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ROOTS OF AND ROUTES TO LEARNING ARCHITECTURE
In an intricately detailed article, Narendre Dengle expounds on the importance of pedagogy working in tandem with the physical aspects of construction, both informing and drawing from each other to create an innately contextual response to building that is in a state of constant evolution.
By Narendra Dengle
We are not concerned if the phenomenal world is true or false, real or unreal, transient or transcendental, but rather our approach to studying it; what are our tools and criteria of analyses and evaluation; and what value system do we attach to it.
Indian Architect & Builder - March 2014
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he last six issues of the IA&B have carried essays that together would mean quite a lot if one has to take the essence of it seriously. Many focused ideas, pedagogical, methodological, as well as implementable have been discussed that address the existing system within and outside the country, idealistically and pragmatically. It would be most important to have a response of the CoA, who has been entrusted with the task of architectural education in the country. Late Achyut Kanvinde was emphatic in stressing the importance of separating the governance of education from that of the profession. This point has been elaborated in the previous essays and a compromised path suggested by creating ‘an arm of the CoA’ that is independent of interference and control from professionals. ‘Schools without Walls’ on the lines of Ivan Illich’s 'Deschooling Society' has been discussed with passion. Need for research and constantly evolving set-up have been emphasised on. I would like to build further upon these suggestions and this essay may be read in the spirit of continuation. I am also hoping that the current scenario is not static and as the academia and practising community we would also like to consider looking beyond it.
syllabi, as well as, colleges are the means and not the end. Many graduate architects turned to other disciplines and became writers-historians-critics, graphic designers, interior designers, activists, musicians, politicians, teachers, administrators, started NGOs, and so forth; on the other hand if one looks at the practice of, for instance, Kanvinde Rai & Chaudhuri, which is one of the most renowned of the oldest practices to provide comprehensive professional consultancy along with quality architecture (one may also find other equally relevant practices), one finds that most of those who either trained or worked there took the plunge and set up private practices or worked in professional architectural offices. Many of them also remained associated with academics 1. What does this suggest – that the learning in colleges is inadequate, or only useful in forming the base in drawing and visualising, or the college education was entirely redundant, or apprenticeship is only an inevitable second step before the practice? It also would be useful to know on the value-base of the practices of people, who never went to colleges, and what exactly is the nature of their contribution to architecture- socially, environmentally, aesthetically.
Charles Correa has said, “We do not know if architecture can be taught but we certainly know that it can be learned”. If this is to be decoded into an implementable direction then what it means is that there is no one way to teach or learn architecture. Neither is there one mode, college, or country, where it can be learnt the most convincing way. So, what is ‘learning architecture’? Curricula,
The process of learning must be closest to the person who intends to learn. It is to him/her whom the perceiving/ learning happens. It is about him/herself and about the world, both of which he/she is supposed to observe-study and work for. It is said that ‘the act of observation alters the observer and the observed.’ 2 Observation is at the core of learning, since it has transformative
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architectural education quality; it transforms the learner along with the phenomenon that is being observed. Observation implies both within and without and philosophically it is questionable if the two are different from one another. The phenomenon too is not therefore a static object but that which is perceived by the learner. So, the learner and the matter that is being learned both mutate, when and where the learning happens. It goes without saying that the procedural measures, pedagogy, as well as, methodologies must be considered a constantly moving phenomenon. The value of observation cannot be over emphasised in architecture. It is another matter that today observation is postponed by the indulgent use of camera, replacing the ‘actual witnessing’ of the phenomena by their representation through various media so far as the learner is concerned. Discussion and understanding of Self as Society comes from the understanding that consciousness has a universality of application, where the self as ego diminishes. This has a serious reflection on how design is to be learned /taught and how urban design issues are addressed from the point of equity in later years. Placing the individual ahead takes a route that is neither sustainable nor timeless. The object of study becomes the subject when it is internalised by the learner and thereby departing from its mere physicality in the environment. Hence, although problem-solving in manifestation, the gesture of architecture gets rooted deeper and wider in universal consciousness. There is neither a gospel of architecture that guarantees its timelessness nor are there time bound inventions or technological miracles, whose mastering automatically ensures making of a good habitat for all-humans and other organisms and secures their interdependence. There are neither formulae nor philosophies that will transcendentally appeal and make aesthetic sense across generations. And yet, there are values that permeate down to contemporary times from ancient knowledge, which become instrumental every time in discovering solutions to the habitats of places and people. The truth is the architecture most of us admire of the past is done by people trained through many different means; those, who learnt it
