Janina Gosseye

Kelly Shannon

Mumbai is in the midst of dramatic transformations. The juxtaposition of the awe-inspiring and heartrending sensations and physical realities is incredibly powerful. The brutality of change in the city forces one to confront new modes of urbanism and urbanisation. The urbanists and planner has the job to re-think, re-visit and re-learn means for intervention. Social, economic and political forces are reflected in an evolving urban form and local architects and planners are struggling to qualitatively intervene. The first essays in this book are extremely pertinent in their questioning of the status quo and the current mode of city-building. The third part of the book is about hope: which is to be found in the margins. The impossibilities of Mumbai are obvious, the stimulating forms of urbanity are in the margins were they provide clues for possible future interventions.

Reclaiming (the Urbanism Of) Mumbai

Naomi Stead

Deborah van der Plaat

By and large, architectural historians use texts, drawings, and photographs to craft their narratives. Oral testimony from those who actually occupy or construct buildings is rarely taken as seriously. Speaking of Buildings offers a rebuttal, theorizing the radical potential of a methodology that has historically been cast as unreliable. Essays by an international group of scholars look at varied topics, from the role of gossip in undermining masculine narratives in architecture to workers' accounts of building with cement in midcentury London to a sound art piece created by oral testimonies from Los Angeles public housing residents. In sum, the authors call for a renewed form of listening to enrich our understanding of what buildings are, what they do, and what they mean to people.

Janina Gosseye

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