• The workshop was attended by 94 participants from 26 colleges all over India and Bhutan, out of which, 66 completed it successfully.

• The workshop was structured to guide the architects of tomorrow through a hands-on program in earthquake-resistant architectural design.

Kanpur, 01 July, 2022: The Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Kanpur hosted a workshop on “Earthquake Resistant Practices” for undergraduate Students of architecture from June 18 – 25, 2022, as a part of the NICEE initiative. The workshop was structured to guide the architects of tomorrow through a hands-on program in earthquake-resistant architectural design. It was attended by 94 participants from 26 colleges all over India and Bhutan, out of which, 66 completed it successfully. The aim of this workshop was to sensitize the students of architecture in earthquake-resistant design practices through technical lectures followed by design studios where they were given guidance in earthquake-resistant design by working on an architectural design project.

The workshop was led by Prof. Meera Shirolkar from Dr. B.N. College of Architecture for Women, Pune, with nine other faculty members.

Prof. CVR Murty from the Department of Civil Engineering, IIT Madras, explained in the Inaugural Lecture about 'Significance of Earthquake safety in architectural design' for undergraduate students. A Special Lecture was conducted by Dr. Shailesh Agarwal, BMTPC New Delhi elucidating hazard scenario and know-how with ‘Vulnerability Atlas of India’. Ar. Vikram Hundekar, Mitimitra Consultants Pvt. Ltd., Pune illustrated the use of Confined Masonry in IIT Gandhinagar Hostel Design.

The studio sessions were a mix of desk work and informal lectures where individual cases were used to illustrate earthquake engineering concepts to the entire class.

During the eight-day workshop the students were asked to design an Office Complex on a site in Gandhidham, a city in Kutch district, Gujarat, located in Seismic Zone V. Students were exposed to RESIST software to test the adequacy of their designs from a seismic performance perspective and this session helped them to arrive at reasonable sizes of structural members.

The designs prepared by the participants were evaluated by a team of ten jury members. They highly appreciated the designs of the participants and in the end, 10 of them scored the First and 12 scored the Second position.

During the valedictory session, Ar. Balbir Verma complimented all the participants of this flagship project of NICEE. He advised the participants to become well conversant with all the aspects of Architectural Practices. He impressed upon the participants to become well aware of the importance of a Structural Engineer in the successful completion of any project.

About IIT Kanpur:

Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Kanpur was established on 2nd November 1959 by an Act of Parliament. The institute has a sprawling campus spread over 1055 acres with large pool of academic and research resources spanning across 17 departments, 25 centres, and 5 Interdisciplinary programs in engineering, science, design, humanities, and management disciplines with 480 full-time faculty members and approximately 9000 students. In addition to formal undergraduate and postgraduate courses, the institute has been active in research and development in areas of value to both industry and government.

For more information, visit www.iitk.ac.in .