Sreehari Radhakrishnan

Chronicles of Antilia

Chronicles of Antilia is a dynamic narrative landscape curated in the Azorean landscape. Even from the first stages of the research, the idea was to tell the story of the place using the landscape as a tool. So, the frame of exploration was the mythology and folklore of the Azores. All these explorations helped to create a narrative grounded in Sete Cidades.

Sete Cidades consists of 2 Lakes; Lake Azul, and Lake Verde. Even though both are the largest freshwater lakes in the entire Azorean archipelago. They are also the highest polluted ones, creating a severe ecological imbalance over the whole Sete Cidades. So, along with the mythological narrative, a dynamic proposal was also conceived to develop the desired balance for the native ecology.

These Mythological narratives were used as a tool for the poiesis of space. The whole site was zoned into three zones based on the narratives. The central zone was conceived as the Future narrative zone, as the present generation of people always uses these areas. The remaining zones were detailed based on the Folk Narratives, where the two famous folklores of Sete Cidades were expressed using landscape architecture.

The Sete Cidades Village is developed in a way that all the surface runoff after precipitation and the domestic water after use reaches the lake directly in most areas. Since these are contaminated water, it will eventually pollute the lake. So, to reduce the direct access of the runoff, these interventions are proposed under the thought of dynamic systems. It helps to reduce the eutrophication impact directly from the nearby village. Intense agricultural and grazing activities are another reason for lake eutrophication.

The Dynamic system for the design proposal works with the ideology of circular thinking. The soil underneath the lake has been dredged out to remodel the site and create a buffer system. No external matter is used in the process. Along with that, mounds are created to make the feel of curiosity for people experiencing the landscape. The algae dredged from the lake are placed over these mounds, creating a landscape with algae. They were later converted into biochar, a viable replacement for chemical fertilizers used all over the Azores.

The rain garden is proposed along the other edge, which will collect the total surface runoff from the neighbouring areas and is connected to the proposed wetland system. These wetland systems will filter the water before it contacts the larger water body.