Sthapati 2012

With Special thanks to Mr. Sabyasachi Chatterjee Ms. Shobana Santhanagopalan Mr. Ashish jain Mr. Gagandeep Singh Gujral Mr. Arif Ateeque Nezami Mr. J. P. Agarwal Mr. Vikas Lachhwani

SSAP council 2012 President

Ritesh Jindal

Treasurer

Vishal Agarwal

General Secretary

Social & Cultural Activities Secretary

Sweeya Tangudu Siddharth Pasumarthy Mohammad Shaaz Adam

Wallpaper Secretary

Supriya Pawar

Magazine Secretary

Subham Malpani

Web Secretary Alumni Secretary

Abhishek Mukherjee Anshul Deshmukh

Vice President

Soumi Biswas

Unit Secretary

Praveen Das

Unit Secretary Designee

Piyush Jaiswal

sthapati 12 the Magazine Team Subham Malpani Sarang Yeola Anshul Deshmukh Tushar Anand Supriya Pawar Arnab Kumar Mahanty Ambikesh Mishra Harika Nelli Cover Page credits Nikhil Bapna Yearbook credits Kaustubh Khare Filler Pages Student creatives

Contents Featured Interviews 12 Ar. Carlo Ratti 15 Ar. Bimal Patel

17

15

12

24

17 Ar. Sanjay Mohe 20 Ar. Prafulla Karkhanis

Articles 24 An Architectural Review Ar. Bijoy Jain 29 The Big Bad Cities Ar. S.K.Das 31 Urban Ghosla Ar. Alakesh Dutta

Department Activities

33 A journey through frozen times Ar. Soumi Biswas 35 An Architect’s Enigma Shashank Tiwari 37 Energy Inefficient Architecure Soumya Pasumarthy 39 An Intern to remember Pranav Khandelwal

Research Papers 43 Evolution of a Green Order Prof. Joy Sen

Departmental Activities

46 Impact of Climate change Prof. Somnath Sen

48

48 Reciprocity in Design Ar. Sheila Sri Prakash

56 Internship Experiences 58 Departmental Activities

60

60 Project works 66 Yearbook

From the HOD’s Desk

Prof. Jaydip Barman Head Department of Architecture & Regional Planning Indian Institute of Technology, Kharagpur

Architects are dream-merchants for our Habitat. Training students of architecture is a vital task which comprises of responsibilities for producing competent professionals towards contemporary Building Design and Construction in global scale. Here in the department of Architecture and Regional Planning at Indian Institute of Technology Kharagpur, the pedagogic attempts are always made to strive for excellence through futuristic and realistic approach in Architecture and Planning. Students are always encouraged to express their creative thoughts in different media. STHAPATI is one of such portals for their creative expression. This is the platform where new ideas are blossomed, unconventional views are revealed and above all it also establishes a relationship among the budding architects & planners, practicing professionals, academicians and allied industries. From this creative endeavour, we appeal to your active cooperation for forwarding their fresh views to a greater community!

I wish them all success !

Thanks!

Dr. Jaydip Barman

Sthapati | 2012 | 5

SSAP advisor speaks

Prof. Haimanti Banerji SSAP Advisor Department of Architecture and Regional Planning Indian Institute of Technology, Kharagpur

Every issue of our Journal Sthapati marks a new stage in the continuous process of development of our Department. The students are provided a platform where innovative and non conventional expression of ideas is encouraged and which invites teamwork amongst the budding architects and planners.

We are all aware that Indian Institute of Technology Kharagpur has completed the year round celebration of the Diamond Jubilee year and the students had the opportunity to interact with and attend the lectures of eminent Architects like Christopher Benninger during this time.

The performances of our students in various academic competitions have kept the department active throughout the year. Our students are moving towards maintaining our record of being National winner in Autodesk Student BIM Competition, 2011 by being the Eastern zone winner in 2012. They are also geared up for Transparence 2012 taking inspiration from their previous batch students who were the winners of Transparence 2011 and 2009.

I congratulate the editorial team for showing the creativity and perseverance that is required to publish a journal like this. Surely, this has been possible due to their other classmates who have been a constant source of support and inspiration for them.

I also take this opportunity to thank all the sponsors who have extended their support.

Through this annual publication, we remind ourselves of our tradition of excelling in academic and related activities and take the pledge to continue the same. This platform can be used very effectively to exchange academic ideas within the Department and also with our Alumni and other renowned persons from the industry.

Prof. Haimanti Banerji

Sthapati | 2012 | 6

President speaks

Ritesh Jindal President SSAP

Sthapati has been achieving new heights every year and so we had a challenge to make it reach another milestone this time. I am proud that we have maintained the legacy of Sthapati.

I would like to congratulate our Magazine secretary and thank all the people involved, for making this issue a great success. I would also like to express my gratitude towards all my batchmates, juniors and seniors for their valuable inputs. All the people involved in the team have put their sincere efforts spending sleepless night, worked restless days to get articles, sponsorships, editing of the magazine, etc.

I would also like to thank our alumni for their continuous and unfaltering support and to all our sponsors and architects without whom the quality of the magazine would have been impossible.

I feel extremely obliged to all my professors who have helped with their contribution towards the magazine but have also given us confidence the necessary suggestions at each stage.

We sincerely hope that our readers will appreciate the magazine and cherish reading.

We also welcome suggestions, criticism and contributions from our readers in future.

Sthapati will reach you in several different ways, and will keep surprising you in the coming years.

Lastly, I extend a heartfelt welcome to the Batch of 2017 and hope that they adopt and carry forward the rich tradition and culture of our department. I wish you all the best in your future endeavours and an enjoyable stay at IIT Kharagpur.

Sthapati | 2012 | 7

Treasurer speaks

Vishal Agarwal Treasurer SSAP

It feels great to carry on the tradition shown to us by our seniors and feels like responsibility to make our juniors to carry on the same, so here we are with a set of admirable pieces of work seeing interviews from Ar. Bimal Patel, Ar. Carlo Ratti, article from Ar. Sheila Sriprakash and lot others collected together in “Sthapati 2012�.We have always tried to increase the standards over the years, and now I can proudly say that we have managed to set a mark for years to come.

Kudos to our Magazine Secretary and team for working days and nights to make it a successful one.

I would like to thank my batch mates, juniors and seniors for their contribution. Special Mention to our alum Mr. Gagandeep Singh Gujral who have been a source of inspiration for me to work with full dedication to the department. I would also like to express my gratitude to all our alumni and all the sponsors for their invaluable support.

I am highly obliged to all the professors for their continuous support and guidance in the whole process.

Unit Secretary speaks Sthapati has been an integral part of every student who has entered the hallowed portals of this temple of education, Dept of Architecture & Regional Planning, IIT Kharagpur. It is a reflection of the matchless spirit and the dreams and aspirations of every "Archi" in KGP.

Praveen Das Unit Secretary

Sthapati reflects a way of life in a student's life coverings its academics, co-curricular activities and festivals among other every day things.It is an enunciation of the rapid and astonishing reformation our department has experienced over the past few years.I appreciate the progress Sthapati has been making in the past few years and this issue comes as a pleasant surprise. The magazine is beaming with enthusiasm and new creative ideas. The Editorial board has proven its worth by giving the magazine a fresh, entirely different, new and grand look. I congratulate our magazine secretaries for this endeavor.

Sthapati | 2012 | 8

General Secretaries speak

Sweeya Tangudu General Secretary SSAP

Siddharth Pasumarthy General Secretary SSAP

If I had a wish to have a second family, it would be my department. Be it architecture or the superlative tempo of its people, we have strived together and improved tremendously in the last few years and hold a high head for it.

This profession we are all entering into requires blending of our visions and dreams with the ever changing demands of time and environment.... that in all requires a lot of working habit in the student phase. Here, an incentive to work is the unanimity and support by our seniors and professors. Whether it be cultural activities in the department, culturals performed in Nasa conventions, our academic projects or our works for trophies in Nasa conventions, there is no looking back for us at anything but memories of unity and success.

A parallel endeavour has been for our annual magazine Sthapati. Kudos to the magazine team who have worked earnestly for this issue of Sthapati, keeping up the trend of constant improvement in the eminence of the magazine

Another golden year passed by and I still have reminisces of last year when it was on me to take out “STHAPATI”. The thrill and adrenalin rush which surpasses us when we get an interview or an article is worth putting in all the efforts.

A symbol of dedication, hard work, teamspirit and all the productive activities pursued is what “STHAPATI” is.

Each year starts with a breath of fresh air and enthusiasm and we leave no stones unturned to maintain the standards of the magazine. Bringing out creativity and spreading knowledge becomes the priority. It serves as an inspiration to bring out the true talent in us.

Accolades to the magazine secretaries and the team who were patient enough to to go on working till the end.

I was closely associated with the editing team and the spons team and I thank them for being so supportive.

Special mention to Malpani, Sarang, Anshul and Supriya who worked day and night.

I would also like to thank all my batchmates, seniors and professors for their support. We welcome all the readers for suggestions and criticism.

Archi ka tempo high hai. Proud to be be an archi.

Sthapati | 2012 | 9

Magazine Secretary speaks

Subham Malpani Magazine Secretary SSAP

"The only constant is change" - Isaac Asimov Sthapati is a magazine which has quite a long history attached to it. Contemplating a revival itself was a task, or we might add, a challenging task. Leaping right into it wasn't a good idea at all. We spent weeks browsing through different magazines and got a more clear picture of the task ahead.

My batchmates were always a constant support to me and their efforts reflect in every page of this issue.A few names which indeed deserve a special mentionAnshul, Supriya, Harika, Arnab, Ambikesh and lastly Sarang who was with me through the whole journey.I also thank my seniors for guiding me through.I would also thank my professors for their constant support.

Hope you enjoy reading this issue of Sthapati

Sthapati | 2012 | 10

...interviews

Carlo Ratti

“

As architects, as engineers, as designers, we always think about how people will use the things we design. But then reality is always unpredictable. And that’s the beauty of doing things that are used and interact with people.

”

Carlo Ratti

is an Italian architect and engineer who practices in Italy and is acclaimed for his researches on integration of digital technology and architecture. He teaches at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, USA, where he directs the MIT Senseable City Lab. In 2004, Ratti established the MIT Senseable City Lab, an MIT research group that explores the "real-time city" by studying the increasing deployment of sensors and hand-held electronics such as mobile phones, and their relationship to the built environment. This lab studies the built environment of cities—from street grids to plumbing and garbage systems—using these new kinds of sensors that have transformed the way we can describe and understand cities. He has also opened a research center in Singapore as part of an MIT-led initiative on the Future of Urban Mobility. The Digital Water Pavilion at the 2008 World Expo in Zaragoza, for instance, reacts to visitors by parting a stream of water to let them visit, and was considered by Time Magazine as one of the "Best Inventions of the Year".A proposal for the 2012 Olympics in London turns a pavilion building into a 'Cloud' of blinking interactive art.

Following are the excerpts from our interaction with Mr. Carlo Ratti : Sthapati | 2012 | 12

Q. What is architecture for you ?

Here is my definition: architecture means reinventing the interface between people and the outside world.

