The lost art of water architecture

By Hemang Desai
The Tribune, May 15 2015

Stepwells were built to collect rain water during seasonal monsoons. Primarily these structures were utilitarian. Over the period, they evolved a significant architectural style that was composite, with embellishment and exquisite carvings.

The step-wells constructed all over northern India in the middle ages and right till the modern period are a repository of knowledge about water collection, storage and distribution in water starved areas. In Gujarat, this tradition of constructing a stepwell was raised to a stunning architectural art that stands today on the world stage of architectural heritage. Read more…

(Image: The Adalaj stepwell is at once a celebration and a tribute to water as well as a record of the society in which it was built. Photo: Cyrus Mobedjee, courtesty of The Tribune)