We recommend the use of headphones or earphones for a better experience, and then kindly adjust the sound levels from one recording to another suitable for your device.

Code: WH_OH_010_AUD_S3(C2)

Eco-restoration and conservation efforts, clients and aspirations

Summary:

Talking about residential spaces she worked on, Nina Chandavarkar talks about the development projects and corporate residential projects that she and her partner handled, bringing up an example of podium projects across Hyderabad and Bangalore. Since the 1990s, she began employing several ecological restoration systems in her projects, like the retention waterbody and rainwater harvesting methods. . She delves into a project she did for Tata Power that involved implementing congregation zones for environment and science learning for the community. On the Mindtree Kalinga project, she worked on the natural axis and cultural axis of the tribal regional flora in Orissa. She explains how she tries to integrate the hardscape and the softscape and what structures sustainably stay behind. She talks about the story behind innovating with the resources given and recreating them into mud bricks. Moving on to stories from up-market residential projects she worked on, she talks about when owners later implement changes in landscape designs or related issues and how she has had to view certain client feedback and navigate compromises. Furthermore, she talks about dealing with her sensibility and principles in client negotiations over scenarios where she avoided engaging landscaping for ornamental effect. Further remarking on her aesthetic principles, she expands on how she negotiates with clients to achieve the natural aesthetics she desires to implement in her work. Describing her water conservation efforts, she talks about how the clients agree on sustainable practices and the systematic calculations and research made before the project. She talks about making the case for water-deficient or excess sites and accordingly integrating run-off water retention bodies and so on in sites. In concluding her journey forward, she reminisces about her long-standing aspiration for conceptualizing stormwater channels and reviving natural public spaces for Bangalore city.

Practitioner:

Nina Chandavarkar

Interviewee:

Nina Chandavarkar

Interviewer:

Ishita Shah

Duration:

00.34.41

Mode:

Offline

Date:

25/04/2022

Language:
English

Years:
2010-2019
Highlights:
(00:00:43:22) Residential landscape projects, (00:05:55:01) Scale of site and landscape architecture, (00:09:46:02) Contextualised landscape design, (00:15:17:11) Water Bodies in landscape design, (00:20:23:22) Flexibility of plants in residential landscape design, (00:24:47:05) Journey of Oikos, (00:27:05:00) Convincing clients