UNKNOWN CRAFTS PERSON TROPHY || 2016 - 17

UNKNOWN CRAFTSPERSON TROPHY

THE INTENT
Ensuring the Cultural Heritage of India is the responsibility of every Indian. In its holistic
definition, India’s built heritage assumes a significant & dominant position, and necessitates
a deeper and more wholesome understanding from all involved in the field of architecture.

The exposure to the built heritage is a part of the curriculum of most of the architecture
institutions in the country, through related studies/field visits. However, whilst these
programs increase the familiarity with the ‘End-Products’ represented by buildings, building
complexes & settlements, it offers minimal exposure to the ‘Processes’ and ‘Human Skills’,
which made the End-Products worthy of being included in India’s built heritage.

Hundreds and thousands of ‘Unknown Crafts Persons, who have been the carriers of
our Traditional Knowledge & Wisdom for centuries, have contributed to the magnificent
Architecture of India. The primary strength of the architecture of India lies in the anonymity
of its designers. This is evident from the fact that many of the students of architecture,
and architects are unaware of the identities of the principal designers of our monuments
such as the Taj Mahal, or the Agra Fort, or the complexes of Fatehpur Sikri / Hampi, or the
Palaces of Padmanabhpuram / Jaipur / Indore / Mysore / Srinagar /Bhuvaneshwar, or the
temples of Dilwara / Konarak / Khajuraho / Varanasi / Madurai, and hundreds of thousands
of residences which have stood the test of time running into centuries.

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This is because making of a building was a collective process and responsibility, which
offered opportunities for creative input at all levels of implementation, and was not restricted
to the design studios of its Sthapatis / Architects, as it appears to be presently. The wealth
of this Traditional Knowledge & Wisdom, embodies in the ‘Processes’, has neither been
fully documented, nor is fully documentable. It has been passed on from one generation to
another and from the teacher to a worthy student.

The only hope for its survival and subsequent revival lies in the increased employment
generation of the Traditional Crafts Persons, who have been invested with this wealth
of knowledge. A lack of familiarity of the generations of architects trained in the post-
independence era, owing largely to its exclusions from the curriculum in the present
education systems, results in their inability to generate this much needed employment.
This familiarity MUST begin and get nurtured at the academic institutions, if architects of
India are expected to play an essential role in the conservation of its heritage of Traditional
Knowledge & Wisdom.

At the students’ level, the exposure to the ‘Processes’ and the ‘Human Skills’ of the ‘Crafts
Persons’, requires substantially increased familiarity. The intent of this competition is to
expose the students to the vast range of crafts which exists all around us and yet we are
not too familiar with them. It is only with familiarity that the students will feel comfortable
to apply them in their designs to increase the aspects of contextualism as well as the
crafts Persons’ skills. This competition is to help the students to understand, analyze and
investigate such crafts. This process will help them to discover the wealth of crafts and
craftspersons’ unknown to them who, with/without credit, fame and/or acknowledgment
have been tirelessly working and contributing for generations to make India so rich in its
diversity, variety & creativity.

In the path of studying the crafts and crafts persons’, you study the existing details and its
innovative uses for the modern era. This year, in congruence of the NASA theme, we go
deeper with our vision by looking at the existing, detailing the innovation that has occurred
in time and building/developing a vision for the future carrying the skills/techniques of the
fellow crafts persons. Let us not limit ourselves in just studying the exiting solutions but
evolve ourselves to think beyond and ask questions no one else has thought of. As briefly
instigating the inner mind,

The 59th NASA’s theme, ‘Parallel Projections’ is intended to be the gateway to the inventory
of the parts of your envisionment getting lost along the process of it being implemented. Are
you going to respect the legacy of the past? Or are you going to take the future into your
hands .

This years’ theme, ‘Parallel Projections’ will merely play the gateway to the inventory of
the parts of your envisionment getting lost along the process of it being implemented. It is
also pertinent to remember that before the drawings became an unavoidable part of our

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profession, most buildings of India were built without their use. Surely, the Master builders
and the crafts persons who built them were also communicating adequately to get them
constructed. It is worthwhile getting to know what was their currency then, if our drawings
are our currency now. Professional the world over are beginning to take a hard look at their
own past so as to make their present get more connected to the community. We, in India,
are fortunate to have a rich and varied past, a large bank of our common sense backed
traditional knowledge & wisdom. It would be inappropriate for us, architects, not to get
more familiar with it.

