Archival Research

South Asian Architecture & Urbanism

1 South Asia

2 Afghanistan

3 Bangladesh

4 Bhutan

5 India

6 Maldives

7 Nepal

8 Pakistan

9 Sri Lanka

This initiative is set to undertake a detailed research of literature available for the South Asian Region. Over the period of five years, this cluster will construct an annotated archive of books, journal articles, and research papers, aiding further studies. Each country’s annotated archive will be constructed through a collection of books on built form & architecture, planning & geography, history & fictional narratives, social-political and cultural outlines of the region. These references will include surveys/acts, fragmented documentations, monographs, conceptual essays, drawings & photographs through which architecture in the region is studied so far.  This platform acts as an infrastructure for the production and archival of documentation and discourse in the area of South Asian Architecture and Urbanism. This will form a rich database, which can allow one to study the many historiographies, terms, vocabularies, categories, methods and frameworks that have been built around the Architecture and Urbanism in South Asia. It will also help to identify conceptual and structural frameworks, social life and culture, key sites/ built forms that have shaped the imaginations of the way people live in these regions. With this understanding, one can then formulate and develop new lenses and conceptual categories through which a new understanding of Architecture and Urbanism in South Asia can be put together.