Come July, Chennai Architecture Foundation (CAF) will hold its 3rd edition of ‘Portfolio’—an annual exhibition of students’ works from colleges of architecture across Tamil Nadu & South India. The event is being held at the IIT Madras Research Park, Taramani, Chennai, over 3 days, from the 5th to 7th of July 2024.
In 2017, as part of its commitment to enrich the architectural discourse in Chennai, CAF envisioned ‘Portfolio’ as a non-competitive space to exhibit academic work by students of architecture from colleges across Tamil Nadu. The format does not judge or rank the students’ works, and colleges were invited to self-curate their works in an open exhibition environment. The first edition was a huge success, as it helped bring students and teachers from diverse campuses onto a single open platform, where many conversations and experiences were shared amongst various institutions and mentors.
This year, the 3-day event shall be held from Friday, 5th to Sunday 7th July 2024.
Portfolio 24 will feature 14 colleges from across Tamil Nadu and for the first time, 2 invited colleges – SEED Kochi and WCFA Mysore. They will share their academic works and offer an insight into their approach to architectural pedagogy to students and teachers of the other participating colleges.
Apart from the exhibition, Portfolio 24 also has concurrent events running in parallel with the exhibition, which provides students and teachers of architecture a unique opportunity to engage directly with other institutions and practicing architects through curated events. This year, some of these include
- College in Focus,
- the Architects Clinic,
- the PG Clinic,
- the Design Crit
- A talk/panel discussion at the end of each day.
College in Focus
Through College in Focus, each participating institution is provided with a platform to showcase how they approach architectural education and pedagogy, which offers a unique opportunity for others to learn from and engage with.
Architects Clinic
Architects Clinic is a unique opportunity where one gets direct access to 12 architects over 3 days, for a one-on-one conversation. The Design Crit allows students to present and discuss their academic design work with one of 4 leading practitioners from Chennai.
The PG Clinic
The PG Clinic (a full-day event on 6th July) offers students keen to pursue postgraduate studies, a unique window to hearing from 6 young architects who have recently completed their masters in various streams – from Urban Design to Construction Management. These interactive sessions will help students get more clarity with direct access to young postgraduate architects. The session concludes with a moderated panel discussion with all the six mentors.
The evening talks / panel discussions feature presentations by Mr. Kombai Anwar, a leading art and architecture historian, titled ‘Unlearn to move forward’ on Thursday, July 5th. The final evening features a talk by Senthilkumar Doss aka SKUD where he speaks about his explorations and experiments with geometries, natural patterns and structure, and using this as a means to understand materiality and space making. The presentation ends with a moderated panel discussion featuring Skud, along with Tvasta, a group of Chennai-based entrepreneurs leading explorations into 3D Printing technologies and infrastructure.
About Chennai Architecture Foundation (CAF)
Chennai Architecture Foundation (CAF) established in 2005 is a not-for-profit collective of architects, dedicated to fostering community engagement with architecture and city planning, while also supporting academic and professional endeavours in our city.
For almost 2 decades now, CAF has curated a host of activities encompassing professional talks, academic exhibitions, workshops, panel discussions and immersive visits to architectural offices and notable buildings.
As with all CAF events, Portfolio 24 is open to all and is entry is free.
More details on the CAF Instagram and Facebook pages – @chennaiarchitecturefoundation
