Living with Monsoon

With the rising issues of vector-borne diseases in Calicut, India, a catalyst project of a water treatment facility has been developed to regulate the flow of water and increase biodiversity. This project aims to regulate water flow and enhance biodiversity, effectively reducing breeding grounds for mosquitoes and lowering health risks associated with these diseases.

The proposal aims to establish public areas amongst the various water treatment methods by using the landscape to its advantage to allow gravity to move the water rather than pumps. The process of the treatment includes a weir, to raise the water level of the canal, flocculation, sedimentation, and rapid sand filtration chambers, and uses the existing water lake to store the non-potable clean water.

. In response to the various treatment procedures, a community centre and garden centre were created to offer public spaces and a location where sludge-derived grow backs could be marketed to the local citizens. The water outlet from the pond is going back to the canal through a channel that runs directly within the community centre. The community centre serves as monsoon shelter during Monsoon season, as the lack of public spaces, especially in vulnerable communities such as the ones around the site, keeps people inside their homes, segregating them from the community. It is positioned on towards the sea, in a more private part of the site, and its roofs are sloped to direct rainwater as well as prevents the winds and rain coming from the sea from entering and prevent glare.

The landscape allows the garden centre to be facing the main road, which allows it to have a retail function and sell those grow backs, as well as products that are from the green house. By doing so, the project aims to clean the water before it reaches the sea and show different uses of it through distributing it in the site. With those different elements, social cohesion, local economy and general health will be boosted.