Views from Kanchanjunga

Some pictures taken from Kanchanjunga and others from my work...

"I work in a country where no one cares for buildings."

Chaitanya shared an interesting critique on Corrra's buildings. He says, Correa's buildings are very unclear, they do not have a diagram. What he meant was they one gets 'lost' while moving in the building.
Taking specific examples, he said that many buildings rely on external media like painting, sculptures to communicate. For example, if the whole of Cidad-de-Goa was to be painted white, the building would lose all its quality. Similarly, if  JKK lost colour, it would be a different building. However, this does not happen always.

Kanchanjunga, he says doesnot even have a clarity of 'entrance'. You wonder when you enter the building, "where to go"? I agree to this, having seen and experienced the building recently. Adding to this, each flat in the building is different, so you constantly keep losing orientation. (imagine a maid working at 3 houses in the same building! she would go mad!!).

One standard critique that everyone has for Correa's buildings is that they are not detailed enough. The edges of the buildings, the railings, the steps, or even the windows or any damn thing. Nothing looks 'tight' in Chaitanya's words. Also, although Correa may be a world famous architect, he has not offered anything to India for which "people would come from outside to have a look at". He was perhaps mentioning about the 'iconicity' of a building.

Another point he made was that his buildings do not have a 'tropical' character. A tropical building would be a building with a private-semi open verandah (long) and then opening to sky building. This is where, he says, the courtyard typology fails. His buildings don't even speak of the tropical character through colours - which are bright and whites. Rather, he chooses earthy and more rural colours.
His remarks are relevant.

However, in the past week, Correa has hinted answers to all these questions in our conversations with him. So I will defend all the critiques from Correa's side one by one:

Correa operates through the Hindu ideas of myth and reality. He believes in the hindu philosophy of the universe and this philosophy accepts things with their chaos. There is no black and white like the western philosophies of how we came into being. Thus, although his buildings start with a process of structuring space, he ends up making complex movements in the building that resonate with the central idea of the philosophy of ordering chaos (which he explains as multiple layers of order).

While talking, he said that he loves to introduce paintings, suclptures on walls because they, he assumes, are not a separate element of the building. He says that in our culture, a person staying in the village feels that painting is an integral part of the process of house-making (like the warli, madhubani, kutch houses). He also mentioned that even critics like Kenneth Frampton are not able to appreciate the paintings he makes on his buildings, because there is a lack of cultural experience.

"I work in a country where no one cares for buildings." he says.
further, he says that "I did most of the Government projects using the contractors of the State Public Wards Department, like the Sabarmati Gandhi Ashram or the Vidhan Bhavan and the Bharat Bhavan Bhopal. You can not expect pristine lines and finishing when you are working with local people. These are not priavte clients which can spend so much on precision. Infact, I feel the unfinished-ness adds to the quality of the buildings. Even the indian khadi fabric looks beautiful because it doesnot form clean straight lines. The undulating warps and wefts give character to the cloth, it echoes our culture." And he also ties it up with the philosophy of Hindu culture/philosophy. But those interested in seeing crisply finished Correa buildings, see the Champalimaud Brain and Scientific Research Centre in Portugal. Here, the client was a private company and they could afford being precise. To sum it up, he himself feels very sorry for all his ill-maintained buildings.

So I shall keep updating more of such discussions and debates whenever possible.

Time for a one liner:
"Manmohan Singh is a cross between a kitten and a mouse"
(he acted it out too)!

Charles Correa - a charactersketch

As a small child, Correa loved to play with toy trains - in an interview he said. He wanted to study something that would give him equal amount of satisfaction and that's the reason why he joined architecture. On his table 81 years after he is born and 50 years after he started his practice, one can see a number of toy trains. I have still not asked him which one is how old, but lets see if I get an opportunity to make a mini questionnaire for him.

The table is exceptionally low, and shows him tall even when he is seated on his chair. The table has plenty of pencils and pens, weights, cars, his numerous awards, collectibles and gifts from all over the world and animated sculptures.

 

 

Correa is a hardcore modernist - he believes in a plan, and he doesn't like any one speaking or informing in the present tense. For example, yesterday i told him, "'A' is working on transferring videos to the computer" - and he almost lost it and said, "where do you learn this language from, the language of the present tense? what do you mean by 'he is doing' - like 'she is cooking in the kitchen' - 'i am doing it'... what do you mean? we all are doing something, he is not sleeping over the table, he is definitely doing something - but that doesnot mean anything. But if you tell me what he did, or what is is going to do or finish by today, that is what makes sense. This is why the condition of our country is like that, there is no accountability...(shrugs)...'contractor is doing that' - what do you mean?"

