The National Institute of Technology Calicut (NIT-C) in association with Pune-based Existential Knowledge Foundation (EKF) and the Indian Institute of Architects (IIA) Calicut Centre will organise a three-day international conference on design pedagogy and contextual aesthetics — Thanima — at the SOMS auditorium, NIT-C, here from Friday.
Addressing reporters on Thursday, P.P. Anilkumar, Head of the Department of Architecture, NIT-C, P.P. Vivek, chairman, IIA Calicut Centre, and K.B. Jinan, founder, EKF, said that the third edition of Thanima would focus on four central themes such as traditional and cultural rootedness; contextual aesthetics, design pedagogy to foster originality and authenticity, contextual knowledge on resilience and homogenisation in buildings and environment.
“The Thanima conference series was initiated to address homogenisation of our culture through Western knowledge system. Such aesthetic sensibility was sweeping the whole world, making the very idea of diversity redundant,” they said.
They added that the third edition would delve deeper into the spiritual alienation of modern man and his war against life and nature. New aspects of contemporary design have been included in themes and discussions.
K.K. Mohammed, former Regional Director, ASI, and Archaeological Director, Agakhan Trust, will inaugurate the conference at 9.30 a.m. Kiran Waghela, founder member and director of Hunnarshala Foundation for Building Technology and Innovation, will deliver the keynote address. Craft activist Uzramma, who is spearheading programmes to reinstate the use of authentic khadi and encouraging the tradition of handmade products, will deliver the keynote address on the second day.
Prem Chandavarkar, managing director of CnT Architects, Bengaluru, will deliver the keynote address on the third day.
A workshop, ‘Sensing’, will explore the example of tribal societies. Narendra, author of Bastar Dispatches, a passage through the wilds, and Madan Mena, a practising visual artist and researcher would conduct the session on the first day, they said.