On the station

I spotted this completely traditionally dressed old man on the station today and could not help but take a picture. He looked absolutely contrasting against the fast passing train. It was a different combination of the old and the new. And while i turned behind waiting for the train, I could see all the people engrossed in different activities - a student studying his notes, a man reading newspaper, the smell of vada pavs, a man running towards the first class, people talking on the mobile phone, some people peeping on the station towards the train - so many things which the camera can not capture...






















Mornings are active, and seeing the sun rise every day is beautiful...especially from a moving train, which reels the city against the static sun, cutting profiles into the full orange circle and making new geometries all the time!

Nihara's house

I suddenly happened to go to Nihara's house on Wednesday. She shifted to this new place after marriage due to some personal reasons with her new family. The house was cozy simple space - the kitchen separated with a curtain, cut short by a bathroom, which was filled with buckets of water! They had a single cupboard, a single diwan, refrigerator and a television. What was the most fascinating thing was the cooking gas stove, which she could easily carry across the curtained partition of the kitchen into the living space and cook food along with the guest (or her partner otherwise). I felt that was  nice. In our conventional homes where kitchen becomes almost an isolated space with no connection with the rest of the house, here, the kitchen was brought in the living.

Since Swapnil met with an accident, he came home instead of attending his site visit. He then showed me a gift that he prepared for Nihara for her birthday (love marriages I say!). It was the backdrop of the television space (the photo frame, and the frame for the frames). The house is rented space, so there can be no permanent alterations. So all the objects are about (atleast one inch) away from the wall. The TV, diwan, cupboard, fridge, poofie...everything. Even a small aquarium, which has about 5 fishes. They feed them from time to time. I wondered if people actually become so lonely! Or is it just the fascination?

It was nice and cozy, still free...I could feel the freedom. Homes have become so institutionalized that they have become like museums. Why can they be a bit more relaxed. Like this one. I wonder how it fits with the other parameters of family, work, lifestyle... where each category has an individual aspiration. Does Nihara live with aspiration? i could not really discuss that with her. But "making one's home" is definitely an aspiration of the family. How does it cope up such expectation within a rented space - where life is lived an inch away from the walls? I wonder. Perhaps then, house starts becoming a collection of objects. And these objects seem alien, though fulfil the aspiration of a complete house.

We spoke about things, which were a kind of continuation to the five years of architecture. And this is what is always different in talking with Nihara, Madhavi ... the freshness of talk, which is always leading towards newer directions in life. I dont know if i am making sense over here, but these are abstract thoughts which i keep questioning...of what would friends talk in different phases of their life, what would the scenario be with different constraints with living...of what are the pleasure giving things later, how does the idea of these experiences change...? Unlike with my other groups of friends, who always end up consummating all discussion in a nostalgic past, talks with Nihara's company is a continuation of where we stopped last...with the flavour of same old jokes, old memories, but seen in new light.

New Pics

Meetings

 KRVIA after class discussion

AOA Meet at Marzaban's place to discuss new prog

Meeting school friends!

Express City

The BEST buses constantly try and update its services. Some time ago, it started this new idea of having Rs. 20 tickets which would allow you to travel throughout the day anywhere within the suburbs north of Bandra. There was also a Rs. 25 ticket – the regulations of which I don’t know. Then there were passes for regular route travelers and a global pass for Rs. 1000 which could be used throughout Mumbai all the time.

I think after that, half the world travelling in Mumbai BEST buses started using these 20 rupee tickets and passes – school students, office goers, courier wallahs, workers, bhaji wallahs, delivery men, service men – all of them. Perhaps only those who now took tickets were the house wives who would occasionally travel to some places via the bus.

Some time ago, I confronted this new situation – the express bus, in which passes, 20 rupee ticket and 25 rupee tickets would not be sold or not be allowed. Moreover, the ticket charges in the bus would be more than the normal. The argument provided was that it would not stop on all bus stations, and was to reach the destination faster thus. However, many people did not (and still do not know about such a service). In the morning today, I decided to take this bus, just to avoid waiting too long in the queue. As the bus moved, I realized that it wasn’t still clear to people that the ‘express’ bus would not allow passes or 20 rupee tickets. So there were many people who got in and then the bus driver waited on each stop for them to get down again!

Two observations which I would like to point out –
1. Most of these 20 rupee travelers were north Indians (UP and Bihar).
2. The ‘express’ bus stopped at all stops and waited extra time to convey the message about who is allowed and not allowed.

Whom has the BEST service brought out this 20 rupee scheme for? this question might not be relevant, or politically incorrect, but the pressure on the buses is increasing day by day. everyday chaos, standing in long queues, negotiating getting in, jumping, running, crawling, sticking onto the buses, traveling has become painful. When the bus gets crowded, the corporeal experience changes – its no longer visual. the environment of a bus is then extremely polluted, people rubbing against you, stamping, farting, sweating and all of it is literally shared with everyone. the smell is suffocating, and the amount of jerks that the driver puts you in does not leave any chance of hitting on to all these ‘kinds of people’.

The time of commute is less than the time we wait for a bus. It takes me 45 minutes to travel from Churchgate to Goregaon (30 km), while one hour to go from Goregaon station to Dindoshi (1.5 km). What kind of a service is this? While new neighbourhoods have come up, it seems that the existing infrastructure has been divided into many routes. Where there were 6 buses to choose from earlier to go to my place, now there are only 3.

However, today’s travel clearly shows that the public transport has shrunk to carry only the menial working class of the city. New plans are developed for these new workers of the city. A new opportunity is seen in this migrant population which run the city. The basic standards of a bus are constantly modified – they play old songs repeatedly, earlier coupled seats are separate, they are made up in plastic, windows slide sideways, there are stop gates in the front (which are still barged)…
Whom is the city changing for? I wonder.

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