jai a biographical narrative study by dhruv gulabchande
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THANKS This document is the culmination of an incredible story generated over decades; this narrative would not exist without the grand storyteller himself. Thank you Jai, this one is for you.
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ABSTRACT This document aims to look at the themes of storytelling in architecture and metaphorically analyse the life thus far of my father, Jaiman Gulabchande (Jai) in to three segments; (1) an overall isometric allegorical view, (2) a taxonomical approach breaking down the key components and lastly (3) through lifeworld building, I will attempt to recreate and showcase the multiple viewpoints which are created from his story. I aim to conclude upon these themes beyond this document by means of a memory palace in which his speculative world can exist.
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ISOMETRIC In the early 1800s, as part of European maritime trade routes, my ancestors were field labourers in Moçambique; they had trustingly ventured out with merchants on cargo ships from the East Indian port of Diu and Daman for hope of prosperity but unfortunately never returned. They laboured away until 1842 when slavery was outlawed by Portuguese treaty in Moçambique and from then onwards began to renew their existence in Africa as free Portuguese citizens. In 1970 however, when my father was age seven, there were ruinous Guerrilla movements against the Portuguese and through fear, the family fled back to the trade port of Diu and Daman Increased taxes for non-Indian citizens directed my Grandfather towards Portugal in hope of creating a base for his family – to start once again. My father eventually joined him in 1989 when they then emigrated to England but not before having his own exploratory journey across Europe; beginning in Oslo, through to Copenhagen, living in Hamburg for a short period, across to Rotterdam and then to Lisbon, and then Dublin and Liverpool – oddly, all trade and logistics ports.
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05 ROTTERDAM
04 OSLO
06 HAMBURG
07 LISBON 03 JUNAGADH
02 LEEDS
08 DUBLIN
02 DIU
01 MAPUTO
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MAPUTO, MOÇAMBIQUE Growing up in Moçambique during a time of tension within South Africa meant that my father and his family were subject to a number of violent events. One day on his way to school he was taken by a group of people who held him as hostage in the jungles and asked for a heavy ransom. The family were not in the greatest of financial positions and so could not afford to pay the sum. During his time as hostage he describes that he was treated incredibly well as they didn’t want to chance not receiving any money. However, once they realised they had no chance of a ransom, they let him walk away unharmed.
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DIU, INDIA After moving back to Diu, my father was intrigued by all the differences between where he had lived before and where he was. He loved mangos when he was younger, still does, and had once found a mango tree nearby his house. He began climbing up the tree to grasp one of the low hanging fruits, and as he went to grab the mango, a snake came slithering towards him. He panicked and fell from the height and landed jaw-first in to a branch which pierced his jaw.
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JUNAGADH, INDIA During his early twenties, he began working for an electrical engineering firm. His tasks included rewiring of entire homes and checking motherboards for capacitor resistance. He was regularly asked by neighbours to assist with their electrical issues; a blown bulb here, a fuse blown there. On a visit to his mother’s friends home to fix a wiring issue, he came across a fray live wire. Accidentally he touched this wire, short-circuiting the house entirely and electrocuting him the process – he still has the scar.
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OSLO, NORWAY On his adventure through Europe, he first landed in Norway. He had a few friends who had arrived there before him and took him to explore Oslo. He had never seen snow nor ice and he found this incredibly exciting. They thought it would be a great joke to take him in to the middle of a frozen lake. The ice cracked as he was making his way back on to land and fell straight in to the freezing cold water. He swam through cracked panes of glass-like shards of ice whilst his friends laughed from the edge.
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ROTTERDAM, NETHERLANDS Transitioning through the Netherlands he worked on the port of Rotterdam to load and unload cargo ship containers. He came across some very strange items during his time doing this. Various pieces of Indian-made furniture and large shipments of tinned food items from the Asia’s. The greatest item of cargo that he uncovered was an Aston Martin V8 Vantage Oscar India. He had a fascination for all things India and cars and although he knew nothing about the car itself at the time, he always jokes that this was his first BritishIndian car solely because of the name.
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HAMBURG, GERMANY Christmas time is an important time of year in Germany. To earn some extra cash for his next coach journey, he stopped off in Hamburg for a while and worked on the stalls. He sold mulled wine and hotdogs whilst trying to chat to all of the locals. He had learned English when he went to school in Diu but had never heard German and was intrigued in trying to learn the language. He still boasts of how great his German is through his recital of numbers up to twenty; occasionally curses in German too – Scheisse!
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LISBON, PORTUGAL He reunited with his father in Lisbon who was worked there as a tailor – the Hindu caste system was derived occupational status. My father, alongside his friends and now also his brother who had recently graduated as a structural engineer, worked on construction sites across developing Lisbon. His primary task was to unload trucks carrying hundreds of bags of concrete mix. Unfortunately for his back however, he had to transport these heavy sacks up multiple floors whilst his brother worked for the design team and jeered and watched him suffer.
