Rahul Mehrotra
Professor of Urban Design and Planning and the John T. Dunlop Professor in Housing and Urbanization at the Graduate School of Design at Harvard University
Rahul Mehrotra is a Professor of Urban Design and Planning and the John T. Dunlop Professor in Housing and Urbanization at the Graduate School of Design at Harvard University. He is the founding principal of RMA Architects, with studios in Mumbai and Boston. RMA Architects has designed projects for government and private institutions, as well as corporate workplaces, private homes, and unsolicited projects driven by the firm’s commitment to advocacy in the city of Mumbai. In 2018, RMA Architects was awarded the Venice Biennale juror’s Special Mention for “Three projects that address issues of Intimacy and empathy, gently diffusing social boundaries and hierarchies.” From 2012 to 2015, Mehrotra led a Harvard University-wide research project with Professor Diana Eck, called The Kumbh Mela: Mapping the Ephemeral Mega City, published as a book in 2014. The research was extended in 2017 in the form of another book titled Does Permanence Matter? Mehrotra also co-authored Taj Mahal : Multiple Narratives (2017). His most recent books are Working in Mumbai (2020)—reflecting his extensive practice there --and The Kinetic City ( 2021), which includes his writings about his thirty years of long-term engagement with and analysis of urbanism in India. This work has given rise to a new conceptualization of the city which Mehrotra calls the Kinetic City.