Narrative Flows

Recap: April: Mid-Term Critique

2009-06-04T19:52:00.008-04:00

I'd like to remind you all that by April 14th, a scant two weeks had passed since we got back from India. And it was during those two weeks that we had come up with our conceptual designs. So the images that you see here are not reflecting a lack of progress; what you're seeing here are the initial stages to our design project.

That being said, as you are aware from the last critique, a mere seven days earlier, we were working in pairs or small groups. For the Mid-Term crit, we would present in large groups of three to four people. I suspect Nick and Lili required this so that we could produce more in less time. Or perhaps to see "what would happen." :) The commentary during this crit would focus on our "structural logic," and by that it is meant knowing where to put everything.The first group consisted of Maren, Daisuke, Lizzy, Jong, Ji Hyun and Morgan. This merged living showers, walls and constructed wetlands. Topics of conversation among the critics included "Modules don't work" (Lili), and "looks like you're doing an edge strategy" (some guy).
Stephen, Filomena, Mike and Christian merged ghats and water catchment by "weaving into existing [urban] fabric." Commentary included, "Try to be elastic," (Lili), and "projects are heavily driven by environmental [factors?] and not social" (unknown). A reference to the Ebenezer Howard Garden City diagram was mentioned as well.

Atisha, Bo Young, Hao-Hsin and Sally had a "woven fabric typology" and critics commented that they had a "design [that] developers would love."The next group, Shannon, Melissa, Erin and Josh, presented their warp, weft and weave concept with earthern berms. Yes, that's what I wrote down. I also wrote "pedestrian movement and water retainment."
Finally, the last group, of which I belonged, along with Devon, Colleen and Kelly, outlined our structural logic revolving around a system of water inlets leading from the Adi Ganga canal into Kalighat. The inlets would be constructed wetlands and our buildings would be multi-layered as the diagram above suggests, while perserving as much as possible the existing fabric. I don't have a photo of our lovely group but I hope that adding the following commentary will help imagine our project: recommendations --> "change countour for low/high tide - let it flood", "inlets -- create edges along inlets", "how does the retreat work? diagram", etc. A reference to Fatehpur Sikri was brought up (in terms of water movement across the site).

We would have a pin-up the Thursday of that week in which we were encouraged to test our ideas, come up with a environmental and social diagram, and draw lots of thumbnail sketches of how we imagine our structural logic. Our next significant critique would be on April 23rd with Ann Tate, the pre-final mockup on May 14th and the final critique on May 21st.

Recap: April: Caffeinated Soap and What We Do

2009-06-04T18:14:00.007-04:00

Back on April 7th we had our "Living Unit" critique. Highlights included Erin and Melissa's caffeinated soap model, to which they replied, "It was raining, so we couldn't use resin." The emphasis on this crit seemed to be mostly on water filtration. Lili mentioned the city of Fez in Morocco that is designed to flush out periodically (though its method is impromptu). Other highlights were Morgan and Daisuke's "Living Shower", "monsoons-on-demand" (Kelly & I), living units as stormwater management (Stephen & Filomena), ghats as dwelling (Mike & Christian), manipulative walls (Devon & Colleen), Ji Hyun & Jong's water filtration as a grid, "distinguishing the generational transformation" (Bo Young & Atisha), community and individualism as a network (Shannon & Josh), Lizzy and Maren with their "wall as living unit", and Hao-Hsin's and Sally's idea of wall manipulation for experiential micro-climates.

What We Do

What We Do premiered at RISD on a torrential, rainy April 11th. As you might remember, it was a student-run initiative to show the RISD community and public what exactly we do in our various departments and disciplines. I suspect that the event was a response to either the real or perceived isolation that happens at the school. :)

Maren and Melissa volunteered to give a powerpoint presentation on our trip to India. There was an initial hardware problem, but eventually the WhatWeDo people got the projector working. One of the things presented was the "questions for the studio" probably better known to all of us as "The Mutiny" which happened during our trip. I never blogged about it because I failed to understand why people were upset. Now I can finally understand the hullabaloo from the following slide:

If you can't read it, it says:

Why Kalighat?
Why the red light district?
What is its significance if we are complety re-designing the area?
How do we know and design for the needs of the people of Kolkata?
Should this be designed by Indians?
What can we do with the canal?
Have you seen the canal?
Really?
Are we housing the people we're displacing with the project?
How do you design a site-specific, hypothetical model to be applied elsewhere?
How do we treat site-specificity in this case?
How do we maintain all of the religious needs of the site--processing sacrificed goats, running bodies to the crematorium, etc--while making it a comfortable place for tourists?
Do we design for those necessities?
What do we do with trash?
Do we design a new sewer/sewage system for the area?
How do we deal with our own emotional and physical discomfort while analyzing the site?

The next post will cover our Mid-Term critique on April 14th. Stay tuned!

The End*

2009-05-31T18:05:00.008-04:00

* Not quite. :)

We had our Final Presentation on May 21st. I intend to give every studio presentation its own entry and I'm waiting to get some items from Lili. So stay tuned :)

In the next post I'll be updating everything that transpired from April 6th to May 20th. Yay!!! Finally!!! After I post the 13 planned entries for the 21st, I'll also be doing do some postings for the final for Design for Development and I might continue to post periodically about our upcoming Kolkata presentation package, due end of June 2009.

So what is this mysterious Kolkata presentation? It's simply (heh, not that simple) putting together everybody's studio concepts in a, what I'll call a "digestible for community understanding" package to be sent to the Kolkata Municipal Corporation. That means creating or creating more contextual diagrams that would make our concepts easier to understand. I guess you'll understand what that means once I post everybody's projects :)

Thanks for patiently waiting!!

The Return to Providence

2009-04-06T00:57:00.004-04:00

We arrived back in the US after a long and arduous flying journey. Many of us subsequently fell ill, or were ill and continued to be so for several days. We did not have studio on Tuesday for this very reason. Thursday's studio was a fragmented return to the life at RISD. I say so because Thursday, April 2nd, was also our department's open house for this year's incoming class and with the events all day, studio got off to a slow start. Many of us were still dreadfully tired and sick but we mustered to the best of our ability to begin our return studio assignment:

A UNIT OF MEASURE.

