“Any serious architect's approach to his architectural design would evolve from his understanding of life.”
A Dialogue with the 'Man of Nature' Ar. Shirish Beri
He is a man with simple looks and unconstrained philosophies, who has been whole-heartedly living with Nature. One can say that his perspective towards life, society, spaces, Architecture, Architects is beyond a normal man’s thinking. An Architect, an Artist, a Photographer, a Poet, a Writer, a Philosopher, a Teacher and definitely a great Human being to whom the world seems quite simple! Q. It is interesting to see the relationship between you and nature in everything you do. Please tell our readers about the human being in you. A. As a human being too, my concer n has always been to design spaces which would help in bringing people nearer to each other. I always prefer open , accessible and participatory spaces to closed, gated communities. Further, I feel very much concerned about the tremendous inequity in our society. We have people spending Rs. 50,000/day and we also have people who do not eat one square meal /day. Thus as a small gesture, I have created a “Humane equity and dignity fund” from a major part of my personal earnings and savings. This money is used only for the truly needy, ‘have nots’ of our society and for institutes working for these people. Seeing the smiles on these unfortunate faces is a great reward in itself.
expression of our human spirit, where the measurable and the immeasurable work together?” Could you elaborate? A. Any ar chitectur e becomes an integr al par t of the users’ existential, spatio-temporal set up. But, many a times architecture is conceived as a material, tangible, measurable envelope only. To me the intangible dimension of feelings is very important too. Our human spirit is immeasurable too.
“So can our architecture strike the right balance between the measurable and the immeasurable?”
Q. Your poems, paintings, sketches, photography and designs reflect the philosophy in you. What made you choose architecture as a profession? A. Ar chitectur e helps me to connect physically and tangibly to people, nature, emotions etc. simultaneously. Just as language is the medium for my poetry, space is the medium for my architecture and I have a great fascination for exploring this medium of space. I have been toying with the idea of making a hour long film on ‘space.’
Q. Your thought, “Can architecture become an
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