SMVDU Katra: World famous international architects Vanessa Lungan Li, Shirish Beri, Yatin Pandya, and Kalhan Mattoo delivered their lectures after the Inaugural Ceremony of ICTOAD at Matrika Auditorium. It was a wonderful experience for participants, students of the university and guests alike to listen to these esteemed architects talking about their experiences in the field of architecture. The day ended on a high note with a cultural evening followed by Gala Dinner. This series was continued on day 2 by Workshops on Hill and Vernacular Architecture by renowned Architects Nilanjan Bhowal and Debashish Borah. Ar. Jeet Kumar Gupta commented insightfully upon the necessary care that an architect has to take in case of conceiving hill architecture, for example, the need to understand the energy consumption issues, use of materials, cost of the buildings and its maintenance cost and most importantly understating of the sight-climate and its particularity, to quote a few.
The workshops were succeeded by a Heritage tour of Amar Mahal, Hari Niwas Palace and Mubarak Mandi in collaboration with INTACH, Jammu. It was a great learning to the 120 participants who joined in for the heritage walk. The walk was not just important as a visit to the sights of tourism but also from the point of architecture how the history, the memory and legacy and its continuum connects to our today’s understanding of the city and its culture. Ar. Aditya Singh Head DALD and Ar. Anoop Sharma the conference convener thanks all the delegates for joining the heritage walk. the heritage walk was organized in collaboration with the Dept. of Tourism, J&K Govt.