uel diploma 3 2004-2005

Continuing an interest in the politics of water and landscapes in transition, Diploma 3 travelled to India this year to develop projects for the Narmada Valley, a valley in central India just over 300 kilometers north of Mumbai. The people of this valley are losing their land and their livelihood due to the Narmada Valley Dam Project. Initially planned over a half century ago under Prime Minister Nehru as ‘Temples of Modern India’ the Narmada Project finally got underway in the 1980’s and is presently the largest river development in the world, consisting of over 3,000 dams of varying scales to be built on this, the holiest of Indian rivers and its tributaries over the next 50 years.Over the course of this year, the unit investigated two communities affected. One was the displaced historic city of Harsud, another a small yet remarkable village called Rajghat that will be shortly submerged due to the Sardar Sarovar dam. The work of the unit was located in the barren landscape of resettlement with an interest in how a strong sense of materiality can give meaning in architecture and place. The unit encouraged work that established a resonance between these displaced communities and a newly engineered landscape, which are at once sympathetic to the inherent traditions of the people yet firmly contemporary and innovative offering a more sustainable and meaningful future.

Students:

Anna Anastasiou
Sabah Ashiq
Anni Berg
Camilla Calzavara
Dennis Carranceja
Daniel Fuente
Tomoki Iwashita
Ricardo Lopez-Rivas
Ayaka Nakaya
Anibal Puron
Megumi Waida
Wee Liam Seow
Kostas Sotiriou
Toru Usui
Simon Ward
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