Routledge Excavate, Accrete, Stratify: An Ecology of Ideas

This book offers one of the first critical, research-oriented biographies of an architectural practice from the global South – the architecture of Nisha Mathew and Soumitro Ghosh commonly known as Mathew and Ghosh Architects – documenting over two and a half decades of work in post-liberalization India. Moving beyond the familiar narrative-descriptive mode of architectural biographies, it situates the practice within a broader intellectual world of ideas, unpacking reflections as a case study of the times. In dialogue with the modernist legacy and inflected by the critical regionalism of the global South, particularly that of India, the work demonstrates how architecture can engage with the nuanced complexities of contemporary India while conversing with international discourse. By tracing a trajectory that follows, but also departs from, the celebrated generation of Pritzker laureate B. V. Doshi, Achyut Kanvinde, Charles Correa, and Anant Raje, the book positions the practice as a distinctive voice in global architectural debates. Enhanced by 15 original drawing plates, including photographs, drawings, and sketches - the book bridges concept and craft, theory and practice. It stands both as a visual archive and an intellectual provocation, making it indispensable reading for researchers and students. While biographical, it is equally a critical analysis not usually available in books on architects from the global South.