‘ Holistic Humanism’:
Architect- Engineer Professor Dr Arvind Krishan
It is with a profound sense of grief and sorrow that I have received the dismal tiding of the sad demise of Ar. Er. Prof. Dr. Arvind Krishan with whom I had a special bond. He was one of the finest human beings I had known in my life and professional par excellence. Experts of his kind are few and far between because he did not let the original passion dwindle, much less die, since he had set foot in the profession of architecture in the 1970s.
He was working as an SDE ( Sub- divisional Engineer) with a civil engineering degree in the Engineering Organisation of the Chandigarh Administration when he came into contact with me. His fascination for the mother of arts often saw him in the company of the now celebrity architect Shiv Datt Sharma, my friend since 1961. Arvind and I were introduced to each other in Sharma’s office. This union was historic because soon after Arvind started pestering me for getting him anyhow admitted to Chandigarh College Architecture where I was then a full professor at number two on the faculty.
Despite my repeated explaining that in India we, unfortunately, do not have avenues for fiery talents of his genre, and I had no way of obliging him, he with crablike tenacity persisted. As was his wont he did not give up and feeling that I was unimpressed by his earnestness requested me to see a house in Sector 28 that he had designed, which we eventually visited together. I was bowled over by his perception of architectural creativity to which he had laudably brought his exceptional skill as thinking ( not merely ‘ formula’) structural engineer. Among many things of the house, the design of the spiral staircase in reinforced cement concrete was awesome. It had no intermediate support, which fact imparted to it a magical grace. In all honesty, expressing my experience of creativity rather bluntly, I earned the ire of my colleagues in and outside CCA because I had declared that this house designed by an engineer is far better than many qualified architects are capable of designing.
Be that may, the long- drawn workout of convincing and counter- convincing between us came to a screeching halt and made way for something pragmatic. I told him he should apply for admission to architecture in an American university to which act he got down with his batteries fully charged— to which I gave my unrelenting moral support. And lo! Before long he was out there studying architecture.
Arvind’s first battle to be an architect was won when he returned with an M Arch. Degree from the University of Washington, USA. While he was studying in America we continued to exchange ideas that contained one note which brought perhaps the best accolade for me personally. It uplifted me heavenward by his candid comment that my thinking and work in India were well up to the professorial stature internationally. This meant a lot to me because the admiration came from a person who had architecture afire within his being and was complimenting me after his firsthand exposure to the best of professors out there situated within the borders of the world’s superpower.
He extended his undiminished passion into earning a Masters in Structural Engineering and
PhD in Energy- Efficient Architecture from the Indian Institute of Technology, Delhi. Thereafter he put to pragmatic use what he had imbibed in the USA— the Americans’ unmatched skill at successfully marketing their wares even in unfavourable situations. He quickly wove up his philosophy of building design tying it up with environmental and ecological concerns with the economical ( rational and sensible) use of energy. Based on it he prepared a patent presentation of several tell- tale slides and, as a wandering minstrel of architecture, journeyed through length and breadth of the country.
His success was precise on target because he soon won over many eager and curious clients who would venture their money on his trials. And the experiments
worked to urge happy clients to spread a word around about his advent. Soon he rose like a Titan from the sea of average- mindedness the Indians couldn’t ignore. The best that came his way to build an Arvind Krishan Signature Design is the building in Chandigarh of PEDA ( Punjab Energy Development Agency).
In 1984, I appointed him as a visiting faculty member to guide the B Arch, Thesis of Namrita Saundh ( now, Dr Namrita Kalsi, chief architect,
NDMC). CCA thus became a pioneer institution for introducing at the undergraduate level research and design in energy- efficient architecture.
Our closest professional interaction as architects took place when I had him put on the committee that adjudicated the entries received in a national design competition for the design of the Central University of Punjab, Bathinda. Prof Jai Rup Singh, the Vice- Chancellor, had appointed me the architectural adviser in which capacity I had drawn up the client’s brief for the national competition. The VC’s ingenuity had won me over when I saw that he had turned an abandoned spinning mill building ( BACOSPIN) on a
37- acre plot of land into a marvellous new campus by his unsullied aesthetic sensibility. Thus my admiration for his art- minded view of life meant that I could get anything from him including Arvind’s honourable entry into the prestigious selection committee. It was then that I noticed Arvind at dinner time carry with him ( literally, a bag full of ) diverse medicines. When I expressed my surprise, he coolly told me that those were not medicines but life- prolonging therapy for his multiple health problems.
Arvind Krishan was a leading architect in the country in the field of ‘ Green Buildings’– climateresponsive/ energy- efficient architecture having designed projects of diverse nature and magnitude in the country and abroad, with more than three decades of professional work. His innovative design for Punjab Energy Development Agency ( PEDA) Office Building, Chandigarh, was awarded ‘ 5- star rating– the most energy- efficient building in India’ by the Bureau of Energy Efficiency, Government of India. He was the recipient of several awards, including the International Jeffrey Cook Award 2010 for Desert Architecture.
On another important and recent occasion, we exchanged spirited notes when his wife Anita Krishan published a gripping yet emotional book ‘ Tears of Jhelum’ that narrates the story of a Kashmiri man who tries to protect his family as well as himself while turning a blind eye to the crime happening around him.
He had a passion for entering design competitions and pursued this ambition for several years; then abruptly stopped. When I asked him the reason, he said glumly that there was no point in spending time, money, and energy— then waiting anxiously for the result only to be frustrated with the outcome. I further questioned him why he was then so mad in running that long and fruitless leg of the career race. With Socratic nonchalance, he declared, “To get a chance to educate the jury about ideas it would never even dream of!”
Dr Rajiv Mishra who has been the principal of my alma mater, Sir JJ College of Architecture, had earned his doctorate from SPA. He stands as tall in pragmatic, creative thinking as his physical stature, and possesses an awesome ability to adapt his wherewithal successfully to drastically changed work and social environment. With uncommon daring and quiet regard for the sacrosanctity of original research, he prescribed Arvind’s book for his second- year students as compulsory reading.
Ever since the moment the irrepressible urge had erupted in his psyche to be an architect, providence remained with Arvind Krishan through the arduous run of becoming until he was really one. This point is best corroborated by the fact that he was appointed dean and head of the department of architecture at the prestigious School of Planning & Architecture ( SPA), New Delhi. From thence I was expecting him to occupy the exalted seat of the director but this was not to be. The political bosses with an incurable allergy to creative thinking continue to prefer obedience to intelligence, which obviously meant that Arvind was far off the mark from the unwritten, though religiously followed qualification. He had thus to retire as dean and head.
It is a convention to use in obituaries and condolence messages the phrase “the void created by his/ her demise will be hard to fill” more as a mark of social courtesy than verifiable truth. However, in Arvind Krishan’s case, I can vouch that it is a verity because he was a rare man and a rarer architect. As a missionary of nature- loving architect, he extended the outreach of architectural creativity to what I call ‘ holistic humanism’. At a time when architecture in the country was stagnating as widespread self- imitation, he infused into the art and science of building design ‘ architectural kinesis’ ( my term coined from the initials of his name) to restore it to its pristine glory as of the great mother art.
My friend and effervescent younger colleague may have left this mortal world physically but his path- finding pragmatic creativity lives on and shall live forever as part of the history of the making of modern India.
Though I began this note in sobs of sighing sorrow I am offering no condolences to anyone now because Arvind Krishan is still with me in my heart- beats.
Krishan was a leading architect in the country in the field of ‘ Green Buildings’– climateresponsive/ energy- efficient architecture having designed projects of diverse nature and magnitude in the country and abroad, with more than three decades of professional work.”
“Arvind