| Subject | MUDE 402: Urban Research |
| Session | M. Arch. Sem I and Sem IV |
| Year | 2023-24 |
| Date | 6th December, 2023 |
| Time | 9:00 a.m. Onwards |
| Venue | PiCA M. Arch. Studio II |
| Faculty Co-ordinator | Prof. Harshada Katkar, Prof. Snehal Ghag |
| Guest Speaker | Ar. Aseem Deuskar |
MAPPING THE PAST: EXPLORING HISTORY THROUGH SPATIAL PERSPECTIVE
Introduction to Workshop:
History is a comprehensive study of the past, encompasses all the recorded events, actions, ideas and societies through various factors revolve around human and the surroundings. History is also a significant tool in urban studies that largely unfolds the key historical developments and complexities of urban fabrics around the world. So, to explore the word ‘Urban’ and its past, the workshop titled as ‘Mapping the past’ structured to deliver digitized maps of a historical fabric supported by writings that help students to understand and navigate historical events, developments, and contexts considering various historical facets. To achieve the deliverables, the workshop designed to encourage discussions, explore mapping techniques and develop writing skills that would help students to further build historical narratives and learnings of how to develop a strong backing or analytical frameworks to the research.
Aim:
To explore the evolution of urban fabric through history.
Objectives:
- To analyze historic urban fabric and its facets
- To explore mapping techniques and develop writing skills
- To explore graphical representation of the relevant information
Process:
In this workshop, students learnt how to put up information procured from various sources in the form of narrative and maps. Why should students be concerned with the broad level study of the city and its urban setting? How the cities are formed? What is the context of the same? Along with the above questions how to explore and gain the knowledge to read the city? What are the mediums and techniques of recording the knowledge? These various questions dealt in the studio to unfold the ground realities and expand complexities of a selected urban setting. The workshop was designed for five days whereas first three days, students were given an exposure of mapping works, examples, data collection and narrative building while remaining two days were extensively digitising the maps.
Sessions:
| Date | Sessions | Assignment / Studio | Learnings / take away for faculty if any |
|---|---|---|---|
| 6th December, 2023 | Introduction Narratives of mapping Mapping works done by Ar. Aseem Deuskar | Write ups- Narrative of delineation of site Instructions- Procuring Old maps of Bombay and analysis. Write down the narrative of delineating study area. | Need a gradual push to deliver the substantial output (A time bound output) as further thesis research is a rigorous process. More workshops or studios to be planned to enhance graphical skills |
| 8th December, 2023 | Why maps are important? And How to read the maps? | Elaborated discussion on write-ups- Narrative Mapping through procured maps and analysing the evolution of urban fabric in Panvel Instructions- Digitalizing the maps on the present Physical map of Panvel- References from Regional maps of Old Bombay. |
|
| 11th December, 2023 | Historic evolution of urban fabric (previous works by the Ar. Aseem Deuskar) Writing focused studio Explorations on reading material to understand history of Panvel | Instructions: Application of understandings from the lecture on own study area |
|
| 12th December, 2023 | Studio work (GIS studio)- Readings and Jotting down the historical events through the history. | Digitisation of maps | |
| 13th December, 2023 | Finalising the map | The final output in the form of A1 sheet |
Student Work:
Introduction of the Guest:
Ar. Aseem Deuskar is a research expert with a focus on the history of land, cities, and habitat. He has an experience working in academic institutions, independent research practices, and the development sector. He is also keen on utilizing his experience to take part in citizen advocacy and, collectivized critique of planning policy. You can see his works on the link: Aseem Deuskar (canva.site)
