The silent guardians of the city
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Tags
Public space, Urban Design, Biodiversity, Landscape design, productive landscapes, Street design, park design, parkscapes, park connectors
Author: Manasavi Gupta
The silent guardians of the city: Activating urban biodiversity through landscape systems
Spanning the Thaltej neighborhood in Ahmedabad, the project envisions a connected ecological network across the Town Planning scheme by transforming fragmented and underutilised plots into biodiversity pockets linked through streets acting as linear ecological corridors. In a rapidly urbanising landscape where habitat loss and heat stress continue to increase, the project positions biodiversity as critical urban infrastructure supporting pollination, cooling, soil regeneration, water retention, and ecological resilience.
The network enables the movement of bees, butterflies, birds, and insect populations across the neighborhood, allowing ecological processes to operate continuously within the city. Site responses vary across contexts- a railway edge is left relatively undisturbed to support natural succession, while other nodes combine dense native planting with active public spaces and shaded gathering areas. Together, these interconnected landscapes create a regenerative multi-species framework where human and non-human systems coexist, shaping a more resilient and ecologically responsive urban fabric.