The scope and objective of this space is to create an interdisciplinary platform for all those involved in understanding and in the actual act of building. Through this platform, we intend to initiate discussions on issues that warrant broader analysis. The build-up throws light on the complex admixture of state, non-state, and extra-state agents and links it to the formal and informal ties and networks that define these connections. We approach built-up not only as initiating the material conditions of life but also releasing a new set of actors and forces into play that redefine the forms of sociability. The primary scope of this project is to connect the hitherto unconnected places, people, ideas, thoughts, and practices of life, thus serving as a space to rethink the familiar before it becomes unfamiliar before one’s eyes. Within such a milieu, we feel it is imperative to curate the contemporary rather than archive it for the future. As the future lives amongst us here and now in the form of new construction, the temporal flux of the built-up offers newer opportunities for us to think about the present and newer ways of becoming the future. 

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We invite collaborations from everyone associated with the idea of built-up to unravel varied forms of ties and connections between a large number of actors and agents. We want to document the stories of lives woven inextricably with materials such as rocks, pebbles, sand, bricks, cement, and concrete, as well as the machinery and tools, to reveal a set of relations and a history of the social investment in creating the built-up environment. We intend to create a dialogue through the means of book review, photo essay, sharing field experiences and photographs and short articles on the multitude of these issues. We believe that everyone has a stake in the building process across South Asia. Thus, we invite entries not just from academicians, but also photographers, painters, activists, and everyone who is invested in the idea. The idea is not to intellectualize the forum, but to address and provide space for issues at the ground level.