Portfolio_Nagma

NAGMA MANOHARAN PORTFOLIO OF SELECTED WORKS

INDEX

1. URBAN DESIGN Urban Planning, Design, Climate simulation studies

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De-cluttering Neighborhoods- Designing for climate resilience - The Lijnbaan , Rotterdam , Netherlands

2. ENVIRONMENTAL PLANNING Planning, Technical Design

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Reconnecting with the sea :Reimagining the coastline of Chellanam, Kerala India

3. LANDSCAPE DESIGN

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Landscape Masterplan, Planting design, construction drawings Deconstructing the landscape Immersive Playscapes

4. STAKEHOLDER CONSULTATION

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Community engagement, Tactical urbanism Nurturing Neighborhoods: creating child friendly streets

5. RESEARCH Concept sketch design produced for an urban planning project

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1. URBAN DESIGN De-cluttering Neighborhoods - Designing for climate resilience in Lijnbaan , Rotterdam

SITE STUDY AND ANALYSIS 1. MAPPING THE LIJNBAAN 1.1 THE ECOLOGICAL FABRIC The Major green corridors in the area run around the perimeter of the block. There is only one dominant corridor within the block which is Karel Doormanstraat. There is lack of West- corridors within the block which loses the opportunity of connecting with nearby neighborhoods.

Figure 5: Existing photo of Lijnbaan

Figure 1: Existing Green infrastructure Map (Macro scale)

Cluttered courtyards Figure 2. Missed potential of open soils within courtyard spaces which are currently being built on with parking garages, used for back end services and some as small community gardens

However, most of the trees planted along thegreen corriodors are monoculture and provides no habitat for biodiversity.

Key

The areas with open soils allowing permeability are less prone to flooding , have cooler mean temperature and lesser relative humidity when compared to areas with hard paved soil.

Single species ( monoculture ), not diverse Multi- species , very bio-diverse

Clean soil that is covered upon

Fig 2: Hierarchy of green corridors

Fig 6 : Flood map

Fig 3: Diversity of green spaces

Fig 7 : Urban soils

Open soils that are contaminated Existing N02 polution that can contiminate the soil

1.2 THE SOCIAL FABRIC

Unlike the main streets in the city centre that lack diversity, certain courtyard spaces within or enclosed by housing blocks are the spaces that provide habitats to many birds and animals. Here the trees are like groves, with mixed variety and form , almost creating a forest habitat. However, not all these spaces are accessible to the public and have varying degrees of privacy .

Accessibility The lijnbaan is pedestrian friendly. However, there are conflict points between vehicular/ tram and pedestrian flows making it unsafe for pedestrians. The traim line also runs through one of the areas with the most public footfall, removing the potential of the space as a public place.

Fig 8 : Vehicular circulation

Fig 9: Active and passive zones

Safety The loading areas to either side of the main public corridor in lijnbaan are considered to be unsafe as there is no active programs or functions that call for eyes on the street

Fig 4:The Biodiverse courtyards

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future obsolete infrastructure

2. ANALYSIS FROM SITE STUDY From the study it can be seen that at present the ground in the site area provides no opportunity for social nor ecological networks. This is mainly because it is cluttered with infrastructure that removes potential for quality space from the lijnbaan area.

3. OPEN SOIL ENHANCEMENT AND CLIMATE ADAPTATION STRATEGY

KEY increasing filteration into soil water buffer storage areas increasing green cover urban food gardens

2.1 AIM Fig 11: Mapping the urban clutter

How can we de-clutter the Lijnbaan to make way for more open soil?

Figure 14 shows how all the new open soils also must be designed for climate adaptation especially for water. From the diagram it can be seen that Karel Doormanstraat would be an important street in the open space network. Hence it is important to ask what the program of Karel Doormanstraat might become in response to the new open space.

phytoremediation

Will Karel Doormanstraat become a liveable neighborhood street with it’s new open spaces or will Lijnbaan become the new liveable neighborhood street?

2.2 OPERATIVE STRATEGIES Strategy 1 ( figure 10): Reduce the clutter on the surface and subsurface : Rethinking mobility, parking and what arethe redundant and obsolete infrastructures Fig 12: New Open space map Strategy 2 (figure 11): Defining the function of the new open space.

