Dr. Naina Gupta

University Teacher

n.gupta@sheffield.ac.uk

I trained as an architect in India. Following that I have postgraduate qualifications and a PhD from the Architectural Association, School of Architecture in London (AA). I have worked in practices as an architect/architectural researcher in India, Singapore, Russia and the Netherlands (OMA), and I have taught internationally in Aarhus in Denmark.

My doctorate was supervised by Mark Cousins, Dr Mark Morris and Dr Pier Vittorio Aureli. It narrates an alternative history of internationalism looking at the role that peace and other social movements played in fostering an international sensibility in the progressive era that in turn, contributed to a modern lifestyle. It has been recently published by Routledge and is titled Modern Architecture and an International Sensibility: A Curious Cross-Atlantic Constellation.

Since 2021 I have been researching swimming pools in different registers. I organised a symposium titled Swimming Pool Stories with the support of the Public Programme at the Architectural Association in January 2023. The symposium was a day-long conversation about pools that included students, academics, practitioners and members of the public. I have taught a Diploma History and Theory seminar at the AA on the topic and presented different strands of the research at several conferences. My paper about FDR, polio and the role of the pools in its rehabilitation is due to be published by arq: Architectural Research Quarterly in a special issue dedicated to disability studies and my book Extraordinary Pools, which is a collection of swimming pools designed by architects has recently been published by Batsford (UK) and Princeton Architectural Press. I am one of the RIBA Research Fund recipients of 2024. I am also a signatory and co-facilitator in the knowledge panel for Swimmable Cities summit.

Research Interests

Cross histories, colonialism, revised/alternative histories
Interconnected water systems and its relationship to urban living
Sport and architecture, especially swimming, diving and other water related infrastructure and spaces
Internationalism, international courts, and the theatre as a performative space
International history of intellectual thoughts, transnational histories and research methods and the space in-between nations.

The Empire Pool and the Municipal Pool

The British Empire Games, Otto Koenigsberger and the Staging of an Independent India, 2024 - 2026

This research will study the early days of British Empire Games (1930-1945) with a focus on two swimming pools—the Empire Pool in London and the municipal pool in Bangalore, with the aim of discussing colonial relations as one of dialogue, exchange and the constitution of a progressive ‘international sensibility’. History and Theory , Naina Gupta

Knowledge roundtable co-facilitator

Swimmable Cities Summit, 28th May 2025

Swimmable Cities alliance is comprised of signatories that include academics, activists, municipal bodies, research institutes, to mention a few who are interested in the urban waterways and reintegrating them into the everyday life of the citizens.
Swimmable Cities organised their first international round table in Rotterdam in the Netherlands in 2025. As part of that summit I participated with other international academics as a co-facilitator in the Knowledge Roundtable to workshop ideas, views and experience on swimming infrastructure as placemaking in cities.Event, Design, History and Theory , Inclusivity , Placeshaping, Naina Gupta

A Curious Cross-Atlantic Constellation

Modern Architecture and an International Sensibility, 2024 - 2025

Modern Architecture and an International Sensibility: A Curious Cross-Atlantic Constellation presents an alternative history of internationalism and modernism, with a focus on the role of architecture and spatial practices.Beginning at the tail-end of the peace movements— the turn of the twentieth century— and ending with the Nuremberg trials, the book highlights the part played by individual agency, social reform and architecture in moulding a working everyday definition of what it meant to be international during this time. By viewing internationalism through the lens of the individual and the body, both as initiator and subject, it is repositioned as an integral part of everyday life, rather than simply understood to be concerned with geopolitical relations between nations and their institutions.The book furthers a research methodology that is multidisciplinary and transnational. It will therefore be of interest to researchers and students of architecture and international history.https://www.routledge.com/Modern-Architecture-and-an-International-Sensibility-A-Curious-Cross-Atlantic-Constellation/Gupta/p/book/9781032841076Book, History and Theory, Naina Gupta

AArchitecture article

A Frog's Eye View, 2024 - 2025

The article discusses the ‘new nature writing’ through the work of Roger Deakin. It questions if access to nature is equal and if everyone has the right to it. Naina Gupta, ‘A Frog’s Eye View’ in AArchitecture 49, Architectural Association School of Architecture Publication (2025).Journal Article, History and Theory , Inclusivity , Naina Gupta

The role of swimming pools in FDR's vision of polio rehabilitation at Warm Springs

Physiotherapy and Play, 2024 - 2025

In the early twentieth century Franklin Delano Roosevelt contracted polio, which left him paralysed from the waist down. In search of a 'cure' he found the mineralised waters of Warm Springs in Georgia, USA. In due course, FDR in collaboration with his physiotherapist Helena Mahoney, and his architect Henry J. Toombs founded a polio rehabilitation clinic which set out a holistic definition of rehabilitation. In this article I discuss the role that was played by the swimming pools, and the centre, towards forwarding a definition of rehabilitation that involved physiotherapy and play towards reconstituting the sense of self of the person with disabilities during a time when disability was less understood and accepted. I argue for the role that architecture played in the treatment plan. The article uses archival research in conjunction with biographical research to layer the public and the private intentions of FDR portraying an alternative way of reading the project within FDR's presidential timeline. The focus is on Warm Springs and its design while FDR was directly involved in the project; however, but the article also questions the consequences of his celebrity on the knowledge and the legacy of the project. Naina Gupta, ‘Physiotherapy and Play: The role of the swimming pools in FDR’s vision of polio rehabilitation at Warm Springs’ in arq: Architectural Research Quarterly, Cambridge University Press, special issue Vol 28; “Histories of Disability and Deafness in Architecture, ed by Nina Vollenbroker and Stylianos.Journal Article, History and Theory, Inclusivity , Naina Gupta

Architecture of swimming

Extraordinary Pools, 2023 - 2025

A feast of 49 architecturally astounding swimming pools from around the world that explore the relationship between swimming and its influence on the architectural imaginary. A curated collection that portrays the versatility of the swimming pool and the architecture that the swimming body inspired. It displays some of the world’s famous architectural projects from a new point of view—from that of the swimming pool—through a collection of delectable photographs. It catalogues its many facets—progressive visions, ecological connections, private pleasures, technological mastery and unadulterated excess. Extraordinary Pools is a mosaic of exceptional public and private pools, reasserting the protean quality of the swimming pool as a space of activity, pleasure and excess authored by Naina Gupta. It includes 4 extended essays by Anna Font, Iain Borden, Mathilde Redouté, and Tatjana Crossley on various aspects of pool culture.https://www.batsfordbooks.com/book/extraordinary-pools/Book, History and Theory, Naina Gupta

RIBA Research Fund

Traces and Tracing, 2024

The paper is part of the research that is funded by the RIBA Research Fund. In this conference I discuss my research method and the fragmented nature of the archives highlighting the role that narrating histories from multiple viewpoints can play in revising the knowledge that was produced by nation-centric historiography.The paper was part of the panel organised by Emma Cheatle and Luis Hernan titled Archived Bodies.Presentation, History and Theory, Naina Gupta

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