Music & Cities

What a delight it was to have Naresh Narasimhan architect and urban designer, as a guest speaker to my class at Ahmedabad University. If any of my students had lingering doubts about the class “How Music Shapes Cities: Varanasi to NYC” he laid them to rest with his presentation making urban design and its interplay with a city’s culture accessible to us all.
Naresh’s presentation began with a tour of architectural monuments from across the world. From how a city is designed in sync with cultural sensibilities to the use of public spaces for music, he provided a fresh and interdisciplinary perspective to my students. The students responses ranged from “… how interesting it was to learn how to make a city more lively by adding stairs in public places or designing a pop-up-plaza,” to “It was astonishing to see how architecture can bring out the navarasas or emotions.”
Here is a TEDx talk by Naresh Narasimhan on what he calls ‘urban amnesia’. Enjoy!