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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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Embracing self-sufficiency: the rural elderly

Architecture of Care
Swara Chaudhary, 2024


The current economic condition has prompted younger generations to leave rural villages for urban areas in search of better job opportunities, leading to a decline in agricultural practices and reshaping the social and economic landscape. This shift has had a profound impact on the elderly who remained in these rural settings. This thesis investigates how the spatial configurations and ecological characteristics of rural landscapes serve as resources that enable older adults to sustain themselves and live independently. It aims to establish the relationship between space and self-sufficiency of the ageing population who choose to remain in or return to their rural homes. Additionally, it addresses the challenges they encounter in these environments and also explores the motivations behind the return of some urban retirees to rural areas.

The study is situated in Palghar district, focusing on two villages, Dativare and Makunsar, and an old age home within the same vicinity, comparing the lives of old residents in the settings of their own homes and in an old age home. The economy of both these villages was primarily based on agriculture, but  limitations in transportation, education and healthcare services had led many residents to leave for cities. Now, both these  villages are mostly home to elderly residents. On the other hand old age homes have also sprung up in these locations to mostly cater to the elderly in urban areas.

Through this comparison the research aims to inform spatial practitioners about the needs and aspirations of the elderly in rural settings, advocating for interventions that enhance their quality of life while respecting their dignity and desire for independence.  





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