When we say “heritage” at present, it primarily takes us to an imaginary tour of the historical monuments which are in our tourist guide books or websites, as a part of national identity. But the fact is heritage refers to the practices and characteristics that are passed down through the years from one generation to the next. But at present heritage is considered to be just a part of community assets in form of historical buildings and other tangible valuable remains of history as tourist attractions.With a close perspective to these “heritage”, it can be observed that it’s the “culture” of the people from the past, that has influenced the spaces they created for themselves.
Their lifestyle reflects on the monuments in form of art and architecture, and study of it tells us about the people of the past, their interests, living practices, morals, the evolution till our present existence and other customs.When the human species came into existence on earth they started to live with their knowledge. They tried to adapt themselves with their vernacular context, where their values and culture were shaped according to the nature of natural environment around them. This molded culture inspired from nature became their identity, with a variation according to the diverse bio diversity across the world.
Hence the “cultural heritage” that has influenced the architecture across the world has its major inclination towards the nature. Since existence architecture has been a part of human effort where the environment has been the selfl ess provider of building materials.
At present, there are buildings surviving for hundred years persisting at their place. Its only possible because of the accuracy of understanding the essence of the natural environment. Their preferences of building materials can be seen dominated by the natural elements, and the health benefits associated with engaging with nature.
For example, Mesopotamians lack forests, for which wood was not always available for construction; hence, it restored to the discovery of ‘domes’ and ‘mud arches’ instead of wooden rafts. Due to flooding, it was imperative to construct buildings on manmade elevations, such as the tower of Babylon were built from bamboos and reed reinforcement.
This way the vernacular selection of materials, the construction technique by understanding the behavior of natural environment and micro climatic conditions of the respective place, the built structures manage to resist until this day, as seen in Ur and Babylon.
Its like they are made out of the earth, which predictably make them sustain till the existence of the earth.But tremendous changes in culture have been found over the years in the human society. According to the anthropologists, culture does not exist in isolation.
When cultures change, they can have a major impact on the environment and in the similar way the change in environment impacts on further change in culture. This cyclic process has started showing its impact on the present times. For example, global warming at the end of the last ice age contribute to the invention of agriculture, which allowed for such immense increase in the human population that we began to rapidly alter the environment by deleting resources.
Since past years forests are being cut down for construction materials, fuels and animals were hunted to near extinction for food. Since 1985, the average number of people living together in a household has been dropping due to many social changes extended and joint families are less popular for which large numbers of people establish their own individual households.
The demand for housing has been quite directly proportionate to the increase in the population. This has again directly proportionated the demand of construction materials that has caused a dramatic increase in the exploitation of the natural environment.The interrelationship between culture and environment also has been observed in the depletion of energy resources and forced adoption of new energy sources.
As wood started to deplete by the beginning of the industrial revolution in Europe, it was replaced by coal to fuel the industries, which was then further replaced by oil and natural gas during the early 20th century. Again, the scarcity of these oil and natural gases has at present set to be replaced by nuclear, solar and other alternative energy sources.
Our change in culture has in terms of inventions, comfort, lifestyle and economics forced us to alter our relationship with environment. And as the cycle states the natural environment has also impacted further to change our culture by adapting ourselves to the progressive global warming, shifting climates and degradation of natural environment.
Our culture has become self-centered. Our culture has become more of “Me and Mine” (human existence) than “We and Us” (relationship with nature).
The heritage that reflects the culture of our ancestors has always made us to think over building a wise human-nature relationship, which has been a contradiction for the present practices. So here the question arises is, is this the culture we will be practicing ahead to be adored by our future generation as “heritage”?
(The writer is an architect and a sustainability consultant who lives in Bhubaneswar. ananyadaspmca@gmail.com, Ph: 7989072311)