Architecture Festival HASHTAG 2017, Chennai

Hashtag 2017, was a two day long National Level Architecture Fest, held at SRM, School of Environment Architecture and Design (SEAD), Ramapuram, earlier this month on 21st and 22nd of March. The event was part of their yearly conference in Chennai. The aim of the festival was to establish and showcase latest developments in the field of Architecture. Hashtag, provided a rather relaxed platform to present creative and innovative design ideas.

The festival, which saw the participation of more than 1500 architectural students from all over the nation was inaugurated by Padmashree. Thiru. Thota Tharani. On the Occasion, while addressing the crowd, he said, “I am delighted to be a part of the convention. Knowledge is useful only when it is used for greater good. Platforms like this help architectural students to be abreast with the latest in technology. Also emphasised the need to relate architectural curation to the aesthetic of the surrounding.”

Dr, Sridhar T.S, Director General, SRM group of institutions, Ramapuram & Trichy Campus, added, “Learning from peers is the best way to enhance knowledge. At HASHTAG our vision is to create a platform for students to exchange knowledge, seek expert opinions and also to understand the advancements in the field.” 

An event organized with the welfare of students of the field of architecture in purview, the fest saw a pool of special speakers and chief guests, giving their insight of the field. The highlight of the event was that the speakers invited were a diverse mix of specialists from different field. The eminent professionals and personalities, shared their knowledge, excerpts of their practice, research and innovations in the subject. The Chief Guest of the hour were, Director Gautham Vasudev Menon, Actor Raghava Lawrence and Photographer Venkat Ram. Some of the speakers invited were, Rooshad Shroff, Manit Rastogi, Sanjay Mohe, Alok Shetty, Eugene Pandala, Palinda Kannangara and Philip Weeraratne. 

In addition to interactive sessions between star architects invited and participants, several workshops were organized. Some were formal, some were informal, while some were just for fun. Formal events held were Origami paper fold, art attack, flash news, the colourful china wall and maquillage. Workshops on Ceramic Modelling, Computational Design, Digital Fabrication, Bamboo construction and Portfolio Making were conducted by leading pioneers of the respected fields. The informal events organized were tug of war, wold of wall street, musically, mannequin challenge, so on and so forth. The turnout was great, with students indulging in each activity.

On the evening of the second day, Cultural events took place, where in partipants showed off their creative and aesthetic talents by various competitions like Dance, Battle of Bands etc. The chief guests, though not from the field of architecture, also addressed the crowd, speaking in relevance with the subject. Director Gautam Vasudev Menon addressed the importance of architecture and arts in Cinema, while Celebrity Photographer Venket Ram highlighted the relationship between photography and Architecture.