A workshop on “Role of heritage in urban development of Bhubaneswar’’ was organised here on Thursday for 27 architecture students and faculty members of an Indo-Franco-German team.
The students and faculty members belong to the National School of Architecture, France, the Architecture of the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology, Germany and the Kamla Raheja Vidyanidhi Institute for Architecture and Environmental Studies, Mumbai.
Organised jointly by the KIIT School of Architecture and Planning, the Heritage Cell of BDA, the Bhubaneswar Urban Knowledge Centre and the French Embassy, the workshop discussed various heritage aspects of the Old Town area of the city, which is dotted with 361 beautiful monuments and how the conservation and other plans are being taken up by the BDA.
BDA Vice-Chairman Prem Chandra Chaudhary advised the participating architecture students to give their frank opinion regarding its development and help in the planning process for BDA.
BDA Planning Member Gouri Shankar Bhuyan and Director KIIT School of Architecture and Planning Professor SS Ray also took part in the discussion.
The Faculty and Students of French and German Universities are associated in the project to study Rs Rs Role of Heritage in the Smart City and urban development of the cities of Bhubaneswar and Chandigarh.’’
“Integral part of the city, heritage offers the opportunity to question, through our reading of the past, the complexity of contemporary societies as the collective choices to operate today. Thus, the project we propose focuses on how heritage is integrated into the smart city development plans of Indian cities,” said Prof Ray.
The final phase of the workshop under the collaboration will be in New Delhi in March will involve a joint presentation to Government of India to give a proposal for the cities.