from their forefathers, those who learnt it by their apprenticeship with masters, and also, those who were trained in schools and universities. It would be incorrect to say that today’s times are different and unless you acquire a PhD or claim to have first researched the scientific, socio-economic, or technological or environmental issues, academically, you can neither teach nor practice. Often a PhD becomes a way of postponing architectural design or direct participation in planningenvironmental issues. It would be a total disaster to insist that colleges must be headed by PhDs. The 'bhakti' poetry in 10 th century to early 19 th century was written in more than three languages 3 . Mind you, not prose but even poetry was thought important to be written in multilingual form, not only to reach people at large, but also to find expressive vocabulary that was contextually rich in meaning. Standardisation has been synonymous with industrial revolution and today it is hand in hand with consumerism. We have taken it for granted that all colleges will have standard text books, standard curriculum, standard designs, standard aesthetics, standard language and vocabulary of architecture – so that it is easier for who will judge them. The awards' decision are also standardised because it is difficult for the jury to shift laterally to appreciate regional-contextual nuances. They find it easier to go by the book – the international hegemony of the developed world on the cocktail of sustainability shaken well with aesthetics of avant garde. Even today there is almost a queue of students from different colleges all over the country to go and study architecture at Auroville. Bernard Kohn, Laurie Baker, Didi Contractor and such examples of gurus under whom students chose to do hands-on work by being in their company and at site also underline the fact that students were not satisfied with what they gathered in colleges. Students have also learnt by idolising some great architects, like the legendary Ekalavya, who learnt from his Guru by making an image of him in mud. Spending time in the North Western region, romanticising it, and learning use of bamboo, mud, and sustainability
has also been a way with many. And all of this is happening around us although there are 9/11, the Burj Dubai, and the 'Bilbaos', the 'Shards', being built using sophisticated technologies, and the most exclusive NASA software etc posing an enticingly attractive mirage for students and practitioners. These indicate a huge lacuna in the education system adopted by us that creates a dilemma of priorities. It would be most useful, even practical, if we recognise that there are at least THREE different ways of learning architecture by: 1) without going to school 2) going to school of architecture under a university system 3) doing both - the above two - in a specially designed course I will discuss in this paper the merits and pitfalls of this idea, if any, and how best can it be made to work. Making the PhD and post graduate studies as qualifying marks for promotions in academia has created a stampede of sorts by career teachers to universities offering PhDs. Inevitably the filtration of the candidates leaves much to be desired. There is also the question of financial selfsustenance of the department that can run PhD courses. The resultant is that the fees are high - unaffordable to many - and the compulsion for the department to enroll as many as possible even higher. Soon we will have architecture colleges run by pundits, who nurture distrust for issues related to nitty-gritty of construction processes responsible for manifesting architecture. Executed works would be something to be looked down upon by this suspicious pundit brand. Without any doubt the PhDs and research must be encouraged and given a boost but without making it a hurdle for promotions, or a yardstick for choosing HODs and principals. This will bring in the student with the right frame of mind and passion to undergo the rigour of research and undoubtedly bring in the benefits to society. It will also filter away those who have no clue as to ‘what they should research on’ after having enrolled for a PhD. “The Tractatus is a work of a genius, but it otherwise satisfies the requirement for a PhD” 4 was the cryptic comment by Moore, who taught at Cambridge and Indian Architect & Builder - January 2014
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Narendra Dengle is an architect, educationist, and writer based in Pune. He has taught at SPA, New Delhi, and also in USA. His practice takes a keen interest in cultural, contextual and aesthetic issues. He was the Chair of Design at Kamla Raheja Vidynidhi Institute of Architecture and Environmental Studies, Mumbai (2006-11) and is the Academic Chair at Goa College of Architecture since 2012. He authored the book 'Jharoka' (Marathi) in 2007, co-authored 'The Discovery of Architecture: A contemporary treatise on ancient values and indigenous reality' with M N Ashish Ganju in 2013, and his latest book 'Dialogues with Indian Master Architects' is awaiting publication. He is the recipient of numerous architectural awards and has also made films on Architectural Appreciation. ‘disliked the PhD degree, the new import from the USA’ and was the examiner of Wittgenstein’s research 'The Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus', in 1930. 