The people of the northeastern Indian city of Guwahati, in the state of Assam, have an intimate relationship with the great river that flows through it, the Brahmaputra, whose 2,896 km length makes it one of the longest in Asia. The residents’ relationship with the river, with its abundant pulse during the monsoon between June and September and its reduced pulse the rest of the year, has a new approach. It’s a project by Mumbai-based architecture firm atArchitecture, and it’s called Urban Regeneration of Brahmaputra Riverfront.
“We are constantly in search of beauty and meaning”, Avneesh Tiwari and Neha Rane, founder and founder of atArchitecture, tell Wallpaper magazine. They refer to two conspicuous qualities in the Brahmaputra Riverfront. On the one hand, the cubic or parallelepiped shapes, the right angles, the smooth, staggered and unadorned surfaces, the balance and elegant restraint, all their features are but a testimony to this intention of beauty. Therefore we read the soft and varied grey tones of the granite which provide a “backdrop” to nature. As for the meaning, although it is more difficult to grasp, it seems to us to be somewhat evident in the message it conveys of humility, accessibility, even of resounding rationality, in its sort of abstract genuflection and in the not-so-abstract embrace of the vegetation.
As atArchitecture’s architects tell us, the Brahmaputra Riverfront “rejuvenates a natural water lily pond”, which was known in the city as Padam Pukhuri or ‘lotus pond’. The new public park, which seems to have grown like moss around that ancient lotus pond, occupies 4,645 m2 perched on the south bank of the river, adjacent to the Brahmaputra River Heritage Centre. It descends in steps from the upper part – dominated by the pond – through lush vegetation, along pathways and stairways, to two viewpoints over the river at the bottom.
As for Rane and Tiwari’s self-confessed search for meaning, they insist in their statement to Wallpaper: “we strive for deeper insights into how spaces can uplift the human spirit”. And there is more, for, they say, “we value narrative over image and seek pleasure, sustainability and efficiency in design”. And so it is, because the cascading terraces of the Brahmaputra Riverfront and its pathways respect “natural contours” and minimise “cut and fill”. Their construction, using gabion foundations to “preserve the natural groundwater flow”, as well as a series of “recharge pits”, maintain the “soil health”.
It is also interesting to learn of Rane and Tiwari’s desire, in creating the Brahmaputra Riverfront, “involving local people, using their expertise and creating a building system that fits seamlessly into the context and site”. The design, precisely, improves mobility for pedestrians, cyclists and motorists, while providing recreational opportunities for tourists and residents and creating open, breathable spaces in a densely populated neighbourhood.
Finally, the Brahmaputra Riverfront is part of the local authority’s riverfront development project. Following this first phase, future interventions will introduce a riverfront restaurant and “another Padam Pukhuri with more intimate curvilinear stepped pavilions”.
Here is the location of the urban regeneration project for a new perspective: » Brahmaputra Riverfront.
Sources: atArchitecture, Wallpaper.
Images: courtesy of atArchitecture.
