Academia struggles with mainstream urban housing studios; either they end up being utopian and whimsical or abjectly surrender to economic and regulatory pressures. This studio situates itself between these two extremes and hopes to nudge mainstream housing design into creating meaningful spaces. The studio is structured in two parts- the first eleven weeks consist of a series of learning activities that prepare the student for the housing design project that last for five weeks. The first part consists of two sub-parts- a periodic litmus test in the form of 1 day design time problems where each time the students are expected to design an entire housing scheme on a new plot within 24 hours. This is done to encourage decisive thinking and action. The second sub part is intended to raise multiple debates regarding the state of urban housing in India today. This is done through a housing seminar in the 9th week where each student presents a paper on a topic of her choosing. Several book readings, and exercises drawing on the life of the everyday help in formulating this seminar topic. The Final Design Project is an opportunity to demonstrate the learnings of the entire semester in a comprehensive manner.