Makers Dwelling in Self Crafted Homes: An Alternative Approach

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Makers Dwelling in Self Crafted Homes

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Makers Dwelling in Self Crafted Homes

ABSTRACT The modern movement gave birth to the typical apartment block that altered the nature of our dwellings and the landscapes of our cities. Our places have been casually replaced by placeless dwellings exaggerated with the ‘universal’ building. The apartment buildings sprouting everywhere are often treated clinically as a means to serve bodily requirements, famishing one’s soul. In the monotonous routine and fast lives, the nature of these homes offers little respite to connect to ourselves and rejuvenate. The involvement of distant parties, the capitalists, the builders and various stakeholders view these accommodations merely as a ‘product’ to sell to ‘consumers’. In this new impersonal relationship, the dweller feels disconnected with the dwelling, nature, the community and to themselves. This insensitivity arises from a complex set of problems in the urban realm because of the multilevel communication and coordination where businesses are run on the fundamentals of capitalism. Therefore individual solutions seem less and less relevant to the larger problem. These practices are seldom studied or looked into, to adapt or borrow approaches to inform the bigger picture. Thus these individual responses are often dismissed as non-applicable to such contexts and scenarios, given the mismatch of comparable variables.

The thesis looks at two such individual responses and practices aiming to understand their approaches. Bidyut Roy and Didi Contractor are the two makers whose dwellings are looked upon. In their dwellings, they are both the dwellers and the makers. Their practice adheres to a set of personal ideals, values and an embedded message. Though we do have a rich wealth of vernacular that addresses aspects of detachment to place, body and soul, to be studied and imbibe from. The fashionable ‘modern’ style has affected the propagation of vernacular heritage resulting in the eradication of age-old practices.

There are theories and practical examples that outlay similar concerns in the library and on the field respectively, but the sheer number of these practices are unsettlingly less compared to the insensitive concrete jungles of our cities which constitute the majority of dwellings today. These endeavours need to be mentioned, more talked about and discussed in today’s practice of building construction, interior design, and material innovation.

The document serves as a discussion of the above through qualitative methods where experiences and stories are equal components to give a sense of place, time, context and environment in which these makers and dwellings, existed and exist, for the reader to better understand the origins of the work and the thought process it adheres to. The study is an account of an ‘alternative’ approach of making a dwelling, one that considers love, care, effort, time and a vivid imagination as equally valued ingredients for making a home and not merely a practical task of providing space and services. In doing so the thesis tries to understand ‘this alternate approach’, more deeply.

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ACKNOWLEDGEMENT First and foremost I want to deeply express my gratitude for the presence of my guide Ajit Rao who not only guided me in my research thesis but also moments of my life.

I found it extremely difficult to keep on going academically given the previous two semesters which were a bit off. Quite off. I would not have been able to carry out this endeavor without the encouragement of my dear friends, Rutuja, Ronit, and Parth. Dada, my brother was a constant heartwarming support throughout the thesis with his kind words and efforts.

The research made me meet some lovely people like Didi Contractor, Bidyut Roy, Naresh Bhai, Annu Di, Laxmi. My stay in Rakkar gifted me with some joyous young friends Shailly, Manas, and Palli, all very naughty. My visits to Shantiniketan brought me close to a revered presence of my life, Rabindranath Tagore, whose songs have helped me through difficult times of my life.

I would take this opportunity to thank my entire batch of 2014, filled with distinct people, all very peculiar organisms. CEPT journey would have been incomplete without Rishi, Snigdha, Hitashi, Priyam, Misri, Shalabh, and both the Ravis.

I am humbled by B.V. Doshi’s profound views about learning. CEPT has taught me to value my uniqueness. I am grateful to have met beautiful mentors like Krishnaben, Hamid Raj, Sanal Thathapuzha, Snehal Nagarsheth. Some have taught me so much about things I found difficult to learn, Kireet Patel, Amal Shah, Parantap Bhatt.

I want to acknowledge our frisbee group whom I found myself close to after my batch had left, who encouraged me to be joyous and carefree, Hops, Akib, Simply, Dhaniya.

Mashumi and Amol (Don’t know where to put these two). I would like to thank one beautifully deep little friend I made in this time to whom I can talk about anything and everything, Bhakti.

My family, Ma, Amma, and Baba for giving me all the love and support one can ask for.

I have been lucky to have a family that has given me so much freedom to explore life on my own and travel alone to distant places where I didn’t know anybody. I want to thank my dearest childhood friends Surabhi, Teju, Barla, Bebe, Suku, Kena, and Kiran for all the continuous love they have showered on me.

Last but not least I want to acknowledge my failures. I would not have understood, what I understand today without them. It made me understand myself so much more.

Along with this thesis I parallelly tried to overcome my fears, shortcomings, the demons in my head, and take control. It made me realize that failures are not to be afraid of, but embraced with open arms. They have rendered my journey of CEPT complete, continuing... to the next stage of my life where I will remember to cherish the things that actually matter in life.

(Expressing gratitude to places that felt like home - Plaza and North Lawns, which accompanied me for all these years and infused me with their spirit <3)

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Makers Dwelling in Self Crafted Homes

CONTENTS 0. Introduction

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1. Thesis Proposal

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1.1 Aim 1.2 Objective 1.2 Hypothesis 1.4 Literature Review 1.5 Scope 1.6 Limitation 1.7 Methodology 1.7.1 Qualitative Research Methods 1.7.2 Representational Tools (Other Aspects) a. Gender Neutrality b. Vernacular aspects of language (0.1 Purpose of the essays) 1.8 Framework of Study 2. Invisible Ingredients of making a dwelling

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2.1 Thought and Imagination 2.2 Care and Time 2.3 Empathy 2.4 Passion 2.5 Lifeful dwellings 3. Of the People, By the People and For the People

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3.1 The mother tongue - The Vernacular 3.2 Masters of architecture learning from the â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;Uneducatedâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; maker 3.3 The threat to the Vernacular 3.4 Appropriate Technology 4. The Contemporary Placelessness and the Desire for a.................................................38.

Place 4.1 Place 4.2 Placelessness 4.3 Dimensioning a Place 4.3.1 The need for meaning 4.3.2 Authenticity 4.3.3 Belongingness

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(0.2 Questionaire) (0.3 Note on Phenomenological Account) 1.9 Criteria of selection for case study 5. Case Study 1: Didi Contractor, Rakkar, Himachal Pradesh .................................................60.

5.1 Phenomenological Accounts 5.1.1 Phenomenological account of the first visit 5.1.2 Interviews 5.2 Analysis of Interviews (Intangibles)

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5.2.1 Personal Experiences, Influences and Origins of work 5.2.2 Approach to Design 5.2.2.1 Analogy 5.2.2.2 Methods 5.2.2.3 Attitude 5.2.3 Values 5.2.4 Relations 5.2.4.1 Relation with Craftsmen 5.2.4.2 Relation with Client 5.3 Analysis of the Dwelling (Tangibles) 5.3.1 Closer to human 5.3.1.1 Scale and Proportion 5.3.1.2 Senses 5.3.2 Closer to Nature 5.3.2.1 Relation between inside and outside 5.3.2.2 Landscaping 5.3.2.3 Treatment of existing flora and features 5.3.3 Closer to Community 5.3.3.1 Learning from Vernacular 5.3.3.2 Materials from the Locale 5.3.3.3 Creating Awareness (0.4 Note on Place and Placelessness) 5.4 Place and Placelessness (Intangibles) 5.5 Construction Techniques (Tangibles)

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Makers Dwelling in Self Crafted Homes

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6. Case Study 2: Bidyut Roy, Shantiniketan, West Bengal.................................................104.

6.1 Phenomenological Accounts 6.1.1 Phenomenological account of the first visit 6.1.2 Interviews 6.2 Analysis of Interviews (Intangibles)

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6.2.1 Personal Experiences, Influences and Origins of work 6.2.2 Approach to design 6.2.2.1 Analogy 6.2.2.2 Methods 6.2.2.3 Attitude 6.2.3 Values 6.2.4 Relations 6.2.4.1 Relation with Craftsmen 6.2.4.2 Relation with Client 6.3 Analysis of the Dwelling (Tangibles)

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6.3.1 Closer to Human 6.3.1.1 Scale and Proportion 6.3.1.2 Senses 6.3.2 Closer to Nature 6.3.2.1 Relation between inside and outside 6.3.2.2 Landscaping 6.3.2.3 Treatment of existing Flora and features 6.3.3 Closer to Community 6.3.3.1 Learning from Vernacular 6.3.3.2 Materials from the Locale 6.3.3.3 Creating Awareness (0.4 Note on Place and Placelessness) 6.4 Place and Placelessness (Intangibles) 6.5 Construction Techniques (Tangibles) 7. Chandramadhavi: A photo essay Bringing the Alternative Approach to the Mainstream

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8. Inferences

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9. Conclusion

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10. Future Research

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11. Bibliography

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12. Appendices

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11.1 Tracing the origins of the study 11.2 Interview with Lakshmi Swaminathan (Didiâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Assistant) 11.3 Excerpts from the transcription of Bidyut Royâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s interview in Bangla 13. Glossary of words

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14. Review Feedbacks

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15. Thesis review and Viva action (0.5 An ending note for fresh researchers)

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Makers Dwelling in Self Crafted Homes

0. INTRODUCTION We all live in a constant flux of identities. The world has become a smaller place with the advent of the internet age. We are citizens of the world now. As people, we have moved from our villages and migrated to cities in pursuit of employment and a better life. In these spheres, all of us exist together with each other irrespective of our origins.

We as humans yearn for a sense of rootedness. A built space in some sense helps us to root ourselves. A house gives us a sense of foundation. For over 4 decades, we have been living in these insensitive concrete jungles that captured our economy. Concrete and steel homogenized the building fabric of our cities. More is being cast and put over our heads as you read without a second thought and opinion. Since it has long become the accepted norm, it becomes the most intuitive form of construction. One stops questioning its viability because that is what they have seen people building with. Their impression of a built space comes from a preconceived notion of concrete as ‘the material’ to build.

This idea travels across, it becomes an aspiration for the kaccha house dweller to make his pakka house as an upgradation. A lot of our villages now engage in this aspiration resulting in a house that doesn’t belong to the climate, the people, the land, or culture. If they lose the sense of appreciation of their built environment and ages-old knowledge of constructing who is to blame in advertising dreams which built up these notions? What one should strive for - An ideal residence?

When we visit our ancestral homes, our hometowns, our villages, we are encapsulated by the simple and natural life, one with the rawness of earth and a treasure of greens. We stay in these places, absorb as much we can, and then go back to our cities and become engaged in our routines again. A similar cycle is followed when a person goes out to travel after saving up for months to escape to more natural surroundings. Where will one go if these oases of refreshment vanish?

We as people today want to adhere to certain modernity which is our aspirations; we all want to be progressive; To run along with time and not be lost behind. We are modern humans - whatever that is supposed to mean. A home is said to be an extension of ourselves and how we manifest ourselves in space reveals a sense of identity and belongingness in a physical and material sense. We as modern people look for new ways of living and still at the same time a certain rootedness to where we belong. Likewise, space struggles through the same ideas. It tends to vibrate between past, present, and future. It manifests in x,y,z our identities. Our projections of self and what we want to be. We can neither reject our past nor today’s time. Therefore finding modernity along with our traditions is a question we all have to answer. Similarly, the built environment that exists and in which we exist, accepting it and questioning it, starts an ongoing and neverending search.

This document tries to point at an approach of making a dwelling that can answer some of these questions and point out at an alternative approach informed by the makers along with theories being put forward by scholars who have left out ideas and concepts for us, who concern ourselves with these questions.

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1. THESIS PROPOSAL 1.1 AIM - To find an ‘alternative’ approach of making a dwelling - that is more humane - closer to nature, community and the dweller themselves.

Primary research question - What are the values and approaches of makers who have responded through their practice to the mainstream through building their dwellings? What are their processes, their ideologies, ways of working, and construction methods?

- How the idea of modernity has changed the countryside in terms of notions of building materials and the nature of dwellings?

Secondary research questions - What is the mainstream approach?

- How do we bring an ‘alternative’ approach to the mainstream?

1.2 OBJECTIVES - Primary Research - Interviewing makers to understand an ‘alternative’ approach.

Studying and analyzing two dwellings located in different regions with different geographical features where the dweller is the maker.

- Secondary Research - Through writings by scholars and practitioners on the nature of dwelling and the metaphysical factors associated with it.

1.3 HYPOTHESIS People are in search of rootedness.

1.5 SCOPE - The thesis focuses on a small unit of manifestation of built - a place to live -A dwelling.

It does not discuss commercial, working spaces, or large scale projects.

- The research is about the conception of dwelling as a set of thoughts, ideas, and values.

What a dwelling can be and what value can it add to one’s surroundings and the dweller’s life. The case studies look at how these thoughts and ideas transform into an intangible built emcompassing these qualities. The process of construction is discussed in brief to understand how these values translate to the construction site on the practical end.

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Makers Dwelling in Self Crafted Homes

- This thesis focus on the individual response in the rural setting. It uses the observed nuances to point out the missing qualities that have become the mainstream approach in the city.

1.6 LIMITATION - The research is carried out in a four-month duration including more than a month amidst the official lockdown.

- This thesis starts a conversation rather than finding the ultimate solution. The research is not a step by step rulebook to design dwellings rather it combines some of the key concerns what has become the mainstream in todayâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s dwellings for us to solve.

- Due to the ongoing pandemic, the lockdown limited further site visits. Therefore the dwellings could not be measure drawn. The drawings produced are from memory, photographs, rough notes, and sketches done on-site.

- Due to unforeseen health problems, Didi could not discuss her work on all days of visits carried out over a period of a week. The researcher gathered data through indirect strategies while staying there while talking to individuals who worked with her, to develop a better insight into her life, work, and approach.

- The researcher could not witness the full conception and construction of a dwelling by the maker to better understand the processes in person and on-site. Rather the undersatnding is based on first hand interviews and indirect sources.

1.7 METHODOLOGY 1.7.1 QUALITATIVE METHODS The research of the study is qualitative in nature as the research question required such an approach. One of the main reasons to select the qualitative methods is to learn from the dweller in their setting, the way they experience their work, the meanings they put on it, and how they interpret what they experience in the way they do. The researcher needed methods that allowed to discover and do justice to the makerâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s perceptions of the complexity of their interpretations.

Qualitative methods have in common the goal of generating new ways of seeing existing data and therefore seemed helpful in this type of research. The nature of the research is exploratory and uses more than just one method of research.

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a. Hermeneutical Phenomenology Hermeneutical Phenomenology is a descriptive, reflective, interpretative, and engaging mode of inquiry from which the essence of experience can be drawn out. Experience is considered to be an individual’s perception of their presence in the world at the moment.

Four existentials guide phenomenological reflection: temporality (lived experience), spatiality (lived space), corporeality (lived body), and relationality (lived human relation).

The phenomenological accounts of the experience of the places the dwelling existed in, the dwelling itself, and the researcher’s engagement with things, people, events, and situations are described in brief. These accounts form important parts of the study to give a human essence to the people, place, and dwelling.

b. Immersions Immersions refers to a personal involvement with the people under study by actively participating in their lives and spending time in their dwellings. The researcher lived close to them, shared meals, helped them do their chores, participated in the life of the community while collecting information and examining their validity.

c. Interviews - Unstructured, Interactive Interviews This type of qualitative interview offers a participant to tell their story with minimal interruption by the researcher. Unstructured interviews were appropriate to understand from the participant what matters to them. The interviews were taken in the participant’s dwelling (One of the interviews was taken in a restaurant, one of the maker’s project). The researcher took the role of a responsive and interested listener. The researcher helped in the form of maintaining the conversation rather than interrupting the flow of thoughts.

Before the interviews, the participant already knew, in general, the subject of the research during the process of obtaining consent. During the interview, the researcher has asked occasional questions for clarification. A set of questions was prepared beforehand not to be asked directly but to ensure that one covers the aspects of interest. The questions which were left unanswered were asked in the second and third round of interviews.

The interviews were recorded and later transcribed. In the case of Bidyut Roy the interviews were conducted in Bangla as the participant was more comfortable in the regional language.

Those interviews are translated while trying to create a flow and therefore is not a word to word translation.

d. Photography The dwelling was recorded in the form of photographs to go back to the dwelling and experience of place understudy, for further analysis. Practical limitations guided the choice of this method.

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Makers Dwelling in Self Crafted Homes

e. Indirect Sources Indirect data found in literature and movies provided insights into the makerâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s work and life. These sources provided interpretations and insights that were useful in analyzing discourses and ideologies; historically situated giving background clues about what was going on the field. Especially in Didiâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s case, these sources were very valuable considering the already documented or passed down work and approach which would otherwise have to be repeated to the researcher entirely.

1.7.2 REPRESENTATIONAL TOOLS a. Illustrations Illustrations help us to better visualize the essence and experiences taking the reader closer to the dwelling and the dweller. The phenomenological experience finds expression here to narrate a lived experience.

b. Diagrams Diagrams are used to convey concepts and the relationship between them. The intersections between them symbolically represent the tangling between concepts.

c. Memory Map The plans and maps generated in the case studies are to be treated as memory maps which describe the flow of spaces and places rather than an architectural drawing or site plan.

d. Photo Essay Photo essays are used in the phenomenological accounts and to paint a picture of place and placelessness in the analysis of the case studies through a series of photographs to describe the journey to and through.

Thesis Proposal

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OTHER ASPECTS a. Gender Neutrality In the entire study, the aspect of gender neutrality in the language is taken care of. The use of ‘he’ used at most of the places when the gender of a person referred to is unknown or indeterminate is replaced with ‘they’, in an attempt to neutralize gender in language.

Furthermore, the words that suggest a gender are changed to a more gender-neutral term.

For example - Mankind ---> Humankind

b. Vernacular aspects of language Vernacular is the everyday language and the way people talk to each other in real life.

The phenomenological parts of the study (The first hand accounts and interviews) are not formalized to hold the essence of recollections and conversations. Some vernacular words are kept in the research appearing in the body of text in italics (to refer to the meaning of italicized words, kindly refer to the glossary of words).

0.1 Purpose of the essays The 3 essays were written after interviewing the makers and visiting them in their dwellings. The essays set the premise of the study through secondary research with glimpses of the case studies.

The larger set of ideas which these responses were to, was important to discuss before zooming in to the individual response which in turn informs the larger picture. The second and third essays are about these larger sets of ideas - second being about the vernacular nature of things relating to the alternative, third being about the placelessness of the mainstream and the aspects of place relating to the alternative.

The first essay outlays the qualities which manifest in the dwellings spatially. In the case studies, these qualities are seen transforming in a physical form to manifest a tangible dwelling where the maker dwells. These ingredients infuse the dwelling and the places with life.

Makers Dwelling in Self Crafted Homes

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1.8 FRAMEWORK OF STUDY - Flow Chart

Primary Research 1. Interviews

Analysis Approach Values Relations

Didi Contractor Bidyut Roy 2. Phenomenological accounts

Lived Experience

Observations on Place and Placelessness Scale Proportion

3. Analysis Humans Nature Community 4. Site Visit Construction Methods

5 Senses

Sight (Visual) Sound Smell Touch Inside and Outside Landscaping Response to site

From Vernacular Materials Creating Awareness

Thesis Proposal

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Secondary Research 3 Essays 1. Intangible Components of Lifefull Dwellings 2. Vernacular 3. Place and Placelessness

Thought Imagination Care Time Empathy Passion

Need for meaning Authenticity Belongingness

Modern Movement Concrete Threat Appropriate Technology

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Makers Dwelling in Self Crafted Homes

2. Essay One : Invisible Ingredients of making a Dwelling A place where one dwells is a dwelling. Dwelling is both a verb and a noun which interestingly also portrays its character. It is an action word as well as an object/thing/ place in itself.

According to Paul Oliver, a dwelling is not just inhabiting a shell. To dwell indicates an act in continuation. Dwelling is both process and artifact. It is not a one-time act, rather it is an endless process. To dwell is to make one’s abode.

Dwelling is more than the structure, as the soul is more than the body that envelops it.

For countless millions of people, the bond between themselves and the place where they live transcends the physical frame of their habitation.

It is this double significance of dwelling Dwelling as the activity of living and residing, Dwellings as the place or built form, which encompasses it’s manifold cultural and material aspects.

(Oliver, 2007) Martin Heidegger in his essay on Building Dwelling and Thinking proposes that a building has to later become a dwelling. Though not every building is a dwelling. He lists buildings that are not dwellings like stadiums, power stations, railway stations, highways, dams, marketplaces, etc. These buildings contain humans. Humans inhabit them but do not dwell in them. The truck driver might feel at home on the highway but he does not have his shelter there.

Heidegger points out that in today’s housing shortage even this much seems reassuring - A shelter - Houses that are well planned, easy to maintain and keep, attractively cheap, open to air, light, and sun - but he questions the guarantee if dwelling occurs in them.

Dwelling, in any case, presides over just a building. Dwelling and building are related, dwelling as an end and building as the means. This implies through the building, dwelling occurs. But this means-end schema separates building and dwelling into two separate activities and block their essential relation with each other. For building is not merely a means and a way towards dwelling - to build is in itself already to dwell.

(Heidegger, 1971) Before one starts building, they conceive the picture of the dwelling first, either on paper or in their minds or in their dreams. Much before digging has started and one puts the foundation, the dwelling has already taken place in the mind of the thinker who has imagined the dwelling and started walking inside these spaces. One makes a list of things that one will need to start the building process which consists of the materials, equipment, and things they need to get from outside sources. Though some of the materials which didn’t make the list because of their invisibility can be ignored totally by someone who doesn’t believe in putting them which might be the main ingredients one puts in building their dwellings and home.

Invisible Ingredients of making a Dwelling

Paul Oliver

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Martin Heidegger

Fig.2.1 Diagram to understand the concepts of building and dwelling put forward

by Paul Oliver and Martin Heidegger.

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Makers Dwelling in Self Crafted Homes

2.1 Thought and Imagination A built space starts to exist in thought rather than directly in the actual physical space.

The more one thinks about it and dwells in it, the more resolved is the built space.

“Entering a building I have designed brings me enormous delight. I reconnect deep in my mind, where the space was first conceived” - Didi Contractor (Giaracuni, Giannetta, & Giaracuni, 2016) Laxmi points out that Didi always makes them close their eyes and imagine the space in their minds. She imagines the clients doing a chore inside the building.

“Imagine they are cooking, to be more specific, suppose they are making an omelet.

What will they be reaching out for? What things would better be near them to make the task easy. Moving around the space one asks where should the fridge be? Where should the sink be?”

- Laxmi Swaminathan (L.Swaminathan, personal communication, Feb 19, 2020) In the conventional approach as well while drawing plans, sections, and elevations the human being is imagined dwelling inside the built space performing an activity and the design takes shape facilitating this activity.

“I imagine how I would read, walk around, explore the space.”

- Bidyut Roy (B. Roy, personal communication, Feb 9, 2020) Roy points out that while thinking of the requirements the client has asked for he focuses on details like the wife is left-handed and the husband is right-handed. In such cases since the maker knows who the client is, the character sketches of the user can be defined much more clearly, even more so when one is aware of the habits and the personality of the dweller.

2.2 Time and Care “The crucial ingredient is concern, care for the way that a house is built, and the shape that it gives to your life. You become expert by caring and working, not by the receipt of any gift from on high” (Moore, Allen, & Lyndon, 2001) Care costs time and in our world, time means money. In the city where lives run faster, nobody seems to have time in their hands. Time is often regarded as something very precious, a currency that can be saved, spent, and wasted.

“All over the world, people have become impatient. These days, everyone everywhere wants everything instantly.”

- Didi Contractor (Singh, 2018)

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With less time in one’s hands, it becomes difficult for a maker to properly care for the dwelling in their thoughts and physically on-site. Dwellings to be inherently nurturing need to receive proper care during the process of making. Similar to a baby in a mother’s belly premature deliveries results in premature manifestations of half-cooked ideas. Roy lives in the homes that he makes with his team throughout the process of making.

“Aami khaabo, jhar debo, dhobo, thaakbo, ghumobo, taar pore berobo [I will eat, broom, wash, live, sleep, then I would leave]” - Bidyut Roy (B. Roy, personal communication, Feb 9, 2020) He finishes the project to the last detail while staying in the site itself, documents his work, and then leaves. (Nari Gandhi also lived with the workers on site). Roy’s method of working singularises the attention given to the dwelling thereby giving it undivided attention and focusing energy on each dwelling being made in his care. When projects become multiple, time and attention have to be divided between them according to the stages the built attains which is never the case in Roy’s practice.

Care causes concern for an entity. The more someone cares for someone or something the more the concern about that someone and something. The more time spent in caring, the furthermore concern. More the concern, the more the efforts put by the maker.

2.3 Empathy Making something for someone requires empathy. Understanding someone else’s feelings about that something helps one to create with the factor of relatability. Approaching one’s dreams of a dwelling with empathy is more likely to result in a dwelling that empathizes with one’s needs. A dwelling is infused with layers of meanings for people which transcend their physical frame of habitation. Getting to understand these inherent meanings helps a maker arrive at a design that is not only better for people but is closer to people. Giving importance to these human dimensions add flavors to the dwellings and transcends the 3 dimensions.

“With all this energy she (Didi) showed me some sketches that she had made. She really in that dream could see all the windows, how the light would be coming in different times of the day and as she was explaining this to me, she was going over these sketches.

I was looking at a 2-d paper but i could see in her mind it was not in just 3 dimensions, it was 4 or 5 encompassing the feeling of it.”

- Mark Moore, Founder of Dharmalaya (Giaracuni, Giannetta, & Giaracuni, 2016) Ruth Carter, an acclaimed costume designer mentions how the feeling of empathy helps her design better clothes for people, facilitated with her background in theatre and acting. Ruth states that to design one needs to understand people. What makes a person who they are, where they live, what they believe in.

(Neville, O’Connor, Wilkes, Kamen, & Woloshin, 2019)

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Makers Dwelling in Self Crafted Homes

Architecture tends to focus on the building rather than the people. To be a good designer, one needs to be a humanitarian, who cares for the quality of human life. These areas of interest of identity, belonging and believes are equallly the domains of a designer to address. One of the major factors driving this feeling of empathy is interest in people.

Enjoying watching people in what they do and notice them doing these things.

“If you come, I shall observe how you would interact with space. I would see the navigation by observing the movement of your feet.”

- Bidyut Roy (B. Roy, personal communication, Feb 9, 2020) Ruth, mentions how she sincerely dedicates time to go people-watching. She observes people walking the streets for hours.

“I look at people’s clothes. How they carry themselves and I make up stories in my head about their lives and it’s all based on what I see. These are the people that bring the ideas to my work. Clothing can tell you so much about a person. If they’re a mother. If they’re an artist. That informs you about what their footwear looks like. The age of their clothes.

The expense of their clothes. What’s their economic status? What do they care about? All those things work out on the clothes. It’s part of a bigger picture.”

(Neville, O’Connor, Wilkes, Kamen, & Woloshin, 2019) When one starts integrating these live examples and how people respond to spaces, associate with spaces and how do they interact with the spaces, in a dwelling, meaningful experiences start to emerge. Designing a habitat is a lot about the space that one carves inside rather than just how it looks. It’s less about the fashion or the current trend and more about these nuances of the interaction of people and place. How space can adapt to individual needs and moods. How free, flexible, and adaptable a physical built space can be to keep up with the changing requirements of the dweller. The existence of the accepted notions and patterns of the dwelling needs to be questioned as one observes and takes on characters that will inhabit the space.

2.4 Passion The quality that binds all the above is the passion of a maker. If the maker is passionate then they will be able to think and imagine without having to do it as an assigned task.

With the thought and imagination being put in, they will spend time dwelling in it inevitably caring about whatever it is they are making. Spending time and care will generate concern. Concern about how it’s received by ‘the who’ who receives it. They will naturally think about the person on the opposite end, trying to connect to relate to the person and deliver something that the other person can, in turn, relate to and find value in.

Passion is the eager interest accompanied by an enthusiastic enjoyment of an activity.

Everyone in the world has varied passions. Ranging from cutting nails to building skyscrapers. One seeks enjoyment in the activities they feel passionate about.

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Fig.2.2 Venn diagram depicting the invisible ingredients of a dwelling

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Whereas they feel boredom, irritability, and disinterest if forced to do an activity they aren’t interested in. When the activity meets its person who is interested in it, they both rejoice. Their fusion makes something magical and meaningful. The joy one puts in while cooking food makes it tastier. Passion brings joy and excitement which enriches the experience of those who are served with it, these being the invisible magic ingredients. Roy puts an emphasis on this joy being the channel of creation advocating to ensure the well being of the maker as an important aspect of making.

“A worker in his workplace had a fever. The man mentioned that he has come all the way from Rajasthan to Pune and his contractor didn’t even pay him after the work he had done. We tried to help in our small way. In these instances, how does the work they did become beautiful! It doesn’t, right!

Oita beautiful tokhon-ei hobe jokhon khub prem diye otaake banano hobe [It will be beautiful only if it is made with a lot of love like a mother’s meal].”

- Bidyut Roy (B. Roy, personal communication, Feb 9, 2020) “I feel very motherly when i am making a house for someone” says Didi - Didi Contractor (Giaracuni, Giannetta, & Giaracuni, 2016) Love is often associated with passion. The love with which something is made cannot be seen and will never be. But it can be experienced by the person who receives it. When an artist performs on the stage, only if they pour in their soul into the performance, can someone who is observing, experiencing it can feel the soul being put into it, considering that the audience is capable of feeling such a thing.

But if the artist themselves are unable to feel their work, the observer or the audience wouldn’t be able to feel it either.

The ingredients that nobody talks about in the conventional approach of making buildings are perhaps the most important ones. The confusion occurs when one thinks of the built space as merely functional. Architecture is seen rather a utilitarian service that exists to provide and meet a prescribed list of requirements. This limited understanding of the profession creates spaces that are not only soulless but also immensely boring. The energy put into the building has no component of love in it. It’s only mechanical skill. Love and care are highly disregarded. These qualities are almost never seen as important materials one builds with because they are not chargeable, they are not seen, they aren’t physical. Similarly, one’s attachment and sentiment towards one’s work often uplifts the quality of the work. The more attached is the maker, the more care they are able to give. The trained objectivity of professionalism is over-rated, superficial, and dry.

2.5 Lifeful Dwellings In a world of fast lives, stress, and anxiety our dwellings can help us to deal and provide a certain sense of centering. Especially, in the city where one finds ways of a release. Our

25. dwellings can become our release nodes where we feel relaxed and rejuvenated within our busy schedules and monotonous lives. The work pressure of 9-5 on 5 days of the week gives us little time with ourselves. We spent most of our time indoors. It is not just existing in a space. The indoor space we live in has psychological effects. What we see, experience, and how it makes us feel are connected to each other. The visuals and the emotions generated by those visuals feed into our systems. While we do possess a great deal of imagination and can transport to any place we desire - the visual perceived by the eye all this time we remain inside it seeps in the subconscious. It might seem to not matter as long as we have space to operate and all the services to make life easy and efficient. This is to emphasize the dangers of an obsession with the kind of clinical and mechanical efficiency which seems to remove the intuitive cultural meaning of our lives and our surroundings. “ Mass housing is quite different from homes that are individually and lovingly made in every detail - one is provided for statistics, the other for individuals. It makes a lot of difference whether things are designed for people or together with them.

