Thesis (M.Archit.)--University of the Witwatersrand, Faculty of Engineering and the Built Environment, 2007. / Indian architecture has its unique place in the architectural history of the world. It constantly inspires its people. It continues to fascinate many a tourist and thinker. It has a multi-layered, 4000 year old history with the Indus valley civilisation (approx. 2500 BeE) boasting of highly sophisticated space planning concepts. The progressive evolvement of Indian culture since then has seen further refinement of all its art-forms. The remnants of the built forms of such bygone eras hold immense architectural merit that makes a walk through any traditional town a meaningful memory, even today. If architecture is the reflection of culture, what should have been the richness of the culture that gave rise to such splendour in architecture! Yet, "In order to understand a culture, it is not enough to describe its buildings, but one wants to know the impulses that drove people to build them." (Ballantyne, 2004, 30). So then what were these impulses that drove the Indian people to create the stupendous architecture, the representations of which are marvelled at today? The main proposition of the dissertation is that the ancient Hindu concept of "Art as Experience" on which much of the conscious place-making by the Hindu people was based, evolved from profound metaphysical seeds that addressed the very basis of man's existence on earth. The research hopes to partially prove that the greatness of traditional Hindu architecture lies in its metaphysical moorings of Ultimate Reality and Ultimate Truth and in doing so understanding what Ultimate reality was in Indian philosophy and what bearing it had on Hindu architecture and addresses the questions of how traditional Indian Hindu architecture housed man: body, being and all within his unique context? How does Hindu architecture with its unique perception of man and his environment converse with universal perennials? What is the currect architectural scene in India? And what are the lessons that such a comparative study might teach one? The research tries to answer the above questions by looking in depth at the ancient Hindu architectural concept of "Art as Experience" that is believed to have given rise to the ancient Hindu architecture of India. Starting with examining Indian metaphysical constructs and within it the perception of known and unknown entities of reality; further exploring its relevance to architecture in terms of the role of body in architecture, the concept of micro and macrocosms, contextual appropriateness and the unique place that thresholds held in life, the research moves on to the role of an architect and the way in which the architecture created lent meaning to the everyday life of people, attempting to understand how ancient architecture was weaved into the lives of people and their beliefs. Further, some parallels with non-Indian architectural thought are discussed following which the need for a sensate environment for human beings to live in, the need for identity and meaning in architecture, the concept of place and culture as a generating force for architecture are also explored. Finally the current state of architecture in India is discussed. In the end, some lessons that could be learnt from history are enumerated that could help in creating architecture that integrates both the universal principles and the particularities of culture to bestow meaning and identity to the people it purports to serve. This research tries to examine the past to look for clues to a future of identifiable and authentic architecture - to bring the ancient and contemporary into the same framework in order to look for lessons within. Abstract submitted by Kshama Chari. S.no: 0514479E to Dept. of Architecture. University of Witwatersrand on 18 lui 2007.

Call number: LD2668 .T4 1979 W335 / Master of Landscape Architecture

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Texas at Austin, 1999. / Vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 615-644). Available also in a digital version from Dissertation Abstracts.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Texas at Austin, 1999. / Vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 615-644). Available also in a digital version from Dissertation Abstracts.

