Fall 2024 // Anatomy of a Fluid Lanscape
Scaffold Journal Vol 2: Drafting Liminalities, University of Toronto, Toronto, ON
ABSTRACT: In the region of Kashmir, landscape representations have been appropriated by the nation-state
to construct visual ideologies. At the epicentre of the valley landscape, Dal Lake’s waters are
further subjected to ecological imaginaries, to the detriment of the site’s inhabitants and
labourers known as Hanjis. Textualized and referenced as a lake with crystal-clear waters,
current approaches to drafting Dal Lake continue to engage in violent concealment, promoting a
pristine lake devoid of existing lake dweller communities, lacustrine interventions, and aquatic
ecologies. As counter-practice, new imaginaries of the waterbody’s landscape are presented, using architectural representation strategies to include Hanji perspectives, land-based practices, and
ecological knowledge.