IA&B November 2013

EXPLORE

Exteriors +: Supplement of 28 pages with IA&B November 2013 Issue

VOL 27 (3)

NOV 2013

` 200

MUMBAI

INDIAN ARCHITECT & BUILDER

IN CONVERSATION Peter Eisenman, Eisenman Architects ARCHITECTURE House in Vadodara: Little River Architects Army Rowing Node, Pune: KSA Architects and Planners Pvt Ltd CAMPAIGN Learning and Teaching Architecture in the Present Scenario: Shirish Beri SUSTAINABILITY (?) MANIFESTOES Karan Grover, Karan Grover and Associates DELHI DIALOGUES DELHi 2050: Knowledge Tour SPACE FRAMES Connect and Transform: Sebastian Varghese

VOL 27 (3) | NOVEMBER 2013 | ` 200 | MUMBAI RNI Registration No. 46976/87, ISSN 0971-5509 INDIAN ARCHITECT AND BUILDER

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30 CURRENT

Chairman: Jasu Shah Printer, Publisher & Editor: Maulik Jasubhai Shah Chief Executive Officer: Hemant Shetty EDITORIAL Assistant Editors: Maanasi Hattangadi, Ruturaj Parikh Writers: Rashmi Naicker (Online) Design Team: Mansi Chikani, Prasenjit Bhowmick, Kenneth Menezes Event Management Team: Abhijeet Mirashi Subscription: Dilip Parab Production Team: V Raj Misquitta (Head), Prakash Nerkar, Arun Madye Head Office: JMPL, 210, Taj Building, 3rd Floor, Dr D N Road, Fort, Mumbai 400 001.

Tel: +91-22- 4213 6400,+ 91-22-4037 3636, Fax: +91-22-4037 3635 SALES Brand Manager: Sudhanshu Nagar Email: sudhanshu_nagar@jasubhai.com MARKETING TEAM & OFFICES Sales Coordinator: Christina D’sa Email: christina_dsa@jasubhai.com Mumbai Parvez Memon 210, Taj Building, 3rd Floor, Dr D N Road, Fort, Mumbai 400 001.

Tel: +91-22- 4213 6400,+ 91-22-4037 3636, Fax: +91-22-4037 3635 Email: parvez_memon@jasubhai.com Delhi: Preeti Singh / Manu Raj Singhal 803, Chiranjeev Tower, No 43, Nehru Place, New Delhi – 110 019 Tel: +91 11 2623 5332, Fax: 011 2642 7404, Email: preeti_singh@jasubhai.com, manu_singhal@jasubhai.com Gujarat: Nisha Pipaliya Mobile: +91 9769758712, Email: nisha_pipaliya@jasubhai.com Bengaluru / Hyderabad: Sudhanshu Nagar Mobile: +91 9833104834, Email: sudhanshu_nagar@jasubhai.com Chennai / Coimbatore: Princebel M Mobile: +91 9444728035, +91 9823410712, Email: princebel_m@jasubhai.com

Au courant updates on events, exhibitions, competitions and news.

32

POST EVENT

Through an interactive exchange of ideas on architecture, the IIA-IA&B

Robert ‘Fellowes’ Chisholm Biennial Colloquium was organised as a

day-long event that involved lectures, a workshop and a photography

competition, on 7 th September 2013 in Vadodara.

Reliving and Rediscovering an Era

38 PRODUCTS

Objects and details designed for architectural settings from across the globe.

40

IN CONVERSATION

Peter Eisenman discusses his early inspirations, his philosophies and his

work and how they evolve in tandem and inform one another.

Truth and Subjectivity

44 ARCHITECTURE

A Bespoke Home

Bengaluru-based Little River Architects’ design of the house at Vadodara

developed through an interplay of intuition and a participatory interaction

with the client.

54

Between the Unbuilt

Army Rowing Node, the design of an international sporting facility in Pune

by Mumbai-based KSA Architects and Planners Pvt Ltd, gives definition to

the surrounding expanse through its intricate and imposing design.

78 CAMPAIGN

Learning and Teaching Architecture in the Present Scenario

Kolkata: Sudhanshu Nagar Mobile: +91 9833104834, Email: sudhanshu_nagar@jasubhai.com

In his expository essay, Shirish Beri expounds on the need to cultivate

Pune: Parvez Memon Mobile: +91 9769758712, Email: parvez_memon@jasubhai.com

the student-teacher relationship, encouraging students to constantly

question and challenge existing ideals and work at a better understanding of

the multiplicity of architecture.

82

BOOK REVIEW

Bauhaus

With her long-standing association with the Bauhaus Archiv, Magdalena

Droste comprehensively traces the lineage of the Bauhaus art and

architecture movement from its conception to end.

Printed & Published by Maulik Jasubhai Shah on behalf of Jasubhai Media Pvt. Ltd (JMPL), 26, Maker Chamber VI, Nariman Point, Mumbai 400 021 Printed at M B Graphics, B-28 Shri Ram Industrial Estate, ZGD Ambekar Marg, Wadala, Mumbai 400031and Published from Mumbai - 3rd Floor, Taj Building, 210, Dr D N Road, Fort, Mumbai 400 001.

Editor: Maulik Jasubhai Shah, 26, Maker Chamber VI, Nariman Point, Mumbai 400 021 Indian Architect & Builder: (ISSN 0971-5509), RNI No 46976/87, is a JMPL monthly publication.

Reproduction in any manner, in whole or part, in English or any other language is strictly prohibited.

We welcome articles, but do not accept responsibility for contributions lost in the mail.

84

SUSTAINABILITY (?) MANIFESTOES

Karan Grover

Asserting the importance of culture and heritage, Karan Grover advocates a

renegotiation of the Indian model of sustainability, in the relevance of

our context.

90

DELHI DIALOGUES

Knowledge Tour

In the seventh instalment in this series, curated by the arch i platform, the

DELHi2050 team embarks on a Knowledge Tour to the seven knowledge

institutes across the Capital, to collaborate and exchange ideas on the city.

94

SPACE FRAMES

Connect and Transform

Documenting a series of bridges across different locales in the US and

Kerala, Sebastian Varghese elucidates on their philosophical relevance

to him.

Printed & Published by Maulik Jasubhai Shah on behalf of Jasubhai Media Pvt. Ltd (JMPL), 26, Maker Chamber VI, Nariman Point, Mumbai 400 021.

Printed at M.B.Graphics, B-28, Shri Ram Industrial Estate, ZG.D.Ambekar Marg, Wadala, Mumbai 400031and Published from Mumbai - 3rd Floor, Taj Building, 210, Dr. D. N. Road, Fort, Mumbai 400 001.

Editor: Maulik Jasubhai Shah, 26, Maker Chamber VI, Nariman Point, Mumbai 400 021.

Indian Architect & Builder: (ISSN 0971-5509), RNI No 46976/87, is a JMPL monthly publication. Reproduction in any manner, in whole or part, in English or any other language is strictly prohibited. We welcome articles, but do not accept responsibility for contributions lost in the mail.

EXPLORE

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post event

‘Vistara’ Film Series With a particular focus on informing and shaping perspectives of students in architecture, Hewlett-Packard India has aligned with Indian Architect & Builder’s undertaking of screening the consequential film ‘Vistara’ across select colleges of architecture in India.

Images: courtesy Hewlett-Packard India & Indian Architect & Builder

I

n an uncompromising and critical undertaking of informing and inspiring students of architecture as an agenda, Hewlett-Packard India in collaboration with IA&B has initiated a series of screenings of the film ‘Vistara’ across eminent architectural colleges in India.

Vistara: ‘The Architecture of India’ was a seminal exhibition on Indian architecture that travelled the world as a part of ‘Festivals of India’ series in the 1980s. Chaired by Charles Correa, Vistara brought together an incredible array of individuals and ideas that became one of the first such attempts to understand and present the architecture of India to the world.

In multiple manifestations of the idea, the exhibition was accompanied by a book and the Vistara film – an AV projection system with three screens and nine projectors that composed the content. The exhibition had a huge impact and it still remains as one of the most complex and comprehensive inquiries into the inherent concepts of architecture in India. Twenty five years later in 2012, Imtiaz Dharker remastered the documentary to digitise and preserve one of the most crucial and complex comments on the Architecture of India.

In this process of using the power of thoughtful cinema to engage students while simultaneously reinforcing intellectual notions, the screenings of this film were hosted at R V School of Architecture, in Bengaluru on 19 th March 2013, School of Planning and Architecture in Bhopal on 9 th April 2013, Sushant School of Art & Architecture in Gurgaon on 12 th April 2013, Dayananda Sagar School of Architecture in Bengaluru on 12 th April 2013, Bhartiya Vidyapeeth College of Architecture, Navi Mumbai on 2 nd August 2013. The brief programme structure involved an overview introduction of the film with the screening and a continuous interactive setup displaying one of their printers - HP Designjet T120 - by Hewlett-Packard at the prelude of each auditorium.

In the decades since its founding, HP has ventured far beyond its original idea of being only a convergence point of varied solutions in printing, personal computing, softwares, services and IT infrastructure and has extended its involvement with the architectural community with endeavours like HP Skyline, film screenings and many more. As an ongoing agenda, this film series is being arranged across two more colleges of architecture in October 2013.

Indian Architect & Builder - November 2013

current CoA Bars Foreign Architects from Practising in India

ASI Focuses Attention on Conservation of St John’s Church, Kolkata

In a perennial tussle between the Council of Architecture (CoA), other such regulatory bodies and the Indian government over opening the Indian markets for foreign players, the CoA recently issued a legal notice saying “... no foreign architect/consultant (not registered with CoA) be appointed for architectural works, without following the procedure under the (Architects) Act”.

Council member Inderjit Singh Bakshi told newspapers that CoA had reasserted its stand to the government that “only those registered with the council can practice in India”. Apart from those with degrees from recognised Indian architecture schools, the Architects Act also recognises qualifications from certain countries on a ’reciprocal basis’.

The Archaeological Survey of India (ASI) has awakened to the task of St John’s Church in Kolkata after a report appeared in a national newspaper throwing light on the shambled plight of the Colonial times’ Gothic Monument and the state government’s superlative tourism plans for the structure oblivious to the basic maintenance of this ASI protected monument. Alarmingly, it had been transformed to a garage with parking donations being used for its upkeep with no funds from the ASI and sole restoration efforts coming from INTACH. Within days of the newspaper report on the degradation of the monument, Regional Director, ASI (Eastern region), P K Mishra recced the church and articulated in a letter to the Bishop of Kolkata - Reverend Ashok Biswas, his enthusiasm towards ’proper conservation of the building and landscaping the sprawling courtyard’.

Humayun’s Tomb Restoration Inaugural by Dr Manmohan Singh and HH Aga Khan Humayun’s tomb - the 16 th century garden tomb symbolic of Delhi has finally undergone its metamorphic restoration undertaken by the Aga Khan Trust for Culture (AKTC) in association with the ASI. It was inaugurated on 18 th of September, 2013, by the Prime Minister of India, Dr Manmohan Singh and His Highness the Aga Khan, in the presence of Union Minister of Culture, Mrs Chandresh Kumari Katoch and Mr Ratan Tata, Chairman of the Sir Dorabji Tata Trust. The project is part of The Nizamuddin Basti Urban Renewal Initiative, which started in 2007 as a public-private partnership between the ASI, Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD), Central Public Works Department (CPWD), the Aga Khan Foundation and the AKTC. It involves the extensive restoration of 30 monuments - of which one is the Humayun’s tomb and of the fabric of civic spaces and uplifting the quality of life in Hazrat Nizamuddin Basti, with support from funding agencies such as Sir Dorabji Tata Trust and ASI. Located in the heart of the city, the Nizamuddin heritage precincts’ area comprises of the Humayun’s Tomb Complex, Sundar Nursery Monuments and Hazrat Nizamuddin Basti which encloses the Shrine of Hazrat Nizamuddin - the sufi saint and a 14 th Century ‘boali’ (stepped well) within it.

World’s First Invisible Skyscraper Plans Revealed in Seoul, South Korea The Tower Infinity near Incheon Airport, Seoul plans to be an ’anti-skyscraper tower’ so to speak, defying the stereotype of dominant visibility, with California-based GDS Architects revealing a plan to completely conceal the skyscraper with high-tech LED screens and imagery. The tower is 450m (1,476ft) tall and is fitted with a battery of digital cameras located at six strategic points, capturing the activities around the tower every day and displaying them on the screen mounted on the tower, making the façade a collage of pictures and modulating the visibility of the screen from opaque to semi-transparency to nothingness. Such visual wizardry complemented by the crystalline structure of the tower is projected to be a sight to look out for in the skyline of Seoul.

Petition for Denise Scott Brown’s Retroactive Award Rejected by the Pritzker The Pritzker Prize committee has officially responded to the petition written by Harvard graduate students Arielle AssoulineLichten and Caroline James to retroactively recognise Denise Scott Brown, the wife of Robert Venturi - a 1991 Pritzker laureate.

Lord Palumbo, the chair to the Pritzker Prize committee stated “Pritzker juries, over time, are made up of different individuals, each of whom does his or her best to find the most qualified candidate. A later jury cannot reopen, or second guess the work of an earlier jury, and none has ever done so.” The statement released further goes on to appreciate the petitioners for bringing to forefront the issue of “assuring women a fair and equal place within the profession. [...] one particular role that the Pritzker Jury must fulfil…” However, he also stated that Denise Scott Brown is still eligible for a Pritzker of her own.

RIBA Stirling Prize 2013 Awarded to Ashley Castle September 2013 saw the release of a series of RIBA awards, of which the Stirling Prize was awarded to Witherford Watson Mann for Astley Castle (Nuneaton, Warwickshire). The Stirling Prize considered the most prestigious award in United Kingdom is annually announced for the ’building that has made the greatest contribution to the evolution of architecture in the past year’.

Among other nominees were Bishop Edward King Chapel by Niall McLaughlin Architects, Giant’s Causeway Visitor Centre by Heneghan Peng, Newhall Be (Harlow, Essex) by Alison Brooks Architects, Park Hill (Sheffield) by Hawkins\Brown and Studio Egret West, and University of Limerick Medical School and Pergola Bus Shelter (Ireland) by Grafton Architects. The prize ceremony took place at Central Saint Martins in London on Thursday, September 26.

Other awards announced by President of RIBA, Stephen Hodder included the prestigious RIBA Manser Medal for Slip House by Carl Turner Architects and the RIBA Lubetkin Prize for Cooled Conservatories and Gardens by the Bay in Singapore. The RIBA Stephen Lawrence Prize and the Client of the Year Award were awarded to Montpelier Community Nursery (AY Architects) and the National Trust for Stowe Gardens Visitor Centre (Cowper Griffith), respectively.

Indian Architect & Builder - November 2013

NEWS

A 1972 law unambiguously bars foreign architects and remains unaltered despite the government’s enthusiasm, thus, refuting negotiations at the World Trade Organisation (WTO) to open up the sector.

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Reliving and Rediscovering an Era

The Biennial Colloquium on Robert ‘Fellowes’ Chisholm, an IIA-IA&B initiative, held on the 7 th of September at the M S University, Vadodara premises proved to be a thought-provoking and interactive session that probed a deeper understanding of Chisholm’s ideals, through a contemporary discourse on architecture.

Text: Chandrima Padmanabhan Images: courtesy IA&B and IIA

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Architect Gurjit Singh Matharoo, Matharoo Associates, delivering the keynote lecture, during the second session of the Colloquium.

T

he IIA-IA&B Robert ‘Fellowes’ Chisholm Biennial Colloquium 2013, held on the 7 th of September, 2013 was part of a biennial series of events and lectures organised since 2010, by the Vadodara Chapter of the Indian Institute of Architects in collaboration with Indian Architect & Builder, to celebrate the architect who transformed the face of Vadodara City. One of the most versatile and renowned architects of British India, Robert ‘Fellowes’ Chisholm was the Chief Architect in the Madras Presidency, when he was commissioned to design important edifices in Vadodara under the rule of Sayajirao Gaekwad III. His designs of the Nyay Mandir, the Maharaja Sayajirao University of Baroda, the Baroda Museum, the Khanderao Market and a series of other buildings in the city, formed a distinctive spine of landmarks that structured its previously organic growth. True to the timelessness of Robert Chisholm’s legacy, these buildings went on to be among the most memorable landmarks and public buildings Indian Architect & Builder - November 2013

of the city, and are just as relevant in their present context today, continually imparting a lesson in climatically sensitive design and an intelligent use of structural techniques.

In an attempt to recapture the essence of his work and his vision for the city, architects and students gathered and participated enthusiastically at the biennial celebrations that also involved a collaborative workshop by prominent structural engineer Dhananjay Dake from Pune and an interactive photography competition that celebrated Chisholm’s work. The theme of the workshop was ‘anti-gravity’ and involved designing structures that could be erected on Earth or any other planet, that defy the laws of gravity by their sheer structural genius. Aptly curated by Dhananjay Dake via Skype, with his wife Anita Dake presiding at the venue, the workshop produced innovative conceptualisations and designs from the students. The students of SVIT College,

post event

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The interactive workshop on ‘Anti-gravity’ structures, saw enthusiastic participation by students of different architecture institutes across the city.

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The jury session of the workshop, presided over by Architect Anita Dake.

(L & R) The gallery space of C C Mehta Auditorium in M S University, which housed the entries of the photography competition, ‘Framing Chisholm - Architecture & Beyond’.

Aakash Roy, Nikita Pal, Sahil Kukreja and Manali Shah were awarded with the first prize citation for the workshop, while the second prize was awarded to students of Navrachana University, Rajdeep Raj, Dhruv Shah, Dharmik Thakkar and Pankti Mehta, and SMAID, Vallabh Vidyanagar’s students, Mohneesh Vidhani, Priyansh Patel, Nilanshu Kadu and Jekin Sanghvi stood third.

Architect Sanjeev Joshi, the city Unit Treasurer of the IIA, conducted the ceremonial event in the afternoon in the C C Mehta Auditorium of M S University, inaugurating the first session of the proceedings with a video presentation chronicling the development of Vadodara, from the old city to the one evolved by Robert ‘Fellowes’ Chisholm’s visionary restructuring. Following the introduction that set the tone of the programme, Architect Anita Dake delivered her lecture on the structural innovations by their firm, in lieu of Mr Dhananjay Dake who could not make it to the event. With his background in mechanical engineering, their firm Construction Catalysers Pvt Ltd is a design and build consortium for new age architectural engineering, which constantly explores the tenets of buildings with low life cycle costs and materials such as pre-stressed cable nets and tensile members. In a succinct presentation of their projects, they featured, amongst others, the Ellipsoidal Building Envelope for Infosys made of quadratic planar tiles, the Library Building for Knowledge City with its prominent white roof that is a combination of insulated metal decking

True to the timelessness of Robert Chisholm’s legacy, these buildings went on to be among the most memorable landmarks and public buildings of the city, and are just as relevant in their present context today, continually imparting a lesson in climatically sensitive design and an intelligent use of structural technique.

