All 9 films made for the Nagari Short Film Competition 2021 were screened online by Vikalp@Prithvi followed by a Q&A forum discussion. Read the Q&A here.
Watch the 9 short films on people and livelihoods in urban India on NagariTV here. Visit the Vikalp@Prthvi face book page here.
On the 26th November 2021, First Secretary Ana Ferrand visited the Charles Correa Foundation. She held a meeting with Mr. Arminio Ribeiro, Managing Trustee, and Mr. Tahir Noronha, Convener, to discuss about their work on urban issues and possible paths for cooperation.
An online event commemorating the films that were made for Nagari 2021 Short Film Competition and announcement of winners. The event will consist of films screening, interspersed with commentary and discussion with this year’s mentors and jury.
An online event in memory of our founder, late Indian architect and urbanist Charles Correa. The event will consist of the award ceremony for the Charles Correa Gold Medal and the international release of Rahul Mehrotra’s new book ‘The Kinetic City and Other Essays’.
The Nagari Film Competition is an annual competition designed to guide and develop films that focus on urban issues, specific to Indian cities. Nagari intends to be a bioscope for the city, and through this lens, we explore diverse urban conditions and engage with issues. Nagari is unique as it has been conceptualised as a guided exercise, with a panel of Mentors on board to help participants on their journey to creating a film.
The Charles Correa Foundation (CCF) has not been consulted or involved in the work being done at Kala Academy, which is commencing on Monday, April 5, 2021.
From June 2019 when CCF first learnt that the Government was considering demolishing the building, CCF recommended that structural repair and waterproofing be done, especially to the amphitheatre, and had asked faculty from IIT Madras, structural engineers who are experts in restoring reinforced concrete, to inspect Kala Academy. This review was done at CCF’s expense, with the hope that in the public interest, the building would be restored and well looked after. It was determined that this repair work would cost a fraction of what now has been announced as the budget ₹50 crores. Therefore, it would be in the public interest to know what additional work is being proposed? What exactly is being done to the building that is going to cost ₹50 crores?
In the many discussions and debates over the last two years, it was clearly established that the people of Goa appreciated the design, spaciousness of the public spaces and their easy access, making it an important cultural artifact for the city. Its open design welcomed everyone to walk through the lobby, to attend events at the theatres, and even access the Mandovi riverfront. The design of a building is not just about the façade, it is the entire building. If you are going to change the lobby, the auditoriums, the practice spaces and terraces, you are changing the DNA of the building. Do the people of Goa want the building to be altered and transformed? The Kala Academy is an important building, an exemplary modern public building, and one of the first contemporary post-Liberation buildings in Goa. If additional auditoriums are required, could they be built as an annex, so that the integrity of this unique design is not destroyed?
Panaji and Goa have only one public building designed by Correa, and shouldn’t it be kept exactly the way he designed it? Correa was given the Gomant Vibhushan, Goa’s highest honour in 2011, but what is the value of this recognition if the State is ready to compromise the integrity of his architecture?
Architecture school is a place of experiment and a testing ground for innovative ideas. The academic work and student projects can bring to light the focus of an entire career, shape the backbone for an architectural theory, and crystalize values. How do their studies and formative years reflect on the later work of different architects? Taking a journey along decades, we explore the transition from architecture school to practice, the reverberance of academic explorations and early projects in the work of several architects and practices, highlighting the different pivotal steps that have shaped the beginning of their architectural journey.
Throughout different decades, particular socio-economic environments shaped the opportunities available to young architects. As Natalie de Vries stated: “It’s much harder for young architects starting now because of the current economic conditions. They have to think much more about their business models – we could just dive in and start making things.” Some architects of the last century found themselves in the privileged position of having notable commissions in their early careers, as is the case of Alison and Peter Smithson who were in their twenties when they took up the commission for the Hunstanton School in Norfolk. On the other hand, it took more than a decade since graduation for Zaha Hadid to have one of her designs built. It is hard to tell if contemporary media and the proliferation of the means for disseminating good architecture and innovative projects empower young architects, getting them a step closer to commissions. Nonetheless, the academic preoccupations of architecture students illustrate the ethos of the particular moment and place, underlining distinct approaches to architecture, and it is worth exploring how various architects from different decades have pursued their student architectural interests after graduation.
Charles Correa’s 1955 Master Thesis at MIT strikes as an example of academic interest pursued across an entire career. The project explored the concept of participatory processes at the neighborhood level and put forward a framework for improving urban conditions in a bottom-up approach. This scale and design thinking remained an important part of his life as a practitioner, and a decade later, in 1964, Correa published an alternative plan for Mumbai’s future growth. The vision was accepted by the government in 1970 and became known as Navi Mumbai, with Correa as the chief architect of the new development plan. Throughout his career, Correa was a fervent activist for the improvement of housing and urban life in cities. Moreover, he founded the Charles Correa Foundation, to support architectural, urban design, and community-based projects that improve the human settlements in India.
