Text description provided by the architects. SABA, Spontaneous Architecture at the Bezalel Academy, was founded in 2005 by Sharon Rotbard. At SABA, 3rd year students invent experimental straying techniques, explore improvised construction materials, develop immediate technologies, build the first building in their career and spend there the last night of the semester. On September 2011, SABA moved for a summer semester in India. The program was held in collaboration with the Architecture Faculty at CEPT University Ahmedabad, the Chandigarh College of Architecture and The India Center for Environmental Education. The first part of the program was dedicated to a travelling workshop in Ahmedabad, Chandigarh and New Delhi, in which the studio investigated some of India’s architectures (modernist experiments, historical heritage, contemporary architecture), questioned its own practices and possibilities of travelling and movement (tourism, backpacking, architectural tourism, dérive), and researched and documented local samples of spontaneous architectures and unofficial technologies in cities, slums and villages. In the second part of the program SABA moved to the Center for Rural Knowledge near Halwad, a small town in Surendranagar district, Gujarat.