Architects hope their buildings will last for several generations, so however much they design with occupants in mind, they’ll never meet all of them. But unless I can design something nourishing to my soul-nourishing, not just nice, dramatic, photogenic, novel - I can hardly expect it to be nourishing to anyone else.

Can practitioners only design with their heads or whether they can still bring to their work an intellect of the heart and the soul? Can we draw the best of our traditions, and re-introduce the timeless qualities of harmony, human scale, and character that generate a sense of belonging - enriching life rather than impoverishing it?”

(Day, 2004) How design can bring health rather than illness? Can a physical entity be healing?

Healing is the process of becoming healthy. Health can be broadly classified into 2 categories 1. Physical Health 2. Mental Health (Psychological Health) Though both are interlinked and not entirely separate independent categories.

For example, If one is ill from a long period and bedridden, one’s mental health is simultaneously affected. Psychosomatic illness, a condition in which physical illness is caused by a mental factor such as internal conflict or taking too much stress demonstrates how it occurs vice versa.

Since most of us live in some sort of a dwelling, a space that can uplift one’s spirit can work wonders for our busy lives and stressed minds. These qualities of the maker and infusion of the soul gifts the dwelling with a healing quality.

With the presence of the above qualities, the maker becomes careful to add physical ingredients that contribute to the mental health of the dweller.

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Fig.2.3 One of Royâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s made home in Fingagachi, Dhulagori, Howrah demonstrating how he attempts to make the inhabitant more happy and joyful.

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“I do not find the conviction in the concept of function. They are unable to understand the element of visual health. If the space can keep you happy and you are really happy looking at it, the space becomes a source of energy.”

- Bidyut Roy (B. Roy, personal communication, Feb 9, 2020) One’s environment and surrounding is a major contributor to one’s health. It can provide nourishment, support, and balance for the human spirit as much as it can starve, oppress, and pervert it. The more universal qualities a dwelling has rather than personal indulgent desires, the more widely transformable it is. That is to say the more universal it will be, it will work similarly on me and you even if we don’t belong in it. Personal aesthetics of beauty can be subjective and a matter of choice varying from person to person but a universally beautiful entity like a butterfly will be pleasing to most of the humans. Some people will be able to appreciate it more, some may not notice it so much but no one will feel disturbed on seeing a butterfly unless they have lepidopterophobia.

Humans have an intimate relationship with natural processes and nature in general. The rising and setting of the sun, the glimpse of the moon, a pleasant wind, a flowering tree in spring, the fallen leaves in autumn, raindrops, snowflakes, waterfall, a water body, walking on grass, birds chirping, looking at greens, blooming of a flower, all these are pleasant and healing experiences. When a built environment responds to these natural processes and gives an individual a position to appreciate or facilitate it, it results in simulating an experience that is nourishing and in most cases healing. The function of beauty is one of the essential aspects of the built environment which is often ignored in today’s buildings. It is seen as decoration and unnecessary embellishment rather than details of a space. When space is only functional, only clinical, only to the dot essential, only practical, it deprives the dweller of joy it could have added to their life. It is the lifeful experiences one will be able to create when the maker possesses sensitivity and aims to provide a nourishing experience of dwelling, place, and environment. Without which a human might not be as well needed to design a built for another human. This job can be very well conducted perhaps by a machine fed with algorithms and codes when run simulates better practical results than the machine makers of the present dwellings. “ Vernacular languages are mother tongues: just as an affectionate maternal voice can reassure, details inspired by local vernacular architecture foster an intimate sense of healing comfort.”

- Didi Contractor (Singh, 2018)

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3. Essay Two : Of the People, By the People, For the People The famous words spoken by Abraham Lincoln to describe the nature of a democratic government might not hold when applied to dwellings. Surely every dwelling belongs to a people and is made for the people, but the people who it is made by are not the same people who live in them. On the contrary the people (migrant workforce) making it might not even have a proper dwelling with the basic facilities. The dweller in today’s housing scenario is merely an occupant. A replaceable inhabitant that can be changed and the nature of the building will remain more and less the same. To dwell in something reflects to be engaged in a phenomena. In the case of a bought apartment the dweller can make some permanent changes such as making dry partitions, tweak or puncture some walls that aren’t load-bearing, incorporate built-in furniture. In the case of house extensions one will need to take the required permissions from relevant planning authorities and co-ordinate with the other occupants who might be affected due to the extensions. In multilevel systems, these decisions can become complex to execute but can be done with proper planning, implementation, and permissions. In the scenario of rented apartments, the inhabitant is often restrained from making permanent changes to the built space. Though the inhabitant occupies the space, the level of personalization one can do varies according to the agreement between the landlord and the tenant. The tenant may be allowed to draw or put things on the wall depending on the age of the existing coat of paint on the walls and how fresh it is. If it’s old and already falling off the tenant might as well have some freedom. Often a house with a child witnesses drawings till the heights of the wall the child can reach to, being a socially accepted phenomenon a child drawing on walls is not something to be fretted about. Though it might not work in a similar way for an adult who is expected to make conscious decisions and act responsibly. Thus it is one of the responsibilities of the tenant to constantly remember that it is not their own house they live in. How much of dwelling can occur in such conditions is ambiguous? Often the landlord might have to be contacted if one needs to put a nail on the wall, it being a physical change to a wall. The ever-present restrictions in a rented apartment might act as a barrier preventing one to dwell freely. The tenant dwells in terms of placing the furniture, keeping and arranging their belongings, putting matching curtains, changing the lights, basically anything that can be taken with them while vacating the house.

Perhaps of the people, by the people and for the people only holds applicable in a true sense in the vernacular nature of things. In the vernacular nature of things the very existence of an outside party making a dwelling for someone else flushes in the vacuum.

Though there might be an experienced individual who is part of the building process.

It is a laughable irony that even people living in vernacular dwellings don’t know it has got a name. For people it is simply their shelter which they make themselves no more different than their food. The existence of the discussed vernacular generally occurs outside the urban context where people have a patch of land, sky and natural resources to build with.

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When one looks closely at the nature of the vernacular, and the definition of the term, the slums, the makeshift structures made by people in the city with things they find around is not very different. The fields might witness homeless immigrants camping with sheets of plastic pitched like a tent on two bamboo poles, they might have procured from the discarded pieces of scaffoldings from the nearby construction site. Though these construction techniques are equally rich with regards to using available resources and provide for one’s necessities with whatever means one has. It is not so much of from the domain of knowledge as it is from the domain of common sense. The vernacular is driven by instincts and necessity. The solutions are often very practical and simple. A city vernacular may evolve in the coming generations given the materials one is dealing with are new and humans didn’t have to deal with so much garbage ever before. What it questions though is the kind of resources that one finds to build their shelters that are often uncomfortable and unacceptable for the human to live within. The commonly used patra heats absorbing heat in hot afternoons and releases it in the shelter accounting for an uncomfortable night. The plastic sheets contain processed chemicals that are not healthy to inhale and to live in. Since this future city vernacular is often on the move, due to its illegal aspects, the knowledge to deal with materials and the techniques aren’t accumulated at a place for it to evolve which results in starting over and over again giving rise to a shelter offering merely survival. In the city where there might not be adequate natural resources to borrow from and there might be even banned to take from the existing resources in the first place for conservation purposes, the materials of this future might be the ever-increasing waste that one so casually produces every day.

The Mothertongue : The Vernacular Vernacular language is used to refer to someone’s mother tongue. The most intuitive language one would speak in the face of danger. A vernacular method of construction like a vernacular language has close ties with a place, often emerging from it. Due to the sharing of a place and it’s resources the instinctive responses by the humans living in that place are similar. When pooled together as a community becomes common knowledge of building and construction. Similar problems are faced in the case of storms and heavy rains, the consequences shared by the inhabitants living in the place, which call for solutions that add up to this knowledge body thus advancing very slowly but gradually for the better. The vernacular has for long been a source of inspiration. What gives it a high regard is its generations of accumulation, continuation, and improvisation at a place. An architecture of experience with almost no formally educated architects. Doing by learning, trial, and error, generations of these two steps repeated gives a place it’s vernacular dwellings.

Paul Oliver points out how in many cultures, the dwelling might be the single most important artifact that a man, woman, or their family along with the help of a community may ever construct and call their own. (Oliver, 2007) The involvement of people in making a dwelling and it’s reactive nature gives rise to a sense of attachment. Most of the vernacular needs regular maintenance and are not completely immune from the natural processes of the climate. To illustrate, if the

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Fig. 3.1 The city â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;Vernacularâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; made with garbage - Kathputli Slum Area in Jaipur, Rajasthan, India. 28 August 2018.

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dwelling features a mud floor, cracks appear every year when the mud floor has to be redone and the cracks need to be filled with fresh mud paste. If the dwelling features a hay roof then, the hay needs to be changed once every year or two. This builds up a sense of care in people towards their dwellings. The more one spends time on the artifact of their making the more attachment will one have with it. Vernacular carried within it the lessons of humility and respect for nature, truth to materials to satisfying the axiom, ‘form follows function’. The vernacular didn’t indulge in creating fashionable forms that might ‘look’ good. The vernacular doesn’t go through fashion cycles. Though vernacular does indulge in the folklore and stories of the land by decorating itself in native art becoming a canvas of expression of the culture of a place. The nature of materials used in the vernacular gives these structures a status of sustainability which is inherently present in these dwellings without a name.

Masters of architecture learning from the ‘uneducated’ maker “The true basis of any serious study of the art of architecture still lies in those indigenous structures; being to architecture what folk-lore is to literature or folk song is to music.

They are of the soil. Natural.

Their virtue is intimately related to the environment and to the heart-life of the people.

Functions are truthfully conceived and rendered invariably with natural feeling. Results are often beautiful and always instructive” - Frank Lloyd Wright Several architects have studied the vernacular to learn from the ‘uneducated’ maker.

Laurie Baker, FLW, Hassan Fathy, Charles Correa, Balkrishna Doshi, Nari Gandhi being among the few.

Hassan Fathy noted how vernacular architecture not only solved the climatic problems but also did so with a combination of beauty, physical, and social functionality.

Laurie Baker points out how he learns his architecture from the common people since it’s the cheapest, simplest and efficient. During the 16 years that he lived in Pithoragarh district of Uttar Pradesh he learned from what people did. Baker felt his training in architecture was of no use there and writes it was this time in Pithoragarh that taught him appropriate and immediate technology. Baker replays his memory of cycling tour in Europe when he was 17 and how the differences in the life patterns of the people and the differences in the houses from country to country left a deep impression on him.

“Folk building grow in response to actual needs, fitted into the environment by people who know no better than to fit them with native feeling” - Frank Lloyd Wright Since the vernacular is native to a place and as Fathy states one of the most physical manifestations of the interaction between humans and environments constituting culture. It is this local flavor one often highlights while describing vernacular architecture.

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Fig.3.2 A goat and a banana tree on the front side of a mud wall of a dwelling in Shantiniketan. February 10, 2020.

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“ Fifty years ago we were taught that a building must have an identity. We could certainly tell by looking at a building whether it was domestic or commercial or industrial and so on. It also had its geographical and cultural characteristics.

In India there is an incredible wealth of regional architectural styles and there is not the faintest possibility of confusing one with another. Even where the same materials have been used for building, the climatic and cultural and regional variations are so great that different methods of construction have been used to produce unique individual distinctive styles. Furthermore, these distinctive styles apply not only to big and important buildings but right down to the smallest structures. We can say that the buildings of any small district are a quintessence of that distinct’s culture and skill.”

- Laurie Baker (Gautam, 1991)

The threat to the vernacular An insensitivity to the vernacular and it’s demolition for ‘progress’ and ‘development’ to make way for ‘a modern world’ is a pressing issue. Swept by propaganda to acquire land, the residents of vernacular dwellings have been urged or directed to relocate in high rise buildings or other mass housing schemes. The impact of globalization and it’s effect on rural economies, rapid urbanization is apparent while witnessing the changing landscapes of rural India. The eradication of building traditions urges not only architects but to all who value the inheritance of the built environment. (Oliver,2004) The rural world continues to lose it’s natural life as we speak. With the vanishing natural resources to borrow building materials from, the acquiring of those natural resources by the government is another factor driving the vernacular builder to adopt the everpresent readily available ‘modern’ material. At an individual level, the kaccha house dweller engages in the conception of a pucca house as an upgrade or necessity. The concrete dwelling is thought to be a symbol of wealth, class, and modernity with attractive features like, it’s low maintenance. Slowly and steadily, the international style lingers perniciously in India destroying its rich heritage of the vernacular which is a result of its varied culture, people, and geography.

“You have 2000-3000 years of R&D behind vernacular buildings. People have done things that have worked, and lasted. The test of time is there with all the things. If you look at what people had done, they had to do it. If they did the wrong things, they wouldn’t survive.”

- Didi Contractor (Singh, 2018) “Having made our assessment we would show ourselves capable of adopting the lessons we have learned (negative or positive, they are of equal importance) to our current living habits and currently available building materials at our disposal. Along with this, we should remind ourselves that it is not ‘advancement’ or ‘development’ or ‘progress’ to indulge in modern building materials and techniques at tremendous expenses and to no

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good effect when there is no justification or reason for their use, instead of older, simpler, inexpensive methods.”

- Laurie Baker (Gautam, 1991)

Appropriate Technology It is a stereotype to rank technologies - as low and high. It is not so much of a matter of this evaluation of low, high, old and new as much as it’s a matter of appropriate technologies. The vernacular is viewed as if it resists the rising technological advances of the world and disregards them. We first must question the very definition of the term.

Technology “science of craft”, (techne - art, skill and dexterity and logia - sum of techniques, skills, methods, and processes used in the production of goods or services or in the accomplishment of objectives).

The development of simple tools, the invention of the wheel, the telephone, and the internet are all forms of technology.

The preamble of any craft is that:- “Craft is a technology”.

It will be a prejudiced opinion to say that crafts are a low technology. When such a statement is made, the application of such a notion will declare the entire doctrine of vernacular as an example of low technology.

Let’s take Bhungas for example. How can it be possibly a low technology? Because it is obtained by the use of simpler means, materials, and techniques?

Bhungas are traditional houses in Kutch, Gujarat which are circular walled covered with a thatched roof. They have proven to be structurally stable in earthquakes, sandstorms, and cyclonic winds. Bhungas are climate responsive as they stay cool in summers and warm in winters.

Technology is not to be resisted but the mindless application of it may have disastrous effects. The unquestioned application of concrete and steel technology in building construction anywhere and everywhere has resulted in the eradication of regional identity and association. While technology implies development, it is extremely important to understand what is appropriate and is in what context. Technological development, ideally should have beneficial effects for the society and the human condition. But time and time again it has earned a bad reputation whenever applied “unconsciously” and had rather adverse effects.

Another important aspect to make all technologies more human and have the aspect of humanity at the heart of these inventions is crucial. Forgetting the prime objective of technology can uproot lives and destroy the very reason it exists in the first place.

Exploitation of technology is not a new concept. In a letter that Einstein wrote to physicist Neil Bohr in Dec1944 he wrote “When the war is over, then there will be in all countries a pursuit of secret war preparations with technological means which will lead inevitably to preventative wars and to destruction even more terrible than the present destruction of life.”

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Fig.3.3 Bhunga dwellings of Kutch, Gujarat.

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In this sentence Einstein is referring to the application of his equation E=MC2 in the making of atomic bombs and further destructive technologies that will be developed by nations after they achieve basic nuclear fission and fusion. Technology when unchecked can lead to outcomes that will loose to the very concept of humanity.

Vernacular architecture isn’t the opposite of the use of technology, on the contrary it employs technological means of a region appropriate to the region and it’s people, situating itself in the know-how of the region.

It is important to note here that it will be equally prejudiced to say that concrete as a material is bad in itself. Though the mindless use of a material can make it so. Therefore before using concrete as the most intuitive form of building we should ask ourselves -“Is this the most appropriate technology among all the available technologies to use in the context one is building in?” Will it add value to the living and the everyday life which is situated within it? After a series of questions and checking the material for its suitability in a given context and situation we can validate the materials we build with.

The unchecked use of concrete is not only derogatory to all other building materials but for concrete itself, which is not chosen for its quality, uniqueness, efficiency, strength, potential, and possibility but treated as a default material. When the right questions are asked, it will automatically result in the mindful use of cement only in certain conditions where it is appropriate.

“The masons compare concrete to Masala, “masala laao!”. You won’t make your sabji out of masala. You will add masala to the sabji.

Sometimes you need to use a certain limited amount of concrete. First you see what is technically feasible, available, alternatives there are and you go through those then you judge whether you want to use it.”

- Didi Contractor (D. Contractor, Personal communication, 16 Feb 2020) “Kotha, shuddho aar shuddho jaygay bebohaar. [It needs to be used appropriately only at certain places]. If I properly use cement, it’s okay, but cement bolte shob jaygay tumi, ota kopaale, mathay, paaye, shob jaygay cement laagale holo na. [You can’t put cement on the forehead, head, legs, just everywhere]” - Bidyut Roy (B. Roy, Personal communication, 10 Feb 2020) “He made the foundation, then the ground floor, then was making the upper floors, all with so much concrete. You can just make the upper floors with bamboo, there was so much bamboo nearby in abundance. The place was moisture free, it’s not susceptible to moisture or insects as it is windy up there. I understand why one may need concrete for the foundation because there is moisture in the earth. But why would you need cement when you are on the second floor!”

- Bidyut Roy (B. Roy, Personal communication, 10 Feb 2020) Baker points out that individual needs stem from India’s diverse environment, the varying cultural patterns and lifestyles; which must be met through a responsive architecture, uses local materials and expresses itself in many different forms.

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Living architecture thrives on appropriate assimilation and adaptation. Its vitality stems from it’s ability to change and to meet the changing needs and perceptions of it’s inhabitant’s, like any craft, it is an organic, evolving form; and traditional patterns are not rigidly - structured creations of individuals but the collective experience of many generations. Here Baker calls for a continuity of the vernacular not in a conservative sense but in a truly modern sense. To not loose to the pressures of globalization one must invent new ways which looks at the future needs and find creative solutions to tackle the problems, with the already accumulated knowledge of the builders of the region. (Gautam, 1991)

“ The necessity for speed was one of the big factors that contributes to that break with tradition. It probably took a thousand years for us to find out by trial and error how to make a mud wall impervious to rain and wind, another thousand years to learn how to keep termites out of it, and another 2 or 3 thousand to learn how to build multi- storeyed mud buildings.”

- Laurie Baker (Gautam, 1991)

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4. Essay Three: The Contemporary Placelessness and The Desire for a Place Note - The following poem and collage is to illustrate a lived experience from a phenomenological point of view written in first person.

Over the years In the urban jungles I lived in I started getting more and more lost My various experiences Of my vibrant cities Had started merging with one another.

I would often Confuse a road in Kolkata With a road in Ahmedabad and vice versa.

I would hit my head To remind myself 2000 kms separated the two One in the east One in the west Everything was different about the two.

I hit my head with my palm. Bam! As this time i had confused between A building in Delhi With a building in Mumbai.

This became a recurring phenomenon.

My head had swollen by now with all the hits.

I would often say with my hand streched out to point and say “I have seen this!” and say to myself in my head “I have experienced this space already!”

Talk of Déjà vu It was an everyday event.

After visiting 20-25 of them I was frightened to realise I had mixed all my cities.

Clothed in facts truth feels oppressed; in the garb of poetry it moves easy and free- Rabindranath Tagore

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Fig.4.1 A collage to depict the commonplace placelessness featuring built form in Ballygunge(Kolkata), Gurugram(Haryana), Ultadanga(Kolkata), New Town(Kolkata), Gaziabad(Uttar Pradesh), Saraspur(Ahmedabad), New Town(Kolkata). April 2018 Feb 2020.

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The earliest humans were hunter gatherers that is to say that their food supplies depended on what they gathered and what they were able to hunt. It was not until the advent of agriculture when they thought to settle. Until then it seemed it was rather necessary to keep on moving so that the resources they gathered their food from was given the time to replenish naturally. The process of agriculture domesticated plants and animals to produce food which meant that they were no longer perpetual migrants. They could settle at one place right from the time of their birth and continue to live at the same place till they died unless and until they were either hit by natural calamities like floods, earthquakes or by human made calamities like war. Humans knew by then that they need shelter to live to protect themselves from rain, storms, wild animals, etc. The earliest example of a naturally occuring shelter for humans was that of a cave which had a volume to dwell in. The earliest form of personalisation being the cave paintings. After the advent of agriculture, they went on to build with materials that surrounded them like branches, stones, leaves, tree bark, bones, animal skin, whatever they found around.

Different regions witnessed different materials being used in the shelter of humans.

Eskimos used ice to build their igloos simply because that is what was around them as a material. It was rather convenience than choice that directed these building decisions.

With the advent of tools humans started building more sophisticatedly. New techniques were devised and they learned by trial and error.

It’s an irony how today all these materials would be termed as alternative building materials. If all the traditional materials are alternative or to say unconventional then what is the conventional material? Today Cement is one of the most frequently used building materials. Its usage worldwide, is twice that of steel, wood, plastics, and aluminum combined. Concrete now is the most widely used man made material in existence. It is second only to water as the most consumed resource on the planet. It is this overuse that has become a threat to the environment. (Rodgers, 2018) The mayan civilisation used a form of concrete, so as ancient egyptians and romans. The Colosseum in Rome was built largely of concrete around 70AD, and the concrete dome of the Pantheon - world’s largest unreinforced concrete dome was built around 27 BC. Concrete became ‘the building material’ after the II world war(1939 to 1945) which is also known as the golden age of capitalism. Concrete facilitated fast construction during a time of severe housing shortage. Returning veterans and mass immigration had pushed housing demand to unprecedented heights.

Modern architecture became dominant at this very time. Modern architecture advocated minimialism and rejected ornamentation which suited the scenario perfectly. There was no time to be wasted in ornamentation. This movement went on till the 1980s after which it was gradually replaced by postmodern architecture which emerged as a reaction against the austerity, formality and lack of variety. The terms rationalist architecture and modern movement are often used interchangeably with the International Style.

The modern movement advocated functionalism: the idea that form follows function and that the buildings should be designed solely based on their purpose and function.

Therefore giving function the highest regard and keeping it as simple as it can get.

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According to the simple laws of physics, it seemed making a box where the walls go up straight at 90 degrees from all 4 sides with cutouts between them as windows topped with a flat ceiling to be used as a floor on the upper floor seemed the most logical, doable and fast.

India wanted to develop it’s industries for a desired economic transformation. What the world was witnessing as a major movement facilitated urbanization. India started to modernise itself. Rapid urbanization took place after independence. With it the second half of the twentieth century witnessed a marked shift of population from rural to urban areas. In 1947, at the time of partition, 18 cement factories were producing around 14.5 lakh tonnes of cement. The growth of the cement industry in public sector commenced when the government set up Cement Corporation of India. Before 1980s, the cement industry was subjected to strict regulations with regards to pricing, production and distribution. After a partial deregulation of 1982, further deregulations in 1989 allowed the market forces to determine the prices and distribution. Due to this liberalisation, several cement manufacturing experienced a boom during the 1990s. By the end of the decade the supplies increased substantially. The intense competition among manufacturers resulted in the fall of prices and made it a cheaply available construction material ideal. Cement gain it’s popularity as it was widely available, cheap, efficient and convenient to built with, specially when floors had to be built one top of another. The demand of cement went up due to the economic growth and infrastructure development.

Today India is world’s second largest cement producing country after China, with an installed capacity of 160.24 x 10 6 t/a. (Sharma, 2008) This attained capacity to produce so much cement is seen equivalent to progress and development and makes the modern world as we know it today possible.

What this notion of development promoted though homogenised the buildings, not only in the commercial zones, administrative and industrial zones but also the residential zones. The housing sector is now almost entirely controlled by commercial builders employed by government or private companies - both of whom look at house as a commodity to be produced and sold in large numbers. People make do with what is available and affordable. Architecture is now parcelled along political and market propaganda.The decisions of which technology to use, which materials to built with, the nature of the space, the number of openings, the area given to balconies is not a decision made by the people living in them. This detachment and gap between the builder and the dweller has resulted in the insensitivity with which houses are made and treated today.

At the turn of the century, architects genuinely believed that the modern movement will serve the needs of the ordinary people. It seemed like the new technologies and new materials - concrete, steel and glass could provide the solution to the persistent problem of the lack of housing. It was believed that the ‘high tech building’ would improve the standards of living for everybody. In India, where the governments still struggle to house the ever increasing urban flood of dwellers, the inadequacies of this forty year old doctrine of modern architecture have become apparent. As the gap of available resources and the need of housing has furthermore increased the inflexible sterility of the modern style has come sharply into focus. (Bhatia, 1991)

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The comfort and lifestyle of the people the housing schemes are intended for, are rarely considered and studied. Most of these boxes are designed without even knowing who is going to inhabit them. The inhabitants of these schemes, to which this modern doctrine was wholeheartedly committed to feels unfamiliar in their buildings and surroundings.

Today’s buildings are produced with no relation with the land it exists on - the regional or historical identities. It is from this aesthetic uncertainty, architects have sought to decoration and pop iconography rather than the tradition of the nature of space, plan and habitation. The history of style has replaced the history of architecture, attractively advertising itself on the advertising billboards. The once new technological solutions of the modern movement have fossilized into the rigid inflexibility in the rigid hands of these commercial builders who couldn’t see beyond their profit margins.

Even the private plots of individual houses in the urban context who have the power to choose, extravagantly indulge in the making of an image of a ‘modern’ and ‘progressive’ house provoking the Indian client and architect into the fantasies of houses that have little or no connection to the local and the prevailing conditions of the land. This detachment from place, people and context it exists in has resulted in the alien looking buildings (Fig.4.2). The concern of climate, location, vegetation and living pattern are arrogantly ignored because they can be, given the mechanized evergy consuming technological systems humans have developed to regulate the temperature. Money driven practices are incapable of suggesting anything else than the immediate rushed construction of accepted, trending nature of buildings, isolated from the land and often in conflict with the environment in which it is placed. In these conditions, an imaginative or an educational assessment of the relation between the client and the society seems impossible.

There will always be these extravagant buildings commissioned by the rich. There will be commercial and political complexes and public buildings but these are much lesser in proportion when compared to the rest of the building requirements of the commonplace dweller. Unless architecture transcends this modern approach and finds a way out, architects will continue to do incalculable damage to the environment and the society shaping it’s inhabitants through it’s built structure. (Bhatia, 1991) “ In the building world, our current sacred cow-word is Modern. Any building labeled modern, however ugly or mistaken, is accepted but where are our so-called modern Indian styles? How wonderful it will be when our architects and engineers combine the lessons learned from our own traditional building styles with the honest undisguised use of our regionally plentiful, inexpensive materials.”

- Laurie Baker (Gautam, 1991) The buildings in our cities can be uplifted and kept anywhere and nobody will ever know. Maybe even the inhabitants will not know. This mass acceptance of the modern building has resulted in the commonplace placelessness we see everywhere.

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Fig.4.2 A realistic render of the front elevation of Swagat Baganville Phase 1 in Shilaj, Ahmedabad - demonstrating the superficial ‘modern’ architectural styles to give a house a ‘look’, alien to the land, people and context.

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Place Edward Relph’s exhaustive study of place questions the taken for granted nature of place.

He points out the significance of place as an inescapable dimension of human life and experience. He emphasizes in his paper, Place and Placelessness, his research method as “a phenomenology of place”. Relph placed a strong belief that such understanding might contribute to the maintenance and restoration of existing places and the making of new places. He argues that without a thorough understanding of place, one would find it difficult to describe and identify why a certain place is in need of mending. While examining the concept of place in-depth, he focuses on people’s identity of and with the place. By identity of a place he refers to its persistent sameness in terms of its character and unity in terms of consistency which allows that place to be differentiated from others.

He describes this identity in terms of 3 components 1. The place’s physical setting 2. It’s activities, situations, and events 3. The individual and group meanings created through people’s experiences and intentions in regard to that place.

Relph emphasizes that places are “significant centers of our immediate experiences of the world”. If places are to be more thoroughly understood, one needs a language so that we can identify a particular place experiences in terms of its intensity of meaning and intention. It is this relationship between a person and place, hold for each other that needed to be looked into rather than looking at place singularly. For Relph, the crux of this lived intensity is the identity with a place. Relph invents a language to define these varied relations between person and place. If a person has attachment, involvement, and concern for a particular place they are inside a place.

If a person feels inside a place, they are rather here than there, safe rather than threatened, enclosed rather than exposed, at ease rather than stressed. He suggests that the more profoundly inside a place a person feels, the stronger will be their identity with that place. On the other hand, a person can be separated or alienated from place, and is what Relph terms as outsideness. For example when one moves to an entirely new place where they don’t know anybody, we feel this sense of outsideness. Though gradually this feeling reduces as one starts knowing people, understand the cultural aspects of a place, learn the language for local nuances of conversation, become part of the community during festivals and celebrations as well as everyday life.

The outsideness and insideness constitute a fundamental dialectic in human life and that through varying combinations and intensities of outsideness and insideness, different places take on different identities for different individuals and groups. Human experience takes on different qualities of feeling, meaning, and ambiance depending on the proportions of this felt insideness and outsideness.

The Contemporary Placelessness and The Desire for Place

Fig.4.3 If dwelling is an apple, Place is the basket which contains that apple. The place contributes in uplifting the quality of a dwelling by surrounding it with meaning, character and experiences.

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The strongest sense of place experience is what Relph calls existential insideness - a situation of deep, unself-conscious immersion of place and the experience most people know when they are at home in their own community, and region. Over the years, home, community and region are less and less dictated by ethnic ties due to the transient nature of being. One’s sense of community falls in the domain of created circle of close friends, emotional bonds, family relations and ties of companionship. What one calls their own community may depend on a lot of other factors other than blood ties, for example, the time spent with one, the amount of hardships endured together, set of values and ethics, intersecting interests. The large scale movement and migration have changed how people relate to ‘their’ region and what in the first place they call their’s.

Sense of Place Place comes with a proposition of particularity or specificity. This specificity is only possible if there is a distinct character to remember a place by. An identity that is so unique that only this place has it.

The idea of place finds itself in a powerful whirlpool of a desire of belonging to a place, either as an insider or an outsider. The insider is more or less equipped to feel this place due to the factor of time facilitating his relationship with the place and therefore their familiarity with the place as well as the people. In the case of a newcomer, the outsider, if there is a sense of place, then this new relationship between them and the place has a starting point.

Though a place is in a state of constant flux, today it might not be what it was yesterday.

Therefore for the insider the eternal task is to not take their relationship with this place for granted and put efforts in constantly rediscovering the place and keeping pace with the changes it goes through.

Absolute places are static and dead. Places much like the terrain it belongs to is constantly changing with the movement of earth and seasons, places cannot fundamentally become inert. The biggest factor of them all, being the passing of time.

They have to be reactive responding to stimuli from the natural agents as well as the living entities that live in them. Places need the benefit of doubt to be moving. They need to be unsure of themselves. Therefore opening possibilities to change and adapt.

They have to reinvent themselves everyday tirelessly in order to avoid rigidity and an unquestioned continuity.

Sense of place can be understood when we flip the coin to reveal the absence of a sense of place - a concept called placelessness.

Placelessness Places that lack “sense of place” are referred to as placeless places also called non- places by anthropologist Marc Auge. Placeless places are those that have no special relationship to the places in which they are located - they could be anywhere; shopping malls, gas/ petrol stations, fast food chains are some common examples of placeless places.

