Shreyank Khemalapure (Coordinator) Rohit Mujumdar, Rajeev Thakker, Sudipta Iyer

This year’s course will focus on the housing problematic in the city of Tiruchirappalli. According to the 2011 census, Tiruchirappalli Municipal corporation consisted around 2 lakh households. Out which nearly 52% of households were rented. The corollary of course being that while 52% households are rented 100% of them should also be owned by either individuals or institutions. This rental housing ecology for short and medium-term housing seems to be propelled by several emerging contexts in the city. 1) Cultural and Religious tourism fostered by historically prominent temple complexes in Srirangam and Rockfort have produced a demand for various kinds of short term accommodations and housing; 2) The changing dynamics of employment in the several largescale industries in and around the city have also generated a demand for rental housing in the city; 3) two large universities and several higher education institutions of national importance have created a demand for several kinds of private students hostels, paying guest accommodations, and other kinds of rental housing demands; 4) Emerging IT and related service-based establishments have also created the demand for not only rental housing but also renting of houses as offices and other kinds of places of work; 5) the cultural ecology and pleasant weather conditions of the city have also created a favorable condition for several kinds of retirement homes and gated communities to establish themselves in the city.

These contexts have produced a wide demand for Short (S) and Medium (M) term housing ranging from a few days or weeks to a few months or years. This does not mean that there is no demand for Long (L) term housing in Mysuru. Rather, the practices of S and M term home-making intersect in a variety of congruent and incongruent ways with the practices of L term home-making. The current responses to S and M term housing demands in Tiruchirappalli have created spatial disjunctions that are incapable of absorbing the form of life generated by such home-making practices. The architectural response to Tiruchirappalli’s housing question, therefore, requires new spatial reimaginations that are capable of absorbing the form of life generated by S and M term home-making practices, and their intersections with the L term practices of home-making. The sites chosen for this exploration will be identified on the basis of previous housing studies on Tiruchirappalli.


Notes:
Student’s broadly considered rental housing conditions in the following groups:

1. Paying Guests for students and professionals.
2. Tourists of various kinds: religious, recreational, educational, medical, business, etc.
3. Housing for senior citizens
4. New workers in IT industries (seen also through the lens of sexuality and gender).
5. Artists and artisans
6. Households and neighborhoods affected by flooding.