This short design problem is an opportunity to identify the essential and driving components of a “living unit” as a way to (1) assess the carrying capacity of the land, (2) organize the spatial functions of the given program and (3) consider the practicability of built typologies at a comprehensive level prior to responding to the larger planning strategies.

We have learned through our mapping that it is almost impossible to study a dataset without referencing several others that are intrinsically linked. You might also say that the same is true in devising a system of operations for a site and its program.

For example, one might imagine quickly the articulation of the ground would immediately confront the question of surface drainage, its requisite contour and its material composition. The same might be said through the means of crafting a roofline which would systematically deal with the mitigation of rain, sunlight and ventilation etc.

Finding a way to control and regulate what might otherwise be a problem into a resource can formulate a unit of measure or a design imperative for an otherwise complex and deeply encrusted site.

Choose one or several compatible unit/system relationships that you might anticipate for the project. Consider the relationship between a localized condition (unit) vs. a shared/communal one (infrastructure). For example, does the "living unit" mitigate the climatic conditions of the site throughout the use of blinds/screens or is it done through the infrastructure of the project (Central A/C?) Does each individual unit collect potable water for its occupant load or is it supplied centrally through a cistern with filtration?

Can this lead to a tangible strategy for developing the site and furthermore how is that relationship manifest in architectural form? What material and labor might be required for such a unit and how are its users related in its daily or seasonal function? (I.e. Does the user simply flip an electronic switch or does it require a physical act to make it function?) The "living unit" can shape the directives of the urban systems through its exigencies just as the limits of a system will, to a great part, determine the underlying constraints of the unit.

For this assignment we ask that you do not to simply plan out a strategy but attempt to build it. Workings in pairs consider the unit first as a diagram and then quickly attempt to build a concept model to scale. The “site” is an imaginary edge on the right bank of the Adi Ganga canal. As you build the model of the unit, simultaneously attempt to draw the section thought it while developing the narrative of compatible unit/system relationships.

Schedule
April 2nd Working Desk crits in pairs.
April 6th Group Review of models and diagrams
April 9th Proposals for site strategies with a unit of measure.

I'll leave you with Nate's exhaustive collection of photographs he took in Kolkata with his D-SLR. I think he wins the award of the most articulate collection for the six days he documented (he later got sick so he wasn't in a position to continue). I've linked directly to each of the six sets he has posted on Flickr, representing the six days he shot:

JFK, Dubai, Kolkata - Day 1 (36 hours)

Kolkata - Day 2

Kolkata - Day 3

Kolkata - Day 4

Kolkata - Day 5

Kolkata - Day 6

I'd highly recommend clicking on the slideshow link. Ah, and sit back with your milk and cookies, there's a lot of 'em!

Day Nine - শ্তভযাত্রা (śtabho jātrā) - Bon Voyage

2009-04-06T00:00:00.010-04:00

Our last day in Kolkata, India. We had to board the bus to the airport at 5pm but that meant we were free for the rest of the day. I went with Lili, Mike, and Atisha to see Howrah in the morning. Howrah is on the west bank of the Hooghly River and is very often left out when any discussions arise on the topic of Kolkata. It is frequently omitted from maps as well. This neglect is physically evident when you're there in person.The stench on this side of the city is overwhelmingly worse than in any other place in Kolkata. We purposely went out to see the bustees but I don't think we found them. What we did find were narrow streets, tall buildings, and a densely packed atmosphere. Raw sewage flowed openly in the channels on the edges of the streets. There was little regard for hygiene. Black flies were everywhere.
The photographs I chose to post here do not illustrate the things I describe. I was not feeling up to the task of documenting such things, but the others did so.
I spent the afternoon with Mike and Atisha at a mall. Atisha noted that we saw a highly one-sided perspective of India and she wanted to show us another side. I was surprised to see Baskin Robbins there. Mike and I had pizza from Pizza Hut Express. I think we felt quite saturated eating Bengali/Indian cuisine continuously for nine days. Perhaps it would be fitting to end this trip with an image taken on our way to the airport...

In the interest of present-day time synchronization, Day Nine was Saturday, March 28th.

Day Eight - American Center

2009-04-05T21:32:00.014-04:00

Our presentation at the American Center (a part of the US Consulate) was at 10:30 but we had to get there an hour earlier for security checks. I took a taxi with Erin and we ended up going to the US Consulate and not the American Center. It wasn't until we got through a few security checkpoints that they realized, and we realized, that we were at the wrong complex. The American Center, although linked to the US Consulate, is in a building a few blocks away. Keep that in mind in case your taxi driver sends you to the wrong place :)

The presentation to the Consulate Staff and others was much like the presentation to the CBE -- essentially the same content but we had more time to talk in depth of our Atlas.

Lili began the presentation and Nick and Jonathan added their own words as well. I've transcribed both of their speeches; starting with Jonathan:

Good morning.

I am Jonathan Highfield, associate professor of post-colonial literatures and head of the Department of English at Rhode Island School of Design. I have published essays and literature from Australia, Botswana, Nigeria, Northern Ireland, Scotland, South Africa, and Zimbabwe, among others. My work looks at the legacies of colonialism and the ways in which artists and writers working after the official colonial era attempt to repossess the culture and its physical manifestations for the people.

In the seminar attached to Narrative Flows I set up my readings designed to provide the class with the cultural, historical, and social background of Bengal so they had a context within which to design their project. We began with Bengali folktales, a history of the East India Trading Company and Kolkata, and readings on the cultural history of the city. We moved from there to read essays, letters, and short stories of Tagore and Mallaran's novel A River Called Titash. We anchored these readings in fiction with Homi Bhabha's work on hybridity, Gayatri Spivak's discussion of the Subattern, and Arundhati Roy's Power Politics.

There are three students solely in the seminar traveling with us: Danielle Cox, Jordan Seaberry, and Jessica Wu. There are also two students in both the seminar and one at the two associated studio courses: Sally Harman and Winston Mi. Each has brought a unique perspective to the seminar and their enthusiasm and opinions have driven the course and made my time teaching in Kolkata stimulating and enjoyable.
While in Kolkata, the seminar students have worked on mapping the area socially, not only looking at Kalighat but trying to understand human interaction across the entire city. By talking to people across a range of professions and experiences, they have tried, in the best tradition of the Liberal Arts, to keep the human at the heart of their inquiry.

