Jaipur was built three hundred years ago. The roads have since widened, but the layout has not changed. The drainage system laid at the time of construction still runs beneath a city whose population has multiplied many times over.
The original design is holding fort. That is not a heritage story. That is a planning standard.
India's architects are being asked to build for the next hundred years. The blueprint already exists, three hundred years old and still standing. That was the essence of the talk delivered by Diya Kumari, Deputy Chief Minister of Rajasthan on the sidelines of Mint's series The Alt View, a platform for youth and students to opine on the issues that impact them tomorrow. This episode of The Alt View was produced recently in Jaipur - a part of Aarambh 2026, the Architectural Education Fest hosted by the Council of Architecture, under the Ministry of Education, Government of India.
Kumari oversees public works in a state with nine heritage sites, including a UNESCO World Heritage City, and a fort the world visits and people still live in. She spoke in direct response to what young architects are being asked to solve today.
A Living Heritage
Rajasthan's architectural legacy is not behind glass. Jaisalmer Fort is occupied. Jaipur's monuments stand the way they were built. Kumari's point was not about the number of heritage sites. It was about what that number reveals. These structures were not rescued. They were never broken. This reality sets the foundation for the lesson she draws from it.
The reason those cities have lasted is not material. It is intention. Their planners did not build for their own time. They built knowing that hundreds of years later, a population they would never see would still depend on those roads and that drainage. When asked what today's generation must take from that, Kumari was direct. "The vision with which they built Jaipur," she said, "the cities are still able to sustain the kind of population growth that has happened over the last so many hundreds of years. The drainage system of Jaipur has been built then." That foresight, not architectural ornament, is the real benchmark. It was supported by a clear framework.
Vastu Meant Sustainability
The Vastu system embedded sustainability, environmental balance, and long-term population planning into the structure of every city before any of these became formal disciplines. Kumari pointed out that today's generation is only now realising how relevant it remains. The system did not treat these as separate concerns. It integrated them from the start. Whatever is built today, she said, must be built with that same thinking in mind. Nothing was accidental. That rediscovery is now shaping how architecture is being taught.
Speaking on the sidelines of the event, she framed the discussion in practical terms. The Council of Architecture's pan-India programmes are doing something beyond training architects. They are shifting how students think. "All the different programmes that they are doing pan-India are going to really change the mindset of our students," Kumari said, "making them aware of their rich cultural heritage as well as how we can incorporate modern living while keeping that in mind." Combining both is not simple. That is exactly the challenge this generation must solve, and that challenge now moves from knowledge to application.
Imagination Is the Instrument
Architecture is a piece of art. Imagination is not optional inside that. "If today's architects use their imagination in their creations," Kumari said, "that will make a huge difference and that will be very inspiring and interesting for the future." The architects who built Jaipur imagined a city for a population they would never meet. That imagination is why the city still stands. Today's students are being asked for the same quality of thought. Not to copy the past. To match its ambition.
The foundation is already there. Three hundred years old and still carrying the load. The question then is not what and how to build. It is whether today's architects have the foresight to build to last.
Note to Readers: This article is part of Mint's editorial series The Alt View. This episode is sponsored by the Council of Architecture.