Architectural Gossip

1.
We were generally discussing stories or gossips around architecture the other day.
Apparently, Peter Cook's (Archigram) name was to be considered for the Prtizker prize, but was eventually rejected. The argument was that he hasn't built any structure till date (except one), to be considered for the Pritzker. The reason he was selected for the Pritzker was the fact that his conceptual works have influenced the architecture community to a large extent. Also, his contribution to the academic field was immense. To this, the critics argued that if it was so, then one could also be a painter and get the Pritzker. The question was whether it was necessary for an architect to build. On the other hand, if Pritzker was to be opened to those who "influenced" architecture, then why not also nominate painters, musicians, singers, artists, etc., since all these disciplines have influenced architecture in some way or the other.

Thus, his name was finally dropped, it seems.

2.
Corbusier planned Chandigarh as an absolutely modern city.  (We know of his famous sketch of the bullock against the building, suggest his first impression of un-modern India)This modern city was to break away from the shackles of the past.. Thus there were to be no memorials or statues to be erected anywhere in the city. The city was to be kept free of any such things. Corbusier didnot plan a space for any such statue / emblem (except ofcourse his Open hand!).
Ironically, it seems that after Corbusier's death, and on completing about 5 decades of Chandigarh, the Government of Chandigarh decided to commemorate something to the great man. They proposed his own statue to be erected in the city! Now isn't that completely laughable?

Of Unknown Imagic Realities III

Over the past 20 years, I had never entered my own building from its front entrance. I always took the back entrance which was a small alley directly leading to the backyard and then the road. Since I stayed on the 2nd floor, I never even bothered to take a lift to my house. Today while returning back to my building, I had some extra time at hand. For the first time in the last 20 years, I thought of confronting the building I lived in. I took a big turn around the building to enter it from the front. As I faced the front, I saw it was a huge building - almost like a mega structure. The entrance seemed like a large double height opening. It seemed as if this building housed 1000s of people. There were so many doors and lanes inside the building. I had to inquire at the reception about the lift (I thought I must use it once in my life, although i stay on the second  floor). They directed me to a large door.

I waited for the lift for a short while. The huge door opened and I saw a large - extremely large auditorium like chamber. It could almost house 300 people at a time. It waited for people to fill. I promptly walked in side this poly carbonate amphitheatre (imagine an essel world ride). I wondered if I had ever seen a lift like that - and how I was kept away from this although I stayed in the same building? Why didnt my parents ever bother to tell me that we live in such a megalomaniacal building? What was happening?

I took a seat. It felt like a time machine. There were many people around me - all unfamiliar. Although I wasn't scared, since I was confident about my place, it seemed weird. The lift finally closed and moved up like a roller coaster ride. Topsy turvy. All our bags were scrambled. After the lift stopped at my floor, (it seemed like a joy ride), I could not find my bag. Someone helped me finding it under a girl's skirt. I promptly took it and walked out.

I walked out of the lift to find lanes that lead to various kinds of places. Some of them overlooked to a large warehouse where it seemed like a factory. I again wondered how the factory was so well hidden from my house? Why didnt I ever notice these huge hollow spaces? How could I be so ignorant? I moved around and found singly loaded corridors. They had lines of doors which probably housed people. The corridor seemed never ending. I did not have any clue of how I must proceed to my house.

My father called out and then I woke up.

Visit to Pen

We visited Pen yesterday and looked at this cooperative society - on a 14 acre plot, designed on the principles of Laurie Baker's ideas for architecture. Most of the houses here are in bricks and they are quite simple. The pictures above are of Ar. Rohit Shinkre's studio house where he comes occasionally on weekends to work peacefully on his designs.

The house is a spiral on a contoured land. Steps take to you landings that become livable spaces. The upper floor has a studio room which takes a table. The most interesting part is the roof - the timber free cost effective filler slab roof. It gave a clean look and also felt very light. The spaces inside were voluminous. However, I remember one comment made by Gautam - he said that the siting of the house doesn't allow enough circulation of air. Probably he was right.

The moss that grew over irrespective over every thing looked really interesting and fascinating. It filled up the cracks of benches, made the sloping roofs green and made the rough bricks soft. Layers of leaves coloured the floor. I did not see much flowers. Over all my experience was boring.

