We often talk about conserving national heritage sites. These are often thwarted by the fact that not a lot of people have idea about restoration and conservation. These projects are to be undertaken at least to preserve the national heralds that we’ve hailed for over centuries. The Vadukkanathan Temple, Excavation of Temples from Talakkadu, Mahabalipuram Temple, The Khajurao temple and The Taj Mahal are best examples of National Heralds that have been preserved in their top shape. Faculty of Architecture of KAHE’s main aim was to get our students to accustom themselves by this subject. KURAL (Karpagam’s Unique Rationale on Architectural Lectures) 2019 was held on 23rd and 24th September 2019 as a series of lectures on conservation and preservation of Architectural marvels from the bygone ERA.
Eminent personalities like Mr. Navin Piplani, Principal Director, INTACH Heritage Academy; Dr Benny Kuriakose, Conservation Architect, Chennai; Mr. Vinod Kumar, Conservation Architect and Co-Convener of INTACH Chapter Thrissur; Mr. David Fowler, Architect, Coimbatore; Dr. S. Suresh, Archeologist, Heritage Education and Museum Management Consultant, were our keynote speakers. Our supporting partners in this event were INTACH (Indian Trust for Arts and Cultural Heritage). The itinerary started with a small inaugural function followed by Mr. Navin Piplani’s address on conservation of Taj Mahal. Then Dr. Benny Kuriakose had provided a few words on the relevance of conservation.
Then Dr. Suresh provided an epilogue with the example of Brihadeshwara Temple. The event was attended by not just by the students of FOA KAHE but also the students from various other colleges. The event was a success as the students were given an opportunity to interact with experts in this field. After the workshops, the students had time to communicate with the experts themselves personally. The workshop had achieve its mission by inducing the motivation to protect National Heralds from the wear tear from the gone by years. KURAL was a magnanimous information giver to a lot of students, as it helped them understand, why preservation and conservation were very important. In an era when magnificent architectures stand up within quick time, the need to conserve national heritage is important as it shows the progress of the human race through a period of uncertainty where there was a lack of technology to the period of the great human success.
