The processes of contemporary practitioners of space appear to be shaped through an intense enabling of technologies, concerns around the environment, urbanity and emerging economic and living conditions. To think of discussions on contemporary Indian architecture would not only mean taking stock of these contexts, but also asking questions about ‘space’ that gets structured in these new contexts. This conference aims to look closely at the specific conditions that produce space and its configurations, its experience, its politics and the methods we employ to imagine it. The question of environment and body; place and thought are at once held together in the notion of “inhabitation”. How do body and space make each other? Through what processes do they get shaped, and how do we become inhabitants? In extension to the exhibition ‘When is Space?’, “Inhabitations” articulates interrogations through the spatiality of the JKK and its generator – the city of Jaipur. Along with keynote addresses by scholars and panel discussions by practitioners of space, the conference shall inhabit different parts of the JKK through several spatial performances. The conference has twin agendas – to ask the first questions on space / place in contemporary architecture; and second to annotate the exhibition that it accompanies: ‘When is Space?’

Programme

21 January 2018

18.00 onwards: Inauguration & Walk through the Exhibition along with performances:

  • Space Sonics by Ish Sherawat with Samir Raut & Rupali Gupte at Five Gardens
  • Body, Earth, Space by Avantika Bahl at the ‘Garden of Desire’ 

22 January 2018

10.00-11.30: When is Space?

Panel Coordination – Anuj Daga

  • Jai Singh, Correa & Contemporary Architecture – Prasad Shetty
  • Sonic Space – Umashankar Mantrawadi
  • Post Space – Dhruv Jani

12.00-13.30: First Questions

Panel Coordination – Dushyant Ashar

  • What is a Home? – Samira Rathod
  • When is Building? – Robert Verrijt
  • Which Public? – Soumitro Ghosh
  • 14.30-15.45: Spatiality of New Economies & Ecologies

Panel Coordination – Ravindra Punde

  • Emerging Ecologies – Aniket Bhagwat
  • Spatiality of Emerging Economies – Madhav Raman

16.15-18.00: Jaipur Notes

Panel Coordination – Prasad Shetty

  • Notes from 1700s – Pankaj Sharma
  • Emerging Issues – Shikha Jain
  • Beyond the Old City – Kiran Mahajani

18.15-19.00: KEYNOTE – Revisiting Jaisingh’s Jaipur - Giles Tillotson

19.30-20.00: The Blood of the Stars: A Walk in Ten Scenes = Raqs Media Collective at the Black Box

23 January 2018

10.00-11.30: Thinking & Drawing Space

Panel Coordination – Prasad Shetty

  • Tracing Space-Drawing Practices – Mustansir Dalvi
  • Points to Lines to Planes to Solids – Parul Gupta
  • Futures of Drawing Space – Sameep Padora

12.00-13.30: Politics of Space

Panel Coordination – Neera Adarkar

  • Gendered Space – Gautam Bhan
  • Otherings in Space – Sarover Zaidi
  • Congestions – Sayeed Mohammad

14.30-15.00: Nishastagah = Samsher Ali  outside Sphatic

15.30-17.30: Living the City

Panel Coordination – Rupali Gupte

  • The Architecture of Infrastructure – Mayuri Sisodia
  • Dignifying Institutions – Niels Schoenfelder
  • Incremental Living – Riyaz Tayyibji
  • Tactical Life – Prasad Khanolkar

18.00-19.00: Walkthrough – When is Space? - Prasad Shetty, Rupali Gupte & Anuj Daga