From the Iconic to the Everday: Institutional Shifts for Students as Citizen Designers

This paper discusses the role of architectural institutions within the prevailingscenario of rapid change across all levels of human settlements inemerging economies like India with specific focus on the need for paradigmshifts in design studio pedagogy from simulated problem-solving exercisesto civic engagement processes.The obsession of practicing architects in India towards the iconic continuesto be the driving force behind individual thrusts of creativity in more waysthan one. Sadly, this prejudice connecting the “special” or “different” as architectureagainst the everyday to that which is not, stems from a pervadingmalaise rooted in the world of architectural education within design facultyand students across this sub-continent. Such a trajectory of design explorationwithin studios in majority of architecture schools has typically confineditself to the development and training of design minds in the pursuit of‘extra-ordinary’ projects revolving around large-scale, albeit contemporaryurban artifacts as the focal catalyst for design exploration. More importantlybut quite understandably, this prevailing fixation towards the iconic hasvisibly resulted in inhuman, anonymous, degraded physical environmentsof everyday living across the total urban spectrum. Moreover, architecturalpractice so far, has overwhelmingly concentrated on metropolitan city turfsthat have in turn gleefully swallowed the creative cream of the professionwhile some residual talent has desperately tried to answer the needs ofremaining urban domains. It is imperative to bring into focus right awaythough, that this heavily lop-sided orientation of the profession towards urbanarenas of engagement constitutes but only 30% of the more than 1.2billion people of this country served by the profession today!Over the last two decades, the pace with which this country has been transformingin response to its increasing connectedness with the global economyis seen to effect widespread and unprecedented aspiration-driven demandson the professional expertise of architecture and related disciplines.Much of this demand now is palpable from non-metropolitan urban domainsand quite significantly from the vast majority of the rural counterpart. Suchdemands of change are also not confined to the “special” or the “extraordinary”but far more to the day to day, even mundane, needs of growingsocieties. Issues of equity, sustainability, identity and continuity have allcome to the fore in this unforeseen rush for change.Is there a role of architects beyond cities? Is there a way to cultivate alearner centric, personal engagement with city space as the foundationfor a citizen-designer exploration of our environments? Could there be anagenda of creative collaboration through civic engagement and participationwith social realities for design studio pedagogy to evolve into? In a breakaway from the erstwhile academic tradition, using the experience of the firstpublic art festival in the city of Delhi and multi-dimensional institutionalinitiatives within remote Himalayan tribal villages, this paper explores thedynamics of students as citizen designers engaging these questions as apossible first step towards an alternative, immersive and nuanced approachinforming change and connected imaginations in our part of the world.

Volume Editors
Martha Thorne & Xavier Costa

ISBN
978-0-935502-83-1