Thinking Conservation: What is documentation? Who documents a site / structure?

This month's blog is the result of a chance remark. Some of us were interacting with a group of professionals interested and working in, though not trained in built heritage conservation or with extensive field experience in the discipline.

In the course of conversation a member of the group rather proudly declared: "we have completely documented xyz [a historic settlement]". I was excited over the statement as I was personally interested in that settlement and requested to see their work whenever convenient.

When I finally did get to see it though, I was disappointed to note that the settlement had been measure drawn (some parts thoroughly and some imaginatively, much like we all do, when time and resources are a constraint) but not documented.

Thinking through I realized this is the typical or general approach to and understanding of documentation. First, it is usually equated with measure drawing and second, it is relegated to "juniors": in work hierarchy some what lower than say sitting at a desk, for example, and analyzing cum compiling.

Quite often conservation experts do not visit or they are not given time / resources to visit the site / structure under question. Instead "less expensive" students, interns, juniors are sent to site to "document" and the expert is given the photos and drawings required to assess the conservation status of the structure / site back in the studio.

In effect, voluntarily or involuntarily, side-stepping a necessary, important step in diagnosing the problems affecting a heritage site / structure first hand, which would lead to an understanding of the larger issues that affect the site / structure's heritage values (whatever they maybe).

What then is documentation?

As noted above it is a necessary part of diagnosing the issues affecting a heritage site. Ideally it is a combination of drawings, photographs, archival work to trace its historiography (not just how it looked, but who used it, how and for what periods of time) and first hand accounts from current users / guardians. All put together they help thoroughly understand the site / structure.

To take an example as a way to stress the nuances of the process - drawings are not one type or of a standard model. Depending on need they could be a record of as-is where-is condition of a site: showing collapsed sections, off plumb columns, missing parts and all. Or they could be a recreation of what the structure did look like when intact (based on an understanding of art and architectural history of course, no guesswork here). Or an overlay of existing condition on a recreation. Or a series of rendered images to satisfy clients and / or funders. All equally valid parts of the documentation process. See examples below.

Image above: partial drawings of a ruined temple structure. One cell (red dotted line, marked no.5) is completely missing, only the pranala (of the lingam) remains as a clue to help us understand where it once stood. 

Image above: part photograph of one of the partially collapsed shikaras of the same temple complex

Image above: archival record of the plan layout of the same temple complex 

Do all sites / structures need all types of drawings to be made or does it depend on need and resources? This is down to the expert, who generally calls on experience to address this question.

Why do I think it important to raise this topic?

Heritage advocates and enthusiasts, much like the group I mentioned in the beginning of this blog, are increasing day by day. Most of them are passionate about heritage which is great. However, in the long run, lack of adequate information and training in the nuances of built heritage conservation, among such groups, might end up harming the conservation discipline as we understand it. An integrated interdisciplinary process, where each necessary step forms an important part of the whole.

Thinking, Doing and Teaching Conservation: on-site knowledge sharing

Based on many years of on-site experience, in this blog, I would like to discuss interactions between skilled workers and conservation architect in field based projects such as restoration or reconstruction.

I am always delighted to interact with skilled labour force working at restoration sites. Whether traditional masons, stone workers, carpenters, floor layers or more regular service providers like electricians or plumbers, there is always much to learn from them at every site and project. Usually as conservation expert I decide the larger restoration strategy in consultation with the client and / or structural engineer. However in the actual execution and detailing, the knowledge of craftspeople and skilled labour force comes into the picture.

For example, while attempting to reconstruct a decorative urn and balusters at a site in Mysore, the craftsperson suggested making a form work in wood to get the detail right. He then proceeded to make a full scale drawing of the six feet urn on the terrace, right there. (See image below) I can share countless such instances but the point I wish to raise is such exchanges are knowledge that is worth sharing and must be shared.

One way would be to rethink how architects develop working drawings i.e. drawings that are meant to guide different scales and types of execution on-site. In fact I now believe that we can develop templates for working drawings by keenly observing the work flow and thought process of such skilled labour. 

At our sites we are always open to interacting and learning from experienced and skilled labour, whether it is preparation of materials like lime or carving out a detail in lime / wood or even how to lay an exposed conduit. For example, a lime plasterer I worked with would assess when traditional mortars were good enough for application by feeling the coarseness and stiffness of the mortar with his fingers. His eye / hand would similarly tell him at what stage and how much organic admixture is to be added to the lime mortar as required for that stage of works. Another mason would similarly assess the quality of soil for mud construction (adobe).  Based on their years of experience some of them even developed their own tools to help them restore or reconstruct different features of historic buildings. I have often observed traditional carpenters who, having worked with wood for years, bring their rich understanding of the material, to develop their own joinery details. These details are not to be found in any standard text book or manual. At one site we got miniature samples of such details made which we now use as a teaching resource in our classes on heritage for both children and adults. See image below.

However engaging a trained team is important because after years of working on heritage buildings they are sensitive to the needs of such structures. When I get into a discussion with such a team on what detailing might have originally been adopted, whether we can recreate it, it is almost like a story coming alive as the mason or carpenter starts thinking about how those original craftspeople might have executed it. In the process they provide alternatives on how to restore some interesting yet hard to recreate features.

Interacting with such skilled individuals thus enriches our understanding of historic materials cum techniques and appreciation of their efforts – sitting or squatting awkwardly on scaffolding for hours at a time only to get a detail right is not easy. It deserves great respect. Every member on a restoration site thus has an important role to play in contributing to the building or site's significance. 

Thinking and Teaching Conservation: balancing ethics, people, and policy

In last month's blog Kuili wrote about certain situations in the field when we as heritage professionals are confronted with differing needs of different 'communities'. These field instances stayed in her mind as they tested or maybe even challenged our professional ethics. Maybe our morality too? While I'm unsure of the latter I have no doubts that such experiences do cause us to question our disciplinary ethics. I therefore decided it was worthwhile to extend the conversation thread to this month's blog.

Some of you may wonder how or why do ethics or morals come into the picture? For example, quite often I am asked what does conservation have to do with people? Isn't it a science? This question usually comes up when I say I'm working towards a PhD dissertation on Heritage Conservation with a broad focus on how heritage and its conservation intersect with peoples' lives. The question "isn't it a science and hence nothing to do with people" is a huge issue but in this blog I stick to the topic of ethics. It comes into the picture especially since the discipline is increasingly working with people.

Recently I read an essay by Paul Drury, a heritage professional based in England. He argues that "conservation is an evolving concept...a philosophical approach" that seeks to understand what people value and that comes first, much before the physical process of repair...A couple of lines stayed with me: "practising conservation involves judgement guided by professional ethics and public policy" and further along "conservation [is] becom[ing] a more complex and public activity". I interpret these lines to mean: we are often pulled in different directions when our professional training demands a course of action that seems contrary to governmental policy and / or local peoples' wants or desires. In effect our work becomes a fine act of balancing all these varying demands while exercising our judgment - a difficult task. Are we trained enough for this? Are we prepared? Maybe its time to reflect on our training and how well it prepares us for ground realities that are far removed from the studio.

For example, we were called to 'characterise' a settlement located near a protected site. The heritage authority had received a number of applications for No Objection Certificate (NoC) from this settlement because of the rule that 100m from a protected site is a no development zone and further 200m from it is a development control zone. The authority recognised that the settlement had existed before this policy came up and wished to respond as fairly as possible to various applications that sought development permissions. Hence the suggestion that we study and interpret the local context (settlement pattern, typology, architectural style/s, materials and construction technology ...).

While walking around an elderly man started a general conversation when he abruptly stopped and said, "I would like to ask you a question, don't get offended". I replied that he was welcome to ask anything. He said: "you say you are a heritage expert, you tell me is it fair for the authority to construct new structures well inside the protected area of the site in the name of public toilets, ticket booth, visitor facilities and so on but we are denied permission to build toilets or repair our roof or add a floor just because we live close to a site that has been declared protected". 

