Cultural Sustainability: A pedagogic view to understanding the jargon
Rahat Varma
India,
as an intervention zone, provides a rich contextual fabric that has seen layered complexities over time. When setting up design iterations in such
sites, it is vital that the memory
and identity be used as keystones to help formulate context-sensitive
solutions.
The term ‘cultural sustainability’ finds its meaning in architectural development as the maintenance of practice and beliefs. A culture’s struggle has always been its ability to exist in the future—in its truest form possible, without the fear of dilution, yet with enough scope of evolution in its prescribed set of morals and beliefs. As architects in practice and academia, it is essential that a dialogue is initiated at the very beginning of a design proposal, allowing the local materials, techniques and volumetric vocabulary—a part of the culture and history of the region—to frame the basis of the built syntax. This gesture shall ensure that the expected results are equitable and sensitive. Integrating culture into development policies and building programmes essentially contributes to the effectiveness of the intervention as well as the cultural sustainability of the region.
In the realm of formal education, it is imperative that these learnings are effectively curated for students and further applied in their design proposals. Pedagogic tools need to be employed, where an understanding can be established that architecture can build resilient communities when it places the users and their cultural heritage in the centre of the design process. We need to drive the thought home that design solutions in architecture should be driven to facilitate human efficiency, integration and evolution. India, as an intervention zone, provides a rich contextual fabric that has seen layered complexities over time. When setting up design iterations in such sites, it is vital that the memory and identity be used as keystones to help formulate context-sensitive solutions.
Exhibit A sees the establishment of a waste management centre at the highest altitude in India. This project sees an issue-based approach
undertaken by Rajasvi Singh in her final semester in June 2020. The proposal set out to tackle one of the major issues that our country is plagued with: Waste and waste management. According to the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change, it is estimated that waste generation will go up to 125 million tonnes by 2048. Today, 10 million tonnes of waste is generated by metropolitan cities alone. This proposal is set to be established on a site ahead of Leh city in Ladakh—the recently declared union territory. The architectural intervention attempts to celebrate the local built form, tapping into the latent memory of the region and playing on the emotion of familiarity for the locals. Even with an intervention so new to its context, the physical built form creates a conversant cultural landscape, thus inviting people and allowing the local citizens and travelling tourists to engage.
On ground, the project is a heroic display of all the efforts that take place in a waste management plant, with initiatives that allow people to come and see the difference they make to the environment by being conscious of what they consume and what they dispose of. With multiple viewing windows into the waste management spaces, the programme proposal also includes an exhibition and retail space along with an administrative block. The feasibility test of this project, even at an academic level, was in the clear as the Ladakh government was already in talks with various consultants for its approval. When basing speculative solutions in the imperative at an academic level, such feasibility tests should be conducted so as to ensure the proposal may stand the test of time.
Exhibit B sets out to tap on the emotion of reminisce, with respect to the Kuka Movement in early 1857. This academic scheme takes the sentiment of memory and identity as an approach to define a religious-cultural space, undertaken by Amitoz Pal Singh Boonga in his ninth semester in December 2020. The movement was the first act of mobilisation for the demand of independence from British imperial rule in a peaceful manner. The site of choice for the project was Malerkotla, Punjab, which had witnessed the gruesome act of open firing by six canons on a total of 66 Sikh Kukas, on the 12th day of April 1872, which is remembered as Malerkotla Shaheedi Diwas. The architectural intervention attempts to create a shape that represents the elements of this religious community, where meditation and focus are represented along the main axis, as an attempt to walk along the central spine of the site towards the metaphorically ultimate goal. The central axis guides visitors towards the eventual destination using peripheral landscape as an external guiding factor.
The material palette of the project is dominated by red burnt brick, which acts as the local context for the raw material, thus furthering the environmentally sustainable agenda since brick kilns are located within the 60-kilometre radius. The architectural concept is layered with metaphors of memory from the incident.
For example, the lowest level and the highestbuilt level of the site differ by 6,600 mm to metaphorically represent the 66 shaheeds of the
incident. Also, 6.6% of the site is covered with water bodies, which are placed in the southeast direction to increase the passive cooling, thus creating an improved micro climate on site. The project truly creates a symphony of memories and physical connections with the built. Each aspect is carefully detailed to the value of reminiscence, creating a strong mental image of the project for the viewer.
Both projects exemplify the value of their respective cultural contexts and memory associated with the regions, allowing them to positively testify in favour of the idea of timelessness, whilst surviving in their setting without any external influence and making them truly culturally sustainable.
The
material palette of the project is dominated by red burnt brick, which acts as the local context for the raw material, thus furthering the environmentally sustainable agenda since brick kilns are located within the 60-kilometre radius.