Di 33 | Suprio B - A Civic Presense | 10/2014 by Suprio Bhattacharjee

October 2014

domus 33 October 2014

Volume 03 / Issue 11 R200

Author

Contributors Suprio Bhattacharjee Ekta Idnany Authors Kamu Iyer Architect Y D Pitkar Architect and photographer Mustansir Dalvi Architect and researcher Vikas Dilawari Conservation architect

033

LA CITTÀ DELL’ UOMO

INDIA

Kaiwan Mehta

Gio Ponti

Confetti Compasso d’Oro

Francesco Venezia

Designing and teaching

Mustansir Dalvi

Universal imagination and local realities

Y D Pitkar Vikas Dilawari

A measured presence

Kamu Iyer

A city shapes

Ranjit Hoskote

The enigmatic complexity of visual language

Aparna Andhare

The delicate nature of existence

Dario Cecchi

Big data city

Alan Kitching

A way of working

Ekta Idnany

Kaiwan Mehta

Joseph Rykwert

Volume 03 / Issue 11 R200

033

Title Editorial Material circumstances and human desires

Suprio Bhattacharjee

October 2014

Design

Contemporary museum for architecture in India

Aparna Andhare Visual historian

INDIA

CONTENTS 35

Cadence Architects

Projects A laced visual order

Archohm

A visual melange

Habitat Tectonics Architecture & Urbanism (HTAU)

A civic presence

Fumihiko Maki

4 World Trade Center, New York

104

Rassegna Finishes

109

Feedback Joseph Rykwert’s London

LA CITTÀ DELL’ UOMO

033 October 2014

4 WORLD TRADE CENTER

Cover: 4 World Trade Center, designed by Fumihiko Maki, is seen here blending into the iconic New York city skyline. The buidling is part of the new World Trade Center complex in New York city and is clad in silver glass, continually changing reflections and appearance depending on light and weather conditions.

4 WORLD TRADE CENTER

Concept sketch for Planet Kids school in Bengaluru

domus 33 October 2014

36 EDITORIAL

MATERIAL CIRCUMSTANCES AND HUMAN DESIRES

With this issue we close the third annual cycle of Domus in India – a project that has striven to articulate an active discourse in the field of architecture at all points in time. The magazine has been an occasion to draw out month after month a palette of accounts and questions through which one tries to make sense of architecture, and specifically architecture in India; as we point out in one of our titles, it is always about struggling between universal knowledges and local experiences. Domus, with its form and history, allows us, with its Indiaedition, to develop patterns of investigation into the rich but contested space of architecture in India. Architecture scales between the detail of joinery to the location within an urbanity; and at different historical moments marked by changing political and economic scenarios, different scales of architecture emerge or subside in their importance and full expression. As we constantly evaluate the contemporary, the histories these contemporaries emerge from are equally ever-present. We focus on ‘teaching and designing’ in this issue, but also the idea of forming a consciousness via the journey of engagement with architecture and the context of visuality. We pick up the intricacies of how studios of learning and experience could shape up, but also begin looking at education – its shape and the containers it shapes within. The ‘container’ we refer to in this issue is the Sir J J College of Architecture, an exquisite building in its style and construction, but one that holds bundles of ideological references in its styling and ornamental motifs. Imagery in architecture is the nurturing of form, rather than the belief that it corrupts form. The history of architectural education in the Indian subcontinent, its peculiar case and system produces much of the architecture we witness even today – especially in cities like Bombay (Mumbai today). In extension of understanding the depths of the visual world and the palimpsests of imageries, we walk out of the Sir J J School of Architecture and step out onto D N Road – an important marker in the shape of Bombay/Mumbai as a modern metropolis, but also the container of a nineteenth century imaginary and ethos. The vast photo-documentation of the ‘heritage mile’ by Prof Y D Pitkar brings forth the nature of this urban connector, this precinct – its nature as a juxtaposition of many visual narratives – the many styles and many motifs that emerge from their different umbilical strands and varying journeys. So a building or an urban collection of them with their imagery produce an aquifer of history and human labour and philosophy. In this context we also look at the book Art and Icon – a wonderful collection of essays over many decades of Dr Devangana Desai’s research and academic career, elaborately and pointedly reviewed by Ranjit Hoskote. The book brings to us a rich collection of thoughtful and well-argued journeys through the cultural production of visual imagery in the subcontinent – an occasion to once again delve into the world

