Nandini Bagchee

Nandini Bagchee, Principal at Bagchee Architects and Associate Professor of Architecture at Spitzer School of Architecture, CCNY

5:00pm PST Friday, April 11th, 2025

Business Rotunda (03-213)

 

In her book Counter Institution: Activist Estates of the Lower East Side (Fordham 2018), Nandini Bagchee delved into the history of occupancy within three activist-run buildings in New York City. Documenting the spaces and actions within these buildings via drawings, text and oral histories allowed Nandini to situate the multiple histories of engaged communities and the fraught, but liberatory experience of collaborative building practices. This project of archiving the relationships between physical spaces and collective action opened a new way of understanding the mechanics of city-building and informed her practice as an architect and educator. In the first lecture of Spring 2025 semester at the Cal Poly Architecture School, Nandini Bagchee will present her ongoing work with community-based organizations in New York City and share her insights into what it takes to critically engage with community.