The Charles Correa Foundation with the support of Mumbai-based ATE Chandra Foundation is organising Nagari, a short film contest themed around adequate housing in urban India.
Different housing typologies can be observed in Mumbai. Photo: Hardik Joshi via Unsplash
By Christine Machado | NT BUZZ
According to the Ministry of Housing, Government of India, over 17 per cent of urban India lives in settlements with inadequate amenities and without access to essential services. Over three million urban dwellers are homeless and unable to afford even the most basic housing.
In order to highlight this issue and offer up possible solutions, The Charles Correa Foundation with the support of the Mumbai-based charitable trust ATE Chandra Foundation has conceptualised a short film contest titled ‘Nagari’. Themed around addressing the question ‘How could one tell the story of housing adequacy in urban India?’
The Charles Correa Foundation is organising a short film festival focusing on adequate urban housing to help generate ideas that can be used to reconfigure cities for the benefit of its residents.
The film festival will generate ideas which could then be used to better the living conditions of cities in India. Photo: Rajesh Vora
The cities of India are seething with problems. From its design to pollution to its traffic congestion that seems to be growing by the day. The same holds true for Goa too. Complaints have risen from the residents of Panjim and other parts about traffic congestion, increase in garbage and the construction that continues without restraint. The Charles Correa Foundation has for the very first time launched the Nagari Film Competition. It will be an annual competition designed to guide and develop films that focus on urban issues, specific to Indian cities.
Successful models for neighbourhoods bring together the 5 Cs – connectivity, convenience, comfort, community and commerce
As the COVID-19 pandemic rages on, cutting us from the usual networks that sustain us, the importance of enriching our neighbourhoods has become evident. The C40 Cities, an international network constituted by mayors and urban planners from across the world, adopted the idea of the “15-minute city” in July, to make our cities more liveable, healthy and whole. In the 15-minute city, everything that an individual needs – workplace, shops, hospital and schools – would be within 15 minutes of their home. This isn’t a new idea, as most of us have memories of having lived in such neighbourhoods.
‘You and Your Neighbourhood’ is the theme of this year’s Z-Axis, the fourth edition of the biennial urban design conference organised by the Charles Correa Foundation (CCF) in Goa. The theme is inspired by the title of the animated film which was Correa’s Master’s thesis at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, USA, in 1955. It tells the story of how the protagonist Joe’s neighbourhood began to be neglected when a factory came up there. In the film, the late architect asks: How does a city grow? Can we make neighbourhoods better? The answer is found in the people who come together to effect change.
The Z-Axis Conference brings together ‘starchitects’ from around the world to share their experiences about solving urban challenges.
A family of migrant workers from Madhya Pradesh walk out of Navi Mumbai. | PTI
A few days ago, the outstanding poet and translator Mustansir Dalvi (he has also been on the faculty of Mumbai’s Sir JJ School of Architecture for 17 years) released a new collection of verse. Walk, he said, was written from his “sense of helplessness, frustration and anger” earlier this year, when “we were seeing vast number of people, walking back home, sometimes covering over 1,000 km from state to state, without support, money or transportation”.
By now, it’s clear India launched heedlessly into “the world’s strictest lockdown” without the measures necessary to safeguard the vast majority of its citizens. At that time, Prime Minister Narendra Modi misguidedly promised that the “Mahabharata war was won in 18 days, this war the whole country is fighting against corona will take 21 days”.
Charles Correa Foundation has recently released several snippets of ‘You & Your Neighbourhood’, Charles Correa’s 1955 Master Thesis at MIT, an animation film for which the architect was scriptwriter, animator, photographer and director. The thesis put forward the idea of a participatory process for the betterment of neighbourhoods, with a strong emphasis on creating a framework for improving urban conditions in a bottom-up approach.
The University of Michigan, Taubman College of Architecture + Planning, has instituted an endowed annual lecture series in honor of Charles Correa. The International Lecture hosted its first speaker, Tatiana Bilbao in 2017 followed by architects Sou Fujimoto and Satoshi Ohashi in 2019.
For further reading, visit the university website here.
The terraces and courtyards reflect Correa’s concern with progression through space – the maze or puzzle – where parts are casually revealed and the complex of internal streets act rather like a village layout. In this way the architect makes the building reflect Bhopal’s own organizational layout.
Kala Academy is more than just a stone structure. Apart from the intangible values that surround the building, Kala Academy is being visited and studied by around a thousand students every year for its architectural significance.
Read more on why it is considered to be such an important building here, by Lester Silveira.