Title: “ T H E R E D B O X ” – Architecture and Prejudice ,The case of Kamathipura

Mentor: Prof. Minaz Ansari

The research aims to approach understanding perception and prejudice in the various social spectrums it exists in. It is an attempt to understand the complex concerns of stereotypes and biases these prejudices and preconceptions lead to. It tries to understand otherness by first defining and describing what otherness is, then going on to list the characteristics of stereotypes and prejudices. It elaborates upon the social, cultural, political, historical, and psychological factors that act like a catalyst in the process of preconceptions. It explores the idea of othering and exclusion as a result of prejudice and perception in psychological spaces as well as social spaces; and how it further affects various social groups set up in different contexts and settings via a comparative matrix. The relation of prejudice and perception is thus established in the context of Kamathipura, Mumbai as a case to demonstrate the relation between the same and its consequences on the architecture in the precinct.

Aim: To understand the prejudices associated with certain social vulnerable groups1 and spaces inhabited by them that exist in society as a result of class and social differences.

Objectives:

• To understand the relevancy of social prejudices in architecture ,spaces and how it affects the way we design

• What are the social factors that lead to this prejudice

• To understand the reasons for these prejudices and the catalysts that add to it

• To study explorations that have been done already keeping the prejudice aside

• To identify a social group and understand how these prejudices have affected the architecture around them

• To study the spaces affected by the prejudices and how they could be any different in their absence

Scope:
The study attempts to understand prejudice and perception in a wide spectrum. However the narrowed scale focuses on Kamathipura as a case specific to further explore the finer nuances and complexity of the same.