2017 Events Combined
2017 Events Combined
2017 Events Combined
The contribution made by KRVIA faculty both current and Alumni to build cultural landscape
of city as well as build innovative practices
Faculty Incharge:
Event Poster:
UNIVERSITY OF MUMBAI
USM’s Kamla Raheja Vidyanidhi Institute
For Architecture and Environmental Studies
Brief Description:
To celebrate the 25 years of the KRVIA, it organised a public event that was a look back upon
its history through the practitioners it helped shape. Alumni was invited to send in their work
in architecture, urban design and other related practices that was exhibited in the Exhibition
Area of the school. Along with the exhibition a conversation was also held with Prof Sen
Kapadia, the founding director of the school. There was also a structured Round Table
dialogue between alumni, ex-faculty, current faculty and students conducted by Prof
Narendra Dengle tracing trajectories within KRVIA’s history.
Presenter’s Bio:
Sen Kapadia: Sen kapadia (b. 1936) received his diploma in Architecture from Sir J.J.
COLLEGE of arch. in 1962. He worked with Louis Kahn before setting up his independent
practice. He is a recipient of several awards for his work. His academic output includes
lectures, seminars, exhibitions, writing and theoretical projects. He was the founding director
of the Kamla Raheja Vidyanidhi Institute for Architecture in Mumbai.
Solo exhibitions of his works and drawings were held in Pune, Mumbai, and Nagpur. He is
the author of the books Jharoka (Marathi), 2007, The Discovery of Architecture: a
contemporary treatise on ancient values & indigenous realty co-authored with M N Ashish
UNIVERSITY OF MUMBAI
USM’s Kamla Raheja Vidyanidhi Institute
For Architecture and Environmental Studies
Ganju, 2013, Dialogues with Indian Master Architects 2015, and The Architecture in
Maharashtra: Tradition & Journey (2 volumes each in Marathi and English-awaiting
publication). He has made films on Architectural Appreciation.
Besides them 50- 60 Alumni submitted their work and over a 100 participated in the
conversation.
Learning Outcomes :
Students were exposed to the variety of possibilities of structuring ones architectural practice
after graduation. They were also able to consider and analyse the relationship between
pedagogy and practice.
Faculty Incharge:
Nibedita Mishra
Event Poster:
Brief Description:
The Monsoon Workshops are an important annual event in the KRVIA academic calendar
where practitioners and researchers in various fields interact with the students over a period
of a few days in the Month of July engaging students in conversations and projects that
explore cross-disciplinary ways of reading architecture. Mr. Avijit Mukul Kishore – Film,
Ms. Prajakta Potnis – Art, Mr. Rajeev Thakker – Architecture and Ms. Sangeeta Kapoor –
Environmentalist were invited.
Presenter’s Bio:
Prajakta Potnis: Prajakta Potnis (born 1980) is an Indian contemporary artist based in
Mumbai working in photography, painting, sculpture and installations. Her work explores the
connections between intimate and public worlds, and the topographies that influence global
politics and economics.
Potnis was born in 1980 in Mumbai, India. She received her BFA and MFA from J.J School
of Art, Mumbai (1995–2002) and a degree in Film Appreciation Course, Film and Television
Institute of India (FTTI). She became interested in using the kitchen and domestic appliances
in an artistic sense after reading about the Kitchen Debate, where the US President Richard
Nixon attempted to show the Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev a kitchen affordable by
anyone in the US. She explored the history behind the appliances and their impact on post-
war society.
Rajeev Thakker: Rajeev Thakker obtained his BArch from Syracuse University, New York in
1994 and his MSAAD from Columbia University’s GSAPP, NYC in 1998. He has worked for
firms such as S.O.M. and the Arnell Group in NYC. In 2003, he started his own practice, a-
RT, which takes a keen interest in exploring design through various operative conditions i.e.:
cartographic, architectural & other creative processes. Over the past 13 years, a-RT has
UNIVERSITY OF MUMBAI
USM’s Kamla Raheja Vidyanidhi Institute
For Architecture and Environmental Studies
designed and realized several projects in the Hospitality, Retail, Commercial, Residential and
Art space segments for developers as well as private clients.
Since 2000, he has been actively teaching design & theory at several institutions including
KRVIA, NMIMS, Raffles Institute and ISDI/Parsons Mumbai and a guest critic & lecturer at
Parsons School of Design, Rensallaer Polytecnic Institute in Rochester, N.Y. , the A.B.A.C.