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Marc Auge, refers to the non places as an ambivalent space which has none of the familiar attributes of a place- for instance it incites no sense of belonging. In his book Non-places: Introduction to an Anthropology of supermodernity his concept of non place refers to those spaces one typically encounters while traveling, like airports, railway stations, metro stations, bus stops, hotels and the like which one often remembers in very generic terms, characterized by constant transition and temporality.

In comparing the two, Marc states “If a place can be defined as relational, historical, and concerned with identity than a space which cannot be defined as relational, historical or concerned with identity will be a non-place.”

Edward Relph argues that in our modern era, an authentic sense of place is being gradually overshadowed by a less authentic attitude that he calls placelessness : “ the casual eradication of distinctive places and the making of standardized landscapes results from an insensitivity to the significance of place.”

He suggests that placelessness arises from Kitsch - an uncritical acceptance of mass values, or technique - the overriding concern with efficiency as an end in itself.

The overall impact of these two forces, which manifest through processes as mass communication, mass culture, and central authority, is the undermining of place for both individuals and cultures and the casual replacement of the diverse and significant places of the world with anonymous spaces and exchangeable environments.

Dimensioning the desire of place I. The need for meaning The entire discussion of a sense of place and the spirit of place also called the genius loci comes from the assumption that man is always in a search of meaning. If it is true only when there is a need for discussing these ideas. Therefore architecture cannot be defined only using concepts of functionalism. Different kinds of architecture spring from different situations which require different solutions in order to satisfy human’s physical and psychic needs. The nature of the psychic needs transcends the physical actuality of built space.

It is one of the basic needs of man to experience his life situations as meaningful. The man who tries to understand everything through scientific understanding alone may find music nothing but a combination of different sound waves organized in time with specific rhythm or counts of beats. This understanding might defeat the whole point of music, which is to feel.

As children we weave stories every day of a magical world. A world of fantasy. Our fairytales and fiction adds elements to fantasize and imagine. The elements render the world with life that comes from one’s own imagination. We associate with things and derive meaning out of it. These elements when seen somewhere generates association and memories. Stories make things and places special. Stories give meaning to places.

When we go to a place we often ask the significance of an existing entity which without

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Fig.4.4 Ritual practicised by aboriginal groups in New South Wales (NSW) comprising of carving patterns and designs on tree trunks considered sacred to mark imporant ceremonial and burial sites.

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this story may seem an ordinary object or concept. We infuse the object with life when we listen to these stories about its significance. When we incorporate stories in daily life we enchant objects infusing them with spirits.

Imagine yourself going to an abandoned town where nobody lives. The houses remain, everything is as it is as if it was vacated yesterday. You are a person who has no intention of studying the place or lifestyles of people. As you travel through the town your mind will automatically construct an image of lives that lived there and weave stories of your own to derive meaning. Your mind will auto construct and you will find it inevitable to not imagine.

In a belief, called Animism, objects, places and creatures all possess a distinct spiritual essence. This belief system is the most common, foundational thread of indigenous people’s “spiritual” or “supernatural” perspectives.

Animism encompasses the beliefs that all material phenomena have an agency, that there exists no hard and fast distinction between the spiritual and physical(or material) world and soul or spirit exists not only in humans but also other animals, plants, rocks, geographic features such as mountains or rivers and other entities of the natural environment: water spirits, vegetation deities, tree spirits. Somebody who doesn’t believe in the existence of such spirits may loose on the magic the stories create. The point of these spirits might not be then to falsify our worlds with things that don’t seem to exist but to give meaning to our physical world. Built space can exist either with stories or without. Even without meanings and stories the space will function just fine.

Without capturing any hypothetical spirit a place can function giving rise to economic opportunities and have all necessary elements required to run the livelihoods of people.

But that escapes the whole point of human existence - which is shaping a meaningful life.

“When we treat architecture analytically, we miss the concrete environmental character, that is, the very quality which is the object of man’s identification and which may give him a sense of existential foothold.”(Schulz, 1980) Christian Norberg Schulz equates “existential foothold” to “dwelling”. Human dwells when they can orient themselves within and identify themselves with an environment or in short, when they experience the environment as meaningful.

To experience this place one needs to comprehend the inherent meanings that make a place. He points out that this will require shutting our overly logical brains and let the mind wander stitching stories all over the place. To understand the essence of the meaning of a place we might need to participate in someone else’s story.

Associations with things, objects, and nature uplift our relation with them. Things and the non- living world enchant itself in this domain of meaning.

“The spaces where life occurs are places... A place is a space that has distinct character.

Since ancient times the genius loci or spirit of place, has been recognized as the concrete reality man has to face and come to terms with his daily life. Architecture means to visualize the genius loci and the task of the architect is to create meaningful places, whereby he helps man to dwell.” (Schulz, 1980)

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“Societies of all kinds and in every part of the world need to account for the nature of their environment and man’s perceived place in the scheme of things, in order to give meaning, purpose, and structure to living.” (Oliver, 2007) As a species we need meaning to survive. Since what differentiates human intelligence to animal intelligence is the power to look at ourselves as a third person analyzing our own actions and life. This looking generates a thirst for a higher purpose than just surviving.

Its thirst for meaning isn’t detached from a human’s extensions, their belongings, their dwelling, the place they live, all are a part of a larger scheme from which they derive meaning and make sense of their life.

II. In search of Authenticity A concept central to places is a concern for authenticity. Authenticity is a quality of engagement between people and places.

Architectural theorist Kim Dovey characterizes an authentic object as follows 1. The authentic object or environment must be of undisputed origin, its form should be connected to its process of creation 2. It must be genuine - things are what they appear to be or what one expects them to be 3. It must be reliable in terms of quality and strength Satisfaction of these three conditions results in, what he calls “experiential depth” which is connectedness without deception - when one’s knowledge of a thing or place is backed up by its reality.

Kim Dovey concludes that authentic environmental meaning is not a condition of the physical world but rather, is a situation “ of connectedness in the relationship between people and their world.”

For Edward Relph authenticity is a relation between people, things, and places measured in degrees of participation. The more we are able to participate, the more authentic the connection or relation. Lack of participation leads to a lack of direct experience, which results in detachment.

An example exhibiting lack of Dovey’s experiential depth is - Tourist spots.

Tourist spots remove the real experiential possibilities offered by the place by providing only scripted experiences, in which much is lost in translation. These spots give the visitor an inauthentic relationship with a place. These places make an image that can be marketed as a brand to attract more tourists to serve them this packaged offer of the experience of a place.

(Canizaro, 2007)

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Jodhpur being acquired the reputation of being a blue city has alot of walls coloured blue prominent when seen from the top of Mehrangarh fort. It once served a functional purpose, the copper sulphate being mixed in the whitewash to protect the houses against bacteria, algae and fungi imparted the blue colour. When the blue becomes a colour of identity and a way jodhpur can be packaged it looses itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s authenticity. It tries to become something that it is not backed by itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s true purpose.

Fig.4.5 View of houses painted blue from Mehrangarh Fort, Jodhpur, Rajasthan.

October 25, 2016.

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Landscaper Dean MacCannell’s analysis of tourist experiences demonstrates a facet of authenticity. A structure of “fronts” and “ backs”. The front is the public face of a place and the back is the space of both privacy and functionality - where things really happen. Behind the scenes adventures are sought after by the traveler because they promise to show life as it is lived by the locals. The tourist is removed from the reality of a place thereby lessening one’s ability to engage and participate fully in one’s surrounding and conspiring to keep the visitor on only the forefronts - the places the authorities would like them to see.

A wider consideration of the back in architecture results in an experience: one interwoven with the local history, meaning and expressions of a region - with its cultural landscape; one that provides for participation, experiential depth and connectedness to life and how it is lived in that region.

What is the problem of an image? Connectedness or bonds is established after a certain number of meetings and conversations when you meet a person again and again over a period of time.

Slowly and steadily you get to know the person by virtue of observation, considering that you are interested to know this person. Direct Observation rather than the image of this person created by people, or the person’s image about himself formulates a more transparent understanding. The real thing reveals itself only when we probe deep enough relying on observation over time rather than this conversation in which the person told you about themselves. When a person tells you about themselves they generally lay their past in front of us which is supposed to tell us who this person is. And that is the problem of an image. What events made them the person they are is generally the quest. The element of the past doesn’t tell us about who this person is at present, in the now. Though history does shape the course of action but it doesn’t determine which route to take once it washes over. This history can become a barrier if it stands as a wall with this image pasted over, obstructing our view of the actual place, as it exists today. A wall that doesn’t let us see beyond and observe and see for ourselves what this place is about.

Imitation and Nostalgia The reason why postmodernism was criticized widely lies in the word imitation and a literal translation of nostalgia. Imitation is the application of direct form, motif, detail, and repeating it as faithfully as possible. It is the - Recreation of an image. The beaux art architecture was one such example. It drew upon the principles of french neoclassicism, incorporated gothic and renaissance elements, and used modern materials such as iron and glass. The same problem of imitation and nostalgia exists in the Jeypore portfolio which can be called an Indic version of arts and crafts movement. The Jeypore portfolio of architectural details, was an encyclopedia of architectural drawings, documenting the details of historic buildings in and around Jaipur, an attempt to promote the building crafts of the region.

The architect using the Beaux art style or the Jeypore portfolio will redeploy the form, material, and detail of the original in new materials, trying to match the original as closely as possible in the hopes of deriving respect and connection through recognition. The practice of imitation is thought to provide cultural continuity of some sort. But is it a cultural continuum?

The critique of historicism hinges upon a tacit agreement that the normative practice of architecture is primarily an aesthetic enterprise and therefore needs to be avoided.

The Contemporary Placelessness and The Desire for Place

Fig.4.6 View of shopping complex opposite to Hawa Mahal in Jaipur, Rajasthan.

August 26, 2018.

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III. Wanting to Belong The discussion of establishing a relationship with a place comes from a yearning to belong somewhere and establish a sense of connection. There is the physical place one tries to recognize with and a social place one needs. Why is it important?

In today’s time and space when we might not live in the land where we belonged ancestrally. In this global village, where transportation and communication has increased the mobility of humankind and we are no longer forced to stay where we were born, we are continuously changing places and going to new ones for better opportunities. In this pool of multicultural population the only thing that we might share is the place we are together in. In the age of globalization, the local is still an important part of people’s lives. It is within the locale one establishes themselves.

“All experiences are local.”

- Taiye (Selasi, 2014) When one goes to a new city, the first people one gets to know are the local people, the neighbors, the shopkeepers, the helpers, the security guard, the haircutter you start visiting, the waiters in the restaurant you discover and become a regular customer.

Abraham Maslow, suggests that the need to belong is a major source of human motivation. Maslow’s hierarchy of needs lists the need to belong as one of the 5 human needs. The pyramid lays out these needs with the most basic need at the bottom. For the motivation to rise to the next stage, each stage must be satisfied within the individual.

After the physiological and safety needs are fulfilled, an individual is motivated to achieve the 3rd need - which is a sense of belonging/love.

The social place refers to the attachments with people in a place, one can form a close connection with. A person might have strong relations to people living away from the current place they find themselves in but they would still need to belong to where they exist physically, to feel secure, familiar, and comfortable. This need applies both to the physical place and the social place they find themselves in - the need to belong.

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Fig.4.7 Maslowâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s hierarchy of needs

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CASE STUDIES

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1.9 CRITERIA OF SELECTION FOR CASE STUDY 1. The dweller themselves are the makers When the maker is making a dwelling for themselves the possibilities of space and placemaking are freely explored as there is no difference of ideology between the client and the maker as the maker is the client. Further changes and improvisations are made possible in continuation of the conception of spaces, as and when the need arises.

2. The makers are self trained Training lays out certain universally accepted methods and techniques to approach a problem, For example, Making of a plan. Training often conditions one’s mind to follow a prescribed process. To lay more emphasis on the intuitive senses of building that is naturally possessed by us culturally then amplified by interest and personal experiences, makers who were self-taught were chosen for this study.

3. Built space in relation to the world One of the main aspects of the makers being chosen was their perception of their work in relation to a larger context. Their lifestyles, approach, and choices were conscious decisions that reflected in their dwellings that they made for themselves. This differentiated them from the typical vernacular dweller who doesn’t see their work in relation to the larger context with the intention of making a statement; necessity and instinct rather than choice derive their design decisions.

4. The case studies are situated in different contexts from one another. One in north India and one in east India. This is to consider varied enough regions with different topography, culture, and natural features. Also, both the places chosen were not remote and were well connected to the cities. It was a choice of using local materials rather than responding to the inconvenience of transporting conventional materials.

5. Rural places were selected to study the ‘alternative’ approach with an alternative lifestyle, where the vernacular still existed to borrow from. The existence of such an extreme alternative approach, existed in the countryside where the housing industry was yet to be fully commercialized, to study and imbibe from.

Note - The interviews being conducted form one of the most crucial parts of the research kept as it is in the research document to understand the maker’s work, life, influences, approach to design, values, relations, and methods of working. The analysis of the built, in the case studies looks at the qualities of dwelling in an elemental, physical, spatial, material, experiential level to understand how the intangible aspects transform into the tangible built. All these factors help to understand the ‘alternative’ approach the study tries to define.

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0.2 QUESTIONAIRE Note - These sets of questions were prepared before the interviews, not to be asked one after the other but rather to make sure that all of these questions were answered either by the maker in one or the other conversation or the data collected.

- How did you get interested in architecture? What made you choose architecture for a profession and what were the early influences for you in architecture?

- Vernacular architecture has mainly been a response to the local climate. It is contextual and responsive. Do you use vernacular knowledge in designing the houses you do?

In your work, those of which I have seen and studied, I could see a reference to the underlying tradition of West Bengal/Himachal. Do you think of tradition as a tool in design or is it subconscious in the design process?

- Did you ever work with or under an architect? What influences did it have on you?

- One of the goals of my thesis is to help makers learn how to build in a developing country. Do you think your work gives a vision to the larger picture? Since India is a diverse country do you think that a more regional architecture would help create meaningful architecture in India? What are your views on current notions of development and progress? Do you see your work as a standpoint against these notions?

Is your work a reaction to these?

- Your buildings have an interactive relationship with nature, you avoid cutting trees and design according to the topography of the land. Is this a very conscious decision or is it very intuitive, all done on the site, as and when the need develops?

- You are keeping the tradition of the living craft alive in your buildings, by using local craftsmen, local materials and local skills. The importance of craft in your architecture is evident. What is the relationship between the craftsmen and your architecture?

- When I look at your architecture, I feel that your buildings do not emphasize on the external form at least as far as for formâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s sake is concerned. Spatial experience seems to happen on the inside.

- Spaces become places, at certain times of the day and night. Place seemed an essential part of the design process. How do you make places?

- Does your design process follow any kind of preconceived process? Does a lot of your design process on-site or paper? What is your way of working?

- How do you accommodate for change and growth?

- What is the role of function in your built form? How much importance do you give to

59. ‘function” in your architecture and do you see beauty as ‘function’?

- There is the concept of art and architecture serving as an end in itself; existing for its own sake, then architecture can also exist for serving a cause more than itself. Do you distinguish between these two forms of art?

- Your buildings and spaces are experiential, senses are awakened and heightened. One can feel the texture, smell, and feel of the mud. Is the heightened sensory experience a very thought about the design process?

- Who are your clients? Why are they your clients? Is it because they identify with this kind of architecture or is it because they like to be identified as people supporting a social cause, even from the exterior of their house?

- From what I’ve seen and studied your buildings, I think that they have a timeless quality to them. How do you generate this timeless quality?

- There is this amazing playfulness in your work. How do you play in your work?

- Where do you think you can place your architecture?

- What are the other processes that help you to design? For eg. painting, sketching, poetry.

- A lot of your work is self-opinion and expression. You and your work doesn’t seem to be separate from your life but an integral part of it. Is that something you try to incorporate in your life mindfully with time and practice or is it very intuitive?

- While building on-site how open are you to suggestions or design ideas by the craftsmen? How open are you to your client’s ideas of space? If you don’t resonate with the client’s ideals how do you tackle such a situation? How incorporated is the client in your design process?

- If you lived in a city would you have been able to lead this lifestyle you are choosing to live in now? Why did you choose a rural setting than an urban one?

- Do you think if you had studied architecture you would have dealt with space differently?

- Those who look at design responsibly end up using sustainability as an underground core concept by default. Why do you think this happens?

- Your buildings try to minimize the use of concrete. Why so? Is there a strong reason behind that decision.

- Why do you use the materials you do?

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5. CASE STUDY ONE DIDI CONTRACTOR, RAKKAR, HIMACHAL PRADESH

Primary Case Study 1: Didi Contractor

0.3 NOTE ON PHENOMENOLOGICAL ACCOUNT The first part of the analysis focuses on a phenomenological understanding of people, place, and context. The following account of the visit written in first person in an attempt to communicate embodied-relational existential understanding, one that would require a person to feel, live through, and narrate it. The researcher in this case serves merely as a tool to experience human and experiential aspects of the research. It takes a narrative form to show how phenomenological prose may facilitate a lived understanding of a place. Though care has been taken to not dwell on personal issues but rather the phenomenon under study here, the people, maker, and the place.

These accounts narrate the feeling of the place in which these dwellings exist for a better understanding of the aspects of placemaking as an important part of the study which encapsulates the dwelling (Fig.4.3) and adds to the experience. This is also to emphasize that a dwelling does not exist as an isolated unit in the middle of nowhere but extends in all directions encompassing the memories of oneâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s home.

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5.1 PHENOMENOLOGICAL ACCOUNT

Fig. 5.1 Dwelling of Naresh Bhai and family in Rakkar, HImachal Pradesh

Primary Case Study 1: Didi Contractor

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I reached Rakkar from Dharamshala(a 15 minutes drive), at the crack of dawn. The cold weather had forced me to take out 2 of my sweaters to form layers of protection as soon as I got off the bus in Dharamshala. It was a zigzag ride, the cab driver raced on the empty streets with me falling from one side to the other, inside the car. On reaching the place I was supposed to stay in, Manas, a little boy, had come to the gate to escort me to the house. Manas took my small but heavy bag on his tiny shoulders and started walking. We passed by a bamboo gate, which was just a horizontal bamboo pole that rested on two circular rings welded to a metal rod on either side, in which the bamboo freely moved. On our left lay fields after fields, lush green with yellow flowers in between.

I had found this place where Naresh Bhai’s family lived from Laxmi, who proudly called herself Didi’s assistant, an architect who now lived with Didi and was training under her for the past 2 years. Everybody had woken up despite me reaching so early. I kept my bags, freshened up, and went to meet Naresh Bhai’s family.

Naresh Bhai, had worked with Didi contractor for 25 years. He met Didi and started his training under her since 1994 (at the age of 17). I could tell he had great reverence for Didi, for the way he talked about her. Didi’s photo rested on Naresh Bhai’s work table.

Naresh Bhai was a fit man who always talked in a very cheerful and joyful tone. I never had even one conversation when I didn’t witness his dimples.

Didi, now aged more than 90, was referred to as Amma by everyone in the village.

Naresh Bhai had a house full of 3 bubbly kids, Manas, Shailly, and Parul (names arranged in increasing order of age). Anu Didi, Naresh Bhai’s wife was a sweet and an active lady, managing everything in their dwelling - From the small vegetable garden to cooking delicious meals for the family to taking care of the cows to mud plastering (which she took up one day to cover the blackness accumulated due to the burning of wood in the fireplace during the harsh winters that had just ended). After having a heavy breakfast I rushed down the valley to meet Didi, passing by a babbling brook and many green fields with yellow flowers I overlooked the same morning. I met a village woman named Anjali, who claimed she had once worked for Didi when Didi got her hips replaced.

Anjali guided me and showed me the way. Anjali guided me quite a few times after that when I repeatedly lost my way on the village roads on the days to come.

After a 20 minute walk downslope, I reached Amma’s place which was on Hui Hui street.

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Fig.5.2 Satellite map of Didiâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s dwelling.

Fig.5.3 Road map

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Guarded by a metal gate and bamboo barricades (Fig.a). I opened the hinged doors and started walking on the stone path entirely shaded by the trees acting as screens between me and the sun with patches of sunlight reaching the ground here and there (Fig.b).

The stones laid out to make the path were irregular and sparsely covered with fallen leaves - yellow and green (Fig.c). After passing by 2 mud houses (Fig.d), It almost felt as if I am in the middle of a forest with dense vegetation all around (Fig.e). I came across another smaller grill gate with a lock (Fig.f). I had to jump this gate as advised by an old man with a colourful cap who showed me Didi’s place. On my left was an empty house made with stone(chakka). I passed under its front porch (Fig.g). The stone house was accompanied in the front of the house by a circular seat made with stacking up chakkas with creepers dropping down(Fig.h). On passing that stone house I could see several other small houses scattered all across the place. These houses were made of mud. I passed by a further narrower way that had bamboo fencing on one side and vegetation on the other (Fig.i). I was standing at a junction which led to 3 houses (Fig.j). I asked a thin old looking man who was also topped with a colourful Himachali hat for Didi’s home, he introduced himself and said he works for her and had been with Didi since 30 years, pointing it out to me where she can be found. The mud dwelling looked rather strange with so many glass bottles stacked over one another (Fig.k). I was sniffed by a dog and then greeted by his waving tail (Fig.l). I opened the two small wooden doors to meet Didi. On the sight of me she shouted - “You can’t come just like that without notifying me. I am busy!” I immediately retreated. Laxmi entered the scene to explain it out for me - “ Didi is not well. She is 90 now. Yesterday night was quite difficult for her.

She kept waking up every hour. She woke up very tired in the morning”. I apologized, and clarified that I just wanted to physically notify you that I am here. Laxmi went in to consult with Didi and requested me to come at 4 pm. I went back up to Anu Didi after a tiring walk uphill which took much longer than coming down, getting lost in the jagged paths and distracted by the butterflies. Naresh Bhai clarified that Didi always needs to be notified and was very particular about everything. He told me with a knowing face - She rests from 2 pm to 4 pm and that is why she has asked you to come at 4. Be on time she is extremely strict about time.

I ate all meals at their place which Anu didi cooked lovingly. For some reason she didn’t correct me ever, since I had got her name wrong and always called her Saanu Didi. She in turn called me Bunty Didi. At times it was just me and her when all the kids had gone to school and Naresh Bhai had gone off to sites. When she needed coriander to put in her daal, she would run to the garden, pluck some fresh ‘dhaniya’, and put it in the boiling daal. Similarly when she needed milk she would go to Surabhi, their cow, to milk her.

After having a yummy lunch, Naresh Bhai showed me my stay, it was a mud house which he has built and designed. He excitedly said - You would do your thesis here! He said pointing at the house - All this I have learned from Didi.

I lived on the first floor of the mud house just opposite to Naresh Bhai’s place which was also on the first floor, separated by a stone-paved courtyard. The house was made for guests where scholars, researchers, and students who came to study or volunteers who came to work for the village stayed. On the first floor stayed Austin, an American and spoke quite a lot of Hindi. Austin worked in an NGO, with the local village women.

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My room looked onto the fields and I slept looking at the stars from the band of windows next to the bed every day under thick mattresses. The mud house lacked no services. The toilet was stone tiled fitted with WC, geyser, shower, and basin. The toilet also looked into the fields with a full strip of windows. Because there were fields till a considerable length and the toilet was on the upper floor, my privacy was not intruded.

I was extremely tired from all the traveling so I took a short nap, Anu didi ran and came at 3:30 pm to wake me up so that I don’t miss my appointment with Didi, everyone here knew the characteristics of Didi and her behavior. Since I had already upset her the first time, I didn’t want to be late. I hurried back running like Anu didi.

This time I was greeted with a fresh and warm smile by the sweet-looking crouched old lady. We talked for a while knowing each other. After which this interview was taken.

Amma was left under my care till Laxmi, who lived with Didi came. Amma couldn’t talk to me a lot because of her health. Since she could not go to sites anymore, the harbingers of her school of thought who now looked after the sites came to meet her for her advice with drawings and photos of the site. Though Amma had become quite old she still spoke with clarity and even ended loops in conversations. All the people I met during my stay who worked for Amma were familiar with her approaches and ways. All of them worked had been working for years with her. They all gave her high regard. During my stay, i read My family and the other saints by Kirin Narayan, Amma’s daughter who is a writer. The book summarises the life of their family. The book gave me a better understanding of Didi and her influences. The kids would surround me to hear what I was reading and laugh at my slow speed of reading and were tensed how will I finish the book in time. I would translate and tell them Amma’s story animately. They used to listen with so much curiosity. Annu didi would often ask Shailly to clear her doubts about whatever she was studying for school. The full-house family mealtimes which were mostly in the night was filled with laughter each day. With the kids sharing what they did the entire day. What happened in school. I was asked too what happened with amma and me today and about my plans about the next day, every day. We all asked our doubts to each other and whoever could come up with an answer would speak irrespective of our ages and experience.

Fig.5.a Grill gate with bamboo fences - The entrance from Hui Hui Street

Fig.5.b The zigzag stone pathway taking shape by the placement of the naturally occuring stones.

Fig.5.c Irregular textured stone laid out to pave the path.

Fallen yellow leaves merging with the green vegetation growing between the stones.

Fig.5.d Accompanied by big boulders, cluster of bamboos, wavy pathway and green moses.

Fig.5.e Thick vegetation on either sides. The feeling of walking in a forest.

Fig.5.f Small metal grill door entrance to the cluster of 8 houses made by Didi.

Fig.5.g Path going through the entrance porch of the stone house.

Fig.5.h Circular benches opening on either sides with overhanging creppers.

Fig.5.i Bamboo fencing and vegetation forming soft walls on either side of the path.

Fig.5.j Intersection of 3 paths leading upto Didiâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s dwellling. First glance.

Fig.5.k Towards the entry of the dwelling. Glass bottles stacked up in the niches of the exterior of the dwelling.

Fig.5.l Passing through Gingerâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s security checking.

Fig.5.m Brushing the earth stuck on shoes on the stone pebble doormat to enter.

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5.1.2 Unstructured, Interactive Interviews Day 1

Interview with Didi contractor (16 Feb 2020) How did you get interested in architecture? What made you choose architecture for a profession and what were the early influences for you in architecture?

I worked in Interiors.

I am a painter by training and I do sculpture and I am trained in several crafts when I was your age and younger, I worked under whoever mastercraftsmen were around. So I know frame making. How to do different finishes they use in frames and furniture. All sorts of things that became useful from time to time, later.

I came into interiors by accident. My husband was a friend of Maharana Mewar and when the Maharana wanted to do the lake palace and convert into a hotel in 1961, I oversaw all the decoration. Everything, I designed the fabrics and did everything. I learned all the skills of interiors. If you have to do interior you have to know how to do upholstery you should know how to do all the crafts.

But I had to fight with the spaces I was given. In the lake palace, I didn’t because there were very spacious gorgeous spaces that were meant for leisurely living and making them a bit more practical and not spoiling anything.

Then as I got famous and some film stars and people from Bombay wanted me to do their apartments and they were in ugly buildings.

I got very disinterested in painting because it’s a flat thing on a wall, a confined image and I am more interested in spaces you can enter and the effect of light and the effect of space and the way you relate to the space so the interiors suited me for that but when the architectural spaces were awkward it’s very hard to do interiors. I have another friend who used to make music or write music for films but the films sometimes she made music for, were not good themselves.

If you are doing something that is linked with something else, it either has to be a very sympathetic partnership. For eg. when you are dancing with someone and have a sense of connectedness but if you are doing work for people who have entirely other motives like most apartment buildings are made to spend the least amount of money in the building and get the most profit out of it and they are very badly made. So I became more and more interested in architecture because of that and also because I am fascinated by structure. So when you make small things, how you can structure them and balance them and by that, particularly structure from within and I am interested in interiors as you because I like interiority. I also work on a building from within because in the god’s eye view they have in the model, nobody experiences, or sees a building that way. We experience buildings in movement and very few architectural students or interior people design with that movement in mind, because you can’t do it with models, you have to do it with imagination.

Then you can use the model to help you work out certain things to communicate it to others but you can’t design with it.

So designing from within is a very difficult skill to learn. The dimensionality,

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understanding dimensionality, you may have it, you may not have it but you can develop it, understanding spaces and how they work so I am interested in also exercises of how to develop this in students. It is a very difficult thing to develop. Very few people who came to work with me have it. Only one student, Amol has it and working with him I very quickly found out that. He will say yes what’s behind, what’s underneath. Most people, only see it flat, they see the floor plan but they don’t relate the walls. Their eyes aren’t given a way to travel. So that is very important.

I am also in love with adobe so I wanted to show that you could create these spaces using this material in a traditional way to say no to things. Like you can use any language, any actual language to say something modern. You don’t have to invent a new language.

Do you think you invented a new language?

No I didn’t invent a new language and it’s all traditional language.

The physicality of material space around you which never comes out exactly the way you think it is going to be.

But when you really envision something. I have these several “Aha! moments naa”. When I first enter a space that I have designed and the time of the days that I imagined it and it worked.

During construction if a wall goes slant.

- You can’t! You have to be careful. You have to break it down and start all over. You use the plum line.

If i apply this logic to the city i am finding it difficult to understand how is it applicable because my case studies are in the villages which already have a natural life - But we are loosing it because of the cities.

There’s that, that they have to be made aware that they have it.

- And you have to record it and protect it while they still have it.

But this thing comes to my mind again and again. What about the city where it’s absent.

- Well it’s, define it’s, it’s absence, So what’s it’s?

Living in harmony with nature and having nature around you.

- There is a design problem and there’s is nature and the environment. Then it’s an ecological problem of materials. It’s a separate issue.

So the design problem incorporating nature. There are many ways. You have walls that have a way for plants to grow up for mosses and ferns. You can always include plants inside buildings and when you are designing apartments you can have areas where there are atriums and plants and you can always create within, not just natural spaces but also social spaces, interactive spaces. So these are design problems.

Design problems are separate from the material problem. You may use natural materials to make walls but depends on the different forms of cost. There is the human cost, there is ecological cost, there is emotional cost. Separate from all these is emotional cost.

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Economic cost is different from all these costs and by putting that first you lose a lot. So you have to see what you want to pay for and what you want to pay for it. If you want to pay an effort to make a space where people are in touch with nature. That’s one issue.

I had an opinion about concrete that it is bad but then i saw some works which was sensitive in the way they used concrete, so do you think it is bad?

- Materal depends on whether you are judging it.

Is it our role to judge?

- Concrete is always bad. Why? What is the ecological cost of concrete?

It cannot go back into the soil - That is one thing. But when you make it what happens?

The process releases CO2 - It is the second-largest pollutant after petrol. 2nd. There is the burning of the lime. The excavation, the burning, every process in creating concrete. 2 km around the concrete plants, nature, plants don’t work well and the cases of TB are higher. The closer you come to a concrete plant, the people living closer in, the more cases of TB there. So it’s a killer.

Concrete is a killer. But it’s very very effective.

Effective in what sense - It is a very effective material. It’s very strong, it’s very easy to use. It will hold steel, otherwise, you cannot use steel members because they need to be continuously protected from corrosion. It is reinforced. Its strength is in reinforcement.

There is one metaphor I use over and over.

The masons compare concrete to Masala, masala laao. You won’t make your sabji out of masala. You will add masala to the sabji.

