Indigenous Modernities: Negotiating Architecture and Urbanism

Jyoti Hosagrahar

oct 2012 · Routledge

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This book examines how a historic and so-called 'traditional' city quietly evolved into one that was modern in its own terms; in form, use and meaning. Through a focused study of Delhi, the author challenges prevalent assumptions in architecture and urbanism to identify an interpretation of modernism that goes beyond conventional understanding.

Part one reflects on transformations and discontinuities in built form and spatial culture and questions accepted notions of the static nature of what is normally referred to as traditional and non-Western architecture.

Part two is a critical discussion of Delhi in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, redefining modernism in a way that separates the city's architecture and society from the objectified realm of the exotic whilst acknowledging non-Western ideas of modernity.

In the final part the author considers 'indigenous modernities': the irregular, the uneven and the unexpected in what uncritical observers might call a coherent 'traditional' society and built environment.

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Dr. Jyoti Hosagrahar is Director of Sustainable Urbanism International, an independent non-profit research and policy initiative. She advises on urban development, historic conservation, and cultural sustainability issues in Asia. She currently teaches at Columbia University, New York. She has previously taught at the University of Oregon, Eugene, and earned her doctorate from the University of California, Berkeley.