CONSERVATIVE CONSERVATION

A lot has been said on conservation especially world has turned this discipline into a fashionable and niche-able commodity of past. This is perhaps true in urban forms of traditional Indian Cities. The traditional urban architecture and its conservation broadly divided into three broad categories: Ideology of Conservation,  Practice of Conservation and Technology that need to be employed. 

Architecture and Urban form that embodies the regional values,  needs to be understood and its implication of them being conserved on larger interest of the cities. Such artifacts need to be conserved on its formal properties along with long term conservation plan. This two ideological positions are often at conflict with each other but one thing is clear that conservation is not an attempt to conserve the past but to preserve the present. It is moral obligation of present generation to pass such artifacts to next generation in the state that they have received from previous generation.

The domain of conservation is slowly slipping away from archaeological sphere but in the process the scope of conservation has widen beyond its conservative approach. It perhaps does have its own virtues as conservation needs to be integrated largely with the development but complexity that arises from such wider approach is the paradoxical extremities of development versus conservation. 

The visit to Ajanta caves happened after 20 years. The formal change in the large landscape as a part of conservation plan was apparent. It seems to have larger heritage  management plan being implemented along with restoration, traffic management, environmental concern to the caves and its sculptures & paintings. The caves approach is made easier with ramps and satires along with signage. However the Ajanta caves project can not be the pilot project for conservation/ restoration our pre-industrial cities and their historic core. 

KRVIA MASTERS: STUDIO II: URBAN DESIGN/ URBAN CONSERVATION.

STUDIO II

The pre-industrial cities are rapidly transforming itself into a large urban agglomeration. This cities are often developed without direction or development guidelines. This kind of haphazard transformation is rapidly seen in most of cities across India. These cities are characteristically evolved with humane scale, contextualized typologies, walk-abilities, compactness and appropriate living and working relationships. These cities also offers lesson to basic urban design leanings in terms of formal and informal togetherness, bazaar conditions, community living, cultural conditions & social homogeneity. These conditions are very important to urban learning. 

The studio aims to decode these complex web of interrelationships and allow strategic interventions for transformation through housing in Jodhpur. The four areas studied through field trips, namely: Infrastructure, Tourism, Housing, Community. These parameter may not be mutually exclusive but complex enough to study such conditions. 

The intent of this studio was to derive an operative methods for improving the housing scenario in the inner city area of Jodhpur, through the area of study.  It was explicitly revealing that typological system that exist in such cities are product of far more complex systems and conditions, The methods perhaps are limited for the academics exploration but systems need to explore beyond the conventional norms.

CLUSTER MEETING AT SWITZERLAND (BASEL + LAUSANNE)

THE LABORATORY APPROACH TO BUILT ENVIRONMENT EDUCATION.

(ABSTRACT FROM SYMPOSIUM MEETING HELD AT TU-BERLIN)

The project URBAN LAB+ is an initiation to set the interactive platform for various educational institutes who are involved in higher education in urban studies. The URBAN LAB+ is involved eight partners with TU BERLIN (Technische Universitat, Berlin, Germany) as host and coordinator for the entire project.

The Larger interest of URBAN LAB+ is to promote higher education, improve services of international students & strengthening relation among the institutes across the world. The partners of the URBAN LAB+ are as follows:

-       Technische Universitat, Berlin, Germany (TU)

-       University College, London, UK

-       Ecole Ploytechnique Federale De Lausanne, Switzerland.

-       Universita Della Calabria, Italy

-       Pontificia Universidad Catolica De Chile.

-       University of The Witwatersrand, South Arfrica

-       Kamla Raheja Vidyanidhi Institute for Architecture & Env. Studies, Mumbai, India

-       The Chinese University of Honkong.

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URBAN INCLUSION

It began with emphasize on process of urban dynamics of our cities that needs clear planning strategies for future projection that may have impact of our daily life. It needs to be articulated through dialogue that needs to be synchronized within academics setups,  especially among universities across the section for global learning. The URBAN LAB+ invited the international partners and elaborated the subject of international urban issues which requires collaborative research,  Intellectual and disciplinary resources & how URBAN LAB+ can facilitate the entire process with in collaboration with EU.