Humane Habitat: The alchemy of place, people and palimpsest
Home is one of the most intimate spaces that we engage with mind, body and soul. Home is not merely a shelter but defined as the place where the heart rests. It is where reveries are conjured, and realities are responded to. Sustained existence is about harmonious bonds between human-to-human and human-to-nature. Home combines both these dimensions succinctly. House with a heart makes a home, homes make neighborhoods, neighborhoods make communities, communities make societies, and societies shape our living environments. We shape our world and the world around shapes us.
Vernacular architecture and self-made settlements such as Pols, slums and urban villages, having been evolved locally of the place, by the place, for the place, and refined over time, while being true to the culture, context and climate, have stood the test of time for their socio cultural appropriateness, timeless aesthetics, and environmental sustainability.
The studio brief was thus focused on understanding, experiencing, analyzing, and interpreting the wisdom of the Vernacular in contemporary times, and translating its ethos and principles in creating high density contemporary urban neighborhoods which are humane in scale, interactive, plural for diverse value’s coexistence and sustainable for the given context of climate and construction.
