Ph. D. Habitat Studies
2012 – 2018 Tata Institute of Social Sciences, Mumbai
M.Arch/M.City Planning
1991-1994 University of California, Berkeley, U.S.A.
Over the last two decades, served as a consultant on several urban planning projects including the Draft Development Plan for Mumbai 2014-34 (since superceded) as well as the recent Regional Plan for the Mumbai Metropolitan Region 2016-36. In 2008-09, worked with the Chief Minister’s Task Force and helped draft the Regional Plan document, RPG-21, for the state of Goa. In 1993, spent time with renowned urbanist Jaime Lerner, while interning at the Institute of Research and Urban Planning (IPPUC) in Curitiba, Brazil, learning first hand his principles of ‘urban acupuncture’ for sustainable cities.
My recent research has been engaging with hitherto unexplored aspects like the marginalization of spatial planning, the urbanizing rural and the periurban in India, understanding urban management through an exploration of the ‘street’ in Mumbai and working on an oral history of Indian planning through the personal stories of the ‘pioneer’ Indian planners post-independence.
Jury Member, Berkeley Prize Review Committee, Berkeley, USA, 2019-20
Member, Berkeley Prize Review Committee, Berkeley, USA (since 2010)
1998 IIID-MK National Award for Excellence in Design (Office Category) by the Indian Institute of Interior Designers
Courses
‘Urban Planning in India: Theory, Challenges and Approaches’ , Institute wide-elective course at IIT-Bombay for graduate students.
Studios/Labs
Core faculty for the Urban Systems (earlier Urban Design and Engineering) lab and studio for the graduate students of the Masters Program in Urban Systems.
Journals
“Spatial Planning’s Marginalization: The Impact of National Missions, Projects and Plans,” Technical Papers- 68th National Town and Country Planners Congress, National Missions: Spatial Planning and Implementation Initiatives, 11-13 January 2020, Navi Mumbai pp.204-208
“The Marginalization of the Spatial,” book chapter in Bhide, Amita and Himanshu Burte, eds. Urban Parallax: Policy and the City in Contemporary India, Yoda Press and Aga Khan Agency for the Habitat, Delhi, 2018.
“Fragmentary Planning and Spaces of Opportunity in Peri-urban Mumbai,” Economic and Political Weekly, 53(12): 68-75, 24 March 2018.
“On the Edge: Planning, Describing and Imagining the Seaside Edge of Mumbai”
Himanshu Burte & Malini Krishnankutty, Peri-urban dynamics: Case studies in Chennai, Hyderabad and Mumbai, eds. Véronique Dupont, N. Sridharan, CSH Occasional Paper N°17, Publication of the French Research Institutes in India, New Delhi, 2006.
“Spatial Planning’s Marginalization: The Impact of National Missions, Projects and Plans,” Technical Papers- 68th National Town and Country Planners Congress, National Missions: Spatial Planning and Implementation Initiatives, 11-13 January 2020, Navi Mumbai pp.204-208
“The Marginalization of the Spatial,” book chapter in Bhide, Amita and Himanshu Burte, eds. Urban Parallax: Policy and the City in Contemporary India, Yoda Press and Aga Khan Agency for the Habitat, Delhi, 2018.
“Fragmentary Planning and Spaces of Opportunity in Peri-urban Mumbai,” Economic and Political Weekly, 53(12): 68-75, 24 March 2018.
“On the Edge: Planning, Describing and Imagining the Seaside Edge of Mumbai”
Himanshu Burte & Malini Krishnankutty, Peri-urban dynamics: Case studies in Chennai, Hyderabad and Mumbai, eds. Véronique Dupont, N. Sridharan, CSH Occasional Paper N°17, Publication of the French Research Institutes in India, New Delhi, 2006.
