Center for Heritage Conservation (CHC)

In the last decade, the country has seen a renaissance of sorts with concern for heritage conservation becoming more pertinent, especially in the context of development. Most Indian cities have historic cores characterized by a dense network of streets, traditional houses, markets, living communities and their associated traditional livelihoods and social practices. However these precincts are riddled with infrastructure issues. Several buildings that hold historical and architectural significance are deteriorated and dilapidated and are being converted to nuisance uses such as godowns and small-scale industries. Vehicular congestion, pollution, very high noise levels, have further worsened the quality or urban environments. Existing processes, borrowed principles and unstructured practices have not been enough to address the challenges and contingencies of these complex Indian realities.  Intervening in these areas requires specific strategies that are tailor made to suite the local context and capacities, and involve collaboration with external stakeholders such as NGOs, community organizations, professionals and private enterprises.

The Center for Heritage Conservation (CHC), with its broad, but situated understanding of history, heritage and conservation has been established with a vision of becoming the focal point in research, advisory and capacity building of the practice and policy of heritage conservation in the country. With a firm belief in ethics of conservation and sustainability, the Center intends to engage with municipal corporations, departments and ministries at central and state level, private practitioners and developers to inform practices on ground and create solutions that are long term and equitable. It will also act as a repository of existing knowledge and contribute towards generating awareness and an intelligent discourse around the subject among the citizens and other interest groups. CEPT University, through its Program of Masters in Conservation and Regeneration has been providing specialist education in theory and practice of building conservation and conservation led urban regeneration. The program also has existing academic collaborations with University of York, UK and National Museum of Denmark. The CHC will build on this expertise within the university to further expand these collaborations through joint research, experimentation, technical testing, publications, and public outreach.