I spent my formative years in the field of architecture at CEPT University in Ahmedabad, India established by the Pritzer Prize winning architect, B.V.Doshi.  My graduating thesis was based on the transformations of historic urban environments situated in the city of Calcutta (renamed Kolkata, 2001) in the former European quarter of the first colonial capital of the British Empire. The research identified public buildings that enveloped courtyards and urban water bodies analyzing their role as contemporary urban public and collective spaces. The study included the on-site documentation of 10 historic landmarks and 9 urban water bodies, a practice that we were familiar with having documented several Indian villages over the course of five years, mentored by professors who insisted on rigour and accuracy in recording, and evocative drawing techniques for their representation.

 

My postgraduate education at the Royal College of Art introduced radical ways of analyzing housing typologies and mapping, and understanding systems that own land and govern cities through public and private partnerships and legal instruments including the Co-operative Housing model, Community Land Trusts, Compulsory Purchase Orders and Eminent Domain. The issues of housing availability and affordability at the regional and metropolitan scales, and the disenfranchisement of urban inhabitants as a result of aggressive development and gentrification were two key subjects that influenced and guided my research along with the design and configuration of masterplans culminating in the articulation of the public interface and its role in integrating public and private entities and enclosures.

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With the intention of taking forward this cumulative knowledge from the fields of architecture and urbanism, my current research interests focus on the need to create comprehensive frameworks that discern the functioning of governmental and non-governmental bodies engaged in the protection and care of historic environments. New insights into the current balance and dynamics between national and local conservation policy in England, highlighting examples of best practice through case studies, will give an overview of the current economic and political context facing the heritage sector. By isolating successful strategies and shortcomings, this research will inform and guide future conservation policy and establish the significance of a centralized approach in the management of heritage assets and historic environments.