In Making, the first monograph on Sameep Padora and his Mumbai-based practice, sP+a, presents two decades of work that reframes what it means for architecture to be critical. Rather than critiquing from a distance, Padora locates criticality within the act of building: in negotiations with communities, economies, technologies, materials, and craft. From the Shiv Temple at Wadeshwar, built by villagers using stone, to the global knowledge networks embedded in the Maya Somaiya Library at Kopargaon and an inquiry into Mumbai’s housing, the work spans a wide range of contexts.

Throughout, it treats constraint as a site of invention. Across scales, the projects explore material knowledge, ecology, and collective making, linking pedagogy and practice. In Making traces the many processes behind the work through references, models, drawings, and photographs, alongside contributions by leading architects and scholars. Placing sP+a’s work within broader discussions on building, teaching, and contemporary architectural production, the book offers an account of one of India’s most thoughtful practices and an architecture that is engaged, generous, and deeply situated. With a foreword by Raj Rewal, and contributions by Sean Anderson, Dick van Gameren, Annapurna Garimella, Hanif Kara, Shreyank Khemalapure, Sameep Padora, Peter Rich, Abhay Sardesai, and Marina Tabassum.

Sameep Padora is an architect, researcher, and educator, and the founder and principal of Sameep Padora and Associates (sP+a), established in Mumbai in 2006. In addition to leading sP+a, he directs sPare, a nonprofit research initiative focused on housing and urbanization in India, and is a co-founder of the Bandra Collective. Padora serves on the academic boards of several institutions and was Dean of the Faculty of Architecture at CEPT University, Ahmedabad, from 2023 to 2026.