The _Opolis Lexicon
To be sure, one of the first impulses of the _Opolis alumni on receiving this booklet would be to look for the project that they may have worked on during their term at the office. Between images and texts, our eyes will roll between the lines that one of us may have repeatedly drafted on the computer. And in absorbing those lines, we may remember the discussions, deliberations, differences that have now settled not merely on these pages, but also in space. This book is much more than just a memoir or an intermittent archive, but a record of the collective efforts of twenty five years of “homing” by Opolis. In appreciating them, we may perhaps begin to observe certain values that now dwell in our own consciousness, our way of world-making.
To begin an architectural practice in a rapidly globalising city at the onset of a new millennium comes with its own challenges. The lure of the market, the risk of “missing out”, the seduction of shimmer, the lurch of luxury - have been the global forces that have fundamentally influenced most architectural practices during the last three decades of transforming India. As fellow participants in parsing this transformation, we may observe how Opolis lends its lexicon in attending to these forces with a contemplative stillness. The houses from geographies presented here, shaped within a forest of global choices over the last two-and-a-half decades, invite us to consider three vantage points, amongst others, from which we may choose to look back while thinking ahead in our own respective practices of spacemaking:
1. Holding the Ground
The ridge is not merely a topographical condition rather an philosophical indulgence in the works of Opolis. Many houses consciously sited along this line where two surfaces meet at an angle, do not seek attention; instead they firmly hold the ground behind them. Built as large retaining walls, the houses then appear to reserve the ground while descending us into a large open shelter on the other side. With no real “insides”, they become architectural acts of conservation. Could these be gestures of impressing oneself firm into landscapes of transition while bringing us to quietly contemplate upon the openness ahead?
2. Alignments and Deviations
Within plotted properties, the projects often establish a primary axis along which subsidiary spaces are distributed, offering a sense of order and orientation. This axial ordering is complemented by deviating roofs and deflecting walls that subtly resist alignment, introducing moments of departure within the plan and section. The axis, in this sense, functions less as a fixed directive and more as a guiding force—one that invites return rather than demands obedience. Does this dynamic tension between structure and drift serve as a compass for addressing the architectural contemporary?
3. The Open Alcove
By pushing and pulling walls, the houses offer different degrees of containment, while remaining open. Within the domestic schema, most projects demonstrate an architectural mediation of the western fireplace and the oriental tokonoma into an recessed room that is receptacle for the intermediaries of everyday life. Taking different forms within the inside and outside, these spaces become open alcoves, reversing the gaze within, and serve as internal windows into our own lived realities/lives.
When seen through the above lenses, the twenty-five homes and their drawings not only bring us together in our respective interactions with Opolis, but also revisit the values shared and learnt silently from the practice. Many of our thoughts got realigned to a certain modernist ethos assimilated by the practice from various masterful experiences from across the globe. The focus on showcasing only houses is not to overlook the important institutional and urban spaces that the firm has designed, rather celebrates architecture’s primary purpose of homing. If we must collectively look at these houses, and their drawings as an intellectual enterprise, we may be able to trace the distinct strands we carry ahead in our own practice. Ultimately, the compilation gestures to twenty-five years of professional companionship and familiarity - direct or indirect - that informs a small corner of our conceptual home.
- Anuj Daga
To be sure, one of the first impulses of the _Opolis alumni on receiving this booklet would be to look for the project that they may have worked on during their term at the office. Between images and texts, our eyes will roll between the lines that one of us may have repeatedly drafted on the computer. And in absorbing those lines, we may remember the discussions, deliberations, differences that have now settled not merely on these pages, but also in space. This book is much more than just a memoir or an intermittent archive, but a record of the collective efforts of twenty five years of “homing” by Opolis. In appreciating them, we may perhaps begin to observe certain values that now dwell in our own consciousness, our way of world-making.
To begin an architectural practice in a rapidly globalising city at the onset of a new millennium comes with its own challenges. The lure of the market, the risk of “missing out”, the seduction of shimmer, the lurch of luxury - have been the global forces that have fundamentally influenced most architectural practices during the last three decades of transforming India. As fellow participants in parsing this transformation, we may observe how Opolis lends its lexicon in attending to these forces with a contemplative stillness. The houses from geographies presented here, shaped within a forest of global choices over the last two-and-a-half decades, invite us to consider three vantage points, amongst others, from which we may choose to look back while thinking ahead in our own respective practices of spacemaking:
1. Holding the Ground
The ridge is not merely a topographical condition rather an philosophical indulgence in the works of Opolis. Many houses consciously sited along this line where two surfaces meet at an angle, do not seek attention; instead they firmly hold the ground behind them. Built as large retaining walls, the houses then appear to reserve the ground while descending us into a large open shelter on the other side. With no real “insides”, they become architectural acts of conservation. Could these be gestures of impressing oneself firm into landscapes of transition while bringing us to quietly contemplate upon the openness ahead?
2. Alignments and Deviations
Within plotted properties, the projects often establish a primary axis along which subsidiary spaces are distributed, offering a sense of order and orientation. This axial ordering is complemented by deviating roofs and deflecting walls that subtly resist alignment, introducing moments of departure within the plan and section. The axis, in this sense, functions less as a fixed directive and more as a guiding force—one that invites return rather than demands obedience. Does this dynamic tension between structure and drift serve as a compass for addressing the architectural contemporary?
3. The Open Alcove
By pushing and pulling walls, the houses offer different degrees of containment, while remaining open. Within the domestic schema, most projects demonstrate an architectural mediation of the western fireplace and the oriental tokonoma into an recessed room that is receptacle for the intermediaries of everyday life. Taking different forms within the inside and outside, these spaces become open alcoves, reversing the gaze within, and serve as internal windows into our own lived realities/lives.
When seen through the above lenses, the twenty-five homes and their drawings not only bring us together in our respective interactions with Opolis, but also revisit the values shared and learnt silently from the practice. Many of our thoughts got realigned to a certain modernist ethos assimilated by the practice from various masterful experiences from across the globe. The focus on showcasing only houses is not to overlook the important institutional and urban spaces that the firm has designed, rather celebrates architecture’s primary purpose of homing. If we must collectively look at these houses, and their drawings as an intellectual enterprise, we may be able to trace the distinct strands we carry ahead in our own practice. Ultimately, the compilation gestures to twenty-five years of professional companionship and familiarity - direct or indirect - that informs a small corner of our conceptual home.
- Anuj Daga
