Charles Correa’s A Place in the Shade explores architectural and urban issues in India, from the house as a machine for dealing with the country’s often hostile climate to the metaphysical role of architecture as a “model of the cosmos.” This provocative and eminently readable collection of essays argues that the country’s habitat must respond to the overriding parameters of climate, culture and financial resources, and that our physical environment should accommodate both diversity and synergy. Over the last few decades, urban real estate has become the primary source of financing for political parties and the politicians who run them, and as Correa acknowledges, “you cannot look at cities without wandering into architecture on the one hand and politics on the other.” A Place in the Shade identifies the defining issues of the urbanization trends that are so rapidly transforming India.