Hsoc Mathai from OOZE Architects & Urbanists, visited the Water Balance Site for an intermediary review of the construction works with the engineering, construction and implementation management teams.
Constructed wetlands, Water Balance Pilot © Ooze
City of 1000 Tanks construction team on the Water Balance Pilot Construction site © Ooze
A delegation from Invest International visited the Water Balance Pilot which is under construction. The City of 1000 Tanks team shared the ongoing work on site along with potentials for upscaling. The staff of Little Flower Convent graciously hosted the team for a tea afterwards.
Invest International and the City of 1000 Tanks team at Little Flower Convent School for the Blind and the Deaf © Ooze
In the second design workshop, the science teachers explained various techniques by which the students are taught to identify plant types. A list of plants was generated and potentials to use various colours, textures, shapes, types and sizes of leaves were mapped. The workshop influenced the planting design and layout.
Design workshop -2, Web conference Screenshot © Ooze
Construction of the Water Balance Pilot at Little Flower Convent is underway. The walls of the constructed wetland are complete and the liners are being installed. The liners ensure that the water that is being treated is contained while ensuring sufficient protection from plant roots. Each item is inspected by Shammy Jacob, on behalf of the engineers Eco Village International.
Aerial image of constructed wetlands with liners being installed © Ooze
Since the start of the project, City of 1000 Tanks and Little Flower Convent meet regularly to discuss the progress, the upcoming works and any concerns. Working within an operational institution requires care and coordination to ensure that the disruption to day-to-day activities is minimal. In April, Hsoc Mathai from OOZE architects & urbanists had the opportunity to meet the LFC team for the first time in-person.
Little Flower Convent Staff with Hsoc Mathai (OOZE architects & urbanists) and Archana Y (Madras Terrace Architectural Works, after a Project Update Meetings.© Ooze
A workshop was organized between the City of 1000 Tanks team and Little Flower Convent to together explore the interaction between the landscape and the specially-abled users on site.
In the first meeting, Jayshree.V (Care Earth Trust) and Eva Pfannes (Ooze) and team interacted with the sisters to understand their needs and desires for the design of the gardens. In addition, they discussed at length how the garden can be designed to engage the specially-abled students. The workshop influenced the planting design and layout.
Design workshop -1, Webconference Screenshot © Ooze
The excavation of the anaerobic reactor has begun along with the shallow foundation for the Sub surface flow constructed wetlands. The excavated earth will be reused for the hill gardens and infiltration gardens.
Excavation of Anaerobic reactor ©Madras Terrace
Base of sub surface flow constructed wetlands ©Green Line Builders
We are excited to announce that our vision for a water resilient Chennai is now set to become a reality. Today we broke ground on our first demonstration project – The Water Balance Pilot in Little Flower Convent School for the Blind and the Deaf in Chennai! An intimate and meaningful ceremony was organized to mark this significant moment.
Ground breaking Ceremony with Little Flower Convent Team, Madras Terrace Architectural works and Chennai Resilience Center ©Krishnamohan Ramachandran
Having completed the detailed design for the Water Balance Pilot, the City of 1000 tanks prepared a lineout to facilitate pre-construction clarifications with the Little Flower Convent team. After a joint inspection of the footprint, position of components and circulation networks, minor changes were suggested by the Little Flower Convent team.
Little Flower Convent team discuss the lineout with Sudhee NL (Madras Terrace Architectural works) ©Madras Terrace
Goethe-Institut/ Max Mueller Bhavan Chennai hosted the first official Press launch of City of 1000 Tanks. The press conference was titled “City of 1000 Tanks: A city-wide strategy for Chennai and the Water Balance Pilot”. The press launch presented, for the first time, the work of the City of 1000 Tanks water alliance, since 2018.
Henk Ovink, the Special Envoy for International Water Affairs of the Kingdom of The Netherlands presented the inception of the project within the Water as Leverage Programme for Resilient Cities Asia. Eva Pfannes (City of 1000 Tanks team lead) presented the city-wide strategy and the flagship projects. Sudhee NK (Madras Terrace Architects) presented the Water Balance Pilot project which is to be constructed at Little Flower Convent, Chennai.
City of 1000 Tanks team members Dr. Jayshree Vencatesan(Care Earth Trust), Vanessa Peters (IRCDUC), Krishnamohan Ramachandran (Chennai Resilient Center), Nandhini Praba (Uravugal Social Welfare Trust), Shilesh Hariharan & Archana Y (Madras Terrace Architects) were present. Dr. Katharina Gorgen, Director, Goethe Institute, Chennai; hosted the entire event. The event was attended by all major print and TV press media. A delegation from Little Flower Convent was also present.
Dr. Katharina Gorgen moderating the question-and-answer session © Ooze
Tuli the project mascot with City of 1000 tanks team holding booklets of the Water Balance Pilot.
The City of 1000 Tanks team are working between Chennai (IN), Rotterdam (NL) and Forres (UK) to deliver an integrated design for the Water Balance Pilot in Little Flower Convent. Here is one such meeting where we were defined the extent of the collection system for the water treatment system.
Online Design Team Meeting. © OOZE Architects
A team led by Prof. Balaji N (IIT-Madras) collected soil samples to strategize the overall rainwater management for the Water Balance Pilot. Samples were collected at various locations within Little Flower Convent campus to ascertain the potential for recharge based on the characteristics of the soil.
Collection of soil samples at Little Flower Convent ©Ooze
After a positive pre-project engagement and preparing a preliminary design, Little Flower Convent team and City of 1000 Tanks have jointly agreed to proceed with the detailed design and construction of the Water Balance Pilot.
