Timeline of Design Education in India

After independence- his was a time of reappraisal and reconstruction in a newly independent India. A
young nation was confronted with the mammoth task of nation building, of balancing age old traditions
with modern technology and ideas. The Modern Movement, the philosophy of Machine Aesthetics, and
revolutionary experimentation in the arts, architecture and design were all taking place at the same
time. THERE WAS A SEARCH FOR THE INDIAN IDENTITY ACROSS ALL ASPECTS OF LIFE.

1955 - Pupul Jayaker, the noted writer on Indian craft traditions and the founder of the Indian
Handlooms and Handicrafts Export Council (HHEC) met the renowned American designer Charles Eames
at the Museum of Modern Art in New York. The Museum had organised a unique exhibition titled The
Textiles and Ornamental Arts of India.

1957- the Government of India requested the Ford Foundation to invite Charles and Ray Eames to visit
India.

The Government of India asked for recommendations on a programme of training in design that would
serve as an aid to the small industries; and that would resist the present rapid deterioration in design
and quality of consumer goods.

April 7, 1958 - the Eameses presented the India Report to the Government of India. The Eames Report
defined the underlying spirit that would lead to the founding of NID and beginning of design education
in India.

September 1961- NID was established. the accepted wisdom and conventional method of education
was sidestepped . He revived the philosophy of the Bauhaus design movement which was learning by
doing. This unique curriculum and revolutionary educational philosophy remain part of NID to the
present day.

The Bauhaus in Germany was the first school to formally create a series of assignments within a
curriculum to prepare new students to enter a journey of design learning. Set up in 1919 after the end of
the First World War, the Bauhaus was a center of creative expression that housed some of the greatest
design thinkers of our times. The educational experiments of the school still find an echo in all design
education across the globe. What the founders of the Bauhaus tradition formulated is of value since
they were looking at those qualities that needed to be nurtured in the art and design student, both in
the form of skills and sensibilities as well in their conceptual abilities and attitudes when dealing with
materials and the real world of design action.

Modern design education had its roots in the Industrial revolution when changing modes of production
displaced existing crafts traditions and apprenticeship processes through which design used to be
transmitted to new incumbents within guilds, work spaces and educational settings which echoed the
situations that existed in the realms of practice.

Timeline of Architecture Education in India

 the brief history and the present status of architectural education in India must begin with a recognition
that while the activity of architecture has been practised in India for centuries, its education was the
responsibility of master craftsmen and passed along from one generation to another. The evolution of
architecture as a profession is a relatively new phenomenon demanding a different educational
approach and pedagogy. The problem is compounded by the fact that while the professional attitude is
western import, the pedagogy requires thilt issues of a distinct cultural identity and the resolution of
tension between tradition and modern aspirations be integrally woven into the educational philosophy.

Sir J.J School of Architecture (originally called the Government College of Art) in Bombay was the first
modern school to introduce a structured course in architecture

 a strong technical component

 Engineering and construction courses took up the lion's share of the curriculum.

Set up after that were Bengal Engineering College at Calcutta, Baroda's Kalabhavan, Delhi's Polytechnic-
they were primarily technical institutions with a department of architecture.

After independence - the Indian Institute of Technology was founded soon after independence in
collaboration with the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

 The critical balance between classicism and technology which all schools were trying to
maintain until then, tilted in favour of technology at Kharagpur.
 India’s first Prime Minister Pandit Nehru's belief that a scientific temper and technology would
transform India into a modem nation was in tune with MIT's own predisposition towards
technology.
 under MIT's guidance Kharagpur gave little importance to courses such as the history of
architecture and even less to a study of Indian society, for technology was universal and
transcended cultural differences.
 the study of design too was s subjected to the same deterministic attitude and reduced to
functional rationalism.

In 1949, the MS University of Baroda was established and the technical departments of Kalabhavan
were converted to the faculty of Technology and Engineering. Interestingly, the Department of
Architecture became a part of the newly established and unique Faculty of Fine Arts.

 Professor Dave ensured that the curriculum include courses in humanities (he himself taught
history of architecture) and the Beaux Arts emphasis on the 'making of architecture', that is,
one's ability to put together a building properly, the tectonics of architecture was incorporated
in the pedagogy.

in 1962 under the aegis of the Ahmedabad Education Society the school of architecture was started in
Ahmedabad

 The School broke away from the conventional fixed course structure which was prevalent at the
time and instead adapted a more open curriculum with many elective courses.
 It also incorporated two important components: a 'related study program' requiring students to
measure-draw important historical buildings, and a 'thesis program' which requires that each
undergraduate student write a research dissertation on a subject of his/her choice.