I am Jayaraj Sundaresan, PhD Candidate for Urban and Regional Planning studies - Department of Geography and Environment at the London School of Economics and Political Science.
I am trained as an Architect, Urban designer and planner, and now my doctoral research at the LSE aims to explain the relationship between land use change and planning process in the city of Bangalore in India looking at the Land use planning process and implementation of Landuse regulations. My areas of interest lies in the relationship between the practice of spatial with practice of social economic political and so on. You can write to me in j.sundaresan at lse.ac.uk.
I am also involved with the newly forming university in India named Indian Institute for Human Settlements.
education
PhD in Urban and Regional Planning Studies; from 2006; Department of Geography and Environment ; London School of Economics (LSE), UK.
M.Sc City Design; 2004-2005; Cities Program, London School of Economics (LSE), UK.
Post Graduate Diploma in Urban Design-M Arch ; 1998-2000; Centre for Environment Planning and Technology (CEPT), Ahmedabad, India.
Bachelors in Architecture. B Arch; 1990—1996; College of Engineering and Technology (CET) ; Thiruvananthapuram, Kerala, India.
work experience
In United Kingdom
Teaching:
Graduate Teaching Assistant :
Dept of Geography and Environment , London School of Economics :
from Oct 2006 onwards till now.
Courses involved : 2011-Development (With Claire Mercer and Sharad Chari)
.
Planning for sustainable cities (with Dr.Nancy Holman)- Post graduate level (2009-2010)
Lecture on Urban Design practice in Public policy for GY454:(with
Dr. Nancy Holman).
Urban policy and planning. for MSc in Regional and Urban Planning
Studies.
Have taught classes for
Spatial and Social research Methods and
Geographies of London with
Dr. Sharad Chari (2007-08)
Research:
Researcher; Urban Age ;
London School of Economics; UK: from Jan 2007 till September 2007:
Was
engaged in international comparative research on policies,
instruments, and governance structures for integrated planning across
cities of Johannesburg, Berlin, London, Mumbai, New York, New Delhi, Kolkatta, and Bangalore as part of the Urban Age India research team for
Mumbai Conference in November 2007.
Professional:
Urban Design Officer;
Planning and Regeneration Directorate;
London Borough of Lewisham;
London; UK: from November 2007 till Nov 2010: Engaged in Project and Policy
development, Pre-application design development negotiations, and
development control. Just finished an evidence based assessment
for tall buildings in regeneration areas to support the core strategy.
Urban regeneration Project
Manager : Department of Economic Regeneration,
London Borough of Haringey:
Oct 2006-May 2007: Prepared a draft outline for economic regeneration
strategy. Other involvements included preparing
project brief and management of Wood green Town centre regeneration
project; input to London Plan review by North London Strategic Alliance;
Preparing briefs on various strategy reports like City Development
Corporation consultation paper, Section 106 planning policy guidance,
PPG on Town centres, review of Economic regeneration strategy of London
boroughs, Haringey and North London Employment land review, member of the
central leeside regeneration and area action plan team with Planning and
Policy.
Urban Designer, Shillam and Smith-Architecture and Urbanism, London, UK : May 2006 - Sep 2006 : Worked on ‘Building sustainable communities Master Plan framework’ for Efford neighbourhood in Plymouth.
Project components included institutional upgrading and capacity building, addressing employment barriers, building partnerships and strategy for sustainable management of community assets, physical regeneration
and urban design framework, and addressing various other aspects of multiple deprivation like crime, declining health etc. Also worked on a competition project for International city of Reykjavik, Iceland.
Internship; Roger Evans Associates-Urban design and Planning, Oxford, UK : Feb 2006 : Participated in design and development of a 500 acre housing master plan for ‘Green way’ in Hertfordshire, UK.
Involvement included model making, sketch drawings, and design inputs. Also involved in baseline research for tender on Spalding Urban development framework.
Occasional Research Assistant, Enterprise LSE- Cities; London School of Economics; UK : Sep 2005 - Dec 2006 : Conducted field work in Bristol for project ‘Legible Bristol’, UK. Also provided occasional graphic
support for Urban Age - International conference on Cities.
In India
Teaching:
Lecturer , Department of Architecture; National Institute of Technology ; (NIT-C), Calicut, India : Jun 2000—May 2003 : Courses taught -Environmental Landscape, Urban Design, Architecture Design Studio
Basic Design and History of Architecture. Also co-ordinated study programmes, supervised under graduate Architecture thesis, documentation and research projects, and contributed to formulation of course curriculum
and syllabus.
Research:
Research Associate, Centre for Environmental Planning and Technology, Ahmedabad, India : Feb 2000- Feb 2001. Projects - Discussion paper on restoration strategies for earthquake affected villages in Kutchh, India
with NGO Citizens Initiative; Research and documentation of city palace at Udaipur, Rajasthan, India ; Research and documentation on Cities and Urban Spaces for a monograph on Indian Cities.
