Sem 03 / Culture Studies
Spatial and Technological History

Anuj Daga
with Prasad Khanolkar

The studio on spatial history set out to train students to read architecture by approaching buildings as types—shaped by specific cultural, material, and governmental practices—the course shifted attention from formal description to understanding how spatial configurations emerge, stabilize, and transform over time. The studio began with a study trip to Ahmedabad where students were taken to historical and modern architectural examples that were typologically distinct.

To more rigorously engage typological analysis, eight programmatic categories of buildings were identified, with Mumbai as the field of study.

Within each category, specific built examples were selected for fieldwork and close analysis, enabling a focused study of their typological evolution. Working across a range of sites—from churches and educational institutions to parks, museums, theatres, and office buildings—students encountered diverse typologies firsthand, documenting them through drawings, diagrams and historical research. These case studies were then put in a comparative frame that served as a basis for tracing genealogies, revealing how particular spatial types have evolved, adapted, or persisted across different historical moments. In doing so, the studio highlighted the multiple forces—social, political, economic, and technological—that shape architectural production.

A key focus of the studio was the introduction to the concepts of the “diagram”. Through methods of diagramming, they analysed the chosen architectural cases to map relationships of geometry, axis, mass and void and figure-ground. This process enabled a more precise reading of how space is organised and how meaning is embedded within that organisation. An important outcome of this exercise was the ability to situate present-day architectural forms within a larger historical arc. Rather than seeing contemporary spaces as novel or disconnected, students began to recognise continuities, ruptures, and shifts in typological thinking. Diagramming served as a bridge between past and present, allowing them to critically locate current spatial practices within longer trajectories of change.

Alongside studio work, specific lectures were dedicated to introduce the concept of type and diagramming in architecture, along with an in-class close reading of Habraken’s text on “Type as Social Agreement”. Specific presentations were made on certain architectural types, to demonstrate  how the typological method can be effectively used to compare and analyse built forms from across histories. Students also produced a two minute vlog on selected architecture buildings in Ahmedabad, with the intention of thinking of diagrams in space, however, the exercise could have benefitted with little more time and critical inputs.

Annexure:

List of Typological Examples chosen groupwise:

Churches
St. Michael’s Church
St. Thomas Cathedral
St. John the Baptist Church
Afghan Church
Our Lady of Egypt Church
Portuguese Church

College Campuses
St. Xavier’s College, Fort, Mumbai
Somaiya Vidyavihar University, Vidyavihar East, Mumbai
D. G. Ruparel College of Arts, Science and Commerce, Matunga, Mumbai
SVKM’s Mithibai College, Vile Parle, Mumbai

Community Halls (Mandals / Bhavans)
Vanmali Hall, Dadar West
Ismail Gymkhana
Zainabia Hall
Maheshwari Bhavan

Museums
Dr. Bhau Daji Lad Museum
Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Vastu Sangrahalaya (CSMVS)
Nehru Centre (History Section)
Nehru Science Centre
Museum of Solutions (MuSo)

Office Buildings
Shiv Sagar Estate, Worli
Express Towers, Nariman Point
R-Central Ward Office, Municipal Corporation of Greater Mumbai (BMC)
Platina, Bandra Kurla Complex (BKC)
Kohinoor Square, Dadar

Parks and Gardens
Oval Maidan (c. 1860)
Hanging Gardens (mid-20th century, approx.)
Five Gardens (1920)
Shivaji Park (1925)
Nana Nani Park, Versova (1998)
Kaifi Azmi Park (2002)
One Green Mile (2020)

Schools
St. Francis School, Borivali
Pahadi High School, Goregaon
Suvidyalaya, Borivali
Mumbai Educational Trust, Bandra

Theatres / Performance Spaces
Royal Opera House
Prithvi Theatre
Dinanath Mangeshkar Natyagruha
National Centre for the Performing Arts (NCPA)
Prabodhankar Keshav Sitaram Thackeray Natya Mandir
Rangshila Theatre
Dr. Kashinath Ghanekar Natyagruha

A Spatial History of Churches