex interrelationship between the varied species. This
can be inscribed into the relationship between the city and ecology.

3.b. Cities as Ecosystems

Today parallality is being observed in urban planned development and natural

ecosystems. There are a large number of theorist and architects that are asserting and
debating the same ingrained intelligence and principles.

Gill & Bonnet, in 1973 stated that ‘A city is an ecosystem an intricate web of interacting
organisms involving energy transfer and materials cycling’. It is important that this
cyclical process is stressed on as only when the loop is closed is a setup stable, the main
cause of the instability today is as we are draining our systems of its resources neither
do we neither optimize nor replenish them.

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These analogous paths between architecture and an ecosystem are well described in
Kenneth Frampton’s view: a deeper relationship with place, a cultural intertwining with
geography mediated through architecture. To further crystallize this thought it would be
appropriate to reason that the ecological connection of culture to its environmental
context is Vernacular architecture; a partial reflection of the ecosystemThe approach
towards a city thus created that ensconces ecological principles in its planning,
execution and existence can be termed as Ecocitology.

What is the common thread between a building and nature though? Buildings are
amongst the most powerful transmitters of any culture and this is analogous to the
species of an ecosystem.

German aesthetic philosopher Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe states that ‘plants are a
conveyor of a vitalist form, expressive of life’s inherent energy’ and hence imbibing
these natural norms would be the most ‘response’ to any ecosystem.

Hence Ecologic and E- Code are operative strategies of my approach to design .The
concept and insights promise to open the doors to the kind of understanding of design
and construction demanded by the idea of an ecological culture, a culture that we need
to embrace today to survive tomorrow.

Extrapolation is a mathematical term used to describe the process of constructing new

data points outside a discrete set of known data points. Here it is the external
environment; the ecosystem that is used as the field to generate the new parameters
that govern architecture. The field and its principles hence get embedded into the urban
design. Human settlements are engines of human creation and if we can breathe life
into architecture we have achieved the desirous of integrating the inanimate and
animate.

Since Ecohabitat is a direction not a destination and its principles are laid by ecological
guiding forces, the driving operative theme for the approach is termed as

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Ecoextrapolation; an extrapolation that needs to bridge the gap between the wetland
and the usually interpolated architecture.

This means should fuse the two in such a fashion that at a later stage the architecture
would seem more an output of an interpolation with the environment rather than
extrapolation. This Emergent homeostasis would lay the foundation of creation of an
Ecopolis, a self governing city that is self sustained by nature and not legislature.

‘Land Lab’ is an approach towards regeneration of the ecology, a need not whim.

By this process Architecture doesn’t get inscribed into the ecosystem but the
ecosystems and its species essence gets ingrained in the architecture. Through the
further chapter’s architecture and its role and its varied interpretation with time and
context is explored.

3.b.The ecological ballet

Ecology and urbanization pirouette around each other in an intellectual ballet

In these times it’s important to measure the difference between environmentalism and
ecology. Ecology is a logic coded system and environmentalism a broad area of study.

To build on potential and not present is the call of the time.

We need to move from the realm of what should be and not what is.

A revolution is required to rupture the existing bureaucratic order and the psyche and
mentality it breeds. A revolutionary thought can precipitate into innovation. No idea is
futile and no numbers determine the strength of an idea.

The desire is not to provide a blueprint for the future as a blueprint just stagnates the
creative process and the exploration of the urban and ecological process. Blueprints are
vehicles for concreteness that we can regard as acceptable.

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Ecology works on principles of mutualism, cooperation and reciprocal relations. These
ecological terms can become the guidelines for new eco – urban ventures, a new
landscape that ties our growing city to the original ecological landscape.

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4. Redefining architectures role in the Ecosystem:

Reconciliation ecology, a resilient intervention between the ecosystem and the city

4.a. The macro context of a ecosystem as a potential study

The wetlands, marshlands are in its most nascent from considered as a residual
ecosystem, it is a neglected ecosystem, with immense potential to unearth.

The birth of marshlands is as interesting as its current condition where it is home to

varied flora and fauna. Marshes, their very character is of part land and part water and
hence its varied character gives the opportunity to implement an integrated network.

The living Machine mimics the complex of a marshland effectively for water purification
but this scenario and its constituents have the bio capacity to offer much more.

The thesis hence focuses on understanding these individual biological components in a

Marshland and integrating it physically and its essence via eco logic into the
architectural setup to vitalize the marshland as a habitable ecological system. The
structure shall sustain as the approach transforms from that of a designer to one that
respects landscape ecology and inherits conservation biology

4.b. Urban ecotones

Few natural resources are as precious as our water bodies. They regulate our climate,
collect and distribute solar energy, and absorb carbon dioxide. They are home to an
astonishing 90% of the planet’s living organisms, and they contribute greatly to our
economic and social well-being, giving us fisheries, transportation and reserves of
energy. But the marine environment has been deteriorating for decades on account of
insensitive human intervention. The sea basins around us are all affected by biodiversity
loss, pollution and eutrophication, and commercial fish stocks have never been lower.
Human activities such as agriculture, industry, tourism, fishing and shipping have

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disrupted the ecological balance in many water ecologies. Experts fear that climate
change will exacerbate these effects and disrupt long established water levels and
acidity, ocean currents and ecosystems

4.c. Blurring the Boundaries

Convention is a mere validation of an existing though process of lines that are inscribed
so hard that we don’t let the boundaries, disappear.

Topology and the built are considered as two entities and exist as independent layers.
The interdependence of these layers cannot be ignored but need to be addressed and
optimized. Architecture has to adopt the philosophy of Interaction versus Isolation. The
underlined criteria being integration of land, water, resources and infrastructure

Hence this demands for the Blurring of the Boundaries. Blurring the boundaries of the
site and the built would be beneficial for utilizing the natural edges, contextual
conditions, biological bounties as catalysts and not as constraints.

Collapse, a word that can define the consequence of the current over strained urban
scenario. The only saving grace would be that of providing adequate infrastructure to
support the system.

Ecologically supported Infrastructure is a potential corridor that bridges the gap

between habitable and habitat. For this it is essential that Infrastructure be viewed as an
investment not an intervention. The concept of the core and corridor is the principle
successful sustainable infrastructure.

Creation of an ecological framework for environmental, social and economic health

does not manifest as mere green spines and greening the urbanscape.

As stated earlier isolated systems evolve to disorder so the approach for the research is
the quilting together of varied power generating systems in the ecosystem. The
ecological, recreational and cultural networks need to work as layers that are integrated

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into a single mesh. The individual programmatic core is tied coherently by means of the
ecological spines and transit corridors.

4.d.Ecology, Energy and Ecotechnology

Energy is what drives the world be it the natural systems or architectural. The current
buzz word in the energy industry is Solar energy and Photovoltaic’s, this is not an energy
source that shall get depleted but is a source that with the surge of environmental
disturbance asks for the assistance of the varied other sources to be integrated within
the network to generate power.

It is in this time of dire need to preserve our ecosystems and our energy sources that we
should follow the following principles.

4.d.i. Ecologic

Ecologic is the bio-integration of natural systems into our built environment. Our
personal and environmental health depends on the availability of clean air, water and
soil.

4.d.ii. Eco-mimicry

Eco-mimicry is a term used for the study and analysis of site specific ecological functions
and utilizing the same for purification and waste water treatment or for power
generating processes based on their ecological strengths.

Eco-mimicry is a process of innovation. It is similar to biomimicry or biomimetics but is

designed to produce solutions that serve the local environment and community rather
than the global market-place or the military-industrial complex. It is design that serves
the ecology and the people, not power, prestige or profit.

There is a fourfold approach to an eco sensitive approach:

1. Ecologic Analog: Careful analysis of the resident ecologies

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2. Ecologic Functions: A qualification and quantification of the functions that occur
in this ecology

3. Ecomimetic Applications: Design that mimics and integrates these ecologic

functions into the structure of buildings and landscape

4. Ecologic Intelligence: Cultivate these living systems by monitoring and

maintaining these systems in perpetuity

The evolution of a successful system is on account of the systems inherent strength and
not mere mechanical interventions. The logical understanding of an ecosystem and
imbibing it appropriately into the architecture and planning of the site would be the
optimization of eco mimicry an approach that is now widely being recognized as the key
to sustainable future. Eco mimicry and eco integration are the goals of the thesis.
Climate and context, water, wind and watts are the driving forces in the research.

Evolution of Healthy ecologies is based on the “NO WASTE’ principle. There is an

abundance of renewable resources that we have and should harness. Humans account
for only 1 percent of the earth’s biomass but are responsible for 99 percent of all the
earth’s pollution and cover 8 per cent of the biosphere’s land surface with their built
environment.

The graph above illustrates the increasing levels of pollution our civilized world has been
generating over the last 20 years and the related rise in population.

The graphs readings clearly demonstrate how population pressure and harmful
emissions are demanding for a new earth, we are hence encumbering the earth
ecologically.

Man cannot create a new earth but by doing most in our capacity we can respect the
one we have. The new nature of today is an engineered utopia with ecological
principles.

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5. Appropriate technology

It is more than just alternative sources of energy

Eco technology integration is critical as it is a versatile flexible adaptive system that

emphasizes durability and quality and not built in obsolescence. Decentralization is
necessary to avoid concentrated clogging of the biosphere.

Global Thinking

5.a. Wind energy

The key principle of utilization of wind energy can be a governing principle in the design
of the landscape of site.

Topology is critical in harnessing wind as higher winds usually occur on the tops of ridge
lines. Hence wind energy should ideally be tracked and exploited on the tops of ridges in
order to utilize the maximum wind speed and power in the area.

