C.P.W.D.
The Public Works Department, established in 1854 during the British Raj, was the main central
government run developer of largescale public sector works in India. As the Industrial
Revolution radically transformed Europe in the late 19th century, the PWD was one of the
conduits to implement the same ideas across the subcontinent. With the proclamation of the
change in the capital of the Raj from Calcutta to Delhi in 1911, the PWD assumed a primary role
in building the new capital including housing for the thousands of bureaucrats needed for the
functioning of the Raj. The designers behind these housing developments drew from the early
modernist Garden City movement with its revolutionary aims to remake society. Architects and
engineers working for the PWD were also influenced by other design movements in Europe,
such as the influential International Congresses of Modern Architecture (CIAM), with their
emphasis on social housing. With the collapse of the British Raj and Indian independence, these
ideas played a critical role in definition of modern India as a secular democracy built around
Jawaharlal Nehru’s vision of a technocratic society free of class and caste divisions. Post
independence, the rechristened Central Public Works Department continued to promote a
steadfastly modernist ideal with numerous housing projects around Delhi, and the country,
employing a roster of highly educated Indian architects. As development in India was very much
a socialist, center driven affair, these projects were tested in Delhi and then exported around the
country forming a ubiquitous part of the India’s urban fabric.
Today, in a capitalist market driven economy, the government is redeveloping many of these
housing projects. Around Delhi, entire neighborhoods are being demolished and replaced with
highrise apartment buildings and commercial complexes.
The narrative of modernism in India largely ignores these housing projects in favor of large,
signature projects often built by Western architects. Only recently have Indian architects
received similar attention with the expansion of the narrative to include their work. With this
project, I am looking to expand the narrative again to look at the role of these housing projects in
the development of modernism in India.
Pigment Prints
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