Category: Charles Correa Gold Medal 2025

Adaptive Spatial Model – A Case for Decentralising Transitional Care in Ahmedabad

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Author: Ishita Agarwal
Site Location: Ahmedabad
Institute: NMIMS Balwant Sheth School of Architecture
Advisor: Suprio Bhattacharjee

Description

The project addresses a pressing urban inequity – the absence of dedicated spaces for recovery between hospital treatment and home care. In cities like Ahmedabad, a major regional hub for healthcare that draws patients from smaller towns and rural areas, the lack of transitional care facilities amplifies existing disparities. Patients discharged after major treatments often face inaccessible or unaffordable rehabilitation options, particularly those from socio-economically weaker backgrounds. Many are left to recover in overcrowded or unsuitable environments, compromising their physical, emotional, and social well-being.

To bridge this gap, the project proposes an Adaptive Spatial Model for Transitional Care – a decentralized, modular framework that can be embedded into diverse urban contexts. By situating such centers within the city’s everyday fabric, the model ensures that quality care becomes a shared urban resource, not a privilege. Each module includes a complete set of essential programs, from rehabilitation and counselling to accommodation for patients and families, supporting holistic healing across conditions. Rooted in the principles of healing, the design integrates nature, sensory engagement, and community interaction to restore dignity and accelerate recovery. The model’s flexibility allows it to respond to varied site conditions, resource constraints, and cultural contexts, while maintaining an unwavering commitment to equity and inclusivity. By reimagining healthcare infrastructure as accessible civic space, the project presents a replicable vision for embedding recovery into the fabric of Indian cities – starting with Ahmedabad.

Drawings

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Art Beyond Visuals

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Author: Tanvi Loyare
Site Location: Lado Sarai, New Delhi
Institute: SMEF’s Brick School of Architecture
Advisor: Ar. Ninad Rewatkar

Description

Today, the cultural and architectural spaces of our cities remain ocularcentric, leaving
this vast community excluded from one of the most fundamental human experiences
“art”. This project, a Tactile Art and Training Center, responds to this urgent need by
reimagining the museum as a place where every sense touch, sound, smell, and even
thermal shifts becomes a medium of perception. At its core lies an art gallery designed
beyond the visual domain. Here, sensory pods, each defined by distinct materials,
textures, and thermal properties, create cocoons of experience. Skylights and contrasts
of light and shadow guide those with low vision, while fragrant plants and embedded
auditory landmarks help in orientation. Complementing this, a vocational training center
empowers visually impaired artisans to create, learn, and sell their work transforming
the space into both a cultural hub and an employment opportunity.
The project gives back to the community by opening its landscaped public spaces to all,
fostering child-like wonder for younger visitors while nurturing a shared sense of
belonging across generations.By making art accessible to all while placing the visually
impaired at its center, this project is not just a museum but a model of equitable design,
a living demonstration of inclusivity that we urgently need today.

Drawings

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PRAVEXUS – South Bengaluru Metropolitan Transit Hive

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Author: Yadav Krishnan U
Site Location: Bengaluru
Institute: V-SPARC, Vellore Institute of Technology
Advisor: Rituparna Das

Description

Rapid urbanisation in Indian metropolitan regions has exposed critical inequities within transport infrastructure. Public transit nodes, which should function as central points of accessibility and interaction, frequently remain overcrowded, directionless, and non-engaging. These deficiencies generate a domino effect of challenges, including reduced efficiency, social exclusion, and compromised safety, ultimately undermining the equitability of urban mobility.

The thesis project PRAVEXUS, located in South Bengaluru, proposes a multi-modal metropolitan transit hive that redefines the role of transport hubs within the city. The design positions equitability as a core principle, ensuring affordability, inclusivity, and accessibility across age, gender, and working class. Anchored in the conceptual framework of arches as symbols of movement and rebirth, the project integrates transit with commercial and civic functions to create a dynamic urban interface. Through contextual analysis and circulation-driven spatial strategies, PRAVEXUS addresses systemic inefficiencies while promoting mutualism between public infrastructure and socio-economic activity. The project demonstrates how multi-modal hubs can extend beyond transit efficiency to act as catalysts for equity, engagement, and urban identity within rapidly transforming metropolitan contexts.

