Description

Awareness about the deteriorating condition of our environment is positively on the increase. The concem for our cultural heritage and architectural assets is also growing. The question, how-ever, is whether this awareness and this concern has been manifested in any positive form or not. While the general scene is rather deprssing, there are a few rays of hope. Whether it is imposition of restrictions on felling of trees or agreement in principle that Ellis Bridge should not be demoli-shed, are a few examples which reinforce our optimism.

A vast area which is getting lot of lip-service is the dwelling environment, but without much being actually done. While the inflating statistics on the number of houses built every year could be flattering to some, the basic question of the qualitative aspects of our environment remain as amorphous as ever. This qualitative aspect should cover not only open spaces, landscape, infra-structure and architecture, but also the aspects of cutural and user adaptability. Here the cultural relates more to the life-style in a given situation rather than the display of its artifacts.

It is in this context that we wanted to deal with the issues of environment in general and dwelling environment in particular. To that extent this effort is only partly successful. But a greater satisfaction comes from the fact that interest in architectural research is growing. It is our earnest hope that the body of information collected at this institution can be shared with others.

KULBHUSHAN JAIN

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