While Surat is aspiring to become India’s next great metropolis, its historic core stands at the intersection of heritage and infrastructure, where old neighbourhoods, diverse faiths, living traditions, and historic buildings coexist with rapid urban transformation. While the route from Surat Fort to Chintamani Derasar is a familiar heritage walk, this workshop looks beyond its well-known landmarks to uncover these evolving urban realities.
The workshop invites participants to observe, question, and document these relationships. Through collective mapping and discussion, we aim to explore how public engagement can inform conversations on heritage and urban development.

Swapna Kothari is an architect, heritage conservator and preservation planner. She has worked with non-profit, government and private clients in architectural, heritage conservation and cultural management. Her practice, Conservancy Works and Research Shop (CWRS), is constantly exploring urban cultural and architectural realms and integrating them to form narratives that clients request with physical derivatives.

Her personal research focuses on cross-cultural interaction in the realms of preservation and the application of conservation tools and theory. She has published works with K. R. Cama Oriental Institute, Routledge and INTACH (Aryan Books), among others. An advocate for the built environment, antiquities and cultural traditions, Swapna blends her architecture and conservation degrees via the use of building materials in each other.

Focus      :         BODH (Building on Design Histories)

Duration     :     3 hours

Venue      :        Surat

Time        :        10:00 AM

• Introduction & Context Setting (60 mins) :
  An introduction to the workshop theme, Layers of a Living City, and the urban context of Surat’s historic core. Participants will be briefed on the observation and documentation approach for the neighbourhood walk.

• Neighbourhood Walk & Observation (60 mins) :
  A guided walk through the historic core of Surat, where participants will observe the layered relationship between heritage, infrastructure, and everyday urban life. Through careful observation, participants will reflect on how the city’s past and present coexist, revealing the aspirations, challenges, and lived experiences that continue to shape Surat’s evolving urban fabric.

   

• Discussion & Reflection (60 mins) :
  An informal discussion over snacks, allowing participants to reflect on their observations and share insights from the walk.

The workshop will serve as a platform to explore the evolving relationship between heritage and urban transformation in Surat’s historic core. It aims to initiate a dialogue on documenting everyday heritage, understanding the city’s layered urban fabric, and recognising how public engagement can help shape a more informed and culturally rooted future.