Argufying Calcutta: Parasituation [Kolkata]

This book and associated catalogues record some of the work of four architecture and urban design studios ran between 2016-2019, focussing on the context of Calcutta/Kolkata. The work presented through this book and the parallel catalogues of the M Arch Degree Programme (2018 and 2019) offer an embodiment of some key theorisations in Calcutta/Kolkata on ecosophy. The research-by-design methods follow a long-standing praxis. The methods are speculative. The interest in the speculative refers to a particular relationship between the collected data and the interpretive dimension of a specific situation; our approach allows, simultaneously, for traversing lightly across whilst also mining deeply into cultural practices. The work looks more for enduring practices that colour a particular character of memory-in-place, rather than enduring monuments of instrumental narratives of place. The speculative approach not only asks the question of how to collect and present the data of collective life in Calcutta/Kolkata, it also asks how to present such data differently, i.e. specific to the lines and sensibility of enquiry the research prompts. As a series of individuals, groups and outputs, as researchers and designers, we collectively represent something of the aspirations of an ecosophic community - a community of relations - in practice. The book contains essays by Dorian Wiszniewski, Amit Chaudhuri, Gijs Wallis de Vries and Anuradha Mathur and Dilip da Cunha.