Frontiers: Multimedia and Urban Conservation Dialogue in India

Based on the belief in multimedia as a new frontier that presents the potential to advance such a creative agenda, the inaugural Aga Khan Trust for Culture-Kamla Raheja Vidyanidhi Institute for Architecture and Environmental Studies (KRVIA) collaborative Winter School explored the ways in which multimedia might be used as a mode of inquiry to engage conservation practice on Mumbai’s urban frontiers and as a storytelling tool to provoke public dialogue. This programme emerged from a self-reflection of KRVIA’s research and teaching programme on urban design and conservation in conjunction with a close reading of the Aga Khan Historic Cities Programme’s rich work in the urban conservation field. Planning and urban conservation in cities of the global South such as Cairo or Mumbai present a terrain of ‘urban complexity’ that calls for the development of an ‘institutionalist approach’ based on close engagement with diverse stakeholders, notably at the local level.

This paper outlines the approach and methodology of the Workshop.