Conference papers
“Capitalising land: Urban Planning and Transformations in peri-Panvel, Mumbai”, Paper presented at Workshop titled ‘Tracking Transformations in Agrarian-Urban Hinterlands of South Asia’, JNU, New Delhi, Feb 23-25, 2017
“Poverty of Planning: Development Plans in Mumbai”, Paper presented at international conference “Rethinking Cities in the Global South: Urban Violence, Social Inequality and Spatial Justice”, TISS, 12-23 January 2016
“The Urban Suburb: The Mumbai Experience”, Paper presented at conference titled ‘A Suburban Revolution? An international conference on bringing the fringe to the centre of global urban research and practice’, York University, Toronto, Canada, September 26-29, 2013 (jointly with Himanshu Burte)
Co-mentored a workshop on Urban Mobility, at A Social Design Festival, Goa, organized by Kokum, a design trust as part of a programme to connect government, designers and active citizens (17 – 19 February 2020). Participation was open to architects, urban planners, engineers, systems thinkers, behavioural researchers, design professionals and students.
“Planning and Inequality: How Spatial Plans address the Poor”, Urban Arc 2020: Equal Cities (Annual Research Conference of the Indian Institute for Human Settlements, Bengaluru), 16-18 January 2020. (Conference Proceedings pp.213-218 and video link https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uTla37HxvB0&t=128s (from 30.30 to 48.00 mins)
“Urban Planning and Heritage”, International seminar on Heritage of Mumbai: Challenges and the Road Ahead organized by Garware Institute of Career Education and Development, University of Mumbai, Directorate of Archaeology and Museums, Govt. of Maharashtra and UNESCO, (New Delhi office), February 4, 2019.
‘Urban Planning’s Blind Spot(s)’, Gender Colloquium: Gender Issues in Urban Transformation, Focus on the adolescent girl and Urbanisation, IIT-Bombay, 23-24 August 2018.
‘Urban Planning: Imperatives and Possibilities’, Professor V.M. Dandekar Memorial Seminar, “Urban Planning in India: Emerging Issues and Challenges,” ISPE, Pune, December 16-17, 2016.
“Regional Plan for Goa- Environment & Participation”, ICRIER’s Program on Capacity Building and Knowledge Dissemination on Urbanization in India, Preparing for the Urban Challenges of the 21st Century, (Focus: Sustainable Cities), June 17 – 18, 2013, Pune.
“Sustainable Approach to Urban Planning”, Goa State Cooperative Housing Finance & Federation Ltd., Technical Training Programme for the Senior Personnel of Housing Cooperatives, February 2010, Panaji (Goa).
“Crafted Village Natural City”, Paper Presented at the State-Level Seminar on “Urbanization – Managing this growing challenge”, Nov 2007, The Economics & Geography Dept., Govt. College of Arts & Commerce, Virnoda, Pernem, Goa.
“On the Edge: Planning, Describing and Imagining the Seaside Edge of Mumbai,” (in collaboration with Himanshu Burte) International Workshop organised by Centre de Sciences Humaines, in collaboration with India International centre, Peri-urban dynamics: population, habitat and environment on the peripheries of large Indian metropolises, 25 August, 2004, New Delhi.
‘The Creative City: Curitiba, Brazil,’ October 2004 talk at Mumbai Study Group, Rachna Sansad, Mumbai.
“Curitiba -Planning by Design,” For People’s Participation? Intervening in Urban Transport and Planning a panel discussion on people’s participation in urban transport and governance issues, 25 May 2002 at The Bombay Paperie, Mumbai.
“Curitiba- A Brazilian Case Study”, Paper presented at the seminar titled, “Trichur 2000 and Beyond,” January 26, 2001 at Thrissur, Kerala.
“Laurie Baker and the development of a tradition around him,” Invited presentation at conference titled, ‘End of Tradition?’, organized by International Association for the Study of Traditional Environments (IASTE) at Trani, Italy, October 12-15, 2000.
An oral history of Indian Urban Planning, for the ‘Deepening Networks of Tacit Urban Knowledge to Inform Inclusive Policy Frameworks’ project, Centre for Urban Policy and Governance, TISS, funded by Ford Foundation. (2019-20)
The Institutional Armature of the Road in Greater Mumbai, for the ‘Right to the City’ project at Centre for Urban Policy and Governance, TISS funded by Ford Foundation. (2017-18)
Global Suburbanisms: Governance, Land, and Infrastructure in the 21st Century,” research program at the CITY Institute, York University, Toronto (2013-17)
Research and Development Grant from Graham Foundation for Advance Studies in the Fine Arts, Chicago, for research towards a book titled, ‘Sustainable Architecture in India: Practices, Projects and Prospects’ (Co-grantee: Himanshu Burte) 2008