+CORE MODULES
Core modules are anchor courses around the philosophies of SEA. They are experimental and exploratory - jointly undertaken by the faculty and students of SEA towards not only developing new knowledge, but also speculating and projecting on architectural ideas and questions for developing new possibilities for life and living.These courses are set up with a twin agenda - first to build capacities in spatial analysis and design at various scales; and second to build a conceptual, spatial, visual and making culture at SEA.
Conceptual Culture refers to a culture of depending on conceptual articulations to engage with life (and architecture). The premise here is that our lives (including architecture) are shaped through concepts, and it is the job of academia to interrogate them. Through these courses, students and teachers will be involved in rigorously interrogating these concepts. Each semester will focus on one of the concepts (or cluster of concepts) that have significantly shaped architecture, and subsequently life.
Conceptual Culture refers to a culture of depending on conceptual articulations to engage with life (and architecture). The premise here is that our lives (including architecture) are shaped through concepts, and it is the job of academia to interrogate them. Through these courses, students and teachers will be involved in rigorously interrogating these concepts. Each semester will focus on one of the concepts (or cluster of concepts) that have significantly shaped architecture, and subsequently life.
Visual Culture refers to a culture that believes that we as society are significantly shaped by images. Here images mean drawings, photographs, signages, hoardings, and even the image of form that one perceives (for example - image of a street in one’s mind).
The premise here is that the structure and language of these images (particularly drawings, when made for understanding, analysing or imagining new forms of life and space) shape the world we live in, aspire towards, and make. Every semester, the Core Courses will explore different kinds of image-making to explore the concepts they are working with.
Spatial Culture refers to a culture of thinking through space and place. The premise here is that there are relationships between a specific (geographic & temporal) form of society and spatial culture - every society produces its spatiality and vice-versa (for example: a chawl or a palace or a fort is produced in a specific society). Spatial culture not only has to do with the specific forms / types / patterns of spatiality, but also with contexts, modes, methods and mechanics of imagining / producing such spatiality along with the experiences and relationships the spatiality creates.
Spatial Culture refers to a culture of thinking through space and place. The premise here is that there are relationships between a specific (geographic & temporal) form of society and spatial culture - every society produces its spatiality and vice-versa (for example: a chawl or a palace or a fort is produced in a specific society). Spatial culture not only has to do with the specific forms / types / patterns of spatiality, but also with contexts, modes, methods and mechanics of imagining / producing such spatiality along with the experiences and relationships the spatiality creates.
The concept of ‘spatial culture’ collapses the distinction between materiality of space and the abstractions in social relationships into one composite idea. Spatial culture impacts the experience of space. The courses will seek to think of the world as a spatially structured entity and make space active in all engagements with the world.
Making Culture refers to a culture of looking closely at the mechanics of physicalities and viscerally engaging with the world. The premise here is that space and form are inseparable and humans think of space through form. Form has a structure and materiality, which are instrumental in form-making. The Core Courses will invest in experimenting and exploring form, its structure, its assemblies, its detail, the processes of putting them together along with affordances, experiences and meanings generated.
The following courses are conducted through the ten semesters as Core Courses at SEA.
Making Culture refers to a culture of looking closely at the mechanics of physicalities and viscerally engaging with the world. The premise here is that space and form are inseparable and humans think of space through form. Form has a structure and materiality, which are instrumental in form-making. The Core Courses will invest in experimenting and exploring form, its structure, its assemblies, its detail, the processes of putting them together along with affordances, experiences and meanings generated.
The following courses are conducted through the ten semesters as Core Courses at SEA.
