Gata Prastuta
A coffee table book of photographs, illustrations, and poems that narrate the layered history of Basavanagudi through the voices of its oldest sites and structures
Visual Design
Photography
Writing
Illustration
DETAILS
Bachelor Thesis @ Srishti Institute of Art, Design and Technology
TEAM
Just me!
MY ROLE
Research, Concept, Ideation,
TIMELINE
5 months - 2021
Context
India is a land of omnipresent stories. Among its many cities, Bangalore holds particular cultural and historical significance. The project Dakshina Dhwani (Southern Exploration) called for a contextual study of three historically significant sites in South Bengaluru to unearth and communicate it’s story.
Objective
To explore architecture as a powerful and under appreciated form of storytelling. While modern structures are rarely read as narrative forms, they define the spaces they occupy and shape the relationships people form with them, evoking belonging and identity through decades of urban transformation.
Result
An 11×11 inch coffee table book offering a glimpse into present day life in Basavanagudi. The book showcases how its residents relate to the area amid ongoing change, with poems narrating its history through the voices of its enduring sites and structures.
Challenges
This project posed significant logistical and conceptual challenges due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Limited time and access pushed the research toward secondary sources, with minimal scope for primary methods such as interviews. Working extensively on
a community rooted project without the ability to directly give back added another layer of ethical weight to every decision.
Research & Analysis
Primary research included frequent site visits before India's second lockdown in April 2021, resident interviews, and a survey distributed to the Facebook group "Bangalore: Photos from a Bygone Age."
Secondary research included reading Meera Iyer's Discovering Bengaluru, alongside published texts on the role of architecture in storytelling, provided historical depth and guided the area's cultural framing.
Five themes emerged out of this research, namely 'Architecture as storytelling', 'Heritage and identity', the cultural importance of food', 'community intermingling' and 'nostalgia and personal experience'.
The Artefact
Gata Prastuta - Odes to Basavanagudi captures the unique history and beauty of the land of the Basava (The Bull), conveying the deep significance this area holds for its people, evoking belonging, and tracing how the space has shaped identity across generations.
It brings together original photography, illustration, and poetry, all narrated from the perspective of the ancient sites and structures that have witnessed both the past and the present of Basavanagudi.
Reflection
This project gave me something I hadn't anticipated: a personal connection to a city I had never truly made the effort to know. Spending hours walking Basavanagudi and speaking to its residents taught me that design research, at its best, is an act of genuine curiosity about other people's lives.
It also revealed the importance of community connection in contextual work. The language barrier was a real limitation, and one that made me more aware of how much is lost when a researcher cannot fully inhabit the world they are studying.
If I were to revisit this project, I would centre the community far more directly in the making process, not just as subjects of research, but as co-authors of the artefact itself.
