Five Lessons Life Has Taught Me

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Five Lessons Life has Taught Me!

Prof. Christopher Charles Benninger

* * * * *

In a recent discussion with the Maharashtra Herald’s Sunanda Mehta, Benninger reveals

some of the important lessons life has taught him.

Lesson One

“To gain something beautiful, one may have to give up something beautiful.”

One day, sitting in my garden campus in near Pune, surrounded by fifteen acres of fruit

trees, flowering plants and lawns, a young architecture student came unannounced to meet

me, insisting to have our picture taken together. Like many students who visited my campus

at CDSA he was studying my designs and my campus layout! At that moment I was

completing the fiftieth policy paper I had written on “development” and it struck me that no

student had ever come to have a photo session after reading one of my hefty policy papers!

At about the moment we said “cheese” I immediately decided to quit my post as Founder-

Director of the institute, and to devote my remaining life’s efforts to architecture. Amongst

other things, I had to give up the sprawling campus I had created and move into a tiny

apartment studio with modest equipment. The decade since that fleeting decision has never

allowed me time for regrets, or even to look back with nostalgia! But I had to give up my

very own little dream world, created over twenty years of toil, to seek transcendence in

through my art. By giving up something beautiful, I found something more beautiful!

Lesson Two

“It is better to BE what you are than to SEEM what you are not!”

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In October 2001 I made a presentation of my new capital plan for Bhutan at the European

Biennale along with some of the greatest painters, cinematographers and architects of our

times. I noticed something very interesting. To seem a “creative artist” in Europe you must

wear the black uniform of an artist! To be a creative youth in Europe you must attend

concerts waving your arms high in the air just like several thousand other conforming youth,

pretending to be “free!” To be different, unique, free and an individual, you must wear the

“uniform of the different!” You must wear a uniform----dress totally in black; wear black

shoes; black socks; black pants; black belt; black shirt; black tie and black jacket! Even the

underwear must be black. I realized that for these people, in fact for most people in the

world, being creative is not a form of liberation, but is living a lie! There are people who

never design anything, never write, never draw, and never search, never question, but who

dress in the black uniform of creators. They are not being, they are seeming. If I have any

lesson to share with young students, it is to BE, not SEEM!

Lesson Three

“Don’t be euphoric when people praise you, or depressed when people criticize you!”

In Buddhist thinking there are axioms called the Sixteen Emptinesses and there are two of

them where I have learned to keep my emotions “empty.” I became euphoric when my

design won the American Institute of Architect’s Award: 2000, but having reached the final

list for the Aga Kahn Award, I lost! I realized that my happiness should come from the

process of design and from my own understanding of my efforts’ inherent beauty. About the

time I settled with myself in this philosophy of emptiness, I learned that the project which

won over us was disqualified as a fraud; the authors had misrepresented it as a design

created by the village people! But that did not make me happy either! I have learned that

creation is a patient search, and is not some kind of competition. To be true to one’s art one

must be empty to both praise and criticism and know oneself!

Lesson Four

Truth is the ultimate search of all artists. Even then I feel, “It is better to Search the Good,

than to Know the Truth!”

I suppose it took me too long in life to distinguish between Ethics and Aesthetics; Morals and

Artistic Balance! Ethics is a rather exact science of rules; of right and of wrong; and there

must be some generic truth within them! However this world is not black and white, but

rather grey and fuzzy!

On the other hand, aesthetics is the search for pleasure, which I call “The Good!” Aesthetics

is a question of balance, or what the Buddhists call the “Middle Path.” Beauty is a search for

that Golden Mean; that harmony which brings all forms of visual, sensual and intellectual

pleasure into balance! Harmony is the search.

If you are a lover of food, don’t eat too much; don’t over do this or that spice; don’t cook too

long or too less! If you love wine, don’t drink too much or never at all! In your love life don’t

be too passionate, or too neglectful! The Good Life, or the Sweet Life, is all about pleasure

and the pleasure principle! I realize that most of us are trapped in our Victorian fear of

pleasure and have no aesthetics!

We are on an endless trip seeking the truth! We are judging others, meting out what is right

and what is wrong; dying as empty drums that never made themselves happy, or spread

that happiness to those nearby them. Art and Architecture are but spiritual paths to “the

good!” They stimulate enjoyment, delight and balance...la dolce vita…the sweet life! It is

better to search this life than to think one can know the truth!

Yes, “it is better to search the good, than to know the truth!”

Lesson Five

“There is only one form of good luck, which is having good teachers!”

Years ago Adi Bathena, the founder of Wansan Industries that morphed over the years into

giant Thermax, introduced me to his ninety year old teacher. Adi himself was nearing eighty!

We were sitting on the lawn of the Turf Club and Adi went into a long story how he quit his

comfortable job at age forty to risk all in a new venture here in Pune. He explained to me his

middle class roots and that it was not within him to adventure out so far financially. Smiling

at his teacher, he noted that without his encouragement, guidance and assurance he would

have continued in marketing Godrej products as a salesman. Then he turned to me and said,

“Christopher, in this world there is only one kind of good luck, and that is to have good

teachers!” I have never been able to forget that truth over the following years, and I realize

that all my teachers in India and America have been my “good luck.”