Kaiwan Mehta

of visuality and its myriad meanings, or rather myriad journeys of objects and motifs through many meanings and philosophical locations. Hoskote says, “... between the material circumstances of history and the human subject’s desire for creative articulation and experiences of transcendence. If Desai’s fieldwork has led her into a space of encounter with the monument and its fragmentary testimony, her research has led her to the archive, with its emphases and lacunae, both often equally puzzling.” Between the efforts to document architecture through measured drawings and colours and patterns on paper, to exhaustively photograph over years a slice of metropolitan experience, to persistently visit and excavate stories behind fragments from monuments, one is encouraged to wonder and explore the nature of visual experiences and their bearings on the philosophical and technological aspects of lived realities. The material realities, whether from everyday life or from the archival and archaeological, are constantly the evidence of the richness of personal and historical life shaping each other, the realm of the shared and metropolitan existences. Prof Mustansir Dalvi, with his elaborate dissection and study of Art Deco, the restoring of archives at the Sir J J College of Architecture, and now with this process of documentation is clearly in the process of establishing etymologies for a contemporary that is in constant flux, and where the balance may tip off the edge at any point; for Dalvi there is the necessity to explore the past as a crucible of processes and thoughts. Vikas Dilawari’s notes on D N Road are evident of the struggle that one has with the present moment and the necessity to articulate one’s existence within human cultural productions and their value systems. In his fine reading of architecture and technology, he actually articulates a cultural scenario that is within time but also spilling over across time zones. In this process of production of material, either in the form of drawings or in the manner of exhaustive photographing like with Prof Y D Pitkar, one is creating the necessary accumulation for thinking and discussing. For a scholar like Dr Devangana Desai to painstakingly account for the many objects that contribute to a visual history of this subcontinent is then the necessary act of drawing relationships between materials and experiences, experiences across time, and developing this into a form of scholarship. Within all this turmoil, there are always moments when one is trying to distill thoughts and experiences; and one such struggle and churning over years has now acquired the form of a book, to released this month. One of India’s most perceptive minds on architectural journeys, histories, and realities, someone who can talk about architectural detailing and metropolitan experiences with ease and in simple terms – architect Kamu Iyer, has finally narrated the story of his city of work and growth; Bombay/Mumbai, through his own

memories, thoughts, and ideas. The city in this book comes alive in a fresh way, much richer against the plethora of material produced on the city today, as it is sharp on notes, critical on thoughts, and playful with ideas – the book Boombay is a city’s memoir through one its most observant citizens. We bring in this issue an extract from one of the chapters of the book. Talking of books, and books as distillations of tumultuous minds and thoughts, we also review the show Reading Room curated by Amit Kumar Jain – an art show where books become terrains and landscapes of form and content, meanings and moorings, creatively disturbing the normative structure and shape of a book. Book sculpture is the more formal term for such work, but clearly the books in this show are much more about the politics of book writing, book making, book histories, and book readings, and in being so it lays bare a product of human civilisation – a product that is a mirror to the vanities and corruptions of the human mind and its collective journeys. On the one hand printing, book making, and such technologies are issues of design and technology, as we see in Alan Kitching’s A way of working, but on the other hand, they touch upon very sensitive and crucial issues of human civilisation – which is of knowledge production, information collection, and excesses in these endeavours, as we see in Dario Cecchi’s Big data city. We look at architectural projects in this issue that explore the definitions of form and materiality vis-a-vis architecture for a contemporary existence in India. The Karnal Medical Centre is a fine example of a building’s struggle to establish an umbilical connection with the imagined modern past interpreted in brick, and the form-making that alludes to a language that is modernist, playing with geometry, composition and light. On the other hand, the design of an urban bazaar in Delhi is all about the juxtaposition of a myriad forms that, at one level imagine a global aesthetics, but on the other wish to reference a locality; what results is an interesting melange of forms and materials, composing themselves not much spatially but more through visual ecstasies. Both these are good example of struggles in a contemporary landscape of a country such as India, with the historical moment it currently seems to be occupying. The school building in Bengaluru is another example where architecture is in search for a form-meaning, where the formal becomes more and more playful, and being a school assumes playfulness as its most obvious motif; but hidden within this excuse-opportunity to be playful, there is the struggle to define an architectural language, an anchoring in architectural materialities and realities, an urge to define an aesthetic thesis for a building in the now and present moment. The journeys and histories of the visual, the search for visual anchoring, and the process within which the visual gets produced, elaborated, and enacted, occupy this issue of Domus India. km

