How to build with time? Learning from Bimanagar, its inhabitants, and BV Doshi

A collaborative and participatory study of Bimanagar Housing Estate in Ahmedabad, India. Bimanagar, also referred to as LIC Housing was financed by the Life Insurance Company and designed by the architect BV Doshi in 1985. Since then it has been incrementally and at times radically transformed by inhabitants. The study discusses Bimanagar in its historical and epistemological context, its relevance for architecture, housing and urban studies. The field research identifies and analyses patterns of transformation in relation to their underpinning personal, social and spatial motivations and discusses their evolving dynamics.
The project was supported by a RIBA Research Fund Award in 2021 and a Publication Grant from the Graham Foundation for Advanced Studies in the Fine Arts in 2023.

How Doshi's project for Bimanagar responds to its political, social, historical and epistemological context.
The motivations underpinning transformations initiated and negotiated by inhabitants, the social and spatial processes and patterns of transformation.