Online presentation: HYDERABAD - Beyond the Minarets
About
HYDERABAD: Beyond the Minarets (and the Biryanis)When you think Art Deco in India, Mumbai leaps to mind. The visuals of Marine Drive and Oval Maidan dominate discussions. However, we invite you to journey deeper into the country, to its Deccan region where cultures have crisscrossed to create a unique Art Deco language.
One such location is Hyderabad – a city often cited for its biryanis, and rarely for Art Deco. Yet, it contains a fascinating story of 20th-Century modernity, complete with complexity, contradiction, and elegance. Our speaker has spent years documenting Hyderabad's buildings and championing its lesser acknowledged design styles, including Art Deco. He gives us a rare peek into a side of Hyderabad, and India, few have delved deep into.
Hyderabad was at one point at the crossroads of princely ambition, Islamic urbanism, global modernism, and postcolonial nation-building. Here, Art Deco did not merely arrive as a stylistic import from Europe or Bombay (present-day Mumbai). It fused with local Deccani sensibilities and the aspirations of an outward-looking princely state under the Asaf Jahi rulers (popularly known as the Nizams). However, emerging in parallel was a modernism style shaped by local architects, engineers, industrialists, and institutions envisioning their own future for the city.
This talk will trace Hyderabad’s transition from late-Nizam cosmopolitanism to post-Independence modernity through a trail of housing colonies, public markets, private residences, religious institutions and civic structures. Some are trademark Deco; others hover in the territory between Streamline Moderne, Indo-European classicism, tropical modernism, and early postcolonial experimentation. Many remain undocumented outside specialist circles.
Through Hyderabad, we also hear why 20th-Century architecture in other Indian cities remains overlooked, and what this omission says of the narratives defining India's modern legacy.
About Shall We Travel
Our Presenting Partner and Sponsor for this event is Shall We Travel, a boutique experiential travel company based in India, that designs personalised, high-touch tours of India.
Presented online by Mr Srinivas Murthy, the founding president of Architecture and Design Foundation [India].
Note: Please purchase a ticket for your household/location if watching with others, that is only one ticket is required for each viewing location.
The online presentation will be by Zoom and you will be sent the Zoom link the evening after 7 pm on Wednesday 10th June after ticket sales close.
Join online at 7:25 for a 7:30 pm AEST start.
Date
Thursday 11 June 2026 7:25 PM - 9:00 PM (UTC+10)Location
Online event access details will be provided by the event organiser
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Online presentation: HYDERABAD - Beyond the Minarets
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