The Council of Architecture announced a design competition in 2022 for a Centre of Excellence in Bengaluru, drawing nearly 1,500 teams. Chennai-based firm, architectureRED, won with their proposal, and yet four years later, nothing has been built. ArchitectureLive! team goes into this rabbit hole to understand the reality of.
Reshma Esther Thomas examines how Hyderabad’s flyover pillars, painted with Cheriyal-style murals under the GHMC’s ‘City Art Scape’ initiative, reveal the paradox of managed public space. What appears to be beautification is actually cultural assertion in the wake of the 2014 bifurcation, bureaucratising a surface that once belonged to those without institutional power.
As part of our editorial: What makes a space public?, V.V. Kusum Priya argues that Section 39A of Goa’s 2024 Town and Country Planning Act this isn’t just a legal issue, and that it’s the erosion of an unrecognised but collectively sustained commons, and a question of what “public” really means and who benefits from the legislations surrounding this.
Dr. Seema Khanwalkar, explores how the public spaces in India are dynamic, contested areas shaped by informal economies, migration, and social negotiation. She reveals how the transactional activities democratise ownership of these spaces, while the political and religious appropriation increasingly displaces this organic vitality, creating exclusion and anxiety. This shrinking of inclusive public space threatens urban social fabric, yet remains largely absent from city planning conversations, making it a far deeper crisis than mere encroachment.
Nuru Karim reflects on his relationship with Sen Kapadia through three transformative “states of being”—as a student, as a studio colleague, and as an independent professional. To capture Sen’s essence, Karim draws on three powerful metaphors: a mountain (commanding yet silent), a banyan tree (generous and sheltering), and a river (unseen yet ever-present). Together, these images paint a portrait of a man whose quiet depth left an indelible mark on all who encountered him.
Pinkish Shah’s homage to Sen Kapadia, celebrates him as fearless and formless in both life and work. Intellectually rooted in Louis Kahn and Sri Aurobindo, Sen pursued architecture that transcended form toward essential silence. Known for his courage, he maintained quiet, unwavering independence throughout his career.
Stories that provoke enquiry into built environment
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