Curators: Rahul Mehrotra, Ranjit Hoskote, Kaiwan Mehta

The seminar aims to examine the current State of Housing in India by recognizing that the crisis of housing is a multi-dimensional one. It will focus on frameworks that are critical to an understanding of the issues related to housing delivery in India. 

Speakers:

Day 1: Kirtee Shah, Sheela Patel, Amita Bhide
Day 2: Aromar Revi, Pranay Vakil, Vidyadhar Phatak

Presentations by: Sameep Padora, Nuru Karim, Ashok Lall, Hafeez Contractor, Pankaj Joshi, Sharad Mahajan, Gautam Bhan, Alpa Sheth, Prasanna Desai, Swastik Harish, Gautam Chatterjee, S Sridhar

Seminar Abstract:

India is undergoing a rapid urbanization process and one of the key issue emerging out of this process is the delivery of adequate housing and infrastructure to its citizens, especially for its urban poor. Today, there is an urban housing shortage of approx. 20 million units out of which 57% were for the Economically Weaker sections and 40% for the low-income groups – more broadly.

It is in this context that the seminar aims to examine the current State of Housing in India. Recognising that the crisis of housing is, a multi-dimensional one, we propose to focus, in this inaugural seminar, on four frameworks that we think are critical to an understanding of the issues related to housing delivery in India. Firstly, what are the parameters by which to judge the adequacy of housing in India today? And who decides? Secondly, what are the processes that have been followed for housing delivery in terms of policies and schemes and who are the main actors involved? Thirdly, what are the various prototypes/products existing today that cater to the housing needs across socio-economic groups and what can we learn from them? What is the role of architecture and urban design in imagining these new landscapes? And lastly, what are the variations in housing types and issues across geographies of different governance models like industrial townships, special economic zones and so forth, across urban agglomerations such as Mumbai and Delhi, as well as medium and small-sized cities to census towns and rural areas?

The seminar hopes to foster a discussion on these from varied perspectives and disciplines. Its intent is to critically inform the ambition, scope and format of the exhibition on the State of Housing planned for 2018.