CSA Newsletter- August 2010

Contents Editorial

Jiirnnoddharana – Indian Traditional Philosophy of Conservation - 2Dr. Binumol Tom

Spatial Transformation of Dutch period Town Houses in Galle Fort - 5Varuna de Silva and Amanda Rajapakse

Earliest Inscriptions of Nepal - 14Prakash Darnal

Sacred Landscapes of Govardhan in Braj, India: Imagined, Enacted, and Reclaimed - 15Amita Sinha

Encountering Canova- 17-21 June 2010 - 17Poonam Verma Mascarenhas

Tourism Development in Bhaktapur, Nepal: Prospects and Problems - 21Basudev Lamichhane

Sustainable Urban Design- The Bigger Picture - 27Gaurav Sarin

Book Review - 34Dr. Moukhtar Mohammed Mai

Book Review - 35Neel Kamal Chapagain

Book Review - 36Mrinalini Venkateswaran

All Rights Reserved© 2010. SANEYOCOP

Disclaimer:The contents of and opinions expressed in the articles are those of authors and not necessarily shared by the publisher of this publication.

South Asian Network of Young Conservation Professionals

S A N E Y O C O P N e w s l e t t e rVol. 2 / No. 2 May - August 2010

Conservation S o u t h A s i a

1

EditorialEditorJhilmil Kishore

ContributorsAmanda RajapakseAmita SinhaBasudev LamichhaneBinumol TomGaurav SarinMalvika Bajaj SainiMoukhtar Mohammed MaiMrinalini VenkateswaranNeel Kamal ChapagainPoonam Verma MascarenhasPrakash DarnalVaruna De Silva

ModeratorNeel Kamal Chapagain

Special ThanksTo Ms. Jaquie Conway- Associate at AukettFitzroyRobinson for assisting us with the Graphics and Layout of the Newsletter

This issue is a very real evidence of the revival of CSA Newsletter- it is 39 pages long. There’s nothing new about the fascination of historic places. What has changed – and changed utterly – is the scale of the 21st century heritage industry. Connecting people to places is the mood of the times. So how do we make sure the historic environment is at the heart of the new localism?

In this issue of CSA, we start with Jiirnnoddharana by Binumol wherein she explores Indian Traditional philosophy of conservation and how relevant it is today. Varuna and Amanda talk about spatial transformation of Dutch period town houses in Galle fort (Sri Lanka) and bring to the fore some pertinent aspects of urban conservation. Gaurav’s paper explores the connections and the cross-pollination amongexplores the connections and the cross-pollination among sustainability, globalisation and history – or context. He believes that the three should form the very basis of a truly sustainable development – one that responds to not only the local condition, but also to the wider geographic, geo-economic and the political issues. The paper also analyses the linkages of sustainable urban development with design quality, feasibility and policy and how all these together form the basis of sustainable urban planning.

Amita discusses the often blurred boundaries between tangible and intangible through case study of sacred landscape of Govardhan in Braj, India. Poonam’s travelogue on Canova (Italy) makes us reflect upon the often discussed issue of ‘common sense’ approach to conservation.

Basudev’s article on tourism in Bhaktapur, Nepal reinforces two main driving concerns of all heritage operators- the first is the passionate enthusiasm to share the very special place for which they are responsible with a much larger public. The second is the determination to generate enough income to keep them in good repair for the benefit of future generations. Taking us back several centuries Prakash’s article on Earliest Inscriptions of Nepal documents the earliest known record of Brahmi script.

We have three book reviews in this issue- Old but New:: new but Old is a response to 400 years of Dhaka as a capital city- and discusses the neglect and problems of architectural heritage conservation in the developing countries. The Heritage-scape- offers unique perspectives regarding the relationship of heritage with tourism. And finally, Monuments of India documents 50 monuments and steers us towards understanding them from their functional and social perspective rather than community based stylistic affiliations.

- Jhilmil Kishore


2S A N E Y O C O P N e w s l e t t e r V o l . 2 N o . 2 . 2 0 1 0

Jiirnnoddharana - Indian Traditional Philosophy of ConservationBy Dr. Binumol Tom

The philosophies of Conservation are based on the key principles of care, stewardship and that of truth. The concern for protecting and preserving the tangible and intangible cultural heritage was rooted in the eighteenth century romantic and historicist philosophies of the west, which eventually evolved into legalized protection of cultural heritage in the nineteenth century as a reaction to the conservation movements germinated from the works of enlightened individuals namely John Ruskin, William Morris, George Gilbert Scott and Viollet-le-Duc and other people and altruistic groups. In ‘The Seven Lamps of Architecture’, the most important of the many writings on building preservation published in 1849 and, in particular, The Lamp of Memory Ruskin introduces the idea of stewardship: “...it is again no question of expediency or feeling whether we shall preserve the buildings of past times or not”. It was as a reaction to the then popular trend to ‘restore’ old buildings, that William Morris founded SPAB in England in 1877. It is again through Ruskin that we first realize the necessity to make a crisp distinction between ‘restoration’ and ‘repair’ and he felt that ‘restoration’ means “the most total destruction which a building can suffer, a destruction out of which no remnants can be gathered, a destruction accompanied with false description of the thing destroyed”.

While Viollet-le-Duc in France, considered surviving remains as sufficient indication to understand the intent of the original builder which can guide contemporary restoration and preservation. “Knowing that restoration inevitably unsettles old buildings, one must compensate for this curtailment of strength by giving power to the new parts, by perfecting the structure, by clamping walls, and by introducing greater resistances, for prolonging the life of the building is the true task of restoration”, his intention was to extend the life of the monument by providing materials and construction methods, which were superior to those used in the past. He advocated the philosophy of stylistic restoration through stating that, what is picturesque today might well be only a memory tomorrow and further argued that what could be skilfully substituted today, would in turn weather and become picturesque to later generations. There is an apparent contrast in approach between these two figures of nineteenth century restoration, Ruskin and Viollet-le-Duc, who are still acknowledged as the “grandfathers” of the preservation movement representing the two opposite poles of restoration practice though Ruskin is certainly the more accepted in the preservation realm and has remained a strong influence throughout the history of the preservation movement all over the world.

But in India, both the points of view of the French as well as the British, had existed long ago, in essence, in parts of the Ancient treatises of Vastusastra, in the form of Jiirnnoddharana, which were, to an extent, consistent with the modern day conservation principles advocated by the main international charters. Jiirnnoddharana according to the same traditional treatises, was not as much romantic as the western philosophies and was meant to be practical and purely of functional nature. The compound Jiirnnoddharana can be glossed in two ways: jiirnaat + uddhaarana (ablative tatpurusa), deliverance from decay; and jiirnasya + uddhaarana (genitive tatpurusa), ‘raising up of [what is] old or decayed’. The first has a preventive sense and can be understood as preservation or conservation (from servere, ‘to- keep, protect,’ etc., but still not in the modern sense), while the latter has a restorative sense (bringing back to youth/life what is already old and decayed). Jiirna, means ‘old, decayed,’ and also ‘the process of getting old, of decaying.’ Uddhaarana means ‘lifting, raising up’ and also ‘delivering’.

In Vastusastra there are mainly four aspects of Vastu viz. bhumi (land), prasada (the one that gives bliss, the building), yana (vehicles), and sayana (furniture). Shilpa (sculpture) and chitra (graphics) are also considered as the other two aspects forming the shadanga (or the 6 limbs) of Vastu in general. Here, an empyreal assumption is that, Vastu is not a composition of inert components built of different dead materials but has life in it and has been referred to as Vastupurusa or Bhavanapurusa. Planning, design, construction and maintenance, the four aspects of the science of building is based on this philosophy that a building is a living thing. The basic cause of every creation (Sargaprakriya) is the coalescence of Prakriti and Purusa and when we conceive such philosophies as the basis in the conceptualization of Prasada, it gets life and becomes Prasadavastu. Similar to growth even to decay is the law of nature and is inevitable and every object natural or manmade has to undergo change. So even the prasadapurusa has to undergo change and decay. Among ayadi-shadvarga (as explained in Mayamatam), which is a group of six indicators used in traditional science, ayusthiti is very important. It is believed that no creature is immortal in this universe where the process of Srsti (creation), Sthiti (existence) and Samhara (destruction) are going on continuously.

Balatva Kaumaram youvanamadh vardhakyam ca nidhanam ca I

Panch vayamsyesvanathyam nestam sistani vastunistani II

(Manusyalayacandrika)


�S A N E Y O C O P N e w s l e t t e r V o l . 2 N o . 2 . 2 0 1 0

So every prasadapurusa should also undergo the five stages of life viz Balyam (childhood), Koumaram (adolescence), Youvanam (climacteric), and Vardakyam (old age) one by one and finally Maranam (death). This interpretation comes from the understanding that a building is the progeny resulting from the fertilization of the seed planted by the male force vasthupurusha in the female force bhoomi or earth, thus emerging out of her body. So the seed sown (garbanyasa) into the womb of earth at the auspicious time grows above the surface as superstructure into prasadapurusa, then also going through the various stages of growth, decay and death. After the final stage ‘the death’, fortunately some of the prasadapurusas too may have reincarnations or greenings or bringing back to life of usefulness. Here in lies the relevance of Jiirnnoddharana. Though it is desirable to prevent decay of prasadapurusa nothing can stop the real process of aging and thereby decaying. So what is possible practically is to uplift (Uddharana) the decayed (Jiirnna) through the process of Jiirnnoddharana.

Tantrasamuchaya the 15th century foundation text by Chenasu Narayanan Namboothiripad for the construction of Temples in Kerala has a padala (chapter) on jiirnnoddharana written based on Silpasastra of Srikumara. Mayamata also gives rules relating to the renovation of temples, linga, pedestals, images, other constructions and dwelling sites including settlements. The importance attached to this process of renovation is best illustrated by the fact that most of the Agamas, Samhitas, Tantras and others deal with jiirnnoddharana. Naradeeyasamhita, Vishwaksenasamhita, Prathishttamayookham, Bhargavatantram, Vishwamitrasamhita, Suprabhedagamam, Padmasamhita, Kamikamagam, Rauravagamam, Karanagamam, Sookshagamam, Ajithagamam, Chindyagamam, Veeragamam, Markhandeyasamhita, Aparajitha Prachha etc are a few to mention. According to the traditional belief only the Prasada for Deva (religious structures) are intended to remain till the destruction of the universe (Aakalpandhasthasnubhaveena bhakthya Devasyevam samprathisttapitasya) and so jiirnnoddharana was mainly meant for them.

Certain general principles followed in the jiirnnoddharana vidhi (method) are as follows: The restored or renovated edifice must have the same dimensions and similar materials as that of the original one. Under no circumstance, the dimensions of the restored object shall be reduced and inferior materials used. Some texts say that the restored building (especially temples established by Irshis or even ‘believed to be’ self born) can have larger (transcendencial) dimensions and better quality materials and techniques can be employed. Accordingly a single level

vimana of a temple can be made double or three levels; the single cell garbhagriha (sanctum sanctorum) can be expanded. Such alterations are better left to the wisdom of the Acaryas according to the principles of jiirnnoddharana. While towns, villages and shelters should be restored in the same manner, as they existed before.

Nadyadeenam Jalarayirnastam va chalitham tu va

Damabimbadi talstanadh punaranyatra kalpayeth

(Viswamitra samhita)

This means that when an icon of a temple is destroyed or threatened to be destroyed due to the attack of river or sea or storm, the rule is that relocation of prasada should be done within 1000 danda (stick) from the original structure. Here the term danda should be taken as the width of the prasada, which is a module according to some interpretations. The relocated structure should be identical to the original one. Such relocation can be in any direction other than south, southeast and northwest of the original location. The edifice can be reconstructed using the old materials or new. But every part of the prasada should be rebuilt and assembled according to the canons of temple construction. This is probably the reason why descriptions on jiirnnoddharana are brief in agamas and samhitas.

Every element of a traditional building constructed based on traditional principles contain a dimensional code that speaks of the whole structure which makes it possible to extrapolate the whole from the dimension and position of any relic. This is indeed a strong guiding factor in jiirnnoddharana as it can be carried out with utmost perfection and precision leaving no door open for conjectures and refutations. When construction materials such as timber are to be joined it is advised to join old materials to old and new materials to new. Mixing of old and new materials was permitted only under compatible condition, consistent with structural function. Construction style was mainly of sudha (one type of material) and misra (more than one type of material) was rarely adopted. One striking point in Jiirnnoddharana is that though salvaging of material is taken into account (for material conservation) the Acharyas never compromised with the quality & strength of edifices to be renovated. This is well evinced in the practice of not reusing wooden pegs (kila) even if they are in absolutely good conditions. Jiirnnoddharana of decayed historic buildings present particular problems of both technique and approach. According to traditional texts jiirnnoddharana is equally

Jiirnnoddharana - Indian Traditional Philosophy of Conservation (contd.)By Dr. Binumol Tom



Jiirnnoddharana - Indian Traditional Philosophy of Conservation (contd.)By Dr. Binumol Tom

important as new construction. Whether it is total reconstruction or restoration or preservation, all depended on the extend of damage and the importance of the structure (Tantrasamuchaya* padala-11, sloka 1-35).

Whether it is the traditional Indian concept of Jiirnnoddharana or modern conservation science – the respect for life and materials is given prime consideration. In traditional jiirnoddharana concept, if authenticity was believed to be more in spirit than in material, may be it was with the understanding that tradition should be kept alive in spite of the material conservation or may be not. As we understand today that it is not just the historic buildings that are worthy of conservation but the historic ways of buildings too. Apparently, it was discussed also in Nara, Japan that there couldn’t be absolute Authenticity in conservation of heritage buildings, as the time has already gone by - from the original to – today. As a bottom line it should be noticed that Traditional scholarship occurs in the form of expositions and commentaries on foundational

texts, and almost never in the form of a retrospective, critical, study in which one can bracket out a particular aspect of the body of knowledge and treat it almost in isolation with respect to the whole. Traditional system emerged and crystallized within the matrix of the religious beliefs and practices, social, political and economic organization and structures of the people of that time -- none of which no longer exist in the same way today as they were then. In other words, a rupture has occurred in the process of transmission of tradition. But most of the traditional scriptures and buildings are living testimonies of a grand past and form an arena to rediscover hidden concepts, methodologies and techniques.

*Tantrasamuchaya is the 15th century fountainhead for temple construction and rituals in Kerala.

Dr. Binumol Tom is a Conservation Architect and an Assistant Professor in the Department of Architecture at College of Engineering, Trivandrum, India.

SANEYOCOP ModeratorFrom the Moderator’s Desk: August 2010 Newsletter

Following the release of the revived issue of the newsletter – CSA on April 30th, the editorial group received several emails cheering up the effort and promising for participation next time. Certainly,

the revival of CSA newsletter stirred a new wave of energy in the network. As before, the presence of the network and passion of its members continued to be realized as our inboxes received email posts discussing issues pertaining to heritage conservation in South Asia and beyond. A quick sampling of the posts we read in recent months included media news, burning issues in the profession, seeking and sharing professional and educational opportunities, calls for papers, invitation to lectures and seminars, and so on. We were joined by more new members where as some disappeared members also made a comeback from their busy schedule to the virtual network. Yet, obviously we wish to see more active participation, more voices featured, and more issues discussed. While this wish could be taken as a call for more active participation, it may also indicate that we all are extremely busy in our professional ventures. Let’s keep that energy and busy schedule up for the cause of our professional practice, but let’s also remember that connectivity, networking and learning by sharing is also a key to successful professional

practice in the “heritage-scape” – a term borrowed from Di Giovine (see book review in this issue) but to mean all levels of heritage sites, not just the World Heritage sites.

