On a still, sun-washed afternoon in Tamil Nadu’s Chettinad region, the light falls differently. It bounces off Belgian stained glass, filters through Athangudi tiles (traditional handmade floor tiles) in shades of turmeric and sea green, and moves across pillared verandas built with Burmese teak.

Down narrow lanes lined with 100-year-old mansions, dust swirls around crumbling facades as if trying to keep these houses breathing for one more day.

It is here, among decaying courtyards, abandoned wedding halls, and silent streets, that a team from Bengaluru’s Christ University is steadily building one of India’s most ambitious digital heritage repositories.

They are racing against time, armed with 360° cameras, microphones, scanners, and sketchbooks. Their aim is not to restore these grand homes, but to preserve the knowledge locked inside them before it disappears forever.

Over two years, they have recorded 1,042 heritage houses, collected 600 survey responses, conducted spatial and thermal studies, mapped water systems, and digitally captured 360-degree walkthroughs. Every visit helps them understand a culture whose architectural brilliance is at serious risk of fading.

The project, funded by the Indian Council of Social Science Research (ICSSR) and running from April 2024 to March 2026, brings together architecture, computer science, and media studies in a rare multidisciplinary effort.

The common perception of Chettinad often begins and ends with its sprawling, ornate mansions. Dr Balakrishnan C, project co-ordinator and associate professor in the department of computer science at Christ University, explains how much wider the reality is.“This particular Chettinad is not a single place. It is a collection of 73 villages. So collectively, they call it Chettinad.” The project’s scope is as vast as the region itself.

“The architecture here is truly unique,” he adds. “These buildings were designed with eco-friendly features and sustainable practices long before such terms even existed. A century ago, they already understood how to build in harmony with the environment.”

High roofs, clever cross-ventilation........

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