Ishani Dayal- of Department of Architecture (batch 2014-19), SMVD University, Katra (J&K); has been selected as an intern in an International Architecture studio RAW Architecture, Jakarta, for one full semester internship.

Ar. Realrich Sjarief is the principal Architect of the reputed Indonesian firm. The firm is a young firm having been set up in 2010 and has a reputation of expertise in Bare Minimalism, Concerns on using natural and exposed materials, efficiency and creative programming, customized craftsmanship. Ishani has brought laurels not only for herself but also in terms of continuous progression towards excellence for the department of Architecture as well as for the University. She is amongst the number of students from current batch who have grabbed splendid internships abroad in the ongoing session.

SMVDU’s Architecture department is the only department of Architecture in the state of J&K imparting Architectural Degree course since 2006. B. Architecture students of the department after undergoing first three years (06 semesters) formal training at the University are required to do semester long internship at reputed Indian/Abroad architectural organizations in their 7th semester of the curriculum of the 05 year (10 semester) degree course. The Internship in 7th semester assist the students a long way for their thesis project (in 10th semester) as well as their future endeavors after the degree course.

Hon’ble Vice-Chancellor and faculty of the department congratulated Ishani Dayal for this laurel and wished her best wishes for the successful internship at Jakarta. Ishani credited the faculty/staff members of the department for all the assistance and exposure of handling prestigious contemporary projects in her curriculum at SMVDU for this achievement.

SMVDU Katra: As the even semesters have approached towards session culmination in the Department of Architecture and Landscape Design, a final jury of Architectural Design was critiqued by external jurors hailing from various design backgrounds in the vibrant departmental premises. Semester VIII did an extensive project of an ISBT (Inter State Bus Terminal) with over 35 students displayed works to Ar. Devender Gupta, Practicing Architect Jammu & Ar. B. S Mahoora, Ex-HOD GNDU Amritsar. Ar. C. L. Razdan, visiting faculty, Ar. Aditya Kumar Singh Head of Dept., Ar. Abhiney Gupta and Ar. Navin Gupta also adjudicated the students design portfolios as internal jury member. A high rise World Trade centre was designed by 38 students of Semester VI as a group presentation. The jury was conducted by Ar. Arshad Wani, Architect at Municipal Corporation Jammu and Ar. S.L. Suri, retired-Senior Architect Jammu. Ar. Anil Tickoo-Visiting faculty of the department along with course coordinators, Ar. Anoop Sharma & Ar. Vinod kumar also evaluated the final works of the students. The Semester IV students designed a High School and presented 30 different views critiqued by Ar. Kapil Mehta, Practicing Architect in New Delhi & Dr. Anjali, Dean MRI University Faridabad. Internal Faculty members Ar. Romesh Sharma, Ar. Abhimanyu and Ar. Sourovee also attended the jury as examiners.

Semester II students did a thorough project on a small Cafeteria. The youngest of all, a bunch of 25 students did their best for their critique headed by Dr. Sandeep Sanket, Associate Professor from SPA Bhopal & Ar. Harinder Arora, senior Town planner-Municipal Corporation –Jammu. Internal Faculty members Ar. A.K. Singh, Dr. Rashmi Kumari and Ar. Tahir Ahmad also evaluated the work as internal jurors. The external jurors applauded the students work and gave necessary inputs to all the students to raise their work in this competitive era in Architecture and Design. The jury session ended with the formal interaction of jurors with the students of respective batches for the overall feedback of their semester’s work and further encouragement. A guest lecture was organized for the students of 6th, 8th and 10th semester by Ar. Sandeep Sanket, Associate professor-SPA Bhopal. He delivered the session on the topic “Universal Design” and called for the necessary elements to be incorporated in the design ideas for its universal adaptation.