︎COURSE
+ ORIENTATION
︎A15 Orientation Impossible ︎A16 Punishment Devices
︎A18 Orientation: Jack and the Beanstalk
︎A20 Orientation: How to fly a kite
︎A21 Orientation: Hamzanama - Adventures of Amir Hamza
+ FORM
︎A16 Pavilion ︎A17 Specimen and Shape Geometry
︎A18 Specimen and Shape Geometry
︎A19 Geometry of a Foot
︎A19 Specimen and Shape Geometry - Body Support
︎A20 Home and the Self
︎A20 Specimen and Shape Geometry - Epiphytes
+ EXPERIENCE
︎A17 Journey from Home to SEA ︎A19 Jorge Luis Borges’s Imaginary Beings
︎A20 Ursula Le Guinn - The Birthday of the World
︎A21 Arthur Rimbaud’s Poems
+ MATERIAL & SYSTEMS
︎A16 Material Sense ︎A15 Long Span Exhibition Hall
︎A17 Material sense, concrete, digital design, building services, exhibition design
︎A17 Exhibition Pavilion
︎A19 New Modularity
︎A18 Large Spans and Management of Air - Maker’s Space
+ ENVIRONMENTAL FLOWS
︎A14 Studying Terrain ︎A14 Environmental Thresholds in Bandra Fort
︎A15 Poisar River
︎A15 Environmental Thresholds - Kolkata
︎A16 Negotiating an Estuarine Landscape - Vakollah Nallah
︎A18 Managing wetness and adopting lightness- Rescue - Community Centre
︎A18 Environmental Thresholds - School in Veti, Murbad
︎A19 Resources Flows and Systems: Artist Residency (Powai)
︎A19 Environmental thresholds: Eastern Waterfront
︎A20-21 Environmental Flows (Daman)
+ TYPE
︎A17 Specimen and Shape Geometry
︎A17 Journey from Home to SEA
︎A17 Climatic Pavilions
︎A16 Adaptive Surfaces
︎A16 Mumbai Neighbourhoods - Inner City Timeline
︎A16 Type in Mathar Pakhadi
︎A16 Material Sense
︎A15 South Asian Architecture and Urbanism Timeline
︎A15 Poisar River
︎A15 Long Span Exhibition Hall
︎A15 Environmental Thresholds - Kolkata
︎A15 Public Library
︎A14 Hybrid High Rises
+ BUILDING SYSTEMS
︎A17 Specimen and Shape Geometry
︎A17 Journey from Home to SEA
︎A17 Climatic Pavilions
︎A16 Adaptive Surfaces
︎A16 Mumbai Neighbourhoods - Inner City Timeline
︎A16 Type in Mathar Pakhadi
︎A16 Material Sense
︎A15 South Asian Architecture and Urbanism Timeline
︎A15 Poisar River
︎A15 Long Span Exhibition Hall
︎A15 Environmental Thresholds - Kolkata
︎A15 Public Library
︎A14 Hybrid High Rises
+ INSTITUTIONAL GENEOLOGIES
︎A17 Specimen and Shape Geometry
︎A17 Journey from Home to SEA
︎A17 Climatic Pavilions
︎A16 Adaptive Surfaces
︎A16 Mumbai Neighbourhoods - Inner City Timeline
︎A16 Type in Mathar Pakhadi
︎A16 Material Sense
︎A15 South Asian Architecture and Urbanism Timeline
︎A15 Poisar River
︎A15 Long Span Exhibition Hall
︎A15 Environmental Thresholds - Kolkata
︎A15 Public Library
︎A14 Hybrid High Rises
+ DETAIL
︎A17 Specimen and Shape Geometry
︎A17 Journey from Home to SEA
︎A17 Climatic Pavilions
︎A16 Adaptive Surfaces
︎A16 Mumbai Neighbourhoods - Inner City Timeline
︎A16 Type in Mathar Pakhadi
︎A16 Material Sense
︎A15 South Asian Architecture and Urbanism Timeline
︎A15 Poisar River
︎A15 Long Span Exhibition Hall
︎A15 Environmental Thresholds - Kolkata
︎A15 Public Library
︎A14 Hybrid High Rises
+ BUILDING MAKING
︎A17 Specimen and Shape Geometry
︎A17 Journey from Home to SEA
︎A17 Climatic Pavilions
︎A16 Adaptive Surfaces
︎A16 Mumbai Neighbourhoods - Inner City Timeline
︎A16 Type in Mathar Pakhadi
︎A16 Material Sense
