Practical Preservation Series, the teaching project that I have chosen to develop, is an introductory elective course on the theory of historic preservation and its application. The program is designed to have asynchronous readings, visuals and activity-based components, site visits and synchronous discussions over video conferencing, with the city of Mumbai as the experiential laboratory. I have earlier designed and taught a similar course in 2006, but that was a traditional program of lectures and site visits. The 2023 version is planned for one semester for undergraduate architecture students in the first or second year of the 5 year degree program for Bachelor of Architecture degree, and hence would be spread over 3 months. The elective course is divided into 3 modules, beginning with an introduction to historic preservation (1 week):
- Urban History (UH) – 2 weeks
- Architectural Conservation (AC) – 6 weeks
- Cultural Historic Preservation (HP) – 2 weeks
Each of these modules is further divided into sections, and the last 2 weeks are for designing exhibits and for an on-site seminar. For now, I have worked out most of the components on a word document, but will eventually move it onto a Learning Management System or some other digital tool, which I am still in the process of researching.
As I mentioned in my previous post, since some of the sections of this elective course have a strong hands-on component and I cannot be at the institutions to teach these parts live, I have to arrive at a suitable online medium to convey the lesson.