Firstly, I am not a great fan of Laurie Baker. I feel his works are lifeless. Secondly, the green was overpowering. Something was missing. Thirdly, the house we stayed in was far too basic. We did not talk to any one, students did not interact, probably they were too tired of the week and Shinkre's lecture was a lecture!

Just putting up more pics here!

Architecture & Time

Download & Read

Presented at Guild Art Gallery

on Architecture & Time 

Titled: Time = Distance / Speed

Of Unknown Imagic Realities II

The elephant was inside a house that had a glass facade. It almost occupied the entire volume of the simplistic house. Its head was tied using cables to its mezzanine. The elephant struggled to get out of the glassed cage. There was an equally big elephant outside on the other side of the glass. Was it a mirror image? Both the elephants struggled to hug each other. I wondered how they stood up on their hind legs. I had always heard that elephants cant jump - and here they were almost trying to hug each other.

At a distance, I was trying to light up a few matchsticks to make some light, since it was beginning to grow darker. While holding the lit up matches in one hand, I tried to remove my Samsung star from the other to capture the 'elephant struggle' in my camera phone. A little away, behind me, the keeper of the place came out of his administrative block to interrogate me. By then, I wasn't able to take position of my matchstick  with the camera. Seeing the keeper approach, I dropped down the burning sticks. He saw me dropping them and I began to apologize.

By the time he came to me, I again turned to the elephants. The trapped elephant was growing fierce and finally broke the glass facade. I was scared. He was still tied.

In the mean time, I saw another man coming closer to me. He was a policeman - although he seemed an American! He had seen me drop the match sticks too. I thought he would take me to jail, assuming I was a terrorist - I was playing with fire.

The alarm rang and then I got up.

Chats on architecture

18 minutes agoAnuj Daga

poetic modernism

how does that sound?

really?

he told me he met hejduk

18 minutes agoFriend

actually all the modernists had a poetic edge about them

18 minutes agoAnuj Daga

ummm

explain

17 minutes agoFriend

like I guess the poetic thing you are getting in the forms...but if you see drawings of these people...they were poetic when they drew

guess you'll have put yourself in their shoe

17 minutes agoAnuj Daga

someone told me that modernism wasnt about form at all

16 minutes agoFriend

well it was a response...to past

lets say modernist shed all the symbolic facades

15 minutes agoAnuj Daga

what kind of response?

15 minutes agoFriend

but then while sheding they adopted a symbol

if you'll see hejduk's drawings you'll find very strong shapes

13 minutes agoAnuj Daga

true

but he also made very free flowing shapes

his wall house?

remember?

12 minutes agoFriend

yea...but you see best way to study modernism would be to study flw...who simply rubbished international architecture lead corbu n all

but if you see flw also never adopted ornamentation

11 minutes agoAnuj Daga

interesting

didnt he?

i think he did

11 minutes agoFriend

and while going through all the works of his from past...they were forms volume...one leading to other

11 minutes agoFriend

and mies adopted from flw

11 minutes agoAnuj Daga

flw probably influenced every one who followed him

heheh

but how did mies adopt flw?

9 minutes agoFriend

I'll have to find a peace where adolf loos, flw are mentioned with mies

Mies anyway left germany to work in USA

piece

9 minutes agoAnuj Daga

aha

9 minutes agoFriend

where FLW worked

you'll see a video of flw roaming in a cart with a journalist rubbishing a mies building

7 minutes agoAnuj Daga

hahaha

where is this

i want to see

7 minutes agoFriend

its a complete series of movie made on flw

like they make on architect

the independent walls ceilings of mies was influenced by flw

4 minutes agoFriend

After 1923, Mies's style shifted, and he came heavily under the influence of Dutch neo-plasticism and Russian suprematism. The former influence, along with the work of Frank Lloyd Wright, drove Mies to experiment with independent walls and ceilings arranged in an open, pin-wheeling manner. The latter influence drove Mies to consider the reduction and abstraction of these elements into dynamic and contrapuntal compositions of pure shapes in space. Mies was enthralled with the free-flowing spaces of inter-connected rooms which encompass their outdoor surroundings as demonstrated by the open floor plans of the American Prairie Style work of Frank Lloyd Wright. These experiments culminated in one of Mies van der Rohe's most significant works, the German Pavilion built for the Barcelona World Exposition in 1929.

about a minute agoAnuj Daga

that was crisp summary

more...please...