Sometimes you need to use a certain limited amount of concrete. First you see what is technically feasible, available, alternatives there are and you go through those then you judge whether you want to use it.

But big buildings like Louis Kahn’s. Beautiful use of concrete, it is not ecologically a viable thing for humans to do. The Dhaka building...

Jatiya Sanshad?

Yes. (coughing) Ohk enough for today.

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Day 2 Interview with Didi Contractor (17 Feb 2020) - Your buildings have a interactive relationship with nature, you avoid cutting trees and design according to the topography of the land. Is this a very conscious decision or is it very intuitive, all done on the site, as and when the need develops?

The decision on the topography before building involves 2 things - one is features of the site that needs to be preserved. So one of the features of the site would be rocks and the other is trees. I judge the rocks by shape. And if i want the rock, its very beautiful, i save the rock. But if the rock is in some way damaged or broken into or has a misformed shape, i break it and use it in the building. The rock is selected on aesthetic ground and sometimes the rock is selected by the type of rock it is because some of the rocks are very valuable for building. They cut very well. We harvest stone depending on the condition, where it is on the site and the quality of the rock.

Do you also pick it up and place it somewhere?

Exactly. It is pickable and placable. The decision on the rock is based on study basis.

The decision of the movement of the earth is made based on having to harvest material.

If I have levels, here when I am on the mountainside. I am doing a lot of building on leveling, a lot of earth is available. In some places I can bring in earth, it costs the same as bringing in other materials but then the carbon cost of the material is less. If you bring in cement or baked bricks they already come with a carbon cost and then you add the cost of carbon of transport but bring to the site that donâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t have a carbon cost, they only have that one transport cost. Basically, we are looking to cut carbon costs by cutting transport.

With trees it depends on the tree and its position on the land. So there are here maybe 15-20 types of ordinary trees, each one has a property. Some blossom at certain times of the year and are very beautiful, some donâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t blossom but the leaves are used for fodder., so they cut in sides and they take on ugly appearance. Some are very useful for mulching and gardening, some of the leaves have medicinal properties. Judging by which tree it is and where is it in the landscape. Because a tree can always be planted. And If I cut a tree, I plant a tree. Thatâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s an important statement. If a tree is cut, a tree should be planted.

Sometimes I might cut two small trees that will not become large and plant one tree that will become large and live longer. Because each tree also has by its species a builtin lifespan. Some trees will go on forever as you go on cutting them back. You cut them back and the tree will regenerate and you cut it back and it will regenerate. Otherwise if you allow it to mature it will die and the whole thing dies.

One of the trees here the wild cherry, if you cut it, it will regenerate so within a few years you will have a number more. When they come up and you can choose which one to grow.

The site I am working now on. I am getting a man to cut the branches that go over the roof because branches on the roof tend to break onto the roof and create problems. There is only one case where I integrated a tree and it had a flock of parrots in the beginning because parrots return to the same home that they grew up in and that becomes a parrot

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colony. If you cut it then they have to find a new colony.

Some of the trees are very valuable, very medicinal, and very good. I like the landscape to look natural, so this landscape that I have created around these houses looks like some piece of nature but it’s all been harvested, cut, replanted, remodeled to look natural.

That’s the Japanese garden that I have studied.

Suppose the land is flat what would you do? If it has no trees what would you do?

I haven’t encountered a problem like that. I haven’t encountered a problem in which I cannot harvest any material. If I encounter a site where I can harvest then I go and see what the closest materials are. Baker said you should choose within a certain mile radius.

So your first choice is closer then further and then further.

9 miles he said 30 miles you can go. It depends on how the transport is and what it is. You look for what you have to bring in.

I also plant trees around the house. When I plant the trees around the house I plant them even when I am planting them in my garden I plant it from inside.

Inside?

From inside the house. What do i want to see out of that window. So I placed, for ex. a bush so that I see the branches and flowers. Each of the window in this house look out to see what you look out into. That’s also planned.

Several times i build on pre-existent plinths. So I had to adjust the design around the plinth that existed. When I planted those gardens. There was a small house I made in Rishi valley and then lived there for a year.

Rishi Valley, Madnapalle?

Yes, Krishnamurty’s school. Long before we came up here. When I was doing a garden I had a friend who was staying with me who was also interested in gardening. So I used to tell him - oh pretend you are a tree. And I will look from inside and then the tree would move. Until we found a place where we want to see a tree. Then I plant a garden, a tree is in that garden, even the plants, the flowerbeds according to the inside - what you see out because you spend more time in a house.

My son Deven when he was training for architecture he got a summer job as a laborer Labour get paid more in the US though. He was their man on the field and later they had him design for them. But he learned it by doing the work. You have to know how to do your gardening.

I think a good architect should be a good cook because that sense of ingredients and how you play with ingredients and they should be a good gardener because you have to understand proportions. In cooking proportions are so important. How much flour, how much egg, we are learning proportionality. It’s very very important. Having creative interests on the side of architecture that feed back into it and gardening is very important.

Then I would look and see what is going on the site. If the site is still natural which very few sites are. There are so many invasive weeds that grow in India and normally when the gardener is not protecting it they come and take over.

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Sometimes I go to the site picking up certain plants and taking them, protecting them while building is going on and putting them back. If i take up a grass, I try to get it with the grassroots as a clump and then move it back on. I keep that moist for 2 days and then move it back.

But why are we removing it?

I am removing it because I am taking earth from under it. The top layer with grassroots protect underneath. Grassroots protect the earth. It holds it. Everywhere the ground cover is the most important, then trees are important. The groundcover which is the small, insignificant plants at your feet, has a very important role in our battle to sustain the earth. They also absorb carbon and they hold the earth together. My Swamiji used to say when you offer a goddess you offer a green saree or a red saree. The real offering, since the goddess represents mother nature, the real offering is a tree. He had people plant trees.

There was one more swami, a wonderful Bengali swami. He made people plant trees in the memory of any woman who died. So people planted a lot of trees. He revived his area, his ashram math. Sandalwood forest. The Indian tradition has within it strong element of reverence for nature. When they cut a tree they ask his permission when they cut it.

Permission from?

The tree. That we are going to cut you. And then they cut it. When we dig the earth we have a small puja. A traditional puja. Where you ask the earthâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s permission. To guide us and give us shelter. I am very much a traditionalist in following those. To look for their meaning. As you do any ritual never do it by root always do it looking for meaning.

What you give you get. If you give nature respect, nature will respect you. Our lack of respect for nature has brought us to where we are. We taught we are over nature.

But it is very important to know your trees, some trees are weeds. Some trees are not very good. These have little role in the ecology. One of the trees that are not very good for the soil is the cheel pine. Particularly when there is a monoculture. In nature there are very few monocultures. Here you see the forest is cheel pine. Actually, originally it was oak and the English came and they were building railways. They needed the sleepers for the railway sleepers. So they planted this chill pine.

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Day 3 Interview with Didi Contractor (19 Feb 2020) What is your process of designing? What is the first step in the design process?

The first thing I have is the client’s brief. The client usually has to discuss their impressions along with their brief. Some ideas of their house and I when I am hearing that I have some idea of the client. So you could in a way I consider each house to be like an installation. Like a museum exhibit, an installation, a setting for the client. Like you are making a setting for a particular stone or a set for the drama of the client’s life like a set in the theatre with their background to live with themselves in their own life pattern But also showcases them. So each house is both like a cage and a showcase for the client.

Now if the client is an unknown person like I don’t know all the kids that are coming to Dharmalaya then I invent them.

Invent them as in, you imagine them?

Yes I imagine a client so I imagine the kids that are going to come to Dharamalaya.

What sort of impression it will make on them. Some impressions, I want to make on them. Then I imagine myself coming to it and what sort of impression I would like to take and how I will feel comfortable so this process of imagination can see through the drama. Then usually I have 1 or 2 ideas for ways of constructing something I have seen.

Something I would like to try out or some combination I want to do. So naturally, I begin with those things.

The second thing I look at is the site. The first thing i am looking at is the client and their brief or the imaginary client and their brief and the drama of the setting of what I want the play to be and what the play would be or what they want it to be.

The third thing is what I have in my mind I am carrying some design details so initially each house that I don’t build is built in the next house. I have a solution in my mind that I like to try out so I have that in my mind waiting backstage, 1or 2 ideas. I have built many local houses and I have structural elements that are very very simple. Very simple design. I saw the drama of my own life as unfolding in an open space. However, that didn’t work out. I thought I was going to be the cook. Since the last 16 years before I built the house here, I have been cooking taking care of myself. I didn’t predict or foresee the drama with absolute accuracy. My future was unfolded differently. Usually it often unfolds differently so I learned some math to make it a little less fixed. So this house is very fluid, it can allow itself to be cut in pieces very easily. Separate the dining to the kitchen, Study to the living room. Also the entry that we use became too congested and also I had two people in the kitchen cooking.

The entry from the kitchen is not the main entry?

No. The main entry is the one from the living room.

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5.2 PART 1 - ANALYSIS OF THE INTERVIEWS

- Didi Contractor formerly named Didi Kinzinger was born to expressionist artists Edmund Kinzinger(German) and Alice Fish Kinzinger(America), both associated with the Bauhaus movement in the US in the1920s. When she was about 11, she visited an exhibition of Frank Lloyd Wright’s work and saw Wright speaking on his ideas of architecture. The exhibition of his work gave her a clue on how to map 3-D onto a 2-D piece of paper, which became her mode of expressing her daydreams of homes to live in. When she was in Taos, New Mexico, she helped her parents renovate an old adobe house. She also built a corner fireplace for herself with mud in her room with a friend’s help. Although she felt drawn to architecture she was not encouraged to study architecture, instead, she studied the arts.

- When Didi with her husband and 5 children moved to Juhu, on a beachside with coconut groves, she oversaw the built and designed to accommodate trees. Since it was a land for lease, materials seen as temporary were used, lime rather than cement was used as mortar, thatch over sheeting to cool the roof. The house was open and airy with high openings which drew in the cooling salty sea breeze. This called for opportunities for her to built other homes. Their neighbor Prithviraj Kapoor being one of them. The kutir and set storage unit was then gentrified and converted into the Prithvi Theatre.

- She came into interiors by accident. Her husband’s friend, the Maharana of Mewar wanted help for the lake palace to convert it into a hotel, Didi took the job. Traditional Mewar paintings inspired her, she gathered fabrics and crafts and learned varied skills from palace artisans and other master craftsmen. This led her to other projects including one film set for a sequence in The Guru(2002).

- Didi wanted to leave the city as Bombay was fast developing. High rise buildings soon began to come up all around them. After wandering in several parts of India for several years, she chose to settle in Andretta in the Kangra valley of Himachal Pradesh, where she had already spent some summers, visiting artist and potter, a propagator of studio pottery in India, Sardar Gurcharan Singh. Daddyji, as he was widely known had been drawn to Kangra by Norah Richards, an early proponent of local culture and vernacular building herself. She lived amongst the villagers choosing to live a similar lifestyle and made a mud house with a thatched roof for herself.

- Didi wanted to experience rural life, she bought some land and made an adobe house and a vegetable garden in the backdrop of snow-clad Dhauladhar range. Soon after she was asked to do 3-4 other homes, with friends and acquaintances buying pieces of land nearby.

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- Didi read and was influenced by Gandhian ideals. She wanted to understand the cultural nuances and life in India. She reacted based on her observations, life situations, experiences, and not by a single source of influence. (She moved to India from America as a bride after marrying Narayan Contractor who belonged to a traditional Gujarati family).

- When she was not building or sketching her buildings, Didi enjoyed cooking and gardening. These engagements helped her develop a sense of proportions. Ikebana is one of them. Reading remained one of her most priced engagements. Her dwelling was filled with books on various subjects she had collected in her life. From Elizabeth George, Ramana Maharshi, Yasunari Kawabata, Octavia E. Butler, Joachim Wach, Doris Lessing to bundles of new yorkers, she had quite a variety. Though fiction was one of the things she enjoyed the most as she could get lost in the stories, her imagination and dwell in there.

5.2.2 Approach to Design 5.2.2.1 Analogy Didi looks at a dwelling as an installation or a theatre set where the drama of the life of the dweller will unfold. What forms the background of this drama are the surfaces(walls) and the light(openings).

“Space is drama. Life is the play: a building provides a theatrical set to be lived in.”

- Didi For sculpting the space she imagines the interactions the space will facilitate by simulating scenes of daily life.

Drama - “This is where the daughter comes out on the steps and calls down ‘Mummy when are you ready’ down the kitchen. I like the feel of this being the highest part of the house. So you have a place where you can look way up and somebody can call down into it. Gives the house a new resonance. Main reason for that light shaft to be there is because for the bathroom to get natural light. This is the little girl’s bedroom, there is enough space above the bathroom slab for somebody to go on the slab. The little girl in a part that isn’t open can have a loft where she can just go up. Most kids want a place where they can get away from the grown ups. It is very essential to get away from the grown ups.”

5.2.2.2 Methods Didi states that the plan and the model are not equipped to design. Those methods are only for representing a design to a client or a fellow maker. The plan flattens the 3d and the model gives the maker a god’s eye view which is not how generally people experience a built space in real life. By imagining the built form from inside while walking inside the space she molds the experiences one has in the space.

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“My process of visualization starts with function, orientation and light, and by imagining the experiences of the space within time” Didi was mostly commissioned by friends or by like-minded clients who became friends during the process of designing for them. The more she knew them, the more it became easier for her to design to respond more uniquely for the future occupant in facilitating their lifestyle. When she doesn’t know the client she imagines the clients and herself entering the building. She dwells inside to understand what is sort of impression she wants to make on the visitor coming to the building and herself.

“While planning the public space of the clinic, i could plan the building imagining my own needs, myself as patient or as any relative accompanying a suffering loved one.”

5.2.2.3 Attitude Didi believes that a well-designed building, like the structure of a well-designed game encourages a playful creative attitude. Though this playful attitude is not to be confused with carelessness. {During construction what if a wall goes slant?

Didi - You can’t! You have to be careful. You have to break it down and start all over. You use the plum line. } Didi doesn’t experiment with something she hasn’t tried before in a client’s building with regards to structure. Didi’s designs are very well worked out and carefully planned. The experiments concerns themselves with design changes, materials, module of the brick, etc. This stems from a material she uses to build which people have overtime become insecure about.

“The thing is with mud you require much more careful planning. The roof has to be very good, the plinth has to be very sound. The stone up to a decent level has to be there and then the brick should be well made.

When you are building in these so-called pukka materials. If you make a mistake, nobody will say, it is because you use cement. It’s your mistake. But if you make a mistake in a mud building. Everyone will say- Aah! The mud isn’t strong!”

- Didi Contractor (Chaphalkar, 2016) Didi gives tremendous importance to uncompromising consistency. In all her works this consistency is reflected, though each one is different and unique in its own way. She has established a language that comes with a structure and grammar which is used in her works. This language comes with its kit of parts that she uses differently in all the buildings according to the client, function, site, and orientation. Didi uses mud, stone, bamboo, slate, wood in most of her works since they are distributed around in the same region. She uses these kits of parts and the materials of the region believing in diversity.

“The idea that there is a solution that you can apply in many places is wrong. Many different solutions are necessary and each solution comes from a specific problem and a specific site.” - Didi Contractor

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Didi inherits her attitude from her avant-garde parents who believed almost obsessively, in the role of art and design as active agents of change.

5.2.3 Values Didi’s concern of conserving ecology forms the basis of her choices is apparent in her works. She believes that in the current ecological crises, responsible design is not only a choice but a necessity she is committed to. This concern is reflected in the small scale details of things in her life.

“Didi doesn’t throw the lemons after squeezing their juice. She makes achaar out of it.”

-Annu Didi “Didi works at site directly with the craftsmen but she does make a very rough model just to figure out the roof supports out of waste biscuit boxes.”

- Laxmi Swaminathan (L.Swaminathan, personal communication, Feb 19, 2020) “I wanted to remind afresh how environmental, economic, and sociological problems are as deeply interlinked with philosophical and aesthetic concerns, as the ecological systems in nature.”

- Didi Contractor (Singh, 2018) Though not all her decisions regarding materials are shaped by her concern of ecology, the choices are multidimensional and inherit a rational choice of an advantage.

“I like to work in adobe not just because of its ecological value but also for the aesthetics.

You can go on working, down to pottery in detailing. Molding your own brick gives a lot of freedom for innovation.”

- Didi Contractor (Singh, 2018)

5.2.4 Relations 5.2.4.1 Relations with Craftsmen The team of head craftsmen who work with Didi has been working with her for many years. She stresses on making long term quality bonds and respecting craftsmanship.

“I think Gandhi was very strong on that, respecting the actual worker, the craftsmen.

Most architects just give it to a contractor. I find the same thing with my suppliers. I only change the supplier if there is a big flaw. I don’t go looking for random suppliers. Even the sabjiwala. You are loyal to your sabjiwala they are loyal to you. A society should be built with these loyalties.”

- Didi Contractor (Chaphalkar, 2016)

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Didi started building buildings at the age of 60, after she moved to Rakkar to live a retired life. She could not participate physically because of the limitations of her age but would be physically present on-site, watch the craftsmen work, discuss with them and instruct them. She would make small parts, lay the first brick, build a ledge on site.

5.2.4.2 Relation with Client Didi’s clients were mostly friends or acquaintances who were already familiar with her work. Some are attracted by her philosophy of work, while some by the kind of materials she uses.

“How can you impose your vision? That’s your vision. How can you impose it on somebody else’s? I really try to understand the needs but then when I have a vision, I have a certain belief in its validity. I test that trying to analyze it rationally but there is a certain feeling that comes up and says this is right. So it’s not like I am right. It’s this is right.”

- Didi Contractor (Giaracuni, Giannetta, & Giaracuni, 2016) The first thing Didi arranges for is a discussion. In this session, the client has a brief in which they express their idea of what they want. While she is hearing to their brief she gets an idea of the client. She tries to understand what does the client needs to design properly for them. She discusses these ideas with the client. In case there is a difference of opinion, she tries to make the client understand her perspective and reasoning behind a certain decision.

Dweller 1 - “Didi understood what I wanted. I wanted to strip away from all the excess in life. I wanted to live in a very simple space and I wanted 2 rooms. 1 living room and 1 bedroom. I wanted lots of light and lots of air. That was all the brief I gave and nothing more. Last night the moon was quite bright and suddenly from the skylight there was this golden moonlight pouring in. How lovely!”

- Monisha Mukundan, Writer (Giaracuni, Giannetta, & Giaracuni, 2016) Dweller 2 - “I had an idea of a house and a garden based on the large houses and gardens I had seen in Delhi but I wanted it in mud. Then some of my citified ideas clashed with Didi’s. Then slowly while working with Didi I realized, that there was so much depth to the way in which she saw her work and what she did and why she did it. That engagement with her was very educational.”

- Sadhana Vohra, Clinical Psychologist (Giaracuni, Giannetta, & Giaracuni, 2016)

Primary Case Study 1: Didi Contractor

5.3 PART 2 : ANALYSIS OF DIDIâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;S DWELLING

A, B, C, D, and E are overhead openings *Plan not to scale Fig.5.4 Ground Floor Plan

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A, B, C and D are overhead openings. *Plan not to scale Fig.5.5 First Floor Plan

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Fig.5.6 The kitchen shelf is a box enclosed between two walls with shutters on one side and net on the other side. One can see through the shelf highlighting what is kept within from inside. February 18, 2020.

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Fig.5.7 Didiâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s study placed in the north direction of the dwelling to receive consistent north light throughout the day. When one sits on the table the windows become overhead. February 18, 2020.

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Fig.5.8 Stained glass fixed in one of the vertical long windows which Didi got from a friend which supposedly determined the sizes of the square of the module being repeated in the dwelling. February 18, 2020.

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Fig.5.9 Didiâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s pooja place - The mud wall acts as a tackboard to pin pictures of gods a mixed variety of various gods and goddesses. February 18, 2020.

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Fig.5.10 View of Dhaladhar mountain from Didiâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s window on the north side of the house from the upper floor. February 18, 2020.

Fig.5.11 Dhalaudhar mountain turned yellowish orange during a sunset. February 18, 2020.

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How can dwellings come closer to - Human

Nature Community?

5.3.1 CLOSER TO HUMAN 5.3.1.1 Scale and Proportion Scale - Scale is perceived in relation to the human body. Since the dwelling is

handmade and is shaped by the limitations of the hand and body it responds to the human scale intimately and more relatively.

Proportion - The proportions in Didi’s dwellings are shaped by the limits of the

material, the spans of the wood that is available for the rafters and the size of the openings. The windows, skylights and doors are based on the size of the square in Didi’s dwelling. This square acts as a module which is repeated and kept constant to maintain a consistent proportion throughout the dwelling.

The proportions of the room forms the background and the openings with light pouring in during the time of the day forms the foreground becoming one of the first thing the eye notices when entering a space.

5.3.1.2 Senses Visual - Didi visualises the space in her mind. Much like an endeavour achieved by

the help of 3d softwares and then walking inside. Imagining the space in front of her eyes from within a dwelling, as one would experience it frames the walkthrough. Scale and Proportion are tools employed to form a balanced composition. The visual balance evokes a sense of harmony, rhythm and consistency.

“Matching the line is less important than matching the proportion because the eye doesn’t mind moving from line to line but if you see same proportions. If you look at those doors, they are pleasing because they are all relative to the proportion of that square.

I am always looking very carefully at the proportioning, at the way the corners of the building are going to interact. I start with the proportions, say of the windows, i try to keep that a rectangle. I don’t make a window and then fit the rectangles. I try to make some sort of meaningful proportion. Then i try to repeat those, move it a little here, a little there, backed up by geometry.”

- Didi Contractor (Giaracuni, Giannetta, & Giaracuni, 2016)

Primary Case Study 1: Didi Contractor

Fig.5.12 Scale of the dwelling in relation to the human body. The picture is taken from the kitchen area looking into the living portion of Didiâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s home.

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Fig.5.13 Size of the square is repeated in the dwelling in various permutations and combinations to derive consistent and balanced proportions. The single square in the picture is a skylight on the first floor. All the others are window openings.

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Touch - The sense of touch is activated both during the process and after inhabitation.

“One of the wonderful things about mud buildings is that it doesn’t set quickly. You have a little time to work over it. You have the time to craft.”

- Didi Contractor (Singh, 2018) The aspect of using mud as a material allows Didi to mould the wall like a sculpture with her hands. It is this hand infused quality that later inspires the inhabitant to go through these lines of moulding to feel the texture, countour and the material.

Though Didi doesn’t uses this property in her dwelling to mould surfaces to create forms.

Smell - Mud has a characteristic smell which changes with the kind of mud being used.

As one moves from one region to another, the composition changes. The changing geology impart characteristic features to the object that is made with this mud.

Mud is not inert. Mud walls breath. This smell changes with the seasons and weather.

Breathing in a mud house not infused with chemicals ensures the health aspects of the inhabitant along with regulating a healthy indoor air quality.

Sound - The external walls in Didi’s dwellings were around 470mm and the internal

walls were around 310mm which can work acoustically well as it does thermally, from outside noises or vibrations when required. Though Didi use that property as and when required because of the placement of her dwelling. At places she brings the sounds in, rather than keeping them out. The dwelling is opened up at various places for the sound and air to continuously come in with only a net between the inside and outside.

Fig.5.14 A hand sculpted surface of a mud wall in one of Didi’s building. The contours pronounced with the falling of light creating shadows.

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5.3.2 CLOSER TO NATURE Relation between inside and outside Didi’s dwelling has a sense of interiority. The spaces are cozy and intimate with a profound sense of privacy. The everpresent openings throughout the dwelling brings in desired amounts of light inside, without exposing the dweller. The openings are placed such that the dweller can see outside but in turn the passerby cannot see the dweller so easily. At many places in the dwelling except the living area these openings are overhead, drawing in light and giving the dweller privacy.

Landscaping 1. The entire pathway from the small gate to Didi’s dwelling is made by her. Inspired by the principles of Japanese gardening and considering gardening as one of the most important skills of a maker, as it helps one understand proportions. Didi puts a lot of emphasis to be able to create a life around oneself. It might be manmade but it doesn’t have to look that way. The principles of Japanese gardening avoids artificial ornamentation and puts emphasis on highlighting the natural landscape. Deriving, learning, and considering nature, one of the most valued inspirations she believes in giving back to it, in all of its own naturalness, something that looks like nature itself.

“Someone told me once, what a beautiful place you have, so natural, you are so lucky. I didn’t find it, I made it, I grew it” - Didi Contractor (Giaracuni, Giannetta, & Giaracuni, 2016) “One of the first things Didi made me do was plant saplings in pots and take care of them. One of my job profiles was to arrange flowers in the vases composing the arrangement aesthetically balancing the colours and sizes.”

- Laxmi Swaminathan (L.Swaminathan, personal communication, Feb 19, 2020) 2. Didi frames her views from inside. If there is a window, she plans what she would like to see from that window. She then plants accordingly creating the whole scene outside to be cropped by the picture frame(window frame) from inside as one spends more time indoors looking out.

“When i was doing a garden I had a friend who was staying with me who was also interested in gardening. So I used to tell him - Oh pretend you are a tree. And I will look from inside and then the tree would move. Until we found a place where we want to see a tree. Then I plant a garden, a tree is in that garden, even the plants, the flowerbeds according to the inside - what you see out because you spend more time in a house.”

- Didi Contractor (D. Contractor, personal communication, Feb 17, 2020)

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Treatment of Existing Flora and features Didi decides on the nature of the flora and the existing features by her experience and knowledge about them. Choosing between what is valuable and where is it more valuable. For features like rock, the decision is taken on its shape and value in building.

- If a rock is aesthetically pleasing, it is kept, sometimes moved to a more desirable location.

- If a rock is damaged, it is broken into pieces and used in building.

- If the rock is valuable in building process, having qualities like easily cuttable or sculptable, then itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s used in the building.

For features like trees, the decision is taken on its quality, appearance, and value.

- Trees that have ecological value are kept. Trees that have medicinal values are kept.

- Trees which bear flowers, seasonal or perennial are kept for aesthetic purposes.

- Trees that have medicinal values are kept.

For features like groundcover.

- Grass is taken out in clumps with grassroots and kept moist, to take earth from under it, and planted back.

- Invasive weeds are taken out.

Fig.5.15 Japanase gardening emphasising on natural forms taken by nature.

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5.3.3 CLOSER TO COMMUNITY Learning from Vernacular “I didn’t invent a new language. It’s all traditional language.”

- Didi Contractor (D. Contractor, personal communication, Feb 16, 2020) Didi uses the vernacular language to build, learning from the traditional techniques, and age-old practices. Though the materials she uses are the same, the traditional vernacular house looks rather different, featuring small openings, no skylights, and no gables. The traditional vernacular is rather dark in the inside. The spaces are simple with smaller divisions of spaces which is not so in Didi’s work.

“My student asked me what my process is and how I relate to the local design. I don’t, I just absorb them and it comes out. It is not like - Oh! I take this. It is not an exterior process, it is an interior process. What I see is what I perceive.”

- Didi Contractor (Giaracuni, Giannetta, & Giaracuni, 2016) She has derived a method of using traditional building materials to create modern spaces with all the facilities of a contemporary dwelling. This modern space is free-flowing and more open in the inside. It draws in much more light from the numerous openings and skylights, however small they might be.

“When you work with minimal materials every tiny bit adds up. So if you get a tiny bit more light with even one bottle it makes a difference. You don’t see it now. But when the building is closed and that’s the point of light, it will make a large difference.”

- Didi Contractor

Materials from the locale Didi uses materials that can be got from the locale. The carbon emissions from the transportation of far fetched materials are prevented and this ensures that the money stays in the village. This engagement with the community adds flavor of the locale into the building merging into the landscape since the material of the landscape itself is used in the dwelling. The dwelling thus created is rooted to the place in terms of character and identity.

Creating awareness Rakkar is changing. New looking buildings made up of cement have come up everywhere within the valley. The placelessness of the cities have manifested in the village on a smaller scale right to the individual dwelling. Didi’s dwelling plays an important role in this context. It acts as an example of building heritage, one that is updated with all the modern amenities of the times outlaying creative possibilities to reinvent the traditional language.

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0.4 NOTE ON PLACE AND PLACELESSNESS The following part is an photo essay to point out how place and placelessness both existed in the countryside alongside each other. The search showed how the countryside was also changing at an alarming rate. The quality of places was being casually replaced by commonly found placelessness found everywhere thereby proving that it was not a phenomenon that was only occuring in the urban realm but also in the rural realm.

Where one went in the search of the alternative the mainstream placelessness already existed in a large proportion like the city.

5.4 Place and Placelessness in Rakkar, Himachal Pradesh

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Note : From Naresh Bhaiâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s dwelling to Didiâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s dwelling pictures are sequentially arranged.

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Fig.5.16 View of Rakkar - The changing countryside.

Primary Case Study 1: Didi Contractor

5.5 CONSTRUCTION TECHNIQUES

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(Site Visit)

1. All walls with plumbing are brick walls. Mud walls are kept away from moisture. Bathroom walls, basin area, powder toilets are made of burned brick (Fig.5.5.1).

2. Only one saliya is used for reinforcement in the columns (Fig.5.5.2). The reinforcements in the plinth beam ties the column to the foundation along with the weight of materials.

3. Two kinds of wooden(sal) farmas with no base are used to mould the mud brick, one that is rectangular and another that is used for the corner for getting the 45 degree angle (Fig.5.5.3). The extrusions in the farma soaked in water so that the mud doesnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t stick to the wood. Itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s kept on a and insulation) is spacked inside the farma.

4.1 It takes around 5 days if proper amount of sunlight is received on the site. After 2 and half days or 3 depending on the amount of sunlight, the mud brick is turned (Fig.5.5.4).

5. Mud bricks are used above the lintel level mud bricks are used. Though it is used in parts of the inner walls below the lintel level as well. Stone walls are not constructed above mud walls because of the weight of chakka which is much heavier than mud bricks. (Fig.5.5.5) 6. No framework is needed in the building for concrete as concrete (referred as masala) is added between the chakkas stacked up to create straight corner edges to bind the reinforcement to the stone in the column.

Cement is added at places between walls and window frames to hold the holdfast which in turn holds the window frames at place. (Fig.5.5.6) 7. Window and door frames are placed after constructing the plinth and holded in place by rope on opposite sides to prevent it from tripping.

8. Rock stone foundation - The earth is dug to be used to make bricks and rock stone is broken into pieces to be put in the foundation. (Fig.5.5.8)

Fig.5.5.1 Burnt bricks are used for plumbing walls.

Fig.5.5.2. One reinforcement rod to tie the stone column to the plinth.

Fig.5.5.3. Wooden farmas to make mud bricks.

Fig.5.5.4. Mud bricks laid on site to be sun baked.

Fig.5.5.5 Mud bricks stacked over stone plinth.

Fig.5.5.6. Masala added to holf the holdfast holding the window frames.

Fig.5.5.7 Forty- five degree mud bricks used to make the corners.

Fig.5.5.8 Stone obtained from the site broken into pieces to be used in foundation.

Revival of building traditions Workers are locally trained by 1 or 2 experienced artisans. This ensures the availability of skilled masons and artisans in close proximity for proper maintenance of the building in the future. The knowledge is passed, propagating this technique by the people in the village where the tradition of mud construction is gradually getting lost, forgotten, or suspended by the popularity of concrete as an easy, strong, â&#x20AC;&#x153;modernâ&#x20AC;? and fashionable residence. Educating and training locals. To achieve a modern quality of spaces with traditional building techniques ensures that the traditions are revived by people and continue to evolve.