Ten days is not enough to even begin to understand a series of communities as complex, as overlapping and competing, as changing as Kolkata. By talking to people about their work and aspirations and responding in kind, we hope that we have begun a dialogue with the people of the city, whose lives, successes, and struggles are not as hypothetical as this design project.

After the presentations we laid out the Atlas and had a lively discussion with everyone there. Here are Nick's words describing the Atlas:

I would like to speak briefly about what we are calling “The Atlas” and its pedagogical objectives in our framework for the studio course.

Firstly, the “Atlas”, which is basically a series of experimental maps, is the medium we have chosen to communicate our understandings and perception of our site and its various scales (global, national, regional, urban and neighborhood scales).

Although maps sometimes appear authoritative and purely objective; commonly they are biased and didactic. With this understanding we have approached this exercise with the precept that all maps must ask questions; that no single map can contain all the data sets for a given situation.

No single authorship can comprehend the complexity and superimpositions in a given territory. We feel therefore the “atlas” as a consolidation of the group's findings might facilitate the broadest possible spectrum of data.
Historically speaking, the map is a transcription of what is known or understood and attempts to summarize, quantify, and qualify a territory or condition – not through the use of verbal description or mathematics but through the language of code figures and pictures. So what might otherwise be a complex and advanced topic to discuss with any brevity. The map attempts to display its measurable relationships in an abbreviated yet concise fashion.

Not surprisingly, the cartographer or map maker was one of the most prized artisans in Renaissance Europe for their ability to take the experiences of explorers and translate their stories into meaningful and useful templates for others. So they might determine the topography; resources and cultures of unknown lands and permit new explorers to navigate through them with care.

I also would like to note that these maps are not empirical, or derived through experience but were developed at a great distance from Calcutta utilizing information we have collected from the internet, primary source materials, photographs, journals, as well as the stories and opinions of those who have traveled here before.

Furthermore, and most importantly perhaps is that all maps tell stories. Hopefully our database of narrations in graphic form may prove helpful or imperative in the service for our project in Kalighat of its critical objectives.

We are only in the primary phases of our analysis and now that the students have had the opportunity to test their assumptions in situ, our mapping process begins anew.
I really have no idea why I was a focus of these photographs. Must be my glowing personality :) I think it was just my sharp tunic purchase from West Side. :D These photographs were graciously supplied by Mr. Moulik D. Berkana, Deputy Director to the American Center.

We had the afternoon free again. Some went shopping I heard. I went back to Kalighat for a final time with Hao-Hsin to sketch out some sections in the perpendicular alleys to the Adi Ganga Canal.
The built typologies were more tightly integrated here than elsewhere. There were some curious structures/remnants of structures that we found. We also mapped out some shrines that found themselves at the apparent-end of an alley. I say apparent-end because the alley wove around like snake; one was not immediately aware of its continuation. We both felt more comfortable with this visit as previous visits we felt like intruders. This may have been because of a different time of day or perhaps either us or them were more comfortable with our presence.I leave Day Eight with this photograph of an Kalighat artisan drying his wares...

In the interest of present-day time synchronization, Day Eight was Friday, March 27th.

Day Seven - The Hooghly River, Jute, and Bricks

2009-03-28T06:42:00.016-04:00

The boat in the foreground was our river tour boat. We were doing this tour in conjunction with Calcutta Walks, the tour group we walked Dalhousie Square earlier in the week. The weather was pleasant as it was much cooler on the river.

We had breakfast (the fruitcake was amazing!) and lunch on the boat.Our first destination was the Jute Mill. Jute is a sustainable fiber that has a lot of potential for our site. There was a rhythmic "tum-ta-tum-ta-tum-ta-tum" here on the top of the roof, standing on a viewing platform.
Inside, the sound turned anxious with floating specks of jute fiber and machine cacophony.

Alas, I cannot provide you the feeling of being there -- the thudding and clacking of machinery, but perhaps this video can give you an idea...

The fragrance throughout the entire (interior) complex was one of fabric dipped in mineral spirits. No... that's not quite right.

We anticipated seeing a crafts village... but, the village which belonged to the Jute Mill was the crafts village and it was simply uninspiring. Our boat guide made a quick call and we steamed over to the community of Akra to see a brickyard.
A fisherman's boat above. Lest you forget that you're in a democratically-elected Communist state...

The brickyard... each of those bricks are cast by hand...The oven. We're standing around it.
When we got back to Kolkata, most of us spent the afternoon shopping :D

In the interest of present-day time synchronization, Day Seven was Thursday, March 26th.

Day Six - Zoo, Jadavpur, and CBE

2009-03-27T23:55:00.016-04:00

We had the morning free but were told that we had to be at the Fine Arts Academy by 4:30pm for the Centre for the Built Environment (CBE) group presentation. I believe there were at least three groups -- one went off to Jadavpur University to see their program, one went off for shopping, and the third went off to the Zoo. Guess where I went? :)

The top image is the Nilgai, and just above is the Sarus Crane. Both native to south/south-east Asia. We couldn't go to the Sundarbans so we got to see the Bengal Tiger in it's "emulated" habitat...

And the star attraction is.... hippos! Please note that I'm only an advocate of hippos being in zoos for the sake of the gene pool, research and education (for those who cannot go to Africa and the hippos in their native habitat).
Mama hippo and baby hippo! The baby hippo is on the right, in what looks like a protrusion from the water edge.And of course, we're in India -- so no trip to the zoo would be complete without seeing the Indian elephant! Here's a photo shoot of Mike's shenanigans... :)

Jadavpur University, Architecture Department

The other group went to Jadavpur University's Architecture Department to see what they do there. I was told by Josh and Matt that walking into that place was like walking into an abandoned building -- all the desks were empty and had a thick film of dust on them. There were only two architecture students around and even they had very little to show. The image below I assume to be from one of their architecture studios:

International Seminar: Water and City

The seminar on Water and City was meant to be a significantly larger program. I believe there were plans to co host a conference on water at RISD and Brown but things fell through except for having a landscape/architecture studio/seminar course and this seminar in which the Centre for the Built Environment (CBE) presented some of its scholars and their research.

