ARCHITECTURE
DEPARTMENT OF ARCHITECTURE & PLANNING, INDIAN INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY-ROORKEE
Roorkee
American architect Frank Lloyd Wright once famously said, “A doctor can bury his mistakes, but an architect can only advise his clients to plant vines.” At the Department of Architecture and Planning, IIT Roorkee, though, they are bracing to present solutions to much bigger challenges. To the scientists here, people, not builings, are the priority. For students and researchers here, Vaastu is not an art form, but a science; architecture is not just about lifeless buildings but the development of a civilisation, including its natural heritage.
The world conducts social and economic audits, but the department today is auditing ‘human access’, as it were, to buildings and premises. The engineering department at IIT Roorkee is studying human beings, looking at what is required, and asking questions: what needs to be conserved, what future answers do we seek as the wheels of modernity grind on. The role of the architect in the future will be multifarious—from designer to planner to social and legal advisor. To this end, the institute offers hundreds of subjects that students and researchers can choose from according to their interests.
The present campus of IIT Roorkee was established in 1847 as Roorkee College and expanded as Thomson College of Civil Engineering in 1854 which ultimately became Roorkee University in 1984. It was recognised as an Indian Institute of Technology as recently as 2001, but it was always a high-ranked institute in the field of technical and
applied research. Over the years, the institution has played a vital role in providing technical manpower in the field of technical education and research to the country.
In simple terms, IIT Roorkee is a place where the past and present converge to create an ideal environment for students. The institute aims at all-round progress—assessment of students also gives weightage to sports and other activities. The Architecture degree course began in 1956-57, BArch (Bachelors in Architecture) was recognised in the year 1961 by the Indian Institute of Architects, and it was the first institution in the country to offer postgraduate degrees (Masters in Architecture) in 1969-70. An additional postgraduate degree, MURP (Masters in Urban and Rural Planning), was started in 1973-74.
The campus, with its lush green landscape and architecture, is a treat to the eye. The building was constructed keeping in mind the needs of the physically disabled (21 types of disabilities have been taken into account). Says Dr P.S. Chani, head of the department of architecture and planning, “Safety and friendship are the catchwords on our campus. All departments work together like a community 24x7 with discipline and coordination. Each professor is skilled in his field and subject, and his innovations are always dynamic.”
Assistant professor Gaurav Raheja is a specialist in architectural and accessibility design, and a member of ‘Sugam Bharat Abhiyan’ of the central government. He has designed cities and houses keeping in mind the needs of old people and the disabled. The department has also done the access audit of many buildings of national and archaeological importance, including the PMO, the New Delhi Railway Sta-
tion, Indira Gandhi International Airport, North and South Block etc. The climate and energy audit of existing and new buildings is also under way.
“The department also has the major responsibility of assessing energy performance at all airports in the country, capacity development programmes at the Centre and the technical aspects of the country’s smart cities, especially in terms of structures to suiting the needs of children,” says Raheja, who is among the nine authors of the paper, ‘Universal Design India Principles’.
IIT Roorkee has developed a unique environment where professors, students and researchers together conceive and shape projects. The campus also has facilities to develop it own architecture software, a climatology lab equipped with thermal imaging camera, stateof-the-art computer lab, a complete weather station, thermo-hydro wind
data logger, plant canopy analyser, photography lab, art labs, sophisticated workshops and 24x7 working libraries.
Under the student exchange programme with German Academic Exchange Services (DAAD and ETH), IIT Roorkee students have been able to do their postgraduate degrees abroad in architecture, planning, land management and real estate development enterprises. Many global industry and academic leaders have come to the department to share their experiences with the students. In 2015-16, 15 international journal papers, 30 national journal papers and around 100 conference papers were published. More than 50 students are currently doing their PhD at the department now. The department also provides consultancy services to various government and nongovernmental agencies. In order to train architects in quake-resistant designs and construction, the department has been selected as one of the seven National Resource Institutions under NPCBAERM (National Programme for Capacity Building of Architects for Earthquake Risk Management).