The first glimpse of Srirangapatna ruins as trains from Mysuru trundle over the bridge sets one thinking of the glorious past. A visit to the place, however, will surely disappoint most as there is lack of documentation and conservation of old buildings and sites. Fortunately, Mysore School of Architecture and University of Liverpool have collaborated to document this temple town and its ruins. 

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India is on development path and the development is so rapid that small towns are merging into big cities and the concomitant problems are being ignored. Srirangapatna, the historically significant town in transition, which is about 21 km from Mysuru, is a good example of how it has undergone major changes over centuries.

The town has been under strong urban impact due to expansion of the existing highway that divides the island town in two. The tourist inflow has also increased over the years. Also due to the growing real estate investment and its proximity to Mysuru, such developments have significantly impacted upon Srirangapatna’s heritage value, despite it being earmarked as a Historical Town.

This is the precise reason why Srirangapatna was chosen for a collaborative documentation and to this effect, a Memorandum of Understanding was signed between the newly established Research Cell at Mysore School of Architecture (MSA) and University of Liverpool.

The six-month study was done under the guidance of Prof. Soumyen Bandyopadhyay, who is the Sir James Stirling Chair in Architecture at the Liverpool School of Architecture, University of Liverpool and Prof. D.S. Ramakrishna Rao, Design Chair, and Co-ordinator, Research Cell of MSA. Other contributors to fieldwork and documentation were the team from England comprising Dr. Giamila Quattrone, Dr. Martin Gofriller, Claudia Bruguglio, Desiree Campolo, and architects Shreya V. Pai, S.P. Preetham, Balaji Venkatachary and Shruti M. Desai of the Research Cell of MSA.

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