The first taunt of my work with him.

but this is not the time to evaluate his thoughts, i feel. I must know him more to be able to understand a personality like him. He has presence.

As I watched him closely, he had dense silver white eyebrows, almost like a camel. They almost make a chajja over his eyes. And he keeps fiddling with his eyebrows. And they are always unsettled. His ears, as Dhaval puts it are 'elephant ears' - they are large. His spectacles are like those of Corubsier - jet black, round and big. There is no ambiguity in its colour (not sparkling silver-grey or golden-yellow or copper-brown). They are just BLACK. He writes and overwrites over tracingpapers and almost wastes tonnes of paper every year. Because he doesnot reuse any paper for printing twice. And because of fear, employees make so many errors that they end up printing everything thrice. Also, he has a habit of 'seeing' the correction at every stage - so every small incremental improvement is printed. Seeing is believing for him. 

I wonder how all his pencils on the table are always sharpened - they are always sharp. The papers are crisp, the pens are clean, the tracings are neat, the checkered pad is fresh. That is his characteristic.

"How did you get interested in archiving work?" he asked me after 4 days of my meticulous work, "You are really good at it, i am really glad..." (he waited for me to answer)

and almost articulating and editing my answer, I said "I was always interested in research and even during my research last year, I was very particular about noting down things." and I stopped fearing he would judge me on what I said.

One liners by him (more to come):

"A woman can't be 5% pregnant" 

(implying that you have to completely be involved in anything you do)

*I joined Charles Correa Associates as an archivist on 29th Nov. Don't know how long this journey will be.

Insistence on being certain?

I have let it sink in…may be…

My biggest complaint with Correa was that he claimed to give me the award only because of benefit of doubt. He should not have given the award to me if that was the case. That’s why the status onthe facebook. On the other hand, i wonder if a person like him too feels that ‚teaching‘, ‚writing‘ and criticism are for wanderers. They are ‚some‘ jobs, and not as specific as ‚architecture‘. What i also wondered was that if he too was as narrow minded to think of an architect as a person who would, or rather should ‚build‘. The other argument which would favour him was that if i had gone to him, it better be for an architectural criticism and not for a ,flowery‘ word talk. Agreed. But one can always enjoy the spirit of the subject.

The meet reminded me of the book Haroun and the Sea of Stories, where the protagonist’s father is a story teller. I wonder if story tellers are useless people? Is writing or teaching an abstruse profession? Why do educated people look down upon such fields? It also reminds me, in a bitter way, what George Bernard Shaw said, „Those who can do nothing, teach, those who can not teach, write“. While the shade in which he must have written may be sarcastically poking or legitimizing his own profession, it definitely pricks when others use it in a poky fashion.

What does one do, if one finds his niche at a very late stage in life? In the process of finding ones calling, one may end up involving himself or herself in a completely different course of study. But having completed it, does one become bound to follow it or practice it the rest of his or her life? Does an educated society fail to understand the confusion within a young mind? Can an educated person like Correa not address the confusion of a young mind instead of riduculing it?

Confusion has allowed me only to ask more questions. These questions generate a thirst for answers. Hence i write. I write in order to detail my questions to an extent that they resolve themselves as rhetorics. This endsup in my writings. I like writing. I like teaching because i am able to discuss my confusion with others. Many times, these discussions take artistic forms : architectural manifestations or artistic drawings. Such confusion existed in my thesis too. But is it really bad? Something to feel so worse for? Again i am raising questions, and i guess, most of my sentences end in question marks! Thats not good though, is it?

This constant conflict to take a stand and move on is irritating. Life is not worth it. One misses so many moments in this silly confusion. But may be, it has allowed me to be more sympathetic towards others who are not able to decide and humble towards the smallest of jobs. After all, who knows, i may end my life just as a story teller or a typist!

Meeting Charles Correa

I met Mr. Charles Correa today.

I spent the last night dreaming about him, the last week dreaming about him and the last month trying to reach him. My meeting was timed spaciously – at 11 am.

I left home at nine, and I knew that in Mumbai, 2 hours for travelling too is less. And I was right. I stepped out of home and it started raining, pouring heavily. I had an A2 portfolio, my bag and an umbrella. i was almost fully wet by the time the fifth bus came, as I had to leave the other four – they were full. I cursed Mumbai so much, the people so much! I did not get an auto rickshaw too…I realized that I had to take a ticket too, since my pass allows to travel only till Dadar. I again cursed anticipating the crowd at the ticketing counter.