Indian Architect & Builder - November 2013

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and a translucent white membrane, the IBM Food Court made completely of recyclable material that harvests rain water and the iLab Building in Hyderabad with its lightweight, yet strong steel structural shell system. The visuals of the projects almost spoke for themselves, being true marvels of constructional ingenuity.

rather than hoping it would go unnoticed. The ‘Botoxed Set’ pertinently translated to buildings with exteriors completely different from the interiors. He counteracted with one of their projects, the Net House, which through its porous materiality and minimalist design, intrinsically ties together the inside and the outside. Another insightfully derived category ‘Holy Cows’, covered projects that go against all norms and patterns of architecture and inspired emotions of shock and wonder. His design of a mobile van - ‘Cattiva’, a colourful, jagged-edged vehicle, to encourage blood donation, works on the hypothesis that creativity and the courage to be different begets attention like nothing else. The final category, ‘Succulent Thighs, Juicy Breasts & Great Legs’, dealt with the fact that architecture sometimes requires being real loud and bold to attract people. Not with a motivation to stand out and be different but because this is what people expect from it. He highlighted the importance of boldness, whether it is through the aesthetic, techniques used, philosophy in design, or just in approach to typology. His constant innovations with structure whether it is the intricacies of a ribboned door, or the use of weighted balls to function as a less expensive pulley, showcase his interdisciplinary studio being involved in every aspect of design, honing and exploring, refusing to toe boundaries, but persistently pushing against them.

The first session came to a close soon after, with a brief introduction to the photography competition ‘Framing Chisholm’. announced a couple of weeks prior to the event, the competition received wholehearted participation from the students. They visited nine buildings designed by Chisholm to recapture the spirit of his style of building, perhaps rediscovering it for themselves in the process. Between sessions, most of the people ambled towards the gallery space of the auditorium where the competition entries were pinned, being easily drawn into the dialogue, critiquing the pictures and ruminating on Chisholm’s work. The winners of the photography competition were announced at the end of the event. Harsh Bhavsar from the Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel Institute of Technology won the first prize while Ruturaj Panchal and Anuradha Suryanshi from the M S University stood second and third respectively.

The second session of the Colloquium which started in the evening began with the keynote lecture delivered by Architect Gurjit Singh Matharoo. In his lucid and expressive way, he spoke of his trysts with concrete, lightly categorising the different types of projects his firm had been involved in, with humorous analogies. One such category was ‘Sweet Boxes’, representing projects meant to be developed with the sole aim of being constructs of exterior ornamentation. These projects are only requisitely functional, yet aesthetically opulent. Gurjit spoke of these projects with honest practicality, acknowledging the fact that though unideal, all firms are approached for a fair amount of such projects, where it is important to draw your own inspiration to design them. The category ‘The Good, Bad, Ugly’, however, talked of the ease of getting caught up with the disputes of construction, whether they be through negligence or oversights.

In response, his project ESIC Hospital involved highlighting a construction fault by painting it red, bringing it to the fore

FORCE ACTING DUE TO GRAVITY

- IT IS A HEMISPHERICAL GATHERING SPACE,

SUSPENDED IN THE WATER CONTAINED SPHERE.

AIR-FILLED SPHERE

-UNDER THE GRAVITY OF MOON (1/6th OF THAT ON EARTH) WATER HAS TENDENCY TO REMAIN HORIZONTAL AND PARALLEL TO GROUND LEVEL, KEEPING THE HEMISPHERICAL SPACE IN SPHERE ALWAYS FLAT TO WALK ON.

FORCE DUE TO HOT AIR + BUOYANCY FORCE

-AMONGST THREE LAYERS, THE INNER AND THE OUTER LAYERS ARE AIR FILLED, WITH THE LAYER OF VACCUM IN BETWEEN.THESE LAYERS ALONG WITH THE SPHERICAL SHAPE OF THE STRUCTURE WILL CREATE BOUNCING EFFECT ON MOON

AIR-FILLED SPHERE

FORCE DUE TO HOT AIR + BUOYANCY FORCE

Top end: diameter 5mts

SELF SUSTAINING GRAVITY GATHERING SPACE ON THE MOON

AQUATICA: A WATER MUSEUM

FORCE ACTING DUE TO GRAVITY

Gurjit Singh, like Dhananjay Dake involves himself in a holistic design approach that encompasses continual structural advancements, while conferring keen attention to functionality and detail, making them apt speakers at an event which celebrates the ideals of Chisholm. Their constant negotiation of a hybrid language through the exploration of new frontiers represents the reformation of identity that Chisholm achieved for Vadodara; a reformation that needs further development and new thought today. The event did not cater to a regressive reminiscing of his work, as is usually the case in proceedings that are held in tribute to an emissary of Chisholm’s standing, but instead took up the baton for a much larger cause by encouraging thought on the principles he stood for, through a relatable dialogue on contemporary architecture.

FORCE DUE TO GRAVITY + DEAD LOAD OF SPHERE

Bottom end: diameter 20cms ELEVATION OF AN INDIVIDUAL HOLLOW CYLINDER

ONE OF THE HOLLOW CYLINDERS

transparent parts of the roof for penetration of natural light cavities with shade on the top to enable natral air ventilation but prevent precipitaions from reaching the platform Conical bent structures bear the dead load of the roof.

FORCE ACTING DUE DEAD LOAD TO GRAVITY -IT IS A TRIPLE LAYERED STRUCTURE WHOSE SOLID SPHERE

.

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THE CONCEPT OF DEFYING GRAVITY WITH A SECONDARY FORCE I.E BUOYANCY FORCE AND THE FORCE DUE TO HOT AIR & MAKING A STRUCTURE THAT IS STABLE INSIDE. WATER DUE TO EQUILIBRIUM OF FORCES THAT MAKES THE STRUCTURE STABLE AND IS FLOATING INSIDE WATER WITH A THOUGHT OF MAKING A WATER WORLD: AQUATICA: WATER MUSEUM. TO MAKE AN EQUILIBRIUM WITH THE DEAD LOAD OF THE STRUCTURE INSIDE WATER MORE HOT AIR FILLED SPHERES THAT ARE CONNECTED TO THE CENTRAL SPHERE FLOATING ON WATER, EQUIFIES THE LOAD AND HENCE THE FORCES ARE IN EQUILIBRIUM.

40M

75M

40M

75M

PROPOSED SECTION

AAKASH ROY, SAHIL KUKREJA, MANALI SHAH, NIKITA PAL. | SVIT-VASAD

1 prize for the workshop event on ‘Anti-gravity structures’ - SVIT, Vasad. st

Indian Architect & Builder - November 2013

OUTER HEXAGONAL CELLS, MAKING UP THE WHOLE SPHERE IS MADE OUT OF ETFE(poly ethene-co-tetrafluoroethene). IT IS TRASPARENT IN NATURE ALLOWING SUNLIGHT TO PENETRATE IN. IT IS DESIGNED TO HAVE HIGH CORROSION RESISTANCE AND STRENGTH OVER WIDE RANGE OF TEMPERATU

FORCE ACTING DUE TO BUOYANCY AND HOT AIR OF THE UPPER SPHERE

Plan of the Roof winds entering into the hollow cylinders

small openings in the roof for ventilation arch shaped enterance

TO MAKE IT SELF SUSTAINING: -THE MOVEMENT OF THE STRUCTURE ON MOON WILL EVENTUALLY CREATE THE WATER TO GUSH THROUGH THE NARROW SPACES ALONG THE CIRCUMFERENCE OF THE HEMISPHERE WHERE THE TURBINES ARE KEPT. TREES ARE PLANTED CREATING ITS OWN BIOME, HENCE PURIFING THE AIR AT REGULAR INTERVALS

ELEVATION

BYDHRUV SHAH PANKTI MEHTA RAJDEEP RAJ

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2 prize for the workshop event on ‘Anti-gravity structures’ - Navrachana University, Vadodara. nd

Rough sketch showing the structural arrangement of the

Conical pillars Roof

Conical pillars

Hover Bag

Hover Bag

Hollow Cylinders

Hollow Cylinders

Roof

Platform

Platform

Railing

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Plan

Elevation

3 prize for the workshop event on ‘Anti-gravity structures’ SMAID, Vidyanagar. rd

Railing

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First prize winning entry for the competition ‘Framing Chisholm - Architecture & Beyond’.

A Solemn Majesty (M S University of Baroda) by Harsh S Bhavsar, SVIT, Vasad.

Indian Architect & Builder - November 2013

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Second prize winning entry for the competition ‘Framing Chisholm - Architecture & Beyond’.

Legacies in continuum (Four Chisholm Buildings) by Ruturaj Panchal, M S University, Vadodara.

Indian Architect & Builder - November 2013

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Third prize winning entry for the competition ‘Framing Chisholm - Architecture & Beyond’.

Heritage rising above the rest (Laxmi Vilas Palace) by Anuradha Suryavansi, M S University, Vadodara.

Indian Architect & Builder - November 2013

14” 38

12.5”

30.5”

Weaving together ethics, ethnicity and ecology with each strand, Sarthak Sahil Design Co splashes a colourful palette of furniture such as the Katran Tray Table and lights - refreshing, fun and clutter-free.

