English (United Kingdom)

https://curated-unify.zendy.io/wp-json/zendy-region/v1/featured_content/oa?rat=en

https://curated-unify.zendy.io/wp-json/zendy-region/v1/highlighted_journal/

Global: Zendy Plus annual

Presents the access of premium content as premium feature

Premium Content

Presents the keyphrase highlighting as premium feature

Keyphrase Highlighting

Presents the summarisation as premium feature

Summarisation

Insights

Presents the pdf analysis as premium feature

PDF Analysis

Presents the zaia usage as premium feature

ZAIA

Global: Zendy Tools annual

Global: Zendy Free Plan

Global: Zendy Tools monthly

Global: Zendy Plus monthly

This paper analyzes the introduction of European prefabrication building systems in India in the years immediately after independence from Britain in 1947, through the lens of two episodes. In each case, the analysis challenges the often-perceived notion of the local, in this case Indian, actors in the Global South as mere recipients of superior foreign technologies, positing them instead as critical assessors, evaluators and decision makers. In the first example of UK’s Alcrete House, well known as the reason for German architect Otto Koenigsberger’s infamous departure from India, the paper examines archival materials, discussed here for the first time, to shed light on the role of Indian players who demanded accountability from foreign experts. In the second lesser-known example of the Swiss lightweight concrete building product, Durisol, the analysis highlights the role of local architects like Shaukat Rai, who deployed his own transnational and intranational networks in the product’s bid to enter the Indian construction market in the early 1950s.

Prefabrication and Transnational Building Materials in Modern India