Of course it was unfair especially from his standpoint! What is the middle path in such situations? How we do balance policy, needs of the site whose care is our professional mandate and needs of people whose lives happen to intersect with the site only because it was declared protected? More so since increasingly there is recognition that heritage is supposed to be of, for and by people.

The questions above bring us back to the statement in the beginning of the blog that conservation challenges our ethical (and maybe our moral?) judgments. How well are we preparing students to face such realities? The answer is not too well I'm afraid. When I am called to review conservation related studio work (documentation, assessment, analyses, adaptive re-use etc.,) I generally notice students being unable to proceed further with their projects as field work has brought such quandaries to light. They are unsure of how to resolve them. Maybe acknowledging that such quandaries exist and are more the norm rather than exception is the first step - than trying to set them aside in the name of 'objectivity'.

Thinking Conservation: What do we conserve, why, and for whom

What is a protected site? What is a monument? What is a temple?

This blog will discuss the questions above through onsite experiences. The questions were triggered while documenting a protected monument complex. The site, a ruined temple complex, was considered a monument as defined by archaeological acts and not under worship, meaning no puja was performed.

Let me describe the site, its setting and then the incident. We were working in the dark interiors of one of the cells in the complex: the floor was covered with debris and bat droppings, hearing us moving about some bats flew out, others continued to hang overhead in the darkest corners, we treaded carefully checking for snakes. Added to this there were many open joints and cracks on the inner wall through which the mud core of the double wall had spilled out. Many other cells of the complex were inaccessible due to collapsed inner walls which prevented our entry, besides the mud and debris accumulation around them. Such ruins were of course the living spaces of chameleons, large lizards, scorpions, cockroaches and other animal life that we could only hear but not see due to low visibility. We could only guess what they might be. As the sun rose overhead, we felt the scorching heat through the gaps, and the roof overhead which had lost its waterproof coating. The above describes our typical site, an exceptional case would be if we managed to access most parts of the site. The setting was also typical of most of the sites we work in, generally in a small village, with few or no caretakers.

Based on past requests and experience, at such sites, though they are declared monuments not under worship, within the premises our team would work without footwear. This was of course not a stated rule but an understood norm and applies to visitors too. The first incident involved a visitor who got into a tiff with a villager who preferred the visitor remove footwear before entering the “temple complex”. Neither the villager nor the visitor would budge. The villager was a local, likely with emotional attachment to the site as ‘temple’. The visitor on the other hand just saw a ‘ruin’.

The second incident is one we used to see in such monuments / temple complexes not under worship but with ticketed entry. Residents would demand ticketless entry as the monument was part of ‘their’ village. In this particular instance a local said it was “their temple” with a sense of pride and ownership and demanded entry to the site. Another time a resident spoke about how the access to his fields used to run just beside the complex but now it is fenced off.

These above incidents are just couple of many such “situations” where the historic structure is “a monument” for visitors but “a temple” for others. Or a part of their village that ‘outsiders’ are now claiming. All too often we would be mute spectators to such instances with the question of “whom these spaces are being conserved” running through our minds.

Based on field experience and training I could see both sides to the incidents above, i.e. “why can't the visitor respect the villager’s viewpoint as a person who is attached to the temple probably since his ancestor’s times”. On the other hand “why can’t the villager understand that temples were not designed to be visited during peak hours of the day and now that someone is visiting in the heat it would be difficult to walk barefoot and avoid stepping on droppings, debris and animals”.

These are some of the difficult situations that we face as field based conservation architects,who straddle the world between conserving ‘monuments’ that have survived time and appreciating the 'monument' as ‘ruined temple’, that is part and parcel of people's’ daily lives, their homes, and backyards.

Doing Conservation: being detective and unraveling a building's many layers

In an earlier blog we had noted about not confusing visible problems with root cause which may not be apparent at first glance. In line with this observation this blog briefly touches on being building detective.