Q. What avenues do modern digital technologies have in store for the architectural world?

Over the past decade digital technologies have begun to blanket our cities, forming the backbone of a large, intelligent infrastructure.

old human struggle: creating environments that respond to us in a dynamic, life-like way...

Q.

Can you shed some light on MIT Senseable city lab and how do you think it will affect the urban landscape in coming future?

At the Senseable City Lab we explore how the increasing deployment of sensors and hand-held electronics in recent years is allowing a new approach to the study of the built environment. Our aims is to investigate and intervene at the interface between people, technologies and the city, delivering research and applications that empower zcitizens to make choices that result in a more livable urban condition. As mentioned above, we believe that these questions will be at the center of tomorrow's architectural debate...

Q.

Traditionally, architecture is quite static. How do you think people will respond to the dynamic and interactive buildings such as ‘Digital Water Pavilion’?

Broadband fiber-optic and wireless telecommunications grids are supporting mobile phones, smartphones and tablets that are increasingly affordable. At the same time, open databases—especially from the government—that people can read and add to are revealing all kinds of information, and public kiosks and displays are helping literate and illiterate people access it. Add to this foundation a relentlessly growing network of sensors and digital-control technologies, all tied together by cheap, powerful computers, and our cities are quickly becoming like “computers in open air”.

The above condition has great potential for the future of architecture and urban planning. It responds to an

This is a very interesting point - because of technology our cities, our buildings and our personal objects are starting to "talk back to us." The important issue that derives from this is that "we understand each other." In the Digital Sthapati | 2012 | 13

Water Pavilion the interaction is seamless, so that the building can be used effortlessly by anyone, a 5 year old and 95 year old...

Q. Steps that you think should be taken to promote technological innovations in the field of architecture?

Continue working on an architecture that senses and responds...

Q.

Share your views regarding the future of Architecture and how do you think architecture should evolve to meet the requirement of energy efficient and sustainable buildings?

Getting things right for cities means getting things right for the planet. Why? Just four numbers define the importance of cities: 2/50/75/80. Cities cover 2% of the Earth’s crust,

concentrate about 50% of the world’s population, and account for 75% of the energy consumption and 80% of the CO2 emissions worldwide. If we can do things right in cities, we can do things right at the scale of the planet. And this applies both to the planning and design of new cities and the retrofitting of old ones.

In term of energy consumption, there is a big tragedy today: we heat up or cool our office buildings during the night, when nobody is there. And we do the same for our homes during the day, when we are at work and they are left empty. Simply a better, more dynamic, match of energy and people would make a huge difference!

Q. Lastly, any message that you would like to give to students , the future generations?

As someone else once said... "Stay hungry, stay foolish!"

Sthapati | 2012 | 14

An

Interview with

Ar. Bimal Patel Having a cumulative experience of 26 years in consultancy, research and teaching is a 1984 graduate of the School of Architecture, Centre for Environmental Planning and Technology, Ahmedabad and holds a 1988 dual post-graduate degree in Architecture and City Planning from the Univer sity of California, Berkeley, USA. He has also earned a Doctor of Philosophy degree in Regional Planning from the same university in 1995.Also to add, he was an Aga Khan Awardee in the year 1992.

Following are the excerpts from a telephonic conversation our second year student , Subham Malpani had with him.

Q. After completing your diploma in architecture from CEPT, Ahmadabad you went on to do both MCP and M.Arch and then your PhD from University of California, Berkeley. How is their curricula different from ours and would you still recommend a student to pursue their masters abroad?

Well, my main motive was to learn something other than architecture.

There, I learned urban planning, which is something completely different from Architecture. I did both my masters in the University of California, which is a large university and has many different departments. In the American culture, they expect a student to have a very broad education after high school in many different areas. In India, after High school, we straightaway specialize.

After my five years of education in Architecture, I didn't feel the need to study about it anymore and I decided to use my opportunity in the university to have a liberal education because I already had a professional education here. My Education there also included Urban Geography, Agricultural Economics and Political Sciences.

Q.

It might have been a big challenge to build under the shadow of the master and upholding the same charm and the austerity of the old building. How did you approach the design of the new IIM Ahmadabad campus, where did you start from?

I was very aware that I was building right next to a very important building, but I was never completely intimidated by it. What I did, I felt had to be something that paid respect to Louis Kahn's work. I felt that one must try to enclose the spirit of Architecture and not the necessarily the mere form. Louis Kahn used to have a lot of formal geometry, tried to bring in austerity, we took care of these things in the new campus. Even if you look at the plan or Organisation, in a way it pays respect to Louis Kahn's work. At the same time, it was a complete different vocabulary. The approach was to pay respect but not copy

Q.

Even though we believe that nobody except Louis Kahn himself could bring in exactly the same blend Sthapati | 2012 | 15

campus?

A lot of things . Everybody does a different thing.

Q.Rather

than going for exposed concrete structure, You could have chose the same brickwork Same sort of Brickwork could have been like copying and also the brickwork hasn't worked well in Louis Kahn's building from a constructional point of view. It has been deteriorating consistently in the last 30-40 years. The bricks have been wearing continuously and if you plan of a building at such a big scale, using bricks is not a very good option

famous?

This was a building I did in the early 90's.

When I went to the site, I found a series of large neem trees. So it was then possible to have a building under the shade of the trees. So we made a long block under it. My aim was to keep the building transparent, unlike the other buildings in India at that time. So we had normal glass used in the building which had an ample amount of shade and privacy from the neem trees

Q.Do you think that the old building narrowed down your choices on the new and advanced building material that could have been used?

The building was designed in late 90's. So a lot of materials today available were not available at that time. And more importantly, I didn't choose any other such material because I wanted to use exposed concrete structure as I'm quite familiar with it and I didn't think more than anything else. It wasn't due to Louis Kahn's building that I used concrete.

Q. Sir, you have been a recipient of a lot of prestigious awards, one of them being the World Architecture Award in 2001 for the Ahmadabad Management Association Building located in the ATIRA campus. Can you throw some light on the design and how you utilized the existing greenery for which it was

Q.You are also working on the design of the IIT Gandhinagar Campus. What do you think is the most effective way to incorporate future expansion due to the increase in student intake? At large, how do you think one should approach the problem of city/urban planning in a country like India with such a huge population growth rate?

Because of having a bad master plan, many of the IIT's I have been to are in such a situation. I think that a solution would be continuously retaining an architect to continuously review the master plan and it has to be modified in order to accommodate any new addition. So they have to be looked upon both at the building level and the bird's eye view of the master plan.

Having a bad master plan would leave you with a few options.

Q.A word of advice for the students‌ Think of Architecture as collaborating, problem solving. Not trying to impose your vision on the society but also learn from them. Collaborators problem solvers Sthapati | 2012 | 16

Ar. Sanjay Mohe One of the principal of Mindspace architects Sanjay Mohe has over 20 years of extensive professional practice and has worked together in various positions with the two other principals Vasuki Prakash and Suryanarayanan. Their work has resulted in several National and International award winning creations.

Here he shares with us some stories of his early days, his views about life, learning architecture and some of his creations in a conversation with Subham Malpani second year B.Arch student

Q. What inspired you to become an architect ?

When I was born an elder cousin of mine was pursuing his Bachelors in Architecture from RIBA. To a certain extent he had become an inspiration for me. This was seconded by the fact that I was good at sketching and was complimented by many. From the very beginning when my teachers asked me what I wanted to become, I would promptly reply "Architect�. So that's how I got inspired.

Q. Do you believe in the thought that every creation should reflect a particular ideology or philosophy?

Yes, during our practice over the years we follow a set of principles, which later gets transformed into our ideology. This ideology gets rooted within us and therefore gets reflected in our work.

Q.

How comfortable were your clients with the use of new ideas, innovation of materials like in designing a house or a new classroom complex?

Designing has always been a learning process for both the architect and the client. I personally feel that it is not that

difficult a task to convince a client about a new idea. It is only in the beginning that we are reluctant about our ability to convince the client. So initially it is an epical problem, but then as we go on doing more and more projects we become confident about our abilities to convince the client. Most of the clients come to you after seeing what you have done. So they already have a kind of a mindset to know what you are going to expect. So then it's a question of going to accept further, and trying to explain them better.

Q.

More about Budigere house, things like you try to minimize the number of walls to bring openness, and all...

These are certain things we try to follow in every building, not just in Budigere house. We try to work on that a lot whether it is a smaller building or a larger institution. Then we try to sort of bring porosity into the built form- Porosity in terms of perforation to make a building breathe. In western countries the temperature goes as low as minus five, so you cannot allow the cold breeze to come into that building. So they have to create a glass box in order to counter the climate. On the other hand, in our country, we are blessed with a much more comfortable climate. So in a Sthapati | 2012 | 17

tropical country it is important to create that porosity and doing that means you create courtyards, bring nature and greenery into the building, allow breeze to flow through, allow the building to breathe. Now, if you have to do that, you have to keep removing the walls. If we want the breeze to flow through we have to create wind tunnels, we have to create convection current. So, if you have to do all that, the building has to become as open as possible. So that's why whether it's the Budigere house or any other larger building, we try to create that openness and bring nature into the building as much as possible.

And while doing that we play with lightthe natural light to create and differentiate between spaces.

Q.

What were your modern conclusions from,this project, particularly,Budigere house?

The transition from outside that was very important. You come in and you have a space which is kind of in between that is equivalent to verandah in a traditional house. Or you have that part outside; you know that platform where you remove shoes in the traditional house. So we have a space equivalent to that in Budigere House. Then after that you enter a living room and the entire space opens. Now you might ask what we learnt from that isn't it? Well, actually we learn something or the other through every project, so it is difficult to say what we learnt from that house in particular.

Probably for the first time in this house we were using black color for the flooring.

So the entire floor- its a play of black and white. So all the walls are white, the entire floor and most of the furniture is also black and dark brown kind of color.

Using only two colors and using light and using water within the house- that was something which we were doing it for the first time.

Q.

Talking about the new classroom complex in IIM Bangalore..What is the extent of influence of the clients on the project?

The Client- it's more about understanding the requirement. You know, you speak with them, try to understand their requirements.

Especially when it comes to teaching we need to have a lot of interactions with different professors to know what is the right configuration they want for the classroom. So we had discussions with the professors about the requirements of the classrooms. We needed a lot of input from and compare different class rooms in different IIM's, not just Bangalore, but Ahmadabad and Kerala as well, it was also compared with places like ISB, Indian School of Business..So all those things happen, but eventually one of their requirements was to make the classrooms with natural ventilation, and they wanted to have 100 students in a class, and with 100 students to have something which is naturally ventilated was little tough because in such a situation air conditioning was preferred. So we tried different types of technology for the same. There are different ways of handling different screens; Bangalore weather is normally good, at least six months of the year. So during that time how you could operate a projector and yet have a natural light system, that's what we tried to develop through various options.

Sthapati | 2012 | 18

Q.

