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They make their houses quite interestingly. Using rejected collapsable shutters, jaalis, grills, etc. they make the inner reinforcement of their house, which not only becomes the railings for their windows, but also take on GI sheet claddings as wall surfaces. Red and green. The colours, which make quite an interesting collage. They fade in sun and get painted and repainted. Quite simply.

A completely utilitarian logic proportions the massing and visual aesthetic. The openings do not seem unpleasant. The slopes of each of the house give a flow - not only to the architectural fabric but also to the water that has to be drained in the monsoon. 

Across the train, I always try to see beyond what my eyes can look. The scrap that makes up their domestic space may be our own...

Containing oneself

Can a spoon contain itself? Dushyant once asked in the class. I think after thinking a lot, I can offer this answer:

From sky to earth

Anuj: There is something wrong about these yellow copper pods.

anuj: But they are beautiful.

Anuj: I know they are beautiful, but what goes wrong?

anuj: They look bright and spread randomly on the floor.

Anuj: Yes they do

anuj: then?

Anuj: They made a nice combination at Bharat Bhavan on the red sandstone.

anuj: Do you mean to talk about their background?

Anuj: I guess so. Yes, i think they do not deserve this silly faded pink paver blocks.

anuj: C'mon, they don't design paver blocks for flowers now.

Anuj: But why cant they? And why should the paver blocks be only diseased pink and yellow? Or the concrete grey? Do they think about what colour the paver block should be?

anuj: you've gone nuts

Anuj: Imagine how beautiful it would be to have nice backgrounds for different flowering trees. The gulmohars look lovely on black tar roads. But when they fall on pink blocks, they lose all their character. The bogen-villas - pink, white, orange, blue: they keep flying off like paper on the streets. Aren't they almost theatrical?  

anuj: hmm, actually i never thought so.

Anuj: If they planted pavers according to the trees, or if they planted trees according to the pavers...they would build up a beautiful urban landscape.

anuj: then why only pavers, i would say walls too.

Anuj: yes, absolutely.

anuj: hmm...

Anuj: but we haven't finished sussing out on the paver block issue. I hate when the sweeper sweeps the yellow flowers from the college entrance floors every morning. Those lovely yellow dots, although random, call for finding a pattern. I love looking at them from the first floor large window. Why does he sweep them? His sharp toothed broom must be hurting the peltaforums.

anuj: but they dry out anyways

Anuj: Yes, and the wind would wash them away anyways. Dont you like walking on a yellow carpet of flowers, gradually turning golden?

anuj: I do, but...

Anuj: Exactly, I am talking about these dead paver blocks - they suck. They don't suit our environment. They need to be sensitively designed.

anuj: dont you think that's too small an issue.

Anuj: Unfortunately, that is what most of us end up thinking and giving up for.

anuj: okay, you can keep this thought for your future practice.

Anuj: May be. But i surely think paver blocks can respond to the trees they jacket. 

anuj: sure. For now, may be you can take pleasure in watching them fall on you as you walk under the trees. The weightless flakes - you can keep in your books, if you like it so much. 

Things yet to be Introduced

When I was about 12 years old, I used to maintain this book called "Things yet to be introduced". In this book, I used to sketch out things that might be useful, but not yet been made. I don't remember what was the inspiration for all of them? The cartoons perhaps. Also sometimes they came out of strong concerns of energy crisis. My maternal native place being Bihar (now Jharkhand), there were massive power cuts, sometimes for 5 days in a row or telephone lines would not be there for months. We used to visit our native place in summers when it would be terribly hot and without electricity, the place would be as good as hell. Some of these techniques were therefore a resolution towards these issues. Others came out of pure fascination for mechanics, or techniques or some science fundas. I used to draw them out, in plans, sections, elevations or even views. Today when I look back at them, I wonder how did I ever understand, at that age, "top view", "Section". At any stage in my drawing, I do not call them so...

Notice also the dotted lines that show displaced positions of moving parts...the nature of hard lines versus the soft (wires, cables, etc.). All of these contraptions were accompanied by a short writeup about what all they perform. Some things here might have even been introduced or been there in some other part of the world! They were only not exposed to me then!

