Kanupriya Goel and Shivashish Bose

Tekton
Volume 6, Issue 1, March 2019
pp. 8 – 23

Kanupriya Goel is an architect and conservationist. She did her Bachelor of Architecture in 2009 from Uttar Pradesh and Master of Architecture and Settlement Conservation at Centre for Environmental Planning and Technology University (CEPT) in Gujarat in 2011. She was Research Associate for one year at CEPT for a conservation project and an Assistant Professor for one semester at Lovely Professional University in Punjab. She is a Ph.D. student doing research since 2014 at Jadavpur University in Kolkata.
kanupriya.goel2000@gmail.com

Shivashish Bose is an architect, urban designer and conservationist and a Professor in the Department of Architecture at Jadavpur University in Kolkata. He studied architectural conservation and did post-doctoral research at ICCROM in Rome. He received professional training on urban design and conservation at IPRAUS in Paris. He received training on urban planning at Aristotle University of Thessaloniki in Greece. His teaching and research is focused on architecture, housing planning, urban design, conservation and environmental planning. He also practices architecture and conservation in Kolkata.
shivashishbose@yahoo.co.in

ABSTRACT

Kolkata is marked with many architectural marvels and historic settlements that are in dire need of recognition and conservation. One such settlement is existing in between the congested streets of central zone of main city of Kolkata. It is simple but spacious housing colony in 3 bighas area, called as ‘Bow Barracks’ now under proposal for demolition by the local government. This settlement is inhabited by a very special community, popularly known as ‘Anglo-Indians’ that are the offspring of European and Indian parents. These buildings have a history, elegant architecture, unique culture and a mark of a symbolic identity of this community for over a century. The aim of this paper is to highlight this living cultural settlement with its different aspects and issues of today and its past and to demonstrate conservation as a better alternative than bulldozing these buildings for construction of high-rise buildings to realize economic value.

KEY WORDS:
Anglo-Indian Community, Restoration, Conservation, Historic Buildings, Bow Barracks