Drawings

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Pravah : Harmonizing Water, Culture, and Environment

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Author: Anish Shinde
Site Location: Poladpur, Maharashtra
Institute: Aditya College of Architecture
Advisor: Rita Nayak

Description

This thesis examines the vital relationship between water, human culture, and ecosystems, highlighting how water influences the identity, livelihood, and rituals of rural communities. Set in Poladpur, Maharashtra, a region with high rainfall yet chronic water scarcity, the project addresses the ecological and infrastructural failures behind this paradox.
In response, it proposes a multifunctional rural node that combines water infrastructure, rainwater harvesting, groundwater recharge, and runoff management with community-focused spaces for gathering, health, agriculture, and learning. Drawing from traditional systems like johads, kunds, and stepwells, the design blends indigenous knowledge with sustainable practices.
Rooted in field research and local engagement, the project also tackles outmigration, declining traditions, and the loss of communal spaces linked to water insecurity. Reimagining water as both a sacred resource and social connector, the design seeks to restore ecological balance, cultural pride, and community cohesion.
Crucially, the intervention creates a space for all villagers, wildlife, livestock, aquatic life, birds, and visitors, fostering a shared environment where water becomes the central unifying force, nurturing coexistence, biodiversity, and an inclusive rural future.

Drawings

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Humanitarian Monastery

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Author: Syeda Nabila Fatima
Site Location: Hyderabad
Institute: Poojya Dr. Shivakumar Swamiji School of Architecture
Advisor: Ar. Anju Wanti

Description

The Humanitarian Monastery is conceived as a place of peace, learning, and community that transcends religion and embraces universal human values. Planned across a 10-acre site, the design approach emphasizes harmony between people, nature, and the built environment. The site layout follows a flowing, circular, and oneness, and the rhythm of life. Each pathway, landscape, and structure emerges as part of a larger ecosystem, where movement feels natural and interconnected, much like the flow of water.
The project is structured around the idea of equitability through design. Public areas are positioned near the main approach for accessibility, while contemplative and private monastic spaces are placed deeper within the site to ensure tranquility. Curved roads, gardens, and water bodies create transitional zones that balance openness with seclusion. The contours of the land are integrated into the planning, allowing the landscape to guide placement and orientation of spaces, reducing intervention and enhancing sustainability.
This thesis is not just an architectural exploration but a humanitarian vision—where planning, landscape, and design techniques unite to create a sustainable, inclusive, and spiritual environment. It demonstrates how architecture can become a medium of healing, equity, and coexistence.

Drawings

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Metamorphosis of Sonsoddo: Bridging the Gap Between Waste and Public Consciousness

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Author: Muhammed Swaleh Beg
Site Location: Margao, Goa
Institute: Goa College of Architecture
Advisor: Dr. Uma Jadhav

Description

Metamorphosis of Sonsoddo – Bridging the Gap Between Waste and Public Consciousness reimagines the Sonsoddo landfill in Margao, Goa, as a catalyst for renewal rather than neglect. Once a peripheral site, now encroached upon by residences and schools, Sonsoddo symbolizes both environmental degradation and systemic failure in waste governance. This thesis proposes a transformative model that integrates waste management with public life, positioning the site as a shared urban resource.

The project critiques the prevailing linear “take-make-waste” economy and instead advances a circular approach, where discarded materials are reintegrated into productive cycles. Facilities such as upcycling workshops, training centers, an eco-market, awareness spaces, and landscaped trails transform the landfill into a place of learning, opportunity, and ecological restoration.

At its core, the proposal envisions a pilot ecosystem where enterprises, artisans, craftsmen, students, and the elderly work alongside each other, creating social, economic, and cultural value. Recyclable materials and RDF become resources for industry, while other materials are recycled, displayed, and repurposed, breaking down barriers between waste, knowledge, and community.

Through thoughtful site planning, sustainable infrastructure, and inclusive programming, the thesis positions Sonsoddo not as a symbol of exclusion but as a model for collective growth, resilience, and renewal.

Drawings

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Building a Bridging Community: Re-imagining the Lives of the Sexworkers and Children of Sonagachi Redlight Area

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Author: B Vishnu Priya
Site Location: Sonagachi, Kolkata
Institute: Department of Architecture and Planning, College of Engineering, Trivandrum
Advisor: Arun Cherian

Description

Going into Sonagachi and identifying the real issues inside is one of the most challenging tasks known to India. Over the years, It has formed impenetrable layers of security within itself making it difficult to leave once trapped inside. A sexworker’s  desire to escape from the cycle of prostitution, abuse and illness is overshadowed by fear and a lack of sufficient support systems.

This project aims to provide the sexworkers and children the freedom of choice by providing all required facilities to leave the profession and transition back into society as strong independent citizens. Once a sexworker has chosen to leave Sonagachi behind, this project welcomes them to join the process of reintegration.

The design program involves a newly curated administrative and architectural self-sustaining ecosystem to provide housing, opportunities for upskilling, assistance with child care and access to education, leisure and sense of belonging.

Exclusion can only be addressed by involving the public in the sustenance of this project. Hence the project forms 3 layers of privacy on site. The site level zoning forms a market area where the people of Howrah and Kolkata can freely move about. The second level stacks the housing of the women on top of the commercial zone creating a secondary street network exclusively accessible to the tenants. The third layer addresses the need for institutional facilities required for liberation.

