Author: Surinder Bahga

Publisher: Createspace Independent Publishing Platform

Published: 2014-10-17

Total Pages: 410

ISBN-13: 9781502891501

The Indian Institute of Architects (IIA) is the national body of Architects in India with more than 20,000 members. The history of IIA can be traced back to 1917 when it started at Sir JJ College of Architecture as the Architectural Students Association. It was renamed as The Bombay Architectural Association in 1922 as the activities of the Association showed steady progress. It was then, that members began to seriously consider an improvement in the status of the Association. It got affiliation to the Royal Institute of British Architects in 1925 and then became a full-fledged Indian Institute of Architects in 1929 having its headquarters at Mumbai. IIA is associated with the International Union of Architects (UIA), Commonwealth Association of Architects (CAA) and South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation of Architects. It is also registered under the Societies Registration Act XXI of 1860 as a voluntary organization. The founding members who set-up the Institute have left their footprints on the sands of Indian Architecture. The present generation of architects who now work for the prestigious Institute follow the footsteps of their predecessors. Not only it is a great challenge, but it is the responsibility of the office-bearers, the council members of IIA, and the executive committees of chapters/centres/sub-centres to steer the Institute to greater heights. IIA hosts two national events namely National Conference and Young Architects Festival every year in different cities and states of India. These events provide a platform to deliberate upon the various relevant issues concerning the profession. In April 1934 the first quarterly journal was published and since then it has continued to be one of the most important features of the Institute. Later the journal was published by IIA member, late Ar PJ Khambatta. After that Ar M Largo-Affonso took over and now it is being published by the Publication Board. Institute is grateful to the Editors, Ar HJ Bilimoria, from whose review for the Silver Jubilee these notes are gleaned, Ar MJP Mistri, JPJ Bilimoria, Ar Vina Mody and a host of others including Ar MM Vijayakar, Ar RD Sane, Ar KB Gatne, Ar AD Aroskar and the younger members of the Journal Committee for all their valuable help in keeping it going in spite of the mounting costs of paper and printing and other difficulties. The Journal is a big link with members spread out all over India and abroad. Continuing the trend, the publication board has been publishing the JIIA with Ar Vasant Ranade, Chairman of the Publication Board, and Ar Anil Nagrath and Ar JR Marathe as Editors; then Ar Divya Kush, the Chairman of board and Ar Jagdeep Desai as Editor; Ar Vijay Garg, the Chairman and Prof Jatinder Singh and Ar Chandrashekhar Prabhu as editors. During 2008-10, Ar Kapil Mehta as Chairman and Prof Jatinder Singh as Editor continued the JIIA. In 2010-12, a new team of IIA has taken over and appointed me as Chairman and Editor of JIIA for two years term. During our tenure, we decided to start the concept of theme-based issues. It was also decided that Guest Editors will be appointed to cover more areas and specialized subjects. Till date, we have published issues on Temples of Learning, Houses & Housing, Architect of the Year Awards, Heritage Conservation, Sustainable Architecture, Cities, etc. Currently, the major problem is that some members do not get JIIA. At times it gets lost in postal transactions. Students need it for their researches and studies. Due to many constraints, it cannot reach other parts of the world. So, publication board has taken the initiative to preserve copies of JIIA. From February to July 2014, all issues are being made available in a book format. In future also, we shall make old issues available every six months. Hope our endeavour will be a fruitful exercise.