Client: Saraf Foundation for Himalayan Traditions and Culture
Phase 1 (April-August 2017), Phase II (Nov 2020 – Feb 2021)
The Saraf Foundation for Himalayan Traditions and Culture is Mr. Arun Saraf’s vision to preserve and document Nepal’s cultural and architectural heritage within the Kathmandu Valley. Towards this goal, Mr. Saraf and his wife Namita planned and set up a documentation centre (now known as the Nepal Architecture Archive) at the premises of the Taragaon Museum (designed by Carl Pruscha in 1970). The Archive collects material related to the research, cultural heritage and conservation efforts of the Kathmandu Valley. In this process, they acquired over 50 years documentary material produced by artists, photographers, architects, and anthropologists from abroad over the second half of the 20th century.
In Phase I (April-August 2017), Eka was invited to the NAA, to document and archive the core collection related to architectural material viz architectural drawings, maps, plans, photographs, and various archival material produced by various foreign architects and various other documentation efforts of the built heritage of Nepal. Eka’s mandate was to archive the collection as prescribed by standard International best practice, to make it accessible for research scholars and historians alike, eventually.
In Phase 2 (Nov 2020 – Feb 2021), Eka had been engaged to continue with the documentation of new archival material that was acquired by the NAA, as well as train its current staff in carrying forward the archiving systems as per industry norms.