Hinges is the annual technical symposium of School of Civil Engineering at SASTRA. Over the past years\, Hinges has been nurtured by s tudents and professors alike and has been immensely successful due to thei r very personal and deep involvement with it. The passion and micro-manage ment shown during the previous Hinges ’12 has helped Hinges carve a nich e for itself\, as the biggest and most successful departmental symposium S ASTRA has ever witnessed. With a whopping 300+ internal participants and o ver 200 external participants\, Hinges ’12 wasn’t just a success\, but a phenomenon. The theme for Hinges ’12 was ‘Water Matters’. Water\, being a crucial compound that could decide the fate of humanity\, was dea lt with in great detail. In all\, there were 3 flagship events\, paper pre sentations\, poster presentations\, technical quizzes and debates. A whole day was dedicated to a workshop by one of the best in the field\, IGBC. T eam Hinges\, has always chosen themes that address humanity’s core issue s and bring out the innovator within. This time\, for Hinges ’14\, we wi ll travel back in time\, and learn from our ancestors. The theme for this year will be ‘Learning from the Past’. We will have experts from ONGC\ , Survey of India and Archaeological Survey of India sharing their knowled ge of traditional building techniques used by our ancestors.
LEARNIN
G FROM THE PAST
\n Have we not wondered? Why do buildings have to
be renovated every 10 years? Why are 50 year old buildings collapsing? Aft
er all\, we have monuments from the Vedic age still standing strong\, not
requiring any more than a coat of paint every 10 years. We have the ruins
of Harappa that still paint a very clear picture of life in 4000 BCE\, the
Big Temple in Thanjavur from the Chola period\, and the Taj Mahal from th
e Mughal period\; none of which have shown signs of fatigue. How is it tha
t these old structures have endured for eons\, under onslaught of nature w
hile advanced scientific research and modern techniques has failed us in i
n this respect? To find the answer\, we need not look at the Japanese\, Ch
inese\, Germans or the Americans. We only need to look back in to our past
and observe keenly\, the materials and techniques used by our forefathers
. Our quest to create the best building material lies in our heritage\; so
mething we have for so long failed to notice. It will show us how even the
most advanced concrete ever developed pales in comparison to the durabili
ty of several millennia old stone and lime masonry. Perhaps\, future of co
nstruction needs to be relooked from the day when Rajaraja Cholan decided
to build a mega structure in his capital city. Let us relearn civil engine
ering from the original masters of construction. Let us learn from the pas
t\, to create a bright future.