Jury
The jury for the Charles Correa Gold Medal 2021 was Dennis Pieprz (Jury Chair & Urban Designer, Sasaki), Gurjit Singh Matharoo (Principal Architect, Matharoo Associates), Shimul Javeri Kadri (Principal Architect, SJK Architects), Nadine Gerdts (Senior Critic, Rhode Island School of Design) and Bijoy Ramachandran (Principal Architect, Hundredhands) where they mainly looked for entries that consider the site and context of the proposed project with clarity in formulation and addressal of real-life issues.
GOLD MEDAL 2021 WINNER
The winning project ‘Decoding Cultural Trauma: Case of Girangaon, Mumbai’ uses architecture to address the sensitive issue of cultural and urban trauma, by making it contextual, and working within the existing urban fabric in the Girangaon bazaar in Mumbai. The project attempts to tackle the huge development pressure on the site through a human-centric design intervention. The sections are beautifully drawn, each one describing a different glimpse into the plethora of activities that take place within the built, and unbuilt spaces amidst a varied scheme of programmes, spaces and volumes.
HONOURABLE MENTIONS
The first honourable mention, ‘Pop Up Structures for Temporal Scenario’ is commendable as it speaks to the smaller towns of India and captures the kinetic city in an innovative way – it blurs the line between product and architecture and addresses a real problem with a unique and novel solution. It looks at a site enroute to the temple at Palani, using it to accommodate pilgrims during the annual Thaipusam festival, and is imagined before and after the festival’s season returning to its agrarian condition. The thesis is sensitive to the mechanics of these kinetic structures and the design of it serves to address three issues: accommodation, healthcare and cultural gathering space, through a common solution to help us in our understanding of the context and functionality.
The second honourable mention, ‘Infrastructure for Artistic Practice’ is exemplary as it looks at urban acupuncture as a potential methodology in an informal and densely packed settlement in Thane city. This thesis takes a participatory approach in the redevelopment of this commune, and each intervention is a strategy to regenerate the existing socio-cultural practices through a catalogue of urban tools and uses local technology and place making as its basis.
Award Ceremony
Watch the livestream of the Charles Correa Gold Medal 2021 above.
Charles Correa Gold Medal Storehouse
The ‘Storehouse’ is a digital repository of undergraduate architectural thesis projects that were received as a part of the Charles Correa Gold Medal. The storehouse intends to be a compilation of curated academic projects from across India, that gets updated annually after the Gold Medal Awards hosted by the Charles Correa Foundation.