And a few more examples from your creations which could be a beginning of future building in terms of design and technology. .

We are working with TERI and have done a few projects with the Energy Research Institute. For the building in Delhi we have tried lot of alternative technology, like earthen tunnel, thermal mask for cooling, the different wind tunneling and then we always respond to the cardinal point in terms of orientation, taking advantage of wind direction, studying sun path very carefully, create different shadings and patterns. This is not something which is new but I feel every young architect has to understand that though green building has become the talking point everywhere but this has to become the way of life, because this is something which is not new for all of us, though it is being talked about so much now. We have been doing green building without calling it as a green building.

Because we take response from nature and take all these things to account for the tropical and if you design properly for the tropical climate, you could be designing a proper energy efficient building. Because its common sense, it's not something that we learn. It's kind of stupid to make a glass box in a tropical country and then call it as an office building and then allow that entire mass to get heated. That's criminal. So if you see Correa's work it has always been very responsive to climate. And that's something which we have always been doing. And now it has taken that whole thing about green rating and creating that awareness little further. So this has to be a way of life now for all of us to create such sustainable buildings, because we cannot afford to spoil our resources.

Q. What do you think is the future of architecture computerized design tools and all, where do we see this going?

As long as it is issue oriented, as long as there is a strong philosophy behind it, then it does make sense.You should not get carried away by form like most of the youngsters are getting carried away by form-oriented architecture. I have a serious problem with that, because architecture is not about creating only iconic buildings, it's about creating living environment which is sustainable. It's about the soul of the place and not about the skin of the place. The skin is important only as long as it deals with the climatic conditions. Again as far as aesthetics is considered, it is the outcome of how you sort of deal with the external forces and the outcome of the form has to respond to the external force. Then it will make such correct architecture not for the sake of the form which you see it in some magazine and then try to reflect it.

9)Words of advice for students..

Be passionate about whatever you do.

It is extremely important to be passionate and take pride in what you have done. It is only then that you are convinced about what you have done.

You should be able to defend what you are doing, "I have done this.Because I believe in it, and I'm proud of what I have done". If you do that then you will be able to defend yourself anywhere.

Sthapati | 2012 | 19

Ar. Prafulla Karkhanis Passed from the Academy of Arhitecture, Bombay in 1966, Karkhanis is currently the National President of Indian Institute Architects.

The Institute has a major role to play in promoting the profession of architecture by organising and uniting in fellowship the Architects of India to promote aesthetic, scientific and practical efficiency of the profession both in Practice and in Education.

He shares his thoughts with us in an online interview.

Q.

Why do you think people should choose Architecture as a career option in India?

Architecture as a career option is still quite under exposed in our country.

Leaving aside some of the metros and big cities, people in small towns and villages haven't even heard of 'Architecture'. This lack of awareness leads to the major unplanned and uncontrolled development that is happing all over the country in general.

So I feel that the requirement and scope is quite high, which makes it a good career option.

Q. In a country like India driven by high population standards and an unplanned and a sporadic growth of townships, do you feel the need to lay more stress on elevating town planners' demands than architects in person I feel that there is equal need of all such trained professionals; may it be town planners, urban designers, landscape architects or even people from specialized segments like product designers or furniture designers. Its like the environmental cycle, and all of us, right from the micro to macro level elements of this cycle play important parts in the growth and development of a singular residence to a community to a town to the country, finally.

Q.

We're all aware of the need of Economic Architectural practice in India

and so we really need a bunch of "Laurie Baker's� in our system? How does our education system in this stage like ours in this stage yield such?

Our education system, rather than criticizing it, I would rather like to appreciate it that it has given us a good combination of discipline as well as a certain amount of freedom too. Yes, encouraging and exposing students to various local materials, their specific construction techniques and conducting workshops by experts and last but not the least, encouraging students to build with their own hands and experiencing the entire creative activity might just take them to a higher level of learning. I feel, a good research base where they study the works of the likes of say Laurie Baker would also be a good influence on students. Ultimately it is a very individual response of a designer how he/she interprets and translates the education delivered.

Q.

Sophisticated technology based solutions have been developed to improve the energy-efficiency of buildings, but they usually require a high initial investment, how do you plan on bridging this gap between technology and economic status

Normally, scientifically improved solution takes due care of energy efficiency of Buildings may be at higher cost compare to normal construction cost of the market or D.S.R. ( as per District Schedule Rates ) but that so called excessive cost

Sthapati | 2012 | 20

reimbursed within next 2 to 3 years Time Limit. However, thereafter in future, no recurring expenses or maintenance charges cropped up. In fact, that is the additional asset and Satisfaction one gets.

Q.

What do you think about in a country where the majority of the population doesn't care for architects and build their so-called home themselves and aren't really aware of the need of an architect. How do you plan to stop them from flowing the present day architects out of the country

Yes, I do agree that these kinds of practices do happen, like I mentioned in the first answer. There is very little awareness, sensitivity and respect for this profession in our country. I also think that many times it is an image that we create for ourselves. If we do an honest practice and starting from a small scale and moving on to a bigger one, start spreading awareness right from institute level by conducting exhibitions, seminars and conferences related to the design field so that the layman also will start understanding the seriousness of employing a professional for his needs.

Q. Focusing on the significance of the social dimension in facilitating the development of sustainable agendas, how do you plan to implement low costenergy efficient technologies like mud architecture which do not fit in with the aspirations of the urban population?

Again my answer would be that the urban client or layman who is not exposed to the various techniques, their economy, viability and application has to be educated and convinced by the Architect himself. But for achieving this, the architect himself/herself has to be honest to the profession and not be driven by the monetary aspect and of course, options like mud architecture, specifically , might not be feasible in

every region of our country too. So the awareness has to be passed on to the client, and we as architects are an important medium.

Q.

With Indian tradition as well the vernacular styles of many regions fading away, where do you see it all going and your message for the students in this regard. .

I do agree that rich vernacular and traditional typology is fading away and the future is not very positive in those terms as far as the way things are shaping up in the present scenario. I would like to convey to the students that start researching, go to such old cores of the cities, start documenting them by the mediums of photography, sketching and drawings, through which a deeper understanding of the beauty of our cultural heritage will reach you. And after you do that, there is a certain attachment that you end up establishing with these pieces of old architecture and design. We should be able to conserve and replicate wherever needed by use of new materials too, the spatial and visual experience of these vernacular styles and not let them die a sad death. In cities like Ahmedabad there are renowned architects and conservationists like Ar. Meenakshi Jain and Ar. K.B. Jain who have made efforts to study and conserve the old 'pols' in the core city. Also, the local architecture and design institutes and governing authority can also take initiatives and encourage / create awareness amongst the students as well as city dwellers regarding these issues.

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It was the spirit animating the mass and flowing from it, and it expressed the individuality of the building.�

- Louis Sullivan

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...articles Sthapati | 2012 | 22

Bijoy Jain An Architectural Review

by Marie-Hélène

Contal French Critic

Studio Mumbai,founded by Ar. Bijoy Jain, in 1995 is a minuscule enterprise in which spatial and constructive solutions are first assembled and tested 1:1 scale before being set up on the building site. The agency makes no concessions and confines itself to working on the scale that it can control without compromising its principles.

The chosen materials, notably traditional masonry and wood, make it possible to restore craftwork to its central place in the building site. The agency's use of ancestral knowledge valorises it and restores its pride. By connecting this high-valueadded manual work to a clientele capable of appreciating and paying for it, Bijoy Jain has made an essential contribution to the “New Vernacular Architecture”.The superlative technique of the masons and carpenters working for the agency can clearly be seen in its sophisticated methods and assemblages.

Critical meditation

An experienced traveller with a western education, Bijoy Jain is a forty-something whose work – as it swings between being completely in harmony and quite out of step with the rapid development of the Subcontinent – illustrates a debate which runs through contemporary Indian culture.

Above all, Bijoy Jain is an architect in step with globalisation. He masters a true double background, western and Indian, and he uses this as a source of richness – and this is a duality which no longer tears apart the architects of his generation as it did their forebears who spent much of the 20th century exposed to a western cultural mainstream which had a mixed - and at times even disdainful - attitude to Indian cultural traditions.

This helps to explain why he chose to confront the destructive effects of the development process upon Indian culture. Upon his return to Mumbai after being absent for ten years, India had become an economic giant and a country in Sthapati | 2012 | 24

transformation but, despite the improvement in the standard of living, he soon realised that architectural mediocrity had become the norm.

The Indian megalopolis was being suffocated by its own expansion; resources were being sacrificed and residents mistreated as the city seemed to turn its back on an architectural heritage which knew exactly how to compromise with the extremes of nature in favour of what it assumed was a search for civilisation. Developers preferred to mimic an international architecture which had emerged in other climates. These copies – quite alien to Indian reality – were fully equipped with expensive technology in a vain attempt to fight the climate and the monsoon.

Upon his return to India, Jain's first decision was to not return to the city. There is a tendency to measure the economic performance of the country in terms of the speed of its services and speed has – like in China – become a key social and economic parameter. With 15 million inhabitants, Mumbai has become the focus of this trend and architects who wish to succeed there have to accept its conditions: "In this country, you get a week to design a project and ten days later construction must start… this is hardly an exaggeration and I very quickly realised that if, under these circumstances, I wished to build buildings of a quality which I considered as indispensable, having a well designed project simply wasn't enough."

Studio Mumbai was established in Alibaug, two hours by car from the centre of the city in an area which, although well populated, was still semi-rural and dominated by small houses and single storey buildings where it was possible to create and expand a compound as a means of creating a place for both living and working.

Bijoy Jain's reunion with India thus took place far from its commercial heart. Rather, he returned to these suburbs full of people where the architect could spend everyday wandering and observing: “living a culture means studying it everyday,” filling his sketchbooks with notes and architectural details. This voluntary immersion gave him the opportunity, upon returning from the United States, of establishing a direct connection between his two worlds: the global architectural debate, with its new ethical horizons, and the living tissue of Indian society with all its many protagonists: workers and manufacturers as well as other inspiring figures.

This short-circuiting between the two worlds proved extremely productive – a productivity which certainly owed much to the fact that Bijoy Jain both established a mechanism and opened up a theoretical territory which made it possible for him to provoke the dialogue between his two worlds and then profit from the energy which this generated.

Slow build This mechanism took the very concrete form of an open-air atelier of around one hectare. Studio Mumbai no longer operates from a typical office but rather occupies this large compound where craftsmen can work on their projects over a long period.

Over the course of several years Jain has gathered around him a team of masons and carpenters together with whom he develops and then runs his projects without the need for other intermediaries.

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In his eyes these artisans embody an “anonymous architecture” and have a feeling for materials which matches that of any trained architect. They also know how to build in harmony with the elements, which is so essential in a region with such a violent and unpredictable climate. Projects are developed with a total regard for the physical reality of their locations: of their climate and material resources. They build prototypes as a means of testing the constructional and structural solutions and components which have been developed by the architect; they prefabricate the elements of the building in their ateliers and then leave to coordinate teams on site, monitor construction and fine tune the end product.

