Building Craft Lab

Building Craft Lab is an online collaborative platform to explore the world of Craft and Built Environment. Its vision is to generate, amalgamate, catalogue and disseminate resources related to Indian crafts and traditional and vernacular built habitat. The Building Craft Lab consists of four components - Map, Catalogue, Directory and Documentation. 

The Map is a platform that has embedded geospatial data and allows a geographic search of traditional and vernacular buildings and their elements, craftspeople and their enterprises, and vernacular furniture of India. All of which are mapped through various projects conducted by DICRC. This data is represented on the Map in the form of three major components: Building Map, Craft Map and Vernacular Furniture Map. The data on the map is collected through Mobile Application Form using a tablet or a mobile phone. This data is linked to the Catalogue section of the Lab. Map also provides the facility of generating a query and uses certain parameters for filtering the search. The search query parameters range from different types of buildings/crafts/furniture to the materials and techniques. 

The data pertaining to buildings and furniture is comprehensively curated under the Catalogue section of the BCL. The Catalogue is a collection of images and object-specific information about each of the buildings, building elements (like column, beam, door etc.) and furniture that have been mapped using a Mobile Mapping Application specifically designed by the team at DICRC. 

The data pertaining to crafts and craftspeople is curated under the Directory section of the BCL. The Directory provides comprehensive data about the Craftspeople, Craft Designer, Craft Entrepreneur as well as Craft Enterprises and Craft-Design Firms ranging from the contact details, type of work, craft process, knowledge resources, types of craft applications and products. The information about the people and enterprises is collected from the field through the process of Craft Mapping using Mobile Application Form. The directory also showcases the work of the craftspeople.
Documentation Section is a repository of drawings and documents that are outputs of the research projects undertaken at DICRC. The Drawing Section consists of technical drawings, field drawings, diagrams, illustrations, etc. related to Traditional and Vernacular Buildings as well as craft objects of India. Documents refers to various types of Book, Booklets, Data Files, Design Kit, Diary, Field Data, Journal Article, Magazine Article, Manual, Newsletter, Panels, Paper, Plates, Portfolio, Presentation, Reports, Thesis, etc. related to the Craft and Heritage Built Environment. 

Partners & Collaborators:
Cybersurf India Pvt. Ltd.

Impact of the Project: 
The Building Craft Lab is the first of a kind initiative that amalgamates information about traditional and vernacular built environment and crafts on a single platform. It is a repository of the research generated by DICRC over the years. The BCL is a public domain platform that ensures accessibility of the research data for users at the global level. This has ensured the catalysis of further research on the topics. The biggest impact of the BCL is the Craftspeople Directory which has enabled people to connect with craftspeople directly to avail their services ensuring a healthy maker-buyer relationship within the crafts sector. 
Other relevant information:
At the GESIA 9th Annual Awards for Excellence, the Building Craft Lab was a Finalist in the category of ‘Best ICT Initiative in Education Sector’. 

Publications and resources: 
Resource and Building Dissemination Data Bank