Architecture and Society Talk Series, 47th Edition

What is the role and relevance of an architect where more than half of the city is designed and built by the people themselves? What can a designer learn from the design of informal cities and can she bring her design knowledge to these self-built neighbourhoods?

Key Speaker: Swati Janu
Architect | Community Artist | Educator
Founder, Social Design Collaborative

Architecture and Society Series | Engaging with Urban Informality through Community Architecture

The 47th Edition of the Architecture and Society Series will focus on the innumerable informal cities that have grown in the Global South, taking in migrants and refugees unable to find affordable housing in the ‘planned’ city. These transient cities–built by the residents themselves, brick by brick, floor by floor–exist in an ephemeral state due to insecurity of land tenure and 'illegality', and are often built to be dismantled, relocated, and rebuilt. The talk will further discuss the role and relevance of an architect in this process through a few recent community driven and interdisciplinary design projects initiated by the speaker within the city of Delhi. 

Swati Janu's social practice combines architectural activism, community engagement and practice-based research on the urban themes of migration and urban informality. A graduate from School of Planning and Architecture, New Delhi, Swati also holds an MSc in Sustainable Urban Development from University of Oxford, UK.

Chair: MN Ashish Ganju 
Collab: Greha