INDIAN ARCHITECTURE AN EXPERIENCE OF LIFETIME. Introduction:

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1 INDIAN ARCHITECTURE AN EXPERIENCE OF LIFETIME By Ar. G. Venkatesh (architect-town planner) Introduction: When anyone of us think or utter the word Architecture, suddenly the things that comes into our minds are buildings. And mostly those are ancient, historical or more recently built modern but the magnanimous or famous buildings which are worth seeing, worth visiting and worth remembering. Being an Indian and being an Indian Architect-town planner I always wanted to create such memorable buildings, which the world will recon. I always wonder, after more than 60 years of independence what has Modern Indian Architecture given to the International World of Architecture and Planning. For that, the simple confirmative test is to get the answer for the question Why any Tourist visits India? The Answers are but obvious we all know. But not to see any modern buildings which any Indian Architect has created on the mother land. Most recently one of our state tourism minister said in his speech while inaugurating one tourist spot that We all know the tourist do not come to the state for seeing good buildings because that they have already seen that in the other parts of the world,.. When I listened to it on television, I really felt shame on our system, and also the performance and role of our architects. It has been more than 60years we have been independent, still we are applauding ourselves with Taj Mahal, Qutub Minar, Charminar et al. Auroville, Lotus temple are few exceptions but again it is not an Indian architect s work. The Architecture in India today can be classified categorically as (1) Ancient Religious buildings, (2) Historical Palaces and buildings (3) Administrative and other buildings, but all made before our independence, lastly (4) Few contemporary residential buildings, Office buildings, Malls and Individual residences. And the last ones do not leave any imprint on our minds. But if we go back and see, before Independence we had British architecture, before that we had Mughal s Architecture and if we go far more back, we can find the ancient Indian Temples and Palaces made during different periods of Indian kings and rulers which still make their presence felt. But at the same time I believe, the Indian architects are equally capable of creating such Iconic buildings, Architectural Marvels and Memorable buildings. So, why we Indian Architects are not able to create those marvelous creations? For that we all know the obvious reasons the process, the system and the way the Indians take the Indian Architect s Architecture. Or is it the other way round that the Indian architects are not able to concentrate on their creativity and do more convincing kind of architecture, because as soon as they start practicing architecture, the basic necessities of Bread and survival stops THE SKYLINE : INDIAN ARCHITECTURE

2 them to think in those creative directions and they get drifted towards the need based architecture. Then comes the question, are the Architects in India getting paid less or the Client or the owner not convinced to pay up to their caliber or are the architects are not up to the mark, in terms of creativity. A building becomes a good one only, when if the client commissions the architect to do justice with the site and the building. By Commissioning I mean a kind of submission and belief of the client in the architect s creativity and allowing him or her to create a world which is Architecture- Predominant. It still remains a distant dream for many of the practicing architects in India. Present scenario of Architecture in India: Architecture at the cross roads Indian architecture is a mixed bag kind of Architecture like the kind of population mix it has. It has its own style and diversity. But speaking in terms of Architecture, it needs a direction, it requires a self introspection, and it requires finding its class-apart kind of architecture. We are now still away from mixing technology and architecture like the way other part of the world has been using, which we can call Archi-Technonics. The Architecture in India now is standing at the Crossroads, where it sees political will on one side, people s housing demand on one side, the future of Indian Architecture on one side, making an impact at the world level on one side and the future of the Architect s itself on one side. India has been bestowed with many opportunities but those opportunities have not been used properly. We have not been able to cash the events like Cricket world events, Asian Games, Common Wealth Games like many other international events into an opportunity to create world class buildings like other parts of the world have done. The other countries have made such opportunities converted into a mission to develop the city and architectural marvels, which we call it as Induced Development, successfully. Like China, during the Beijing Olympics has created a different world of architecture altogether. And similar thing we can see all over the world. Coming Back to India, Why the T3 of IGI airport New Delhi has been designed by HOK, Why the house of Mukesh Ambani Antilla is not designed by any Indian architect, why the Gold Certified Hotel Park, Hyderabad not designed by an Indian architect rather than James Law, why the Cybertecture International, in Mumbai is designed by Skidmore Owings and Merrill (SOM), why the proposed Namaste Tower in Mumbai designed by WS Atkins not by any Indian architect. In all the above statements the question and the answers lies within which makes all Indian architects into introspecting themselves and their way of working and all our administrative and political setup to think and rethink and rethink about it. THE SKYLINE : INDIAN ARCHITECTURE

