Vikram Pawar
Tekton
Volume 3, Issue 2, September 2016
pp. 58 – 75
Vikram Pawar is an architect and a faculty member at Kamla Raheja Vidyanidhi Institute of Architecture, Mumbai. He acquired his B.Arch. and M.Arch. (Urban Conservation) from the Mumbai University. He has been actively involved in undertaking documentation and measured drawing exercises in different parts of the country. He has been anchoring the subjects of construction and measured documentation for the 2nd year B.Arch. students at KRVIA. Being one of the core faculty for technology in the school, he believes in an integrated learning of the Architectural discourse.
ABSTRACT
The Satras are Vaishnavite monastic settlements on the island of Majuli on the river Brahmaputra. This essay reflects upon the spacial relationship of a Satra with its unique environmental context and traditions of the Satriya culture. Acknowledging that sustainable practices are best understood as traditional responses to the natural and cultural landscape, the essay compares the ‘formal’ physical structure of the Satra with the organic ‘informal’ patterns and responses of a tribal living. This essay is based upon a student documentation project and attempts to situate the act of documentation in the larger scheme of architectural pedagogy besides being a vital tool for heritage conservation.
KEY WORDS
Majuli, Satra, Assam, Brahmaputra, Satriya Culture