By which I mean trying to find and follow the trail of clues that building(s) leave around for conservation folk like us to find and interpret. The appropriate intervention in terms of structure, construction techniques, material detailing and finish of course depends on the 'right' interpretation.

Let me illustrate with a few examples from a recent project - conservation assessment of Napier Museum, Thiruvananthapuram. An intended monument if ever there was one given its location, setting, architectural style and detailing. See picture below.

We started our inspections:

At first glance from below (ground level) the yazhis that are part of the decorative roofing system looked like they might serve a structural role along with the rest of the timber truss. See picture below.

However when we finally managed to get eye level with the truss we realised they were purely ornamental. For example, see the picture below which clearly shows that the yazhi has become dislodged at some point and tied to the truss member in an attempt to keep it in place.

Getting eye level with the roofing truss might not sound too difficult an enterprise but what if there is no clear access (stairs, ladder) which is pretty much most of the time. In this case we managed to get tall scaffolding erected not to undertake repairs but purely to investigate, which took a certain amount of convincing. See picture below.

Likewise from below the painted ceiling looked like it might be composed of wooden panels but when we finally managed to access it and the roofing void above, with the help of the scaffolding, working with a team of art conservators we realised the ceiling was metal sheets. See picture below.

This also gave us a chance to clarify that the decorative elements on the truss members were indeed ornamental painting, in imitation of wooden inlay, though at first glance it looked like light wood inlay on the dark wood of the truss.

To me the most interesting instance of reading a building 'right' came up in the exteriors. Over the years the building had been repainted many times though it still appeared to retain its "iconic" look. That is, from a distance the pattern of painting made it look like a particular kind of exposed brickwork that originated in England. See picture above. However on closer examination (by carefully peeling back paint layers) and comparing with archival images of the building we realised that over time in certain locations the colours had been inverted, elsewhere the pattern had been altered, till broadly it looked like the original pattern but wasn't.

To our whole team this is part of the joy in engaging in field based conservation - putting our skills, knowledge and experience to the best possible use to peel back a structure(s) chequered history, that may not be visible or apparent at first glance, and hoping that we have indeed managed to read the building(s) right.

Teaching Conservation: Characterization of historic urban neighbourhoods

Sometime back I was asked if I would teach an elective on Heritage Conservation for 3rd semester undergraduate students of PESU Faculty of Architecture. I initially hesitated a bit as I considered they were still rather new to the field of architecture to cope with a specialized branch of the discipline but decided to give it a go. Rather than have classroom bound lectures on 'conservation' I decided to engage them in the field and introduce them to the concept of socio-cultural significance through studying and understanding a 'neighbourhood'.

I chose Richards Town - a fairly small and self contained colonial period city extension defined by a park at its heart and a church complex at one end.

The first day we met at the park I set the students an exercise in 'understanding the neighbourhood'. I asked them to walk away from the park, for about half an hour, in four different directions and come back and discuss what they considered the edge or boundary of the neighbourhood. I asked them to use visual and sensory triggers to help them define this edge. For example, street names, trees – width / girth / canopy / type, garbage piles or smells rather, age of people, noise and traffic, kinds of vehicles, pavements, the buildings themselves and observe if these various parameters could be typified. Although slightly mystified over the point of the exercise they obediently did their best. I asked them to present the results of their wanderings as a map which we discussed in the studio (see figure 1 below).

Figure 1 - neighbourhood map sketch

I felt they did a good job of observing their surroundings and 'place'. So over the next few sessions I divided the class into three groups. I gave each group the task of studying one neighbourhood parameter: (a) Built Form (structural and architectural) (b) Landscape (physical and sensory) (c) History and Toponymy and then independently arrive at the neighbourhood's boundary based on the parameter they were observing. I explained it to them as "for the given parameter do you observe some sort of consistency and at what point does this fade or transform".

The 'Landscape' group observed older more mature trees planted to a pattern which gradually transformed into haphazard planting / much younger trees / no trees. I helped them understand the importance of terrain in spatial planning and they then observed that the church was on higher ground compared to the rest of the neighbourhood.

