Collaborative Initiatives
Exhibition and walking tours were organized as part of the event Reimagining Heritage, by the Centre for Heritage Research (CHR) of Navrachana University alongwith the Heritage Trust Baroda. These two organizations collaborated for these events in order to raise awareness about different heritage issues of the city.
The exhibition Reimagining Heritage showcased some of the modern, technological, and natural heritage of Vadodara. This was a public event organized from 25th to 27th March 2022 at the Art District of Alembic City displaying exhibits and models from below mentioned projects, alongwith walking tours on Laurie Baker Buildings and Narrow-Gauge Railway.
The exhibition was inaugurated by Mr. Amit Gupta, DRM, Vadodara Division, and by an eminent architect Mr. Gurjit Singh Matharoo (Principal Matharoo Associates), an Academic, and an International Fellow, RIBA. The occasion was marked by presence of Ms. Tejalben Amin (Chairperson Navrachana Education Society), Ms. Sandhya Gajjar (Member Board of Management NUV), Prof. Pratyush Shankar (Interim- Provost and Dean SEDA, NUV), Dr. Sandeep Vasant (Registrar NUV), Mr. Sameer Khera, President Heritage Trust Baroda,
Prof. Shalini Amin - Program Chair B. Design (Interior), Prof. Pragya Shankar – Program Chair B. Design (Landscape), NUV Faculty members, Heritage Trust members and other esteemed guests. The space was full of students from SEDA, other institutes, professionals, and others.
Walking Tour: Laurie Baker Buildings, Vadodara
The Laurie Baker in Vadodara walk was curated by Prof. Pragya Shankar alongwith Ms. Sandhya Gajjar. Focusing on the architectural values and the experiments carried out to resolve various challenges while designing the three buildings mentioned above and the design decisions taken by Laurie Baker for each of them. The uniqueness of these buildings in terms of their design approach and reflection of the experimentation with architectural language and material expression was emphasized as well.
Walking Tour: Narrow-Gauge Railway Heritage, Vadodara.
The narrow-gauge walk curated by Prof. Shalini Amin focused on innovation in technology and its influence on social and physical fabric of the city at large. Ms. Manju Meena (Sr. DCM) and her team of technical officials from railway explained the technicalities and demonstrated various mechanisms used in narrow gauge then and now leading to lot of curiosity-based questions and interesting discussions. The walk concluded with the visit to the Pratapnagar Railway Museum showcasing exhibits of evolution of narrow gauge in global context, original - tickets, handwritten communications, equipments used on station, and so on.