Urvashi Jalali
Email: u.jalali@unsw.edu.au
Supervisors: Dijana Alic, David Sanderson
As an Architect, Design Academic, and Researcher, my focus has been on sustainable traditional design models for contemporary contexts. Recently recognized for my work on the Revitalization of a Lake System in North Bangalore, I bring over a decade of diverse experience in Art and Design education and other allied domains.
As a Senior Design Academic and a course leader at one of the renowned Design Schools in India - Srishti Manipal Institute of Art, Design & Technology, I have contributed to curriculum design by curating Design Programs as well as convening/teaching integrated and aligned disciplines of Architecture and transdisciplinary Design fields. By bringing Critical Thinking, Design Thinking, Spatial Design, Environmental Studies, and Vernacular Studies to the fore, my pedagogical engagements emphasize local and contextual understanding. Mentored students extensively as their academic guide through their capstone & final thesis projects and as a design faculty throughout their journey as design students.
My research revolves around place-based history and its cultural underpinnings, memories, meanings, metaphors, and oral stories that continue to become my focus in the PhD research being undertaken currently. As a Design educator and researcher, I am deeply engaged in pedagogical and andragogy practices, focusing on their nuanced impacts on society and Architecture.
As an ongoing academic engagement, I lead an annual Design Studio at the University of Iran for PhD students in Comparative Studies in Design thinking with reference to the Indian context, fostering global contributions to design knowledge through Indian Design Philosophy and as a casual academic, I tutor in Architecture and Humanities courses in UNSW’s School of Built Environment and School of Humanities. I'm also involved with the National Institute of Design, Bangalore, India in conducting a Post-graduate Design workshop in reimagining narratives around Urban Waterscapes, with specific reference to the environmental make-up of one of India's most rapidly growing cities.
- Research area
- Research outputs
Home & Exile - Forced Migrations: Investigating the impact of forced migration on the notion of 'Home,' this research focuses on Identity, Belonging, Rootedness, Memory, Materiality, and Beyond. It explores the experiences of individuals, especially children, adapting to new environments after large-scale displacements. The study critically examines the inclusivity of refuge places, providing a deeper understanding of how forced uprooting shapes one's perception of 'Home' in the aftermath of exile. By exploring the long-term effects of forced displacement, the research seeks to foster inclusive environments for the forcibly displaced, taking into consideration the social and built/unbuilt environment.
- Exploring the idea of 'home' through the notions of forced displacement - My research revolves around place-based history and its cultural underpinnings, memories, meanings, metaphors and oral stories. One of the translations of this quest has led to co-creating a documentary film, ‘Ghar Ka Pata – Home Address’ that explores the concept of home in the backdrop of my family’s forced displacement and Exile. The film has been showcased at numerous national & international film festivals and delves into our journey of tracing our roots and unravelling the remains of our lost home, focusing on the strife faced by children and communities affected by land-based conflicts. It also attempts to chronicle briefly, narratives around the notion of water & urban ecological frameworks as elemental constituents of childhood memory & the make-up of 'home' as the sum of a multitude of influences, through references to the Dal Lake, Srinagar, India. My research into the environmental & social dynamics involving the revitalisation of urban lake systems in Bangalore, India ties into this central theme of memory-based narratives around urban ecological frameworks.
- Environmental and social dynamics through rapidly transitioning urban developments - Recognition from the UN-Habitat for my research on the Revitalization of a Lake System in North Bangalore.