ANIMALS in the RAIN GARDEN !!!

[Goustan BODIN]

If my understanding of public space in India is correct, cows might actually not be the hardest animal to accommodate of those living in you rain garden.

Something tells me that humans will also live there, and could be appreciative of efforts done to alleviate a bit the hardships they endure :

– fruit trees

– toilets

– drinking water spots

– seats to socialize

– space to sleep at night

(how about structures where it is possible to install hammocks at night, so as to increase available sleeping capacity ?)

[Ryan James Aldrich]

Yes there are many social issues to deal with when designing public space in India.You listed some important ideas.

Fruit trees are fantastic, though I have concern with placing edible plants in a garden designed to absorb heavy metals / pollutants. I am an advocate of public fruit trees, and would love to see more throughout all urban areas of the world however perhaps not in rain gardens.

Toilets are an interesting concept in India, public toilets can be found however they are always ‘pay to use’.

Seats is an interesting point – prehaps seats can be arranged to prevent animals from tramping the rain garden, ie they are located around the garden acting as a fence. 

Sleeping is another deep social issue. From my observation a majority of homeless sleep at construction sites. Within major Indian city there is an enormous rate of growth and construction. Every 50 meters often  less there seems to be a construction project of a significant scale. The laborers who work on these also sleep in the under construction buildings. Or poor, small and rickety shacks are build at a corner of the site in which the laborers live. There is also the situation of slums, the informal settlements. The idea of been homeless in a western country does not directly translate to India.

Hammocks – why only at night! lets have permanent hammocks in our public space! I love this idea of yours.

I hope my rambling is of interest. Thank you for the comments and thoughts. It is fantastic!   

[Goustan BODIN]

Your project is of interest, and I would love to see you share some of it after you’re done 🙂

This website is just fantastic altogether 🙂

I thought of hammocks as being temporary so that people don’t steal them : they install their own for sleeping, and fold it when they’re done. But you’re right, people might want to use them during the day too (night shift workers, good old nap). Then, you’d most likely want to have some sort of shelter above for shade , and sometimes rain.

These hammocks would most likely end up being rented and provide some income for someone.

About filtering pollutants and fruit trees : if your rain gardens filter out only road pollutants, I believe the poorer people would not mind trading some possible long term effects against some immediate stomach satisfaction. I could be wrong, but I base this assumption on the many times I’ve seen the poor fish in foul smelling black stale open sewerage here in Bangkok. They eat whatever they can find, sell the rest. Do not investigate about the provenance of food you buy at the market here.

If your gardens have to cope with much more hardcore pollutants (industries), better avoid fruit trees altogether…

Cows wont mind either way. Neither will rats.

I understand there are public toilets everywhere already, but not in sufficient quantities, meaning a long wait when you’d like to run for it ! My data may be outdated, food for thought…

[John A Holtey]

Incorporate them into the rain garden ecosystem.  How can they help with infiltration and esthetics?  Are they not part of the landscape by cultural design?

[Author]

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