Page 225 - HUDCO DESIGN AWARDS 2023-24

PROJECT NARRATIVE

The Landscape for this public institution and a platform for cross
cultural dialogue, open to the city is Located in a dense noisy
neighbourhood , besides a derelict public park, army lands and
adjoining the city’s stormwater channel ‘Nala’ (a highly polluted
waterway). Despite the limited open space available for planting
or landscape intervention, due to the high programmatic
built requirements and associated services, the landscape
looks beyond the site constraints & aesthetics to function
as a public amenity, thereby contributing to environmental
remediation and the creation of urban habitat. The Landscape
was conceived of as a space that would encourage the visitors
to BIC to engage in the outdoors. The challenges apart from
the compact site, noise, the site set back to the rear of the
building adjoins the city’s stormwater drain (Nala) and was an
area with highly degraded soils, with constant seepage from
the nala. The nala is highly polluted with a discharge of raw
waste stagnates during summers creating an unsightly flotsam
with foul odor. The main design intention was to improve the
quality of this space as an ecological corridor ( a link with the
larger open spaces such as the neighbouring park and army
open lands) , and an amenity for the visitors & residents of
the neighbourhood by mitigating any further pollution of the
nala, acting as a riparian buffer creating an urban ecosystem,
that now attracts a varied species of urban mammals. The key
landscape areas are a. linear public garden (towards the entry)
b. a meander space/ permeable linear greenway (a rain garden
at the east of the building) and c) surrounding buffer landscape
with a biological pond. The Linear Greenway is a multi-sensorial
riparian corridor that comprises of native and adapted species
several that phytoremediators and cleanses the soil. A.LINEAR
GARDEN : Due to the limited open space available for planting
in the project specially towards the front of the building .
The front garden has been planned as two linear stretches of
greenery of 1.5 m wide that provides with a green band closer
to the building providing a proximal whimsical experience of the
landscape to the occupants of the building, the narrow band
that edges the site connects to the peripheral street trees.
B)POND & BUFFER LANDSCAPE : at south, cools the breeze
entering the lobby. The lobby opens out to this pond and
buffer landscape.

PERFORMATIVE PUBLIC LANDSCAPE, DOMLUR, BENGALURU

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