We, in our profession, need to take the future into your hands taking the legacy of the
past along with you to the future. This may help all of us find a delicate balance between
continuity & desirable growth. We ought to keep this in our minds always to be able to focus
in the intent for the desirable development of India.

This initiative of introducing the ‘Unknown Crafts Persons’ Trophy, (UCP Trophy), by Virasat
Foundation, Ahmedabad, is a step in that direction. It will be given to deserving student/
students at this & subsequent annual NASA Conventions.

The Objectives
The broad objectives of UCP Trophy are:
• To provide opportunities to the students of architecture, for explorations into a
lesser known but highly significant wealth of knowledge & wisdom embedded in
the construction traditions of India, and its regions.
• To provide them with a motivation for pursuing this direction of knowledge during
their academic careers.
• To encourage them to develop a deeper & more holistic understanding of the
‘Processes’ and ‘Human Skills’, connected with traditional construction which
lie in every region of the country, and help them develop greater familiarity with the
traditional materials, technologies and decision making processes.
• To open up avenues to explore one more direction of the practice of the profession,
when they embark in their own careers.

The Eligibility Criteria

1. Any student or student groups registered with any recognized architectural college/
department in India, and recognized by NASA India will be eligible for
participation in the competition for UCP Trophy.
2. A maximum of 03 students in a group can participate per entry for the trophy.
3. Same students cannot participate/send multiple entries.
4. A maximum of 03 entries per recognized College/Institution will be accepted

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Submission Requirements
The students are required to select one ‘Human Skills based Craft’ from any region of India,
using one or more traditional materials/technologies and used in the making of the built
environment and its finishes. The Selected craft should be the ones which are still practiced
(with or without the traditional techniques) and which have not fully disappeared, or become
extinct, but may have been just transformed with the passage of time.

The contents of the submitted documents must comprise:

A. About the chosen craft

1. The reason for the selection of the craft and its regional, commonly used name/s in
brief.
2. Comprehensive description of the craft and its origins.
3. The materials & technologies it uses,
4. The nature and description of the tools involves.
5. The sequential processes involved, up to the final completion/installation stage.
6. The potentials & the constraints of the use of this craft in constructions & finishes.

B. About the Sources, Lesson learnt and Future use. (minimum one, maximum two A3
size sheet in Landscape Format)
1. The name/s of the crafts person/s, their location and contact addresses for
verification. (So that we will call for the authentication of your documentation)
2. The sources of Information gathered from, in terms of reference of books, internet
sites, magazines etc, and any other sources of information used to compile.
3. Compilation of the lessons learnt and inferences made by the student/group of
students, which are intend in the future academic design assignments.
4. Identification of its potential uses in contemporary designs/construction projects.
5. To predict the life of the selected craft and visualizing its potential in future by
expanding its usage.

Submission Specifications:
1. Detailed documentation of the chosen craft will only be hand sketched, hand
drafted in simple legible hand written text.
2. Photographs, only if necessary, can be included but not in the form of collages.
(Photographs of the field work and the process can be included in the DVD as soft
copy)
3. The submissions in the given format will be made in Hardcopy as well as Soft copy,
and may include a maximum of three film clips, each one not exceeding 60 seconds.

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Format for the Submission:
A. In Hardcopy
1. Maximum 8 sheets of A3 size sheets (420mm X 297mm), including the cover
sheet, in Landscape orientation.
2. 25mm clean minimum margin on the binding side and 20 mm minimum margins
on all the other sides.
3. Border developed on the selected craft and use it as the margin to define the
above guidelines.
4. Title + UCP trophy Logo + college code + page number should appear on each
sheet. (Can be a part of the border/ page format designed according to the context
of the entry)
5. NASA logo, following NASA Logo guidelines, should also appear on each sheet.
6. All the sheets / each entry to be packed in the a A3 File/ A3 corrugated box file
which should bear the College code only.

