Portfolio_Modi

SONAL MITHAL MODI
Ph.D. M.Arch. B.Arch.
PORTFOLIO OF PROFESSIONAL, RESEARCH, AND TEACHING INITIATIVES

embodied inquiry of landscape
research
developing a performance-based landscape inquiry.
santiniketan, india
workshop organized
liminal narratives: from context to text, broadway on
union square and madison square. new york city, ny
lefebvre’s rhythmanalysis: body a medium of landscape
inquiry. perkins road prairie wetlands park, urbana, il
inquiry. perkins road prairie wetlands park, urbana, il
dance in landscape. tapti river bed, mandvi, india
inquiry. meadowbrook park, urbana, il
interpretive strategies for heritage conservation
research
mapping festivals and venues of theater groups in an
around santiniketan, india
the indian temple: production, place and patronage
mapping festivals and venues of pilgrimage at braj,
india
publication
myths and legends of champaner-pavagadh
teaching
city as stage
of spaces and conception

promotion of heritage through community participation
professional work
amrit varshini, traditional water structures of gujarat,
india
cultural heritage and promotion of understanding in
punjab, india
teaching
cognitive mapping of child in city
preservation of architectural heritage
professional work
conservation of malik sandal ni vav. champaner-pavagadh,
india
conservation of atak fort and medhi talao. champaner-
pavagadh, india
conservation and adaptive-reuse of old makarpura palace.
baroda, india
inventory of the parsi heritage. navsari, india
management plan for champaner-pavagadh archaeological
park
champaner-pavagadh world heritage site nomination
dossier
base-map documentation of champaner-pavagadh
archaeological park
cultural resource information system—inventory of built
heritage of champaner-pavagadh archaeological park
design for lived experience of history
teaching
performing the urban palimpsest, midway plaisance, il
choreographing an urban palimpsest, hazratganj, india
professional work
baroda heritage walk
champaner-pavagadh visitor movement plan

acrylic paintings on canvas for landscape inquiry
growth and decay series: tree bark
erosion and sedimentation series: rocks
miscellaneous
exhibition design
the sarajevo winter olympics: after thirty years—a
photo and media retrospective
built heritage of champaner-pavagadh archaeological park
libguide design
rabindranath tagore research guide for iasl, uiuc
poster design
posters for brown bag events and conferences
timeline: hundred years of indian cinema
bookmarks featuring a compilation of selected book
covers representing various area studies
website designs
past. present. future: indian cinema at 100
published drawings
maps of jamshedpur, india
theater
lighting designs, stage-set, direction
undergraduate theses guidance

embodied method for landscape inquiry
embodied knowledge of landscape:
accommodating ongoing subjective
experience in the presentation of
heritage landscape
2015
Doctoral dissertation, Department of Landscape
Architecture, University of Illinois at Urbana-
Champaign
Digital link to dissertation
Premise
The corporeal body is the locus for this study,
which builds upon the prevailing phenomenological
stances towards the body. Those stances critique
the way Cartesian intellectualism has prioritized
the mind over the body, and they reposition the
body as an essential site of knowledge production.
Drawing upon philosopher Maurice Merleau-Ponty’s
notion that the lived body is the vehicle for
being-in-the-world, the research concentrates on
the corporeality of the body, which is a perpetual
condition of sensorial experience of the world by
being in it.
a workshop participant creating a painting using
clay collected from site
research

Site
Santiniketan, India. University Town. Established
by Rabindranath Tagore for promotion of Performing
and Visual Arts. India’s 2010 nomination to
UNESCO’s World Heritage List, currently under
consideration for designation.
Rabindranath Tagore
Poet, philosopher, painter, musician.
Research Question
How can a progressive understanding of landscape,
based on new thinking about embodied knowledge,
contribute to the theory and practice of heritage
landscape?

