RITUALS OF CLAY

Along the Hooghly River in Kolkata, Kumartuli is a dense neighborhood of idol makers where streets, homes, workshops, and river ghats continuously adapt to the seasonal rhythms of cultural production. Drawing on the idea of the kinetic city articulated by Rahul Mehrotra, this thesis understands informality as an intelligent spatial system shaped by time, labor, and collective practice. The challenges faced by Kumartuli arise not from these informal arrangements, but from the lack of infrastructural support that allows them to function safely and sustainably.

Rejecting redevelopment and displacement-based models, the project proposes a repair-driven approach that learns from how residents and workers already organize space, materials, movement, and seasonal transformation. Through site visits and conversations with artisans, laborers,
and local communities, everyday practices are translated into architectural and infrastructural interventions at the scale of streets, lanes, and building edges. By strengthening existing systems rather than replacing them, the thesis frames cultural production as a form of urban infrastructure and positions repair as a means to sustain both informality and resilience in Kumartuli.