Breaking down the barrier : collaborating and educating farmers for protecting and cultivating farm land in India

Abstract

RESEARCH QUESTION: How can an architectural intervention in Chikkaballapur, India, help slow urban migration by supporting collaborative farming, creating a boundary that protects farmland from encroachment and educating farmers in a broad range of farming and marketing issues?

ABSTRACT: Many factors have caused the reduction in the number of villages which are also responsible for creating imbalances in goods, and the broad Indian economy. There is currently little political consideration given to investigate rural issues by many urban planners. This is significant because urban planners are increasingly becoming involved in planning city spaces which extend into current rural areas. Moreover, even many social activists focus on the issues of urban communities with this concern. The focus of these three groups is addressing the failure of urban areas devastated by the urban slum. It is critical to explore the rural circumstances causing the decline in rural areas solely attending to urban manifestations and to develop architectural solutions to help sustain and support rural communities. This project aims at breaking down the barriers between urban and rural scenarios by bridging them through an architectural work that helps to reduce the undesired decline of rural villages. This is accomplished by creating a public interactive architectural proposition that enables quality education on agricultural methods, updated techniques for farmers, raising farmers’ awareness about new farming technologies and marketing strategies, with a view to assisting farmers to increase agricultural productivity. This project consists of an architectural intervention that addresses the functional needs of the community and supports collaborative farming in order to improve the economic status and upward social mobility of Indian rural areas while conserving agricultural land.

This project specifically focuses on the design of educational space for farmers and the amalgamation of commercial spaces and addresses the education as a prime factor for farmers to improve their lives. The prototype model is designed as a flexible framework that suits a variety of rural community needs or specifications to aid preserving the agricultural land, fostering communal farming, and educating farmers.