With/Out Water: Architecture within a water-food nexus in Khulna, Bangladesh

Abstract

The studio on architecture within a water-food nexus in Khulna, Bangladesh, explores the territorial, spatial, socio-economic and material interrelation of water, food production and urbanisation that are seen as the core of multi-level challenges faced especially by the disadvantaged communities of Khulna. There as in many parts of Bangladesh and South Asia, this nexus has gotten out of balance due to the combined effects of rapid urbanisation, internal as well as international migration and global capitalism, increasing environmental stress and impacting on agriculture and work. The situation in Khulna is further aggravated by the irreversible alterations to the delicate system of ponds, canals and elevated grounds that for centuries, formed a resilient base for water use, food production and settlement in this ‘sponge city’. Architectural design is seen as a way to propose sustainable alternatives for Khulna and beyond. The studio will explore the material economy both with regard to the production of food and building materials allows to tackle resource scarcity and waste problems, sanitation and food production and re-value renewable forms of building and energy materials. Water is thereby investigated at material, tectonic, architectural and urban scales. The studio will apply an urban metabolism approach to quantify stocks and flows of material and energy with particular focus on those materials competing for food production, building materials and waste. Students will formulate a design hypothesis in the form of a short written statement supported by maps and diagrams. The preliminary research on water and tectonic systems will lead to a series of architectural elements forming a joint catalogue of approaches to the topic. These contain prototypical codes identifying input parameters, transformation rules and expected output of the architectural elements. This leads to a parametric definition that can be deployed on the site to generate spatial and tectonic diagrams. Prior knowledge of Grasshopper is not a pre-requisite as all necessary skills will be taught in class. The aim is to produce scalable hybrid water-food-architecture design projects. The students will choose their own programme, building typology and tectonic system according to their research findings, design hypothesis as well as their conceptual and parametric architectural elements.