Women of Vastukala
In the ongoing research project, Revisiting India’s Architectural History: Tracing the Women Practitioners of Twentieth Century India, the intent has been to converse with a wide-range of women practitioners in the architecture and built environment industry, map their journeys and arrive at an alternate narrative of Indian architectural history post-independence. The initial focus of the research was to look for stories of first generation women architects namely, Eulie Choudhary, Perin Mistry, Hema Sankalia, Didi Contractor, and Rosemary Sachdev among others. Due to lack of information and accessibility to the practices from those times, the scope of the project expanded to collect stories of second or even third generation women practitioners. In fact, the concept of a ‘generation’ has become a point of inquiry and will be better understood when further investigation is carried out. Similarly, a conscious attempt was made to expand the understanding of the term ‘practitioners’ by considering all forms of practice in architecture as important as that of making and constructing. So we have been recording and synthesizing the stories of women practitioners from across different time periods, as many different geographies in India and panning across different forms of practices in architecture and the built environment – inclusive of educators, conservationists, builders, planners, researchers, interior designers and architects.
In the first phase of the project, oral histories are being recorded using audio formats primarily over online platforms or in person (depending on the situation of the pandemic). Some of the women practitioners who have participated in this project so far are Veena Garella, Renu Saigal, Gita Balakrishnan, Chitra Vishwanath, Balvinder Saini, Sheila Sri Prakash, Nalini Thakur, Gauri Virdi, Parul Zaveri, Punita Mehta, Nina Chandavarkar, Madhavi Desai, Falguni Desai, Madhu Sarin, Leena Kumar and Minakshi Jain. The scope of the project has also expanded in terms of collecting peripheral voices from people associated with women practitioners who are not around anymore. Interviews are being conducted with clients, family, and friends of late architect Hema Sankalia, Tara Chandavarkar and Revathi Kamath.