Dissertation approach
Embodied knowledge is the primary source of
information
Research is a performance of present-ing the
heritage site to:
offer a lived approach versus the dominant
preservationist approach
situate the idea of truth in reference to
authenticity
actively archive the site through corporeal
witnessing in the first person and in present
moment
Outcomes of the performative research method
Heritage constituted because of the embodied
knowledge of landscape is a function of:
Archivability—witnessing by corporeal body in the
present moment
Authenticity—consequence of what and how the body
encounters
History—consequence of encounter in the present
Insider-outsider duality—distance between the two
is erased
pen and ink by tagore
research

Performative research method I
Archival research at Santiniketan
Tagore’s letters highlighting his educational
ideals
Early photographs of the campus
Description of the site by Arthur Geddes who
designed the campus layout
Paintings/Poems by Tagore revealing his
connectedness with the landscape
Paintings/Memoirs/Poems by teachers, visitors
and students
Empirical mapping
Ethnographic interviews
examples of empirical mapping

Performative research method II
Practice-based method—body as a mode of landscape
inquiry
Corporeal Body is a site of embodied knowledge
Embodied knowledge can be shared using a video
camera
Rhythmanalysis
Movement workshops with students of fine arts and
performing arts at Santiniketan
stills from the video
research

embodied landscape workshop: representing the non-
representational modes of landscape inquiry.
2013
Participants
MFA (Dance, Fine Arts) students at Santiniketan,
India
A video camera followed the dancers’ movements in
a semi-choreographed work, with the dancers
emulating landscape elements in stylized gestures.
From the resulting footage, I created a short film
Tracings… to demonstrate embodied knowledge.
The video captures the process of a body gaining
knowledge of the landscape, by being-in-landscape,
by moving through landscape, and using bodily
senses. This method further acknowledges the
corporeal body as a site upon which personal
experience becomes deposited as embodied knowledge.
Digital link to the video

embodied landscape workshop: representing the non-
representational modes of landscape inquiry.
2013
Participants
MFA (Dance, Fine Arts) students at Santiniketan,
India
In this workshop, the participants from the
previous workshop were invited to view the edited
footage of the previous workshop and create
improvisational pieces with that viewing in mind.
The video installation was done at the site of the
performance itself, while a camera documented the
process.
To externalize their embodied experience, the
participants remembered and documented the process
of their corporeal engagement using drawn lines in
colors of their own preference.
The intensity and length of the lines indicated the
intensity and duration of engagement. Awareness of
dust, heat, wind, clay, sounds, smells, textures,
topography, erosion, ruination, renewal was
recorded by drawing colored lines on paper.
.
research

Rhythmanalysis
A method developed by sociologist Henri Lefebvre in
his 2004 book, Rhythmanalysis: Space, Time and
Everyday life.
The rhythmanalyst uses his or her own bodily
rhythms as a reference through which to experience
and evaluate landscape as a system of rhythms.
Method involved engaging dancers with the landscape
of Santiniketan, generating non-stylized movements
as they respond to available sounds, textures,
wind, and humidity, which I registered using a
video camera.

liminal narratives: from context to
text. broadway on union square and
madison square, new york city, new
york.
2014
Funded
iLAB Residency Program of iLand, New York
Participants
Performance artists from UIUC and New York, Dance
scholars (UIUC), Landscape scholars (UIUC)
15
exploration of the urban liminal
workshop organized

Tasks
Embodied exploration and representation of liminal
spaces in an urban context
The purpose of this laboratory was to initiate a
sensory dialogue between the human body and the
built environment and encourage a perception-in-
movement. Keeping the architecture of edges, i.e.
the built language which exists at the interface of
the inside and outside as the main focus, the
laboratory drew upon Lefebvre’s rhythmanalysis to
participate in and observe human behavior on a
street. The laboratory highlighted conditions for
territoriality, memory, associations, and landmarks
in terms of personal and public realms.
Explorations discovered whether visual
proportioning and placement of built forms
encourage our perception in motion. Exploration
also discovered what conditions of built forms
encourage pauses, helping the participants reorient
and reaffirm their bearings in space.
representation of the urban liminal

lefebvre’s rhythmanalysis: body a
medium of landscape inquiry. perkins
road wet prairie park, urbana,
illinois.
2014
Participants
MFA (Dance) students, UIUC
In this workshop, the experiences from all previous
workshops were consolidated. The activities
included strapping a video camera to the body, as
the body engages in a mobile perception of the
landscape.
Material exploration, find a landmark. Memorize it.
What are your tools. Can you describe that landmark
and see if another person can take you there. This
was intended to know how does one share embodied
knowledge.
participants’ representation of embodied engagement
workshop organized

