Platform for Architectural Transfers in the Indian Ocean rim
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UPCOMING
CONVERSATION

14th November 2024
Thursday 5.30 pm IST
Respondent:  Rohan Shivkumar  (KRVIA, Mumbai)
<Conversation Link>



Decolonising Home through Objects: Repair, Archive and Visual Art to History Writing

Mehwish Abid
(McGill University)








 Decolonising Home through Objects (DHTO) investigates the stories of migration at the time of partition across the borders of Pakistan & India and later within Pakistan through objects and material culture. This mother project envisions creating an archive built with the help of the community through people's historical narrative employing a participatory approach. The project has been an event of repair, an act of archive-making, an effort to democratise the archive through archival photography and it has not entered its theorising phase. This talk will speak about the journey of the project and maker.


In search of traces of a housing project – reflections of a researcher
Johann Peiris
(Collective for Historical Dialogue and Memory, Colombo)






In this reflective presentation I will talk about the experiences of doing research for the documentary ‘Is this an architectural documentary?’ (film by Tennakoon, Kelegama and Athokorale, 2023) The topics covered will include research during lockdown, methodologies explored in understanding how housing schemes could be documented and unearthing anecdotal and archival evidence of architect Minnette De Silva (1918-1998)  and the housing scheme in focus, the Watapuluwa Housing Scheme in Kandy, Sri Lanka. It will necessary also refer to the architect’s social milieu, her contemporaries and the social context both global and local in which we situate her design and manifesto for a participatory architectural model. Looking back 65 years since its inception what approaches to participatory design, documenting and social research could be worth revisiting?