Sister Superior (Little Flower Convent), with City of 1000 Tanks team - Krishnamohan Ramachandran (Chennai Resilience Center) and Sudhee NK (Madras Terrace Architectural works), after signing the agreement ©Madras Terrace
The project will comprise a central zone with water treatment systems and several peripheral zones recharging rainwater. The design transforms the central zone into a garden with winding pathways interspersed by green mounds and the NBS components. The treated water is discharged into the ground through subsurface irrigation, that waters the garden and cools the campus. The peripheral zones will address local inundation occurrences while recharging the local aquifer.
The project will demonstrate the efficacy of nature-based solutions (or Eco System Adaptation) and community engagement strategies, the findings of which will be later implemented in the Mylapore Flagship project. This project can then be scaled up and replicated across the GCC.
Madras Terrace Architectural works have started the Reconnaissance survey on site. This involves a detailed investigation of the sewer networks on site. The Little Flower Convent staff provided valuable historical data regarding the modification of the networks over time.
Sudhee NK & team from Madras Terrace architectural works inspect the sewer networks. © Ooze
The Little Flower Convent School for the Blind and Deaf team, who are keen to implement the first City of 1000 Tanks demonstration pilot, visited implemented projects to experience Nature Based Solutions first hand. The City of 1000 Tanks team organized a visit to three projects, in Tamil Nadu and Pondicherry. The trip helped clarify the performance of nature-based solutions.
Little Flower Convent team walking through a subsurface flow Constructed Wetland ©Ooze
Arul Nambhi, from Eco Village International, explains the performance of an anerobic reactor ©Ooze
OOZE Architects & Urbanists, along with its on-ground partners Vanessa Peter (IRCDUC), Nundiyny Prabakaran (USWT), Shilesh Hariharan and Sudheendra NK (Madras Terrace), has developed building and habitat planning guidelines that actively integrate blue-green infrastructure in affordable housing settlements in Chennai. This research project is a part of our ongoing City of 1000 Tanks initiative under the Water as Leverage for Resilient Cities Asia programme pioneered by the Netherlands Enterprise Agency (RVO) and Henk Ovink. The guidelines are built on extensive interaction and participatory planning exercises with the residents, especially women and children, from 6 informal settlements in Chennai. An article covering this research, published today in the Times of India, has now created dialogue over the design requirements for affordable housing in Chennai and has set an important precedent for participatory design processes in urban planning.
Read the article online here.
Ooze-led project City of 1000 Tanks is now among a handful of selected initiatives from around the world to be featured in the World Water Atlas, an interactive platform for action, sharing challenges, opportunities and potential solutions to society's most challenging and complex risk: water. The Atlas was founded by the Netherlands Ministry of Infrastructure and Water Management, Deltares, International Architecture Biennale Rotterdam (IABR) and Netherlands Environmental Assessment Agency (PBL).
City of 1000 Tanks has been developed under the Water as Leverage programme, which is also featured in the Atlas. Our contribution appears alongside others in the section 'Too dirty', which focusses on access to drinking water and sanitation, two major causes of human illness and mortality in low and medium-income countries. City of 1000 Tanks is a holistic solution to the triple challenges of floods, droughts and pollution in Chennai, and approaches water security by applying Nature Based Solutions.
Check out our project in the atlas here.
We are excited to share that Eva Pfannes recently presented the project City of 1000 Tanks at the Shenzhen Design Week 2020 on 27 August 2020. The Netherlands was the guest of honour and invited for its legacy of living with water. The theme of the SZDW 2020 was 'Water as Leverage for Sustainable Development', aiming to create dialogue around challenges related to water that cities like Shenzhen face and how to address them. This year, the SZDW was completely online with webinars held from August 25-28. Experts from the Netherlands and those from the Water as Leverage programme were invited to present their inspiring solutions and give insights on the Dutch approach to successful water governance and management practices.
The webinar was titled 'Dutch International Experiences and contributions in Asia and beyond' and Eva presented our project, City of 1000 Tanks in Chennai, and the approach to water management in complex urban settings. Other speakers of the webinar were Dutch Water Envoy Henk Ovink, Anne Loes Nillesen (Defacto) and Markus Appenzeller (MLA+).
In case you missed it, the recording is now online! On 9th July 2020, we presented our project, the City of 1000 Tanks as part of the Water as Leverage webinar series organised by the Water Youth Network. Watch team members Eva Pfannes (Ooze), Nilofer Tajuddin (Ooze) and Shilesh Hariharan (Madras Terrace) explain the approach, challenges, ideas and design proposals developed for this initiative. With thanks to Lauren Arendse for inviting us to present our work, it was great to engage with new audiences about our projects.
On the invitation of Water as Leverage (RVO) and The Resilient Shift, Eva Pfannes spoke at the official Side Event of the tenth session of the World Urban Forum on 12 February 2020 in Abu Dhabi (UAE) – ‘Climate Action: Accelerating Urban Water Resilience in Asia, Africa and beyond: two approaches in theory and in practice’.
Eva Pfannes delivered a key note as part of an inspiring session moderated by Herman Pienaar from UN Habitat and alongside Martin Shouler from the Resilience Shift, Dennis van Peppen from the Dutch Government, Anne-Marie Hitipeuw-Gribnau and Lina Liakou. Eva presented our project 'City of 1000 Tanks' in Chennai developed as part of the Water as Leverage for Resilient Cities Asia Programme,