︎A15 South Asian Architecture and Urbanism Timeline
︎A15 Poisar River
︎A15 Long Span Exhibition Hall
︎A15 Environmental Thresholds - Kolkata
︎A15 Public Library
︎A14 Hybrid High Rises
+ MASS INHABITATION
︎A17 Specimen and Shape Geometry
︎A17 Journey from Home to SEA
︎A17 Climatic Pavilions
︎A16 Adaptive Surfaces
︎A16 Mumbai Neighbourhoods - Inner City Timeline
︎A16 Type in Mathar Pakhadi
︎A16 Material Sense
︎A15 South Asian Architecture and Urbanism Timeline
︎A15 Poisar River
︎A15 Long Span Exhibition Hall
︎A15 Environmental Thresholds - Kolkata
︎A15 Public Library
︎A14 Hybrid High Rises
+ SPATIAL ARGUMENTS
︎A17 Specimen and Shape Geometry
︎A17 Journey from Home to SEA
︎A17 Climatic Pavilions
︎A16 Adaptive Surfaces
︎A16 Mumbai Neighbourhoods - Inner City Timeline
︎A16 Type in Mathar Pakhadi
︎A16 Material Sense
︎A15 South Asian Architecture and Urbanism Timeline
︎A15 Poisar River
︎A15 Long Span Exhibition Hall
︎A15 Environmental Thresholds - Kolkata
︎A15 Public Library
︎A14 Hybrid High Rises
+ OTHER COURSES
︎A16 Mumbai Neighbourhoods - Inner City Timeline︎A15 South Asian Architecture and Urbanism Timeline
︎A17 Mumbai Neighbourhoods Studies Volume 4
︎A17 Mumbai Neigbourhoods Patterns
︎A16 Women Architects of South Asia
︎A18 Mumbai Suburban Histories an Investigation into work types
︎A18 Observatories, Gardens , Pavilions and Stepwells
︎A17 Timeline of South Asian Architecture and Urbanism
︎A18 The Bangladesh Archive
︎A15 Spatiality of the Future - Rising Seas
︎A16 Spatiality of the future -The Cloud in the City
︎A17 Spatiality of the Future- Pandemic Spatialities
A17 Specimen and Shape Geometry
︎YEAR
︎2014-2015
︎ ︎2015-2016
︎Batch 2015 - 2019: Orientation Impossible
︎Batch 2014 - 2018: Siddhpur Memory Box
︎Batch 2014 - 2018: Studying Terrain
︎2016-2017
︎
Batch 2016 - 2020:
Punishment Devices
︎ Batch 2016 - 2020: Charles Correa Unbuilt
︎ Batch 2016 - 2020: Pavilion
︎ Batch 2015 - 2019: What is a home?
︎ Batch 2014 - 2018: Environmental Thresholds in Bandra Fort
︎ Batch 2014 - 2018: Resource Audits
︎ Batch 2014 - 2018: Design Detailing of a Museum Building
︎2017-2018
︎
Batch 2017 - 2021:
Specimen and Shape Geometry
︎ Batch 2017 - 2021: Journey from Home to SEA
︎ Batch 2017 - 2021: Climatic Pavilions
︎ Batch 2016 - 2020: Adaptive Surfaces
︎ Batch 2016 - 2020: Mumbai Neighbourhoods - Inner City Timeline
︎ Batch 2016 - 2020: Type in Mathar Pakhadi
︎ Batch 2016 - 2020: Material Sense
︎ Batch 2015 - 2019: South Asian Architecture and Urbanism Timeline
︎ Batch 2015 - 2019: Poisar River
︎ Batch 2015 - 2019: Long Span Exhibition Hall
︎ Batch 2015 - 2019: Environmental Thresholds - Kolkata
︎ Batch 2015 - 2019: Public Library
︎ Batch 2014 - 2018: Hybrid High Rises
︎2018-2019
︎
Batch 2018 - 2022:
Orientation: Jack and the Beanstalk︎ Batch 2018 - 2022: Specimen and Shape Geometry
︎ Batch 2017 - 2021: Pune Patterns - Intervening in the inner city
︎ Batch 2017 - 2021: Mumbai Neighbourhoods Studies Volume 4
︎ Batch 2017 - 2021: Material sense, concrete, digital design, building services, exhibition design
︎ Batch 2017 - 2021: What is a clinic?
︎ Batch 2017 - 2021: Library
︎ Batch 2017 - 2021: Mumbai Neigbourhoods Patterns
︎ Batch 2016 - 2020: What is a Library?
