Sloping Landscapes*

Today morning, I decided to attend a lecture. I wanted to avoid the second year class and so I stepped into the third year! And perhaps it was the right decision to take. I entered a class of Landscape, where Arjun (Sharma) was lecturing on analyzing contoured sites. He went on to explain all about site analysis. And while he spoke, parallel images ran in my mind. He spoke of steepness of slopes and how we could map slopes of different gradients into a ratio map to understand which zones one could consider to build or traverse through. 

I had been thinking of what makes newer construction so out of place in interior sites of our states. I am referring to new constructions at places like Alibaug, Palghar or ourskirts of Pune. They invariably paint their houses white or bright pink or yellow from the exterior. I think that is the imagination of newness. White is a new colour for people in the interiors. However, bringing in the idea of local architecture, Arjun raised the question of what gives the local architecture its character? It is the colour of its built form. Most of it is built out of local material - which makes the entire place black or brown or grey. This is the colour of the local stone or material used for construction. White therefore makes you feel out of place. That is why, I think browns have become the colours for architects - to make one feel at home. Even in the interiors, brown is a safe and popular palette.

As Arjun went on to talk of ridges and valleys forming streams, I thought of the mythical story of Ganga descending on to the earth lead by bhagirathi. Of how the river follows the path Bhagirathi takes. Although it is a bit absurd, but to think that Bhagirathi took the path through the valleys such that the river could conveniently follow a path is interesting. It reminded me of Mahabharat's visualization of Ganga flowing through a mountain - forming streams and then a river. Later, I thought of Rishikesh and Benaras. Where the land form is gentle, the river becomes shallow and wide, where it is steep, the river is deep and narrow. On the other hand, I was reminded of a story we read in our primary school. The autobiography of the river- flowing through mountains and valleys. The rivers says that due to a mound in its path, it gets worried of how to go ahead. There are many obstacles in her way - the stones, trees, etc. She embraces all of it as she flows from the mountain. Later, she gives birth to her sister (distributary) due to a large mound. The separation is painful and the river feels pained. However, as it reaches a shallow bowl shaped area, the river gets to rest into a pond and meets back her sister.

Mythical and poetic stories crossed my mind and gently tickled me - all through a study of landscape. But also, I began to think how mapping landscapes (or even mapping in general) has become a strategy to control any land form. The idea of being able to conquer or build through its meticulous study has led to the generation of a huge amount of documentation. It has led to special agencies like surveyors who help plotting trees and all features on land. Opening up untraceable land through mapping allows human entry into natural territories. This has led to severe and undesirable results.

Later Arjun spoke about a lot of things including orientation of built form w.r.t. water drain off. But the best part of the lecture was when he led climatic analysis - sun-path, wind direction, amount of rainfall to the idea of vista  and sight lines. Drawing a mountain on the board, he drew a round rising smiling rising sun. He explained how it was important to understand where the sun rises on the site versus where it sets and how this information could be used as a design strategy. Of how one would never want to screen off a rising sun using trees or designing pathways in wrong areas. More interesting was his idea of looking at fog and using it as a positive landscape feature. It reminded me of impressionistic paintings of Claude Monet and Edgar Degas. Seeing blurred images of people approaching you - strangers whom you think you know - it becomes so interesting to use the concept of fog as an architectural strategy!

By the end, I was so overwhelmed with the lecture that I felt I must enroll for a course in Landscape Architecture. I wanted to tell Arjun what a fabulous session he took and how beautifully he conducted it. However, things are to always take unexpected turns. Arjun revealed to me about the incoherence in Landscape and AD studio and he was really dejected. Our conversation took a detour and I got no opportunity to tell him how well he spoke and how nice I felt as I saw him teach. 

But this is what I meant by circumstantial - life is so circumstantial. A lecture which I thought was brilliantly put up, was actually a reaction to the system. I thought the merger of AD and Landscape was planned, but it wasn't. If only the students took some charge...

*metaphorical (sloping = unstable, landscapes = scenarios)