Projects | Studio
UG - BUD - Studio - 7 | Spring 2021 | Eco-Lab
  • Student Raghav Kohli
  • Code UD2817
  • Faculty Planning
  • Tutor/s Rajiv Kadam,Piyas Chaudhuri
  • TA Vaishnavi Akilla

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The project is based in Rajgir, Nalanda. The design is derived using the natural flow patterns at the site, to define buildable regions. It focuses on the idea of 'inclusion' and attempts to address the question of inclusion: education through the 4 loops of ecology- water, food, waste, and energy, which become the basis of defining programs that generate new forms of learning at the city scale: an 'Ecological-Laboratory' for exchange of ideas, experiences, resources, and knowledge. 

The image shows a layer cake analysis done using GIS tools to understand the existing natural patterns at the site.
This shows the natural flow patterns. The site experiences flooding during 6 months of monsoon and subsequent drought. We utilize the flow pattern to identify a pattern of high lands and natural low-lying areas that become the bio-retention/wetland zones of the site.
This is a design exploration at the masterplan scale. The central part of the proposed plan becomes the food-zone of the site, along with the enhanced network of 'aahar-pyne'- (a traditional form of irrigation in the region), where I further explore the idea of a modular unit infused with the programs defined by the 4 loops to create closed-sustainable communities, eco-villages.
Design exploratory views
Here, I identify a portion of the site to re-imagine the built form, where I define the street pattern using the ridge lines, and create connections with the wetlands/ bio-retention zones. The built form predominantly follows courtyard typology, as in the existing scenario.
The built-open plan and the program division at the neighborhood scale
Here are the imagined flows of water, waste, food and energy at the neighborhood scale, brought down to a point of intersection of the neighborhoods, to a 'living machine'.
This catalogue explores the functions of education through loops of ecology, as urban inserts within the built form.
This is the living machine, that becomes the intersection of the 4 loops of ecology, to create public functions of learning at inter-neighborhood scale.
The overall view of the neighborhood scale, with imagined programs of learning, through ecology. changing the whole landscape of the city into a laboratory of exchange.