MOD Institute

Pecha Kucha Night Bangalore #09 – Re:Public

Venkataramanan Associates, MOD Institute and Jaaga are organising the first Pecha Kucha Night Bangalore event of the year on Thursday, 26th January 2012.

The event will engage with the spirit of the Republic Day to re-imagine the idea of the ‘public’. We are interested in de-mystifying the notion and to rethink the energies, concerns, resources and actions that involve the ‘public’.

We are calling it *Re:Public*.

Beginning at 7 pm in Jaaga, there will be seven presentations (see the list below), followed by a longish, relaxed and unstructured interaction time lubricated by ideas and drinks.

We invite you to join us on for an evening of sharp and thought-provoking discussions.

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Date: Thursday, 26th January 2012
Time: 7 pm to 9 pm
Place: Jaaga, Double Road [map]

Speakers: Archana Prasad (Jaaga), Bijoy Ramachandran (Hundredhands), Commonground, Shilo Shiv Suleman, Sridhar Pabbisetty (Ride-A-Cycle Foundation), Sudhir Krishnaswamy (Centre for Law and Policy Research), and The Ugly Indian.

Urban Culture and Change in India – The Berlin Lectures

During the last months, the MOD team in Berlin gave two lectures on urban culture and change in Bangalore and in India.

// Lecture at University of Arts Berlin

Anne-Katrin Fenk gave a lecture at University of Arts in Berlin ( Prof. Gabrielle Hächler and Prof. Andreas Fuhrimann) on city development in India. For details see here: http://www.arch.udk-berlin.de/staedtebau/

// Lecture at Kunsthochschule Berlin-Weißensee

Anne-Katrin Fenk and Tile von Damm gave a lecture on city development in Bangalore at Kunsthochschule Berlin-Weißensee on 8th November. Students of Communication Design under Prof. Stefan Koppelkamp participated in a discussion with MOD, especially about their projects on market(s) in Bangalore.

Anne-Katrin Fenk and Tile von Damm are Co-Founders of MOD. Find more about them in the MOD team page.

Visualisation courtesy: Aline Löw and Clara Berger. More about them here.

ICT for Urban Governance

Naresh Narasimhan recently spoke at the Sixth Annual Conference of the Centre for Public Policy at the Indian Institute of Management, Bangalore. He was invited to part of a panel discussion on ‘ICT for Urban Governance’.

The theme sits well into MOD’s research area on ‘data city’. Naresh identified Information and Communication Technology (ICT) and ICT-enabled urban infrastructure at the core of the contemporary urban form. Then he went on to suvey a range of upcoming approaches using ICT for bettering urban governance as well as participatory citizenship.

Below is a copy of the presentation on ‘ICT for Urban Governance.’ The presentation can also be accessed on Sildeshare.

For further information, including downloadable version of the document, please contact us at mail[at]mod[dot]org[dot]in.

Naresh Narasimhan is Co-Founder of MOD. Find more about him in the MOD team page.

Image Courtesy: Eric Fischer

Rajiv Awas Yojana: The Role for the Small Builders

Sumandro from MOD was invited to make a presentation on the role of the small builders (and the lack of it) in the contetxt of Rajiv Awas Yojana (RAY) at the recently held (2-3 December 2011) Workshop on Implementation of RAY organised by GIZ-ASEM.

RAY is a cricial affordable housing and city planning policy guideline released by the Ministry of Housing and Urban Poverty Alleviation early this year. This guideline is to set the approach of State Governments in creating ‘Slum-Free’ cities by re-developing (and rehabilitating) existing slums as well as planning for future growth in urban housing demand. It will also govern the support from the Central Government in such housing exercises.

The presentation by MOD argued for a greater recognition of the smaller scale housing construction sector in Indian cities within RAY guidelines. This will ensure a more inclusive housing practice as well as address issues of small-scale optimisation of residential density.

Please find below the slides from the presentation.

Sumandro is modbug-at-large. Find more about him in the MOD team page.