TIFA Working Studios, in collaboration with Bhandarkar Oriental Institute (BORI), is hosting a presentation and talk, City in Transit, as part of the Prakalp Pune Festival. The presentation, which will be held at BORI on Friday evening at 6 pm, will have architect Hemant Mahajan and conservation architect Kiran Kalamdani sharing their thoughts. The opening presentation by Mahajan will be on the restoration of BORI, whereas the keynote speech by Kalamdani will address the conservation efforts and what city building means in the present and for the future, and how architectural practices influence culture.

ABOUT THE SPEAKERS
Kalamdani is a leading conservation architect from Pune and co-founder of Kimaya Architects Urban Designers Conservationists. He received a one-year fellowship from INTACH for a Masters in Conservation Studies at The Institute of Advanced Architectural Studies, The University of York, UK. Returning to Pune, Kalamdani established his studio in 1989, naming it Kimaya after the ancient Indian technique, now lost, of distilling gold from simple metals, as an ode to India’s wonderful heritage. 

Mahajan is an architect and planner with over 30 years of experience. He is also the founder, partner, principal architect of GROUP PHI Architects and Designers based in Pune. Since 1986, he has been working in the fields of architecture, interior design and campus planning in India and overseas projects in Singapore, Indonesia and UK.

WHAT IS PRAKALP PUNE?
Prakalp Pune is a pursuit to activate the city and provoke citywide cultural and creative discourse. Its ethos is to archive and study the historic while ‘projecting’ the contemporary. The project is a reimagining of the various cultural aspects of the city by creating, showcasing and archiving work about the locale. To educate, energise and involve the community, Prakalp Pune aims to not only be inclusive but also participatory.