participants’ representation of embodied engagement

medium of landscape inquiry. perkins
road wet prairie park, urbana,
illinois.
2013
Participants
In this workshop, the experiences from all previous
workshops were consolidated. The activities
included strapping a video camera to the body, as
the body engages in a mobile perception of the
landscape. The footage from the video was later
compared to the participants’ conscious bodily
engagement with the landscape.
All the participants then recorded their
experiences in terms of arrival, familiarity,
haunt, inhabit, occupy, orientate, proximity, shape
and thisness. This was to extract the material
knowledge of the landscape derived from personal
embodied engagement of each participant.
workshop organized

participants’ representation of embodied
engagement

dance in landscape. tapti river bed,
mandvi, india.
2012
Participants
Professional dancers, Surat, India
A video camera followed the dancers’ movements in
a semi-choreographed work, with the dancers
emulating landscape elements such as horizon,
topography, and sounds in non-stylized gestures.
workshop organized

medium of landscape inquiry.
meadowbrook park, urbana, illinois.
2011
Participants
This workshop involved engaging dancers with the
landscape, generating non-stylized movements as
they respond to available sounds, textures, wind,
and humidity, which I registered using a video
camera. Subsequently the video footage was edited
to become a sharable video of varying lengths—one
minute long, three minutes long, and five minutes
long.
My research treated the process of editing the
video footage as a performative process that
located patterns and frequency of repetition in the
dancers’ movements and gestures. The editing
window on the computer screen is comparable to a
visual rhythm, which affected the way in which the
clips were chosen or trimmed to tell a rhythmic
story.
23
workshop organized

participant feedback of embodied exploration
graphical representation of embodied knowledge

mapping festivals and venues of
traveling theater groups in and around
santiniketan, india
2013
Doctoral dissertation, Department of Landscape
Champaign
The drawing was produced to map the location and
duration of fairs held in the vicinity of
Santiniketan. The drawing contains information
about the location of Santal villages; youth camps;
and artisans such as potters, lac workers, and
cobblers.It also contains information about the
number of people visiting each venue, the time of
the year the event is held, and the number of days
it lasts.
The maps shows the interconnections between the
university and the local community, and the
fluidity of the boundaries of the campus.
The maps serve to make explicit the futility of
creating rigid administrative boundaries to define
heritage landscape.
research

examples of analysis of construction details
the indian temple: production place
and patronage
2008-2009
Field research assistant, Book by Dr. Adam Hardy,
Welsh School of Architecture, Cardiff University
for Arts and Humanities Research Council
Measurement and analysis of 12th century stone
temples of Gujarat. The measurements had to trace
the various complex construction elements of a
temple roof—especially, the shekhari temples. The
horizontal tiers of the temple facade had to be
detailed out to the exact inches to verify any
presence of a geometric pattern being formed in the
construction of the shikhars (pyramidal roofs).
Official page
research

mapping festivals and venues of
pilgrimage at braj, india
2009
Studio Project: Cultural Landscape of Govardhan in
Braj, India: Imagined, Enacted and Reclaimed
Doctoral candidate, Department of Landscape
Champaign
mapping festivals on a lunar calendar: brightest are full moon days, darkest are the new moon days
map showing sites of embodied engagement
research

For interpretive intervention:
Mapping resources
Mapping experiences and attitudes
Mapping ownership and agendas
Mapping patterns of intangible relationship between
individual and space
Mapping recurrence of time with space
Map showing alignment of ritual sites with water features
map showing ritual sites and associated myths
map showing topographical features suggesting occurrence of water, and hence ritual stes
research

myths and legends of champaner-
pavagadh
2008
Author
Published by Transpek-Silox and Heritage Trust,
Baroda
This book is a collection of oral stories,
historical anecdotes, narratives from devotional
songs and traditional theatrical performances. The
collection weaves together a story about a place,
Champaner-Pavagadh, as it would appear to a visitor
who is traversing the ruins of the site. The
primary source of information for this book has
been songs sung during the festival of Navratri;
songs for the traditional dance-form, garba;
folklores; historical plays; stone inscriptions and
coins; fifteenth century historical texts; and the
site itself.
Each story is accompanied by a painting. Jaidev
Thakur created those paintings, after a close
reading of stories. The paintings all have at least
one architectural structure as a background,
forming the context for the story to unfold.
text and paintings from the book
publication

Almost all stories selected for this book are
associated with some architectural structure on the
site, however ruinous its condition might be.