Madeeha Ayub-A seventh semester student (batch 2014-19) of Department of Architecture, SMVD University, Katra (J&K); has been selected as an intern in an International Architecture studio Kresings Architektur Gmbh-Germany, against her undergraduate portfolio and an interview. The practice has two studios in Munster and Dusseldorf in Germany, headed by a Norman Foster apprentice Kilian Kresing. The internship is certified with the Federal Employment Agency of Germany as well.

Kresings studio understands architecture as the symbiosis of the disciplines. Creative sensibility and empathy for the task create bold designs with tension and dynamics. Pictures from their deep structures activate key-strokes of experiences. Daily new experimental interpretations place people and spaces in a playful interaction in their workplace. It is indeed a proud moment for not only the student but also in terms of continuous progression towards excellence for the Architecture department as well as for the University. Madeeha is entitled for handsome stipend as well during the internship period. Pertinent to mention that, among the current batch this year; Madeeha is the third student to have secured prestigious internship abroad.

B. Architecture students of the department after undergoing first three years (06 semesters) formal training at the University are required to do semester long internship at reputed Indian/Abroad architectural organizations in their 7th semester of the curriculum of the 05 year (10 semester) degree course. Subsequently, the works dealt during the internship are evaluated at the university by the expert jurors (invited) team upon the return of the students in January. The Internship in 7th semester assist the students a long way for their thesis project (in 10th semester) as well as their future endeavors after the degree course.

SMVDU Katra: Dr. (Ar.) Ajay Vinodia, Associate Professor, School of Planning and Architecture (SPA), Bhopal and Adjunct Professor at Department of Architecture and Landscape Design SMVDU was invited to deliver expert talk for students and faculty of the department. Dr. Ajay Vinodia delivered the special talk on the topic “Urban Informality”. In his expert talk, he stressed upon the emergent need to rejuvenate the urban infrastructure of Indian cities on priority as such the condition of Indian cities is far behind even from the basic urban towns of some of the leading countries and further quoted some of the best examples from India and abroad to stress on this view point like Chandigarh, Gandhi Nagar, Singapore and cities of Europe etc. The urban infrastructure along with the basic amenities required for a healthy, peaceful and safe living was well augmented by Dr. Vinodia in his talk. Earlier, the Adjunct Professor was introduced with the faculty and staff of the department. Ar. Vinodia also took note of the various activities along with the studio exercises being dealt in the department. In his interaction with the faculty, he applauded the conference organized by the department and he expressed his happiness to have discovered such a beautiful University campus and a wonderful department at this location and also advised to organize more activities at national and international platform to glorify the department globally as the Dept., on virtue of its merits, deserve promotion. The guest lecture was attended by all faculty members of the department along with the students of 3rd year, 4th year and 5th year. Lecture ended with the questions-answers and informal interaction of students with the Adjunct Professor.

Must be Prioritized to Achieve Millennium Goals and Fostering Vision India 2035

Introduction: Architecture - a Greek word meaning master craftsman better known as mother of all arts. Architect is the nation builder, the most responsible servant of mankind. Any development that takes place must be pro-architect. An architect can totally amend the landscapes of tomorrow and henceforth bring about the change in life style e.g. Modern Housing Apartments, neighbourhoods, city life like that of modern Dubai etc.

