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While sending an independent application for involvement, please do try to mention the unit, as described below, which seems to be more aligned to your interests so that it will be easier for us to respond to your application. ARTISAN EMPOWERMENT UNIT
“Without craftsmanship, inspiration is a mere reed shaken in the wind.” – Johannes Brahms The artisan empowerment unit was constituted with a clear focus on the traditional skills brought by the artisans and to attempt to link them with the contemporary practices. Since inception, Hunnarshala has realised the central platform that the karigars, or artisans, rightly deserve in the building industry. Working towards achieving this, the artisan empowerment initiative supports the artisans in an active manner by connecting them with contemporary market. A program has been specially developed towards this for all the artisans that have been recognised over the years of practice of Hunnarshala. The main objectives of this Artisan Entrepreneur Program at Hunnarshala are as follows:
To encourage the building artisans to become entrepreneurs, the artisan entrepreneur program is functional with a vision of empowering building artisans and strengthening artisanal practices to promote traditional skills and wisdom in contemporary market. Artisan’s involvement in design processes help in synthesising traditional skills with the contemporary, resulting into innovation of new products. Over the years, Hunnarshala has evolved as a platform for artisans to participate, learn and later practice independently. The artisan entrepreneur division provides the required environment by involving the artisans in projects wherein they further develop their skills in a particular construction technique. Participation in projects also builds confidence in artisans to venture into the mainstream market. From the social perspective, the artisans progress in life and live with dignity. Accordingly, the unit has been involved in several restoration works around the country which involve traditional materials and technologies. The works have been executed through the artisans at the centre position. The unit also actively collaborates with other organisations and design firms to provide solutions in a contemporary context through traditional wisdom. Further, in an attempt to expand the field of its expertise in environment friendly technologies, the unit also provides support with decentralised waste water treatment system (DEWATS). COMMUNITY EMPOWERMENT UNIT
“Alone we can do so little, together we can do so much.” – Helen Keller The community empowerment initiative majorly focuses on working with the communities that are displaced or affected due to natural disasters like floods or earthquakes, or due to man-made circumstances like violence, or are under-served and marginalised like slum dwellers or urban homeless. Provision of dignified housing and infrastructure becomes a tool to empower these communities. The initiative believes in the collective strength of these communities, their core values, and hence encourages a participatory approach towards finding appropriate solutions. This approach helps achieve unique and tailor-made outcomes for every community. Additionally, the initiative actively looks for collaborations with individuals and institutions having similar ideology, which become a supporting structure to the participatory approach. These collaborations help us bring the strengths of a social expert together with the strengths of an engineer, an architect, or an artisan etc., and to provide a palette of holistic solutions for the communities to look at and take well informed decisions. Along with the provision of appropriate solutions, documentation of such communities, keeping the built habitat as focus, becomes an important exercise for the unit. These documentation exercises capture the traditional knowledge systems of these communities including their tradition of building technologies and value networks in general. Additionally, we also work on design and implementation of institutional facilities, like schools, that give us the room to explore the traditional building technologies in an experimental manner, keeping the local master artisans as our guides. Following the above mentioned guiding objectives, in the course of last few years, we have been involved with several slum up-gradation projects, as well as planning projects looking at the housing shortages at the city-level. We have documented rural houses in several states in India, and consequently proposed appropriate housing options for these states to the government. We helped a riot affected community build their homes in Muzaffarnagar, Uttar Pradesh. We assisted a group of Tibetan nuns to rebuild their houses in a remote village in Nepal that was destroyed after a massive earthquake. We are still working with the earthquake affected communities in Nepal through capacity building, technical support and facilitating participatory architectural design. We are also expanding our area of interest to the public spaces in the cities, beginning with an attempt to understand the street vendors. KARIGARSHALA (ARTISAN SCHOOL)
Hunnarshala has been running a school for training young building artisans in traditional building practices from across the country, and is called Karigarshala. The course trains students in carpentry and walling systems in a one and a half year residential program. These are youth in the age group of 16 to 25 years of age who come from under privileged backgrounds. The courses of both carpentry and walling systems are divided into 3 semesters of 6 months each. The first semester is a Basic course followed by Advance and Masters semesters. The intake in the first semester is of 7 students in each stream. After 6 months these 7 students are part of the Advance course and then the Masters course. In the theory classes the students learn mathematics, material science, life science, drawing and sketching. In the practical class the students understand the use of various tools followed by hands-on practice. The practical aspects of this curriculum help the student to evolve as skilled artisans within their domain. The course tries to inculcate material knowledge and its selection, know-how of using tools and machinery, entrepreneurship, confidence to deliver work on time, quantification, estimation, art, craft, design skills and human values. In the last quarter of the course, the students participate in live projects to understand the project implementation processes, and the importance of quality & timelines. At any given point of time the number of students in the campus is around 30. |