Dr. Vikramaditya Prakash- A New Look at India’s Architectural Past

Dr. Vikramaditya Prakash, Professor of Architecture at the University of Washington, will be giving a lecture titled, �Re-discovery of India: Architectural Historiography and the Argumentative Tradition� on October 21, 2009 at the MacMillan Center. On October 22nd, he will lecture at the Yale School of Architecture on the topic, �Modernism Unbound? The Chandigarh Urban Lab.� He has extensive experience in the field of architecture, receiving his M.A. and Ph.D in History and Theory of Architecture and Urbanism from Cornell University in 1989 and 1994. Though he now lives in Seattle, Dr. Prakash was born in Chandigarh, India, where he received his B. Arch from the Chandigarh College of Architecture, Panjab University in 1986. He taught at the Center for Environmental Planning and Technology, Ahmedabad, India from 1991-1993 and Arizona State University from 1994-1996 before joining the University of Washington’s Architecture Department in 1996. Dr. Prakash served as the Associate Dean of the College of Architecture and Urban Planning from 2001-2002, and as Chair of the Department of Architecture from 2002-2006. He now teaches studios, introductory and advanced classes in South Asian architecture and urbanism, a university-wide introductory course in world architecture, and graduate seminars in issues around modernism, globalization and postcolonial theory.

In addition to his vast teaching experience, Dr. Prakash has been widely published all over the world. His papers and books include Chandigarh’s Le Corbusier: The Struggle for Modernity in Postcolonial India (University of Washington Press, Seattle & Mapin Publishing, Ahmedabad, 2002), A Global History of Architecture (with Francis DK Ching & Mark Jarzombek, John Wiley & Sons, Inc., 2006) and Colonial Modernities: Building, Dwelling and Architecture in British India and Ceylon (co-edited with Peter Scriver, Routledge, 2007).

Dr. Prakash’s most recent project is �A New History of the Architecture of India,� which intends to replace colonial histories of India in a multi-media, multi-format style. He has also created a Chandigarh-based �India Program� which intends to serve as a forum for discussing a sustainable future for India’s cities.

In his lecture on October 21st, Dr. Prakash will discuss some of the challenges presented by �A New History of the Architecture of India,� such as rethinking colonial categories and creating new representational techniques, as well as evaluating the politics of representing India and struggling to claim modernity. This event is sponsored by the MacMillan Center, Stanley T. Woodward Lectureship Fund, Isaac H. Bromley Lectureship, and the Charles Gallaudet Trumbull Lectureship.

In his lecture, �Modernism Unbound? The Chandigarh Urban Lab,� on October 22nd, Dr. Prakash will investigate the issues confronting the expansion of India�s cities as they take their place within a global framework by analyzing the case of Chandigarh. As Chandigarh�s administration attempts to model it into a global player, questions about conservation, sustainability, and the ethics of practice become important. By studying Chandigarh, information can be gained about the future of India�s cities.