Encounters between Earth and Water

Urban transformation and Architectural interventions, Backnang, Germany // Dissertation project at The Bartlett School of Architecture, University College London, 2020, Supervisor: H. Corlett

Water is a valuable source of life and an important habitat for the flora and fauna as well as for people. Also, it conceals symbolic meanings that can be associated with architecture, since it creates pleasure, although it can also become a threat.

What happens when water “meets” a city?

Studying Backnang as a city that has linked its image with Murr river, the project investigates the benefits of a potential disaster due to this relationship.

What if a flood or a cataclysm defined a different landscape of Backnang?

Then, the emergence of waters of the past brings an island, a "rebirth". How would, then, water and its inhabitants live together in a human city? The aim of the project is to raise discussions about this co-existence, and consider water as a means of architectural interpretation. Typologies are studied such as permeation of water to earth space, its surrounding of space, and the way water is viewed. Finally, these encounters lead to pleasure and threats become enrichment.

Topographic plans of the existing condition of historical Backnang and its conversion into an island

Aerial view of the bay

Spatial encounters between earth and water on small scale - top view, section, bird’s eye view

Spatial encounters between Earth and water on large scale - top view, section, bird’s eye view

Perspective view from a yard