According to UN World Urbanization prospects, in the past 40 years, the global population has grown by 80% and in nearly 50 years the Urban population will reach about 70% of the global(world population prospects,2006). This Dramatic shift from the rural to urban areas can cause a great number of environmental and social problems that the world can face in the coming decades. One of them is the food crisis. Taking into account that cities currently contribute 70% of the world’s CO2 emission, rethinking the city for the better environmental performance is now in the priority in the global agenda. To attain an efficient urban environment, it is necessary to defy the existing rules of production and management of resources in the way they have worked until now.
By Integrating Productive landscape in the everyday life of the people I aim to design an ideal sector which is totally self-sufficient. My design premises include:
Food, Water, Energy, Waste, Bio-Diversity. In Ideal Sector each household has there owned productive landscape which includes compost pit, farms and solar panels whereas on the sector scale it has food towers which could cater to the overall need of food in the sector, also wetland which cleans black water of the households and urban forest which increases the biodiversity of the sector and also acts as the larger public space for the sector. These ideal sectors can be multiplied in the City to make the city more self-reliant.
In Gandhinagar, 65% of the land is public and only 35% Is private. So, the strategy for the Gandhinagar is to get back all the centre public spaces of the city and to give it a productive use such that city is not just dependent on the existing system but the city itself is interdependent. Each sector has its unique character which can be enhanced with the introduction of productive landscape within the sector and creating a dense network of this landscape all over the Gandhinagar.Now, why can’t we n imagine a sector to be completely interdependent within itself or a self-sufficient sector which deals all the waste, energy, food on its own. The graphic above shows numerically of how much space and what all systems needed to make a sector self-sufficient. In the proposed plan primary TP roads are been preserved and the plots are divided such that its walkable and can cater to the above-mentioned data. The wetland is strategically been placed on the lowermost contour and the swale around the block are been carved out with parking and recreational spaces.The above plan shows the integration of a different kind of function around each other and kind of spaces it creates within the sector.As derived from the analysis each household needs 400 sqm of productive landscape in which 200 be the private and another 200 be the public grow areas. This typology shows the integration of 200 sqm of productive landscape with the function. These typologies can be evolved by merging multiple plots and going vertical with the same number of productive spaceThere are 2 types of highrise structure within the sector. First, one is the food tower which is majorly used for the production of food to cater to the need of the people and another is the highrise residential tower which caters the residents with the productive landscape vertically.Recreational spaces are designed to be in a productive landscape to bring the importance of this landscape in the everyday lifestyle of the people. this space brings a new lifestyle in the sector. Activities like group dinner in public space, foraging tour etc.There are 2 types of wastewater treatment one is for greywater which is been treated by swale which runs along the street and the other is the wetland which is places within the urban forest. The wetland is strategically placed where the input of the black water has been the farthest from the walking track and the cleanest to the nearest.View from the first floor of the house standing in balcony.View from the high-rise residential tower standing on 11th floor
