Through the lens of heritage

When we talk of old cities or heritage, we need to first understand what heritage is. It is our wealth, the essence of our culture and values that we consider sacred. When we see things as objects, places, paintings, towns or furniture, we place a premium on them as heritage objects because they have an essential value which is the summation of what life was at that time.

Craft, technique, way of life, behaviour, etc., all collectively form our heritage, and that is, quintessentially, our culture that has been passed on to us, the residue of everything.

All over the world, people like to preserve their heritage as they want to learn from it. Why do we deem our scriptures and literature sacred? Because they talk about mores and norms that are not normally practiced in present times. Ahmedabad as a heritage city is a great cultural place. But, if a city is a cultural place and its scale is very large, what do we do with it?

In a changing, dynamic society where people have changed, attitudes have changed, new technology has come in, how should we preserve the whole settlement in which people live?

Heritage does not necessarily mean that an object is dead, heritage means living organisms. Even in Europe and other places, they are reviving their earlier lifestyles. To that end, people wear costumes that resemble the era gone by, talk and behave in a fashion that would be seen in those days. They do so because they believe that if one wants to really know why and how it had all transpired, then that is the way out. The job is not of just one individual or corporation, but of the citizens themselves. Only when this awareness seeps in completely, can we set ourselves to the task of learning from the old ages.

The buildings in an old city, which are 600 years old, withstood earthquakes and floods. How did it all happen, how was the drainage and water supply system then? Not just carvings, the concepts themselves are a heritage. We need to talk about how and for what purpose the houses were built that way. How did they select the site, its relationship with the river, etc. Conservation of energy was so important then — jharokhas, balcony, terraces, verandahs and, most importantly, water reservoirs were crucial.

Every house had water reservoirs where they would collect rainwater. In those days, they thought about every natural phenomenon and looked at it in a careful way and designed a lifestyle with an idea of conservation, recycling, and convenience.

Their land use served a mixed purpose. They included a big haveli, shop, medical store, school, temple, a two-storey house and a three-storey house, and all these things meant that different kinds of people lived there at the same time.

It created a completely woven, healthy social structure. Things were done with an intention to prevent any wasteful expenditure of time and energy. This example is the most critical to understanding how one can create a sustainable town which is not only historical, but is also imbued with more meaning.

We need to inquire into whether we are making our cities as sustainable and, perhaps, more efficient than what they were before. For me, the task is to look at how life was there and how we can reinterpret it in today’s day and age. All of this will bring in variety and offer lessons for architects, sociologists, economists and administrators. We should look at heritage as a model of issues raised and solved and reinterpret them in today’s planning.

I look at our heritage as a repository that gives the government, citizens and professionals clues to creating a new harmonious community. Our heritage is our legacy, and we must learn and replicate in the present context.

There are many questions that we must reconsider from the lens of our heritage.

It is inevitable in today’s time that a city will expand, but is this expansion leading us towards a more comfortable life? I am not against multi-storey buildings, but do we need so many cars? We must ask ourselves why we can’t find a way to have different modes of transportation keeping the pedestrian in mind. We often tend to look at development as if it is a clean slate and forget about the best examples that lie a few kilometres away.  

The author is a renowned architect and a Padma Shri awardee