Hybrid Reveries: childhood fictions for rural assemblies
Luke Gifford
University College London
Hybrid Reveries explores the domesticity of Kerala’s Anglo-Indian community, examining how familial stories, native crafts and collective childhood memories produce a distinctly hybrid architectural language. In response to the 2020 removal of Anglo-Indian parliamentary representation, a speculative response is formed that aims to instil cultural solidarity as a combative tool to spatial injustices. Fact and fiction are interwoven through oral histories to construct an architecture rooted in nostalgia, memory and rural identity. A master plan for the rural town of Kumbanad, where traditional ways of life are in decline is designed. The plan takes form through three spatial archetypes: 'The Colonial Ghost', which adaptively reuses abandoned homes built for status rather than necessity; 'The Ageing Home', a care home fulfilling the needs of an ageing population; and 'The Forgotten School', a nursery centred on native craft, storytelling and the validating rurality.