Issues: Most of Indian cities particularly Tier-II cities like Jammu and its extension has been shaping up fast with the globally renowned Architectural lines particularly in the Commercial context. In this era of globalization and amid rapid advancing India under Prime Minister Modi, majority of the country-wide cities are in urgency of immediate legible architectural input in its new development that happens in lines with the changing scenario of transportation routes like railway and roads. The new addition of smart cities, vision towards Millennium Goals, skill India campaign and Make in India initiatives by GOI have stretched the scope of the profession in India many-fold. However, there are still many questions to be asked. Are we ready to accept these challenges? Do we have the potential and man-power to deliver such high repute projects? and many more…The answer to all these questions is obviously yes. The gap obviously lies in the initiative and glorification of the profession country-wide. The gap has resulted in the fact that most of such prestigious projects have gone to architects from abroad. Hence, the coming years may witness the infrastructure which is at par with the international infrastructure. When I say, Indian architects are not considered it means we may end up with this international infrastructure without any public realm and context. It is likelihood that the mountains of Kashmir, the hot and dry deserts of Rajasthan and coasts of Goa and Kerala would host similar sort of International Architecture. In a way, our future generations might not feel the need to visit different areas as most of the country would have become monotonous by the time we realize the importance of Indian diversity and celebration of this diversity by the locals including the local Architects. Our historical diverse sense rooted in cultural values to compliment the landscapes with (clothing’s and) architecture speaks volume of the wisdom and sense to celebrate the overall God’s creation even with the addition of man-made structures. After all, it’s the buildings only which strikes the human memory as landmarks or image makers of the city, town or locality. At the end of the day, stage may be avoided else architects would have to listen to many decision-makers who would vow for projects without even architects. Instead, they would advocate the use of computer simulations and internet to create similar projects all over the globe no matter the location or the country and even the funds. The imageability, adaptability, vulnerability and the spatial organizations would not even cross the jury rooms of architecture education.

Infrastructure can be created and normally government is at the helm of affairs to create it with the support of some engineers, bureaucrats and most of the time even without consulting architects. Indeed, the infrastructure is placed in the space judiciously only be one professional in this world i.e. an architect. Like architects are neglected in the prestigious projects, it promotes that the architecture career is also neglected relatively amongst youth from even the leading cities of the country. Prime reason is the availability of less architects in the country as compare to the engineers. Further, the availability of lesser architectural education institutions in the country is directly the breeding factor for that.

In the state of Jammu and Kashmir, there is only one architectural education department i.e. department of Architecture and Landscape Design, Shri Mata Vaishno Devi University imparting UG (B.Arch.) 5-year course in Architecture. Though diploma course (2-3 years) is available in some of the polytechnics of the State. The other conclusion of neglecting architecture as career option is the improper knowledge regarding the pros and cons of the said course. Architecture need to be honoured and understood first particularly viz-a-viz like its counter-part career options. Architecture and Architects must be promoted and must lead the initiatives in the fast-developing country - India, like never before, if the country want to realize the dreams like sustainable development goals, India 2035 and Millennium goals etc due for next 8-10 years.

Explication: Presently, Bachelor course in Architecture is available in many varied sub-fields of Architecture like Landscape, Interior Design, Digital Design, Planning & Urban Design etc. However, a general B.Arch. Course is the mostly pursued as the most applicable one. B. Architecture is divided into 5-years i.e. 10 semesters. Student learns various basic aspects of designing, history of Architectural world (advancement in built form encompassing different civilizations), building services (fixtures, water supply & drainage) & structural aspects of a building in first 06 semesters with the help of Lectures followed by design studio work. This is accompanied with site visits, study tours for practical exposure. In the summer vacations, students engage themselves in some practicing Architect’s office in their home town to have field experience and to implement class learning. Students do the mandatory internship in India or Abroad for six months under some Architect or Architectural organization normally after 6th semester to have the total exposure of the practical field. After -wards, jury is conducted to review the work done by the student in the internship with the help of external experts (eminent professionals from the field). 8th & 9th semester is meant to conduct high level learning in terms of building design (campuses, apartments, hospitals) advanced building construction and advance structures. Ultimately, Student do the requisite B. Arch. major thesis project in 10th semester under a supervisor amongst the faculty members chosen systematically for the purpose. In this project, a live or design project of pre-requisite scale is taken up by the student and an comprehensive design proposal along with the project report consisting of project details, prototype studies, site details, requirements and design criterion/concept is required to be prepared & submitted by the student under the supervision of respective Guide in the course of the semester. Overall work is evaluated by jury members comprising of internal faculty & external examiners (academicians/practicing Architects) in 4-5 stages during the semester. This is the most critical component of the degree course as such this prove to be the vital part for the student to earn their job particularly to start with.

