Hunnar Shaala Foundation for Building Technology and Innovations, Bhuj, India
(A Registered Not-for-Profit Corporation

PHOTO GALLERY


Women artisans work on the fencing


The resort ambience resembles a Banni village


Wall decoration in progress


Local art elements adorn the doorways


The interiors also feature showcases of local craft

Community-Run Eco-Resort at Banni

Vaghabhai, a local artisan specialising in the skill of thatch work, was assessing how much money he could get for different qualities of work that he could offer for the project. But when challenged to work as a true artisan and deliver the quality that was epitome of his knowledge, wisdom and skill, he took up the work setting uncompromising standards and considering the costs responsibly. Finally when he looked the thatch roof, he had completed for this project, he wondered at his own product and realised that he was more than mere skilled worker. An artisan with high self-esteem was reborn.

Vaghabhai was one of many artisans who participated and worked along with Hunnarshala to create and build a tourist facility in Hodka, Banni. This was not a typical tourist resort, but a unique experiment to promote endogenous tourism. Tourism is usually dominated by the middlemen who derive the maximum economic benefits. Culture and history of local community becomes a showcase package and people, usually the central subject for the visitors, end up as only petty employees. Hodka project was envisaged with a view where local community can not only become partner and derive equitable benefits but also gets empowered to interpret their own culture and history for rest of the world.

With growing economy and tourism poised for growth, such an experiment was undertaken under special scheme of Government of India. Promoted by the District Collectorate, Kutch Mahila Vikas Sangathan and Hodka Village community in partnership and with financial support from UNDP and Government of Gujarat, this project to build tourism facility ‘Sham-e-Sarhad’ was undertaken by Hunnarshala at the cost of Rs. 50 lakhs in year 2005.

Through this project Hunnarshala sought to explore the strengths of artisanal skills and establish them within the framework of modern functional needs and enterprise.

The process of design and construction was undertaken in partnership with artisans. Vaghabhai, Ramaben, Hirabhai, Mangubhai and other artisans from the village played central role along with Hunnarshala team. Normally traditional communities have lost sense of pride in their own built heritage and now aspire to have something that is so called’modern’ and ‘city like’. Even when they had to build something for the tourists not for themselves, they thought of concrete building as better option considering their own buildings inferior. However, while working on Hodka project, when they saw their own skills and habitat vocabulary being interpreted for modern facilities and needs, their sense of esteem and pride in themselves, what they knew and what they could do, increased. This is the role Hunnarshala played involving artisans in design, technology, materials and embellishment.

Sham-e-Sarhad at Hodka is a 2000 sq. ft. tourist facility for 28 persons to stay and 50 persons to dine. The accommodation is available in form of tents as well as traditional huts – ‘bhungas’. The tourist facilities have been built using various artisanal skills such as mud work, wood carving, lacquer work, lime plastering, etc. The technologies used include adobe, cob walls, wattle and daub, mud plaster, thatch roof with wooden understructure and mud murals and paintings. This artisan based design and construction process has led to emergence to master building artisans and initiated process of reinterpreting their knowledge and skills for modern needs where they could play more respectable roles and responsibilities.

Today, Vaghabhai has already completed two more projects with thatch roofs. Ramaben has been invited to architecture schools in Rajkot and Surat for holding workshops with students. She has also completed murals in places as far as Mumbai and Kolkata. Hirabhai has been doing many wood carving jobs in Mumbai. This project undertaken by Hunnarshala has helped in developing market for these artisans.

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