This organisation is reminiscent of that of Simon Velez who travels the world leading teams of master carpenters constructing bamboo buildings. In his examination of both the constructional culture and the level of refinement of the projects of Bijoy Jain the historian Pierre Frey has compared the compound at Alibaug with the “on-site workshops” of English Gothic which “flourished uninterrupted from the seventeenth to the nineteenth centuries, creating ideal conditions for the maintenance and restoration of buildings”.

At Kashid, on the Arabian Sea, the Tara House was built in line with this approach on a seafront site where the water table varies according to the tides and the seasons. The solution of Bijoy Jain's master masons was to create a stone-lined tank large enough to absorb all the variations in the water table. Hence the project lives in rhythm with the water.

The stone reservoir, which is located under the internal garden, becomes the heart of the project: it supplies the compound, regulates the micro-climate and is treated as a place of calm. The pavilions are grouped below a large shared roof around the garden pool. The rooms are lined with internal and external galleries formed from wooden screens which filter the light while allowing the wind to pass. In summer and winter the screens open towards the sea to the south. During the rainy season they close and the house turns back towards the east.

The theoretical horizon which informs these works is quite clear. The thoughtful observer of the megalopolis of Mumbai is now in step with ecological thinking and with those for whom “architecture has once again a set of basic ethical values and is responsible for a new trusting relationship between human action and nature.” His is an architecture which is attentive to the genius loci, establishing a relationship with the site based not just on the senses but also on materials and processes – because the role of architecture is to create new global mechanisms for the provision of human habitat.

For Bijoy Jain, the approach to building in a specific place should be derived from its specific ecosystem: the architect should make intelligent use of its resources and work

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with its inhabitants with the aim of optimising the impact of the project on the local economy – not only during the period of construction but also for the whole life of the building and even at the moment of its disappearance.

One must travel to a site at an altitude of 2,750m in the foothills of the Himalaya to discover the wonderful Leti refuge. Built in a hostile climate, the refuge has been conceived to disappear to dust without leaving any traces when the winters have finally proved too powerful. Here it was the masons of the village who built the base.

The timber for the structure, removed from the forest and sawn in situ was prepared in the workshops in the valley and then brought up the mountain in summer: a practice which is common to all mountain peoples. Bijoy Jain's answer to those who criticised his approach as being oversophisticated was that this seasonally based solution had been developed in profound harmony with the location and that his aim was that such an approach would become exemplary.

Once again, it is the fact that such an approach emanated from Mumbai rather than from Scandinavia that is particularly remarkable, as well as being a sign of the range of the debate about the new ethic of responsibility in society. And, above all, the beauty of the resulting works serve as a reminder – if this is needed – of the regenerative role that this debate can have for modern architecture. If he had limited his objectives to a desire to preserve Indian culture then Bijoy Jain would not have been able to avoid the aestheticisation which is the inevitable result when an architect, in attempting to celebrate a culture in danger, succeeds merely in cutting all links between that heritage and contemporary society. Such projects close in upon themselves and become selfreferential rhetorical gestures.

His objective of incorporating projects into a real economy of materials and constructional methods and his search for new relationships between human habitat and the environment have saved his work from such a fate. The refined language of Studio Mumbai cannot be seen in isolation because it is in truth the very motor which drives a whole range of complex human activity. The aesthetic of each project guides the “site workshop” which lies at the heart of the process. It is both a resource in the hands of the builders and a model which they require if they are to make progress in the process of creation.

In the left-over corners of the megalopolis Bijoy Jain's early works were secluded projects, located at some distance from the metropolis and from those who are far from sharing his vision. In India his methodology is not as easy to implement as it would be in Europe where there is more of a consensus Sthapati | 2012 | 27

on environmental issues. At home, this means that he has remained isolated.What remains to be seen is if the positive critical attention which his work is now receiving make it easier for him to enter Mumbai and gain recognition for his approach to architecture. It is worth noting that he has recently been able to turn his attention to the left-over corners of the megalopolis – thanks precisely to this international recognition.

In 2010 Bijoy Jain was invited to participate in the exhibition “1:1 – architects build small spaces”, at the Victoria & Albert Museum in London . The seven architects were required to design structures which were to be located in designated galleries in the museum and which would illustrate the recognition that, in architecture, “living should mean more than simply finding shelter”.

The Mumbai architect was entrusted with the large gallery containing architectural casts. Taking his lead from the plaster on the walls around him and the techniques used to create these casts, he deeply moved visitors to the exhibition by recreating, at full scale, a typical clandestine living space from his home town.

Bijoy Jain discovered the living space behind his office in Mumbai. A family of eight had found shelter in the narrow gap between two buildings – a bizarre elongated space measuring 1.50m at its widest point. The space had become a home thanks to the ingenuity with which the family had succeeded in furnishing it. An intermediate floor had been inserted, creating an upper level for sleeping which could be reached via a tiny staircase fitted into a recess. The lower level incorporated a kitchen, a tiny atelier, altars and even a small courtyard containing a tree which was somehow surviving in the gap. The home trapped between the two buildings was surveyed by Bijoy Jain in detail, prefabricated as a series of plaster elements in his ateliers and then reassembled in London in just the same way as the plaster casts of architectural masterpieces which surrounded the work in the V&A.

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Big, Bad Cities Ar. S K Das is a Delhi-based architect and professor, and is the principal founder of S.K. Das Associated Architects, established in 1987. He was a senior faculty member at the Institute for Housing and Urban Development Studies, Rotterdam, from 1981-’86, and has subsequently held several teaching positions, including that of Dean and Professor at the Sushant School of Art and Architecture, New Delhi; Visiting Professor at the School of Planning and Architecture, New Delhi.

What’s wrong with our urban planning?

Reported by Harsh Kabra.

M

“ y work represents my increasing fascination with the diversity and complexity of the city”, notes Delhi based architect SK Das. An alumnus of the Sir JJ College of Architecture, Mumbai, Das however says he learnt more from the strong dynamics of 1970's Mumbai that brought together all kinds of professionals- artists, journalists, film makers, musicians and political activists all “at the lunatic edge of their professions”- to derive inspiration and pleasure from others' experiences and to debate issues over drinks, in cafés and bars, and late night discourses.

Many years later, he witnessed the planning and making of new Bombay, or,

as he puts it, “the degeneration of what was touted as a self-help city by some into a suburban mass that lacked the energy and dynamism of New Bombay and subconsciously negated it”. It is perhaps to the quest for the golden mean between these two extremes that he owes the activist in him.

On the one hand, he has worked on the reconstruction of slums and against the mass eviction of squatters by “a city that did not have a better alternative with which to provide them”, while on the other hand, he has done a lot of reconstruction work in areas such as cyclone-ravaged Orrisa.

Yet it's the state of the city that intrigues him the most. His accent is on organizing Sthapati | 2012 | 29

“democratic, inclusive and socially interactive spaces and built forms”,which respond to people, places and contexts through architecture instead of sloganeering.

To Das, each city with it's varying degrees of association with and distance from globalization, represents specific needs, interests, aspirations and sensibilities. “The public Domain must be seen as an overlay of multiple sensibilities, as specific representations of the parts”, he says.

His firm, SKDas Associated Architectsestablished over a two decades ago after he left his teaching and Global consulting position at the Institute for Housing and Urban Development Studies, Rotterdam ( The Netherlands ),

“We forget that in order to inculcate civic sense, we must have a city that relates strongly to the lives and real needs of the people.” has clients in the private, public and nonprofit sectors across Asia, Africa, Europe, and Latin and North America.

“In my neighborhood or business district becomes a microcosm of a city”, observes Das.”Narrow, winding streets, or rivers and tributaries long ignored or denied their rightful existence as public spaces begin to flow through the last bastions of individuality in an increasingly power-driven society . These concepts grow and mature in the cellars of the imagination, only to emerge stronger when given the chance,” he says.

“This territory is the logical extension of both- of Architecture in a larger spatial play field and of town design and planning for parts of cities. These parts contain the potential to be more complete than the whole”, he says.

According to Das, fast growing cities have relegated their social and environmental objectives to the back burner while unabashedly pursuing rapid growth. Besides, an undemocratic planning bureaucracy working behind

closed doors has hijacked the planning exercise and failed to engage the communities and the professionals.

“Some urban problems can be nipped in the bud by drawing upon the skills and knowledge available with the professionals and the schools of Architecture in a city; they, in turn can draw upon a wider set of knowledge and understanding about the city among artists, theater persons, writers and social commentators, and so on,” he says.

“We forget that in order to inculcate civic sense, we must have a city that relates strongly to the lives and real needs of the people. Too many agencies are doing their own bit without co-ordination or a coherent framework”.

The unfortunate result: pockets of affluence turning their back to poverty and environment, the poor deprived of access to services and shelter, and communities segmented based on land prices. Das says planners should replace rigid two-dimensional master plans frozen for decades by more resilient, adaptive and evolving plan within a master-plan frame-work, without forgetting that they are the social elements of change. He says it is time they discarded archaic planning instruments that encourage monofunctional land use and zoning that push living, work and recreation spaces far apart, thereby putting extra burden on mobility.

“Infrastructure provisions are grossly Insufficient and are of bad quality”, he says. “ Because infrastructure delivery is seen merely as public works, we have ignored the artistry required to exploit natural assets of any city and to generate substantive public spaces that people can relate to and feel about.”

Das believes that high quality public spaces with easy and free access can make people own up cities and not vandalize. “The charm of impressive cities throughout history is that they managed to mobilize the entire society to willingly and passionately contribute to city development directly or indirectly.”

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urbAn ghoslA H

ailing from the still pristine and rustic urban of Shillong, the metropolitan cities of India are an audio-visual chaos. City centers are consumed by a cacophony of sounds, the uniqueness of which is that this comprises the widest spectrum of sound emanating from every possible vibrating object – vocal chords of living things to miniature speakers of modern day gizmos. Not just that, these places are a visual farrago a well.

Ar .Alakesh Dutta Alumnus Batch of 2006

A typical cross-section through a city would probably reveal each and every item that has taken humans eons since early Stone Age to discover, invent, and manufacture etc – all forced to co-exist, in harmony or not.s one moves away towards the city outskirts, one sight which becomes more prominent than everything else is that of condominiums.

Whilst moving through the city, you are bound to see billboard hoardings showcasing

new projects coming up; slamming an image of a dream home onto the face of the soon-to-be vulnerable on-lookers. To lure people into investing their life-time's earning to satiate astronomical rates which are forever climbing, they'll have nice rendered images.

Towards the outer city limits, these literally translate from the billboards into actual buildings ; most often sans the posh locale neighborhood and other lucrative amenities one might have seen.

These condominiums tower above all else, and stand either alone or in groups as massive structures punctuated by lots and lots of windows – which owing to the scale appear relatively much smaller to the eyes on the ground. Each one of these monsters emerge from the drawing boards of different architects trying to impose a different look, subsequently fine-tuned (rather much altered) by the developers and promoters to suit their ends – which always buoys down to gaining literally every inch of space. Inevitably, they lack any visual continuity amongst themselves. Each appears as much grotesquely different as it could possibly be from the one beside it.

