Shri Siddheshwar Shikshan Mandal

Principal Investigator: Seemantini Amol Chaphalkar

Shree Siddeshwar Shikshan Mandal was established in 1992. They impart the art of Planning and Architecture to budding Architects.

Solapur stands at the juncture of the Marathi, Kannada and Telugu speaking regions of South India and has, furthermore, a multi-layered history which today finds manifestation in its many heritage buildings.

Yet Solapur’s many heritage buildings have inevitably become vulnerable to the forces of urbanisation and development. This project derives from the need to document these buildings and subsequently use this documentation both to raise awareness about this heritage among the local population and to enable the conservation of these buildings.

The initial proposal to IFA outlined the set up of a permanent exhibition of the town’s architectural heritage on the basis of the documentation that would be undertaken. Filming the buildings and interviewing their owners, creating Pop Moulds of the buildings and publishing a book and tourist booklet on the basis of the documentation also formed part of the proposal.

The project now involves the documentation of 50-odd buildings. It will involve creating measure drawings of the buildings, photographing them, tracking down the history of the buildings, and recording interviews with their present owners. The documentation will then be transferred onto CDs using AUTO-CAD techniques. Artists, historians and archaeologists will be involved in the documentation of the history of the buildings, while draughtsmen as well as students of architecture will undertake the architectural documentation.

It is hoped that the documentation can form the basis of a future exhibition as well as enable the conservation of Solapur’s architectural heritage. The documentation will be available, through the IIA-Solapur Chapter, to those wish to access it.