I write for two reasons, one personal and the other public. The personal reason is one must always indulge in some activity that resists and critiques one’s practice, else practice will degenerate to a habitual reproduction of the familiar. Critical energy occurs when theory critiques practice, and practice critiques theory, and my personal balance depends on the continuity of this conversation. But this conversation becomes self-indulgent if it is merely personal, so it must also have a public face. Practice, since it results in constructed work, is by nature in the public domain. To give writing this public face, I seek to publish my writing to a wider constituency. For many years, this was in a formal academic style in the form of conference papers and magazine articles.
Recently, I realised that the public conversation of writing could acquire a deeper nuance and better continuity if it could be less formal, so for the last couple of years I have also started to write two blogs: one on WordPress on architecture and urbanism and another on Medium which is on politics, philosophy and culture.
Publications by Prem Chandavarkar
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Chandavarkar, Prem. "A Pedagogy-Centred Curriculum." New Design Ideas 3, no. 2 (2019).
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Chandavarkar, Prem. "Notes on the Ethics of Studying Vernacular Architecture." In 5th International Seminar on Vernacular Settlements. ISVS. Colombo, Sri Lanka: University of Moratuwa, 2010.
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Chandavarkar, Prem. "The ‘Background’ in Bangalore; Architecture and Critical Resistance in a New Modernity." Architectural Design 77, no. 6 (2007): 78-83.
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Chandavarkar, Prem. Regulating Architectural Education in India, an Approach Paper. New Delhi: Architexturez Imprints, 2004.
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Chandavarkar, Prem. "Urban Space and the Urban Activist." In Celebrating Chandigarh: Fifty Years of the Idea. CCA., 1999.
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Chandavarkar, Prem. "Notes on the Aesthetics of Absorption." In disContinuous Threads - Memory, Freedom, and Architecture in Contemporary India. MPCVA. Mumbai, India: Mohile Parikh Centre for the Visual Arts, 1997.
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Chandavarkar, Prem. "Architecture and the Expression of Meaning." Architecture + Design IV, no. 5 (1988): 94-99.
Meetings, Discussions and Interventions
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Chandavarkar, Prem. The Induced Fall of Public Architecture in India In Musings on Architecture and Urbanism. Bangalore, 2021.
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Chandavarkar, Prem. An Open Letter to Indian Institute of Management Ahmedabad In Musings on Architecture & Urbanism. Bangluru, 2020.
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Chandavarkar, Prem. A Second Open Letter to Indian Institute of Management Ahmedabad In Musings on Architecture & Urbanism. Bengaluru, 2020.
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Chandavarkar, Prem. IIM Ahmedabad: The Mask of Heritage Consciousness In Musings on Architecture & Urbanism. Bangalore, 2022.
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Chandavarkar, Prem. "The Human Within the Architect." In A conclave on 'Modern Heritage'. Goa, 2019.
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Chandavarkar, Prem, Ravindra Punde, Prasad Shetty, Manish Gulati, Biju Kuriakose, Madhu Pandit, Arunav Dasgupta, Rohan Shivkumar, and Sabareesh Suresh. Architecture: Challenges and Opportunities - A panel discussion held at the annual conference of the National Association of Students of Architecture at Kochi, Edited by Nirmal Kulkarni. INDES, 2018.
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Chauhan, Muktirajsinghji, Prem Chandavarkar, and Pratyush Shankar. Notes on the Indian Architecture Workshop, Edited by MN Ashish Ganju. GREHA. New Delhi, 2006.
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Menon, Anjali Kondur, K.S. Ananthakrishna, Hareesh Asnani, Arun Balan, Arunjot Singh Bhalla, Prem Chandavarkar, Edgar Demello, Anil Dube, Tony Kunnel George, Nisha Mathew-Ghosh et al. Panel Discussion on Architecture and the City: a Bangalore perspective, Edited by Bijoy Ramachandran. Bangalore, India: Hundredhands, 2005.
Miscellaneous, Drafts and Discussion Notes
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Chandavarkar, Prem. Background to the Pune Declaration. Bangalore, 2020.
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Chandavarkar, Prem. AMBASSADORS OF EXCELLENCE: A draft proposal for moving toward a critical culture of architecture., 2018.