SKLT College of Arcitecture

City Elsewhere: Pali Chowk

Pali Chowk is a coastal village in Uttan, connected to Vasai Creek and shaped almost entirely by its relationship with the sea. The fishing community here is predominantly Catholic, and the churches, St. Andrew’s, Our Lady of Lourdes, Our Lady of the Sea, all face the water. Religion and maritime life are not separate things in Pali Chowk; they run on the same calendar.

The fish drying hill is where Bombil, Jhinga, and Pomfret are processed after the catch, labour intensive process of washing, salt-curing, and sun-drying. Walk along the road edges and you’ll find fish hanging on fences, women cleaning and preparing the catch, shrimps laid out to dry.

Narali Purnima marks the end of the monsoon fishing moratorium on August 1st. The Chimaji Appa Garden on the creek’s edge has a viewing deck where you can watch the boats and trace the Vasai Creek skyline across the water.

Best visited at 7 AM, when the catch comes in.

Photographs by: Tejal ()
Text by: Shruti ()

City Elsewhere: Chene | SKLTCOA

Chene sits on a low hill just off Ghodbunder Road, hidden behind a strip of highway hotels and restaurants. A steep slope and unpaved roads get you in. Houses line the bylanes, windows open into the streets, and cats rest on the steps in the sun.

The village has densified quickly, during the 2000s you could count the houses on your fingers. Migration brought people from nearby Maharashtrian villages and from Bihar and Chhattisgarh. Houses filled in the in-betweens. The cultural mix is visible in everyday things.

Across the Chene Creek, large industrial units sit between the hill and the forest. The adivasi community has lived in that forest for generations, their homes spread far apart within it.

The forest, meanwhile, has doubled as a film set for decades. Sholay, CID, Crime Patrol — a resident lists them casually.

Photographs by: Tejal ()
Text by: Shruti ()

City Elsewhere: Kashigaon | SKLTCOA

Kashigaon sits along Ghodbunder Road, at the very edge of Sanjay Gandhi National Park. It holds onto the character of an older village; clustered housing, small factories and workshops operating out of residential lanes — while the city steadily builds up around it.

What makes Kashigaon distinct is this overlap: housing and industry don’t compete here, they function together. Residents live alongside small-scale production units, street-side workshops, and local markets. The settlement reflects patterns shaped by agriculture and gradual urban influence over time — and the forest edge is never far from view.

Once you reach the Sayyed Gauhar Shah Baba Dargah, you come across an Adivasi settlement, a community that has long occupied the forested hillside, some families still continuing agricultural practices on remaining land parcels.

City Elsewhere: Ghodbunder

One of the oldest settlements in Mira Bhayandar, Ghodbunder sits along the Vasai Creek. The 18th century Portuguese fort built here was a strategic outpost to monitor trade along the creek. Today it offers panoramic views of the village, the saltpans and the Mira-Bhayandar skyline.

Beyond the fort, the settlement tells a different story; unpaved roads, homes built close to road edges, a neighbourhood mosque, local mandirs, and large industrial trucks passing through regularly. Agriculture, small-scale industry, and everyday village life sit alongside each other on the same streets.

Ghodbunder is a place where you have to look slowly to understand how much is happening at once.

Introducing our Research and Development Cell interns at SKLTCOA; Shruti Kongre, Tejal Kawachi, and Mustafa Shah who have worked on ‘City Elsewhere’ a documentation project that studied 18 villages in Mira- Bhayandar.

Using ethnographic field research, photography, and spatial observations, the team tried to build a layered understanding of the transformations in the rural and urban landscape of Mira Bhayandar - cutting across a range of geographies from coastal villages, wetlands, saltpans, former agrarian villages to settlements along the forest edge.

This work traces how urban expansion and infrastructure development alter people relationship with land, and how residents continue to adapt to an ever-changing city.

Pause in the City - Nature Integrated Holistic Wellness Centre for Urban Decompression | B.Arch Final Year Thesis

Site - Kalote Mokashi, Karjat

A wellness-focused architectural proposal designed to create a pause from the fast-paced urban lifestyle through nature, mindfulness, and healing spaces. Inspired by the concept of a cocoon, the design transitions from active public areas to calm restorative zones, creating a peaceful and therapeutic environment integrated with the lake landscape.

Project by: Aachal Metha ()
Guide: Vasudev Nayak ()




[NatureIntegratedDesign SKLTCOA Rahul Education]

Presenting the jurors for our Semester 6 Jury — practitioners, educators, and thinkers who bring diverse perspectives to the table as our students present months of rigorous design exploration, critical inquiry, and architectural imagination.

• Swapnil Adsul — Studio Arcline Architect
• Dhruv Karmokar — Architect & Designer
• Subin Selva — Visiting Faculty, IES COA
• Manalee Nanavati — Assistant Professor, CEPT Ahmedabad

Presenting the jury panel for Sem 04 – Architectural Design Studio at Smt. K. L. Tiwari College of Architecture:

• Sreejith Kini — Practicing Architect, @ Out n Out Studio
• Yash Dhanawade — Practicing Architect

Honoured to host a distinguished panel of jurors for Sem 06 – Architectural Representation and Detailing at Smt. K. L. Tiwari College of Architecture:

• Vishal Mehta — Practicing Architect, Prestige Group
• Dhanashree Kanade — Assistant Professor, Dr. Baliram Hiray College of Architecture, Mumbai
• Pallavi Dalal — Assistant Professor, Dr. Baliram Hiray College of Architecture, Mumbai
• Amol Bapat — HOD, Shah & Anchor Kutchhi Engineering College

Mentors more than Jurors....illustrious panel of jurors

Jury panel for Sem 10 – Design Dissertation and Architectural Representation & Detailing at Smt. K. L. Tiwari College of Architecture:

• Ginella George — Assistant Professor, KRVIA
• Virendra Mhatre — V.M. Architects, Practicing Architect
• Anuj Daga — Architect, Writer & Curator; Assistant Professor & Co-ordinator, SEA City School of Environment and Architecture
• Rohan Shivkumar — Dean, B.Arch., KRVIA
• Malini Rajlakshmi — HOD, M.Arch., RIZVI COA
• Dilshad Tyabji — Professor, RIZVI COA
• Chaitra Sharad — Practicing Architect, StudioLipi
• Priya Chavan — Practicing Architect & Doctoral Student, IIT Bombay