Kathmandu Valley Cities – Water, Architecture and the Historic Urbanity

About the workshop

The historic medieval cities of Kathmandu valley managed to create an urban legacy that was remarkable for its times, marked by sophisticated architectural expression in timber and brick, innovative water structures like hitis, wells, ponds, and water spouts that formed strong community-level spaces along with urban level public square in form of Durbar Square right at the heart of the city. Also, These expressions of buildings, water structures, and public spaces are amongst the most refined and bold examples of an urban order anywhere in the world making the Kathmandu valley an open-air museum of historic architecture and cities.

The workshop is scheduled to be conducted in and around Patan Durbar Square, Kathmandu valley, Nepal between 01-04 June 2023.

Citylabs India has been examining historic south Asian urbanism, particularly its origins, transformative patterns, and its public spaces. In an attempt to make sense of the DNA of south Asian cities. We have been actively conducting workshops across various cities like Kathmandu, Chamba, Udaipur, and Goa. These workshops not only help shed some light on the unique urban history of the cities. But also allow us to look at and represent cities through various lenses. You can find out more about past workshops here. Throughout the years, we have cultivated an enthusiastic community of workshop participants and other like-minded individuals associated with Citylabs India.

Also, This year, we are excited to announce the workshop in Kathmandu, which will be guided by Prof. Pratyush Shankar, Provost, Navrachana University, Vadodara; know more about him here. During the workshop, participants will spend time exploring and understanding the city while creating 1arguments centered around the sub-themes of:

– Water: Systems and Expressions
– Architecture as an Urban Device
– The Idea of Public

The workshop will end with each participant producing drawings based on their interpretation of the city. Through the workshop participants will be given certain critical input lectures on Indian Urban History and questions about its representation to aid their process.

Also, This workshop is ideal for students, academics, and professionals from the field of Architecture, Planning, Design, Urban Studies, Geography, History, and Arts. It will be great if you could help us spread the word about the workshop to the students and young professionals who may be interested, you can find a poster below.

Know more about the workshop and the schedule here-
https://www.citylabsindia.com/kathmandu-valley-cities

Registrations are now open!

About Citylabs

CityLabs is a research initiative to further our understanding of Indian cities. Also, As part of the initiative, workshops, competitions, and publications are organized on the themes of Writing Urban Histories, Dystopian and Utopian Imaginations, Urban Mapping & Representation, and Re-Imagining Urban Infrastructures. CityLabs wishes to create a body of work that is publicly accessible and can be used to bring about a gradual change in the way we perceive and imagine our cities.

Finally, read more on Archup: