3B / 02 :: Eco_Form 2.0

Unit Master : Shikha Doogar & Monisha Sharma

Ecology is defined by as a trans-disciplinary science focused on the relationship between living organisms and their environments. The field of ecology is inherently about relationships, developing abstract models of representation to diagram and explain complex and contingent systems. Landscape Design has evolved from being viewed as natural condition against which an object sits, to a more constructed landscape which merges, integrates and relates to the architecture creating an ecology that provides a framework to categorize, analyze, select and engage with the contingencies and performance of systems. This new framework of inter and intra relationships has given rise to Landscape ecology which is defined less by the formal representation but the ecological performance of the form. Architecture in this context is no longer a passive object sitting in landscape but an active source to construct new design ecology.

The studio shall engage in operative and performative strategies that will allow environments to be understood as open systems that are self-organizing and unpredictable. It will engage in landscape ecology as a conceptual space for architectural production. The studio will attempt integration of building and site, and the creation of unfolding spatial sequences that de-objectify architecture. The focus of the unit will be on performative criteria as a generator for architecture through engagement in the constraints of program relationships, movement logic, site parameters and ecology. The final outcome is a product interlaced in ecology where architectural systems and landscape are integrated.