Façade Surfacing at Madras Crocodile Bank Trust
The Madras Crocodile Bank Trust and Centre for Herpetology is one of the largest reptile zoos in the world and one of the oldest non government environmental organizations in Asia. Their primary aim is to promote the conservation of reptiles and amphibians on the Indian subcontinent, but the inference is multidisciplinary and extends worldwide. MCBT was conceived in 1973[12] and started on 26 August 1976 by herpetologist Romulus Whitaker and his wife Zai Whitaker at the time when the Indian government protected all three species of Indian crocodilians under the Wild Life Protection Act of 1972. The process though out the journey of MCBT, has been very realistic and user centric. Initial study of the client and sketching provided a base knowledge to begin with. The final sculptures are a culmination of each step in the process. It was not at all a linear process because there was simultaneous cross checking with the client brief and inferences were applied at each step.
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The team of Design Earth under the guidance of Jackson Porretta & Arnab Basu created the Facade Installation using mix media sculptures of various reptiles. The one key technique of production was sand casting: using cement, sand & Paper crete thus making the design ecological. We reused 50-60 kgs of newspaper in the process. However carving the negative image in sand to achieve the positive image was challenging. I have also worked with metal sculptures for the project .
Work, photography & enjoying nature at MCBT