I got down at the station from the bus and saw the Goregaon local passing in front of my eyes. Needless to guess – the bus stopped at bloody every signal and got stuck in every damn traffic…I cursed the driver of the bus too.

The only credit I could have is the next local (after which there were none, and my boarding the train would be impossible). I waited (rather wasted) 20 minutes to take the 9:56 local. I boarded in praying that it would take me to Charni Road in time. I managed to reach the station 15 minutes in advance of my meeting time and was at CCA exactly at 11 am. (though I was on time, now I feel so hopeless about the city – 2 hours FLAT wasted in travelling!)

I was almost instantly taken to Correa’s cabin. I saw the big man working on his desk…2 minutes later, he welcomed me and told me to take a seat near him. I asked him about his health and he said he is fine. He immediately asked me, “So tell me, what did you want to meet me for.” I said, “I just wanted to discuss my project, because I could not do it earlier.”

I got my sheets and put them on his table. He told me to explain. I said the first sentence about the project and he interrupted, “Yeah I remember, but whom are you building for?” I said, “The blind”. And he said, “Speak clearly, who is the blind – the insensitive or the real blind”. I said it was a metaphor. But he didn’t like it. He immediately said, “We almost gave you the medal on the benefit of doubt. Many of them thought that ‘this guy is just talking about some things’. But you got it only because of benefit of doubt…so tell me, who is blind?”

I said it was the "insensitive".

“You see you are slipping. I would never like to work with you. Because you are not clear. You have to be clear. You are playing with words. You can be a critic, or a poet or write books. But you have to be clear. Otherwise, you will keep doing these all your life and not go anywhere, and do some vague thing. What do you mean by blind. Show me your plan. What did you do? When we saw your plan we did not see any form of auditorium, or seating or any such thing. What are you expecting people to do inside?”

I explained the interpretation of the cinema hall.

“But how big is it? What scale is the drawing at? It seems that you have gone wrong at scale. Its just a drawing you see…? How much is this…” he asked pointing to the distance between two columns.

It has been 3 years now and I had forgotten the measurements. I still tried –
“Sir, the hall is 450 sq m. I am expecting about 50 people inside each hall”
“but how is it that much? (he took a scale). I had to guess…I blurted…the columns are about 8 metres apart. So the hall is about 32 x 20 metres ( I realized that it was wrong), but I had no other option…but to guess…) I told him that for composing the sheet, I had to take a non-architectural scale.

He handed over me the scale and told me to measure it. Now was the catch. While I was measuring, I felt something was wrong. Either I was confused with the triangular scale, or the drawing was wrong. He could make out the apprehension on my face. He asked if I was Dhaval’s friend., and I answered in a positive. He asked me if I wanted Dhaval’s help. I hesitated. He still called Dhaval inside. Dhaval fakely showed his surprise to me as he entered.

Dhaval took the initiative and explained the project. The whole intensity was lost to the question of “how would one make a Cinema for the Blind.” He saw things here and there, made things much clearer, dissected the “blind”. I kept nodding. Dhaval and he were almost having a discussion on my project. I did not get even a chance to speak. But I guess that was ok.

He was not interested in poetry and metaphor, but the physical building. And dhaval was much better at explaining the resolution. The fun of the project. He also pointed out the link in the cinema and the blind. I explained him further. He liked it. He liked the drawings, the sketches. He waited on the ‘experience’ on the link, and explained and questioned it.

While he was making pencil marks on my sheets, he was erasing it too. He did it with “experience” too. Then, while elaborating on experience, I rubbed my hand against the rubber dust he created on the sheet. He must have felt that I did not like him scrubbing on my sheets (which is not true). Later he took out his notepad saying that he would not like to spoil my sheets…

I wondered if he didn’t like my wiping away the rubber dust, or misinterpreted the action into something else…

We later discussed architects like Venturi, Kahn, Ando, Corbusier, Palladio etc. We also discussed buildings like the Rotunda, the Pantheon, etc. He somewhat criticized Venturi. I could have defended. But I kept quiet.

I wanted to ask him many things. but I kept mumb. It was about an hour. At perfect 12:00 he said he had to call it off.

