Charles Correa - CoRelating and CoRealizing Reality

CO REALITY

RELATING& REALIZING

Why India? One of the most intriguing questions which is faced when we ponder upon the driving force behind the great voyagers like Colombus, Vasco da Gama, etc.. They were madly in pursuit of our home. But why? The inhumane gullies, the jammed rowdy roads, the chaos of the railway suburbia, stampedes, aggregate slums, yet the diverse culture - the only Saviour... To look down upon these is the general propensity, but to get in there and trying to change it - A mammoth task.

You may have an impression on how the essay starts on such a trivially common silly note. But all of Correa’s master ideologies, scientific paradigms, introspective forms, ingenious interventions boils down to one keyhole - Reality.

Ar. Charles Correa was down to earth. He got the clear picture of the status quo and started corelating reality.

Reality can be harsh or pleasant. Usually esoteric on the mind of an individual. Yes, for instance, “Bombay is a great place to live, if you’re rich enough.. What if you are poor.”

This line rings in your ears and is well placed in Correa’s sensitive short film “City on the Water”. Inspired by these sensitive stiigmata, This piece of explication aims to provide an Abstract on “Correa Realizing Reality”.

Correa is synonymous to Gandhi Ashram, Jawahar Kala Kendra, Kanjenjunga, etc,,, There are several articles aimed at providing detailed articulation to his spaces.

The internal delusional marvel is almost forgotten, i.e. Correa’s perception which we can explore ourselves.

THE CULTURE CONNECTION

The cultural connection can be perceived through many elements conglomerated under the following aspects: SPATIAL CONNOTATION: Common man’s life revolves around spaces like doorsteps, courtyards, watertaps and community spaces, roadsides and other routine necessities. These humble elements were perceived as architectural vitals. Equity was not compromised in terms of spatial quality.

Modular harmony was used to neutralize the program which eventually made the spaces interesting. The above lines can be discerned from the low income housing counterparts of Correa’s brainchildren.

HISTORICAL AND IDEOLOGICAL COUNTERPARTS: The metaphysical concept of empty centre comes from the Vaastushastra. The pathways are manifestations of reverence in the Indian Cultural context. These forms are reinforcing the concept of “non-building” existing in different scales and contexts. Correa in his essay “The Blessings of the Sky”, explains brilliantly on how the Indian transitional spaces are different from their Western counterparts. He shows examples ranging from Padmanabhapuram to Parthenon. He explains the openness of our architecture and we cannot build a closed box.

One can feel the aura of these winding pathways leading to several individual spaces unfolding gently on by their own. These pathways act as channels which open up to different activities nestled in each courtyard. These concepts can be seen in Bharat Bhavan, JNIDB Hyd, Crafts museum, etc...

LOCAL ART AND CRAFT: Visual Imagery is a great tool to morph reality into built form. Correa has generously made use of this concept in Kala Academy and Cidae de Goa. Illusionary spaces have their own metaphorical values. In Correa’s words, “They bring back into the balance the spatial tensions generated by the builtform.” These elements add more abstract dimensions to the existing builtscape.

Overall, the style of architecture in the earlier days aimed at the expression of imperceptible mystical metaphors yet sensory spaces which are an easy walk-through.

India is blessed to have such deep cultural language expressed through architecture which is spearheading our ethos. Today we need to keep ourselves from banal builtforms by realising our cultural roots.

THE LAYERS BENEATH...

Architecture is an organised multi-layered quiddity. The contemporary housed which are built with intense exhaustive planning parameters are a no match to the small traditional houses which are deeply rooted in their contextual location. The vernacular built form gives answers to all the architectural questions as it addresses each layer of perception.

Correa states that the genius mechanism of vernacular built forms in Banni Village and the Pavilions of Mughal emperors have addressed levels of inquiries like location, userinterface / activity, climatology, form / function, lifestyle, spatial interaction, time, etc..

Archiitecture itself should be dealing with issues at different layers and Correa’s realisation of this has helped him to arrive at such ingenious interventions for a wide spectrum of architectural questions. this can be seen in Ramakrishna house, Correa house, Tube house. He calls building as a Machine for living.

SPATIAL AFFAIR AND CONDUCT

Architecture manifests itself to people who search for it relentlessly. The concept of a structure is articulated seamlessly through elements like courtyards, terraces, pathways etc... Correa in an interview, has explained this strategy in plain words without bragging about complex architectural palaver “It is all about Listening to the site.”, says Correa. It is upto us to auscultate! The spaces start to unfold giving rise to architecture - The energy field that one moves through.

MINIMALIST DIALOGUES

The crux of a good design lies in Minimal Abstraction and Ingenious Intervention. This can be seen Correa’s concepts. Sensible architectural minds embrace the concept of Non-building. Correa relates architecture as a metaphor in relation to its context i.e. surroundings. Beauty and Sculpture is used as a therapy. When talking about indigeneous Indian examples, Correa writes, “The typologies revealed in these examples are astonishing: flexible and incremental, achieving great spatial richness through minimalist means!” These lines reveal his respect to Indigeneous / cultural predecessors of sensible architecture.

EMBRACING SUBSTANTIALITY

When we try to decipher Architectural concept of India, we may end up in the key phrase - Sequential Unfolding of spaces. In our Indian subcontinent time, culture and Place are intewoven, wreathed together in an indistinguishable continuum.

“We live in countries of great cultural heritage” he says, “countries which wear their past as easily as a woman who drapes her sari.”

In the words of Kenneth Frampton, “Like other Indian intellectuals of his generation, Correa will find inspirational depth in the mythic and cosmological beliefs of the past. In this way he has been able to elaborate partis that were initially somewhat schematic into works of poetic consequence.”

In lower levels of intuitiaon on Correa’s own house, “Built form is frozen in most cases and we watch the demeanor of nature’s forces at play!” The key lies in Amalgamation of the three postulates at three levels: 1. The everyday pragmatic, 2. Fashionable imagery, 3. Invisible cultural stratum. This is further modified by time evolution and technology, cristened as the ‘fourth acting force’ by Correa himself.

Great minds never die. Looking forward to the growth of later generations is a noble virtue. “ Architecture must re-invent the expression of the mystic images and values on which it is based” , says Correa. eventually opening up vistas for young ones to conquer and animate reality!