*Christopher Benninger’s early career was as a teacher at Harvard University and in India,

where he founded the School of Planning at Ahmedabad and the Center for Development

Studies and Activities under the University of Pune. Thirteen years ago, well past the age of

fifty, he gave up a thriving academic and United Nations consulting career, starting an

architectural studio nearly from scratch. Along with his partner, Akkisetti Ramprasad and

colleagues Rahul Sathe and Daraius Choksi an architectural studio was quickly turned into

an internationally acclaimed “design house,” winning the prestigious American Institute of

Architect’s Award, India’s Designer of the Year Award amongst others. Their studio’s patrons

have ranged from the King of Bhutan, Queen Noor of Jordan, Nelson Mandela, to corporates

like the Kirloskar’s, Suzlon, the Bajaj’s, Cochin Refineries, the Taj Hotels, the Mahindras, Tata

Technologies, Executive ship Management and many more. They have served voluntary

agencies like the YMCA, Arthabod, the Good Shepard Homes and the TGBMS. Their present

focus is on the new campus of the Indian Institute of Management at Kolkata, and on the

new National Capitol Complex in Bhutan. Benninger’s career has brought him in contact with

a spectrum of world leaders, intellectuals and artists.

He believes that every person has a right to experience the “sweet life,” for which

architecture acts as a path!

DOSHI AT EIGHTY

Man and Idea


* * * * *

Doshi is both a man and he is an IDEA.

I believe very special people are implanted in our memories at birth. So even before the first

time we meet them it is a kind of recollection from our memories! This is true only with a

few unique people on this earth, and it was so when I met Doshi forty years ago.

When one meets Doshi, even over a small matter, there is a glint in his eye, that hints of the

inevitable. It seems through mere glances and passing smiles that the larger concerns are

demanded from us, which transcend over the petty concerns of the moment. Rather than

two people talking, Doshi is dealing with the collective concerns of humanity and thinking

how this little problem is but a sliver, or a sign, of the greater human condition. There is a

sense of vision, of the future and an excitement that we are not dealing with something

small or mundane, but that we are unraveling the essence of the universe. The more one

gets to know Doshi, the more apparent contradictions seem to fall into an order and a unity.

It is within these seeming contradictions, that the essence of Doshi lies. What are these

contradictions?

Doshi is both simple and sophisticated? Doshi tells his story in such a simple manner that his

innocence obscures a great sophistication. Each building he describes and each question he

answers is often analyzed through analogy to folk narrative, a riddle of life, or is explained

through a passage from the epics. His range and grasp of tales belies an underlying

encyclopedic knowledge;

Doshi is both a traditional Indian and a global man? He lives very simply within the great

Indian tradition. Seeing his home one feels he could be in a relaxed village house lost in a

rural place. Yet it is his great understanding of things which make matters appear simple. He

brings the reality of things down to their basics making them truly universal and global.

Doshi is a wise sage yet he thinks like a child? Even at age eighty there is a child in Doshi’s

face; in the way he talks; and in the way he sketches. But behind that child-likeness, that

playfulness is the ageless wisdom of a sage. Truth always presents itself in the simplicity of

a child.

Doshi seems as free as a bird, yet has the self discipline to achieve? Doshi is always relaxed,

free and unfettered. He is not bound to any ideology, or to any “ism”! He seems almost

bindas or like a free bird, or like a traveler without any destination; knowing only the joy of

moving and exploring. Yet, the contradiction: he has labored to start institutions which live

on discipline; create buildings that only hard work can bear; and create human relations

which mature over decades of devotion. Doshi is free in his mind, yet a slave to his

devotions!

Lastly, Doshi is a MASTER OF THE SMALL, yet ponderer of the infinite! If he draws a small

bird, it will be in flight; it is all birds flying in one image; we too are watching it; we feel in

flight; and we experience the transcendental beauty of flight, and the unimaginable! Doshi

deals with the tiny seeds of things, yet in them lies the essence of all things!

There is only one form of good luck in life and that is to have good teachers! All of us who

know Doshi share the smile of good luck. Doshi makes us aware of the GOOD IN OURSELVES

and we feel very good about that realization! He excites some deep understanding of our

essential possibility and who we could be! That is what is known as inspiring.

It is that good, our feeling GOOD, and our knowledge of ourselves that makes us want to

celebrate Doshi’s 80th Birthday.

The life of any person is a dubious experiment. Life can be fleeting, meaningless and

insignificant. It seems so amazing that anything can exist or develop! Yet Doshi’s life has

been an epic journey:

His boyhood in Pune in the old city;

His student days at J.J. College of Architecture in Mumbai;

A brief period in London with the good fortune to meet his guru;

His years in Paris with Le Corbusier;

His early days in Ahmedabad moving about in the heat on a bicycle to supervise Le

Corbusier’s buildings’

His marriage to Kamuben;

Founding his studio Vastu Shilpa;

Starting the School of Architecture at Ahmedabad;

Work with Luis Kahn on the Indian Institute of Management;

Wonderful friendships;

Growing a single School of Architecture into the Centre for Environmental Planning

Technology;

Making great buildings; prizes and awards;

Surrounded by a loving family;

International recognition!

Doshi’s life has been a psychic process that is only partly revealed and it still

unfolds.

Doshi is two beings inhabiting the same body. One being is the simple man, the friend, the

husband, the father, and the architect. Yet there is another Doshi beyond the memories of

encounters. There is the Doshi who is the AVATAR of imagination; there is the Doshi who is

the manifestation of dreams; it is like two beings always walking together; inhabiting the

same space; knowing us as a friend, but playing on our spirits like a phantom! On one level

Doshi is an object, like a tree, a stone or a mountain or a human being; on another level he

is like a morning sunrise bursting over snow clad mountains awaking our inner spirit and

making us question who we are. When we are standing next to Doshi we feel there are two

beings next to us: One is concerned with the day to day life; the other drifting off

transcending material being. It is this second personality, this “other persona” which is a

forming myth that carries within it the eternal spirit which lights up one’s imagination; one’s

inspiration; one’s desire to be!