1.0 Learning architecture without going to a school: This traditional method has many subissues which may be listed as a) by training under 'sthapatis', 'sutadhar', 'mistries', etc: In this sort of practice there is virtually no control of the college and no enforcement of any pedagogical structure imposed from the outside. The practice also is restrictive in that it would re-endorse beliefs and focus on one kind of approach to buildings. Neither is there any examination except by the master of his pupil’s growth of knowledge as he finds it fit. The learning of the discipline is by performing. The nurturing of values is through observing, listening, perfecting through performance. The idea and the execution of it may be steeped in tradition, orthodoxy, conventions, faith, and restrictive in form. This may need a retrospective mechanism for constant editing. This as we witness, alas, comes from the pragmatism of marketing compulsions imposed again either by governments or industrial agents. Some attempts have been made by universities to bring the 'Guru-Shishya' mode, for teaching performing arts, under the university system by attaching gururs with the department. This too has had limited effect since the emphasis is invariably laid on scholastic pattern culminating into written examination system, hence defeating the very purpose of the traditional method of learning. It Indian Architect & Builder - March 2014
has not been able to attract students with a passion for fine arts who still prefer to learn under a guru even today. Here performance alone can become the final test. Many colleges of architecture, where the faculty is not allowed to practice, have also formed ‘design cells’ to take on ‘institutional practice’. This, though a good opportunity to bring practice and scholarship together, does not work the same way since both are treated as two independent islands without any give and take of the experience. A design cell doing well becomes the source as an income generating machine having little to do with sharing knowledge or learning for the students. It functions generally like a medium or large business office aspiring to handle projects that a small private practitioner cannot hope for. The tussle is between the element of devotion and non-discursive empirical knowledge on the one hand, versus the desire for discursive knowledge in hope of reward. Those who may have witnessed the recent Konark Dance Festivals would have experienced a major thematic shift from the past. Not only is one amazed at younger people taking to a traditional fine art form in performing arts but also excelling in expression, 'mudra' choreography, rhythm, synchronisation, gracefully, but also basing these performances on contemporary textual variations from the past. The result has been unlike the past ritualistic – repetitive performance and a wonderful aesthetic experience. It has taken long for such form to evolve since no classical form changes overnight. Renowned musicologist and
musician late Ashok Da Ranade used to say that a change in art music is the indication of change in culture since the former is the last but definite sign of change. Architecture of developing world feels answerable to theoretical ripples happening in the developed world. This disease has struck even some well-known and thinking architects who must take pains to demonstrate how their works have been intellectually and visually running parallel to ‘movements’ of the developed world and are no less. With the result, the works embody confusion, in search of novel formal possibilities, embarrassingly absurd in a cultural milieu of developing world. Recently, there has been a rash of architecture for awards under various categories. When asked, whether he was designing with award in mind or designing with some substantive conviction, a young award winning architect appeared perplexed as if he was encountering the (ridiculous) question for the first time. It may be very useful if the training may be conceived as a course that happens under a practicing architect, craftsperson, preferably several crafts persons 'mistries', in succession in different parts of the country, or world. The empirical knowledge that would be inherited in the process would be rich, not only, in craft and material but even in terms of making it coterminous with ecosystems and people. It would also cultivate respect for people and place demanding skills of interpretation. An anthropologist by the name Carlos Castaneda went to learn about medicinal plants from
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an Indian sorcerer. The sorcerer never taught him about the plants, but rather how to observe, look around and respect nature. He taught him how to see ‘from the corner of the eye’. He taught how much is adequate or excess to take from nature. He taught him how much the other living organisms contribute to one’s own living and how conscious the other living organisms are of the motive of one’s act towards them. One goes on to learn something and comes away enlightened in a completely different unexpected way. Some teachers of meditation ask what the new students are expecting of their courses or discourses. Then they erase the mind set of all such expectations so what one learns from the exercise is not necessarily what one expected from it but in fact what one actually needed! One’s expectations of the discipline and the actual learning that comes of it must be recognised as two separate fields. An apprentice may also prefer to train under a practising architect in a metropolitan situation. This too must be welcome. There have been references made to ‘centres of excellence’ but the question remains as to who will and on what criteria will such centres be determined. The worst case may be the apprentice chooses to train under a ‘centre of excellence in business’ that some may consider totally unethical, opportunist, and exploitative so far as environment or people at large are concerned. But those, who are in search of knowledge and love for this profession will desert such centres and discover other appropriate centres sooner than later. The unethical centres of excellence, alas, will continue in their own destined path! Those who are happy to ‘learn the ropes’ would have learnt them anyway regardless of the system and, if required, by obtaining PhDs from well-known centres of excellent education as well. In our democracy one hopes that the rotten would eventually be replaced by the sustainable without having to thrash or crush it. For such apprentices to qualify as architects, who can practice with responsibility, the Council can always hold a threshold examination to test their knowledge in practice without being judgemental about their method of
