13/11/2013
Manish Chakraborti (b 1967.....) has a Masters in Conservation from the University of York, UK. He studied Architecture from the Department of Architecture, Jadavpur University, Calcutta (1991) and a Masters degree in Urban Planning from Indian Institute of Technology, Kharagpur (1992). He is the recipient of many fellowships like Charles Wallace, Association for Restoration Italy, Scottish Lime Centre wherein he undertook intensive training in restoration techniques. Manish is the conservation-architect consultant for the West Bengal Heritage Commission, Kolkata Municipal Corporation, Department of Art & Culture, Government of Rajasthan and Archaeological Survey of India.
Manish's experience of 18 years in the field of conservation encompasses projects from regional and urban conservation to monuments and individual buildings. Among these are the Conservation of the House of Vidyasagar, Conservation of Churches namely St Paul's Cathedral, St Johns Church and St James Church; the house of Jagadish Bose in Darjeeling, and temples at Pathra in Midnapore and currently Conservation of Tipu Sultan Mosques in Kolkata. He has worked on the Nomination Dossier of Santiniketan to UNESCO and has been consultant to international agencies such as World Monuments Fund.
He founded the society called ARCH (Action Research in Conservation of Heritage) which promotes awareness and research on Calcutta and West Bengal's heritage through lectures, workshops research projects and publications. Its community initiatives at Bow Barracks in Calcutta in 2001 helped raise awareness of its architectural and social significance and stall the threat of demolition of this early tenement housing of the Anglo Indians for large scale commercial development. He is the recipient of the prestigious grant award from the India Foundation for the Arts (IFA), Bangalore for documentation of architectural heritage of the historic city centre of Dalhousie Square in Calcutta to leverage support to nominate the area for an international recognition. Dalhousie Square was included as one of the 100 endangered sites in the world by the World Monuments Fund, New York in 2004 and 2006 cycle.
Manish has been researching the city of Calcutta and has been conducting heritage awareness walks since 1997. His initiatives has been covered by local, national and international media namely the Statesman, the Telegraph, the South China Morning Post, the New Yorker, the BBC, Arte French T.V., German T.V. programme he has written columns for various newspapers, authored books and lectured extensively both in India and abroad on issues related to urban conservation, community participation and conservation of built heritage.
