Dr Anuradha Chatterjee is a transnational feminist academic practitioner in architecture and design based in Australia and India. She a degree in architecture from TVB School of Habitat Studies, India, and a Masters and PhD from the University of New South Wales, Australia.
Dr Chatterjee is Pro Vice Chancellor, RV University and Dean, School of Design and Innovation. She has also held prominent academic leadership roles as Dean, Faculty of Design, Manipal University Jaipur; Dean Academics, Avani Institute of Design; and Head, Research and Innovation, Pearl Academy where she was responsible for institution building, establishing collaborative cultures of academic excellence, enhancing internationalisation initiatives and research outputs.
She continues to contribute to academic excellence as Founding Chairperson, Academic Advisory Board, Cindrebay School of Design; and past Member, Academic Council KRVIA (2021-2023); and Board of Review, CEPT (2019-2022). Dr Chatterjee has over 23 years of experience in research, teaching and administration gained through various academic positions in Australia (University of New South Wales, University of Sydney, University of Technology Sydney, University of Tasmania, University of South Australia), China (Xi’an Jiaotong-Liverpool University), and India (Manipal University Jaipur, Srishti Manipal Institute of Art Design and Technology, Pearl Academy and Sushant School of Architecture), where she developed critical and research-based pedagogies in studio and history and theory subjects.
Dr Chatterjee has also worked in professional practice in Australia, as Senior Research Executive at PTW Architects; Senior Architectural Researcher and Heritage Advisor at Cracknell and Lonergan Architects; and Guest Curator, Customs House Sydney. She is the author of three books Surface and Deep Histories: Critiques, and Practices in Art, Architecture, and Design (Cambridge Scholars Publishing); Built, Unbuilt, and Imagined Sydney (Copal Publishing); John Ruskin and the Fabric of Architecture (Routledge); and the Area Editor (Asia) for fourth publication, The Bloomsbury Global Encyclopedia of Women in Architecture 1960-2015 edited by Karen Burns and Lori Brown (forthcoming, 98000 words for the Asia Section). Her fifth book is an edited collection titled Architectures of Ageing in Place (under contract, Routledge, 2025).
Dr Chatterjee has an active and diverse research record, and her publications speak to an expansive field of research inquiry including but not limited to John Ruskin and architectural theory; feminist readings in architectural history and theory; architecture in Asia, and gendered histories and agencies; practices of resilience and decolonization; critical studio pedagogies; ontological questions of the discipline; and alternative forms of practice in textiles and literature.
The Routledge Companion to Criticality in Art, Architecture, and Design front cover
Collective Imaginations and Social Futures exhibition, Avani Institute of Design
Surfaces: Transformations of Body, Materials and Earth Cover
[IN]SIDE: Journal on Architecture and Design vol. 2, no. 2 2020 Cover
Unbuilt 2.0: Architecture of Future Collectives Cover
Seminar: The Monthly Symposium, Decolonization Perspectives 750, Feb 2022
Florence in the World, The World in Florence Exhibition, Manipal University Jaipur
Student Model, Narrative, Sense and Space: Cultural Interpretation Centre, Mahé Studio, Avani Institute of Design
Surface and Deep Histories Cover
Student model, Xi'an Jiatong Liverpool University
Ducal Palace Venice Arcade
Exhibition View, Shared Territories, Xian Jiaotong Liverpool University
Inter-act, Sydney Architecture Festival, Media Wall for Hypersurface
Scott Beer, UNSW 2009
Nigel Peck Centre, John Wardle Architects
Rethinking and Remaking the Threshold, MArch Studio, UNSW, 2011
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Keynote Talk, “Remembering (and Forgetting) Ahilya Bai Holkar’s Architectural Legacy,” WoArch Women as Builders, Designers, and Critics of the Built Environment Before 1800 Symposium, 26 January 2024
This was the first edition of the conference series WoArch (Women in Architecture) as an international symposium entitled, “Women as Builders, Designers, and Critics of the Built Environment Before 1800,” which took place in Rome, on January 25 to 27, 2024. Organized by the University of Arkansas Rome Center in collaboration with the School of Architecture + Planning at the University of Texas at San Antonio, this symposium was also supported by the Women in Architecture Affiliate Group of the Society of Architectural Historians. The event was hosted in person at the Rome Center in Palazzo Taverna, Rome, and was live-streamed on the Rome Center YouTube channels.
Creativity in Peril? | A Panel Discussion on the Al vs the Human Touch
Creativity in Peril? | A Panel Discussion on the Al vs the Human Touch From the impact on academics to practising in the new technological era. The new era of technology is here. The recent boom in artificial intelligence tools for architecture has divided the fraternity into two sides- one speculating its potential threat to an architect, the other exploring its use in everyday practice. With these perspectives in mind, ArchitectureLive! is hosting a panel discussion- Creativity in Peril? which will be discussing their opinions and experience with Al and its possible integration in architecture practice and academia.
