What more can an architectural professional do?

In the professional world, awards become a means to validate practices. Awards give you something to flaunt about yourself. Awards are purchased and sold. Most of these awards are organized by cement or steel companies that want professionals to use their products. On the other hand, awards are given to establish linkages and networks. Very few of these awards are academic (given for buildings that address academic issues).

In the midst of all this, if architectural professionals stepped back and thought about larger agendas with their practices, we would have a much responsible built environment.

I was thinking what Responsibilities of architecture professionals could be:

1. To take some time and teach skills to upcoming students.
2. Engage in more intellectual works by reading and writing.
3. Be open to criticism and open for dialogue with students.
4. Inspire people by taking up challenging projects.
5. Contribute to public works in the city by means of critique and suggestions
6. Keep a check on the capitalistic notions in market and maintain integrity of the profession.
7. Supporting students by means other than financial - adopt good students and sponsor basic work infrastructure.
8. Publish and reflect more upon cultural and everyday activities around them.

Reading Landscapes

Wall Building

Image city

Checklist for Immigrating Students

My friend Akhil Kapadia just shared with me an absolutely vital list that every immigrating student would like to have for efficient planning.

I must thank Akhil for allowing me to share it with all on my blog upon my request.

On academic spaces

I have spent the past week writing an essay for the college magazine, where I was asked to talk about the academic orientation of the school. Writing elaborate notes, explanations, incidents, I felt I would never be able to express something in the given word limit. I have been a voracious recorder of AOA on my blog and felt repeating any of it would not be helpful for me or my readers. Three things that I went ahead with in my head with was - my audience, my opinion and the practical constraints like the word limit given to me. I defined my audience as students, faculty and management of AOA, my opinion as critical and my word limit stretched to 1500.

Although I would publish the write-up on my blog here in some time, Here I present the edited substantiation on the essay. The original essay has already been criticized by the Principal (AOA-UA), saying that I "could have used my 1000 words more effectively" and that I "should have constructed the article without any reference to the Institution's history". This according to me is highly political. However, I do not have any more time to dwell on the essay. Here are edited excerpts of the article that is (hopefully) soon to be published in "Rachana Evergreen" magazine.

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Generally, the academia is constructed and projected as something that would aid the building industry. But the academia has to critically address the building industry so that new directions are opened up for pursuits of the act of building. The academia has been a product of the act of building buildings.

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over a facebook conversation on 'relationship between practice and academia', Prasad Shetty says:

"Why is only the architectural academia expected to 'bridge the gap' with the act of building buildings (I think the term practice is too broad to be used here as being in the academia is also a practice). Can we find ways where the act of making buildings becomes sligtly more academic."

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Over the last year, during an intense academic meeting, some one assertively said, "Whenever someone comes to me with a confused mind thinking over the choice of his / her career, I suggest him/her to do architecture."

This statement has merits as well as demerits. I will be glad to believe that architecture exposes a person to a range of things in the course of its study and enables and individual to engage with a range of conditions. However, it is the failure of our academic space if it is not able to cater to the dilemma of ‘choice’ that every student faces in this vast range of subjects that are available today. Nor do our universities allow any cross pollination of ideas between various departments. That is something I leave for a larger discussion later. 

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Should the role of academic space be to critically address such changing mode of production or should it become a default function of such demand? In other words, should architectural schools enable its students to think of possible new ways of emerging practices or should they reduce themselves to become vocational centres which equip students with skills to work in offices?

An attempt to answer the above question posits us to an existential predicament – whether education is meant to satisfy the hunger of stomach or satiate the restive mind? It is only societal hegemony that separates the two. A learned individual uses his / her education to negotiate the real world and invents new tools while struggling to placate his / her existential needs. We are made to believe that the academy is supposed to equip with tools. But ideally, one must develop one’s own tools in the way one chooses to use one’s education.

In my opinion, academic spaces need to help students to get interested in themselves, with their immediate environment and become sensitive as well as critical to these conditions. Such conditions have to be located in a larger cultural, social and political environment.

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The first year studio’s intention has, for us, been about leaving the baggage that the student has always been carrying with him/her. We place our understanding of architecture in a broad social, anthropological and critical episteme, where students understand the ‘self’, look at things around critically, and understand their own social construct.

Thereby, we attempt at drawing our architectural problems from social conditions, notions of history (institutional and personal) and certain set clichés in perception which are brought to the class and followed by a rigorous process of deconstruction. In the process of this deconstruction is the building up of the project.