KATRAN TRAY TABLE Text: Anusha Narayanan Images: courtesy Sarthak Sahil Design Co

’K

atran’ is a Hindi word meaning pieces of the left-over cloth. The ‘Katran Collection’, designed

by Delhi-based product designers Sahil Bagga and Sarthak Dasgupta, is a manifestation of the ‘Zero Kilometre Design’ concept. This indicates that the raw materials - the cloth pieces from nearby mills are procured, crafted and fabricated into the final product within close proximity of the source. In their off-seasons, the farmers living near the cloth mills would collect these rags and twist them into ropes for making Indian day-cots (the traditional ’Khaat’/ ’Khatiya’ - commonplace in rural households).

An array of lights and furniture made from the same strings is an innovative reinterpretation of contemporary Indian furniture that is rooted in the rural typologies. Available in various textures and colours, the collection allows the customisation of products according to ones’ preference and the inimitable handmade quality renders that no two pieces are alike. The Katran Tray Table, both a laptop table and a bed tray, has a removable melamine top which can also double up as a magazine stand.

The Katran Collection has even been showcased at international forums such as the Ambiente Fair, Frankfurt in 2012 and the recent Triennale Design Museum, Milan. The Katran Collection is also to be a part of the ‘India Now’ exhibition at the Victoria & Albert Museum, London in 2015.

Designer: Sahil Bagga & Sarthak Dasgupta Contact: Sarthak Sahil Design Co 80/74, Shri Ganesh Sadan, Left Basement, Malviya Nagar, New Delhi, India Tel: +91-11 4135 4211, 011 4109 6071/72 Email: info@sahilsarthak.com Web: www.sahilsarthak.com Indian Architect & Builder - November 2013

products

‘FRAMED’ AT THE BUS STAND Images: courtesy Aditi Agrawal

As a street smart and clever response to the mundane act of standing idly at the bus stop, Aditi does her bit to make that wait less fidgety and more comfortable.

W

aiting for a bus, or for that matter, waiting in general can be excruciating. Aditi Agrawal responds to her observations of people waiting at the bus stop with urban furniture design as her expression. An industrial design alumnus of the National Institute of Design, Ahmedabad, Aditi makes astute observations on the body language of people waiting for buses, saying, “People are usually in a hurry and fidgety, they hardly sit on the benches provided. Instead, lean around or perch on the railings.”

‘Framed’ is a synthesis of observations and anthropometry, a sit-stand cum seating that allows for people to take up a variety of postures. In the simple assembly, the materials used are steel and reclaimed ‘Sadad’ wood. ‘Sadad’ wood is commonly used in railway sleeper berths, known for its longevity. Elaborating on her preference for ‘Sadad’ wood, she articulates, “wood is a warmer material as compared to steel for human interaction”. An ingeniously simple solution, ‘Framed’, for those waiting at a bus stop, is a welcome respite.

Designer: Aditi Agrawal Contact: G-65, Sector-39, Noida, Uttar Pradesh, India Tel: +91-9968201100 Email: aditiagrawal.nid@gmail.com Web: www.behance.net/aditi-agrawal Indian Architect & Builder - November 2013

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Truth and Subjectivity

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Peter Eisenman. Photo by Chris Wiley.

In a conversation with IA&B, Peter Eisenman gives an overview of his process of design by discussing his early inspirations, beliefs, and by drawing interactive parallels with connoisseurs of philosophy, architecture and film-making that have informed his building, writing and teaching.

Images: courtesy Eisenman Architects Indian Architect & Builder - November 2013

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Peter Eisenman is an internationally recognised architect, author and educator. Prior to establishing a full-time architectural practice in 1980, Mr Eisenman worked as an independent architect, educator, and theorist. In 1967, he founded the Institute for Architecture and Urban Studies (IAUS), an international think tank for architecture in New York, and served as its director until 1982.

Among other awards, in 2001 he received the Medal of Honour from the New York chapter of the American Institute of Architects.

IA&B: When were you first introduced to architecture, and what inspired you to pursue it?

PE: I was first introduced to architecture by an older student at Cornell University, where I was enrolled as a science major. I watched this student making models and drawings while I was in science labs, and I realised that I wanted to do architecture.

I loved making models and drawings. This meant starting over with a new major, but I never looked back, and in the end I was awarded the design thesis prize when I graduated.

IA&B: You have quoted Derrida - a post-structuralism theoriest and Le Corbusier - a modernist, as your influences. Could you explain how their differing principles have collectively influenced your ideology?

PE: Derrida is a philosopher and Corbu is an architect. There is no collective overlap between the two. One’s thinking changes as one grows, and I am not as much interested in Corbu as I perhaps was 50 years ago, and I am less interested in Derrida today than I was 15 years ago. All influences change and modify over time, but ultimately there is no single collective series of principles that derives from either Derrida or Le Corbusier that influences my thinking. Derrida was important to me for the idea that there is no one-to-one correspondence between signs and their objects, which is an idea that always interested me. Corbu was interesting because of his setting out of the five points in ‘Towards a New Architecture’, and the four compositions in architecture, which for me still have enormous validity today.

Coincidentally, there is a major Le Corbusier exhibition now at the Museum of Modern Art in New York, which I think will have a profound effect on the teaching and production of architecture in the next five years because of the passion, range and commitment to drawing and building that is exhibited.

PE: I would argue that 99 per cent of what is designed and built by architects and clients is purely practice; that is, something without a conceptual or cultural framework from which to evaluate the work. This is because very few clients want ideas. They are merely interested in practical solutions to their problems. For an architect, to have a project requires a different attitude toward the profession, toward education, and toward one’s work, and very few architects are willing to consider that difference.

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HOUSE VI AXONOMETRIC DRAWING (ONE PAIR FROM A SERIES), 1972–1975

IA&B: You have referred to the time we live in today to be rooted in passivity, as we increasingly appreciate architecture only as a spectacle. How do you attempt to make your work engage the audience better?

PE: Passivity is a general cultural malaise not necessarily only to do with architecture. This is due to the surfeit of information and communication that we have through Facebook, Twitter, etc.

There is just too much information and very little of what one would consider of value. I can only continue to develop my work, and as in the past, I do not worry about how people use, read or interpret what I do. That is not my role. I am not a sociologist.

IA&B: How does the distinction you make between Project and Practice influence the way you teach and practice design? Is there really such a distinct line between project and practice?

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House VI, South Façade, 1975. Photo: Dick Frank.

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Eisenman Architects with Degli Esposti Architetti, Pinerba Condominium, Milan.

Aerial collage. 2008–ongoing.

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Pinerba Condominium.

Eisenman Architects with Aytaç Architects, Yenikapi Gateway proposal, Istanbul, 2012. Archaeological

IA&B: As an academician, what is the most important lesson you try to impart to your students? Can architecture really be taught?

PE: One cannot teach design, one can only teach precedents and the means for transforming precedents into projects in the present. What one can teach is a passion for the possibility of a project, the necessary passion required to have a project in architecture. The one unique thing about teaching architecture is that architects need to see differently than critics or clients, so my main objective is to teach aspiring architects how to see as an architect. I do what Colin Rowe did to me; put them in front of a Palladian villa and ask them to tell me what they see that cannot be literally seen.

IA&B: How do new techologies affect/transform our conception of space today and has it changed the way you design?

PE: Alberti in the 15 th century changed the way we conceived space, and we have been modifying that crucial change for the last four centuries. New technologies do little to change that trajectory and have very little to do with the way I design today.

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Eisenman Architects with Aytaç Architects, Yenikapi Gateway proposal, Istanbul, 2012.

Aerial perspective of site organisation.

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IA&B: You have appreciated the films of Bergman, Antonioni, and Haneke. Their movies do not allow the viewer to relax into a state of conditioned expectation,

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museum and park.

thereby challenging the notions of time, being, and existence. Is there an analogical similarity in your approach to designing buildings?

PE: First of all, I am in no way interested in the films of Bergman. I would like to think that there is an analogical similarity in the films of Haneke, and maybe in the films of Antonioni, and in the way I design buildings. What that is, would take hours to explain, but I will try to give one small example. In the films of Haneke, much of the work is not visual but aural, and I would like to think that much of my work is not visual but related to other aspects of experience.

IA&B: Your Cardboard Architecture houses were a conceptual derivative of your writings. Could you tell us a little more about how you find a blanace between theory and building?

PE: The way I find a balance between theory and building is by dividing my activity in three parts: 1) teaching 2) writing, and 3) designing and building. I have never stopped teaching or writing in all these many years. In fact, my contact with young students is one of the more important aspects of my practice as an architect because young people challenge accepted ideas.

IA&B: You have described stadiums as community centres. How did you incorporate this idea in the Arizona Cardinals’ stadium?

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Eisenman Architects, Max Reinhardt Haus, Berlin, 1992, model 1:200. Unbuilt.

PE: The stadium has a playing field that can move in and out of the building within an hour’s time to allow for multiple functions like trade shows, rock concerts and other such large scale meetings to occur without interruption to the sporting events. In other words, our stadium has the potential for 24/7 occupation and activity far beyond the game itself. This makes it a facility for a much greater community than sports’ fans.

IA&B: Among your contemporaries, whose philsophy or buildings do you admire?

PE: Michael Haneke and the author Thomas Pynchon are the two contemporaries I most admire. Both Pynchon and Haneke suspend the traditional narratives in their disciplines in ways in which I find a corollary in my own work.

IA&B: What is your firm working on currently and what work are you looking forward to in the future?

