Living the flipside
P.R. Judson’s journey from a daily wage labourer to a well-known architect is an incredible one. Finding a place in the American Book of Records and the Universal Record Forum is an icing on the cake.
The designs of life are uncanny — many call it destiny, many term it coincidence. P.R. Judson calls it luck. Having found his way to the American Book of Records and the Universal Record Forum for making a 3D building design upside-down without lifting the pen in record-breaking three hours, architect Judson has practically broken all notions of architectural drawing.
“I haven’t received any formal training in art or architecture. Only recently did I come to know that there isn’t many who make upside drawings. The last known person to have practised mirror-image architectural drawings is American architect Paul Williams in the 1920s,” explains an elated Judson, who started drawing upside down to explain the works to his clients who sat across him.
He says, “I have been doing mirror image drawing of my works for long; it wasn’t even a conscious act. Drawing an elevation plan is something that normally takes hours, but I can do it in minutes.” And he is not boasting. Even as digital sphere has overtaken the building designing scenario, Judson still continues to prefer hand-drawn perspectives in his office. Only after client approval does his team goes for digital drawings.
His double-record-winning work — 2.5-feet-tall and 5-feet-wide single-stretch drawing of the elevation plan of Marine Drive, Kochi — was the result of persuasion by a client who found his skill extraordinary and rare. “The 3D drawing is a bird view of the city,” he adds.
Till 10, Judson’s hobby had been doodling on walls and sand which eventually got washed away in rains and wind. During pre-degree days, he took up menial jobs like masonry and painting to support his family as he dreamt of a happy, colourful future. In his 20s, the Chullikkal (Kochi) native boarded the flight to Qatar to make it big one day. Now, an architect who has designed skyscrapers, hotels, homes and hospitals, 53year-old Judson looks back in awe at the lemons life threw at him, glad to have made lemonades out of it. “That we don’t have the means wouldn’t hinder us from becoming technically and artistically qualified for the job of an architect. At my construction site, I am not the boss, but the worker — the mason, painter, electrician, welder, plumber… I have done it all. I get involved in each and every process of the construction and it pays off well,” he says.
Judson passes on his legacy to his architect daughter, but wants to tell the world that no struggle is the end of the world. Winding up, he says, “I made it here because of sheer luck. How else can I explain my growth from a daily wage labourer who struggled hard to make both ends meet to an architect with offices in Dubai and Kochi! And I strongly believe that anyone who has a good concept can present it well — through words or drawing — no matter what background you hail from. When the world seems to turn upside down, be it’s master, literally!”