Discussing Design with Gurdev Singh

Gurdev Singh, the dean of Navrachana School of Architecture, Baroda was here at SEA taking a workshop as a part of the Technology Module for second year students at SEA. He was here for three days, where he engaged with students in making objects out of laminating wood. curving strips of timber into sensuous structural shapes that would be assembled into different objects. Gurdev Singh, for those who may not know, is one of the most engaged and passionate educators we have in architecture today. He began his teaching career in CEPT Ahmedabad in the late 70s, after which he went to the middle east to coordinate the architecture program (so is what he quipped). He spent some time there constantly learning from the cultures of construction imbibing a distinct sensibility and sensitive approach to architecture through technology and material. Further he spent time in Yemen, then Australia, where he was for about 20 years. While in Australia, he also constructed his own house. Gurdev shared his years of accumulated experience with us over small chats and two presentations he gave to our students over the last three days.

The first presentation was about two of his projects. The former was titled "House in a Bush" and the latter was "Bush in a House". In the first part, he spoke to us about building his own house in Australia. Gurdev went on to preface briefly the site, located about 20 minutes from the city centre, where habitation already subsides and life becomes quiet. He bought a large plot to himself in order to make his house. "It is a trend for people to take up large properties, and build a home at the edge of the road so that it is visible to everyone. In this way, people can claim that they have a beautiful house, and that it has a large property behind it. When we were building, we decided to camp over there for the first seven to eight months finding out what location would be the best? Where does the sun rise, where is the light best, where do we get morning rays, and so on. So for the first few months, we were just camping, after which we finally decided a location." His house is situated about a kilometre inside from the access road, nestled between the trees and just besides a dam and a water body. 

The site is primarily covered in Eucalyptus trees (about 95%). "When the leaves fall down and the water flows over it, you can taste the soft smell of the woods..." he went on to say. Discussing the first few design options and why he chose to discard them, he concluded "The most difficult client you can have is yourself! And it is always a problem when you have to finally present it to others, because you are aware of all your flaws, and you have to constantly apologise to others that 'Don't look there, I know that went wrong!'" The final scheme that Gurdev showed us was a house that opened out in various directions placed on a mild sloping land. The bedroom was oriented to morning sunrays, the living space was opened towards the evening light. "If you invite any one for dinner, they will arrive by default at 7, or maximum 7.15. That is the culture in Australia. So when they arrive, the sunrays have still kept the living space warm, and there is still enough light for them to look out!" This is how he went about siting the whole house.

Interrupting him, I asked, "Excuse me sir, but I don't think any of us have visited Australia. Could you tell us about the weather conditions there so that we are able to better understand the scheme?" He went on, "Oh yes, so the temperature ranges anywhere from about -7 degrees C to 35 degrees C over the entire year. One of the things to note is that while the sun goes from east to west via south in our place, over there, it goes via north. So instead of the 'north light' that we open our houses to in India, there it is the south light. It took me a while to get used to that. They get a lot of dew. So in the mornings, you can collect over 50 to 70 litres of water just from the surface (gesturing his house on the screen). There are forest fires that can spread over kilometres. Bush fire is more common. The more common reason for it is the litter. The fire can actually come and burn the whole house. Thus we have to clear the litter in 100 metres radius of the house. The best way to save yourself off a forest fire in such situation is just to be within the house and come out only when it is gone. So that is about it."

"We built the whole house ourselves. Wood sections were drawn on the floor, full scale, so there was no scope for any errors. Those were our very working drawings." Sharp sloping roofs extending in the opposite direction of the contour open up the house as one goes deeper within giving it a low entrance but a voluminous climax. The thrust of Gurdev's presentation was on construction techniques and materials he used for the house. He informed how it put it together, taking together another guy from the university, who was disillusioned by theoretical ideas of sustainability. So they just came together along with one more person in making real things. 

Much of the construction is dry, using timber, glass and corrugated sheets. Gurdev took us closer to each detail that he designed, sometimes even inventing new spaces in the process, resolving two problems simultaneously at a time. He went on to say, "You see, we arrive at a number of ideas when we are in the design process. And we have the urgency to use and present all of them at a time, in a single project. However, we must always use only two or three ideas that are most relevant for the project. The rest, we must note down in our diary. That helps in controlling our urge to talk it out. It helps us build patience. We can always use those ideas later in other projects!" Such experiences flowed constantly over his talk. It was his experience speaking all over! I thoroughly sat through his presentation with a smile on my face. 

At the end, I asked him a few more questions: "Sir, did your learning from India in any way influence the construction process or the design in any way?" Thinking for a short while, he went on to talk about the ideas of go-mukhi and wagh-mukhi aspects from old building principles in India, and related the design to it. A house should always be "go-mukhi" (like the face of the cow) - smaller in front and bigger at the back - that represents being humble. In that sense, he said that the house comes to hold that spirit. But besides, the architecture is completely Australian vernacular, he said. The type of construction, the use of tin roofs is the architectural history of the place. Recently the Australian government restored some 100 year old buildings made in tin roofs. That is precisely what is Australian heritage.

The second part of the presentation discussed a building he designed in Delhi, India. This section was titled "Bush in a House". Here, Gurdev presented his winning entry for Rajaswa Bhavan, located just within the radius of India Gate. The project was situated within the historic radius and aimed at understanding and preserving the identity of the place. The existing trees were identified as the cultural markers of the area, and hence the building scheme was planned in a way to house them.

The building was crafted within the void created by the trees, and was hung from above. The entire logic of construction was turned upside down, by having four vertical masts that held a steel "foundation-rail" up in the sky, dropping the building blocks down, like an inverted pyramid. Nothing except these four cores touched the ground. The parking and services were buried underneath the ground to give clear space to look at the trees. This was a bold, straightforward scheme, probably the reason for the success of the project, as Gurdev speculated.

On the second day, Gurdev gave a crisp lecture on techniques of mud construction. I will be uploading my notes from the lecture soon along with possibly some pictures of his work in Australia.