In nature it is observed that winds are created by local differences in air pressure and
temperature, as well as surface disruptions, such as mountains, cliffs and trees. This
demonstrates how one can use topographical obstacles to create changing wind
pressures and hence generate more wind power without the creation of large wind
farms.

5.b. Watts from water, understanding of water as a power generator

Till date we are underutilizing this plentiful resource of water avail-able to us as we

generate only 700 GW of energy where we can generate upto 3TW.

The following diagram shows the capacity of Hydro power generation across the globe.

Water power is not just reservoirs and rivers. Moving water has great potential, the
cumulative power of the wind and the water in form of waves is an untapped resource.

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Similar to the concept of thermal mass where a high diurnal difference in temperature
acts as a reservoir of energy, in wave power a high diurnal variation results in energy
generation. This variation is observed along the coastline of Britain, Portugal and
Norway.

Every gesture need not be on a micro scale but the minute intervention is what makes
the system sustainable. MICRO HYDRO projects may be the answer to the energy crisis.

From Barrages and dams to localized water catchment areas the options to explore are
plenty- HYDRO FUTURE.

5.c. Array of Available resources

Earth is a matrix of various other power sources beyond the omnipresent ones stated
above.

In the contemporary context these unconventional alternative sources are gaining wide
spread concern and acknowledgement as the power of the future.

These are Biological setups such as algae farms, oyster farms, bio batteries driven by
bacterial decomposition, plant and rock outcrops.

The ideological omelet is what the concept of these scattered eco- communities can be
described as.

Eco-technology is a means which becomes the end.

Incessantly harnessing the sun and the wind seems contradictory to the idea of the
alternate energy which should be a local system harnessing that resource which is the
core driver of that zone.

The global approach leaves many resources untapped many options unexplored.

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Qualitative differences lead to a complimentary behavior this very contrast can open
the doors for a healthy collaboration between the constructed city and the ecological
landscape.

 Nature is a natural resource

 Cities are an urban resource
 People are a human resource

A new energy pattern artistically tailored to the ecosystem it is engraved in is built of

the collaborative interaction of the above mentioned resources.

The thesis scales down the intervention in the marsh to a human dimension. Architect
dons the hat of an eco-technologist to heal the wounds that the city and citizens have
given to the environment.

Local Action: Adaptive technology and system

Science is a poetic interrogation of nature. And the integration of the essence of this
science into a planning scheme makes it sustainable.

The solution to current and projected energy crisis on account of depletion of current
sources such as fossil fuel is a self supporting regenerative system. By tapping the
inherent potential of naturally available renewable local resources and making each of
them work in coalition as a system and not concentrate on an isolated resource we
could establish an ecological and urban equilibrium.

By this localized action not only are we employing alternative sources but also the most
appropriate resource for a certain context, scale and function.

5.c.i.Algaculture

Algae, second generation bio-fuel have become the most recent source of green fuel. It
produces a large amount of veggie oil, a fuel for the future.

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5.c.i.a.Algae, the new bio-battery

Algae are miniature bio-factories that by means of photosynthesis to transform CO2 and
sunlight into energy. The principal significance of microalgae is their effectiveness in
photosynthesizing – their weight multiples diurnally. Algaculture is the process of
farming algae. Algae harvesting and algae farms are the recent farm typology that would
soon be peppered about the urbanscape. The flexibility that is offered by an algae farm
is that its land requirements can be low. It is a flexible system that is being explored in
various manifestations ranging from algae race ways to algae facades and algae
incubator cells.

5. c.i.b.Benefits of using algae as a fuel

 Algae has a very high photosynthetic efficiency

 50 % of its body weight is oil as compared to 20% for oil palm
 They can be grown on soil that is not suitable for agriculture, as they don’t need
fertile ground

Gallons of Oil per Acre per Year

Corn 18

Soybeans 48

Safflower 83

Sunflower 102

Rapeseed 127

Oil Palm 635

Micro Algae 5000-15000

5.c.ii.. Algae Farms and Raceways

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As algae requires ample of sunlight algae farms are often situated in deserts, but water
is scarce and secondly the need to transport the algae and the brackish sea water in the
desert causes great expenses.

Since algae growth is fostered in an environment that is damp, moist, warm and wet
such as marshes. This makes the marshland an ideal location for algae harvesting.

Algae farms are a fast growing feature both in the field of Urban Landscape and energy
generation. A wetlands large component is composed of mud-flats. Microscopic algae
such as diatoms are able to occupy surface layers of the mud and photosynthesize to
accumulate more energy. Water acts as an electron donor. This asset of the site needs
to be exploited to the fullest. A natural electric farm can be an integral component of
the marshlands. This adds to the fact of not just creating an ecoextrapolated system but
interpolating a species of the marsh as an extension of the suburban sprawl.

The open or closed pond method can be used to grow algae. In an ecosystem like a
marsh part of the marsh already exists as an algae field (open system); the remaining
half is populated with algae harnessing incubators (closed system).In the open culture
system the desired algae can be inoculated into the system. Enclosing algae in a
transparent barrier effectively turns it into a greenhouse that can breed more varied
species and hence provide better yield.

Algaculture doesn’t require an infrastructural system, but its siting is critical as it has the
ability maximize yields while treating waste and consuming CO2.

5.c.iii. The Process for Algae Fuel Production

Extracting oil from algae involves first harvesting the algae out of the pond, pool or body
of water in which it is growing. Once this is done the algae can be dried, and pressed for
oil. This will only remove about 40% of the oil content, the rest remains in the dried
pressed paste left over. This dried paste can then be burned to produce heat, or
electricity (through steam), and the oil can be filtered for use as fuel.

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Algae farms are often deployed in the confluence of vegetated ridges and flood plain
toporegions; resulting in a visually compelling, vineyard like organization. This is where
renewable energy is produced and the location of a research center on bio energies and
training facilities could be an ideal programmatic option. Included in urban objects and
structures, the algae farms are creating patterns, colors and forms making an attractive
meeting between nature and the urban landscape.

5.c.ii. Oyster Farms

Proposals of Oyster farms are fast gaining prominence in metropolitans like New York
also.

One such proposal is also made by SCAPE for Governors Island this proposal by Kate Orff
of SCAPE is termed as: “Oystertecture” She quoted “I want to harness the biological
power of the creatures in the harbor to create a new relationship between New Yorkers
and the harbor,”

This New Dialogue of Man and nature is essential. Oyster farming platforms prevent
storm surges from ruining populated areas and hence demonstrate how coalition leads
to ideal existence.

5.c.iii.Bio fuel cells

Bio-fuel cells are alternative energy devises based on bio-electro catalysis of natural
substrates by enzymes or microorganisms.

Bio Batteries

Marshlands are home to a large variety of flora and fauna and hence their waste.

Recently findings by researchers demonstrating for the first time the mechanism by
which some bacteria survive by 'breathing rocks ‘as published by the scientific journal,
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS) could be of great use. The
findings could be applied to help in the development of new microbe-based

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technologies such as fuel cells, or 'bio-batteries', powered by animal and plant waste,
and agents to clean up areas polluted by oil or uranium.

"This is an exciting advance in our understanding of bacterial processes in the Earth's

sub-surfaces," said Prof David Richard-son, of UEA's School of Biological Sciences, who is
leading the project."It will also have important biotechnological impacts. There is
potential for these rock-breathing bacteria to be used to clean-up environments
contaminated with toxic organic pollutants such as oil or radioactive metals such as
uranium. Use of these bacteria in microbial fuel-cells powered by sewerage or cow
manure is also being explored."

The vast proportion of the world's habitable environments is populated by micro-

organisms which, unlike humans, can survive without oxygen. Some of these micro-
organisms are bacteria living deep in the Earth's subsurface and surviving by 'breathing
rocks' especially minerals of iron. Iron respiration is one of the most common
respiratory processes in oxygen-free habitats and therefore has wide environmental
significance.

Prof Richardson said: "We discovered that the bacteria can construct tiny biological
wires that extend through the cell walls and allow the organism to directly contact, and
conduct electrons to, a mineral. This means that the bacteria can release electrical
charge from inside the cell into the mineral, much like the earth wire on a household
plug."

Unfortunately marshlands the neglected environment are either left unattended or

used as the backdoor to the city and are often the dumping ground of the city.

This means they house are chocked with toxins. In this scenario such Biological batteries
are a hope of light. Not only does this help in detoxifying the site but also creates a
renewable rejuvenation cycle.

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Decentralization and appropriate technologies, a more pragmatic and efficient approach
to management of resources in today’s times where man has depleted a large portion of
his naturally available resources.

Decentralization also offers social empowerment and makes the community responsible
for the resource so the disconnect that modern times has created between man and
nature is revived by the means of responsibility

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6. Scenario: MICRO LEVEL

At a Micro level the scenario is that of treating architecture and natural landscape as an
“Evolutionary paradigm”. Evolution is the medium that exemplifies the term of
sustainability.

Sustainable developments in natural environments are being explored globally.

6.a.Addressing the waterfront, a worldwide movement

6.a.i.An overview of Rising Currents, New York, USA

In 2009 the Museum of Modern Art and PS1 launched a unique interdisciplinary
experiment with the intent to re-think New York Harbor in light of the currently
occurring phenomena’s like climate change, sea level rise and storm surge. Rising
Currents, gave design a new meaning that of being a tool for addressing local and global
issues that are extremely pivotal in today’s context.

Involvement of an institution is necessary in today’s time for both promotion and

funding such ventures. Beyond the commercial aspect these ventures are about social
engagement, and hence MoMA’s involvement seems apt as “Social engagement was
one of the main themes running through Modernism and in this way MoMA goes back to
what it originally was.”