And why would I so neatly keep them, archive them? It was the Diary of Anne Frank I guess. In 11th standard, we studied about Anne Frank and how she maintained her Diary during the Nazi war. And later all her writings were published by her father's efforts. I kept maintaining my things after that, thinking that one day all of my work will be published!!

However, what I do not understand is that why did I decide to draw (and not write)? And so accurately? And I wonder if all this was building up towards my choice to be an architect?

Surrealism & Privacy

Along with visibility, the internet also makes possible a lot of privacy. Privacy by hiding / faking. But the interesting part is that it allows privacy visibly. That's quite an interesting aspect of it. The dimensions that internet allows for the manifestation of privacy are multifarious and interesting. Taking forms of second life, alter egos. The internet thus allows a lot of reality to exist in its original form. It it was not to exist, people would definitely take on those changes onto themselves, to hide their real selves. (something like make-ups).  But at the same time, we may confront ourselves in being someone else. In that confrontation lie questions of identity and self-hood.

In our architecture theory class, George Jose spoke about Bataille and the Surrealist movement in much detail. At some level, the surreal movement was quite brutal / cruel in confronting the self. I think the surrealists enjoyed the discomfort they created within people's mind (and themselves?). To discomfort is to push the boundaries of knowledge, they felt. The matrix of people that influenced each other across disciplines is also very crucial to understand how one form of knowledge / understanding transgresses into another. For the surrealist movement, it was the three disciplines of literature, art and film making. How they brooded over each other could be a real interesting study. 

However, studying the works of these people will allow artistic expression of privacy that exists in the soft world. Quite paradoxical. A person who is able to confront his/her private world should be ideally very strong. I don't know if the society allows this strength. Rather, what form of strength it gets moulded in the space of the society remains an aspect to observe. 

Look at me

Saifee Hospital. Charni Road. Mumbai
Blinding Brightness / Longest building in Mumbai
Architect: Hafeez Contractor.
Lighting: ?
Interior: ?
Structural Consultant: ?
Area: ?
Earlier, they had multicoloured rainbow lights

Strangeness

I felt immense strangeness as I re-entered my class today. I felt like a stranger. Those faces that I saw for 9 months - why did they all appear new? The feeling was exactly like that on the first day in this class. Did I mentally decide to not look back at time? What had changed? Was there a breach of relationship? Was there a relationship in the first place?

Atul asked me the other day: "Have they all disappeared?" - as if it was a give and take thing all this while? I remember; that day when I put the final list: they yelled, cried, were overjoyed, some disappointed. Immediately that time, some did come to me to talk, and perhaps I was not in a frame of mind to talk. I gave them monosyllabic answers. Why? Because I know they still need to work so hard. And I felt incomplete, since my objectives weren't achieved. But I keep telling myself: "You tried." Although it does not satisfy me.

Going back to the question of exchange - was this such a give and take? Give submissions take marks, and get out! But even I don't remember going back to my class coordinator ever. But I think that's how it is. I am unnecessarily thinking too much about it. Yes, why should I be taking it so seriously. May be it comes from this utopic mission to bring a change. And who has ever changed any thing? And why do I think I can change! These are all things stemming from my idealism. I have to detail it out!

But this strangeness was disturbing. Why did I need to feel comfortable? Why the hell did I want to feel at ease? Did it really make any difference to anyone of that last week of immense negotiation?

There are more important things to do. Focus Anuj. May be that was my initial year with such an intense full-time engagement. Regulate it. And I keep talking to my mind. It's almost this alternative person. He always seems more logical, more right, more balanced, more strong...I wish I could be like him.

(this post has been edited on 8th April 2011)

Synecdoche

INDIA won the WORLD CUP 2011.

Synecdoche:

It's a figure of speech which is used to refer a part of the whole of a whole of the part.

