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Catching them young
Two organisations that appear interested in getting the young interested in the old are the Indian National Trust for Art and Cultural Heritage Tamil Nadu chapter and the MEASI Academy of Architecture, which recently hosted an INTACH workshop on conservation in its architecturally handsome, green courtyarded building in the New College campus. The unique feature of the workshop was a documentation competition for which Prof. Altaf Ahmed, Director of MEASI, gladly offered the CAD facilities, plotters and drawing boards of the Academy for the students, who came from architectural colleges from as far away as Tiruchi, to complete their documentation.
The competition, with the dual purpose of providing training to students in heritage conservation as well as for laying the foundation for an INTACH data bank on the city's heritage buildings, had 30 students from eight colleges participating. The students were divided into teams of three and assigned to particular buildings in the city considered heritage sites. Each team was expected to measure the building allotted to it, draw detailed plans of it, sketch its salient features — particularly by way of ornamentation or the way the owners have handled space — photograph it, write notes on the building, particularly recording architectural specialities, building techniques, the present state of the building etc., and discuss what ought to be done to conserve the building and put it to best use in the future.
The buildings documented during the competition were the Madras Literary Society; St. George's School Chapel; Pentland and Jeypore Houses at Queen Mary's College, Madarasa-I-Azam, the National Art Gallery, Madras Medical College, Memorial Hall, Higginbotham's and the Philatelic Bureau. It was good to see the spontaneity with which permission was given by the owners, particularly a Government department or two. But, as usual, other Government departments proved unhelpfully red tape-bound, with papers moving up the line, then down and finally reaching typists who never got around to typing the permissions in time.
INTACH-TN, however, plans to continue the exercise and hopes that other owners of possible heritage buildings will invite it more forthcomingly to send teams of students to document their buildings. The way buildings are vanishing or are crumbling, due to development or lack of maintenance, these might be the only records left of the buildings, seeing that the original plans of most of the buildings in Madras have gone walkabout. Such permission will also help the students become more aware of heritage buildings wherever they are, the need to document them and how they can go about playing a role in restoring and preserving such buildings.
The winners of the first-ever competition of its type in India were Hindustan Engineering for the Madras Literary Society. SRM College for the National Art Gallery was second while Bharath Engineering for Memorial Hall and a joint MEASI-and-MGR College team for Jeypore House shared the third prize. They each win an all-found heritage tour on one of the circuits INTACH-TN has recently been promoting by taking small groups, led by an archaeologist-historian, on such excursions in Tamil Nadu as a Chola tour, a Pandya tour and a Mahratta tour. The winners might well get around to doing some documentation along the way, if they got hooked on to the wealth of architectural treasure this State has.
As one student said, at the end of the first day's introductory lectures and slide presentations, "Why doesn't INTACH get all the colleges offering architecture and civil engineering to offer building conservation courses as part of the core syllabus? At present, it is only an elective in a college or two, and with most of us having little inkling about the subject, as it is barely introduced to us, few opt for it, not knowing what to expect." INTACH's response was that it would be only too glad to help if asked. The question itself indicated that some progress had been made in that introductory session in getting the young interested in the old. And as Daniel, an architect-participant of the workshop said, they should, when they became the architects of tomorrow, take it upon themselves to make clients more heritage-conscious when they are given an assignment involving a possible heritage building, even if it is just a neighbouring one.
At the valedictory function, the brief comments made by team leaders on the experience indicated the project's purpose had been achieved. Remarks ranged from "We did not know such buildings existed in Madras'' to "We were amazed by the high quality of design and construction" and "We enjoyed almost a mystical experience communing with the building." But the most telling comment, and one echoed by many of the participants, was "We felt like weeping at the state the building was in." Perhaps reading these lines, it's just possible the owners of some of the buildings might seek help and advice from qualified conservationists and interested students.
Footnote: Paying a little more attention to the instruction on conservation of heritage buildings in recent years has been the Anna University's College of Architecture Master's programme. It's done some fine documentation of several heritage buildings and one of its best has been a recently done one of Chepauk Palace, the first building to be built in Indo-Saracenic style. I'd like to see those drawings as well as a photographic documentation as part of an exhibition. With plans being discussed for a specially trained conservation cell to be set up in the Public Works Department, it might be an idea if the Department sponsored such an exhibition in its premises, which are part of the palace campus. A well-publicised exhibition would be yet another step towards creating awareness.
S. MUTHIAH
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