Workshop Description
Orientation and Approach
The opening lunch and afternoon orientation on Monday, January 3, will be a chance for Workshop participants to meet each other and the directors and faculty. The orientation session will review the Workshop in detail, including its objectives, content, format and approach. It will also introduce participants to Delhi and offer pointers on how to find their way around. All Workshop activities will be in English.
The Workshop will be held at a central location in New Delhi. Places being considered include the Alliance Francaise de Delhi, the new and striking Indo- French cultural center, and the Habitat Center, a new and lively gathering of urban organizations, galleries, restaurants, accommodations and meeting places. Both are situated in the green and pleasant Lodi Estate section of New Delhi.
The Workshop’s approach will emphasize critical issues inherent in the urban challenges facing Delhi, the active exchange of ideas, historical perspectives, first-hand observations and collaboration among participants in varied settings.
Discussions and Studios
Each weekday morning the Workshop will assemble at its meeting place. Two mornings each week will be devoted to a series of lectures and discussions, led by guest speakers, on such essential background topics as the political foundation of modern India and its present situation, national social movements, India’s economy, the implications of urban growth and change and India’s changing position in the world. Other morning lectures will focus on Delhi; including its Mughal and imperial history and their legacies, municipal politics and policies, regional development, environmental conditions and infrastructure.
Two mornings each week will be devoted to studios, the core of the Workshop. The studios will begin with presentations and discussions of the particular urban challenges facing Delhi. These activities will be complemented by defined projects on which participants will work in small groups under the guidance of a faculty member. The studio/project themes will include, for example, environmental preservation, urban infrastructure, community formation and migration, the nature of urbanism in Delhi, participative development and the implementation of plans. Participants will be able to continue their work on the studio projects during some of the afternoons.
Brief readings pertaining to the lectures and studios will be distributed before and during the Workshop.
Visits to Sites
About half of the afternoons will be reserved for informed field visits to significant historic and contemporary sites in Delhi. Historic sites will include, for example, the commanding Red Fort; Jama Masjid, the largest mosque in India; imperial Delhi; and Shahjanabad, the bustling old center. Among the contemporary locations to be visited will be resettlement colonies, group and government housing; transportation networks, like the new Metro system; the burgeoning satellite cities of Gurgaon and Noida and environmentally significant areas.
Some afternoons will be unscheduled so participants can pursue their own interests. Evenings will be free for dinner on your own, cultural events and exploring Delhi. Recommendations will be offered for these excursions.
Weekend Trips
To enrich the Workshop’s experience we will travel outside of Delhi on both weekends. One weekend will be spent in Chandigarh to see how Corbusier’s radical design for a provincial capital has fared after 50 years. On the second weekend we will spend parts of three days seeing the Taj Mahal in Agra, considered by many the most beautiful building in the world; the 16th century magnificent, but mysteriously abandoned, fortified Mughal capital of Fatehphur Sikri; and the mandala- based pink city of Jaipur, with its hilltop forts, glorious palaces and humming bazaars. In each place we will be accompanied by informed guides and residents.
Summing Up
The last day, Friday, January 21, will be reserved for summing up the Workshop. Morning events will consider what has been learned about Delhi’s challenges and its presence as a modern and thriving capital. In the afternoon the studio groups will present the results of their projects and lead discussions, followed by an overall review of the Workshop. In the evening participants and faculty will gather for a farewell dinner and celebration.