Architecture, Design and Policy

Disregarding water and waterscapes as residual spaces or landscapes has been

hindering in the growth of the cities. Amanda Burden, has very clearly stated what
should be the path in the future that of ‘embracing the notion that water deserves as
much planning attention as the land receives’. She poetically called water New York’s
“sixth borough.”

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Can a design instigate policy change? What role does aesthetics play in policy in climate
change adaptation, in developing political consensus and breakthroughs? Are critical
questions posed to us today as architect’s questions I wished to explore if not answer

An ecosystem and its species

One can gain a lot by exploring the strength of the individual components of an
ecosystem as Kate Orff and SCAPE Studio developed Oyster-Tecture, reviving New York’s
natural history with the wondrous, dynamic oyster which both filters water and forms
natural wave-attenuating reefs. The US Army Corps of Engineers, along with the New
York Harbor School, has actually installed an experimental oyster reef in the city, just off
Governors Island.

6.a.ii. Beyond the global sphere zooming into the city of Mumbai

SOAK, a Mumbai-focused exhibit lead by Anuradha Mathur, a designer and landscape

architect and her partner Dilip da Cunha very beautifully explore the forts the
marshlands and unravel the history of the city and optimize the strengths of the city.

The authors of SOAK on the Rising Current:

“Every once in a while there is an exhibition that goes beyond the language by which it
is described, challenging the popular imagination and calling for a new one. Rising
Currents, to us, is one such exhibition. It calls us to go beyond the language of the
waterfront. … The era of confronting water is past. The idea of water meeting land
across an edge drawn more easily on paper than on the ground, is no longer tenable.”

Identifying this duality and the edge condition, the transition zone as a critical context
and one that offers great potential is the aspect of both these exhibits Rising Currents
and SOAK that had a large impact on my grafting into the marshland.

6.b. Zooming into an ecosystem

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The subnatural marshscape is an exploration of its species working and its presence in a
city with growing needs.

Some of the Marshlands that were potential study zones on different parameters are

• Iraqi Marshlands

• Meadowlands, New Jersey

6.b.i The Iraqi Marshlands

The Iraqi Marshlands constitute the largest wetland ecosystem in the Middle East and
are of environmental and socio-cultural significance. Located in the areas surrounding
the confluence of the Euphrates and Tigris Rivers in the Governorates of Basrah, Missan
and Thi-Qar in southern Iraq, the Iraqi Marshlands consist of interconnected wetland
systems of the Central Marsh, Al-Hammar Marsh and Al-Hwaizeh Marsh (29°55’ to
32°45’ N and 45°25’ to 48°30’E).

The Iraqi marshlands are of interest on grounds of their being the largest wetland
ecosystem, an ecological heritage that is in danger as it is fast depleting from core
ecology to a corner condition. From a wetland to a dryland

6.b.ii. Meadowlands, New Jersey Commercial entrapment of the wetlands

6.c.iii.Salt Pans; The Marine Meadow

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7.Site Selection

Mumbai Marshes, Mithi River, Mumbai, India

7.a. Mumbai Geographical and Climatic Data

7.b. Mumbai its journey in time

The history of its new geographical and ecological formation

•The present city was originally made from seven small islands, composing mostly of
mangrove forests and marshland dissected by rivers, streams and the sea. Fishing
villages and settlements of the Koli and Aagri tribes developed on these islands. The first
attempt of reclamation was made near the Worli island in 1770. However, large scale
reclamation only started after 1840.

•The British undertook land-filling and draining of the marshlands, developing a modern
port and city, which attracted migrant workers from across India. In the 19thcentury,
Mumbai emerged as an important centre of international commerce, industry and
culture. Most of the reclamation was complete by 1930s.

•The Mumbai needed to develop rapidly in the post independence times. The
reclamation of Salsette islands started in 1950’s and reclamation in minor areas still
continues. The twin city of Navi Mumbai was created in 1970’s by reclaiming large patch
of mangroves on the eastern banks of Thane creek, a very large creek in the region.

7.c . Destruction of Mumbai’s marshlands and mangroves; disruption of ecological

balance , inviting the wrath of natural calamities

7.d. An overview of the current state of the mangroves and wetlands dotting the city

7.e The new commercial hub of Mumbai: Bandra Kurla complex

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7.e.i. A Boon or Bane

In the book invisible cities it’s well stated that a city does not tell its past, but contains it
like the lines of the hand.

Mumbai contains its marshlands and seems to be getting too tightfisted its time the city
lets go its urban dreams that see mere modernization but yields to the genesis of a co
evolutionary approach between man and nature.

Mumbai; a bazaar city is a unique entity of ‘2 worlds’ formal and informal that cohabit a
common urban space. This character of the city lies in the context of the scenario that
the thesis deals with a two worlds of land of water of ecology and urban construction
and offered most potential as a site that dealt with intense urban pressure but needs to
treasure its ecology.

7.e.ii. Floods in Mumbai

Mumbai Under Water

“Mumbai under Water” is an effort focusing on the reasons that caused the July 26,
disaster and whether human efforts would have mitigated the situation. Was it a natural
disaster or Man – caused disaster? Mumbai recorded a rainfall of 94cms on July 26,
2005 and a total of 647.5mm in June. This caused flooding throughout the city and loss
to human life and property.

What caused the floods?

Flood: an upsurge; a reprisal of the sea

Surface is not an appropriate measure for an ecosystem with a dual nature like a marsh
but depth is an appropriate understanding of that system through an exploration of
sectional variations as components of the migrating formation.

Today Mumbai has been flooded with concrete that has been poured to create a new
city layer over the ecological layer of the city. Landfills and causeways are diagnosed as

25
the reason that prevents the sea from surfacing in a game of pressure saturation .The
floods of July 2005 were further a result of the inundated and infused ground beneath
than the rain and surface flow. Reclamation was not done just to gain new land but was
done with the belief in progress and developments are creative measures lead to our
destruction.

7.e.iii. A struggle with the sea

Cut and fill operation of swamps and outcrops is reclamation, this is a process of
building barriers to keep out the sea. Swamps and outcrops uncultivable wastes that
were not only considered valueless but were inscribed a negative value. This negation of
the good of an ecosystem is what has made man undermine their presence in the city.

Reclamation does not only make land it positions land against the sea

The expansion of Mumbai city in the past couple of decades has been beyond limits. The
infrastructure infill has been massive and the fact that most of it being unplanned has
contributed largely to the cause of the disaster. Unplanned infrastructure that engulfed
the marsh spine of the city was the main reason for the chest high water clogging in
those places.

The article explains in detail the various causes for the floods in Mumbai.

7.e.iv.The importance of Mangroves

Mumbai as an outstretched grasping hand reaching westward into the Arabian Sea

944mm of rain on july 26, 2005 highest recording since 1800.

From saturated to flooded it’s a profound shift not a gradual transition.

So this incessant reclamation of the marshlands is the reason that Mumbai soaked. So
addressing the marshland is necessary but before addressing it, it was essential to
understand what role a marshland plays in a city scape.

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Citizens itself never noticed this ecosystem that hugged the city till the monsoons in
2005. Mithi was made the culprit for the deluge and instead of giving its due the
government is training it as a drain.

An issue can be tacked only if the nature of its context is understood. A wetland is an
undifferentiated surface of the sea accounting for an unstable edge line. This soft edge
of a wetland is its most critical contribution and with the reclamation man has
converted this to a hard inscribed concrete line on the landscape. A wetland, a
Mangrove is a useful barrier a cushion against intense surges from the sea

In the words of its creators “Soak is about making peace with the sea; about designing
with the monsoon in an estuary”.

Estuary is the primary ecology of Mumbai, an estuary one that draws the sea into the
land. An estuary demands gradients not walls, fluid occupancies not defined land uses,
negotiated moments not hard edges. It demands an accommodation of the ecosystem
not a war against it. An appreciation of an aqueous terrain

The wet theory as proposed by the exhibition looks at taking into account the flux flow
and blurring of boundaries rather than reluctant boundaries of the city. Addressal of the
phenomena of migration, motion, disturbance of soaking in the ecological constraints is
the first step to the recognition of the concern of the submerging city.

Mumbai through the Screen of Soak

Out of this thesis transcends a new relationship between architecture and society where
society id developed on the ecological code and principles like unity in diversity,
spontaneity and non hierarchical relationships.

Seas invasion into the land and our answer to it reclamation is it justifiable.

The issues ask for not end scenarios but initiations, seeds that evolve by a visual,
political and technological fluidity that befits the temporality, uncertainty and
complexity of a terrain between land and sea.The need of the time is to look as Mithi

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not as the cause but as an opportunity for an alternative visualization of Mumbai’s
terrain.

Rather than a river that exits land through a coastline, it is Mumbai’s estuary, a third
coast, which carries the possibility of a different reading of Mumbai, its past and future.

This shift from marine to terrain is not a consistent one. It is conferred an unease, an
analogical strain that keeps land and sea active through practices that value their
divergence. Mumbai is a meeting of movements; the terrain is porous and divided but
unfortunately there is an uncritical acceptance of the line between the land and the sea
and man desires to overtake both land and sea.

7.e. v. Mithi as a Methaphor for change

The development of Bombay from an archipelago to this linear ever-growing city has
obliterated the past and the truth of its terrain. That is the prime reason for the
destructive revenge nature is taking over the city today like the floods of 26 th July 2005.

Recognizing Mithi as more than a drain a sits viewed today and integrating it into the life
of an average Mumbaikar, is the first step for change. To change Mumbai into an
ecologically sensitive urban city, that creates along and not against natural paths.
Mumbai is synonymous with change with its moving aqueous terrains and composition
hence negotiations and fluidity should be built into the development suggested.

Aqueous terrain of Mithi has no beginning or end it is one of the many agile landscapes
of Mumbai and this agility and tenacity needs to reflect in the innovative landscape
proposed as an emergent architecture of the Marsh. A mangrove cultivated gradient
architecture a biotic treatment field an energy harvester a community space is what the
city needs rather than indulgence in blanket reclamations of land to satiate both its
social and ecological needs.

What Mumbai needs to tackle the flood is not flood control measures but making the
city and its development absorbent and resilient itself.

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8.Interpreting Architecture

8.a.Architecture as an expression of the time

As an architect it is an important decision to make that what is the role of the

architecture you design in the current time, is it a mere habitable space designed to
perform a function or does it go beyond these standard norms to become the architects
voice, the architects position not as a mere designer but as an individual as a citizen.

This strength that an architect has that of creating a visual and spatial expression is what
can be our contribution to society.

As a citizen of Mumbai, the sad state of the city post the 26 th July 2005 floods where the
city was drowned stirred something within me.

The search began for me as how as an architect can I make a difference, and to me the
answer was not that of creating a flood control measure but was that of understanding
the true cause of the devastating floods, the destruction of the Mumbai marshlands in
wake of our creative endeavours.

Our creation of a new urban environment from the colonial era to this day has
transformed the archipelago of Bombay to a concrete land strip .We have put a
concrete mesh over the original marshy fabric of the city and the flood is not an account
of the rainfall but of the underground water surfacing.

Man for his urbanistic dreams has engulfed the marsh this flood is an eye-opener to
man but what we need is not a catastrophe to establish the importance of an ecosystem
even in an urban context.

This layering of the city and its inherent marsh morphology needs to be understood by us
so as to avoid any further destruction of the same.

The marsh and its dual nature make it a very interesting context to explore. Its land +
water condition is one that cannot be understood from a distance, it can only be

29
experienced by being part of the experiment itself to evolve the understanding of the
emergent system that ties the urban tissue and the ecological mesh of the marsh.

8.b. Architecture as E-coding not Bio-Mimicing

The Bios is real, hence for me Bio-Logic became the medium by which I can breathe
reality into my vision.In a context as challenging as a marshland to make the
architecture viable without creating a concrete scape in the eco scape one needs to
understand the functioning of the ecosystem and its species and inherit these traits in
the tectonics and technology of the built form.

The architecture would be governed by various ecological constraints of the marshlands

and would aim at being a halophytic (salt tolerant), humidity responsive, hydrophilic
architecture not merely a formal expression of the understanding of its species.

As an operative theme for me ‘to mimic’ is not to merely copy but to emulate the power
and strength of the species existence in a particular ecological framework, a framework
that should drive the architecture rather than the built building a new framework

8.c.Architecture as an emergent system

A sensitive context as that of an ecosystem requires an architectural language that

conforms to the understanding and behavior of the ecosystem.

In the thesis the architectural bridge is component driven and not a large mass it grows
with the marsh and from the marsh. The spatial expression, emerging from the water, is
devoted to the activities linked to the marsh such as the algae lab, an experimental
setup as an extension of the educational institution and the algae energy arms that
create bio-fuel to make this not a mere art installation but a scientific art expression
that would most definitely elevate the understanding of the marsh for even an
onlooker.

This emergent expression celebrates the essence of a marshland of its co-evolutive,

cooperative and adaptive systems.

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An Ecological expression: Beyond the visual

To me then the architecture that would emerge from this marsh had to be an
expression of the ecosystem, its ever-changing fabric and its inherent strength. In
today’s post destruction era I agree architecture needs to satisfy the need of the time
but it also needs to explore ahead of people's immediate needs, it should pervade their
lives.

The architectural intervention should be one that desires to harness and exhibit the
biological power of existing species of the marsh. These species and their functional
strength make them the integral connection between the city and the ecosystem

Architecture is experienced not only as what we see or inhabit but also through the
senses, which therefore gives rise to aural, visual, olfactory, and tactile architecture. As
one moves through a space, architecture is experienced as a time sequence. Although
architecture is primarily considered to be a visual experience, the other senses play a
role in how one experiences both natural and built environments.

8.d. Architecture is an adaptive and not an additive system

Architecture in most of its manifestations draws energy from the infrastructural system
my aim through the thesis is to create an eco run hub not on the basis of it being a
hybrid of technology and nature but that of a system governed by the principles that
govern life in an ecosystem. I wish to notch the existence of architecture from that of
being an object to a module of life, a system that not merely creates a shelter or
protects life but architecture that integrates the structural and behavioral intelligence of
a life form.

Along with the ecosystem the architecture would harmoniously cooperate with various
other untapped resources that are site specific like algae farms, oyster farms, rocky
outcrops, bacterial decomposition of plant species and the more abundant resources
like water in its various manifestations as reservoirs or water in motion like tidal waves,
wind.

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8.e. Architecture as a policy driver

The position of policy versus part of the existing process is where the whole approach
to intervening in the ecological zone changed and since I through my thesis am
advocating the role of architects in shaping a city I opted to not isolate the marshland
but let my intervention enter this restricted zone and weave it back into the city fabric.

Isolation causes neglect, integration leads to respect.

The approach to any such problem especially where one is dealing with zones normally
marked off as a reserved zone or one that has to be left in its current state, even if its
current state is a result of mans intervention is the stand we decide to take.

Adapting architecture to the existing regulations is an appropriate measure but the time
demands that we invent, that our innovative interventions widen the scope of policy
formation help define policies.

Though I desire to instigate policy change I am not aiming to be a theorist but be a

dreamer who leads the vision to an innovative solution

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9.Architecture Redefined As Scientific Art or Artistic Science

9.a.Where Arts and Science meet

Ecology is a scientific art or artistic science and its best as a form of poetry that
combines art and science in a unique synthesis.

The translation of ecology as art is as both are in state of continuous improvisation. The
fields of art, architecture and science cannot work effectively in isolation. The key to a
successful project would be the collaboration of the three spheres with optimizing the
capability of each to bring to forefront the merits of the other.

Many collaborative efforts in the art and architecture, architecture and science field are
in the pipeline as architecture is always questioned to be either an extension of the
artistic or scientific realm.

My aim was to use the visual quality and impact of an art installation with the precision
and functional approach of science and create a new architectural paradigm, one that
doesn’t conform to any style; from the country or period but creates a new vocabulary
one that subscribes to the ecological codes and understanding.

9.b.CaLL: paving the path for the manifesto

The principles of Mary Miss’s Living Lab became the drivers for programming the thesis
that integrated a modern engineered system with the natural environment.

This hybrid situation hence is developed on the three ideas that of:

 Experiment city: where new ideas can be investigated and tested ( the system,
and integrated labs, testing fields)
 Experiential city ( the new topography)
 Evolving city: where issues of our time can be expressed( incremental growth
and migrating formations)

City as Living Laboratory: Sustainability Made Tangible Through the Arts

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A project that largely influenced the design ideology for the project is ‘City as Living
Laboratory: Sustainability Made Tangible Through the Arts ‘, a new initiative
spearheaded by artist Mary Miss in collaboration with EcoArts Connections director
Marda Kirn.

The goal is to make sustainability personal, visceral, tangible, and actionable. Based on
input from municipal agencies and multiple partners, CaLL projects will seed project sites
with installations, interactive activities and events, setting an example that can extend
to other sites over time and lead the way for other cities in the future. These activities
will foster collaborations among communities, disciplines, institutions, and
neighborhoods as they work together toward common sustainability goals. The CITY AS
LIVING LABORATORY (CaLL) is a vision for how the arts and sustainability can be linked in
innovative ways to create cities that help us redefine how we live our lives, use our
resources, how we communicate, educate, work and collaborate. WHO

• Artists, who specialize in innovative thinking, are a resource being overlooked as a

means to educate, inspire and encourage citizens to think in a new way about the world
around them.

• Artists, working in collaboration with scientists, economists, social scientists, urban

planners and others can lead to new ways to live in, build, and imagine our cities.

HOW ?

• By changing the way we live, work, build and play in order to deal with the
environmental, social and economic challenges we face

• Through projects that create accessible, tangible, visceral and personal experiences
WHY

• To make large-scale programs, policies and planning initiatives (that are often
invisible) apparent to the citizens through small-scale interventions in the city

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• To redefine the city by giving it a global I.D. as an innovative green city and to maintain
a contemporary presence in the global marketplace

• To make issues of sustainability tangible and visible to gain the participation of all
citizens, communities and institutions to maintain the political will to create newly
sustainable cities

WHEN

• Now. Fast track sustainable practices by giving them an immediate presence that is
visible throughout the city in a timely way. Long range goals that take years if not
decades to implement can be made visible almost immediately with fewer resources.

The data stated above are extracts from Mary Miss’s website http://www.marymiss.com
and explain the project City as Living Laboratory: Sustainability Made Tangible Through
the Arts.

Distilling the thesis on the parameters from CaLL

Through the following paragraphs I have tried to distill my thesis project through Mary
Miss’s approach and the parameters that drove CaLL.

The vision for CaLL is a beautiful merger of the world of arts and sciences, City as Living
Laboratory (CaLL) is a vision for linking the arts with sustainability to help us envisage
and create cities that redefine how we live our lives, use our resources, communicate,
educate, and work.

