An e-symposium brings together spatial practitioners from Nepal, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Pakistan and India to exchange ideas on contemporary building practices
Pakistani architect Arif Hasan will speak on his involvement with NGO Orangi Pilot Project (OPP), in the 1980s. Orangi is a cluster of 113 low-income settlements with a population of 1.5 million. Following the success of its low-cost sanitation, housing,
Exploring and investigating cultural, architectural and urban spaces has been at the heart of Borivli-s School of Environment and Architecture SEA-s mission. Started by a passionate team of eight architects in 2014, the school in the last six years, has held a fortnightly multi-disciplinary lecture series called the SEA City, where they invite architects and spatial practitioners engaged in thinking of ways of life and living.
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A similar conversation series was being discussed for the new year, when the Coronavirus outbreak put a stop to their plans. "Accessing a physical space for a conversation is now impossible. But the advantage was that we now didn-t have to worry about the geographical and political impediments or tight budgets, which otherwise determined whom we could invite," says Rupali Gupte, professor and co-founder of SEA, and coordinator of the South Asia Programme at the school.
Yaminay Chaudhri
This gave birth to a one-of-its-kind intra-regional e-symposium, South Asian Landscapes Conversations, which began in July and will continue till September. The lecture series will explore contemporary building environments and practices. "Along with the continuing historical threads, cultural similarity and shared colonial past, South Asian countries have been working towards articulating a critical discourse in shaping its built environment today. How can architecture mediate cultural and political forces that emerge from our common past? How can we respond to the distinct social tectonics that shape its people and place? What practices of the built environment from the past and present remain unrecognised in South Asia and how can these be deployed into a meaningful future?" the curatorial team at SEA shares.
With the institution already working on its own archive of books, publications and drawings from South Asian countries, and their work on Nepal beginning in full earnest this year, the conference, says Gupte, helped prepare the ground from where a post-colonial inquiry into architectural and urban research for South Asia could be furthered.
Anoma Pieris
The symposium, which is available on YouTube, began in July, with speakers from Nepal. Roshan Mishra, museum director of The Taragaon Museum and Nripal Adhikari of Abari Architects led the series. This was followed by Kazi K Ashraf, architect and architectural historian of The Bengal Institute, and Salauddin Patash of Atelier Robin Architects, both from Bangladesh.
In August and September, SEA will have speakers from Sri Lanka, India and Pakistan. These include Sri Lankan architects Anoma Pieris, Ranjith Dayaratne and Narein Perera. "From Pakistan, we have Arif Hasan, an independent architect, planner and activist, who has been working in the space of housing. One of his most important works is the Orangi Project. The area of Orangi [in Karachi] is very similar to Dharavi, and the conversation there too, was about not rebuilding the space entirely, but upgrading it. That will be an interesting conversation." The second person is artist Yaminay Chaudhri, who runs the Karachi Beach Radio, which uses oral history and experimental sound as media of inquiry to study complex relationships between the ecology of the commons and Karachi-s rapidly commercialising coastline. The session on India will be led by Prasad Shetty, professor and co-founder of SEA.
Rupali Gupte, professor and co-founder, SEA
Register: https://www.sea.edu.in/
Access Lectures You Missed https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCmqhK_cag50dn4PT0LHGxLw
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