To facilitate the virtual networking, we also ventured into other platforms of web-networking, such as Facebook and Linked-in. While Facebook group has relatively encouraging membership, Linked-in professional networking has not been much appealing to majority of us. An attempt of compiling our members’ professional directory has mainly been unsuccessful until now due to extremely low number of information received to date. This perhaps indicates a success of the network that we all are so well connected to each other that there is not really a need of a directory as such. However, if we think that compiling a members’ database as a directory may be a good tool to pursue, we remain open to continue work on compiling the members’ information. A web-blog and an online document sharing tool have been used to facilitate the sharing of this newsletter. A major next target is to revive our lost website. As we move forward, we hope that SANEYOCOP will continue to be an active platform to facilitate our continued conversation about conservation, and it is possible only with your valuable presence in the network.



Spatial Transformation of Dutch period Town Houses in Galle FortBy Varuna de Silva and Amanda Rajapakse

Galle - A History

The city of Galle situated on the South Western tip of Sri Lanka (Figure 01) is the administrative capital of the southern province of the Island. Its historic quarter, the Fort, is said to be the largest surviving Fortified Dutch Colonial Town outside Europe and one of

the best examples of a fortified city built by the Europeans in South and South East Asia. This was declared a UNESCO world heritage site in 1984 (Figure 02).

The modern History of Galle starts in 1505 when the first Portuguese under Lorenzo De Almeida was driven here by a storm. They built a small fort in 1589 on the orders of Viceroy Mathias de Albuquerque. In 1640 the Portuguese surrendered to the Dutch East India Company. The Dutch set about constructing the massive ramparts and the fortifications in early 1660s. The fortification was strengthened and completely overhauled during the administration of Dutch Governor Petrus Vuyst (1726-1729). In 1796 the Galle Fort was handed over to the British.

The fort is approximately 40 hectares in extent and is divided into sectors based on the standard grid iron pattern of streets established in all Dutch colonized cities of Asia. There is a hierarchical arrangement in the buildings which consists of Churches, Hospitals, Administrative buildings and town houses.

The morphology of Galle Fort represents a primary response of the buildings to the street. Residential plots which are about 50% of the built fabric are narrow on the street frontage and run deep and perpendicular to the street (figure 03). This was a common practice in dividing plots in all colonized cities of South East Asia. The commercial value of the street frontage in urban spaces was a major consideration for the frontage to be narrow.

Houses in row on either side of the street with colonnaded open verandahs contributed immensely to the character of the streetscape by defining its street edge. This characteristic remained intact during Dutch and British Periods, where Galle continued to function as an Administrative Centre of Southern Sri Lanka.

•Govt’s Offices

•Commercial

•Primary Residential

•Mixed Residential

•Religious

•Industries and Warehouses

•Educational Institutes

•Recreational

•Recreational open spaces

•Public Square

•Vacant Land

EXISTING LAND USE

Figure 01

Figure 02 Aerial Views of Galle Fort (photos Ashley DeVos)Figure 03 Period of ConstructionSource: Ancient Ceylon, CHCS, University of Moratuwa



Spatial Transformation of Dutch period Town Houses in Galle Fort (contd.)By Varuna de Silva and Amanda Rajapakse

Architecture of the “Town House” of Galle Fort

What is generally referred to as ‘Dutch Houses’ in the Galle Fort have a complex history. These houses have typical characteristics of Sri Lankan vernacular architecture of the maritime region in the 18th and 19th centuries. Culturally, this has involved the combination of Asian and European concepts, designs, technologies and ways of life and their adaptation to the new social needs in tropical Asian conditions2. Therefore, it is not considered authentic Dutch but a hybrid of western and eastern architecture. It is a new form of Domestic Architecture, built by local craftsmen based on the knowledge of migrant Dutch, denoting a unique style of architecture of Dual Parentage.

The plot configuration has been a major generator in defining and restricting the original form of the house. The courtyard has been a central element that not only provided light and ventilation to the town house but shaped the other main functional spaces around, giving it identity and definition.

Analysing a majority of the town houses in Galle Fort, it is evident that there is a very definite pattern in the arrangement and relationship between the spaces of the house. The Stoep (front verandah), Klein Zaal (lobby), the Zaal (Great hall) and the Halvedak (back verandah) although different in size, proportion and in interior detailing (based on the social and economic status of the occupants) have almost always been consistent as distinct types of semi private spaces in the front section of the house. The more private spaces were organized towards the rear of the plot, around or along a courtyard. This quiet, interior courtyard was the space around which the domestic life of the family revolved. (figure 04)

Some distinct elements can be identified in a typical Dutch Town House abutting a street frontage. They are;

Stoep (front verandah)

Klein Zaal (lobby) which could consist of one or two rooms on either side

Zaal (Great hall)

Zolder (attic - above the Zaal)

Halve dak (back verandah) so called because only half the paved is covered by roof

Plaatse (Courtyard – paved compound)

Slaap Kamer (Bed rooms)

Visite Kamers (Visitors’ rooms)

Plaatse Kamer (handy room used for different purposes)

Keuken (Kitchen)

Dispens Kamers (Store room)

Well – usually in the Plaatse

Lavatory (figure 05).In addition to these spaces, there were service corridors by the side, but within the house itself in instances where there was no street or service alleyway abutting or behind the house for removing soil from the lavatories or in some houses, for taking the horse to the back of the house.

Transformation of form of the Town House

The unique architecture of domestic buildings and streetscape generated by these buildings gradually began to disappear during the latter part of the British and post Independence periods. Particularly during the last few decades, there is an apparent loss of character in the building envelope and in the internal planning of these town houses. Main reasons for this occurrence could be due to expansions and fragmentation to

Figure 04 Two typical configurations of town houses in relation to courtyard

Figure 05 Typical plan of a Dutch House in Galle Fort.

Source: Brohier R.L, Links between Sri Lanka and The Netherlands




accommodate additional functions due to growth of family units, legal ownership related factors and a general deterioration of spaces owing to the poor economic status of most of the occupants.

Conservation efforts related to Galle Fort

During the late 1970’s with worldwide trends on preservation of heritage, conservation efforts on Galle Fort too got under way. With the newly acquired status as a World Heritage Site by UNESCO, the ongoing efforts in preservation of public buildings and infrastructure with patronage from local and international communities as well as of the Government of Sri Lanka were enhanced.

However, privately owned domestic buildings, which are an integral part of the Fort Heritage, were not governed by rules or regulations with regard to restoration and preservation. This resulted in rapid changes and deterioration, causing severe changes to historic streetscapes.

Since 2007, several new attempts have been made to preserve the historic landscape of the Fort by restoring of private houses. Building Regulations of the Urban Development Authority, conservation regulations imposed by the Galle Heritage Foundation and legal jurisdictions of the Antiquities Ordinance have been used as tools for these proposed preservation attempts. The Centre for Heritage and Cultural Studies of University of Moratuwa provided technical assistance as Consultants and the Galle Heritage Foundation was the implementing authority.

Method of preservation was adoptive conservation related to social conservation aiming at preserving the outer envelope of the building to harmonize with the surrounding streetscape while allowing occupants to alter the interiors of their houses to fulfill their modern day requirements. Proposals were prepared to bring back houses to its townhouse character.

55 Private houses had been selected for this programme. The main intention of the programme was to reduce the negative impacts of environmental and climatic aspects through a policy of minimum intervention. One of the primary tasks was to reintroduce the front verandah which was one of the most important elements of the town house architecture of the Fort of Galle and restoration of the roof, if rescue conservation was needed.

The present conservation efforts focus on refurbishing the front

layer of the Town House. There is a need to investigate beyond these more public areas of the house to study the layout and transformation of the more private internal spaces of the house with the passage of time.

The Study

This study is an attempt to investigate the present context of the ‘Town houses’ within the Dutch fort, specifically the interior spaces and layout, how they have been transformed by the occupants .

Six examples on the basis of the variation in the spatial layout, unique social circumstances and accessibility are selected (figure 06) from the 55 houses that were preserved/conserved by the GHF to analyse the following;

1. The physical characteristics of the Town houses at present and what the original might have been (considering the layout, usage of materials, details, finishes of the existing building) to identify a pattern in the physical transformation.

2. The Social context (Ethnicity, Gender, life styles, privacy requirements) of the occupants that may have influenced changes as expansions, encroachments etc.

Figure 06 Location of selected houses within the Fort




3. The Environmental/climatic responses and material usage of the dwelling that affects the basic light and ventilation requirements and comfort levels of the internal spaces.

Analysis of the selected Houses

1. NO 52, LEYN BAAN STREET

Physical definition

The plot has a 7m wide street frontage and is 33m deep. The jagged edge in plan form of the plot suggests that it might have been fragmented at some point of time. The house appears to have been an L shaped single storied building with a courtyard along its length. The footprint of front four layers of space which are Stoep (front verandah), Klein Zaal (lobby), Zaal (Great hall),

Halve dak (back verandah) appear to be unchanged. Beyond that, the courtyard has been built upon to add a kitchen and a toilet. As in most houses, additions have been bedrooms, cooking spaces and bathrooms. The rooms along the courtyard have no windows making the rooms dark, hot and also damp during rains (figure 07).

A narrow service alley connects the rear boundary of the plot from the side. The alley which may have been continuous appears to have been encroached upon by the rear boundary terminating at this point.

Social context of the occupants

A Muslim family occupies this house and according to the head of the family they, have been occupying the house for five generations. Privacy of the females was a prime consideration of the family. They were not comfortable with the surface conservation method that transformed the enclosed front verandah to an open one exposing the female members of the household to the general public. The verandah is therefore not used by them. The front door and windows are kept closed making the verandah redundant. The verandah is thus a mere artifact or decoration to the street devoid of functional relevance.

Environmental response

The front four layers are thermally comfortable as opposed to the modified and added spaces to the rear. Physical encroachment on to the courtyard as well as lack of openings in the bedrooms have compromised the level of natural light and ventilation that could

be obtained by the bedroom and pantry to enable more livable spaces.

Moreover, these modified spaces have been built with thinner walls, low roof heights, heat generating material such as asbestos for roofing, cement blocks for walls etc. contributing to a warmer temperature within the building.

2. No 08, SMALL CROSS STREET

Physical definition

This is a two storied house on an 8m x 37m plot on Small Cross Street linking Leyn Baan and Church Streets. Every element of the house appears to have been modified and added on extensively beyond recognition. Space definition of the front four layers remain as per original footprint. Above these four spaces there are four identical spaces on the upper level with access from both verandahs. The front stairway from the verandah to the upper level appears to be a later addition to give access to the upper floor bedroom and living area which functions as a guest house away from the more private spaces of the occupants. There is an obvious difference between the appearance and treatment of the front built spaces of the house (both ground and first floor) and the rear. The front portion is well maintained and clean, compared to the rest of the house. The reason could be that the front spaces are used as a Guest house. (figure 08).

Beyond these layers, it has been built up in a manner that it becomes difficult to understand what the original layout may have been.

Figure 07




Along the length of the plot runs a service lane about 1.4m wide. These service lanes which were required for servicing the pit latrines during the Dutch times and still used as a service access ways.


Although the inhabitants are Muslim by ethnicity, the fact that the front area of the house has been converted to a guest house indicates a deviation from their usually conceived social pattern. A strong need for privacy is not directly evident except for the subtle separation of the two areas of the house by the second internal verandah which physically acts as the boundary to the private spaces of the house.


This house does not have adequate light and ventilation as a 24m

x 8m space is ventilated only through a central courtyard which is 2.4m x 2.4m. Furthermore, this courtyard is covered at roof level by a concrete slab to accommodate a toilet on the upper floor.

A series of rooms exposed to very little natural light and ventilation makes the spaces feel unhealthy.

3. 78, 78A, CHURCH STREET

Physical definition

This house is unique as it has been divided by an imaginary line lengthwise along the middle of the 8m x 35m plot beyond the three front layers, and used as two separate houses for two families. They even have two separate assessment numbers. The three front spaces are common and shared by both families. Beyond these spaces, a narrow passageway of approximately 1.2m acts as the separator and the only source of light and ventilation to the houses on either side. Most of this passage is covered with a roof. This space however is not used for circulation. Circulation within the two houses is through one room to another. (figure 09)

This too would have been an L shaped house with a courtyard which has subsequently been completely built up.


The occupants of the two units are Muslims by ethnicity. In Muslim society, though it is acceptable for many families to live in one house in different rooms, the situation here does not seem hygienic as there is no natural light and ventilation into the rooms.

Moreover, the unique feature in this subdivision is that the two families are not related even though they have mutually agreed to share the public layers of the house. The close proximity of the two units sharing a narrow open slit to obtain light and ventilation also compromises their privacy needs by being visually and aurally exposed to each other.

These are aspects that cannot be dealt with mere physical conservation efforts. The delicate balance of the social context and legal rights of ownership cannot be compromised and this is a unique situation which limits the general physical interventions that are possible within the town houses to enable a better environmental condition enhancing the livability of the place.

Figure 08





It appears that the only way to obtain light, ventilation and circulation to the building is by removing the encroachment on the original courtyard. But this will result in one family losing their home. Therefore, the existing internal spatial layout of the house, though not conducive as a healthy living space, seems irreversible.

Thus the whole idea of legal ownership issues, importance of social sustainability and being sensitive to the community needs become a key point in responding to and directing the future conservation efforts of the interior of the houses.

4. 43, CHURCH STREET

Physical definition

This is a relatively wide plot of 16.5m X 35m. Therefore the house is a U shaped structure with a courtyard in the middle with two wings on either side. Though the buildings on either side of the courtyard have been built at a later date, the footprint appears as per the original. Apart from the doors and windows facing the front verandah which represent details of the Dutch period town house all other elements in the house have been replaced. As in many other houses, the four layers of the more public spaces towards the front of the house are intact with thick walls resulting in a cool and comfortable temperature (figure 10).

An interesting feature here is the ‘pavilion’ like structure built in the courtyard with blank walls to either side of the courtyard. This had been a living space but unused now. The space has been built in such a way that light and ventilation to the bedrooms and kitchen are not obstructed.

There are sheds added to the rear that are temporary in nature which appear to be storage spaces. They are dilapidated structures that take away the possibility of using the original open space to enhance the livability of the place.


The occupants of the house are an old Muslim lady with a female occupant to assist her. Thus the spatial needs of the two present occupants are minimal. The house looks completely neglected and on the verge of collapse.


Even though the extent and flow of the central courtyard has been blocked by the built up pavilion, the general lighting and ventilation level has not been compromised to a large extent. The planting in the central courtyard and trees growing in the backyard have influenced a cooler temperature within the property. However, the unused pavilion is a physical encroachment that restricts the natural flow of space along the length of the site.

5. 75 PEDLAR STREET

Physical definition

The plot is 8m x 40m with an unusual profile, an L shaped plot with a two storied house. Toilets are added at random locations in the building. The definition of the rear garden indicates that a portion of the plot may have been acquired later on for additional space requirements to build a new wing or might have originally

Figure 09

Figure 10




been a larger plot which has been subdivided.

