The State of Architecture in South Asia initiative is anchored by the Lakshmi Mittal and Family South Asia Institute and the Harvard Graduate School of Design, and supported by the South Asia Graduate School of Design Student Group, Harvard University, and the Architecture Foundation, India. The project is led by Prof. Rahul Mehrotra, along with Pranav Thole and Devashree Shah, and aims to ask a few questions fundamental to the research and practice of architecture: Does Architecture matter in states of transition? The team believes this collective question will not only resonate across the different countries in the region, but the project’s gathered reflections will be mutually productive given the incredible common ground historically and culturally shared across South Asia. What does the practice of architecture in the region mean for the next generation? For the making of the architect and architectural education? Can Architecture address the abject inequity that has surrounded us in South Asia? What does practice mean for women architects in South Asia?

These and many such questions are what the State of Architecture in South Asia project hopes to explore while focusing specifically on architecture in the public realm and on the question of the public agency of architecture.