models of students' works
city as a stage
2004, 2005, 2006
Assistant Professor, SCET, Surat, India
Undergraduate architecture students, semester 08
Research questions
How do people of different cultural groups operate
within a city? What does belongingness to a city
mean in that context? Are there specific parts of a
city that are familiar/comfortable to a certain
cultural group? Is that desirable from a designer
point of view?
Tasks
Extract a comprehensive portrayal of a city or town
as featured in chosen novel or a movie. The novel
or movie must feature the morphological components
of a city as a background for the narrative to
unfold.
Establish the implication of time and people on the
city fabric. Review the process of using the urban
context as a means of story development, thus
making explicit the role of cities in day-to-day
activities of its dwellers.
Review it based on the author/director’s
perspective as well as from the
characters’perspective.
Represent the analysis using multimedia techniques,
that closely represent the theme emerging from
analysis. Suggested forms of representation:
abstract diagram, 3-d model, collages, and video or
audiography.
teaching

Drawings by students
of spaces and conception
2006
Premise
To facilitate sensitivity for other-than-visual
sensory faculties to make sensorial experience an
inherent component of design process. By making
students consciously disembody their visual
faculty, the exercise aims at making students aware
that vision has the power to control their design
sensibilities towards form-making rather than
place-making.
Tasks
Design a space based on this narrative written by
the professor. This narrative is imagined to be an
extract from a conversation going on between five
visually challenged people who are meeting at the
end of the day for a chat. They are discussing
their day with their friends and in that describe
the places they have been to. [5 such narratives
were provided]:
“… smell of expensive tobacco was filling the
atmosphere. Obviously the space was overflowing
with several small groups of people whose faint
voices I could hear, occasioned by ringing peals of
their laughter. The sounds were faint in one
corner; they were loud in the other one. In such a
cacophony of sounds, the only solace came from the
random call of a sparrow, coinciding with the
falling leaves and an uninterrupted murmur of
trickling waters …
Students are to visualize those places. They could
be five different places or they could be one place
with all those qualities.
A tool-kit with sizes and shapes of planes were
provided to the students to work with.
teaching

exhibition design “amrit
varshini”and workshop “jala kosha
raksha: children in conservation”
2002
Director, People for Heritage Concern
Participants
Middle school children, Baroda, India
Client
Heritage Trust Baroda, South-asia World Bank Water
and Sanitation Program
This workshop involved engaging activists, social
workers, artists, and architects with school
children to help inculcate an understanding for
vavs or step-wells which are traditional water-
structures. The workshop was conducted for
appreciation of water conservation. Students
created drawings, clay and styrofoam models of
water structures.
Exhibition panels were a photographic and
architectural documentation study of step-wells of
Gujarat.
1
exhibit
clay model by school children
exhibition design

models amd drawings by school children
school children at a stepwellexhibition

cultural heritage and promotion of
understanding in punjab, india
1999-2000
United Nations Volunteer, UNDP-UNV-UNESCO for the
Culture of Peace Program
Organizer
Cultural Resource Conservation Initiative, Delhi,
India
Architectural Conservation of Kishan temple at
Kishankot
Conservation combined technical aspects of repair,
and mobilizing a social process of continuity in
values. Social habits and practices that could be
injurious to the building were understood and ways
in which their relationship to the building could
be enriched were determined. The process of repair
and renovation shared with the local people during
long community meetings held at various locations
in the village. The project brought about a
blending the professionals’ expertise with the
craftsmanship and the experience of the people;
thus developing a work culture that facilitated
mutual learning.
community living in clay houses
kishan temple
professional work

child and space—a behavioral study
2006
Research questions
How does a child adapt herself to the given
environment and learn to explore for comfortable
territories. How does a child learn to create her
own spaces while navigating the given environment?
What are the qualities of spaces that are
sympathetic to a child’s needs?
Tasks
To identify a child’s actual use of a space, its
relation with her image of that space. Two rural
and two urban residential neighborhoods were
chosen. Students formed four groups of ten, each
student interacted with at least 6 children, (equal
number of male and female respondents and 13-15
years of age).
Children drew mental maps, and narrated stories of
their day-to-day engagement of their neighborhood
and beyond. Use of video, sound recordings, model
making with children were used to encourage
interaction..
The spatial qualities of a child’s navigational
routes and territories were documented using the
emerging themes: spaces of engagement and boredom,
known and unknown spaces, hidden spaces, dangerous
spaces, beautiful and ugly spaces, holy spaces,
etc. were documented.
collage: spaces of engagement and boredom
models made during interaction with children
teaching

