On Culture and Urban Regeneration / Ranajay Chand

Architecture Off-Centre

“It’s part city beautiful movement, part preservation, part making the city more walkable and just creating like a nice civic space that people can enjoy.”

This summer, my friend Ranajay invited me to spend a weekend in Rajpipla and promised to show me some really good buildings – not quite telling me at first that he belonged to the royal family of Rajpipla and that his ancestors had commissioned the buildings that we were going to see. We spoke extensively about patronage, culture, gentrification and urban regeneration – and there was no way I was not recording it!

Ranajay Chand is a Master of Public Policy candidate at Georgetown University and has received his BA in Politics and International Relations from Royal Holloway, University of London. He has worked for the Secretary General’s Envoy on Youth at the United Nations and is currently involved in the urban historic regeneration of his hometown Rajpipla in India.