During the Fall semester of 2018 as a part of the research studio “Recentering Delhi: A Piece of the City” with professors Maria Gonzalez Aranguren and Pankaj Vir Gupta, Christian Kochuba completed the project Agri-Ghats. Christian’s project has been awarded through American Society of Landscape Architecture Virginia and the Society of American Registered Architects, New York.
Project Description: Agricultural Ghats imagines a Delhi which regains a powerful and sustainable relationship with its food, its soil, and its sacred river. An entire community which prospers as farmers increase healthy yields through transformative agricultural practices and residents interact daily with their local productive ecologies.
Agriculture is at the crux of many socio-ecological issues facing Delhi, India. Lack of agricultural education and resources has led to profuse chemical pollution, increasing water scarcity, toxicity of crops from poisoned irrigation sources, and high instability for rural and urban farmers alike. Additionally, dense, low-income wards in Delhi have virtually no access to public green space – let alone connection to local food production.
Conceptually partnering with a variety of Delhi’s governmental departments, universities, and NGO’s which seek to provide education and resources to Indian farmers, Agricultural Ghats is a proposal for a new type of productive park. Reimagining a toxic, emptied drain corridor, the city-scale spine displays innovative, local and organic agriculture. The connective linear park serves as an educational tool for the entire country, while also acting as a water filtration machine and a vibrant public space for Delhi. See below select images of Christian’s project.
