Echoes of Lavasa is a digital humanities and spatial historiography project that documents and interprets the oral histories of individuals who migrated to Lavasa—a privately built, master-planned hill city modelled on the Italian village of Portofino. Emerging from an academic inquiry within Refugee and Migration Studies, the project has evolved into a critical platform for exploring identity, memory, and urban development in one of India’s most unique urban experiments.
Through advanced digital tools such as GIS mapping, sound archiving, and narrative visualization, Echoes of Lavasaengages with the lived experiences of residents whose voices often go unheard in dominant narratives of urban growth. By doing so, the project directly contributes to the aims of the UN Sustainable Development Goals, particularly:
- SDG 11: Sustainable Cities and Communities, by preserving and analyzing diverse urban voices and promoting inclusive, participatory city-making.
- SDG 10: Reduced Inequalities, by highlighting the stories of internal migrants and examining their socio-spatial negotiation within a privatized urban space.
- SDG 16: Peace, Justice and Strong Institutions, through fostering transparency, inclusive historical archiving, and community memory as a civic resource.
Rooted in critical methodologies from sound studies, urban anthropology, and digital archiving, Echoes of Lavasaexamines what it means to construct—and inhabit—a city from the ground up. It invites reflection on how planned urbanism intersects with migration, aspiration, exclusion, and place-making. By amplifying these narratives, the project not only preserves personal histories but also contributes to building more just, inclusive, and sustainable urban futures.
Echoes of Lavasa 