Published November 2, 2018 This content is archived.
In the fall of 2018, the School of Architecture and Planning welcomed architect and educator Rahul Mehrotra as the 2018 Clarkson Chair in Architecture. Mehrotra is principal and founder of RMA Architects based in Mumbai, and professor of urban design and planning, Harvard Graduate School of Design.
Working in Mumbai: The Works of RMA Architects
Architects and designers working in India are now dealing with an entire gamut of social, cultural and economic phenomenon that are molding the built environment at phenomenally rapid rates. In the process, the role of the professional architect has been marginalized - for within conventional praxis, the professional does not engage with this broader landscape but rather chooses to operate with the specificity of a site and in the process often becomes disconnected with the context of practice.
Delivering the Clarkson Lecture on Sept. 26, 2018, Rahul Mehrotra discussed his approach to "Working in Mumbai," which has been to use the city and region of its operation as a generator of practice - as a way to evolve an approach and architectural vocabulary that draws its nourishment from a more elastic definition of the profession which sees multiple disciplines as being simultaneously valid in engaging with this kinetic landscape.