About SEA

Neha Mhadolkar, Gargi Somani

School of Environment and Architecture was set up in the year 2014 as a collaborative academic space by four offices. It is one of the few institutions in India that is run, led, and managed entirely by architects. SEA believes that education is not just teaching one-way from the professors to students, but as a dialogue through conversations, shared experiences, and mutual growth. At SEA, we learn not just the technicalities of architecture, but the intricacies and nuances of space-making. A common thing one hears here is, “As architects, we’re not constructing buildings, but making spaces, which hold and change life. We’re dealing with the life of a place.” The students learn to critically think about the design and space they are dealing with, through thorough research, and design with sensitivity in the built environment. 

The school has set up a module system to teach rather than a regular timetable. It allows the students to focus and learn a definite number of subjects over a longer period of time. The students are provided a space where they can engage with multiple practices more than just architecture through the way the courses are set - ‘Allied courses’ which look at other practices of art, and ‘Specialisation courses’ where a focused area of interest is studied– like landscape architecture, interior design, product design, participatory design–  broadening their perspectives. Events like SEA City and SEA Assembly allow for deeper discussions on various topics from around the world and about the current events going on around us. One can see how much a student grows in their five years through their time in college. 

Here, the non-heirarchal system allows for every individual to interact freely with each other, which in turn helps the students build confidence to step into the world outside. Through the simple act of calling each other by their first name, everyone here– the students, faculty and staff– are all brought to the same level and interact with each other as peers and colleagues, giving everyone and every idea the same dignity and respect. 

Due to each class having only 40 students, every professor knows everyone and can thus personally direct them in the areas that interest them the most. The college, every year, publishes a ‘Pedagogic Agendas’ book which sets up the scheduling of courses throughout the year and outlines what all the students will learn and how in it. The book is updated every year according to the current times and the feedback that the faculty receives from the students about the courses. These feedbacks are an integral part of SEA as they are taken after every module and help in developing the course for the future batches. 

My own experience at SEA has been really good. During my first week here, we were told that there were a lot many things we had to unlearn before we began to learn. I did not realise how deep that unlearing went. There were many assumptions, belief systems and previously learned biases that were questioned and interrogated over the years. Now, after five years in this field, I realise what a huge impact that process had. The designs I see people around me do are not driven by how good they look, but by how well they are situated in the context. ‘Architecture can be learned but not taught’, this idea pushes every student to look for more than what is suggested, setting up a research-based methodology behind every design.

Orientation Module 2024

Mass Inhabitation 2024 - Thakkar Bappa Colony

SEA students in Nepal: A collaborative studio with ABARI

SEA students in Nairobi: Bodies, Cities and Ecologies

SEA has initiated many collaborative studios wherein students interact with people from different practices to get introduced to various fields of study. To see an archive of SEA works, please do visit https://seaarchives.wixsite.com/my-site/works