Abhaneri step-well, originally uploaded by Bouneweeger.
Given Western India's polarised weather conditions characterised by three months of monsoon rain followed by nine months of arid weather, the stepwells of India present an adaptable form of water infrastructure in their dual nature as an inhabitable well.
Dated to 600 AD, stepwells are inverted ziggurats dug into the earth in order to access underground aquifiers. A stepwell is composed of two parts – the well and the access route carved into it. The well is used to collect rainwater, either as catchment or by penetrating nearby aquifiers, whilst the access route down to the water surface serves as both circulation and collection basin.
What is intriguing about stepwells is that they served both as an infrastructure to collect water as well as a container for public space owing to their flexible capacity for spatial habitation depending on the time of year; as a mega storage tank during monsoon seasons; as a subterranean landscape during dry seasons, the base of the inverted pyramids providing respite from the hot sun on grade, giving rise to shaded community spaces amidst their architectural majesty.
However, following the onset of colonialism during the 19th century, a change in policy led to the demise of step wells which were deemed a “sanitary disaster” and were gradually replaced by modern infrastructural works. No doubt, India's historical socio-cultural tolerance of unsanitary practices which mixed bathing and drinking water, exacerbated by their co-habitation with cattle and their associated parasites, was deplored by the British.
More info at InfraNet Lab.
