He who loses the arts, loses the culture. 

-Francis Schaeffer

Vision

Manipur is fast losing its natural, cultural and traditional beauty due to rapid urbanization and ever changing lifestyles. It is indeed worrying to see most of us not realizing the importance of culture and traditions. At this current deteriorating rate it will be very hard to bring back the lost glory and the beauty of Manipur which was once regarded as the Jewel of India. Globally setting up of cultural heritage villages has shown very impressive results, building of physical Heritage Village/Villages has become the need of the hour for Manipur.


Through Cultural heritage tourism, many new employment opportunities are generated in the tourism sector and resulting figures and statistics are very impressive when it comes to sustainable development of a region. When heritage tourism is done right, the biggest beneficiaries are not only the visitors but the local residents who experience a renewed appreciation and pride in their  rich local culture and its history. 

Approach

The development team employed a quadruple bottom line approach which desires to:

1.) not only preserve the rich heritage and culture of Manipur but also rejuvenate it through tourism.

2.) involve the local and tribal people and help them benefit from the development by giving them a platform.

3.) inject much needed capital into the local economy and make it financially profitable for local people.

4.) respect the spirit of the place and enrich it through thoughtful, sensitive, sustainable planning and design. 

The heritage village itself must be the provider of all of its need. The people running this whole system will be the one catering the whole ecosystem. From administration to the agro-production to the linen requirement and from hospitality to maintenance; the permanent residents will be the ones running  the complex under proper guidance.

Similar setup can mushroom all over the state at different scales after studying the local context and drafting the best suitable tourism module. 

The opportunity is humongous when we multiply this pattern over whole of state and in different states of North-east India. Imagine a world of heritage prospering at its best with economic boom for further enhancement of the living standards of people. 

                          Location      : Riha Village, Imphal, Manipur

                          Site area     : 310 acres

                          Built-up area : 51000 sqm

                          Status        : Proposal

The site is located at foothills of Riha village, a dam village which is at a distance of 30 kms from Imphal city centre. An area of approximately 310 acres has been carved out carefully with the help of village community participation at an edge of dam lake. The village community helped with identifying sustainable landform for ease of buildable infrastructure. The community participation is an important aspect of sustainable development, given there is already an ecological change in the landform and livelihood (agriculture) of local community because of construction of dam in the last decade.

It is not just about showcasing and building everything in traditional/vernacular architecture style. With time requirements change and more function needs to be added; and we must learn to embrace the change keeping the traditional techniques in view. So there has to be a sustainable approach of development.

The very first aspect of designing the complex is the way planning co-relates to the culture and gives importance to the heritage. There has to be interaction and flow in the functionality by the placement of the blocks and carving out the landscape enhancing an informative, entertaining, adventurous, and beautiful experience.

Zoning is done in such a way that right at the entry point different pathways are given as per different functions such as Heritage Walk, events, institutional and private accommodation. As we flow inside the complex the functions are placed strategically to start interacting with each other.

As we walk down the heritage line, the density of massing increases leading us to tourist lodges, homestays, hotels, resort, and many more formal institutional functions along with recreational functions like multipurpose hall, cafeterias, and spill outs.  An open-air theatre is placed at a strategic location so that people from all the blocks can approach it easily. It is more of an informal interactive space.

Administration block is at the junction of semi-private and public functions, ensuring the proper and smooth functioning of the complex. It is surrounded by multiple functions like a library, archives, workshops, multipurpose halls, adventure island/campsite, formal/ informal spill outs.

The Zones are divided in a certain pattern to divide the complex in different subordinates in which the circulation can be handled at ease and are segregated clearly between pedestrianized and vehicular zones. The exterior periphery divides itself in different zones of different functions and needs to avoid any haphazardness during any events and occasions. The interior zones aims at promoting pedestrian-ism and porosity of circulation in the complex.

There are several different zones in the site demarcated as per different functions:

Heritage

Institutional

Residential

Event

Entertainment and Adventure

Flora and Fauna

The genesis of the whole program is cultural heritage. Utmost importance is given to the architectural heritage and walk. It will be a blissful experience to have a walk around the Morungs and the way the landscape is laid out. Taking advantage of water channels running in the middle and across the walk, we brought more bio-diversity interacting with each other.
   
The heritage walk is a mix-match of different species like local-migratory birds, freshwater life, plants, flowers, butterflies, etc. and of course beautifully laid out built and unbuilt spaces.

Housing and residential blocks are placed aside to not get disturbed by the guest of the complex. There are residential bungalows along with the other blocks to ensure a good informal interaction between the family of officers and staff members.