CITY AS LIVING LABORATORY can help make ENVIRONMENTAL, SOCIAL, ECONOMIC

sustainability integral to all communities of a city.

It is important for us to in the current context realize that sustainability is a cumulative

result of success in all these spheres and not one in isolation. A goal can be achieved
only once it’s understood and brought to the forefront and that’s what this project and
architecture on the whole can help us achieve.

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To make SUSTAINABILITY TANGIBLE and visible for citizens, communities and
institutions

To EDUCATE the public about environmental, social and economic sustainability

To stimulate ECONOMIC VITALITY in our neighborhoods and city-wide

To ADDRESS CRISES in our cities such as environmental degradation, neighborhood

blight, crumbling infrastructure, and natural disasters

The role of art and artists in today’s world

Artists are experts in innovative thinking and are currently being disregarded as a
resource .This idea that Mary Miss is bringing to the forefront that artists, in
collaboration with people in other fields, can produce projects that educate and
motivate citizens to think about the world around them in new ways is a large
contribution to the vision of a city.

Collaborating communities

SOCIAL PROGRAMS can connect neighborhoods with their environment, culture, history,
and each other

The natural and the technological

NATURAL SYSTEMS can be made evident in local and regional contexts

INFRASTRUCTURE can be revealed and given visual expression

Parameters that make such initiatives successful

SCALE - a city’s large-scale sustainability initiatives can be expressed through phase vise
development that allows the project to be successful from a normative inception to a
large scale urban intervention as proposed in the thesis.

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RESOURCES - collaborative arts projects can partner with existing programs and
institutions; the thesis project is funded by an international school on site as it is an
educational experience.

PLACES - such as community gardens, parks, abandoned lots, infrastructure sites

The abandoned marsh considered as a negative space in the city is hence the ideal
platform to showcase how our ignorance makes us demean the value of the basic fabric
of the city.

USER APPROPRIATION

Providing a stage for various activities that are temporal and user defined makes the
project more successful and brings in a larger mix of people to the marsh which would
make it a more successful venture than programming it with a function that targets only
a certain group of people

EVENTS - performances, festivals, exhibits, talks, tours, fairs, feasts, films

TOPICS - land, water, transportation, energy, air, climate change, etc.

The marsh and the intervention as an experimental apparatus that can both be a lab for
experiments and is an experiment in itself with its dual nature offers to explore the
effects of various NATURAL elements and their interaction with the MAN MADE
environment.

Architecture is an artistic action driven by scientific support, an educational tool

With this approach I am not denying the necessity of design of spaces serving existing
interests and points of view but this is the time we must invent new points of view and
have faith that they would help educate the masses.

Architecture can educate not by just being a school or a college, that is a literal
expression of a place of learning but through an interesting conceptualization

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architecture can draw interest of the citizens to pertinent issues that may seem
mundane to many.

Some leaps are required, if architecture desires to move with today’s accelerated
changes, or more so to jump ahead to help lead them.

Incremental transformations may be the first block to building this new identity, where
adaptability and appropriation of architecture are critical.

 The primary undertaking of experimental works of architecture and art is to

identify new points of view on what already exists.
 The second task is to test them.
 The third is to move beyond the existing and invent.

9.c. Architecture as an organization of energy

A city is a network of economic, technological, social, cultural systems which overlay and
interact with one another to make it a ‘living system’. Organization of energy is the
common thread between all these systems.

A public space is an ideal platform to understand the energy generation, the cycles of
production, cleaning and the strengths of an existing ecosystem.

Existing energy relations in a city can be boosted by drawing inputs not only from the
technological domain but also the ecological domain. Input of new energy in the form of
highly temporary spatial interventions; is the key to reducing dependency on the
extremely burdened sources of energy, generating a system where the architectural
intervention can sustain itself and also support its vicinity would be ideal.

Considering that the site is a marsh, one that would not have its own water supply,
sewage treatment or energy source, the architectural intervention would be a
successful and acceptable plug in if it did not draw from the existing energy circuit but
instead could be a plug in that replenishes the energy circuit.

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Direction and its role in harvesting energy

Energy and the way it directs architectural formations makes me comprehend

architecture as a vector, with a magnitude and direction.

In the case of the thesis the various formations and the ‘energy arms’ or the links of
algae cells was determined by the direction that provided maximum surface area
exposed to the sun in a day so as to accelerate energy production by the algae. The
project aims to be a living laboratory an experimental setup and not an energy field
hence the arms are restricted to the least turbulent zones with the solar driven
orientation rather than populating the site with algae cells. This formation makes energy
organization as an interpretation of architecture.

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10.Drawing Inspiration

Ecological parameters guiding architectural decisions

The power that man feels he is bestowed with has lead to its zenith and in the wake of
his creative destruction not only is the air polluted, the water bodies choked but even
the depths of the ocean and the ecological transitions of the city are destroyed their
flora and fauna is depleting at a fast rate even at this very moment as I bring up this
issue.

Mans proliferation in the ecological cycles has tipped the ecological balance beyond self
repair that today man needs to intervene to restore what he disrupt. The list of
ecological assaults is endless and the damage cannot be repaired by some control
measure so attending to our current situation is necessary but educating the people to
prevent such a situation in the future is critical.

Before the environmental degradation due to human intervention reaches the stage of
an irreversible action we should identify accept and face the cause of this with ruthless
honesty.

An ecological society is not just a desire but a need

If we pull off this ecological rug we will be exposed to the cold floor of the earth.

The city fabric is woven by an interesting mix of active ecology and ecology that needs
to be activated. This can be done using eco technology to create eco – communities.
Nature is a harmonized system in which unlike our perception there is a coequal role of
the various components of the ecosystem and this equilibrium of coequality must be
established between the urban and the natural.

Ecology and its varied species are built in with an understanding that makes their
existence most appropriate in a context. This kind of co-optive adaptive relation is what
architecture also needs to have with the site it emerges from. The very notion of built
architecture versus emergent architecture is alluring.

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10.b.Operative themes

10.b.i. Echoes of the Ecos

The operative theme resonate the essence of its environment; it is hence aptly termed
as the ‘Echoes of the Ecos’ (ecosystem)

In its basic addressal the operative strategy is that of

Eco Extrapolation and Eco interpolation

It is that driver that propels form, function, materiality, adaptability and most
importantly survival.

This seems most appropriate as I desire to create an architectural scenario that

coherently interacts with the environment.

Ecoextrapolation

The next Golden Age of Architecture as termed by Turner in 2000 is “to create a biology
that unifies the living and the inanimate worlds”

The aim of the design hence is to create an ecopolitan design; ecological urban
settlements in themselves are oxymorons. This paradox makes it essential to decode the
two and understand their structure that has an underlying similarity.

10.b.ii. Is biomimicry the means to our goal of rescuing the ecosystem?

As one of the preliminary exercise the biomimicry guild undertook in the interaction of
biologists and engineers one of the biologists very aptly said that “the answers to the
questions are out there all we need to do is change the lens”.

This statement stirred within me the question with regards to our designing strategies
and brought to light the fact that many a times we let our architectural visions blur the
real.

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A survey of the National Biological Service found that one-half of all native ecosystems
in the United States are degraded to the point of endangerment, this is the state of a
developed country have we ever thought what would be the condition in the developing
countries where nature is left with no option but to succumb to the population
pressure.

The time has come for us to address the critical question

“How can we live on this home planet without destroying it?”

The Biomimicry Guild is very actively working in this sphere and its goal is to create
products, processes, and policies---new ways of living---that are well-adapted to life on
earth over the long haul.

What is it that makes Biomimicry a successful approach in these times of crisis ?

 It’s sustainable:
Biomimicry follows Life’s Principles that instruct us to: build from the bottom up,
self-assemble system.
 Optimization not maximization is the key.
One in such a system would adopt the use of free energy, cross-pollinate,
embrace diversity, adapt and evolve, use life-friendly materials and processes,
engage in symbiotic relationships, and enhance the bio-sphere. High
performance levels and survival of the Fittest
 Save Energy:
From plants trapping the sunlight for their survival to predators having to hunt to
gain energy through food, there is a constant efficient approach to obtaining and
saving energy in nature.

With the energy crisis that we face today Energy in the natural world is even
more expensive than in the human world. Hence by emulating these efficiency
strategies of nature we can curb our energy consumption that translates to
greater profitability in both the ecological and economic sphere.
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  Formal Mimicry
Every shape in nature is built strategically, thus biomimicry can help minimize
the expenditure on materials while maximizing the effectiveness of pat-terns and
forms to achieve their desired functions.
 Redefine and Eliminate “Waste”:
By mimicking how nature transitions materials and nutrients within a habitat,
various units and systems can be designed to optimally use resources and
eliminate unnecessary redundancies

Biomimicry is that mentor to a design that has created a model that has a measurable
impact in the current context

 Model:

Biomimicry is a new science that studies Nature’s models and then emulates
these forms, processes, systems, and strategies to solve human problems
sustainably.

 Mentor:
Biomimicry is a new way of viewing and valuing nature. It introduces an era
based not on what we can extract from the natural world, but what we can learn
from it.
 Measure:
Biomimicry uses an ecological standard to judge the sustainability of our
innovations. After 3.8 billion years of evolution, Nature has learned what works
and what lasts.

10.b.iii. Ecomimicry :its contribution to the new bios beyond formal logic

Understand the formal logic; the textural quality of the varied flora species was one of
the initial steps in understanding how ecology has inscribed intelligence into its
individual components.

