CEPT University has signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the Vellore Institute of Technology (VIT) for a mentorship program in architecture. Announcing this at the inauguration of the CEPT Winter Exhibition 2021 on Monday, University Provost Tridip Suhrud said that CEPT was keen on sharing the pedagogy it has developed over the years. “This MoU makes for a two-way conversation, where both institutions will learn from each other,” he said. CEPT signed a similar MoU with McGan’s Ooty School of Architecture earlier this year. The collaboration is meant to facilitate faculty and student exchange programs between the institutes.
Speaking at the event, Professor Devi Prasad, Chair of the School of Architecture at VIT said that he has always considered CEPT to be a beacon in the field of architecture, ever since he graduated from the School of Planning and Architecture, Delhi, in 1985. “Architecture pedagogy has changed over the years,” he said. “It is no longer civil engineering plus a few other courses. It is now multi-disciplinary. Architecture is now approached a thinking mechanism, a process that brings out the best in the architect.”
Some of this high-grade thinking is now on display at the CEPT Winter Exhibition, which has resumed after a one-year break on account of the Covid pandemic. A total of 97 projects are on display at the exhibition, from students of the Faculties of Architecture, Planning, Design, Technology and Urban Management. “The last four months have seen the campus come alive again,” said Dr Suhrud. “Learning from one’s peers is an important part of education and that was hard to simulate online, though they tried. Conversations are important to academic institutions and it is wonderful to see these have resumed.”
Among the interesting projects on display at the exhibition in one on six old private schools in Ahmedabad (Shahpur Lal Urdu School, Jamalpur Gujrati School, Khadia Ward Shala, Shree Jivkor Vanita Vishram, Amarpura Hindi School and IP Mission School), where the students from the Faculty of Architecture have suggested several architectural improvements. Another project, titled ‘Verticity,’ looks at futuristic housing for the city.
A project from the School of Planning, titled ‘Ungendering: The Everyday City’, studies places where women tend to congregate in the Ashram Road and Gulbhai Tekra areas of the city (as opposed to where men congregate). In Ahmedabad, as in most Indian cities, public spaces for women tend to be limited and are usually restricted to places near their homes or temples. The project explores ideas for ‘ungendering’ the city so that both genders (and members of the LGBT community) have equal access to safe, friendly spaces.
One of the interesting projects from the Faculty of Management looks at the House of MG, the heritage hotel developed by Abhay Mangaldas. Here, the students have focused on the lack of parking space as well as the lack of fire safety in the building.