At night however, the massive masses disappear into the darkness relieving the entire visual weight, while lights emanating through the windows puts the latter into relief – a delightful visual panorama of light floating in the night sky. It's alive with the pulsating glints of different colored luminaries and human figures in silhouette moving across. The windows basked in different shades and colors of light; just

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reveal a brief insight into a household, tickling the innate curiosity of the mind.

While driving up the road to my house, I see this humungous number of windows and the only thought which instantly pops in my mind is that of pigeon holes. And then it wonders a step further, aren't our lives in these intensely busy cities similar to that of pigeons instead of normal humans and, our houses in these apartments akin to pigeon holes instead of homes. We all tend to wander away from the house at sunrise in quest to earn our livelihood and return after dusk (or even the reverse for the nocturnal workers). On return, we each make a bee-line meandering through narrow roads, staircases, and elevators to find our own slot in this whole plethora of pigeon holes. Each hole has a number and that is its only identity which tends to distinguish this from the others. Otherwise, they are all the same. You mention the number at any service – courier to pizza delivery, and the envelope or the pizza will make its way to the door-step.

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A Journey Through the Frozen times...

-Bruge in the eyes of an architect ,a student of city planning and an inquisitive traveler…

Soumi Biswas MCP 2nd year.

It was the first trip we made after our arrival in Aachen, Germany on DAAD scholarship…needless to say that everyone was super excited. Aachen being in the vicinity of Belgium , the journey was not that long. Thanks to the punctuality of European railways we reached Bruge sharp at 10am as planned….we had exactly 9hrs to see this city – a UNESCO World Heritage City, a city rated as one of the ten most beautiful cities of the world by leading websites and magazines like Forbes, a city which inherited the appellation of “Venice of the North.”

Previous night we had made a list of all the attractions in the city and studied Google map very well so that we are acquainted with the orientation of the city. A brief introduction of my travel companions … one Is a student of M.Arch from IIT Roorkee, two pursuing M.Sc in the field of Chemical engineering at IIT Delhi, one pursuing M.Tech in Mechanical engineering at IIT Kharagpur, two from the field of Biotechnology of IIT Kharagpur and IIT Guwahati. From the very moment we set foot at Bruge, immanent was a sense of joy, there was serenity in the wind that blew and warmth exuded by every passerby. The station which now stands as a modern structure, initially had a neo-gothic style, was located towards the south west of this egg-shaped city ( the name Bruge was derived from its ‘egg’ shape). The nearest attraction was the ‘Begijnhof’ and we started walking towards it. A Begijnhof is a cluster of houses around a courtyard serving as settlements for women of the Roman Catholic Church who have renounced the world for the service to God. On the way to the Begijnhof we entered one of the typical narrow cobblestoned lanes of Bruge. What already struck everyone was the small scale of the town and its compact coziness. Bruge indeed was a painting transformed to life with colourful tiny houses, most of them being row houses , narrow lanes opening to public squares, entire town criss-crossed by canals and canals crossed by arched stone bridges… such a treat to the eyes. The canals took us through the entire city and provided a delicacy of visual pleasures. The canal was lined by brick Gothic and Neo - Gothic row-houses , Churches, Convents, hotels that gave the town a character of its own. The thing that mesmerized me the most was how the citizens contributed to conserving the town.

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buildings showed contemporary additions …most of the buildings were excellent examples of adaptive reuse... I understood that Bruge being a world heritage town had strict byelaws … all the properties were listed and any change being done to it needed to go through legal procedure of sanctioning. I was amused to find out that my friends from nonarchitectural backgrounds did not even notice the Gothic brick - architectural character of the town … they were busy soaking in the overall picturesque magnificence of the town and were busy taking snaps of swans and sculptures that studded the bank when I pointed out the town character to them they did not seem much excited, when I spoke of the terms 'adaptivereuse', 'listed properties' , 'incentives', etc, they seemed pretty bored so I spared them. I wished my conservation professor Dr. Sanghamitra Basu was with me cause I always loved the way she spoke on these topics , with so much passion, that I have lived and visualized these cities several times in her class like Splitz, Amsterdam - Jordan and Haarlem , and other cities featuring integrated conservation and integrated development.

Besides this we will also find in the city highly functional underground parking, contemporary concert hall, and areas like the station district which are tailor-made for larger - scale functions and current-day architectural solutions.

All in all Bruges strikes an efficacious balance between the integration of new functions and the preservation of the old urban fabric and texture. Such an accomplishment requires multi-sector,multi-stakeholder co-operation and coordination, partnership ( public - public – private –z people), and active community involvement. Bruges not only actively serves the sentiments of a valuable historic city , but also fulfills the needs of a modern city, where high-tech contemporary projects are given tantamount chances to serve as a part of the perpetual story of architectural history of Bruges. As we made our way back to the station, the alluring sweet music of the violin entered our ears, we watched in trance how gorgeous the quaint old city looked lit up like a sky full of stars, the smell of chocolates filled our senses as we crossed the Markt Square once again,a saga of heart-warming events and sensations indeed froze the image of that city that day in our minds for the rest of our lives.

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An

Architect’s Enigma a student’s heartspeak

Shashank Tiwari , fourth year architecture student writes about the change in outlook of budding architects due to western influence.

My heart walks through the corridors of the educational institutes nurturing the future architects where I find every other student pickling his designs with nescient use of Energy saving techniques and taking “inspiration” from the European architecture deceiving the institution, educators and moreover the profession itself.

Are the students dazzled with Advanced Energy saving interfaces???

Yes.A vast majority.

A student uses Ecotect/Vasari and produces the graphical output resulted from it. The Wind Rose Diagrams, Sun Path Diagrams and other climatological analyses of the location are shown with a fuzz being created of designing a green building. All sophisticated and puzzling terms like “wind tunneling” and “energy simulations” will be used in the presentation, no regret if he doesn’t know the basic definitions of Daylight Factor and HSA-VSA calculations.

The scene has become too complicated, too confusing--too “unnatural” despite being closest to nature. My heart hopes that we’ll soon come out of this eclipsed period but the head doesn’t. We are crossing through a period when the busker is seeking the audience! We all are screaming and yelling like these buskers to grab attention and show our so called “Concern for Green”.

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Facade architecture, the packaging of buildings in trendy envelopes is popular nowadays. We try to imitate the architecture being practiced in the west and share proudly the rendered views of the buildings whose structural feasibility are under serious interrogation. We remain happy on building similar 3-D models but dare to find out the structural and functional aspects of the building. The form is of primary concern. It is only one of those trivial senses that we are playing on, but ignorant of indispensable virtues: touch and textures, living, vision; smell and nature; sound and volume, common sense and proportions to the wind, sun and light. In this rat race for designing futuristic and energy efficient buildings, we’re knowingly or unknowingly taking the path of an ephemeral and gloomy architecture. We’ve reduced this greatest of all arts to a mathematical derivation and output if given the site and climate.

Over the past decade young architects have grown up in a digital world. Google, the biggest invention of 21st century to me is one of the core reasons instrumental in the rusting of our architects’ world of imagination. The young architects always look in the distance to find local truths.

Their experience of architecture has been in Virtual Reality: 3D on a 2D computer screen. While this has allowed pushing the limits of the VISUAL WORLD, it has suppressed experimental architecture which finds its dimensions not only in vision/sight but in touch, sound, sequence and movement.

SOLUTION:-CONTINUOUSLY EDUCATE OURSELVES This is not a mere country, it is an astronomical one-sixth of humankind. Its an imposing challenge to our young architects to cross the alarming hurdles of futuristic and influential architecture for the generations to nurture. I hope that our budding architects will become more seriously involved in producing a new architectural culture. We all have to join hands together thus bringing a veritable rain of our own language and our own unique style.

Architecture is all about dreams, we stop dreaming, we stop Thinking.

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Energy INefficient Architecture While interning under Prof K.R. Jaisim, our Third year student Soumya Pasumarthy wrote about her views on Architecture and how she perceives it.

When the whole world is talking about Green Buildings and queuing up for LEED certificates, maybe it is time to pause and reconsider if energy is really being optimised.

Sustainability is a lifestyle choice. Not a fad . More over, such has been present for decades around us in traditional structures. The sloping roofs over double-height areas; the central open courtyard in houses with rooms all around; a verandah to demarcate public from private spaces

the composite mud-cum-wood walls of the North-east; the cooling Havelis of Rajasthan; the Chahar-Baghs. Weren't all of them trying to make the most of the locally available materials and technology for the best possible comfort for all aspects of habitation?

Contrast that with the Concrete-and-Glass cityscape we see around us today. Both marvellous inventions, but presently, they are spoiling the landscape by thoughtless use. The cement industry is one of the main contributors for global CO2 emissions.

Glass companies have been fined for violating the Clean Air Act during production.

Does this mean we should go back to the past? The way forward is to embrace the rule of nature and proceed on the path of evolution. A respect for the past while stepping into the future. Recycling and Reusing is one alternative which conserves a lot of energy. Glass takes millions of years to degrade, but within a month it can be content and an elevated pH level, but it can be cleaned and re-used (possibly, even along with the storm water collected onsite) instead of being thrown away. Who knows, perhaps we are at the threshold of a new way of life!

Can a building , which has long stretches of dark ill-lit corridors that have to rely solely on artificial lights, be using natural energy to the hilt? about those that have curtain walls from plinth to roof and , as a result, fat air conditioning bills to keep the indoor temperatures low? Glorified wastage of resources under the camouflage of new trends cannot be termed as good design. .

Make the building look appealing. Here itself begins energy inefficient architecture.

Proceeding further, one might

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notice sealed enclosures, very much like matchboxes stacked together. These spaces shun every thing that the micro environment can offer and wish to procure everything by artificial means – light, air and heat etc. Subtle things can turn the tables around.

Rainwater falling on the roofs/ onsite can be recycled and used instead of filling the municipal drains.

Right from the stages of production of the materials, we can tell if the production process is sustainable.

Design tries to achieve a harmony between various elements in the built environment to provide for a seemingly simple demand – a comfortable space, as mentioned previously.

For in this word 'Comfortable' itself lies all the challenge. In a cold desert, like Ladakh, people need materials with high thermal mass for the diurnal fluctuations. In the tropics, the stress is on better ventilation & stack effect, more openings for wind while keeping the bright sun in check with wide overhangs. If the coasts of India worry about the humidity, the plateau requests to be saved from the hot-dry severities with small windows, rooms underground and thick walls. Heavy monsoon areas like Assam have pitched roofs and stand on stilts to escape flooding. When the country is so diverse, would it be warranted to provide the same formula of Concrete-Glass-Air conditioning-Lifts-Highrise-and so on?

In this growing chaos of insensitive architecture we need design that satisfies the cause -- of being sustainable, energy-efficient and climate sensitive.

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an Intern to remember... ...Pranav Khandelwal Our third year student, Pranav Khandelwal writes about his experience at Access Architects, Mumbai, his experience with the people there and how the intern not only proved out to be a great learning experience but also now made him be a better person.

