Shreya Gambhir

1597

Studio : Architecture By History

The studio was an opportunity to contest the dominant narratives of formalism in architectural history, and to position history and criticism as an active component of contemporary architectural practice. History and architecture has more often than not been relegated to its formalist format, and “lessons from history” translate to stylistic emulations in architecture. This course shatters that constricted viewpoint and expands the application of historiography to include spatial concerns of materialism/ technology/ post-humanism/ re-appropriation/ erasures/ identity/ sexual orientations/ economics. Taking the case of a city which has rich archival material- Lucknow- the studio creates a body of critical knowledge so as to inform subsequent architectural forms for a present-day live project. Emphasis is on architectural history- both archival and material- of the city. 


Report Content

A theme based, palimpsestic map of the city derived from archival research.

A counter narrative of the previous map traced from the findings of the on ground study.

Formalist re-imagination of a dilapidated historic building in Lucknow.

Investigating into material and archives to re imagine the building its complete form.

Construction details extracted from existing ruins of the building and from the texts published about construction techniques of the time.

Elevations of the building showing the existing traces and the ones conjectured. On the right is the form of the built re-imagined.

Post-humaist, futuristic imagination of the Banqueting Hall.

Designing a mutiny trail along the cityscape of Lucknow.

Bringing out the narrative of adaptive reuse of architecture through a pilot of the Banqueting Hall.

Use of augmented reality and VR to make the users engage with the remnants of the built.