Architectural Design studios are about CONSTRUCTION OF MEANING in contrast to the skill based exercises of Basic Design. Students are forced to understand the meaning of architectural forms, the way things function, and why are they the way they are. We try to delve in this meaning through various forms of media like films, readings, essays and critical discussions.

from Academic Report 2009-10, Architectural Design, AOA

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Four very important, misunderstood words:

Glossary:

Practice: Learning to do a job by repetition.

Profession: The aspect of using practice as a service. The exchange of service for money. 

Discipline: Critical reflection on the way on practices and executes in real world.

Institutionalization: the term is used to denote the process of making a mode of behaviour as an established custom or norm within a system

-this section to be elaborated over an independent post

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look forward for

"In Search of Academic Space"

at Dagagiri

and Rachana Magazine (if it's not opposed)

River in the City

Second Complaint to BEST / Bus stops in Mumbai

Dear Sir / Madam,

It is extremely encouraging to have your responses and constructive dialogue towards positive action. In this same positive spirit, please allow me to continue to point out several other matters of design that you must critically address while you upgrade the BEST infrastructure in future. I would like to remind you that these 'reflections' come about through my expertise in architecture and design.

Over this post, I would like to talk about the BEST bus stops in the city presently. Honestly, I am not aware how the process is facilitated (who builds these bus stops and how are they executed). But I am sure you have a stake in funding them. I understand there must be many economic, technical and technological constraints in realizing them across the city. However as a user, tax-payer and concerned designer, I would like to point out the following:

The BEST bus stops at most suburbs are over-designed. These bus stops can be much simpler and efficient. Right now, they seem to be using more material than required, ergonomically incorrect and extremely dysfunctional. Let me explain what problems users face with the present bus stops. Eventually, I will talk about factors must be ideally considered while you plant a bus stop on any pavement:

a.     The Bus stop not only indicates a stop for the bus, but also becomes a temporary shelter for the passenger of the bus on the road. A shelter has to protect the user from externalities like rain, sun, etc, and at the same time, it must organize movement of passengers into the bus. 

b.    The present bus stops do nothing of the above – they have only become objects to take on as many advertisements onto themselves as possible. Apart from this ‘marketing’ function, bus stops have to respond to two important parameters:

i.    Response to Sun: Bus stops must provide shade – most of the times, people have to stand in scorching sun. Sometimes, they move away from the bus stops to go to areas of shade to alongside shops or boundary walls, stand behind the bus stop in its shade to protect themselves from the heat. This is the first failure of the stops, since people refrain from using them the way they are intended to.

ii.   Response to Rains: People get wet in rains while standing in the bus stops since there is no adequate overhang that protects them from windy rains. Several times, people stand with open umbrellas under the bus stops since they leak tremendously. This means that the gutters of bus stop roofs are not fixed properly or need maintenance.

In both the above cases, what essentially is the use of providing an overhead roof?

c.     The seats of bus stops are very badly designed. There is not enough gap between the backrest (rod) and the seat to place one’s bum comfortably. Moreover, the railing opposite to the seat is too close to allow a person to stretch legs or even allow another passenger to pass through the already formed queue. 

d.    The signage of every bus stop is illegible. It gets hidden in the depth of the bill board on the top (due to the perspective way humans see) and almost gets neglected because of its size as compared to the bill board.

The above problems occur because of extremely poor understanding of how people interact with urban furniture (street infrastructure). The designer of the above bus stop has not taken into consideration any of the above factors, which are intrinsic to the place of Mumbai – scorching heat and heavy rains. A simple solution would have been to think of permissible projecting roofs that not only shade but also protect against rain (a principle similar to chhajas in buildings). Massive prototyping of same bus stop module may be important for large scale production, but please understand that small alterations in design can make them adaptable to different light (sun) and local conditions of the city. (Sun-paths i.e. direction of sunlight can be studied and designs can be made adaptable). When people stray away from bus stops in search of shade, they have to run towards the bus when it arrives on the stop – often, in this running, people miss the bus, hurt themselves by crowding at the bus entrance. Thus, a small factor creates a huge mess.

Secondly, the bus stops along Bandra-Kurla Complex (the ones near MMRDA work brilliantly, are extremely simple and a great example to follow. They offer good seating, good shade and enough protection against rains. How do they seem to be so well planned?

