Architecure Workshop Report-2009

NICEE is committed to furthering earthquake safety in the built environment through empowering stakeholders in the building delivery process by information sharing and dissemination of the state of the art in earthquake engineering. NICEE has also actively engaged in awareness, sensitization and training programmes for faculty in architecture and civil engineering disciplines in colleges all over India through the NPEEE program that was in operation from 2003 till 2007. The National Advisory Committee of NICEE was unanimous in advising that NICEE should also target the architecture professionals of tomorrow by offering training modules to the students of architecture in colleges all over India. To meet this objective, a pilot Workshop for Undergraduate students of Architecture in Earthquake Resistant Design Practices was offered in 2008. The workshop was a great success and it was decided to make it an annual event. The 2nd National Workshop was held in IIT Kanpur during July 6-11, 2009. 56 undergraduate students who had completed six semesters of studies in their respective architecture programmes, from 18 institutes representing 16 cities from all over India participated in the 6-day workshop. The participants were selected from around 120 applications received.

The objective of the workshop is to sensitize the students to earthquake safety issues and in capacity building in the basics of earthquake resistant design at a conceptual level. It is expected that the lecture and hands-on studio sessions in tackling a design assignment will help the students in internalizing earthquake resistant practices as an integral part of their design decision making. The resource faculty for this workshop was from architecture and structural engineering disciplines in an attempt to recreate as closely as possible real life architectural practice. The objective is to equip the participants with the necessary expertise to arrive at architectural designs that are inherently adequate in resisting earthquake loads at a conceptual level.

(a)	Prof Keya Mitra, Department of Architecture, Bengal Engineering & Science University, Shibpur
(b)	Dr. Mahua Mukherjee, Department of Architecture & Planning, IIT Roorkee, Roorkee
(c)	Dr. Vasudha Gokhale, Dr. B.N. College of Architecture for Women, Pune
(d)	Prof. Meera Shirolkar, Dr. B.N. College of Architecture for Women, Pune
(e)	Prof Bhavna Vimawala, Department of Architecture, SCET, Surat
(f)	Prof Nehal Desai, Department of Architecture, SCET, Surat

In addition to the above faculty, lectures were also be delivered by Dr. Durgesh C. Rai of IIT Kanpur, and Dr. Hemant Kaushik of IIT Guwahati, who also participated in the Design Studios and guided the students on how best to incorporate earthquake resistant features in their individual designs, keeping in mind all the other requirements of the design brief.

The selected participants were each sent a NICEE publication titled “Architectural Teaching Resource Material on Earthquake Design Concepts” authored by Murty and Charleson. The participants were advised to go through the book before coming for the workshop. On the first day of the workshop a quiz with multiple choice answers was given to the participants. Another quiz of similar difficulty level was administered to the participants towards the end of the workshop to evaluate the progress made by the students.

The students were given a design assignment wherein they had to design a Secondary School located in a site at Guwahati, in Seismic Zone V. The final designs were evaluated by a Jury Board on the last day through presentations followed by brief questioning by the Jury. The Jury consisted of the following members:

(a)    Ar. R.K. Kakar, Chief Architect, CPWD, New Delhi
(b)    Prof V.R. Shah, CEPT University, Ahmedabad
(c)    Prof. Persi Engineer, SCET, Surat
(c)    Prof Durgesh C Rai of IIT Kanpur

After the initial scrutiny, best eight designs were shortlisted, which were again reviewed by the Jury. The final winners were as follows:



I Prize	(a)	Ms. Gunjan Bhushan Jain, Smt. MM College of Architecture, Nagpur
I Prize	(b)	Mr. Darshan K. Maru, Sir JJ College of Architecture, Mumbai
II Prize	(a)	Ms. Shruti Ashok Dudhane, BKPS College of Architecture, Pune
II Prize	(b)	Mr. Samanth Godthi, Andhra University COE, Visakhapatanm
III Prize	(a)	Ms. Anisha Malhotra, Dr. DY Patil College of Architecture, Pune
III Prize	(b)	Ms. Preeti Sonal, Birla Institute of Technology, Mesra, Ranchi

At the end of the workshop the participants were requested to fill the feedback forms. The average rating given to the design of workshop was 83.24%. 31% of the participants expressed a 70-80% satisfaction with the workshop, 46% expressed a satisfaction level of 80-90% and 20% expressed a satisfaction level of 90-100%. An average score of 4.51 (out of 5.0) was given by the participants in responding to the question if they will recommend this workshop to their colleagues.

During the Valedictory session, Prof. Persi Engineer pointed out that the winning designs had all adopted configurations that were better equipped to withstand earthquake induced forces and they had also given due consideration to climatic, functional and aesthetic issues that are the hallmark of good architecture. Prof Durgesh Rai advised the participants to strike a balance in between the requirements of earthquake resistant design and the host of design considerations that they normally consider in their architectural design exercises. The Chief Guest, Ar. R.K Kakar appreciated the overall quality of the designs and advised them to take care in their architectural decision making to ensure a sustainable built environment.