The State of Architecture in South Asia
The State of Architecture in South Asia initiative, led by Harvard Graduate School of Design Prof. Rahul Mehrotra, aims to ask collectively, across the region, the fundamental question: Does Architecture matter in these 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.
LECTURE SERIES
The State of Architecture Lecture Series has three distinct components that aims to facilitate inter- and intra-generational conversations among students, practitioners and academics in South Asia. The series began in 2022 and will continue until 2024.
Emergent Practices in South Asia
This popular virtual lecture series created an engaging platform for Emerging Practices to articulate their position as well as expand their network of peers to push the intellectual boundaries of their fields collectively.
Reflecting on Architectural Practices in South Asia
This lecture series will involve practitioners who have been in the field for over four decades and are well situated to reflect on their trajectory over this long duration.
Interrogating Models of Practice in South Asia
This lecture series will create a platform for architects who have been practicing for at least a decade or two and who are considered to be in a mid-career position of their trajectories.
The hope is that the ecology of practitioners and network of peers created through this sharing of ideas in this forum might lead to cross-pollination of concepts and methodologies in addition to critique and reflection among the next generation of practitioners in the region.
CONFERENCE
The conference is an attempt to bring together established practitioners and academics that could help understand the emerging challenges and the diverse trajectories of Architectural practice in the region.
Architectures of Transition Conference, New Delhi, India, December 14-16, 2023
The intent of the conference is essentially to create a forum that helps architects both confront and reflect upon the breadth of work undertaken in the region collectively, and from a critical standpoint that attempts to bridge the existing gap between theory and practice.
TRAVELING EXHIBITION
The traveling exhibition will be designed to trigger conversations in different countries in the region, through local participation, to identify additional practices that collectively expand the intellectual inquiry and research project.
More details to be released soon.
BOOK
The State of Architecture in South Asia book will capture the research generated through the entire project. This publication will be released in December 2023 in New Delhi.
CURATORIAL TEAM
Rahul Mehrotra
John T. Dunlop Professor in Housing and Urbanization, Graduate School of Design
Pranav Thole
Harvard GSD '23
Devashree Shah
Harvard GSD
Dhruv Mehta
Harvard GSD
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