SEA Annual Conference 25-26
Architecture in Urban Archipelagoes
Prasad Khanolkar
The SEA Annual Conference 2026, held on 14th February at the School of Environment and Architecture, explored the theme “Architecture in Urban Archipelagoes.” Organised by SEA City, the conference brought together architects, researchers, and educators to examine emerging forms of urbanisation occurring beyond the conventional urban–rural binary.
The conference featured diverse architectural practices working across geographies in the states of Sikkim, Ladakh, West Bengal, Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh, and Odisha. These “urban archipelagoes”—small towns, census settlements, and translocal geographies shaped by migration, climate change, pilgrimage, tourism, and infrastructure—are increasingly becoming significant sites for architectural intervention. The aim of the conference was to bring together practitioners working in urban archipelagoes to develop new concepts and expand architectural theory beyond metrocentric frames.
The conference featured diverse architectural practices working across geographies in the states of Sikkim, Ladakh, West Bengal, Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh, and Odisha. These “urban archipelagoes”—small towns, census settlements, and translocal geographies shaped by migration, climate change, pilgrimage, tourism, and infrastructure—are increasingly becoming significant sites for architectural intervention. The aim of the conference was to bring together practitioners working in urban archipelagoes to develop new concepts and expand architectural theory beyond metrocentric frames.
The conference was structured around three engaging panel sessions.
Session 1: Finding New Grounds featured Pooja Khairnar (PK_iNCEPTION), Suril Patel (Field Architects), and Rohit Mujumdar (SEA). The discussion focused on how architectural practices locate and theorise their work within these contexts, addressing challenges of engagement with communities, clients, and unfamiliar terrains while rethinking foundational spatial concepts.
Session 2: Grammars of Habitation included Upendra Gurung (Studio Interweave), Gauri Satam and Tejesh Patil (Studio unTAG), and Rupali Gupte (SEA). The speakers reflected on their practices to draw out the possibilities of thinking about habitation through the frictions between forces of urbanisation and existing cultural forms, between excess capital-driven architectural practice and the large majority for whom architectural services are inaccessible, as well as between urban aspirations and aesthetics taking over rural areas and the need for thinking new grammars of habitation in these geographies.
Session 1: Finding New Grounds featured Pooja Khairnar (PK_iNCEPTION), Suril Patel (Field Architects), and Rohit Mujumdar (SEA). The discussion focused on how architectural practices locate and theorise their work within these contexts, addressing challenges of engagement with communities, clients, and unfamiliar terrains while rethinking foundational spatial concepts.
Session 2: Grammars of Habitation included Upendra Gurung (Studio Interweave), Gauri Satam and Tejesh Patil (Studio unTAG), and Rupali Gupte (SEA). The speakers reflected on their practices to draw out the possibilities of thinking about habitation through the frictions between forces of urbanisation and existing cultural forms, between excess capital-driven architectural practice and the large majority for whom architectural services are inaccessible, as well as between urban aspirations and aesthetics taking over rural areas and the need for thinking new grammars of habitation in these geographies.
Session 3: Modalities of Practice, chaired by Dushyant Asher, brought together Laurent Fournier, Nipun Prabhakar (Dhammada Collective), and Prasad Shetty (SEA). The session reflected on the biographies of these practices to trace emerging models of architectural practice, highlight experimental and multi-modal forms of working, collective modes of engagement, and the implications of practicing across diverse and rapidly transforming landscapes on the practices themselves.
Collectively, the panels fostered critical dialogue on new spatial logics and practices, expanding architectural discourse and offering fresh perspectives on the future of architecture in these dynamic contexts.