︎ Batch 2016 - 2020: Women Architects of South Asia
︎ Batch 2016 - 2020: Productive and Performative Architecture for SEA School Building
︎ Batch 2016 - 2020: Resource Audits and Building Skins
︎ Batch 2016 - 2020: Negotiating an Estuarine Landscape - Vakollah Nallah
︎ Batch 2016 - 2020: Performing Arts Centre
︎ Batch 2015 - 2019: Hybrid High Rises
︎ Batch 2014 - 2018: Housing in Visakhapatnam and Vijaywada
︎ Batch 2014 - 2018: Spatial Arguments
︎2019-2020
︎
Batch 2019 - 2023:
Geometry of a Foot ︎ Batch 2019 - 2023: Specimen and Shape Geometry - Body Support
︎ Batch 2019 - 2023: Jorge Luis Borges’s Imaginary Beings
︎ Batch 2018 - 2022: Mumbai Suburban Histories an Investigation into work types
︎ Batch 2018 - 2022: Investigating typology in Alibaug
︎ Batch 2018 - 2022: Passive House Design: Adapting to Climate Change
︎ Batch 2018 - 2022: What is a Library?
︎ Batch 2018 - 2022: Observatories, Gardens , Pavilions and Stepwells
︎ Batch 2017 - 2021: Timeline of South Asian Architecture and Urbanism
︎ Batch 2017 - 2021: Productive Architecture - Co Living Spaces
︎ Batch 2017 - 2021: Exhibition Pavilion
︎ Batch 2017 - 2021: Interpretive Centre
︎ Batch 2017 - 2021: Design Detailing of Medium Sized Institutional Building
︎ Batch 2016 - 2020: Housing in Trichy
︎ Batch 2016 - 2020: Hybrid High Rises
︎ Batch 2015 - 2019: Spatiality of the Future - Rising Seas
︎ Batch 2015 - 2019: Spatial Arguments
︎2020-2021
︎
Batch 2020 - 24:
Orientation: How to fly a kite ︎ Batch 2020 - 24: Home and the Self
︎ Batch 2020 - 24: Specimen and Shape Geometry - Epiphytes
︎ Batch 2020 - 24: Ursula Le Guinn - The Birthday of the World
︎ Batch 2019 - 23: What is a Factory?
︎ Batch 2019 - 23: Composite Construction: Solar Passive House
︎ Batch 2019 - 23: What is a Home? (Mumbai, Delhi, Raipur, Nashik, Solapur)
︎ Batch 2019 - 23: New Modularity
︎ Batch 2018 - 22: The Bangladesh Archive
︎ Batch 2018 - 22: Large Spans and Management of Air - Maker’s Space
︎ Batch 2018 - 22: Resources and Urban Form - Home for Senior Citizens
︎ Batch 2018 - 22: Managing wetness and adopting lightness
︎ Batch 2018 - 22: Environmental Thresholds - School in Veti, Murbad
︎ Batch 2017 - 21: Housing in Mysore
︎ Batch 2017 - 21: Hybrid High Rises
︎ Batch 2016 - 20: Spatiality of the future -The Cloud in the City
︎2021-2022
︎
Batch 2021 - 25:
Orientation: Hamzanama - Adventures of Amir Hamza︎ Batch 2021 - 25: Arthur Rimbaud’s Poems
︎ Batch 2020 - 24: Diagram, Grammar and Language of Space-Pandemic Type
︎ Batch 2020 - 24: Spatial Patterns & Material Phenomenologies Making Home in Inner City Contexts
︎ Batch 2020 - 24: System Ontologies
︎ Batch 2020 - 24: What is a Museum?
