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Saving Goan Ancestral Houses

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All over Goa we see heritage houses, a testament to the Portuguese rule in this tiny state. Usually they are abandoned, empty with the owners living in another country, or in a dilapidated condition. The occasional well-maintained Portuguese-Goan style house is preserved at considerable cost. Even so, the preservation of ancestral Goan houses is essential to the Goan identity which carries with it stories of families and their legacies. There are many Goans who cut costs and try to use modern methods and materials such as ceramic tiles, etc. The best way to maintain these ancestral homes is to use age old architectural techniques which, although expensive, retain the integrity and structural harmony of the house. Ketak Nachinolkar is a conservation architect who has made an example of his own ancestral house by maintaining it the old fashioned way. Ketak, who has been practicing for the last sixteen years, found opposition to his ideas of conservation when he started out but more recen