Date: Monday, September 23, 2019

Location: 112 Wurster Auditorium

Lecture: 6:30pm

Creating Places & Publics in Rural India

What is the role of designers of the built environment in the rural hinterlands of the world’s largest democracy? Over 800 million, a majority of India's population, lives in villages - places that face critical issues related to the built environment such as water scarcity, flooding, lack of public space and amenities, and waste mismanagement. Through recent architectural and landscape architectural projects from the portfolio of Critical Places + Alpa Nawre Design, this talk focuses on explorations of the design agency in such contexts, on what it takes to envision and deliver an impact at scale, and on building both publics and places in the process.

Alpa Nawre is Assistant Professor in the Department of Landscape Architecture at University of Florida, Executive Director of Critical Places, and Partner at Alpa Nawre Design. Alpa serves on the editorial Board of the JAE, is a recipient of the Dumbarton Oaks Mellon Fellowship in Urban Landscape Studies, LAF Fellowship for Innovation and Leadership and CELA Award for Excellence in Design Studio Teaching. She holds a Masters degree in Urban Design from Harvard GSD, a Masters in Landscape Architecture from LSU, and a Bachelor in Architecture from NIT, Raipur, India.

RECENT WORK

 

Critical Places is a diverse group of landscape architects, architects, planners, urban designers, and engineers dedicated to working with under-served communities in India to study, design and develop places critical to human well-being.

We have partnered with the Government of Maharashtra to design and build community halls in 57 villages throughout Maharashtra. These halls are built in honor of Ahilyadevi Holkar, the revered 18th century warrior queen, and will be used for community meetings, and cultural events such as weddings. Integral to this project is the engaging of community members through site visits and workshops to understand the specific needs and desires of the community. By engaging community members in the design and construction process, we hope to engender a sense of ownership and belonging in this space. The Punyashlok Ahilyadevi Holkar Community Halls have the potential to become landmark community facilities that will form the cornerstone of participatory design and planning in the State of Maharashtra, setting a precedent for the entire country. 

More information is available at www.criticalplaces.org

This event is funded by the Narayanan Family Foundation.