Dilip da Cunha

Dilip da Cunha is an architect and planner. He teaches at the Graduate School of Design, Harvard University, and GSAPP, Columbia University. He is author with Anuradha Mathur of Mississippi Floods: Designing a Shifting Landscape (2001); Deccan Traverses: The Making of Bangalore’ Terrain (2006); Soak: Mumbai in an Estuary (2009) and co-editor of Design in the Terrain of Water (2014). His book, The Invention of Rivers: Alexander’ Eye and Ganga’ Descent, was published by University of Pennsylvania Press in 2019. It makes the case that the river far from being natural, is a product of design made possible by the drawn line separating land from water and a choice of a fairweather moment in the hydrologic cycle. He is currently working on a sequel and an exhibition with Mathur titled ‘The Ocean of Rain’. It presents rain as an alternative moment of design to river landscapes.

Photo Credit: Anuradha Mathur