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  Mangrove associates defy the root shoot and sea land divide and this is
described in the mechanisms stated below:
 The flora is comprised largely of Pneumatophores plants that have knees to draw
oxygen from roots accommodating high level of salinity
 Since the Mithi Marsh is a Landscape of salination there is a plant gradient with
each designed to tackle the depth and salinity gradient.

Eco Mimetic design is that sphere of design fast gaining prominence as it is the ‘real not
virtual presence of survival of the fittest’.

The textural quality of the lotus, the structural strength of the blue mussels thread like
tentacles, the territorialisation of ant nests as a flood damage control system, the drip
trips in leaves, the humidity sensors in the exoskeleton insect as an aesthetic element
and the aerial roots of plants as a means of optimization of climatic constraints to ones
benefit are simple observations in nature that can pave ways for architecture that
‘Echoes the voice of the Ecos’.

Flora and Fauna species survive in an ecosystem on the basis of adaptation and the
Darwinian Principle of Natural Selection or as the British polymath philosopher Herbert
Spencer coined the term ‘Survival of the Fittest’. Form geometry and the structural core
of the flora and fauna define the existence of the built on the site.

Beyond its formal emulation, the textural quality of flora and fauna can drive the
treatment of the building skin so as to adapt most effectively to this dual scenario.
Factors such as humidity that would be of great concern in such a microclimate can be
effectively integrated in the system if one was to learn from the lessons of nature.

Eco Mimetic principles are the first step towards E-Coding the architecture to create a
ecopolitan landscape.

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Environmental equilibrium

Ecoding the architecture is just the first step to establishing a relation with the
environment. For this symbiotic system to sustain it is important for us to adopt the 3R
theory as a way of life and as they say we live the way we build, thin architecture
namely Reduce, reuse and recycle. These three are the main principles for achieving
environmental equilibrium.

A certain way of life can only be programmed by the inputs provided by the settlement
pattern and hence it is integral to the system to accommodate for the Pedestrian
pockets as a new strategy for suburban growth. The industrial era and its impacts have
engulfed ecosystems leading either to their endagengerment or their chocking it’s time
we open up and let the ecosystem and the buildings breathe, as each our a node of life.
Patrick Geddes promoted this theory of human ecology and ecocity

The understanding of Cowan and Van Der Ryan’s principles as stated below are key to a
logical and pragmatic approach to the scenario

1. Solutions grow from place

2. Ecological accounting informs design

3. Design with nature

4. Make nature visible

5. Everyone is a participant designer

Once as architects we accept the above and accept flexibility and permeability of these
varied factors as our inputs we enrich the process.

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Bioregionalism

Architecture and urban planning is the expression of an era, this is the era of Ecological
awakening. Hence the concept of bioregionalism a strategic term in the field of biology
is slowly flowing into the architecture and urban approach. The core of Bioregionalism,
Life territory a place defined by its life forms and topography and biota rather than
human dictates, a region governed by nature not legislature (Sale 1985). This bio-
regionalist tendency is observed in regionalist architecture. Regionalist architecture
extends presence of building beyond the sculptural envelope to the territory.

Bioregionalism – addressing the role of culture in shaping a place with due recognition
to the primacy of nature.

10.b.iv. Adaptation, the driving force for survival

On the basis of our understanding of the bios and the varied species that are part of this
rich dual natured context adaptation becomes that force that drives every characteristic
of the species and hence its survival.

Adaptation and survival can thus be considered synonymous; speciation as observed in

nature is driven by geographical isolation and creation of Ecological niches.

Marshlands are the second largest ecosystem prevalent on earth after the rainforests.
The rainforests, its species and its bio mimetic possibilities have been explored in great
depth by the Biomimicry guild but the marshlands are left unexplored.

Various adaptive strategies as observed such as the creation of a thin oxygen film
around the body of the fauna or the environmental engineering of by which beavers
build dams and store food in tunnels or chambers beneath the surface of mud or how
the air filled flotation structures in plants avoid the presence of scaffolding or how the
Breathing roots to tap atmospheric oxygen or the Moss cushion storing the water and
using hydraulic techniques to sustain its the system, or Halophytic membranes on plants

46
are keen notes that help drive key decisions in the structural adaptation on site as its
dual nature makes the wetland a complex setting.

The adaptive strategy of any species and hence its architectural embodiment can be
studied on the basis of three vital concerns

1.Structural

Structural adaptations are physical features of an organism (shape, body covering,

defensive or offensive armament). The structural adaptations are in response to two of
the three parameters in a marshland the chemistry and hydrology of wetland and are
guided by the third parameter the flora and fauna of the marsh.

Structural emulation has been adopted for both the streamline form of the labs and
water collection pods so as to have minimum wear and tear even on contact with the
water.

The structural anchoring of the individual algae pods is similar to the flora of the marsh
with a more flexible tubular system that does not crack when water pressure is exerted
instead it adjusts and restores its position. The flexible system is employed for the
vertical migration of the individual components also.

2.Behavioral

Behavioral adaptations are composed of inherited behavior chains and/or the ability to
learn: behaviors may be inherited in detail (instincts).thus architecture is no longer a
non living entity but is instinctive.

The behavior of a marsh and its temporal succession has become a planning strategy for
phase wise growth of the landscape.

3.Physiological

The skin system of the components learns from the plants and is designed with two
layers to avoid both excess moisture and saline seepage.

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Buoyancy is integral as some of the components float in the marsh and maintain their
relation in the whole landscape as they are interlocked. In marsh multiple plants are
interlocked at root level, this grouping is used as a means to promote flexibility with
stability in the system.

Beyond these adaptive strategies even behavioral strategies of the flora and fauna such
as Migration and dispersal are underlying layers of the urban proposal. As these make
the development fit in this brings me to the context of a fitting city.

Fitting City; locally and globally, is an emergent pattern one that Lewis Mumford aptly
described as an organic development with discernible boundaries.

10.b.v.MIGRATING FORMATIONS

Sketch by author

A marsh is dynamic meeting of ground of the horizontal extension of land and vertical
variation of water, thus making horizontal extension and vertical variation driving forces
of the design process

Transfiguration: Migrating formations

The wetland is an oxymoron in its very origin.

The principle of transfiguration here applies not to a form based transpositioning but
that of the embedded intelligence of natural systems.

In the case of a wetland as an intertidal transitional zone the boundary is in a constant

state of flux and hence the ecosystem itself can be termed as a migrating formation. The
mobile component of wetlands is the water that results in the migrating boundaries of
the wetlands.

Since the urban setup is closely tied to the site, the movement of the site is amplified
through its architecture. This migration in biological terms is an outcome of a process

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called ‘Succession’ that is dependent on plant and animal presence that alters rate of
water flow and hence varied formations of solid and liquid pockets.

Succession; wetland changes with time is a process observed in both Rheotrophic

(flowing water) and rain fed (ombrotrophic) wetlands.

10.b.vi. Elasticity

Adaptability refers to a potential of a space to accommodate different uses without

significant modifications. Flexibility refers to a space that accommodates different use
by being easily changed.

This relation between adaptability and flexibility is interesting as it creates a scenario

similar to that of elastic. Thus elasticity of architecture another paradox as architecture
for eons has been considered to be synonymous with static and stable is another driving
theme for the design approach.

This is achieved by allowing user appropriation of space hence creating endless

possibilities of the functional aspect. The component and its multi layered skin, along
with varying configurations of grouping also offers flexibility of use from an arcade ( like
linear space) to an amphitheater like congregation space.

10.b.vii. Nested systems

The complexity that is observed in a wetland is based on the principle of nested systems
and layering. The various adaptation types namely structural behavioral and
physiological hence cannot work in isolation and for the success of the system have to
be nested into each other.

The structure the skin , the form the function cannot be addressed as independent
entities as in nature no form is created without a function, every vein in the leaf every
hue on its surface is either part of a process or an outcome of these processes.

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10.b.viii.Visibility to the Invisible

Nature is woven with a deep tapestry of rhythms, some heard some unheard, some
visible some are not. To achieve an ecologically stable urban settlement is first
important to understand the constitution of the system that the architecture is
becoming a part of. The aim is thus to capture the aspatial and atemporal aspects and
not just the aesthetics in nature.

This visibility will assist in emulating natural systems in the building systems “the
mechanicals”

The fauna of the marshlands may not always be as appealing as species of other
ecosystems on account of its constant contact in water and migrational nature. Thus a
swamp or a marshland can be considered as Subnature; addressing these denigrated
forms of nature is as critical as the scenic and pleasing. Wetlands are the anxious
landscapes of earth.

Hence, it is critical today to explore the hidden technological sophistication of

unrecognized beauty of underappreciated forms of nature and recode the synthetic
environment with this sub natural experiential intelligence. The algae incubators in the
thesis have been attributed an architectural scale in the thesis, so that one can bring to
forefront the often invisible richness of a marshland.

By amplifying the invisible we create an urban environment that is organic and is a non
uniform development, part of a pattern; appearing to grow out of landscape – an
Emergent Pattern.

10.b.ix.Smooth and striated spaces

An Urban slippage is a heterogeneous composition of smooth and striated space

The Smooth is like a slide a seamless space and the Striated a structured space.
Evolution is the phase of ‘Between being and becoming’ like the relation of these two

50
spaces. Their interaction is that of folding in as folding is a luminal condition associated
with becoming (Deleuze and Guattari 1987)

10.b.x. Similar not same

Sketch by author

My approach to the individual units is modular but as my very context this is also a
paradox where though they are modular they reflect the genetic coding of being ‘Similar
but not same’. Each unit would have the same logic but individual realization.

This would generate evocative patterns where the aesthetics is beyond visual pleasure it
is information about the site and the logic that exists in ecology.

