Clouds

a fairy tale:

There exists very little social significance of clouds in our history. We talk of stars, we talk of planets - even the moon and others. But do we have extensive texts on the clouds?

Clouds give a much needed texture to the otherwise blue sky. Have you ever imagined the size of the sky - how big is it? It is the clouds that vanish and become the sky. Perhaps the intermediary phase between the sky and the earth (as per the big bang). They come together and go apart. They give us a focus to look at the otherwise infinite sky. We stare at clouds - deformed lumps of gas - and imagine multiple shapes through our gestalts. Sometimes fields of cotton, sometimes angels flying across, sometimes mountains or sometimes letters in the air. Clouds make us realize that we flow in time. That we move.

In summers, winters and rains, it does its job interestingly well. In its density, it consumes the scorching summer sun. Through its voids, it shows how light beams reach the earth. Through its threshold, it softens the light. In the rains, it contains water. Unlike the suns, moons or the planets, it holds no ego. It is ready to dissolve and melt. It is generous to take every one in. It leaves no room to explore. The planes dash through it. The birds fly within it.

And sometimes, they bring out unknown colours of the sky. Orange, yellow, purple - and the grey-black-white of the cloudy nights. All so titillating. It gives meaning to the 'wait' on specific festival days, by hiding the moon.

Marianna Hillmer, my German friend, after reading this post further added that I must see William Turner's paintings - and how beautifully it fits this post. Here are some paintings borrowed from various sites:

Historically, clouds have always been associated with confusion, unsurity and unclarity. They depict the storm, rough times, and unstable environment. It is only through the clouds that the sky can be moulded, twisted, skewed...Interestingly, it fits in the modern day terminologies of information technology - after the chaos theory. We today extensively use 'cloud computing' for communication purposes. It refers to a diverse set of end users that the computing caters to.

In modern plays, clouds are used to hide you, make you invisible or secretly bring up a character on stage. Thus they are associated with mystery and magic. Conceptually, they refer to something that 'appears from thin air'. They appear and disappear. Thus they allow time for magic to happen on stage.

And one could keep counting. Now am I romanticizing a bit too much?

PDF Trial

I am trying to look at options to transferring this blog to wordpress. I am bored of the formats of Blogger. I tried and found out ways to do that too, and I might do it some day. But, today I thought I must try out if I could do things that I want to do in wordpress, in blogger itself. One of them was attaching a pdf document. I did find some makeshift solution. Although I am not really happy with this ugly baby window, it serves the purpose.Try out making a sketch book by printing these papers. These grids will never let your falter in your 3d drawings!

Fore more, go to www.printablepaper.net
Grid Papers

Gift

What a perfect book to get at a time when I leave the architecture school.
Thank you Narwekar Sir.

The guilt of vacation

earlier title "On Defensiveness"


Now a days, students are extremely defensive. When you give them suggestions, they immediately have an answer that 'but i dont want to do this'. In the past few weeks I have experienced this multiple times from multiple students. Many come over the vacation to ask how they must best make the use of it. Generally I suggest them to go out an explore different programs outside the architecture school, meet people outside their domain and see if they can find any interest in things more than architecture. When I tell people that one could try photography, music or learn even sketching at home, they do not see any value in it. They discard the idea right at the outset. They portray as if they know what they want to do. But if that was the case, they would never come to seek guidance from you. Then, the questions that arise are whether they really want to engage themselves in something or whether they just want to portray that they are concerned about the free time they have and that they must make some productive use of it. 


Try giving them an option of going for an exhibition or a free film screening and they will be all ready with excuses of escaping the idea. I guess, psychologically they are looking for people with whom they can spend time chatting or gossiping. Hence they approach a number of people to talk about heir pseudo dilemma. The talk is strained and stretched through the discussion of why an how they would not prefer a suggestion you open up for them. At the end they would say: okay I will think about it; and then they would leave.


When you look back at the situation, you feel you helped someone clarify. But most of these people donot bother about the content of the long talk you have with them. Actually, they have just had a good chatting time with you. But one wonders if your suggestions have confused them or helped them towards making a decision... 


Lastly, when confused, I have always blindly followed people whom I respect and seek guidance from. I do not question my guide when I am confused myself. I agree and execute the suggestion given to me. It may so happen that you do not end up liking what you did. But the engagement definitely leaves you with an experience and some amount of skill which reflects subconsciously in any work you take up in the future.


If as students, we understand our position as students, it would be so much more beneficial. Whats the point of arguing over an aspect that we ourselves are unsure of? Or else we must make ourselves clear of our agenda to kill time during the vacation. It is legitimate to do so for vacations an must not induce any factor of guilt.