B. Soft copy
1. The submitted sheets must be scanned / digitized in high resolution (300dpi)
images of the plates as well as film clips and photographs of the field work should
be compiled in two sets of DVD, as a part of the submission.
2. One set of DVD to bear student name and college name and college code, and the
Second set to bear only the college code.
3. A document bearing each student’s personal email address, postal address and
personal phone number.

Evaluation Criteria
1. Choice of Craft (15%)
2. The breadth & depth of understanding of the selected Craft by the student/s (25%).
3. Presentation of the understanding of the Craft in the documentation, in terms of
content & quality (15%).
4. The lessons learnt and inferences made from the study of the selected Craft (10%).
5. Predicting the future of the craft and visualizing its variable uses in the future. (10%)
6. The imaginative uses in contemporary design/construction projects. (15%).
7. Presentation Skills (10%).

The Frequently asked Questions (FAQs)

STUDENTS ARE REQUESTED TO SEND THEIR QUERIES, NOT COVERED HERE, IN
CLEAR LANGUAGE TO THE NASA COUNCIL.

Q-1 : Does the selected craft need to be related to architecture or can it be any traditional
craft?

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A-1: The selected traditional craft should be related to an aspect of Built form, including
the finishes. For instance, if a traditional textile craft constitutes being a part of
the Built form, it can be taken up, but textile, as a woven cloth, cannot be
taken up for the study. Similarly, if a potter makes pots for use as products,
then they cannot be taken up, but if there is a traditional clay craft, used in
buildings specifically, say for insulation purposes, then it can be taken up.”

Q-2: For the UCP trophy, can we paste any piece of sheet to the mains sheets and
present it like that? And about the craft, I wonder if it should be a regional
or national unknown craft? Can we select the local crafts which are
somewhat known in this state of ours, to give them an exposure at a national level?

A-2: The brief already clarifies the answer to this question, in principle. The search of
the unknown crafts is limited to the regions of India, but has to be related
to Built form, and can certainly be from the region you inhabit. One
of the main agenda of this trophy is to give a wider exposure to the lesser
known crafts, and unknown crafts persons. So any ‘local traditional craft’,
which is related to an aspect of built form, including the finishes, can
be documented and presented as per the requirements of the UCP trophy.
However, the sequence of provided information MUST be retained in all materials
as per the brief, and not in any random order or manner.

Q-3: Can we have a definite painting form as our topic for UCP Trophy?

A-3: Yes, provided it is a form of painting, which is widely used on the wall surfaces, or
on the floor in a Built form.

Q-4: Can we use an A3 sized gateway sheets for this documentation? Can we stick
gateway sheet on an A3 White Sheet for the documentation?

A-4: Yes, if you are using gateway, then binding it with hard paper is a MUST, so that it
is straight (not rolled up) safe & protected while it is being handled in transit and
during its assessment by the assessors.
Medium’ of presentation is not as important as its ‘Contents’. Unless it’s clean and
helps the participant express his/her work better, The assessors will not have any
bias about the material you use.

Q-5: We want to know if the following things can be printed on the sheets:
1.the format (which would include the project name and a graphic related to the

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same).
2. Any Water mark.
3. Colored patches on sheet as a background effect for presentation purpose.

A-5: As mentioned in the brief, only hand sketched documentation shall be appreciated.
We have been overwhelmed by the amount of detailed handwork presented and
documentation done and sent earlier, hence we recommend you to explore your
artistic skills for the enhancement of the selected craft as it also has 10% of
the total marking.

We suggest you not to add any kind of effects which makes the documentation
difficult or unreadable.

Q-6: Regarding the video clips whether the following

1. Voice-overs
2. Graphic
3. Subtitles can be added or edited into video clip??

A-6: The purpose of the video clip is to make sure that the students have not
documented the craft from book or any other source, but have had one on one
experience by practically visited the crafts person, and have witnessed the making
of the chosen craft. If any of the above mentioned parameters helps in conveying
this better, then you can.

Q-7: We have selected an instrument making craft, which is a lesser known craft in our
region. The craft is not directly related to built forms, but few of the crafts persons
at present are using the same instrument making skill learnt for building finishes.
So we are bit confused if this will be suitable for the trophy brief.

