Aneesha Dharwadker, AIA

Projects

Decolonizing Design

This project examines relationships between imperialism, colonialism, and today’s built environment, proposing ways to challenge the continuing power imbalance between places, people, and ideas. Topics include British resource extraction and the resulting capital flows and architectures produced; links between colonialism and climate change; and decolonizing teaching methods for architecture history and theory.

Opioids and the Built Environment

The American opioid epidemic has expanded to new geographies and populations in the past decade, affecting not only dense urban centers but also dispersed rural regions. The reasons for this are numerous and interlinked, ranging from under-funded rural hospitals to shrinking local economies, declining environmental quality, and expanding pharmaceutical and black-market drug networks. This project argues that design is a highly impactful (but currently under-explored) method for mitigating the effects of opioid abuse.

In Spring 2018, Professor Dharwadker taught a design studio in landscape architecture on this topic titled “Landscapes of Dependence.” The course culminated in the publication of a website, The Declaration of Dependence, which is both a manifesto and an archive of design research. This studio was also featured in Landscape Architecture Magazine. In 2019, Dharwadker received a grant from the University of Illinois Campus Research Board to explore relationships between Neonatal Abstinence Syndrome (infant opioid withdrawal) and the architecture of neonatal intensive care units in rural Illinois. In 2020, her design for a methadone clinic and therapy center in Venice, CA was selected for the jury shortlist in the Emotions, Architecture, Opioids international ideas competition.

Architecture, Literacy, and Incarceration

As we experience a new national election, criminal justice reform is a prominent topic in public discourse. This project serves as a reminder that beyond policy, the architecture of the prison system needs to be rethought. Rehabilitation can occur more successfully if the everyday spaces of corrections are reshaped to be more humane and accessible. Crossing the Skyline­, a speculative design proposal for downtown Chicago, links the Harold Washington Library and the Metropolitan Correctional Center with a library annex. This proposal establishes a blurred zone between the public and the imprisoned where the primary activity is reading. While it is not intended to be a literal construction, it deploys architecture critically to generate new questions about the role, location, and physical form of prisons. Must incarceration always equal isolation? Can we provide other kinds spaces—especially hybrid or shared ones—that challenge ingrained instincts, fears, and stigmas about imprisonment? What positive effects can new, connective architectures have on a deeply fractured system? Finally, how can increased literacy assist in rehabilitation and reduce recidivism?