Lastly, I hope you will locate the design priorities of bus stops in the correct order, as explained above. The issues of shelter and BEST instructions are more important than advertisements and bill boards on the bus stops. With increased ticket fares and almost double the amount of people travelling through BEST buses, it is the responsibility of BEST to cater to important issues first and make itself the best transportation service in the country.

I have more notes to make. However, we can discuss them one at a time. Your active involvement and dialogue will be really helpful.

Looking forward to your response on the above.

P.S.: A photo documentation of the above issues can be generated and compiled. Drawings explaining problems could also be initiated. Attached are images of bus stop designs being referred to.

source of above photo: http://vgshah.wordpress.com/2011/02/10/love-u-zindagi/

source of above photo: http://www.mumbaimirror.com

Anuj Daga

Architect, Mumbai.

anujdaga1@gmail.cm

a.daga@aoamumbai.in

            +91 98191 41118 begin_of_the_skype_highlighting            +91 98191 41118      end_of_the_skype_highlighting      

201, Hill View Society, 

Yashodham, Film City Road, 

Goregaon (East), Mumbai – 400 063.  

On Tue, Jul 10, 2012 at 12:01 PM, Transport <transport@bestundertaking.com> wrote:

Sir,

This refers to your mail to us.

Your suggestion regarding Seats, Windows, Destination boards etc. have buses forwarded to the concerned section for taking necessary action.

As regards Bus Drivers/Conductors not giving adequate time to passengers to board the buses, necessary introductions are being given to them.

Yours Faithfully
Traffic Manager
Planning & Control

Architecture & Play

Our most recent AD brief for the third year design students asks them to abstract the idea of play in architecture to make a museum for games. The method they have been asked to follow is to extract principles behind games and use them as architectural rules.

I am going to try to theorize here, as per my thinking, the idea of 'play' in architecture.
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PLAY-SPORT-GAME:

A simple, singular activity, that doesnot involve too many parameters, executed towards attaining some form of pleasure may be identified as play. Play is physical - it relates to a bodily experience. It can be experienced through the five senses of the body. Play becomes a sport when the idea of competition is attached to it. The idea of competition establishes a hierarchy over the skill one possesses over the play. Plays generally finetune themselves to become sports. Sports may also articulate themselves through the combination of multiple plays. A sport complexifies thus, its form through the involvement or layering of many plays. Plays become skill-based activities that people compete over where pleasure eventually becomes a byproduct of competition. Pleasure now doesnot remain physical, but goes beyond to a state of mind. 

When plays happen within the realm of the mind, they become games. When sports are played within the frame of mind, they assume the status of games. This doesnot mean that games are non-physical. When physical actions are planned enough in the mind before being executed, plays become games. Games involve some kind of mental strategizing.

The understanding of sports v/s games thus start getting complicated. It is difficult to dissociate mind-body actions and hence, sports and games become inter-changable and do not fall into one bracket. They constantly share methodologies of each other. Games however, must have a larger quotient of mind than a sport. Sports are generally associated as being more physical. Hence, we see that much of the times, we associate 'games' as something indoor, something that happens 'within'; something that can not be 'seen' - that which goes on in the mind. On the other hand, sports are plays that happen in open spaces, they are performative and visible to everyone.

Something that is visible is always perceived as more transparent (fair-play). Hence, 'game' often assumes a negative shade in its use in everyday life (don't play games with me)...

Another dimension to games is also that they are tactical - the destiny of a game is controlled by externalities. In case of board games, the die controls the fate of the game. Thus it becomes unpredictable, and attributed to luck. On the other hand, a sport can be easily won over by appropriate practice and efficient application of physical skill.

PLAY IN SPACE:


Plays in space are often manifested through opposing ideas. For example, light and dark, up and down, in and out, high and low, here and there, etc. Such ideas essentially allow for multiple possibilities to exist simultaneously. (note the conjunction 'and' - which suggests the co-existence of dual qualities). Such simultaneous existence layers the reading of a space and makes it more meaningful. But this shall not be sufficient to make a space playful.

One of the key aspects of play is uncertainty. The way in which one choreographs the above contrasts in space to weave a story may enrich the concept of play in space. The idea of surprise is could become one of the central ideas for play. (Although, surprises can have many shades and need not necessarily become playful. Sometimes, surprises can result into shock, or completely undesirable revelations). Playful surprises are uncannily friendly - to some extent, they should be anticipatory.

Visual articulation of space can also make it playful.

