Gsen Competition 2021-22 - Re-wild [Habitat for urban wildlife]

NASA India

Gsen Competition 2021-22 – Re-wild [Habitat for urban wildlife]

Authors: Mansi Shah + Chandrani C.

Re-wild [Habitat for urban wildlife]
The competition invites projects where you can imagine radical ideas for designing biodiversity or habitat spaces for one or more species. There is no defined site; it can be a site of your choice: from degraded infrastructures or retrofits on existing buildings or newly designed structures.

Re-wild [Habitat for urban wildlife]

Have you seen a sparrow? A parakeet on a tree? Bees and butterflies? Chased a squirrel? Heard crickets after rains? Dug ground to see the earthworms or centipedes?

Today’s generations are growing up in an environment which is becoming a monoculture of us – humans, devoid of any remains of urban fauna which had co-existed for a long time with people even in urban settings. With the rapid advent of technology, the invisible radiations from telecommunication towers have visibly reduced the urban biodiversity. The modern form of high rises has taken away the nooks and niches that may have provided habitat for different species. The lack of planting diversity in urban neighbourhood parks hardly allows an urban kid to chase butterflies and squirrels. And the penchant for green lawn in modern housing societies is further deteriorating the soil condition and producing biologically poor environments. So, urbanisation and the development paradigm that is emerging represent a real threat to biodiversity. Many species benefit and proliferate from being in urban areas but there are many others that are not able to cope or have access to resources and have less of a chance of survival.

The recent pandemic and the psychological impact of being forced to stay at home is creating the desire to reconnect with nature. Urban parks, which were closed for a long time, are seeing unprecedented footfalls as more and more people realise the importance of co-existence. With this in mind, can’t we bring back the urban wild tapping into the potential through underutilized, leftover or degraded sites? In high density areas with absence of ground space, can’t there be a rooftop urban wild network corridor? Can we think of architecture as a catalyst for housing bees, insects or bug farms in urban areas? Can design protect threatened or vulnerable species? Many cities across the world are expanding the concept of urban space and architecture, are studying and implementing housing requirements of urban fauna to recreate such forms.

Architecture or urban design can be a tangible response to society’s need for new ways of re-wilding and co-existing with biodiversity.

Thus, the competition invites projects where you can imagine radical ideas for design of biodiversity or habitat spaces for one or more species. For this, there is no defined site, it can be a site of your choice: from degraded infrastructures, or retrofits on existing buildings or newly designed structures.

Participating teams are encouraged to incorporate new technologies, materials, unique forms and aesthetics to create habitats that support urban fauna. We are interested in seeing how you are developing constructive relationships in your chosen site, for a particular species or different species and how the details in your intervention (architectural, spatial, or landscape based) are able to create home in the most creative way.

Submission Requirements

The project should be expressed within TWO (2) A1 size sheets.
Sheet 1: Should contain- plan, concept, details of the project and short text (up to 200 words) to explain the project
Sheet 2: Compelling strong views of the architectural interventions (2-3 views)
The project visuals should also be expressed in 5 to 6 Digital Postcards of 210MM X 210 MM (square) with little or no text (limit to one line for explaining the visual).

Judgement Criteria

Innovative and radical ideas or approaches of habitat designs for biodiversity.
Specifications (such as skin of the facade, choices of materials, forms, orientation) planned and adapted to meet biodiversity requirements.
Designs able to translate the ideas into clear spatial strategies that are visible in plans, or sections and 3d views.
Overall visualisation and communication of the project.

Prize Money
Prize money of Two lakh Rupees is allotted to the trophy and it will be divided according to the number of the Citations and Special Mentions.