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6. CASE STUDY TWO BIDYUT ROY, SHANTINIKETAN, WEST BENGAL

Primary Case Study 2: Bidyut Roy

0.3 NOTE ON PHENOMENOLOGICAL ACCOUNT The first part of the analysis focuses on a phenomenological understanding of people, place, and context. The following account of the visit written in first person in an attempt to communicate embodied-relational existential understanding, one that would require a person to feel, live through, and narrate it. The researcher in this case serves merely as a tool to experience human and experiential aspects of the research. It takes a narrative form to show how phenomenological prose may facilitate a lived understanding of a place. Though care has been taken to not dwell on personal issues but rather the phenomenon under study here, the people, maker, and the place.

These accounts narrate the feeling of the place in which these dwellings exist for a better understanding of the aspects of placemaking as an important part of the study which encapsulates the dwelling (Fig.4.3) and adds to the experience. This is also to emphasize that a dwelling does not exist as an isolated unit in the middle of nowhere but extends in all directions encompassing the memories of one’s home.

Note - The phenomenological account elaborated on the journey to Didi’s dwelling through a photo essay whereas in the following case the journey through Bidyut Roy’s dwelling is elaborated in the photo essay.

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6.1 PHENOMENOLOGICAL ACCOUNT

Fig.6.1 Satellite view of Royâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s dwelling

Fig.6.2 Road map

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Note - The first day I met Mr. Roy was not by prior consent. I had to find him physically in Shantiniketan. Mr. Roy was skeptical about recording our conversation. Therefore to make him comfortable I didn’t persist. I took notes of the conversation from memory as soon as I reached the train station and wrote the account that night as it was fresh in my mind with the help of the noted points.

For the last hour of the train ride a Baul singer, sang in the train compartment. He sang with his eyes closed, 2 slow paced songs without hurrying. After he finished he gracefully put the other part of the stretched membrane tied in a metal container inside his Gubgubi. There was an inherent sense of peace in his voice. By his time we had reached the countryside with green fields and yellow flowers. Goats grazing and people working in the fields. Getting down at the train station I met a toto driver asking where to go. I was directed by him and a fellow passenger who is a student in Vishwa Bharati doing his Ph.D. in environmental sciences. We slowly moved through the jammed main road which the toto bhaiya proclaimed to be too narrow for the station road(Fig.a). The fellow explained how Shantiniketan becomes very busy on Saturdays and Sundays. Other days it’s village life, he said. I went to Kala Bhavan thanking both of them, where a bunch of students were performing. It sounded like a contemporary boul performance with guitar and drums. As I drew nearer I realised it was a form of peaceful protest. Kala Bhavan was made of fat mud walls with murals on the exterior walls and interior walls. painted black(Fig.b). School kids flocked in school dresses to explore Tagore’s Shantiniketan as it was a Sunday, ideal for a school trip. I met a friend of a friend who was a student doing her graduation. Abira excitedly accompanied me to Bidyut Da’s home whom I could not find anywhere on the internet. I showed her the pictures of the house that I obtained from an article that had been written about him. She instantly recognized it as the ‘ceramic gallery’. While Abira fought with the rickshaw-wala for 10 rupees, people passed by us on foot or cycles or rickshaws. The proportion of cars was fairly low. Having a homelike lunch at a small place for too low a price, she raised her concerns about the university shifting the weekly holidays from Wednesday and Thursday to Saturday and Sunday. She shared her opinions - “Why it does have to be like the rest of the world? It’s one of our traditions (oitojjo). It was practical as well. We could go to the city for buying the stationary we need since the market is open.”

We reached Bidyut Da’s baari passing by the side of a Shonajhuri forest(Fig.c). We passed by a house I thought would be the dwelling I am looking for (Fig.d). Though it was the dwelling just next to it which looked rather strange as a dwelling.

It was a modest building. It didn’t stand out in contrast but rather looked harmonious with it’s surrounding (Fig.e). The door of the house was almost attached to the road (Fig.f). I entered the space having a small courtyard, which rather looked like a skylight.

It was made to house the tree(Fig.g). The first space was a gallery for Lipi’s production team (Lipi is a ceramic artist and Bidyut Da’s wife). The mud floor felt cold in the winter.

Fig.6.a Station road - Shantiniketn station to Kala Bhavan

Fig.6.b Inside one of the corridors in Kala Bhavan

Fig.6.c Kaccha roads through the Shonajhuri Forest.

Fig.6.d Royâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s neighbourâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s dwelling.

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I naturally sat on the plinth facing the courtyard. I looked up. The tree had some red and brown leaves(Fig.h). There were some pieces of ceramic displayed on one of the sides of the plinth. Some leaves had fallen on the plates and changing the aesthetic of the piece. The courtyard was filled with small white triangular stones and marked with a soothing yellow border curving around the tree(Fig.i). The gallery was decorated with various objects with a background of the garden behind the fixed windows (Fig.j). As I waited for him to finish his lunch as informed by a polite caretaker I went on to see the workshop (Fig.k) that joined this gallery passing by the big furnace. The workshop was 3 steps down the gallery (Fig.l), and therefore gave a sense of privacy. The workshop led to the garden (Fig.m). The spaces had a sense of flow. It directed visitors through one another while flowing organically. I almost had to control myself to not flow to their dining area. The dwelling was not formal but rather experiential and experimental. In the garden, there was a small bridge(Fig.n) in between over a river of stones and pebbles.

The bamboo cluster in between provided screening between the gallery from the family dining table in the garden.

After lunch, Bidyut Da was pleased to find me without any reason and made us some tea.

He was a small man with ergonomics of a regular bengali man in his 50’s. His hair and beard both white smiling in his glasses with his small eyes. Giving me a tour of his home we passed the outdoor dining table(Fig.o) while on our right laid open stairs leading to the upper floor of the workshop(Fig.p). It housed Lipi’s display and a sitting area for Adda (Fig.q). One goes up four steps and there is small space with leads up to his studio through a staircase. The space on the higher level is nothing more than 5 feet. While going up one can look into the gallery through the screen of mud-plastered khor(Fig.r).

He said - “I don’t stand and work you know.” Coming down I realized how organic the garden was itself.

The house had a living room which was more and less open from 3 sides(Fig.s). A low long table was placed in between. As one turns right, one finds themselves in the kitchen which is small and cozy, a facility appropriate for not more than 2 people working at a time (Fig.t). The kitchen door had leaves between the two panes of glass panels as well as the curtains merging into one another in the evening light(Fig.u). The kitchen connected to a room that was divided into four levels. Each higher than the other in clockwise order. Beds were made on 2 levels. The center which connected the 4 levels had a sculpture raised one-third of the total height of the room. He mentions someone who kept it there because the artist couldn’t take it away from Shantiniketan as it was too heavy. Connected to the living room there was a beautifully sculpted mud staircase which turned to become a wooden staircase, leading to the couple’s bedroom. I didn’t go to their bedroom. The garden had 3 mud levels. One had a display featuring a mud shelf that blended with the ground(Fig.v). The other level places Lipi’s sculpture in the middle. He said - “Since we don’t have a puja room, I made this.” This mud square had 4 posts and a tiled roof with flowers hanging from it like red grapes (Fig.v). Lipi’s sculptures were all over the garden with the things they made with mud in the workshop, finding places for themselves beneath leaves, on stones(Fig.w). The 3rd mud level was an informal gathering place as he explained got good sunlight - ideal for winter mornings.

They repair them every year after the rains. The common bathroom between the gallery

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and the garden didn’t have a roof (Fig.x).

A wall muralist Bidyut Roy was a painter before. He gave up showcasing his work as a painter and muralist and took an interest in building. He is a self-taught architect and has made more than 25 buildings. He started with his own house. He learns by his mistakes and treats them as opportunities to make his buildings more interesting. “I pray that some walls go slant in the process of making”- He says - “Today’s buildings are too straight.”

“How will my daughter write poetry if she lives in those houses - super sophisticated houses. An unnatural sophistication. Today’s toilets can be used as an OT. They are so clean. Buildings that overpower humans and intimidates are scary to me. A common man should be able to enter your building and feel comfortable. This home will have a universal appeal because it’s natural and more closer to human. A tribe would be comfortable in it as much as a westerner tourist. It has to do with the human senses and the idea of home.

Everybody will feel it - as their’s” He continuously adapts to the needs of the family and keeps changing parts of his house.

“A building should be flexible, not rigid. It should grow like a tree.” His appreciation for nature reflects in the countless examples he gives about our relationship with it. “When you are walking down a road and you look at a tree, don’t you identify the tree by the shape and patterns of its leaves. If I know you and I even see a silhouette of yours I will identify you. A built form should be the same. It should have a personality of the land.” Mr. Roy talks about ‘Bhoin Phor’, the power with which a seed comes out of the ground to grow.

He says a place blossoms from the ground, the soil, the earth itself. “It’s like a tree, rooted in a soil. You cannot uproot a building that is rooted in a place. Those matchbox buildings are drilled from the top into the ground much like an alien invasion with no relation whatsoever with nature. On the contrary, a building should beautify nature even more so.

If you take away the building, the tree should cry because it was surrounded so beautifully - as if it was its part.” He talks about nature as a spirit and an inseparable entity. He also questions the validity of the mainstream green architecture and the way it has taken shape, giving a false pretense of an environmentally friendly building but is built with concrete steel and glass and fitted with air conditioning in every floor. “I find it funny - the status of green building meanwhile my buildings remain illegal. The government doesn’t consider the validity of these buildings and won’t approve of it. It is almost ironic that we have no way to certify this building. People can’t take loans for such buildings. Building we made with mud and bamboo are not certifiable according to the building codes, rule, and regulation neither one can apply for insurance.”

He always kept moving as a child with his family and that made him realize he would want to settle somewhere eventually. He bought the land on which the house stands for Rs.900 as a college student. When talking about commercialism he says - “I don’t understand why commercial work should be bad or of poor quality. Why can’t I beautifully serve you a plate when you are paying for it. Gaudi did commercial work but look at its beauty. A supermarket, a place of commercial activity, why can’t it be beautiful?”

Lipi in a discussion of defining a region said - “Textiles in a horizontal strip of map divided in latitudes and longitudes, has similar patterns and similar colours, Why? Because of the

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amount of sun that falls on the soil. Due to that, some specific kind of trees grow in that soil.” She put her words across clearly with logic and was careful of the way she formulated what she was saying. He referred to her as ‘Tui’, used generally to address friends in Bangla and not commonly your wife. They were in the same department in college - painting and she had been an equal partner in the making of this house. “We have made it together. It wouldn’t have been possible without her. ” He also points out to the integrity of the philosophy of life and connectedness in a maker’s life. “You should be one with your work. Artists whose life is distant from their work lack purity, always reflected in its depth. You cannot make a natural environment if you yourself don’t live in one.” They had 2 dogs who ran in and out of the house, workshop, gallery, road, and garden. “It is better that you came directly, in our time we used to go like that, there were no phones. But nowadays everybody is busy and running and don’t have time. One shouldn’t be so busy. We should always have time.”

I left for my train passing by the cluster of long, straight, white Kaashful that graced the lands in winters, waving with the wind.

Fig.6.e. Roy’s dwelling from outside

Fig.6.f Entrance to Bidyut Roy’s dwelling

Fig.6.g Courtyard

Fig.6.h. The tree housed in the courtyard

Fig.6.i The yellow border around the courtyard curving around the tree

Fig.6.j Gallery

Fig.6.k Sunken part of the Workshop

Fig.6.l Steps leading to the Workshop

Fig.6.m Garden

Fig.6.n Bridge

Fig.6.o Outdoor dining area

Fig.6.p Steps leading to the entrance of the upper gallery

Fig.6.q Lipiâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s personal gallery. Space for adda (right)

Fig.6.r Khor Badha screen

Fig.6.s Living room

Fig.6.t Kitchen and kitchen entrance door with leaves in window panes and patterns of leaves on curtains.

Fig.6.u Outdoor display area - mud shelf

Fig.6.v Sculpture pavilion

Fig.6.w Terracotta horses on stones in the garden with small hole that collects water with a flower.

Fig.6.x Open to sky common toilet.

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6.1.2 Unstructured, Interactive Interview Day 1 Interview with Bidyut Roy - 9 Feb 2020 How do you generally address a client who approaches you?

Bidyut: I have not passed from any architecture school. So I don’t work in a conventional way. Over the years I have developed a language. I tell them that they can see some of my old work and gauge if this is something you’d like to have, then I can do it for you. And if you have something specific in your mind like ‘I want to have a Taj Mahal’ or ‘I want to have a specific kind of house’, then you can get it done by someone else; I can’t do that.

You said that you have some work on display. Can you elaborate?

Bidyut: Yes some of my work is actually resorts or hotels now. If you are a client and you want to feel it yourself, you can even go and live there. You can stay for a few days and judge if I am worth your interest. I understand that you would need to decide cautiously because you will be investing your money. And If you don’t like the work, later on, you’d feel sad. You shouldn’t come if you don’t believe me. You can go to someone who can double your investment. There are a lot of such people in our industry.

When I make a home. Only after I have completed everything and documented the house through photographs, only after that you can keep anything you desire- your grandfather’s chair, things from your in-laws. But until I click that picture, you cannot keep anything.

This is my condition.

If you think that I am important and you want my work, then let’s sit and discuss. I don’t want to waste your time unless you are really sure. At most, we can have tea.

What if the client wants any tweaks midway the project?

Bidyut: If they say anything, I am not going to listen to them. I keep them informed of this from the beginning. I ask them to write me a note on their dream home explaining to me what the dream is. You can change it later, sell it; it’s your property. If someone is not okay with this, I won’t work for them.

Do you mean to say that furniture is not something you keep, or do you keep that?

Bidyut: Yes So, you finish the building with the required furniture.. everything. But if they want to change anything, it’s their wish, right!

Bidyut: Yes. I do the furniture. If the house has 3 rooms, I would do everything. I would do everything needed in the bedroom. I would get everything needed for the kitchen.

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Aami khaabo, dhobo, thaakbo, ghumobo, taar pore berobo! (I will eat, wash, live, sleep, then I would leave.)

Do you also live there?

Bidyut: Yes. I live there for a brief period, then I leave. Then I shall let the owner live. In the fast life, very few architects have so much time to do all this. Because they would start having meetings with the next client. They won’t live forever with a single client, right! I live here in Shantiniketan. A village. I do not live in a city. Therefore If I make one house, I have enough to sustain my maintenance costs in this small place I live in. I can help the people around, spend on myself. I can travel around with my family if I want to. If I need to spend, I can. I have this much liberty, it’s enough for me. I do not need anything more than this. I do not want to do anything more. Just because someone is paying me, I would have to obey everything you say! Aar aamar toposya, aami je mone sadhana korchi, sheta aamar noshto hoye jaabe, sheta aami maante paarbo na. [What about my commitment and dedication to my art! This is my way of spiritual attainment. If it gets destroyed, I cannot make do with that.]

When you are in a vegetable market and you are buying a potato, you should understand that someone grew the potato on their farm. And it’s only after the farming, that the potato has come to you. And here you are, buying the potato only knowing its size if nothing more. The rules are exactly the same here.

When you are designing, are you considerate of the size?

Bidyut: Yes. But do not make any drawings for my designs.

If you do not draw, how do you instruct the artisans working for you?

Bidyut: I do a rough drawing of the flooring. Think of the requirements they have asked for a bedroom. In kitchen…. Details like his wife is lefty and he is a righty. I keep in mind the requirements of the client and make a design of the flooring. I begin with the flooring.

Do you mean that you draw?

Bidyut: Yes, just one. Suppose I want a 20’ X 18’ bedroom and the client tells me that it is becoming too big, I tell them that I do not make a bedroom smaller than this. I want a bathroom of more than 150 square feet. In the cities, they make bathrooms which are 60, 70, 80 square foot and end of story. I always take at least 150 square feet for a bathroom.

Because I know that when I would do the interiors, I would need that much space.

So you have in mind how much space you would need.

Bidyut: They would need space to react, right! It’s like a drama that is about to unfold inside a house. The person who will start living in the house, his earlier practices will change once they explore the space we have designed.

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Do you mean to say that they shall intuitively start behaving differently?

Bidyut: Yes. He would start thinking differently, led by the space. The apartments that are being sold in the market are extremely predictable. Its like this-that-this-that- finished.

The ones in the market are functional; I can’t call them non-functional. The ones we make are in the middle of functional and non-functional. We do not make something 100% functional. I am calling our design non-functional because the people who are extremely calculative of the space while they draw, are going to call this wastage of space. Wastage of space leads to wastage of material. They would say that how come are there are so many fans? This is a waste! They are unable to understand the element of visual health. If the space is able to keep you happy and you are really happy looking at it, the space becomes a source of energy; this is something they are unable to understand before living there. They only understand the space in the physical realm. They think like why should there be so much space after the bed. If there is a bed, they would give 6 feet of space after that; but then they will question any further space. They do not have similar values. Because they do not have those values, they will not be okay with paying money for something they don’t regard as necessary.

The conventional sellers/ builders are very good with the client. The client also sees value in it as long as they are able to get a house that’s way cheaper. If they are selling a house this affordable, it must mean that they are optimally calculating every square foot of it. The seller in this case has automatically finished everything on the machine. He hasn’t invested human hours into it to make it handmade. I am not sure how this approach assures the health of the house.

I am just wondering that how can such a house be beautiful! I can’t imagine any beauty in it.

By this are you questioning the ethical value of this?

Bidyut: There is no ethical value here. Let me tell you a story. A worker in his workplace had a fever. He took a tablet and left for Guwahati. My assistant architect called me and told me that on the day he was coming down from Pune, he was approached by an old man for money. The man mentioned that he has come all the way from Rajasthan to Pune and his contractor didn’t even pay him after the work. My assistant contractor managed to give him some money to buy a ticket home so he could return. In these instances, how does the work they did become beautiful! It doesn’t, right!

Bidyut: Oita beautiful tokhon-ei hobe jokhon khub prem diye otaake banano hobe [It will be beautiful only if it is made with a lot of love.]

Like a mother’s meal.

Bidyut: Yes, exactly. It’s that kind of a place, that I can call ‘beautiful’; but they call it ‘wastage’. The story of love is wastage for them. There is no love. Let us think of the context of companions in our lives. You would find company in a man, I would find company in a woman. The companions stay alongside each other. Later you start thinking that you do not need me for anything and I think that I do not need you for anything. You start facing

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one side and I start facing the opposite. This is where the whole relationship diminishes.

There is no more a story of love there. It is the same for places. I mean the poetic sense doesn’t stay anymore. In this case, all you get as a client is a deed. Do you understand the meaning of a deed?

Is it like a deal?

Bidyut: Yes. It is like a deal. If a couple is staying with each other all alone, however one stays on one side while the other stays on the other side; then it is a deed without the value of any sentiment. Even if you stay with the other, it isn’t giving you any joy. And even if they ain’t there anymore, you have no sorrow.

Do you mean to say that the attachment is missing?

Bidyut: No. There is nothing. It is only functional. Yes. They are in a functional space. I am there. You are there. Everyone is there. This is the concept of functional that I do not find conviction in. I am not saying it is bad to have functional spaces. Even if I don’t find conviction in the idea of functional spaces, they still exist. In fact, they are the majority. So, I am in no position to deny them. If there is a majority in a democracy, then the majority is democracy. The minority no more form the opinion of a democracy, right! This is why I am re-iterating that my ideas are off the regular. So, if someone is able to resonate with these ideas, only then I can work for them.

I would like to ask you about your approach to making a site. I understand that you do a rough sketch of the flooring. Post that, if you ought to have a wall there, how do you go about explaining the wall?

Bidyut: To whom do I need to explain the wall? I would not elaborate on this to the client at all.

What about the artisans?

Bidyut: My artisans have been working with me and now they are experienced in how I approach it. When a new artisan comes, I elaborate to him the process slowly.

Do you make models?

Bidyut: I do. Occasionally. I do show the client the maket once.

What do you use to make the maket?

Bidyut: I make it with paper.

Do you make it with paper or paper pulp?

Bidyut: No. I make it with cut-outs of a board. Sometimes while making it, I do cut out a

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little skewed or trim extra in parts.

Do you make it like a collage?

Bidyut: No. I make it properly on scale. By scale, I am able to calculate how much material would be required. The calculation is something I do not show to the client. This is for our own approximations. I do quote a total approximate price.

So, is it only to work out details for yourself?

Bidyut: I have already told the client that I will require this price per square foot. It would be a matter of shame for me if I wasn’t been able to estimate the cost, by my experience. A little here and there is okay. When you are writing a poem, can you tell if the poem is going to be finished in 5 lines, after all? Maybe later, you feel like adding another two lines. It is the same with our work. Let’s imagine that I am going to make a wall, which is planned to be 7 feet tall. But once done, I am not satisfied with the slope. Can I not raise it by another 2 feet! Those 2 feet won’t come out of the air, right! It will need money. That is something I am not able to anticipate now. But in total quoted price, I shall manage this money in some manner. The cost increased though, right! It’s a similar case when the artisans are working at a slower pace. I cannot whip them to work faster! I would have to treat them a little differently, maybe arrange for a party with good food; since we all eat, stay and sleep in the site itself.

You sleep there as well while the work is going on?

Bidyut: Yes. I sleep there as well, along with all the artisans. So, I can probably ask them to get some meat, beverages available in the area, and then ask all of them to eat together.

I may also join them. I can sit with them and have a little adda with them to talk about how we can work tomorrow. I can tell them that if we are a little faster, the client shall be a little relieved.

Do you discuss all of these with your artisans?

Bidyut. Yes. After having the meal, I can discuss all of this with them.

Could you tell me if they also offer ideas into this discussion?

Bidyut: Of course. We accept everyone’s ideas. It is not just about what I have to say.

It is more of me asking how can we go about solving the issue at hand. They are also experienced. They also stay in the village. Baari ghor, haoa bataash, orao shob bojhe [They also understand everything about house-home, air-wind]. It’s not like I am the only one who understands these things. I believe everyone understands. Some pay more attention to how the wind is blowing; so they are able to understand how the roof should be made, how the patterns should be designed. The wind is going to constantly push against the structure. They would have to pay attention to wind and water so they don’t push against the structure. They have an advanced understanding of these dynamics. I learn a lot from

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them. My artisans are like my family, I chat with them, pull their leg, make jokes. If you see us, you won’t feel like I am the boss and they are the workers.

Can I call you a team?

Bidyut: Yes. Team.

Suppose you are having a discussion about one of the walls. How do they explain you their feedback? Through words?

Bidyut: Yes. Through words. Or they give me references of previous work and ask if they have to repeat it or if we are going to change it and how. Now, maybe we are talking about the columns, these ones. I tell them that I don’t like all of them to be all alike. In one scale, in one pattern, no it shouldn’t be. Everything will grow to be like their own. At your home, it isn’t like the mother has given birth to 10 children together. If there are 10 children, one must be elder, others must be younger. I ask them to take the same approach. I can decorate them later accordingly. There is no need to make them in one scale. I try to break the interpretation of scale here. This is when I start the language. If we are following a stepwise approach, that’s what I break in the beginning itself. Just remember where all the stairs need to be made, those areas need to function properly so no one falls. That’s what I keep intact in most places. In other places, I play around and do my tweaks. I do the exact opposite of how things are done, always. Aami boli aami ulto Ram re. Aamra shoja Ram na. Aamra ulto Ram aar tora ulto shishu. [I call myself the inverted Ram. I am the opposite Ram and you are the inverted pupils.]

I want to ask you a few more questions I had written down. I have written them in English.

Should I ask them in English or should I translate them in Bangla to ask you?

Bidyut: Translate them to Bangla, please.

How did you get interested in architecture?

Bidyut: There was no eureka moment. When I understood that a house has a wall and that can be treated as an element. It’s a subject.

What do you mean by the subject?

Bidyut: I had come here to study. I used to study the murals under a teacher, who is very famous in this country, K.G. Subramanyan. I came to Shantiniketan only for him.

So, you come in search of a guru?

Bidyut: Yes, to search for him. No one else is born of his caliber and mastery, in this country. He is no more, now. He has taught many dignitaries across the country. From the artisans, to the ones who can talk, all the intelligent ones are his students. So, I had also come to study murals from him.

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Your interest was with the murals at that time?

Bidyut: Yes. I graduated with a painting major, but I didn’t like painting anymore. Everyone paints. But mural is something that has not been explored as much in our country. I wanted to study murals. So, I took to take this up as my interest. My guru was really good in his subject. He taught and explained me murals. He asked me once to measure all the houses in Kala Bhavan. After measuring, he used to ask me to make the makets with paper. I had to make 3 makets of one house.

Would they be different?

Bidyut: I would have to make the same thing thrice.

I mean to ask if you had to approach the three makets differently?

Bidyut: No. It would be the same maket. The big building would have the iterated versions.

This is just practice. So I can make my logic of what I will do, how I will do it. And the walls you see, I would have to draw on them, I would have to think about what kind of visual would be there. I am making the exact copy of those houses. The big building there is. I am making the exact copy of that. Some of them have a few murals by famous artists already. I cannot just ignore them, right! But on these paper houses, I could say aloud that those are not needed. Their time has passed. I used to make a new concept. Not one, but three concepts. This is how we used to practice logic, argument. My teacher would always ask me why and I used to answer. This is how I started understanding murals with time.

Then history, etc.

Is that where you get the makets in your approach to work now?

Bidyut: Yes, of course. That is how I understood that the makets help me understand the wall very well. I can bring alive the wall in this manner. That’s a big thing. I have learned to understand the wall that’s taking all the load. That’s how I used to understand the house.

Now I would have to understand the brain of it. This has to be learned in parts. It is just like making a sculpture. If I have understood the house, I can understand that where should the windows be. Assume that I am giving you a wall and a window. Where would you keep them? What would you pay attention to, to place them? Would you look at the beautiful surroundings outside to keep them?

The surrounding had to be framed.

Bidyut: You have to frame it, since you are opening the window. The wall automatically becomes more active like this. Or, you can place the window somewhere, where nothing else is visible to them. Then the purpose of the window would have been only the wind.

But the window also has another purpose - The visual. You have to understand this.

People should be able to see outside. You can’t go by the function of the window only; that is, if you keep it open, there will be wind and if you keep it closed, there will be no wind.

There has to be an aesthetic quality to it. You would have to think if you would like the

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window to be closer to the bed? Or, you would want it somewhere else? When you are sitting on the commode, would you like to look out the window? These are all stories. How are you designing the window like this!

With this, a lot of the plan of the house is ready. The drawing for the window would be done much later. But this window and the doors, they definitely have to be fitted. As soon as you jump from the lift, I won’t ruin the space. I would give a window there as well. With placing these openings itself, a lot of life is added to a house.

When we study design, there is a rational intellect that we are taught which compromises on a lot of natural intuitiveness that you have been mentioning in your analogy of just functional spaces. Since you have started understanding architecture on your own, you are able to jump those structured rationales. So, how do you treat the rules you come across?

As rational boundaries or challenges?

Bidyut: I do not think rules are boundaries. Let’s talk about a few rules, you enter by a door and you exit by a door. So, that’s a rule for this space. You can’t go to another space with this same rule. The mention of the rule itself is extremely subjective. It is only applicable to a set space. You cannot apply the rules while designing a cinema hall for your house.

Everyone is constantly entering and exiting a cinema hall. But it is not the same in your home.

Do you mean to say that rules have to be understood in the context of the purpose of the space?

Bidyut: Yes, exactly. The rules are made with the purpose in mind. The ones who comment on the rationality and intellectuality are just saying it for the sake of it, because they are in that position or sitting on a chair to say this. They may be saying it because they are supposed to say it. But thinking of these rules is like everyone in the block matching the time on their watch to one single clock...

Would you recommend matching the clock?

Bidyut: If you do it, it isn’t good. It is not natural. Even the trees maintain some certain rationale. If I can just maintain harmony with nature, that would be enough. One needs to understand diversity. Everyone is different. We all have come to study at a common place.

But we do not belong to the same place. I argue from a different standpoint and you do it from another standpoint. You cannot mechanize everything.

Are you talking about standardization?

Bidyut: Yes. You cannot put everything into the same tune. You cannot do this to art and poems. You cannot tune them. You would have to give everything their own life, give them the freedom to take life their own unique way and you will see it talk to the wind and flow. How can you tell where is an insect going to fly towards! It would only fly with the wind. Only the wind would be able to connect with it. It decides it’s direction basis on the direction of the wind. You can’t judge the rationality of that insect’s decision making.

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Can you take me through your childhood? What are some of the memories which come up? What kind of a house did you grow up in?

Bidyut: The house I grew up in, was in a wild jungle. Wild bears and leopards used to roam around in the evening. The front yard of our house was covered in a net. We have seen bears passing by from inside the net, when we were kids.

This is very amusing to me. Did you never feel they would attack?

Bidyut: Since we were covered in a net, it was okay. My father was a doctor for leprosy. The treatment for leprosy didn’t happen in the urban cities, in those days.

This is why you grew up outside of the urban!

Bidyut: Yes. Was this the time when Laurie Baker was here?

Bidyut: Yes. As I told you, it was during the times of my father. Then we lived in small towns to complete our education. I shall tell you an interesting episode. My elder brother got home a kitten once. When my father got back home, he found that it was actually a leopard’s cub. He asked him where he found the cub. He answered that he saw 3 of these cubs playing near the river. He snuggled one up in his arms and got him home. My father panicked and asked him to keep the cub outside because the leopardess must be on her way in the night and shall find her way here by sniffing the cub’s smell. And she did come that night. She took him and left. It was regular for us to witness poisonous snakes. That’s what my childhood was like.

How many years did you spend in the jungles?

Bidyut: Till I was 15 years old. Then we moved to smaller towns to study in school, college.

Father used to visit us from time to time. Whenever we used to have vacations at school or college, we used to go and stay with my father. In the town, we used to rent a place, and all of us siblings would study.

How many siblings did you have?

Bidyut: We were 4 brothers and three sisters. I was the youngest. I was a little different than the others. While all my siblings were very disciplined, I used to stay out of a strict discipline.

Can you tell me more? Were you a naughty kid?

Bidyut: Yes. I was naughty. I couldn’t obey. Everyone used to complain against me because I would not obey. I never used to follow the syllabus. I was always a misfit. Because of all this, I never used to get first-class results. I would always get a second or third class.

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Everyone used to comment about this because rest of my siblings would always get first class. While they wanted to lead a regular life, I always wanted to do something offbeat.

I think it was a lot because I lost my mother early in childhood and my father during adolescence. I was free after that. My elder brothers never really became a guardian figure.

Well, I can call them my second guardian, though. My guardians were no more. Since I was free, I started making my own logic. My brothers used to tell me that I would need to do a job, but I always denied having a regular job. When they would ask me who is going to feed me, I always would stress that I shall fend for my own. I used to make jewelry. I would attend a trade fair in Delhi. I used to go 10 days in advance. A lot of contractors would take up the job but would not be able to complete the task at hand. We were 2-3 friends who would roam around there 2 days before the event. And when we would come across someone who is not able to complete their task, we used to do it for them for a quoted price in that timeframe. It wasnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t start-to-finish.... just the finishing of it that we used to do.

