This course is an inquiry into the boundaries of the Canons that dominate the discourse in Architecture and Urbanism globally. By posing counter narratives, we will interrogate the limits of the Canons propelled in the West — their histories and production cultures across material, political, economic, and social spheres. Over the centuries, the legacy of colonization, the industrial revolution and globalization have insidiously proliferated monolithic, singular truths, which have dominated architectural and urban imaginaries in most geographies around the world. The philosophical underpinnings of modernity and the establishment of the global normative have conditioned the conversations of space and time largely to responding to and privileging the facilitation of universal tenets and notions of efficiency. This course intends to transcend these conservative, ideological imperatives that determine the contemporary understanding of cultural significance in the discourse of Architecture and Urbanism globally, and to draw theoretical frameworks from practices that often have been ‘othered’ by Western dominance of the discourse in the academy as well as the professional media.  The intention is to not locate the conversations in any one geography or in the various rubrics such as the global south1 etc., rather the intention is to develop theoretical frameworks around a shared or common set of issues and conditions that are shared by different geographies outside the west — (Europe and North America).

Case studies largely from South Asia, but also Latin America, Africa, Southwest Asia, etc., will illuminate philosophical orientations, traditions, and knowledge systems that allegedly fall outside of the standards, values, and prescriptions of the West, but have persisted over centuries and display relevance in the broader discourse on Architecture and Urbanism today. Through reviewing architectural, cultural, and urban practices, students will delve into the complexities of societies globally, understanding geographies and landscapes as inherently dialogic, relational, and interdependent.

Some central questions include: what forms of practices do the contemporary political, social, and economic conditions suggest and inspire in geographies beyond Europe and North America more broadly? As practitioners and pedagogues, what constitutes our values, significance, and agency? The course aspires to interrogate the tenets of modern thought and expand the perception of the ‘Canon’ to rethink contemporary culture, public life, and a more situated agency of the architect. And lastly, the course will facilitate as part of the research projects undertaken by the students in the class, the discerning of models of practices in other geographies that could propel the process of expanding or at least de-centering the Canon.

Note regarding the Fall 2026 GSD academic calendar: The first day of classes, Wednesday, September 2nd, is held as a MONDAY schedule at the GSD. This course will meet for the first time on Wednesday, September 9th.