Priyanka Shimpi

Advance theory
5th year B
The studio produces work informed by an explicitly environmental agenda. The
work creatively synthesises attitudes and technologies into an aesthetic habitat
and way of life. The studio was founded in 1981 as a partnership firm based in
New Delhi. Since then, the studio has handled a wide variety of interesting and
challenging projects, in diverse social, economic and geographical contexts.

Revathi Kamath
Principal Architect
Born in Bhubaneshwar, Orissa, in 1955. She obtained her Bachelors degree in Architecture in 1977 and a Post
Graduate degree in Urban and Regional Planning in 1981, both from the School of Planning and Architecture,
Delhi.

Vasant Kamath
Principal Architect
Born in Mangalore, Karnataka, in 1946. He obtained his Bachelor's degree in Architecture in 1968 and a Post
Graduate Diploma in Architecture in 1970, both from University College, London.

Ayodh Kamath
Partner Architect
Born in New Delhi, in 1982. He obtained his Bachelor's degree in Architecture in 2006 from Sushant School of Art
& Architecture, Gurgaon, and a SMArchS (Design Computation) in 2009, from the Massachusetts Institute of
Technology, Cambridge.
‘We were always interested in low-cost architecture – an architecture relevant to 75 percent of our population, below the poverty line.
The standard-of-living, the misallocation of resources, and the under utilisation of natural materials, concerned us.
We started building for the community, with our hands. Architecture for the poor is not just working for the poor but also providing
employment. While large construction agencies exploit the workers, we wished to work with them, because of them. We worked on
low-cost housing.’
- Indian architect & builder, August 1991

‘Where do we belong? If more people like it, then you belong. I belong to a small sphere which belongs to a larger sphere. It is not
merely a point of unanimity – it is fundamental. Behind it all is a common factor- a sense of ecology. Minimising cement, responding to
the site and climate, architecture must go beyond. It must strive at attaining sustainability. Its character must suit the ecology.’
- Indian architect & builder, August 1991

TYPES OF PROJECTS
PLANNING, LANDSCAPE, INSTITUTIONAL, COMMUNITY, EDUCATION, RELIGIOUS, WORK SPACES, HOSPITALITY, HOUSING, RESIDENTIAL
Both in terms of physical form and organisation, every city looks like two cities. The ‘formal city’ built with legal sanction, official
patronage, complete with health care, education and community facilities and a ‘parallel city’ which is much larger, built ‘illegally’
‘through dwellers’ own initiatives and characterized by deficient but gradually improving housing and service facilities. When the
two confront each other, the image is almost surrealistic.
- Third world cities, Jorge Hardoy and David Satterthwaite
Anandgram, New Delhi

This project involved the participation of a traditional community of performing artists and craftsmen in re-designing
the urban fabric of their unauthorised slum/squatter settlement and thereby gaining legitimacy in the city of Delhi.

A unique design process tapped into the community’s nomadic history while taking into account their contemporary
socio-economic reality and skills, and their aspirations for the future.
The project thus dealt with the generation and visualisation of urban form, and allowed all the complex parameters
which generate that form to interact simultaneously and structurally to provide a built fabric for the community.

Though conceived in 1979, this design is still being used as an advocacy planning tool in the community’s struggle for
official recognition.

Reminiscence

User group Evolution of house

Outcome
Maheshwar fort precinct, Madhya Pradesh

The fortified town of Maheshwar has been known for its weaving since its inception in the 15 th century. In the recent past, however, this
traditional activity had become unsustainable due to exploitation by middlemen and poor marketing. This project was commissioned by the
REHWA Society, a cooperative of local weavers, as a part of their adaptive reuse plan of setting up looms in the abandoned buildings of the
fort and developing community infrastructure and housing.

The project consisted of a study of the existing architecture of the fort and its buildings, and the development of guidelines for the design
of buildings housing community functions and weavers housing. A detailed study of the architecture of the town, the neighbourhoods
(mohallas), and traditional houses were presented to the community to sensitize them to their traditional habitat. This study was also
used to discuss the appropriateness of traditional architecture and its evolution in a newly emerging socio-economic context.

Certain key community buildings, a community centre and a school, and a participatory design project for weaver's housing were built as
prototypes to establish an architectural vocabulary for future construction.
Tourist village, Mandawa

This project is designed to create the atmosphere and incorporate the images, forms and spaces of a village in the Shekhawati region of
Rajasthan. The facility caters essentially to the middle and upper class international tourist looking for the ‘rural’ Indian experience.
The suites are designed to represent the homes of the village farmer, potter and weaver.

The architectural forms and elements have emerged from the juxtaposition of the requirements of two distinct and divergent lifestyles
meeting the needs and standards of comfort of the western tourist and at the same time creating an indigenous and contextual setting for
folk artisans and performers to display and market their skills and earn a livelihood in an environment that is akin to their own habitat.

Mandawa is our kind of architecture - a total process; not just an image creation. It was a rural exercise - using rural material, technology,
images and artists. It is a method of keeping the tradition going - the wall paintings are all inspired from Shekhawati. We asked the
community to dress up the walls at Mandawa, continuing the tradition, giving employment and instilling pride in the artisans. It is an
ongoing process of painting, so some characters get erased, something gets added, in an ongoing process full of life.
 KEY WORDS TO DESCRIBE THE BULLET POINTS OF THEIR DESIGNING PROCESS

SUSTAINABILITY LOW-COST REGIONALISM SENSE OF BELONGING ECOLOGY COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT