Modernism in the last month, appeared to us as a building, located in Pragati Maidan. The ‘Hall of nations’ built in 1972, was part of India’s national legacy, and its loss was read as the end of an era. Moving between being an engineering marvel, an art piece, a heritage structure and an ideology, the building left us to open out many questions on ‘what is/was/will be modernism?’

Is the modern then a nationalist venture, an ideology, an imitation, a technique a façade, a pedagogical method, or a bureaucratic tender?

Working with what Geeta Kapur calls ‘a continuous and paradoxical double take’, modernism’s history in India, navigates the terrains of nationalistic assertions in the post-colonial, sovereign aspirations, internationalism, the indigenous and the vernacular, working class urbanisation, socialist politics and new bureaucracies. Against this backdrop today’s discussion is an attempt to understand modernism in architecture and how does it locate itself in ideas of the nation state, history, pedagogy and practices of built form. 

About Speakers:

Amardeep Labana, a practicing architect and academic will attempt to explain the history and political ideologies that inhere in the genre of ‘Indian Modernism’. What were the urgencies, demands of the nation state for the creation of such a category in architecture, who were the different players, and what forms were adapted, rejected, transformed or even copied for the formation of this category. 

The pedagogical processes of architecture are largely driven by a modernist agenda. Here, the architect is evoked to solve all problems that haunt the streets of the nation-state and built form is supposed to resolve an inherited chaos. Parul Kiri Roy, teaches at the School of Planning and Architecture for the last seven years, and will reflect on the classroom of architectural practice, haunted strongly by the holy grail of modernism. Her pedagogical practice of teaching ‘studio’ involves a continuous engagement and contestation with terms such as the vernacular and the modern. She will attempt to explain the relationship between techniques of making, materials, and people’s ways of living in the contexts of these debates. 

Uttiya Bhattacharya, is an architect and an alumni of SPA. In his presentation, he will explore the modulations modernism goes through when encountering government systems, bureaucratic whims, tendering policies, local atmosphere and resource poor situations of building. Also a theatre artist, Uttiyo will present a minor treatise titled ‘From Bauhaus to Cow-house’ drawing from his experiences of building a veterinary university in the hinterland of the country.

Conceptualised by Sarover Zaidi with the participants (inputs by Mohammad Sayeed)

Sarover Zaidi has studied philosophy and anthropology. She has worked extensively on architecture and religion, rural public health and iconography in the contexts of Islam. She currently runs 'Elementary forms and the city' and a Guild working with cross disciplinary themes from architecture, urbanism, art and anthropology. 

Architecture Adda is a series of talks and discussions initiated by KNMA for interdisciplinary exchange amongst artists, architects, designers, anthropologists and researchers to map the routes that architectural forms, cityscapes , urban facades and art practices adopt, revealing not just politics but also memories and anecdotes.