Students from countrywide Architectural colleges interact among themselves twice a year on Zonal & National basis under Zo-Nasa & Annual Nasa convention respectively (National association of students of Architecture). After the successful completion of B.Arch. course, student becomes eligible for the award of B.Arch. degree & henceforth for the practicing licence from the Council of Architecture (COA).

Well, it is established now that an Architect (Ar.) is a licensed professional at par with the Doctors (Dr.) and Chartered Accountants (CA) for further growth in professional or academic field. B.Arch. is a comprehensive 5 year programme and along with it, architect’s professional practice is governed by the Council of Architecture, New Delhi, set up by the GOI under Architects Act, 1972. After B. Arch, one may opt for higher studies for specializations like M. Arch. (general), M. Arch. (Landscape Design), MURP (Masters in Urban & Rural Planning), M. Planning, M. Arch. (Urban Design) and Masters in Interior Design. Common route to pursue such courses is through GATE exams as such all these courses are available in leading institutes of the country like IIT’s & SPA’s etc. Student of Architecture after B.Arch. may also proceed towards product designing (M. Des.) through exam like CEED as such institutes like NID-Ahmadabad, IIT Bombay & IIT-Delhi are the preferred destinations for the same. Many students of Architecture from SMVD University, Katra also pursue Masters from leading institutes of USA, Canada, Europe, UK and other parts of the world through GRE and other exams.

Prospects: Candidate becomes eligible for personal practice straight after B.Arch. unlike any other graduate counterpart as soon as he/she gets the Licence from the Council of Architecture (COA). Normally, one prefers to work under some architect of repute in some leading town of the country like metropolitan cities for 2-3 years & then ultimately establishes own private practice majorly in the home town. Though it may prove to be an exercise of patience to start with but for a seasoned Architect sky is the limit in private practice in name, fame & financial aspects in today’s ultra-modern world.

Moreover, those having the rare teaching inclination one may opt for teaching as full time, part time or visiting straight after B. Arch. (First class) as applicable under COA guidelines. However, currently it is recommended to start the teaching career after specialization (Masters). Besides teaching, one may continue to increase the personal qualification in terms of Masters and Doctorate through different avenues. Simultaneously, one may continue to practice under institutional consultancy which has added benefits at promotion avenues while in teaching; besides the financial benefits & experience of large scale projects. Various Govt. Departments, establishments and organizations like PWD, MES, L&T, DLF demand Architects for various prestigious posts as high as Chief Architect of the State.

Though most of the engineering branches are viewed under one lens off late and architecture is increasingly attempted to be merged with these branches. Indeed, it’s a unique 5-year comprehensive professional course with its very different teaching –learning environment. Department of Architecture, SMVD University, Katra is the only available destination in the State currently. It’s a high-time to pursue a career in architecture as built form is always bound to take place as long as there is human on the planet. Pertinently, majority of the state is in urgency of immediate and concerned architectural input in new development that happens in lines with the changing scenario of transportation routes in addition to the initiatives required towards Smart City Mission.

Architecture with its job creating characteristics unlike job seeking ones is the need of the hour in presently unreliable market scenario e.g. Civil Engineers (Structural Engineers), Surveyors, Valuers and besides other varied type of engineers/consultants applicable for special type of buildings are commonly employed by the architect as the Architect is the boss of the operational team for any specialized building to be designed & built. So, pursue a career in Architecture, be a part of this unique Architects' fraternity, gets involved with the mood and chant of the spaces, shaping up of spaces into the places and glorify your motherland Jammu & Kashmir as it badly needs your strategic efforts as an Architect and Planner in coming years. Undeniably, being the aura of an architect of the built form, interior spaces and places is something very special and sensitive like its building solutions ought to be.

