Book-a-Week

In the latest episode of the Book-A-Week podcast, Sunaina Shah talks to George Michelle on his book ‘Late Temple Architecture of India, 15th to 19th Centuries: Continuities, Revivals, Appropriations, and Innovations ’. This book is the first wide-ranging overview of temple architecture in the 500-year period that overlaps with the authority of the Sultanates, the Mughals, and the British. It is supported by maps, photographs, and a selection of building designs showcasing the temples built during this period that display a startling diversity of forms, structural techniques, and aesthetic qualities that has often been excluded from scholarly pursuit.

George Michell is Professorial Fellow at the School of Architecture, Building and Planning, University of Melbourne. He is a leading scholar on art and architecture in South Asia. His research has mainly concentrated on the Deccan, Bengal, Gujarat and, most recently, southern India. The projects have varied from surveys of town planning and

Rajshree Rajmohan talks to Anindita Datta on her book "Gender, Space and Agency in India.’ This edited volume is a set of eleven insightful chapters by eminent researchers, each exploring links between gender space and agency across a diverse geographical context in India. The narratives are based on field studies and highlight not just the power of space in scripting gender, but also reinforced gendered spaces of power in a society marked by deep seated social divisions.

Anindita Datta is an Associate Professor at the Department of Geography, Delhi School of Economics. With over 20 years of teaching experience, she has published consistently in international peer-reviewed journals with interdisciplinary perspectives; served as a member on the international editorial boards for Gender, Place and Culture and Social and Cultural Geography; and is also a member of the Steering Committee, International Geographical Union (IGU) Commission on Gender and Geography.

Venugopal Maddipati talks to Hakim Sameer Hamdani on his book “The Syncretic Traditions of Islamic Religious Architecture of Kashmir”. The book presents the rich historical context of Islam in Kashmir and explores newer dimensions of tracing histories through architecture.

Hakim Sameer Hamdani is a notable architectural historian and an Islamicist and the Design Director of Indian National Trust for Art and Cultural Heritage (INTACH), Kashmir Chapter, Srinagar. Some of his major conservation projects include Reconstruction of 18th-century Wooden Shrine of Peer Dastgeer Saheb (2020–12) and Conservation of Aali Masjid at Eidgah, Srinagar (2007) ? both of which were longlisted for the Aga Khan Award for Architecture. More recently he has received an offer under the Agha Khan Program, to do his post-doctorate at MIT, where he will be carrying forward his work on Muslim architecture and Muslim identity in the late 19th and early 20th century Kashmir, in the background of colonialism and the freedom struggle.

In the first episode of the Book-a-Week Podcast, Arul Paul talks to Gautam Bhan on his book, ‘In the Public’s Interest – Evictions, Citizenship and Inequality in Contemporary Delhi.’ The book situates acts of evictions in Delhi in the context of debates on informality, citizenship & good governance, and judicial urbanism.

Part of the School of Human Development at Indian Institute for Human Settlement, Gautam Bhan teaches, researches and writes on the politics of urban poverty and inequality, urban and planning theory, housing, and identity and social practice. He also anchors the role of IIHS as a National Resource Centre, with the Ministry of Housing and Urban Poverty Alleviation and is part of IIHS’ work in affordable housing policy and practice. He has been an active part of urban social movements on sexuality as well as housing rights and currently advises and trains governmental agencies at national levels on housing policy.

In this introduction episode, Srivathsan introduces the Book-a Week podcast and its format. Every week young scholars from the fields of architecture, urbanism and design research will interview authors of recent books on diverse topics from architectural history, design theory, and ecological thinking to urban studies and anthropology. Each episode is imagined as a reflective, genial conversation on the book, its context, significance and relevance in today’s time

A. Srivathsan is an architect and urban designer, and currently Director, Center for Research on Architecture and Urbanism, CEPT University Ahmedabad. He was previously the Academic Director of the University, and before that taught for a decade and worked as a senior journalist with The Hindu, the national newspaper. His research and writings include the themes of urban history, planning policies and contemporary architectural practices. Srivathsan’s recent work includes work on evidence-based affordable housing policies for Chennai, a study conducted for Tamil Nadu State Planning Commission.