conservation of malik sandal ni vav,
step well. champaner-pavagadh, india
2008
Client
Heritage Trust Baroda, United Way International
Conservation action plan
Long term management policy
Restoration, strengthening and consolidation of the
structure using skilled craftsmen
Chemical treatment for water proofing
Lime plastering as required
Landscape design for increasing accessibility of
the vav to the visitors
Design and execution of signage
Preparation and execution of electrification
layouts
Periodic inspection programs
Proposed use
Develop an interpretive facility to facilitate
learning, among visitors and school children from
nearby places, about the Sultanate era water system
.
professional work
site during conservation process

inventory of parsi heritage. navsari,
india
2006
Client
World Zoroastrian Organization, INTACH
Documents Parsi houses and public institutions
having Parsi patronage such as schools, libraries,
sanatoria, orphanage, community halls, club houses
of Navsari.
Inventory has two components—buildings and
precincts/streets.
A map accompanies the inventory, on which
institutional buildings, and streets/precincts with
individual houses are located.
professional work
sample inventory page

conservation and adapative re-use of
old makarpura palace. baroda, india
2007
Client
Heritage Trust Baroda, Indian Air Force
The project has entailed cleaning, structural
strengthening and redesigning of the interior space
of the art deco indo-sarasenic structure. The
palace has now been converted to an office space
for the Indian Air Force.

management plan for champaner-pavagadh
archaeological park
2003
Client
Heritage Trust Baroda, Archaeological Survey of
India for UNESCO-World Heritage Committee
The management plan prepared after careful
collaboration with all seventeen stake-holders such
as Forest Department, temple trusts, Waqf
Board,village panchayat, Archaeological Survey of
India, small-scale industries. Using a satellite
image super-imposed with the survey of significant
architectural and arcaheological sites, a map was
prepared dilenating the core and buffer zones; so
as to quantify the area to be protected as part of
the World Heritage site.
The Heritage Core Zone covers the entire
archaeological area along with the living
settlement and living temples. Also included are
trade routes (cultural corridors), street networks,
pilgrim paths and garrison squares. The Buffer Zone
includes the geological phenomenon of Pavagadh Hill
and the forests. The Buffer Zone lies beyond the
boundary of the Heritage Zone. This zone allows
controlled land-use development.
Management objectives
Developing partnership and consensus among
stakeholders
Establish effective linkages between all committees
Framing guidelines for new development.
Management which is accountable and transparent
Management components
Information management
Cultural resource management
Visitor/Pilgrim management
Site management.
professional work

champaner-pavagadh world heritage site
nomination dossier
2001
Client
Criteria under which inscription was sought:
Masterpiece of human-created genius of a person of
a region: Mahmud Begarha, who founded several
cities in the 15th century A.D.
Interchange of human values over span of time,
developments in architecture or technology, town-
planning or landscape design.
Unique testimony to cultural tradition or
civilization, living or disappeared.
Outstanding example of a type of building or
architectural ensemble or landscape, significant
stage in human history.
Outstanding example of a traditional human
settlement, land uses representative of a culture,
high degree of survival.
Online link to the document
professional work

base-map documentation of champaner-
pavagadh archaeological park
2001
Client
Heritage Trust Baroda, World Monuments Fund
Mapping the buried city of Champaner and the
settlements on Pavagadh Hill using Dr. R. N.
Mehta’s pioneering archeological data as reference
material.
This became the first comprehensive map of
Champaner-Pavagadh and an indispensable asset for
all the subsequent projects related to the site,
which spread over an area of 16 square kilometers.
satellite image used for mapping
professional work
base-map

cultural resource information system—
inventory of built heritage of
champaner-pavagadh archaeological park
2001
Client
The inventory is a part of the Integrated
Conservation Plan of Champaner-Pavagadh to help
frame future policies for the conservation action
plan.
The inventory documents 114 structures
w.r.t.surrounding landscape, topography, activity,
plan, photographs, protection status, historical or
mythological associations, description of
architectural features, condition, and
architectural modifications.
They are classified based on identification types
such as archaeological excavation, archaeological
site, architectural fragments and ruins, structures
above ground, structures below ground, water
bodies.
professional work
sample inventory pages