PROJECTS

90 PROJECTS

domus 974 Novembre / November 2013

PROJECTS

Habitat Tectonics Architecture & Urbanism (HTAU) A CIVIC PRESENCE This hybrid of a house and medical facility in Karnal becomes a significant addition to the city’s streetscape with its finely executed brick envelope, besides becoming an agent of local skill development Text Suprio Bhattacharjee Photos Habitat Tectonics Architecture & Urbanism (HTAU)

Provincial towns within the country have always had a distinct urban character, the uniqueness of which stems from their geography, modes of trade and occupation, as well as the specificities of landscape, climate and material. These vibrant urban entities are now being increasingly subjected to the malady of the universalised appropriation of the aluminium composite panel and its accompaniment – tinted glass. The almost-viral-like nature of the spread of this duo is the outcome of a need for affordable quick-fixes and a wide-spread ignorance of the ill-effects of its use – as well as a fetish-isation of its ‘newness’ and perceived superiority in ‘stature’ over other materials. Traditional building methods are increasingly being seen as ‘inferior’ – often because of what paradoxically is a most precious aspect – its ability to weather and show the mark of time upon it. This has brought about a reduced need and faith in these methods, as well as the diminishing stature and numbers of truly skilled craftsmen – in many ways we seem to be encountering, more than a hundred years later, effects similar to that of industrialisation upon the Western Hemisphere. In this context, it is a delight to come across a little building that, on its own terms, makes an attempt to counter this situation. Designed by Delhi-based HTAU (Habitat Tectonics Architecture & Urbanism) this diminutive hybrid building consisting of a doctor’s residence and a medical facility marks a distinctive presence upon the streetscape with its bold yet simple figure and the unmistakable character of its outer envelope. The four-storey building displays a straightforward sectional stacking from the most public Out-Patient Department and Pharmacy on the lower ground floor, to the more secluded public domain of the recovery wards on the upper ground floor, and the restricted access to the Operation Theatre and Intensive Care Unit on the first floor. The second floor is most private – the doctor’s spacious residence, with its distinctive white-painted loggia scooped out from the building’s upper south-east corner, and the shallow protruding volumes on the north and west faces.

The east facade, with its protruding central entrance volume, frames a recessed entrance court that becomes an urban piazza of microsized proportions contiguous with the footpath – a significant gesture that announces the nature of the building as one accessible to the public, as well as one with aspirations of being a true urban incident. A deep recess on the south encloses the vertical circulation elements in the south-west corner of the building – the staircase as well as an elevator, besides becoming a private entrance or a ‘chowk’ for the residents on the second floor. It is here, on this eastern aspect, that one begins to experience this little building’s masterful and exquisite bricklaying, as well as the articulated brick facade – through an accessibility and tactility that is sure to win over those who see this as a building method inconsistent with the present – or with wider use and affordability. The architects decided to adopt exposed brickwork as an homage to a material that has

This spread: the hybrid building houses a doctor’s residence as well as a medical facility. It marks a distinctive presence upon the streetscape with its bold yet simple figure and the unmistakable character of its outer exposed brick facade. Next spread: the brickclad building is perforated by a number of narrow openings, creating dramatic light and shadow patterns within

domus 33 October 2014

92 PROJECTS

domus 33 October 2014

PROJECTS 93

A 1 MAIN ENTRANCE

1 Main entrance 2 Stairs connecting lower and upper ground 3 Waiting area 4 Semi Private room 5 PVT room 6 Economy room 7 Residential entrance 8 Main staircase 9 OPD room 10 Pharmacy 11 Laboratory 12 Ancillary room 13 Operation Theatre 14 Post Operation Room 15 NICU (Neo Natal Intensive Care Unit) 16 Double-height space above main entrance 17 Living / Dining room 18 Kitchen 19 Master bedroom 20 Bedroom 21 Children’s room 22 Balcony