Strategy 3 (figure 12): Re-programming building programs to respond with the new open soil

Fig 13: Potential frontages for reprogramming

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Fig 14: Open soil enhancement and climate adpation strategies map

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4. THE DESIGN PROCESS 4.1 ZONING- PLANS

5. CLIMATE SIMULATION STUDIES 5.1 POST DESIGN MICRO-CLIMATE ANALYSIS USING ENVI-MET SOFTWARE

4.2 ZONING- SECTIONS

4.3 PROPOSED MASTERPLAN

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2. CLIMATE RESILIENT PLANNING Reconnecting with the sea: Reimagining the coastline of Chellanam, Kerala, India

EXISTING PRACTICES OF COASTAL DEFENCE

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PROPOSED PRACTICES OF COASTAL DEFENCE

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4. LANDSCAPE DESIGN Deconstructing The Landscape : Immersive Playscapes Physical model exploring topography, visual connections and circulation Crookes Valley Park: The Constructed Landscape At first impression the park is a formal setting with the landscape remaining largely monotonous throughout the journey with restricted paths and acitivities designed to be contained within specific spaces. Due to this less variety in terms of vegetation and topography , the biodiversity value and nature of the activities is poor. However, one may accidently stumble into a few incidental spaces which seem to provide more affordance and are engaging spaces that give a clue as to the language of spaces that people resonate with more.

Creating an identity: Inspiration from the site context CVP surrounded by Weston Park, Ponderosa and the sports ground and acts as atransient space between them. Ponderos park has small niches for excercise while the sports ground has organised and structured play only for adults. Hence, crookes valley park unlike its immediate contexts has the opportunity to become an inter-generational space that is more natural in its movement and topography and engages the public with activties that connect them with nature whilst also instilling a sense of learning value.

Vision 2023

´Crookes Valley Park as an iconic natural green space where people of all ages come together to play, explore and discover making the space an immersive mearning hub.´

Concepts Visually connected spaces for safety

1. Deconstructing the landscape through art and movement

2. Modifying the topography to create playscapes

3. Using vegetation to create sensorial experiences that creates a sense of adventure

4. Revealing natural processes to create learning environments

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Berms are designed to act as a barrier to the winds as well as the nests for birds on the lake and encloses an area which becomes a multi-functional space for different types of activities like badminton which wont be affected by wind anymore.

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MASTERPLAN AND SECTION

Conceptual diagrams

Masterplan

Section A-A

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MATERIAL PALETTES

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FOCUS AREA MASTERPLAN AND SECTIONS

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CONSTRUCTION DRAWINGS

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PLANTING PLAN AND SCHEDULE

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3. STAKEHOLDER ENGAGEMENT AND CONSULTATION Nurturing Neighborhoods

ABOUT Nurturing neighborhoods is part of the smart cities mission Inida that aiamed at promoting the creation of child firendly streets in our neighborhoods. While working in cochin smart mission in Kerala in India, I developed the proposal for the redevelopment of Eraveli street in Kochi, which had a local nursery (day care) and was the main street tha tthe children of the neighborhood used to commute through. The goal of the project was to design through community centered approach and through tactical urbanism, test and try which design solutions work best for the community.

PROPOSED DESIGN AND PILOT STUDY IMPLEMENTATION USING TACTILE URBANISM STRATEGIES

STAKEHOLDER CONSULTATION AND PARTICIPATION

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5. RESEARCH Evaluating the Planning and design decisions behind implementing Tiny Forests in England

SUMMARY The need of accessible green space in urban areas post pandemic has been realised for both restorative qualities as well as for coping up with climate change(Collins et al., 2022). Since then, a lot of afforestation projects have popped up across cities in the world but many lack an understanding of the reality of achieving targeted values through the tree planting and lack the understanding of the urban forest designs that are best fit to achieve these values(Roman et al., 2020).

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This research focuses on the tiny forest movement, an afforestation movement by Earthwatch Europe which is fast gaining popularity in England. Since the movement is quite new, it is essential at this stage to evaluate the claimed benefits it offers and understand how the design of the tiny forest facilitates these benefits.

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Thank you for your time Nagma Manoharan

By evaluating the planning and design considerations followed by Earthwatch, key areas for optimisation especially in the site selection and site design stages were found for which new principles are recommended (see Fig.5, Fig.6). These principles can be used to enhance the design of the tiny forest to facilitate social benefits it can provide at the community scale and also achieve wider ecological benefits at the planning scale (see Fig. 4).

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