3 Contrary to that, the Foreign Architects are designing buildings in India inspired by Indian Ideology in India, for instance the Auroville which symbolizes & Exhibits Indian spiritualism or be it the 300m tall Namaste Tower, a Hotel which is a design which resembles the Namaste gesture, two wings of the hotel are clasped together like hands greeting. They are learning from our rich Indian culture and giving back the same to us, which we appreciate. The bottom line is that our Indian Architects in general has not been able to make an impact on the minds of their Indian Clients be it Government or Private. This also can be positively argued in other way that Why can t the Indian Government take a decision and decide that our Indian Architects will be given priority over International architects when it comes to designing any major National Projects. Although the Invitation of International architects do create a competitive atmosphere and inspire our Indian architects to create something of international level but somehow in a way they also discourage the Indian architects in fetching such projects. At the same time it is not like that the Indian architects are not given chance. But they have failed miserably. For Example take the case of Delhi Metro Station at ISBT; even if u r not an architect, you will not find anything to appreciate about the architecture which it has created, one will have to ask to find the entrance and in contrast to the Metro-rail compartment, the building looks like an odd man out kind of thing. Future of the Indian Architects & Architecture: With whatever experience I have of more than 15 years of my practice from my architectural college days to till date of practicing and teaching, I have a gut feeling, that there is no dearth of Indian Architectural Intellect in the country. The only thing we need is that to get them recognized by the Indian Agencies either government or non government. When we talk about the future, the first thing that comes into our minds is the students of Architecture and Planning. On the context, our Indian Graduate and Post Graduate Architects and Urban & other Planners are studying in Indian Institutes prefer working with architectural & Planning MNCs, and giving their best to those firms who are doing all these new Indian projects, by being in India or in other parts of the world. I hope I made my point clear in terms of the architectural happening in India. When we can do for others outside our country why can t we do it for our mother land? Reason we all know, is the remuneration. We have the Human Resource but we are not able to use them like Resource, we have got Man Power but we not able to use it like a Power. The Reason may be that the impacts on the THE FUTURE : AFFORDABLE. ICONIC. ARCHITECTURE

4 minds of Indians left by the British are still alive. Take for instance, the names of any new housing project or commercial project which are coming up in India in recent years, they reflect the same. Most the names reflect either Greek-o-Roman names, European names or any other English or American names of city, town or mythology. And they are not the result of any fascination of the Builder or developer towards these names but because the developers/builder know that these names only will attract Indian customers, only such names will give them feeling of an elite class, or standard far more than the Indian contemporary. Because the Indians either common man or elite likes to identify themselves with such names. Be it a Whitefield (Bangaluru) or be it British Park (Bhopal), all shows this fascination for foreign architecture and names. But we can find real Indian architecture also prevailing India in some parts of India but that too to woo the foreigners in the form of Hotels, Resort, Naturopathy centers, India Spa s et al. Now recently only in last years we find some good architectural towers, by Our Indian Architectural Giants, like Architect Hafeez Contractor for making The Imperial (name is not Indian mind you) finished in Then the Lodha Bellissimo (meaning most beautiful in Italian) and designed by Kapadia Associates. But the Godrej s selected internationally known Singapore Architects for their project Planet Godrej. But still we are yet to make a mark on the Map of International Architectural circuit with our creations. We still cannot find any competitor for the Lutyen s Connaught Place (Now named Rajiv Chowk but still known as the same CP) or be the Indian Parliament House. The Future Requirement of Indian Architecture is Affordable Housing and Iconic Buildings: The present condition of Indian Economy requires basic requirements of housing in a large number. The demand and supply gap in housing is alarming. This scenario definitely shows The young Indian architects a direction, a scope for a future which, calls them to be there in the international circuit of architecture. And that is Housing. On the contrary the real Indian Middle income population and the lower income group which are in a significant percentage of 120crore Indian population, force the Indian housing sector and other architecture to think in a different way an Indian Way of architecture. The common man, who is more concerned more about his own family and salary, with a limited budget, living in rent, or living in an illegal settlement, makes the Indian architecture and architects to think in a more conservative and yet creative architecture in terms of costing. But the common man wants More in less. So there is two face of architecture in the present and in the future; - THE FUTURE: AFFORDABLE. ICONIC. ARCHITECTURE

5 One which is concerned with the common man directly- Affordable housing and the one which is not directly concerned with the common man - Iconic Building. So there lies a lot of opportunities and scope in both the areas. And the kind of requirement of housing which India needs today has and will have is enormous. The homeless people are in majority. Seeing this scenario what I believe is Indian Architects should turn their heads towards creating something unique in terms of housing and that too affordable housing and so towards the Creating Iconic Buildings to turn the heads of international community towards Indian Modern Architecture. With this in the end I would like to say, in India we have got lot of opportunities which lies untapped in the form of housing. I feel Creative Affordable Housing is the area towards which the Indian Architects should concentrate and give the world the best out of it, because this is the need and opportunity both for the Indian common man and common Indian architects. There is a lot more to be done in this area than in luxury housing. If you can design a wonderful affordable housing it will be like a Ghazal or poetry written in adversity which sounds soothing and which touches our heart. As far as Iconic buildings are concerned I have a strong intuition & belief that in the near future India definitely will be seeing few architectural marvels which will set an example for the world that will symbolize How a world class building can be created at an Affordable cost with cost and energy efficient techniques which are the need of the hour also. Author: Ar. G. Venkatesh is a practicing architect-planner, with expertise in Housing sector since last 15 years and runs his organization Sahastraksh Consultant, Bhopal MP India. He is a graduated from MACT (now MANIT) Bhopal (MP) and did his Post Graduation in planning (specialization in Housing) from School of Planning CEPT University Ahmedabad Gujarat. He is also a visiting faculty of Housing & Architectural Design at School of Planning CEPT University Ahmedabad, School of Planning and Architecture (SPA) Bhopal and Maulana Azad National Institute of Technology (MANIT) Bhopal. He is also the chairman of publication committee Madhya Pradesh Institute of Town Planners. He is one of the panelists as practicing Architect-Town planner for evaluation of large townships in Bhopal Municipal Corporation (BMC) and doing project viability & suitability study for sites indentified by Government under IDSMT Scheme in Madhya Pradesh Vikas Pradhikaran Sangh (MPVPS).He is also the member of American Planning Association. Contact the author at - hr.research@sahastraksh.com or