Western edge Just after the end of my fourth semester I was looking for phase II, an internship as I wanted to have a technical Mumbai knowledge of Architecture and it's aspects in the real world. Unlike most of the people, I searched a lot for a good firm before blindly going in as I clearly understand that it could change my interests in the fiels.I heard about Access Architects, Mumbai from one of my seniors who interned there. To know more I browsed upto my heart's desire and then directly called up Ar. Jay Shah who leads the firm. My first conversation with Ar. Shah was very telling. When I asked him about the work hours at the office, he explained his philosophy, or rather his pedology with the firm quite simply. He said something along the lines of “everyone is given their The Ruby, Mumbai own responsibilities, their own projects. It's like their baby. By giving them something of their own, they want to take care of it�. He doesn't need to ask people to stay to 9 at night, but everyone is assigned a task as their own responsibility, so that they want to stay until it is finished. I had heard many great things about the firm and was excitedChaitya to work there. towers

Rohan lifescape glory

I started my intern in the summer of 2012.I was excited and enthralled to work at such a distinguished firm which has taken over more than 400 projects in all fields of architecture ranging from residential to large scale projects like K.J.Somaiya Institute The working environment was very good and the facilities were very good. Access Architects mainly dealt with Skyscrapers and high-end residential buildings . I was usually involved in making 2D CAD drawings and 3D models on Revit Architecture. My first project was on a high rise residential project called Aashiana by Rohan Landscapes. My work was to design and model a cantilevered bridge connecting the 8th floor of the residential tower to the MultiLevel Parking. I also designed and modelled

the Multi-Level Parking Structure and was also involved in the planning of the commercial floors for a Commercial cum Residential Building, RK Wadi Development Project by Earth Consultants pvt ltd. I also worked for an initiative took

by Access Architects for Affordable Housing in Mumbai. Like all internships, this one is definitely a learning experience. In addition to learning the importance of how things are done here, I learned new representation techniques and new technical skills. I also learned patience; not to get frustrated when hours of work was in vain.

However when it came to work everybody was sincere and dedicated which was reflected in the quality of their work.Their projects such as Trent House ,Sankalp ,Gcorp have gained nation wide praise in the field of architecture and have also received acclaim from the residents of the building.Their new office has currently shifted to The Ruby building,a commercial building designed by them and built by Rohan lifescape glory, who undertake maximum of their projects. It is mainly a commercial building with one of it's floors having their new office. In one of their Researches on Affordable housing, they developed a module of 2BHK in 600 sq. M. Which gained wide appraisal.They extensively made use of resource furniture in the module and meanwhile also made it luxurious.

One might question how the firm can constantly have enough projects so Ibis Building that everyone has an assignment to call their own.Mumbai There is the obvious SK Somaiya Campus, Mumbai Naman Habitat, Palampur Vidyamandir, Gujarat division of labor – one person works on the terrace while another works on The Sofitel the interiors. But what drives the people here more, is the simultaneous designing that happens. 2 or 3 people will take responsibility for the same aspect of the design and they will individually create designs and find solutions. Each will create a design they love separately, but then they will come together. They will see aspects of the eachother's designs that they love as well. The end product is collaborative, yet each person has taken full responsibility for it. It's each of their baby's.

Overall I found the firm to be a great learning place and it was a privilege to work under such senior and experienced architects. with so much of life left, I am excited to see what new surprises Access has in store for me.

The Ruby at dusk

Naman Center, Mumbai

Ar. Jay Shah

papers

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Evolution of a Green Order A brief review of the ‘why’ behind the current paradigm shift in

Architecture

Prof.

Joy Sen ,PhD Associate Professor

Architecture & Planning, IIT Kharagpur 1.0 Introduction

We are now entering a phase of advanced social sciences and engineering systems. The new passage is based on advances of human communication.

Expected trends are visible in the new areas of 'Human-nature dynamics'. The principle of life and evolution (called Bios in Ancient Greece) and human development are increasingly integrated with a growing need of social and ecological ethics. This is the new holism. The shift to 'holistic thinking' is the basis of the new order – a green order and it contrasts the increasing hazards drawn from the older paradigm of a mechanistic world view. There is an emerging global consensus with regards to: ·

· ·

The ‘Over-view Effect' and the 'Chaos theory' (integrating a holistic understanding of world weather degeneration, a need of green pollution-free technology and an organic-symbiotic embedment of our own technological progresses into the overall order of the universe) Approaches to non-proliferation of Arms and mitigation of unnecessary national wealth building and Recognition of a rise of parallel economies in Asia.

2.0 Human-Nature Symbiosis and Bio-Dynamics The shift can be realized in four major frontiers and the new frontiers of change pivot the ancient principle of life or prana (also called Vayu in ancient Indian texts). There is a direct etymological correlation between the two words, one, Bios = the other, Vayu.

It is matter of separate research under the domain of Indo-European Chain of language systems. When and how such a parallel had occurred in history is indeed a matter of another inquiry. Let us now revert to the four frontiers, the concern of this brief article.

2.1 Deep Ecology and interrelated Bio-sciences A new realization called 'Deep ecology' has emerged in the West, which is an idea of an integral approach to a new domain of knowledge called 'Ecological Economics' and a need of an energy-sensitive sustainable built design processes. Behavioral Economics is another new frontier.

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2.2 Bio-Environment and Ecology of Planetary Sciences The pointers of 'over-view effect' (initiated by the Club of Rome and later by forerunners of Brunt-land Commission) lead us to an understanding of an interconnected web of planetary consciousness. The web represents a macro level convergence of patterns of human activity and that of global climate in relationship to the Sun, earth's meteorology and the intermittent levels of atmospheric physics and its impact on built design.

2.3 Bio-Chemistry and Bio-Physics The 'ideas of dissipative structures', 'complexity' and 'Chaos Theory' have further augmented a deeper understanding of an integrated micro-bio-chemical and physical worlds. The concepts of 'non-linear dynamism' and 'bifurcations' in current studies of bio-informatics and genetic engineering are just two areas representing the larger domain. Here the new change and the expanding interpretation of micro reality underpins an urgency of deeper scientific advancement in design processes, which has to be more 'processes than goal' oriented.

2.4 Bio-Nature and Participatory Quantum interconnectedness The very basis of 'quantum interconnectst ness' in 21 century macro-physics and relativistic sciences is beginning to explain the cosmos as an inter-connected 'nonlocal' orders accommodating discrete changes and flexibilities as a part-whole relationship. It was not known before to material science of the classical world. But the ancient Indians and Milesian philosophers of Greece were much closer to that basis.

3.0 Conclusions The pointer towards a green order evolving around life and its celebrations; exuding from the fountainhead of living inspirations; and involving life itself from above and within is nothing new to ancient wisdom. It is a revival of the most ancient and that revival comes from a modern thinker, a poet of our own times. Through the words of Rabindranath Tagore, we touch the very heart of the new order: 'I believe in a spiritual world – not as anything separate from this world – but as its innermost truth. With the breath we draw we must always feel this truth that we are living in God. Born in this great world, full of the mystery of the infinite, we cannot accept our existence as a momentary outburst of chance, drifting on the current of matter towards an eternal nowhere.'

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and by others like Gandhi-ji in Sabarmati and by the Mother in Auroville are forerunning evidences to an inevitable return of civilizational patterns. In the West there are parallel examples. The names of great American visionary Thomas Jefferson, Scottish Environmentalist Sir Patrick Geddes and Regional Planner Lewis Mumford are, of course, to name only a few.

The scheme of a simple green order of civilizational pattern and the contained builtenvironment is the required basis of the new order, the greater paradigm. The required evolving built-form, the in-built pattern of life and the corresponding pattern of human behavior inevitably connected with that form are based on the holistic aim of 'human-making'. The process of design has to be such that it is based on a 'plain and natural living' and above its design innovations inspire an aspiration for 'an ever surging high and humane thinking'. The children of tomorrow will be likely nourished and nurtured to bring forth that vision of truthful life, a life of honest empathy based on the gems of natural wisdom and its underlying universal interconnectedness. The present article briefly reviews the roots and future of the new vision.

The new order explains why there is a paradigm shift in Architecture, why here is a new spirit of education, and why there is an expanding need of an interrelated 'humannature' dynamics in behavior-environmental interrelationships. The essence and origin of the order comes out best in the words of Tagore (1916):

'In India we still cherish in our memory the tradition of the forest colonies – the great Aranyaka – of great teachers. These places were neither schools nor monasteries, in the modern sense of the world. They consisted of homes where with their families lived men whose subject was to see the world in God, and to realize their own life in him. Though they lived outside society, yet they were to society what the sun is to planets, the center from which it received its life and light. And here boys and girls grew up in an intimate vision of eternal life before they were thought fit to enter the state of the householder.'

[My School, 'Santiniketan']

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Prof. S Sen Ph.D. Associate Professor, Architecture & Regional Planning Indian Institute of Technology, Kharagpur

One of the fundamental requirements of buildings is the protection of inhabitants, who live and work within them, from the weather. The objective of building design is the creation of a comfortable yet energy efficient internal environment. Successful design of buildings relies heavily on an appropriate understanding of the climate. The recent publication of various reports on global warming has led to a great deal of controversy within the building industry as to what impact these changes will have on the design of buildings. Therefore climate change and its impact on the design of building are currently subject to concern. This article examines the sciences of global climate change and looks at how we can adapt the built environment to a world that will, by most accounts, be very different by the end of this century, from the one we know today and thus put forward the research needed to address likely impacts of climate change on building design.

Preparing for Climate Change An architect who designs for climate change adaptation (CCA) recognizes that the nature of weather events is unlikely to remain the same throughout a building's lifetime. Ash (2010) stresses the importance of not to becoming bogged down in forecasting the precise level of climate extremes for a given location. Decisions can be (and are) made without accurate predictions of the combining climate projections and other factors to explore outcomes and risks, rather than try to predict exact climate outcomes.

Potential effects of climate change on buildings

Research Questions The impact of climate change will vary from region to region. Designers will need to do a considerable research to provide energy efficient solution to heating and cooling buildings without degrading the indoor quality. They include:Sthapati | 2012 | 46

! What alternative cooling strategies can be used, e.g.; improved siting of buildings, pre-cooling ventilation air in earth tunnels, regional use of evaporative aircooling, night time cooling and storage? ! What strategies for cooling buildings are best employed in which regions? ! What are the costs of different cooling strategies? ! What alternative design strategies for buildings can be used to make them more energy efficient, e.g.; avoiding heat gain to minimize external thermal load, reflective roofs, overhangs, awnings, and sunscreen shades? ! How can air-conditioned public buildings, movie theatres, schools or shopping Malls be designed successful use as cooling shelters? ! Should the heating and cooling functions of HVAC systems lead to less energy use? ! Do buildings designed and constructed to be green use less energy than more typical buildings? ! Should the heating and cooling functions of HVAC systems be separate from the ventilation function? ! How can information about ventilation and product emissions be most effectively presented to building code officials, the insurance industry and leaders of the green building movement? ! Can significant energy savings be achieved by employing a personal cooling system vs. a space cooling system? ! How do we design more shading in building in response to increased solar radiation? ! What type of reinforced structure would be required to deal with increased wind loading? ! What type of roofing pattern would be most suitable to cope up with higher and more intense rainfall ! How to design an appropriately sized home in order to reduce the carbon footprint? ! What would be the future building materials which would have fewer emissions over their life cycle?

