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WorkS 2000-2009 | IndIa 2000-2009

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Five lessons

Five lessons

Works 2000-2009

There were buildings designed and executed between 1996 and 2000 that followed the philosophy and theoretical position developed since the inception of the practice, that is, architecture as primarily a spatial exercise. But, as with most careers, personal life at times intervenes and takes precedence, and in my case, the sudden death of my father in 1996 left me devastated. This personal loss coincided with the period of recession that resulted in the collapse of many industries and individuals.

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So things slowed down. But the wheel turns, and a time of opportunity and optimism revived us. By 2000, 15 years of practice had taught us several things beyond some valuable lessons gained from making mistakes and those that come with making joyous discoveries. the practice shifted between highs and lows, but in time we established a modus operandi for running the office and organising its functioning, executing projects onsite, and design processes in the studio.

We realised with some pride that our initial concerns of climate, context and material were indeed of immense value to the projects. these concerns proved and justified the works that followed from 2004 to 2012. they can be seen as part of the tradition of the practice, a vision we had anticipated at the outset while not necessarily understanding its implications or how it was to be achieved.

Apart from these perhaps old school criteria, we also had the opportunity to explore and learn from new areas of knowledge with specialised consultants, different contractors and others. Yet the ideals we had set down in our early works were being reinforced. the practice learned, and is still learning, that architecture was, is and will remain primarily a spatial exercise involving quality of light and rational structure suitably embedded in context.

i also realised that running a practice was itself a never-ending project. We run the practice as openly as possible – even though it is under single ownership. the practice still has a way to go, and perhaps allows more associates and limited partnerships in order to expand further.

the works of the first ten years of the new millennium demonstrate the challenges of complex contexts and the wider scope of the built environment. this phase of our work is dominated by projects with varied programs and significantly larger scale.

India 2000-2009

in the early 1990s, india experienced a significant financial boom, and revival on every economic front was inevitable. the government issued an advertisement to celebrate ‘india Shining’. Several public sectors were privatised, among them financial services; new private and corporate enterprises now emerged in this untapped sector. Privatisation of airlines, banks, educational institutes attracted multinationals to india. As good comes with evil, the urge to speed up and climb higher, faster triggered sudden loss of familiar scale, collapse of craft skills, marginalisation of local materials and vernacular traditions, and the sidelining of whatever remained of indian-ness: understanding the country, its climate and complex contexts.

india was and will remain an agriculture-based economy. however, the country was riding the wave of new technology, and masses took to cellular phones, computers and Xboxes. technology would bring benefits and pitfalls to the building industry. the new technological wave implied more work for all and lured well-known architects from around the globe to work in india. the latest materials arrived, including aluminium and curtain glazing that would revolutionise the aesthetic sensibilities of the nation. But the widespread application of curtain glazing is inappropriate to the indian climate and cripples energy resources. india’s developing country status connoted a deficiency in energy for the large populace; and aping the West with superficial glittering curtain walls became a symbol of false growth and prosperity. the rising middle class and upper middle class boosted demands for new life styles that unfortunately included inflated spatial requirements irrelevant and inappropriate to the populous india. Determination to copy Western culture engendered a mall culture in opposition to the traditional economy of smaller, minor investments made by individuals that depended on a vast population. A street vendor selling vegetables from his handpulled cart faced a challenge from a multinational brand opening a fruit and vegetable counter in air-conditioned mall space. Similarly, small-time fast food street vendors were now competing with even larger multinational organisations selling readymade packaged foods: a country where the daily cooking of fresh food is the norm was buying packaged noodles with expiry dates.

Dry stone cladding, while used previously but sparingly by us, became a preferred material in our practice. timber windows and stone were used for permanence as well as insulation; the dry cladding fixing technique creates an insulating air gap. throughout the history of architecture, stone has been used for reasons of permanence, stability, utility and aesthetics. the fact that several indian architects chose to use stone cladding is meaningful. Stone was seen as a true material appropriate to india, with an additional benefit of reducing cladding costs.

india was shining before the world, winning the Miss World and Miss Universe beauty pageants, winning the Booker prize for literature, and winning Oscars for indian movies. Other signals placed india in the spotlight. Once a country of snake charmers was now recognised as a software support provider and backbone of other technologies, as call centres to global organisations. the emergence of regional political parties, and also the notion of regionalism – from north to south, east to west – invited all to enter the indian political ring.

the computer brought significant changes to our studio and systems of working. the speed achieved in production and decision-making was unprecedented, but the transition time needed to grasp, mull over and experience the work in process was drastically reduced. Drawings were now precise, clean, stark, white, non-transparent. they were coordinated on large A1 plotters and betrayed no trace of the design process. the previous modest, user-friendly blueprints exuded intimacy with the project, were worked upon and smudged and perhaps telling of the amount of thought and work invested. this affinity of drawing and production revealed the project instantaneously and also conveyed the gradual development of the design, whereas the computer produced flawless drawings where scale was absent and it was impossible to understand the project at a single glance.

But this new technology helped us to superimpose and read various complex layers, mostly the different services; and importantly it enabled us to put coffee mugs on our drawing boards without fear of catastrophe. But if we were saved from that kind of disaster, we encountered others equally large: computer viruses, hard disk crashes and (this is india) electricity failures.

Our studio adopted and adapted to this technology earlier than most in the country, thanks to some of our larger clients. We use computers in our practice for their efficiency. But we still conceptualise designs on tracing paper on A4/A3/A2 rolls, which we import. i still use a Mayline parallel and a setsquare and two scales of 60 cm and 30 cm, both showing only centimetres, as we were trained to convert from the standard centimetre to any adopted scale.

With technological advancement came specialised consultants. Apart from the traditional structural, civil and mechanical, electrical and plumbing consultants, we work with consultants in landscape, synergy, facades, traffic analysis, energy simulation, specialised kitchen design, acoustics and even artificial lighting specialists. the more, the merrier is true in many ways, as buildings take many years to make, and an architect – though a leader – cannot be equipped with every emerging and complex field of knowledge.

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