(CS1.5) The practice of cultural building-crafts in Kashmir; Exploring the cultural building-craft practices and their interactions and engagement with architecture in the Old City of Srinagar.

The presentation will explore the cultural building-craft practices and their interactions and engagement with architecture as experienced in the city of Srinagar in Kashmir and through this key moment, it will introduce the ‘conscious' cultural building-craft practices present in the built environment of the city. ‘Conscious’ practice here implies the mindful and intentional traditional productions and the modalities of their practices that take place presently in the city by the craft community and the craftspeople, especially women. As a region of great political desire and interest, Kashmir has become a palimpsest of territorial conflict since the 1947 partition of the Indian subcontinent. This long conflict has had an impact on its people, their accessibility to resources, and their livelihood - be it social, economic, or spiritual. This situation can be investigated by approaching Kashmir not just as a politically desired territory but as a constantly shifting idea (Zutshi 2017). Srinagar fosters diverse craft practices, and it has had a constant supply of rich cultural productions by its people.

The role of cultural building-craft and the productive imperatives that encourage its activity will be looked into closely with a focus on the local architectural factors while also foregrounding the social nature of the craft. Due to the history of the place, Kashmir is deeply associated with memory and experience rooted in political turmoil. Here making craft objects is a collective activity that takes place in groups and communities while working together in craft workshops, and is learned from craftspersons. Such workshops are housed in Srinagar’s various neighborhoods and areas (Indian National Trust for Art and Cultural Heritage 2010) and these places of production become hubs of creative vocations where the exchange of ideas, stories, and skills occur within the framework of larger socio-urban narratives. Such sets of collective cultural community-based production that the region offers become a base for investigation and analysis of their nature and their prospect, as well as the source to observe how skill development and knowledge transmission occur contemporaneously among the people. This presentation will focus on the relationship between culture, crafts, architecture, and people in the present city of Srinagar in Kashmir while looking into the intrinsically entwined connections that open up discussions and concerns about gender roles, women’s engagement, and the significance of craft-working today in post-conflict regions. Further, the research attempts to understand, how such old practices present today in craft cities engage with the technological shifts in the digital age and how collaborating with craft communities and harboring such collective skills in the present day could generate innovative, sustainable, and equitable solutions in the built environment and beyond.