The three rooms at the rear on the shorter side of the plot which appear to be a later addition does not impede the functionality and aesthetics of the existing space. However, subsequent partially built additions in the middle of the court yard, toilets at random locations positioned without much consideration of the affects on spatial definition, and the shed at the rear, built across the site have completely compromised the aesthetics and livability of the place. (figure 11)


The occupants are Muslims but do not occupy the house at present as they need to resolve legal ownership of the place. Thus the place is in a dilapidated state and on the verge of collapse.


Except for the random additions mentioned earlier, the older segment of the house, which is a greater part, is thermally comfortable with the courtyard providing adequate light and ventilation to the built spaces around.

More than any other house that was considered for the case study, the original structure of the entire house including building materials appears to be original(Coral stone walls, original Dutch period doors and windows in the more public spaces of the house, timber floors etc). However, as it is in a rundown condition the building is badly in need of repair.

6. 22, Hospital Street

This doughnut shaped layout on a 13.7m X 23.35m plot is one of the best examples of a house that has not lost the original central open space. The rear block of rooms, toilets on one side of the verandah and the upper level appear to be a later addition. But, these additions have not blocked natural light or ventilation to the house. (figure 12).

This house demonstrates how additions and changes could be made to the original design without compromising the livability of the place. Unfortunately no attempt has been made to maintain this house and it is very urgently in need of repair as it is on the verge of collapse.


Though the occupants are Sinhalese by ethnicity they are not the legal owners of the property and there is a dispute over ownership. In addition, the occupants’ poor economic status appears to have prevented them from making any renovations or repairs to the house.


The central court yard is adequate to provide light and ventilation required for comfortable living environment.

Figure 11




General observations through analysis of the case studies

Physical definition

1. Most urban houses in the Galle Fort have retained the first four layers of space (verandah to street edge, living space/lobby, inner living space/great hall, verandah to courtyard).

2. What have changed are the more private areas beyond these spaces. Reasons could be;

a. need for more space due to larger families – additions and fragmentation

b. need for modern day requirements - internal bathrooms, kitchens

c. transfer of ownership – due to economic reasons

d. social habits of occupants in relation to space usage

e.Galle acquiring World Heritage status too has contributed to this

3. The original courtyard which is evident in all these residential buildings has been compromised to gain more private spaces. (Mainly bedrooms and bathrooms) They have been encroached upon or have been completely covered for built up spaces. Therefore light, ventilation and proper circulation which are essential for a healthy

living environment have been compromised.

The study revealed that preservation of the street façade and envelope is inadequate to sustain this historic city. Giving the occupants the total freedom to alter the interiors without any guidelines has made most of the spaces almost unlivable in terms spatial quality. Adequate natural light, ventilation is lacking. As laymen, they would want to maximize built up or covered area within the plot, without due consideration for essential aspects needed for a healthy living environment.

Thus for the present and future internal physical changes to be compatible to the aspect of ‘livability’ that existed in the original town, careful consideration of the present community along with their social needs is vital in conservation efforts to preserve the overall sustainability of the historic Fort of Galle.

Social needs of the families

Considering the definition of social sustainability, a community is much more than what is represented through the physical form of their habitation. Composition of a community is of people as well as the places where they live which are as much social environments as physical environments. The original design of town houses was for a community of a specific era with specific needs, values and cultural norms. With passage of time, the ethnicity of communities that occupied these houses changed. Along with the change in lifestyle, the need for functional spaces as physical demarcations of their social beliefs and norms changed.

For example, a greater majority of the people occupying the town houses are Muslims by ethnicity. The issue of gender segregation especially where women are preferred to be away from the public imposes specific restrictions on their space usage. This was a prime restriction in reintroducing the open verandah to the front façade of the building which exposes women to the public.

An interesting observation was that in some houses where the open verandah was reintroduced in place of an enclosed space, this verandah was not utilized by the occupants. During the day, only women occupy these houses and they keep the front doors and windows closed in order to prevent the interior of the house being exposed to the street. Therefore, the verandah has become a mere ‘artifact’ or ‘ornament’ to the street.

The private spaces zoned towards the rear areas of the site, clustered together with minimum exposure to light and ventilation

Figure 12


1�S A N E Y O C O P N e w s l e t t e r V o l . 2 N o . 2 . 2 0 1 0


almost represents the need for segregation. Furthermore, in some houses that were studied, the existing method of expansion of spaces where circulation is from one room to another due to narrow width of plot indicates the limitation of privacy within the family which appears acceptable, representing the strong social links within the extended family.

These social norms and corresponding spatial needs are unavoidable in any attempt of maintaining the social sustainability within the Galle fort.

Environmental definition

The environmental response of the town houses cannot be considered in isolation although it should be a prime consideration for habitation. The present usage of the town house is strongly linked to the social composition of the occupants; the functional and spatial needs and the limited space of the plot that is available to manipulate for fulfilling their requirements legally or otherwise.

Physical conservation guidelines devoid of an understanding of the social context will not ensure that individuals, families and communities will make environmentally sustainable choices in organising their interior spaces. However, as part of social conservation, working closely with the community and understanding their social needs can help to make environmentally sustainable choices easier.

The Dutch adopted simple design features in the town houses that created a very comfortable temperature within the house. High roofs with wide overhanging eaves, verandahs on either side of the main functional spaces that created a buffer zone preventing heat transmission, thick walls that reduce heat transmission, and design features that allow for cross ventilation etc.

Educating the community on the possibility of adopting such simple methods in their houses and the long term environmental benefits of such decisions could convince them to consider environmentally sustainable design options in future expansions

Conclusion

The historic city of Galle has survived almost four centuries with changes, additions and modifications with the rich layering of different periods evident, though blurred. The fortified town is unique in the sense that it has continued to function as a living

settlement while accommodating all the other administrative, religious and commercial activities. The architectural fabric reveals different phases of its development bringing variety to its social and physical attributes.

The houses have survived, and have been occupied for centuries due to the fact that they were designed in a way that the main aspects for healthy living which are adequate natural light and natural ventilation was obtained into the buildings and adequate privacy by locating them around or along a courtyard.

The interesting observation is that major changes have happened in houses only in the past half a century. And some of these changes have made the houses not conducive for healthy living.

Urban conservation often attempts to freeze or fix a past. In seeking historical originality, social consciousness is often ignored or overlooked. The attempt has been to restore buildings in exactly their original shape where the outcome becomes contrived.

Thus it is apparent that the scope of architectural conservation is more complex than prevention of deterioration in historic buildings. It involves a range of issues related to social, political and economic dimensions.

The most interesting and challenging aspect of conserving this historic city is to retain the social and physical cohesiveness while conservation efforts are carried out. The changing socio economic situation demands that broader social issues are addressed as well.

References

1. Bandaranayake Senake.1992.The Galle Fort: A Walled Town of Sri Lanka’s Third Urbanisation .Ancient Ceylon. Journal of the Department of archeology, Sri Lanka, 15 11-13

2. Brohier, R. L. and J.H.O. Paulusz..1951. Land Maps and Surveys.Vol.2.Colombo: Ceylon Government Press

3. Brohier, R. L. 1978. Links between Sri Lanka and the Netherlands. Colombo. The Netherlands Alumni Association of Sri Lanka.

4. Cordiner, James.1807. Description of Ceylon.. Aberdeen: Longman, Hurst, Rees and Ovme.

5. De Silva, R. K. and W. G. M.Beumer. 1988.1988. Illustrations and Views of Ancient Dutch Ceylon 1602-1796. London: Serendib Publications

6. Kuruppu, I and Gamini Wijesuriya. 1992. The Conservation of Galle as a lining Town: Challenges and Prospects. Ancient Ceylon. Journal of the Department of archeology, Sri Lanka, 15:21-25

7. Nelson, W.A .1984. The Dutch Forts of Sri Lanka. Edinburgh. Scotland. Canongate

Continued on page 14- bottom half




8. Raven-Hart, R. 1964. History in stone. Ceylon. Lake house Publishers

9. Manawadu, S. 2009 .Preservation of private houses in historic site of GalleTsuji Funo felicitation volume - Kyoto University, Japan

10. Manawadu, S. 2010.Competition submission to UNESCO, Bangkok 2009

11. Manawadu, S. 2010 Preservation of historic Streetscape through reparation of private houses in world heritage site, Galle, Sri Lanka – Professor Nimal De Silva felicitation volume

12.Wijesuriya Gamini, ed. 1995. European Architecture and Town planning (Dutch period) outside Europe. Proceedings of the International

seminar held in Colombo, February 24-28, 1995. Ancient Ceylon – Journal of the Department of Archaeology no.18.

13. http://newcity.ca/Pages/social_sustainability.html (Retrieved August 09, 2010)

Varuna de Silva and Amanda Rajapakse are Chartered Architects by profession and Senior Lecturers in the Department of Architecture, University of Moratuwa

Earliest Inscriptions of NepalBy Prakash Darnal

Stone Inscriptions have been important source for the writing of authentic history in Nepal. Dhanavajra Bajracharya ,the famous author of ‘Licchavi Kalaka Abhilekh ‘collected more than two hundred inscriptions belonging to Licchavi period . It was published by Centre for Nepal Asian Studies in 2030 B.S . According to this source, Mandava was the first Licchavi king, who erected Samvat 386 (A.D.464) inscription at Changu Narayan Temple. Two sculptures of Trivikram Vishnu, which have inscription of Mandeva period, Samvat 389 (A.D.467) were earliest inscribed and dated sculptures. So Samvat 386 (A.D.464) inscription of the Mandeva at Changu Narayan Temple was believed to be the earliest dated inscriptions until the finding of Mandeva inscription of Samvat 381 (A.D.459) at Pasupatinath Temple in 2046 B.S. These inscriptions are from Kathmandu Valley. But inscriptions of Niglisagar and Lumbini, both erected by Ashoka in third century B.C. in Kapilavastu and Lumbini are the earliest inscriptions outside the valley. Niglisagar is dedicated to Kanakmuni Buddha and the Stupa was restored as before but twice in size. It is the earliest record of restoration even in Indian peninsula. The other pillar of Lumbini is important evidence of birth place of Buddha.

In 1992 (2049 B.S.), a sculpture, broken in four pieces was found at Maligaon, when digging the foundation of a house. It was the sculpture of King Jaya Varma (171*49cm) dated Samvat 107 (185 A.D.) This has been displayed now at National Museum, Chauni after the completion of its restoration. The inscription of Jaya Varma has pushed back our inscriptional history 274 years.

While restoring Dhando Chaitya in 2059 B.S. a brick was found inscribed in Brahmi script “ cha ru wo ti thu pa” . It is the earliest and first record of Brahmi script in Kathmandu valley dated third century B.C.

Prakash Darnal is an archaeologist, working in Culture Ministry of Nepal. He worked as conservationist with Department of Archaeology in 1978. Prakash currently works in Ministry as under secretary (Chief Archaeology Officer)

Brahmi script found from Dhando Chaity ,Chahabil

Inscription of Niglisagar,Kapilvastu Jaya Varma Samvat 107 (185 A.D.) Trivikram Visnu Samvat 389

Inscription of Lumbini



Sacred Landscapes of Govardhan in Braj, India: Imagined, Enacted, and ReclaimedBy Amita Sinha

Among the many sacred sites of Braj, Govardhan Hill is revered as much the Yamuna riverfront, if not more. It symbolizes Krishna’s superiority over capricious forces of nature worshipped by Brajvasis (residents of Braj) as gods to be placated. As a metonymic form of Krishna it is the embodiment of divinity, its every stone sacred. Its cultural landscape evolved as stories of Krishna celebrating his victory over gods, prowess over demons, dalliances with the gopis (cowherdesses) and manifestation to his devotees became associated with specific sites. The physical setting and its signs and markers are mnemonic elements and tangible reminders of Govardhan’s mythic and historical past. They are cues for ritual enactments that visualize and affirm one’s relationship with the divine. The real and the imagined landscapes are bound in a reciprocity that is weakening with the intense pressures of uncontrolled growth, mechanized modes of transportation, and breakdown of customary rights and obligations towards forest and water bodies. The rich environmental and cultural heritage of Govardhan (and Braj) is at stake compelling a serious effort towards reclaiming, remediating and restoring the Hill.

Govardhan Real and Imagined

Govardhan Hill has been visualized and represented in manifold ways. The rich array of images allude to the many myths centered on the Hill, of which the most popular one is Krishna holding it up like an umbrella on his little finger to protect brajvasis from the floods sent by the wrathful god Indra. Other representations include the mountain-river dyad Govardhan Hill and Yamuna River flowing at its foot, the Hill as a mountain of food Annakut, Krishna filling the hollow of a cave in the Hill, and the Hill as a peacock and a bull. Individual sites on the Hill are visualized on their own accord with imagery drawn from Krishna sporting with Radha and other gopis in verdant, Eden like setting of kunj (bower) and nikunj (arbor) in groves. The Hill being Krishna’s svarup (essential form) and his embodiment has many boulders and stones carrying the imprint of his face, crown, flute, hands and so on.

The relationship of imagined landscapes described in words and images to the actual, physical landscape may at first appear tenuous, but on closer examination it is apparent that idealized imagery has indeed inspired and imprinted the present day cultural landscape of Govardhan. Quite unlike its conical representations, Govardhan Hill is a long, low ridge, rising no more than 100 feet above the surrounding plain. Much of what is seen of its landscape today stems from historical events and activities of charismatic saints in the sixteenth century. No building structures prior to that period exist and in the absence of systematic archaeological excavation of the Hill, it is a matter of conjecture what the sites were like before they were reclaimed as sacred places. Legend has it that they were neglected and lost to memory, the temples raided and deities hidden in ponds or buried. The ruined sites were rediscovered by Narayan Bhatt, Chaityana, Vallabha, Madhavendra Puri, among others who had visionary experiences of Radha and Krishna when they began living there in the sixteenth century. They composed books, re-established worship, and created the pilgrimage circuit. The lost ponds were dug up and made into built kunds, presumably groves were re-planted, and hidden or buried deities were found and installed in temples.

Govardhan Enacted

The landscape is seen, felt, tasted, and inscribed in the body in parikrama, raas, festivals, and daily worship. The enactments evoke appropriate bhav (moods and feelings), give meaning, build memory, and hold out the possibility of encounter with the divine presence. Although Krishna is the subject of devotion, his transmutation into natural forms imparts sanctity to landscape elements—the Hill and its boulders and stones, the built kunds and natural ponds, the garden groves and even the soil (braj-raj). Of the many ritual enactments, the one that involves the entire Hill is its parikrama. This ancient rite of circling a sacred object is the primary way of experiencing the landscape—there is no reaching a center as the climatic event of a journey, rather a series of places (kunds, temples, sthalis) are visited on the way. Parikrama



Sacred Landscapes of Govardhan in Braj, India: Imagined, Enacted, and Reclaimed (contd.)By Amita Sinha

Amita Sinha is a Professor in the Department of Landscape Architecture at the University of Illinois at Urbana Champaign, USA. She has worked extensively on heritage sites and is the author of Landscapes in India: Forms and Meanings (University Press of Colorado, 2006)

is done through walking around the Hill and for the very devout through prostrations on the ground (dandauti parikrama).

Scholarship on Braj has emphasized the (re)construction of sacred landscape in pilgrimage and continuing enactment of rituals that affirm an idealized vision of that landscape. Enactments create memorable experiences rooted in the body’s myriad interactions with the place. Narratives acquire vivid shapes and hues eliciting bhavs as they are enacted in raas lilas in garden groves. The multi-faceted view of nature and divinity seen and experienced in Govardhan (and Braj) is unique, a kind of cultural heritage deemed ‘intangible’ although it has a very tangible expression in landscape iconography. The landscape is continuously imprinted and modified by human acts driven by faith and cultural beliefs that keep this heritage alive and vital.

