AA Projective Cities’ alum Amy Brar has received a commendation for her MPhil dissertation from SAHGB

Amy’s project, Precarious Waters: Spatializing Agency among Dispossessed Fisher Women of Lake Chilika, has been commended by The Society of Architectural Historians in Great Britain (SAHGB).

The project examines and spatialises forms of water-living central to fisherwomen of Lake Chilika, to situate their water rituals as the medium for enhancing agency in the context of marginalised communities. The dissertation proposes a fundamental shift in established notions of value and productivity, by learning through the embodied knowledge, rituals and practices of women commonly excluded from developmental discourse.

Locating the spatial inquiry at the intersection of landscape, infrastructure and female bodies, the dissertation demonstrates that wet-space in these villages is collective and form invisible networks of protocol at settlement scale. These networks, choreographed by fisherwomen, are fundamental to the socio-relationships of the marginalised fishing communities. Through a series of design propositions informed by empirical, anthropological research and care, the dissertation confronts existential threats resulting from the socio-spatial hierarchy embedded in modern water infrastructure, by adopting a collaborative modus operandi, and highlighting value through the subaltern female body.

Image: View of the dike-side toilets along Lake Chilika in the monsoon.