Since 2006, Arts Reverie, in the heart of Ahmedabad’s historic quarter, has hosted 60 international artists, residencies, research projects, design camps, conferences and performances. They invited PAL’s Susan Benn and Prarthana Bora, Special Projects Manager for the Centre for Environment Education in Ahmedabad, to create a five-day residential Lab. The participants explored new ideas for residencies and projects linking local needs and ambitions with international exchange through a series of partnerships with museums, academic institutions, artists and artisans and environmentalists from 2010-13.

Ahmedabad’s Old City brings contemporary craft and making skills, heritage, tourism, environmental issues, urban planning, a sense of place historically, commercially and emotionally together in one place, as well as being an amazing urban ‘sensorium’. Today there are two cities in Ahmedabad - one new and one old. The old city’s practices of six centuries of sustainable living are ignored. Residents and visitors suffer from increasing congestion, dirt and overcrowding, while developers invest in high-rise buildings in the new city. The quality, diversity, rich heritage and practical knowledge of craft skills unique to Ahmedabad could well be overlooked during the radical expansion of the new city. The quality and competitive cost of superb craftsmanship there is an undervalued national asset.