Govardhan Reclaimed

Due to fluidity and open-endedness of customary practices, ritual enactments result in a dynamic, continuously evolving cultural landscape. With increasing urbanization, the cultural landscape of Govardhan is changing and the incongruence between the real and imagined landscape is becoming more marked, reducing the quality of engagement with the sites. Private realtors building luxury condominiums and gated residential communities are encroaching upon the farmland around the Hill. The existing settlements too are expanding into the vans and the groves are being replaced by agricultural fields or housing. Increasing number of pilgrims (five to seven million annually by some accounts) has stressed the carrying capacity of the landscape. The existing infrastructure to support the movement and needs of such large numbers is inadequate.

The powerful Govardhan iconography in popular imagination demands that its actual landscape conform in some degree to its representations. The loss of vans and kunds and disappearance of place markers would mean a weakening of collective place memories affecting one’s capacity to envision. It is argued that one way to conserve intangible heritage is to protect the cultural landscape of narrative place markers, relics, and other commemorative structures that act as mnemonic devices in keeping the place bound traditions alive. Restoration of the kund in the garden grove, the archetypal landscape unit, is therefore

imperative as is reclaiming space for the prostrating pilgrim and the holy wanderer. In reducing the dissonance between the imagined and the real lies the hope that Govardhan Hill will continue to be revered as the most sacred object in Braj.

Although Govardhan Hill does not fit either the natural heritage categories of “wildlife sanctuary”, “reserved or protected forest”, ‘national park’ or heritage category of historic monuments in “archaeological park”, it possesses both environmental and cultural heritage. Its environmental heritage is the transcendental view of nature in the landscape imaginary and its cultural heritage is the rich corpus of place narratives and ritual enactments. The ambit of pilgrimage can thus be expanded to include eco-cultural tourism leading to coordinated and integrated cultural landscape protection and management. The first step would be to obtain a formal designation, legally binding and administratively enforced, for Govardhan Hill as a protected cultural landscape, with a 500 feet buffer zone where development can be regulated. This easement is necessary to protect the Hill from encroachment.

The Hill presently appears to be under siege, a victim of its own rising popularity as a pilgrimage destination. Building construction and expanding settlements are causing irretrievable changes in its landscape. Fencing the Hill to protect it from these changes would be an immediate, short-sighted response, defeating the very purpose of conservation. Improving accessibility and legibility of its landscape, organizing movement, consolidating and separating incompatible functions on the other hand will increase its carrying capacity. Govardhan can thus be a model for other hilly sites in Braj exemplifying the delicate balance of the symbiotic relationship between nature and human culture.

Note

The article summarizes the project on Govardhan Hill by a team of graduate students from the Department of Landscape Architecture, University of Illinois at Urbana Champaign under the guidance of Amita Sinha in Spring 2010 and in collaboration with Braj Foundation, Vrindavan.



Encountering Canova - 17-21 June 2010By Poonam Verma Mascarenhas

Canova Association has been hosting the event ‘Canova International Architect Encounter’ since 2001. This June, thanks to Brinda Somaya’s recommendation and on the invite of Ken Marquardt, President of the association, I found myself in the Domodossola valley at the foothills of Italian Alps, comprising several villages, each dotted with medieval stone houses.

Ken and Kali, turned their backs on the US, and reached the European shores some two and a half decades ago. On reaching this valley, they laid their back packs as their search for a place where ‘not all was done’ had ended. Many villages were nothing but a macabre of ruins, abandoned for 50- 70-100 years. Ken bought a ruin, befriended Paolo Mafrici, a stone mason, and got to work. The ‘fixed-up’ ruin became home for a decade to Kali and Ken and as their family grew, another set of old houses, up the hill found a new lease of life, while the old found a new owner. Friends and family came to visit, liked what they saw, and invested in some more ruins and got Ken and Paolo to fix them as homes. Painters, actors, writers, dancers from the US, Canada, Switzerland- have been ‘discovering’ the valley with its quaint village roads, natural springs, giant oaks and high Alp ridges for two decades now. Canova today looks restored with 20 odd houses rehabilitated by the duo. But, there are many more awaiting a new lease of life or municipality-

As it is often, all learning is in retrospect, so it appears- for Ken and friends too, who had been acting on a natural response of seizing an opportunity and making good that was available with adequate resources. Changing and growing with experience, meeting the demands, working within the restraints, absorbing the inputs and altering the built fabric for absorbing the lifestyle and catering to the same. The numbers of stakeholders increased and an association (www.canovacanova.com) was born. Now the need was felt for sharing the ‘experience’ and invite the ‘trained’ to debate on the future and share the joy for continuum of the adventure.

To think that in Italy, the birth place of conservation movement (Venice Charter) and conservation technologies (ICCROM), a valley has an ongoing adventure of revival ‘by the people, for the people’ as a sensitive and sensible response as opposed to an intellectual concept of ‘conservation of sense of place’ and devoid of the obsessive ‘authenticity’ was indeed a major surprise! The structured thinking of participating in a ‘meet’ was broken and ‘out of box’ exploration set in - for me. Young architect Paola and partner Maurizio’s venture into buying a ruin at the abandoned for fifty years - village of Ghesc, with intention of making a home, felt liberating. Wading through the rivulet, walking in a line through the trees up the hill to reach the next project site of the association sure felt like stepping into an era of another time.

Just as the emotional brain was revelling in the experience, the rationale jumped in with its incessant drone “so what am I doing here?” I turned to my co-invitees.

View of Canova

hammer, in the nearby villages, as it came about not so long ago.

Views of Canova

Route from Canova to Ghesc

Village Ghesc Ruin Ruin bought by Paola & Maurizios in Ghesc

Julian, Gustavo & Ken (from left to right)



Encountering Canova - 17-21 June 2010 (contd.)By Poonam Verma Mascarenhas

I knew from emails that Julian Smith is heritage architect with over three decades of works in Canada. What I wasn’t prepared for was an open face, clear eyes and warm smile with the heart in Meenakshi Temple at Madurai and a vision for reviving the ‘artisan’ in the ‘architect’ at the Willowbank School (of restoration arts, www.willowbank.ca ) in Canada which he helped set up and is Executive Director of. This is his consecutive visit as course director for the summer camp of ‘building with stones’ and his conspirator is Ken who with his team of architects and masons conduct periodic training courses where the students learn by working on site.

The ten ‘students’ who signed up for the Willowbank summer camp are people from all walks of life(such as a retiree from automobile industry; a technician from Nuclear Plant) brought together by the internet for their interest in rural stone buildings. All were enthused to build the stone roof over the house at Ghesc.

then became easy to shut the ‘bee in my bonnet’ and just be.

Borella, a village nearby, stood out most amongst the many sites that we visited. We all were united in recommending this site to the association as their new venture with the local government to establish the participatory process of caretaking.

The group duly visited the workshops of stone sculptors and nearby hill village of Vogogna. The mayor of Vogogna has a vision of putting it on the tourist map of scenic hill towns of Italy. Except for the access road and the unplanned industrial development of 1940-60s in the vicinity, we all were in agreement that the historic

Views of Vogogna

The ‘encounter’ acts as the preface, and perfect moment for Architect Gustavo Araoz to take the stage. President ICOMOS for three years now, Gustavo’s visit was strictly ‘non official’. He was grabbing a few days for

himself and going off the official grid to keep his promise to his friend Julian Smith. He closed his own preservation architectural practice a decade or so back in the US, to devote himself to the cause of heritage via the ICOMOS while contributing to the academia as visiting professor internationally. His wit and sensitivity and the realism made my days at Canova an encounter worth remembering.

Gustavo oriented the students to the world of ‘structured conservation’ and us to his vision for a shift in paradigm within ICOMOS and the world from traditional heritage places whose significance rests on tangible physical elements to heritage sites where the values attributed to the place reside largely or

completely on intangible concepts and wondered if the policies for former could also cater to the later or was it time for new insights; which felt fresh like the Alps breeze. He shared his vision of setting up of scientific committees – to redefine ‘policy’ and align it with ‘practice’ and revisit ‘ethics’ for ‘values’ in ‘intangible concepts’ and not just the ‘material fabric’. With the shifting demography, he wondered aloud relevance of ‘cultural identity’ as basis for continuum of certain heritage. In such erudite company, it

View of Ghesc

Views of Borella




core of the hill town itself had immense scope and quality. Julian was put in the hot seat by Ken and the mayor’s representatives, to recommend a strategy to tackle the eyesore buildings dotting the edge of the hill town, and he did so with some thought: “plant trees and hide all that which cannot be demolished”. Simple and brilliant indeed!

tunnel which has air stacks every 40-50 mts along its length of 200 mts on both sides, which were used to discharge waste from levels higher and are sources of air supply. The temperature drops dramatically with every inward step and percolating water from the hill above flows on the pebbled floor. We walk on gratings in a line of twos and reach the extraction hall: 50 mts. long and at least as high! It is a marbled hall with striations continuing from the floor to the walls to the ceiling and back to the floor, and sweeps up on the sides, with of course no joints. The vastness is astounding and so is the quality of sensory atmosphere. There is a stepped portion in the hall that feels like a stage while we stand in the proscenium of a theatre that inspires. Once inside, it became easy to understand leitmotiv of the Brazilian choreographer Ismael Ivo who performed here the interpretation of the ‘Myth of Atlas’. The quarry has enthused many and is fast becoming a destination as a cultural space. It sure is an example of generic ‘adaptive reuse’. I couldn’t recall another building as opposed to this hole in the hill that had my senses alive as much!

Our presence in the valley was made public at the official encounter one afternoon where amidst the residents, press and officials we presented our works, congratulated the association, and appealed to the local authorities to participate and support the ongoing valuable effort of retaining and reviving the built landscape of the valley and desist the demolition. We were joined in our effort by some of the past participants who had travelled from Miaine, Istanbul, Genova and Ljubljana especially for the encounter.

The closed round table did stir many, ’cause here was an example of conservation at work that had economics as bedrock and emotional content as a cornerstone without the tag of ‘heritage’. It made for musing the role of ‘heritage’ industry with its many a don’ts. A familiar theme did emerge that of the issue of ‘plenty’!

While the valley is otherwise known for its granite quarries, the marble of Ornavasso has a mention since the Roman times. Altars and statues of first and second century AD are housed in the Civic Archaeological Collections of the Castello Sforesco in Milan. The heir to the quarry is also a member of the association and a sculptor of repute and was our guide for the afternoon. Having lived in Rajasthan, India and being familiar with many a quarry, it all seemed a little trite. The visit is now my most cherished memory.

The quarry is one of the first examples of tunnel excavation. While the section we visited is now a visitor centre, an active tunnel is just beneath. The handout informs the system to be of Simplon tunnel which consists of four exploratory drill tunnels in proximity, keeping the diaphragm of rock intact that separates them and to be demolished last. The largest is used as entrance. Once the quarry was abandoned, the owners vaulted the entrance tunnel using the rubble from the site. As a visitor you walk through this vaulted

Marble Quarry Entrance

Entrance Vault within the Marble hall

Round Table

Marble Striations Expanse of the Quarry



house of Fredy’s, to the roar of the stream at its footing with the view of the rising Alps through the strings of the flowering wine on the iron trellis: why we talk only of the houses and not see that it is ‘a way of life’ that was being resurrected!

The experience reinforced my understanding:

‘Conservation’ is all about an attitude as in mindset

Attitudes are shaped by values

Values are imbibed through interaction and facilitated by education

Education provides knowledge (only), which when used with awareness becomes wisdom

Wisdom is directly proportional to sensibility

Sensibility is being ‘conscious of senses’

Senses are common to human beings and hence the term ‘common sense’

Thus Conservation makes for and demands ‘common sense’

And perhaps it is just not so common any more, and hence Conservation is not so simple any more.

Two decades of work life has seen Poonam building with alternative technologies at Auroville; Conservation and development of 22 govt owned heritage buildings at Jaipur, Amber and couple of privately owned palaces along with several old houses at Goa, where she currently resides. Her listing was published in 2000 as the Kerala Heritage Guide and has researched and authored “Silent Sentinels, Traditional Architecture of Coorg”, published by HECAR Foundation in January 2006. Founding member of Goa Heritage Action Group, member of Goa Bachao Abhiyan and Director of Archinova, her work is guided by the inter-relationship of human consciousness and the environment and she strongly believes in collaboration.

None other realm talks as much about the problem of plenty as is done in the field of heritage buildings. Malls keep mushrooming and so do the resorts but when it comes to future of old buildings and especially the domestic, the ‘heritage inspectors’ balk and take cover and shoot the ‘lack uniqueness’ palettes and legitimise demolitions.

I wondered to myself enjoying the embrace of the 200 year old


As part of the series titled ‘Conservation Briefs’, INTACH has published in June 2010 ‘Guidelines for Preparation of a Heritage Management Plan.’ It has been prepared by 3 co-compilers: Benny Kuriakose, Nupur Prothi Khanna, and Malvika Bajaj Saini.

The compilation offers a list of items and ideas that could be used for developing a complete programme of action and planning for implementation stage. This publication is mainly targeted towards architects, planners, engineers and others who are not trained in conservation, but who practice conservation. For those who are trained in conservation, this will be useful as a checklist; especially to plan for implementation of conservation projects.

The guidelines deal with aspects of a heritage management plan

New Publicationcovering all scales, including urban conservation as well as building conservation, and certain sections focus on buildings.

The initial sections of the publication deal with the rationale for preparation of a heritage management plan and assessing significance of a heritage property. The structure of a heritage management plan is drawn out and emphasis is laid on defining the vision, developing objectives, formulating policy guidelines, and a programme of action follows from these. The latter part of the document provides checklists and additional key aspects for planning and implementation of a heritage management plan, and the need for evaluation throughout these stages.

The publication will be available at INTACH office, 71 Lodhi Estate, New Delhi – 3, India.

- Malvika Bajaj Saini

Fredy’s Casa



Tourism Development in Bhaktapur, Nepal: Prospects and Problems By Basudev Lamichhane

Bhaktapur: A Historical Background

Bhaktapur, one of the seven World Heritage Sites within the Kathmandu Valley of Nepal, was founded in the 9th century and was the centre of the Malla dynasty until the mid-18th century. Between the 12th -15th centuries, Bhaktapur was the capital of a unified Kingdom of Kathmandu Valley of Nepal. Major architectural masterpieces located within the Bhaktapur Durbar Square, Taumadhi Square, and Dattatraya Square in Bhaktapur were erected during this period. Bhaktapur kingdom was disintegrated in 1484 AD and was divided into three different states - Kathmandu, Lalitpur and Bhaktapur. With the passage of time, the modernization and urbanization took place in a fast pace in Kathmandu and Lalitpur, but Bhaktapur was able to keep its medieval, traditional and cultural identity even till today.

