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KVDF final graphic INSTAGRAM SMALL Added in 2020

Started in the memory of Kurla Varkey, the forum brings together the final year projects from various architectural schools and promising practitioners across South Asia to foster discussions on relevant debates of the present time. Each year, at CEPT, students across the batches get together, pitch in questions and ideas, debate their relevance and vote for the most pressing questions to formulate a theme. Around this theme, entries are called for and an enticing panel of academics and practicing architects is formulated for the two day event that happens on our campus over a weekend in August.

Final-year projects are considered to be the pinnacle of our architectural education. The forum is not a jury or a competition but a platform that uses the shortlisted thesis projects as a catalyst for discussions. The forum extends the prospects of these projects by hosting discussions that go beyond the theme into larger questions faced by the architectural fraternity. This year, the forum questions the negotiations an architectural project navigates between addressing the more pragmatic concerns of space-making and the search for a defining aesthetic of the project. 

Architecture responds to the pragmatic needs of the site, programme, climate, regulations, as well as aesthetic concerns of creating quality space. The former deals with rational/tangible quantifiable considerations, while the latter deals with ephemeral/intangible qualitative concerns. 

In architectural education as well as practice, we observe that increasingly projects are being described through the pragmatic lens and lesser through the lens of aesthetic aspirations. Simply because the rational considerations are easier to justify, are we shying away from assessing the quality of the spaces we create?

In this year’s Kurula Varkey Design Forum, we want to grapple with the question of how much of a role ‘beauty’ plays in architectural projects today. Is it the result of a conscious pursuit to achieve spatial quality or is it a resultant of other practical considerations?

Beauty doesn’t necessarily lie in the extravagant. It does not solely rely on the visual. On the contrary, beauty might lie in the simplicity of a design solution that takes into account economic and social concerns. Beauty often surfaces through constant negotiations between the pragmatic and the aesthetic. 

What makes something beautiful?

Where does beauty lie in architectural projects? 

How much of a role does beauty play? What is its significance?

What were the negotiations between the pragmatic and aesthetic in the project?

What is the significance and relevance of ‘beauty’ in architecture today?

Friday, 11th August

Memorial Lecture 18:30 hrs at BnB 

Michael Benedikt in conversation with Neelkanth Chhaya

Saturday, 12th August

Curated Discussions: Session 1  09:30 to 12:30 hrs at Sagara Basement with Biju Kuriakose, Prem Chandavarkar, Snehal Nagarsheth, Sourabh Gupta, Sudipto Ghosh

Moderated by Bijoy Ramachandran

De-Talk Session 1 14:00 to 15:30 hrs at Auditorium with Anisha Shekhar Mukerji, Prem Chandavarkar, Sudipto Ghosh

Curated Discussions: Session 2 16:00 to 19:00 hrs at Sagara Basement with Anisha Shekhar Mukherji, Catherine Desai, Kalpit Ashar, Snehal Nagarsheth, Sourabh Gupta

Moderated by Sudipto Ghosh

Sunday, 13th August

De-Talk Session 2 09:30 to 11:00 hrs at Auditorium with Bijoy Ramachandran, Snehal Nagarsheth, Sourabh Gupta

Curated Discussions: Session 3  11:00 to 14:00 hrs at Sagara Basement with Anisha Shekhar Mukerji, Bijoy Ramachandran, Biju Kuriakose, Kalpit Ashar, Prem Chandavarkar

Moderated by Catherine Desai

De-Talk Session 3 15:00 to 16:30 hrs at Auditorium with Biju Kuriakose, Catherine Desai, Kalpit Ashar

Culmination Discussion  17:00 to 18:30 hrs

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