siya kulkarni
MARCH ARCHITECTURE
Edinburgh College of Art
Specialisms: Architecture / Sustainable Design / Urban Design
Location: Edinburgh, United Kingdom
siya kulkarni
First Name: siya
Last Name: kulkarni
Specialisms: Architecture / Sustainable Design / Urban Design
Sectors:
My Location: Edinburgh, United Kingdom
University / College: Edinburgh College of Art
Course / Program Title: MARCH ARCHITECTURE
About
Through my studies in the Radical Harvest studio which focused on earth as a regenerative bioregional material and labour, I developed a strong interest in creative low-carbon solutions. I explored adaptive approaches to construction which support multispecies coexistence and ecological regeneration, investigating retrofit strategies which use locally foraged and salvaged material.
Situated along the Water of Leith, Entangled Interfaces explores alternative futures of coexistence between human and non-human actors. The project operates across three scales: Observation Beacons support public practices of ecological surveying and monitoring; the Hearth of Co-habitation, a multispecies co-living typology, recycles waste heat, redirecting residual heat towards non-human habitats; and a retrofit guidebook enables residents to customise their own residential interfaces to support ecological life. The thesis explores how intentional design can transmit the values of attentiveness and care through to the residential user to cultivate alternative forms of coexistence. Through three architectural typologies, it proposes a rethinking of thresholds—material, thermal, social, and behavioural - which transforms the interface into a space of shared resources. The thesis revalues neglected ecological systems, marginalised non-humans and salvaged materials to position architecture not as a tool to profiteer for mankind and accentuate interspecies disparity, but as an active practice of care for a multispecies city. The proposals engage with Edinburgh’s circular material flows and normalise using non-standardised, second-hand material by refitting local, low-carbon materials such as straw and earth, alongside salvaged material, including steel warehouse trusses, disused playground equipment and materials foraged from the Water of Leith. Developed alongside the Water of Leith Conservation Trust, Observation Beacons hosts retrofit workshops that teach residents to forage, taxonomise and experiment, enabling them to build their own residential interfaces, and integrate ecological interventions that reconnect fragmented habitats and facilitate non-human movement across the city. The Hearth of Cohabitation proposes a model of co-living and co-ownership centred around a rammed earth biome which acts as a thermal and social centre, accommodating shared laundry facilities, second-hand clothing exchange and co-working areas. Passive solar gain and waste-heat recovery contribute to shared heating whilst residual warm air is redirected through the non-human hearth and bat cavities, supporting urban habitats and facilitating the stack-effect for passive heating and cooling.