The Silk Road was a patchwork of transcontinental trade routes that connected China with Europe. These interconnected pathways passed through Central Asia, India, Pakistan, Afghanistan, and the Middle East. As…
An idle power station along the Huangpu River in Shanghai had stopped producing electricity. Still, the city was looking forward to what the future held, skyscrapers going up and a…
A familiar street can look entirely different in an old photograph. Set beside a present-day view, it becomes more than a mere trace of the past; it offers clues to…
Dakshinachitra, a living heritage museum about 25 kilometres south of Chennai overlooking the Bay of Bengal along the beautiful East Coast Road, was conceived and created by the Madras Craft…
Few buildings in Delhi have changed their purpose as often as the Dara Shikoh Library. The name suggests a single purpose “reading room”, but its typology is much more complex.…
Walking through Keraton Kasepuhan (Kasepuhan Palace) in Cirebon, West Java, one would first notice its multilayered architectural language: Hindu-Buddhist, Javanese, Islamic, Chinese and European influences. Those different histories became embedded…
On maps, watercolours and old sketches that show how Mumbai’s CSMT rearranged the city around it. A Station Is Never Just a Station Stand outside Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Terminus on…
A heritage city is often imagined through its monuments. Agra is visualised by Taj Mahal, Khajuraho is its collection of 10th- and 11th-century Hindu and Jain temples and Delhi often…
Buildings rarely have only one life. But when an architect gives an existing building a new function, what happens to the lives that came before it? Old factories become galleries,…
Architecture is commonly perceived through its purpose and programme, specifically its first life. Traditionally, a building is conceived with a defined purpose for a set of users and is analyzed…
Its Late-October in Kolkata, and as Maa Durga leaves for her divine adobe in Kailasha leaving the Bongs with the promise of “Asche Bochhor Abar Hobe” (It will again happen…
A building can survive its original purpose and acquire a meaning that its designers could never have anticipated. The Residency, Lucknow is a striking example. Today, visitors encounter broken masonry,…