Drinks

I recently decided to educate myself on the various kinds of alcoholic drinks. So I asked one of my German colleagues to tell me about the various drinks, and also how they are served. I realized that all these drinks are made out of some foods which we normally eat. Then I wondered why their products require permissions to consume. On the other hand, why are they considered so ‘prohibitive’ in the traditional Indian family concept? Of course, the consumption of alcohol has adverse effects. So we will not get into the whole ‘ethical family’ business. But the study was nice. I wish if someone presented this to me earlier in the following way:

Concepts

How does one understand concepts? This mail is to be read in the context of the “new mail”. I was reading the entries for the Indira Gandhi National Centre for Performing Arts (or something), which was an open competition for architects throughout the world. There were architects competing from all the world. The winning entry was an excellently explained one. Amongst the others, one which particularly stuck in my mind was Anil Laul’s. His concept for the entire campus was that of the atoms and molecules. How the atoms and molecules are bonded to each other. And in the end, the entire building looks like carbon atoms – hexagonal volumes one over the other. The entire explanation also was like a chemistry text book.

Now is that called a concept?

“My concept comes from the waves of the sea”…and the building will become a wave of the ocean – physically – and then there will be slabs – as horizontal as possible. It’s just the skin that personifies the wave.

“Ripples” – and the entire plan will be concentric circles…

Look at Hafeez’s concept for the Osho Ashram, Pune – he himself rubbishes it by saying that it is utter nonsense. He said in his lecture that I attended: “I used the pyramid because it is the most stable form. I cladded it with black stone because black is the absence of any colour. Osho replied, ‘I like it’” and he puts together forms frivolously in his other works. He claims to bring architects in the forefront by publicizing them.

So students think that concepts are images. Images are impressions. Impressions are like signs that can be made on signboards. One of my colleagues was doing a War memorial for his thesis. His ‘concept’ was the explosion of a bomb. So his building looked like how we draw the explosion of bombs in cartoon strips. A poky three dimensional star. That becomes his “war memorial” –it has nothing to do with the phenomenon of war, neither the people involved, or the reasons.

I wonder still, what is a concept. Concepts can be held in hands it seems. The in orbit mall in malad, has a planetary dome on it (unfortunately which no one can see from outside) and then today, I see that there is a building call “something orbit” with a dome on the top at the place of the water tank. These people don’t even know what an orbit is!

It’s something like shaping the first birthday cake of a child in the shape of 1. Iconography – completely.

In interiors, the colours of the walls become concepts. So concepts are matching tiles, and wash basins. “The concept here is 3 walls in blue and the floor in white…” used to say my earlier employer. In interiors, concepts are even more bastardized. For fashion designers, colours and patterns are concepts. A new concept would be to use green with golden, for instance.

My students have similar concepts. They would say that “the white represents good part of the life and the black part is bad.” Time in space becomes a watch with personified hands. Its normal perhaps for students in first year, at least, when they are learning the difficult process of abstraction. But when architects and those too famous ones project themselves like that, it troublesome. Students in fourth year come and say “I wanted to make this space interactive”: and the immediate design is an amphi theatre or benches facing each other.

So the discourse of concept is difficult. We now a days do not use the word. Its pejorative to use it. We as faculty do not ask students to make concept sheets. They do some silly iconographic stuff by making signs and symbols for familiar objects rather than trying to dissect what it means to them. So a building for children will be a play ground, a school necessarily has to have bright coloured walls, parks have to have floral edges and all possible combinations of pavings, urban design is nothing more than street furniture (literally).

And after all that, they still have to criticize the new sky walks. The poor yellow worms crawling over the city.


Concepts of Buildings against the Jantar Mantar in Delhi

Repositories for the little prince

the above project was just a fluke! a better word would be intuitive!!


she was working on the concept of how a flower opens up


her site was in the brain on her landscape

A new mail

I have been thinking on writing about my teaching at KRV and AOA since some time now. The comparison is unavoidable, but I will try and resist that temptation. I primarily want to concentrate on the methodologies and my difficulties and interests with students versus my failures and explanations for those failures given by others on discussion. There is also an inevitable comparison of the students with my own self as a student.

Starting with academy of architecture, we tried to do a workshop this time, without dushyant this time. Unfortunately none of us had the professionalism or time to dedicate to or execute the workshop. We read “The Little Prince” and expected the students to come up with installations of ideas that fascinated them from the book.

The Council has now allowed students from all backgrounds (commerce, arts and science) to pursue an architecture course. I do question the relevance of this step. However, the kind of students we are getting today are so stereotypical, that it seems that the future of the course is going to be reduced to a purely instructional type. The intake of students has been increased to double. However, let’s not get into all that, the problem I face is with students not willing to question their own selves. At least we did not have any one to push us to questioning, but here, students are very formulaic – draw a line, cut the paper, size of font, format like this : all needs to be told. I remember that we adopted such things just from exhibitions of our seniors’ work. Where there are some students over-prepared on a presentation day, where they prepare even their speech (like how you do in Oscars!) there are others who don’t feel the need to prepare.

