---------- Forwarded message ---------- TODAY, WEDNESDAY MARCH 24TH at 2. 00 PM at Goa College of Architecture.
Design for Dwelling A Habitational Approach to Architecture and Urban Design Himanshu Burte (Based on his book, 'Space for Engagement: The Indian Artplace and a Habitational Approach to Architecture') Approximate duration: 50 minutes Abstract The engagement between people and places is central to the possibility of society. In our experience, different places are engaging to different degrees. It could be argued that our engagement with places affects our engagement with other people. In There is also broad and evolving academic consensus in the fields of architecture and planning about the need for a strong sense of place, and for spaces that people can connect to. And yet, architecture and urban design continue to be approached largely in a way that thinks of the designed house, library, street or park as an object that ought to be remarkable either for its expressive or technical achievement. Design discourse is rarely centred on the habitational qualities of a space. But how do we begin to talk of the habitational qualities of spaces? We seem to lack clear, broad and empirically viable concepts that allow such a discussion to evolve, even though there is consensus about the need for ‘humane’ spaces. And how do we begin to understand why we feel engaged with some places and not with others? The illustrated presentation will explore questions like these and propose an alternative approach to thinking about inhabited space. This approach is centred on the actions through which we inhabit space, and not on the creative subject (the designer) or the exalted object (the design). As a way of clearing the ground, a schematic description of the phenomenon of place, and the way architecture is situated in it, will be offered. The presentation will then dwell on a conceptual framework that describes qualities of space that affect our habitational actions within it. Among other things, a squarely habitational approach to the politics (and poetics) of urban and architectural space will also be considered.