PE: We are working on a large urban intervention in Istanbul that includes an archaeological museum, an archaeological park, and a transit centre; we are working on a large multi-use development North of Naples, Italy, which includes a shopping centre, housing, hotel and waterfront park; and we are working on a competition for a library and museum in Taichung, Taiwan, which we would like to build if we are declared the winner, and we have a condominium project in construction in Milan. I would still like to build a tower. I have designed many towers, but I have yet to build one.

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A Bespoke Home The experience of architecture should be conversational. If there is clarity of thought, the intent automatically reveals itself. With this philosophy the house at Vadodara by Little River Architects puts together a synthesis of both intuition and conversations instead of just trying to make a statement.

Text: Anusha Narayanan Images: Manoj Sudhakaran Drawings: courtesy Little River Architects Indian Architect & Builder - November 2013

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Verandah Dining

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INITIAL CONCEPT SKETCHES FOR SPACE PLANNING

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e may not know everything about architecture, but we do know who we are as people, and somehow the architect did well to tap on that...," said Deeptha Achar, the client. In the suburbs of Vadodara live a family of six; a typical Indian family which branches out beyond just the couple and their children to the grandparents, the help and the pet. Attempting to hold its own, amidst the intellectual delirium that most of architecture today suffers from, this house by Bengaluru-based Little River Architects stays true to the identity of its occupants - Deeptha Achar and Santosh Kumar Dash.

GROUND FLOOR PLAN

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Deeptha and Santosh’s family is a mix of conservative and liberal, of literature and art. Their understanding of a home is one which manifests this essence into physicality. That which, regardless of form, suits its function, understands the nuances of their lives, and does not make hierarchical bifurcations beyond functional necessities between spaces which are fluid in experience and flexible in purpose.

The experience of their home begins from outside, like architecture should - at the approach. As one approaches the corner plot of 43m x 34m, an unhindered view of the lower floor enveloped in exposed brickwork, punctured by large grilled openings reels one in, while the rest of the two-storeyed cement plastered house is shielded by a mature Neem tree near the entrance. The suburbs of Vadodara are largely devoid of built context and so are the surroundings of this house, which in its entirety sits unobtrusively; two cuboids stacked atop one another, traditional brickwork at

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SECOND FLOOR PLAN

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The approach to the corner plot house in the suburbs of Vadodara.

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The drawing room following the traditional materiality amply lit by large openings.

The withdrawn space creating an intimate nook for introspection.

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One of the openings of the house shielded by a flowering shrub.

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Shadows of the railings cast onto floors, walls and the ceiling.

the base and contemporary concrete on top. Unapologetic of its materials, the architecture exploits the aesthetics of the elements used, dressing only the necessary parts.

Exposed brickwork is a deliberate choice for masonry on the ground floor as Vadodara is known for its tradition of skilled workmanship and availability of quality masonry. On the upper floors, the dolomite stone plaster used has been rendered with an imperceptible texture and shimmer that becomes evident only upon proximity; the closer one gets, the more one feels like touching its surface.

The fascinating wrinkled surface is achieved by pressing crumpled newspapers upon the half-set plaster and then leaving exposed for drying giving it an undressed coarseness.

An intelligent play of light, emotive open spaces and the clarity of thought sum up to a degree of intuitive architecture that somehow mellows one down to introspect.

The variations in the materiality of the floors have been thought out in correspondence to the functions of each space. The ground floor is meant for entertaining guests, dining, kitchen and ancillary facilities with minimal furniture and polished 'kota' flooring which gives it a traditional undertone. This is because the ground floor is home to Deeptha and Santosh’s aunt and uncle, the elders of the house. The exposed brickwork and 'Valsadi' teak wood openings form an old school marriage of warm earthy textures; while the stone and plastered walls act in cool contrast and balance the ambience. The tawny wooden textures, grains and knots polished to a matte sheen are a reflection of the traditional lifestyle of the aged couple.

The square composition of the spaces, the openings, the furniture, door knobs, handles, frames, and even handrails and fittings used

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The wrinkled texture of the concrete achieved by sponging the wet dolomite plaster with crushed newspapers.

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The kitchen and dining with the Kota stone cladding unfolding from the floor to the wall.

The textures of materials subtly differentiating between functions.

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have been consciously chosen around a coherent scheme, down to the last detail. The open planning, as Deeptha reminisced, is evolved from the initial conversations with the architect, and consequently the intuitive choices made by the architect are attuned to their taste. The constraints in designing for this given plot were many, such as addressing a composite family structure with three generations living under one roof and tangible ones - like plot size, setbacks, a location which is exposed to visual trespassing and an existing tree nearby which the family wanted to preserve.

The open floor plans with walls slicing spaces apart and the staircase in the centre is carried through as an idea from the perspective of allowing free movement into all spaces and having provision to combine spaces into larger permutations depending on the number of people being hosted in the house. At once, the house dictates what it does not stand for. It does not segregate spaces by putting privacy on a pedestal. It does not cordon the public spaces from the private- which seems to be a common assumption that many designers make today. And it does not force the occupants to be 'closed' inside either.

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Inevitably, one is driven to notice the high ceiling, where an array of glazed shutters for fenestration and ventilation border the ceiling; the element of height which volumetrically amplifies the spaces.

These shutters are devised to shield the view of interiors from the street abutting the plot and still provide for ample ventilation. It is a known method where 'hot air escapes from the top and cold air replaces it'. The execution is as simple, but what is admirable is the finesse. The steel rods placed on the openings have slenderness and a spacing that prevents a jail-like feeling from permeating. The openings have been placed adjacent to spaces that can do with lesser visual barricading, for instance, only parts of the drawing and dining have large full-length windows as they are occupied

The 'kota' clad concrete staircase continuing as a wooden staircase from the first floor onwards.

150mm RCC slab 1:2:4

150mm RCC slab 1:2:4

brick masonry in rat trap bond textured dolomite plaster floor finish 35mm kota slab 150mm RCC slab 1:2:4

textured dolomite plaster brick masonry in rat trap bond floor finish 35mm kota slab cinder filling 150mm RCC slab 1:2:4 glass shutter in wooden frame mesh shutter in wooden frame wooden ventilator brick masonry wall in 1:6 cement mortar

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SECTION THROUGH STAIRCASE

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DETAILS THROUGH (RAT TRAP BOND) WEST FACING WALL

MS grill in 1"x2" MS box section floor finish 35mm kota slab balcony seat in kota stone 150mm thk RCC slab 1:2:4

MS grill in 1"x2" MS box section floor finish 35mm kota slab balcony seat in kota stone texture cinder filling 150mm thk RCC slab 1:2:4

brick masonry wall in 1:6 cement mortar

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DETAILS THROUGH BALCONIES

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A withdrawn space for introspection in the library and study.

Perspective through the first floor from the children’s bedroom.

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The opening provided for stacking and ventilation on the upper floors seen in section.

Playful canvas and sit-outs in the balcony.

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The balcony as an extension of the enclosure.

for limited hours of the day. The rest of the openings are optimal vertical slits besides the continuous shutters at the top of the wall.

The shift from the lower to upper floors is gradual; the staircase becomes more minimalist as one traverses up, the spaces become more cubist, the slender handrail and balustrade are in mild steel box section, risers vanish, treads rest on thinner surfaces, stone copings are replaced by wooden planks and the surfaces become plastered. Following a congruent spatial vocabulary of fluid spaces, the first floor houses the master bedroom with an heirloom wooden four-post bed and the children’s bedroom punctuated by a family lobby at the centre. The upper floors were more challenging to design for as they consisted of private rooms which needed to feel airy and well-lit and at the same time intimate enough. The presence of a shared wall between the house and the neighbouring plot negated the possibility of openings on the entire Eastern side of the house. Here, at this very point, the white interiors and slit like openings are employed to create an illusion of expanse and successfully so.

However, the soul of Deeptha and Santosh’s home is the balconies.

Everyone among family and acquaintances celebrates the balconies - their subtle distinction from outside - encased in unbroken box-section mild steel vertical members. The balconies are stacked to the South-West orientation of the house acting as buffers in conjunction with the West facing wall which employs Baker’s trademark rat trap bond for additional insulation. The continuous off-white mild steel grills provide enclosure and sieve light, while the Neem tree shields it from onlookers. The resultant Indian Architect & Builder - November 2013

sciography of the steel members as a whole tugs at every person in its vicinity to get closer to the outside, yet provides interesting views from spaces for solitude in the study, library and studio on the top floor.

Warm light filtered through the slit-like openings seeps into the habitable spaces in the entire house from the high shutters.

Contrastingly, the living, dining, study and lobby are flooded with natural air and daylight from the balconies and door-windows. An intelligent play of light, emotive open spaces and the clarity of thought sum up to a degree of intuitive architecture that somehow mellows one’s senses down to introspect. Deeptha and Santosh’s house is but 3250sqft of area. However, it is experientially rich and is an evolution in process, of not just design and architecture but of the occupants, their continuous search and definition of oneself, the architect as well as the people who come in contact with the house.

Ceejo believes that “Like people, like life, it (architecture) should be uncertain, incomplete”. It should be a tool that aids us in our journeys, be it personal or communal. The house at Vadodara is inspirational without having to be iconic, because it is simple and clutter-free and thus, physically makes space for contemplation.

It cuts away from the noises outside but provides for that energy inside through movement. It is not overpublicised and thus, allows for a fresh individual perspective each time one tries to understand it instead of hearsay.

It is … open to interpretation.

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FACT FILE:

Night-time view of the house.