AMPS Routledge Pedagogy Award
The Amps Routledge Pedagogy Award and Fellowship is conferred on academics who have presented or published with Amps as part of its Teaching + Research programme. The main criteria are engagement with pedagogical theory and the practice of teaching. Teaching + Research is a platform for disseminating best practice research and teaching by academics internationally, whether they are focused primarily on their teaching; carrying out research independently of their teaching; researching pedagogical methods in the classroom; embedding research in their teaching.
Winner: Dr. Anuradha Chatterjee Year: 2022
Institutions: Manipal University Jaipur
Title: In between fiction and space: Feminist studio pedagogy (of letting go)
Format: Book Chapter
Book Title: Space and Language in Architectural Education: Catalysts and Tensions .
“A Brief History of Feminist Collectives in Architecture in India,” The Australian Women's and Gender Studies Association Biennial Conference Melbourne, 28-30 Nov 2022
Women led organizations and feminist collectives have been important in the advancing the objectives of gender equity in architectural education and practice, augmenting the representation of women and enhancing peer networks The objective of this paper is to chart out a brief history of women led/feminist networks in architecture in India, concurrent with feminist collectives working across other domains of spatial practices, and to gain understanding of the feminist ethics of organizing and action in architecture in India.
Book Launch, Space and Language in Architectural Education, hosted by Manchester School of Architecture
Dr Anuradha Chatterjee presented her book chapter at the online book launch hosted by Kasia Nawratek (book editor), introduced by Graham Cairns (Routledge Focus on Design Education series editor), with contributions from chapter authors of the Routledge book Space and Language in Architectural Education: Catalysts and Tensions. The book focuses on experimental and cross-cultural pedagogies in architecture and design with language as a point of reference.
SSAA FacTOR - CoA-TRC, Curated by Sushant School of Art and Architecture
Focusing on the issue of gender equity in architecture, my presentation focused on
1. Gender, Canon, and Architectural Knowledge
2. Gender, Space, and the City
3. Gender and Representation
4. Gender, Workplace, and the Academy
5. Gendered Pedagogies
Point of View, Cindrebay School of Design, Curated by Srishti Bajaj
A series of exciting, critical, creative conversations with brilliant, incomparable design thinkers, design makers and design leaders, celebrating their unique points of view. Hear about the creative journeys through challenges and successes as they share their perspectives on design in work and life. Join us as we unlock their creative mind, and discover how they view the world of design today and the future.
Critical Studio Pedagogies: Other Ways of Proceeding, at The Apocalypse Manifesto. Kamla Raheja Memorial Lecture Series, KRVIA
Method over process; navigating, meandering over ‘arriving’; discovering, gaining ‘insight’ over ‘learning’ Where does one enter the project? How does one inhabit the project? Must everything have a stable, formal, representation or can this be a fleeting spatiality? Does one need to control the design process, product and to what extent? What is at stake in not always knowing? Is the design process embodied, physical, full of anxiety, investment? What is a successful project? Is it the formal resolution, or is it the operative complexities? Or is it both? What has been learnt, and what has been discoveredabout why and how we design?
Nobody Should Be an Expert, Everybody Should be an Expert, at All About Green Panel Discussion, Festival of Architecture and Interior Designing (FOAID) December 2020
My lecture was about the gap in architectural curriculum and why understanding of climate change, ecological literacy, sustainability should be core in architectural education, and any education, and it should not be treated as a specialisation. This is why I make a contradictory argument that we all should be experts, and that there should be no experts. The mindset of sustainability as an expertise seems to exempt other actors (non experts) from being concerned, accountable, responsible, and engaged. I also argue that these intiatives should not just be institution/curriculum driven but they should also be student initiated.
The Space of Intuition with Dr. Anuradha Chatterjee | AG 44 Archgyan Podcast - An Indian Architecture Podcast
In this episode, we speak to Prof. Anuradha Chatterjee, who is presently the Dean of Faculty of Design at Manipal University Jaipur. She shares her journey from Architecture to Academia and teaching across the world. We dive deep into the Architectural Education system in India, the various challenges it faces, integrating more of Site into Studio, tips for final year students working on their thesis, how do we teach Architectural Design, plagiarism in PHDs, Architectural Journalism, the importance of writing in Architecture, the future of Architectural Education, advice for young architects and a whole lot more.
Invited Essayist, India: Imagined and Unbuilt 2.0: Architecture of Future Collectives, edited by Maanasi Hattangadi and Rajesh Advani
What is the architecture of future collectives?
The future of home and living
The future of learning
The future of institutions
The future of production
The future of leisure
The future of the street
Opening Remarks as Dean Academics, Avani Institute of Design, Design Con 28 -29 September 2019
DesignCon is conceived upon a strong belief that good design thinking is the pre-requisite for building a progressive society and with the understanding that only through thoughtful and timely interventions on creating awareness about the positive impacts of good design, can we build and elevate the collective conscience of the community we live in. DesignCon2019 is the most interactive design conference in Kerala, where differences are harnessed to challenge convention, spur innovation and discover original solutions which render creative and unique designs.
