Assignment Task

Introduction

Nepal is the place which is situated in the bed of Himalayan mountain range with full of varieties in the nature like terrain, plantation, culture, activities, social lives and many more things. A diversified area such a Nepal is taken as one of the most important place in Asia because of its beauty, culture, and honesty of people living in that place. Heritage, colorful vive attracts lots of tourists every year from the globe. At the same time due to the temperature it has in its natural weather condition make this place very pleasant and that is also very useful for medical laboratories because it provides natural cooling and sometimes people like the nature and its weather for permanent stay in Nepal. Considering this in the recent years it seems to have a significant increment in boarding schools, universities, and research institutes and there is nothing wrong in it as it is the sign of a developing nation. But day by day the construction process in Nepal is becoming advance and that is only because of the terrain, at the same time the essence of local culture on the buildings, architectures are missing. In this regard a question may knock someone’s mind like, can we disrespect our culture, environment, society, beauty of the place just by incorporating anything we need? According to me, this is not the solution, why can’t we think like going through the development alongside maintaining our heritage. Isn’t it a great idea? Hope so, taking this into the account a report is prepared where all the cultural, heritage essence is tried to be incorporate in the architecture then only it will become sustainable. There are various ways to make this happen and each small step will definitely have a good impact for the long run, for all possible solutions maintaining Vastu Shastra is one of the most important part which might be the first priority of an architecture as the elements like sun, soil, water, plants are the basic concept of Hindu mythology and that supports the whole Vastu Shastra and a right one will definitely give positive energy. For students accommodation like a hostel it is should be our priority as they are the pillars for future.

By dividing the whole report into five main sections all necessary points are portrayed in the first section we will be discussing the background, aims & objective of the research, methodology and approaches. In the second part we will be researching all about the concept and specifically Vastu Shastra. In the third part the conceptual proposal will be given through which redesigning is possible by maintaining Vastu Shastra. And then in the fifth and sixth part by providing the final design and summary of the report it will be ended.

Moreover, it will give a vast knowledge about the culture, society, environment, heritage and many other aspects of Nepal and a comparative analysis with the present situation to show how heritage are neglected day by day not only in the construction and architectural form also in many other categories.

Background of the research

Before in-depth discussion on the background of the research let’s go through some images for better understanding.

Figure 1: Comparison between the old and new architecture

In the forms of architecture and construction there is a destructive change is visible where the touch of f the buildings and the essence is no more available and they seems to be very normal and conventional types of buildings like any other countries, the matter of differentiation is no more. At the same time in the modern culture the matters of Vastu Shastra is not considered much significant and which is a different thing. At the same time why there are such changes in the whole category itself, even if the structural parameters are not maintained there is a chance to incorporate additional elements from the core of Vastu Shastra. Taking figure 1 into consideration the factors are talking about is visible.

Figure 2: Types of schooling and meditation culture in Nepal

Likewise, eventually the concept of learning is evolving and that is obviously a good sign for the nation, but what about the heritage for which Nepal known for? Physically the way of going school, leaving in a hostel room is changing for the students and that is the sign of development but the overall base of Nepal’s culture, heritage, getting neglected. Getting rid of this situation is controversial because the process of development is the main aspect and that cannot be eliminated so in various forms the motive should be incorporating old parameters into the new era where I found Vastu Shastra is a vital point and making changes in the construction and architecture sector will never compromise sustainable development.

Figure 3: Types of schooling in Nepal in recent years

In many other forms like paintings, stone craving, handloom cloths, foods the culture and heritage is now a days are lagging to a great extend and obviously a sustainable development doesn’t suggest removing all old culture, believe, and heritage with new edge technology based solutions. At the same time doing something different to make them alive is not so easy because there are lots of things are already neglected but from a designer’s point of view architecture is the thing where it is possible to maintain few things. The availability of art forms, color combinations, shape of the buildings, availability of plants are very natural and easy options and that is nothing but the elements of Vastu Shastra in Hindus and Buddhists.

Aim and Objectives

Redesign student accommodation in line with the principles of Vastu Shastra is the fundamental of the research where the entire systems followed not only by Nepal are looking like development by compromising the old age culture, heritage, behaviors and many more things. Researches and many other scientific journals are portraying the views of science-fiction in the cultures and believe and that is totally justified in most of the cases at the same time living with the cultures that is not harmful for the society and human being are acceptable. Among various available things incorporating Vastu Shastra for redesigning student’s accommodation and in any other architecture is the aim of this research because it could be an effective approach to keep so many cultural elements alive in the modern world also.

To prepare a report on it some of the possible objectives might be,

• To collect information about the heritage and cultural elements of Nepal.
• To identify the missing and compromised elements of cultural elements of Nepal and their significance in Nepalese people’s life.
• Coming up with the solutions/ design elements/ conceptual ideas to make them alive for years.

And to do so the only thing needed is research for the whole communities are in Nepal along with their lifestyle, behavior, culture, faith and believe and then finally considering these things altogether a conceptual redesign will be the final outcome that will be supported by the concept of Vastu Shastra in construction and architecture.

Methodology and approach

Here the concept is not only discussing all cultural ethics and many other heritage based practices of Nepalese people rather how these are overlooked for a longer period as and their significance that should be the focus of the study. By reviewing different literature surveys and internet researches one could have an in-depth idea about the preset condition. After knowing the current condition and comparing it with the previous conditions and the effectiveness the approaches could be identified. Using the same approach I will be taking sustainable approaches where development will never be compromised as well the potential values of culture and heritage will be intact. In the research background the cultural elements, heritage based elements are already discussed and as we discussed earlier it is easy to maintain all of them at once. Since, the focus is on architecture and design elements in a students accommodation centre therefore the most feasible thing is Vastu Shastra which can be incorporated in the design elements because it is the most relevant point within cultural and heritage elements.

Concept

The main motive behind this concept is to bring back all the ethics and practices which have been followed in over past decades; However, those are still alive but only in some places of the world and followed by only some of them; there is a need to spread this all over the world to build proper, sustainable and eco-friendly buildings for upcoming decades, which can decrease the problem of income, death rate, health issues etc., which have been caused because of not planning as per Vastu. Also, today’s generation is unaware of those concepts, so we need to let them know by creating spaces using the principles and elements of Vastu by which they can live a happy and healthy life and take those concepts to the future to develop a beautiful, creative, user-friendly and healthy environment.

Questions

1. What is the importance of geometrical shapes or symmetry important, and how does it affect humans?

2. What does Vastu Shastra means?