Project : Residential unit for three generations Location : Vadodara Architect : Little River Architects Design Team : Principal Architect - Ceejo Cyriac

Assistant Architects - Sarin V S,

Mebin Jacob Structural Design : B L Manjunath Client : Santosh Kumar Dash and Deeptha Achar Project Area : 3250sqft Civil Contractor : Sailesh Mistry Project Estimate : `68 lakhs Initiation of Project : October 2012 Completion of Project : March 2013 Indian Architect & Builder - November 2013

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Army Rowing Node at Pune.

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Between the Unbuilt Army Rowing Node, by Mumbai-based KSA Architects and Planners Pvt Ltd, an international standard sporting facility in Pune, stands its ground dignified with authority, weaving a definite and abiding narrative in the rustic landscape.

Text: Archa Desai Images & Drawings: KSA Architects and Planners Pvt Ltd

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LEARNING AND TEACHING ARCHITECTURE IN THE PRESENT SCENARIO

Advocating the practice of value-based architecture that is inspired from real-life problem solving, while also interrogating the current architectural education system, Shirish Beri’s essay provides observations, on the importance of a student-teacher relationship and challenges students to nurture their inquisitiveness which lies at the core of architectural education.

By Shirish Beri

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e all journey through life with our own understandings, values, priorities and concerns. I ask my students: Can our work, as architects, evolve out of these understandings and values to address our concerns in life?

It becomes necessary for an architecture student to comprehend the scenario of life in which he introduces his designs. As part of the architectural curriculum, the students need to be made aware of the multiple ways in which their designs connect to multiple parameters of life.

Our educational systems should, first of all, acquaint the students with these multiple measurable and immeasurable parameters that will influence their designs and later, equip them to respond appropriately to these parameters with a knowledgeable and suitable architectural vocabulary.

I feel that internet (though it can be more knowledge bestowing) cannot replace the warm, personal, one-to-one interaction of a student-teacher. The responses of a living teacher and facilitator are rooted in his real-life experiences, understandings and values.

The School of Architecture in Ahmedabad, where I studied, never taught me to deal with architecture in isolation, but always as an integral, inseparable part of life. It tried to widen my vision of life by introducing study of elective subjects like sociology, anthropology, psychology, philosophy, archaeology, literature, dance, drama, painting, sculpture, pottery and computers.

This helped in instilling a holistic approach to architecture, where our designs would touch lives at deeper levels rather than just to beautify buildings.

However, what is it that we see happening in architectural education today?

The overall emphasis of today’s society on quantity rather than on quality seems to

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have infected our architectural education.

A numerically strong contingent of architectural professionals may be welcome, but we need to re-examine the basics by asking these questions: • With the addition of so many new colleges and with the doubling of the intake per year, are we improving the standard of our education?

• Are our colleges able to impart the measurable and immeasurable values and attitudes that shape our lives and designs?

• Will the present system be able to create an environment conducive to learning architecture, as we all know how difficult it is to teach architecture?

• Do we have adequate, dedicated and inspiring faculty for all these students?

• Would the necessary personal rapport between teachers and students get diluted?

• Do all these colleges have sufficient and good quality infrastructure for these additional students?

• Is there enough work for all the graduating architects? Even today, the number of applications to work as an architect in our office has increased considerably but there is no vacancy for them.

A good institute of architectural learning is like a field of fertile soil where the individual seeds of different potentials in the students get nourishment; and a good teacher is like a good gardener and facilitator who see to it that all his seeds (students) get the right manure, sunlight and water. Each student has a unique seed/potential like the different seeds in

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architectural education nature (mango, coconut, grass, lime, etc).

Each student will grow differently having different fruits, leaves, forms, colours and tastes. In nature, each one is important.

The teacher understands each student’s potential and helps them grow healthily to their best level of maturity and fruition.

To me, a teacher who takes on the role of a carpenter or a sculptor and would shape the blocks of wood (students) only in the way he wants them to be shaped, is not a good teacher. A good teacher is also a good co-learner. During the process, the student-teacher roles acquire different dimensions at different times.

During my student days, I had read somewhere, ‘One does not become an artist because one can, but because one must.’ I had written that sentence on my sketch pad by putting ‘architect’ in place of ‘artist.’ Some of my teachers' at school and some international architects’ passionate discourses on architecture had aroused this passion in me too.

Similarly, I feel that internet (though it can be more knowledge bestowing) cannot replace the warm, personal, one-to-one interaction of a student-teacher. The responses of a living teacher and facilitator are rooted in his real-life experiences, understandings and values. Responses to the same issues from different teachers and people would be different, as they would be based on their own understandings in life.

There will be no fixed, calibrated response to all students as with the internet. These multiple live variations in interactions not only present a rich canvas before every student, but also allocate space for him to form his opinions. Many a times, what is formulated in every student’s mind is the result of a complex mixture of others’ thoughts interacting with his own thinking; in this scenario so many possibilities can arise.

Students also learn a lot by listening to their friends’ interactions with their teachers and with each other. Thus, even today, the ‘Guru-Shishya’ relationship is very much valid. In this vibrant, living relationship, the role of the two may be somewhat modified or may be reversed too.

Good, living teachers can also consciously and unconsciously become role models and a source of inspiration for students. This helps the students to cope with academic

and professional problems as well as with their problems in life.

I have personally benefited a lot from such cross currents in thinking when I studied at CEPT. Learning, at the School of Architecture, was never confined to the classroom.

Continuous, informal learning has been one of my school’s strengths. I still vividly remember sitting over a cup of coffee on the precast hollow concrete members at the canteen along with my friends, faculty and discussing subjects ranging from Parveen Babi to Louis Kahn and Jean Paul Sartre; from Kodar’s 'pokoda' to French cuisine; from Bhatiyar 'Galli' to Sydney Opera. What we all learnt here was really special, as it had the human, experiential quality to it. Even while doing our design projects, we would learn a lot from the site, from case studies, from discussions with concerned people and so on. As a result of this ‘questioning’ habit, the learning would continue at all times of the day in all kinds of places. Do these kind of interactions happen today with 80 to 120 students in a class?

I have noticed that of late, many students tend to get carried away by today’s social trend of making the fast buck - living in an expensive house or hotel, driving luxury cars, wearing costly designer clothes and sporting high-end mobiles, watches and cameras. This is considered to be the definition of success. I always try to convey to my students (sometimes, through my own example) that one can live a rich life without these riches and that they should not confuse a good life with the number of goods they possess. This greed for the fast buck tends to churn out repetitive, monotonous, routine design solutions.

Students need to be very cautious as not to fall in this rut when they start practising.

I would suggest that a student (as well as everybody else) should be honest with his/her own self. What I mean by suggesting one must be honest is that one should work from one's inner conviction, from one's understandings, concerns and values. And be open too. Do not follow the typical routine. If you are asked to design a school in your studio, do not go to the library or the internet looking for ideas to be cut and pasted. Relate the design problem to life. Ask questions: What is it for?

Learning. If so, what is learning? And then you will come up with several possible ways in which learning can take place.

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Shirish Beri graduated in architecture from CEPT University, Ahmedabad in the year 1974. Through an intuitive and sensitive design process, he has constantly worked towards understanding and exploring the relevance of the quality of space in terms of its cause and effect to the quality of life. He has won numerous national and international awards including the 8th International Design Competition, Japan in 1996 and The ARCASIA Gold Medal 2009-2010 for the Best Designed Public Institutional Building in Asia.

He has also lectured and exhibited his work extensively at important forums in India and abroad. His recent book ‘Spaces Inspired by Nature’, explores the interwoven relationship between man and nature through the course of essays and his own projects. He currently lives and practices from Kohlapur and Andur.

Then ask yourself, can my work, can my design contribute to this learning process?

Will my design help to impart knowledge and facilitate exchange of knowledge between students and teachers? Has it helped improve the users’ quality of life?

We will learn more this way.

Thus, during the intense three to four days of my design workshops, we try to explore and address the following questions and issues, in order to understand the holistic interrelatedness of architecture and life: - Is the basic design concept (the goal/objective of design related to life itself) not the most important and essential starting point in the design process?

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- Can we let go? Let go of the conditioned responses and look at everything afresh with a childlike curiosity, abandon and joy.

For this, exercises to look at commonplace stuff and events in many different ways are conducted.

- Can we transcend the various ‘isms’ in order to relate and respond more spontaneously and directly to the particular contexts of that project?

- How can we create a design that can reinterpret its cultural, environmental and architectural vocabulary in a contemporary manner without breaking its continuity with the past? This was done by choosing a site with a cultural and historical context.

- Can a spatial design reflect the same content that a poem, music, painting, sculpture, dance or drama expresses?

If architecture can be experienced as frozen music, can music be experienced as volatile architecture? Can the outer space create an impact on our inner psychological space? Are these expressions (of one’s inner understanding) not possible through any interchangeable medium? Do they not complement each other? Many times, I have asked my students to express their design concept in the form of a poem, music, painting or drama. They then picked up the salient issues therein and tried to express them through their architectural vocabulary.

- Can we translate a two dimensional plan on the ground into a fascinating variety of three dimensional architectural spaces to suit our design objectives? The interpretation of the same plan carried out differently in sections and elevations by different students, creates a mind-boggling variety of building designs.

- Let us not be afraid of trying out a new idea, a new design just because we have not seen anything similar before or just because the teacher or client may not like it. Ask them and ourselves when we experiment - why not?

- In today’s material world, can architecture become an expression of our human spirit, where the measurable and the immeasurable work together? Should our designs not be value-based to play their role as agents of social change?

