Khushboo Singh

INTERVIEW

Can you introduce yourself and tell us your connection with The Shekhawati Project?

I am Khushboo and I am a free-lance architect with a conservation architect based in Noida. I did my bachelors of architecture wich is a five years course in India. I am graduated from Apeejay School of Architecture and Planning and Dr APJ Abdul Kalam tehcnical University.

I am here for The Shekhawati Project internship which is a two months workshop where I am learning how to restore and conserve wall paintings and frescoes in this Haveli, in Fatehpur.

Why did you decide to attend this workshop?

I heard about this workshop thanks to the architect who I am working with. She forwarded me the message telling about this workshop and suggested me to apply for it. In the conservation field, there are many different fileds and areas in which you can learn new techniques and skills. I shared some of my earlier works with them and got selected. I arrived here in February. It is a group of students and professors learning together and it is for me an incredibly rich experience.

As an architect, what lessons provide you this internship?

As an architect, we are always told about the building and its planning and how human relationships deal with the planning of the building and anthropometrics.

I wanted to attend this workshop because here the field is different. We are dealing with the surface of the building and not exactly with its fondations. Indeed it has been a very usefull experience to understand how the surface has been treated and how the paintings has been realised to tell about the lifestyle, the clothing of these merchents and above all to tell the hindu mythology.

According to you, why is it essential to preserve this world heritage?

Working with a conservation project, whether it is architectural or restoration of paintings, gives you the possibility to understand how our ancestors used to live, the ressources they were using and what materials they were using at that time. It is very important because a lot of the materials we are using today for our constructions are not really eco-friendly and not sustainable. Therefore it is interesting to understand how these monuments and frescoes have survived over the centuries under extreme meteorological conditions.

Preserve and restore this heritage is our responsability because it tells about all our history.