A Call to Return: A Journey with Didi Contractor

A Call to Return: a Journey with Didi Contractor offers a record of the life, values, and creations of an extraordinary self-taught woman architect. This book emerges from a collection of transcripts of conversations that Didi had with students and admirers in the last decade of her life. With her passing in 2021, these transcripts coupled with published interviews and articles continue to offer a source of knowledge and inspiration for diverse undertakings.

Collated by her last student Lakshmi Swaminathan, A Call to Return covers Didi’s biography, philosophy, approach to architecture, ecology, tradition, and the creative process. Each chapter moves between Didi's words and anecdotes of her everyday life. With a close focus on Didi’s lived experience and the ethics manifest in her relation to the natural and material world, this book offers insights for all who are committed to a more sustainable way of life. As the chronicle of a vibrant exchange across generations, A Call to Return reminds us to cooperate with nature in all of our endeavours.