Designing Beirã

Week 2

by Vikramaditya Singh Rathore

After understanding the architectural vocabulary of Alentejo and exploring Beirã, we were divided into groups to present our first thoughts on the rejuvenation of the town. All the participants on their own interacted with various locals as to their expectations from the town. The raised many concerns but all of them unanimously agreed that the loss of the train line has severely impacted the importance of the town. The town has never been same after that.

After each group presented their ideas there was a discussion and ideas of various groups were combined under the guidance of the faculty members.

The final outcome was presented to the people of Beira who were ecstatic with the outcome of this summer school.

This summer school has been great experience. The learnings from here are something that would resonate in my design process every time I design something new. I have met great people who share the same passion for traditional architecture as I do. Being there, I realised that is impossible to design architecture if it does not consider people it is built for. Most often we as architects are too consumed by our idea of design. The one that bears our vision of the world forgetting that is profession like all art is a patronised profession. However , unlike any art, architecture bears profound influence on our lifestyle; it can ease or distress our lives. Therefore, when we designed for Beira, it was for them and from them.