Vernacular Resurgence

Ahmedabad is 610 years old, famed for its architecture and has been recently declared as a ‘World Heritage City’ by UNESCO. Over the past century, and especially the last five decades the city has witnessed a major decline and massive loss to its priceless heritage. The prototypical planning of its pol and individual pol houses date back centuries and they still stand the test of time making them living monuments. The studio proposes to design in this context which is laden with a rich history. The focus and challenges would be to personalize and customize spaces for individual needs and aspirations of a family by designing a residence at an actual site in the walled city. The studio shall begin with conducting studies to understand and sensitize the students to pols and the pol houses of the old city of Ahmedabad. The design process involves addressing specific client requirements, responding to immediate site conditions; while understanding and appropriately extrapolating from the wisdom of the vernacular keeping in mind its relevance in today's time. At the end of the semester, the students shall make a design proposal complete with structure, spatial planning and the furniture layout.