Thus, on his Eightieth Birthday Celebration we must consider Doshi’s personal myth which

will live forever. We must celebrate it without trying to understand it. We can only tell stories

and recall incidents. Whether the stories are true has no bearing and is of no significance!

The only importance is whether we can grasp Doshi’s story, and Doshi’s TRUTH. The test of

a man is in his myth; only his inner vision, which projects out to the vast universe and is

etched into history, can have any meaning!

Every life is the story of the self-realization of the unconscious. Here Doshi’s life is unique.

Everything in the unconscious seeks outward manifestiaon, and Doshi’s personality also

desires to evolve out of its unconscious condition and to experience itself as a whole. Let us

not employ the language of science, or the words of measure to trace Doshi’s growth, his

contribution and his GIFT. Let us celebrate the myth which we all own; that is part of our

being; which now passes as folklore and sets boundaries to all of our imaginations and

possibilities.

It is the myth of Doshi which allows us to set our own parameters; which has forced us to

dream, which asks us to search and to seek again and again, that we can never forget.

I came to India forty years ago in search of a guru; in search of truth, and in search of a

believable myth. I was so fortunate to find all of these in one living being, who walks

amongst us all here today: my guru, our guru, Balkrishna Doshi.

BACK TO BASICS


* * * * *

It is an honor for me to be allowed to address a committed group of my professional peers.

We come here today out of both hope and concern for the future. We live in the new

economy based on the “bottom line!” The bottom line means profit! No matter what unique

selling point city builders advertise, be it green buildings or high tech environments, the

bottom line is harvesting the maximum profit, even at the cost of the public good! Giving lip

service to corporate responsibility is part of the new public relations strategy, while the

reality is cutting costs and increasing Floor Space Index at the cost of society. This “new

economy” has generated a new value system and a “new architecture”!

THE TWO PATHS

Like all living creatures architects are driven by survival and the urge to dominate. There are

two paths the profession can take while recognizing these urges:

Architects can push their own value based professional agenda, creating the “best fit”

between their own agenda and that of the new economy, or;

Architects can degrade themselves into a vocation, where their skills are offered to the

captains of industry to reach the “bottom line.”

Willy-nilly architects are taking the second course, perhaps without even realizing what they

are doing! Young professionals watch their peers in the IT and management vocations jump

to high salaries soon after graduation. They see their own classmates joining MNCs and

bringing in large salaries. What they do not realize is that they are comparing themselves,

comparing professionals, with skilled workers practicing vocations! They are comparing

professionals with people whose job is to placate their bosses and their clients. As

professionals, there is a “little birdie in our heads” telling us that this is “good for society

and that is unsustainable.”

CREDO= “I BELIVE”

We must get back to basics and ask ourselves fundamental questions. What is a

professional? What distinguishes a professional from workers in vocations? What is

vocational education and what is professional education? At the same time, let us not fool

ourselves. Vocations are needed and we must respect them. But we have chosen a more

difficult and a more arduous path in life. As professionals we “profess values” and we are

bound to them. This means that we have a professional credo (or I BELIEVE) that there are

fundamental values and principles that no professional can breach. We have an unwritten

code of practice which we have to stick by! As professionals we have locked ourselves into

this belief system, and we have to navigate our work within it.

INTELLECTUAL HONESTY

The most important characteristic of a professional is his or her intellectual honesty. All

professionals, be they architects, lawyers, doctors or accountants face a continuous and

painful internal “dialogue with self,” challenging themselves to be truthful to their core

principles.

The worlds’ most respected accounting firm went bankrupt and closed its doors within days

after it was revealed that it put the bottom line of its clients before its professional duties to

society. As corporate auditors they cooked up annual reports to wrongly project an energy

company (that was in huge losses), as making huge profits. While doing this the corporate

managers quietly sold off their worthless shares at inflated prices. Their vocational book

keepers, software operators and managers all kept quiet! No one blew the whistle until

millions of workers lost their future pensions when their retirement funds were brought down

to bankruptcy along with Enron as the true share values were exposed! All of the vocational

managers, software engineers and book keepers quietly shifted to new jobs. The

professionals, the auditors, ruined their careers and professional reputations. Why? They lost

their professional creditability when they sold out their credo, their professional values, and

their intellectual honesty to an employer to help reach the “bottom line” at the cost of the

society to whom they must ultimately answer! They put the bottom line above the SOCIAL

CONTRACT that binds all professionals to serve society. They put those who pay their fees

above the greater interest of people.

Clearly, the Satyam case belies the same lack of whistle blowers who would put their

professional reputation above the crass desires of their bosses. At least one hundred

colleagues of the owners would have known what was going on for the past ten years. They

would have kept quiet and played ball with the cheats justifying themselves as mere cogs in

the bigger wheels! Architects, lawyers, accountants and doctors cannot fool themselves in

the manner that managers, IT workers and book keepers can. The bottom line for a

professional is his own heart and mind. “Can I live with myself is the first and the last

question?”

SOCIAL CONTRACT

Like those in vocations, professionals also have technical responsibilities, procedural

responsibilities and duties to increase their awareness and knowledge continuously. Like

vocationals we have to answer to clients, employers and seniors. Like vocational employees

we have to deliver cost effective solutions that meet performance standards. But we are not

just producing deliverables and making something bad work better, or something that

begins with the wrong assumptions reach optimality within a flawed problem solving

environment. We always have to go back to question the underpinning assumptions and the

beginning points. If these beginning points do not fit within our credo, or if our clients really

do not want professional advice, but merely want vocational servants, then we have to opt

out! Quit!