Conclusion Awareness of the many connections between climate change and designing of buildings is relatively new. Lack of knowledge about uncertainty of the relevant parameters is in itself a problem, and that the building sector should be more active in presenting its need for knowledge about specific climate related parameters.

Because of this, there is a great need to improve our knowledge of how to design and manage our indoor environments to mitigate these impacts in a way that does not increase our carbon footprint. The above list of research needs is not comprehensive but is intended to prompt discussions within the research community and with policy makers so that critical research needs are developed and addressed.

Image Courtesy Stephen R.J Sheppard, " Visualizing Climate Change",- Routledge, London, 2012.

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Reciprocity in Design Ar. Sheila Sri Prakash is an award winning Architect and Designer who Founded Shilpa Architects in 1979. She is internationally acclaimed for her trendsetting indo-centric designs, thought-leading contributions to environmentally friendly design and is also known as a champion for the developing world through socio-economically sensitive planning Invited by Prime Minister David Cameron of the United Kingdom to contribute her expertise as a world-renowned architect and sustainability expert to the Global Infrastructure Summit, which was conducted as a part of the 2012 London Olympics celebrations Member of the Network of Global Agenda Council (GAC) on Design Innovation of the World Economic Forum for 2011-12. This Council serves as a unique source of inter-disciplinary expertise to the wider network of Councils.

Appointed as rapporteur and key panelist at the Annual Meeting of New Champions, Tianjin (summer Davos) at the GAC on the Role of Arts in Society and Bridging the Urban Rural Divide in India and China.

Named as one of the "100 Most Influential" people in Architecture in the World today by the Italian design journal Il Giornale dell'Architettura (Journal of Architecture) Nominated and featured as the first woman architect to set up a practice in India by the Lebiniz University, Hanover & University of Valencia (2011) and Government of Germany as one among 7 women architects of reputable influence from across the world.

Member of the Board of Studies in the Faculty of Architecture & Planning of Anna University, Chennai for a tenure of three years.

Empanelled by the Archaeological Survey of India to preserve the history, culture and restore some of India's most treasured monuments.

Political and business leaders are confronted with the Eurozone sovereign debt crisis which was the main talking point at WEF, Davos 2012. The gravitational shift from the developed economies to Asia has given the crisis another dimension. The focus is on what nations and businesses can do to make

the “great transformation� and stay relevant in the rapidly changing world order.

The rise of modern cities in the late 19th century, and the innovations of the 1930s and 40s which focused on building infrastructure powered world economies out of depressions. Factories

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and production technologies were the temples. It is argued that investments to enhance food production or infrastructure will not pull the world based on knowledge driven economies out of the current crisis. Innovations in the efficient use of the built environment and facilities that transport people and ideas faster and smarter are expected to provide the answer.

Sustainability is emphasized with respect to protecting the environment; but Socio Economic and Cultural dimensions are significant contributors to make a city holistically sustainable. It was my submission at the GAC Summit at Abu Dabhi in Oct 2011 that the Reciprocal Design Approach is a collaborative design process that embraces social, economic, cultural, ecological, and environmental issues. Architecture and Urban Design becomes user-centric by adopting this approach which is inclusive of the stakeholders. Collaborative design effort ensures that most, if not all, parameters are addressed during all the stages of the design process, from conception through execution and enforcement post construction.

The leaders of the world's governments identified the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) at the Millennium Summit in 2000: eight measurable objectives with deadlines for fighting against poverty, hunger, disease, illiteracy, degradation of the environment and discrimination against women, as targets to be achieved by 2015. Yale & Columbia Universities summarise their Environmental Performance Index, 2012 findings with the comment, “twenty years after the landmark Rio Earth Summit, governments still struggle to demonstrate improved environmental performance through quantitative metrics across a range of pollution control and natural resource management challenges.

With budgetary constraints an issue around the world, governments face increasing pressure to show tangible results from their environmental investments.�

The Biodiversity Convention, Nagoya, 2010 reminds decision-makers that natural resources are not infinite and sets out a

philosophy of of ecosystems, species and genes for the benefit of humans in a way and at a rate that does not lead to the long-term decline of biological diversity. Performance information is critical to the ability to assess progress and make any needed adjustments (FAO 2010; UNDG 2010). The GEO-5 analysis suggests that it is exceedingly difficult to assess the progress of many goals due to lack of verifiable indicators and quantifiable targets, especially regarding biodiversity, chemicals and hazardous wastes and a number of goals that govern land use and terrestrial conservation. Without such clear metrics for measuring progress in the planetary context, the goal of sustainability remains elusive. The assessment also identified that reliable baseline data and robust monitoring systems that can collect data at regular intervals are missing. The task of assessing progress is further complicated by the fact that most goals should not be considered in isolation. Due to tensions and synergies between them, progress towards one goal must be viewed in light of implications for other goals. For example, the analysis on goals related to priority issues on land highlights friction between the Millennium Development Goal (MDG) 1, on reducing hunger, and MDG 7 on environmental sustainability. Food production through agricultural expansion directly compromises the protection of forests, wetlands and other ecosystems. Thus, an integrated perspective on goal

achievement is both necessary but complex.

The United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, Durban 2011 principled that members “should protect the climate system for the benefit of present and future generations of humankind, on the basis of

Sthapati | 2012 | 49

equity and in accordance with their common but differentiated responsibilities and respective capabilities.” It was recognized that for dealing with environmental issues, special efforts will be required, and global and local environmental issues are interrelated. Although combating the causes for environmental change and the socioeconomic disparities demand a global response, it is critical to acknowledge that there is no single solution to the multitude of global problems. Flexible and adaptive governance approaches to tackle the problems are more likely to attain effective, efficient, and equitable outcomes.

In spite of the shortfalls in establishing benchmarks and measuring performances, Governments should facilitate the development of internationally agreed metrics to measure progress in achieving internally agreed goals. These metrics should take into consideration the role of science and scientific knowledge. In addition, impact indicators and metrics to measure outcomes related to sustainable development could also be developed. The data collected and utilized via the monitoring of indicators could be maintained and shared through collaborative databases for stakeholders to easily access.

There are more buildings being registered with the rating agencies for evaluation and certification to “green” norms. In tacit understanding of this, The Design Innovation Council Network, of the WEF at Abu Dabhi, 2011 proposed that Urban Design of Cities should be similarly rated for holistic sustainability by a “Reciprocity Design Index,” (RDI) that strives for: · A balanced approach to establish, document and incentivize sustainable design. · An objective accreditation system of reciprocity indices that are monitored, compared and recognised.

The Design Innovation Council Network, of the WEF at Abu Dabhi, 2011 recommended to: · Establish Attributes for Holistic Urban Design of cities · Establish Benchmarks for the Attributes · Identify a Reciprocity Design Index (RDI) Metric by which cities can be measured for holistic sustainability · Compute the RDI of any City · Rank the RDI of a City globally There already exists some internationally recognized indicators: · For operational and analytical purposes, the World Bank's main criterion for classifying economies is gross national income (GNI) per capita. Based on its GNI per capita, every economy is classified as low income, middle income (subdivided into lower middle and upper middle), or high income.

(Source: http://data.worldbank.org/about/country-classifications) · The Environmental Performance Index (EPI) of Yale & Columbia Universities ranks countries on performance indicators tracked across policy categories that cover both environment public health and ecosystem vitality. These indicators provide a gauge at a national government scale of how close countries are to established environment policy goals. · Social indicators covering a wide range of subject-matter fields are compiled by the Statistics Division, Department of Economic and Social Affairs of the United Nations Secretariat, from many national and international sources. · The Human Development Index (HDI) is a composite statistic used to rank countries by level of "human development", taken as a synonym of the older term standards of living, and distinguish "very high human development", "high human development", "medium human development", and "low human development" countries. The Human Development Index (HDI) is a comparative measure of life expectancy, literacy, education and standards of living for countries worldwide. It is a standard means of measuring well-being, especially child welfare. It is used to distinguish whether the country is a developed, a developing or an underdeveloped country, and also to measure the impact of economic policies on quality of life. There are also HDI for states, cities, villages, etc. by local organizations or companies.

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The significant parameters for Urban Design are not available and my recommendation would be: · Enforcement of Development Rules · Density and Land Use · Open Space Use · Transportation & Connectivity o Loops – Roads, Pedestrian, Bicycles, o Modes – Motorways, Tramways, Waterways, Mass Transit (Metro), Monorail o Intermodal Transport o Communication · Permeability - To achieve a high level of permeability a street network should contain a high proportion of four-way intersections, few cul-de-sacs, and small street block sizes. http://www.humanspacelab.com/UploadedFiles/PA2005_01.pdf) · Infrastructure Resources o Water o Power o Storm Water Drainage · Waste Disposal & Pollution Handling o Solid Waste o E-waste o Water o Air The Reciprocity Design Index (RDI) would be a synthesis of the social indicators and the urban design indicator. Cities of the world in a segment of the countries categorized by their gross national income (GNI) per capita become comparable.

The social and urban design indicators of a city (RDI-City), can be compared with the country's social and urban design indicators (RDI – Country) and that of the segment of countries (RDI – Global Category) to which a city belongs.

The Green Movement has caught the fancy of the stakeholders because of a greater appreciation of designing more efficiently and using technology and materials to reduce life cycle costs. There is no gainsaying that there is a spirit of competition for higher green rating and the benefits that go with public acknowledgement of a responsible custodian of the environment. The colour of the movement draws inspiration from the green of the forests. “There is a practical question as to whether wildernesses can be exploited without harm.”(Thoreau). It is true that all the great cities of the world – including Melbourne and Vancouver among others - were once virgin lands with unique ecosystems. These cities have contributed enormously to culture and socioeconomic growth and are models worthy of study and emulation. If sensitive Urban Design can be called the Blue Movement, then RDI would address the blend of nature with the built environment; the harmony of the Green and Blue Movements. Reciprocity Design Index indentifies the impact of Urban Design on the socio economic conditions of a city, and vice versa.

I would like to propose: TEAL CITIES – THE ONLY WAY FORWARD

“With realization of one's own potential and self-confidence in one's ability, one can build a better world.”

Dalai Lama Sthapati | 2012 | 51

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Architecture should speak of its time and place, but yearn for timelessness

-Frank O Gehry

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Internship experiences Interning at Lotus, a multi award winning architecture and interior firm in New Delhi, was definitely not a cake-walk. Erratic work timings to nasty office-gossip, all of them added to an unique work experience which I would not want to forget. Having interned previously in Paris and basking in all its glory of idyllic peacefulness, I was in for a huge culture shock in my own country!