Of now

Today I learnt a very important thing in a very soft way - that what one is talking about or writing about has to be relevant to now and ahead. Probably history had fascinated me so much that I just fell into reproducing much of it!! There is so much in history - people have churned out so many ideas that there the future seems to be so competitive! I think in this phase of my life, I will have to spend all my time in only knowing what all has been really done already. The next phase of my life should begin by the age of 35. If life discovers that I am extraordinary, then perhaps this phase may be smaller. But I think life is not so generous!

Anuj keeps on telling me a lot of stuff which I keep on forgetting. Some day, I will introduce Anuj to you all. I don't yet know how to present him to you. He keeps on questioning all irrational ideas that come to my mind. Sometimes I feel irritated with him. But he is one composed fellow who never seems to have any problem. I am very jealous of him. Very.

Meanwhile, I am stuck with my paper, especially since that first comment that someone made. It has become so descriptive that it seem stale now. It also turned out to be a writing exercise! I will have to revise it in the next few hours so that I am able to present tomorrow!!

Jewel Building

There is something fascinating about the big buildings that are coming up these days.

One of them here absolutely stuns me as we pass by Mahalakshmi station. We call it the jewel. It is brilliantly lit up every evening. 

Bomb Attacks: Curating events in the City

Terrorists are such great curators. It's not only about exploding a bomb. From the terrorists' perspective, it is about exploding a bomb at the right place at the right time in the right way. They prepare for it for months, or probably years together.

The purpose of the whole act is also to construct a meaning in space through multiple references that they draw from previous events in history, through the creation of a situation. It is very situationist in that sense!
Imagine thinking about a date (number 13) matching earlier blast dates, co-inciding with Kasab's birthday again in the period of July...also the same time...There will be more alignments which news channels will eventually bring out!

This planning is highly curatorial. If any of these alignments with history was missed, the reading of yesterday's event would fade. I am sure, all this is not incidental. In this reading, terrorists may be seen as highly creative and artistic people. Their execution is clean - all the time, every time. If they were architecture students, they would always get an A+!

Bomb attacks in Mumbai happen like earthquakes in Japan or The Berlin Biennale. It's weird that I am writing about the bombs in Bombay for the third time on my blog since I started it in 2006! I did not want to curse the system this time. Probably we should be tired of it.

We must make friends with the terrorists and tell them the right places to bomb - those may lie in Delhi. Probably what we can learn from the terrorists is their dedication to execute a job right till the end successfully.

To end, Belated Happy Birthday Kasab. Hope you liked the celebrations. Although you did not make many people happy. Instead of people wishing for your life, they are only wishing for your death.

Bomb in the Museum

Investigations into the physical manifestation of fear in the city

Post the terror attacks, where on one hand, there is a lot of rage in the pubic mind, there is an induction of tremendous fear on the other. We see the manifestation of the fear in urban environment in the form of increased security booths, check points, CCTVs and upgradation of existing infrastructure.

Bomb is a volatile explosive. It has become a common object of everyday discussion, still maintaining its destructive position. As an object, the bomb remains suspicious and follows no particular schedule to explode in the course of city life. Explosions happen. However, bomb is an explosive only when ignited.  If placed in a museum, a bomb is just an exhibit.

  

The city is a container of objects, people, infrastructure and above all – ideas and memories. It is here when all physical substance in the city becomes exhibit. The city gives a large canvas to all the matter to exist in the backdrop of each other. Therefore, like the museum, the city is a storehouse of myriad objects and activities,  contributing towards memories, histories and events.

Bomb in the Museum thus allows a dual perception of both, the bomb and the museum. The museum is a storehouse of memories, like the city, but also in an explosive state because of the presence of the bomb.

The city’s behaviour to this bomb is aberrant. To some, the bomb invokes, to some, it inspires and to some, the bomb just scares – others just ignore it. Each of such behaviours ultimately results into some kind of explosion – personal or public. These explosions might be diverse in nature and either work towards improvement of the museum/metropolis or destroy/harm the city which may again gear towards improvement. Both these acts are indicators of some physical action in the city, which affect indirectly the city’s functioning, the city’s perception and its behaviour.

