The South Asia Studies Center is built upon the success of the 1999 and 2001 CapAsia field-studies. Going beyond a joint studio or an exchange program, CapAsia has developed into a unique program based on an experiential-learning semester. It provides an extraordinary opportunity to experience the socially, culturally, and historically different South Asia through a strategy of cultural immersion and collaborative projects carried out with the help of a network of design and planning educators, practitioners, policymakers, and students in the region. The main goal is to profoundly enhance the critical and creative thinking capability of the participants through the experiencing of social, cultural, and spatial practices, and design and planning approaches in the radically different region of South Asia and, through reflection, to learn about their own environments.

During the main component, the participants reside in a particular city in South Asia (ideally with local families), team up with students from the collaborating school, and undertake a locally-based project. In 1999, CapAsia I focused on Kathmandu. Living and taking part in the daily rituals of Nepal Engineering College students, Ball State students located and developed a new community center for Sankhu, a historic city within the Kathmandu Valley. Trying to figure out the meanings of historic gates, the form and structure of the densely built city on a hill surrounded by farmland, and the complexity of public places --some of which “belong” to particular neighborhoods and others to the entire community-- was an effective way to experience the cultural classification of spaces and “why they build what they build” in Sankhu.

In 2001, CapAsia II participants made development proposals for a thirteen-mile long Eastern Waterfront in Mumbai (formerly, Bombay) "vacated" by the shifting of the harbor from the island to the mainland across the sea. Although the students were, at first, deterred by the apparent unfamiliarity and "dirtiness" in the city, the ship-breaking yard, and the community developed around the latter, these provided the students with a graphic experience of how components of the world-economy operates: for example, how "big things" such as ships built in industrialized countries like the USA are being recycled in the "underdeveloped" world in environments which are unhealthy for the workers. As much as about India, this experience also taught the students about themselves and the USA. The facilitating role played by the students and faculty of Kamla Raheja School was crucial to this experience.

Both times the group began their exploration of South Asia in New Delhi, which proved to be a source of xperience. In addition to the visits to historic, colonial, modernist, and postcolonial cities of Jaipur, Agra, Chandigarh, and New Delhi, and their built-environments, living in a regular low-income neighborhood with easy access to downtown made the exposure intense. The highlights are the observation of community-based solid waste disposal system and the level of community self-help. In 2001, this experience was reinforced by a four-day workshop on upgrading the pontaneous settlement, Yamuna Pushta, located in the flood-plains of the Jamuna River, and a symposium on the planning and design of New Delhi.

Both times the principal project was followed by a visit to Sri Lanka where the students experienced the diversity within South Asia and some highly innovative ideas coming out of Sri Lanka. CapAsia participants have particularly exposed to the historic, colonial, and post-colonial environments in Sri Lanka, planning for the Colombo Metropolitan Region, the national physical plan, and Mahaweli Development Project, and buildings and nvironments designed by leading architects such as Geofrey Bawa and younger ones such as Madhura Prematillake. In addition to visiting Geoffrey Bawa’s own garden and other designs, the roup also stayed in Bawa-designed hotels when they moved around in Sri Lanka.

In 2001, the group broke journey in Hong Kong and Singapore. On their way to South Asia, Hong Kong exposed the participants to highly innovative development projects such as the urban escalator and the new airport project, and the way in which Filipino maids use public space. On the way out, the group learned about the experience of Liu Thai-Ker, the chief planner of Singapore during the period in which it transformed into a developed city-state. While the particular aspects we focused on in Hong Kong introduced the participants to a whole new world, the meeting with Liu brought the CapAsia experience to a height and a closure. These cities also served as reference points for the understanding of South Asia.

The purpose built curriculum, the itinerary, and the selection of lodging were key to the success. These helped the participants to concentrate on South Asia and provided the necessary historical and theoretical tools. CapAsia II also had a graduate component. The graduate students not only exposed smaller groups of undergraduates to their own interests and particular aspects in South Asia, but also conducted realtime chat rooms on selected topics with students at Ball State. The web-based newsletter provided a place for participants to express their reflections and share those with colleagues, friends, and family. The early stages of the field study were the most challenging. Getting the students beyond the initial shock of cultural difference, chaos, and awe --which is overwhelming ("right in one’s face") in south Asia-- and the initial excitement of being in an exotic place that is culturally rich and climatically "vacationlike" were massive challenges.

Nonetheless, the CapAsia experience pointed to the fact that South Asia has far more potential. This is the basis for the development of South Asia Studies Center. Comments such as "Training American planners in the Third World is a radically new idea," by Dr. Robert Home, Reader in Planning, University of East London, and "Even Harvard doesn’t have this type of a program" by Dikshu Kukreja, an alumni of Graduate School of Design, Harvard University, and successful architect in New Delhi, made me realize that CapAsia is a unique field study. The reflective comments made by participants, which indicated that they have also learned about themselves, their cultures, their own urban and built environments, and their experience is a life changing one, made me realize that there is far more potential in south Asia for teaching our students. This was reinforced by the Co-Directors of CapAsia I and II, Alisa Coffin and Dr. Wes Janz, and their own experience.