Blue Weft: Interlacing water, shade, and senses in Vastral
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Tags
Public space, Urban Design, Landscape design, productive landscapes, park design, Lake design, parkscapes, waterurbanism
Author: Samhita Siddhartha Sengupta
Located in Vastral in Ahmedabad, this project proposes a sensorial cooling garden that responds to urban heat while introducing essential blue-green infrastructure within a rapidly developing neighborhood. Serving as a thermal refuge, the design uses water as the primary cooling medium, integrating it with native vegetation, shaded walkways, permeable surfaces, and evaporative cooling strategies. Dense canopy cover and layered planting help lower surrounding temperatures while creating comfortable public environments. Alongside its climate-responsive approach, the park is conceived as a multi-sensory landscape shaped through water, shade, texture, smell, and sound. Seasonal planting, misting edges, shallow water channels, tactile surfaces, and shifting light conditions create varied atmospheres across the site, encouraging slower movement, pause, and interaction with the environment. The intervention reimagines public space in Vastral as an immersive and restorative landscape where climate adaptation, sensory experience, and everyday social life become closely interwoven.
