“It’s a fight to preserve our heritage,” says architect restoring 112-year-old Fort High School

Fort High School in Chamarajpet, made entirely of brick and limewater, has lain dilapidated for years. Now, the non-profit INTACH is restoring the building. In this edition of Citizens Live, Pankaj Modi of INTACH talks about the restoration works, their struggle to initiate it, and how Bengaluru's heritage can be conserved

The Fort High School in Chamarajpet, built in 1907, has lain dilapidated for years. Its alumni include freedom fighter H S Doresamy, cricketer G R Vishwanath, and even the former King of Mysore Jayachamarajendra Wadiyar. Sometime back, authorities even “repaired” the school in places with vitrified tiles, completely ignoring its importance as a heritage structure.

Last year, the non-profit INTACH (Indian National Trust for Art and Cultural Heritage) took up a project to restore the building to its original state. It took about eight years for INTACH to document the building, get permission from DPI (Department of Public Instruction) to restore the building, and get a donation of Rs 2.4 cr for the works.

The school building, made entirely of brick and limewater, is being restored by a team from Jharkhand, with the same materials and techniques used originally. The work will be completed in five months.

In this conversation with Citizens Live, Pankaj Modi, Conservation Architect with INTACH, talks about the project, what counts as heritage, and why it is difficult to conserve. Natural spaces, built areas, traditions can all be heritage, but the government criteria for heritage includes only palaces, forts etc. Hence heritage structures, often maintained by the PWD (Public Works Department), get demolished or repaired, says Modi.

Of 800 heritage buildings INTACH had identified in Bengaluru in the 1980s, only around half remain now. Modi suggests that PWD should have a specialised cell to manage heritage buildings. However, ultimately it is citizens who should ensure that these buildings are preserved, he says.

Watch the interview for more:

Comments:

  1. Palahalli Vishwanath says:

    I would like to note that Prof P.R.Brahmananda (1927-2003) , anoutstanding economist of the country, was a student of the For High School in the early 40s

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

Similar Story

‘Banni Nodi’: How a place-making project is keeping history alive in modern Bengaluru

The Banni Nodi wayfaring project has put KR market metro station at the heart of a showcase to the city's 500-year urban history.

KR market metro station is more than a transit hub in Bengaluru today, as it stands at the heart of a project that showcases the city's 500-year urban history. The Banni Nodi (come, see) series, a wayfinding and place-making project, set up in the metro station and at the Old Fort district, depicts the history of the Fort as well as the city's spatial-cultural evolution. The project has been designed and executed by Sensing Local and Native Place, and supported by the Directorate of Urban Land Transport (DULT) and Bangalore Metro Rail Corporation Limited (BMRCL).  Archival paintings, maps and texts,…

Similar Story

Wounds of cyber abuse can be deep, get expert help: Cyber psychologist

Cyber psychologist Nirali Bhatia says that parents, friends and relatives of sufferers must not be reactive; they should be good listeners.

As technology has advanced, cyber abuse and crime has also increased. Women and children are particularly vulnerable, as we have seen in our earlier reports on deepfake videos and image-based abuse. In an interview with Citizen Matters, cyber psychologist, Nirali Bhatia, talks about the psychological impact on people who have been deceived on the internet and the support system they need. Excerpts from the conversation: What should a person do, if and when they have fallen prey to a deep fake scam or image abuse? We need to understand and tell ourselves it is fake; that itself should help us…