"To build originally means to dwell. To dwell means to live our lives." - Martin Heidegger
Architecture is about building houses, building homes and building lives. The act of building a house though located on technical drawings, brick, and concrete continues after the structures have been built. To then think, about the idea of Ghar, home Ashiana, we are compelled to ask some questions of the discipline. Do we build houses or homes? Where does building end and dwelling begin? When is a house actually complete? Do houses grow? And is building, also a form of dwelling and living?
This episode's discussion brings together two architects who have intensely addressed some of these questions. Prof. Neera Adarkar's work on mill workers housing in the city of Bombay, and Prof. Solly Benjamin, on housing for refugees and migrants to the city of Delhi, opens for us new ways about thinking about houses and homing. As architects they have extensively researched the ideas of how buildings dwell, and how they come to live their lives.
