SEA Pavilion 2024
School of Environment & Architecture, Mumbai. First Runner Up & Honourable Mention. With Raqs Media Collective & Invisible Dust, UK.
Mystic / Artist / Architect / Poet / Teacher
Majid Abidi
Majid is constantly exploring the visible & the unseen.
His practice moves fluidly between art, architecture, writing, philosophy & teaching - each a way of understanding existence.
“At its heart is an enduring inquiry into life, humanity, nature, memory, & the mysteries that connect them.”
MONTAGE
Founded in 2019, MONTAGE operates less like a studio with rigid boundaries & more like an evolving archive: building, documenting, drawing, writing, researching & storytelling.
Teaching
At IDEAS × CEPT Level 2, Majid’s studios ask architecture to begin with water, waste, nature & power - reframing the building as a micro-ecology rather than a self-contained object.
Method
Observation precedes declaration. Drawings become arguments, research becomes public action, & architecture becomes constructive imagination.
Achievements & Publications
Selected recognition
Exhibitions, publications, awards, competitions & collaborative work, organised in relation to the Honors & Awards and Publications sections of Majid’s LinkedIn profile.
Honors & Awards
unsatURBAN | Monsoon '23
Critically acclaimed Level 2 Studio, Unit 3 - I.D.E.A.S., Nagpur.
Beautiful City | Spring '23
Best Level 2 Studio, Unit 9 - I.D.E.A.S., Nagpur.
Nagari 2022 - Short Film Competition
Charles Correa Foundation, Panaji, Goa. Shortlisted - Top 14.
Archisource.UK - Drawing of the Year Award 2020
Longlisted in the international illustration competition across disciplines.
Awards for Excellence in Architectural Thesis 2020
Council of Architecture / NIASA. Zonal Top 10 shortlist for Destigmatizing Kamathipura; featured among the top 50 graduation projects across India.
Subaltern Solidarity - RIBA | Norman Foster Foundation Travel Fellowship
Nominee - I.D.E.A.S. Nagpur.
Landscape Design Vertical
I.D.E.A.S., Nagpur. Project lead - Winner.
Students’ Awards for Excellence in Documentation of Architectural Heritage
Council of Architecture, India. Project lead - Competition finalist, Top 10, at the national open jury in BMSA, Sonipat.
Annual NASA* - Reubens Trophy
Contributor - Competition finalist, Top 10, in DCSA, Vagamon, Kerala.
8th Prof. S. A. Deshpande Studio Design Competition
Indian Institute of Architects, Nagpur Chapter. Consolation Prize.
USK - Delhi Architecture Festival
Shortlist - S135, Circumscribing an experience - Mumbai, where parallels meet.
ICOMOS - NASA* Louis I Kahn Trophy
Project lead - Winner, Jurors’ Choice Award, Surat.
World Islamic Network - Essay Writing
Honourable Mention, theological exegesis, Mumbai.
Annual NASA* - Design Competition
Project lead - Competition finalist, Top 21, MIDAS, Swarnabhoomi, Tamil Nadu.
Annual NASA* - G. Sen Trophy
Collaborator - Competition finalist, Top 10, VSAP, Hyderabad.
IIID - Designing for a Fictional Character
Second Prize, collaboration with Nisha Bothra | SMMCA, Nagpur.
The Hitavada - SVKNS, Essay Writing
Winner in Nagpur, Maharashtra | Kala Vaibhav.
Kuoni - India, Essay Writing
Winner of the competition | MTDC, Nagpur.
Publications / Exhibitions / Features
Follow the Butterflies Pavilion
With Padmini Ray Murray + Sanika Dhakephalkar.
SHAJAR - Solo Art Exhibition
Curated by Lalit Vikamshi. AlagAngle Community Art Center, Nagpur. Inaugurated by Rohan Chakravarty.
Failed Architecture - Behind Kamathipura’s Closed Doors
Drawings & photographs featured in Nishi Shah’s essay on Kamathipura, Mumbai.
King’s College London | Objects in the Mirror
Essay featured for The Heritage Lab’s digital exhibition in collaboration with KCL.
The Caravan Magazine
June issue cover illustration with Sajid Wajid Shaikh.
Living Lightly Festival - Centre for Pastoralism
Exhibited at the Indira Gandhi National Centre for the Arts, Bangalore.
Beautiful City | Spring '23
IDEAS Press - L2 Studio Units Catalogue.
Water & My Future Workplace | Winter '22
IDEAS Press - L2 Studio Units Catalogue.
Bombay Brokers - India / Pakistan
Drawing featured on Lisa Björkman’s book cover. English edition, India - Apr 2022; Urdu edition, Pakistan - May 2026.
Of Whoring & Waiting - The Sages & Cages of Kamathipura
Outlook India. Essay & illustrations featured in the cover story.
Kamathipura - A ‘Nether’-land in the City of Dreams
Illustration appearing in Chinki Sinha’s Outlook India cover story on Kamathipura.
Equalising vs. Authorising | States of Water
Unmute | Compartment S4, Ahmedabad. Essay on tendencies of water infrastructure in cities.
Bombay Brokers - Metropoli e creatività culturale
MicroMega, Rome. Illustration accompanying an interview with Lisa Björkman by Ingrid Colanicchia.
Kamathipura - A ‘Nether’-land in the City of Dreams
Cover art for the first edition of the biannual student magazine at TISS, Mumbai - School of Habitat Studies.
Lucknow through Cultural Landscape, Urban Studies
IDEAS Press. Compilation of work from an urban studies studio in Lucknow, Uttar Pradesh.
Of Ideologies, Individuality, & Architecture...
IDEAS Press, The Eclectic Students’ Section - MERAKI.
Acknowledgements
* NASA - National Association of Students of Architecture, India.
Oversaw proceedings of the 2019 Jurors’ Choice Award-winning NASA HUDCO Trophy & the 2020 Special Mention ICOMOS NASA Louis I Kahn Trophy.
01
SENSE > SCALE
02
CONSTRUCTIVE IMAGINATION > CONSTRUCTION
03
PEOPLE AS INFRASTRUCTURE
04
A WORLD WITHOUT STRANGERS
Architecture is one language among many.
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