Publications

Humane Aspects of Urban Planning

The book is an effort to evolve and present a humane approach for planning practices in India.

The planning approach, followed in India, mostly ignores the cultural peculiarities, habits, preferences of Indian users. This is mainly because, all the city planning… preparation of development plans is based on the planning norms formulated in Europe or North America. Due to socioeconomic, demographic and cultural differences in Indian context, the Indian users and their preferences are very much different. It may be useful to incorporate culture-specific user aspects and evolve a humane approach to city planning in India. The consideration of user preferences will not only reduce conflicting situations in urban areas due to non-congruence between planning principles adopted and principles of urbanism rooted in the place, but will also be congenial to developing appropriate social environments.

  • Publisher: Copal Publishing Group
  • Author: Dr. Priya Choudhary
  • Year: 2015
Humane Aspects of Urban Planning
anubhuti-II

Anubhuti II : Eco friendly architecture of Harsil Valley

Uttarakhand, one of the most beautiful states of India which is termed as ‘land of gods’ experienced a major disaster in 2013. Harsil valley is part of Uttarakhand and is en-route to Gangotri, one of the sacred four important pilgrimage destinations for Hindus. Harsil is known for its unmatched natural beauty and very fine quality of Apples. It has an interesting local history and also very beautiful 200-300 year old wooden houses. With the sudden increase in religious tourism after 2006, it has developed as important transit tourist place. Students of Smt. Manoramabai Mundle college of Architecture, Nagpur had visited two villages, Dharali and Mukhba, in Harsil valley in 2006. Extensive study and documentation of the traditional villages, existing wooden houses was done with respect to their planning, materials, technology and ornamentation. It was observed that these vernacular settlements were unmatched examples of socially and environmentally sustainable developments. The visit to same place after the 2013 unfortunate calamity made few revelations. Most of the vernacular houses and old settlements were almost unaffected due to their well though locations and flexible wooden construction technology. The new developments suffered damages. In the fast pace of rapid technological developments and globalization, vernacular architecture is mostly neglected in architecture education and practice. Undoubtedly, if appropriately transmitted, interpreted, negotiated and adapted vernacular knowledge, skills and experience; an indigenous approach for eco-friendly developments can be evolved. The book is an effort to do so. The book is divided into three parts. Part I focuses on the background of the Harsil valley and its unmatched architecture. Part II discusses in detail the settlement planning and vernacular houses of two villages in Harsil valley. Part III demonstrates the eco-friendly approach to deal the future developments in the valley. The book also emphasizes on the aspect of experiential learning in architecture education. It is second publication in series of ‘Anubhuti- Horizons of Experintial Learning Architecture of Bhutan’.

  • Publisher: Swaprakashan, LAD College, Nagpur and MIMANSA, Research Cell, SMMCA, Nagpur
  • Author: Dr. Priya Choudhary, Vedashree Jathar, Ujwala Chakradeo
  • Year: 2014

Anubhuti : horizons of experiential learning : architecture of Bhutan

Anubhuti is an outcome of experimentation with experiential learning by staff and students of Smt. Manoramabai Mundle College of Architecture, Nagpur, India. It is basically a documentation of research generated from the study tour to Bhutan in 2007. This tour coincided with a crucial moment in the history of Bhutan marked by the change from Monarchy to democracy. The essence of Anubhuti is the examination of ‘Impact of Socio-political and religious setup on Traditional Architecture of Bhutan’ through exhaustive documentation. Hence as a part of field work, the various typologies of traditional architecture such as Dzong, Lhakhang and Monastries were studied and documented. For emerging trends in contemporary Bhutanese architecture, the works of Ar. Christopher Benninger were referred. The traditional Bhutanese Architecture and its possible future was studied and explored through design studio.

The book gives an insight into evolution of the iconic traditional architecture of Bhutan as a result of peculiar Socio-political and religious setup. Also it tries to highlight the role of study tours and documentation as an interesting aspect of architecture learning.