The future of Sonagachi is not written in stigma, but in the strength of its women. A city that no longer defines them by the walls they were once confined within, but by the possibilities they are free to pursue. This project is a step toward an urban fabric that chooses inclusion over exclusion, dignity over neglect, and liberation over silence. In reimagining the lives of the women and children of Sonagachi, we are reminded that architecture is not just about structures—it is about lives, choices, and the collective courage to create change.

Drawings

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Kasaykaar – A Journey From Ore to Finish

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Author: Yashashree Pimple
Site Location: Near Aathawada Bazar, Teli Ali Ratnagiri
Institute: Aayojan School of Architecture and Design
Advisor: Ar. Divya Makhijani

Description

In the heart of Konkan, the rhythms of rituals, marketplaces, and seasonal festivals still echo through the streets—but the Tambat coppersmiths, once central to this living heritage, face quiet decline. Their tools are outdated, their knowledge undocumented, and their presence fading from the city’s evolving fabric. Rooted in the coastal town of Ratnagiri, Kasaykaar is a cultural center designed to revive the declining legacy of local coppersmiths—artisans whose knowledge, once central to the region’s economy and rituals, is now on the verge of disappearance due to lack of documentation, generational discontinuity, and limited adaptation to modern techniques. Despite high demand, most craftsmen struggle to meet market needs owing to outdated tools, absence of design innovation, and diminishing local recognition.
The center acts as a bridge—where tradition, technology, and equity converge. Equipped with shared workshops, material labs, and collaborative studios, it empowers artisans while engaging youth in reviving the craft through modern design tools and knowledge exchange.
It also celebrates the cultural richness of the Konkan region by creating a platform for endangered practices like Konkani Ranmus, supported by local activists striving to keep these traditions alive.
Strategically located between a temple and an active marketplace, the center integrates with its surroundings—offering shaded verandahs, transitional courtyards, and public thresholds that invite spontaneous engagement.
More than a building, Kasaykaar becomes an evolving identity—an inclusive space where artisans, locals, and visitors shape culture collectively, ensuring that heritage is not preserved in silence, but practiced through living participation.

Drawings

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Charles Correa Gold Medal – 2025

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The Charles Correa Gold Medal is an award initiated in 1998 by Indian architect and urbanist Charles Correa. Through the format of the Gold Medal, the Charles Correa Foundation intends to not only challenge students and schools of architecture to focus on pressing issues, but also to emphasize the role that architects can play in society as “agents of change”.

For the next 3 years, the Charles Correa Gold Medal will focus on thesis projects that address ‘Equitability through Design’. By raising the question, ‘Who are we designing for?’ the Gold Medal seeks to reflect on the opportunities and responsibilities that we as architects have in creating spaces that are equitable and inclusive. This encompasses equal access to space, shelter, infrastructure and the commons. 

The thesis projects will be evaluated in terms of how they address current spatial injustices through design, and how they approach equity and inclusion at different scales.

This year, the Gold Medal will be awarded along with a cash prize of ₹25,000.

JURORS

Vandana
Ranjitsinh
Samir D’Monte
Ainsley Lewis
Shilpa Ranade
Rohan Varma

Award Ceremony 2025

Join us for the Charles Correa Gold Medal Award Ceremony 2025! The proceedings feature three events – the book launch of ‘Designing Equitable Cities’ (proceedings of the Z-axis 2018 Conference), a talk by Samir D’Monte, the Principal Architect of SDM Architects, Mumbai, and a discussion with the jury members on this year’s theme, ‘Equitability Through Design’.

Date: Tuesday, ​September 16, 2025

Time: 06:00 to 08:00 pm IST

Venue Partner: Ice Factory Ballard Estate, Mumbai

Discussion with Jury

Join us for a discussion with the jury, as they deliberate this year’s theme ‘Equitability through Design’ and the thesis entries that most accurately addressed the prompt, tackling spatial injustices through design.

Talk by Samir D’Monte

Join us for a talk by Samir D’Monte – “My journey as an architect, and how to save Mumbai city.” – on the occasion of the Charles Correa Gold Medal 2025 Award Ceremony.

Book Launch – ‘Designing Equitable Cities’

We are happy to announce the book launch of ‘Designing Equitable Cities’, proceedings of the Z-axis 2018 Conference. The book will be launched by Mr. Amit Chandra, Cofounder – A.T.E.Chandra Foundation, Chairperson – Bain Capital India Advisors at the Charles Correa Gold Medal Award Ceremony 2025 tomorrow, 16 September 2025 at IFBE, Ballard Estate, Mumbai. 

For a limited period, the book will be available at a discounted price. Pre-order your copies now from the Charles Correa Foundation website!

For any further queries, contact us at education@charlescorreafoundation.org.