obtaining it. The disqualification yardsticks on skills, ethics, morality, excellence, etc. can be tough. 2.0 Going through the university process of education: This one has been debated at length. The debate at various levels has brought in a system which is generally understood as the threshold level with certain amount of freedom for individual colleges. At the moment when there are 335 colleges of architecture one thinks of a standard format for all. This being for the convenience of the uninitiated, both educators as well as the revalidating boards, the same needs overhauling. It is important to recognise that the issue of curriculum and modifications thereof stems from the examination system acceptable to a university. Universities are burdened with examination systems that often oppress the learning processes. But having accepted it for the discipline of architecture, it must conform to the pattern understood by universities wherein modifications to curriculum become an exercise in conformation and compromise. Universities exclusively designed to address architectural education would have a greater opportunity to re-examine all connected issues without having to answer patterns followed by other faculties. There are three issues which come to the fore. First: How does an institution ensure that the courses that it offers will be communicable to students from varied backgrounds? With the given systems of entrance to architectural colleges, students, who hitherto studied in their vernacular languages familiar with entirely different ideological-cultural-and physical landscape, are suddenly made to conform to a pattern of thinking and visualising that is considered sacrosanct. How does one make them comfortable and yet look upon them not as a ‘problem’ but as an asset, since they too possess skills and knowledge culturally varied and empirically rich? In this context, the entire design vocabulary steeped in western milieu would need to be reinvented. It is commonly witnessed in the Mumbaibased colleges that students refrain from attending design studios because they are
neither familiar with the language, the visual-cinematic-literary-philosophical design references, nor the methodologies of teaching abstraction and other stuff. These students who otherwise possess different skills that are extremely useful in the study of architecture go into a shell and lose confidence of designing, presenting, arguing, and competing with urban students. Usually they struggle for the first three years, if not by losing a year, to come to terms with the course. The assignments conceived for the first year students are often modelled after the faculty’s laborious search for ‘newer’ and ‘latest’ techniques adopted in western universities. Is this the gap created by this unique discipline itself or the way we have imagined the discipline to be? I suspect that taking it farther from the common man has something to do with it. Second: A teaching programme must be so conceived as to understand a plan for students as well as teachers. If the students and the teachers together create a path of learning then such a path must look at how both will find a sense of discovery and meeting each other. If we must use the word curriculum then what is the colleges’ curriculum for their teachers? Along with the great effort that goes into making the curriculum, and then the syllabus, colleges do not have a plan to teach teachers or methodically address the vertical and horizontal integration in the subjects taught by the faculty, in a participatory way. The sooner we realise that the problem lies often with the faculty than with the students, the better it would be for the system. It follows that institutionalisation of teaching has much to do with widening and deepening the vision and knowledge of the teachers. It cannot merely be compensated by sending teachers to ‘QIP’s or pushing them to undertake PhD studies. The path must be so designed that individual teachers are allowed to build on their potential and also are collectively engaged in debates and programmes for integration within the courses. Third: How does an institute engage itself with the issue of shaping and re-shaping its philosophical path as an ongoing concern? Since this is to do with human resources available in the geographical 5 Indian Architect & Builder - March 2014
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context for a college it has to be seen not as a limitation but as an advantage. Architecture today is not to be considered as only mighty, monumental, iconic, alone, but that which also address planning, environmental issues and affordable housing, close to the common man. The physical/environmental/cultural context would generate its relevant focus which should be procedurally and critically evaluated. The critical base within the context may question the relevance of architectural expression for the local context and engagement with the real issues. There is no standard formula to exercise response on this front but each context-socio-economic etc would have to generate its own criteria founded on addressing this concern. There are fundamentally two aspects of learning: idea and built work. The idea may not be related to architecture at all – not at least directly. It may be about people, place, the human engagement with the problems of