The documentation also includes symbolism, social use of spaces at building as well as settlement level, traditional construction techniques using materials such as wood, mud and stone. This documentation and exploration of Bhutanese architecture has been used as a means to discuss fundamental design issues which remain constant yet there are variations in it due to context and time, which is architecture of place and period.

  • Publisher: Swaprakashan, LAD College, Nagpur and MIMANSA, Research Cell, SMMCA, Nagpur
  • Author: Dr. Priya Choudhary, Ujwala Chakradeo
  • Year: 2012
anubhuti
Urban disasters and Resilience in Asia

Urban disasters and Resilience in Asia

Authored a Chapter titled ‘Vernacular Built Environments in India: An Indigenous Approach for Resilience in the book ,Urban disasters and Resilience in Asia.

Edited by Rajib Shaw (Professor, Kyoto University, Japan ), Atta-ur-Rahman (Associate Professor, University of Peshawar, Pakistan ), Akhilesh Surjan (Associate Professor, Charles Darwin University, Darwin, Australia) , Gulsan Ara Parvin (Researcher, Kyoto University, Japan ) and Published by Elsevier in 2016.

  • Publisher: Elsevier
  • Author: Rajib Shaw, Atta-ur-Rahman, Akhilesh Surjan, Gulsan Ara Parvin, Dr. Priya Choudhary
  • Year: 2016

Journal / Papers

Portable Houses – Emergency shelters during Natural Calamities

Architecture TSP Magazine
2015

Spatial configurations and user preferences: Built environments in urban India

International Journal of Scientific and research Publications
2013

Spatial Cognition and User Preferences: A New Vision for Planning Practices in India

ITPI Journal
2013

User Preferences and Cognitive Constructs: Study of Urbanism in Developing cities in India

Special issue on Urban Prospects of Abacus (International Refereed Journal)
2013

Digital Architecture : Movement Towards the Paradigm Shift

Architecture Time Space and People
2013

The Second Renaissance: Designing Built environment with emphasis on Spatial Cognition

Souvenir of National conference of IIA on theme, “The second Renaissance” held at Nagpur
2010

Experimenting with Experiential Learning in Architecture

Journal of Indian Institute of Architecture
2009

Energy Efficient Buildings: A Comprehensive and Integrated Design Approach

Architecture: Time, Space and People “(national magazine of Council of Architecture)
2009

Bhutan at Crossroads

Journal of Indian Institute of Architecture
2008

Chitar Oli: A Street with Tradition

Architecture: Time, Space and People (national magazine of Council of Architecture)
2007

Visit: IGIDR

Architecture: Time, Space and People “(national magazine of Council of Architecture)
2006

Safeguarding The Future: How safe are our schools?

National Seminar on “Designing for Safety through people’s participation” organized by IIA , Nagpur Centre
2006

Conference Papers

Understanding the importance of user’s perception about Aesthetics- in creating more per-sonalised environment for a better living

International Conference ,’ THANIMA 2’ on Aesthetics at NIT, Calicut, India
2017

Cognitive approach for Urban planning/urban design practices in India: Need for Indian Planning Norms as per Indian Users

International Conference on ‘Research for Resurgence’ held at Nagpur
2016

Vernacular Architecture of Vidarbha Region

National Conference on Green Building Design held at Nagpur
2013

Spatial Cognition and Built Environments in Urban India

National Conference on “Cognitive research on Human Perception for Health and Wellbeing”, held at Visakhapatnam
2012

Spatial Configuration of Urban Cores in Central India

Eighth International Space Syntax Symposium (SSS8) held at Santiago, Chile
2012

Cognitive Response to Spatial Design: Built Environments in Urban India

International Symposium on “Spatial Cognition for Architectural Design” held at New York
2011

Urban Built Environment in India: An approach using Geographical information systems

National Conference on Sustainable Development of Urban Infrastructure, held at VNIT, Nagpur
2010

Healing Our Habitats

International Association for Humane Habitat, Rizvi College of Architecture
2004