Each building type belongs to typologies
distinguishable by its original function i.e.,
military structures, residential structures, civic
structures, religious structures, water structures,
residential precincts, and commercial precincts.
Each section commences with the map showing
location of all the structures representing that
typology. The first three digits of the building
number represented the typology and the following
digits represented the identification number. The
structures that lie on the top of Pavagadh Hill
were numbered first and as one descended the
numbers kept increasing.E.g., DRZ01 represented the
structure of typology Darwaza and lay at the
topmost part of the city.
Site work is supported by archival research of
history and literature.
sample inventory pages

performing the urban palimpsest --
movement-based landscape inquiry and
design of the midway plaisance
Spring 2015
Instructor, Department of Landscape Architecture,
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
Juniors, seniors, graduates
Premise
This studio workshop treats landscape as an agency
to engage designers in a firsthand experience of
the site, so that they know the site by being in
the site and engaging with it in an immersive way
– perception without distance. In that engagement,
designers become part of the performative
landscape. The workshop is concerned with landscape
as both the venue and the act of performance,
treating the two as inseparable in the design
process. The workshop is further concerned with
making present a historic site, thus bringing
discourse of heritage landscapes into contemporary
domain.
UNIVERSITY OF CHICAGO
JACKSON PARK
MIDWAY PLAISANCEWASHINGTON PARK
map of chicago showing location of midway plaisance
teaching

Palimpsest Boards: First Phase
The first phase focused on representing the site as
a palimpsest board showing the various layers of
historical events – some evident today, many
others erased. For this phase, students worked in
teams of two students each. Each team researched
the archives and online resources for historical
maps, texts, and images related to the site of
Midway Plaisance, with special focus on one chosen
theme. Themes explored were Gaze, Movement, People
on the Midway, Residue and Vacancy at the Midway,
Midway as a Container and a Perimeter.
examples of palimpsest boards created by students

Palimpsest Trail: Second Phase
For the second phase, students chose a palimpsest
board they had not designed and then created a
sequence of walks and lingering spots on the
palimpsest, engaging with the events noted on the
board. The palimpsest board was assumed to be a
museum site through which the designer is moving.
They also wrote a narrative describing what in the
palimpsest they encounter along the walk.
After the designing of trails they made their site
visit. During that visit, they walked those
designed trails and recalled the historical
significance of the site. They also mapped present-
day activity patterns.
teaching

example of palimpsest trail created by students

Landscape Score: Third Phase
For the third phase, students created design
of Landscape score—design for experiential walking
through the site. This is meant for an everyday
experience on the actual site. The trail goes
through some historical landmarks, one personal
landmark. At places this score also goes through
parts of their palimpsest trail they had previously
designed. This is to acknowledge and experience
what is already there on site, and to experience
what is obliterated. The client is one University of
Chicago student.
The score engages the individual in a sensorial
manner with the present day landscape elements as
well as historical events. Scores introduce
possibilities for bodily participation and
heightened sensory awareness. Questions students
are engaging with include: how can history be
juxtaposed with the present day, how is history
experienced.
examples of landscape score designed by students
teaching

Understanding Movement as a Design Generator:
Fourth Phase
Subsequently, the studio collaborated with Movement
Director/Choreographer Struan Leslie, George A.
Miller Visiting Artist at UIUC. The focus of this
collaboration was to develop a design vocabulary
based on meticulous investigation of walking in
cities. The students oscillated between the roles
of being a designer and that of being a user so as
to develop a method of design by empathy and
explored themes of strolling, meandering, parade,
and lingering to engage with the palimpsest
Workshop in progress, student choreographing a movement and
others helping create a space to facilitate that using props
available at hand, such as chairs
teaching

