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Our Principal, Ujjayant Bhattacharyya led the Foundation studio at AVANI as an Assistant Professor at the institution. The onset of the extraordinary has resulted in us, rethinking our connections with our immediate and beyond. It was necessary hence, for us to relook at our normals and continue to adapt to these new uncertainties so that our connections are not lost into oblivion. To effectively look at these uncertainties and morph ourselves according to their demanding events, we had to look back and learn from "what was", to be able to speculate, "what can be". We had to relearn and reimagine the new normal and work on re-establishing the connections which have been dispersed over the course of time and due to unforeseen events and circumstances. The Foundation Studio looked at our relationships with the region and environment around us and attempted to revive those intricacies through our actions for them to be preserved so that the generations to come can be made aware and sensitized towards our context which allows individuals and collaboratives to speculate for a better tomorrow. The studio integrates several subject domains including Design, Visual Arts, Design Theory, etc., and attempted to weave multidisciplinary learnings under a single fabric and allow individuals to Re-think, Re-look & Re-Learn about our immediate, and beyond. 

Termed "Re-Connections", the studio focused on three learning areas to reinforce one's connections with the environment/context: 

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Discovery of Context, Inquiry into materials & negotiations with the Unbuilt

 

The concluding project of the Foundation Studio reflected all the contextual, material and built learnings over the course of two semesters and was placed across an identified pocket of site inside the campus of AVANI. The intent was to develop strategies, spaces & stories over a series of detailed steps and processes that can collectively spatially identify itself as a museum. 

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Cover Page Credits : Ujjayant Bhattacharyya