The museum’s behaviour towards the visitor is important because that may also lead towards the creation of a ‘bomb’/the exhibit. Thus user in turn defines a space for the artifact – the bomb, through the nature of their movement around the exhibit.  This space is either repellent or attractive, it creates its own domain. Thus the exhibit controls the actions of the visitors in the museum, and the visitors remain in disguise about the fact that the bomb is their own creation. 

How do people’s thoughts become the ingredient of supplanting a bomb?

e.g.: Statue of Thakerey’s wife at Shivaji Park is a bomb as well as an exhibit in the city. It creates its own space and own behavioural pattern.

An investigation into which spaces are used for realizing and placing such bombs: What tension such spaces exist in and what is the nature of a volatile space? How does a bomb, which is an exhibit first has the potential to explode the museum itself?

(another obscure fragmented idea developed during 2009)
seems like the right time to publish it here!

Orientation Workshop AOA 2009-10

Things which probably all forgot. Some beautiful drawings of students from my archives. We did an orientation programme  at our own humble scale for students who joined AOA in 2009-10. We showed them films, read a book and deconstructed and married objects to open up ideas then...
These never got published, never got recognized and  were never spoken about again...I don't even know it students cared! I mailed them a copy, and got no response!

Arrangements

Every morning when I see the fruit sellers on the D'silva street at Dadar, I go crazy with the amount of things I imagine. Edging the pavement on both sides, they all sit arranging various kinds of fruits in their baskets. The round basket sets the meta-geometry for the arrangement of their fruits. They try to line the edge of the basket through the geometry of each fruit. I think it's like playing or solving a jigsaw puzzle. Although each piece of this puzzle seems same, their smaller variations need to be manipulated for a crisp arrangement all the time. This probably must be a meditating exercise in itself.

Can I, for the sake of generalizing these shapes of various vegetables and fruits, call them objects? Let us treat them as objects for my discussion here.

The various parameters that dictate the arrangements are the shape, size and the material of the object. The size that the arrangement can achieve is also dictated by the above three parameters.

most of these objects are spherical and therefore are stacked into concentric rings over each other. Each following ring in smaller than the previous to keep the centre of gravity within the basket. Objects like mangoes, apples, etc. are treated as eggs and one can find papier mache crates these days to accommodate them. Apples have the luxury of having styrofoam jackets also.

Probably the most careful handling amongst all the fruits would be that of the black berries (kala jamuns). In my childhood days, I have thrown a lot of stones at jamun trees to have the pleasurable fruit. Jamuns are very delicate and much of them are destroyed by crows and rodents. They shake them off the trees, and the fruit is destroyed due to the impact of the fall. Ripe jamuns are very delicate. And one can see with how much care the vendors treat it. It must also be a very delicate process to pluck them off the tree such that we can enjoy the beauty of the smooth skin of the fruit with our tongues! The vendors carry and arrange each fruit with so much care...like a jewel. Further, I am fascinated by their arrangements.

Depending on the size of the fruit, the arrangements look like fort walls, pyramids, stone walls, etc. I enjoy looking at these compositions and keep wondering if these can be used a building blocks! Even otherwise, they look beautifully composed objects. The order is functional, completely.  Probably the most interesting arrangements are those of flatter objects like leaves, of different plants. The colocasia, or the lotus or beetle leaves. They actually give more cues for arrangement of objects. The dynamic shapes that their configuration eventually takes is worth watching. They are like giving an array command to a shape. Also like scripting. One module multiplied and arranged just by displacing its position.

Forms, surfaces, voids - all of them create beautifully. I wonder if this craft of arrangement can be pulled into some kind of knowledge? Meanwhile, they remain interesting engagements.

Being cynical

Some people had told me important things which either I have not succeeded to implement yet, or probably I have developed habits which will take time to wash off. One of these was to accept people as they are. To accept human nature. To accept that the way people are behaving is natural. That the difference we see in people and activities around us is a matter of our own conditioning. Does everyone believe equally strongly in they own conditioning? I think I do. And I may be completely unreasonable.

In the course of life, conditioning stops at a certain stage. Till a certain age, one and one's actions are conditioned by the institutions that one engages in. We completely submit in these institutions and construct our values through their learning. Once you are outside the aura of the institutions, you meet a new world. This world is completely different from that of rules, codes and values. Those conditionings that the institutions taught you make you uncomfortable now, since now, you are not operating in a group (either the family as a groups, or the school as a group or the neighbourhood as a group - all are governed by certain rules - said or unsaid). I think it is here where the process of judgment starts. 

