Jan 08 2025 to Jan 08 2025 6:30 p.m.

Where

Bangalore International Centre

7 4th Main Rd, Stage 2, Domlur 560071

Event Description

For complex projects in the public realm or at the scale of the city, actors become clearly differentiated, and hence the building of constituencies becomes crucial to engage different stakeholders in any project. This is often done through various media to put across ideas, and it is here that research and writing to communicate ideas of the city become an important part of the practice.

In retrospect, publications become a way of creating partnerships, collaborations, and friendships which serve to keep alive the conversations on the issues at hand and engagement with the work we do. Similarly, these publications then go out into the world beyond the project and have a life of their own. But, most critically, in hindsight they allowed us to expand our ‘sphere of influence’ and equipped us to speculate about the future, simultaneously creating an archive of the present.

The acts of archiving and reflecting, as well as simultaneously speculating and being propositional, are critical for us to gain agency as a profession. For, by committing to writing, drawing our speculations, or even discerning the patterns that surround us gives us agency as professionals in society. If we do not have agency or find ways to establish an agency, we will break down as a profession.

This lecture will cover 30 years of Rahul Mehrotra’s research and writings in the context of his engagement as a practitioner as well as advocate for various issues concerning Architecture and Urbanism in India.

   
Speakers
Rahul Mehrotra
Founder, RMA Architects

Rahul Mehrotra is the founder and principal of RMA Architects. He divides his time between working in Mumbai and Boston and teaching at the Graduate School of Design at Harvard University where he is Professor of Urban Design and Planning and the John T. Dunlop Professor in Housing and Urbanization. In 2012-2015, he led a Harvard University-wide research project, called The Kumbh Mela: Mapping the Ephemeral Mega City. This work was published as a book in 2014. This research was extended in 2017 in the form of a book titled Does Permanence Matter? Mehrotra’s most recent books are titled Working in Mumbai (2020) and The Kinetic City and other essays ( 2021). The former a reflection on his practice evolved through its association with the city of Bombay/Mumbai. The second book presents Mehrotra’s writings over the last thirty years and illustrates his long-term engagement with and analysis of urbanism in India. This work has given rise to a new conceptualization of the city which Mehrotra calls the Kinetic City.
Soumitro Ghosh
Design Chair, Kamla Raheja Institute for Architecture and Environmental Studies, Mumbai

Soumitro joined as a partner ‘Mathew and Ghosh Architects’, a partnership founded by Nisha Mathew in 1995. Educated at the School of Architecture CEPT Ahmedabad, Soumitro Ghosh has earlier worked with Pritzker Laureate B.V. Doshi, R.J. Vasavada, Neelkanth Chaaya, K B Jain, and others before beginning this collaborative multidirectional practice.

The work is varied across the spectrum and ranges from projects and ideas. The practice of Soumitro with Nisha Mathew covers public parks and memorials, hospitality, conservation, industrial facilities, corporate offices, educational, religious, and residential buildings, exhibitions, interiors, furniture, jewelry, art, and installations.

He is the present Design Chair for the Kamla Raheja Institute for Architecture and Environmental Studies, Mumbai. He has taught at the Bengal Institute, Dhaka; been the Charles Correa Design Chair in 2018; been a juror, panelist etc. at numerous occasions and forums. He began his journey of teaching with Kumar Vyas, a founding member of NID.

Bijoy Ramachandran
Founder, Hundredhands

Bijoy Ramachandran founded Hundredhands, a widely recognized architectural practice in 2003 with his partner Sunitha Kondur. He currently serves on the faculty of architecture at the British School at Rome and is the Design Chair for the post-graduate program at BMS College of Architecture in Bengaluru.

Ramachandran has a Master’s degree in Architecture and Urbanism from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and a Bachelor’s degree from BMS College of Architecture. He has also attended the Glenn Murcutt masterclass in Sydney.

In addition to practicing architecture, he has also produced three documentary films: two on the celebrated Indian architect Sri B.V. Doshi, ‘Doshi’ (2008) and ‘Doshi: The Second Chapter’ (2019); and one on architectural practice in Bangalore, ‘Architecture and the City: A Bangalore Perspective’ (2005).