Important Dates
Release of Brief: 22nd October 2021, Friday
Registration Deadline: 13th November 2021, Saturday, 1800 hrs IST
Queries Deadline: 27th November 2021, Saturday, 1800 hrs IST
Submission Deadline: 22nd January 2022, Saturday, 1800 hrs IST

General Submission Guidelines

Failing to comply with any of the guidelines may lead to disqualification at the discretion of the executive council.
All text should be in English.
The projects should use the decimal metric system and contain a metric graphic scale in order to enable publication in reduced formats.
The format of the sheets should clearly mention the name of the trophy followed by the year i.e., “GSEN Trophy 2020-21”
The format of the sheet should contain a square box of 25mm*25mm at the bottom right-hand corner, next to the NASA INDIA logo which should have the unique registration number allotted to the participants after registrations.
10MM White margin is to be left on all sides of A1 sheets.
The scale is left to the discretion of the participant(s) to the condition that the scale should be in metric system and all the drawings should be clear and legible.
Manually rendered entry should be scanned at least in 300*300dpi (dots per Inch) resolution.
The soft copy (non-editable format) of the sheets along with authentication letter, declaration letter and any other required documents prescribed in the submission requirements should be uploaded on the website by the submission deadline.
The soft copy file of the sheets should not be corrupted or incomplete or in low resolution.
It is mandatory to produce the original copy of the Authentication Letter for each entry (entry code should be mentioned if allotted) with the name of participant(s) and stating the unit will abide by whatever may be the final results and also agree that this entry is a property of both the institute and NASA India.
The Authentication Letter should be signed by the Appointed Unit Secretary of the college for the year 2020-21 on behalf of the HOD/Principal/Director in lieu of the Covid-19 pandemic.
It is mandatory for the colleges to produce the original copy of the Declaration Letter for each entry (entry code should be mentioned if allotted) signed by the participants stating the work submitted is genuine and they have endorsed copy- rights for the same and to adhere by all the rules and regulations, jury process and the results.
The Prize Money Authenticating Letter signed by the Director/ Principal / HOD in the college letter-head specifying the account details (Account Name, Account Number, Bank Name, IFSC Code) in which the money is to be credited for each entry (entry code should be mentioned if allotted) shall be collected at a later stage.
The working files in editable formats of the Shortlisted Entries should be submitted to the Council, failing which, the submission requirements would be deemed incomplete leading to the prize money being withheld.
Shortlisted Entries with manual hand-done sheets should submit high quality scans (min. 300*300 dpi) along with the content in a word document of the shortlisted entries should be submitted to the Council, failing which, the submission requirements would be deemed incomplete leading to the prize money being withheld.
Any misconduct such as exposing identity through college name/ stamp participant(s) name or college code on the sheets or the video will be disqualified.

Nasa India Logo Guidelines

Failing to comply with any of the guidelines may lead to disqualification at the discretion of the executive council.
NASA India Internal Logo shall always be placed on the right-hand bottom corner of the sheet.
NASA India logo should not be merged, overlapped etc. with any sort of text, graphic, image, etc.
NASA India logo should be in true black with a perfectly white background.
FOR A1 SHEET NASA INDIA LOGO SIZE SHOULD BE 30MM X 52.5MM WITH 10MM CLEAR BORDER ON ALL 4 SIDES.
The logos are available at www.nasaindia.co/download.

Checklist for submission

Online Submission
Original Copy of Authentication Letter
Original Copy of Declaration Letter
Editable Format of the Sheets (Applicable if shortlisted)

Other information

Maximum One (01) Number of Entries Will Be Accepted Per College.
Queries can be put forward through the trophy page on the website (http://www.nasaindia.co)
Registration should be done by the Unit secretary in NASA India website before the registration deadline.
Registration of the trophies will be final and cannot be changed or withdrawn henceforth.
All the entries should be uploaded separately during the time of online submission.
Late Registration and submission will not be entertained and henceforth the defaulters shall be disqualified.

Moderator and Authors
The Moderator for GSEN Trophy for 2020-21 is Mansi Shah (Adjunct Professor, Urban Design, CEPT University) and the brief is co-authored with Chandrani Chakrabarti (Program Coordinator, Landscape Architecture, CEPT University).

Any form of communication from the participants to the Moderator/Authors/Jurors will lead to disqualification.

Annexure 1: References

Gsen Competition 2022-23 - Water-less or Water-more

The urban wild slaughterhouse (Citation, NASA, 2022)