NIT Trichy organises architectural design competition ‘Aakriti’

Pragyan is an ISO 9001 and 20121 certified, student run organisation that is hosted every year at NIT, Tiruchirappalli. It is the largest techno-management fest in India and provides one of the best platforms for students and inquisitive minds to showcase their technical skills and knowledge. The 13th edition of Pragyan, sponsored by MRF Pvt Ltd, was held from the 2nd to the 5th of March. The theme for this edition was ‘Light’.

Pragyan works round the year and before the main, four-day fest, Pragyan ’17 started conducting Outreach events and Social Responsibility activities right from August 2016. The entirety of the fest saw a plethora of events, guest lectures, panel discussions, workshops and exhibitions.

One of the events held especially for Civil Engineering and Architecture students was Aakriti, in association with ACE Update magazine.

To shape or form – the word Aakriti traces its roots from the ancient Sanskrit language. Our ancestors believed in the design of the universe and infused their creations with ideas and designs of the world. “Aakriti”, held during Pragyan ‘17 was an architectural design competition to inspire the world with their designs. All participants were given a Design Problem Statement to work on. They had to study, solve, calculate and work on the design and present a technically sound product which was expected to be aesthetically pleasing, feasible to build and reliable as well. The event consisted of two rounds. In the first round, the participants had to submit an abstract pertaining to their idea or solution for the problem statement. In this edition of Aakriti, the participants were asked to redesign streets as active public domain and preserve the essence of the city through them, as the streets are the public stage where life unfolds and are the core ingredients for town planning and lend richness to the social, civic, and economic fabric of our communities.

The abstracts were shortlisted based upon their relevance and feasibility. The shortlisted participants presented their complete solution during Pragyan ‘17 in the second round. The winners were selected based on the following criteria: Aesthetics of the solution provided, economic feasibility and cost efficiency. The top three teams were awarded cash prizes of ` 25,000.

15