Open Source SPA - our vision

(chapter 1)

There’s a strange rumour on the south wind; a new movement stirs on the ridge, a new vision uncurls, runs away with itself, is captured, is edited, is snuffed out, is copied, is transferred, is corrupted, is subverted, and is made and remade and morphed and transmogrified, and an institution is instituted. On the skirts of a suburb in south Delhi, where the villages meet a city meets an ancient forest, a new movement in an old institution makes for an Open Source Urbanism. New legends rise here from the corridor and fall to the canyon; new heroes and villains play frisbee on the bridge, the baoli and the balcony. The monsoons change the shape of the land every season, a reminder of the might of nature, always present, like mythology. Here new stories are scripted, acted out, scratched out, dug up and rewritten, first term, second term, next term and next year. New memories are dreamed. An SPA where every student, every visitor, every teacher and every peon, can write a new scene into a colourful panorama. Where brats from a slum instruct on tensile structures, where engineers go to tap dance, and just yesterday some first years claimed a studio by painting it red.

The new SPA campus of our vision is a rich and varied experience for anyone and everyone who comes in contact with it. A premier world-facing institution of learning, deeply rooted in an Indian context. An institution which is strengthened by the interlacing of different technical disciplines within it. An institution that is reinforced by outside influences. It offers captivating glimpses of its unique inner life, and draws outsiders warmly in. it reaches out and shares the goods and knowledge produced here everyday with experts and novices, academics and tradespersons, clients and labourers alike. an institution that defines and embodies an ideal relationship between the built environment professions and the wider community, for whom these professions are practiced.