School of Architecture in Bangkok, Thailand and Columbia Universities GSAPP in NYC.
His work has been published in leading Architecture magazines such as IAB and DOMUS
India as well academic research journals doing research on issues involving architecture and
urban development .
She has been involved in areating Entrepreneurship and innovative Livelihood opportunities,
through Skill training & Capacity building in Climate friendly Sustainable Construction using
locally available, rapidly renewable materials, for the underserved rural and tribal
communities across India.
Learning Outcomes :
UNIVERSITY OF MUMBAI
USM’s Kamla Raheja Vidyanidhi Institute
For Architecture and Environmental Studies
The KRVIA workshops are space for multidisciplinary explorations in form and space.
Students are exposed to approaches towards questions of process and making from different
disciplines.
Faculty Incharge:
Event Poster:
Brief Description:
The KRVIA hosted an extensive exhibition examining its history of architectural pedagogy
over the past 25 years. The Exhibition was a critical examination of it’s history to re-look at
the approaches, positions, methods and tools that the school has experimented with. This was
the basis for conversations concerning the training of an architect across history and enabled
mapping future trajectories.
UNIVERSITY OF MUMBAI
USM’s Kamla Raheja Vidyanidhi Institute
For Architecture and Environmental Studies
Learning Outcomes :
The Exhibition allowed the KRVIA community, students and faculty to ruminate over the
concerns of architectural education and the processes in the studio. Walk-throughs and
conversations were also held with faculty members and students from other colleges.
Faculty Incharge:
Event Poster:
UNIVERSITY OF MUMBAI
USM’s Kamla Raheja Vidyanidhi Institute
For Architecture and Environmental Studies
Brief Description:
The competition was open to multidisciplinary teams of professionals and/or students with at
least one member from India and at least one member who is not an architect.
Participants were required to study the context and propose measures to integrate the selected
edge into the life of the city. The Design Proposal was to exhibit an understanding of
ecological, social and cultural characteristics of the place. The edge should also have become
part of the "commons", inclusive of all and available for public uses.
Submission
This was an IDEAS competition where each team was to submit a maximum of three A2
sheets (portrait format) that could include an explanatory text of not more than 500 words.
The First Prize was Rs. 1,50,000/-, white the Second Prize was Rs. 1,00,000/- with 3
Honorable Mentions at Rs. 50,000/- per team
The Judges were B. V. Doshi, Eminent Architect & Educator, S. Vishwanath of Rainwater
Club, and Sandeep Virmani, Director of Hunnarshala Foundation
Competition Brief
Cities have had a very strong relationship with bodies of water. No city could afford to
disregard the collection, storage, use-pattern and disposal of water. Water-bodies served as
modes of transportation or defense; they supported livelihoods and crafts; they created open
spaces that served as a release from the confines of urban congestion. In many ways water
was intimately connected with the very idea of being alive. Human populations however, use
water, create wastes, and are vulnerable to the organisms that water may support. Thus
human societies need to create rules, laws, customs and regulatory mechanisms to maintain
this vital resource.
Symbolism, religion and ethics are connected to every society's conception of water, as are
law, economics and politics.
UNIVERSITY OF MUMBAI
USM’s Kamla Raheja Vidyanidhi Institute
For Architecture and Environmental Studies
The articulation of the edge of water in human settlements was the clearest expression of all
these concepts. It afforded particular and peculiar modes of use and control, different in each
society and even in each case
With the huge and rapid growth of population, as well as with increased and more dense
urbanisation, the traditional modes of dealing with water are seriously challenged. We will
have to find new ways of dealing with water in cities, and the edge where water and human
settlements meet is critical. Thinking of the "edge" means of course reimagining the
relationship of humans and water, reimagining the mechanisms of participation and control,
reimagining the environmental and technological issues and suggesting new arrangements. In
short thinking about the edge of the water means no less than reimagining city and
community.
The results ended with a seminar on the subject with the Keynote being delivered by the Vice
Chancellor of Mumbai University.
Learning Outcomes :
The Competition was provoking students to consider the relationship between environmental
systems and development, and asking them to develop proposals for the future.
Faculty Incharge:
Kausik Mukhopadhyay
Event Poster:
Brief Description:
The Esquisse is designed as a quick design exercise to allow the students to think laterally
and creatively about architecture, form and space. The brief asked students to consider
architectural thought through the prompt of ‘cross-dressing’ or to think of the subaltern
performativity and space.
Learning Outcomes :
The Competition was provoking students to consider the relationship between ideas,
inclusivity, and architecture.
