TerraShift

Abstract

Keywords: Adaptive Reuse, Vernacular Craftsmanship, Food Security, Urban Agriculture, Community Revitalization, Heritage Preservation, Regenerative Design In India’s rapidly urbanizing landscape, Tier-I cities continue to dominate as aspirational centers, leaving smaller towns to face depopulation, economic drift, and cultural amnesia. Terrashift challenges this imbalance by proposing a regenerative model that reclaims the vitality of Tier-II and Tier-III towns through the layered strategies of adaptive reuse, vernacular craftsmanship, and integrated food systems. Centered in Sidhpur, Gujarat—a town rich with Bohra Muslim architectural heritage and centuries of Hindu-Muslim cultural synthesis—this project envisions the transformation of abandoned havelis into vibrant community anchors. These spaces, once static relics of a bygone era, are reimagined as living infrastructures for memory, sustenance, and economic regeneration. Drawing on principles from Jane Jacobs’ advocacy for urban vitality, R. Buckminster Fuller’s vision of regenerative systems, and Madhavi Desai’s documentation of Bohra domestic traditions, Terrashift offers a multi-scalar intervention: - Reviving Vernacular Craft by weaving traditional artistry into contemporary programmatic life; - Embedding Urban Agriculture within architectural fabric to reinforce local food sovereignty; - Fostering Reverse Migration by creating aspirational environments rooted in cultural familiarity. - Architecture here is not a static monument to the past but an evolving medium of resilience, belonging, and community agency. Through participatory design and sustainable material practices and frameworks, Terrashift presents a scalable model, one that resists homogenized urban expansion, centers local identity, and redefines what it means for heritage towns to thrive in the future