in association with
curated by
A multi-disciplinary virtual studio
With a diverse group of students from
various backgrounds
---
students, professionals, faculty
Architects + Urban Planners + Engineers.
Learning about the design philosophy on
Earth Architecture through a live project
in collaboration with the
Madhya Pradesh Tourism Board.
Build with Hunnarshala
7 Weeks
14 Classes
25 Participants
Guest lectures by Pioneers of the field
Discussions with Government officials
Interaction with the rural community.
LESSON #1
Q: Who are the Adivasi?
tribe
noun
a social division in a traditional society consisting of families or communities linked by social, economic, religious, or blood ties, with a common culture and dialect, typically having a recognized leader.
caste
noun
each of the hereditary classes of Hindu society, distinguished by relative degrees of ritual purity or pollution and of social status.
Tribals are those that remained outside the framework of caste. They did not believe in a segregated society and hence did not conform to it - predating the caste system of today.
They are the preservers of the oldest way of life - the lost art of living in harmony with the natural environment.
And today, living as a minority in this consumerist world they constantly face the threat of systemic detribalization.
With Dr. Ganesh Devy
We saw the lives of the tribal community through the eyes of history and politics. Where they stand within the larger context of our nation and the microsystem of our culture. We got the first taste of the differences between our believes, logic, and way of life.
We believe that the Earth belongs to us, they believe that they belong to the Earth.
Belonging to an ideology that seems completely different from our own, in our ignorance, we tend to categorize them as backward
We categorize them, marginalized them, judge them with bias.
We create caricatures of their culture - exaggerate their alienness. Paint a picture of people misplaced in time - disregard their choices as ignorance.
excerpt from
The Adivasi will Not Dance
But what can we do? They outnumber us. Village after village in our Santhal Pargana is turning into Muslim Villages... The rich Hindus living in Pakur town are only interested in our land. They are only interested in making us sing and dance at their weddings. If they come to help us, they will say that we Santhals need to stop eating cow meat and pig meat, that we need to stop drinking haandi. They, too, want to make us forget our Sarna religion, convert us into Safa-Hor, and swell their numbers to become more vote-banks.
In the eyes of the Hindus, we Santhals can only either be Christian or the almost Safa-Hor. We are losing our Sarna faith, our identities, and our roots.
We are becoming people from no-where.
Us and Them - WE - and are not so different from each other.
The similarities between us and them are enforced during the reading of “Adivasi will not Dance”. Through the words of Hansda Shekhar, we got a peek into the lives of the tribals of today. The stories underlined the problems they faced in their daily lives and the circumstances mirrored episodes and instances from our own.
From our speakers, Bhawna Jaimini and Hamari Jamatia, we got an insight into the fight for basic representation and the grass-root problems that the Adivasis face in their daily lives.
Us and Them - WE - may face similar circumstances at times. But we have to acknowledge that we are facing them from different realities.
A loss of identity faced by an Urban dweller due to the product of globalization is not the same as the loss of Identity faced by the Adivasis who are subjected to centralized detribalization.
It is important to acknowledge the differences to understand each other better and then grow from there.
ADIVASI
+
ARCHITECTURE
Adivasi Architecture is primarily of the Home.
All the houses are aligned along the main street.
The street is an important institution for the community.
The front door opening directly into the street marks the connection to the community.
Socially demarketed spaces are usually open.
The village gathering space is in front of the headman's house called the Akhada.
Believe in the concept of the evil eye.
Apart from the main door, the house does not have any openings on the street front.
Believe in the levels of privacy of space - inside to outside.
Thresholds are important and are adorned with Aplona.
They live and build with the materials they find in their surroundings.
Their houses are built out of earth and wood.
The forest provides for them.
And in turn, they are its keepers.
Adivasis live as a community.
Their family units are small but they live together.
Their houses are divided or added to as the family grows.
Activities tend to happen in the courtyards.
The rooms are used for storage and sleeping.
The absence of windows may be strange to our sensibilities of light and ventilation,
but for them,
the day ends with the setting of the sun.
So then the question arises,
In the Development of the Adivasi Community -
What's our role?
To act as facilitators.
To be sensitive and respectful to the different cultures of the Adivasis and to in turn instill in them the pride in their traditional construction techniques that they truly deserve.
Work with them, instead of for them, and merge the two knowledge systems -
about structures, architecture, and design sense - to create an amalgamated version of their traditional vernacular architecture that is essentially an improved version of the original.
LESSON #2
Understanding RURAL TOURISM as visualized by MPTB (Madhya Pradesh Tourism Board)
According to the Ministry of Tourism
Rural Tourism is any form of tourism that showcases the rural life, art, culture, and heritage at rural locations, thereby benefiting the local community economically and socially as well as enabling interaction between the tourists and the locals for a more enriching tourism experience.
to be continued ...