Designed Ecologies

The course looks at designing new ecologies for constantly developing cities to address highly stressed and conflicted areas which could be manipulated to bring new meanings to the current scenario. For a long period of time, we have existed with a sense of dualism between nature and the city. This phenomenon has led to crossroads upon which there are conflicts that begin to occur within our existential realm. These conflicts encompass a wide variety of attributes ranging from ecological disruption to social constructs being affected. Conflicted areas are often highly stressed pockets that require an in depth and empathetic approach that may begin to read the hidden text. It is the need of the hour to propose paradigms of designed ecologies to re-build, support and recollect gradually fragmenting land mosaics. These devised ecosystems take time to evolve and are often the outcome of multiple interactions that are dynamic in nature, operating over multiple scales across socio-economic and bio-physical processes. The resilience of a city - the degree to which change is acceptable before reorganization to create a new set of structures - is highly dependent on these interactions.