Experts Who Helped Preserve Amer Fort Haveli, Udaipur To Focus On Walled City
As Ahmedabad bids to become India’s first Unesco World Heritage City, Amdavadis of every hue are coming forward to make the city’s bid successful.
Conservation experts from Ahmedabad, who helped preserve the walled cities of Jaipur, Udaipur and Amer in Ra- jasthan and turned them into heritage jewels, now want to help their home. Nimish Patel and Parul Zaveri were among the founders of Virasat Foundation, which preserved Rajasthan’s walled cities. They have joined hands with Suresh Patel, architect and urban and rural town planner from the UK, who has participated in conservation of the inner city of Cambridge. Bringing the three together is also the fact that they are all alumni of Cept University.
Instead of imposing a conservation plan on the walled city, these experts want a consultative approach where residents are involved and make their own conservation plans for their pols. Nimish says, “The city conservation projects of Jaipur, Udaipur and Amer succeeded as we could generate residents’ involvement. As the residents saw a direct link between economic gain and conservation of heritage, the involvement followed with sense of pride and sustained commitment.”
Nimish Patel and Parul Zaveri conserved the Chanwar Palkhiwalon Ki Haveli in Amer and won the Unesco Asia Pacific 2000 – Cultural Heritage Conservation Award under excellent project category. They also conserved the Ranchodlal Chotalal’s Haveli in Desai ni Pol in the walled city.
The trio initially plans to host conservation sessions at various havelis in the pols of walled city to get more residents involved. “The walled city of Ahmedabad houses rare pieces of architectural aesthetics. However, they are like rough diamonds that need to be worked upon,” says Suresh.
Nimish adds that with people participation, the conservation effort in Rajasthan snowballed into a movement. “And similarly, conservation of Desai ni Pol – is a big starting point that can snowball into a movement for restoration of the walled city here. After the initial monthly meetings, in the second phase hopefully the pols’ residents will come forward for assistance and guidance to restore their areas.”
The architects say they have expertise, vision and links with various bodies which have budgets to support conservation of walled city. “I would take these projects to various boards in the UK and international bodies of EU which can monetarily support the conservation of Ahmedabad’s walled city,” says Suresh Patel.
