Beneath the Banyan - Conversations on Art, Placemaking and Public Space

The Banyan Tree: India’s national tree, a remarkable living ecosystem, with exceptional life span due to its never-ending cycle of regeneration through aerial root system. These trees have the `Walking’ tree behaviors, growing outward indefinitely, spreading across vast areas by establishing new aerial roots that form new tree trunks making a single tree look like a forest … absolutely magical. A great banyan is like a community; omnipresent and significant; strong due to its connections. For centuries, the Banyan trees have offered cultural and spiritual significance, acting as a traditional community meeting spot. The banyan places have been gathering places, shelters where conversations take place, where debates happen and where storytelling and conversation result in exchange of ideas. communities have met beneath the banyan to imagine their future and act collectively.

Benth the Banyan is inspired by the same spirit. This space explores the creative forces that shape our public spaces- with stories of art, design, architecture, and placemaking; the collaborations that make our cities vibrant. Here we talk about the ideas behind public art, the policies that shape cultural infrastructure and the partnerships between artists, collaborators, designers, agencies and communities that bring places to life. Think of this as a gathering place for conversations about placemaking. We will bring you

Banyan Stories: Interviews with artists and designers

Places that work: Case studies of successful public places

Art in Transit: Lessons from rail and Transit Projects

Civic Experiments: Policy and placemaking ideas for cities and communities

If cities are our shared spaces, then the work of shaping them belongs to all of us. Artists, planners, architects, businesses, civic leaders and residents each form a system of roots and branches that hold together this tree as a whole.

Welcome to Beneath the Banyan. I look forward to sharing these stories with you…

I am an architect, designer, artist working at the intersection of transit architecture, public art and civic placemaking.