ARCHITECT-ING AS WORLD BUILDING: Knowing the world through Kaḷiyāṭṭaṁ of Malabar coast, India

Abstract

Kaḷiyāṭṭaṁ is a natureculture expression and feeling of the Malabar coast, India. A human-turned-deity, the Teyyaṃ in Kaḷiyāṭṭaṁ critiques the subject-centric and eye-centric worlds. This thesis attempts to illustrate this concept through architectural lenses. In Kaḷiyāṭṭaṁ, subjects are open, continuously overflowing and expanding, blending all virtual and actual entities into reality. Kaḷiyāṭṭaṁ questions the limited reality that polarizes the world into either subjects or objects by othering and distancing the world from the self. This thesis proposes a philosophy of architecture called architect-ing. This term explains architecture as the act of inhabiting a space and mapping different modes of existence triggered by the interactions and relations between the subject (or the I) and the rest. Understanding architect-ing as world-building illustrates architecture-making in Kaḷiyāṭṭaṁ as an emergent, habitual procedural process. Knowing the world through Kaḷiyāṭṭaṁ shows that architecture is integrally kinetic and plural. A procedural architect-ing process builds a more inclusive world by shifting focus into relationships that encourage the co-existence of multiple mutually inclusive diverse realities.