Syracuse University's Utkarsha Laharia on Architecture as a Silent Storyteller
Utkarsha in NYC, 2021
By Julia Gamolina
Utkarsha Laharia is trained as an architect and an arts journalist. She graduated with a Bachelor of Architecture from Pune, India and a Master in Arts Journalism from Syracuse University, New York. While working in places like Bhuj and Ladakh, she fell in love with mud buildings and along her journey felt a need of responsible media presence and criticism in the field of architecture. You can find her words in the Architect’s Newspaper, the American Theatre Magazine, the Syracuse Post-standard, the Charleston Post and Courier, the South Side Stand and the Newshouse among others. She was recently invited to give a lecture titled “Architecture Journalism and the Role of Media in Architecture.”
JG: Why did you decide to study architecture?
UL: There is a cute funny story of my connection to architecture which goes back to late 90’s when I was a kid. As my grandmother recalls every time, I visited her place that I used to worship - literally putting flowers on the gate - a stone house while on my way to the school every morning. On a serious note, I was very good at Mathematics, drawing, history, and I was always creating something, and my parents’ house is still decorated with my “artwork” and drawings that I did as a kid. Love hands-on work! Also, my mother is an artist, she mostly did oil-paintings, so I grew up watching her work in the house and I am sure all the above combined paved my way to pursue B.Arch. and one year into my architecture school, I scored the highest in a class of 80 and received the Woman of Substance Award. It felt effortless!
Utkarsha Laharia defending her design with vehemence during final year architecture thesis jury and review at Pune, India.
What was the favorite project you worked on in school? Favorite paper you wrote? Favorite extracurricular?
In architecture school, my thesis was my favorite project because by that time, I was well aware of how I liked the pre-designing process, where you research and develop your ideas, and the post-designing process, where you present and defend those ideas, way more than the designing itself. My thesis project and both my thesis advisor mentor allowed me to focus more on research and writing. My project focused on migrant community settlement and designing a housing proposal for them.
My favorite extracurricular was writing about architecture and it’s ironic that I am calling it extracurricular, but that’s what it was back in architecture school. Last year, I was invited by my architecture school to give a virtual talk about “Architecture Journalism and the Role of Media in Architecture” and I was overwhelmed with messages from so many architecture students who wrote to me about their serious interest in being an architecture journalist. I feel so happy guiding and helping me, especially because there was no one to do that for me when I started walking on this path. There are one or two qualified architecture journalists or critics in India, lack of them and a dire need of them made me pursue this career. I learned about Philadelphia from Inga Saffron, Chicago from Blair Kamin, New York from Michael Kimmelman and it is disappointing to hardly see any for Pune, Mumbai, Delhi and I want to be that.
Just like the narrative of architecture is a strong silent story maker, benefits of responsible journalism form history and society. Sometimes you see immediate effects, just like in the case of the writings on IIMA demolition - the governing body took back their original decisions of demolition a day after I wrote a piece on it. Of course it was a collective effort of all of those who signed the petition, wrote about it and joined in to create a media uproar but I feel happy about being a tiny part it. I spent last two days of 2020 working on this piece and woke up to the positive news on the 1st of January.
“Just like the narrative of architecture is a strong silent story maker, benefits of responsible journalism form history and society.”
What are some of the initiatives you’ve focused on in school, and why?
During my second year into architecture, I started writing about architecture — essays, reviews, news for college Newsletter and various national and international competitions or sometimes just for myself. Later, I worked as the Newsletter and Magazine head at my B.Arch. School. The same year I also got into learning about vernacular architecture, especially earth (mud) buildings, and both these interests only grew from there. Both the places where I worked in India — Hunnarshala, Bhuj and SECMOL, Ladakh focuses on earth building techniques. One other thing that I devotedly did for all five years of architecture was participating in a National Level architecture quiz competition. I went on to become a finalist in my last year!
Looking back now, I think I can answer “why”, it was not obvious to connect the dots while being one of those dots, all these above initiatives were allowing more to go beyond designing and constantly analyze, criticize architecture and architecture education. Being involved in these initiatives backed my decision to pursue architecture journalism.
Later, after coming to the U.S., J-school was something that I had to start from zero and Newhouse prepared me well. There I focused on involving architecture in my courses and projects, and I worked with campus newspapers and as the communications intern with the School of Architecture while working as a teaching and administrative assistant and of course doing my classes, mandatory plus many extra ones that simply interested me like scriptwriting and history of American Television.
Utkarsha Laharia (her first interview as an architecture journalist) while Interviewing architect Oana Stânescu, at Syracuse University who was one of the jurors for the cafe design competition for the I.M. Pei designed Everson Museum.
When searching for internships and jobs, what are you looking for?
Looking for people with similar interests! Internships form a huge part of what you can do with your career if you want them to be. That one informational call or one email is enough to tell you much about the organization. From my personal experience in past internships, I was careful in picking the institutions and getting initial information on what I am getting myself into and if there are learning opportunities for me. Both my architecture internships were in alignment with my interest in earth architecture and were also sort of steppingstones to my career in architecture journalism. Sometimes, there is no other way than trial and error.
“Reach out to people and be observant of your surroundings, and you will always find answers.”
What’s important to you? What inspires you?
I absolutely love how architecture becomes your lifestyle as soon as you start with the B.Arch. The most important thing for me is to keep conversations and discussions around architecture alive and I think it’s tragic how we have failed to bring out and more of those conversations into everyday life and people. I look up to those who were able to achieve this. That’s one of the things I often miss from my architecture theory class at Syracuse University. It was conducted by Professor Mark Linder and every week he assigned us rich readings by Kenneth Frampton, Colin Rowe, Rem Koolhaas, Robert venturi, Denise Scott Brown, Peter Eisenman, John Hejduk, Walter Gropius, Adolf Loos, Louis Sullivan among many many others and discussions that followed those readings helped develop my critical thinking and such interactions keep inspiring me. I often use my multi-lingual personality - I am sure Julia, you would relate here - to gain different perspectives and involve and inform more people outside of architecture about architecture.
What do you hope to do in your career?
I hope to have an independent voice as an architecture critic and have my own publication mostly focusing on the built environment in India. And of course, to always always keep writing about architecture. I think it is so much needed now more than ever before.
In frame: Utkarsha Laharia with her alma mater, a modernist piece designed by I.M.Pei, portrait by Madeline Powell.
Who do you look up to? Both in terms of women in architecture, and in general.
This is a very difficult questions, I have a long list of names whose work and writings I always look up to, these are especially those who were able to achieve bringing meaningful architecture discussions into daily lives. Ada Louise Huxtable, Blair Kamin, Inga Saffron, Michael Sorkin, Alexandra Lange, Michael Kimmelman, Paul Goldberger, Allison Arieff, Mark Lamster among others. Madame Architect and you are on the list. I went to an all-girls architecture school, Dr. B.N. College of Architecture for Women, which is also awarded as Asia’s best architecture school. It is affiliated to Maharishi Karve Stree Shikshan Samstha, a prestigious institution established in 1896 only for women. I think starting on that foundation is where my strength comes from. I always associated with strong critics that are women, in architecture.
What advice would you give to those in high school now, choosing their field of study?
I would advise them to stay strong and be bold. It takes time to figure out what you truly want to do, and it is during that time that you cannot afford to lose your spirit. Reach out to people and be observant of your surroundings, and you will always find answers.