Based on a 'sensory' map they noted that there was more waste segregation towards the eastern rather than western part of the neighbourhood - smells or lack of smells guided them. They also stated that the smells were more 'heterogenous' to the west while the eastern part was characterised by an almost lack of smell. They also observed that the eastern side felt more calm - less traffic noise, more birds.

The 'Built Form' group observed the presence of larger plots with either 'bungalows' or medium-rise large apartment blocks with ample setback immediately around the park and to the east. To the west, they noticed far smaller houses with lesser setback with more resident families per plot. They also observed that streets got progressively narrower to the west and the footpath 'disappeared' at some locations unlike in the eastern part.

The 'History and Toponymy' group noted that the blocks around the park had 'English' names. On getting to them dig deeper they realised that the 'English' sounding names around the park were likely people names, Hall Road, Davis Road. Whereas the names along the edge of the neighbourhood, like Pottery Road and Tannery Road, were occupational names. This led to a discussion on hierarchy in spatial planning at neighbourhood level (see figure 2 below).

Figure 2: students attempting to characterise and then analyse the neighbourhood.

We then did an exercise in overlaying the three boundaries (Landscape, History, Built Form) and surprise, surprise, the three sets of boundaries were an almost exact fit. I was thus able to lead their field exercises to an extremely fruitful discussion on characterisation of neighbourhoods - not just spatial / sensorial / historical / architectural but a combination of all these parameters. What I described to them as 'a sense of community' whatever form this might take. Hopefully they will carry this learning with them as they continue to design and respond to increasingly complex contexts.

Figure 3: showing a part of attempt at analysis

I concluded the sessions by briefly stating that socio-cultural significance of a neighbourhood would be the resultant overlap of all the layers above, likely 'unique' to every neighbourhood (see figure 3 above).

To me the only missing element in this extremely satisfying semester of work was the fact that the batch was unable to present its work to the neighbourhood. We were all quite keen on this but the planned interaction finally never took place. Hopefully another batch, another time, another neighbourhood.

Doing Conservation: the importance of stepping back to understand ‘context' and 'setting' while conserving heritage structures

Most often while assessing the condition of heritage buildings one is on a quest to find solutions for problems that have resulted in the building's distressed condition. And as we advise students, interns or junior architects, the right way to undertake this quest is NOT by looking at the problem in isolation but in light of the overall structure. For example, what we see as visible signs of damage for e.g. cracks in a wall or plant growth are typically just the ‘problem’. It is not enough to solve this by stitching the crack or removing the plants as the 'problem' may reappear. It is more important to find the ‘root cause’ in order to arrive at an appropriate long-term solution. Such an approach extends to the 'setting' or 'context' of the structure as well. Let us take the example of reviving built water features within a heritage complex. This could be a kund, tank, step well or simply a well. A fairly straightforward solution could be restoring or strengthening walls and desilting the water feature. But is that sufficient?  

For example, years ago I was called to assess the condition of a step well at Someswara temple in Lakshmeswar, Karnataka. The plan was to conserve the structure, which I interpreted as not only restoring the actual structure but also reviving its function by recharging the well. I argued that conserving the step well was not a fairly straightforward exercise of dismantling and reconstructing the bulged out walls. Speaking to local people I understood that when water level in the nearby Hulikere(tank) raises, the step-well automatically recharges (possibly through underground aquifers). So would the conservation solution be revitalizing Hulikere tank or going one step further to suggest that that the entire water catchment area of Hulikere tank needs managing? 

In the field this is often where we feel the limits of our professional boundaries in suggesting and promoting such a solution. And so we advocate an interdisciplinary approach to conservation.

Google Earth Map of Lakshmeswar, Karnataka with overlay 

A similar example was in the case of the potable water channel for the public kitchens of the Virupaksha temple complex at Hampi World Heritage Site. There was some discussion on how best to maintain the water inlet to not just ensure clean but also continuous flow of water.

