A little over a year ago, a multipurpose public plaza opened in Champawat, Uttarakhand. While this might sound like just another project aimed at boosting a city’s infrastructure, this venture in fact goes beyond a conventional marketplace. Situated along the Champawat–Pithoragarh highway, the Champawat Handicraft Centre is a permanent platform for registered Self-Help Groups (SHGs) who are engaged in local crafts.

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The project integrates a WiFi-enabled cafeteria, reading areas, informal discussion zones, and seasonally adaptable terraces
| Photo Credit:
Special Arrangement

The design — by architectural practice Compartment S4 — integrates spaces for making, learning, and leisure. Kishan Shah, one of the principal founders, explains how the team has been designing and building public infrastructure such as schools, community centres, etc. in Uttarakhand for the last eight years.

“In 2025, the Tourism and Small-Scale Industry Department of Uttarakhand reached out to us to design a platform for craft-linked SHGs. We banked on the absence of everyday public spaces with youth-oriented infrastructure, and this idea drove the project,” he says. The programme, therefore, expands beyond craft and commerce, integrating a WiFi-enabled cafeteria, reading areas, informal discussion zones, and seasonally adaptable terraces. 

Champawat Handicraft Centre is organised into four structural bays
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Special Arrangement

Champawat Handicraft Centre is organised into four structural bays, distinguishing between heavier service zones and lighter craft-related spaces. “Locally sourced stone is used for coursed rubble masonry in walls and retaining structures, making it thermally comfortable. The building system rethinks vernacularity using present-day challenges, says Kishan, adding how this design allowed local craftsmen to execute the work without depending on rare or highly specialised skills.

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“All joinery is bolted, which enhances structural integrity, seismic resilience, as well as ensures ease of assembly and maintenance. In such a seismic region, while facing a heavy loss of traditional craftsmanship, the construction deliberately avoids complex joineries that demand specialised craftsmanship,” he adds, explaining that columns are crafted in saag (teak wood) while beams and roofing use pine wood. 

Kishan believes “architecture is sustainable when it is contextual”. The team borrowed from vernacular sensibilities of the region and adapted it to suit today’s challenges. The facade, for instance, is made using woven bamboo and rattan panels that enable cross-ventilation, add a visual connect, and filter light. 

The facade, for instance, is made using woven bamboo and rattan panels
| Photo Credit:
Special Arrangement

Now managed by the Uttarakhand Tourism Development Board in collaboration with the Happy Face Foundation, the project’s scope now includes training, product development, and entrepreneurship. “The past eight years have been a lot of travelling, visiting villages, hidden monuments, talking to locals, talking to Government bodies, etc. The core to all the infrastructure has been livelihood generation and promoting reverse migration,” explains Kishan.  

Building with Indian craftsmen

As for what is in store at Compartment S4, Kishan says upcoming projects include developing village infrastructure in the border villages of Uttarakhand. “It is important for us to make the villages abundant in their identity and essential existence by developing parking spaces, travel circuits, hospitals, veterinary hospitals, colleges, and animal husbandry projects. We are also working at the policy level for future construction guidelines that address issues like overtourism,” he concludes.