︎ Batch 2019 - 23: Resources Flows and Systems: Artist Residency (Powai)
︎ Batch 2019 - 23: Technological Sensorium
︎ Batch 2019 - 23: Systems Details and Drawings: Textile Museum at (Paithan)
︎ Batch 2019 - 23: Environmental thresholds: Eastern Waterfront
︎ Batch 2018 - 22: Emerging Urbanisation : In the time of a virus
︎ Batch 2018 - 22: Housing in Tiruchirappalli and Trichy
︎ Batch 2017 - 21: Spatiality of the Future- Pandemic Spatialities
︎2022-2023
︎
Batch 2020 - 2024 &
2021 - 2025:
:
Environmental Flows (Daman)︎ Batch 2019 - 2023: Rethinking Housing in Mumbai
︎ Batch 2018 - 2022: Spatial Arguments
+ALLIED & SPECIALISATION STUDIES
The pedagogical ambition of the Allied Studies courses is to question existing assumptions about the institution. It is an invitation to rethink the architectural institution as largely concerned with producing individuals with capacities to build, towards perceiving it as a collaborative of heterogeneous, distinct and autonomous directions within architecture that inform each other and draw out the merit in each other. The course aims to provide space for such an expanded idea of spatial design, where the design of the self and design of life itself become the key objectives. The courses are structured such that each faculty member anchors a studio that centres the questions that their individual practices seek to investigate. These questions raise a longue durée engagement and are deeply connected to philosophical processes.
︎COURSE
︎3D Digital Fabrication
︎Curation & Exhibition Design: Living in a Metaphor (3)
︎Drawing out the Everyday: The Scribe and the Labyrinth (3)
︎Environment and Care (3)
︎Everyday Environment and Architecture of Exfoliation (2)
︎Housing/Urbanization(3)
︎Human Ecology and Architecture
︎Itineraries
︎Landscape Urbanism: Commons, Designing the Bio-diverse and species Inclusive City
︎Laputa: Castle in the sky | Flying Machine
︎Making Cultures: Form and Matter (4)
︎Meaning & Form: Objects, Movements and Sound
︎Miniatures
︎Participatory Design
︎Rethinking spatiality with Bamboo
︎Sheltering Idiosyncrasies of Home Spaces
︎Spatiality of the Future
︎Storytelling and City (3)
︎Tactical Interventions, Possibilities of Reconciliation Through Design
︎Technological Sensoriums
︎The Bricoleuse (3)
︎The Self and the Structure
︎ Product Design: Useful And Unuseful Objects (2)
︎YEAR
︎2020
︎Curation & Exhibition Design
︎Drawing out the Everyday: The Scribe and the Labyrinth
︎Environment and Care
︎Housing/Urbanization
︎Itineraries
︎Living In a Metaphor
︎Making Cultures: Form and Matter
︎Sheltering Idiosyncrasies of Home Spaces
︎Storytelling and City
︎The Bricoleuse
︎Useful and Unuseful Objects
︎2021
︎Curation & Exhibition Design
︎Architectures of Exfoliation
︎Drawing out the Everyday: The Scribe and the Labyrinth
︎Environment and Care
︎Housing/Urbanization
︎Laputa: Castle in the sky | Flying Machine
︎Living In a Metaphor
︎Storytelling and City
︎The Bricoleuse
︎Making Cultures: Form and Matter
︎Miniatures
︎2022
︎Curation & Exhibition Design
︎3D Digital Fabrication
︎Architectures of Exfoliation
︎Drawing out the Everyday: The Scribe and the Labyrinth
︎Environment and Care
︎Human Ecology and Architecture
︎Landscape Urbanism: Commons, Designing the Bio-diverse and species Inclusive City
︎Making Cultures: Form and Matter
︎Meaning & Form: Objects, Movements and Sound
︎Participatory Design
︎Product Design: Useful And Unuseful Objects
︎Rethinking spatiality with Bamboo
︎Spatiality of the Future
︎Storytelling and City
︎Tactical Interventions, Possibilities of Reconciliation Through Design
︎Technological Sensoriums
︎The Bricoleuse
︎The Self and the Structure
+THESIS & DESIGN DISSERTATION
The undergraduate Thesis and Design Dissertation asks some fundamental questions on the nature of relationships between life and spatiality. Students undertake a range of questions such as
‘How do specific spatialities produce / erode societal differences and vice-versa (of class, caste, ethnicity, race, gender, age and disability)?’, ‘How do specific spatialities produce a sense of power, hierarchy and fear?’, ‘What is the role of spatiality in shaping emotions, behaviours, experiences and practices?’
