KNMA in collaboration with Tales of City

Street to Stories | City as Museum Festival

‘Delhi's Modernist Skyline’

Revamped Architecture in Delhi, Post Independence Era: Session 2 at Chunnamal Haveli

Date: 22 Nov 2024

Timings: 6:30 to 8 pm

Meeting point: Chunnamal Haveli

Nearest Metro Station: Lal Quila or Chandni Chowk

Following independence, Delhi underwent a significant architectural transformation, embracing modernist designs that symbolized India's progress and rising global presence. Drawing inspiration from international modernist movements yet rooted in India's practical and resilient spirit, the city’s architecture shifted towards structures that harmonized aesthetics with functionality and responded to the local climate. Join architect Rafiq Kidwai, Ashish Karode, and Intekhab Alam in a discussion on the adoption of modernist ideals in public and institutional spaces, major modernist projects, culturally responsive design, and much more—set against the historic backdrop of a 176-year-old haveli in Purani Dilli.

About Rafiq Kidwai: Rafiq Kidwai is an independent architect and exhibition designer. Kidwai is a specialist in art exhibition space planning and design. Kidwai comes with an experience of over 45 years as an architect and Exhibition Designer. He has been associated with the design and execution of over 300 trade shows and Art exhibitions. Sas a Consultant for DAG \, the exhibitions he was most satisfied with are. 'GHAIRE-BAIRE'- A Museum on the Art of Bengal in the Old Currency Building Kolkata. Creation of a museum space in a 200-year-old heritage 30,000 sqft building, by creating interior spaces with temporary walls and lighting systems, in a limited period. March to Freedom-reflections on India’s Independence - An ongoing show at the Indian Museum Kolkata by DAG. Temporary walls were installed inside existing galleries to create spaces conducive for greater visitor interaction through activities. Kidwai loves to work with the existing spaces and reinventing them with the use of additional walls and creative lighting while respecting and retaining the original structure. He likes to create flexible layouts and not controlling the visitor movement. He also believes in Museums that technology should be used as an aid to enhance the sharing of knowledge about the objects on display. Residential Architecture is what interests him the most as he feels houses connect most with people and their desires/needs. He loves to work on renovations of DDA flats for people of varied interests and limited budgets.

About Ashish Karode: Aashish Karode is a Founding Principal, with a leading Architecture and Urban Design practice, Design Atelier. He has been practicing over 35 years in India and the United States of America. He believes in Architectural Design as a functional instrument with ecological responsibilities and environmentally sustainable. Aashish’s experience includes all the allied are-as of Architecture, Urban design, Project planning, programming as also interior design. A skilled facilitator, he has been the point person for many complexes, publicly scrutinized projects. Over his career, Aashish has worked on a number of in-teresting assignments, like the San Francisco Urban Design Plan-Update, Bay Area Rapid Transit-Stations, several partici-patory planning projects for University Campus Master Plans and Community Master Plans in the United States, and Many Institutional and Award-winning projects for buildings in India. He has taught History of Architecture, Art History, Architec-tural Design and Urban Design.

About Sheikh Intekhab Alam: Sheikh Intekhab Alam is an Architect and Urban Regeneration Specialist, he has a decade long experience of built environment design, teaching and curation, He runs a practice by the name of EMARA, He has also taught in Architecture School in Delhi NCR including Jamia Millia Islamia and O P Jindal University, Intekhab has been documenting the transformation of the city of Delhi as part of his practice and research for over a decade now, his office is in Delhi and Leh.