Ideas are thrown at them and I don’t understand that if they are in a creative course, can’t they understand what to pick for themselves. Even if they can’t, they can at least follow what is being said (be instructional). I do not like students who are insincere. Students in academy are skillful, but their mental activity is less, or very low. To reflect on the faculty team, we are far too many heads than hands. We need a single head, who co ordinates the programme and supporting staff, who are in resonance.

This is the stronghold of KRV. Rupali is the head – thinking and coordination. We support her in her decisions. The final call is hers. She is also extremely capable – theoretically. On the other hand, the bunch of faculty (us) under her are all of same age group and connect very well. However, the first programme was extremely abstract. We had asked students to bring their heirloom (in the form of stories, objects, ideas, memories, etc.) which they lose in the course of time. The project was the reconstruction of the heirloom through their attributes.

Now, the students’ outlook was similar. However, since the project was a lot more personal, many of them spoke naturally. The subject was “I” and “my” association. Perhaps that helped. Further, the theoretical discussions of the students with their faculties helped in breaking the norms. What was difficult was the construction of the heirloom in to a physical object through narratives. Everyone in the end was somehow was fed with an idea. There were some original too. However, later on they were well received by the jury. But my problem was that many students did not understand what they had done. I don’t consider this as healthy.

At academy, we were dealing with the idea of a Repository for “The little Prince”. Now little prince is a lovely book. It asks large questions in simple ways. But for the students, it was just a story book. The students in academy were almost convinced that readings have no relevance to forms. They already had a notion that architecture means designing fancy buildings. As a teacher, we can’t even say no to this fact. But it is extremely difficult to explain students that buildings can be read. That they have meanings which can be constructed. These meanings also help in defining the form. How do you convey this? I do understand that it does not happen in just a single project. It takes time – perhaps the entire course to understand that architecture is more than a building. But I am worried for academites because the faculty in the further years does not think this way.

On the other hand, I thought that perhaps students are not old enough in their experience of life to understand the complexities of little prince. But that was the easiest we could choose. How does one otherwise inculcate the habit of familiarizing students the relationship between culture, architecture and social studies? It is necessary to do it in first year. My worry at academy is that no one else will do that in the later years. Their idea of cultural space is just an art gallery, an artist’s village and a museum of modern art – and they would not even look at who are the most prominent, or contemporary artists in the country.

At KRV, the faculty is already interdisciplinary. Hence they are exposed to different media directly from the first year. However, their degree of articulating physical form, I felt was very low. Everyone manage to find their niche as an practitioner at KRV. Be it research, film, interior, architecture or storytelling. The paradox is that Academy actually has all such different departments, but there is nothing happening between them. Adarkar wants to convert Academy into a digital environment (without any context). He feels that we can make smarter buildings in the coming 50 years if we are equipped with digital technologies. For a matter of fact, there are not even attempts to create a website for Academy as a step towards this mission. I appreciate Adarkar’s vision, but I can’t reason out for myself, that being a social activist, how he can overlook more important issues surrounding the city.

There is too much theory into KRV. Sometimes, it feels unnecessary. But it manages to produce some interesting concepts. KRV is a closed circuit, while Academy is an open one. Anyone with a strong thought can almost rule academy right now. It is headless. The people have ancient thoughts, while KRV is so fresh. Experience is not helping somehow. It needs fresh talent.

Within this pool of thought, there are things that i will discuss in my subsequent mails, with specific examples.

studios!

Mass producing Venturi's house! (KRV first yr)


Prakriti at her new work place: Charles Correa Associates

New phone....new pics

Walking on the Edge


The Dream-land


I am dead


Arched surfaces


The batch of 80 at KRVIA

Hair Dressing Dilemma

It was long ago that my father stopped waking us (me and my brother) up in the early morning. The discipline of getting up in the morning by 7:30 perhaps could not be rationalized with our age. Perhaps he understood that he is forcing it upon us. And therefore, now he allows us to sleep for long morning hours.

Earlier, my father would also get impatient if our hair was not combed immediately after bath. However, we realized that the hair should be allowed to dry a bit, such that the hair oil and water do not react to attract more dust. So now, sometimes, when we are at home, combing hair become an afternoon activity! Perhaps this is deteriorating the quality of setting of my hair.

I realized today that my hair wasn’t setting properly. I recently had a hair cut. My cousin had already commented on the hair cut classifying it as ‘improper’. Initially I tried applying water, more water and even oil…but the hair would not set! so I decided to go to the hair dresser and complain. And I did. I complained with confidence. Ofcourse he got agitated, and gave me a free trimming again!

But I realized today the dynamics of hair dressing. I always believed that our hair in the top of the head must not fall on the forehead! But the salon educated me that this frontal hair will always fall on the forehead, that too if very short! I then wondered that what he said should be right – the head is hemispherical in shape and each hair on the head is acted upon by gravity in a different manner! So that makes the hair dresser’s job so complex – for a person like me who demands that no hair on my head should stand out like the tail of a hen!