Which of these institutions is strongest I dont know. But our constructs take on values filtering through the strength of these institutions. To make it simpler, an example would be that if your school teaches you not to lie and the family teaches you that lying for someone else's good is okay, then the way you act in a situation where you have to make a lying-based decision will be filtered through the ideal school principle, then the family - since it encompasses the lie. So you will end up accepting to lie.

I think the above is slightly complex and I can not even begin to explain it. But I am just trying to understand if there is any ONE single way of behaviour which satisfies all groups. Can there really be an ideal human being?

Ah Plato!

At this stage in life, i am beginning to be extremely cynical. I am whining far too much. I think it is the difference of conditioning that I was talking about. Things are not as we were taught by the institutions. And the institutions didnot tell us how to handle this situation. How do you handle oneself being cynical? Being too critical - is it what I just enjoy for the heck of it? I have to find why am I being critical? Is it even helping? What is it doing? It's irritating me. 

Who is a Marxist?

What is it to be a Marxist?
Shubhalakshmi explained me in a very simple manner.
To  believe that all conditions that we experience and that the way in which society is organized / structured; is due to a certain kind of means of production is a Marxist thought. The Marxist locates entire history in the materiality of life and the means of production. It is an ideology which bases values like morals, ethics and other social relations also on the material world. Thus, the thought is an extreme version of rationality which locates the cause and effect of all situations in the real physical world. To also understand every one as equal (the socialist thought) and to regard every one to have equal stake over every resource is another characteristic of a Marxist.

Thus a Marxist may not believe in the existence of God, since God is non-physical. God is an idea, would say a Marxist. That irrationalities are also a part of the modern world is still not a reason to believe in something extra-real. The Marxist theory probably doesnot regard the spiritual grounding of certain systems of thought. A majority of India still operates through its belief in rituals, customs, traditions and spiritual thoughts. Such systems of thought believe that life is not so much about the material, but the non-material. It emphasizes on the ideas of space, void, tantra, etc. - things that can not be explained simply.

***

Why did the prehistoric people paint in the deep dark recesses of the caves? (referring to a hunting act painting in the Lascaux caves)
She said:
It is a belief that the practice of drawing was an exercise in practicing the act of hunting. The pre historic people probably thought that the spirit of the animal is trapped in its image. So the production of the image was like rehearsing the act of hunting through the image. In deep recesses, one has to focus light on the painting. The darkness gave an opportunity to focus on the animal and the act (specific parts of the painting). The painting thus became a knowledge to be passed on. It became a cultural object of preserve.

(Now perhaps this won't be a marxist explanation for the cave painting...)

***

When a dot walks, it becomes a line
When a line walks, it becomes a plane.

-Paul Klee.

What's in a Name?

I have been recently receiving lots of gifts from friends, students - and it is overwhelming and embarrassing! I am not used to accepting gifts now and especially when I don't feel to have done any thing for any one...
the first one above is a thank you card from Nandita Rebello, who expressed her thanks for our discussions on her thesis.

The second one is by Areeba, my student who visited Istanbul during this summer vacation...Probably this could have been the best essence of the place she could have got back for anyone! I can still feel the artist curving his fingers carefully to shape my name - the script reminds me very strongly of Urdu, yet it's english.

In both the above, I kept looking at the lines for some time, only to realize later that they were my names!! I never thought someone could engage with a name so passionately...
But these are probably things which I shall cherish for a life time...

Thank you all!

Symbology / The Cosmic Sexuality

Mazgaon

I keep thinking if i could gaze at a city like this forever. From this viewpoint, or probably higher, it would almost seem that buildings are shooting up like wild grass...

However, they look seductive - the picture perfect city...and when you move into these lanes, you feel they are almost going to fall over you - it hurts your neck to turn obtuse to look at tall towers...but from here it was comfortable. Skylines like that of Mumbai are a pleasure. For most, they become logos that mean different things: the architect will put it in the visiting card (as something that he/she shapes), the economist will use it in maps of the economy, the real estate in planning their next tall tower, children in their memory drawing of the city - only a distanced view is seductive. Lines that only go up and come down...is the city as easy as that?

Mumbai Central