- Can our designs evolve responsibly out of the context of site and climate? We tried to see how the site topography, views, sun, wind and rain directions, their intensity, type of soil, etc can influence the plans, sections and elevations of the building, by giving the same design brief to all students but different site and climate contexts.

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Let go of the conditioned responses and look at everything afresh with a childlike curiosity, abandon and joy.

Then, can our designs be inspired by life to create not only better physical environments but also to help in the making of better human beings?

- Can our designs include the plurality and complexity of our daily lives and yet emerge as expressions of simplicity?

The computer with its graphic design software is an important and necessary drawing tool. I, too, use it extensively in our profession. However, when it comes to sketching, designing, I am most comfortable using my hand. To me, our hands are the natural extensions of our thought processes.

They can spontaneously feel and manifest that, which is happening at the imaginative, cognitive level. I would encourage the students, to enjoy working with their hand. It is so much more direct, more involved and rewarding.

At the same time, I would like to advocate inclusion of the following issues in the curriculum to improve the standard of our architectural education.

- Have greater emphasis on initial conceptual thinking, ideas and attitudes before the actual drawing process.

- Introduction of ecology and human ecology as a subject. Create an understanding of the environment’s limits to growth (earth’s limited resources).

Introduction of ideas regarding pollution control and recycling systems. Awareness towards the use of appropriate building materials that do not consume a lot of non-renewable resources.

- Study of natural habitats, their place in the overall eco-system and in design ideas (biomimicry).

- Introduction of design problems that

would incorporate the passive and sustainable features of architecture.

- Initiate design problems that deal with efficient reuse and recycling of the buildings. Present these proposals to relevant bodies and organisations.

- Help students understand the tremendous complexity of urban planning by roping in interdisciplinary resource persons to teach and conduct joint workshops.

- Engage students in actual work programmes in the slums, housing complexes and CBDs. - As the real source of any problem or solution is in the mind, it needs to be trained to question and take value-based decisions. Thus, it would be good to study different humanities’ subjects for value education in the architecture syllabus as well as at the primary, middle and secondary school levels.

- Introduction of meditation and yoga for balance between the mind and the body from the school level.

- Help create empathy between man and nature through travel, observation and role-playing.

- Encourage students’ direct involvement in basic research, sketching, drawing and actual construction.

- Introduce ‘basic design’ as a subject at the secondary high school level to instil awareness about design in the general public.

- Bring about a greater understanding of space, its various qualities and its forms of articulation. Encourage seeing of architecture as a part of this total unity of

life and then work to avoid fragmentation and schizoid implications on the environment.

- Introduce POE (Post Occupancy Evaluation) as a subject to come to terms with reality in a better way.

- Globalisation has facilitated interaction and exchange of ideas and knowledge at the global level. Can we make the most out of these opportunities? Can globalisation bring architects, students and faculties of different colleges from different countries together to churn out ideas that would help in the creation of new design paradigms?

For these new sustainable design paradigms to emerge, a complete overhaul of our present education system in this direction appears to be mandatory. Can this happen?

Shirish Beri, November 2013

This column invites eminent academicians, ethical teachers, teaching architects, institution builders and design educationists to comment on architectural education (and design education as an extension) in the context of India.

Concerned architects / academicians / educationists / teachers and students are invited to write to us / call us / email us for further discussion. Your deliberations / observations / critique / counter-arguments and agreements will be deeply valued. We must create a meaningful community of like-minded people to negotiate our future as professionals and responsible citizens of a globalising India. We must hold ourselves responsible for the quality of architectural and design thought in the coming decades.

Please send your feedback / comments to iabedt@jasubhai.com. IA&B believes that this issue is of prime (and unprecedented) importance at the moment for the future of architecture in India.

Indian Architect & Builder - November 2013

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Front Cover.

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Back Cover.

After all the accounts on the history and the short but illustrious life of Bauhaus, Magdalena Droste, with her long association with the Bauhaus Archiv traces the art and architecture movement aided by Archiv`s extensive collection.

‘B

auhaus’, authored by Magdalena Droste, an art historian who has been associated with the Bauhaus Archiv since 1980, is a sincere documentation of the rise and fall of the legacy of Bauhaus that still lives on years after its short-lived presence, from close encounters. The book starts by tracing the roots of the movement back to the 19 th century when the economy of England flourished with the advent of industrialisation and the social restructuring. The author`s personal association with the Bauhaus literature comes out when she says, “Culture by and for the people has been the rallying cry of virtually every new cultural movement since time began, and was to accompany the founding of Bauhaus, too”. The history, in relevance to the movement, is reflected with complete precision. The years of Art and Craft, the envious position of ‘industrious’ England, Jugendstil - the German form of Art Nouveau, Hermann Muthesius - a Prussian ‘cultural spy’ to England infiltrating the English mindset in Germany, the English rejection of machine production and German obsession with the machines, designers like Richard Riemerschmid and Bruno Paul developing machine-made and standard furniture, emergence of groups such as Werkbund in Germany and introduction of Walter Gropius into the Werkbund in 1912, introduce the reader to the deep-rooted history of the movement.

“Let us together create the new building of the future, which will be everything in one form. Architecture and Sculpture and Painting” wrote Gropius. His well pronounced motto of Indian Architect & Builder - November 2013

‘building for the future’ initiated in the form of ‘Staatliches Bauhaus’ - an institution that combined forms of art and architecture, in 1919 under the National Assembly. To bring across the short and volatile history of the school coherently, the book is divided into chapters each describing a different phase in the movement. The chapter describing the beginnings of Bauhaus in Weimar gives an account of the definite and determined agenda that the school started with. The work produced in the initial years of Bauhaus was influenced by expressionism. The details are

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Woodcut by Lyonel Feininger on the opening page of the Bauhaus Manifesto.

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Wassily Kandinsky, 1924: On the occasion of Walter Gropius` 41st birthday, the masters at Bauhaus contributed a sheet to compile a portfolio to be gifted to him.

book review

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Exclusive photographs of the interiors of the Masters’ Houses from the Bauhaus Archiv.

intensified, followed by intimate details of the teaching styles and the working habits of each of the Bauhaus teachers. In one of the accounts on Johannes Itten and his teachings, the author writes, “Itten`s teaching was also aimed at the inner being; students were to find their own rhythm and develop a well-tuned personality.”

Black and white photographs of the masters and the sketches and the works from the Archiv add exclusivity to the book. With the clash in Gropius` and Itten`s ideology leading to Itten`s resignation, the Bauhaus saw a new dawn setting in. Under the De Stijl artist Theo van Doesburg, the school saw suppression of the expressionist Bauhaus. Marcel Breuer, Wassily Kandinsky, Paul Klee - the important proponents of the time, all joined the Bauhaus as masters.

The history of the movement goes in hand with the history of the nation. With political insecurities, the Bauhaus along with all the masters, was shifted to Dessau in 1925, where Walter Gropius could finally realise the Bauhaus that he had envisioned. Situated amidst the industrial zone, with the shift, he was able to practice his aim to develop everything from the simplest domestic utensil to the finished building. The new campus in Dessau, with master`s houses, brought in a revolution

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The Attack on the Bauhaus, Collage by Iwao Yamawaki, 1932.

in the architecture of Germany. People from home and abroad thronged the campus for a visit and a guided tour conducted by the students. Once again, the photographs of the master’s houses, the works of the masters and the students from the Archiv give a candid idea and a clear picture to the Bauhaus of that time. The resignation of Walter Gropius came as a shock, right at the peak of the school`s fame. Often concisely described, the school under Hannes Meyer that underwent thorough reform in the internal structure, is elaborately illustrated in the book. This phase saw the departure of the many masters including Herbert Bayer, Marcel Breuer, Moholy-Nagy and Paul Klee. The politics of the nation and the concurrent issues in ideology are vividly described. The Bauhaus, under Meyer`s influence, got embroiled in the social scenario that prevailed in Germany at that time.

Nearing the end of an era, with the dismissal of Meyer, the Bauhaus under Mies van der Rohe, was to be seen as turning into purely an architectural school. Indifferent to the changes in the social structure, Mies van der Rohe, dropped the fundamental aspect of integrating theory and practice that differentiated the school at the time. Soon after moving the school to Berlin, under tremendous pressure from the National Socialist who found Modern Art and Architecture ‘un-German’, Mies van der Rohe dissolved the Bauhaus. The book encapsulates the tumulus and highly famed journey of the movement that later on was to live as a concept and style in a descriptive and a passionate manner.

The widespread knowledge about the movement is complemented by the exclusive details on the previously neglected phases of the same. The exclusive photographs, study sketches and works from the Archiv, take one through the journey by themselves and take the documentation of the movement a notch apart.

FACT FILE:

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A South-West view of Walter Gropius` House at the Dessau Campus.

Book : Bauhaus Author : Bauhaus Archiv, Magdalena Droste Publisher : Bauhaus-Archiv Museum fur Gestaltung,

Berlin, Taschen Language : English ISBN : 978-3-8228-5002-2 Reviewed by : Archa Desai Indian Architect & Builder - November 2013

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KNOWLEDGE TOUR Text: Kushal Lachhwani Photographs: arch i platform, New Delhi Edited by: Anne Feenstra

The seventh installment in this series highlights the Knowledge Tour that took the DELHi2050 team to seven knowledge institutes across the Capital.

Result: WOW!

