Smart LABS, Academic 1.0, by ratLAB Education

December 29, 2017

Architectural Education in India is about to experience a wave of change as rat[LAB]EDU launches India’s first 6 month (one semester) programme on Computational Design as a Hybrid Design studio, combining Studio and Online Classes on the eorate subject of Computational Design. - ratLAB

Follow ArchitectureLive! Channel on WhatsApp

SMART LABS 1.0 by rat[LAB]EDU in collaboration with RVS School of Architecture, Coimbatore is INDIA’s FIRST HYBRID DESIGN STUDIO COMBINING DIRECT & VIRTUAL EDUCATION in Parametric & Computational Design. Smart Labs 1.0 is designed as a collaborative collective between rat[LAB]EDU & RVS School of Architecture, Coimbatore. It is an Integrated Programme to introduce basic, intermediate and advanced computational design techniques, methods, workflows on a 6 month basis. This programme is designed at par with any global school within the domain of computation and is envisioned to fill the missing gap in the educational curriculum by bridging academia & practice. Students will have an opportunity to work with the studio on live projects, thereby creating working opportunities and a real-time exposure to design practice, while developing their studio projects with a focus on Advanced Architectural Design and Computational Techniques. Digital Fabrication Techniques will be introduced to students through a hands-on experience as they get to develop prototypes of their projects for the Final Exhibition, that will be curated Offline & Online.

Smart LABS 1.0 comprises of 4 Parametric Design Workshops, 2 Studio Reviews, 8 Interim Reviews(Skype Sessions) and 1 End of the year- Show/ Exhibition.

This Integrated programme focusses on inculcating the following assets as a part of syllabus:

Computational Thinking
Parametric Design Methods
Software (Rhino, Grasshopper, Maya), followed by Python Coding in subsequent years.
Digital Fabrication Techniques and Optimization Strategies
Environmental Strategies using Computational Design
Introduction to Structural Optimization and Simulation
Building Skins and Facades

 The 6-month programme requires students to be present in Coimbatore Studio for 4 workshops and 2 reviews (in-person), while rest of the curriculum will be co-ordinated online. RVS School of Architecture will be providing food and accommodation to all non-resident students during these workshops and review sessions in Coimbatore.

Smart LABS in action:

– ratLAB

rat[LAB] STUDIO

Profile and Contributions

Education, rat[LAB]

Recent

Seher Shah and Randhir Singh, Studies in Form, Akbar Bhavan (#3), 2018, cyanotype print on Arches Aquarelle paper, edition of 5, 22 x 30 in

Brutalist India | Akbar Bhawan, New Delhi

January 24, 2026 No Comments

As part of Brutalist India series Bhawna Dandona writes about Akbar Bhawan, in New Delhi.

Folles de la Salpétrière, (Cour des agitées.) (Madwomen of the Salpétrière. (Courtyard of the mentally disturbed.))

Gender. Hysteria. Architecture. | “How Did a Diagnosis Learn to Draw Walls?”

January 23, 2026 No Comments

Did these spaces heal women or teach them how to disappear? Aditi A., through her research study as a part of the CEPT Writing Architecture course, in this chapter follows hysteria as it migrates from text to typology, inquiring how architectural decisions came to stand in for care itself. Rather than assuming architecture responded to illness, the inquiry turns the question around: did architecture help produce the vulnerability it claimed to manage?

Brutalist India | Nehru Memorial Museum and Library, 1969 - Rear side of view of the library. Credits - Kshitij Rana for MM Rana

Brutalist India | Nehru Memorial Museum and Library, New Delhi, 1974

January 12, 2026 No Comments

As part of Brutalist India series, Bhawna Dandona writes about Nehru Memorial Museum and Library, 1974, in New Delhi.

Gender, Hysteria, and Architecture - The Witch Hunt. Henry Ossawa Tanner. Source - Wikiart

Gender. Hysteria. Architecture. | “When Did Care Become Confinement?”

January 12, 2026 1 Comment

Was architecture used by society to spatially “manage” women and their autonomy? Aditi A., through her research study as a part of the CEPT Writing Architecture course, examines the period before psychiatry, when fear had already become architectural, tracing how women’s autonomy was spatially managed through domestic regulation, witch hunts, informal confinement, and early institutional planning.

A Modernist’s Doubt: Symbolism and the Late Career Turn

January 6, 2026 1 Comment

Why did acclaimed modernist architects suddenly introduce historical symbolism like arches, decorative elements, and other cultural references into their work after decades of disciplined restraint? Sudipto Ghosh interrogates this 1980s-90s symbolic turn as a rupture in architecture, questioning whether this represents an authentic reconnection with content and memory, or is it a mere superficial gesture towards absent meanings. Drawing from Heidegger’s analysis of the Greek temple, he distinguishes two modes of architectural representation, ultimately judging that this turn was a nascent rebellion against modernism that may have failed to achieve genuine integration of context, material, and memory.

Ode to Pune - A Vision. © Narendra Dengle - 1

The City That Could Be: An Ode to Pune

January 1, 2026 No Comments

Narendra Dengle, through his poem written in January 2006, presents a deep utopic vision for Pune—what the city could be as an ecologically sustainable, equitable city that balances nature with development. He sets ambitious benchmarks for prioritizing public transport over cars, preserving heritage, addressing slum rehabilitation humanely, and empowering local communities