Event Poster:
Brief Description:
The students Exhibition focuses on the student's work for the previous academic year this was
along with the 25year anniversary of the founding of KRVIA.
UNIVERSITY OF MUMBAI
USM’s Kamla Raheja Vidyanidhi Institutes
For Architecture and Environmental Studies
Presenter’s Bio:
Representatives of the batch made presentations about the work and the learning outcomes for
each studio. The 25-year exhibition was curated by faculty.
Learning Outcomes :
This was an important event where the senior and junior batch of students learn and understood
the nature of work produced in each course. For the faculty, it becomes a place for reflection
on the pedagogy of the curriculum over the years. It was also a platform for faculty and students
of other institutions to understand the pedagogic trajectory of the institute.
Event Poster:
Brief Description:
HOUSING EXPERIMENTS IN NEW LANDSCAPES Design Ideas for Ijburg and Nalasopara The
exchange programme between TU Delft and KRVIA looked at housing experiments across Mumbai,
Vasai, Virar, Nalasopara, Amsterdam, Rotterdam, Delft and Ijburg. The programme aimed at
understanding and exploring various mechanisms at play in the delivery of housing and the role
architecture and urban design can play in the setting up of housing types. The three-week-long
investigation in these cities closely looked at housing experiments done by housing boards, other
governmental bodies, corporations, and private bodies through interviews with communities,
policymakers and experts in the field and site-visits. The evolution of housing in both these contexts
portrays the socialist agenda that the state and housing corporations played in delivering public housing
stock to a migrating population and native settlers. While it is essential to state the role of good
UNIVERSITY OF MUMBAI
USM’s Kamla Raheja Vidyanidhi Institutes
For Architecture and Environmental Studies
governance in facilitating good built environment, the Dutch advanced in technological innovations in
creating land and continued the similar gusto and flair in conserving historic cores of cities. On the other
hand, the Indian examples shows a great deal of iterations in housing policies and its resultant built-
form types along with stories of informal or alternate means of institutional aid in setting up financial
systems for reclamation of land and mixed-use building types.
Rohan Varma- Rohan Varma is an architect and doctoral researcher based both in Mumbai and
Amsterdam. He studied at the KRVIA, Mumbai, and worked for Charles Correa for two years before
receiving his Master's in Architecture with honourable mention from the TU Delft in the Netherlands.
Rohan is a 2011 Tata and Mahindra Scholar and was nominated for the 2014 Archiprix Award.
Currently, Varma combines his work as a practising architect with his work at the TU Delft where he is
a doctoral candidate and tutor.
Learning Outcomes :
The exchange was instituted to understand and analyze the housing scenarios of two cities
Nalasopara and Ijburg. It was important for the KRVIA to understand housing delivery systems
employed in Netherlands especially the discovery of new land created via the polder system.
As of, for TU Delft the design process and the creation of archetypes for housing was of most
interest. The process of democratic design addressing diverse sets of needs and aspirations from
families is seen in the resultant housing clusters in India.
Photograph of The Event :
UNIVERSITY OF MUMBAI
USM’s Kamla Raheja Vidyanidhi Institutes
For Architecture and Environmental Studies
Title: Encounter
Date and Schedule: 3rd – June 6 pm 2017
Faculty In charge:
Ainsley Lewis | Email: dean.march@krvia.ac.in
Event Poster:
UNIVERSITY OF MUMBAI
USM’s Kamla Raheja Vidyanidhi Institutes
For Architecture and Environmental Studies
Brief Description:
The presentation focuses on issues of sustainable urban design.
Presenter’s Bio:
He is a professor of Urban Design and Director of UDSU - Urban Design Studies Unit. I have been
Head of Department of Architecture in 2011-14. I teach the MSc in Urban Design studio for students
in Y5 with a background in Architecture as well as in various other areas. He is interested in what
makes our cities a great place to live in, raise children, learn stuff, run businesses and have fun, for us
as well as for the next generations, still remaining human. At the core of it all there is one game-
changing lesson: the quality that makes our cities sound and enjoyable does not come by design. It
comes by the uncoordinated efforts of people in time. Basically, it comes from history and evolution.
Once you have digested this simple truth fully in all its aspects - and indeed it takes time - then
everything changes. Adaptability becomes paramount, people become crucial, informal participation
becomes more important than formal participation, and you as a designer begin thinking differently.
