Recap: April: Mid-Term Critique

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.