The presenters for CBE were:

Dr. Barendra Purkait, Director, Publication Division, Geological Survey of India, Kolkata. He discussed "Deltaic Alluvial Plain of West Bengal - Some Environmental Issues"
Dr. S.P. Sinha Ray, CBE Water Studies, with "Ground Water of Kolkata Metropolitan Area"
Parthan R. Das -- which I didn't notate the title quickly enough, but he had a graphically rich presentation on built river edges. I personally thought that some of his ideas were very questionable from a landscape architect perspective, especially in terms of the reactions of a built edge to flooding, but I was definately impressed with the quality of his work. It was a pity that he did not have more time to discuss his slides, since he showed at least a 100 slides!
Architect Sobhanlal Bonnerjee, CBE, with "Canals and Waterways in and around Kolkata Metropolitan District"
Dr. Shivashish Bose, Dept. of Architecture, Jadavpur University, Kolkata, with "Urban Flooding, Case Study: Kolkata"

Then we Jonathon and Nick present, followed by a representative selection from our class to show the atlas we had been working on since the start of the semester. I should add that Lili (Elizabeth Dean Hermann) gave the first talk as way of introduction. We ended the seminar with an explanation of Design for Development.

New Light

2009-03-27T09:56:00.011-04:00

Dearest Readers: many apologies for the lapse in posts. I had caught the "oh-dear-Kolkata's-air-is-so-polluted" sickness that is so pervasively rampant in city. The addition of sporadically working wireless delayed the posts as well.

As was previously mentioned in the Design for Development post, one of the projects is the Interwoven Storytelling project, led by Joann, Coleen, Atisha, and Devon. The project is attempting to provide a sustainable model for perserving the local cultural traditions of textiles, generating income for those communities and for education of these traditions.

There are four phases to the project, the first was completed in Providence and the second phase was tested in Kalighat over two nights. The first night (day four) had the kids of New Light [these are children of the red light workers] use the printing blocks created in Providence on paper.

The group then unveiled the tapestry created in Providence from those printing blocks, but created by RISD students before we left for Kolkata.Colleen and Devon, from the Interwoven group. Maren, Shannon, Matt, Mike, and others were the very patient volunteers. The kids were crazy!
Yours truly giving out crayons above. Some of the kids and their creations below.

Day Five - Urban Transect

2009-03-24T22:04:00.006-04:00

I got fried today doing the urban transect. We were split off into groups of two to draw a transect (a really long section/section elevation) through our site. I was with Stephen and we started from the beginning of Kalighat Road, went down past the entrance to the "Sporting Club" and hooked a right into a lane that led past a shrine and into the Adi Ganga Canal.
It was hot and unpleasantly sunny. This older man came up to me and asked why I was drawing and I told him: to understand the scale of the neighborhood. Stephen interjected that we were architecture students but the man said it was illegal and that people might suspect us as being terrorists. From America. ... He went away and we were only bothered by the dozens of people looking over our shoulders -- most of them just stared, others looked and pointed at the buildings and others tried selling us something, which is usual. I think we both didn't want to stay there any longer than we needed to. Most of the day we spent on the transect, after which we went to New Light at 2pm. There was supposed to be an artist there to show a local painting style, but he/she never showed up (we later learn this). We didn't stay long but we met up with Atisha, Mike and Filomena.
Atisha witnessed the boat bridge in high tide. Apparently the boat bridge disappears when the tide is high; Atisha told us (and showed us a diagram) that the boats do a 180 to get across to the other side of the canal -- it sounds pretty efficient. I've posted the boat bridge as it is at low tide above. Atisha and Mike did a transect near the Burning Ghats and from what I've heard, Mike had quite an experience of a female priest singing to the both of them for well wishes (and then of course, asking for rupees).

Note: The two days of New Light (yesterday and today) will be described in its own post. I still need to collect photos from Mike and Coleen as I was only there today, and ended up being rather busy and unable to take my own photographs.

Day Four - If you drive like hell, you will reach there soon

2009-03-23T22:16:00.013-04:00

But it still took us an hour to reach the north side of the city. We were visiting the temple complexes of Dakshinishwar and Belur Math. Photography was adamantly prohibited so you'll just have to get an idea from the Wikipedia links. Daksinishwar was built with a clay brick structure covered with plaster and then painted. Belur Math was built from stone.

We took taxis for much of the day. The photo above was our driver to and from the temple complexes. After Melissa greeted him with the standard Sikh greeting he got all happy and started teaching her all these phrases. He was a funny guy.

The Ambassador taxis that we were in had, of course, no air conditioning. The windows had to be open for air circulation. The problem with this was that all the trucks and buses in the city had their exhaust pipes close to the pavement. We were inudated with rolling black clouds of exhaust. It was rather severe and uncomfortable.
In the afternoon, we visited the Horticultural Society of India (w/ Mahua Ghosh, landscape architect and member of CBE; Anupama Mitra and Subhojit Lahiri, Agri Horticultural Society) on Alipore Road. Founded in 1820, it is the second oldest horticultural society in the world -- the first being the Royal Horticultural Society of London founded in 1816. We were told about how they had a water conference for landscape archiects last year and realized that water is a priceless resource -- that bird baths on roof gardens are extravagant. Some of the other things discussed were deforestation (losing medicinal plants) and educating clients on solutions to these problems.

After this meeting we had a tour of the gardens. The 'Mad Tree' was notable for the distinction that not one of its leaves are alike.
At about 5pm we split off into three groups -- one went to New Light, Nate and Jessica stayed to see more of the garden, and one went to walk the Adi Ganga Canal in Kalighat.
The New Light building.
The Canal is tidal, here it is seen flowing north. The stench from the garbage was repulsive. I would not say nauseating but it was still unpleasant. Sulfur, methane? and decomposing stuff were the principal scents.

The sluice gates seemed to function for storm water and drainage but presently have the function of taking everything including the "baby and the bath water" with it out into the canal.
This was curious -- the lines on the buildings and street seemed to designate a function. A game perhaps?

Day Three - Digestive Flows

2009-03-22T14:26:00.020-04:00

This early morning found ourselves in the East Kolkata Wetlands, a constructed wetlands of an immense size to filter some of the polluted water of the urban area. It also provides sustainability to the fishermen in the area -- while the water is cleaned, fish are raised which provide substantial income.