It is undertaken in two parts:
Making a Spatial Argument:
Where what gets asked is: What is an architectural thesis? Why should and how could an architectural thesis be advanced? The objective here is to develop capacities and skills of final year undergraduate students to conduct research and advance an architectural thesis while articulating a relevant form of narrative generation for their spatial arguments
Making a Spatial Argument:
Where what gets asked is: What is an architectural thesis? Why should and how could an architectural thesis be advanced? The objective here is to develop capacities and skills of final year undergraduate students to conduct research and advance an architectural thesis while articulating a relevant form of narrative generation for their spatial arguments
Developing Spatial Interventions:
Here, the students are expected to develop a design of a physical intervention based on their spatial arguments developed in semester 9. The course is focused on developing the ability of a student to undertake independent architectural exploration based on the student's thesis including - identification of relevant sites, analysis of sites, scoping of architecture, developing architectural strategies and undertaking architectural resolution. Each student shall work under close supervision of a core faculty from SEA.
Here, the students are expected to develop a design of a physical intervention based on their spatial arguments developed in semester 9. The course is focused on developing the ability of a student to undertake independent architectural exploration based on the student's thesis including - identification of relevant sites, analysis of sites, scoping of architecture, developing architectural strategies and undertaking architectural resolution. Each student shall work under close supervision of a core faculty from SEA.
︎Curation & Exhibition Design: Living in a Metaphor
︎ Everyday Environment and Architecture of Exfoliation
︎ Landscape Urbanism: Commons, Designing the Bio-diverse and species Inclusive City
︎ Product Design: Useful And Unuseful Objects
︎ Rethinking spatiality with Bamboo
︎ Spatiality of the Future
︎ Tactical Interventions, Possibilities of Reconciliation Through Design
︎ Technological Sensoriums
︎ 3D Digital Fabrication Drawing out the Everyday: The Scribe and the Labyrinth
︎ Everyday Environment and Architecture of Exfoliation
︎ Landscape Urbanism: Commons, Designing the Bio-diverse and species Inclusive City
︎ Product Design: Useful And Unuseful Objects
︎ Rethinking spatiality with Bamboo
︎ Spatiality of the Future
︎ Tactical Interventions, Possibilities of Reconciliation Through Design
︎ Technological Sensoriums
︎ 3D Digital Fabrication Drawing out the Everyday: The Scribe and the Labyrinth
+SETTLEMENT STUDIES
Under the settlement studies programme, different human habitations are visited in the first three years. These courses are formulated with broadly three objectives - first, to train students into undertaking organised field-work, collect data and undertake analysis of such data to make inferences and conclusions; second, to develop in students an interest and orientation towards looking at the field as a source of knowledge and of life; and lastly, to sharpen the abilities of students to sense the field using their own senses as well as their analytical capacities.
At SEA field visits are also undertaken with a purpose of adding new knowledge to the field of architecture. One of the most important dimensions of field visits at SEA is that the field is used to interrogate oneself - where one asks questions about oneself via the field. Such an approach locates the locus of difference within the self, instead of the object outside. The questions are geared towards interrogating the assumption of one’s “normal” and ways in which certain spatialities get conceived within the mind.
The field is thus a site to encounter the self through a process of defamiliarization.
︎COURSE
+Study of settlements in a primary economy towards understanding relationship between socio-economic life and built-form
+Study of institutional architecture / inner city areas through measured drawings towards understanding relationships between culture, built-form and behaviour / experience
+Study of an environmentally sensitive area towards understanding relationship between non-human made environment and built-form
︎YEAR
︎2014-2015
︎ ︎2015-2016
︎A15 Dhuriwada
︎A14 Goa
︎2016-2017
︎A16 Jawhar︎2017-2018
︎A17 Buhari
︎A16 Jaipur
︎A15 Kolkata
︎2018-2019
︎A18 Korlai
︎A17 Shivsagar
︎A16 Auroville
︎A16 Sonshi
︎A14 - 15 Visakhapatnam and Vijaywada
︎2019-2020
︎A19 Goa: Juuawadi, Kinale, Dagadkholwadi
︎A18 Alibaug Koliwada
︎A18 Reva
︎A17 Powai Lake
︎2020-2021
︎A20
︎A19 Charkop Narratives
︎A18 Veti Village Murbad
︎2021-2022
︎A21 Miriya︎A20 Pangna
︎A19 Story of Mumbai’s Eastern Waterfront - Mahul Creek
︎A19 Loktak Lake