Smart and Self-sufficient Villages as Backbone to Development: A Case of Indian Heritage Architecture

Abstract

Fast pace of urban development supported by high rate of migration is a threat to sustainability of villages for developing countries like India that is primarily based on agriculture. On one hand, pressure on urban system is increasing multifold and on the other hand, villages are in a dying state of condition. Limited economic opportunities, lack of infrastructure facilities, inefficient performance of central or state level beneficiary provisions and insensitive urban development mechanism are some of the major issues of Indian villages today. The fundamental goal of development should be to reduce the pressure on urban system by retaining village population in villages itself. This can be achieved only if parallel opportunities of growth and better future are offered to youth population of villages. The other important aspect to be addressed is to retain the rich resource base of villages, be it physical and non-physical, and to envisage a tourism-oriented development. Unfortunately, a typical urban development strategy ends up at extension of Municipal limits by adding more and more villages into it and making it a part of city. This approach generally does not respond to or take a call on valuing land fertility, enhancing ecology, or conserving built/unbuilt heritage, socio-cultural needs, extending tourism industry for world class exposure and economic boost, and ultimately result in a typical land use plan with roads and plots. It is essential to foresee that development of villages is at par with development of urban centers and yet is synchronized with actual demand of village, village environment and village population. Addressing the above-mentioned concerns, the study focuses on Vaso village, along with six surrounding villages, in Nadiad District in the State of Gujarat. In India before modernization there were many beautiful materials used as construction material. Those materials were having their own unique identity of architecture, culture, tradition, climate, character, technique, technology, etc. all these values combinedly makes a unique space for human. The older construction we use to study and analyze in today’s context are not applied, it is like having knowledge but not implementing it, it is just to store our brains memory. The knowledge of the natural materials that our older generation have is a gift to architecture to apply in any era. As we all know all older civilization have their own materials and unique construction style with wonderful knowledge of the climate. Without harassing the nature, submerging the human settlement is the ideal way of exploring architecture and its materials. One must understand the character of place, and climate concern will definitely lead the present world towards using the traditional construction material with exploring more and more possibilities towards future.