Emerging Urbanisation: In the time of a virus

The course is put together through four reference points: (1) Not only have urban-like conditions have emerged far beyond the boundaries of existing cities but also called into question normative propositions of ‘what is a city?’; (2) It is necessary for architects to situate architectural production in the experiences of emerging urbanisation. This may call for engagements beyond the prison house of reading cities through narratives of ‘lack,’ and calls for rights-based approaches to better policy and plans; (3) Our provocation is to explore a dialogical engagement with the performances of bodies in the densities and intensities of social practices and the possibilities that builtform affords in ways that advance an ethic of responsibility and care; and (4) Use creative analytical processes (non-fiction and fiction, written and drawn stories including graphical novels, digital stories including animation and film, game boards including digital games and coding, scripts and performances, modeling - sculpting - installations etc.) to engage with an analysis and proposition about social practices and builtform.

This course thus asks: How do social practices shape and are shaped by the affordances of (built)form? What spatial provocations could be articulated to engage with the performances of bodies in the densities and intensities of social practices? What is a relevant form of representation to articulate such
spatial provocations? During the current academic year (2021-22), we will explore social practices and spatialities that have been produced in the backdrop of the COVID-19 global pandemic as a condition of emerging urbanisation whose experiences of extension and contraction of space, and expansion and erosion of claim-making practices have been felt sharply across a wide spectrum of social groups in India, and elsewhere.