Abhikram was contributing to and evolving different long-term strategies to convince the owner and solve problems arising out of renovation and reconstruction; clarifying boundaries between use of traditional and contemporary materials and exploring correct sequences, processes; and evolving methods of balancing the options.
Clients have attempted a twenty-room hotel which has been undergoing a continuous process of renovation, reconstruction and addition, through maximum use of traditional technologies and craftsmanship, despite numerous suggestions, advice and temptations to tread the conventional path of using modern technologies. Abhikram had to evolve a method of construction which used as its base, measured drawings of existing building. A drawing then differentiated the walls/ floors/ building elements to be retained/ demolished/ newly constructed, for the ease of understanding of traditional builder.
In 1987, Jagat Niwas was only the second hotel on 300 Mt. stretch of Lal Ghat in last 10 years. In 1999, there were 17 hotels converted from residences inspired by Jagat Niwas’s success. In its first year, Jagat Niwas featured in Lonely Planet guide and in every tourist guide of Udaipur, as the best address in town, in its category. The exercise of educating the owner in basic principles of design, use of traditional elements of design and their appropriate detailing, resulted in inspiring him to advise others and later take up the Phase III expansion entirely on his own. The end products demonstrated the success of this experiment; his sense of pride being an important by-product.
