Typology Workshop on Stormwater Drains
Building a Shared Understanding of Bengaluru’s Hidden Water Networks
On 11 October 2025, Mod Foundation, in collaboration with Oorvani Foundation, hosted The Typology Workshop on Stormwater Drains at the BLR Design Centre as part of the Stormwater & the City initiative—an ongoing effort supported by the Bengaluru Sustainability Forum (BSF) to enhance awareness, transparency, and citizen engagement around the city’s stormwater drainage network.
The workshop marked a key step in developing a participatory, data-driven understanding of Bengaluru’s stormwater infrastructure—systems that are critical to the city’s resilience but often remain invisible in urban life.
Once sustained by an intricate network of lakes, tanks, and rajakaluves, Bengaluru’s relationship with water has been disrupted by rapid urbanisation and fragmented planning. The Building a Resilient Bengaluru campaign, under which this workshop was organised, seeks to make the city’s hidden water systems visible, accessible, and understood—not just as infrastructure, but as living ecologies that shape how the city functions and feels.
Understanding the Typology of Stormwater Drains
The central exercise of the workshop involved identifying and mapping typologies of stormwater drains (SWDs). A typology here refers to the distinct spatial and environmental character of a drain segment based on its urban context and ecological function.
For example, a stormwater drain running along a residential street behaves, and needs to be engaged by the public very differently from one running beside a market, a highway, a park, or inside an IT Park. Recognising these variations helps us understand not only the physical condition of drains but also their social, ecological, and infrastructural roles in different parts of the city.
By classifying drains into typologies, we can begin to:
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Identify context-specific challenges and opportunities for design and restoration.
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Develop better policy and design guidelines rooted in real spatial conditions.
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Create a shared language among citizens, planners, and engineers for discussing stormwater management.
A Collaborative Step Towards a Resilient Bengaluru
The workshop brought together architecture students, professionals, citizen groups, and researchers from institutions such as MS Ramaiah School of Architecture, RV College of Architecture, BMS Yelahanka, PES University, and organisations including Well Labs, Paani Foundation, Sponge Collaborative, and Friends of Lakes.
The process demonstrated how collaborative learning, civic participation, and open-source tools can build resilience—not just in infrastructure, but in communities themselves.
Resilience, as the workshop reaffirmed, emerges from shared knowledge, collective action, and citizen-led observation. The Typology Workshop is only the beginning of an ongoing series of dialogues that aim to reimagine Bengaluru’s stormwater drains (rajakaluves) as resilient, inclusive public spaces—places that not only manage water, but also enrich the everyday lives of those who live around them.
