This documentation exercise has been taken up by A&D as part of the MIPAA platform activities.  It marks the beginning of a database on the topic of appropriate architecture.  This documentation activity will be a precedent for numerous such endeavors undertaken either by A&D or MIPAA for materializing the database. 

This is a ‘process’ documentation.  The aim is to be able to piece together the entire process, which was involved in the realization of an innovative project that has brought about a strong change in its surroundings.  This could be helpful as a guideline for many other people involved in similar initiatives.

WHO HAS BEEN DOCUMENTED?

Being the first of such initiatives, the choice of the organizations to be documented was restricted to the MIPAA members, that MIPAA has been able to gather in its 1 and half year of existence.  However, some new contacts were made and interesting organizations, in the same geographic region as that of the trip, were also documented.  They have now become a part of the MIPAA platform.  The future trips will also explore and contact other non-member organizations. 

The members documented are from diverse fields of architecture and ITC.  This is so because the prerogative of the MIPAA agenda is not only architecture but also ITC as a tool for dissemination.  The organizations form the ITC field, or for that matter all the other organizations were chosen because they have a strong social agenda and an innovative approach in their sectors of intervention and wish to bring about a change in the conventional state of affairs. 

WHEN AND IN WHAT TIME FRAME WAS THE DOCUMENTATION DONE?

The idea of such a documentation activity has been on the A&D agenda ever since its inception.  Brain storming on actual trip started when the team was selected somewhere in March 2003.  However, the actual documentation work started in the first week of May, when the team members got together in Vizag.  The whole exercise of preparing for the trip, physically undertaking the three phases of the trip, writing reports and making presentations had to be completed in the following 4 months, with mid-September being the deadline.  However, work on the final presentation had to be continued till the end of November 2003.

Since the duration of time spent with each organization is small compared to the vast amount of work each organization has done, the attempt here is not to write about every activity of the organization but to be able to give a general and summarizing idea of the activities and philosophies of each organization.

WHERE WAS THE DOCUMENTATION DONE?

Due to the time constraints it was decided to focus on the south states of India, namely, Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Kerala and Maharashtra, as against the earlier plans of visiting Delhi and Ahmedabad as well.  This was done so as ensure a fair amount of time for working on the writing and presentations.  In the case of organizations that have done some architectural projects, the visits included interviews in their office and site visits to the different project areas.  In case of the ITC related members, more time was spent in their offices in understanding their ideas and work. 

HOW IS THE DOCUMENTATION DONE?

The style selected for writing is such that it is able to tell a story, which gives a general idea of the organization with the grass root realities, in a simple and non- technical language, which will be easily understood by all kinds of end-users. 

It is only a factual recording of data that has been given to us by the member we have visited.  It is in no way an evaluative or a comparative study.  This documentation is not exhaustive but is only the beginning of a database that A and D plans to build in the due course of time with similar such initiatives.  Hence, the role of the first team was to being the documentation process. 

The information about the organization is brought out as a background against which the process of the project has been studied.  In many cases it was found that the organizations have already a lot of information and documentation done on themselves, and it was pointless to repeat that effort.  We realized that the organizations can talk best about themselves and the reader could find exhaustive information in many cases by simply browsing through their web sites.  Hence, we decided to focus more on the project and speak about the organizations through their work. 

FOR WHOM IS THIS DOCUMENTATION DONE?

The target group for this documentation is varied.  It can be an architect or an architectural student, an engineer interested in alternate technologies, ngos and other organisations seeking technical and other assistance, sociologists interested in understanding the process of dealing with people and their connection to architucture, any body interested in development or may be just a lay man wanting to construct his house in cost effective technologies.  It could even be a non-Indian, seeking information on organizations involved in the fields of architecture and dissemination. 

Work papers:

-          Guidelines for documentation

-          A model questionnaire

-          Guidelines to restitution

-          Drafts of prototype forms part A, part B, part C.

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The plank and joist technique by the CBRI, Roorkee, can span 4’, 5’, 6’ !"