Whatever i earned in those days, like that, in the places I used to stay, it potentially sufficed me for the whole year. There was no need for me to visit anywhere else for money. I do not have a lot of needs. I have to buy a sweater for the winters, would buy colours, brushes, canvas, and would pay up any pending sum of money I have to give to the store owners in the neighborhood. I wonâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t even ask them for a calculation of the pending amount. I would give them the money they would mention as my credit. So, that would retain their trust.

This is how I have lived a long time easily, without any complications. My siblings would help me sometimes with some money to fetch milk.

How old were you when you came down to Shantiniketan?

Bidyut: I was 24 years old. When I came down to Shantiniketan, I made a lot of international friends. I used to meet them and chat with them. They were from an advanced world. They used to tell me about what is ultimate.

What do you mean by advanced?

Bidyut: Letâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s imagine that I move to Delhi and start living there. Compared to the minimalistic life I lead here, that will be different. I think this is ultimate. I cannot lead the same life in Delhi, that I lead here. I am in a jungle here. Let me tell you something. I was always inquisitive about what is great and I used to ask my master about that. I was insistent that he tells me about it before he dies. He explained to me that great is something that is not for sale in the market. It is always outside the market and the market shall always be searching for it.

Where will the great be?

Bidyut: He will not be in the market. But the paradox is that all the intellectuals have entered the market. Now, they are trying to rather become the market. They are getting stuck in their own trial. That is how half of them are out of their quest to be great. And the market is not able to see the great because they are seeing one and the other beside him in the same light. The market is comparing them but they are not able to put me on that same scale. People who come to me, come for me. So, I mean to say that market is coming

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to me. I didn’t need to go to the market. If someone wants to get a house built by me, they would need to come to me. Whether you want to have the house built in Mumbai or Delhi, you would have to approach me in Shantiniketan. It’s only then, that I shall go to the site. I won’t just go with one call. I have held to a lot of rules in my approach to taking up work.

I might come across as someone with a lot of pride. But pride is what has kept me alive.

This is what I have learned from all my work and the state of the market in this society. The market shall call you today and then ask you to come tomorrow.

So, does this approach help you retain your value?

Bidyut: The market doesn’t value you. They would ask you to make a drawing tomorrow and then ask you to come down the day after to discuss that drawing. You left the drawing there. They would get a Xerox of your drawing and give your copy back to you saying that they don’t need it. They would ask you for another iteration of the drawing. If you give that, they would again repeat the circle. They would get a Xerox of the drawing and give it back to you. That’s what happened to us. Now, when they ask me to make the concept up, I tell them that concept is not made anymore. I would make the concept on the site. They can see it there on the site. For reference, I ask them to go through my previous work, but I shall not make a drawing for them. And if they insist on the concept, they would have to pay me for my time and effort. And, if they want to take the drawing to go through that, it also has a price to it. The presentation holds a value, right...a price! That’s when half the customers go away and half of them stay.

So, has sorting like this been good for you?

Bidyut: Yes. Of course. Because you can’t walk a long way with people you can’t get along with. How long would you walk with them! They would rather be disturbing for you. They won’t let you walk with peace.

So, is this to protect yourself, which you mentioned earlier!

Bidyut: That was my view of the market.

Day 2 Interview with Bidyut Roy (10 Feb 2020) You mentioned earlier that Lipi’s mother’s residence that you built was submitted by some students for the Nari Gandhi award? Do you know him?

Bidyut: Nari Gandhi was one of the professor’s friends. My professor used to mention him a lot.

I was reading Laurie Baker’s writing. There is a lot of strong commentary against cement.

Bidyut: You are talking about the proper use of material.

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What do you mean by proper use?

Bidyut: Kotha, shuddho aar shuddho jaygay bebohaar. [It means to be appropriate and have appropriate use of material]. So, if I properly use cement, it’s okay but cement bolte shob jaygay tumi, ota kopaale, mathay, paaye, shob jaygay cement laagale holo na. [You can’t put cement everywhere] Do you mean to say that cement cannot be used by default?

Bidyut: Yes. That’s what you need to check. You need to see how you can properly use the material. That’s what would call for innovation. If cement is finished, we would not get cement anymore. That’s why cement is actually a very important material. This is why it has to be respectfully used. Cement has to be respectfully used to sustain over 3-4 generations, just like petrol. We should keep it for the next generation. You cannot finish it all for your own sake. This is why we need to consider alternatives to cement. Like bamboo is one of the materials. It gets ready in 3-4 years. And you can grow it anywhere as well.

Like steel. These can be saved. If I use it for national benefit, then it’s okay. Don’t take these to the Himalayas. We should be thinking about how we can keep the Himalayas natural.

They have ruined it there. The backdrop of Himalayas is juxtaposed with a concrete jungle.

(Comment: The overuse of concrete sustains the increased productions. The more we use it, the more it is going to be produced. Therefore using it in large quantities won’t perish the resource rather would just amplify its quantities.)

I remember being going to Shimla again after years and saw the change.

Bidyut: Everywhere, in fact. You can’t point the fingers only at Shimla. Think of Gangtok, where there were so many earthquakes recently. They were saved by fluke, only because the concrete houses are so compactly packed alongside each other. Everything shook together, so the extent of damage was limited. If they were even a little more spaced out, there would have been damaged. It is sad to see the structures in Sikkim. What have they done! They have turned the heritage upside down. I cannot bring about such a big revolution alone. I do what I can, towards my purpose. It’s not just the stomach that one has to feed. There’s a lot more than the stomach. But most of the people think only about their stomach.

I understand what you mean. They are unable to find the soul food. Day-by-day we seem to get deprived.

Bidyut: You got it right. They need to look for it. This is why we should make a sample of this thought. Since I made a sample of this thought, you came to know about it and came to me.

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Day 3 Interview with Bidyut Roy (2 Mar 2020) Note: This interview was taken in Wabi-Sabi, a restaurant at the heart of Kolkata city.

The interior is designed by Bidyut Roy and his team.

We were talking about it the other day. How do you perceive function?

Bidyut: Some things are very functional. You can’t stay with these things for even ten days.

While some things are just about giving it a visual appeal. You can see Japanese elements in Europe or say, European elements in Japan. These become very decorative. We need to think afresh. Indian elements have a lot of life in them, they come from very soulful concepts. And it should be something that doesn’t need you to operate in a certain way, say can use that element only with your right hand. You should be free to use your left hand if you may feel like it. I don’t know how we will arrive there.

You designed this place. How do you think it was different than working in the rural parts of India?

Bidyut: Yes (Pointing at the light above that just switched on) One of my friends helped me with the lights here. I have a friend in Kolkata who works on handmade papers. I got his help. The way the western market has developed, India hasn’t grown alike. In India, it’s just the rich who are investing. There is a lot of comfort that they look for. But this doesn’t allow a lot of freedom to the designer. Say, if I give you 3-4 projects and give you the freedom to work on those projects with a free mind, you would start feeling energized. You may not get a lot of money and that may be a little inconvenient for you in the beginning. But if you say that you don’t want to look at the money, but rather want to focus on your concept.

You would be able to understand the whole process of it. The other way is you can focus on the bread and butter, and enter the market. But when you get into the market, they shall ask you what your charges are. If you say 1 rupee, they would start bargaining with you.

You would think that you have not eaten in the last few days and you would take up the work. Then, they will bend the ways you in such a manner, they would take your concept to a very different direction. And kick you out, with 20 instead of 25 that you may have agreed on.

Do you think this happens a lot in the industry? You were talking about it the other day.

Bidyut: Yes. This is why I do not give the drawing.

The last time we spoke, we discussed the ideas in Shantiniketan area. But, now in the city, the people are buying apartments for the lack of land and thus a lack of choice. If you have to bring those ideas to the city now, how do you think it should be approached? Can this be approached at all?

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Bidyut: I think it is a matter of choice. Why do you have to come to the city? You live outside the city. You should stay where your mind can be free. When will it be free? When you will be able to do something of your own. One should enjoy life. One should live the way they may deem fit. It’s not about the village or city. If the way you want to live fits the ocean, let it be that way. Cities are strange, because, at the core, it is unnatural. I won’t be able to keep my natural work in the city. Apartments are unnatural. People paint banana leaves in their apartment walls, that is not how you make something natural. You tried though.

Like I went to Charles Correa’s office. There were some coconut trees outside. For some reason, he could not see the coconut trees from the inside because of the presence of a wall in between. He drew coconut leaves on the inside of the wall, making the wall transparent.

You can say it was Charles feelings. But these are city problems. The village adheres to natural processes. The idea of birth and death in a city is extremely unnatural. Even if you give a logic they won’t accept. Better you stay outside the city. I did the interior of this restaurant after becoming rather old. I did not show them any drawings. I developed the project as I progressed. They were getting tensed. They asked me once what I am doing. I told them how will they understand since it’s not their subject. Don’t disturb me.

We spoke about your approach to taking up work. Can you tell me more details on that?

Bidyut: Yes. Until I am done, they cannot do anything. I do not show them midway because they won’t understand.

What if they come to the doorstep to see what is happening?

Bidyut: They can if they like. The owner used to come. The work will keep on happening and they would not be able to understand anything. I did understand how they felt. I used to tell them to be patient and wait.

Let’s come back to this space. You need to understand the expression of each of the elements. When I keep an element within another, I need to have an understanding of the expression of each. You would need to gain an understanding of the character and then need to make the whole concept grow. If there is a concept, I shall try to imagine the kind of trees and plants originating in that place. I would try to draft an idea in my head in a very abstract form. It is not something that drills in the ground, it should come from the depth of the earth. That’s how nature persists.

When you go to a site with existing trees and plants, how do you go about them?

Bidyut: I do snip the smaller ones. I keep some. I cut some.

How do you choose which you can keep and which you can cut?

Bidyut: I went to a site ones where there were a lot of neem plants. The stems were thick. I decided to keep most of them. But I cut 1-2 which were coming inside. In one of the sites, I had to cut a date tree. I felt really sad after that. But there was no alternative. The house was to be built beside a pond and right by the pond was the date tree. If I won’t have cut

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the tree, I couldn’t have built the staircase to the 2nd floor. Then I cut the tree and made a pillar out of the trunk. It was dead but it was a symbolic gesture. I wanted it to stay there only. But yes it was dead, i had to cut it to build. Mostly I try to keep the trees in the site intact.

When you work on a site, where do you usually source the materials from? From the area around the site or do you get it transported? Do these materials vary or you have a special preference for mud?

Bidyut: No it is not like that. I use mud because it is easily available. Wherever I would dig I would get earth from there, I can also make a pond, where rainwater can be accumulated.

If water goes deeper then the underground water will also replenish a bit. I get to earth from the site itself. If I do not get it at all, then I make my artisans break the bricks, get mud, and use it as mortar, to be inserted in between the bricks.

Do you use any kind of plastic waste in the construction?

Bidyut: No. That’s not something I like. My heart doesn’t tell me to take the responsibility of the garbage created by industries. Somebody who feels for it may take up the issue. This is because someone may not like something created with garbage. Earth is something that everyone will like and feel comfortable in. There is a strong link between the earth and the human body. The earth has a very major silica content and the human body also has silica in its composition. When the human body is burnt, you can find silica in the ash.

So, because of this close link, it would always appear good looking to you. You would feel healthy inside it because your body is rooted there. Bodies and natural materials are close.

I do not know what plastic exists it’s today’s culture. Why was there no foresight that there can be so much pollution because of plastic! Why were licenses for plastic production given to the likes of Ambani! Tomorrow, it will be the same issue with concrete.

Are you against using cement in construction?

Bidyut: No. Definitely not. But I think there are a lot of materials that can be considered.

I would want to seek your views on Jatiya Sangsad Bhobon designed by Louis Kahn. He has used so much cement in the construction. Though it is a beautiful building I am not sure whether to say that it was used appropriately...

Bidyut: Keeping today into perspective, when it is used so much it’s better that we don’t talk about it. Though the material has immediate strength and is water-resistant, there needs to be a judgment on where is it’s proper use. Also, it has to be thought of how minimal use can serve the purpose. Let me give you an instance. You go to a place where you are laying the foundation but there is a lot of water there; then I can’t ask you to lay the foundation with bamboo and mud. Then you can just lay the foundation with cement but do not go beyond what is needed. This is how we can do justice to the awareness we may have for our world.

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Are you saying that the material is good but the issue is its overuse?

Bidyut: Yes. When there is a lot of use, then there is be pollution. When there is one car running, we didn’t call that pollution. It’s only when there are 1 lakh cars, we started considering it pollution. Like, TV is pollution now. Amrit is good for the health of people; but if amrit is overfed, it will become poison. There needs to be a balance. If there is overuse then it’s pollution. People like me and you would have to think about how we can retain the balance. We are selecting what we need to use and where we want to go. I think it’s high time. If we need to stay on this earth, we would need to think about how we live and lead our lives. We should make something that can be reused yet again. The houses I have made, people can break them and rebuild yet again after 50-70 years using the same materials. It is not the same case with concrete. With concrete, you would have to dig it out and throw out everything so you can make a new house. That is so dangerous, even more than cancer. Nobody is saying it. This is why we need to think about alternatives.

There are a lot of other places that can be made in sync with humane values, even if small in scale. This is the responsibility that I would like people to have. It should not be all about money. Everybody needs to take this responsibility. This is the time when we have to get away from all of these bad practices.

There is a lot of migration from villages to cities in search of opportunities. Do you think this calls for us to develop our villages?

Bidyut: But the employment opportunities are not there even in the cities, plus the food that you see in city markets, it’s poisonous. But, there is no escape. People are afraid of going a separate way in their approach. They do not want to be in the villages because of a lack of water, electricity, medical facilities. They are fearful.

Do you think the villages can be developed with accessibility to hospitals and other services to change this?

Bidyut: This is what I have seen in Europe. Accessibility is the key. One should be able to reach where they would like to. Think of how seamlessly I came from Shantiniketan to Kolkata. The wind, water, everything has changed. It’s barely two hours. People who can use this convenience to live their way can use this luxury.

Can you tell me about your project in Siliguri?

Bidyut: The project is on hold because of the election. The client is one of the contenders in the upcoming election. I am hoping that in 1-2 months, we should be able to restart it.

Could you tell me how you work real-time at your site?

Bidyut: I keep silent and observe everything. The artisans will ask me “Bidyut Da, what do we need to do?” and I shall respond to something like “This is something we need to do... or that’s something we need to finish”. Maybe we are sticking a lot of sea-shells and they ask me what colour should be there.

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I would be equally flabbergasted at the question as them; that’s because I don’t pre-plan everything. I shall think then and there what should be the colour. I had earlier imagined the ceiling the be a dark coloured one... that’s when I felt the primer that was applied isn’t the best way to go forward. Then I asked the painter if he can run strokes with his brush dipped in aluminium colour over the false ceiling.

So, do you believe in experimentation and playfulness while working?

Bidyut: Yes. I do interrupt at few places but in the other areas, I let my artisans have a freeway. I was working on lighting somewhere. I had made some lightings in some gaps here. But I had to reject it later. If there was lighting here, the ceiling up here with the cut out wasn’t pronounced anymore. I canceled it. The lighting guy got very angry that I do not have a drawing. I told him that let the tables be set up, that’s when I can think of a drawing. The lights were not put up at such a height at that time. Then I thought that it may be better to pull it up. So, we did so.

If there is a mistake, I actually like it. Like I saw that the paint was a little watery here so to support that mistake, we designed some kind of flowers here. We improvise on it. This improvisation makes my designs lively, relative to other’s designs. I like to make mistakes.

Most people don’t have the courage to do mistakes. Jeikhaane bhoymukto, oikhaane kintu shilpi (Where the mind is without fear, that is where craftsmanship exists). Take up one project at the beginning of every year so you can be free to think.

Think of loving your work. Think of behaving well with your team. If you are working with 10 people and 2 people are not working too well. I would ask them to go to the market and bring something to cook so I can have a chat with them. I would live with them, eat with them, sleep with them. The functional areas are fixed, even the floor area is fixed, but the other things like the placement of doors, windows, furniture, bed, TV are thought during the job. The interior won’t be done by anyone else. You do the interiors, the gardening, and the lighting. That is how the work will be wholesome. If I am given a part of the job in an apartment, I will not do it. One of my acquaintances once asked me for some work in his 3-storey house. He used to work in Dubai. I told him that since you are such a nice man, I can’t do a lot but I can do some. I can help with the lighting, furniture, and with the painting inside the walls. That’s all I can help with. The building was amidst 2-3 other apartments, how is one supposed to look at the apartment? When I work, I would like to see the house from all 4 directions. Someone started the construction and the guy’s mother used to keep sending me pictures of the house on Whatsapp and would insist that I come and pay a visit. But I didn’t because that would give rise to unnecessary conflicts. I had seen his approach. He had made the foundation, then the ground floor, then was making the upper floors, all with so much concrete. You can just make the upper floors with bamboo, there was so much bamboo nearby in abundance. The place was moisture free, it’s was susceptible to moisture and insects because it is so windy up there.

I understand why one needs concrete for the foundation because there is moisture in the earth. But why would you need concrete when you are on the second floor!

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Could you tell me about your approach to your floor planning?

Bidyut: I imagine how I would read, walk around, explore the space. If you come, I shall observe how you would interact with the space. I would see the navigation by observing the movement of your feet. I would see the wall and how the colour plays around and wonder whether white would support it better or maybe grey or say a lighter shade of grey. I wonder if the flooring should be in earth or stone. I look at the functionality of the elements. Look at this seat here. I realized that no one is staying in Wabi-Sabi for the whole day. When spending 1-2 hours, this gives a good massage to the body.

What did you do after you learned from your guru about murals and walls?

Bidyut: I had told you how I got into architecture. There were a lot of houses in the art faculty of our campus. I was asked to make 3 makets of those houses. There was a famous Bengali painter Benode Bihari Mukherjee who became blind later. He had folded paper and made some figures and his artisans took the figures, ironed them, sculpted ceramic on the body, and stuck them to the walls. There was a lot of sentiment behind this. I joked that if I remove it, then what will happen! Amongst the 3 makets, one had a lot of coloured glasses and in the glasses, there were a few images. The glasses were arranged such that it plays with the reflection, something would turn a different way, something will bend a different way. I thought that Benode Da hasnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t been able to show a lot of things but I wanted to show 2-3 things. So, I showed that there were students walking to and fro the hostel. This is when I had made houses with papers. It was only after 19 years from then that I made a house. I was painting and making jewelry for those 19 years. I used to have my own shows. Also, I used to support my wife in her work. My paintings were more abstract.

A lot of painters today work with a sense of insufficiency which I was fortunate to not have. For a lot of artisans today, this sense of insufficiency drives them which doesnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t let them devote a space for beauty alone. They would have to think about it serving a different function.

Say, parking in that space!

Bidyut: Yes. The market keeps disturbing his ideas. We need to think about how a human feels familiar in their space. How would a child grow up in that space! The child would need to feel free there. We should be able to think about something more than survival.

Bidyut: A few days ago, I heard a folk song which said that the sea-shell which has birthed a pearl would not come to the surface anymore, it would go to the depth of the ocean.

There needs to be less talk and more immersing. There is no need to have chatter. Work from inside your heart. From your studies, you already have information. But after some time, your information will be digested and you would experience it. You shall need to be quiet and absorb. Silently, you shall get clarity.

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One needs time to absorb. That’s what I want to say. One needs to protect themselves. Take projects which you can call your own. The first project I did, I did it in 11 months.

Could you tell me some more about yourself? What do you like to do when not working?

Bidyut: I like to cook. I like to sketch.

I appreciate that you live with your artisans on the site itself. It’s a truly unique thing in today’s work culture. Could you tell me whether you think a woman can also feel the same independence if taking a similar approach?

Bidyut: If you live with the artisans I work with, then you would feel as if it’s a big family you have. They will do adda with you. They will be sad if you fall ill.

Bidyut: I generally have an architect work for me. He takes the artisans in and out, also takes care of the cooking. There are about 15-20 artisans. They have breakfast, lunch, supper, dinner. They start working at 7 am every day. What I do is, I arrange for all the paintings, door handles and everything, then I give them to my artisans.

Where do you get these things like door handles from?

Bidyut: Most of the times, I get them made from the villages.

In case of Wabi Sabi, did you do the naming as well?

Bidyut: No. That is something they came up with.

How did you come about this project?

Bidyut: A Japanese monk had come to my house. He was telling me that there is something commendable. Similar looking to the concept of Wabi Sabi. Later, there was an American Ambassador who came down to Shantiniketan to teach Japanese. When his students won’t come, he would come to drink tea at my residence and to chat with me. I used to be very excited because I have read haiku from Japan.

Haiku?

Bidyut: Haiku is the same how Kabir has given us 2-3 liners which we call doha here.

In one of Kabir’s dohas, he says “Mati kahe kumbhar se, tu kya roundhe mohe, ek din aisa aayega main roudungi tohe”.

He had quite some fun poems. It is the similar to short poems, Japanese Haiku. Haiku was associated with the cherry blossoms. It is written mostly in the appreciation of nature.

I cannot point this out, but I feel like the idea of haiku has been borrowed from Indian culture. If you do translations of haiku, you would feel a connection with Rabindranath.

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Rabindranath had written a lot of haiku. Haiku is something Japanese write. He told me about the haiku culture. He once told me that there was a haiku in which there were only two mouths.. there was no talking... no words. Haiku captures small byte sized thoughts.

Haiku is something you write out of your heart. You should read Kabir sometime.

Every poet has read Kabir at some point of their lives. You should also read writings by Rabindranath. All this will strengthen your thoughts, your ideas, your confidence. Once you have confidence, you would be less confused in your decisions. You would have fewer apprehensions. You won’t be disturbed. This would be something that would impact your perceptive capability at work. You would be able to see how a house would grow, how a child would grow in the house. You would be able to understand, say there is a mistake, the wall has become bent, you would be able to grasp if this bend is disturbing the balance or not! If not, we can keep it.

What would you do if it does disturb the balance?

Bidyut: Then we would need to repair it. But I think the impact can only be felt if we are making a 100 storey building. But I usually make structures which are 1-2 storeys. If there is a space of 24-25 feet, then I do not need to be so disturbed. If you draw everything, you won’t be able to find these nuances.

I wanted your views on the implication of these ideas in cities. We spoke about spaces where we have the luxury of sky and earth, which is not present in cities.

Bidyut: In cities, the value of handmade is not imminent anymore. Handmade becomes too high class in the cities. It opposes the overall idea. So, when I think handmade, I need to go back amidst the nature and it’s only in the nature that I would be able to keep handmade in it’s true integrity. This is why we need to go back to the nature with a handmade house. It’s only with handmade that you can offer life to that house. I do not like to create a drawing out of a computer and mechanize everything. I would like to do everything with my own hands. I want to give it my own touch. For that, I need to be amidst the nature. You would find this craftsmanship only in nature. There is nothing called nature in the cities.

Everything is being put in a straight line and only those things are appreciated, which are in one straight line. If I have to fall in a straight line, I would have to compromise on the life.

Is there any way we can bring back nature to the cities?

Bidyut: I think there needs to be a movement towards nature. You need to enjoy nature in its habitat.

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6.2 PART 1 - ANALYSIS OF THE INTERVIEWS

- Bidyut Roy lived in the jungles till he was 15 with his father who was a leprosy doctor and mother who was a housewife. They were 4 brothers and 3 sisters, him being the youngest. Then moving on to small towns for higher education. He joined to study painting in the Government College of Art & Craft in Kolkata.

- In the early days after the demise of Roy’s father and mother during his adolescence he tried to fend for his own. He would make jewellery. He would visit the trade fairs in Delhi once a year. He would go 10 days early the trade fair and linger around with 2-3 friends. This group of friends would help contractors who would be finding it difficult to execute the designs in time. He would also make jewellery. This fended for him for the whole year. He could buy his brushes, paints and the essentials.

- At the age of 24 with an interest in murals and in the search of a guru, in particular, K.G. Subramaniam who was a Professor in Kala Bhavan, Vishwa Bharti, he moved to Shantiniketan. For conceptualising and presenting ideas for walls murals Bidyut Roy learned to make 3d models of a built with cardboard which stayed with him till date to make scaled models of houses he designed, in the preliminary stage of the design process.

- With an engagement in murals and after understanding the wall as an element, he felt his interest shifting towards the built form to create spaces. The first building he creates is his dwelling on a plot he manages to buy in Shantiniketan itself. He builds with mud looking at the kind of houses that exists in and around the village. The dwelling was much smaller then as it is today, expanded later when Lipi and Bidyut started living together. It was only after 19 years of constructing his dwelling he made a house.

Meanwhile, he made paintings and helped Lipi with her pottery. He had his shows of his paintings during this time. He was able to generate commercial value for his paintings which were abstract (non figurative) in nature.

- Slowly his work travelled with the word of mouth and he started getting projects, most of them were dwellings, some were resorts and hotels in the countryside. Bidyut Roy met Charles Correa a few times and also visited Charles office. Roy often referred to Correa in between conversations.

- K.G.Subramaniam, Roy’s teacher would often talk about Nari Gandhi. They appeared to be friends and K.G.Subramaniam spoke highly of Nari to young Roy. - Bidyut Roy admired Antoni Gaudi’s work, for the beauty, organic and natural forms he exhibited. Roy’s life in the jungles probably nurtured his love for nature and being within it. In all his works, talks, examples, there is eminent presence of his appreciation towards nature. In his free time he strolls around the countryside observing village life ,

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the farms, ponds and landscapes. Roy loves natural forms and finds immense beauty in the shape of leaves, arrangement and colours of flowers, insects, organisms, spiderwebs, butterflies, structure of roots, berries, falling of water on leaves. He tries to understand structure looking at a tree and how the tree branches out.

- Roy love for poems takes him close to Kabir, Lalon, Rabindranath and Japanese Haiku.

(Haiku are three liners like a Kabir’s doha) - Roy finds pleasure in making tea, serving it in handmade clay cups. He likes to cook, tend to his garden and sketch. His patterns and motifs that he uses in his work, comes from his small sketchbook that he keeps with him. He continuously sketches on it with a black ball pen, taking time to fill large areas slowly with the fine tip.

6.2.2 Approach to design 6.2.2.1 Analogy Bidyut looks at designing buildings as an art. He compares between various forms of art to explain various aspects of his design process.

Theater - “Its like a drama that is about to unfold inside a house.They would need space to react, right!”

Roy questions the typical sizes of spaces advocating that he needs more to play out the drama in the space considering the reaction time one needs while travelling through a space.

Sculpture - “It is just like making a sculpture.” “The building was amidst 2-3 other apartments, how is one supposed to look at the apartment? When I work, I would like to see the house from all 4 directions.”

He compares his work with sculpture considering that he wants to look at it from all the 4 sides. Since most of his projects are 2 storeys and occupy a piece of land he is comfortable going around his buildings looking at it framing views.

Poem - “When you are writing a poem, can you tell if the poem is going to be finished in 5 lines, after all? Maybe later, you feel like adding another two lines. It is the same with our work. Let’s imagine that I am going to make a wall, which is planned to be 7 feet tall. But once done, I am not satisfied with the slope. Can I not raise it by another 2 feet!”

Here Roy questions the fixed nature of things. He needs freedom and flexibility to work. In regards to the height of the wall, here he compares it to the lines of a poem and presents his view about the intuitive quality of his works where he may feel that he needs to add more lines at a later stage and may do so.

Roy tries to be free, open minded and non traditional breaking any pre-conceived notions about building and encourages his craftsmen to be so too.

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“Now, maybe we are talking about the columns. I tell them(the craftsmen) that I don’t like all of them to be all alike. In one scale, in one pattern, no it shouldn’t be. Everything will grow to be like their own. At your home, it isn’t like the mother has given birth to 10 children together. If there are 10 children, one must be elder, other must be younger. I ask them to take the same approach. There is no need to make them in one scale. I try to break the interpretation of scale here. This is when I start the language. If we are following a stepwise approach, that’s what I break in the beginning itself. Just remember where all the stairs need to be made, those areas need to function properly so no one falls. That’s what I keep intact in most places. In the other places, I play around and do my tweaks. I do the exact opposite of how things are done, always. Aami boli aami ulto Ram re. Aamra shoja Ram na. Aamra ulto Ram aar tora ulto shishu. [I call myself the inverted Ram. I am the opposite Ram and you are the inverted pupils.]”

Here by scale Bidyut refers to the relative size and shape of the columns.

For sculpting the space he imagines the interactions the space will facilitate by simulating scenes of activities one would do in these spaces and inact it in his head. The walls and floors forms the background to support the scenes.

“I imagine how I would read, walk around, explore the space. I would see the wall and how the colour plays around and wonder whether white would support it better or maybe grey or say a lighter shade of grey. I wonder if the flooring should be in earth or stone.”

6.2.2.2 Methods Roy designs on site. Roy and his team lives on the site itself while they are working on a project. This implies that he takes only one project at a time.

“Aami khaabo, jhar debo, dhobo, thaakbo, ghumobo, taar pore berobo [I will eat, broom, wash, live, sleep, then I would leave]” He finishes the project to the last detail, lives there for sometime adding little things, documents his work and then leaves.

Since Roy was a wall muralist he understands his walls well and how walls transfer loads.

He further expands his understanding through grasping the system of the house as a kit of parts with windows and doors. Roys physical presence on the site helps him consider the present physical features of the sites and the view he can frame from the windows.

“Assume that I am giving you a wall and an window. Where would you keep them? What would you pay attention to, to place them? Would you look at the beautiful surroundings outside to keep them?”

Placing the windows opens out the views and placing the walls supports the roof as well as blocks certain views for privacy. For the doors, he imagines the movement in the space providing him the circulation patterns. With doors, windows and walls in place

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most of the plan of the house is already ready. Being a visual artist Roy’s choices are dictated by aesthetics and his sense of beauty accompanied by his appreciation of nature.

He tries to maximise the opportunities of observing the flora and fauna outside the built form. Though he keeps some parts of the house like bedrooms very private with the help of his walls.

6.2.2.3 Attitude Roy likes to make mistakes. He tries to treat the mistakes as opportunities to make something new, playful and different.

“I pray that some walls go slant in the process of making. Today’s buildings are too straight.”

“If there is a mistake, I like it. Like I saw that the paint was a little watery here so to support that mistake, we designed some kind of flowers here. We improvise on it. This improvisation makes my designs lively, relative to other’s designs. I like to make mistakes.

Most people don’t have the courage to do mistakes.”

Roy experiments at every stage. He doesn’t plan beforehand what is to be exactly done on site.While instructing he lays out certain elements that they need to finish and work on.

Later he works on these elements depending on how they turned out.

“Maybe we are sticking a lot of sea-shells and they ask me what colour should be there.

I would be equally flabbergasted at the question as them; that’s because I don’t pre-plan everything. I shall think then and there what should be the colour. I had earlier imagined the ceiling the be a dark coloured one, that’s when I felt the primer that was applied isn’t the best way to go forward. Then I asked the painter if he can run strokes with his brush dipped in aluminium colour over the false ceiling.”

Roy think in parts and stages. Only when one stage is complete, he can see for himself physically in 3d, how did the parts come together. He then thinks about the next stage.

“The lighting guy got very angry that I do not have a drawing. I told him that let the tables be set up, that’s when I can think of a drawing.”

Since Roy doesn’t make drawings, he experiments on the site itself with design iterations.

Though Roy does make a rough model and a floor plan to visualize beforehand, he doesn’t stick to it. It is to work out the design and understand the areas of spaces needed to estimate the cost factors to present to the client.

