Heritage Awards 2019

Indian National Trust for Art and Cultural Heritage (INTACH) had decided to offer a nation-wide Heritage Awards programme for excellence in Documentation of Unprotected Heritage Structures in India. The INTACH Heritage Awards Programme was established with an objective to encourage interest and talent of the students for the understanding and documentation of heritage buildings, and also develop and promote sensitivity and awareness amongst students of architecture across the country.

Theme for the Heritage Awards 2019

“Let the story of water and heritage be told in all its diversity and reveal its ingenuity and present the challenges that both Water and Heritage face.” (Williems and Schaik, 2015)

Water plays a significant role in the evolution and continuity of human civilizations. Right from the Indus Valley through modern towns and cities, the existence of perennial source of water has been a key factor behind their growth and flourishing. Water is vital for life, and though mankind has been concerned for its availability throughout ages, there is also a need to conserve and manage the sources of water. The current concern is to enhance our perspective on two critical aspects – water structures as heritage, and impact of climate on heritage along water.

Climate change is a substantial and inevitable threat to the built heritage along the water bodies’ coastlines and also to the way of life which co-exist with these environments. Many of the ancient monuments, historic buildings, towns and places are located either along or in a close vicinity of lakes, rivers, ponds, seas and so forth. All these sites are under a potential threat from the changing patterns of climate. As a first step, these sites need to be identified and documented, before any preservation or conservation measure is undertaken.

It is with this objective, the theme for this year’s documentation programme has been identified as ‘Water and Heritage’.