Neelkanth Chhaya is an architect and academic. He has practiced at Ahmedabad since 1987, and taught at Faculty of Architecture at CEPT University from 1987 to 2012, when he retired as Dean of the Faculty. He also taught earlier at the University of Nairobi and at Institute of Environmental Design, Vallabh Vidyanagar, and has been an Adjunct Faculty at Srishti School of Design, Bengaluru. He edited Harnessing the Intangible: Collected Essays on the Work of Balkrishna Doshi (National Institute of Advanced Studies in Architecture, 2014). Prof. Chhaya has been interested in the value of Indic thought on architecture, urbanism and place-making to contemporary practices.

Abstract of the lectures

These two lectures will first present a brief overview of forms of architecture across India and across a long chronological period. Importantly, this should include both “formal” or monumental examples as well as folk forms of architecture. Avoiding purely stylistic or religious or periodized categorization, the lectures will attempt to bring about a broad synthesis of architectural thought peculiar to the subcontinent.

A more speculative part of the lectures will discuss whether there could be bridges between the textual and the artisanal knowledge systems.