National Faculty Development Programme

The Habitat programme organized a national faculty development programme (FDP) from 14 July 2021 to 20 July 2021 in collaboration with Amity School of Architecture and Planning Kolkata (ASAPK). The five-day programme was themed at ‘Addressing liveability in a post-pandemic world’. About 268 registrations from nearly 110 architecture, planning and engineering colleges were received and 155 faculty completed the programme by taking a multiple-choice quiz. 

Anumita Roychowdhury commenced the FDPwith her session titled ‘Rethinking habitat in a post-pandemic world’ and set the tone for the programme. This session emphasized on the fact that the SARS-CoV-2 virus has disrupted the planning and designing of the living spaces all the practices linked with the built environment. As the virus is now airborne, there is a need to ensure fresh air, daylight, health and well being in buildings. This pandemic has shown that circularity, decentralized services and accessibility of homes and neighbourhoods now needs to be focused in our policies and practice. 

Rajneesh Sareen introduced ‘New Vaastu’ as the applied science that combines the address to ecological balance, well-being and passive energies when approaching the habitat. For ecological balance, he stressed on the use of tools such as environmental impact assessment. Under passive energies, there is a need to focus on thermal comfort with the use of adaptive strategies involving materials and architectural design. The ongoing COVID-19 pandemic places the need to ensure well-being in buildings. This session brought these aspects together with a view to transform the planning and design practice in a post-covid era. 

On Day 2, Mitashi Singh focused on accessibility as one of the seven pillars of adequate housing.In her session titled‘Evaluating accessibility’. Various methods of determining accessibility as well as performance of different cities including Delhi, Noida, Gurugram, Faridabad, Jaipur and Mohali for their access to education, healthcare and public transport infrastructure were presented. Participants were also engaged in an exercise to evaluate appropriate location for a housing keeping focus at accessibility. 

The second session of Day 2 by Sugeet Grover introduced participants to the findings of CSE's research titled Green Campus Movement: A preliminary assessment of actions and aspirations. The session focused on the interlinkages between the various elements of CSE's green campus movement and how working on one element can have a positive effect on the consumption footprint of multiple resources by the campus. 

Day 3, focused on circularity in the built environment, began with a session on ‘Resource efficiency and sufficiency strategies for a circular economy’ by Rajneesh Sareen. In this session, the principles and objectives of the draft National Resource Efficiency Policy 2019 were discussed. The need for life cycle analysis in the construction sector and various methodologies to drill-down the construction activities to determine their impact on resources and the environment was discussed with the participants. Mitigation measures to curb fugitive dust emissions were also introduced. 

The second session of Day 3 on ‘Estimation methodologies for different waste streams’ was delivered jointly by Mitashi Singh and Rajneesh Sareen. Mitashi Singh covered the C&D waste stream based on the case of Jaipur. Rajneesh Sareen addressed the e-waste and solid waste categories and familiarized the participants with the methods to estimate the volume of these waste streams. 

Day 4 was taken up by Tapas Kumar Ghatak, Senior GIS Adviser (DFID project), KMC on GIS and sustainability. Mr. Ghatak highlighted methods for vulnerability assessment and risk mappingin Kolkata and howmitigation can be worked out with the use of remote sensing to track the change in land cover, water table levels, piezometric depressions among others. His second session covered disaster risk reduction and management through a case study of Darjeeling and introduced the several data needed. He stressed that a participatory approach could enable advanced monitoring in case of landslides and minimize damage. 

The final session of the FDP was focused onRethinking ventilation in buildings.The session presented CSE's latest study titled 'Breathing danger indoor: A case for well ventilated spaces for healthy living' based on the latest evidence that the COVID virus is airborne and how this affects the ventilation in buildings. The session brought in various experts from the field who deliberated the way forward from this ongoing crisis. 

The FDP concluded with a multiple choice quiz and valedictory session by Dipti Ranjan Sarangi, Dean (Academics), ASAPK. The programme received a very good feedback with most participants appreciating CSE’s training content and delivery methods for their relevance and effectiveness.