Bhaktapur is one of the smallest districts among 75 districts of modern Nepal. It occupies 138 square kilometers and lies 14 Km to the east of Kathmandu at 1401 meter from the sea level. The district has been divided into two municipalities (Bhaktapur Municipality and Madhyapur Thimi Municipality) and 16 Village Development Committees. Bhaktapur Municipality spreads in the area of 6.6 square km and one of three major towns of Nepal, locally known by Bhadgaon and Khwopa. It is a place of historical importance and home for medieval art and architecture, renowned for its colorful festivals, traditional dances and typical indigenous Newar lifestyle inhabited by 80,000 Newar peasants. And majority of population is still engaged in agriculture. Besides agriculture people are also engaged in pottery, handicrafts (Thanka painting, wood carving, handloom cloth weaving, Nepali cap making) and hotel/restaurant activities. Since it displays historically and architecturally vibrant heritages, religious monuments, festivals, traditional music and ritual dances, all displaying vibrant depth of Newari Culture, this ancient city is also variously known as the ‘City of Culture’, ‘City of Devotees’, ‘a Living Museum’, ‘the Cultural Capital of Nepal’ and ‘Nepal’s Cultural Gem’. In 1979, Bhaktapur was declared a World Heritage Site by UNESCO, along with six other monuments in the Kathmandu Valley.

Major Tourism Attractions in Bhaktapur

Monumental masterpieces in Bhaktapur are innumerable. Most of the temples are Tiered Style buildings; they have multiple terracotta tile roofs one over the other supported by intricately carved wooden struts or columns, wooden doors and windows, gilded roof pinnacles, open brick-paved spaces around, and above all, an

image of the deity presiding over the edifice. Still every temple and monument carries architectural and cultural uniqueness. And each monument reflects a different component of the religious belief, social outlook and the economic status of the rich culture and long artistic tradition of the indigenous Newars.

Durbar Square: The Durbar Square, one of the seven UNESCO world heritage sites located in the Kathmandu Valley, stands as a monumental gem. This spectacular square lies in front of the palace complex, once one of the seats of the Malla Kingdom till 1769, and is an open-air museum itself. Once packed with various monuments, it was destroyed by the disastrous earthquake of 1934, yet still holds mesmerizing palaces, Tiered-style temples, Shikhara-style temples as well as Buddhist monasteries of exclusive architecture.

Taumadhi Square: Taumadhi Square, just half a minute walk from the Durbar Square, divides the ancient town into upper and lower halves. The biggest festival of the town – Bisket Jatra, celebrated annually in April – starts from this very square. The square is dominated by the mesmerizing five storied Nyatapola Temple, Bhairav Nath Temple and Til Madhav Narayan Temple. Being centrally located, a lot of activities depicting local life-style and culture can be observed here throughout the day.

Dattatraya Square: Like the other squares, the Dattatraya Square is also like an open-air museum that contains several monuments and is home to some of the ancient city’s best masterpieces of woodcarvings. Bhimsen Temple, the famous Peacock Window, the Bronze and Brass Museum, the Woodcarving Museum and Dattatraya Temple are the major attractions of this square. It is probably the original centre of Bhaktapur in the initial periods of its founding.

Pottery Square: Bhaktapur’s two Pottery Squares are world



Tourism Development in Bhaktapur, Nepal: Prospects and Problems (contd.) By Basudev Lamichhane

renowned, and so are the many potters that can be seen working there on their traditional wooden wheels. The main Pottery Square is located some 500m to the southwest of Taumadhi Square, on the way to Suryavinayak. Here visitors will find potters giving shape and size to lumps of black clay, and earthenware they make ranges from such household goods as pots and jars to cheap souvenir items. As pottery in Bhaktapur is a family job, visitors may chance upon the entire family doing their parts of work. Bhaktapur’s second Pottery Square is located to the east of the Dattatraya Square. Here also, visitors will see the ancient city’s well-known craftsmen sunk in what they have inherited from their ancestors.

Other Areas of Attractions: The world famous Changu Narayan temple, the oldest Tiered-style temple in Nepal and the World Heritage site, is only six km to the north of Bhaktapur. The temple premises also boast of housing a number of masterpieces in stone. Above all, the enclosed area is also home to the Kathmandu Valley’s oldest stone inscription, which dates back to 464 AD. Nagarkot—one of Nepal’s most favored tourist destinations—is some 17 km to the northeast, from where one can savor the breathtaking 360-degree views all around including the thrilling Himalayan panorama to the north. In a clear day, visitors can also have a mesmerizing glimpse of Sagarmatha (Mt. Everest) (8,850 m), the highest point on earth and a World Heritage site, from here. The Madhyapur-Thimi Municipality area—a part of Bhaktapur District—is another destination that travelers just should not miss during their stay in Bhaktapur. Located five km to the west of Bhaktapur, this part of the district is well acclaimed throughout the world for its pottery, papier-mâché masks, farmlands, and above all, the authentic Newar art, culture and creativity pursued by the local people.

Museums in Bhaktapur: Even though the whole city could be

considered a live museum itself, Bhaktapur still offers the three specialized museums: The National Art Gallery is located in the Durbar Square and exhibits many masterpieces in stone, metal and paper that include an ancient book on various breeds of horses and remedies for their ailments. The book, which contains many illustrations, folds out to a length over three meters. Another attraction here is an ancient scroll painting that shows Lord Indra, king of all gods and goddesses, infested with female genital organs all over his body, which he got as a punishment for seducing the wife of a learned saint.

The Woodcarving Museum is housed in the 15th century Pujari Math, a priestly palace which itself is no less impressive than an open museum. With its intricately carved wooden windows and doors, the building still stands witness to the artistic excellence of Newars over five centuries ago. And it is on the eastern façade of this structure where one can find the world famous Peacock Window. This museum exhibits various wooden objects dating back to Lichhavi (400-1200) and Malla (1200-1769) periods. The Brass and Bronze Museum displays a wide variety of metal objects. Housed in an equally historic building, the museum exhibits such ceremonial and household items as ritual water vessel, varieties of traditional oil-fed lamps, ordinary water vessels and jars, utensils, spittoons and so on.

Festivals of Bhaktapur: Bhaktapur’s monuments serve as a stage for the city’s many festivals and cultural dances, which are at least as spectacular as any architectural structure. Still celebrated with the same old fervor and enthusiasm, this living heritage

has been handed down from centuries in an unbroken chain from generation to generation. The most popular festivals of the town are Bisket Jatra and Gai Jatra (Cow Festival). Others

are Mother’s Day and Father’s Day (not the Western-style days), Birthday of Lord Buddha / Swanya Punhi, Yenya Punhi, Mohani / Dashain, Swonti / Tihar, Maha Shiva Ratri, Holi / Fagu, and Nava-durga Dance etc.

Dattarya Square

Wood carving, Brass & Bronze Museums are located here

Neel Barahi Festival at Thimi

Tongue Piercing Festival at Thimi



Ritual Dances of Bhaktapur: There are over 150 musical groups and over 100 cultural troupes that make Bhaktapur as culturally lively as it was centuries ago. Among the local dances of Bhaktapur the name of Devi Dance comes to the forefront. Men wearing masks and adorned with embroidered laces and decorative floral designs participate in it. The dancers represent such deities as Kali, Kumari, Maha Laxmi, and other demons. The dance of Kumari and that of Maha Laxmi on the back of a gorgeous lion are exquisitely charming. One could include Bhairav dance and Maha Kali dance in the same category. They dance in tune with

of master craftsmen have been carrying on their time-honored traditions of arts and crafts. Bhaktapur’s handicrafts includes paubha (scroll) paintings, papier-mâché masks, cotton cloth, woodcarvings, metalwork, and jewelry. One can also find the homespun haku-patasi (black sari), traditional black caps, and the world famous Juju-dhau- the King of all Yoghurts.

Tourism Facilities

Bhaktapur is one of the most visited cultural destinations in Nepal. With the increment of visitors’ number, the city has also seen a considerable surge in tourism activities including hotels, guesthouses, restaurants and handicrafts shops in and around the historic territory. Like anywhere else, the guesthouses in Bhaktapur do vary in size and standard, but things that they all have in common are their convenient location, varieties of amenities and above all, the personalized service they offer to their customers. The rooms are well-appointed, most of them having all amenities that a modern traveler may look for. For those whose preferences are for luxury-starred hotels, it is only a few kilometers away from the city centre. The city is a favored place for gourmets and gourmands as well. Tastefully decorated and well stocked, restaurants in this historic city serve varieties of culinary delights ranging from simple Nepali food to international delicacies. Adding to it, the ambience is serene and soothing. And always with an eye on hygiene, what they offer their customers suit both their palates and wallets. Among other facilities that tourists enjoy in Bhaktapur, guide facilities in various languages and comfortable and


the blowing of trumpets called Khing. This dance is very vigorous and awe-inspiring. Among the other local dances, the names of Monkey-Dance, Dancing Girls, and the duel dance between Shiva-Parvati, Bear Dance and Lakhey Pyakhan Demon Dance are the popular dances. These dances are exhibited during the Gai Jatra festival which takes place in August.

Products of Bhaktapur: Besides monuments and festivals,

Bhaktapur is equally rich in local Newari handicrafts. Generations

pleasant access/transportation to and from Bhaktapur are also available.

Present Tourism Trend

Approximately, 150,000 visitors visit Bhaktapur every year. A recent study conducted by the Bhaktapur Tourism Development Committee (BTDC) revealed that 32% of the visitors came to Bhaktapur to see the World Heritage Site, 30% came to experience local culture, and 29% came to observe the local lifestyles. Those visiting for study and research purpose have been

Masked Devi Dance Indideneous Newari Dimay Musical Group with Dimey Instrument



found to be only 2%. Those who visited Bhaktapur with other purposes have been found to be 7%. The major motivational factors for visitors were the World Heritage Site followed by experiencing local culture and observing the local lifestyles of Bhaktapur.

The study revealed that 55% of the visitors learned about Bhaktapur through travel guides, guide books and the Internet. Of the total, 15% knew about the place through travel agents, and 11% learnt about it through friends while 7% knew from advertisements and press articles.

The study also revealed the gloomy fact in regard to the visitors’ length of stay in Bhaktapur. Of the total visitors, 70% visitors have been found to have spent only few hours to one day in Bhaktapur. Visitors spending one to two nights have been found to be 16 % and only 10 % visitors have spent more than three nights in Bhaktapur. The visitors spending more than three nights were found to be those who have visited the city before. For a visitor per day average expenditure was also found to be very low i.e. 30-40 USD. Handicrafts, especially woodcarving and Thangka painting are the most purchased souvenirs by the visitors in Bhaktapur.

Tourism Revenue as a major source of heritage conservation

The preservation and conservation of heritages demand investment and sincere efforts from governments and local community. Without financial sources it is very arduous job to preserve and conserves such legacies of our ancestors. In order to carry on the conservation and preservation works initiated by Bhaktapur Development Project (BDP) in the 1970-1980s, Bhaktapur Municipality started charging an entrance fee for the international visitor’s sinc1993. Since then the municipality has been annually receiving approximately 70-80 million Nepali rupees from entrance fees and investing on the conservation of cultural, historical and religious monuments, education development and sanitation.

The US $ 10 entrance fee has been the major source of income for the Bhaktapur Municipality. The Municipality spends almost 45% of the total fund generated from the tourists’ service fees on keeping the city clean and in the improvements of urban infrastructures. Of the remaining fund, 35% is used for heritage conservation and management, 15% for education, and 5% for cultural promotion. The urban heritage conservation of Bhaktapur includes not only the important monuments, but also the surroundings, courtyards

and squares, lanes and streets and its townscape as well. Therefore, Bhaktapur Municipality was awarded by the UNESCO PEACE PRIZE for 1998/1999 as recognition of its endeavors to conservation and preservation of cultural heritage of the city.

The lesson learnt from the conservation efforts of Bhaktapur is that the investment made on heritage conservation pays in the long run. Conservation of heritage on the one hand preserves the legacy of our ancestors and creates opportunities for economic activities and provides benefit to local people on the other hand. Therefore, conservation of heritage should not be considered as a liability by the government and local community. It is also an activity of economic development which indirectly helps to uplift socio-economic condition of local people and reduction of local poverty.

Impact of Tourism

The ever-increasing flow of tourists possesses economic potentiality and as well as threat to the cultural heritage, which in principle reflects the history of the socio-economic development of the society. The economic developments are rapidly taking place and the impact on the heritage is clearly visible. It has also brought changes in the cultural landscape with the introduction of modern technology in communication and concrete structures in the old city core areas, either destroying the old heritage houses or modifying them altogether resulting in significant quality of the cultural landscape.

Bhaktapur is predominantly an agriculture based city and tourism has been the second economic activity of the people. The recent survey conducted by BTDC has shown that there are 27 hotels and restaurants, 81 handicraft shops, 35 woodcarving and mask-making centers, 19 Pashmina shops, 33 Thanka (scroll) painting shops, 17 pottery centers, and it is estimated that at least one




member of each family is engaged in knitting and handlooms activities. Development of tourism and expansion of tourism related activities have also contributed to the creation of employment at local level. Locally produced agro-products have now easy access to local hotel and restaurants and its direct beneficiaries are local farmers. The Major economic impact of tourism in Bhaktapur is the major source of revenue through which Bhaktapur Municipality has been carrying out its activities.

Prospects of tourism development

With the availability of historical, architectural, religious and cultural heritage there is an immense possibility of the development of various tourism products to cater the interest of visitors of different age-group in Bhaktapur. Bhaktapur Municipality is located in the middle of 16 village development committee and there is Changunarayan Temple and Nagarkot as already developed major tourist destinations in the district where majority of the visitors who visit Bhaktapur also visit these areas. The village development committees are inhabited by different ethnic groups with their unique culture where home-stay, village walk and agro tourism activities as well as adventure activities like short hiking, mountain biking and jungle walk can be developed. Of the total visitors, as per the survey, 70% percent preferred to stay in the houses of local people in Bhaktapur. So there is a high possibility of development of home-stay activities in the two municipalities. Therefore, there are immense possibilities of the development of culture-based and nature-based tourism activities in the district.

Though, there are huge potentialities of tourism development and socio-economic development of local people with the availability cultural and natural attractions in the district, the concerned authorities have become aloof towards this fact and remained so for a long time. If the available potentials were reaped then there will be lots of tourism activities to fulfill the need and interest of visitors.

Tourism Development Initiatives

1. Bhaktapur Development Project (BDP): A Turning Point of Tourism Development in Bhaktapur

Bhaktapur Development Project (BDP) was started in 1974 with the assistance from Federal Republic of Germany and continued till 1986. The BDP completely renovated 182 priest houses, public shelters and inns, 17 sunken tap and ponds, 2 museums, 6 private buildings of archeological values and other dilapidated monuments destroyed by century’s of time and 1934 earthquake. The project paved 140586 m2 of streets, installed 4520 private and 38 public toilets, two sewerage plants and carried out various activities to uplift the socio-economic and health related status of the people. The follow-up project was also carried out during 1987-1991. Once the filthiest place before 1970s was completely converted into the living museum and slowly the enchanting art, architecture, cultural heritages and colorful festivals lured many visitors from different countries of the world. Now a day’s approximately 400 visitors visit this well preserved cultural capital of Nepal. The complete renovation work carried out by the BDP during 1974-1986 and the declaration of Bhaktapur Durbar Square as a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1979 finally prepared Bhaktapur to become an attractive tourist destination.

2. Role of Bhaktapur Municipality

After the completion of BDP, the responsibility of conservation and preservation of heritage was handed over to Bhaktapur Municipality. Since then the Municipality has been carrying out conservation projects of cultural heritage in its own capacity and in partnership with the Department of Archeology of Nepal. Bhaktapur Municipality receives substantial amount as income in the form of entrance fee from international visitors and the amount is used to carry out small or large scale renovation and conservation projects, development of educational infrastructure, sanitation and waste management. Another source of income




the local government receives is a tax from hotel, restaurant and handicraft business sector.