We must be clear about ourselves! We are not a service industry. We are not delivering

goods and services at the doorsteps of our clients. Profit is a business bottom line, but we

are no more “in business” than is a heart or a brain surgeon. Like surgeons we have to put

the hard facts before our clients and tell them the correct path to follow to reach the best

outcome. What we tell clients may not be sweet words. The procedures we recommend and

the technical mechanisms we propose may not be what they want to hear. Our deliverables

are the physical manifestations of our professional values and advice. Architecture must be

our mirror of our Social Contract with society.

Many young architects, interior designers and other professionals in the construction

industry are opting to work under non-professionals in MNCs, real estate firms, and

investment companies where their personal bottom lines rule over their professional bottom

lines! Often we see young professionals with two or three years of professional work opening

small practices, wherein they lack both the experience and the confident maturity to

convince clients to change their concepts of what the bottom line is. When dealing with life

threatening medical challenges patients seek the most seasoned professional advice. For a

common cold they go to an MBBS at the corner store. They tell the young doctor what their

illness is and ask for the prescription they think is right. They are happy with the young

doctor! He does what he is told to do! Young architects and designers must realize that they

too are prey to business whims and preconceived needs. They lack the creditability to be

taken seriously when balancing social costs and benefits before clients. They may lack the

finesse to illustrate options where the public benefit assumes a factor in bottom line

calculations.

Senior architects need to create career options within more established professional firms

making it economically gratifying for young professionals to spend a decade preparing for

private practice, or even a life long partnership within a branded design house.

Neither is our educational system, nor is the design profession, addressing this issue. It is

high time we get back to basics and save our profession.

* Professor Benninger practices architecture in Pune, India and in Thimphu Bhutan, where he

is designing the National Capitol Complex. He began his career teaching at Harvard’s

Graduate School of Design prior to shifting to India where he began the School of Planning at

CEPT in Ahmedabad. This lecture was given to an association of graduates in Bangalore in

April 2008.

WHY EUROPEANS SLEEP WITH THEIR DOGS AND OTHER ARCHITECTURAL THEORIES


* * * * *

Modern society has brought its urbanites economic independence from their parents;

medical security against disease and surety of income in one’s old age. Working women,

equal opportunities and fast track professions have made the traditional family redundant in

many societies, and in a large segment amongst India’s young urban population.. The glue

that used to hold society in place has melted! Maybe stickier glue has come in its place?

Architecture is as much an engine of this change, as it is a result of this phenomenal

transformation in our cities. Indian architects are quick to implement the new world order,

eager to appear creative and different, by copying the banal and the mundane. The cell

phone has replaced physical neighborhoods and the Internet is the street corner gossip! The

blast of media information has made news boring, and just to catch attention one has to yell

ever louder to turn a head. The design profession is likewise promoting sensationalism and

“the spectacular,” rather than good urban form and human values. True, this trend

represents only a fraction of Indian society, but a majority of the new built form in the

metros has turned its face from community building. Moreover, willy-nilly this model is the

road we are pursuing in every aspect of daily life. It is the reality of the urban niche that is in

the limelight, growing day by day.

City form has responded with a myriad of branded eateries that are replacing kitchens;

multiplexes, lounges, bars and discos that are replacing living rooms; beauty parlors and

spas that are replacing our bathrooms and, practically all that is left of the traditional home

is the bed room! Every building wants to spread over its own full city block; each plot is

walled-in and guarded; gyms and health clubs are replacing neighborhood play areas;

buildings are becoming monumental and impersonal, with harlequin facades. The roads are

widening, sidewalks and cycle paths are shrinking, and the scale of cities is morphing from

human to the machine in motion. More is more, and big is beautiful in the new city!

People whose parents survived in comfortable simplicity on Rupees fifteen thousand a

month, feel a pinch in their “life style” earning anything under sixty thousand a month! They

covet and protect every Rupee, counting up who pays what share on each outing. Habitat is

no longer a home; it is a “pad.” Protecting one’s wealth from parasites, opportunistic

relatives and hangers-on is a matter of daily management. The accepted dependents of the

house are cell phones and credit cards that eat up every paisa unnoticed!

As the city, its architecture, and urban society all morph into a bland chess board of stand

alone people and facades; which are deposited in glass walled blocks with no courtyards or

street life; so too does the individual psyche, the persona and the personality transform.

People don’t like people any more! People love themselves. The word “communities” is

becoming as archaic as typewriters. “Neighbor” is a bad word! Everyone is worried that

everyone else wants their money, and every one else does want their money!

Style, facades (personal as well as architectural), packaging, attention getting stunts,

fashion, anal retentive behavior and spectacularism are all part of the NEW LIFE that is a

product of the new economy, new society and the new urbanism. Bland and ugly buildings

merely mirror the people who live inside of them. In the “me, my, mine culture” which is

emerging the only true friend is one’s loyal pet dog.

Europe, which is six decades ahead of us in the search for self, has invented the “single

person family” as a demographic profile. It is the self fulfilled prophesy of the paranoid

urbanite who fears that human beings are predators and scroungers. Moreover, each

average person imagines their life partner to be incredible: great looking, super intelligent,

professional, high earning and possibly even loving. Thumbing through Page Three they

think Wow, Fantastic, First Class Act, Spectacular or How Clever! The average person wants

to settle for nothing less than the spectacular, who they know they will never meet, and that

the attraction will not be mutual even if they ever do. But the media and the taste makers

tell them not to settle for less! So they cruise the streets with pet dogs in toe, glancing here

and there for companionship.

In the single person family what one is talking about is more important than who one is

talking to. If your topic is not about the spectacular, your victim will fain busy and hang up!

