Arindam Dutta

Arindam Dutta is a Professor of Architectural Theory and History at MIT's School of Architecture and Planning, specializing in the History Theory Criticism Program. He holds a PhD from Princeton University (2001) and degrees from Harvard Design School and Ahmedabad School of Architecture (gold medalist). His research interrogates institutional dynamics shaping architecture, globalization, and political economies. Key interests include how corporate entities mediate power, resource allocation, and design decisions, with a focus on the Global South's infrastructure and real estate transformations. He directs the MIT Infrastructure Architecture Lab, examining macroeconomic drivers of built environments.

Education: Ph.D. in History of Architecture (Princeton, 2001), M.Des. (Harvard GSD), B.Arch. (Ahmedabad, gold medal). Awards include Woodrow Wilson and Getty Fellowships. Teaching focuses on modern architectural theory, imperialism, technology studies, and Marxist/post-structuralist thought. He co-authored The Bureaucracy of Beauty (2007) and edited A Second Modernism (2013), and is a founding member of Aggregate, an architectural historians' collective.

Research projects include studies on Sahmat's political challenges in India, the 'real estate turn' in global investments, and the interplay between sovereignty, debt, and architecture. His work critiques how development discourse merges cultural and economic imperatives, advocating for systemic rethinking of global modernities.

Awards: Woodrow Wilson Fellowship, Getty Fellowship, multiple grants. Grants and advising include projects on infrastructure politics and Global South urbanization. Labs/Teams: MIT Infrastructure Architecture Lab (co-directed), Aggregate Collective (founding member).