Room for Utopias Ep. 3-4: Indian Architects Tackle Urban Isolation

Continuing designboom and INDX|GLOBAL’s podcast series filmed at designboom.paris, the second installment of Room for Utopias highlights contemporary Indian architects and designers who are rethinking community living, spatial design, and client psychology. Across in-depth panel discussions, the series shifts its focus toward spatial choreography and user behavior, examining how layout decisions either isolate or connect people, and how architects often shape what clients truly need but cannot articulate.

The third episode of Room for Utopias convenes four practitioners—Adreesh Chakraborty of The Earth Home, Supriya Thyagarajan of Perkins Eastman, Priyanka Arjun of Priyanka Arjun & Associates, and Sahir Choudhary of ZH Collective | Habitat Architects—to reconsider how spatial design can actively counter urban isolation. The panel explores how architecture can structure spontaneous connection, generational empathy, and shared stewardship in dense urban centers.

Stock photo for illustration only, not from the actual event

Sahir Choudhary of ZH Collective | Habitat Architects challenges speculative developer logic that reduces housing to repetitive, profitable stacks, observing that even the word 'apartment' literalizes how modern housing keeps occupants apart. Choudhary argues that fostering community requires tailoring programs to nuanced daily rituals across generations—from secure, visible play areas for young parents to slow, tea-stop walking paths for seniors. He warns against rigid, low-cost structural grids, pointing out that buildings incapable of morphing over decades inevitably face premature demolition.

The fourth conversation turns toward the invisible dynamics between architect and client. Moderator Iñaki Laguardia sits down with Parag Singal of Parag Singal Architects, Lakshmi Sravanthi Kolluri of EssEnn Architects, and Pranav Iyer of Ground 11 Architects to discuss the soft skills, psychology, and tactical diplomacy required to reveal possibilities outside standard project briefs.