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Partnership with National Museum of Denmark for Conservation at Serampore, West Bengal

30.03.2017

Faculty of Architecture

The Conservation Area of Faculty of Architecture at CEPT University had entered into an agreement with the National Museum of Denmark (NMD) to collaborate on their Serampore Initiative that works on conservation initiatives in Serampore, West Bengal. The Serampore Initiative was founded by the National Museum of Denmark in 2008 with the purpose of documenting and preserving the cultural heritage of this former Danish Colony. The initiative wishes to create new knowledge to promote awareness of Serampore through research in and communication about Indo - Danish history.

Partnership with National Museum of Denmark for Conservation at Serampore, Kolkata

As a part of the CEPT - NMD collaboration, CEPT University conducted a winter school at Serampore that was directed by Dr. Flemming Aalund, conservation architect and consultant to the NMD, Jigna Desai, Associate Professor and Area Chair for Conservation at CEPT and Khushi Shah, Conservation Architect and Visiting Faculty at CEPT. During this winter school, the students documented five very valuable historic residences at Serampore that are representative of the local house type and the Danish bungalow type. This winter school presented an exhibition of students’ drawings at Serampore and has inspired the residents to recognize and be aware of their own historic legacy.

As the next stage of this collaboration, two students pursuing their Major in Conservation in the M. Arch Program at CEPT, Shrishtina Shrestha and Aathirai S K were fully funded by the NMD to base their research thesis in Serampore. Shrishtina's thesis focuses on documenting, studying and proposing repair and reuse of the Goswami Rajbari in Serampore, one of the largest residences of the region belonging to a historic family. Aathirai's thesis on the other hand aims at documenting and proposing conservation based development of the Ghats of Serampore. Both students spent six weeks in Serampore and are back to complete their work, which along with the winter school documentation will be presented to the National Museum of Denmark as CEPT University's contribution to their initiative.

National Museum of Denmark, recently also organized a competition for the design of Serampore Town square. Jigna Desai, from CEPT University was invited to be a part of the Jury that also consisted of Dr. Aalund, Mr. G.M. Kapur, convener of INTACH, West Bengal and the local officers.

An article on the competition from the local newspaper: https://www.telegraphindia.com/1170307/jsp/calcutta/story_139376.jsp

Partnership with National Museum of Denmark for Conservation at Serampore, West Bengal