Design to facilitate an Experience of Palimpsest
through Movement: Final Phase
The final phase was a synthesis of previous phases
focusing on the studio process, how that process
shaped the students' understanding of Palimpsest,
Experience and Movement, and how those
understandings contributed to the conceptualizing
of their landscape designs.
examples of landscape designs by students

choreographing an urban palimpsest –
hazratganj, lucknow
Winter 2015
Instructor, Faculty of Architecture, Center for
Environmental Planning and Technology University,
Ahmedabad, India
Juniors, seniors, graduates, young professionals
Premise
Acknowledgment of urban heritage precincts as
“phenomenon" is a design opportunity to
accommodate and make present subjective experiences
of users of that precinct. This stance serves two
purposes. Firstly, it makes a heritage precinct
relevant and part of present day-to-day functioning
of a city. Secondly, it makes a case for the role
of designer to be of equal importance in discourses
related to conservation of architectural heritage,
which until now have often been practiced as
management projects.
introductory poster for the course showing palimpsest, culture of
lucknow, and design based on motation
teaching

Key Concept I: Palimpsest
Objective
Through archival and on-site study,
develop an understanding of an urban
historic precinct as a palimpsest of
layered history.
Tasks
Create an Acrylic Painting to
representing the physical qualities of
a palimpsest.
Two-fold palimpsestic mapping of
Hazratganj—based on history and based
on present-day sensorial experiences.
Key Concept II: Flâneur
Objective
Through on-site observation, develop an
understanding of movement in historic
precinct as a set of rhythms and
sensorial experiences.
Tasks
Observe and represent rhythms of
walking—stroll, lounge, saunter,
wander.
Key Concept III: Choreographic Design
Objective
Choreograph [design physical spaces in
conjunction with rhythmic movements of
body] a trail that offers to its users
a heightened sensorial experience of
the urban precinct.
Tasks
Observe, document, and devise movement
patterns on site using Halprin’s
Motation technique for a Flâneur at a
palimpsestic site.

baroda heritage walk
2005
Director, People For Heritage Concern
Client
Baroda Municipal Corporation and United Way of
Baroda
Four thematic walks were designed, each an hour and
half long.Each walk took the visitors through
various building typologies.
A survey was conducted prior to designing the
walks, which revealed the following building
typologies:
Residential—Khancha (cluster of houses), Khadki
(cul-de-sac), Pol (row of houses), Sheri (colony)
Religious—Mandir (temple), Masjid (mosque)
Public Buildings—school, library
Specialized markets—bangles only, earthern toys
only, construction material only, fabric only
Military structures—fortification walls, gates.
Each walk covered one gate which gave the
particular walk its name. The walks were envisaged
as a loop which commenced and culminated at places
where public parking was available—Nazar Bagh
Gate, Gendi Gate and Bhadra gate.
professional work

1890 photo of mandvi, baroda
source: www.ebaroda.com
map of heritage walk

champaner-pavagadh visitor movement
plan
2003
Director, People For Heritage Concern
Client
Heritage Trust Baroda and Archaeological Survey of
India
Eight thematic walks were designed. These walks
were part of the Champaner-Pavagadh Archaeological
Park Integrated Conservation Plan, prepared for
management of the World Heritage Site.Each walk
took the visitors through various building
typologies.
Jahapanah Walk (Halol Darwaza to Jama Masjid)
hissar-i-khas Walk (Shaheri Masjid to Godhra
Darwaza)
Ek Minar Walk (Gaben Shah Vav to Ek Minar Ki
Masjid)
Atak Walk (Halol Darwaza to Machi Haveli)
Machi Walk (Machi Haveli to Sat Kaman)
Bhadrakali Walk (Machi Haveli to Makai Kothar)
Mauliya Walk (Lakulisha Mandir to Naulakha Kothar)
Kalikamata Walk (Machi Haveli to Kalikamata Mandir)
map of heritage walk
professional work

Eight thematic walks were designed. These walks
were part of the Champaner-Pavagadh Archaeological
Park Integrated Conservation Plan, prepared for
management of the World Heritage Site.Each walk
took the visitors through various building
typologies.
Jahapanah Walk (Halol Darwaza to Jama Masjid)
hissar-i-khas Walk (Shaheri Masjid to Godhra
Darwaza)
Ek Minar Walk (Gaben Shah Vav to Ek Minar Ki
Masjid)
Atak Walk (Halol Darwaza to Machi Haveli)
Machi Walk (Machi Haveli to Sat Kaman)
Bhadrakali Walk (Machi Haveli to Makai Kothar)
Mauliya Walk (Lakulisha Mandir to Naulakha Kothar)
Kalikamata Walk (Machi Haveli to Kalikamata Mandir)
brochure for heritage walk