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DUBLIN, IRELAND Tired of his time spent in Lisbon he took advice from some friends already in Liverpool and began his journey. They had advised that going to Dublin and then travelling over by ferry would be the best route. He was majorly seasick on route to the Merseyside and threw up multiple times; on-board meals didn’t do well for unsettled stomach. He was stopped at border control in to Liverpool and questioned about his Portuguese citizenship. Through disregard of his journey, which they thought to be false, they kept him in a cell at HMP Liverpool.
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LEEDS, UNITED KINGDOM One morning over breakfast a persistent cough that he hadn’t managed to shift got very bad. He made a visit to his GP and collapsed; he had a minor stroke whilst there. He was hospitalised for a short time before being diagnosed a few weeks later within his heart muscles being damaged; a dysfunctional mitral valve. A few months passed by and he then went in to surgery. Before he went in to theatre he lay on the table reliving his memories of his travels and urged me to make more. As he was wheeled away he joked about how he felt like a turkey on a chopping board about to be butchered – he’s great now, new mechanical left side of his heart.
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TAXONOMY Each island form is built up from a multiplicity of symbols and metaphorical objects. These objects when combined aim to create the overall atmosphere within the scene as well as tell the story of that particular moment in time with an additional level of depth. From the bratwurst gondola to the Christmas tree, each metaphor has an objective stance and slightly comical approach. Jai was never one to take a bad moment in his life with much fear or disappointment, he just kept going.
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01 MAPUTO, MOÇAMBIQUE CORN ON THE COB
The corn in Maputo resembles the anti-colonial
CORN KERNEL
The kernels depict the militants from the Frelimo
INCIDENT
The majority of the scenes have an incident; it is
movement of Frelimo; the main symbol from their flag was a corn on the cob. Their presence in the scene is great as they took over a great percentage of the country.
movement aiming to cause panic amongst residents within Moçambique. My father was abducted by these kernels.
resembled by a red cross to show fatality and accuracy of location of the incident itself.
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MANGO
My fathers favourite fruit was and still is a mango; he
NEWSPAPER
During his kidnap, there were daily newspapers which
SCHOOL
It was on his way to school that he was kidnapped by
was given mango’s during his kidnapping and also is a recurring symbol throughout to represent his love for his country of birth.
told the stories of the ongoings outside. He would read the paper every day trying to understand all that he could in Portuguese; he is extremely proud of his knowledge in Portuguese.
the sweetcorn kernels. The symbol for the school is the temple of education - his mother has prioritised this in her life and he instilled this within me; the school will make a grander appearance in the future iterations of this project.
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ISLAND
Moรงambique is modelled based on the idea of enclosing the home and school aspects but then giving all the shade to Frelimo to do their anti-colonial activity.
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02 DIU, INDIA PAPER PLANE
The symbol of desire flies across the scene in Diu. My
RUBIK’S CUBE
The Rubik’s cube resembles the home and it’s 3x3
SNAKE
The winding snake resembles the animal itself but also
father when he was trying to chat to my mother was so keen that he would send dozens of planes with notes asking to meet her; point scored against social media.
nature holds the ritual that my grandmother has passed on to him; pray every day and retain your tradition.
the winding nature of depicts the trail and toil attempting to reach the fruit; later on he gets his prize.
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SPIKES
A pitfall in the climb towards the fruit leads Jai to fall and
ISLAND
The formation of the island follows the peaks set up by
pierce his jaw but he goes back and gets the mango; a symbol for success as much as it is fear and hurt.
the home, school and the tall tree mountain.
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03 JUNAGADH, INDIA BLACK CAPACITOR
Working as electrical technician came with it’s perks
FUSE
The scattered fuses show the extent of the carnage
and local celebrity life but here the black capacitors symbolise the electrical failures and there’s just as many as the good ones (blue capacitors).
caused by the electrical fault; symbolic of the rush that he was experiencing at the time where he had a ton of different thoughts going on at the time - the greatest one being let’s get out of this country.
BLUE CAPACITOR
Working as electrical technician came with it’s perks and local celebrity life and here the blue capacitors symbolise the electrical successes and there’s just as many as the bad ones (black capacitors).
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LIGHTNING BOLT
The main incident in this scene occurs as a strike out of
PYLON
A symbol for Jai’s passion for all things electrical shows
ISLAND
The key moments shown here are by focus on the peaks
the unknown. The idea of change occurring rapidly is a solid depiction of his want for something new
in the erection of multiple pylon’s across the state.
of the island; every pylon shows success and the climb underneath shows the difficulty in reaching it.
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04 OSLO, NORWAY SNOW
This was the first time Jai had seen snow. A scene of
CRACKED ICE
The fall and the incident; a symbol for naivety as well as
ISLAND
The mounds that form the island itself are built as peaks
change, difference and slight pitfall.
well challenge on trust and ultimately a very wet Jai.
for his three friends and the home which surround the moment of incident.