Family, close friends, and even lovers, are passé! That people are talking about you, good or

bad, is more important than having a civilized conversation over a night cap. The weather

and politics are no longer topics of discussion; sensationalism is the topic of catchy dialogue:

Paris Hilton, a terrorist attack, the Birds’ Nest, or upside-down buildings! Where architects

used to talk about community, engendering interaction between people and neighborhoods,

they speak of new visual tricks, driven by computer graphics! Where people used to discuss

ideas they now talk about other people, software and objects. There is no time for quiet

times at home! Even sex can be purchased off-the-shelf, or experienced in thirty second

trysts in aircraft toilets 35,000 feet above sea level, but not with a long term partner at

home. The redefined human being is labeled a metrosexual. Yet at the end of the day the

contemporary single person family needs companionship, without the hassles of people and

community. Yet the single person family still wants something warm, with loving eyes,

waiting at the door to greet them when they return home after a long day!

According to recent census data on dogs in modern societies, the canine creature is on the

rise. Its ascendance shadows the rise of single person families! There are as many dogs in

Amsterdam as there are people. This is all very important to us creatures who imagine

ourselves as architects, as we are willy-nilly creating cities that not only respond to, but

simultaneously catalyze the new social structure, culture and demography. Public

screaming, posing, posturing and yelling are somehow the natural corollary to life alone with

a dog! Just look at Europe, its new architecture, and its love affair with beasts!

Modern architecture, the kind of modernism that Josep Lluis Sert practiced and wrote about,

was focused on resolving the conundrums of urbanism and our human condition in the bee

hives we call cities. Modernists dealt with urbanism, the aesthetics of new materials, and a

rejection of effete styles and fads. Heading the International Modern Architecture Congress

(CIAM), Sert incorporated the Team Ten revolt within the movement, and then founded the

first Urban Design course [at Harvard], which changed the way designers thought about

built form and community. Le Corbusier was equally concerned with issues of humanity in

transitional societies, and Wright championed craftsmanship and integration with context.

Aldo van Eyck knew that “place was the realm of the inbetween” and he created 860 small

play parks almost out of thin air. All abhorred effetism!

As the modernists searched for human scale and social reality, the theorists were flip

flopping with new ideas and new heroes! Instead of evolving from a platform of ideas, a kind

of incestuous love affair emerged between designers, magazines and architectural critics.

Postmodernist theories in architecture attempted to piggy-back on French philosophy and

the literary criticism of the late 1960’s. Semantic Analysis, Structuralism, and

Deconstruction that had come and gone in the arts in the early Twentieth Century, decades

before “liberal humanism” was debunked by French theorists, re-emerged as clichés of the

effete elite! Philosophical and literary Postmodernism really shares nothing with

architectural Postmodernism. Postmodernism in architecture seems to be some kind of neo-

capitalist Employment Guarantee Scheme for a clique of academic theorists, journalists and

designers, rather than a guiding criticism of design, leading to a better future. The prime

beneficiaries have been the writers, publishers, magazines, media, and a few grandstand

architects who vomit out the spectacular at the cost of good community building principles

and practices. Honest expression of structure and materials has been labeled as passé.

Just as the “Chicago School” of architecture met sudden death with the Chicago

International Exhibition in 1893, modern architecture wilted to the blow of a few humongous

projects in the 1970’s and 80’s. Effete though spectacular architecture caught the public

imagination. Giedion cites America’s cultural inferiority complex as the reason that effetism

triumphed at the close of the Nineteenth Century, stating “it was to France that the builders

of the (1893) fair turned for their search for beauty… which gave the French academicians a

dominating role at this Chicago fair.” And again the world of architecture looked to France

for intellectual reasoning in the last quarter of the Twentieth Century. Again, it is a sense of

inferiority that leads to bombastic exhibitionism and narcissistic isolationism. The terrorism

of the avant-garde has invaded the half awake mind, the fear of being correct; of not

displaying one’s stupidity, has made us stupid. The only creatures we dare talk to without

recrimination are dogs! In fact within totalitarian regimes where people snitch upon each

other’s wrongness and wield “politically correct” thinking as a threat, pets are the safest bet

for a trusted friend. So aware were the Soviets of this human weakness, that when they

invaded Prague in 1968, their first act of state terrorism was canine genocide; the killing of

all the city’s dogs within the first week of occupation!

Lacking any complex order to sustain thought, buildings catalyze us to ask questions about

the intellectual context, that is abstract analytical context, rather than content and the

actual setting. A theory is the idea behind it, rather than the physical and social context!

Some theory about the building has to be explained to justify its existence. Success is in

evoking questions: “what is the reason for all of this?” Yet, this is not a reasonable question

in our postmodernist times wherein it is the institution of the media, the galleries and the

critics who have declared a mound of nothing to be “Architecture”! Postmodernists would

like for us to ask questions about the justifying ideas that surround iconic architectural

monuments. The buildings do not contain their putative poetry or beauty. You have to think

over it and figure it out, and probably read several books on Michel Foucault and Jacques

Derrida to fit things in! Like Duchamp’s famous URINAL, or Gehry’s Fish, these monumental

clever buildings test our patience and intellectual skills. As Butler analyses, “calling into

question”, or “making the viewer guilty or disturbed” seems to be a common element

amongst the spectacular buildings being created. There is a neo-Marxist tint to it all as it

makes everything from personal relations to buildings into political constructions and

challenges. On the other hand the stunts created are to be consumed rather than used! A

fire station can be turned into a profit centre “museum” harvesting income from visitor

tickets. A project that is five times over the budget can be justified on the grounds that it

was paid for through the entry fees of ogling tourists in the first year! The Wal-Mart business

model has become the justification for art! Mercantilism justifies the tyranny of the

spectacular.