2 S T A I R S C O N N E C T I N G LO W E R & U P P E R G R O U N D F LO O R S

3 WAITING AREA 4 SEMI PRIVATE ROOM 5 P V T. R O O M 6 ECONOMY ROOM

7 RESIDENTIAL ENTRANCE 8 MAIN STAIRCASE

9 OPD ROOM 10 PHARMACY 11 LABORATORY 12 ANCILLARY ROOMS

13 OPERATION THEATRE

14 POST OPERATION ROOM 15 NICU (NEO NATAL INTENSIVE CARE UNIT)

16 DOUBLE HEIGHT SPACE ABOVE MAIN ENTRANCE 17 LIVING/DINING ROOM 18 KITCHEN 19 MASTER BEDROOM 20 BEDROOM

21 CHILDREN’S ROOM 22 BALCONY

2 1

East Elevation

EAST ELEVATION

Upper Ground Floor Plan

A 0

UPPER GROUND FLOOR PLAN

Terrace

-1

Project Karnal Medical Centre Location Karnal, Haryana Client Karnal Medical Center Pvt. Ltd. (Dr. Sanjay Khanna) Architect Habitat Tectonics Architecture & Urbanism (HTAU) Design Team Puneet Khanna, Mriganka Saxena, Intekhab Alam Site Architect Rajiv Sanserwal Structural Engineer Asian Engineering Consultants Brick Masons Kali and Kailash Steel Fabricators Mohammad Younus Carpenter Team Mohammad Azam Site Area 307 m2 Project Area 734 m2 Initiation of Project May 2012 Completion of Project August 2013

NORTH ELEVATION

North Elevation

Section A A’ -East West Section

SECTION AA -EAST WEST SECTION

WEST ELEVATION

West Elevation

domus 33 October 2014

94 PROJECTS

been used widely to create some of Haryana’s ‘finest civic buildings’ as well as a ‘conscious attempt to revive a simple craft’ – as stated in their project description. This intent is explored in a forceful yet dignified manner in the nature of the outer brick skin – which exhibits a character ranging from the insular to the porous. The projecting entrance facade is actually a perforated brick skin, with raised bricks that act as contemporary ornament to create a striking, if repetitive, pattern of shadows, deep recesses, and regular coursework. On the inside this is seen as a simple jaali or screen with square openings. A glazed entrance door flanked by large windows framed in mild steel opens into a foyer from where lead two staircases – one down to the OPD and Pharmacy on the lower ground floor below, the other up to the recovery wards and sick beds on the upper ground floor. A narrow two-and-a-half-storey void above this foyer is instrumental in aiding the building’s natural ventilation – acting in conjunction with the staircase void in the south-west corner of the building (with its own perforated brickwork of the same design). Otherwise the building is wrapped in a taut brick skin punched by narrow window openings (with openable sashes) laid in the now-classic rat-trap bond – with soldier courses expressing the location of each floor plate. The supporting reinforced concrete frame is hidden under this skin, other than the exposed slabs that are observed under the second floor projections, with the slab edge neatly trimmed and recessed, exposing the lowermost corner of the coursework – a subtle yet well-crafted detail that casts a narrow band of shadowline. Elsewhere, the serrated corners of the upper floor, and fine details such as the vertical arises (that conceal the rainwater downtake pipe) and the slender brick-on-edge fins that shade the windows of the

first floor calibrate and add necessary relief to the brick skin. Construction was supervised by the architects themselves – their office collaborating with the bricklayers on site to achieve the necessary pragmatic details. Drawings were made and remade, ensuring the meticulous attention to detail in laying the coursework. This impetus to a dying art is welcome – as the architects state themselves – they justifiably feel that there has been a contribution made by them in renewing a tradition as well enabling the development of a skill amongst local artisans – that can now be put to service in the construction of other buildings in the region. If there is a grouse, it is the somewhat gloomy and generic nature of the interior spaces – the celebratory nature of the entrance facade is dampened considerably by the generic and clinical nature of the interiors of the medical facility. This is a significant drawback, as visitors would spend a considerable amount of time within the confines of this envelope. While the excellence of craftsmanship of the brick envelope is beyond doubt (notice the waterspouts, the lintels, as well as the precision of the bricklaying)

– credit to which goes to both the artisans as well as the architects for having trained an unskilled workforce, the design of the envelope itself could have been a space of greater exploration – both in variation of porosity across the facade as well as in its articulation and composition. Of course, one must remember that the building was put up in 16 months and within a modest budget as the architects state – and hence this seems to be an acceptable limitation. But this pales in comparison to the victory of the building’s sheer achievement – in the training of an unskilled workforce, in the revival of craft traditions, in the wedding of the domestic scale with the dignified presence of a public institution. A house and clinic with a civic presence. An earthen pendant on a street filled with the mundane.

This spread: the serrated corners of the upper floor, and fine details such as the vertical arises and the slender brick-on-edge fins that shade the windows of the first floor calibrate and add necessary relief to the brick skin. The perforations in the facade facilitate dynamic patterns of natural light within the otherwise stark interior space

domus 33 October 2014

PROJECTS 95