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05 ROTTERDAM, NETHERLANDS CONTAINERS
The container is literally the symbol for a holding space;
ARCHWAY
The archway begins to depict the first architectural
TIN CAN
Indian tinned food can’t be any good but in a similar way
there is a surprise element to these units - a nostalgic area.
element; the symbol for path ways and routes and a definitive relation to an Indian vernacular.
to the containers, they are holders of memory and can be stacked to create emphasis on the idea of storage units.
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ISLAND
The island is a scatter-ground of components; an ideal storing and transportation ground - a form of urban infrastructure.
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06 HAMBURG, GERMANY CHRISTMAS TREE
Symbolising a time oriented event; the winter months -
BRATWURST
In the form of a gondola, this depicts a sense of travel
MULLED WINE
Mulled wine spillages everywhere were just some of the
celebration as well as yearning for family to be near by.
and onward looking at the edge of the island.
casualties - it is the incident however this was a happy moment in the story.
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FLAG
A success story; the depiction of 20 flags for victory of
ISLAND
The island has 20 peaks where the 20 flags are
both understanding of a new language as well as a time of joy.
embedded to symbolise the fact that Jai was extremely proud of being able to count all the way to 20 in German.
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07 LISBON, PORTUGAL CONCRETE BAG
The heavy bags here symbolise effort that was required
LIGHTHOUSE
The red point, Jai’s brother, is the jeering monument
ISLAND
The patchwork nature of the island is a symbol of
to make his way up the hill. The size and weight to scale is equivalent to the size of the full back.
looking down on him making sure he’s doing his job properly.
reuniting with his father. By Hindu caste, the family are tailors, hence the mixture of materiality in the island.
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08 DUBLIN, IRELAND ARROW
A pathway and direction towards ultimately a rather
QUESTION
Questioning his decisions here; a reflective moment
PRISON
A container holding memories as well as having the
confusing situation. The flow of the arrows show commitment and once again the ideas of trust.
as well as a future looking point to see where the next scenes will take him.
ability to look outward and hopefully onward; the bars symbolise protection.
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PUKE
Puke; sea sickness is a real thing - having never really experienced transport by ferry this probably was a sign in itself. The strong colour symbolises the nature of the unsettledness to the sea passing.
ISLAND
The split of the islands here is the divide between Dublin and Liverpool. The island separation shows distant yet near futures.
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09 LEEDS, UNITED KINGDOM PLANE
The plane makes a return; the idea of transport as well
TURKEY
A literal story of feeling like a turkey on a chopping
CHOPPING BOARD
The chopping board was the operation theatre bed,
as desire symbolically reappear here. His words to me before his operation were to travel as much as I could again another notion of infrastructural relationships.
board; he worked in multiple restaurants during his time travelling across the world - he doesn’t like turkey, hence the use of turkey as opposed to any meat he does like.
he’s fully recovered now but he still repeats the story of how he felt as though he has in a butchers shop being slaughtered.
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WEETABIX
For months after his operation, he would only have hot
ISLAND
The patchwork heart; bringing back the idea of family
milk and Weetabix; his tolerance for spice had gone down as well. A symbol for a period of recovery.
relations and that he now has half a heart which operates by bionic means - he ticks; symbol of time passing.
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LIFE-WORLD The success of the islands lies in the complexities and overlaying of the information that is disseminated from the biography. There is a definitive relationship between each of the islands and to showcase this aspect, the creation of a life-world based initially on Fullers Dymaxion map was generated; multiple pathways show the inherent overlapping of each story. To demonstrate this idea of spatial layering, the following 44 scenes were created.
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01 38
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03 40
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05 42
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07 44
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09 46
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11 48
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13 50
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15 52
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17 54
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19 56
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21 58
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23 60
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25 62
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27 64
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29 66
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31 68
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33 70
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35 72
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37 74
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39 76
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41 78
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43 80
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SPECULATIONS Projecting from this iteration of themes study, there will be another series exploring the ideas set out in the taxonomy relating to a biographical, genealogical and architectural conversation of the complex idea of narratology. The aim for the future iteration is to explore the nature of metaphorical relationships when the notion of literal symbology is removed.
This document aims to look at the themes of storytelling in architecture and metaphorically analyse the life thus far of my father, Jaiman Gulabchande (Jai) in to three segments; (1) an overall isometric allegorical view, (2) a taxonomical approach breaking down the key components and lastly (3) through lifeworld building, I will attempt to recreate and showcase the multiple viewpoints which are created from his story. I aim to conclude upon these themes beyond this document by means of a memory palace in which his speculative world can exist. UNIVERSITY OF GREENWICH DHRUV GULABCHANDE STUDENT ID NO: 000947872-8