People danced naked on the streets and shouted slogans. They took out their cars and burst crackers. In the last week, strangers sitting next to you in buses or trains asked you match statuses while you were still listening to your good old collection of songs. When you answered "pata nahi" to their match related question, they would shrug their shoulders. They were peeping into tiny shopfronts having ultra-mini TV screens in queues to watch the "HOW" of cricket. How does he hit the ball, or take the run or take a wicket...it's about the how - and you enjoy it only if you understand the game. Just like the classical music. My brother clapped sitting in the living room peeping at the wall where he projected the world cup through a rented projector (to feel in the stadium) - and I felt as if it was his classical Indian music. Most cricket fans in India are this crazy. They critique the team at every ball such that it feels like a reality show! (how about if each move of the game was to be decided by an audience poll!). But invariably, if you found your palms hitting each other when the team won, you just echoed that "I am an Indian and I am proud that India won".

Event: 

That is what you require to activate a space. Events are essential for interaction. Can architecture be eventful? Then the building has to perform. It has to be performative. Ever changing, ever evolving / devolving. The cricket stadium holds a mass through an event. The theatre holds an audience through a virtual event. The rallies are held through speeches. Something that hold such a great mass together is actually all non-physical. The game, the show or the speech. Architecture is just a by product. It helps in encompassing the void - the hollow that holds the event. 

Architecture is the manifestation of synecdoches. part for whole / whole for part...

Out of 'Practice'

While working on a project that I am handling after a long time today, I realised that I have become tremendously slow at AutoCAD, and that I am slowly starting to just not like doing all this. I can think designs, sketch, but drafting on CAD is like hell. I just wondered only if I had an assistant, I could just sketch and tell someone to make the changes on the computer. Gone are the days when I would be on toes and do the finer changes jhatpat! I also have forgotten so much on Sketchup!! And I am feeling terrible about it!

Atleast practice keeps you up with your skill-speed, especially when you are skilled! But on the other hand, my typing speed has increased tremendously. I learnt typing from a typing institute after my 10th standard.

Typewriter fascinated me, more so, the sound and the tension on the keys. That's what I joined the class for. To feel the typewriter. I never learnt typing the right way. The right way is to look at the paper (where you read from to type in) and the fingers on the keys. I always kept looking at the keys while typing. After all, i wanted to see the mechanism of each printed word. Something going up when i pressed the key down - hitting the black ribbon and printing the letter - it had so much of character! The black south indian lady who was the supervisor would keep telling me: "idhar nahi dekhneka" - after she went, i again gazed at the lovely machine. Due to this, I never learnt the right way to type. As years passed by, I have learnt to correctly look in the paper and type - perhaps computer as a machine is not as fascinating as the typewriter. The keyboard is a softer interface though; as compared to the typewriter. It's too passive. I liked the older keyboards which made noise (tik tik tik), the sound made you realize how well you typed. Now they have all added these silencing devices to them, so you dont hear anything.

But well, AutoCAD has gone 6 years forward from where I started and it has become as complicated or organized as MS Office 2007. Sometimes I feel scared if I will be left behind. But may be this is a question of what I consciously want to prioritize...

Design Methods

They crave for a method. And there are very few who can teach methodologies for design.  What methods do is that they allow form-al, spatial, structural, etc. progress of design logically. Design methods can be debated (unlike designs, where personal opinions come into picture). But that's the catch - methods are a very "modern" way of working. But it might be interesting to get different structures of thought from the modern thought itself.

Design methods doesnot figure anywhere in the curriculum of architecture.  "Criticism" has been a popular way of learning design at Academy of Architecture. Somehow, the reality of practice and the ability to handle it gives the alumni of the college a lot of confidence. But we need only some one to tell them how badly most of them do it!

Academic practice can be far more rigorous if we discuss academic issues instead of the practical. The practice is all for materializing the ideas. But the academic space needs to inculcate into students how to handle ideas and let them be produced. Meanwhile, we only have black squares towering up the sky. Design methods can help breaking the monotony.







(above: placing planes that indicate movement in the site owing to interests of view, climate, function and regulating their spacing and height through logic of circulation and context. The design ended up quite differently, but at the end, there was a reasoning for everything that was placed on the site)