The role of Bhaktapur Municipality in conservation has contributed a lot to expand and promote tourism activities not only in the Municipal area but also in the surroundings. It is very necessary for Bhaktapur Municipality to work towards mitigating the problems associated to heritage preservation and tourism development by investing more on basic tourism infrastructures, facilities and conservation of intangible cultural heritages like traditional music and dances. It is also very indispensable for Bhaktapur municipality to carry out tourism development and promotional activities in association and partnership with the private sector and local community.

The investment on the conservation of heritage plays a crucial role in tourism development and would attract more visitors which provides major source of income to the local government. And invest of the small amount by local government on the basic tourism services and facilities, development of new tourism products will enhance the service and quality of tourism which will eventually attract more visitors ultimately doubling the tourism revenue. Therefore, focusing only on the heritage conservation overlooking the necessary infrastructure to be developed for tourism hampers both the heritage conservation and tourism development. Hence, the local government should adopt a balanced approach in heritage conservation and tourism development.

3. Role of Bhaktapur Tourism Development Committee(BTDC) in Heritage Conservation and Tourism Development

Bhaktapur Tourism Development Committee (BTDC), established in 1997, has been working in four main areas of tourism; Product Development, Product Promotion, Service Quality Enhancement and Sustainability. Its main function is to identify measures that contribute to the conservation and development of historical and cultural sites as well as traditional skills and technologies. The Committee has been involved in developing training programs and disseminating information. It has already demonstrated and played the catalyst role in developing culture-based tourism products like Bhaktapur Night and Food Festival and promoting this product in direct partnership and co-operation with the Nepal Tourism Board. Similarly, short hiking and biking trail development and home-stay activities in the surrounding rural villages in lengthening the visitors stay, workshops, seminars and awareness campaigns

have been carried out by BTDC. Various promotional activities on handicrafts, traditional dances and music by organizing handicraft fairs and cultural shows have been carried out. It has been publishing various brochures, booklets and a tourist guidebook on Bhaktapur’s rich culture. A tourist information center has also been setup in its office to provide information to the visitors regarding unique culture and festivals of Bhaktapur.

Problems and Constraints

Despite the huge potential of tourism development in Bhaktapur, there are some problems and constrains which have emerged as challenges along with the development of tourism in Bhaktapur. Seasonality is the major problem of tourism in Bhaktapur. Sept-Nov and Feb –April are the two chief seasons during which most of the visitors come to Nepal. Bhaktapur receives majority of visitors during these two seasons. This seasonal nature of tourism has put adverse effect in the hospitality service business and people who depend on the living of handicraft business.

Modernization has also posed threat to the conservation of tangible and intangible cultural heritage as the new generation is inclined towards new trends and lifestyles. Despite the building code of conduct and bylaws introduced by the Municipality, the constructions of new concrete and modern houses are increasing. The unchecked and frequent vehicle flow in the major heritage sites are the main challenge to keep these historical and cultural sites intact. Visitors hardly get an opportunity to observe the fabulous art and architecture due to free movements of vehicle in the heritage areas. Historical-traditional dances and music are the major cultural assets of Bhaktapur. These dances and music that were performed every day in every nook and corner have now being disappeared day by day due to lack of financial incentive and encouragement to the local cultural groups from concerned authority. Cultural and heritage conservation also include these intangible cultural assets and failing to preserve them also make us fail towards heritage conservation.

Lack of information, activities, and facilities for diverse tourist interests is another issue. The local guides are more motivated by financial gains than providing true information to the visitors. Likewise, sufficient and adequate information materials about the cultural heritages, local festivals, cultural dances and music are lacking in Bhaktapur. New tourism product development and product diversification based on local culture, traditional musical and dances in Bhaktapur and disburse the visitors by developing




Mr. Basudev Lamichhane is working as the CEO in Bhaktapur Tourism Development Committee(BTDC), a nonprofit organization active in the development of Healthy and Sustainable Tourism in Bhaktapur-(The UNESCO World Heritage Site, Cultural Capital and Open Museum of Nepal.

short hiking and trekking trails to the surrounding urban areas have become another big challenge to meet the interest of the visitors having different interests. Similarly, lack of coordination and cooperation among local people and local government, lack of trained human resource in hospitality business sector, inadequate tourism promotion activities form municipality, and lack of benefit sharing mechanism to local people have been the major shortcomings of tourism in Bhaktapur. There is also lack of sufficient tourist toilets, information & communication centers, city maps, signage and signposts, information materials about heritage, culture and festivals, and health facilities for visitors in city area in Bhaktapur. The tourism activities are only based and centralized in Bhaktapur municipality. On the one hand visitors’ length of stay is very short due to less tourism activities in the city area and on the other hand there are many places of interest of natural, cultural and historical values which are not yet developed as the tourism sites in the district. There is also lack of big hotels in city area. Therefore, most of the visitors those stay overnight in Bhaktapur are budget travelers and they are accommodated by local guesthouse.

Another drawback in Bhaktapur’s tourism is the presence of beggars and hawkers who are a nuisance to visitors by begging money and forcing visitors to buy souvenirs. Bhaktapur, once known as the chief producer of paddy with full of green paddy fields has now filled with brick kilns. These growing brick kilns have reduced the quality of environment and beauty of the city as well as the whole district to a great extent.

These problems exist until and unless there is a strong coordination and cooperation among local government, private sector and local community. All stakeholders need to act together to mitigate these problems and convert these problems into opportunities. Despite consecutive advocacy from BTDC and private sector, the concerned authority has not been taking any curative measures to mitigate these problems which have marred the healthy and sustainable tourism development in this city. The City of Bhaktapur has become a special example for the world in its efforts for economic well-being through heritage conservation and tourism development. Aloofness of the concerned authority towards the existing problems may hinder the smooth development of tourism activities in the Bhaktapur and eventually affect tourism revenue that ultimately hamper the heritage conservation as well.

Future Strategy for tourism development and heritage conservation

Heritage is what Bhaktapur boasts of. The conservation of heritage is imperative for its identity and continuity of the culture and furthering its development in the future. Realizing the richness of art and architecture and the functional values of the heritage, there is the provision of providing technical and financial support by Bhaktapur Municipality to the heritage house owner for maintenance and up-keeping of the heritage house intact. Material (brick, wood etc) and financial support have been provided by the Municipality for new construction of private houses inside the municipal area. Building code and bylaws have been introduced and applied and building of new private and public structures near to the heritage site has been checked by heritage site code of conduct. But attempts to declare vehicle free zone for the heritage site have not been materialized due to the people’s private houses and commercial enterprises are located inside or near to the heritage area. Therefore, massive awareness campaign is necessary to create the feeling of ownership of the cultural heritage among the local people.

In order to develop rural tourism, agro-tourism and eco-tourism, culture based tourism and manage the cultural heritage, minimize the negative impacts and other socio-cultural problems created by tourism, lengthen the visitors stay, diversify tourism products, enhance the economic condition of rural-urban community and reduce poverty, a Tourism Development and Management Plan of Bhaktapur district is being formulated with the active involvement of District Development Committee of Bhaktapur, Bhaktapur Municipality, Madhyapur-Thimi Municipality, Nepal Tourism Board, all the 16 Village Development Committees, Bhaktapur Tourism Development Committee , Bhaktapur Chamber of Commerce and Industries, and other stakeholders.

The major objectives of this plan is to ensure sustainable tourism development in the district with the focus on the heritage conservation by bringing all the concerned stakeholders together to develop new tourism activities and tourism destination as well as disburse the visitors currently centered mainly in Bhaktapur, Changunarayan, and Nagarkot to the other parts of the district in order to lengthen their stay and increase their per day average expenditure. The objectives also include developing the whole district as the major tourist destination of Nepal by the management of cultural and natural heritages and their marketing and promotion in national and international arena.



Urban Design

There are numerous definitions today for ‘urban design’, each denoting a range of concerns and activities that differ from one another in scope, objectives and practices. The Urban Design Group, UK, suggests that urban design is “concerned with the careful stewardship of the resources of the built environment in the creation and maintenance of those parts of the public realm that are new or have been cherished”… but it still does not define urban design.

Although pre-designed urban surroundings existed long before any definition, it was in the 1970s that the concept of urban design was introduced. The reasons for this conceptualisation may be embedded in specific situations, acknowledged by professionals and the public in the late 1950s. They formed the raison d’etre for the newly defined sphere of activity and were constantly reaffirmed in urban design discourse: to give people back that which modernist sterility, abstraction, uniformity and minimalism had taken from them.

The outcome of modernist urbanism was placelessness.

Urban design was directed towards placemaking.

Urban design was established in opposition to modernist urbanism and there was a broad common denominator among creators of normative theories, such as, the intention to re-establish quality of place in the public realm. Just as the renewed interest in postmodernist urban fabric arose from the need to exploit all possible local assets to assist the reorganisation of post-industrial inner cities, and especially the tourism industry, so did placemaking. Evoking a ‘sense of place’ is related to human scale, emphasis on the local (historical, natural or cultural), legibility, defined urban spaces, pedestrian circulation, stimulation of all senses – the essential characteristics of downtown. Although nowhere has urban design become a distinct profession, it has been embraced into the heart of ‘good practice’ guidelines, particularly in Britain and other European countries. For the better part of the last century, visions of the city were reduced to what could be engineered to fit the abstractions of a technological milieu and its economic dictates. This became a world of immediacy, of concreteness, where the real and the possible were framed by the Cartesian dictates of technological determination, which, in turn came to be indiscriminately understood as the only form of realism possible.

There is an emerging need for a triumvirate of influences to guide the development of urban centres (Figure: 1). Working together, these three aspects serve to create better urban environments.

Globalisation

More than ever, markets appear to transcend the borders and interests of nation states, while the ability of individual countries to direct their internal economies and shape the way in which they interact with external forces has declined. These changes reshape urban networks and rearrange the distribution of opportunities and income in cities, regardless of a city’s participation in global economics. Due to the modern-day capacity and ability of capital to switch locations, all cities- with the exception of ‘global cities’ which are decision centres- have become interchangeable entities to be played off against one another from positions of comparative weakness for the investment of capital. In this situation, the task of urban governance has become the creation of urban conditions attractive to lure investments. In many places, there has been a shift in the attitudes of urban government from a managerial approach to entrepreneurialism. This entrepreneurial stance views the city as a product that needs to be marketed. This marketing approach, and the emphasis on restructuring the city so it appeals to businesses, has led to the dominance of economic interest in the decision-making process of urban planning. ‘Urban regeneration’ has become a growth industry in itself as a variety of options have opened up to rebuild cities…derelict industrial sites have been converted to heritage parks, old canals have become housing or shopping areas, warehouse conversions have become something “chic” to live in.

Sustainable Urban Design- The Bigger picture By Gaurav Sarin

Fig. 1 - Influencing Urban Form

Sustainability Globalisation

Conservation (Local)

Uses of urban design fitting into their development prospects involve redevelopment, renewal, reconstruction and revitalisation of urban space. Larger cities in economic decay, such as port cities and old industrial centres, have often considered reconstruction, redevelopment, renewal and revitalisation of historic centres, or



Sustainable Urban Design- The Bigger picture (contd.) By Gaurav Sarin

declining urban areas or waterfronts, etc; as a top priority in the hierarchy of their actions to restructure the local economy. One example could be taken of Liverpool and the redevelopment of the city’s docks in the 1980s as well as Rotterdam and the waterfront redevelopment of Kop van Zuid in the 1990s. In both cases, redesigning of urban space was focussed on adding to the architectural heritage and producing at the same time new space for flourishing economic activities and lively uses such as cultural, leisure, housing and commerce.

alienation and shape a new form of localism. Much of the recent interest in urban design repeats the familiar deficiencies of the past: a focus of the superficial aesthetics and the picturesque aspects of cities (instead of the role that aesthetics play, say, in community development), an understanding of urban design primarily as a finished product; instead of an ongoing long term process linked with social and political mechanisms.

Conservation

The most common reason for preserving old buildings, leaving aside historic interest, is that they are useful resources. This might seem rather obvious, but is often forgotten. A building usually reaches

Larger cities have also been making great efforts to accommodate major international events, such as the Olympic Games and international exhibitions. These kinds of events are considered catalysts for major urban makeover exercises. For example, the

Olympics at Barcelona in 1992 served to accelerate the city’s physical, economic and social restructuring during the period 1986-92. Smaller cities flourished in the late 1970s and 80s – a period which was marked by counter-urbanization. Smaller cities were the major beneficiaries of this phenomenon and exhibited rapid growth due to a series of factors. The diseconomies associated with larger cities, such as congestion, lack of space, high costs and expensive overheads for services prompted decentralisation of certain economic sectors (e.g. Manufacturing industries) from metropolitan regions towards smaller cities.

However, the majority of smaller cities usually suffer from major structural weaknesses: inadequate infrastructure, limited inward investment and technological underdevelopment. Some of the cities lack indigenous resources, i.e. archaeological and cultural heritage or a particularly attractive natural environment. In such cases, urban design may become a determinant factor for their future. The production of a new urban image – whether contradicting local heritage or not – can, if successful, counteract the sense of

the end of its ‘natural life’ as a

result of external economic forces and operational obsolescence rather than because it has ceased to be capable of repair. An example may be taken of the sturdily engineered warehouse buildings in various docks around Britain in the 1970s, which rapidly decayed and were demolished by the hundreds. These had not become unmaintainable, they

had simply become redundant. There are some buildings that

are worthy of preservation for their own sakes, these may be celebratory and magnificent; rare and curious; commemorative and associative; exemplary and instructive or perhaps pleasing and picturesque. These are usually monuments in our cities, and ample evidence exists of preservation and conservation efforts for these kinds of buildings through history.

As early as 1877, societies such as SPAB (Society for the Protection of Ancient Buildings) in England, have led these efforts. The manifesto of SPAB can be summed up in three basic tenets:

1. We are custodians of the ancient buildings we have inherited. We should not regard ourselves as free to do as we please with them.

2. Effective and honest repair should always be the first consideration.

Pic. 1 - Southbank of Thames, London: a vibrant urban space now which was crime ridden till a few years earlier

Pic. 2 - Warehouses converted to residential use with retail at the base (London)


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3. We should do no more than prudence demands. In particular, we should not fall into the trap of allowing scholarly or artistic ambitions to dictate what is done.

The Manifesto had another thought which was later withdrawn, namely, that it was better to raise a new building rather than enlarge or alter an old one which had become inconvenient for modern use. This was replaced by:

4. Any permanently necessary new work should be clearly distinguishable from the old and should not reproduce any past style.

The aim of conservation is to retain or recover the cultural significance of a place and must include provision for its security, maintenance and future. The object of conservation is seldom to prevent all change, but rather to manage it positively. Policies must aim to keep the asset or area alive, yet ensure that any new development accords with its special interest.

Sustainability

Cities have long acted as the ‘engines’ of human cultural, technological and economic development.

Throughout history there have been linked trends of:

Concentration of people in one location.

Specialisation into different tasks which together make the whole ‘city system’.

Utilisation of technology to control nature.

