News from NIA | Summer School 2020-21 Drawing (Out) a place – Masterclass by Shubhra Raje from 18th to 21st August 2021.

The goal of the workshop was to expand conventional understanding of buildings and their components, by altering associations with them through the way one engages drawings. Through this process, one will look at questions as students and practitioners but are unable or unwilling to engage with - Where do ideas come from? What does it mean to be creative? What is the act of design? And where does an architectural project reside?

The workshop started with the story telling and illustrating exercise. The next exercise was with the Social institutions of the city that one has experienced. One only thinks of the large and the iconic, and never of the local centres. These institutions typically have people spending a lot of time waiting. The workshop explores the sensibility of the waiting area of the Municipal Centre.

Shubhra Raje is deeply involved in civic, educational and cultural affairs in both Ahmedabad and the Denver metro area, investigating the role of cultural and community institutions as the ‘new public spaces’. She has coordinated various workshops across India and the USA that encourages young designers to actively participate in issues of social justice and cultural inheritance. Her “ReFresh Workshop” series with Colorado based theatre-maker Mare Travethan explores the built environment through the culture of play.