thinking, life, nature, origin of life, which may be philosophical, scientific, creative, interdisciplinary etc. In these fields one has to learn to be observant, analytic and synthetic in approach. Unless this is considered of great value little can one hope for a richer expression of architecture that is supposed to embody the same. The other aspect is that of ‘constructing a whole’. A drawing - whether a sketch, design or presentation must not be ‘an end itself’ but as a means of constructing the building. In other words ‘design’ can only be considered over once it is built – which is its final destination and where regeneration of it would start. In school this ‘constructing of design’ has to be virtual, drawn with the consciousness that one is ‘building’ (that includes space/ places/environments/built forms/buildings) and not ‘drawing’. The process implies convergence of various topics that are taught into two manifest forms – idea and building. All formally ‘drawn’ submissions may be under either ‘building’ or written – sketched up ‘ideas’ in lecture courses. There may not be separate submissions of plates under construction or structures. All of those would converge under ‘building’ that includes design-working drawingsstructures as if one would make them in practice. To my mind this would eliminate Indian Architect & Builder - March 2014
all fragmentary effort that saps the energy of students in drawing up – end in themselves – submissions under structures and construction – or working drawings. It would also avoid working drawings, independently made, of the designs done in some past semesters. Also, this would avoid presentation for the sake of ‘beautiful’ drawings, which are made in colleges and often so exaggerated that one forgets the purpose of making drawings. Drawings must be primarily looked upon as information – of concepts (analytic/exploratory) and then construction (synthetic) related. Elaborate diagrams juxtaposed one on top of the other wonderful textures etc, often derail the purpose for which the drawings are made in the first place. Direct and subtle information can be so well presented that all frills are trimmed in a minimalist, wonderfully communicative drawings. One must also remember the fact that many a good example of architecture was built without such elaborate drawings and conversely construction information can only be conveyed through drawings made after the understanding of scale, proportion, detail, and construction sequence. If the CoA determines the threshold level for entering the profession with certain amount of competence and responsibility then it would not impose controls on the pattern of education from the outside, except when a candidate wants to enter the profession. The colleges must have a lot of freedom for experimentation that helps them explore the local ethos of environment and culture through architectural means found useful for the process. This would encourage teachers to remain on toes and think afresh, make shifts in paradigms, and generally never be satiated with their knowledge. This would also mean that a college in remote areas would not be compelled to adopt the exhausted Bauhaus system, or teach sky-rise buildings to the learners. The benefit – on the side may be that such a school generates a voluminous in-depth data of the particular context in terms of its habitation-history-ecology, and also by devising means of identifying and tackling contemporary issues imaginatively. This has been tried out at the Goa College of Architecture for one year (2013-14) where all assignments have been consciously
designed to be ‘Goa Centric’. The results have been encouraging. The diversity of languages, contexts must be considered with reverence for their intrinsic value connecting empirical knowledge embedded in linguistic and oral culture for an interface with modern sciences and research methodologies. Together, it is bound to bring tremendous significance to the local-global interface. I have felt that the following three issues must be made integral to any assignment given, whether design or otherwise, and their component identified clearly. These are: 1. Observation/Analysis, 2. Field Study, and 3. Synthesis may consciously be made part of critique for every subject that is taught under architecture. In other words no subject, whether history or construction, theory and design, may be taught without specifying the role each of the three concerns play in it. Exploring and articulating an idea synthetically in speech and word, sketches, and drawings is of great importance and are a part of the overall training in synthesis. Observation-analysis is the aspect of any subject that is to be studied with rational approach, rigour, and authenticity. Field studies would include visits, studies, forms of narrative, and all forms of place-people related inquiry. This would support research constructed first-hand on site. It should help perceive subjects like history in proper perspective and for the significance it has for a contemporary understanding. To be able to synthesise is an ability that requires skills of interpretation, often interfacing with varied disciplines connected to architectural studies. There are colleges who have taken up studies in hermeneutics in architecture with the idea of strengthening skills of interpretation. 3.0 The third option would be of grafting the former two: This would imply that colleges would have to offer lecture course, workshops in time modules, and interactive dialogical methods that encourage discussion and debate, which may not be facilitated in the first option for those who wish to learn without going to school. Such courses would have to be time bound courses run during vacations specifically for those who want
