Humans have been going through a process of continuous change due to the advancing technologies, new inventions and evolved science, eventually becoming a part of a race to attain lavish lifestyles.
Unfortunately, in these busy schedules we often ignore the existence of communities that are still grounded to their roots and live a self- sustained life, one of them being the warli-tribal communities in Dahanu which is around 120 Kms from Mumbai, Maharashtra.
The batch of 2020 at IESCOA in their second year, had an opportunity to not only merely visit a small village named Vangarje in Dahanu, but also live with these communities in their houses in order to understand their indigenous ways of living. Within 4 slots of 2-3 days, the students altered their comfort levels and along with the AD faculty devised various ways to interact with the warli people. Decoding their beliefs, traditions, food culture, climate responsive housing and a wide array of other aspects, the second years made a special place in their hearts and got to listen to their tribal songs, stories and danced along with them as they bade a farewell to the community they had begun to revere.
The students, in turn aspire to preserve these communities and have proposed solutions that could revive their lifestyles and help them stay rooted to their culture despite any foreign influences.
The above project by Radhika Paralkar attempts to bring back traditional methods of grain and seed storage with the help of an architectural intervention.
