Focusing on one of the largest megacities in the world—Delhi—this volume is a rare peek into the ineluctable process of hybridization between Indian and ‘other’ cultures within its local architecture and urban planning. The book explores a segment of the history of Delhi from 1912 through 1962, when the contemporary megacity was born, making a comparison between pre- and post-Independence, which is relatively neglected in academia. The author traces architectural and urban elements of the city of Delhi to understand how foreign developmental models were indigenized, the resistance encountered in the process, and finally their adaptation to local architectural contexts. Highlighting the complexities of ‘multiple Delhis’ with different or simultaneous cultural influences as well as with the various ways those influences have been interpreted or contextualized, the author offers a fresh insight into what is happening in Delhi’s globalized built environment nowadays. The book aims to unearth the social relations emerging from the constant flux in style of architecture and its related elements in an urbanized area.

Study conducted in Delhi, India.

An invaluable theoretical and practical guide to 'thinking global and acting local'. The book is based on a ground-breaking course run by the London Metropolitan University School of Architecture, in which students produce schemes from research undertaken during field trips to India. It provides a comprehensive review of the course and of the schemes produced since 2002, and argues the value of linking practical projects with education in the studio.

The term "tinker" calls to mind nomadic medieval vendors who operate on the fringe of formal society. Excluded from elite circles and characterized by an ability to leverage minimal resources, these tradesmen live and die by their ability to adapt their stores to the popular tastes of the day. In Delhi in the 21st century, an extensive network of informal marketplaces, or bazaars, has evolved over the course of the city's history, across colonial and postcolonial regimes. Their resilience as an economic system is the subject of this book. Today, instead of mending and selling fabrics and pots, these street vendors are primarily associated with electronic products—computers, cell phones, motherboards, and video games. This book offers a deep ethnography of three Delhi bazaars, and a cast of tinkers, traders, magicians, street performers, and hackers who work there. It is an exploration, and recognition, of the role of bazaars and tinkers in the modern global economy, driving globalization from below. In Delhi, and across the world, these street markets work to create a new information society, as the global popular classes aspire to elite consumer goods they cannot afford except in counterfeit.