Design Musings
Architecture And Attitude: A Contemporary Indian Perspective
It seems a long time ago when Sourabh and myself were camping across Europe as architecture students. With no money in our pockets but a burning desire to make the most of our travels we ended up eating plain bread for days on end and cooking rice on railway platforms at night! I distinctly remember two incidents from that trip. We were walking the streets of Vienna searching for an Adolf Loos house, and on finding it locked, jumped the compound wall in a desperate bid to seek entry and were chased away by a barking dog. On another occasion we were at the Unite- de- Habitation at Marseille soaking in the mastery of Corbusier and were itching to see an apartment from inside. We had just decided to knock on doors at random when we saw an old lady walk down the corridor, and with great difficulty communicated our desire to see her house. I still cannot fathom how she decided to let in two disheveled Indian guys when she was alone in her house. On hindsight it does appear crazy to have done such things but I like to remember it as Sourabhs single minded passion to soak in the Masters of Architecture.
It is in this light that one needs to view this book, as it is primarily about how the architecture of the office is an embodiment of the architect and his practice. This story needs to be told as it is rarely that one can talk of the vision of an architectural practice through a description of the building it is housed in. Very often, architectural offices operate from mundane rented spaces, from which architectural masterpieces are envisioned. There are exceptions that come to mind- B. V. Doshi, Renzo Piano, Frank Lloyd Wright; but usually these offices are built in the mature phase of the life of the architect where the practice is well established. This book is about a young architect and a young practice and its energetic search for an architecture. It is about hunger rather than contentment, of future action rather than past glory, of beginnings rather than ends.
A book on architecture often distances the reader from the work by exuding a sense of authority. Spaces appear complete and at peace; there is a sense of finality to it. One ends up looking at the images in awe, and it leaves us with a sense of not knowing, of being minions in front of masters. This book attempts to do the exact opposite. By taking the reader on a journey of the making of the building in parts, it exposes the vulnerability of an honest and vigorous attempt to explore architecture. It unravels the building as a series of spot decisions that reverberates with the ethos of the practice. Like in the use of a triangular volume where one can see both the desire for a formal statement of arrival and a pragmatic understanding of the oddly shaped site. Or in the use of the circular drum where the book reveals both the idea of the office as a fort and the recognition of practical issues of consolidating services.
This book also brings out the joy of architectural practice. Whether it is in the playful exploration of doors, the slide for transporting packages, the bold use of colors for meeting spaces, or the open hand at the entrance; a distinctive attitude of courageous exploration and childlike innocence is apparent in the building. Purists might balk at the seemingly incoherent and disruptive architecture but this is due to the undue importance that is normally placed on harmony and coherence. This is where one needs to understand Archohm as a practice and its interpretation of an architectural office. What should an architecture of a space where architecture is produced look like? It is like the innards of an engine where many parts are furiously at work with their own sense of identity and purpose whilst the engine on its exterior projects a face of a single entity that is calm and confident. Bills of quantities are brazenly displayed as part of the architecture; various materials- steel, glass, concrete, wood exist cheek by jowl in apparent disarray waiting to become building blocks of an architectural project; tables and chairs of all shapes and sizes are strewn all over the office directly influencing nascent and still developing buildings that the office is designing.
Like the practice, this book is forward looking and I imagine that after a few decades when the practice has grown immensely, it will look back at this book to reposition itself and become self aware of its roots.
By taking the reader on a journey of the making of the building in parts, it exposes the vulnerability of an honest
and vigorous attempt to explore architecture. It unravels the building as a series of spot
decisions that reverberates with the ethos of the practice.