There was a pleasant breeze this morning. The air was substantially cleaner than in urban Kolkata.A water filter, probably for prevention of siltation.

A bamboo bridge crossing one of the channels. It's quite bouncy.An elevated view of the wetlands.

After seeing the wetlands, we were herded off to see the fishermen's market, which as with other markets in Kolkata, was a chaotic carcophony of yelling, haggling, basket carrying, cart pulling and truck driving.

We then drove over to see the argicultural production area and what I believe we are seeing here are garbage trucks. We didn't get out of the bus on this one.
Our next destination was the Nature Park which was a constructed water filtration project that later became a nature park. I don't think the sheep here are a common feature. Shepherds with their flocks can be seen throughout the city.A view of the park and filtered water holding tank.

Crossing a filtration retaining wall.
We had the afternoon off. I went with Matt to find the metal artisans on Kansari Lane but, alas, although through some difficulty we found them, they were not open because it was a Sunday. So we made our way down to Kalighat by walking through Alipore. This is taken from the Alipore side of the Adi Ganga Canal looking at a river ghat north of the Judges Court Road bridge.
Another shot from Alipore. What is interesting of note in the photograph is the sluice gate which was streaming out water, but, from the construction, could support a mass volume import of water into the canal.The view south from the Judges Court Road bridge onto the Adi Ganga Canal. Not quite discernable in the photograph, but just at the vanishing point of the river is the boat bridge of Kalighat, which is adjacent/inclusive of our site.

A peculiar garden next to the Burning Ghats (the cremation shrine) whose principal function seems to be remaining prim and proper without any human interaction. I could imagine the "do not step on grass" signs here.
The cremation pyres. Matt and Jessica (we are in a much larger group now with 15 of us) decide to stay behind and we later learn that the cremation that they were preparing for was for a well revered Bhuddist monk.A detail of the entry columns to the Burning Ghats.

Day Two - In the Footsteps of the Raj

2009-03-21T13:04:00.018-04:00

Early this morning we had a walking tour of Dalhousie Square and the buildings from the British Colonial period from Calcutta Walks. We were split into two groups, the group I was with had Ifte as our guide, seen in the maroon shirt.
This is the Writers Building, the one famous building that you cannot photograph... from up close. They might arrest you. Luckily although Nate was taking a photo of a tree and not the building (though it looked like he was taking a photo of the building), nothing severe happened. Oh dear.
This was a Life Insurance building that had many local ornamental features after being copied from European plans. Including a representation of both life and death on the facade..
It is said that there are two things good for your stomach in Kolkata: one is yogurt, and the other is coconut milk.
After the walk, which also included seeing St John's Church, the Town Hall, the Governor's House (from outside the gate), we trekked over to the flower market near the Howrah Bridge. The railroad tracks were the only way to get there from where we were...
This a view of some of the architectural and street typologies that we've been mapping for the atlas. Almost at the flower market...
Here we are at a river ghat, and what everyone here is taking pictures of are the local kids posing for the camera.
The ghat with curious trees growing from the retaining wall. These trees growing on the sides of buildings are fairly common.
The flower market. Those marigolds on the left. It was this crowded throughout.
This was the harrowing craziness of the walk towards the idol makers in North Kolkata.
The idol makers statues for the river festivals.An alley in the idol maker neighborhood. After seeing this neighborhood, the time being about two pm, we all went back to the hotel for a free afternoon. I went with some other people to check out Kalighat, which we will not see as a larger group until probably? tomorrow afternoon. I took a taxi with Jonathon, Danielle and Bo Young which took some 20 minutes to get back to the hotel.

What Do We Do?

2009-03-20T16:04:00.003-04:00

While the group is off in Kokata, Christian and I, two studio members are on other missions. I will be staying in Providence and working on a piece of the project stateside - more on that later. In the meantime, I sent in a proposal to the What Do We Do? project that RISD is hosting - it's really a forum for RISD students, staff, faculty, and alum to share what they do to the community. To be able to share our project would not only provide a great opportunity to get the word out about our work but could perhaps create more exchange that could benefit the project.

I sent in the proposal a couple of days ago but thought I'd share it here so that others could get a sense of what we are doing...here goes...

We are inquisitors. We are learners. We are educators. We are makers of change. We are artists and designers. We are global citizens. We are RISD supporting sustainability and honoring individuals in our 21st Century world.

We are a team of 55 undergraduate, graduate students, and three professors from nearly every discipline at RISD and a few from Brown. We are working as an interrelated dynamic system of researchers, examiners, designers, and explorers through three courses and one trip to Kolkata (Calcutta), India.

The courses in the Kolkata constellation consist of three parts. Two of the courses are incorporated in Narrative Flows: Waters of Faith, Identity and Sustenance which take the form of a Landscape Architecture Urban Systems Studio and an English seminar. The third part of the constellation is collaboration with the Design for Development graduate seminar. The foci of the project are water’s role in the life and culture of Kolkata and sustainable urban livelihoods integrating cultural and ecological systems. The project, sponsored in part by the RISD Koybo Fund was spearheaded by Elizabeth Dean Hermann, professor in the Landscape Architecture department. Nick DePace, professor of Architecture and Jonathan Highfield, Head of the English department are co-teaching with Lili.

The primary group that would like to present for What Do We Do? is the studio class. The class’s work is focused on the Kalighat neighborhood in Kolkata, India which runs along a canal following the original course of the local branch of the Ganges.

The Plan: Design a new tourism retreat and community center along the canal which will be owned and operated by a neighborhood cooperative. The retreat will offer an opportunity for eco-tourists to visit the city and will provide a resting place for those on their way to the Sundarbans, Bhutan, and Nepal. It will also provide locals with the opportunity for self employment and will include a training institute focused on entrepreneurship, sustainable building, water management practices, and urban agriculture; a literacy program, local histories archive; and an incubator for new spin-off businesses. The project will be a model for sustainable urban living and whenever possible, the resources needed to run the retreat – food, energy, waste, and water will be produced, managed, and re-used on site.

Up to this point, the studio course has been asked to create an atlas that relates to our site in Kalighat. We have developed and created conceptual, analytical maps through conventional and non-conventional means of mapping. The maps for the atlas are divided into eleven categories that relate to the varying scales critical for out site. They refer to such topics as “Digestive” with its exploration of inputs and outputs, Diurnal Cycles, Land and Water Interface, the Phenomenological and more.

