Archohm: A New “New Monumentality”?
“The third step lies ahead. In view of what had happened in the last century and because of the way modern architecture had come into being, it is the most dangerous and the most difficult step. This is the re- conquest of the monumental expression.
The people want buildings representing their social, ceremonial and community life.
They want their buildings to be more than a ‘ functional’ fulfillment. They seek the expression of their aspirations for monumentality, for joy and excitement.”
— Sigfried Giedion,
“Need For A New Monumentality”. ( 1944)
It is a pleasure to write on Sourabh Gupta’s architectural journey. Archohm’s work shows an astounding range, yet is clearly driven by a search for unique and bold approaches towards interpretation of programmes, towards evolving unusual forms, and towards use of materials in innovative ways. Their work is therefore diverse yet of unified character.
We can observe that Archohm’s important works explore a sense of monumentality. In line with Giedion’s writing quoted above, the work suggests that architecture has not only a functional, aesthetic and technological dimensions, but
also needs to project symbolic values. Giedion emphasised architecture’s potential for building shared cultural forms, and that is how he defined “New Monumentality”. This is in contrast to modernism’s emphasis on the ordinary and its austerity and severity. At the same time, Giedion saw this as “difficult and dangerous”. The pursuit of the monumental can be a slippery slope, as some post- modern works demonstrated. Huge scale, technological bombast, historicist references and visual “signatures” became the tools that led to many excesses.
Yet Archohm has avoided these dangers. Not using large scale or technological flamboyance as tools, the architect’s work explores the symbolic potential of programmes to achieve memorable form, for example in the Jayprakash Narayan Museum in Lucknow, or in the National Institute of Faith Leadership, Dasna. On the other hand by paying attention to urban potentialities of well- loved public uses, such as at Hussainabad Lucknow or at Dilli Haat Janakpuri, developing a sense of community pride through architecture gives a distinctive symbolic value and a sense of
the monumental. Even where the programme depends on everyday ordinary functions, such as in Archohm’s own office building or the adjacent Design Village, exploration of surprising and unexpected juxtapositions leads to memorable experiential quality. In this way the architect both embraces as well as tames the monumental.
Archohm has energetically pursued architectural passion in many ways, and this journey should be of interest to students and practitioners of architecture, urbanism and culture.