Indian Architect & Builder - November 2013

delhi dialogues Back in Delhi re-monsoon this year, DELHi2050 came back with a fresh, enriched, interactive website www.delhi2050.com to publicly and constantly exhibit the ongoing process of fundamentally rethinking the future scenarios for Delhi. The exercise had already gone through five steps till now involving dialogues, workshops and exhibition with the people of Delhi, the government authorities and the knowledge institutes in India, US, France, Germany and the Netherlands.

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In Step Six of DELHi2050, the efforts continued with its base in Delhi to: - share the work which was exhibited as the only representative from India at ‘Making City’, the International Architecture Biennale in Rotterdam - work with the Knowledge Institutes to continue the quest for inclusive design scenarios of the city - underline the importance of sustainable design and usage of durable building materials - prepare the ground for several test sites (Malviya Nagar by Ashok B Lall and Dwarka by arch i platform) The following piece talks about the Knowledge Tour which the DELHi2050 team conducted across several institutes and organisations in Delhi/NCR. Knowledge Tour Anne Feenstra, Principal of arch i platform, emphasises on the power of sharing and collaboration to find a solution. Underlining the importance of listening, he says,"We (human beings) are designed with two ears and one mouth; there must be a reason for that“. Taking note of this, a team of architects, urban planners and designers decided to get out of our studios/offices to initiate an active dialogue with policy makers and researchers and scientists. Most of us assume to have a strong base of expertise in our own sectors, but at the same time it is important to understand the multiple components which are inevitable and influential while designing a multi-megapolis based on long term sustainability. The DELHi2050 team invited experts at each of the Knowledge Tour workshops to talk about a specific issue relevant to the institute and the discussions were focused on issues presented by the two ‘thinking models’ - Urban Harvest and Life Street - (see IA&B July 2011, ‘Shaping Delhi’).

The discussions saw many eye-openers. When a geologist and a doctor presented their perspective of the city, all the KT-institutes started to see their own potential role in shaping the city.

Re-inventionS: The many expectations which the tour started with were enhanced by studying the work and research papers that these leading institutes and scholars have been working on for years. We do not wish to reinvent the wheel, but unfortunately this plethora of knowledge and studies which is done ALREADY is not easily accessible or

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approachable in most cases. We need to knock on the doors of various organisations and start a meaningful dialogue for this exchange. For example, the extremely exhaustive study conducted

by National Institute of Disaster Management (NIDM), New Delhi to analyse and monitor 390 factors for the physical well-being of 10,500 buildings in East Delhi after the recent building collapses in the area.

Representatives of Ambuja and Outokumpu India pointed out the need for including the identification of the quality of the material used.

This study can definitely provide unending clues and base work for further scenario building ranging on issues from heat islands to safety for women on streets. Parallely, the DELHi2050 team interacted with

Eureka!

So much information existed in the secret libraries of extrovert minds and we realised that this tour spread over three months gave us enough information to elaborate on that if done independently it could have taken us years and almost impossible to finish even by 2050.

Dr Chandan Ghosh and his team of researchers who are currently in process of preparing disaster management strategies for several neighbourhoods in Delhi from Greater Kailash to Patparganj. In our second visit to the institute, it was pleasing to find out that the students now incorporate the aspect of long term thinking while preparing the strategies in addition to required urgent action plans.

Re-inventions are not always required.

ConnectionS: The Knowledge Tour as it travelled to more and more institutes not only provided information or a platform for discussion with the DELHi2050 team, but also amongst each other. Our principal partners for the Step 6, Ambuja and Outokumpu India were both happy to be present for the discussions on developments in Dwarka from the time it was designed on paper. This was shared with the group by the original landscape designer for the city, Dr Meenakshi Dhote, at School of Planning and Architecture, New Delhi. They could contribute with their knowledge on sustainable materials and technology for implementing the next step of DELHi2050 at its test site in Dwarka in a more sustainable and holistic manner. The discussions at NIDM became more relevant when a group of doctors and professors from Centre for Social Medicine and Community Health (CSMCH), JNU shared their study on mapping Delhi hospitals and accessibility as it helped the NIDM students to skip a time consuming task and instead focus on filling in the blanks for developing a comfortable and quick accessibility of medical help to all neighbourhoods in Delhi/NCR.

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Leapfrogging: The average age of people in Delhi is 25.1 years (analysis, National Census 2011, Government of India) and it was similar for our participants at most of the stops for the Knowledge Tour. Our stop at the Young India Fellowship turned out to be a whole tour in itself as we interacted with about 100 creative minds from all across India who came from 100 different backgrounds at least if not more. Rather than focusing on the specific outcome or aim of individual projects, we tried to understand the process each one followed/is following.

Also joining us at the workshop were Dutch experts, Rianne Makkink (Designer, Studio Makkink and Bey) and Matthijs Bouw (Architect, ONE Architecture) who continued to provide their valuable inputs in the process and bring in their experience from a relatively advanced and reputed nation known for long term planning. They learned a lot from the young audience and vice versa. Emphasis to learn from the process rather than the final outcome allowed us to foresee some of the consequences in advance and assist in making the process more robust.

The workshop also focused on realising the power of decentralisation and small scale solutions to help the megacity run smoothly.

Learning from the multibillion projects for centralising the resource management in the West which have failed in providing a sustainable solution, participants tried believing in not following the same path to learn the consequences, but in using this platform of 2050 to leapfrog and catch up with time.

Explorations: It was very important at times to shed off the tag of an expert and try to think from the perspective of a common man. Combining powers and creative minds at the Pearl Academy of Fashion, Noida, the workshop presented an opportunity to think something new more than once. In an attempt to give an individual identity to the city, people thought of a particular colour and product such as a Delhi scarf and identified Delhi as Rainbow City. The theme focused on XL by XS where small design interventions leave a big impact on the society. This included designing pleasant and interactive traffic intersections to reduce aggression.

There is a tendency to feel shy as you present crazy ideas, but the Knowledge Tour provided listeners for these crazy ideas which had a good tendency to be developed and implemented if elaborated further.

Indian Architect & Builder - November 2013

Replacing money with water as tax when one crosses toll booth is not something which not only creates a huge water bank but also makes people aware of the actual cost of this depleting resource. Affected by the growing rape cases in the capital and taking clues from the Life Street model there was an attempt to find solutions at the scale of a street. The designers at Pearl had ideas - to gamify the bus stops to keep the notorious men in city busy - to use the leftover fabric from the industry for designing public art installations and sidewalks to activate public spaces.

In a different stop, taking references and understanding the maps which arch i platform has developed till now, the Department of Geography at Jamia Milia Islamia, New Delhi, now look forward to work with designers as they recognise the power of communication while representing very technical information for layman.

Unfortunately even after with leaps in technology, Delhi has not been able to generate a good database of city maps and resources for documentation and future design. We tried to discover the power of cartography together with professors, students and scientists.

Thinking together for long term investments in quality of space, both tangible and intangible aspects were considered. Effects of heat islands in different locations, slow traffic-friendly places and safe streets for women and children were added to mapping vocabulary.

A map can become a powerful tool for the community to be aware of information to begin with and also adapt to the updated numbers instantaneously. The workshop at Jamia used the opportunity to specifically explore the possibility to create a self-sustaining neighbourhood (sub-city) at DELHi2050’s first test at Dwarka.

ImprovementS The existing scenarios/thinking models shared by DELHi2050 team with all the institutes got good feedback which always helps one to move ahead. Often, there was a study research present in all the departments which the professors shared and mentioned “this will definitely help you�. The good Library at Shakti Foundation proved this beyond point. In-depth analysis of Low Carbon Strategy, Smart Energy Solutions, comparison between Indian and global cities helped the team to build upon a strong foundation. The material available on the

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latest and efficient building technology was also put on the table after a good long discussion on the Urban Harvest model which looks at the possibility of making individual neighbourhoods self-sustainable for food, power, water and electricity.

Learning Curves After travelling to seven different institutes and stopping by at some twice in this duration, we feel the platform for the DELHi2050 process has become more robust, while our understanding of fields such as fashion, geography, disaster management, carbon footprints, communication and health increased while we approach the local scale in next steps. Next month in IA&B, we will highlight the preparation work done for test site Dwarka.

About the Author Kushal Lachhwani is a graduate and gold medalist from School of Planning and Architecture. He has a wide array of experience, particularly in the field of landscape and urbanism. Working at arch i platform, he has developed a keen interest in working along with the community. Parallel to working on an exploratory exercise DELHi2050 which is an attempt to investigate alternate scenarios for the future of Delhi, he is currently in quest of expertise in landscape design and execution in Bangkok, Thailand. He is part of DesignXDesign, the first such platform in the Delhi, for design discussions, exposes and roundtables. He is also a theatre artiste and enthusiast.

Indian Architect & Builder - November 2013

Space Frames investigates issues of architecture and environment through the medium of photography. To contribute, write to us at iabedt@jasubhai.com or to the curator Dr Mathew at dr.djmathew@gmail.com.

INDIAN ARCHITECT & BUILDER

Sebastian Varghese Sebastian completed his BFA, from College of Fine Arts Trivandrum, Kerala, India in 1994 and lived in USA for years. Now he lives and works in Kochi and splits his time between India and US and he shows regularly in both the countries. He has done shows and participated in camps with Kerala Lalitkala Academy, India. He has shown with Kashi Art Gallery, Mattanchery, Kerala and Threshold Gallery, New Delhi for multiple times and participated in various group shows in spaces like Viewing-room Gallery in Mumbai, Sumukha Gallery in Bengaluru and CIMA Gallery In Kolkata, India.

In the US he shows with Dallas Arts District Galleries where mostly Mexican and other South American artists exhibit. His works have been collected nationally and internationally.

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