He did not want to discourage me, he said, but wanted me to have more clarity.
I understood that my first impression on him must have been terrible. The rest of the story, I must ask Dhaval…

Charles Correa Gold Medal

This is so refreshing. Winning after a lot of hard work is so encouraging. And especially winning a prize that one always wanted to. So it’s an achievement.
When we reached college yesterday at 12:30 pm, we were said that the Charles Correa Jury was already over. This brought in a lot of goosebumps because we were under the impression that the thing is going to go on till 4 pm. The jury called it off quite early.

I was also excited to see Dushyant’s thesis work. It was very nice of him to wait till the names of the winners were announced. Unfortunately his presentation was cancelled. But I called him up in the evening to thank him for encouragement and to meet him up for his presentation.
But before that, the announcement story…
We assembled in the hall. We took seat. And it was as quick as nothing. Kamu Iyer came on the stage. He said, I know you all are waiting for the name…and it is a project called “Cinema for the Blind”. Just for a fraction of a second I was lost in that dream which I always dreamt. But not wanting to miss the rest of his explanation, I came back in reality. While I held Dhaval’s hand quite tightly, the third name announced was his….this was the soney pe suhaaga…

I said to Dhaval, "wow…what a birthday gift dhaval" and he was happy too.

Later on , I was called on stage to shake hands with the master himself. I sneakily handed over the camera to Dhaval telling him to take pictures…and he obliged.

As I approached the stage, I could not believe myself shaking hands with Charles Correa. "Ah….!" my mind said. Now, Correa is a tall figure - you have to anyways look up to him. He had a gliding smile; soft, very soft gesture. Then I shook hands with others – Ravi Hazra, Narendra Dengle, Kamu Iyer and this is when, Sen Kapadia handed over the mike to me asking me to tell the story of the conception of the project…

I felt like I have to give a speech after winning an Oscar Award…and I stupidly said the following:

“Since morning I have being thinking of various things to speak, but now I am actually speechless. So please pardon me if I may go wrong."

"Are you excited?", Wandrekar sir (our trustee) asked.
"Yes! I am...very much" I replied
"That is very good."

I continued, "About two years ago, now three, I had gone to Nehru Science Centre where I saw these blind students walking around the exhibits. This was the point which put me into questioning that what are the blind students doing in a place where there is everything to see. So blind got stuck in my head. That is how the inquiry started…”

Sen Kapadia said, “But this is something that you have already mentioned in your dissertation…the real story must be something else…”




I said, “Actually in my last five years of architectural education, I have never made exciting forms, because I always used to question this form, what is form? And when I got this idea, I thought this was the best way to carry forward my questions”

Sen: But it must have been difficult…how did you convince your faculty?

Me: Yes, it was very difficult. I had to fight a lot, telling them that this is possible. i actually have a paper still, in which one of my jury members said, “Scrap this project”. But I knew that this was possible. so it was not easy. I had to argue a lot and my professors sitting here know that…

Sen then asked the jury panel if they had any questions. I don’t remember who, but someone asked : What is blind?

This is one question that I have never been able to articulate… I tried, “who is blind? I myself don’t know who is blind…I am still in the process of finding out who is blind…but blindness exists. There is this one quote in the last page of my dissertation, which reads that ‘we are blind people who can see, but do not see.’ so I think we all are blind, and we are in this cinema…!”
Sen asked me to take back my seat in the audience. And he continued, “I think the blind is a metaphor, and some time ago we were talking about what is the future of the architecture… I think Mr. Adarkar, you don’t need to do anything, your students are already on the right path.”

Adarkar sir requested Mr. Correa to say a few words…and this was something special…
Correa came and said, “I am not going to talk here about any specific thing, but all these projects raised some issue. In all the three projects there is some sensitivity, with respect to the city. The winning project is talking about his site as the old cinema hall, which is itself is a landmark, and how do you work around it. I think what he is talking about is the insensitivity…you see it was the television which came in to picture and then there were these lots of images. I think this non resolution of the blind must have helped him to take the project the way it is now. May be what he means by blindness is the insensitivity, about the people who can see, but do not look…”

Later, Dhaval and I presented our thesis, and I realized that my pendrive was not showing the presentation file. So I quickly took out my cd…(this is where I appreciated my own preparedness). Though the presentation was old and not updated, I somehow managed to complete it. It was a very ok kind of a presentation I gave. We then left…came out…met Correa. Correa invited me to his office sometime. Ravi Hazra invited me to his college. We met people…it was a nice feeling…very nice feeling…

Bharat Bhavan, Bhopal