Ultimately, ""design for change"" becomes much more than a buzzword: it means that your mission is
just to ensure the conditions (primarily spatial and environmental, in our case) for those uncoordinated
efforts to emerge and self-organize in a way that is good for all. We at UDSU pull together urban
morphology, environmental psychology, ""classic"" urban planning analysis, spatial analysis, and
community engagement into a science of urban design for change.
Learning Outcomes :
Students will learn to understand urban evolution by taking the long-standing analogy with biological
evolution to a higher level, that of empirical science. And the making of masterplans, that work in time
by informing a truly democratic process of urban.
No image available
Title: Encounter
Date and Schedule: 26th July – 10.45 am 2017
Faculty In charge:
Ainsley Lewis | Email: dean.march@krvia.ac.in
Event Poster:
Brief Description:
Studio TAMASHA - an hour long event and was conducted that provided a glimpse into the best of
literature on these lands.Six renowned living Hindi poets and a selection of their poems, jointly
curated by playwright Ramu Ramanathan
UNIVERSITY OF MUMBAI
USM’s Kamla Raheja Vidyanidhi Institutes
For Architecture and Environmental Studies
Presenter’s Bio:
Ramakrishnan Ramanathan popularly known as Ramu Ramanathan is an Indian playwright-director
with acclaimed plays to his credit. His list of plays includes Cotton 56, Polyester 84; Jazz; Comrade
Kumbhakarna; and more recently, Postcards From Bardoli. His book 3, Sakina Manzil And Other Plays, is
a collection of eight plays, published by Orient Blackswan in collaboration with the English and Foreign
Languages University (EFLU).
Ramu was editor of PT Notes, a monthly theatre newsletter produced by Prithvi Theatre in Mumbai for ten
years. He also co-edited e-STQ (Seagull Theatre Quarterly), and has written columns on theatre for national
dailies.
In addition to being counted as one of the best playwrights of today's India, Ramu is also the editor
of PrintWeek India and Campaign India magazines He has been associated with the printing industry for 30
years. Ramu helped launch PrintWeek India in May 2008. He has been a driving force in reshaping coverage
of the Indian print market through industry specials, awards and survey reports. Under his
leadership, PrintWeek has grown into one of the largest teams covering print in India.
Ramu lives and works in Mumbai — the city where many of his plays are situated. Commenting on his
relationship with Mumbai in a detailed interview with the Mumbai Theatre Guide,] he says, "Mumbai is my
lover. I love her and at the same time, I loathe her. To-date, even today, I discover something new in her.
And that I’ve poured into the plays." As part of his research on the city and its culture, Ramu has catalogued
an exhaustive reading list in form of Literature that Celebrates Mumbai: A List.
Learning Outcomes :
An important learning outcome of this event was the richness of contemporary Hindi literature
very important for a student.
Title: Encounter
Date and Schedule: 9th August – 11.30 am 2017
Faculty In charge:
Ainsley Lewis | Email: dean.march@krvia.ac.in
Event Poster:
UNIVERSITY OF MUMBAI
USM’s Kamla Raheja Vidyanidhi Institutes
For Architecture and Environmental Studies
Brief Description:
In the export-oriented garment industry of Tirupur, a city in South India, the consensus
between workers, trad unions and factory owners to run the industry at any cost manifests a
notorious camaraderie compromising the workers rights and environment protection laws.
Presenter’s Bio:
Amudhan R. P. (Puṣhpam Rāmaliŋkam Amudhaņ), born 1971 in Madurai) is a documentary
film maker and media activist. Along with local youth, he founded Marupakkam, a media
activism group that is involved with making documentaries, organising regular screenings, film
festivals and media workshops in and around Madurai. He has been making documentaries
since 1997. His prominent films include two trilogies on caste and nuclear radiation. 'Shit' has
won the best film award at the One Billion Eyes film festival in 2005 and the National Jury
Award at the MIFF 2006.
Amudhan R.P. founded Madurai International Documentary and Short Film Festival in 1998
and has been organising the festival since then.
Learning Outcomes :
The students learned the issues of stakeholders of various that have implications on the built
environment.
Presenter’s Bio: Two groups of students from the 4th year who participated in the
competition and were amongst the 10 honorable mentions presented their work.
Learning Outcomes : The students learned about architectural competitions, the
conceptual,design and representational strategies that were employed.
