The Kamla Raheja Vidyanidhi Institute For Architecture and Environmental Studies hosts a two day symposium on the Culture of Cities and Architecture in Asia. The symposium will comprise of a series of lectures on practices in Urban Design and Architecture by renowned practitioners from Asia sponsored by the Kamla Raheja Foundation, to be held on the evenings of the 18th and 19th of December 2009. Debates and discussions on Urbanism, Urban Practices and Pedagogy in relation to Asian cities will be held, in collaboration with the Indian Institute of Urban Designers and Asia Society as morning sessions on the two days.
Looking East
Emerging Urban Practices In Asian Cities
A Symposium on the Culture of Cities and Architecture in Asia
December 18th & 19th, 2009
at
Kamla Raheja Vidyanidhi Institute for Architecture and Environmental Studies
Vidyanidhi Marg, JVPD Scheme, Mumbai 400049
While Europe and the Americas have managed a fair amount of consolidation politically and economically over the last few years, the region of Asia and South East Asia has largely remained fragmented. Paradoxically this region has had a very rich cultural history of internal trade and exchange of cultures. Currently several attempts are being made on several political platforms to coalesce this region but it is proving to be a rather arduous process.
Interestingly what brings our Asian cities together is not only its rich cultural past, but also current influences. The contention is that Asian cities are transforming rapidly and are subjected to indiscriminate effects of global capitalism. These cities are increasingly seeing burgeoning landscapes of glass and aluminium cladding, of malls, multiplexes, and call centres. Life in these cities is seeing violent disruptions to make way for global capital. The pace of these changes is so rapid that there seems to be a cultural amnesia percolating into the stream of things. Having said that, these cities are also seeing innovative ways in which everyday life is negotiated through tweaking formal planning processes, through new forms of entrepreneurship, through alternate forms of institutions and through proliferation of new forms of media that percolate beyond the hold of formal capital.
In the face of a rampant globalisation, and our common experiences in negotiating its forces, perhaps it is time to think about a larger idea of a regional exchange that may be an answer to our problems as opposed to falling into a trap of parochial nationalisms.
In the last few years, several disciplines, including film, art, sociology, anthropology, architecture, urban design and others have either been trying to grapple with the phenomenon of Asian cities or have turned towards the East to relearn some of the mechanics of working within their own disciplines that have been ignored through years of knowledge production through colonisations and the new wave of globalisation. They have had to unlearn some of the norms of their own disciplines to encompass the messiness of the urban condition.
The two day symposium will bring some of these discussions on board.
Programme
December 18th, 2009:
10.00 am Theorising Asian Cities
Discussant: George Jose, Programme Director, Asia Society India Centre
Keynote:Arjun Appadurai, Goddard Professor of Media Culture and
Communication at NYU and President, Board of Trustees, PUKAR
K.T. Ravindran, Head of Department for Urban Design, SPA New Delhi
Shih Wei Lo, Co-ordinator of PhD by Design Programme, Tunghai University,
Taiwan
Juan Du, Assistant Professor, Department of Architecture, Hong Kong
1.30 pm Lunch
2.30 pm Theorising Asian Cities through mediated forms (supported by
Asia Society, India Centre)
Discussant: George Jose, Programme Director, Asia Society India Centre
Rashmi Kaleka, Artist, New Delhi
Tushar Joag, Artist, Mumbai
Shreedeep Bhattacharya, PhD Candidate, CSSS, JNJ
5.00 pm Tea
6.00 pm Kamla Raheja Memorial Lecture Series:
Practices in Architecture and Urban Design
KT Ravindran, Head of Department for Urban Design, SPA New Delhi
Shih Wei Lo, Co-ordinator of PhD by Design Programme, Tunghai University,
Taiwan
Sheng-yuan Hwang, Sheng-yuan Hwang Architects and Planners, Taiwan
December 19th, 2009:
10.00 am National Colloquium on Urban Design Education of IUDI:
Panel Discussion on
Contemporary Urbanism and Urban Design Pedagogy
K.Daroga, Director,USD, Mysore
Sheng-yuan Hwang: Principal, Sheng-yuan Hwang Architects and Planners,
Taiwan
Vikas Dilawari, Head of Department of Urban Conservation, KRVIA, Mumbai
Manoj Parmar, Head of Department of Urban Design, KRVIA, Mumbai
PVK Rameshwar, Head of Department of Urban Design, CEPT, Ahmedabad
Aneetha Suseelan, Head of Department of Urban Design, RCVA, Bangalore
Head of Department of Urban Design, Jadavpur University, Kolkata
1.30 pm Lunch
2.30 pm Panel discussion on
Transformation of Inner-Cities
Market Dynamics, Social Inclusion, State Intervention, Infrastructure, Master
Plan, Intervention and Strategy
5.00 pm Tea
6.00 pm Kamla Raheja Memorial Lecture Series:
Practices in Architecture and Urban Design
Discussant: PVK Rameshwar, Head of Department of Urban Design, CEPT,
Ahmedabad
Juan Du, Assistant Professor, Department of Architecture, Hong Kong
PK Das, Principal, PK Das and Associates, Mumbai
KRVIA Design Cell Practices, Dharavi, Cinema City