Documentary film Archiprix International Ahmedabad 2017 – Megacities - Micronarratives
(Arne Verbrugh, Christiaan van Schermbeek and others. NL, 2017, 43 min.) language: English

Film Archiprix Ahmedabad 2017 subtítulos Español

WORKSHOPS Making Habitat – Megacity, Micronarratives All designers of the 385 submitted graduations projects were invited to join the workshops in Ahmedabad. Over a 100 travelled from over 40 countries to join the Archiprix International workshops to address the paradoxes of making a habitat in Ahmedabad. Through design proposals and critical reflections placed in relevant locations and controversial arenas along a cross­section of Ahmedabad, they are challenged to explore the potential and manifest the value of the role designers can play in the current global urbanization process. Ahmedabad was one of the first cities in India to be industrialised, the Gandhi­-led non­violent movement against untouchability was launched in the city, yet Ahmedabad has also witnessed riots of communal nature. Also under Gandhi's guidance, Ahmedabad became the headquarters of the freedom movement that fought against colonialism, and immediately after independence, it became pioneer in the westernization of education and culture. Accordingly, Ahmedabad embraced modern architecture and it is unique in having four of its masters invited to build inside its limits (Le Corbusier, L. Kahn, Frank Lloyd Wright, Buckminster Fuller). Today, Ahmedabad is pitched as a Mega city with Smart city strategies and is one of the fastest growing cities in the world. As in other indian cities, in which the demographic, environmental and economical pressure is sheering, there is a strong demand on making. Infrastructure, buildings, plans and policies are been developed and updated at an increasingly fast pace. Its paradoxical outcomes range from building new gated communities to existing villages being engulfed. A first hand experience through a cross­section of the city gives a unique picture of the varied and irregular responses that its inhabitants are giving to this context. The desire to create one’s own habitat has resulted into countless personal, local and partial stories of Ahmedabad that describe the everyday life of the people living here. A culture of inhabitation and customization permeates every corner of the city bringing together the informal settlements and the brutalist concrete megastructures. It is reflected in the personalisation of the suburban villas on one end and the interiors of an auto­rickshaw on the other. In fact, it is this understanding of the urban built environment as a social practice that can humanize the overwhelming numbers of such a city and weave a guiding thread through it. Thus, the key question that architects, urban designers and landscape designers participating in the workshop addressed is how to bridge the gap between the grand strategies of geopolitics and the little tactics of the habitat. Can their tools be useful in this context of productive uncertainty?. Is it possible to both promote an open empowered inhabitation of the built environment while securing an even redistribution of the surplus value among the diverging stakeholders involved in the development dynamics? What approach can integrate various scales and accommodate diverse unforeseen scenarios providing specific answers to all of them? How can we make habitat in between megacities and micro­narratives? The film Archiprix Ahmedabad reports about the latest Archiprix edition and the activities in Ahmedabad.

WORLD’S BEST GRADUTION PROJECTS The best graduation work from all over the world presented by Archiprix is a treasure trove of ideas and investigations into all possible relevant aspects of the profession. The documentary film introduces a few of these projects and their designers. Like the award winning project Housing for Construction Workers in Ahmedabad, Jugaad urbanism to empower a labour colony designed by Hannah Broatch who graduated at the Unitec university in Auckland, New Zealand and who is right now actually realizing workers housing projects in Ahmedabad.