Ornamentation

Several instances of Indian abstractionism have religious associations. In the Mazhar of President Fakhruddin Ali Ahmed, designed by Habib Rahman, the architect uses an abstraction of the silhouette of the Taj Mahal. In the Dakshin Delhi Kalibari Temple by Sumit Ghosh, we witness abstracted forms of a Bengal Roof in the garbha griha, and a temple shikhara fused with a multiple conoid base which represents the traditional Kalibaris. The Prarthana Mandir of the Ramkrishna Mission Vidyapith in Purulia, West Bengal, by Sunil Pal and Ramananda Bandopadhyay, employs a mushroom-like dome atop a tower, decorated with abstracted leaf forms, to symbolize the Panchavati. By their very nature, religious structures probably demand cultural references in order to convey continuity in meaning to the lay-people. However, these references were not mere copying of historic shapes and forms but a creative response through abstraction and transformation which makes them post-modern, in contrast to the earlier Indo- Saracenic works of British architects in India.

The use of abstractionism is also evident in some non-religious buildings. In the School for Spastic Children in New Delhi by Romi Khosla, the form of rock-cut caves of Ajanta symbolize protection and shelter. Again, in the Oberoi Hotel in Bhubaneswar by Satish Grover, the plan form of the Hindu temple and the Buddhist vihara evolve to create an interesting sequence of spaces. [9]

Ornamentation

Ornamentation re-emerged in postmodernism as a noticeable shift from the modernist paradigm of minimalism. The employment of sculptures and murals was an integral part of traditional Indian architecture, and understandably, it became one of the key features adopted in the Indian experiments of post-modernity. The ISCON Temple, New Delhi and the Lake Kalibari, Kolkata, designed by the first-generation modernist master Achyut Kanvinde, show elements of ornamentation which may well be identified as post-modern. C. P. Kukreja’s buildings at the IIM Lucknow campus are notable examples of employing decorative elements in post-modern Indian building façades. Several instances of graphic elements may be noted at Charles Correa’s Jawahar Kala Kendra, which, though metaphorical, are also decorations in their own right. The relief murals in concrete at the Mahindra College Campus by Christopher Beninger, and the painted murals in the style of the Kalighat Patachitra, employed by Charles Correa at The City Centre, Kolkata, also exemplify the same trend, though they are rather understated and may also be paralleled to Le Corbusier’s use of murals in Chandigarh.