Settlement Studies

Agra - Jaipur - Chandigarh

Studio Co-ordinators : Dushyant Asher, Manasvi Patil, Tushar Rajkumar

Gargi Somani

Buildings visited:

Agra - Agra fort, Taj Mahal, Fatehpur Sikri

Jaipur - Nahargarh Fort, Jaigarh Fort, Jal Mahal, Hawa Mahal, Bapu Bazar and nearby markets, Amer Fort, Jawahar Kala Kendra, Albert Hall Museum, City Palace, Jantar Mantar

Chandigarh - Capitol Complex, Pierre Jeannet Museum, walking through the city.

The trip consisted of visiting and taking walks around the cities of Agra, Fatehpur Sikri, Jaipur and Chandigarh. The course was built through experiences; through walking, observing, comparing, pausing, and slowly learning how to read architecture as something lived rather than only visual or historic.

Agra and Fatehpur Sikri taught us to experience architecture through movement and delay rather than instant visual consumption. Entry into these complexes is never direct. One moves through gateways, climbs plinths, walks across courts, passes through shaded corridors, and only then reaches more intimate interiors.

This layered sequencing stretches time and heightens awareness. Each threshold marks a shift; from public to private, open to enclosed, exposed to protected. Through this, the course was structured such that we derive everyday meaning in these historical complexes.

Across Agra, Fatehpur Sikri, and Jaipur, another recurring theme emerged, vantage. Architecture was not only meant to be occupied, but also to be looked at from. Terraces, jharokhas, balconies, pavilions, and platforms constantly repositioned us as viewers.

In Agra, riverfront terraces and long garden axes framed distant landscapes. In Fatehpur Sikri, changing levels created dramatic shifts in perspective, from looking up at monumental facades to looking down into crowded courtyards. In Jaipur too, buildings like Hawa Mahal, City Palace, and Jawahar Kala Kendra revealed how architecture carefully constructs relationships between observer and observed. These pauses in movement slowed us down and made us conscious of our own placement in space.

Our engagement with Chandigarh was shaped primarily through walking. Experiencing the city on foot revealed the consequences of its rigid sectoral planning. Each sector, designed to be self-sufficient, appeared orderly and efficient on paper. Yet walking through them exposed a deep absence of everyday street life. Wide roads, high compound walls, and inactive edges created a public realm that felt visually open but socially empty.

At the end of the course, the students compiled all their learnings and diagrams or drawings made during the trip. They came up with five major design concepts that they observed and experienced.

Diagram by Nidhi Bhoir

Diagram by Lohitha Rao

Diagram by Aditya Bhoite

The work can be found here: https://sites.google.com/sea.edu.in/2025-26-settlement-study-a21/home