Articles by Kiran Keswani

The Samosa Mela at Shivajinagar is a study conducted as part of a CEPT-CPP Summer school on The Everyday City that was held in June 2016 at the IIM Bangalore campus. It was a collaborative effort between CEPT University, Ahmedabad and the Center for Public Policy, IIM Bangalore. As part of the two-week workshop, the participants worked in groups to identify & analyse the everyday activities on the streets in different locations in the city. The Samosa mela project was done by Drashti Amin, (Anant Institute of Architecture, Ahmedabad), Akshata Bhandiwad (CEPT University, Ahmedabad) & Suyash Bhardwaj (NIT, Surat). The…

The Samosa Mela at Shivajinagar is a study conducted as part of a CEPT-CPP Summer school on The Everyday City that was held in June 2016 at the IIM Bangalore campus. It was a collaborative effort between CEPT University, Ahmedabad and the Center for Public Policy, IIM Bangalore. As part of the two-week workshop, the participants worked in groups to identify & analyse the everyday activities on the streets in different locations in the city. The Samosa mela project was done by Drashti Amin, (Anant Institute of Architecture, Ahmedabad), Akshata Bhandiwad (CEPT University, Ahmedabad) & Suyash Bhardwaj (NIT, Surat). The…

The idea of the 'Everyday city' is based on the concept of Everyday Urbanism that was proposed in 1999 by Margaret Crawford & others, wherein the city is seen above all as a social product and which focuses on informal urban spaces. They point out that it is not what the planning initiates for the city but what the people seem to generate as an outcome of their everyday needs. How relevant is this in the context of the Indian city? And, how does it work for Bangalore & other cities? What is the Everyday city here? Is it ...…

The idea of the 'Everyday city' is based on the concept of Everyday Urbanism that was proposed in 1999 by Margaret Crawford & others, wherein the city is seen above all as a social product and which focuses on informal urban spaces. They point out that it is not what the planning initiates for the city but what the people seem to generate as an outcome of their everyday needs. How relevant is this in the context of the Indian city? And, how does it work for Bangalore & other cities? What is the Everyday city here? Is it ...…

In a discussion on ‘The City in the World’ as part of the IIHS City Scripts festival in Bangalore, K.T.Ravindran, Professor & Head of the Urban design department for the last 20 years at the School of Planning & Architecture in Delhi talked of his three favourite cities – New York, Istanbul & Benares. He suggested that in places such as these, the intensity of the life in the city could change its people, it could make them special, different & quirky. On the one hand, these were cities that could draw people from outside, absorb them into their fold, give…

In a discussion on ‘The City in the World’ as part of the IIHS City Scripts festival in Bangalore, K.T.Ravindran, Professor & Head of the Urban design department for the last 20 years at the School of Planning & Architecture in Delhi talked of his three favourite cities – New York, Istanbul & Benares. He suggested that in places such as these, the intensity of the life in the city could change its people, it could make them special, different & quirky. On the one hand, these were cities that could draw people from outside, absorb them into their fold, give…

How do you begin to like Bangalore when you have moved here from elsewhere? I remember when we first came here 8 years ago, I yearned for anything that would remind me of Bombay, where I grew up - or of Chennai which was where we had lived for the 3 years before. But, nothing about Bangalore seemed like either Bombay or Chennai. I shared my woes with other friends from Bombay who had also moved here around then. One friend was living in Fraser town and another friend had moved into a quiet neighbourhood in Domlur. They missed Bombay…

How do you begin to like Bangalore when you have moved here from elsewhere? I remember when we first came here 8 years ago, I yearned for anything that would remind me of Bombay, where I grew up - or of Chennai which was where we had lived for the 3 years before. But, nothing about Bangalore seemed like either Bombay or Chennai. I shared my woes with other friends from Bombay who had also moved here around then. One friend was living in Fraser town and another friend had moved into a quiet neighbourhood in Domlur. They missed Bombay…

The story I’m about to tell here is about the discoveries at the Everyday City workshop at the School of Architecture & Planning, CEPT University. This workshop was held as part of CEPT’s Summer Winter School from 1st to 17th Dec 2015. The question we asked was: How can we bring about small changes in our perception and that of others through documenting how people negotiate streets on an everyday basis? The two key modes of inquiry were Photography and Map-making. The course participants worked in groups of three, approaching topics that they found riveting, ranging from cows in urban…

The story I’m about to tell here is about the discoveries at the Everyday City workshop at the School of Architecture & Planning, CEPT University. This workshop was held as part of CEPT’s Summer Winter School from 1st to 17th Dec 2015. The question we asked was: How can we bring about small changes in our perception and that of others through documenting how people negotiate streets on an everyday basis? The two key modes of inquiry were Photography and Map-making. The course participants worked in groups of three, approaching topics that they found riveting, ranging from cows in urban…