Study tour report 1st B. Arch Section B

Abstract

The tour destination had been selected in such a way so that it may serve the purpose of knowledge dissemination at student end. Major goal of this tour was to learn through observations / Photography/ Sketching and to brush up and review the semester-1 learning i.e. Basic design principles. Whereas, the second part of the tour was to do site study of the next design exercise for the upcoming semester with intent to understand the character of urban space/s and identify the needs of the people. Based on these identifications, they have to come up with a proposal to fulfil the need with the help of a small kiosk design. As our destination was full of natural scenic beauty with complicated topography and tourist destinations, it became interesting for the students to identify site for Kiosk in Shimla-Manali-Dharamshala. Meanwhile for the exercise they captured and observed the built forms in all destinations. We were fortunate enough to visit villages rich in cultural heritage with lot of built forms reflecting English and Portuguese architecture near Chintapurani. We also exposed students to use of dry masonry with locally available stones like slate with pine wood and how they help in bearing earthquake shakes. They had been also exposed to Timber construction techniques in famous temples and Nagar castle near Kullu. Apart from this they also visited Viceroy building in Shimla and understood the relevance of the place in terms of context and building architecture. And of course little bit of fun in few destinations like Solang valley, river rafting in Vyas river and experiencing Snow fall in Dharamshala. We are looking forward to this upcoming studio exercise, study tour will help students to understand the built and un-built space relevance in Architecture.