Dr Anisha Meggi

Dr Anisha Meggi is a lecturer and researcher in Architecture at the Leicester School of Architecture, De Montfort University.

She has been teaching on the BA (Hons) Architecture course since 2015 at various capacities covering a range of modules including the design studio, technology, dissertations, discourses and research methods modules.

More recently Dr Anisha has been developing the Writing Architecture block for BA1, which integrates visual methodolgies within architectural writing consolidating the gap between architectural writing and the architecture design studio.

Dr Anisha's PhD thesis completed in 2021, focuses on opportunities of bottom-up adaptive reuse of privately-owned heritage structures within cultural neighbourhoods in Indian cities that would usually be demolished. 

The PhD research underpins topic areas such as urban regeneration, adaptive reuse of heritage structures, colonial interventions on Indian urban landscapes along with the people, cultures and architecture that have assimilated as a result. Dr Anisha’s research has benefited from a succession of field trips to her primary case study, Diu Island a former Portuguese Island. This is in addition to field trips to Jaipur, Udaipur and Ahmedabad where she has accumulated experiences in urban mapping, surveying of buildings and conducting of interviews with key stakeholders.

Dr Anisha therefore specialises on the complex and interwoven urban context of South Asia with a focus on hybrid colonial/native architecture and its resultant effects on current urban issues like adaptive reuse, sustainable material use, migration, and wider global issues underpinning the climate emergency.

Dr Anisha invites aspiring PhD candidates who are interested in the themes of adaptive reuse within complex urban environments, heritage or colonial architecture, colonial/postcolonial architectural environments, circular economies and participatory design within adaptive reuse or within the upgradation of informal settlments. In addition Dr Anisha has experience and research interests on the themes of migration and hybrid architectural identities.

Institute of Architecture

1.            Meggi, A (2021) ‘Reconnecting Diuenses Opportunities of Heritage Tourism Diu Town” at DHTL International Conference, IUAV, 14-16th September 2021.

2.            Meggi, A & Triboan,D (2021) “A Personalised Virtual Smart Home Space representation to Preserve User’s Privacy and Integrity in the Assisted Living System”, at Urban Assemblage: The City as Architecture, Media, AI & Big Data, Hatfield, 28-30th June 2021,

3.            Meggi, A. (2021) “Understanding the difficult whole: The structures of Diu Town”, in Bianconi, F. and Filippucci, M. (eds) Draw Digital Connections. Springer International Publishing. doi: 10.1007/978-3-030-59743-6.

4.            Meggi, A. and Hadi, Y. (2020) ‘The Atmospheric Skin of Diu Town Examining Façades’, in Borlini, M. M., Loreto, L. di, and Amadori, C. (eds) Urban Corporis The City and the Skin. 1st edn. USA: Lulu.com, pp. 150–158. Available at : shorturl.at/nuvI2

5..          Meggi, A. and Hadi, Y. (2019) ‘Invisible Borders, Physical Fragmentation; Diu Town’, in Urbanism at Borders Conference CFP - Malaga, Spain. Malga: La Escuela de Arquitectura en Málaga. Available at: https://rgu-repository.worktribe.com/OutputFile/742703

6..          Triboan, D. and Meggi, A. (2019) ‘Reformulating a Smart Home System for the Indian Context: Diu Island’, International Journal of Design And Ecodynamics, 14(4), pp. 299–310. Available at: https://www.witpress.com/elibrary/dne-volumes/14/4/2559

7.            Meggi, A. (2018) ‘Drawing by Models: beyond the physical’, in Ray, L. (ed.) Art Materiality and Representation. London: SOAS, RAI. Available at: https://nomadit.co.uk/conference/rai2018#6059.

8.            Meggi, A., (2018) Towards a digital heritage: Evaluating methods of heritage interpretation, Diu town – a case study. International Journal of Heritage Architecture: Studies, Repairs and Maintenance, 2(3), pp.406–416. Available at: http://www.witpress.com/doi/journals/HA-V2-N3-406-416.

architectural heritage and urbanism focusing on Indian cultural neighbourhoods, migrations and hybrid identities, informal settlments, circular economy, material reuse, participatory design, smart cities 

Architecture Design Studio, Architecture Contextual Studies/Theory, Research Methods & Discourses.

BA (Hons) Architecture RIBA Part 1, M.Arch RIBA Part 2, PhD

BA (Hons) Architecture, M.Arch, MA Architectural Design, Open to PhD supervisions. 

Meggi, A. (2018b) ‘Representing the Colony: Documenting the Other Perspective’, in Historical Perspectives Global Communities Conference, 8-9th June. Kelvin Hall, Glasgow. Available here.

Meggi, A. (2019) Diuenses : Documenting transnational urban interventions. Leicester. Available at: https://architecture-migration.our.dmu.ac.uk/the-symposium/.

PhD title

Towards Reusing Private Non-Monumental Architecture: Diu Town

Abstract

Every town needs a set of old buildings, plain, ordinary low-value buildings. However, in India old buildings are being demolished by owners, developers and authorities.

In Diu Town, a former Portuguese colony, older buildings are being abandoned, neglected and left to ruin with native heritage owners being migrants’ structures are demolished and new homogenous concrete residential blocks constructed at a rapid pace. As a result, the distinct Mediterranean essence of the town is being lost. The construction of commercial tourism-related infrastructure adds to the loss of identity and culture for the town.
A sequence of onsite urban mappings and building surveys of the primary case, this research documents and analyses the urban fabric of Diu Town consolidating Diuenses seemingly conflicting issues of treatment of urban heritage environments, their devalued status and the complexities between owners, local authorities and globalised aspirations by reconnecting key stakeholders.

The research formulates an approach in the form of a set of bottom-up guidelines for the owners of privately-owned heritage structures in Diu Town to be informed and guided for the future treatment of their structures. Rather than attempt to list the structures and restrict development or modification through bureaucracy and legal matters, the guidelines will allow for disconnected diaspora members to be influenced and directed towards a bottom-up regeneration approach where owners can better utilise their heritage buildings for the town and their own benefit. Also allowing for intangible heritage to be sustained, support and regeneration of the local economy and encouraging environmentally sustainable and self-sufficient methods within the building processes.

The thesis contributes in the area of bottom-up regeneration of cultural neighbourhoods in South Asia by undertaking of the “heritage” paradigm in a town affected by global influences and processes due to the native migrant populations.