Water, a soft yet radical force, offers a future where ecology and people are at the heart of urbanism.
Pune city in Western India is fertile for this exploration since beneath its dense urban settlement is a ground of flowing waters(both surface and subsurface), a culture rich in indigenous techniques, historical waterfronts, and structures like stepped wells, aqueducts and tanks. This thesis follows a process of listening to the land and to the people in Pune through the act of filmmaking. It then uses a design and social entrepreneurship approach to urbanism that is multidisciplinary and geared towards actual implementation.
The proposal involves a) grassroots organization creating water stewardship modeled as a “water corps”, b) restoration of traditional structures, c)multimedia representation of water heritage and d) design of a series of “water parks” that adopt new experiments in nature based technologies for water harvesting and recharge.
This creation of a civilian water corps in Pune can accelerate a growing need to implement nature-based-solutions that enable equitable access and supply of water, while reviving traditional water systems.