I know I have made the explanation very scientific, but it is so. Atleast I understood how the job of the hair cutter becomes complex (though I always believed that it was, today I understood the nature of his complexity!).
Having said the above, I am planning to change my hair dresser from the coming turn…this one always leaves me disappointed!

In difficult times...

Something that expresses the circumstances at this moment in my life perfectly...




image courtsey: Marianna Hillmer

A brief update of Life

The past 3 weeks have been so busy that i have had no time to even think what i have been doing. Well, I don t remember where I should start, but there are 3 prime things that I can categorize my activities under:

1. Academics
2. Applications
3. The Cultural Spaces project

Since it was the time to break during diwali, a lot of portion had to be completed. It was the time when I had to prepare the graphics lecture – deliver for 3 hours. On the other hand, juries at Kamla Raheja and Academy…there was so much of thinking activity happening. Along with this was the fellowship, which I have not even got a chance to think about. There was an extreme pressure to be considerate towards students and not let one frustration pour over another.

On the other hand, I gave my GRE and then later TOEFL – and god knows how I managed both! Luckily, it was a weekend and a Dassera holiday before my GRE exam and I got 2 whole days to study. This was the peak of preparation for the Cultural Spaces project. I am grateful to my boss at the MMB to allow me a holiday on the day of my exam. The GRE experience could be elaborated in another blog, and I do not have the time to do that, but all I can say right now is that I can’t understand why I got such less marks even when I felt that the paper was easy. How is one to understand or comprehend such a feeling? My score was just 1140 and it still scares me while putting my applications. On the other hand, I literally had no time to prepare for TOEFL. I just took a CD one day prior to my exams from a friend, and had to seriously catch up on sleep the day before the exam. I went home straight from college and slept for a good 4 hours. I then got up and revised from the computer software. I felt so lazy even practicing those questions that I just familiarized myself with the questions and went back to sleep. The toefl exam was long, extraordinarily long. I felt it was an utter waste of time and resources. Both in GRE and TOEFL, I feel I did well in the Writing sections.

Lastly. the cultural spaces project was a roller coaster. It started with elaborate preparations in Mumbai before going – making lists, confirming schedules, pick ups and drop-offs…plethora of silly managerial things…However, after about 20 years, I made a journey through the flight again. The main meeting was to be held in Delhi and we were accommodated at the Taj Palace. This was my first stay at a fivestar hotel… I made some blunders too – by eating from the store…and paid a bomb – but that was just a case of misunderstanding by me. Anyway, I don’t want to elaborate on that enough. We travelled in Delhi for a day and I met a lot of people – considered to be great names in the research and criticism field. the meeting was very formal, which was not intended to be so. The food at Delhi was only German and Thai all the time, which was partly the reason of munching at the Taj (oh! I still feel the pinch on my pocket!). Rupali, Matthias and myself came back a day earlier to start the Mapping workshop at Kamla Raheja…I never got a chance to participate in the workshop, but the next day, I took Matthias for a South Mumbai Darshan. I think I made him mad after a lot of walking and roaming. But I think now I know about him a lot more than anyone else in the international expert team. Matthias was the sweetest of all in the group! As the days went by, the experts started making shifts in their schedules and then started the rounds of changes, rescheduling and re informing. I could hardly concentrate on all that, since I was busy with ,my TOEFL, colleges and also I was least interested in the managerial jobs. However, Jayashree did taunt me a couple of times, which I almost ignored, until the last day. On 17th, when the trip was supposed to end, Jayashree again wanted to tell me things, but I also resisted to some extent. Later, I spoke to Marla and things were fine.
Diwali was good – I invited Robert and Bindi home for the laxmi poojan. Otherwise the Diwali was a quite affair…it gave a much needed rest time and I have got back at my applications and paperwork…

Have to compile a portfolio, resume, SOP, transcripts, admission forms, recommendations….a lot of stuff to be done…so no breathing time yet…hope to see positive signs in future!

:( :) :/ :&

It is quite unfortunate, that though there have been such important and interesting twists in life, i have gotten time to write this blog at a time when i am extremely put off.

However, I am going to generalize this phenomenon and blur the specifics such that my post is politically correct. It is now apparent to me that only donkey work will pay you well. This work is mechanical and involves a lot of ‘running around’. My theory is that since there are very few people who can do such running around well, they get paid very well. That is I guess, the job of Event Organizers is based on such a premise. Such people have a great network, and they show it off brilliantly. All they do is find specialists and supply them to those needed.

On the other hand, it is completely absurd to be a ‘jack of all trades’ in the contemporary modern world. The professional world is craving for more and more specialization. One day will come when there will be specialists who will tell you how to tie the lace of your shoe or wipe your ass hole after shitting! In this race, the Germans will be in the forefront, I guess.

anyway, I am SICK OF BEING FORMAL…

and I want to stop writing this shit!!!!