aaAr. Anoop Sharma- Asst. Professor of the department of Architecture presented his Research proposal about the ‘A pilgrimage town as an Impetus for the Urban development in surrounding Fringes- Potentials & Proposals’ in prestigious International Annual conference “ SPACES & FLOWS” held at Historic and reputed University of Pennsylvania-USA from 10th-11th Nov-2016. Conference saw rigorous and healthy dialogue amongst reputed Academicians and professionals from the field of Architecture, Urban planning/Design from amongst some of the leading Universities of the world. The overall conference was spanned across two days and intelligently divided in varied interaction sessions for a healthy output apart from parallel paper presentation sessions. His research proposal highlighted the Urban growth pattern of Katra in last 15-20 years critically and futher, with the help of judicious case studies of pilgrimage towns like Madurai, Kanchipuram etc; Stress was laid upon the advance strategy for the future urban development pattern of potential Surroundings of Katra with safety, Ecology and Image of the Area in priority without harming the economic benefits out of pilgrimage for the state and country at large. Pilgrimage Architecture of Katra and its surroundings was also touched upon in the proposal with judicious examples/studies. The research proposal by Ar. Anoop Sharma invited healthy discussion amongst the participants and earned fair appreciation from one and all presented over there. Apart from the conference, the visit also included the interaction with faculty and students of Architecture of University of Pennsylvania and resulted in huge learning capital for the young faculty for his academic/research career.

SMVDU Katra: Mr. Pushpender Chauhan, a 3rd Year student of Department of Architecture and Landscape Design SMVDU, is selected as intern for 6 months at reputed Architectural Organization at Istanbul, Turkey. The organization BINAA is a design and research studio founded in 2012 by Burak Pekoglu a Harvard University alumnus. The main objective of the studio is to generate conversation along the themes of building, innovation, arts and architecture with an exceptional cross-disciplinary collaborative model among research, design and execution. B. Arch. students of the department after undergoing first three years formal training at the University are required to do semester long internship at reputed Indian or abroad architectural organizations in their 7th semester. Subsequently, the works done during the internship are evaluated at the university by the expert jury on the return of the students in January. The Internship in 7th semester assist the students a long way for their thesis project as well as their future endeavors as an architect after the degree course of this professional architectural stream.

SMVDU’s Architecture department is the only department of Architecture in the State of J&K imparting Architectural Degree course since 2006. The students in the department belong to country-wide states and presently admitted at the University department based on All India rank (CRL) scored in the Paper-II of IIT-JEE (Mains). Pertinent to mention that alumni of the department have already brought laurels for the department and University with many of them have pursued Higher education in reputed Universities of USA, Europe and India (SPA, CEPT, IIT’s, NIT’s and Central universities) along with the honour of working in prestigious Architectural organizations across the world e.g. at New York, London, Munich, Dubai, Paris, Kualalumpur, Singapore, Durban, Istanbul etc. Vice-Chancellor Prof. Sanjeev Jain and faculty of the department congratulated Mr. Pushpender. Mr. Pushpender expressed his sincere thanks to the faculty and staff members of the department for all the assistance and particularly helping him to have exposure of handling prestigious contemporary projects like World Trade Centre which was dealt in 6th Semester as design exercise.

Dr. V. K. Dogra, Assistant Professor, Department of Architecture & Landscape Design, SMVDU, attended International conference on “Alternative & Renewable Energy Quest in Architecture and Urbanism (AREQ) held in POLITECNICA DE CATALUNYA BARCELONA-TECH at Barcelona, Spain from 1st to 3rd February 2017. He presented his research paper titled “Potential Alternate Energy Resources for Sustainability: A Must Need for a Top Indian Pilgrimage City” during the conference. The paper was coauthored by Ar. Anoop Kumar Sharma, Assistant Professor, SMVDU. In the research paper, Dr. V. K. Dogra stressed on harnessing the solar energy, wind energy biomass energy and construction of mini hydropower plants along Jhajjar Nalah near Domail and Sacred Ban Ganga to meet the ever-increasing demands of Katra town and Shri Mata Vaishno Devi Shrine Board.

