Project Description
2023 | Gujarat and Rajasthan, India | With Anant National University, Ahmedabad
In 2023, while teaching as visiting faculty at Anant National University in Ahmedabad, I recorded stepwells and mosques across Gujarat and Rajasthan with nothing more than a phone and its consumer LiDAR sensor. The sites include Rani ki Vav in Patan, the Adalaj stepwell near Gandhinagar, Dada Harir Vav and the Jami Masjid in Ahmedabad, and Toorji ka Jhalra in Jodhpur. The models were published openly on Sketchfab.
A stepwell is subterranean water architecture. It is entered by going down, and its form follows the movement of a body descending to the water and the seasonal rise and fall of the water level. The walls carry carved figures, niches and balconies, and inscriptions in Sanskrit, Persian and Arabic.
This project belongs to a line of work on one question: who sets the rules of the surface? At the Chapel of Saint Helena in Jerusalem (The Riddle of the Cross), custody is divided between churches. At the Apostolos Andreas Monastery in Cyprus, restoration moves only through a committee of both communities. At the Gujarat sites I recorded, almost nothing governs how a surface may be recorded, and nobody holds the record.
The instrument now costs almost nothing, and that is where the research starts. A phone can produce a computational surrogate of a carved wall that anyone can rotate and zoom. What the models leave unsettled is the framework around them. There is no permissions framework, no paradata that says how a model was made, and no agreement about who the record belongs to or who may decide its future. The question I ask of every model is the same: who owns the surrogate, and where is the community in it?
I have added models since, including Bai Harir Vav in Ahmedabad (2025) and Panna Meena ka Kund near Amer Fort (2026). I am also working with Rolando Volzone (DINÂMIA’CET, Iscte) on underground water structures and places of worship in Portugal and Israel.
3D models
Click a model to load it; drag to rotate, scroll to zoom.
Rani ki Vav, Patan, Gujarat
Carved panel. The stepwell is attributed to Udayamati, wife of the 11th-century Chaulukya king Bhima I.
Rani ki Vav, Patan, Gujarat
A wall of niches with carved figures.
Adalaj stepwell, near Gandhinagar, Gujarat
Carved architectural detail. Built in 1498 in memory of Rana Veer Singh by his wife, Queen Rudadevi.
Dada Harir Vav, Ahmedabad, Gujarat
Built in 1485 by Dhai Harir, superintendent of the royal harem, according to the Persian inscription in the well.
Jami Masjid, Ahmedabad, Gujarat
Stone lattice window. The mosque was built in 1424 under Sultan Ahmad Shah I.
Toorji ka Jhalra, Jodhpur, Rajasthan
Detail of the stepwell wall. A large model, which may take a moment to load.
Credits. Field recording, models and research: Doron Altaratz, 2023. Recorded with Anant National University, Ahmedabad.