Having said that, what made my training most satisfying was the amount of responsibilities that I had on my shoulders during my time there - which is enough for me to want to enquire about the projects' standing even months after my stint there. From client meetings to drawing up a storm on CAD; from making 3d's to physical models; from cleaning up desks to making coffees to remain awake for an all-nighter - I was a part of it all.

Vinay Somnath Lotus , New Delhi

Initially I was hired as a Revit and BIM guy but it didn't last long and I was transferred to AutoCAD to produce authority submission and working drawings, and there after I never opened Revit. I got an opportunity to work on 6 large projects, 4 of which were hotels at Bhubaneswar, Angul, Jaipur and Muscat (Oman) and the rest 2 were group housing township projects for DLF and ASSOTECH developers. Work wise, overall experience ended on a better side with a lot of detailing exposure but I had some very frustrating overtimes and a few restless and hectic night outs to cope up with which I had alongside me a very supporting team and 3 other trainees who became my best companions in the office.. I signed off ARCOP with a satisfying and proud architecture experience, a very adorable farewell party and treat, some quality friendship and obviously, hardcopies of my work to be shown in the viva. In the 6 months spent at ARCOP I developed a confidence to pursue architecture which somehow was lacking before.

Fakhruddin Dairkee ARCOP ASSOCIATES ,Gurgoan

The scorching summers of Delhi The Energy Resource Institute called me up for research on artificial lighting and daylight integration of various GRIHA projects. Design of shading devices was the prime concern with an acute analysis on the length,tilt,projection,in-between spacing,speed of rotation(if movable devices) and type of material to be used. Subsequently, artificial lighting requirement is calculated using the Daylight Factor calculations for the given room. The bluffing and superficial use of the softwares like Ecotect and Dialux ought to be omitted by the technical know-how in the industry.

Shashank Tiwari The Energy and Resources Institute Sthapati | 2012 | 54

Internship experiences I interned at HCPDPM during May-June 2012 for a period of 7 weeks. I was greatly inspired by the works and philosophies of the firm, working there boosted my attitude and aptitude towards architecture. I realized that design is the search for elegant and sustainable solutions to practical problems. The projects that I have worked on were unique, an architecture student rarely come across such types of projects in and after college life. I worked on tender drawings of Himmat Nagar Canal Development Project, detail and working drawings of various architectural projects like Dhobi Ghat in Ahmedabad, New Minister's Block in Gandhinagar, Shamlaji temple development in Gujarat.

Ankit Chaudhari HCPDP , Ahmedabad .

With the aim of being exposed to urban planning and design principles I joined Studio X, Mumbai , a research facility

by GSAPP , Columbia University . My research involved housing need assessment, market study of affordable housing typologies and housing finance and identifying initiatives and innovations in this field. Studio X helped me collaborate with various organisations like Urbz, Lafarge, SPARC and MicroHome Solutions and architects involved in urban design, to supplement my research. A major part involved working in Dharavi with Urbz to understand the nature of informal settlements, local construction practices and their relevance in creating sustainable cities .

Priyanka Raju Studio X , Mumbai .

I did my First Year Summer Internship for 2011-12 at Construction Catalysers Pvt. Ltd, Pune. It's an architectural engineering firm which designs and builds envelopes, roofs, facades and environments. I had the opportunity to work on diverse projects which involved product and market research on foamed concrete, HVAC duct manufacturing machines, CNC profile cutting machines, LED strip lights. I studied various HVAC systems, Phase Change Materials (PCM) as substitutes for mechanical ventilation, heat load calculations and designed a calculator for air conditioning units. A visit to the workshop and observing the working of different facilities was invaluable. I developed the layout of the firm's new in-house R&D facility. It was indeed an enriching experience giving me an insight into the professional world.

Arnab Kumar Mahanty Construction Catalysers ,Pune.

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Architecture and

Planning Day...

In the words of Ar. Arjun Mukherjee, Research Scholar

As a part of the IIT Kharagpur's diamond jubilee celebrations, the Department of Architecture and Regional Planning celebrated the 'Architecture & Planning Day', by hosting a two day symposium on 16th and 17th January 2012.

The inaugural session, hosted at Kalidas Auditorium, was initiated with felicitations of eminent guests and lighting of the inaugural lamp, followed by the Chairman's welcome address delivered by Professor Jaydip Barman, HOD, ARP. Professor Damodar Acharya, Director, IIT Kharagpur, addressed the august gathering as the Chief Guest. Professor Christopher Benninger delivered the keynote speech on '' with interesting insights into the issues and concerns of architecture in contemporary India.

A subsequent presentation on his design philosophy and work was greatly enjoyed by the audience. Professor Benninger also inaugurated an exhibition at the department.

A souvenir was released on the occasion, which documented the genesis of the department, pioneering events and milestones, educational philosophy, research activities and future plans. The publication also included an impressive catalogue of past and present HODs, faculty members, graduate architects, graduate planners, and profiles of distinguished alumni. It was further enriched with a collection of articles, thoughts, and memories contributed by past and present students and teachers of the department.

The second session of the first day, hosted at Raman Auditorium, included presentations by architects Nithya Srinivasan and Kiran Venkatesh from 'Inform Architects', Bangalore on 'Contemporary Residential Architecture'. Both Nithya and Kiran are alumni of the department and their interaction with the students in the audience was spontaneous. The concluding programme for 16th January was a panel discussion on the 'Future goals in Architecture: Challenges and Opportunities', chaired by Professor Sanghamitra Basu. The panellist included an interesting mix of veterans like Professor R. K. Banerji and Professor Siddhartha Datta, as well as young practitioners like Architect Himadri Mayank. The session brought forth important concerns of architecture in the present times and the architect's role in society, leading to an interesting debate on the possible structure for the course and curriculum of the B. Arch programme which would prove to be most enabling to future practitioners. .

The keynote speech on day two was delivered by veteran architect and planner H. R. Suri, throwing light on various issues and concerns of planning in India. There was a presentation from TCPO showcasing their modus operandi and requirements. The event concluded with a second panel discussion on 'Future goals in Urban and Regional Planning: Challenges and Opportunities' was chaired by Professor Subrata Chattopadhyay. Once again the panel consisted of fresh blood like Professor T.N. Sthapati | 2012 | 56

Arjun Mukherjee Research Scholar IIT KGP

Ar. Christopher Benninger Mazumder, and veterans like Prof. R. N. Chattopadhaya and Architect Mukul Mitra.

The present students also got a chance to interact with the alumni at informal sessions marked with music, dance, debates, jokes and camaraderie. The event was generally acknowledged as a great success, owing to enthusiastic participation from alumnus of various batches and the hard work and dedication of the present students and scholars towards supporting the organizing committee.

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Festivals NASA

Sthapati | 2012 | 58

Freshersintro... intro Freshers Farewell

Farewell

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Ankit Chaudhari

Ashish Chawda 4th year

4th year

vishal agrawal

projects...

Vishal Agarwal 4th year

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Kaustubh Khare 5th year

projects...

Archit Lahoti 4th year

Tanay Nigam 4th year

Tanay Nigam

4th year

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India BIM students Competition Winners Campus Wellness Centre Anutosh Kanoria Aaron Mendonca Sagar Praveen

Transparence Second Runnerups "Sharanam " Housing for the future Praveen Das Sonal Bhaduria Kapil Mangtani Sthapati | 2012 | 62

An urban

crematorium on the ghats of

Sabarmati, Ahmedabad “Knowing how a culture views death helps us understand many things about the country and its people. Whatever the religion the rituals assigned to the dead are full of tradition, often going back hundreds of years�.

Krush Dattani

S

ilent paces

The challenge was to build a socially pacifying space reflecting our rituals and it must balance the built form with open spaces and exude a sense of peace. It must represent our culture and traditions and yet have a definite identity. In addition, it should ensure environmental safety and foster urban language.

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Civic and Cultural Hub ,Hyderabad.

In today's global scenario, emerging cities are nothing but a cluster of such people with various beliefs who migrate for their livelihood. If interaction between these people is not encouraged; a situation that is quite prevalent in almost all the metro cities of India, there are high chances of conflict and a creation of an unhealthy atmosphere.

Ravikanth Pamidimukkala

I

nclusive and

nteractive

The situation in Hyderabad is no different. As a result of its old tradition of immigration, it is characterized by a motley blend of differentcultural, religious, ethnic and socio-economic groups.Both migration and the current far-reaching socioeconomicdevelopments have boosted social and spatial fragmentation of the city.Thus, my effort was mainly to identify these various identities that define the culture of this city and define a public space that would be inclusive and interactive.

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the batch of 2008

anarchii

Yearbook Let's begin this story's end the way it's beginning began.

One bright & sunny afternoon, a batch of freshers arrived, what followed was a series, of events queer and dear, flagged off in a special space, by a wise young man, named Prof. Sen. "Let me tell you a story, of an amazing batch, of greatness & glory, of none other than, your batch."

What followed was, a brilliant tale, woven with each & every name, of a batch that graduates, in the coming few days.

It began with a knock, on heaven's doors, using a guitar, and a missing sitar.

The tide's have passed, the time's have changed, The Sun's two sons, are now stunning men, one defied his royal lineage, to be christened as a Joel.

The other however, has taken up humour, which he furnishes daily, under the alias, Adlee.

They both seem to have drawn, very interesting neighbors, while Adlee lives beside our Prezi Hari, who lives across the ocean, from Moses's brother, Lazy Mr. Joel hasn't left his wing, 'A' ground till then end, and since the beginning.

He'd rather bring friends to his wing, than shift his bedding to another wing.

So he's brought the Dude, and given Khare lodging, he's got Gargya the pahadi, always accompanied by Bihari.

I think it's time, we ought to move on, let's board the friendship express, with Vinaay, Bhosker, Fakhru & his stress.

Waiting in the compartment, with meticulously reserved seats, is Mrityu, Sappa, Virk & Krrish.

Wait ! we might need to pull that chain, cause Don Ujji has commanded, that he too wishes, to board the train.

Patnam & Amar linger nearby their true identity being GTX_465.

Now let's meet a listed Khan, our hockey Captain, Mr. Jain, whose busy taming a cat, like many others.

Up next is a strange, pair of wingies, the Joel like studd, the one and only Judd, along with Vita, who likes playing dumb.

To add zing to the flavor, of a dish so rich, prior to service, a garnish was added, a rare spice that goes by many a name, Boss, DSI, Kannu & others that get him fame.

Let's end with a parting note to all of you, remember our names, we'll remember you, for there are more tides to pass, and many more times to change, we have our dreams and a little skill, watch it grow, we're here for change.

ABHINANDAN INTEREXIM PVT LTD. ( MANUFACTURERS OF MULTILAYER POLYTHENE FILMS) OM TOWERS, 32 CHOWRINGHEE ROAD, 11TH FLOOR, KOLKATA 700 071 PHONES : 033 2226 5997/ 5997 FAX : 033 3022 7637 CELL : 098302 40404 e mail: abhi_multilayer@rediffmail.com