SMVDU Katra: 5th Year B. Arch. students presented their major thesis semester project work before the invited external examiners Dr. (Ar.) Vinay Mohan Das; Professor MANIT-Bhopal, Dr. (Ar.) Subhashish Banerjee; Chief Architect TNCP-Bhopal and Dr. (Ar.) Yogesh Garg Professor MANIT-Bhopal during 3-day rigorous external jury conducted on 17th, 18th and 19th May at Thesis Room, Department of Architecture and Landscape design SMVDU. B. Arch. students of the department after undergoing through a painstaking 09 semesters program; including 01 full semester for Internship in Indian and abroad, spanned across 4.5 years are required to present the design ideas with the supporting research study to a practical proposed design project in their final 10th semester of the course. For the same, they are allotted a supervisor from amongst the internal faculty of the department. This final thesis project is examined at the preliminary stages during the semester by the panel comprising of department faculty 4 times prior to its final evaluation.

In total, 40 students presented their work during the final jury conducted for the batch 2012-2017. Among the prestigious projects were of Airport, Hospital, Universities, Research Institutions, Planetariums, Shopping Malls, and Cultural Centers apart from many other live design projects proposed by Govt. and other organizations. Design Ideas were presented in the form of Drawings along with Physical models and walk-through. The external examiners gave the valuable feedback to the appearing students and in totality appreciated the work done by the students. The supervising faculty members were also appreciated by the examiners. Apart from the examiners, internal faculty Members Ar. Navin Gupta, Ar. Abhiney Gupta, Ar. Abhimanyu Sharma, Ar. Anoop Sharma, Dr. Rashmi, Ar. Sourovee Dutta, Ar. Vinod and Ar. Satyanshu also attended the final thesis Jury and took note of the proceedings. It is pertinent to note that SMVDU’s Architecture department is the only department of Architecture in the State of J&K imparting Architectural Degree course and after its commencement in 2006; it’s the 7th graduating batch of the department. The students in the department belong to country-wide states and presently admitted at the University department based on All India rank (CRL) scored in the Paper-II of IIT-JEE (Mains). Alumni of the department have brought laurels as many of them have pursued higher education at reputed Universities of USA, Europe and India and many are working in prestigious Architectural organizations across the world e.g. at New York, London, Munich, Dubai, Paris, Kualalumpur, Singapore, Durban, Istanbul etc.

A Sustainable House Model for sub-tropical climate was presented in the form of Research Paper entitled ‘Building a Green Home Using Local Resources and Sustainable Technology in Jammu Region – A Case Study’ at the International Conference organized by IEREK from 1st Feb-3rd Feb’2017 at Universitat Polytechnica de Catalunya, Barcelona. IEREK is an international institution that is concerned with the exchange of knowledge and enhancing research through organizing and managing conferences in all fields of knowledge. The research article aims at developing a Green Residence in Jammu city, where the concept of sustainability is missing in the current scenario. The research focuses on local resources available and utilizing natural resources efficiently; establishing green roofs, planting trees to control the overall temperature and provide better air quality; and making an effort towards conserving resources and reducing the carbon foot print. Such a solution for designing of a Residence will definitely act as a role model in the making of smart cities. The Research Paper was further published in the proceedings of Elsevier in "Energy Procedia".

SMVDU Katra: Ar. Sourovee Dutta Assistant Professor Dept. of Architecture and landscape Design SMVDU presented her research paper titled “An Enquiry into the Lack of Existing Rural-Urban Classification (RUC) and Definitions: A Global Overview” at 5th International Conference on Urban Planning, Transport and Construction Engineering - ICUPTCE'17 on May 2-3, 2017 Pattaya Thailand. The presented paper is the part of her Ph.D. research on Peri-Urban Planning in the context of India under the guidance of Dr. Madhumita Roy, Professor at Jadavpur University Kolkata. The paper is also published in the e-proceedings of the conference. The conference presented her with a great opportunity in the beginning of her professional career, for oral presentation of her paper at the conference and also for chairing a session at an international forum. ICUPTCE'17 is sponsored by Universal Researchers in Civil and Architecture Engineering (URCAE) under UniversalResearchers in Science & Technology. All peer reviewed accepted papers of ICUPTCE'17 are published in the printed conference proceedings with validInternational ISBN number. Each Paper is assignedDigital Object Identifier (DOI) from Crossref.

