The Birth and Death of a Style

 

The heritage houses of the Dawoodi Bohra Community at Najampura in Sidhpur, Gujarat, have been a subject of many scholarly studies and documentations over the last several decades. It is clearly evident from the design of at least half-a-dozen structures that their builders were familiar with the contemporary European architectural trends at the beginning of the twentieth century. What is delightful about this development is that it occurred in a shy, remote place like Sidhpur, far away from any global exposure and with no history of being a hub of trade or commerce.

What is to be commemorated are not these ‘fountainhead’ European style buildings but their contribution in launching an absolutely unique vernacular language. The local craftsmen, to their supreme credit, took inspiration from these models but never really imitated them.