PLAY IN MAKING:


The formation of rules is what shapes up a game ultimately. It is the rules that generate the 'play' for games. The tactical maneuvering of rules generates endless possibilities of making a game playful. What then, shall be such maneuvering for architecture? Perhaps the provision of multiple possibilities for the user to perform a single action in space, the possibility of the user to utilize the space in manifold ways, in essence, allowing the space to adopt for tactical use by its user may be looked upon as something that constructs play. 

PLAY IN ARCHITECTURE:


Play in architecture can be more like playing with the vocabulary of architecture. One can challenge certain notions of ways of building through the ideas of play. Since play is also about 'rules' and 'parameters', architecture can become playful by constantly challenging these established rules for itself. One of the examples I would like to cite here is Robert Venturi's house for her mother. Although Venturi almost plays with the visual in the first instance, there is also a rupture of the established notions of making a layout. Thus, the act of architecture may also become playful by re looking its own self, by innovatively using its own tool box (the tools / elements through which architecture is realized)

Logo AOA

Today, I stumbled upon the unsubmitted proposal for the new logo of AOA, that I designed 2 years ago. I feel now, it has so much merit and aesthetic. How I wish if this logo would have been posted, and become the emblem of AOA!

anyway, here is it for pleasure. Notice the subtlety and response to original context of the Rachana Logo.
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Thought:

The idea was to create a window frame through which Academy looks out to the world. Window was chosen so as to relate it to an architectural elementThe lower panes of this window were kept closed. . The idea of 'seeing through' a window was abstracted. The repeating As in 'Academy of Architecture' were made similar yet different. As a response to the Rachana logo of the tree, which only has areal roots and the large canopy,  I felt a need to establish the real roots. Subsequently, the graphic abstraction (nolly) of the Rachana Logo was inverted to form the new logo, such that it looks from the same family. The new logo creates an invisible diagram of an 'anchor' through its white space. The anchors relate to the roots.

The symbolic appeal of the created logo as related to closing quotation marks was used on the letter head as the closing marks of a letter, hence placed on the bottom right. Similarly it was placed with the same principle in mind, on the envelope.

All other merchandise responded to the curves and the shapes.

Logo

In colour

Rachana Logo with Proposed AOA logo

Envelop

Letter head

Visiting Card

Looking Around

Four years at AOA - Part 4

As I look back at this journey of my life, I feel I did take initiatives within my scope to bring potential reforms in the school. However very few, or perhaps nothing saw the light of the day. One could count many reasons - ranging from faculties to students to staff. The biggest that I cite is the lack of enough enthusiasm and support from the students. Although there are students who are seriously interested in doing things, their strength is almost dwarfed when a large mass doesnot support them. On multiple occasions, I relied too much on my students to take my ideas further. But I think relying on students in the current scenario is a mistake. I think we must realize that students who come for this course are interested in areas which they don't even know. Some are good in management, some in visual composition, some in arrangement and some in verbal presentation and articulation. We as faculty must identify these student skills and put them to correct use / develop the remaining. But even to this, one has to have student participation. Students have to have the will to do things, to contribute and learn from handling events. They have to have love for their work, space and institution. Above all, they have to have love for the field they have chosen. Varying degrees of such interest affects the quality of final production. But I may be underestimating them - perhaps I expected too much out of them. I am over ambitious. As a student, I took a number of initiatives to organize and participate in events happening at the college.

When students do not see quality production, the standard of what they can themselves achieve goes down. In today's age of the Internet , students seldom go out to exhibition spaces and art galleries to look at ways in which people speak, present and display work. In turn, they are not able to positively contribute ideas towards events that may be organised. Moreover, they also lack innovation. I immensely learnt to speak, think and present in public from the public functions I attended outside of school. Ways of talking, addressing or even responding in public is something the school never really taught me. That I learnt from observation. What I imbibed from my teachers is the attitude of an architect and how to talk about design confidently. 

The second arena was the lack of enthusiasm in faculty. In order to realise programs I wrote multiple concept notes, and ideated things. But all those things could not be realised without a mass faculty support. Thus these ideas remained limited to classroom lectures and smaller class projects. The maximum that I could achieve as a coordinator was to combine, inter relate some subject assignments to increase the production and efficacy of work. For example, I tried to incorporate the process of making the newsletter in graphics class or took up documentation / digitization of study trips in computers class. I hardly saw student initiative to produce work - even when the work timing was limited to class hours. In addition, hegemonic ideas passed on by mediocre seniors about those subjects being redundant affected the seriousness of understanding as well as quantity of production. Students never thought these classes could be effectively used for reflection on their own ways of working and developing their visual communication skills.

