Ajith Andagere’s Samrakshan India is protecting our architectural legacy

BH: And the next step is restoration?

AA: Because of our architectural practice and the experience we have gained, we have quite good knowledge on restoration as well. And restoration is not restricted to only Karnataka. Anywhere in the country, doesn't matter what size of space, restoration can happen for various purposes. One is, of course, personal use, just to fix up the house and live there for the next 50, 60 years. Or through adaptive reuse, like in Goa, a lot of the houses are converted into restaurants or BnBs or stores.

BH: Your ultimate goal is to work with the government…

AA: Doing this through influencing architects is a very slow process, in their lifetime they can build or renovate one or two houses. So it’s important to work with people that write the policies and the guidelines. Every year, the government spends crores of rupees to build social housing or natural calamity housing. If governments encourage building in the local style it makes a huge impact, right? We are not politically inclined, we're just passionate about this. So, we are constantly meeting ministers, particularly tourism, art and culture ministers. We're knocking on doors for the next opportunity. One lifetime is not enough for us to do this.

All images by Studio Suryan//Dang