Architecture Books and Reviews
Edited by Nayantara Patel and designed by Rukminee Guha Thakurta, the book conveys an inextricably linked synergy between Ramu Katakam’s life and work.
The Architecture Travelogues, by Edgar Demello, are a compilation of diverse forays into familiar as well as uncharted terrain. By train, bus, by foot and bicycle and at times with a hitchhiker’s board. They are based on notes and sketches as well as on recall. In the reconstructions, reality often meets fiction, creating a map that is partly an imprint and partly ephemeral. The accretive experiences of people, places, and cultures were akin to life’s finishing school.
The book on Ramu Katakam is important for two reasons: first and foremost, it is a truthful rendition of architecture as an evolutionary process in an architect’s life; and second, it is the most forthcoming, unguarded, agile and direct form of writing, expressed without fear of judgment.
Introduction from the book: Spaces in Time, A Life in Architecture, authored by Ramu Katakam
‘Sheltering Angle’ is a book about the design of houses with angled roofs required in the Indian tropical region. The sloping roofs not only provide shelter from heavy rains, but also a sense of visual and emotional comfort which comes from the association of traditional homes with the familiar red-tiled roofs.
SEN KAPADIA ARCHITECT – IN PURSUANCE OF MEANINGS is a reflection by senior architect Sen Kapadia on his life and 50+ years practice which he has seen as a cultural endeavour and is one of the first compilations on his work in recent times.
Women Architects and Modernism in India, by Madhavi Desai, attempts to recover the stories of the women architects whose careers nearly parallel the development of modernism in colonial and postcolonial India.
Authored by Madhavi Desai, Traditional Architecture; House Form of the Islamic Community of Bohras in Gujarat is the study and documentation of Vernacular Architecture as a product of cultural and environmental factors and an expression of the way of life of the people for whom it was built.
Authored by Madhavi Desai, Miki Desai and Jong Lang, The Bungalow in Twentieth-Century India looks at the changing ways of life and aspirations in the domestic architecture of colonial and post-colonial society.
Learning the basics of design for Indian students of architecture at the entry-level can be offered through an array of methods and interpretations. Authored by Miki Desai, Teaching Basic Design in Architecture: Exercises, Illustrations, Examples, is a demonstration of one of those pedagogical stances using the Heuristic method and the teacher’s expressional guidance.
Authored by Miki Desai and Madhavi Desai, Architectural Heritage of Gujarat: Interpretation, Appreciation, Values, encompasses a broad spectrum of culture and history found in Gujarat, in the midst of the 21st century.
Edited by Madhavi Desai, ‘Gender and The Indian City: Revisioning Design and Planning’ interrogates the incomprehension of society with issues of gender sensitivity in design and urban planning.
Edited by Madhavi Desai, Gender and the Built Environment in India examines the role of women as consumers and the creators of the built space, focusing on India and parts of South Asia.
Authored by Jon Lang, Madhavi Desai and Miki Desai, ‘Architecture & Independence’ examines the development of architecture in India in the context of the political struggle for and attainment of Independence.
Biome Diaries is envisaged to be a series of pocket-friendly publications about the people, projects, and processes at Biome Environmental Solutions (formerly Chitra Vishwanath Architects).
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