An unprecedented production of discourses on contemporary Indian architects and architecture occurred in the 1980s. Published in a period of political transition and conspicuous new cultural production and debate in many fields, four decades after India’s independence from colonial rule in 1947, these architectural discourses have become privileged references that have shaped but also limited perception of late-twentieth century architectural production in India. While subsequent writers have addressed some of these limitations, the small but growing critical literature in this field still exhibits many of the same problems of representation. Despite problematising the construction of ‘Indian architecture’ in colonial and postcolonial discourse, these critiques have nevertheless taken for granted (as in the more popular and professionally oriented discourses of the 1980s) the existence of a pan-Indian community of architects, united in their search for a collective identity. Such monolithic perceptions of contemporary ‘Indian architecture’ have yet to be interpreted with regard to the conspicuous contexts in which they were produced — that is, from an ‘Indian’ point of view. Through a selective focus on a particularly productive site of discourse in 1980s India, I investigate complexities that have not yet been examined in the formation and reproduction of a dominant consensus on the identity of contemporary Indian architecture. The argument draws attention not only to the agency of particular contemporary Indian architects in the construction of this identity, but also the relativity of region in the architectural production of India during the 1980s. Specifically, I focus on an influential architectural magazine, Architecture + Design (A+D) that began publishing in 1984 from a dominant region of architectural production, Delhi. I provide an account of the manner in which history, context, agency and agents, came together at a point in time, within this architectural magazine, as a complex set of historically constituted social relations, to authorise and sustain particular viewpoints about contemporary Indian architecture. Using the French sociologist, Pierre Bourdieu’s theory of the field of cultural production, I relate issues of dominance and marginalisation observable in the production of this particular discourse on contemporary Indian architecture to the space of the positions held by its producers. Despite its avowed agenda of viewing contemporary Indian architecture differently in the 1980s, I argue, the selection and judgement of exemplary contemporary work deemed worthy of discussion in A+D as ‘Indian Architecture’ functioned (and continues to function) through established categories of perception and appreciation. / http://proxy.library.adelaide.edu.au/login?url= http://library.adelaide.edu.au/cgi-bin/Pwebrecon.cgi?BBID=1331621 / Thesis (Ph.D.) - University of Adelaide, School of Architecture, 2008

An unprecedented production of discourses on contemporary Indian architects and architecture occurred in the 1980s. Published in a period of political transition and conspicuous new cultural production and debate in many fields, four decades after India’s independence from colonial rule in 1947, these architectural discourses have become privileged references that have shaped but also limited perception of late-twentieth century architectural production in India. While subsequent writers have addressed some of these limitations, the small but growing critical literature in this field still exhibits many of the same problems of representation. Despite problematising the construction of ‘Indian architecture’ in colonial and postcolonial discourse, these critiques have nevertheless taken for granted (as in the more popular and professionally oriented discourses of the 1980s) the existence of a pan-Indian community of architects, united in their search for a collective identity. Such monolithic perceptions of contemporary ‘Indian architecture’ have yet to be interpreted with regard to the conspicuous contexts in which they were produced — that is, from an ‘Indian’ point of view. Through a selective focus on a particularly productive site of discourse in 1980s India, I investigate complexities that have not yet been examined in the formation and reproduction of a dominant consensus on the identity of contemporary Indian architecture. The argument draws attention not only to the agency of particular contemporary Indian architects in the construction of this identity, but also the relativity of region in the architectural production of India during the 1980s. Specifically, I focus on an influential architectural magazine, Architecture + Design (A+D) that began publishing in 1984 from a dominant region of architectural production, Delhi. I provide an account of the manner in which history, context, agency and agents, came together at a point in time, within this architectural magazine, as a complex set of historically constituted social relations, to authorise and sustain particular viewpoints about contemporary Indian architecture. Using the French sociologist, Pierre Bourdieu’s theory of the field of cultural production, I relate issues of dominance and marginalisation observable in the production of this particular discourse on contemporary Indian architecture to the space of the positions held by its producers. Despite its avowed agenda of viewing contemporary Indian architecture differently in the 1980s, I argue, the selection and judgement of exemplary contemporary work deemed worthy of discussion in A+D as ‘Indian Architecture’ functioned (and continues to function) through established categories of perception and appreciation. / http://proxy.library.adelaide.edu.au/login?url= http://library.adelaide.edu.au/cgi-bin/Pwebrecon.cgi?BBID=1331621 / Thesis (Ph.D.) - University of Adelaide, School of Architecture, 2008

Thesis (B.A.)--University of Wisconsin -- La Crosse, 2009. / Also available online. Includes bibliographical references (p. 37-38).

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Thesis (M.Arch.) - Carleton University, 2005. / Includes bibliographical references (p. 80-81). Also available in electronic format on the Internet.