Teachers come in with their own set of problems and issues. It is difficult, but may be interesting to map their intentions behind teaching. For most, teaching has become a convenient option to spend time and earn a quick buck. That is why most people opt for a design subject. Crit based evaluation allows them to reduce a design project to a set of dos and donts. What then, must one count as an input in the design course? According to me, a design tutor is supposed to evolve a small idea that a student brings to class using his / her theorectical and practical skills. Theories are important for the designer to understand and develop ways in which they can develop their thinking. Most of our teachers have no idea of theory. Theories from disciplines different from architecture are farfetched to imagine.  Professors of design have to offer students tools of thinking, which I seldom received during my architectural education. If I was to re look at my 5 years of architectural education, I would largely tag myself as 'self taught'. Many a times I have observed that fresh graduates opt for teaching because it is assumably the seat of the intellect. But they seldom contribute to the growth of knowledge. This, they can do by writing, talking and duscussing about architectural issues. Crit based evaluation system flattens the depth of architectural education. I have always remained deeply concerned regarding this.

I thought I would be able to mobilise students using the great internet connectivity that mr. Punde facilitated for us. However it was extremely disappointing to see that there were hardly students responding, participating or using this facility towards their positive development. Since I briefly controlled the AOA E Mail Server admin, I could see the status of usage of each of the members accounts. It was disheartening to find that there were a good amount of students who never even logged in to their accounts. The faculties disregarded this portal and chose to remain archaic. They were not motivated at all to advance.

Multiple forms were sent off at some periods like the Course evaluation form. I developed and refined it from an existing form provided by prof. Punde. Only 180 out of 450 students responded. These instances make me realise failure of the system inspite of hard work and time spent in refining or tightening the system.

I prepared the AOA research fellowship brief, which never saw the light of the day. I don't know what really went wrong. The manifesto I prepared with Atul was never realised since he chose to leave the full time post in the immediate next year. His contributions went down drastically till he finally left this college this year. Subsequently, along with Arjun Sharma, I prepared a research proposal to study the history of Academy of Architecture. We could never really take that project ahead to the next level. I think I realized that it would require a lot of time and effort and doing it without any funding would not be feasible. Lots of such work that was initiated and never saw the light of the day....

Now that I prepare to go for my masters, I am being suggested to look into what my faculties at my new University are doing and whether I find any research parallels to join them. I never saw it happening at Academy. The most public aspect of my being at Academy - the dagagiri blog just remained a passive mirror of sorts that reflected the everyday at AOA. It did not become a discussion space inspite of posting provocative and activist posts. I used to regularly review projects and methodologies over this portal. I wonder if students ever reflected upon their work... All this makes me feel if the architecture audience at Academy is dead...

The streamlined processes of archival were meant for documentation and preservation for knowledge production. I had to struggle a lot to get students contribute equally and with interest. To give an example, marrying machines project was the first student work blog (www.marryingmachines.blogspot.com) Academy ever had. We scanned sheets of documentation work of studies in the city and outside. I got students to start writing a 100 word summary at the end of their projects....many such smaller things were never a part of academy culture.

I recently found myself explaining to a co faculty how academy has still not realised the importance and urgency of investing in a physical as well as virtual archival space. A school's value are its archives. We have absolutely negligible archive mechanisms. Neiher do we have space, nor do we have people who produce good publications.

However, I hope this body of work, this culture of reflection helps me at my graduate school. I am sure to find enthusiastic people at my new school where I can look forward to write, discuss, think, publish, design....and a host of things...I am sure it will be exciting...


END

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POSTSCRIPT:

I carry a heavy burden of AOA. I realise how much I care for the reputation of this school, because I consider myself as a representative of the school. At the same time, this school represents me too. I would like to believe that I studied in an excellent architecture school in india. However, when I look back, I find myself how easily I surpassed the school...how then, must one define this relationship? I tried to pull this elephant, trying to make it stand and race. And I know how much energy I put into it. Sometimes I feel if I only tried a little more, I could have moved this elephant enough to tickle it and make it run. But then it was already time to leave.


I don't know if I will have to start all over again once I come back, or will the elephant have taken a completely new turn. Will this elephant recognize me? Will it listen to me? I have all these insecurities. But I do realize the strong bond that has developed between me and this institution....What is the logical direction this journey will make? This question keeps me occupied and distracted...


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Links to thread
part 1
part 2
part 3