Ando in Mumbai

Hurriedly people were called, and there were far too many people who missed the function. Still, the auditorium was full and there were quite a few people who didnot get a place to sit. Tadao Ando was in India, more specifically in Mumbai, Vikhroli - Godrej Compound. This was not the first time he was here. As Ando stated, he came to India for 8 consecutive years after 1976 to study modern architects' work in India - works of Le Corbusier, Louis I Kahn, etc. In his present visit, he was taken for a helicopter ride over the left over mangroves of the city by the Godrejs.

The anchor Parmesh Shahani informed that Tadao Ando was the only architect to have won four of the most coveted titles in architecture: The Pritzker, the Premium Imperiale, Gold Medal AIA and France. Ando spoke in Japanese, which was translated to us in English by a hurried translator. It was amusing to find that even the proper nouns that Ando took in Japanese, sounded Japanese! And I also wondered how the translator could pronounce the Japanese proper nouns in such good English! Ando presented some of his projects - two slides each. He didnot speak anything about his way of working. That is more evident in his monographs, authored by others! His monograph was on sale for Rs. 2500/- only. It sold like hot cakes. Apparently, Ando would personally sign them at the end for 20 minutes - but only the monograph, no signatures on diaries!

As I entered the lobby, I saw a bunch of Japanese delegates: all looked Andos. Ando too looked like one of them as he stood on the stage - short, meek, but sharp and crisp. After all, he's a boxer; not an architect. Well that's what he confirmed - he never went to an architecture school. The interesting aspect, or view point that he brought to the presentation was that although Japan got multiple chances to re-organize itself, it never laid any focus on building green spaces. Japan depends heavily on other countries for natural resources. Showing the picture of a Japanese city, he claimed that Japan doesnot have enough green spaces, those which have almost become landmarks in other cities like New York (Central Park) or Mumbai (Sanjay Gandhi National Park). The other interesting thing he said was that buildings bring people together.

He appeared to be a frantic builder. It seems he loved to build, propose buildings. This was very evident from his subsequent proposals after he built his first project at the Mount Rokko - which too was a part of his 'building desire'. As he went on to explain the Rokko development, he said that he took up the immediate next project on Rokko hesitatingly; and the next three to placate his urge to construct on the mountain. Thus, one could call the mountain and Mount Ando instead of Mount Rokko. None of the monographs mention this aspect of his building spree. A ritualistic aspect of all big architects is to have been selected to contribute for the Olympic / Commonwealth games in their countries. Ando is selected too. He would build the stadium for the Olympics 2020 in Japan.

One can see the 4 projects Ando built on Mount Rokko in the above image

Ando kept on iterating his concern or interest for the mangroves abruptly throughout his presentation. His idea was to make it an icon of the city. Needless to say, he imagined only through what he saw. The National Park or the Mithi was never a part of his public address. The helicopter would only help him to see from the top, the place where it is allowed to hover! Anyway, I think there is a formula for a successful presentation in a foreign city. I would try to spell it out here:

1. Absorb the feel of the city you visit. Summarize the experiences of the place quickly. These experiences have to be projected as the positive aspects of the place for the people.
2. Tell the people that they are lucky to be in the kind of place they are in. Tell them that you have visited 'n' number of places in their country and thus you know about their place. This way they like you.
3. Tell the people about the negative aspects of the place you live in. This way, you strengthen point no. 2
4. Green (understood as sustainable) is the  mantra today. Tried and tested. No one would reject greenery around them. If there is nothing you can talk about, say that you are proponent of nature and trees.
5. Don't allow for questions or answers sessions. If there is one, and it goes in unexpected direction, make reference to point 1 and dissolve the conversation.

Ando did all of the above. Business.
In the end, he urged Godrejs to give him an opportunity to work with them. We heard that he would do a project for them in India!

India remains the hot spot for most architects around the world today. Some time ago, I attended a lecture on "Urban Futures" hosted by Studio X (a Columbia University initiative) inviting SOM, HOK and Perkins and Eastman to present their work. It was a disastrous event. And needless to say, Mark Wigley - the dean of Columbia (?) used the 5 points above to establish his business hold in the city / country.

Foreign architects do not understand much about the dynamics of our country and cities. They use most of us as their hands - as donkeys. We work for them because they are able to pay us a little more than what we would have otherwise earned. However, what we can definitely learn from them is professionalism. We fall in for them since they are able to give an image to our aspirations (physically). They are able to give a physical dimension to our desires. They have the technology and expertise to do so.