According to some critics, contemporary society is immersed in a special situation where

ironically in the new information society ideas and information are “suspect” of being the

manipulative image-making of those in control, rather than the advancement of knowledge

(Butler). Frederic Jameson sees much built environment as “a mutation into a postmodernist

hyperspace which transcends the capacities of the human mind to locate itself, to find its

own position in the mappable world, and this milling confusion is a dilemma, a symbol and

analogue of the incapacity of our minds to map the great global multinational and unfocused

communicational network in which we find ourselves caught as individual subjects.”

But yes, we like to talk about the SPACTACULAR and about things “new”; we write about

style, about fashion and about fleeting things that are here today and gone tomorrow. Cute

and clever designs rule over context, community and the reality of materials. The victims

are the people who live in little repetitive boxes and are told spectacular sculpture is their

compensation. They are told good architecture is a stunt of monumental construction, which

massacres anything inside of it, all in the name of a vague concept of art, with a little French

philosophy thrown in for good taste.

It seems architectural critics swallowed their own propaganda about “modernism” and

began to believe that “modern architecture” was all about “isms”, great men, sculptural

buildings and icons! In fact it was exactly the other way around! The Postmodern era we are

living in, is in fact a form of pre-modern effetism, which the early modernists raved against!

This is the same effetism which killed the Chicago School at the close of the Nineteenth

Century, opening the door once more for the make believe of the spectacular.

The city make-over of recent decades is just cold facades; inhuman objects; machine scale

monumentalism; stunts and spectacular structures and materials. Like the fashion ramp, our

cities are getting cluttered with mimics of the Bilbao’s Guggenheim, the Valencia City of Arts

and Sciences, China’s CCTV Tower, the Vitra Fire Station, and Amsterdam’s Nemo. These are

the scraps thrown out to the public for visual consumption! Museums have become the

opiates of the masses! The urban landscape dies when the malls close, the lights go off and

the pizzazz dims into darkness. Like the spectacular, anal retentive buildings all alone in

their own little city blocks, the city dwellers all go home to their little boxes to feed canned

food to their cats and dogs, with whom they cuddle up and go to sleep! This seems to be the

India of our dreams!

REFERENCES:

Butler, Christopher: Postmodernism: A Very Short Introduction (Oxford, 2002), pp 2.

CIAM: Can Our Cities Survive? (Harvard, 1942).

Derrida, Jacques: Acts of Literature (Routlege, 1992).

Foucault, Michel: The Order of Things (Tavistock, 1970).

Jameson, Frederic: Post Modernism, or the Cultural Logic of Late Capitalism (Verso,

1991), pp. 42.

Giedion, Siegfried: Space, Time and Architecture (Harvard, 1959) pp. 393.

Said, Edward: Orientalism (Harmonsworth, 1985).

03 11 08 ccb : all rights retained by the author.

*Christopher Charles Benninger is an urbanist practicing architecture out of studios in Pune,

India and Thimphu, Bhutan. He has won the Designer of the Year, Golden Architect and

Great Masters’ Awards in India, and was A+D’s first recipient of their Recognition in

Excellence in Design Award for Architecture. In the year 2000 he won the American Institute

of Architects (Business Week/Architectural Record) Award for the United World College near

Pune.

THE DESIGN OF DESIGN


* * * * *

We are all gathered here today by a common devotion to something called design. For each

of us it may have a different meaning, but for all of us it means a “process through which

something is achieved!” We may think of “a design” as an object like the Coca Cola bottle,

or the Sony Walkman; or as a beautiful interior space. But the iconic designs which come to

our minds are merely the outcomes of a DESIGN PROCESS. We are all involved in this

process.

All of my friends sitting here are “designers”, be they lighting designers, industrial

designers, architects, interior designers or artists! Each, in their own way is a master of their

unique design process. Design to me is a METHOD TO ACHIEVE AN END RESULT, whether it

is creating the Tata logo, conceiving of a reading lamp, or rolling out a new automobile. The

process starts with a vague image of what is needed and desired; involves defining

performance criteria and applying legal standards; creating optional solutions; evaluating

options against performance criteria; producing prototypes and correcting prototypes,

before rolling out the final product. Reasoning, criticism, logic, questioning, simplicity,

dialogue and analysis are all fundamental to the design process. Limited resources temper

the process whether in the form of finances, human efforts, or time.

The best designs often emerge where the defining resources are constrained; thus, our

nostalgia for tribal art, handicrafts and the rustic architecture of villages.

Designs may range from the plan of a city; the design of a neighborhood; the layout of a

public space; the design of a building; to designs for lighting buildings and open spaces;

designs artistic motifs and of small artifacts. They may be company logos or a simple

letterhead.

As designers, we work as the catalysts of complex interest groups, and stake holders, who

will fund and invest in our ideas; construct and manufacture our designs; use and judge

these designed artifacts, whether large or small. Designers of entire cities and beautiful

furniture all work on time lines, following sequences of planned events, defined outputs and

they employ modulated processes to achieve results that match specifications.

Design has emerged as a necessity! Thirty years ago designers were viewed as frivolous

artists, churning out fanciful ideas. Indian products were poor copies of thirty year old

foreign ones. Product design was new and “lighting design” sounded exotic, if not weird!

People were skeptical of architects, as they “make things expensive!”

Today a product will not sell, and it will in fact flop, unless it is well designed. A city will be

ugly and will not function unless it is carefully designed. The lives of its inhabitants will be

miserable, frustrating and empty in the absence of design. This is the challenge placed

before us in India. Our role has to expand from fanciful, lyrical stunts, onto the epic stage of

social and economic transformation.

Industrialization has made it possible to bring thousands of daily use items within the reach

of the average citizen. Things which were unaffordable when made by hand dropped in price

when churned out in the thousands. Rustic oil lamps were difficult to maintain, awkward to

operate and unsafe to handle while modern lighting is inexpensive, safe and accessible to

all! We have moved from the design of crafted objects to the creation of entire technological

systems that have inter-dependent design elements and components, right from the energy

source, energy distribution, marketing and bill collection, to the electrical fitting, the

luminaire, the type of bulb, to the space being enhanced, and all made functional by light.