Event Poster:
Brief Description:
In the time across the globe where drawing a line between things has been some what
escalating in recent years, my personal experiences and kinds of researches / works I’ve
been involved with are often about blurring of these lines or as results of blurred
conditions. Through the lecture, I would like to talk about some examples of this in
relation with Japan’s post-growth society
Learning Outcomes : The students learned about some examples of architecture in Japan’s
post-growth society
Faculty Incharge:
Event Poster:
Brief Description: Cities, the human artifacts par excellence have, since their conception,
remained the great fields of exchange. They have also remained an important site for
architecture and its practice, as they have for several other disciplines and fields of
engagement. This obvious, symbiotic relation between architecture and the city seems to
have been, over time – and with changing political scenarios - rendered oblivious. This
state of obliviousness has, in recent history, steadily shifted the focus of architecture away
from the city and to other streams of interest that allow its conjectures to flourish and
develop. Does this oblivious relationship mean that the architect of the city is no longer
relevant? Does this mean that there is no longer any room for critical engagement of
architectural provocation with the city and within it? To address these questions, we
invited five architectural practices to talk about their forms of engagement with the city.
Faculty Incharge:
Manoj Parmar (Dean Masters) | Email: dean.masters@krvia.ac.in
Event Poster:
Brief Description:
The Building Urban Communities (BinUCom) program is a project funded under the EU
Erasmus+ program, specifically in the field of Capacity Building in Higher Education. It
addresses the housing shortage faced by urban, poor communities in India, which is
exacerbated by rapid urbanization and results in poor living conditions. The Indian government
has envisioned "Housing for All" to tackle this issue and aims to construct 20 million houses
for urban poor, including Economically Weaker Sections and Low-Income Groups, by the year
2022.
UNIVERSITY OF MUMBAI
USM’s Kamla Raheja Vidyanidhi Institute
For Architecture and Environmental Studies
The program's objective is to create a platform for synergistic information sharing, leading to
the development of courses that promote inclusive housing in the disciplines of Architecture
and Urban Planning. The workshops will encompass presentations of frameworks and ongoing
research conducted by faculty members in various areas such as social inclusion, sustainable
housing, participatory mapping, and environmental risk assessment. The research carried out
in the urban design studio of the Master's program, which involves strategies for Local Area
Plans and studies on informal settlement patterns, will also be showcased.
BinUCom aims to investigate the role of architects and planners in fostering the development
of inclusive urban communities. The workshop is designed to strengthen the relationships
between Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) in India and their wider socio-economic
environment. This will be achieved through information dissemination, consultations, and
feedback mechanisms involving various social actors, as well as receiving inputs from
government authorities, NGOs, and other stakeholders to enhance the curriculum design of the
institutions.
Learning Outcomes:
Participants in the BinUCom program will acquire an in-depth understanding of inclusive
housing principles, sustainable urban planning, and social inclusion strategies to contribute
effectively as architects and planners in the development of inclusive urban communities.
By the end of the workshop, attendees will have developed the necessary skills to incorporate
participatory mapping and environmental risk assessment techniques into their design
approaches, fostering better-informed and more resilient urban development solutions.
Title: Workshop - Study, Use and Conservation of Historic Stained Glass - INTACH
Heritage Academy Workshop
Faculty Incharge:
Manoj Parmar (Dean Masters) | Email: dean.masters@krvia.ac.in
Brief Description:
The broad aim of the workshop was to introduce some of the key philosophical issues and
practical challenges which arise in the use and conservation of historic stained glass in historic
buildings. The workshop was designed to provide an understanding on the various aspects
related to use of stained glass (new/ restored) in a historic building. The inter-disciplinary
nature of the course encouraged a wide range of participants to join the workshop.
The team comprised a diverse blend of conservationists, historians, architects and
agriculturists. The theory behind the use and conservation of stained glass that was discussed
in the first session of the course and was supported by illustrative discussions at site and
practical hands-on session in the second session. The hands-on session helped in illustrating a
range of problems in-situ and discuss various issues related to its restoration.
A guided tour of the project sites was conducted at the end of the course which demonstrated
how some of the issues and problems of stained-glass conservation are addressed at specific
typologies of historic building. The specially designed session provided a unique opportunity
for participants to gain hands-on experience of working with historic glass.
Learning Outcomes:
Participants in the workshop gained a comprehensive understanding of the key philosophical
issues and practical challenges related to the use and conservation of historic stained glass in
historic buildings. They also acquired hands-on experience, enabling them to effectively
address and restore stained-glass conservation issues in various typologies of historic buildings.
UNIVERSITY OF MUMBAI
USM’s Kamla Raheja Vidyanidhi Institute
For Architecture and Environmental Studies