These five research centres will come up in Delhi, Bangalore, Mumbai, Bhopal and Bhubaneshwar, catering to the architecture colleges

CHANDIGARH: The architecture Council of India is planning to come up with five research training centres in the country. This was revealed by president of the Council of Architecture, India, Biswaranjan Nayak, who was chief guest at the finale of ARCHO 2017, the annual festival of Chandigarh College of Architecture on Saturday.

These five research centres will come up in Delhi, Bangalore, Mumbai, Bhopal and Bhubaneshwar, catering to the architecture colleges of the five regions of the country. These research centres will have model making labs and climate labs so that students studying architecture can have access to these labs. Nayak said that 90% of the architecture colleges do not have these labs since setting up these labs is a costly affair.

Moreover, an e-library will be set up at these research centres, which will make all study material related to architecture study available to the colleges. The colleges will have to pay certain amount to get access to the e-library. Also, the best thesis of the undergraduate students will be placed in the e-library. On the quality of education, Nayak said that quality of education cannot be compromised. "There are 458 architecture colleges in the country. Of these 458 colleges, 400 are private colleges. We are planning to reduce the intake of students in colleges where there is no proper infrastructure," added Nayak.

On the smart cities mission, Nayak said that no smart city will work with the way it is moving since the smart cities projects do not involve architects.

"Architects should play major role in the smart city projects since they are the creators and other should support the architects. We have engineers and digital support but architects are missing from the smart city projects," said Nayak.

ARCHO -2017, the annual festival of the Chandigarh College of Architecture (CCA), concluded on Saturday. Biswa Ranjan Nayak, chief architect, Odisha, and president, Council of Architecture, New Delhi, was the chief guest. Prasanna Desai, practising architect and urban design and director, PVP College of Architecture, Pune, was speaker for the evening and Kapil Setia, chief architect, department of urban planning, Chandigarh administration, was the guest of honour.