We have been designing many things at campus, why not our own spaces and why not our own FOREST? Samiksha the session on designing space with this thought.It began with knowing our own place and questioning what do we have and what we do not have?”
It was about understanding our own space, the place we live, the place which gives us something and also give us some challenges.
Aarohi land is rocky and gives us serene rocks to climb but also makes it difficult to grow. Thinking about future helped us to know what we want to do now.Aarohi campus, set at the foothills of mountain have benefit of good catchment area for rain water, but the same element also bring danger of forest fire coming out of the hill and forest behind.
What will happen If does not rain?
Do we have sufficient water?
How do we make it fire proof?
We pondered where we want to reach…we expressed we want to reach self sufficiency with water and do not want to face drought and want a place safe from fire.So what do we NOW!!!This set the stage for us to THINK.
How can we grow?
What do we grow?
What can we do to soil?
This brought a questions how does sun plays a role in our life? How does our campus behaves with respect to sun? We got into understanding sun, its angles, its effects, its nitty gritty to know its role in our life.How do we design our own campus? Do we need sun in summer? So how do I design? I want sun in winters, and no sun in summer. When do we like wind and when not like? When do we want hot wind and when we want cold wind? Where is wind coming from? Does hot wnd comes all the time? Which direction it comes from? Directions were explored, globe was explored, sun was approached to know the campus we live in.Design session moved ahead to explore how do we use wind and break wind we do not want – We understood role of forest – Big trees, small tree, shrubs, undercover, creepers, herbs, ground cover….and when I put all this “I MAKE FOREST”.
We further explored how to create forest around our community kitchen. The work begins now!!!
The whole session reminded me of a quote “When one works from the premise of creativity one becomes very accepting and that helps. We realize that creativity is not just a visually appealing painting, a pep piece of music, but something that is more fundamental, more pervasive, daily, ….. A thinking process, a way of life”.
Thank you Samiksha for your involvement and inspirations!!! We a new journey.