The Living Heritage: Co-designing to Revive Historical Identity
Urban villages in Indian cities undergo transition as the city rapidly grows around them. The fast-paced transformations that follow would result in disassociation between long-time residents and village, who increasingly relocate to adjacent urban neighborhoods. As they leave, the care for village structures and spaces decreases and physical fabric suffers from decay and lack of maintenance.
Concern of this studio is strengthening the ties between residents and village spaces. The aim is to revive historical identity of village by inserting new programs that strengthen community’s ties with the village.
Studio takes up the co-design, participatory process through interacting closely with community to understand how they associate with and draw identity from village and how to effectively revive that belonging through design interventions.
Feedback received from community in multiple stages of studio and reviews from professionals will help iterate and finalize the design. Students designs will be exhibited in the village.
Design proposals- Urban inserts in form of acupuncture intervention: inserting new function in vacant lots/dilapidated buildings, re-purposing structures, intervention in chowks...
Skills of communication (group discussions, interviews, facilitating), visual representation tools for engaging community in study and design will be taught.
