Frances Loeb Library Faculty Colloquium Series: Rahul Mehrotra in conversation with Dean Sarah Whiting

The Kinetic City & Other Essays

The Frances Loeb Library hosted a faculty colloquium series talk with Rahul Mehrotra on his new book, The Kinetic City & Other Essays moderated by Dean Sarah Whiting.

The Kinetic City (ArchiTangle, 2021) presents Rahul Mehrotra’s writings over the last thirty years and illustrates his longterm engagement with and analysis of urbanism in India. This work has given rise to a new conceptualization of the city. Mehrotra calls it the Kinetic City, a counterpoint to the Static City, as familiar to most of us from conventional city maps. He argues that the city should instead be perceived, read, and mapped in terms of patterns of occupation and associative values attributed to space. The framework is established in this publication by Mehrotra’s anchor essay, which draws out its potential to “allow a better understanding of the blurred lines of contemporary urbanism and the changing roles of people and spaces in urban society.”

As part of this event, The Kinetic City & Other Essays and Working in Mumbai, both by Rahul Mehrotra, were available for purchase at a discounted price and with free shipping through the publisher’s (ArchiTangle) online store. 

Rahul Mehrotra MAUD ’87 is Chair of the Department of Urban Planning and Design and John T. Dunlop Professor in Housing and Urbanization at the Graduate School of Design. He is also the founder principal of RMA Architects, which is based in Mumbai and Boston.

Sarah Whiting is Dean and Josep Lluís Sert Professor of Architecture at the Graduate School of Design. She is also design principal and co-founder of WW Architecture.

Co-Sponsored by the Frances Loeb Library and the Lakshmi Mittal and Family South Asia Institute.

Questions? Email Mitsuki Nishimoto at [email protected].