The atlas was created in such a way that it can be tested and reworked over the Spring Break when the studio course and a few extras from the other two courses (thirty in total) head to Kalighat. The atlas will be presented to the American Center on March 27th to representatives of various sectors in Kolkata as well as to the US Consul and the press, to whom we are hoping to offer a different perspective of their country, region, city, and neighborhood. We are also looking to receive more information and feedback that will help us respond to and benefit the community through design as well as serve as a catalyst for city-wide improvements.

We have a blog that is currently documenting our work. The link it: http://risdkolkata.blogspot.com/

Day One – Arrival and Adjusting

2009-03-20T15:08:00.006-04:00

It was first the musty old book fragrance that met us as soon as we left the plane. Then a pungent cigarette texture was added. When we left the airport, the oppressive heat and high humidity enveloped us like a tight fitting glove, only seeming to tighten its hold as the day progressed. We arrived at the Lytton Hotel before 10am and arranged to meet as a group once more at 1pm after room assignments were established. Atisha arrived sometime thereafter (she went to India a bit before us to visit her family in Jaipur) and I went with her to get a SIM card for my cell phone. What was until then a relatively simple affair turned into a complex merry-go-round of identification verification and activation for service. Atisha, ever so patient, explained later that the shop owner wanted to feel self-important as to having a foreigner on his doorstep and thus made the process a lot more complicated.

After meeting as a group with Papi, our guide for the day, we went on a walking tour towards the Park Street Cemetery (The East India Trading Company Mausoleums). Coupled with the heat and 30 hours of travel, what made the walk all the more tiring was the incessant honking of street traffic – everywhere from the tiniest scooter to taxi on the most unimportant side street to the major arteries of the city. In fact, the street traffic seemed to be a chaotic mess – there were discernible patterns and a vague sense of order – but even on the streets that had lights (and that's very few indeed) pedestrians and vehicles alike fought each other for right of way. There was this one crossing near a flyover (a raised “highway”) that had a recurring message on a loudspeaker asking people not to cross the street but after a minute of this and a helpless? Traffic police officer attempting to direct traffic, the message stopped for 5 seconds and then started up again. Frustrated, people ignored the message and tried crossing anyway.

Arriving at the Cemetery, we had half an hour to explore the site. The site wasn't significantly large by any means, but the structures built on top of it were. The majority of men who worked for the East India Trading Company died in their twenties, succumbing to malaria, typhoid and a host of other terrible diseases that would accompany workers in the tropics.
It was decided soon after this that because everyone was so tired, we would cut the day short. So we all went to this rooftop restaurant to drink beer and eat food. We then had the evening to ourselves, but, not before being told that we would need to meet at 6:20am in the hotel lobby to go on a walking tour that starts at 7am (i.e, the tour doesn't start until we get to the location at 7am). Sorry if I don't quite remember where that location is. I suppose you can look at the itinerary – since we didn't make it everywhere today anyway. I hope to have more provocative pictures soon; Jonathon has been generously taking photos especially for the blog. Everyone also has their own digital camera; some even brought their D-SLRs, so at the end of the trip we're going to have copious amounts of photos that hopefully will, for the lack of a better phrase, paint the picture of Kolkata very well.

Stars in the Ceiling

2009-03-19T14:19:00.004-04:00

Dubai Int'l Airport - We almost didn't make it off the ground. There was an electrical problem and they had to shut down the entire plane. No lights save for flashlights and because the JFK power unit failed, no AC either. After an hour and a half, problem fixed, we began our flight on the Airbus 380 – billed as the largest passenger plane in the world. And was it amazing. I felt like I was flying business class! I could finally cross my legs, we had our own personal movie screens with movies on demand (free), and there were 110V outlets built right into the seats!

Emirates, as an airline, treated us like hotel guests. We received an actual dinner and breakfast menu! They gave out stickers that you could put on the top of your seat to let them know to wake you for a meal, for example. We had dinner, snacks (twice sandwiches and fruits/snack bars once) thrice and breakfast. Not to mention the half-dozen? times they served us soft drinks. Yep, all free. Free headphones too (and not those annoying ones that go into your ears).

For dinner I had 'Lamb korma': 'tender pieces of lamb cooked in a fragrant and creamy sauce, served with steamed basmati rice and assorted vegetable korma'. It was excellent and did not taste dehydrated at all. They also had smoked salmon available and grilled chicken breast. Vegetarians had the option of the aforementioned sandwiches, though I noticed that vegetarians also received some of kind of salad. The desert was quite good as well: “Bluberry crumble”: 'served with vanilla sauce'.

For breakfast you had the option of either scrambled eggs or paneer bhaji (they pronounced it pah-NEAR bunGEE). I chose the latter. It's Indian fare, and it most closely resembles an American food that you'd find at brunch. The description was 'with filled paratha and aloo bhaji'. Don't know what that means but it was good.

Other things of note: the bathrooms were really nice – something you'd find on at least a 40' sailing vessel. They had wood trim! You could have literally spent the entire flight glued to your movie screen – it also had games, TV (The Simpsons, The Office) and radio. We flew over Iraq at 41,000 feet. Thought that was interesting. The Flight Information feature was unique – it was much like Google Earth showing where you are in 3D as well as whether you're flying in night or day. You also had live feeds to the front, bottom (no more jostling for window seats!) and tail cameras.

Oh, and when they turn the lights off at night, you can see stars in the ceiling... :)

Go East, Young People!

2009-03-17T08:32:00.007-04:00

It's come down to the last 24 hours before leaving for Kolkata. I thought it would be fitting to list our itinerary. The vast majority of the 29 people [this number includes three faculty -- Elizabeth Dean Hermann (Landscape Architecture), Nick DePace (Architecture), and Jonathon Highfield (English, Dept. Head)] are traveling by bus, while a few of us have made other travel arrangements to JFK. The flight leaves at 11pm and with a few hours layover in Dubai, we'll be arriving in Kolkata on the 20th.

This morning we'll be compiling our individual atlases into the atlas-- sorry, THE ATLAS. :) We have the afternoon off to pack.

