Afforesting Urban Landscape: Miyawaki Forest
by K Sakthivel and Vibhavari Sarangan
on Fri., 15 July 2022 @ 5:30 PM IST
This presentation discusses a collaborative experiment between architects, researchers and cultivators that aims at infusing the urban fabric with indigenous and fast growing forests. These environmental nodes or zones, we hope, shall act as resilient corridors towards alleviating the effects of climate change.
ABOUT
Sakthivel is a Madurai based environmentalist. He founded and manages RainMan Enviro Solutions, Madurai. He is renowned for creating Madurai's first Miywaki forest and has gone on to cultivate and care for many such large scale Miyawaki forests in Tamil Nadu.
Vibhavari is an architect from School of Environment & Architecture, Mumbai (2020). She has studied cultivation practices in dense urban areas and curated a greening project that aims to create environmentally-active social nodes in Padma Nagar and other such vulnerable settlements that dot the edges of the Deonar dumpyard.
ABOUT
Sakthivel is a Madurai based environmentalist. He founded and manages RainMan Enviro Solutions, Madurai. He is renowned for creating Madurai's first Miywaki forest and has gone on to cultivate and care for many such large scale Miyawaki forests in Tamil Nadu.
Vibhavari is an architect from School of Environment & Architecture, Mumbai (2020). She has studied cultivation practices in dense urban areas and curated a greening project that aims to create environmentally-active social nodes in Padma Nagar and other such vulnerable settlements that dot the edges of the Deonar dumpyard.

This is an online series. It has been co-curated and supported by the Shared Ecologies program of the Shyama Foundation along with the ongoing support of Urban Centre Mumbai.
The events are free and open to everyone across the world.
Architectural Innovations in Bamboo: Designing for Mainstream Futures
by Hemang Mistry
on Fri., 29 July 2022 @ 5:30 PM IST
The philosophy of Hemang Mistry's practice is to give back what one has borrowed from nature. While bamboo is categorised as grass, his
works demonstrate how it can be one of the most promising materials for the
future, that can be used in landscape, architecture and urban design projects.
ABOUT
Hemang Mistry is an architect and urban designer with an experience of 16 years in designing at varying scales from architectural to urban. His practice has been focusing on building with mud and bamboo over the last five years. He completed his architecture from SCET, Surat in 2006 and Urban Design from CEPT University, Ahmedabad in 2011. Hemang has won many national design competitions within his pursuit of ecological design. He is a bamboo enthusiast, as well as a member of IIA and the working committee of Bamboo Society of India.
ABOUT
Hemang Mistry is an architect and urban designer with an experience of 16 years in designing at varying scales from architectural to urban. His practice has been focusing on building with mud and bamboo over the last five years. He completed his architecture from SCET, Surat in 2006 and Urban Design from CEPT University, Ahmedabad in 2011. Hemang has won many national design competitions within his pursuit of ecological design. He is a bamboo enthusiast, as well as a member of IIA and the working committee of Bamboo Society of India.

This is an online series. It has been co-curated and supported by the Shared Ecologies program of the Shyama Foundation along with the ongoing support of Urban Centre Mumbai.
The events are free and open to everyone across the world.
Reclaiming our Lost Natural Building Practices
by Biju Bhaskar
on Fri., 12 August 2022 @ 5:30 PM IST
This lecture offers an insight into various native
natural building techniques that frame the orientation of Thannal - a natural
building awareness group. It discusses ways in which these techniques can be
integrated within the present-day construction practice including wall systems,
roofing, surface finishes and allied aspects.
ABOUT
Born in Kerala, India, to a farmer’s family, Biju Bhaskar stopped his studies at a conventional architecture college and travelled extensively in different parts of Indian villages. For one and a half years he worked under a tribal master making driftwood sculptures in Khajuraho. He founded Thannal Natural Homes in 2011, a natural building awareness group and is still continuing his inner journey in the self-study and earthen shelter movement in India. In the last decade, he has spent his time in research & documentation of indigenous shelters, spreading awareness through taking classes, workshops and publishing articles, books and videos on natural buildings.
ABOUT
Born in Kerala, India, to a farmer’s family, Biju Bhaskar stopped his studies at a conventional architecture college and travelled extensively in different parts of Indian villages. For one and a half years he worked under a tribal master making driftwood sculptures in Khajuraho. He founded Thannal Natural Homes in 2011, a natural building awareness group and is still continuing his inner journey in the self-study and earthen shelter movement in India. In the last decade, he has spent his time in research & documentation of indigenous shelters, spreading awareness through taking classes, workshops and publishing articles, books and videos on natural buildings.
This is an online series. It has been co-curated and supported by the Shared Ecologies program of the Shyama Foundation along with the ongoing support of Urban Centre Mumbai.
The events are free and open to everyone across the world.
Maharashtra Stepwells Campaign
by ROHAN Kale
on Fri., 26 August 2022 @ 5:30 PM IST
In
this lecture, Rohan Kale speaks about his process of documentation and
conservation of the several stepwells that are scattered in neglect across the
region of Maharashtra. Kale will speak about the role of step wells in medieval
societies and how they may be revived into their present economic fabric
through adaptive cultural strategies.
ABOUT
Rohan Kale studied at the Welingkar Institute of Management and has worked in the field of human resources. He is the pioneer of the Maharashtra Stepwells Campaign.
ABOUT
Rohan Kale studied at the Welingkar Institute of Management and has worked in the field of human resources. He is the pioneer of the Maharashtra Stepwells Campaign.

This is an online series. It has been co-curated and supported by the Shared Ecologies program of the Shyama Foundation along with the ongoing support of Urban Centre Mumbai.
The events are free and open to everyone across the world.
How could animals and architects co-design?
by IGNACIO Farías
on Fri., 9 Sept 2022 @ 5:30 PM IST
This presentation offers a story of collective experimenting and learning based
on a question: what if we sought to relearn how to practice architecture
from animals? By exploring this question and by telling this story, Ignacio
Farías
aims at circumventing two conventional gestures: helping out
animals survive in our contemporary urban environments or treating
animals as ‘food for thought’ about architectural practice. Following STS
(Science and Technology Studies) and environmental humanities multispecies
concerns,
Farías
approaches urban animals as epistemic partners for rethinking
architectural practice, thus engaging their capacities in attempts at
designing with (rather than ‘for’ or ‘from’) them.
ABOUT
Ignacio Farías is Professor of Urban Anthropology at Humboldt University in Berlin. His research interests concern current ecological and infrastructural transformations of cities and the associated epistemo-political challenges to the democratization of city-making. His most recent work explores the politics of environmental disruptions, from tsunamis over heat to noise. He is also interested in doing urban ethnography as a mode of city making performed with others (designers, initiatives, concerned groups, policy makers) and by other means (moving from textual to material productions).
ABOUT
Ignacio Farías is Professor of Urban Anthropology at Humboldt University in Berlin. His research interests concern current ecological and infrastructural transformations of cities and the associated epistemo-political challenges to the democratization of city-making. His most recent work explores the politics of environmental disruptions, from tsunamis over heat to noise. He is also interested in doing urban ethnography as a mode of city making performed with others (designers, initiatives, concerned groups, policy makers) and by other means (moving from textual to material productions).

This is an online series. It has been co-curated and supported by the Shared Ecologies program of the Shyama Foundation along with the ongoing support of Urban Centre Mumbai.
The events are free and open to everyone across the world.