Living Together - by Sonal Mithal & Akshar Gajjar (Paperback)

Book Synopsis

What does it mean for architecture to be a truly collaborative venture where plants and other species also exercise their agency? This would mean to make architecture receptive--physically, premised on creating spaces for accommodating multispecies; and intellectually, premised on becoming aware of the needs of more-than-humans. Design-based approaches whether technocratic or demonstrating a theoretical standpoint are fragmented today and demand a holistic approach.

Living Together positions itself in that fragmentation. The book is an inquiry into an architecture which allows multispecies alliances to take place. It brings materialist and ecological inquiries to architectural design, practice, and thinking; acknowledging a necessity to go beyond established architectural ideals of progress, monumentality, longevity, and permanence.

• A guide to ecological planning in architecture
• Cohabitation: architecture must take into account the non-human living space
• Inspiring illustrations

About the Author

Dr Sonal Mithal runs the research, conservation, and art studio People for Heritage Concern and is program chair of the conservation graduate program at CEPT University, India. Her work transects architecture, feminist ecologies, queer studies, and history. She recently published A Queer Reading of Nawabi Architecture and Colonial Archives: Lucknow Queerscapes (2024), Melding Matter (2021).　

Akshar Gajjar is an architect and researcher and is currently based at EPF Lausanne. His research transects architecture, urbanism, queer studies and ecology. He recently published Embroidered Waterscapes: Unpacking Relationships　through Artisanal Map-making (2024) and presented his work at the American Association of Geographers annual conference (2023).