The conference was primarily multi-disciplinary in nature. Academicians, researchers, master’s students, Ph.D. scholars and industry professionals from the disciplines of architecture, urban planning, transportation engineering, civil engineering and construction management were together on one platform to discuss various emerging issues faced by Asian, especially South-Asian countries at present time. It is also required to link building bye-laws, urban planning and city management policies, so that distribution of fund for urban development can be possible with a sense of justice and fairness. Vice Chancellor Dr. Sanjeev jain and Head Ar. Aditya Singh congratulated Ar. Sourovee for her successful representation of SMVDU in the global event.

An international institute IEREK-that is concerned with the exchange of knowledge and enhancing research through organizing and managing conferences in all fields of knowledge. Abhimanyu Sharma, Assistant Professor, Department of Architecture & Landscape Design ,Shri Mata Vaishno Devi University presented a research paper titled “Rejuvenating A Space into World Class Environment Through Conservation and Energy Saving Techniques” in the international conference titled “Alternative & Renewable Energy Quest in Architecture And Urbanism” (AREQ), held in Barcelona, Spain.

In the research paper, Ar. Abhimanyu Sharma highlighted the present conditions of Mubarak Mandi Complex – The Royal Habitation of Maharajas of Jammu & Kashmir, which needs to be conserved and restored. More stress was given on the factors which were responsible behind the present condition of the complex.

He further emphasised on the conservation, preservation techniques along with energy saving techniques which should be implemented in Heritage buildings to retain their sanctity. Furthermore, the existing Architectural Features comprising of both Structural and Decorative elements of Mubarak Mandi complex which makes it an important landmark was discussed, highlighted and appreciated in the research paper.

Dr. V.K. Dogra, Asst. Professor, Department of Architecture and Landscape Design, was invited to deliver a special lecture on advance steel structural systems in special meet organized by RINL VIZAG Steel LTD., Government of India, Enterprise at Hotel Fortune Riviera, Jammu. Dr. Dogra discussed in detail on structural steel buildings and their behavior by explaining various examples like Eiffel Tower, Ram Setu Bridge in Basohli, the Tallest upcoming Railway Bridge in J&K and few other architectural buildings of India and abroad; particularly Disney Art Museum at Barcelona having huge cantilever of 120 feet which is possible only by way of structural steel system. Dr. Dogra’s talk was followed with a fruitful interaction session through the various attendees and invited experts. The Talk was well appreciated by one and all presented in the meet.

The meet was captioned as ABC Meet as it was attended by Architects, Builders and Contractors alike. To show their solidarity and get a greater knowledge on the subject, faculty from the Department of Architecture and Landscape Design Ar. Abhiney Gupta, Ar. Navin Gupta, Ar. Anoop Sharma, Ar. Abhimanyu Sharma, Ar. Tahir Ahmed and Ar. Vishal Bhatti also attended the meet. Earlier, The meet started with the lamp lighting ceremony through the invited experts and RINL officials. The technical expert of RINL gave a brief introduction of Vizag steel, its manufacturing processes and highlighted various features in which Vizag steel is unique among its counterparts. The invited talks by RINL Professionals and Dr. V. K. Dogra were followed by dinner. The meet received a very good response and almost 100 professionals like Architects, civil engineer and builders, both from private sector and Govt. sector attended it. The purpose of the meet was to have more branding of VIZAG Steel for possible use in the various upcoming infrastructural projects in the state of Jammu and Kashmir.