Object design is simple; systems design is complex!

If one part of the system is missing, the entire interconnected framework will collapse. There

was no sense inventing the radio without broadcasting stations, and one radio will not

support a station. So, thousands of radios had to be mass produced to have a broadcasting

system. Unless advertisements were designed to broadcast on these stations, there would

be no resources to sustain mass media!

The culture of objects has given way to the culture of systems.

Early in the Twentieth Century the marriage between art and industry occurred through the

German Werkbund movement, evolving into the Bauhaus and maturing into what is often

referred to as industrial design. One of my gurus, Walter Gropius, brought this movement to

America, when he took over the Harvard Graduate School of Design. The “Bauhaus

Approach” formed the basis for teaching at the National Institute of Design in India and

permeates through all basic design courses, be they in fashion design, in industrial design or

in architecture.

However, industrialization has also up-rooted and moved millions of people from their

traditional habitats bringing them into alien urban environments that are untended by

design. Cities just happened and icreated over time, object by object. No system held them

together!

The shift of employment from rural fabrication to industrial production has fired a mass

migration for which there has been no design. It is chaos resulting in squalor! The results are

unhealthy and inhuman. The very citizens for whom mass production is directed and

becoming the victims of an ill-conceived system. Design has not failed; it has been ignored.

We must create the scenarios where design can play a crucial role in uplifting the human

condition.

Design is the organizer that harmonizes thoughtless machines and raw materials into

artifacts of functional use and beauty. Design enhances the quality of people’s lives

wherever it is employed wisely.

Our collective interest as designers is how we can create scenarios where DESIGN can

impact on the quality of life of average people in a profound manner.

At the turn of the nineteenth century business leaders in Chicago and San Francisco

understood that there were no adequate plans that would create order in urban life. These

cities were cesspools of sewerage and waste; unorganized settlements of shanties and

squalor; and, unhygienic heavens of disease. In Chicago the railcar maker, Pullman, built a

model town for his factory and his workers. The city’s industrialists and traders floated a

competition for the city’s new plan. Within a decade the city came onto the world map as a

good place to do business! Good design branded the city as a “must see” destination in the

world. By the end of the nineteenth century “The Chicago School” of architecture was

synonymous with modernity and progress.

Design was an engine that drove an epic narrative. Design began to tell a story about the

good life, a better life and a new life. Design created the futuristic image that inspired

people and catalyzed nations! Design created icons of “what can be,” and design then

created the cultural artifacts that defined modern civilization. Design was integral to the

process of urbanization and industrialization.

An experiment in one city became the prototype for a dozen more, and then it became

standard practice! This is what I mean by EPIC design, as opposed to effete or even lyrical

design! Small ideas and little designs tempered taste makers, and then became the BIG

STORY of life.

Too often designers focus on the “pretty,” the “clever”, the “cute” and the luxurious. They

start getting pulled into conspicuous consumption and consumerism. They get worried over

what “will sell” and what is fashionable. By the time they do it, the fashion has turned stale

and they are part of an outdated style. The glittery small ideas, the fashions of a season and

the gift wrappings all hide what needs to be revealed underneath. Effete design plays to

mercantile values and interests that do not sustain cities, cultures or civilizations.

Entrepreneurs pay promising designers to tout their brands and products. Every designer

needs wealth. Every designer craves fame. Each designer wants personal attention; they

become obscene and obnoxious just to gain notoriety: an anal retentive baby is yelling and

screaming, instead of an anonymous worker creating for the betterment of society. Effetism

is the result and this little effete narrative, this tiny irrelevant story, begins to eat at the

roots of the large narrative. Design must get out of tinsel town, leave romanticism to

Bollywood and shun the virtual reality of Hollywood.

We need to recapture the Modernist mission, and focus on bringing “the good life” to the

masses.

Design has become mundane and banal. It is becoming frivolous and effete! It is playing on

cheap emotions, like being the “tallest”, or the largest, or the most stupid! Bright colors,

reflective metals and a multitude of materials get crass attention. This is what I see in

architecture, interior design, and in product design today. We must defy this!

I recently visited the Spanish town of Granada where centuries of a city making tradition and

effective urban design have tempered the inhabitant’s life styles for the better. The key to

their success lies in the design fabric of separate templates for buildings, pedestrians and

vehicles. People rarely walk across polluted and dangerous streets! They move down

covered arcades, through human scale plazas, within pleasant gardens, past proportioned

statues and around harmonious fountains. One minute they are in clairvoyant natural

daylight; the next they disappear into dark shadows. Historic buildings align on the visual

axis of pathways! There are outdoor cafes and places for children to play and the elderly to

sit and chat. Shadows play through the glittering rustle of leaves in protective trees!

Youngsters flirt and laugh everywhere. As the sun sets, soft lights in foliage create a soft and

romantic ambiance. At the turn of each corner a pleasant, unsuspected new experience

awaits one!

Collectively it is our challenge is to bring the benefits of good design to more and more

people. To do this we must take on ever more complex design challenges like the design of

our cities, urban precincts, river fronts, open spaces, affordable shelter and parkland hills.

One of the simplest interventions into the urban scenario is the creation of appropriate

public lighting for roads, footpaths, public gardens, statues and iconic structures. Drinking

water for all is doable within one decade; and the same with sewerage systems.

