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Designed as a comprehensive resource on spatial thinking, experimental pedagogy, and academic practices, this archive serves as a record for reference and critical analysis. 

More than a traditional institutional repository, it is envisioned as an "Archive of Ideas," structured to mirror the conceptual and intellectual framework of SEA. The platform captures specific engagements, explorations, and pedagogical reorientations, expressing the school's distinct set of practices constituted by its students and teachers. 

The collection encompasses intellectual articulations—from course books and objectives to studio briefs and lectures—alongside a  documentation of student work, field studies, and thesis projects. Through this structure, the archive navigates complex inquiries into typologies, ontologies, and genealogies, while exploring themes of environment, urbanisation, futures, and ethics. It serves as a space for rethinking geographies and histories of type, offering the school's co-learning experiments and its ongoing articulation of space and form.


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Of Hybrid Spaces: Apartment Typologies

Housing and Typology
Avantika Padalkar, 2024


 Mumbai’s dense urban environment presents challenges for its inhabitants, particularly with limited space and high housing demands. The focus of this research is, how hybrid use and multifunctionality within the standard BHK (Bedroom-Hall-Kitchen) apartment typology can address the spatial needs of city residents. It explores how flexible spatial configurations can transform typical apartments into adaptive environments that accommodate various activities within limited square footage. Through case studies and real-life adaptations in Mumbai homes, this study highlights how residents repurpose spaces to serve multiple functions throughout the day.

The research methodology includes a literature review and qualitative fieldwork, exploring strategies that promote versatile space usage, such as partitions, convertible furniture, and zoning techniques. The analysis shows that hybrid spaces not only optimize spatial efficiency but also improve residents' quality of life by supporting work, leisure, education, and social interactions within the same footprint.

The findings challenge the usual views of apartment design by showing the benefits of adaptable spaces in urban settings. By rethinking the BHK model as a more flexible layout, this thesis offers ideas that can guide future architectural practices and housing policies in Mumbai and similar cities. It suggests that focusing on multifunctional spaces can lead to better-designed urban homes that fit the changing needs of residents.



Read also under ‘Housing and Typology’:

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What makes a home: a study of few homeless in Mumbai city

Housing and Typology
Aagam Shah , 2019

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Reimagining the transforming Basti


House and Typology
Shreyansh Gupta, 2018
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Of queering households


House and Typology
Trisha Salvi, 2018
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