Roy gives tremendous importance to uncompromising freedom. In all his works this approach is reflected. He has established a language that comes with a similar features and recognisable forms which is used in his works. This language comes with its kit of parts that he uses differently in all the buildings according to the client, function, site and orientation. Roy uses mud, bricks, wood, country tiles, cement(till plinth) in most of his works.

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Roy inherits his attitude from his teachers who believed almost obsessively, in the role of art and design as agents that can bring joy, freedom, and beauty to human life.

6.2.3 Values Roy’s concern of enhancing beauty through using elements and forms from nature forms the basis of his choices apparent in his works. He believes that visual beauty is instrumental to one’s health. Only if a space is infused with a sense of beauty one can feel alive, lively, and happy through inhabiting it. This sense of beauty comes from the love and care infused by the maker, therefore the maker themselves need to be at a joyful state while infusing it with spirit. This concern is reflected in the small scale details of things in his life from the cups he uses for serving tea, the flower decorations in his dwelling, the small details of his garden, the jewelry he makes.

The emphasis on being free is everpresent in the conversations. Being free implies how one needs to exist without fear and worry. This value penetrates into his works and attitude towards life.

“Jeikhaane bhoymukto, oikhaane kintu shilpi (Where the mind is without fear, that is where craftsmanship exists).”

6.2.4 Relations 6.2.4.1 Relations with Craftsmen Roy has a team of craftsmen who he takes with him wherever the site and project is. The craftsmen live with him on the site and are active participants in the design process.

“We accept everyone’s ideas. It is not just about what I have to say. It is more of me asking how can we go about solving the issue at hand. They are also experienced. They also stay in the village. Baari ghor, haoa bataash, orao shob bojhe [They also understand everything about house-home, air-wind]. It’s not like I am the only one who understands these things. They have an advanced understanding of these dynamics. I learn a lot from them. My artisans are like my family, I chat with them, pull their leg, make jokes. If you see us, you won’t feel like I am the boss and they are the workers.”

Roy’s values of making sure the work come from a source of joy is apparent in the way he treats his team. If he feels that somebody is not working wholeheartedly he would give them a break and engage them differently in tasks like cooking or going to the market. He tries to discuss with them the issues they may be facing and the reasons for the disinterest. He tries to not make them overwork. If the work needs to be carried out faster he simply puts it up in one of their discussions during their shared meals on site.

In these discussions everyone contributes as to how they can work faster to get the job done without compromising on the quality.

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Roy works with the artisans on his site. Painting walls, looking at them work trying to think about what needs to be done, going to the market when choices need to be made.

He actively participates in the process of making the building.

6.2.4.2 Relation with Client Roy’s clients were mostly well off and could afford him to take his time to work on his projects while providing for the food of the team. Mostly the clients are attracted by his works because of its aesthetic qualities and the materials he uses in his buildings. Roy doesn’t explain the client his approach or the design iterations. He doesn’t communicate what he intends to do after the process of construction has started.

“I did not show them (the client) any drawing. I developed the project as I progressed.

They were getting tensed. They asked me once what I am doing. I told them how will they understand since it’s not their subject. Don’t disturb me.”

The first thing Roy arranges for is a discussion. In this session, the client has a brief in which they express their idea of what they want, their dreams and aspirations. He quotes a price after working on a rough model and floor plan that he doesn’t show the client.

“If there is a bed, they would give 6 feet of space after that; but then they will question any further space. They do not have similar values. Because they do not have those values, they will not be okay with paying money for something they don’t regard as necessary.

The conventional sellers/ builders are very good with the client. The client also sees value in it as long as they are able to get a house that’s way cheaper. If they are selling a house this affordable, it must mean that they are optimally calculating every square foot of it. The seller in this case has automatically finished everything on the machine. He hasn’t invested human hours into it to make it handmade. I am not sure how this approach assures the health of the house.”

Roy’s clients do not have similar values because they come from a different mindset due to which they are able to afford it. Inspite of explaining to the client how he works, Roy takes an approach of being transparent to his client that he will need them to not interfere with his process. Only after he has completed the project the client is allowed to make changes they may deem fit.

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5.3 PART 2 : ANALYSIS OF DIDIâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;S DWELLING

Fig.6.3 Memory map of the dwelling

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6.3 PART 2 : ANALYSIS OF BIDYUT’S DWELLING How can dwellings come closer to - Human

Nature Community

6.3.1 CLOSER TO HUMAN 6.3.1.1 Proportion and Scale Scale - Scale is perceived in relation to the human body. Since the dwelling is

handmade and is shaped by the limitations of the hand and body it responds to the human scale intimately and more relatively.

Proportion - The proportions in Bidyut Da’s dwelling are shaped by intuition and

a sense of aesthetic appeal. He doesn’t shy away from using different sizes, shapes, and dimensions of windows and doors. He experiments indefinitely in his dwelling and tries to break the notion of consistent proportions.

The proportions of a space is not perceived within a box in the free-flowing space and is broken down into frames. Sometimes the aesthetic corners and elements form the foreground to the background of numerous openings with light is pouring in. Other times when light isn’t pouring in, the elements of the garden forms the foreground framed within the silhouette of the elements kept inside.

6.3.1.2 Senses Visual - Bidyut Da visualizes in real-time and space. He designs the space while being

in the space, while physically walking inside.

Looking at the space in front of his eyes from within the dwelling, he frames the visuals of the walkthrough and attempts to enhance the sense of beauty one feels. His decisions are informed by his observation of people, he notices what people observe and what do they find beautiful. He tries to capture this universal sense of beauty one feels.

The intuitiveness introduces elements of surprise. New elements keep coming as one moves through the entire space. He engages the viewer evoking a sense of playfulness, unexpectedness, and non-traditional use of spaces. This sense of engagement is elevated by introducing numerous visual elements in one frame.

He looks at windows and doors as important visual elements and adjusts them according to what would one like to see through them. The decision is guided by what lays outside the dwelling. He tries to block undesired views, for example, an ugly building constructed in front of the house. In such a case he orients the observer to view more beautiful things.

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Touch - The sense of touch is used throughout the dwelling. Being a part-time potter himself he enjoys working on the wheel.

He sculpts mud at the corners when the level changes to give it a more rounded corner, so that the surface gradually melts down and merges with the other surface it interacts with. The use of mud as a material gives him the opportunity to soften the lines.

“Today’s buildings are too straight.” “How will my daughter write poetry if she lives in those houses” - Bidyut Roy At the places of staircases, he plays with forms and curves to shape it like petals of a flower or the rounded corners of a leaf.

Smell - Mud has a characteristic smell that changes with the kind of mud being used. As one moves from one region to another, the composition changes. The changing geology impart characteristic features to the object that is made with this mud.

Mud is not inert in nature. Mud walls breathe. This smell changes with the seasons and weather. Breathing in a mud house not infused with chemicals ensures the health aspects of the inhabitant along with regulating a healthy indoor air quality.

Sound - The external walls in Didi’s dwellings were around 470mm and the internal

walls were around 310mm which can work acoustically well as it does thermally, from outside noises or vibrations when required. Though Didi use that property as and when required because of the placement of her dwelling. At places, she brings the sounds in, rather than keeping them out. The dwelling is opened up at various places for the sound and air to continuously come in with only a net between the inside and outside.

Fig.6.4 Mud Staircase in Roy’s dwelling raised halfway. Flight of stairs later continued as a wooden staircase. February 9, 2020.

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6.3.2 CLOSER TO NATURE Relation between inside and outside Bidyut Da’s dwelling has a sense of openness. Most of the spaces are open. There is a certain level of comfort that one feels within nature that is reflected in the dwelling. The spaces are not completely closed even if desired, which points out that it is not desired by the dwellers. The living room is not a room. It is almost like an open-air pavilion. At the places where privacy is desired ‘Khor Badha’ is used to create a jali, partially screening it but not completely.

Landscaping and Gardening 1. Bidyut and Lipi both are very interested in gardening.

“I wake up at 6 every morning to water the plants. For me, it’s a ritual. It’s very important for me. I like it to be untrimmed and look natural. I don’t interrupt too much.” - Lipi Bidyut Da does his own share of gardening helping Lipi. Things like the small bridge are made to engage the dweller in their own magical habitat with a river of stones flowing underneath. Bidyut Da puts a lot of emphasis on being close to nature and be able to appreciate it. He says nature is his biggest inspiration. How the tree also has a structure.

How it balances it’s weight. Deriving, learning, and considering nature, one of the most valued inspirations he believes in giving back to it, in all of its own naturalness, something that looks like nature itself.

2. Bidyut Da plans his views from inside according to the trees and plants that exist outside. If there is a window frame, he plans where can he keep that window to appreciate nature more.

Treatment of Existing Flora and features Bidyut Da is emotionally attached to nature. Though he cuts trees when it’s essential and not practical to keep them. As nature is one of the main elements he uses in his designs, he feels cutting a tree will deprive the site of its beauty.

“In one of the sites, I had to cut a date tree. I felt really sad after that. But there was no alternative. The house was to be built beside a pond and right by the pond was the date tree. If I won’t have cut the tree, I couldn’t have built the staircase to the 2nd floor. Then I cut the tree and made a pillar out of the trunk. It was dead but it was just a symbolic gesture. I wanted for it to stay there only.”

- Bidyut Roy

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6.3.3 CLOSER TO COMMUNITY Learning from Vernacular “I make matir baari(mud house) like the villagers did. Go around you would see it for yourself ” - Bidyut Roy Though the materials he uses are the same, the traditional vernacular house looks rather different, featuring small openings and closed spaces. The traditional vernacular is rather dark in the inside. The spaces are simple with smaller divisions of spaces which is not so in Bidyut Da’s work.

He has derived a method of using traditional building materials to create modern spaces with all the facilities of a contemporary dwelling. This modern space is free-flowing and more open in the inside and to the outside.

Materials from the locale Bidyut Da uses materials that he can get from the locale. Since most of his projects are in the gram bangla (village) he can get natural materials to build with which he thinks are much more beautiful to build with. Even when he has a project in the city he tries to source it from the nearby village to get handmade things. This engagement with mud and natural materials gives a natural feel to the spaces while the handmade imparts human qualities to the space, infusing craftmanship.

Creating awareness Bidyut Da has made resorts and hotels with a similar approach. This creates the opportunity for somebody from the city to come and live in these buildings experiencing the richness of life one feels surrounded by these materials, who might simply lack the imagination of building with these materials.

Bidyut Da’s dwelling and work play an important role in today’s time. It acts as an example of a modern open space one that is updated with all the modern amenities of the times outlaying creative possibilities to reinvent the traditional language.

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0.4 NOTE ON PLACE AND PLACELESSNESS The following part is a photo essay to point out how place and placelessness both existed in the countryside alongside each other. The search showed how the countryside was also changing at an alarming rate. The quality of places was being casually replaced by commonly found placelessness found everywhere thereby proving that it was not a phenomenon that was only occurring in the urban realm but also in the rural realm.

Where one went in the search of the alternative the mainstream placelessness already existed in a large proportion like the city.

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6.5 Construction Techniques 1. Bidyut Da uses Khor badha for his visual screens. Khor badha is used to make idols to give structure (Fig.6.5.1). Maati is then applied on it to give it a smooth surface. He burrows from a traditional technique and tradition of making and reemploys it in his dwelling. (Fig.6.5.2) 2. The use of country tiles diminishing from the vernacular is incorporated in his dwellings, stacked on top of the corrugated roof. It protects the metal roof from direct exposure to sunlight. As a result, the interior of the dwelling stays cool. Clay tiles can be stacked over adding layers in case the heat in summers increases. (Fig.6.5.3) 3. Roy uses cement in foundations and till plinths as when required depending on the moisture content of the soil found in the site. Above that, he prefers to build with alternative traditional materials. (Fig.6.5.5) In some cases, he also uses concrete frame structures and then uses 4. He uses mud bricks are baked in sunlight. (Fig.6.5.6) 5. He uses wooden columns, the kind and type depends on the availability.

In some cases, he covers the wooden column with khor to protect it from moisture and give it volume since it looks thin in comparison to the mud walls. (Fig.6.5.7) 6. He uses the leaves to sandwich between two glass panels to create an air pocket for better insulation, giving it an aesthetic appeal.

Fig.6.5.8).

9. He explores methods and techniques which would give character especially in clay since it is a soft material like cutting the clay tiles from a loaf of clay with barbed wire. He handpicks tiles - blackened by overheating or not uniformly burnt (Fig.6.5.9), eaten away by ants (Fig.6.5.10), playfulness of artisanâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s children on-site (Fig.6.5.11).

Fig.6.5.1 Khor Badha being used to make idols

Fig.6.5.2 Screen made using Khod badha

Fig.6.5.3 Country tiles laid on top of corrugated sheet

Fig.6.5.4 Royâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s sketches

Fig.6.5.5 Cement till plinth. Alternate materials above the plinth to protect them from moisture.

Fig.6.5.6 Mud bricks baked in sunlight.

Fig.6.5.7 Wooden column(cheel) wrapped with khor

Fig.6.5.8 Patterns made by ants.

Fig.6.5.9 Burnt tiles are handpicked for greater variety.

Fig.6.5.10 Natural Patterns on stone.

Fig.6.5.11 Clay slab cut by cycle break wire.

7. CHANDRAMADHAVI A Photo Essay Bringing the Alternative Approach to the Mainstream

Fig. 7.1 Palash Residency from outside.

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One of the residences in a typical apartment block demonstrates how the alternative approach can be brought into the mainstream with the invisible ingredients mentioned in the beginning of the study. The family owned 2 flats on the same floor located in Palash Residency, in Solapur, Maharashtra. The residence is lovingly called Chandramadhavi by the family of 3 to evoke the dwelling with meaning and ras.

The family of 3 consists of Vinay Narkar, a textile designer who designs handwoven saris, Shruti Narkar, a software engineer who works as a lecturer in designing in an engineering college and also assists in designing and their son Hruyan. The Narkar’s Residence is based on the concept of green interior following the 5 R’s - Refuse, Reduce, Reuse, Recycle and Respect. Vinay and Shruti wanted the feel of an old wada house which served as their key inspiration behind designing their house while making it suitable to their modern lifestyle. The design was executed with the help of friend and architect Amol Chaphalkar.

The 5 R’s as explained by Amol Chaphalkar are as follows Refuse - Learn to say no. Due to attractive advertisements we tend to buy unnecessary things. Refuse to commercial aggressive marketing. For ex. Using mud plaster instead of buying tiles for cladding.

Reduce - Use optimally, used built-in furniture where essential. It proves to be low cost, low maintenance and serves practical purpose.

Reuse - Reuse old or out fashioned things. Like old taps, antiques, etc. Reutilize it directly or in some other way for furniture and accesories.

Recycle - Recycle waste and discarded materials. With a bit of imagination and little labour they can be given new life, for different uses. Like salvaged doors, windows, carved wooden pieces from old buildings used as table stands etc.

Respect - Respect our art and cultural heritage, our ancestor’s traditional craftsmanship, wisdom and sensibility. Incorporating craft, craftmanship and handmade items in the dwelling.

Fig. 7.2 Before making interventions. The flat as bought by the Narkar family.

Fig. 7.3 After making interventions. Changes made with the help of friend and architect Amol Chaphalkar.

Fig. 7.4 Levels and built in furniture.

Fig. 7.5 Salvaged wooden piece with intricate carving put together to be used as a pediment of the entrance door.

Fig. 7.6 A salvaged wooden piece frames the name given to the dwelling handwritten by the dweller, written on a portion of the wall smeared with chandan.

Fig. 7.7 A salvaged wooden pieces make the centre table stand. The walls are mud plastered. In place of standardized sofa sets, seating takes the form of built in furniture curving and opening towards the balcony and the entrance door.

Fig. 7.8 The dining table with a sunken level to keep oneâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s feet.

Fig. 7.9 The kitchen with open shelves.

Fig. 7.10 The informal office with seat stands made of salvaged carved wooden chunky pieces. The table cloth is a saree. The mud wall is ornamented with mirror work.

Fig. 7.11 A small performance and gathering area. Mutipurpose space attached to the study.

Fig. 7.12 Study space with a boofshelf and reading space near a window.

Fig. 7.13 Bedroom with low beds.

Fig. 7.14 Aesthetic corners of the dwelling.

Fig. 7.15 Ornamentation using traditional motifs and fabric panels.

Fig. 7.16 Entrance to the kitchen.

Fig. 7.17 Space to put Kolam.

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8. INFERENCES The following tables attempts to summarise this ‘alternative’ approach in comparison to the mainstream approach one is reacting to. In doing so, it points out what might be missing in the mainstream.

Mainstream Dwelling perceived and treated as a product.

Boxes in the inhabitant fitted with artificial ventilation systems. Tries to maximize the floor space for increasing square feet area to maximize profits.

Alternative Dwelling perceived and treated as a home.

Opens out the inhabitant towards their habitat maximizing the opportunities to enhance natural ventilation. Considers open spaces crucial for a dwelling and the dweller.

Mass-produced modular. Employs One of a kind variable. Employs individual standardized solutions without unique solutions crafted for each problem. contextualizing. Generalizes the treatment Concerned about the individual details of similar problems. Focuses on the big. and treats them differently. Focuses on the small.

Artisans work under a higher authority.

Artisans works with the maker.

This authority order artisans.

This maker discuss with artisans. Workers Workers are expendable. are valued, respected and treated well.

Emotionless and Practical. Doesn’t bring Emotion and feelings play a major role. emotions and feelings to work. Not Love of making becomes a driving factor. attached to one’s work.

Attached to one’s work.

Typical division of spaces. Monotonous Non-typical organizations of space. and tired spaces. Doesn’t experiment.

Playful and experimental spaces.

Engages in mindless repetition.

Experiments. Engages in reinventing with mindful practice.

Tries to get as many projects as one can Take lesser projects. Gives due time to get. Use fast methods to complete the methods. Focuses on the process. project as quickly as possible. Focuses on the result and speedy conclusions.

Gives the client the material what they Questions the notions of the client and want. Pleases the client. attempts to educate them. Chooses materials consciously and carefully.

Associates modernity with material.

Doesn’t associate modernity with material.

Associates modernity with present lifestyles and upgradation of spaces with modern amenities like electricity, sanitation, insulation, etc.

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Mainstream

Alternative

Disregards building traditions, techniques, Learns from building traditions, and knowledge as old-fashioned ways. techniques and knowledge. Reimagines and evolves the traditions to suit better to today’s times.

Irresponsible attitude towards the natural Responsible attitude the natural habitat of habitat of the site. Exploits resources. the site. Judicious about the resources one Ignorance towards the bigger aspects of uses. Ecology conscious. ecology.

Engages in imitation of forms and motifs. Include cultural nuances in their work.

Cuts and pastes components from Gets inspired from history as well as traditional buildings to make it look traditional patterns and motifs. historical.

Characteristics of space is dictated by Timeless qualities of space. Challenges current fashion, trend. Accepted and mass values and notions. desired notions of the masses are catered.

Engages in pop iconography.

Engages in Ornamentation.

Engages in facadeism. Clads with materials to give it a look. Creates inauthentic experiences.

The building stands out in the landscape.

The building is placeless.

Generalises people and their lifestyles.

Generates unrelatable spaces and scales.

Doesn’t engages in putting up a false front for the sake of it. Creates authentic experiences.

The dwelling merges with the landscape.

The dwelling has a sense of place.

Responds to the lifestyles of people living in the dwelling. Generates relatable spaces and scales.

Specialized artisans deal with individual responsibilities but the maker knows the whole project, the end result, the processes, and how it all comes together.

Does their part and leaves. Isn’t aware of the whole project. Making is broken into parts and departments like plumbing, lighting, interiors (much like Henry fords assembly line) due to the large scale nature of projects.

Guided by external processes like Guided by internal processes like influences, popularity, and industry. experience, thoughts, epiphanies of life.

Uses experiences from life and integrate it into their work.

Clinical treatment of spaces. Degrades Soulful treatment of spaces. Promotes one’s physical and mental health. physical and mental health and gives a sense of well being.

Making buildings treated as a Profession Making Buildings treated as a Passion

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Mainstream Function and Utility are primary values.

Alternative Function and Utility are one of the many values.

Intolerant of ambiguity and contradiction. Comfortable with ambiguity and Features defined spaces. contradiction. Features undefined multifunctional, multipurpose spaces.

Uses manmade materials.

Uses natural materials.

Implies a logical, rational worldview.

Implies an emotional and intuitive worldview.

Expresses faith in progress and machines.

Romanticizes new technology.

Expresses faith in tradition and human qualities. Romanticizes nature.

Rigid and absolute. Inert in nature. Low maintenance

Fosters growth and change. Reactive in nature. Requires regular maintenance.

Non-biodegradable and permanent. Not re-usable.

Biodegradable and temporary. Reusable.

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9. CONCLUSION The thesis aim was to find an ‘alternative’ approach of making a dwelling more sensual, life-full, place-full, and personal.

This ‘alternative’ approach helped in pointing out what is missing in the other extreme, the ‘mainstream’ approach, the alternative is reacting to. The domain aimed to find this alternative approach in a rural setting with a patch of land and sky and two self-taught makers in different regions. The rural was a place of the persisting vernacular and natural sources one could borrow to build from, the practice of self-built homes still being a norm in these settings. These makers use traditional materials in their building approach and used the existing techniques to make something anew. This new was accompanied by a vision of modernity that features open spaces, more light, and modern services.

These modern dwellings didn’t reject the commonplace cement but used it appropriately, minimizing its quantities in the built and maximizing the use of alternative materials. In doing so it gave a vision to the countryside as to how old traditions can take new forms, can accommodate the changing times, and therefore continue. In finding this alternative approach, after analyzing the interviews and their dwellings, it seemed something entirely else was important in the process of making. These were the common qualities one finds in these two dwellings and the two makers. These qualities were the infusion of the intangible aspects of making that is seldom mentioned in design being the infusion of love, care, imagination, playfulness, empathy, effort, attention, joy, and passion.

The maker’s approaches, self ideals, values, experiences finds an expression in the dwellings transforming into unique manifestations. One of a kind variable that works only for that particular dweller and context, not to be repeated like the ‘universal’ building but learned and imbibed from. The unification of maker, dweller, and dwelling gives personal character and meaning to the built space. The maker’s experiences and interests which guided them towards their not so ‘professional’ endeavours of building without being formally trained, illustrated a very alternative and unique approach of making. Their treatment of artisans as well as materials gives an insight into the ethics of makers. Reflected in the dwelling of the makers, these ethics takes the character from a place and gives back character to the place borrowing from the locale.

The building traditions which form an important part of our evolving culture tries to accommodate, adapt, and change as per the needs of space, time, ideas, and circumstances. Everyone needs a place to live in. A dwelling is one of the basic needs of humankind. With the basic fulfillment of a built space, one can very easily forget the nuances it can bring to one’s life. The built space affects one’s mental and physical health, as one spends considerable amounts of time inside their dwellings. When these built spaces become machines like serving only bodily function it becomes niras or life-less.

The built space infuses its inhabitants with spirit to celebrate life, stage their lives in the built space, celebrate it, and appreciate their environment. This built space needs to be sensitively dealt with, given the seriousness of implications it can have on the dweller’s mind. If this basic built space, where people root themselves is not treated sensitively it may even have adverse effects on the health of the inhabitant.

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The situatedness of this built space is another aspect. Where and how these dwellings are situated affects the character and nature of the dwelling. One doesn’t live in a box that exists in isolation. The boundary of one’s dwelling is much bigger than the dwelling itself. The boundary is not a line where it ends. The place encompasses the dwelling.

The quality of places is dictated by the quality of the built spaces it holds inside it. The ‘universal’ building can be picked up from anywhere and kept anywhere. These ideas of modernity affect the countryside making the vernacular dweller devalue one’s building traditions resulting in the casual eradication of our rich places. India with such a varied spectrum of cultural variety and traditions reflects this variety in the unique solutions of building culture which are rich expressions of life in a place. These expressions were not only rich but also ecologically conscious. In the wake of climate change and large scale environmental problems, the building industry needs to become more conscious about the use of its materials and prevent the overuse of an otherwise efficient material. The hot tropical needs to find ways to use passive methods of cooling rather than boxing our dwellings to be fitted with artificial systems of ventilation regulated by remotes in our hands aggravating the very problem.

Reimagining spaces and questioning the typical nature of our dwellings may give us something non-conventional: Alternative in the monotonous paradigm of housing. For this change to take place the building industry needs to turn around from a capitalist approach to a more humanistic and environmental approach. We need to reevaluate our building techniques and reject what has become dangerous for ourselves. This requires a movement towards dwellings that one feels closer to, is more open, more sensitive, and encompasses a feeling of wellness for the mind and body. What we see today is the refection of how human civilization has progressed in the past decades in the age of industrialization with the invention of assembly line production, the birth of consumerism, and mass dependency on manmade systems and technology rather than natural systems. This has reduced our dependency on nature and therefore given us the liberty of ignoring it. Now in the age of digitization, these effects have become far too apparent to turn our backs to. Our awareness can bring about this change which may start from small solutions adding up to point towards - an Alternative Approach of Making.

Our dwellings can be agents of change informing the bigger picture. We can bring about a freshness that is richer, not in wealth, not in power, not in scale, but richer in human and the environmental values, educating others and changing how one looks at a dwelling. The alternative approach should not be alternative after all, the mainstream, the majority. The alternate approach is neither about the rural nor urban, neither it is about continuing tradition or modernity rather it is simply about enriching a dwelling with soulful approaches of making, to provide a nourishing experience to the dweller, fabricating a close relationship with its inhabitant.

The insensitive approach of making buildings which have become commonplace with the involvement of capitalists and builders who sell it merely like a product not considering the soul aspects of habitat making is what the alternative was responding to - the mainstream. An array of boxes with typical layouts and essential services stripping

167. down a dwelling to a bare minimum to lower the costs and increase the profits. This mainstream approach can exist both in the rural and urban.

One of the prime aspects of the dwelling - being closer to the dweller, is only possible when the dweller is equally the maker with professional help or otherwise, along the making process or after. This closeness of dwelling and dweller can manifest only when there is a personal relationship between them. What is alternative would be therefore varied and very different for the different spectrum of dwellers. This unique manifestation depends on the nature of the dwellerâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s identity and notions, encompassing their life stories. The dwelling inevitably grows with the dweller after they start inhabiting, changing, adapting, and appropriating the dwelling according to their tastes, uses, and choices.

The invisible ingredients along with a soulful aaproach practiced by the dweller and the maker will make this trial and error recipe of the alternative approach the thesis wanted to understand - that is closer to human, to nature, the community and the dweller themselves.

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10. FUTURE RESEARCH 1. Building upon the findings of the research The study didn’t anticipate to stumble upon the invisible ingredients of the dwelling to be so important in the discussions of making for the maker. It became a part of the study much later being crucial to their processes. Probably it was neither about the city or the village or modernism or the vernacular as much as it was about imbibing the dwelling with these humane qualities. Further research can be carried out as to how design can manifest these qualities in detail.

2. Addressing limitations of research - The study didn’t survey how a dweller feels in the city and the village to understand why one felt more wholesome in the countryside than the city, one of the reasons why the makers decided to move in the first place.

- The dwelling didn’t survey the notions of materials associated with the modernity of people and the reasons of their preferences. Why people use cement in the first place? What are the problems faced by them in continuing the building traditions in the countryside?

- The hypothesis needs to be questioned more strategically. The research found that people are in a search of character than rootedness. This needs to be further tested.

- Spending more time in the dwellings through all the times of the day would have given a deeper understanding of how the maker has dealt with space, how the space changes through the day and how does the dwelling interacts with the dweller. How does this atmosphere change in the night?

- The research became very broad with lots of layers to understand. The scope of research could have been more focused on one aspect to be able to study in detail that particular aspect. The aim can be narrowed down.

- The analysis is based upon the few interviews, works, and time spent with the makers and in the maker’s dwelling. This understanding needed more time. Also, this would be more detailed if one observes the process of making rather than just asking the maker questions.

The maker may not be able to put in words, what do they do on-site while designing and may not give enough importance to small details or subconscious processes.

3. Constructing the same research in a new context - The research can be richer if more places and such dwellings are studied to give a more varied approach to give a range of alternative approaches. Places with different geographical features can be studied illustrating various expressions of place.

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- The research aimed at self-taught makers in their dwellings, it can be also done with formally trained architects who dwell in their self-made homes.

- The research can also look at dwellings in cities which take on an alternate approach in more detail and how these concerns of people, place, context together with materials, and notions of traditions and modernity are reflected in those dwellings.

4. Expanding theory addressed in the research One of the possible larger research that can be carried out is how the city can become more like a village and the village can become more like a city. How the city can have more natural spaces, like the making of urban forests and preserving natural oasis. According to the world health organization, every city is recommended to provide a minimum of 9 square meters of urban green space per resident. Mumbai offers itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s residents a total of 1.1 square meters of open space per person which include gardens, parks, and playgrounds.

This illustrates the inhuman conditions one finds themselves in. Simultaneously stressing on how the village can be well connected and have services, facilities, exposure and employment opportunities so that people donâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t have to migrate from the village to the city out of necessity but do so as a matter of choice.

In the village the processes are direct involving lesser middlemen. People have their own cows and vegetable gardens. This takes them closer to their sources of food. During the pandemic, the Srinagar municipal corporation issued a public notice for urban farming which stated that vegetables and fruits can be grown at the household level. It urged citizens to venture into vegetable farming and kitchen gardens. It was stated mandatory to possess detached/semi-detached plots of open areas around the house for fruit trees, kitchen garden, and plantation. Architects and engineers who prepare plans and drawings on behalf of citizens were urged to indicate vegetable garden and plantation of fruit trees as part of their approval.

More initiatives are being developed to make our cities more livable and sustainable.

Our resource intensive urban lifestyles have led to a number of large scale environmental challenges which can only be solved with awareness, individual and community efforts, and a positive approach towards developing creative solutions. New technologies are enabling us to come up with entirely new approaches with dealing with these problems and look for a future where humans can live in harmony with nature.

These can be some of the points one can research on which are some of the large scale problems related to the phenomenon under study here and very crucial to todayâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s times.

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11. BIBLIOGRAPHY Books: Seamon, D., Mugerauer, R. (Eds.). (2000). Dwelling, Place and Environment : Towards a phenomenology of person and world. Florida : Krieger Publishing Company.

Canizaro, V. B. (Ed.). (2007). Architectural Regionalism : Collected Writings on Place, Identity, Modernity, and Tradition. New York : Princeton Architectural Press Richards, L., Morse, J. (2007). User’s Guide to Qualitative Methods. California : Sage Publications Ltd. Heidegger, M. (1971). Poetry, language, thought. New York : Harper Colophon Books.

Oliver, P. (2007). Dwellings: The Vernacular House World Wide. New York: Phaidon Press.

Moore, C., Allen, G., & Lyndon, D. (2001). The Place of Houses. New York : Holt & Company, Henry.

Singh, J. (2018). An Adobe Revival: Didi Contractor’s Architecture. Immaterial Publications.

Day, C. (2004). Places of the soul: Architecture and Environmental Design as a Healing Art. Architectural Press.

Bhatia, G. (1991). Laurie Baker: Life, Works, Writings. Penguin.

Singh, K. N. (1978). Urban Development of India . New Delhi : Abhinav Publications.

Schulz, C. N. (1980). Genius Loci: Towards a phenomenology of architecture . New York: Rizzoli.

