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  • Heritage to Home

    • August 13 to August 15, 2026
    Heritage to Home:Students Explore Thanjavur's Living Design Legacy

    The Department of Interior Design at Yeldo Mar Baselios College recently organized an enriching three-day industrial study visit to Thanjavur, a city renowned for its living design heritage and artisanal traditions. This immersive trip brought our second-year students face-to-face with the region's exceptional craftsmanship, temple architecture, and vernacular building practices. Through direct observation and hands-on engagement, students explored how centuries-old design principles can inform contemporary interior solutions that are culturally rooted and environmentally responsible. Over the course of the visit, students examined architectural masterpieces and heritage sites that serve as prime sources of inspiration for materiality, proportion, ornamentation, and spatial organization. At the Brihadeeswarar Temple, they studied monumental scale, axial planning, and sculptural detailing that sharpened their understanding of form and rhythm in large interiors. The Thanjavur Maratha Palace and the Saraswathi Mahal Library offered lessons in layered history, adaptive reuse, and decorative carpentry-showcasing woodwork techniques, inlay traditions, and historic color palettes that can be reinterpreted for furniture, wall treatments, and interior finishes. Time spent at the local art gallery further highlighted regional painting techniques and motif systems, informing textile and surface pattern explorations for student design schemes. This industrial visits also enhanced beyond the city's core monuments to broaden perspectives on craft production and material sourcing. At the Swamimalai bronze casting workshop, students observed the lost-wax process and the role of artisan communities in sustaining material culture-an important lesson in valuing craft-led collaborations in product and furniture design. The study of Grand Anaicut's hydraulic engineering and vernacular infrastructure helped students appreciate site-responsive planning and the integration of landscape, climate, and utility into thoughtful interior and exterior transition spaces. Collectively, these visits reinforced sustainable design thinking by drawing attention to local materials, passive systems, and techniques that reduce environmental impact while preserving cultural identity. Students were encouraged to sketch, document motifs, photograph construction details, and converse with master craftsmen, enabling them to translate observations into practical design studies. The exposure improved their abilities in material specification, contextual research, and concept development-skills crucial for producing interiors that resonate with place and people. Group critiques held during the visit fostered collaborative problem-solving and sharpened presentation skills, while site-based tasks stimulated creative reinterpretation of traditional elements for contemporary living spaces. The experience also deepened students' appreciation for intangible aspects of heritage -rituals, spatial behaviours, and craft narratives-that inform how spaces are used and experienced. This awareness encouraged more empathetic, user-centred approaches to interior design, where cultural continuity and community engagement are prioritized alongside aesthetic and functional goals. Thus industrial visit was an invaluable part of the Interior Design curriculum at Yeldo Mar Baselios College. It equipped our students with practical skills in material study, craft collaboration, and contextual design thinking; inspired a range of creative projects grounded in regional heritage; and reinforced our commitment to teaching sustainable, culturally sensitive design practices.



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