#placemaking

#placemaking

The architect's role has traditionally been relatively well-defined: design a building, direct the project, coordinate logistics, and guide construction through to completion. As specialised fields have proliferated, together with a rapidly changing social economy, the practice of architecture has diversified, opening multiple paths for how architects can contribute to society. Since the 1980s, one of the most consistent shifts may have been the separation between the "design architect" and the "architect of record."

In an era marked by rapid urbanisation and greenfield development, India's cities are grappling with the challenge of vehicle-centric planning and a critical scarcity of genuine communal spaces. Against this backdrop, a cluster of defunct cotton mills has been given new life-and a new purpose. Formerly home to Lakshmi Mills, one of India's oldest yarn and fabric manufacturing companies, the iconic site at a major urban node is now the focal point of a massive redevelopment initiative.

In 2021, Sanaa Shaikh was burned out. As a South Asian woman working in an overwhelmingly white and male profession, she had spent years experiencing her fair share of discrimination and microaggressions-while at the same time being tasked with designing housing developments for underserved communities where she routinely felt like her ideas and perspective were dismissed. She was ready to move on.