The Kiran Mukerji Fund extends the AAmatters mediatheque

On 26th April 2014, Kiran Mukerji handed over his research library to African Architecture Matters. It is with great gratitude that we have received the donation, which will be entered into the AAMatters catalogue under the name of ‘Kiran Mukerji Fund’.

Kiran Mukerji is an eminent researcher and architect, now semi-retired, who has spent most of his career as expert on tropical planning and building issues, with a focus on primary health-care and sustainable design and building techniques. He was involved in the field as researcher, planner and building in many (developing) countries, in particular in India and Albania.

Kiran Mukerji with Belinda van Buiten and Antoni Folkers on 26th April 2014

There are numerous publications from his hand on the above subjects, and it can be stated without exaggeration that he is one of the pioneers in the field of sustainable building techniques – ranging from pre-fabricated systems to adobe techniques and from water reuse and conservation to solar power installations – well before these became popular in the western world.

Mukerji was employed as architect by Dr G Lippsmeier (L+P) and main researcher of the Institute for Tropical Building (IFT) in Starnberg from 1973 to 1985*. In this position, he was responsible for the building up of the IFT-Mediatheque and a range of publications produced by the IFT. In 1983, Kiran Mukerji and Antoni Folkers shared the same room within the Starnberg L+P/IFT office and thus became befriended.

Since 1985, Mukerji operates under his own name and has carried out numerous missions and research commissions. Amongst these the repair and reconstruction of more than 2,000(!) Health and Family Welfare building structures that were damaged during the 2001 earthquake in Gujarat.

Kiran Mukerji’s library, consisting of approximately 450 entries, is a crucial contribution to the African Architecture Matters mediatheque, as it fills certain gaps in the focus areas within the field of tropical planning and building of, for instance health, sustainable building technology and general planning theory.

* The IFT-mediatheque was handed over to ArchiAfrika by Dr Lippsmeier’s son, the architect Ulrich Lippsmeier in 2009. Since 2011, the unique collection of books, reports, drawings and photographs is given over to the care of African Architecture Matters and i currently located in Utrecht.