Schedule updated Wednesday, March 18 @ 12pm:

Mar 20 (F)

Arrive at Lytton Hotel (Sudder Street) mid morning. Walking tour of Park Street, Park Street Cemetery, Nature Park, Shakespeare Sarani, Kansari Lane artisans, Kalighat (overview) with Maitreyi Brahmachari (ISUS)

Mar 21 (S)

Walking tour of Dalhousie Square area (former British city); flower market; Howrah Bridge; Kumartuli artisan area in North Kolkata (in front of the Great Eastern Hotel gate, 7:00am). Walk the Adi Ganga canal (as time allows)

Mar 22 (SU)

Departure 4:30 AM - tour of East Kolkata wetlands and Mudialy wetlands/Fishermen’s Cooperative with Supriyo Nandy (Centre for Built Environment/CBE) and Maitreyi Brahmachari (ISUS). Afternoon return to Kalighat (including Kali Temple, cremation ghats, individual neighborhoods). Walk the Adi Ganga canal (as time allows). Evening work session – document first impressions

Mar 23 (M)

Early morning taxi ride to Dakshinishwar Temple complex and Belur Math complex (North Kolkata). Afternoon visit to Horticultural Society (w/ Mahua Ghosh, landscape architect and member of CBE; Anupama Mitra and Subhojit Lahiri, Agri Horticultural Society), 1A Alipore Road, Kolkata. Late afternoon /evening program (mapping flows – part 1) for New Light NGO, Kalighat. Those not at New Light work on presentation for CBE and American Center/US Consulate

Mar 24 (T)

All-day transect charrette - Kalighat. (Lili meet with Anjan). Evening program (mapping flows - part 2) for New Light NGO, Kalighat. Those not at New Light work on presentation for CBE and American Center/US Consulate

Mar 25 (W)

Morning meeting with Anjan Mitra (The Appropriate Alternative), architect in charge of Kalighat redevelopment effort
4:30-7:30 Seminar: Water & City @ CBE (water resources, ground water, waste water recycling, canals, rainwater harvesting, drainage and flooding in Kolkata). Academy of Fine Arts, Cathedral Road, Kolkata (conference room open from 4.00 to 8.00 p.m.)

Chairman: Prof. Santosh Ghosh, Centre for Built Environment

Sobhanlal Bonnerjee, Secretary General, CBE

dinner with Centre for Built Environment/CBE members

Mar 26 (TH)

river tour of ghats, temples and industrial waterfront, foreign tradingposts and outlying village craft community (led by Calcutta Walks)

evening discussion in preparation for American Center presentation

Mar 27 (F)

10:30 presentation at American Center)

• Kolkata Municipal Corporation (Anindya Karforma)

• West Bengal Tourism Development Corporation (TVN Rao)

• Centre for the Built Environment

• US Consulate representatives

• Indian Institute of Management (Public Policy and Management

group; Entrepreneurship and Development group)

• Students from local Architecture and Business programs

(Jadavpur University etc)

• reporters from Times of India and the Telegraph

Mar 28 (S)

tour of Howrah bustees (informal settlements) with Sobhanlal Bonnerjee (CBE)?; tour jute mill

final site documentation through photography and sections

possible afternoon visit to the Weaver’s Studio exhibition

depart Kolkata 8:30 pm

Mar 29 (SU)

arrive JFK 7:45am

Design for Development (D4D)

2009-03-16T00:05:00.004-04:00

I've gotten my hands on the powerpoint presentations last Thursday from Design for Development. I'm going to be posting them in order of appearance. These are, as you might imagine, works in progress.

Canning Campus

This group is designing a campus for religious worship and eco-tourism, based in Port Canning, east of Kolkata, which is the launching point for the Sundarbans.

Red Light Rehab

The focus here is the rehabibilitation of the slums -- essentially adding a story on top of existing stories and removing the adjacent building so there's more light.

Kalighat Flows

This group has a substantial range of sub-projects -- rainwater harvesting, constructed wetlands, wastewater management, etc.

Kalighat Recycles

A presentation on the possibilites of sustainable recycling.

Interwoven Storytelling

Back on Friday night as part of RISD's Open Studios, we had the opportunity to make block prints of stories on cloth that will be presented to the kids of New Light in Kolkata. This presentation details the idea and process.

Local Building Materials

The last group presented on the sustainability and possibility of local building materials --straw bale, bamboo, adobe, etc.

Atlas Prep Review [Part 2 of 2]

2009-03-14T15:12:00.006-04:00

My notetaking in the afternoon suffered a bit :) but I think I still got relatively accurate picture of the rest of the atlas:

Diurnal Cycle [Sally + Josh]

Comments about the manipulation of representation. An idea of representation at science museum gift shops was brought up – How can we use the metaphor of a game to represent our maps and ideas?

Land/Water Interface: Ghats [Christian]

We had a discussion on the differences between male and female ghats and how they interface with the river (symbolically and physically). The city is very cosmopolitan but our site in Kalighat is very Hindi.

Land/Water Interface: Urban Warp [Boyoung]

Discussion on using the textiles to map the urban warp of the city; the differences between straight roads presumably used for transport to the winding roads presumably used for pedestrian movement.

Built Interface: The Public/Private [Hao-Hsin]

The diagram of the private/public relationship to ground, porosity of wall, shape of roof, etc., needs to be more fully developed. Perhaps cross referencing these qualities to urban patterns would help. We need density numbers. The idea of multiple levels: motivational facts of urban chronology and building typologies.

‘Spine’/Transect: Land use [Atisha]

Perhaps we need a combo map with water wells? The area of the land use map needs to be expanded to see adjacencies to our site. Look at grounding – of ownership, utility, etc.

Land/Water Interface: Inundation [Erin]

The flood map needs an improvement of legibility and the addition of temple relationships to flooding.

“Human Capital”/”Symbiosis” [Mike + Ji Hyun + Jong]

How do you represent services and educational statistics?

“Diurnal Rhythms”: Religion [Devon+Melissa]

Articulation of measuring device is needed for spheres of influence.

Land/Water Interface: Canal [Morgan]

There needs to be overlap with the slums and canal edge. Is Canal deeper on one side or the other?

Built Interface: Architectural Typologies [Daisuke+Hao-Hsin]

We had a discussion on the transformation of edge and implying elevation with an elevation marker.