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The area that a city needs to support itself (known as the ecological footprint) has associated sustainability issues. Technology was playing a critical role in supporting cities such as Rome even in this early historical period: aqueducts, sewage systems and increasingly sophisticated ship building are all examples of this technology.

Urban areas can be seen as a type of system, with inputs, throughputs and outputs – just as in the human system.

The inputs may be made up of people, whether daily commuters or more permanent migrants and immigrants, goods such as bricks, bread, furniture and computer microchips and services such as water and electricity. Outputs may appear to be more obvious – like waste water and refuse, outgoing commuters and migrants but there are also ‘unseen’ exports, the main being air pollution. Where great amounts of products are exported without much recycling, this type of system is called an open system. [Fig. 2] Such a system may be thought of as unsustainable in the long term because of the escalating demands for resources from an ever-widening area, creating a widening ecological footprint. This is a linear type of system


Fig. 2 - Typical linear urban systemThousands of years of nomadic hunter-gathering was gradually replaced for thousands and later millions of people by the development of a sedentary lifestyle (i.e. living in one location). This was only possible through the concentration of food production in a limited, defined area, for example in Asia over 5000 years ago.

Fig. 3 - Circular metabolism of cities- a recycling/reuse led development

In nature, a circular metabolism is developed whereby every input is also able to renew and sustain the living environment by recycling the outputs. In the past medieval cities had something approaching this relationship, with the following closely linked nearby: market gardens, orchards, arable and grazing land, local water supply, forest products and so on.

Indeed, until the recent and rapid industrially led growth of the late twentieth century, many Chinese cities were largely self-sufficient in food. They were unique among the world in having highly developed low technology systems of using human waste



as fertiliser for local farms. It must be stressed that any city has an ecological footprint – the question is to what degree?

Cities in less economically developed countries such as India often have a higher ‘re-use’ system than do those in more economically developed countries. [Fig. 3] In the USA and UK, ‘disposable culture’ and ‘built-in obsolescence’ permeate society. Modern cities have broken the close links with the local biosphere.

In order for cities to become more sustainable they must change the linear metabolism to a more circular metabolism, creating a self-regulating sustainable relationship with the biosphere.

Heritage & Urban Design

Urban design conservation has evolved dramatically during the last 30 years or so as an urban design discipline necessary for dealing with older city districts that were previously reduced to being the location of monuments worthy of architectural restoration. Recent international experiences in urban conservation vary greatly in their focus and intent and still demonstrate the conflicting interests of archaeologists, who focus on monument restoration, and urban designers whose interest is in conserving the spirit of the past. However, it is probably best for the skills of planning, archaeology and urban design to collaborate to create a truly lasting and significant urban experience that has a historical identity.

There is danger of the urban designer ending up with a ‘Disney-esque’ version which is merely an illusion that bears little or no connection to the history of the area. Authenticity is vital to the honesty of the urban conservation project but there need not be false accuracy or unnecessary sensitivity about all the urban or social details of the project. To pursue this idea, it is essential to differentiate between a conservation concept and a conservation methodology.

A methodology is a practical way of following a process for conservation, while a concept is the central bonding idea behind the choices made during the practical process. In most cases the urban designer’s task shall be limited to formulating the urban conservation concepts and putting in practice a part of the conservation methodology. Seldom will an urban designer make managerial or financial decisions for a community. Consequently, the urban design conservation concept becomes a part of a larger consideration for the area. However, the concept can go a long way in influencing the project and can ensure, for example, community support and the encouragement of local businessmen.

Feasibility

The economic objectives of urban conservation, as of any other human activity, have been impacting heavily on urban conservation projects during the last 20 years or so. Cultural tourism has become the major source of finance for costly urban conservation projects and a major determinant of their form and methodologies. This economic impact of cultural tourism directed the methodologies of urban designers to create place to attract tourists. Both urban designers and city administrators became interested in the concept of genus loci, the power of place. The spin-off was the


Pic. 3 - Designing-in heritage: Siracusa, Sicily where 100s year old remains for a part of new development

Design

Authenticity in urban design needs to be dealt with sensitively, as it involves conserving streets, alleys, buildings, social practices and community cultural beliefs that are spread over a large urban area.

Pic. 4 - Street art as means to engage people: Hamburg harbour, Germany



other urban phenomena that reflected a ‘personality’ and identity of the place. Having a historical identity in urban conservation became desirable and capable of attracting tourists to the place through honesty and authenticity. The physical and historic identity of an urban area may stem from its streets, its urban mass and its overall urban character.

The term “urban policy” is used for a wide range of different concerns and activities. [as per Robert Gordon University] The key issues relate to -

economic development, including local economic activity, income generation and employment policy;

social development, including housing and neighbourhood issues, relations within and between communities, and social inclusion; and

geographical issues, concerned with spatial relationships in the city, planning, transport, the environment and the urban infrastructure.

This does not define a very distinct area of concern, and some

issues, like local economic policy, are not certainly “urban” at all.

Urban policy has mainly been distinguished by attempts to treat economic and social issues in localised settings. The characteristic modes of work include:

area-based policies, often concentrated on deprived areas within cities;

joint or partnership working, drawing together a range of agencies; and

community work, including community education, and social development and political organisation.

Any urban development must be in accordance with the established policy, sometimes for legal reasons.

Context: The Local

Not responding to the local context shall render the project

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Policy

Design Feasibility

Context (Local)

Fig. 4 - Process of Urbanisation

The concepts are simple. The urban conservators/designers need to develop the meaning and function of the place so that it becomes comprehensible to the public. This meaning might be economic, cultural, social or political, with a definite heritage bias. If such meaning coincides with the choice of an authentic place to start with, a successful urban conservation intervention may result.

Successful urban intervention depends upon achieving a constructive relationship between regulatory policy, financial feasibility, the design approach and relevant context (Figure: 4). Financial feasibility shall ensure the commercial success of a project and thus it’s potential to form a sustainable and sustained economic contribution. If the design approach is wrong, quite simply, the project objectives will not be met and the quality of the delivered project shall be poor.

Policy

It is important to define a framework for urban policy. There is no analytical unit called an “urban sector,” rather there is a set of activities that take place in urban locations. These activities are usually associated with the traditional development sectors such as industry, agriculture, or transportation, which are of concern in both urban and rural areas.

That leaves the problem of defining what is meant by the term “urban.” It turns out this definitional problem is largely intractable. Urban definitions are country specific and range from “main towns, including suburbs” (Zimbabwe), to “all townships and town-planning areas and all district centres” (Malawi). There is no universally accepted definition of what constitutes an urban area.

Pic. 5 - Policy is critical in helping retain heritage. Old city, Frankfurt


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Art can often infuse a new dimension to such developments.

Planning Sustainable Cities: Global Report on Human Settlements 2009 a report by UNHCS, assesses the effectiveness of urban planning as a tool for dealing with the unprecedented challenges facing 21st-century cities and for enhancing sustainable urbanization. An important conclusion of the Global Report is that, even though urban planning has changed relatively little in most countries since its emergence about 100 years ago, a number of countries have adopted some innovative approaches in recent decades. However, in many developing countries, older forms of master planning have persisted. Here, the most obvious problem with this approach is that it has failed to accommodate the ways of life of the majority of inhabitants in rapidly growing and largely poor and informal cities, and has often directly contributed to social and spatial marginalization.

Conclusions: The Bigger Picture

In most Asian cultures, the idea of simply keeping an old building or parts of old urban fabric, simply because they are old, would not be thought to be at all reasonable. From this viewpoint, every building, city, or city quarter, has an indestructible soul - a permanent reality that can survive any number of renewals and rebuilding and still remain intact. In the case of most revered ancient monuments and temples, entire structures may be destroyed and rebuilt from the ground up without losing any cultural or social significance. Historic spaces of a city are valuable for their contribution to the setting and disposition of the enclosing buildings. They are also important for creating a sense of place and providing a vehicle


for memory - imagine the Taj Mahal as a traffic island surrounded by high-rise offices. Responsibility for the care of these spaces and sustaining a sense of place is borne by no single discipline. All must be committed to stewardship and contribute to securing quality. The management of the historic environment requires a special degree of sensitivity and understanding. In providing this, the urban design discipline takes on an important role. It becomes more of a way of thinking, applicable to all disciplines and especially architecture, town planning and infrastructure engineering.

generic. This implies that while the project may be easily replicable, it offers nothing to the local and thus is in no way unique. Such projects, in turn, do not often succeed financially or gather community support.

Having said that – it is entirely possible to create context, for example by using iconic artists who are renowned globally, but also as being of a place. This is particularly true of areas of that have been historically derelict.

Pic. 6 - Iconic art can play an important role in defining urban spaces. Miro in barcelona shown here

Fig. 5 - Sustainable Urban Development

The re-emerging giants of Asia have a wealth of historicity that can be severely and permanently damaged if these issues are not taken up immediately and addressed in the government policies. This is even more critical in these times of frantic economic growth (in these parts of the world) where the desire to create advantageous business environments can often result in negligence in this regard. While the seeds of urban fragmentation were sown by the garden city movement, it was Le Corbusier who campaigned against the corridor street and encouraged architects to look at urban buildings as sculptural objects sitting in space. This powerful concept has permeated into the Modern Movement ethic to the extent that even today many architects have difficulty in designing larger layouts in which buildings are not arrayed as shapes on a plan that have no meaning viewed at ground level.

More recently, deconstructivist design has played games with building forms and hard landscape which are intelligible only on reading the plan, not even when walking around the completed scheme. But perhaps the most disruptive has been the effect of catering for motor vehicle movement, circulation and parking. This form of thinking assumes the car to be the smallest element in the cityscape – not the human. Vast tracts of urbanscape in

Feasibility

Policy

Design

Context

Globalisation

Sustainability



Europe and much of North America are mute testimony to this. Clearly, there needs to be a relationship between the influences on urbanisation and the process itself. The best candidate to be the lynch pin between these, is the ‘local’ or the context (Figure 5). Heritage can form a lasting bond that connects these disparate issues, needs, and demands in a meaningful way. It is the vital ingredient that makes for vibrant and dynamic cities. The historic environment, including buildings, the spaces between them, urban parks and other incidental spaces, is a significant marker of quality and a source of local distinctiveness.


we must employ similar logic while dealing with city quarters and the urban fabric.

The whole must be much greater than the sum of its parts.

Bibliography

Planning Sustainable Cities: Global Report on Human Settlements 2009 a report by UNHCS

D Gordon, C Pantazis, 1997, Breadline Britain in the 1990s, Avebury.

Harris C D and Ullman E L (1945), “The nature of cities” Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science

Burgess E.W. (1924)”The growth of the city: an introduction to a research project” Publications of the American Sociological Society

Wheeler, Stephen (1998). “Planning Sustainable and Livable Cities”, Routledge; 3rd edition

Matheos Santamouris (2006). Environmental Design of Urban Buildings: An Integrated Approach

Bhagwati, Jagdish (2004). In Defense of Globalization. Oxford, New York: Oxford University Press

House of India, Encyclopedia Britannica

Jurgen Osterhammel and Niels P.Petersson. Globalization: a short history

Weaver, Martin and Frank Matero (1997) Conserving Buildings: A Manual of Techniques and Materials. New York: John Wiley & Sons

Robert M. Sanford and Thomas W. Neumann, Cultural Resources Archaeology: An Introduction. Rowman and Littlefield Pub Inc, December, 2001

Note: All photographs, diagrams and illustrations by the author.

Pic. 7 - Stylised architecture can also form a lasting legacy where the context is more modern. Here, the Eurostar station below this mixed-use development in Lille, France

It provides a basis for reinstating patterns and helps to provide references to repair the tears in the urban fabric. Cleared urban brownfield sites, for example, are seldom totally devoid of traces of the past. Just as we do not preserve the ornamental parts of a listed building and dismiss the rest as unimportant connecting fabric which could be replaced by something new and ‘appropriate’,

Gaurav runs an architectural and urban design studio in London,TheStudio Orange; he is a keen researcher and a frequent speaker inconferences around the globe. He has also published several peer-reviewed papers in a variety of professional journals. The topicsthat interest him range from architectural education, urban design andconservation to energy and sustainability.



Old but New :: New but Old Editor: Mahbubur Rahman, [email protected]

Publisher: UNESCO

Distributor: Omni Books, Chartered Accountant Bhaban

100 Kazi Nazrul Islam Avenue, Karwanbazaar, Dhaka 1215

Bangladesh +880 2 912 0914

PP 366. Price: Tk 1500/ ISBN 978 984 33 0894 8

Buildings and monuments are the products of accumulated wisdom expressed through the language of space and form. These symbolize a particular civilization, a significant development, or a historic incident, and become significant in our cultural and national life. In addition to architectural, aesthetic, historic, and iconic values, these possess emotional value as the symbol of our cultural identity, and hence form the heritage. Architecture is a vivid expression in material form of a society’s social, economic, technological and cultural achievements at any point of time in history and in a particular geographic area. In absence of adequate historical sources and writings, it is a common denominator between generations of people, a major means of communication with the tradition and heritage of a nation. A civilized people or society must know about its origin and roots in the local, regional and in world contexts to be able to understand and appreciate his being and be able to charter his course into the future.

Hence it is the moral obligation of one generation to preserve this rich inheritance, held in trust for the future generations. Preservation of architectural work is, therefore, of immense significance, as a means of cultural heritage preservation, for a society that values its past and cares for the posterity. Even two millenniums back, buildings used to be adapted for reuse, though conservation movement started in Europe in the eighteenth century. The value of architectural heritage is now universally recognized, even in many developing countries.

Historic cores are generally the oldest parts of towns, particularly in the burgeoning cities in the developing countries. These are under huge pressure from competing economic activities, and hence are giving rise to sharp land values. Many such cities or areas therein had originated from flourishing trade and commerce historically, which on many instances had not been relocated in several centuries. Thus older buildings become easy target for demolition and replacement by denser and taller structures, with higher economic return. However, the long-term environmental and cultural costs have seldom been duly considered.

Heritage resources are destroyed in the process when these

surrender to commercial interests, especially as heritage buildings receive no legal protection, financial incentive, or any other option. The government often encourages developments with incentives while discouraging retention of traditional activities and forms. It is very difficult to protect historic buildings in a city where the nature of development is market driven. Survival of a building in its current form and use faces stiff opposition when the site has a higher value and potential. There is hardy any exception to the widespread phenomena of historic buildings giving way to alien uses and modern construction. Thus old is usually replaced by new not for genuine progress, improvement, or welfare, but to yield materialistic profits to the vested groups.

Due to the absence of awareness of heritage value of old historic buildings and apparent justification for their conservation, alternative options (to demolition) are not even considered in most instances. Especially the policy makers/government officials find it more attractive to build afresh by undertaking new projects, rather than repair and reuse the existing buildings. Thus it should be mandatory upon the government agencies to offer alternatives to decision makers and users and incentives to the property owners in order to protect a city’s heritage and culture, so that demolition and new construction do not become inevitable destiny.

Historic districts within enormous, modern and expanding cities

OLD BUT NEW NEW BUT OLD Architectural Heritage Conservation

Mahbubur Rahman

Old but New :: New but Old Editor: Mahbubur Rahman, [email protected] Publisher: UNESCO Distributor: Omni Books, Chartered Accountant Bhaban 100 Kazi Nazrul Islam Avenue, Karwanbazaar, Dhaka 1215 Bangladesh +880 2 912 0914 PP 366. Price: Tk 1500/ ISBN 978 984 33 0894 8

in the developing world, have undergone changes. Patterns

of invasion-succession of migrant populations have been superimposed on the decaying guild and ethnic neighbourhoods. The well-to-do have tended to escape the old historic cores of their cities, often only retaining businesses there. Other than housing new activities like warehousing, large and small old

buildings have been subdivided for multiple families, which raised the density. Infrastructure provision in such areas is inadequate and pollution threatens not only the well-being of the citizens, but also the architectural and urban heritage that made these places special. Almost universally this heritage is at risk of extinction.