Journals and Papers: Seamon, D., & Sowers, J. (2008, January). ResearchGate. Retrieved from https://www. researchgate.net/publication/251484582_Place_and_Placelessness_Edward_Relph Sharma, S. (n.d.). Sharma, S. (2008). Analyzing the technical and scale efficiency performance: A Case study of cement firms in India. Journal of Advances in Management Research, 5(2), 56–63.

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Websites: Rodgers, L. (2018, December 17). Climate change: The massive CO2 emitter you may not know about. BBC News . Retrieved from https://www.bbc.com/news/scienceenvironment-46455844 The History of Concrete: (n.d.). Retrieved from http://matse1.matse.illinois.edu/ concrete/hist.html

Illustration Credits: Fig.2.1 By the author Fig.2.2 By the author Fig.2.3 Roy, B. (Photographer). Private Residence in Fingagachi, Dhulagori, Howrah [digital image].

Fig.3.3 Sabnani, N. (Photographer). (n.d.). Habitats of Kutch - Bhunga [digital image].

Retrieved from http://www.dsource.in/gallery/habitats-kutch-bhunga#35940 Fig. 4.2 SwagatGroup. (2020). Swagat Baganville Phase 1 in Shilaj, Ahmedabad [digital image]. Retrieved from https://www.proptiger.com/ahmedabad/shilaj/swagat-groupbaganville-phase-1-1545099#jsGalleryWrapper&gid=1 Fig.4.3 By the author Fig.4.4 King, H. (Photographer). (2011). A carved tree photographed near Dubbo, Sydney [digital image]. Retrieved from https://www.australiangeographic.com.au/topics/historyculture/2011/06/carved-trees-bring-indigenous-history-to-life/ Fig.4.7 Maslowâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s hierarchy of needs. (n.d). Retrieved April 24, 2002, from https:// en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maslowâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s_hierarchy_of_needs Fig.5.16 Chaphalkar, A. (2016, May 5). Didi Contractor [Video]. YouTube. https://www. youtube.com/watch?v=Y77FZO8hH-c&t=605s Fig.6.5.1 Pal, S. (2017, August 31). Durga idol Making | Kumartuli | Kolkata | Durga Puja 2017 [Video]. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DK31vsy9QXQ Fig.7.1 - Fig.7.17 Chaphalkar, A. (2016, April 9). Chandramadhavi [Video]. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z8vp_DBzIfk Fig 6.5.2 - Fig 6.5.6 Roy, B. (Photographer). Construction Process [digital image].

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Films: Individuofilm (Producer), Xaras media GbR (Producer), Giannetta, N.(Producer), & Giaracuni, S.(Director/Producer).(2016). Didi Contractor : Marrying the Earth to the building [DVD]. Switzerland: First Hand Films GmbH. Neville, M.(Producer), O’Connor, D.(Producer), Wilkes, J.(Producer), Kamen, J.(Producer), & Woloshin, C.(Director). (2019). Ruth Carter: Costume Design [Motion Picture]. Retrieved from https://www.netflix.com Selasi , T. (2014, October). Taiye Selasi: Don’t ask where I’m from, ask where I’m a local [Video file]. Retrieved from https://www.ted.com/talks/taiye_selasi_don_t_ask_ where_i_m_from_ask_where_i_m_a_local?language=en Chaphalkar, A. (2016, May 5). Didi Contractor [Video]. YouTube. https://www.youtube. com/watch?v=Y77FZO8hH-c&t=605s

Thesis: Rao, M. M. (2000). The architecture of Laurie Baker in Kerala, India: Space, experience and meaning (Master’s thesis). Kansas State University, Manhattan, Kansas.

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12. APPENDICES

11.1 Tracing the Origin of the Study I sit in a box day by day. It protects me from harsh sun, rain, wild animals, and human intruders. The multiple locking systems on the main door, 3 to be exact and the lock on the balcony door that we put before dozing off to safe sleep suffocates me. When I sneakily open the balcony door between nights, which leads me under the sky, the moon glares at me all alone with no stars to keep him company. Yes, we live in a city. The windows have grills and net. The net makes sure the mosquitos keep out and also protects the birds from coming to my room to be killed by the rotating blades of the fan. I feel so surrounded by doors. I often wish that we opened more doors than closing them. We close them from the inside and we close them from the outside. When we go out we put a heavy lock on the main gate after latching it and as if that is not enough we have a collapsible iron gate which stretches itself as a bodyguard to protect the precious things we keep locked in our metal almirahs in the specially built-in metal lockers whose keys lay in a secret place.

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We go out to find crowded roads often jam-packed with traffic except for the late nights and very early mornings. The heavy traffic makes sure that we close our windows to save ourselves from the gases emitted by other vehicles and also our own. We like everybody turn on our air conditioners to purify the air inside our car and contribute our share of greenhouse gases. I long so much to feel the wind in my hair and to breathe in deeply. Our car feels like just another box, protecting me.

The places we go to, the malls, the restaurants are yet another boxes with mechanized ventilation systems. It appears as if there is no escaping this box.

My whole life I have always lived in a typical plastered brick and RCC house in apartment buildings. Though I was lucky to have a lot of trees and greenery during my stay in Panvel in my adolescent life. In the summers I and my friends used to pluck jamuns from the trees and divide it among ourselves and go home to home to distribute jamuns whenever we would pluck too much in our childish excitement. Our family always moved from place to place. I never really related to a particular house and there was no place I called home as I knew it was temporary. Though the mix of all the influences I got from various cultures gave me exposure and understanding, I always had a yearning of a home that was more natural to live in. My father, a civil engineer supervised sites for quarters that housed company employees. I visited with him at his various sites as a child. They were mostly placed on the outskirts of the cities in a big society with a lot of planted gardens and trees. Those houses were just the same, typical box structures with brick and RCC and plastered walls, a protected box, grilled windows, a lot of doors to close, and small balconies.

When I used to visit my mother’s village, situated in Bishnupur during my summer vacation I used to be mesmerized by their mud houses.

They had a very big aangan with a lot of jackfruit trees. Summers was also the season for jackfruits to ripe up, the ones that grew under the soil will blast open cracking up the soil with the scent of jackfruits filling the air. The children climbed and played on those trees. They had thatched roof and they plastered their cracked mud walls every year after the rains. They were ‘poor’, I learned from the people around.

The girls of my age made clay dolls. As a city child, I was always scolded for my clothes getting dirty when I played with them. So I was overprotected and too clean? I always thought what a luxury it was to have earth as soon as you step outside your door. I often thought if I had an aangan like that outside my home I would never go inside.

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During the same time in summer vacations, I used to visit my hometown where my father’s family lived, a small town Chandannagar, formerly a French colony named Chander Nagar (Moon’s town) with Ganga ghat on one end and a lot of lakes spread across the town. It was called the moon’s town because of the shape of the banks of the River Hooghly which is bent like a half-moon. It was approximately 50 minutes away from Kolkata by train. To reach the house, we would pass a big Palash tree which bore flowers during that time of the year, called forest fire due to its attractive red and orange flowers shaped like flames. We would pass a pond with a small bridge and a big Jamrul tree which had a small hand pump beneath it, with a large pond on its side, with small houses that surrounded it. They washed their clothes in it and also used it for bathing. The cluster of the family house had 4 homes. I just liked one of them which every one of the 4 houses, themselves included referred to as the ‘poorest’. That dwelling was the smallest and it had a garden beside it, as big as the dwelling itself. It had creepers all across its one wall and up the roof, the creepers went on the mangalore tiles.

The dwelling was surrounded with roses and had coconut trees that sometimes fell in the notorious storms of Kaal Baishakhi, it was called so because it was the Baishakh month. Rangama who lived in that home loved gardening and therefore always experimented with what she can add and change. The house was very intimate yet very functional and optimal. It left a deep impression on me.

The storms were characterized by load shedding, when we would take out our oil lanterns, light it with our yellow flames, and often enjoy our own dancing shadows in the strong winds. All you could see were multiple dancing flames coming from other houses with the smell of wet earth.

One day I heard that my MaamaBaari (mother’s family home) has made a Pucca house in place of the ‘kaccha’ house (a term used to refer to houses with standard concrete walls which are considered more permanent). Everyone was happy with this upgradation. Yet another day, the news of Rangama’s garden being uprooted to fit in another room reached me, the family needed more space. Everyone was happy with this upgradation too. The only person who seemed to not be happy was probably me. The Jamrul tree on which we kids played on and plucked big juicy jamruls from, fell in one of the storms. It was a landmark for visitors. “Turn right from Jamrul talaa “(beneath the Jamrul tree) had been replaced by the sentence “Turn right from the garbage bin” referring to a big green garbage bin that had replaced its place. I never went back after I had started going to college. I grew

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up and these experiences slowly faded out and were replaced by new ones. Though the nature of the latter made me remember these times strangely as if they were all related.

Episode 1: After coming to college I witnessed one of the hottest summers I had ever witnessed. We were making a bamboo machaan in Kheda, a village 50 km away from A’bad. We lived on a farm and slept under the stars on khatlas. In the morning the cock would scream, the sun will fall on you to wake you up and the chicks ran over our bodies - some 60 of them ran all across the place. It would touch 52 degrees in the afternoons. We had no electricity so we would hang under dense trees always trying to find a cool shade, changing and shifting from tree to tree. When I came to A’bad I realized Kheda was much more pleasant than the city which became unbearable amidst the concrete mass that released heat even in the night after absorbing all the heat during the hot afternoons. On the contrary, on the farm as soon as the evening would set in, the temperature would drop instantly and we would work in the coolness of the blowing wind till the sunrise. After returning to the city I couldn’t sleep for some days looking at the blank ceiling, I missed the sea of stars who would put me to sleep every day. After 3 years, while we were building yet another pavilion in Kheda with Nilgiri(Eucalyptus) beside the bamboo structure we built, my memories of building with our own hands and living in it, freshened up.

Episode 2: During our stay in Dhulikhel when we worked on a bamboo cantilever that we had designed. I was struck by the life that existed in the small valley. In the bamboo and mud house that was the center of our activities, we re-did a mud floor. It was a joyful communal activity.

We sang songs together, doing the repeated motion of polishing the floor, filling the cracks. This mud floor overcame my prejudices of maintaining a house. A sense of engagement and care waft through me. I almost felt like it is my house now. The couple who lived there had a small terrace cultivation, a small biogas plant, a place for cattle, and crops on the lower levels of the terrace. There was an inherent sense of calm in the lifestyle of the valley. In the night, the valley with its lights on, looked like a mirror reflecting the innumerable stars that sparkled in the sky.

How can one aspire towards a ‘richer’ and wholesome life? Was there a way? Not in the way people used the term richer in the above narrative but the actual richness of human life. Could we make dwellings that made us more human and take us closer to nature, to the community, and to ourselves?

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11.2 Interview with Laxmi (Didi’s assistant) She said that she doesn’t work with models, as a model is in the god’s eye view and nobody experiences, or sees a building that way. How does amma then work out a building?

Instead, she always makes us imagine the space. I think It is much easier to imagine a space if you are in a similar space. She always asks us to imagine the space and close our eyes. If we are in the building then imagine the clients in the building and say for example you are doing elevation. Imagine you are outside the building you are in front of a building and just imagine these people are working constantly. Imagine they are cooking. Say they are making an omelet. So what will they reach for first? What things would it be better if it’s there? Where should the fridge be and where should the sink be.

So all these things in the head and when she is designing she says that she designs from top to bottom. Well, not completely but when she is imagining the space when she is detailing it out and designing top to bottom because the roof needs support. Many of our other buildings they have a very complicated roof. Every roof ’s valley, bridge, and gable everything needs support.

Gable?

When you have a sloped roof. It is a protrusion from a sloping roof that covers a window or a door. The gable needs support on the wall. When she is designing in her head because we don’t have cad drawings where she can put one on the other. Here she is imagining when she is designing the roof, that this needs to be support here, a support there. She constantly imagines a person in the house. What happens when we are doing on the machine. I am not against the machine I also use cad for precision but when we are doing it that way it is very difficult to imagine a person inhabiting the house. It’s more about how the house looks. Is this line matching with that line but all those things come later.

When she imagines does she sketch?

When she imagines she meditates over it. When she used to actively work. Every morning after she woke up she would meditate. She would imagine the building. And then travel between the different sides and then figure what’s needed at what site. And if some detail is needed she would start sketching it out, either in a rough sheet or grid paper.

So it’s a different way of approaching and it’s one of the things that she doesn’t do, because she is not a trained architect.

Does she make models afterward? To explain to the craftsmen or client.

At site, she directly works with the craftsmen. But she does make a very rough model just to make sure that the roof supports are there.

Out of clay?

No. Out of waste biscuit boxes.

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What happens on-site? Is it very intuitive or very well thought out.

It’s very well thought out. When it comes to structure it is never a trial and error. She has done some experiments though with materials but structurally she doesn’t experiment that much. But she makes design changes. She makes changes in the module of the brick. The proportion of the windows and other things are all fixed. She knows that it will definitely work. That has never been a trial and error. In this house and the other houses, if you see, it’s never like a window that is repeated. There is a particular module that gets repeated but in various combinations. For eg. The windows of this house were conceptualized in one evening. The next day the carpenter was going to come so she chose a square as a basic module.

The basic module as in the window frames?

Yes and the glass that fits inside it. Like here a square and a double square and that’s your view. And because this is the north side she has kept a fixed window rather than a lot of openable shutters. Also, this has a translucent roof on top. This used to be her study table.

So these proportions are worked out. Are there any specific proportions that she uses?

She mainly uses a square or golden ratio. The universal proportions. Or 2:3 (12 inches to 18 inches). She also uses a double square. She uses root 2. She uses these in various combinations. But if she chooses any particular proportion, she sticks to that in the entire house. She doesn’t change it within the house. It is not like this collage. So here she stuck to square and used in different ways.

This is a double square?

She got these stained glasses so I think she started designing these windows based on the glass sizes. the blue and the red and then she designed the entire pane like that.

The details are already worked out? The right angle shelves at corners.

These details come after. She decides that this is the length, this is the edge she wants. But she might have not decided that she will put pictures there. So these things come later.

And these shelves probably later only.

This house is made in parts rights?

Yes. They started with this room. This is the dressing room. They started this as a storage space, keeping all the things inside it.

This room is made of bricks?

Yes. She started this room before the monsoon. And after monsoon, she started building the rest of the house. So before the monsoon, she could put a slab and she could store things here. That’s why she built this first.

What is the material used in the roof? Bamboo stipes.

This is bamboo chachra. Bamboo stripes. We will split the bamboo open. It becomes like a mat. Also, the kind of bamboo that you use for the chachra is different from the kind of bamboo you use for the beams.

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For the chachra, greener bamboos are used because it is easier to break it. If you look at the section of the bamboo. You have a thicker skin and a thinner skin. For the chachra they always use the thinner one.

How do you treat your bamboos?

We cut some bamboos before monsoon. We put them in a boric acid solution.

Traditionally people used to put the bamboos in the khad (river).

So the water flows through it?

The water flows through it. They put it there for four weeks. After that, it gets smoked in a chamber. It’s a closed roof covered from all sides with just an outlet pipe on top. You insert your bamboos. Underneath the bamboos, you have a gap and they put leaves and other things and then they smoke it in the morning and once in the afternoon. That is done for 3-4 weeks.

So there is no problem of termites?

There generally isn’t, but there has been a problem of termites because when we are using these methods for natural materials we can’t say like 100%. It’s not a full-proof method.

One never knows. All of these bamboos are done that way.

The black colour the bamboos have acquired is because of the smoking?

No. Traditionally the colour was because of smoking. But here in older houses, they use bamboos only on the roof. And the first floor is the kitchen so the chulha would smoke the entire roof. But here didi uses Salignum oil - black japan salignum oil which is anti termite. See all of these bamboos are ok but this one is infected. It is generally like one or two, it is not like all the bamboos. This one is getting eaten by the boring beetle.

So what do you do if a bamboo catches termite?

We use neem oil and we just apply it. Termites don’t like bitterness. They can’t survive in cold. They only survive in monsoons because it’s damp. So when it’s damp we apply neem oil and they are repelled by the bitterness. Another thing we do is every year we paint the bamboo with boric acid and then apply turpentine on top. The turpentine also seals the paint from exposure and the paint still remains. But there is also this one solution. I am taking engine oil to experiment. The waste engine oil. Like when the cars go to the mechanic to change it.

The blackened burnt engine oil?

You mix that with ondunin and turpentine. The colour becomes a little lighter. And that you apply. Because that engine oil is pungent and bitter. So the termites don’t come. And even boring beetles don’t come.

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11.3 Excerpts from the transcription of Bidyut Royâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s interview in Bangla A lot is lost in translation. These excerpts are to illustrate the nuances of language he spoke in about his work in the way he did. Since Mr. Roy is not trained in architecture he used very simple everyday terms to describe his practice. We both had trouble understanding each other, I was troubled with his poetic simplicity and Bangla. He was troubled with my designer jargon.

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Wash area. Path on the side leading to the offsetted entry of the living room.

Path of pebbles to the offsetted entry

Stairs to the bedroom.

Broom Chandelier.

Roofing system

Bidyut Royâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Dwelling

Living room - The upper floor joists becomes space for storage

The staircase moulds and rise to become a hearth

Shelfs made by stacking up of stone pieces

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13. GLOSSARY OF WORDS Kaccha (Hindi)- Literally translates into ‘uncooked’.

- Kaccha house is used to refer temporary settlements.

Pakka (Hindi)- Literally translates into ‘uncooked’.

- Pakka house is used to refer permanent settlements.

Patra (Hindi) - Corrugated metal sheet commonly used as a roofing material.

Masala (Hindi) - A mix of spices added in small amounts to add flavour and taste.

Sabji (Hindi) - Cooked vegetable.

Saliya (Hindi) - Reinforcement Chakka (Himachali) - River stone found in Rakkar.

Baari (Bangla)- Home Adda (Bangla)- An informal place where a group of friends gather everyday to chat. A cultural phenomenon.

Achaar (Hindi)- Pickle Maaket (Bangla)- Model Ras (Hindi)- Juice or essence. The theory of rasas is elaborated in Natya Shastra relating to theatre or the performing arts.

Niras (Hindi)- Without ras Kutir (Hindi)- A small cottage Sabjiwala (Hindi) - Vegetable Vendor Baul (Bangla) - A genre of folk music found in eastern part of India and Bangladesh.

Gubgubi (Bangla) - A folk instrument with a tension drum and a string.

Toto - Electric Rickshaw Amrit (Hindi) - Nector of immortality Jali (Hindi) - A perforated screen

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14. REVIEW FEEDBACK First Review - 31 January Kaulav Bhagat - Is there a phenomenon that is occurring and therefore it needs to be studied. Identify this phenomenon.

- What typology am I looking at? How are these houses different. And why are we studying them. Explain in detail the nuances of these homes.

Are they in appreciation of regional materials and building techniques? Are they inspired by the vernacular?

- Maybe don’t use the word regional at all - Where do things meet - the availability of materials and modifying these materials, there is this tension between what to use in today’s scenarios. Where is this tension point.

- Living and Dwelling - Don’t use these words for the title. It’s not a book title. The title of a thesis should communicate what it is about.

- Identify the larger need. Where can you fit your work? Identify the new need that is emerging and therefore you are studying it. It has a role to play in today’s time and needs.

- Objectivity of a study helps. It shouldn’t be so subjective that it stops making sense to me - the reader.

- If in Auroville I want to make a home how will I do it. It need not be applicable in all scenarios. But in some places it will be relevant. What are these scenarios where the study can help?

- Availability of materials plays a major role in the construction of such homes. The materials they use and why do they use it.

- It will be fake if it is not genuine in its expression.

- What are Bidyut and didi leaving behind and why are they leaving it behind.

- Identify the user group - Why is this coming up - what is the reaction - what is the reaction to?

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First Review - 31 January Rishav Jain - Make it 10 times more refined than it is now.

- All these experiences can form a part of field notes.

- Avoid political statements to focus on what we want to discuss here.

- What are the aspirations of a person rejecting the lives in the city?

- How these notions of living and dwelling change as you move from city to villages?

- How people are constantly adapting and adjusting in given circumstances in the city.

- If you are looking at the same set of ideologies then your bound to get the same set of ideas and values.

- May be include someone who is operating in the city spectrum to understand the difference. By looking at opposites you can make the research richer.

Signature of Panel members

Kaulav Bhagat .......................................................................

Rishav Jain

.......................................................................

Action Taken : - The concept of regionalism was studied thoroughly and omitted out for the research was not about contesting a certain approach specifically. Rather ethics, values, and approaches was stressed upon.

- Interviews were taken of 6 participants about city life and village life to better understand the phenomenon.

- To understand how to include personal experiences of a researcher phenomenological methods were incorporated in the research study.

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Discussion - 1 March to 5 March Ajit Rao - Guide Points we discussed on - See several projects of Bidyut Roy and Didi Contractor to start seeing patterns and decode space to understand how they deal with different briefs, clients and situations.

- Stories are an important part of their lives and their process. The illustrations can help in this narration of stories. What are the concepts, stories, and narratives.

- Refer what is a phenomenological study - how can we talk about experiences rather than talking as a matter of fact about spaces and objects and mechanically describe everything.

- Thesis is a part of your journey. What is there in it that interests you ?- Thesis is a means of understanding yourself. Be strongly grounded in what you want to do.

- These people when they work become channels of creativity, how do these people are able to bring it on the table, what are their processes to transform into a tangible thing.

- What are the other things that support them to stay in their creative worlds? What is their source of inspiration?

- Understand how they operate - the people you are looking into - their whole lifestyles change. What is it that they do differently. How these journeys are very personal to these individuals. How do they position themselves in the world?

References - Krishnamurti - Freedom from the known - Laurie Baker - Life, work, writings by Gautam Bhatia - Thesis - The architecture of Laurie Baker in Kerala, India Space, experience and meaning by Madhuri Madhava Rao - Voyage to Paradise - A visual odyssey by Thomas Mc Knight.

- The places of houses by Charles Moore, Gerald Allen and Donlyn Lyndon.

- Theyâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;re not being trained as an architect how does that aspect let them treat space differently. Led by instinct or rational or little bit of both.

- Decoding the mind of dwellers to understand the dwelling.

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Discussion - 31 January 2020 Nishith Urwal Graphic Novelist - HCPA Points we discussed on - Methods of constructing a story - Depiction of inner space and connect to the outside when and where required.

Scope of interior design in comics. How do we depict the space in a panel?

- Rather than doing final complete sketches sitting in one place try to record, feel, and see more.

- Start storyboarding - rough sketching - frames and people in the frames, take a lot of pictures to capture the sense of place to later translate into drawings and illustrations.

- Folk comics - Notice how sense of place and culture is captured.

- Sense of body language in space how does the space influence the way people sit and use them - Interiors affect body language.

- Notice the language in comic books. For eg. if you are visiting Tamil Nadu and the person you meet donâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t speak English and rather talks in Tamil. You as a reader who might know or not know Tamil will have a different relationship with the speech bubble and the scene. The protagonist who knows or doesnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t know will also have an effect on the story. By keeping the nuances of language we can capture vernaculars or use accents.

And later it can be a glossary of words where some local words are explained.

- Start constructing thumnails of panels and scenes.

- Refer ethnographic studies.

- Try to overall understand a space rather than spot sketching.

- Whatever you are writing, you can draw - start thinking in visuals - Start drawing more - as you experience it - To choose what you want to show and are you able to show it the way you want to show References - Scott Mc Cloud - Making Comics - Understanding Comics - Scott Mc Cloud - Palestine - Joe Socco - Moebius - Jean Henri Gaston Giraud - Persepolis - Marjane Satrapi - Tinkles comics - Amar Chitra Katha - Regional comics - Asterix and Obelix - Hayao Miyazaki Consume graphic novels to trigger imagination and start getting ideas.

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Discussion - 30 January 2020 KP Sir - Thesis is not an autobiography.

- You can’t take out the bottle from the bottle of water - the water will spill - On omitting construction techniques and how it is an important aspect to look at - What is your role as a researcher? What are you doing with all this information? What is yours for the thesis - to collect info?

- Once you use a theory you are supposed to forget about it.

- You don’t have to establish what is regionalism if it has already been established in another book. You can refer, quote, and explain from other existing theories. Don’t use open-ended words.

- What you can do as an interior design. Can you even say - Don’t cut a tree.

- What is the thesis giving to your field? How are you contributing to your field?

- Don’t use big words, try to simplify - If you can just establish a new method of studying a space.

- Living - by use of, Dwelling - by occupation - What is living and dwelling?

- Concentrate on some words and go deeper and be more specific in explaining things.

- Be neutral. Let the reader see for himself. Your views are not important. Leave enough space for the reader to make his own judgement.

- All the personal journeys can go in the appendix - The study is too broad. Specify and narrow down.

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Discussion - 21 January 2020

Points we discussed on - Don’t make value judgments. Find out from the people and let it come from the people.

Let them inform what they are deprived of. Be a listener - What people got to say. Go to Vatva interview people. Push yourself to question these judgments.

- Write like a demon. State, state and state.- Just get on with writing.

- Look at the opposites.

- Luxury - who would not like to live like that. A slum is a necessity, where we don’t have the luxury of earth and sky. It’s not a choice but a necessity.

- How would you make a home in such circumstances?

- It’s not the thickness of the thesis that matters but the quality of content and how well thought out it is.

- Have a lot of time for editing what you write.

- What is modernity, what is modernism, what is the relationship between modernity and choice?

- Look at city life and how can the thesis be applicable in the city.

- What is home seems an important question in what you are writing.

- Follow a line.

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Discussion - 10 January Harshal Gajjar - IIHS, Delhi Researcher and external consultant - Put down your methodologies or methods. How are you approaching someone how does it impact the way they get to know you. How did you approach them and through whom? What were your experiences as a researcher? Your thought process along with doing the research. How did you approach a design you are studying.

- What is the difference between emic and etic approaches? How do you constantly switch between them while approaching a place?

- Hypothesis - you assume at the start of the thesis . You may end up proving or disapproving in the end.

- Whether the thesis is - qualitative or quantitative - What are the factors, subfactors, subconcepts - The research question should travel through time and space - Identify your role as a researcher and designer - Aim - a particular timeframe, the narrative you want to answer - Objectives - are more zoomed in. zoom down to the field and be specific of how these ideas apply to your field. How will you fulfill the study? How will you do it?

- How are live experiences recorded in research? Research about ethnography and the methods employed by researchers. experience of research - Abstract - zoomed out- it tells what your thesis is about. And where it talks about.

- Terminologies - glossary of words that will keep on expanding as you come across various new words in different languages - What are the transformation of values?

- What is modernity?

- Donâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t romanticize description. If you have notions you must make them clear to the reader. Pure empirics.

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Discussion - 24 February Chinmay Sharma - SNU, Delhi Researcher, acamedician and teacher - Is phenomenology fit for the kind of research you are doing?

- Make the research question as a why question for you to narrow down and be specific and elaborate. And have the sub-questions - How are they doing it, where are they doing it, what are they doing. And everytime you have a doubt ask yourself does this help to answer the main question.

Questioning a theory - Is the theory needed for you to frame the answer. If your question needs a theory to answer then use it.

- You are reacting to mass production not concrete. - What is hegemonic? What are these national level questions and what happens to individuals in this bigger picture?

- A part of your study is historical - as you are looking at the vernacular and what used to be and the methods that already exist.

- What are ethnographic methods it needs further understanding?

- Modernity is different than modernism. Modernism is a response. Modernism is breaking away from tradition.

For eg. Soviet era - Brutalism - a depiction of advancement of technology - Focus on your case studies and explain through them.

- Bracket your study. - How will you reach from point A to B. - How the cities are also now coming up with public policies that give an identity to an individual, atomized housing?

- How can you look at urban to rural and then rural to urban?

- You are researching the philosophical thought hence itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s qualitative. It might not be applicable in the cities directly but you might put out what we want to think about when we build for ourselves.

- Conclusion - Can be how can you apply something like this in an urban context - Description of space - you are talking about architecture through lived experience - not really phenomenological but ethnographical, historical, and architectural.

Reference - Charles Correa - On architecture of India and the future of cities - Dwight Conquergood on Ethnography

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15. THESIS REVIEW AND VIVA ACTION 23 May 2020 Rebecca Reuben - External - I don’t understand why you did what you did.

- I don’t know what are your thoughts and what is someone else’s perspective.

- Why you did these two case studies?

- Why did you do the 3 essays?

- Structure is missing and nothing is conclusive.

- Thesis is not art. It is a science. Thesis is supposed to teach you that you now possess a muscle to research. You need to tell me why should I believe you?

- Your thesis is romantic and a critical stand is missing.

- What is your theory? How sure are you about it? I don’t know what to make of it.

Rishav Jain - Internal - Define what is mainstream and what is alternative clearly. Are you saying that a typical apartment block it mainstream and the rural hut in a village is alternative?

- A contrast is missing. The thesis tells me only what is the alternative. Is there a recipe?

- An example of the alternative in what you call the mainstream would have been interesting to widen the perspective. Right now the case studies and the maker are so alternative, quite literally that it gives a very far away picture from what you are calling the mainstream.

- As a researcher, you can’t be biased. And it can’t be so conclusive.

Action Taken : - A photo essay (after the 2 case studies) added to explain a take on alternative approach in the mainstream scenario.

- Thesis rearranged to give a more clear picture. Reasons for choosing the case study placed before starting the case studies.

- Purpose statements added before the 3 essays, phenomenological accounts, and the photo essays on place and placelessness.

- The Conclusion is redrafted.

- The inference is edited to make it more neutral and clear as to what is the mainstream approach one is talking about.

- In-text citations are added everywhere, wherever someone else’s thoughts are being mentioned.

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0.5 Choosing a research topic A short note for young future researchers I wanted to end with a short note for young researchers doing research work for the first time from my personal observation and experience which no one might ever read. An amateur’s advice, take it with a pinch of salt. If you are going to start your thesis endeavor and you are trying to find a topic, don’t browse through the library as to what you can do. Rather trace your own journey through all your semesters and try to understand what were you interested in. Your projects designed by yourself will give you the clue.

What moves you? As a person. As a designer. What kind of work you like and why?

What are the factors that made you like it? A lot of times we know we like some kind of work but we don’t know why do we do. These clues will come from your own life. It is important to understand that the reasons you found are a reaction to something you felt or experienced. Say your grandmother was sick and you had to spend 1 month in the hospital with her and in doing so you notice how depressing are hospital environments.

You already know it for a fact but this incidence takes you closer to this experience and sensitizes you to an issue. Use such experiences to drive you.

Thesis gives us a direction as to where do we want to go next in our lives and therefore is important to understand ourselves and what do we value. How do we see the world?

What do we notice? What do we take pictures of? Just a wild idea, maybe your photo gallery on your phone will give you a clue. What were the things you felt important to document in the built space around you? If you sketch regularly, even better. What did you draw? We would always say to each other that in a lot of ways thesis is ourselves put very objectively, trying to find reasons for its existence in the first place. In finding all this you will realize that not only you will have a thesis topic that is valuable to the world as a research adding to the academic treasure but also a clarity about what lies in it for you.

If you are referring this thesis for your research by any chance and it is along similar lines with regards to the subject of interest or method, feel free to contact me on srabantidasgupta333@gmail.com All the very best, An Amateur Researcher.

The End? Or a comma,