Engaging Women in the Built Environment 2019 India, UNSW-GRIHA
Alankrita Soni | Green Housing Expert | SUNREF India Programme
Dr Anuradha Chatterjee | Dean (Academics), Avani Institute of Design
Kalpana Viswanath | Co Founder, SafetiPin
Revathi Kamath | Principal Architect, Kamath Design Studio
Professor Sanjukkta Bhaduri | Dean (Research), School of Planning and Architecture, University of Delhi
Shabnam Bassi | Associate Director & Secretary, GRIHA Council
Scientia Professor Veena Sahajwalla | Director, Centre for Sustainable Materials Research and Technology, UNSW Sydney
Letters to my Younger Self | Parlour
I do not consider myself to be in a position to advise others because every life, every journey is different. Hence, I have taken a predictive tone in writing this, as a letter like this would have helped alleviate my anxieties and worries when I was younger. I grew up in New Delhi in a nuclear family, where my older brother was born into the position of lifelong privilege, and I was born into a life of neglect. While this happens to many women in India, who accept it as a way of being for different reasons, I tended to question everything from early on. While this made life at home incredibly difficult, it also made me pick up skills on how to negotiate, bargain, and get what I want. ....
WADe Asia 2019 [Women Architects and Designers Asia] Roundtable Discussion on Crisis in Architectural Education
The Roundtable discussed the issues surrounding architectural education today, which includes lack of quality faculty; new schools of architecture mushrooming all over the country; lack of basic skills sets; to the forced alignment between academia and industry; to the limited agency of the architect in government led projects to questioning how the reach of the architect can be increased in India. The roundtable discussion was framed from within architectural education, but it addressed concerns around education, profession, industry and the discipline of architecture.
Kerala Architecture Festival 2019, Panel Discussion: Academic Crisis in Architecture
Not just architecture, but any field of study should be a constant exploration, said the panellists discussing the academic crisis in architecture. At the session moderated by architect Aabid Raheeem, Dr. Soumini R, Prof. Cyriac and Dr. Anuradha Chatterjee spoke about the overrated areas of architecture and its underexplored possibilities for the future. Dr.Chatterjee also added that, '‘Obedience is not the aim of education, it is all about conversation." Stressing on the setting up of a university based system of evaluation and an apt module for performance assessment, they also focussed on the element of creativity in architecture. The role of women in architecture can change only with phenomenal structural changes in the system, agreed the panellists.
WADe Asia 2018 [Women Architects and Designers Asia 2018]
Women Leaders in Architecture and Design Education panel. Architectural education has one the greatest and the earliest impacts on the lives of women who are entering architecture. In addition, in the recent years, we are seeing more women being appointed as Deans and Heads of Schools in Architecture and Design in India and Asia. Even though, there is the stereotype that teaching is a more ‘appropriate’ profession for women, it is also a fact that academia is a form of practice, and certainly no less demanding than practicing professionally. The panel considers the opportunities for gender equity around women leaders in the educational space in architecture and design.
Beyond the Look: Modernism in Architecture and Design, Level 11 Talks, PTW Architects, 2018
The talks will aim to go beyond the ‘look,’ and tease out the attitudes and values in seeing, designing, and making that defined the long modern ‘moment-movement.’ The speakers will address the theme of modernism in art, architecture, and design, and examine different historic manifestations of the modern through their own research into architectural writings and built works, focusing on John Ruskin, Walter Liberty Vernon, and Sydney's émigré designers.
WADe Asia 2017 [Women Architects and Designers Asia 2017]
WADe India Awards 2017, 28-29 October (Hotel Leela, Gurgaon) is an Initiative to recognize the women led development in the field of architecture, Artist and interior designing. In this panel we discussed how Asian architecture is ‘Asian,’ because of the sheer diversity of issues and practices. She also said that innovation in architecture in Asia is defined not by the use of high technology, but by the way in which we invent new ways in which we use traditional architectural types, and push the limits of local materials. I am in conversation with Anupama Kundoo, Dorji Yangki, Kazi Shamima Sharmin, Patama Roonrakwit, and Anju Malla Pradhan
WADe India 2016 [Women Architects and Designers India]
The panel discussion – Challenges for Women Designers to start own practice in India and the ways to overcome, had Ar. Shiela Sri Prakash, Ar. Anupama Kundoo, Ar. Sonali Bhagwati, Ar. Parul Zaveri and Ar. Canna Panel on panel that was moderated by Anuradha Chatterjee. These leading women shared their stories of starting their own practise, the good and not-so-good, as well as milestones, and the points that young women should remember
Book Launch
John Ruskin and the Fabric of Architecture by Anuradha Chatterjee was launched by Professor Xing Ruan, University of New South Wales. It was held at Better Read than Dead bookshop, Newtown on 17 November, 2018. Click above to read the book launch speech.
TEDX Suzhou 2014
The TEDXSuzhou talked was titled The Space of Intuition, which considered the role of intuition in innovation and creativity. The argument is that this [the intuitive] can be found in the space, gap, or the interval between two ideas, words, events, people, actions, and processes. The word space alludes to a psychological or intellectual space, such that one is able to step back, slow down, or halt the relentlessly forward moving processes of thought and action for a brief moment, to speculate on alternative possibilities for proceeding.
