Varanasi in Flux

Course: Urban Design Studio III: Water Urbanism, Columbia University, 2018.
In collaboration with: Ban Edilbi, Xianyao Xia, Huanyu Chen.

Varanasi is a place of ‘cosmic hospitality’ with a population that shifts from 1.2 million residents to 6 million tourists and pilgrims during festivals. The flux can also be seen through the landscape and its relation to water, reflecting cycles of monsoon, migration, celebration and cultivation. This project challenges the formal notion of reading the city as a stagnant and permanent entity and rather portrays it as an oscillating city that absorbs the flux through synthesizing the relationships between these cycles on macro and micro scales. The proposal is a response to the to-down planning approach to expand the city of Varanasi.
An infrastructural system made from locally available materials is proposed to re-imagine public spaces as flexible, resilient, adaptable and seasonal “Maidans” to better absorb the flux. The system forms loosely programed “Maidans” along the ghats, public parks and abandoned kunds, where the flux is mostly concentrated, creating markets, temporary shelters and natural habitats to accommodate the flux of people, fauna, flora and water throughout the year.