SABA in India - Summer 2011

On September 2011, SABA moved for a summer semester in India. The program was held in collaboration with the Architecture Faculty at CEPT University Ahmedabad and the Chandigarh College of Architecture. 

Faculty

The semester faculty was composed by a large team of teachers from Bezalel, CEPT and CCA, as well as by a team of retired local professionals (farmers, masons, carpenters, and weaver) who shared their experience with us (in order of appearance): 

Sharon Rotbard, Elisheva Levy, Neelkanth Chhaya, Akbar Nazim Modan, Parth Shah, Sangeeta Bagga, Deepika Gandhi, Priyanka Singh, Yatin Pandyia, Ayub Sherasiya, Karshanbai, Sanjibai, and Gittabenn. 

Travelling Workshop

The first part of the program was dedicated to a travelling workshop in Ahmedabad, Chandigarh and New Delhi, in which the studio investigated some of India’s architectures (modernist experiments, historical heritage, contemporary architecture, questioned its own practices and possibilities of travelling and movement (tourism, backpacking, architectural tourism, dérive), and researched and documented local sample s of spontaneous architectures and unofficial technologies in cities, slums and villages. 

Halvad Workshop

In the second part of the semester SABA moved to the Center for Rural Knowledge near Halwad, a small town in Surendranagar district, Gujarat. 

The Center for Rural Knowledge is located on the border of a semi-desert area, 15 km from the Little Ran of Kutch and 5km from Halwad, a small town (30,000 inhabitants) which serves mainly as a center and marketplace for the farmers in the area. It Is a non-profit organization that had been founded by the Indian Center for Environmental Education, in the framework of various aid and self-aid actions initiated in the region after the 2001 earthquake. Since 2007, the center moved to a small experimental farm with a small campus by the architect Neelkanth Chhaya, who designed few other CEE campuses in Gujarat. 

The Center for Rural Knowledge, Halvad

The Center assures various types of activities: Aid for local farmers and study, research and development of new technologies of sustainable agriculture (soil improvement, irrigation, fertilization); economical education and empowering of women groups from the region, mainly through micro-banking and the promotion of home industries; various educative activities for the region’s children. 

Children’s Corner
SABA was asked to locate a children’s corner within the farm’s compound, and to design and to build 4 open classrooms of 15 m2. Each classroom should have “one floor, one wall, one roof”, and further specification – general activities, library, rest place, computer stand – were added by the Center’s personnel. 

The design and building process was done in 20 days, in the spirit of Gandhi’s Village Swaraj – self work, local materials, no machines. The students financed the materials and tools costs, about $300 per classroom. 

Participants

Jonathan Alon, Tamar Alon, Itai Bechor, Ayelet Ben David, Inbal Helzer, Alon Itzkin, Yael Johnson, Rajendra Menaria, Keren Christina Mendjul, Aleksei Noskov, Matan Pisante, Mevaseret Recanati, Michal Rosenfeld, Fouad Salem, Ronen Sarudi, Tali Serebro, Tal Tomer, Oded Wieder