Platform for Architectural Transfers in the Indian Ocean rim
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08th August 2024
5 pm IST
Respondent: Ateya Khorakiwala (Columbia University)
<Conversation Link>
5 pm IST
Respondent: Ateya Khorakiwala (Columbia University)
<Conversation Link>
In the Shadow of the Center
Dhaval Chauhan & Rupinder Singh
(University of California, Santa Barbara)
Image courtesy : VastuShilp Foundation
This paper traces a South-South knowledge dialogue through the academic work of two architects Kurula Varkey and Neelkanth Chhaya who migrated from India to Kenya and back. It investigates some of the knowledge forms that were brought into question by this exchange, as well as the attempt to see a transhistorical core of architectural principles, their Western and Non-Western manifestations and a specific “local” in both Kenya and India.
Both Kenya and India were newly formed states, and their work could be seen as part of the construction of an imagined past of a “natural” nation. In the writings and teachings of these two architects (as well as other postcolonial thinkers and institutes in India), there is first an attempt to transfer the norms and methods of Modern architecture to transhistorical essential terms such as form, space, material, spatial syntax and then to
consider the local in these terms and lastly, to fabricate a new local-modern.
This paper thoroughly investigates the writings, interviews, and such documents as curricula in India to critique their assertion of a common transhistorical essentialist core. It also sets out to chart that which this period, and these architects, do not question, such as the very category of “architect” or the imposition of such knowledge epistemes as drawing over the local master-builder or mistri?
Dhaval Chauhan & Rupinder Singh
(University of California, Santa Barbara)
This paper traces a South-South knowledge dialogue through the academic work of two architects Kurula Varkey and Neelkanth Chhaya who migrated from India to Kenya and back. It investigates some of the knowledge forms that were brought into question by this exchange, as well as the attempt to see a transhistorical core of architectural principles, their Western and Non-Western manifestations and a specific “local” in both Kenya and India.
Both Kenya and India were newly formed states, and their work could be seen as part of the construction of an imagined past of a “natural” nation. In the writings and teachings of these two architects (as well as other postcolonial thinkers and institutes in India), there is first an attempt to transfer the norms and methods of Modern architecture to transhistorical essential terms such as form, space, material, spatial syntax and then to
consider the local in these terms and lastly, to fabricate a new local-modern.
This paper thoroughly investigates the writings, interviews, and such documents as curricula in India to critique their assertion of a common transhistorical essentialist core. It also sets out to chart that which this period, and these architects, do not question, such as the very category of “architect” or the imposition of such knowledge epistemes as drawing over the local master-builder or mistri?
Tracing the Footprints of Entangled NarrativesAnthony Wako
(Uganda Martyrs University)
From 1900, the growth of Jinja in Eastern Uganda was attributed to its establishment as a port on Lake Victoria, creating a convenient link to the East African coast via Kisumu. Upon completion of the Owen Falls Dam in 1953, Jinja grew to become Uganda’s preeminent industrial hub, only to later stagnate in the 1970s when Uganda’s economy collapsed, leaving the city abandoned. This vacuum left a substantial built heritage that has focused attention on Jinja as a site for conservation of twentieth-century architecture—comprised of remnants of convoluted narratives. This project documents the socio-cultural encounters of Jinja’s built heritage, a visible but hidden legacy of generations of immigrants from South Asia, many arriving as laborers between 1895 and 1901 to construct the famed Uganda Railway. The contribution of Asians to Uganda’s urban and architectural heritage is often talked about, but poorly documented, and this project seeks to rectify this oversight.