As we retraced our steps to figure out how water entered and left the kitchen channel we realized that - water was flowing into the kitchen channel from an upstream source of river Tungabhadra through channels that cut across valleys, through rocky terrain on rock cut channels, controlled effectively at inspection chambers before finally flowing into the kitchen and back to the river Tungabhadra further downstream. Hence in this case the solution was not as straightforward as cleaning or resetting the water channel within that structure. In fact such an approach may have disturbed the integrity of a 500 year old ‘living’ network. (For more information on this unique network read 'Irrigation systems under Vijayanagara Empire' by C T M Kotraiah, Dept of Archaeology and Museums, Mysore, 1995).

Plan of Virupaksha Temple Complex, Hampi 

At that point of time we were amazed over how a 500 year old water supply network was still functional at most locations on a site that was largely visible as ruins and archaeological remains. For example, at the public bath, Queens bath and octagonal bath structures, water does not stagnate but still drains out after every rain. Where does it go? These examples speak for themselves, by pointing to an important fact - that what we see today as structures or monuments do not exist in isolation but are part of a larger network.

Teaching and Learning Conservation: Emerging Technologies in Conservation and Characterisation

Teaching and learning from our various assignments is an important part of our vision towards a holistic, integrated and inclusive approach to heritage and its conservation. We participate (as resource people) and initiate a number of workshops in formal education, continuing education and faculty development programs.

One recent workshop (Jun 2017) that we conducted, as part of the NITTE School of Architecture's Summer School, was 'Characterisation of Historic Urban Areas'. This workshop stands out in my mind as we were finally able to demonstrate the use of technology in conservation to students. Not only did we plan it as a field based workshop but also one which would expose participants to use of emerging technologies like Geo-ST (Geo-Spatial Technologies) in the conservation process.

First of all, much like elsewhere we interpreted the general brief to conduct a workshop on Conservation rather liberally. This was because the participant group was going to be mixed (25 odd undergraduate students from different colleges and at different levels of formal education). Rather than focus on physical conservation, restoration, preservation and the like, we felt the main takeaway from the workshop ought to be understanding context, design as a response to context, and the role Geo-ST could play in developing such an understanding. 

We planned it as a joint workshop with colleagues who are experts in cultural applications of Geo-ST (M B Rajani and her team from NIAS, Bangalore, who readily came on board). The team provided participants with an overview on the role Geo-ST can play in enhancing our understanding of landscapes (in this case an urban scape). Then based on field observations in a historic neighbourhood of Mangalore we provided participants with an overview of historical urban areas and their various layers of architectural history.

Over the next three days participant groups attempted to record these different historical layers (we consider recording as the first step to documenting and understanding historic areas) using a freely available app. The app helped them record text and geo-spatial co-ordinates of structures, vegetation, water bodies, open spaces and streetscapes they considered 'historical' for various reasons (that they then defended). We 'hand-held' the groups through anticipated glitches in field recording using apps and downloading this information back onto a system. We then worked together to integrate all the information layers in a comprehensible manner using Google Earth (see image below).

Notes on image above: the wide dark line to the left is Gurupura River. The yellow icons indicate residential structures of interest, the red religious, dark blue commercial, white institutional and green human icons indicate intense zones of activity. We used other icons to indicate vegetation, water bodies and open spaces.

Using the Google Earth interface we were able to successfully integrate field notes, sketches and photographs with each of these geo-referenced icons (see image above).

The resulting overlay clearly indicated a central spine running through this historical neighbourhood (indicated as an orange line) with maximum density of varied activities and at least two loops (indicated in orange) that lead one away from and back to this spine.

We concluded the extremely satisfactory workshop by deliberating on ways to maintain the character of such areas through informed conservation. For example, participants could conduct heritage walks along the spine and loops leading off from it to raise awareness of the area's socio-cultural significance.

It was encouraging to note that Mr. Vinod Aranha, Director, NITTE School of Architecture decided to have this neighbourhood as one of the field sites for the vertical design studio conducted between Aug-Dec 2017 across 3rd and 5th semester students.

Further he invited us to mentor this studio which we readily agreed to and that is another story to be shared sometime.