Gandhinagar: Prof Neelkanth Chhaya, an eminent architect and academic,will deliver two lectures at the Indian Institute of Gandhinagar (IITGN) on “Concepts and Practices of Architecture across India”, as a part of the fourth edition of the Indian Knowledge Systems semester course being conducted on the theme of ‘The Ancient Idea of India’.The lectures are scheduled on February 05 and 06, 2020at IITGN campus, AB 1/102, from 3:30 to 5 pm.
Prof Neelkanth Chhaya has practiced at Ahmedabad as an architect and academicsince 1987. He has taught at the Faculty of Architecture at CEPT University from 1987 to 2012 and retired as Dean of the Faculty. Earlier,he also taught at the University of Nairobi and at the Institute of Environmental Design, Vallabh Vidyanagar, and has been an Adjunct Faculty at Srishti School of Design, Bengaluru. Prof Chhaya has been interested in the value of Indic thought on architecture, urbanism and place-making to contemporary practices.
These two lectures at IITGN will first present a brief overview of forms of architecture across India and across a long chronological period. Significantly, this would include both “formal” or monumental examples as well as folk forms of architecture. Avoiding purely stylistic or religious or periodised categorization, the lectures will attempt to bring about a broad synthesis of architectural thought peculiar to the subcontinent.A part of the lectures will also discuss whether there can be bridges between the textual and the artisanal knowledge systems.