Built Interface: Street Typologies [Jeremi]

Representational comments and suggestions as well as identifying the need for an articulated built edge.

“Digestive”: Resource Collection [Devon+Lizzy]

The mapping of markets, resource collection and distribution for organic product – fish and vegetables and how to map the amount of flow.

Phenomenological [Kelly]

How would a walk in Kalighat be replicable in Providence? Kelly is not going to India and is providing us with a mapping toolset for comparison. How would you map the fragrances of Kolkata?

Transect [Morgan+Josh]

Ah, the challenge of representation: the scaling of a ~300 mile transect from the Himylayas to the delta...

Atlas Prep Review [Part 1 of 2]

2009-03-14T14:52:00.007-04:00

We had a long day on Thursday. First, eight hours of review, then three hours (optional) to see the Design for Development (D4D) group presentations. Seeing as how the D4D class parallels the studio and seminar in terms of the work focusing on Kolkata, I figured it’d be a good idea – at this time – to briefly mention the projects. I’ll upload more info on D4D as I get it.

Besides making the atlas, we need to be thinking of questions to ask once we’re there. These are questions that will inform our understanding of Kolkata and environs and questions that will inform any design decisions later on (note: we start design a couple of weeks after we get back). The following summary of those eight hours are based on what I heard and wrote down. This atlas is a process, and, as such, the following does not represent a finalized… ‘anthology of questions’, if you will.

Human Movement: Eco-Tourism

Has Kolkata strategically taken advantage of eco-tourism?
How well are they prepared?
How can you tap into the global human movement network (note: this was in reference to India giving dual-citizenship to Indians living abroad because of the great amount of wealth that could start funneling into the country if Indians started to heavily travel back and forth to India)?

Mapping specific questions: What about a map of migration?

Pollution + Climate Patterns

What happens to wastewater and how is it handled?
What is the policy of land speculation for water (drilled wells, aquifers, etc)? What are the rules that govern water policy?

‘Spine’/Transect: Ecosystem [Stephen]

What are the preserves around Kolkata?
Are certain animals located where they are because of resources available to feed those animals, or are there discrete places that can accommodate those animals (e.g., a 5,000 acre preserve)?
What is the cultural patchwork to make this possible?
What are the migratory trajectories?
How does the ecosystem change over/across political boundaries?

Mapping specific comments: We need a base map that identifies between the developed areas and sanctuaries. Characterize the age of the delta. Figuring out the idiosyncrasies of representing between arid and water areas and density map of animals were the final comments.

Hydrology [Filomena+Erin]

There weren’t specific questions here as were comments about tagging the maps and images. How do you leave a map for someone who lives there? How can you translate monsoon, typically codified as a positive, into a negative? For example, monsoon as “danger” as glacier melt would be dangerous to Kolkata.

Mapping specific comments: We don’t have a deforestation map. Such a map would have an impact on hydrology. Also, we need a map on the anticipation of urban growth.

Mapping Kolkata

2009-03-11T15:24:00.004-04:00

Oh dear.

For the past few weeks we’ve been working on creating a modifiable and interchangeable atlas for Kolkata. It is probable that what we are mapping now will change once we visit site conditions so we need a platform to record that data.

We’re mapping everything from soils, land use and typologies, “digestive” processes, transects, “calendars”, “diurnal rhythms”, the phenomenological to the land and built interface, “human capital”/”symbiosis” and “human movement”. With these data sets we hope to paint an accurate picture of all interfaces, typologies and conditions that would influence and direct any designed intervention to our site.

As you might be able to see in the image above, we also need to think about how we are going to transport this and open, rearrange and present this once we get to Kolkata. After many discussions, an individual unit of 8.5x11 was chosen. Each of these units would house a map, or a part of a map depending on the scale. These maps are not just maps you might find in your standard atlas in a bookstore, they're diagrams, sections, transects, and, of course plans and maps. The collection of these 8.5x11 units would packaged together for transport and presentation.

We're going to have two presentations: one at the US Consulate with the Kolkata Muncipal Corporation, West Bengal Tourism Development Corp., Centre for the Built Environment (CBE), US Consul General, Indian Institute of Management, Students from local Architecture programs (Jadavpur University, etc) and reporters from Times of India and the Telegraph. In other words, it's a serious presentation to Kolkata. The other presentation is to the CBE.

In any case, we have to finish our mapping for tomorrow and then need to construct our atlas this weekend so that it's ready for Tuesday. We leave for Kolkata on Wednesday, March 18th.

Narrative Flows Studio + Seminar

2009-02-22T13:27:00.001-05:00

Throughout our rapidly urbanizing world, cities are of challenged by the future promise of too little, too degraded, or too much water for their continuously expanding populations. This course focuses on one of the world’s great megacities and the third largest city in India – Kolkata (Calcutta) – at the western edge of the Bengal Delta, and asks how we should honor, conserve and wisely use this vital natural resource when creating sustainable urban lifestyles for the 21st Century.

Coupled with the Narrative Flows seminar, and supported by the Design for Development graduate seminar, the course explores the role of water in the Bengal people’s sense of self as expressed in their rich literature/poetic traditions, their art and worship, and their architecture and land management traditions.

Within Kolkata the focus will be the Kalighat neighborhood lying adjacent to the Tolly’s Nullah (Adi Ganga), the canal following the original course of the local branch of the Ganges (Ganga). Known as one of the city’s poorer, but most industrious, neighborhoods, Kalighat, lying at the historic convergence of the city’s religious, hydrologic and social networks, offers a rich opportunity to propose a strategic and surgical realignment of urban and ecological infrastructures to support the well-being and future of the entire urban community.

The program for the studio is the design of a new tourism retreat and community center along the canal which will be own and operated by a neighborhood cooperative. The facility, while offering a rich urban ecocultural experience for travelers visiting the city, or passing through on their way to the Sundarbans, Bhutan or Nepal, will offer the local community opportunities for self employment, a training institute focused on entrepreneurship, business management skills, sustainable building practices and materials, water management practices, and urban agriculture; a literacy program and written local histories archive; and an incubator for new spin-off business in furniture production, textiles and ceramics using local or recycled materials. Moreover, the retreat and community center will offer models of sustainable urban living in that, where ever possible, the facility’s food, energy water and waste will be produced, managed, and re-used on site.