Sonakshi Pandit

Eco-Socialist Rituals across the Water of Leith

Architecture - MArch

Edinburgh School of Architecture and Landscape Architecture (ESALA)

sonakshipandit5@gmail.com

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Sectional diagram displaying the wider proposal across the the Water of Leith

Project Description

The proposal aims to address the growing separation between people, their bodies, and the land they inhabit. It sets out to establish new forms of public space across the Water of Leith, rooted in the pedagogy of an eco-socialist imaginary that encourages the re-encountering of human and nonhuman beings in expansive, strange, and careful ways that depart from normative and neoliberal modes of being and living.

In conceptualising the river as a super-organism, the project also weaves the proposed spatial configurations into the existing contingencies and rituals of the Water of Leith, particularly through the on-going work of the Water of Leith Conservation Trust. Practices of commoning such as citizen science, composting, foraging, dead hedging and eel rope making, amongst many others, feature in the form of tectonic solutions that continue to support these activities, proliferating them along the stream. The project draws from the material accumulations deposited across the river, articulating an architectural language composed primarily of willow, earth reels, compost, and wooden debris. These seasonal substrates are reconfigured and combined to provide novel affordances around existing structures across the river: compost-heated saunas and community cinemas; river log jams; somatic eco-therapy rooms; crawl spaces; material banks; passive fridges; and facilities for fermenting and community making.

The project understands the river as a series of networked socio-ecological assemblages, weaving together community, people and land—towards an alternative model of well-being and prosperity.

The River is a Super-organism

Site Section of Compost-heated Sauna and Community Gathering Place

Elevation of Community Cinema and Gathering Place

Time-based Willow–Earth Reel Construction Sequence

Changing Elevation of Community Cinema and Gathering Place over time

Model of Community Cinema and Gathering Place

Section of Community Cinema and Gathering Place

Plan of Community Cinema and Gathering Place

Section of Community Cinema and Gathering Place

Section of Compost-heated Sauna

Compost-heated Sauna Model Roof Plan

Compost-heated Sauna Ground Plan

Compost-heated Sauna Basement Plan

Compost-heated Trombe wall

Elevation of Compost-heated Sauna

Compost-heated Sauna Model

Model of Compost-heated Sauna

River Log Jam for Surveying Fish Species across the Water of Leith

Model of River Log Jam

Elevation of river log jam for monitoring fish species from across the river.

Section of river log jam for monitoring fish species from across the river.

Earthen Udders, Rods, and Bundles

The project began with the intention of developing prefabricated mass-earth components that could be easily handled, transported, combined, assembled, and disassembled. Guided by an extensive set of experiments with different earth mixes and build-ups, by the development and testing of prototypes, and by the brief set out by our clients—the Leith Primary Parent Council—we chose to develop an earth-bundle module consisting of seven earth rods tied together with rope. This material system enabled us to develop a series of different clusters and islands that may be (re)configured to meet various playground dynamics. In their last iteration, and in order to meet the quality and consistency required, the earth rods were made by filling fabric formwork with mud and straw. This process took place around a bespoke table, the Earthen Udder, which anchored productive activities and turned them into opportunities to share stories, time, and skills—for making together.

The first bundle-structure is being piloted at Leith Community Croft (LCC), where it provides a home for birds and insects, a resting place for visitors and crofters, and a meeting point for community congregations. In addition, and in line with the LCC’s ethos, we chose to instil into the fragment a performative element—a ritual originating in the Celtic pagan tradition of the clootie well. This involves tying pieces of fabric around trees to honour the land—an act that has also traditionally been adopted for wish-making. The bird perch pole within our project then also functions as a branch that can receive clooties (strips of cloth), promoting them as a place-making strategy, and enabling the project to change over time.

The Crofter's Gathering Place and Clootie Well

The Earth Rod making process took place around a bespoke table, formulated out of materials present on the site. The fabric formwork slots into and rests between reclaimed scaffolding boards, which sit upon timber pallets.

Over the course of the live build project, the Earthen Udder functioned as a building technology, but also as a site which anchored productive activities and turned them into opportunities to share stories, time, and skills—for making together.