Cross-Disciplinary Curriculum

Abstract for IASTE Conference:  “Interrogating Tradition”

KATH-KHUNI IN HIMACHAL PRADESH: DOCUMENTING AND PRACTICING TRADITION

By Jay Thakkar and Dr. Skye Morrison

Indigenous stone and wood built form, called kath-khuni in Himachal Pradesh, India has been mentioned as a part of temple architecture. Little attention has been paid to the houses and granaries of Himalayan mountain villages. Through the curriculum of the School of Interior Design (SID) at CEPT University in Ahmedabad students and faculty have conducted field research projects to measure draw houses and granaries as well as temples.  The Research Cell of SID has digitalized and documented two field studies in the book Matra: Ways of Measuring Vernacular Built Forms of Himachal Pradesh.

The historical practice of measure drawing built form has been a classic tool for the student of architecture and design for documenting the built environment. SID supports this practice by a second year curriculum component called "Living with Craft: Related Studies”. We continue to teach and learn from the classical tradition as a way of the mind - eye - and hand connecting in the field.  Local people as a way of seeing their built environment understand this methodology. Two field trips to Himachal Pradesh in 2005 and 2006 resulted in an excellent resource of measure drawings, sketches and photographs.  Since no-one from an urban educational institute had ever asked local villagers living in kath-khuni buildings in Himachal Pradesh to see their houses, granaries and local temples before, the experience was both intriguing and a topic for local discussion.

Our practice is to support the continuation of field based measure drawing by hand as both a low cost tool for research and a person-to-person form of visual communication. We combine this with storytelling of the lives of local people as well as the faculty and students in the field. At the same time we can see the potential of digital technology to take the information gathered in hands-on field study to detailed structural analysis of the built form.  The digital level allows the construction and deconstruction of environments as drawings. Digital analysis promotes a greater understanding by architects and designers of vernacular built form as it is in a common visual language.

The digital world cannot replace indigenous knowledge. Our paper examines how digital and narrative research can assist in the discovery of scientific principals in built form and the integrated meaning of home through structural analysis. These factors can connect the fragile links of real spaces with the overwhelming outside forces of change to a vernacular environment. Through our fieldwork and research we seek a deeper understanding and regeneration of vernacular built environments that will promote preservation of kath-khuni architecture as a sustainable and viable living tradition.

Key Words: Vernacular Architecture, faculty and student fieldwork, cross-disciplinary curriculum, measure-drawing, digital imaging, material culture, craft.

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