Wetness in Section
This section tracks a tectonic response to wetness within a contemporary design proposal for Ahmedabad. Pulling from a conception of the water devised in The Invention of Rivers by Dilip da Cunha and a localised consideration of wetness intensities this document will synthesise these as a design tool for the Narratology of Ahmedabad.
Da Cunha challenges the conception of the line separating land and water in plan. The tidy demarcation of this boundary is in contrast to the ubiquitous reality of wetness. The Sabarmati Riverfront Development is this line that separates land from water. As part of this project an aim is to reconnect the city and river through discontinuations in the line.
When illustrated in section wetness regains a new capacity in which precipitation becomes its key manifestation. This shift from bodies of water creates a different dynamic within the four stages of wetness in operation through the Sabarmati Riverfront Development. This sectional understanding of the cycle should be how wetness is conceived within the wetness of Ahmedabad.
Intensities and Interface
Typically, Ahmedabad is dry and dusty throughout the year. In a short period, however, sometime between June and September, the monsoon season brings the majority of the annual precipitation. The resulting average annual rainfall is 753 mm.
Balkrishna Doshi’s design for his own architectural practice is an architecture that captured the moment of interface between architecture and wetness. Upon contact with the building, the wetness traverses the surfaces and is channelled throughout territory creating a lushness which would be lost with conventional drainage.
Posture of Collection
One of the main reasons cited for the construction of the Sabarmati Riverfront Development was to protect against flooding, however, the lower promenade is still susceptible as seen in 2017. With particularly high rainfall and the Vasna barrage gates being opened the water level reached a controlled 2.43m.
The work from Narrativity of The Salt March in semester one developed in relation to wetness as the study of posture in the process of collection was developed into tectonic language. As the project continues this conception of harvesting, wetness should be continued along the developing territories.
A tectonics of wetness should:
- Acknowledge the ubiquity of wetness [breaks in demacating lines of plan]
- Complement the cycle of wetness [sectional response to four stages of wetness]
- Acclimatise for intensity of wetness [753mm per year]
- Derive architecture from interfaces of wetness [flows of contact with surfaces]
- Adapt to rising levels of wetness [2430mm above promenade height]
- Collect wetness [architectural posture]
- Complement the cycle of wetness [sectional response to four stages of wetness]
- Acclimatise for intensity of wetness [753mm per year]
- Derive architecture from interfaces of wetness [flows of contact with surfaces]
- Adapt to rising levels of wetness [2430mm above promenade height]
- Collect wetness [architectural posture]