Projects | Studio | Awards
2 | Spring 2023 | A Death in the Forest
  • Student ADKE ADWAIT MAKARAND SANGEETA
  • Code PLA23013
  • Faculty Architecture
  • Tutor/s Nikhil Dhar,Prasanna Mattikop,Rushika Khanna,Priyal Shah

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The project attempts to explore landscape in its various stages of development, presenting the dynamic process of change, rather than displaying patterns of behavior at its peak. Cycles of fading, wilting and dying are integral to the understanding of landscape as are budding, growing and flowering. This cyclic phenomena of erasure points towards an interest of wanting to observe the forms of decay in the forest. It will predominantly visualize ends and subsequent beginnings, perspectives of time, cycle of death and life that gives a temporal measure to our landscape. 
The project is largely phased in Introduction, Establishing Decay, Speculating Typological Decay where the project attempts to observe, record and represent forms of decay in selected typologies while locating Phulwari ki Nal in the context as a premise for observation. From the perspective of ecology, death is a positive event; it is the process that allows for the sustainment and renewal of life because death is necessary for the recycling of nutrients and material, and death is necessary for an organism to obtain food. Death allows for the flourishing, renewal, and continuation of all life. According to ecology, the earth is an open system itself, like all other ecosystems, and will also come to a complete end, so although death serves a good purpose it also has the last word.

Drawing the Landscape | Exploration of the medium of charcoal as a non-linear drawing method to understand the diversity and differences that can observed and represented through various landscapes around Ahmedabad. This process of slow observation and interpretation is a combination of tangible and intangible experiences that complemented our understanding of how to look at elements, forms, relationships and associations.
Drawing the Landscape | Section showing floral interplay at a wetland near Thol, Ahmedabad (Charcoal on paper)
Recording the Landscape | Documenting Phulwari ki Nal is a journey of discovery and learning, where every observation becomes an event of understanding. The process of recording the forest’s complements an understanding of the cycles of growth, the resilience of nature, and the delicate balance sustaining this living ecosystem. Each note taken and photograph snapped becomes a stepping stone in the process of understanding and speculating ways of seeing the landscape more extensively.
Correlating Systems | The process of developing the section through the Riverine forest provides a cumulative understanding of the systemic relationships that provide the framework for documentation. It felt important to study the Riverine forest because water is many things in Phulwari ki Nal. Water also is a predominant directive, a navigational device that hints at the flow of water from east to west, also establishing the orientation of the region. But water is also the giver of life to the richness that dwells as a matrix of associations, from seen to unseen.
Larger Visions, One Forest | A Death in the Forest
Locating Phulwari ki Nal : Identifying Premise | The inquiry starts from the name ‘Phulwari ki Nal’ and its possiblility of being an ecological description of the floral associations and a geological formation that facilitates inward movement of water i.e. “nal”. While the name Phulwari ki Nal suggests its meaning as Gorge of Flowers, it addresses the peak nature of flowering, but the forest always denies it’s permanence and exhibits a cyclic phenomena that is defined by decay and emergence of new life.
Establishing Decay : Recording Forms of Decay | Case of Tropical Dry Deciduous Open Forest (Mahua Grove)
Establishing Decay : Recording Forms of Decay | Case of Tropical Dry Deciduous Open Forest (Mahua Grove) | The Mahua grove, located in the southern region of Phulwari, with a mild slope, rich soil is a landscape that presents a premise with its participants that are largely of biotic nature.
Establishing Decay : Recording Forms of Decay | Case of Riverine Forest
Establishing Decay : Recording Forms of Decay | Case of Riverine Forest | Located along the river of Wakal that bisects the region of Phulwari ki Nal, is a landscape that presents a premise for decay with its participants that are largely of abiotic nature.