A-7: Yes, you can, provided the content focuses on the Built form finishes. The trophy
talks of art and craft where we expect you to study the context and the cultural
backgrounds of your selected human based skills and are interested in your
subsequent analysis and conclusions from it. There are no limitations as Indian
architecture and artisans and crafts persons have evolved out of very
strong cultural references and contexts.

But, the assessors will review your study and your conclusions ‘only’ from the
perspective of built form.

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Q-8: UCP brief says that the lettering should be simple legible handwritten text, so
stenciling (like we do in LIK Trophy) is allowed or not?

A-8: Yes, it will be accepted.

Q-9: Should the submission be manual or can be system presentation? System, in

sense that we can include the scanned sketches or drafting of the details.

A-9: The entire documentation is to be hand sketched and prepared manually. This
means original first hand sketches are required for the documentation. In case the
participants have made sketches on site or while site visits, then those can be
scanned and added in the photographic CD, but NOT in the documentation.
As a suggestion, we would like to say that the on-site sketches are of great value
for you and if these are reproduced in a cleaner and better way in the
documentation, it would enhance the content of the submission.

Q-10: Can we occupy one and a half sheet for the last topic i.e. potential and constraints
and manage the materials and the nature of tools in one sheet. Taking care that
the sequence of the sheets are not disturbed as mentioned in the brief.

A-10: No, this is not acceptable. The Competition format is evolved to help the
Assessors to be able to focus on the efforts of the participants and their
understanding of the Craft more comprehensively, and not anything else.

Q-11: Regarding UCP trophy, our queries are:

1. We want to document a historical monument and explain about the craft we
chosen can we do it that way?
2. Can we keep a cover page? If yes, will it be included in the number of
limited sheets?
3. Should we post them individually, or binding can also be done?
4. Can we have a 3D embossed thing on the paper?

A-11: 1. No, UCP Trophy is principally about the crafts, craftspersons and their
craftsmanship, and not about buildings.
2. This page will be included, but in the total maximum number of sheets
allowed. It is the participants’ choice on a blank cover page.
3. Separate sheets need to be put in a suitable envelop before couriering.
4. No, this is not allowed.

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The JURY
1. The Assessors of UCP Trophy, 59th NASA will comprise two trustee of Virasat
Foundation, at least two senior architects with craft experience and a
representative nominated by the current President of NASA, for the assessment at
Ahmedabad.
2. The process of assessment of the UCP Trophy will take place at Ahmedabad.

Disclaimer:

1. The entries shall be disqualified if:

a. They are received after the last date / time of submission.
b. They do not conforming / following any of the conditions clarified above.
c. They do not fulfill ALL the requirements clarified above.
d. The submission is not accompanied by the Letter of Authentication by their
respective/Departments/Colleges/Institutions.

2. The decision of the Assessors, with regards to the selection of winner & runner-
up, shall be final, and binding to all participants. No correspondence will be
entertained in this regards.

3. All materials submitted by the Students for the competition shall become the
property of Virasat Foundation, and be deemed to have requisite publication rights.
Virasat Foundation reserves the Right to use the material for publication /
documentation / publicity purpose without any further notification to or clearance
from the concerned student / student group / college.

The Submissions

All submissions must be sent to:

VIRASAT FOUNDATION, Ahmedabad
Amrit-Lila Bungalow,
Off Nagari Hospital Road,
Near Gujarat College,
Ahmedabad 380 006, Gujarat,
INDIA.
Email : [email protected]

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For all queries related to the submission please contact

Tahir Noronha
Public Relations – NASA India
+919764658165
[email protected]

Latest by 15th December, 2016 in print as well as electronic media. (As per the regulations
mentioned above)

The submission should not have any identification of the participants in any form, on the
front face of the submitted sheets.

The Citation & Trophy

There will be one Winner’s Trophy & one Commendation Trophy given to the worthy
submissions, which address all the objectives of the UCP Trophy.
The Trophy will be accompanied by Citation by the Assessors and a crafts kit for the
awardees.

The Outcome
The intended outcome of the UCP Trophy is the publication of a Monograph of the winning
and other worthy entries, for circulation in appropriate to all the architectural institutions
which are a part of NASA India in appropriate format. This format will either be in the form
of electronic or print media, as deemed fit by the Trustees of Virasat Foundation.

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