Architecture and design should provide right message and Biophylia is a condition
determined by evolution embedded in our genetic makeup an illustration of our
existence.

10.b.xi. A transformative system in a transitional zone

Being an intertidal transition zone the boundary of the marsh-land is undefined and the
relation between land and water is in a constant state of flux. Hence the intervention
both at the scale of the master plan and the individual unit morphs with respect to the
site condition.

Since the marshland itself is a transitional ecosystem and its inhabitants migratory, the
modules themselves would have the adaptability to transform to a certain degree with
respect to existing site conditions, water levels and climatic influences.

Thus at times certain sections of the module would gradually shift from a built to unbuilt
condition from a path to a space condition.

From being on to being in a module

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The marshscape would hence be a kinematic modular life system, one that grows and
changes with time.

10.b.xii. Dissolution and Crystallization as an underlying strategy

It is analogous to the salt in the salt pans that could be an integral part of the larger
system that the architecture would undergo a process of dissolving and crystallization.

Like salt at certain junctions or instances the module would dissolve and fuse to
integrate as a landscape condition and re-crystallize at a time or at another location to a
built form

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11.From the drawing board to the site

Architectural aspirations

In the current context with overgrowing cities the interdependence of architecture

planning and urban design can be achieved through the landscape pattern, not a mere
aesthetic intervention but a perceptive translation of the terrain and ecosystem.

Water flow is the lifeline of the city and containing these flows and compartmentalizing
architecture and the ecosystem has caused loss of several great opportunities for
development. Architecture’s existence in isolation with disregard to the environmental
science is the cause of the wrath of the ecosystem and through this thesis exploration I
wish to address the issue not solve ecological issues.

11. a.Interpretation of CaLL

Architecture is Dancing to the music of the Biosphere – ‘we are but whirlpools in a river
of ever flowing water. We are not stuff that abides, but patterns that perpetuate
themselves – Weiner 19

This hybrid Marshscape is developed on the three ideas from Mary Miss’s Call that of:

 Experiment city: where new ideas can be investigated and tested ( the system,
and integrated labs, testing fields)

 Experiential city -the new topography, the experience of a part floating part
flexible landscape

 Evolving city: where issues of our time can be expressed

The incremental growth and migrating formations are testimony to its being in
constant state of evolution

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11.b.design drivers:

Understanding the functions to develop the new marsh formation

It’s a cliché that form follows function, but it’s also the rule that is time tested.

Though a large part of the site gets user appropriated there are certain functions that
are attributed to the components that form the initial branches that grow from the city
infrastructure and merge into the marsh.

This new hybrid condition that is being integrated into the urban ecology is made up of
two basic functional layers

 Water cleansing

The marsh is a living machine

o The Mithi Marsh in its current condition is not the most pleasant space as
it has been treated more as a nalla( drain – that’s how most Mumbaikars
see it) than a rich ecosystem. The marsh has been transformed to a
dumping ground in certain pockets and hence it would be necessary to
cleanse the marsh to make it a pleasant outdoor space.
o The storm surge though of great relevance it is vital for the marsh to
improve its water quality. Improving the water quality is a critical quality
of a marshland one that should be revived to cleanse these arteries of the
city.
o The marsh is not just a home to various species of fauna and flora, but
this neglected ecosystem is an extremely intelligent cooperative network
that is today recognized as an effective water cleansing system, the
‘LIVING MACHINE’.
o ( post these opening paragraphs I will be explaining the Living Machine
and its integration in my design with sections and diagrams of how a
living machine works– still working on that)

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  A living lab: an educational experiment

o The components act as labs fostering exploration of the flora species,

their contribution to various fields beyond energy generation.

o Aggregating these components makes a hybrid lab field; a nested system

that of a synthetic lab field in a real ecological field where both are
mutually benefitting.

11.b.Catalysts

The design is a landscape formation that is driven by the site and it’s like the city
unraveling in the marshlands.

The catalysts for this marshscape are the

 International Finance and Business district: the commercial catalyst

 Dhirubhai Ambani school: the educational catalyst
o This system hence aptly emerges from the school on the site as its an
extension of the educational experience where one is part of the
educational experiment.
o This process awakens the masses to function of the marsh as an
amenity.
 Rewa Fort: the cultural and historical catalyst

Rewa fort was a battery that monitored the web of flows and is an important
part of Bombays growth as a city

Reviving the fort as a vantage point in this urban development would be ideal.

This fort hence becomes a catalyst one of the nodes that triggers this self
assembling formation in the marsh. This creates a unique park an expression
that ties the new financial district and the old fort .the old and the new; a bridge
by function and definition.

55
The marshscape is an Ecos of the echoes but also resonates the energy that these
catalysts have in these varied spheres and blends them into a single flowing space a
platform for interaction a new kind of public space promoting community interaction,
innovative thinking and social empowerment.

11.c.Components

The new system creates a net topography made up of individual performative cells that
individually answer marsh related queries and as a system facilitate in attenuating the
velocity of the water that would damage this new International Finance and business
district that is developed on the reclaimed land hugging the marshes.

The marshscape like the living machine is a component driven design which can hence
grow as components are added. New mass and voids are created by the addition and
subtraction over time, this phenomenon is on the lines of temporal succession that is
inherent in the working of a wetland.

The marshscape is comprised of three components that are derivatives of the three
principles of Mary Miss’s Living Lab.

 The algae cell

The individual cells that form this new topography are made up of algae cells,
architectural scale algae incubators that maximize the potential of the existing
fauna of the marshland the algae and produce bio-fuel. This energy would be
ideal as it would power this new marsh machine that would be a plug-in to the
existing urban fabric.

The pods are self assembly interlocking components. That can be added to the
system as and when the use and finance permits.

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 Feeding the algae: The algae incubator needs carbon dioxide to stimulate the
production of the fuel. This carbon dioxide can be provided though exhaust pipes
of industries in the vicinity

The bioreactors that house the algae are orientated towards optimizing the
coverage of the sun.

As the system grows certain branches of this marshscape act like an algae
bioreactor, this is more an experimental setup exploring algae as an alternative
source rather than an energy production wing of the city.

The landscape that brings the local species of algae to the forefront as an energy
grove then extends into a recreational continuum that is in a constant state of
flux like the marsh. Today the marsh seems as a void in the structure of the city
this landscape that grows naturally is a measure of filling the void with a
language that is derived from the two contrasting coexisting systems the city and
the natural environment.

 The lab
 The water collector

The function of this hybrid landscape is to act as water collector and filter, the
primary function of a marshland. The individual cells hence dual up as energy
generators and as filter feeders the multi-shell unit has various functional
benefits as an absorptive skin, water chamber, as a storage unit, as a
desalination cell. This multilayered component beyond filtering the water feeds
the individual cell with algae for energy production.

Extinction and speciation the principles that maintain the balance in nature can
be translated into the principles for the formation by addition and reduction of
the components based on site conditions and user appropriation

11.d. On the Edge

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We in our creative endeavors have destroyed the soft edge of the city and through this
new landscape I wish to reconfigure the edge of the existing district as I am providing
this new landscape hence I intend to intervene into the existing land with algae streets
and water streets reconnecting the urban development and the marsh and returning
the peripheral assigned open space to the marsh hence softening the edge. This softer
saw toothed vegetated edge would add to the absorptive capacity of the marsh. The
intervention is a soft infrastructure that connects the two edges of the marsh and blurs
the hard edge between land and water

Its primary intention being to bring people to the marsh so that they realize that its the
Urban flooding that caused the massive destruction in 2005 as we have ignored a very
important aspect of the city.

A peripheral strip of reclaimed land hugging the marsh has been demarcated as an open
/ green space. The same never gets utilized as it has not been activated, this installation
in the marsh beyond arousing curiosity provides a reason an activity for the people to
come to these zones as the marsh and this unutilized stretch makes the area primarily
unsafe as post office hours this International Finance and Business district becomes a
dead space.

It is hence ideal to return the demarcated synthetic open space back to the marsh and
activate the underutilized public land on the waterfront not with a program but with its
original language that of the marsh. The marsh as fingers penetrate into the urban
agglomerate, these insertions would create a new edge one that translates the language
of the marsh and not inscribes concrete definitions.

This insertive + reductive measure grafts a new ecology of marsh fingers into the
urban

11. e. The Prototype and its process

Architectural construction is the sensitive aspect of the project as a large amount of

energy is consumed in the same and simultaneously the aim of the thesis is not too

58
engulf the mass with a concrete creature but to weave a system into the existing mesh
of the marsh.

An enormous quantity of mechanical energy is stored in the materials used to make

buildings and the same is consumed for lifting it and placing it on site especially if a
prototype needs to be placed in the dual natured marsh.

11.f.i.Material and construction

The site demanded that each component be erected with few tools, minimizing
potential transportation and construction complications. Additionally, the mould or the
skin brought to site is an inflatable system; part of which can just be inflated and used as
the component others inflated as the mould and then filled in with poured concrete for
greater live load bearing capacity. The others could be carbon fiber structures.

11.g. A performative urban and architectural morphology

The intervention crosses the realm of static architecture and is dynamic not only as a
structural and construction system. The additive system reconfigures its form and
function both as per tidal variations and temporal succession.

The intervention is not a mono-mode lab ; one that not only explores the marsh as an
ecosystem but also is an energy field, a material lab, a space definition system as with
each user and time the use of a space gets redefined.

The Oppositional nature of the existing natural and constructed infrastructure made the
project not just in a transitional condition but transitional and transformative itself. It
became necessary to translate the vertical tidal movement in a marsh into vertical
migration of the living landscape.

