 In downtown Srinagar, a city built on the banks of river Jahalim with impressive old architecture, Muhammad Yusuf sits on the stack of wooden planks. Many of these planks have been salvaged from the old crumbling houses of the historic city. For many years, the city expanded on all sides, with new homes being constructed mainly with concrete as residents gave up wood the mainstay of Kashmir's old architectural style. However, in the past few years, many important elements from the old architecture are slowly making a comeback. Yusuf's shops in the Babdem locality is one of the many shops that sell the wooden planks, window frames, windowpane and doors that have been discarded over the years. Some of these pieces are sold at Rs. 15,000 and the sellers say the demand is increasing as they become sparse with time. Yusuf worked in the Kashmir's handicraft business sector and traveled across India for nearly three decades before finally settling back in Kashmir. An antique collector himself, the remnants from the Kashmir's past not only gave him a means to livelihood but also kept him close to his passion. An antique mall has a different kind of interest in this show, similar to the antique mall. Some of them are from a film industry, some of them are from India, some of them are from India. Some of them are from the US, some of them are from the US, some of them are from the US. Kashmir's old Indo-Saracenic architecture has been called intricate for its details and resilient against natural calamities like earthquakes. Some elements are considered unique to Kashmir with elements like tarq system, dajji diwari, panjrakari, vuruci and khatamband inspiring a new generation of admirals in the region. Hakim Sameer Hamdani works for the Jammu and Kashmir chapter of the Indian National Trust for Art and Cultural Heritage or INTAC. It is a non-profit organization that works on restoration and conservation of un-predicted historic buildings in the region. An architect who has authored two books including the syncretic tradition of Islamic religious architecture of Kashmir says there is a movement away from cement plastered walls towards brick line-pointing things that gel with the historical architecture. You see it primarily in terms of the residential architecture but you will also see there are certain cases of public architecture wherein whether it's a resort, whether it's a hotel or even a certain government building, there is an attempt to sort of recontextualize our historical architecture so I would say it is again a critical engagement with your past. There are people who are making these efforts at seeing what best they can incorporate from past, how best they can incorporate and also in a certain case within a certain specific budget. There are people who are using different elements within their own residences which in a way speaks of a contemporary modern vernacular architecture which is in terms of a spatial layout maybe the layout is not traditional. I mean the layout is very modern because you're used with new way of living especially in residences. You need your kitchens, you need your dining spaces, you need your lobbies which are rather questionable how big and tall they should be but yes there is a certain amount of experimentation and not say people as owners as well as designers are coming with some really interesting ideas. This window is from my ancestral house and we got it removed and perhaps installed it in here so that again I was talking about this Jali. This when you understand Kashmiri design, you know that like most definitely a lot of designs in Jali are coming up now but when you see this you understand it's a Kashmiri design. Kamran Vani, a hotelier from Srinagar has used some of the elements in his cafe which is a blend of the old style and the new. He also considers it a means to stay connected to the roots. I believe that they, it's a cliche that old is gold not necessarily that but I think it's more aesthetically nice and I believe like they were never wrong when you understand what the structures were all about and both aesthetically and on the lines of having strength and on the lines of looking at a facade I believe old structure was nice and perhaps that gave us a reason to go back back in the time and understand and perhaps use the specific materials and designs for a cafe and those became the highlights of the place. With growing interest in old architecture among aspiring home builders, Kashmiri's new age architects have also trained themselves to reach out to this potential customer base.