Prof. Elza D’Cruz

Dr. Elza D'Cruz is an architect, urban designer, and researcher whose work focuses on public landscapes, urban history, oral history, landscape architecture, and the built environment. With over 15 years of experience in teaching, research, and architectural practice, she has worked extensively on the historical evolution of urban and peri-urban landscapes, particularly in Bengaluru. Her doctoral research examined the intersections of extractive colonialism, horticultural landscapes, urban planning, and oral histories to understand the transformation of public gardens and food landscapes under colonial and post-colonial governance. She has taught architecture, urban design, and landscape studies at several architecture and design institutions and actively collaborates on interdisciplinary research involving art and design, built environment, landscape studies, and oral history.

Past Affiliations
Visiting Faculty, BMS School of Architecture (2024-2025)
Visiting Faculty, Srishti Manipal Institute of Art, Design and Technology (2023-2024)

Educational Qualification
Ph.D. (Multi-/Interdisciplinary Studies), Manipal Academy of Higher Education (2024)
Garden and Landscape Studies Graduate Programme, Dumbarton Oaks Research Library & Collection, Harvard University (2021)
Master of Architecture (M.Arch.) in Urban Design, RV College of Engineering, Bengaluru (2010)
Bachelor of Architecture (B.Arch.), College of Engineering Trivandrum (2003)

Publications
D'Cruz, E. (2025). The state, colonial legacies of planning and land for food growing in the contemporary city: Reply to Koenraad Danneels. Landscape Research, 50, 815–816. https://doi.org/10.1080/01426397.2024.2440598
D'Cruz, E. (2025). Spatial dynamics of environmental offsetting in cities: Response to Koenraad Danneels (2024), "Compensation landscapes". Landscape Research, 50, 798–799. https://doi.org/10.1080/01426397.2024.2440593
D'Cruz, E. (2024). Urban agriculture and urban planning: A case of Bangalore between the 1950s and the 1970s. Landscape Research. https://doi.org/10.1080/01426397.2024.2421337
D'Cruz, E. (2024). Public garden, British station and landscape perception in Bangalore City (1881–1934). Landscape History. https://doi.org/10.1080/01433768.2024.2339075
D'Cruz, E. (2024). Historical Friction: The State and the Traditional Gardening Community in the Garden City of Bangalore (1947–1957). In Avani Research Symposium Proceedings 2022: Friction – Towards a Postcolonial Pedagogy and Practice in Architecture.
D'Cruz, E. (2022). Home grown modernity – Gardens and urban development in Bangalore under princely Mysore, 1881–1947. The Round Table. https://doi.org/10.1080/00358533.2022.2131222
D'Cruz, E. (2022). Between a Town with "Totas" and the Garden City: An Exploration of Bangalore and its Gardens in the Early Twentieth Century. In IIHS Urban Arc Conference Proceedings 2022. https://iihs.co.in/knowledge-gateway/beyond-binaries-2022-iihs-annual-research-conference-proceedings/