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11.h.The economics of the thesis

In a city like Mumbai originally an archipelago this thin strip of marsh and this
intervention may be an expression at a SMALL SCALE but one that can bring a BIG
CHANGE.

The location of the site in the heart of Mumbai along the western express highway and
the new International and Finance Business district give sit the visibility that a project
with the intention of educating the masses and social empowerment requires.

Unfortunately today Geography is blurred by relations of economy; hence it is necessary

that such a venture have a strong backing. The Dhirubhai Ambani International School
and their trust are interested in promoting education and this educational tool would be
an extension of their school a new educational experience.

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12. Win - Win Ecology

12.a. Addressal

95 % of earth has been refashioned for our needs and specifications

We are converting the environment inch by inch into a cement block; the change is too
radical to foster life for other species. Man is the cause to extinction of species by
swallowing their habitat. Let’s not paint ourselves a rosy picture, let’s wake up to the
reality.

For acceptance is the first step to redemption; the tragedy of our generation is the
nightmare for the future generation

A big concrete cube is replacing the spherical earth. We have bartered our soft edged
environment for mass construction on account of it being progressive.

Economic welfare has put to sacrifice the natural world.

Why is progress measured in means of technology and economy?

Why do we miss the E of Environment and Ecology; A natural paradise is what the world
should be in 2050 not a glass and concrete jungle

The city is the world’s second largest populated city and India’s most populated city and
this inexorable pressure the population is putting on the city has lead to the cracks in
the city’s core character; its marshlands.

By encroaching the marshlands in the wake of building our habitats we are engulfing the
habitat of varied flora and fauna. We are exerting our tyranny over space, and as Calvin
Coolidge (previous president of USA) said “progress depends on the encouragement of
variety”, it’s essential for us to encourage the integration of the two worlds.

It’s time to put things in perspective and not be slaves to unbridled materialism

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Man, should no longer be that blind invader one who is pervading into his own valley of
death

Ominous constraints challenge the architect further, we should bequeath not only our
memories to our children; what we seem to be leaving them is a world devoid of soul.

12.b.Reconcilation

Reconciliation ecology is incremental; it’s not a master plan, its smaller initiatives that
string the movement not a universal paradigm

Reconciliation Ecology is an immediate effect measure whereas restoration is not

feasible in most circumstances. In the densely populated core urban areas restoration is
dream reconciliation is a vision that sees the light of the day and with its immediate
impact prevents any further ecological destruction. Reconciliation ecology is a great
environmental educator. The species re-sensitize us to nature’s delights and addict us to
her bounty

Ecotourism emphasizes the existing landscape and is an archaic expression of ecology

where as this new user appropriated marshscape is a collaborative cooperative coded
intelligent system.

There is a famous Chinese saying “the careful foot can walk anywhere”, this defines why
I chose not to isolate the marsh but tread on it carefully and develop formations along
its least turbulent paths to interlace it back into the city pattern.

It is the time to ‘Think global & act local’

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13. Conclusion

Of all living creatures man is the most dangerous to everything else that lives as well as
to himself- Joseph wood Krutch

The truth is more than the facts – Dale Dauter

Through this thesis I wished to have unveiled the stark reality of urban decay the
incompleteness, the lack of character and context. Also bringing to the forefront the
warped criterion of defining ecology needs to be questioned and letting a citizen, a user
explores this by being a part of the ecosystem as a sensory and spatial experience seems
appropriate.

The aim of the thesis is to generate an architectural gesture that is beyond a safety valve
for the existing system of natural and human exploitation.

A “model city” is a piece of fiction; the global scenario can be tackled only after resolving
local issues and which requires addressal and appreciation to foster reconciliation and
resilience.

I conclude with an overview the macro scenario of the future ecotopian cities to
highlighting the interventions input towards creating a more ecologically sensitive social
impact one that weds the social and natural history both aesthetically and scientifically.

Creative destruction is what we have caused, eco coded interventions are what will now
emerge.

The Larger Picture

The earth is a patchwork of environments and each of the great global ecosystems has
its own story to tell. Wetlands are not as spectacular as mountains or the rainforests but
have a captivating appeal. On account of their subnatural existence Human beings have
eroded as they have reclaimed lands for urban settlements.

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The ecosystems are thus moving from exhaustion to extinction, and we are on a race to
rescue these environments by reviving the industrial cities with the really rich
environment of creeks and marshes. Mumbai metamorphosed from an archipelago to a
concrete strip on account of industrialization and population pressure. The marshlands
of Mumbai demand the sensitivity of being considered an ecological heritage and not a
mere industrial real estate.

The world is in this state of CRISIS as we have and are ignoring ecology both in the social
and physical dimension. Externally imposed control is the worst enemy of an
ecologically based redesign of culture and hence architectural intervention should be
one that interweaves the two worlds. In a marsh the manifesto of the urban
manifestation should be that of ‘Hands across the water’.

Wetland; a valuable Subnature

This is the phase of creation of a mediated environment one that reconciles and
intervenes to maximize the potential offered even by the deficiencies of the system

The flora of a wetland and its ambivalent nature is a metaphor of repositioning

architecture symbolic of the socionatural tension. A marsh is a confrontational force in a
manicured composition of the varied ecosystems.

The Vanishing wetland situation is an alarming one as the Wetlands the kidneys of the
catchment that act like giant sponges. Wetlands as a flood control device and hence
draining wetlands for our ‘concrete dreams’ is like punching holes in a flood storage
tank.

Wetlands are dynamic systems that have three critical aspects that we need to analyze
and understand the chemistry, the hydrology and its species by doing the same we will
be alter our outlook to a wetland from that of a barrier to a highway in our aim of urban
growth.

RESERVE BECAUSE THEY DESERVE, a movement against Mans Marsh Massacre

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Clearing hurdles, building bridges both physical and mental

The forces of Interaction

Ian Mcharg (1971): Let us accept the proposition that nature is a process that it is
interacting, that it responds to laws, representing values and opportunities for human
use with certain limitations an even prohibitions to certain of these. Architecture is both
a means and an outcome of interaction. Thus the interaction between architecture and
nature is a great exploration.

Studies show that the interaction of architecture and an ecosystem can be along the
following lines of force.

• Appropriation: The interaction should be that of creating armatures of the

ecosystem and not implants
• Tension

Creation of a Heterotropia

o Heterotopias the experience of a porous urban space

o Heterotopias places where differences meet
o Michael Foucault well defined this relation that of “counter
arrangements: Resistance

Kenneth Frampton emphasized on this architecture of resistance, where two tightly

coupled interactive forces have resistance to certain gestures that hamper the existence
of either.

• Discovery: The discovery of space should be a lyrical exploration

Ecotopia a decisive future

Ecology can be the model for the future utopia, penning the finest guidelines those that
are time tested. True development is growth not sequential.

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Architecture is redefined and is now envisioned as a solution to a society riddled by
environmental and technological questions and not just be a mere decorative
appendage of a diseased society.

The aim is not to be just a part of the fad or fashion called the ecological awakening but
to realize that the true awakening is when we realize ecological design is not only about
being “ green”

Ecology is being pitted against ecological sensitivity; it is being used as an advertising

gimmick a draw for the people but not as a means to educate.

In conclusion I again stress on my goal that: The built and the Bios shall co exist
harmoniously;

I want to spin the wheel back to the evolution of cooperation of these two species.

Architecture will not be an impervious intervention but would itself penetrate into the
eco urbanism a realization today to have a future tomorrow

Ecomimicry is not based on symbolism or physical presence but is governed by the

inherent principles of eco logic. These formal inceptions are just the starting point of the
architecture arriving out of purpose. It is the time to renew the ecological fabric with a
sensitive system that is embedded with behavioral logic of the flora, fauna, geology,
hydrology and wind.

Ian L. McHarg pioneered the parametric logic in his multilayered processes in which
environments were mapped and redefined according to environmental rules these
parameters hence laid the foundation for the approach. An approach that is the
Physiographic determination of the land ethic; the narrative of the ecosystem governs
the programmatic conclusion.

The aim is that of not assuming uncertainties but making room for possibilities

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In certain moments the landscape is a growing evolving formation and in others it’s like
a surgical incision into the concrete slab softening in the edge by re-appropriating the
marsh in the unoccupied parcels. The thesis doesn’t seek to destroy all the urban
expansion to restore the marsh but does intend to avoid any further loss of this reserve.

The strategy is that of making architecture instrumental in policy change; Policy for both
energy and environmental issues.

The scarcity of this integral resource of a marsh is what’s soaking the city and only if this
obscure strip is given a stage would we be able to prevent the DROWNING of MUMBAI.

To garner attention at times it’s necessary to jazz up the scenario this has been done
with the formal translation but this is not an aesthetic decision only but one governed
by scientific concerns and requirements.

To be effective, you must be committed, to be committed you must believe, to believe

you must be aware, for awareness you need a medium; and this hybrid marshscape is
that very vehicle of change.

This vehicle interrogates not just the siting of architecture in an ecological context, but
also the investigation of art and science and their poetic relation that can be mutually
beneficial.

Like Lewis Mumford the American historian, philosopher of technology and science said

” Only the dreamers will turn out to be practical”

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Bibliography

Robert Sullivan, The Meadowlands- Wilderness Adventures at the edge of the city, An
anchor Book published by Doubleday New York, July 1999

 Niering William A, Wetlands, A Chanticleer Press Ed., New York 1985

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68
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http://marshlands.unep.or.jp/ UNEP and UNESCO start a new initiative
 Wikipedia
 http://algae.ucsd.edu/algae-farm.shtml
 http://www.humdingerwind.com/

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