'Architecture is a profession of creativity, expressiveness combined with ethics. The professional gist of providing shelter to various activities touch the entire social, cultural and physical aspects of livelihoods. Being ethical is perceived as the social, economic, cultural and environmental sustainability, i.e. the aspects of thermal comfort, material usage and energy efficiency need to be taken care of...

'Being socially and economically sustainable refers to being indigenous or evolutionary. Hence the symposium Ethnique throws light on two effective dimensions of architectural profession which are ethically built heritage values and environmental values...'

Architecture of a region is an expression of the traditional lifestyle of the region. Viewed in the context of local history we can decipher the traditional knowledge system that is responsible for the indigenous traditional expressions of built forms of any region. Traditional buildings were built primarily for light, heat and ventilation controls in a manner most sustainable, using local materials and home grown technologies... Knowing them and adapting them is the key to a sustainable living... Built heritage has time tested values that need to be researched, identified and preserved...

About the Images

A presentation done at National Seminar Ethnique organized by MAM School of Architecture, Trichy in February 2013