In the above context, the book, Old but New :: New but Old, brings forward all the issues pertinent to the protection of architectural heritage in the developing countries. There are 10 chapters, 8 of which

Book Review By Dr. Moukhtar Mai



are written by the editor himself, some with co-authors, while the rest two are by two professors from Saudi Arabia and China. These cover topics such as development and economics, administration, resources, participation, urbanism, heritage, governance, ideas, philosophies, current thinking, approaches and challenges of heritage conservation. This is a very resourceful book using over 300 photographs many of which are rare, and many drawings and maps. Half of the papers make reference to Bangladesh, specially the urban areas and Dhaka, and as such have relevance to almost typical situations elsewhere in the developing countries.

Three papers discuss the master plans, building codes, construction rules, and antiquities law, old and new, followed in Dhaka and other large cities of Bangladesh, and put them into historic perspective. These put forward so many unknown but very useful information in one place which make it a must buy for the building professionals, especially those with interest in traditional architecture, and conservation experts and activists. On top of it, two papers on Ahsan Manzil and Painamnagar too give many unknown fact for the first time to the readers, and establish that it is not only architectural value or antiquity that can justify the heritage claim of any edifice, its socio-economic and historic role too can qualify it. Ahsan Manzil is one of the best conservation examples in Asia, while Painamnagar is one of the 50 most endangered heritage sites declared by the UNESCO.

Of particular value to an avid reader are the many information, examples and case studies in highlighted boxes, and as annexure with all the papers. Some of these annexure, for example those on traditional houses or Dhaka’s relation with water, are very rich and thorough. Even the annexure on Building Code and Antiquities Act are even otherwise difficult to get. In fact over 300 references used in the book show just how thoroughly all the topics have been researched upon and comprehensively presented. One of the boxes is on INTACH and a whole paper is on participatory heritage conservation in the historic city of Ahmedabad.

The book, Old but New :: New but Old, is a befitting response to 400 years of Dhaka as a capital city, and also epitomizes the efforts at the North South University Architecture School which has been documenting the old traditional buildings in and around Dhaka for the last fours years under the able guidance of the main author who has taught there between 2004-08. The ten essays, each of which was reviewed by at least two experts some of whom are members of SANEYOCOP, together embody a response to a common underlying concern – the neglect and problems of architectural heritage conservation in the developing countries.

It is to be mentioned that there are only two other books on similar topic published from Dhaka. Yet this one by far is the most resourceful and informative because of the diversity of topics, depth of study and extent of information it provides. A beautiful cover matches the contents inside. This book is not only for architects, but for any conscious person who loves his/her city and cares for the heritage. It can be a nice gift for any occasion. We wish this book available with the distributor Omni Books a success.

Moukhtar Mai is a registered Nigerian architect, with varied experience in practice and academia. He obtained his first degrees in architecture in 1984 and 1986 respectively from ABU Zaria, and completed PhD at Universiti Teknologi Malaysia (UTM) in 2008. His academic career started at his Alma Mata in 1988. Dr. Mai is currently is a senior Lecturer at UTM. With interest in housing and traditional architecture, he has published research papers in international journals snd seminar proceedings.

Book Review (contd.)By Dr. Moukhtar Mai

The Heritage-scape: UNESCO, World Heritage, and Tourism

Author: Michael A. Di Giovine

Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, Inc.

Pub. Date: January 2009

ISBN-13: 9780739114346 (Hardcover)

ISBN-13: 9780739114353 (Paperback)

Author’s web page about the book: http://www.michaeldigiovine.com/book

Image courtesy: author’s website (listed above)

“Heritage is a powerful word in its own right, for it is at once extraordinarily suggestive and ideologically charged, but simultaneously vague enough to be applied to nearly everything across any space and time. It is a word whose significance changes with its myriad invocations, designations or legislations. Depending on its usage, heritage can determine personal property, explicate unknown qualities, foster patriotism among disparate peoples, become a tourist destination, exacerbate geopolitical tensions, or call for help in the form of preservation, among other uses.” (p. 91)

“Applying anthropologist Arjun Appadurai’s theory that globalization produces a series of amorphous –scapes that spread across the world”, Di Giovine terms the “ UNESCO’s newly ordered social structure” of World Heritage sites as the heritage-scape. Di Giovine argues that “the heritage-scape is a real social

Book ReviewBy Neel Kamal Chapagain



the world’s nation-states, but is something greater than the aggregate of its individual members when they are working together, so too is the heritage-scape composed of individual World Heritage mediators that create something more when juxtaposed together. UNESCO’s place in this is to change each monument’s narrativity and object of employment – from a local to global, divisive to unifying – by totalizing all its differences, rendering them equal in value and equally apprehensible to all human individuals who come into contact with them. It must also be noted that UNESCO is itself complex and multifaceted; though its ultimate aim is to contribute to the United Nation’s mission of fostering a lasting, worldwide peace through intergovernmentality, the organization is not relegated to simply one task.” (p. 402)

The book is a project of global ethnography to conceptualize the notion, processes, and position of World Heritage Sites in contemporary globalized world, and “to analyze UNESCO’s World Heritage program in socio-cultural terms, and, more specifically, to describe how it fits into UNESCO’s overarching mission of fostering “peace in the minds of men” through its designation process, through related preservation and awareness-raising activities, and through global flows of tourism” (P.399). Di Giovine draws from theoretical works of various anthropologists, sociologists, art historians, and others to analyze and present his ethnographic fieldwork as well as his experience as tour operator.

The book starts with an introductory chapter that reflects the author’s personal connection with the world of monuments and heritages, that encouraged the author to delve into the current project. The introductory chapter posits the theoretical

structure which creates real material effects on a globally distributed population in accordance with UNESCO’s long-term goals” (p.6), however UNESCO neither necessarily endorses this view nor uses the term as such. Di Giovine conceptualizes the heritage-scape in relation to UNESCO:

“Just as UNESCO is composed of representatives from

arguments as well as outlines the entire project. The key argument in the book is that the world heritage designation is a place-making strategy based on a socially constructed global structure as defined by the author as the heritage-scape. Heritage-scape is created as a result of mediation among various local, national and international players who struggle and negotiate between the fields of heritage production and touristic production. Chapter one portrays monuments as social actors that “play a mediatory role in creating the sense of community “in the minds of men”” (p.35) and “(a) monument previously mediating between individuals and their society is conceptually converted into a medium of global reach through a complex and ritual process” (p.36), thus “joining hundreds of other unrelated but similarly valorized World Heritage Sites as another mediator in the service of the heritage-scape” (p.36). Following Bourdieu, Di Giovine suggests that “the World Heritage Site “is an object which exists as such only by virtue of the (collective) belief which knows and acknowledges it” as a World Heritage Site”(P. 37). Another player involved is tourism that allows the products of monument and heritage including the World Heritage Sites to be marketed and consumed for global audience.

The second chapter analyzes the history of UNESCO and the World Heritage Program, and presents a story of how the World Heritage Sites – or the heritage-scape in a global landscape – has evolved as “UNESCO’s globalizing endeavor”. The chapter discusses the UNESCO’s processes and efforts of place making using monument and heritage, that eventually create the ‘heritage-scape’ and its nature and qualities. Each heritage site has some uniqueness in terms of its nature and qualities, and yet through the notion of World Heritage Sites, UNESCO espouses a “unity in diversity” which is the focus of chapter three. Chapter four then presents tourism as a vehicle for “the heritage-scape’s ritual interaction”. Tourism is a ritual that brings people physically in touch with distant or ‘other’ heritage sites, and it is the same ritual that actually allows a heritage site to purposefully and gainfully engage in global economic network. However, Di Giovine goes beyond the economic and political aspect of tourism to discuss tourism as a cultural process in connection to heritage sites and their preservation. In chapter five, Di Giovine equates conversion of locales into global heritage sites to be a part of the heritage-scape as a (re)contextualization of objects in a museum with a constructed script. This process occurs at local, then national and international or global scale and thus fits perfectly into the nature and process of the heritage-scape. The ritual of heritage-scape is

Book Review (contd.)By Neel Kamal Chapagain



explored in chapter six where an account of how a nation state participates in this global process to globalize its local heritage site by joining the process of heritage-scape, and various actors and processes involved in this museological ritual. Similarly, the chapter seven accounts museumification of local cultures with cases from Vietnam. Chapter eight explores the managing, interpreting and branding of world heritage sites to create a destination. Chapter nine finally reconnects all these different aspects of rituals of heritage-scape with the practice of heritage preservation. The practice of preservation is intrinsically linked to the idea of World Heritage sites and thus to the heritage-scape. The chapter explores in detail how UNESCO objectively ensures the practice of preservation in heritage sites. However, this practice itself cannot remain without being problematic for its intentions and modalities of action, which is the focus of chapter ten. Using the case of Angkor Archaeological Park in Cambodia, chapter ten analyzes the problematic of preservation/conservation practice by exploring how local, national and international stakeholders and interested parties play according to their respective interests. For that matter, perhaps chapter ten as well as eleven are of prime interest to conservation/preservation professionals. As a response to the concerns and problematic discussed in chapter ten, chapter eleven offers alternative views to address those concerns in terms of raising public awareness, and “the other ways in which these sites re-present themselves in contexts disembodied from their physical situatedness” (p. 13). The conclusion chapter refers together the major themes presented in the book to explore what the future of heritage-scape looks like.

“A World Heritage site dedicated explicitly to WOrld Heritage itself may never be constructed, but the future orientation of UNESCO’s WOrld Heritage endeavor – which was always latently present in its long-term objective to create “peace in the minds of men” – has taken now a new form. This new form may certainly pave the way for more innovative concepts that would, in turn, provide future opportunities for new groups of people to enjoy formative interactions in the heritage-scape. And with the ongoing integration of new forms of “universal value,” the heritage-scape will continue to expand, complexifying participants’ conceptualizations of their position with others in history and in the world – their very heritage – linking them with disparate times and places, and orienting them towards meaningful future activity. What constitutes meaningful activity may continue to be re-interpreted in the short term, but ultimately, UNESO hopes, it

will be a lasting, worldwide peace based on the “intellectural and moral solidarity of mankind.”” (p. 429)

The book offers some unique perspectives regarding the relationship of heritage with tourism due to author’s experience as tour operator that brings in insights from within the tourism industry. The multi-sited ethnographic accounts of world heritage sites in the Southeast Asia is well weaved with discussion of how various players including the hosts, the guests and the heritage agencies interact in a complex network. The players in the network include a broad range: from nation-state to its citizens, from tour operators to tourists, from UNESCO as an agent of creating heritage-scape to an individual localized monument. For a practitioner and stakeholder of a heritage site, some of the theoretical constructs used in the book may seem abstract and mere theoretical arguments, but the book altogether offers alternative ways of understanding the preservation/conservation practice in various aspects. Book like this one does not offer a recipe for a heritage conservation/preservation professional, but does help to dissect the subject and object of heritage conservation at different scales, and thus enriches our understanding of the profession and how it is embedded in a global network of institutions, economic forces, and stakeholders’ interests. Most of the case studies and field works are from Southeast Asia, so they are akin to the cases in South Asia. About 500 pages long description of mutual relationship and interaction between UNESCO, World Heritage sites and tourism offer some thoughtful insights and broader prospect regarding UNESCO led World Heritage movement.

Neel Kamal Chapagain is an architect from Nepal and is currently pursuing a Ph.D. at University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, USA

Book Review (contd.)By Neel Kamal Chapagain

Book ReviewBy Mrinalini Venkateshwara

The origins of the word ‘monument’ have to do with remembrance, whether that refers to remembrance of an event, a person, or our common past through its material remains. A monument is thus usually considered the most visible and recognisable marker of a people or culture, and perhaps indicates who we are, through what we choose to remember.

Just as with people however, a monument too has multiple layers to its identity. So Itmad-ud-Daulah’s tomb in Agra is not just a Mughal monument. Rather, it is a mausoleum/ tomb, constructed by a member of the Mughal dynasty, in an architectural style that is both Islamic as well as Mughal. It is linked to the Taj Mahal both



because of architectural as well as decorative affinities.

None of this is new to a professional or an enthusiast, but most history students in Indian schools are rarely encouraged to imagine anything other than lists of names and dates as being relevant to either their lessons or lives. Another point worth considering is that since Indian parental culture tends to encourage reading associated with schoolwork, there are numerous facts-and-figures based books in the market, and dozens on Indian monuments alone. They all veer towards a classification prioritising community-based stylistic affiliations, so one usually has lists that read of Hindu, Buddhist, Jain, Islamic, Colonial &/ or Christian, etc. monuments, which serve to emphasise one or at most two aspects of a monument’s identity.

Monuments of India attempts to address several of these issues, by approaching each of the fifty monuments discussed in its pages from all sorts of angles. To begin with, monuments are classified by function rather than communal styles – so sections deal with places of residence, government & defence; public & commemorative buildings/ structures; places of worship, and mausoleums. The possibility that a monument might fulfil multiple

Book Review (contd.)By Mrinalini Venkateswaran

roles is also explored. With each section, monuments have been selected keeping in mind chronology and so as to cover as wide a range as possible. So for instance, ‘Places of Residence’ includes the rock shelters of Bhimbetka as well as Rashtrapati Bhavan, with many other possibilities of richness and scale in between. Implicit in such a selection is also a challenge to the common assumption that a monument necessarily must be built by human hands – Bhimbetka for instance is only adapted for human use but is an important marker of the development of human homes.

Each section is prefaced with a map and timeline that locates every monument within that section both spatially and chronologically, especially with relation to one another. Sites of universal significance (World Heritage) are additionally denoted. The entries contain a melange of information – building history, about the builder/ patron/ architect, the architectural style, function, their functional, stylistic, dynastic and/ or any other links with other monuments, as well as stories (true or otherwise!) connected to them. Basic concepts about types of buildings and architectural styles for example, are also introduced throughout the book along with ‘clues’ to recognising them. The book thus aims not only to provide multiple perspectives on each monument, but ideally also encourages a similar approach for any student reading about or visiting one.

Mrinalini Venkateswaran is a JN Tata Scholar and a Ustinov Scholar from Durham University (UK), and was a RA Association Scholar at the Attingham Summer School (UK). She has worked with the Oriental Museum at Durham, Northern England’s premier collection of East Asian and Egyptian artefacts. Her museum expertise in India includes establishing documentation and collections management systems for private collections at the HH Maharaja Sir Jiwajirao Scindia Museum, Gwalior and the City Palace Museum, Udaipur. She has in addition worked on archaeological projects in Syria and Gujarat, and has recently published a book on Indian monuments with Scholastic India. She is also a member of the International Committee of Expert Advisors for the review of the Commonwealth Association of Museums’ Distance Learning Programme in Museum Studies.

Conservation S o u t h A s i a A Q u a r t e r l y N e w s l e t t e r o f S A N E Y O C O P

Published three times a year- April, August and December.

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Next issue is scheduled for December 2010 Release

Documents

CSA Newsletter- August 2010