Professional:
Founder member and Director- Centre for Environment Architecture and Human Settlements (C-Earth), Kerala, India. Jun 2001—Aug 2004 : C-Earth is a private sector consultancy and advocacy organisation working
in areas of Urban design, Planning, Architecture, Housing and regeneration, Urban Conservation, Eco-tourism strategies etc. Clients include public, private and NGO sectors and operates from Cochin and Calicut in Kerala.
some online news related to projects of C-Earth : Kannur tourism master plan ; Konni Eco-tourism ; Arackal palace conservation ; Cochin urban Poverty Alleviation Project
Project coordinator and Architectural assistant with Prof Kulbhushan Jain , Ahmedabad, India : From Aug 1997 to Aug 1998 : worked in Conservation and adaptive reuse of Queens Palace in the
Mehrangarh fort complex in Rajasthan, India. Responsible for project coordination, documentation and detailed inspection, devising conservation and adaptive reuse strategy, and preparation of project report.
Also worked on the Jaisalmer fort conservation project in Rajasthan.
scholarships and awards
LSE research Studentship- London School of
Economics, UK ; 2007-08.
Aga Khan Foundation international
scholarship fellow to the London School of Economics : 2004-2005.
Post graduate study
scholarship, Ministry of
human resources, India 1998-2000.
publications
Planning as commoning: Transformation of lakes in Bangalore, in Special issue on urban affairs. Economic and Political Weekly. (Forthcoming) November -2011.
Integrated
City Making: Governance Planning and transport: August: 2008.
Published by Urban-Age;
Cities Programme , London School of Economics and Political Science.
Co-Author with Philip Rode, Julie Wagner, Rit Chandra and Richard Brown.
The vanishing tharavads of Kerala : in 'The Hindu' special issue 'Folio' on Cities : August 2001. The Hindu : Chennai. India.
Recognising the practice of Urban design for better cities : in IA&B Magazine (Indian Architect and Builder) : May 2001, Jasubhai media publications : Mumbai India.
conference papers
Riots and the city : Hindu
nationalism and the city of Ahmedabad : Planning and social security.
: Paper presented at the 17th Annual conference of
ASEN (Association
for study of Ethnicity and Nationalism)
in London , April 2007.
'The
dark face of Nationalism: Violence, Extremism and the Nation'.
unpublished Independent research
State and Urban planning in Bangalore: developing a framework for understanding planning in the city. 2007
City and ethnic conflicts : ‘Structuring a resistance’ using Urban Planning and design. A case of Ahmedabad, India. 2005
Government intervention, housing policy and affordable Housing: - A contemporary perspective. The paper researched on the ‘enabling strategy’ in housing policy in developing and developed countries as manifested in provision of affordable housing: taking the example of UK and India. 2005
Challenges to Urban design and planning during rapid economic expansion in cities: This paper sets out to explore issues that influence urban form due to rapid economic growth based urbanisation, and the various issues this brings forward as challenge to the discipline, profession and practices of urban planning and design. 2005.
How can poor communities improve their condition while improving the urban environment? Or what is a sustainable community? : The paper starts by explaining the mutually constitutive relationship between urban environment and the living environment of urban poor, and the impact this has on their development opportunities. While exploring the issues of top down approach and bottom up approaches for the improvement of living environments, the paper attempts to discuss the role of community based participatory schemes with the example of two case studies.
Infrastructure up gradation as a strategy for poverty reduction in developing countries.-Evaluation of an infrastructure design project in India: The paper explored the outcome of a sustainable urban infrastructure project, as implemented using and within the framework of existed urban governance institutional practices. This paper explored the complexities of ‘sustainability’ as a socio-technical concept.
Documenting the Post-metropolis of Cochin, India. The papers attempted to document and explain the transformations in metropolitan, regional and human geography of Cochin due to contemporary Global processes.
Exploring the spatial Practices of Prostitution in cities. The paper attempted to document the various spatial practices around practice of prostitution within the city. This included study of Policy, implementation, social and political issues, various actors involved etc and the relation with city. 2004
Comprehending making of Urban Space in the multicultural mosaics of London- The case of Southall. The paper attempted to demonstrate through analysis using morphological tools, that ‘place making’ is more than the result of structural relations within the urban framework. The studies concentrated on the making of Southall as an ethnic ghetto and its relation with the city of London and development opportunities.
Urban Conservation: the experience in India: This explored various issues around instituting a formal program on urban conservation in India- using the case studies of Mumbai (secondary research) and Ahmedabad (primary field work). Studies included the role and transformations of urban heritage stock and the various issues and policies around that.
Extensive filed work urban design research conducted on London and on many cities in India : Anand in Gujarat, Udaipur in Rajasthan, Thiruvanantahapurm, Palakkad and Alleppy in Kerala. 1994-2000.
images of
some old professional
projects -architecture and urban design- linked here.
Disclaimer
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