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to also undergo training in the scholastic approach. A combination of opting to work with an artist, architect, scholar, activist, planner, etc may hence be supplemented by theoretical courses, which may be short term, once a semester, or lectures held beyond the school hours. These would benefit learners, whose first choice is not of going to a school of architecture but essentially to learn it under a master or on a project. If architecture is seen as a diagnostic 6 way of looking at built and unbuilt environment then maintenance becomes one of the primary concerns – not to be avoided or left to engineers to handle! And where else can one learn this in depth than on the field, working with those involved in constructing, whether in a village or under a construction management group, overseeing a complex construction? This cannot be merely seen as a ‘site visit’, when occasionally buses are hired to take more than a hundred students to a very humble location, and with great effort teachers come out of their comfort zone to mess up with construction themselves. The third option, therefore, stresses the fact that it may still offer the facility for a learner envisaging a blend of practice and theory, with a lot of options and electives, throughout the five years. There used to be seven year courses for those, who earned their livelihood by working with architects and attending evening classes. These made architects of draftsmen, architects trained to do great amount of detailing, and in the run getting a lot of practical knowledge of the discipline. But the third option discussed here is totally different allowing the learner to attend summer-winter courses, workshops, and lectures from a wide range of options, offered by different schools that will bring another dimension to the discipline. So to conclude the argument we must recognise that the root of this ancient discipline has an origin arguably even before philosophy and there is neither one way of learning architecture across the world, nor is there one way of teaching it. Secondly, options are required to bring practice and theory interface each other in many different ways and with options to facilitate the same one may recognise the three ways suggested here - all with the duration of five years - after which the
learner may appear for the examination by the CoA for his/her suitability in the profession. The three routes identified here may be further explored. They would bring direct as well as subtle advantages to forge a value based association of the contemporary with the ancient. The relationship of the self and community becomes a central issue when we discuss creativity, self-expression, and issues connected with habitation. We are not concerned if the phenomenal world is true or false, real or unreal, transient or transcendental, but rather our approach to studying it; what are our tools and criteria of analyses and evaluation; and what value system do we attach to it. ‘Society does not consist of individuals, but expresses the sum of their relation - the relations within which these individuals stand,’ said Karl Marx. Here one may look at the pointer from the 'Upanishads', which speak volumes about engagement with the phenomenal and inner reality. “Two birds, companions (who are) always united, cling to the self-same tree. Of these two, the first one eats the sweet fruit and other looks on without eating."7 My understanding of this is that there is no such thing as self expression unless one is clear about what one means by self. The 'Upanishadic' two birds are suggestive of consciousness and awareness. Awareness is unattached to the ego; however, there cannot be perception of it in the absence of consciousness. The other bird - the consciousness - is very much rooted in the phenomenal world. Expression of the self oscillates between these two selves. Closer the association, greater the erosion of the ego, consequently richer, deeper, wider is the insightful self-expression. As the relationship of the two birds becomes remote, rare, sever, indulgent, the consciousness is more and more devoted to phenomenal reality. The intensity and duality (or non-duality) in these oscillations manifests on gross, subtle, and transcendental planes respectively.
Narendra Dengle, March 2014
1. I have no statistics to prove either of the cases but the point is that it is a while for a person to finally take the plunge even after graduation, post graduation from a renowned institute, or acquiring a PhD which altogether do not necessarily build the confidence to take the plunge into opening a private practice that is different than a business of architecture. But those who work under a master or a person of some conviction and experience usually show the courage to take up the practice in all seriousness and chalk out their own respective paths. 2. Nisargadatta Maharaj, ‘I Am That’ page 260, translated by Maurice Frydman, revised & edited by Sydhakar Dikshit, Chetana Pvt Ltd 1973. 3. "there were hardly any poets from Gorakh of the 10 th century to Ghulam Farid in the early half of the nineteenth century belonging to Maharshtra, Gujarat, Bengal, Agra, Oudh, Bihar, Delhi, Punjab, or Sindh, who had not written in three languages - the mother tongue, the provincial language, and the common Hindustani language, Hindi...even Guru Nanak Dev wrote in Persian, in Sanskrit, in Kafi, in Lahndi..."In Theory, Aijaz Ahmed, quoting Mohan Singh Diwana, page 248, Oxford 1992. 4. Wittgenstein, A C Greyling, p 11, A very short introduction, Oxford, 1988, 96. 5. Refer to the suggested matrix of Geography/Culture, Philosophy/Aesthetics, and History/Society, page 5, ‘The Discovery of Architecture: a contemporary treatise on ancient values and indigenous reality’, by M N Ashish Ganju and Narendra Dengle, GREHA Publications, New Delhi, 2013 6. Ibid, page 39. 7. Mundaka Upanishads, The Principal Upanishads, p 686 S Radhakrishnan, Harper Collins Publishers India, 1994, first published in GB 1953 George Allen & Unwin Ltd.
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 - March 2014