Above and Beyond – Chaal Chaal Agency

Long before the pandemic and its aftermaths started bothering us, making us aware of the binaries in our society, shocking us into realizing and acknowledging our privilege, Kruti and Sebastian had been working on ground, with people of underrepresented communities – identifying and solving the problems of their day-to-day living.

Their association goes back to 2016, when both got acquainted while pursuing Masters at CEPT University. Sebastian had come down from Bogota (Colombia) and Kruti from Mumbai. They both stayed back after graduating, to explore opportunities within academia to look at bridging the gap between the urban and architectural realm. They offered immersive design studios at Faculty of Urban Design, where they grappled with various methodologies to make meaningful interventions within fringe communities in the city.

They identified the glaring lack of infrastructure provisions, but also recognized that there are short term and long term, as well as large scale and small-scale interventions possible. They began at the immediate level – where they could directly offer their skills as architects and deploy strategies as well as raise money by their own capacity.

Another cognizance was the fact that academia was still a bubble of ideas and concepts that were never tested out and may or may not be feasible in the real-world scenario. Hence, they made a conscious decision to establish a practice that would undertake pedagogy as a mode of engagement. That is how Chaal Chaal Agency came about.

Now, their teaching studio also functions as a collaborative practice that undertakes a project and works on all aspects of its realization – from need identification to designing, prototyping, strategizing and communicating. The domain that they have undertaken will never have a straightforward project – no client would come forth with a ready made brief and funds; they would have to immerse themselves in the context, identify lacuna and strive to fill the gap – through temporary, short term and immediate solutions, while working on the larger level systemic problem in conjunction.

The Paani lari and the deployable shelter for community space are great examples of their method of working that impacts not only the users of the design product/service but also the people involved in the process of making.

  

 

Students get a different level of hands-on learning experience, that goes beyond merely sketching out ideas on the drawing board. They are put out of their comfort zones as they interact with local residents, labours, manufacturers – negotiating, communicating and strategizing as they go along.

The gratification comes when they see their design insert become an integral part of the community’s life – an anchor and a beacon for growth and upliftment, for awareness and identity.

 

The pandemic has been a busy time for Chaal Chaal Agency as their conversations around urbanity, infrastructure, resources and on-ground implementation have deepened and more participants have joined it. They recently concluded a 12-day intensive online design-research workshop about understanding pandemics and their relation with architecture, urban design and planning. The aim was to trigger in-depth discussions on the topic and brainstorm ideas on how to assess the situation, to eventually co-develop an open-source document available for further investigation and implementation in the Indian context.

CCA is a design/research collaborative project founded by Kruti Shah and Sebastian Trujillo, which works between Ahmedabad (India) and Bogotá (Colombia). CCA specializes in experimental infrastructures, transformative design, and transdisciplinary pedagogy, locating their area of investigation in the intersection between politics and space. We have been involved in a series of exercises that range from the proposition of public-generative devices and light architectures, to a dynamic pedagogical practice intertwined with academic research. Working between India and Colombia has allowed us to enquire into issues and potentialities particular to the Global South, in the prospect of triggering larger transformations through evolving micro-operations, involving students, allied organizations, and proactive communities. A practice envisioned towards more self-sufficient, equitable, and cohesive cultural environments.

You can know more about them through their website http://chaalchaalagency.in/

Or their Instagram page https://www.instagram.com/chaal.chaal.agency/