acrylic paintings on canvas for landscape inquiry
Through close study of natural elements of
landscape, I devise patterns and methods to
representing their elemental qualities. Using
techniques of layering, and erasures; the elemental
qualities of growth, decay, renewal, and recovery
are represented as textures.
More paintings here
growth and decay series: tree bark

erosion and sedimentation series: rocks

the sarajevo winter olympics: after
thirty years—a photo and media
retrospective
2014
Student hourly, International and Area Studies
Library), University of Illinois at Urbana-
Champaign
Venue
Main Library, University of Illinois at Urbana-
Champaign
To celebrate the Winter Olympic Games, the
International and Area Studies Library has
partnered with Bosnian-American sports
photographer, Ivica (John) Jurisic, to exhibit
photography and highlight media advertising
coverage of the Games from across the globe.
The materials featured in this exhibit come from
the personal collection of Ivica (John) Jurisic,
the University Archives’Avery Brundage and Olympic
Collections, the History, Philosophy, and Newspaper
Library, and the International and Area Studies
Library.
exhibition design
miscellaneous

built heritage of champaner-pavagadh
archaeological park
2001
Client
World Monuments Fund
Venue
Kala Ghoda Art Festival, Mumbai, India
exhibition design
sample exhibition panels

rabindranath tagore research guide
2014
Champaign
Website link
miscellaneous
libguide design
home page screenshot

posters for brown bag events and
conferences
2015
Intern, Center for South Asian and Middle Eastern
Studies (CSAMES), University of Illinois at Urbana-
Champaign
poster design
sample poster

timeline: hundred years of indian
cinema
2013
Library, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
miscellaneous
poster design
a-0 size poster

bookmarks featuring a compilation of
selected book covers representing
various area studies
2013
Library, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
bookmark design
miscellaneous

past. present. future: indian cinema
at 100
2013
Champaign
Website link
website design
home page screenshot

miscellaneous
published drawings
2011
Sinha, Amita and Singh, Jatinder. Jamshedpur:
Planning an Ideal Steel City in India.” In
Architecture+Design. xxviii: 1. pp. 106-117.
Champaign

.
published drawings
2011
Sinha, Amita and Singh, Jatinder. “Jamshedpur:
Planning an Ideal Steel City in India.” In Journal
of Planning History.10:4. pp. 263-281.
Champaign

.
theater
lighting design, stage-set design,
direction
2008-2014
In-house designer, Mithya Theater Company,
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
set design, lighting design,
30 days in september
armory free theater
2011
set design, direction
red oleander
channing murray foundation
2012
miscellaneous

teaching
undergraduate design theses guidance
2001-2008
2001
Sushma Shetty, Centre for Sustainable Development
at Bedvan, Gujarat
2002
Yatin Acharya, Urban Redevelopment at Machi
Plateau, Champaner-Pavagadh, Gujarat
Leena Dhakate, Training Centre for Rural
Technology, Baroda, Gujarat
Nimisha Godhani, Community Centre for Kadva Patel
at Sidsar, Gujarat
Rupali Nayak, Institute for Visually Impaired and
Blind, Ahmedabad
2004
Manjari Narayan, Royal Embassy of Saudi Arabia, New
Delhi
Sandeep Paul, Revival of Sabarmati Riverfront,
Ahmedabad, Gujarat
2005
Hemali Kapadia, Centre for Water Interpretation,
Champaner-Pavagadh, Gujarat
Niraj Naik, Community Housing at Dang, Gujarat
Urvi Sheth, Umaid Housing at the foothill of Umaid
Palace, Jodhpur, Rajasthan
2006
Chaitali Babar, Venue for International Film
Festival of India, Panjim, Goa
Juhi Mehta, Revitalization of Jaleb Chowk, Jaipur,
Rajasthan
Arnika Shroff, Gujarat Habitat and Environment
Centre, Ahmedabad, Gujarat
2008
Anand Jariwala, Transformation Center—a
scientific-spiritual center, Surat, Gujarat
Rujul Joshi, Childhood Center—a comprehensive
model for primary school, Ahmedabad, Gujarat
Nidhi Khosla, Redevelopment of City Core, Margao,
Goa
Kanku Trivedi, Revitalization of cotton mills for
urban social use, Ahmedabad, Gujarat

sonalmithal@gmail.com
+217 418 9368
https://sonalmithal.wordpress.com/
https://embodiedlandscapes.wordpress.com/

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