Intervening in a Forest

Image Credits: Akash Bhoir

Intervening in a Forest

Undergraduate Thesis | Site: Aarey Forest

Mentors: Anuj Daga & Komal Gopwani

My dissertation research titled “Living in a Forest” documented the building typology of various communities in the forest of Aarey to understand methods in which eco-sensitive edges can be intervened architecturally. The research indicated that the people as well as the governing body looks at the forest as an insular, disconnected entity and not really an integrated part of the city. I started getting invested in the way in which the city and the forest interact with each other and the relationship that it shares with its surroundings? How do we interact with the forest as citizens? As citizens living in this bustling megapolis of Mumbai, do we even take cognizance of this forest at all?

Today, the forest is a small (compared to the huge developed landmass) neglected part of this city. The fact that the forest is on the verge of being erased alarmingly points us to the lack of environmental awareness amongst citizens. This research, therefore left me with a lot of questions as to what are the different ways in which one can try and revive the forest and

Intervening in a Forest_Adivasi's Protes

Image Credits: Prakash Bhoir

Adivasi's protesting

Image Credits: Akash Bhoir

open it up for public interactions? Can newer interventions become a part of the forest without disassociating the people from its use? How can architecture meaningfully work itself out within an ecologically sensitive space? The idea here was also to look at how space in the forest may be reimagined in a way to reconnect the citizens back to the forest.

Trees slaughtered in the name of development

Image Credits: Akash Bhoir

The current scenario of the forest

Image Credits: Akash Bhoir

From top to bottom:
Diagrams showing how the settlements (Adivasi hamlets) in the forest, SRA housing in the forest, MHADA housing in the outer city and the slums in the buffer zone interact with the neighbouring forest.

The research also indicated that the people as well as the governing body look at the forest as a disconnected entity and not really an integrated part of the city. I realised this was also because currently there are no active spots around the forest that provide a platform for citizens to visit and explore the forest. Hence, for my thesis, I wanted to choose a site

Intervening in a Forest_Abandonned Parks

One of the many abandoned parks inside Aarey

Study of Trails

inside the forest that gave me an opportunity to reintroduce people back to the Aarey forest. The site selection process happened via the idea of trails. Aarey has a lot of active trails inside the forest which are used by commoners on a daily basis. These trails also overlap on various locations, one of them being the dilapidated Aarey dispensary.

From left to right:
1. The road that leads you to the dispensary is completely hidden from the main road. 2. The tree buffer boundary that is created by trees. This also gives you a glimpse of the dispensary. 3. Surprisingly the dispensary here has a gate but no compound walls but instead the trees around the dispensary act as a buffer zone. 4. The only entrance to the dispensary with its concrete roof. 5. The dispensary looks quite detached from the forest around but incorporates a courtyard space that sits right in the centre of the site. 6. Although the dispensary on paper has a built-up area of 1700sq.m, the area actually in use today is 450 sq.m, the reason being, the dilapidated condition of the site wherein a lot of rooms have broken slabs and walls which have now been taken over by green fungi over the course of time.

Design Aim / Idea:
The aim of this project was to rethink an intervention wherein the built form merged seamlessly into the forest creating an impression of the forest overpowering the built space. The project also makes an effort to create no damage to the existing natural flora and fauna but instead enhances the value of the forest.

Design Strategy:
To achieve the aim, the design follows 5 main strategies amongst others in which the building interacts with nature:

1. Programatically, wherein a part of the program is a part of the Forest. i.e. the Nursery and the walks built around the site.

2. Forest as an organising strategy. The design achieves this by controlling degrees of publicness and introducing greening strategies using plants, trees, creepers, etc.

3. Encounters with nature through the built
environment. The design achieves this by introducing various intermixes on site. Eg. Nursery+ Cafe, Nursery + Library, Market + Public Amphitheatre, etc.

4. The play around sensory organs. The design achieves this by creating various levels wherein you can either touch the tree (fruits), sit beneath the shade of a tree, frame the green which is visually pleasing, enter the green wherein the green engulfs you, etc.

5. The idea of a free-floating pavilion which doesn’t obstruct or overpower nature but allows it to freely enter the built space. The design achieves this by using strategies of meandering, framing and suspense.

The existing site plan with the Dispensary (in dotted) and its central courtyard space with the forest on three sides and the Aarey main road on the fourth. The site also has an internal road (left) which leads you to the Adivasi hamlet on the backside.