City governments do not have the intellectual resources to make such plans, nor the vision

to see dramatic changes. Urban planning legislation stifles any qualitative improvement of

cities, forcing us into a step by step, knee jerk method of identifying little, little projects

which together are called a Development Plan. There is no design in all of this, just scheming

and adjusting; buying and selling.

There needs to be an engagement of designers, industrialists, business people and

professionals with the urban scenario of India’s cities. But this should not be a cabaret where

the idle talking heads hold useless meetings and ‘do-good’ seminars, just to watch each

other dance and sing the praises of what we neither have, nor can ever achieve. We need to

study the statutory barriers as well as the plan options and work on a multi-level platform

between policy, programmes, projects, design and people. Our cities and metropolitan

regions remain amongst the few mega-habitats in the world without even the gesture of an

urban design and designed environments. There is no scenario wherein designers can play a

role.

We must employ appropriate technology to this end!

We must apply design logic, design processes, design techniques and design methods to the

creation of artifacts that impinge on more and more people. We must employ design logic

on correcting the environmental disaster facing us. We must employ design methods to

create access to shelter by the poor.

What are we waiting for? Let us create that scenario!

In front of our eyes we have seen the Mumbai-Pune Expressway emerge. We have seen the

Hussein Sagar Lake transform from a polluted cesspool into a beautiful urban precinct of

public domains. We have seen Pradeep Sachadev turn a dirty nalla in New Delhi transform

into the Delhi Haat. The landscape designer Ravi Bhan transformed a misused drainage

catchment in Ayodhya into a beautiful river front park. A private developer, Harsh Neotia, in

Kolkata turned a virtual garbage heap into a charming cultural centre for the arts called

‘Swabhumi’. In Pune’s Koregaon Park a dirty nalla was transformed into the wonderful Osho

Park. The examples of what we have achieved and do through design in India, and through

private-public-designer partnerships, is endless.

I remember the wonderful fountains which came up all over Pune before the 1994 National

Games. TAIN Square in Pune has created a public space for its neighborhood, where

everyone else is building right up to the road line leaving no space for people. We are trying

to create a youth plaza spanning over the national highway at the College of Engineering,

Pune to link the severed halves of a historic campus together, joining them over the national

highway and connecting them to the riverfront.

Why do we feel amazed when we stroll down the boulevards of Paris, stretch out on the

green lawns of its gardens, and sip coffee in its side walk cafes? We feel amazed because we

are a deprived lot. We are starved of the most basic human joys of life in a civilized city. We

are hungry just to sit with a friend a sip tea in a cozy out-of-doors café. Children in slums do

not know the joys of running, playing and laughing in a place of their own!

We must re-think design; we must re-consider the role of design; we must re-design design!

We must find purpose!

Good Design brings a better life to everyone. Good design is good business! If we passionate

to do good things, we can do anything! Design is a process followed to reach our dreams.

What are we waiting for: Let us design a better future!

* Christopher Charles Benninger is an architect-urban planner who works from his studios in

Pune, India and in Thimphu, Bhutan. He has designed award winning projects like the Suzlon

World Headquarters, the Mahindra United World College of India and the Capitol Complex in

Bhutan. He studied Urban Planning at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and

Architecture at Harvard University, where he later taught. He founded the School of Planning

at CEPT, Ahmedabad. Articles on his work are found in over fifty Indian and international

journals. The article above is amalgamated from two Key Note Addresses given in February

2009, the India Design Festival on the 7th in Pune and the Indian Institute of Interior Design

international conference on the 20th in Mumbai.

An Uncertain Journey : The Education of an Architect


* * * * *

From the moment a youngster decides to study architecture they begin a journey. At first it

is an uncertain journey guided by glamour, images and hopes.

Their experiences in the classroom, in the studio, talking amongst fellow students and

through chance meetings with practicing architects begin to shape an agenda. They begin to

hear stories of architects; they see architects’ houses and walk into interesting studios. They

study magazines and journals and books. Slowly they integrate within themselves the

images seen through the mirrors of others. Some have heroes, some are silent and some are

the heroes of their own lives. Gradually these students start drawing realistic pictures of

themselves and embark on the journey of meaningful self discovery. It should be the most

beautiful time of their lives!

We as teachers play a pivotal role in shaping their drama of self discovery. We guide them

onto paths of their journey. We expose them to the alternatives and possibilities. Most

important we as teachers can inspire students. We can give them an insight which makes

them realize something about themselves that they never knew before. We help them see

within themselves a picture of what they are, what they want and what they can be. This

realization is inspiration! I often say that, “there is only one kind of good luck in life, and that

is the good luck of having a good teacher.”

The experience for many students is exhilarating and transcendental. As a mature and a

wise person we can see them in their totality from a distance. With objectivity we can guide

them toward the path they need to follow. We can see their weaknesses and their strengths

and help them ameliorate and reinforce these.

There is a critical point in their education when they either imbibe the concept of “being a

professional,” or they drift off into fashionable, glamorous or celebrity paths. This is the first

moment when our education fails young architects!

As mentors and guides we have to ask “why do young people enter architecture?” Let me

pose a few possible reasons:

Journey One: “My father is an architect and I am planning to enter the family business as

the second generation.”

Journey Two: “I saw an architect’s picture in the newspaper and, by chance, the next day I

saw him get out of a Mercedes Benz. I want to be rich and famous!”

Journey Three: “I would like a calm, artistic life, sitting in a serene studio surrounded by

plants and paintings, contemplating beauty and letting art flow!”

Journey Four: “I wanted medicine, but my SSC scores were too low; then I tried electrical

engineering, but I failed the entrance exam; so I paid a capitation fee and entered

architecture.”

Journey Five: “My parents want me to get married to a good professional as soon as

possible, so they just want me to graduate so that I can get a good partner.”

Journey Six: “I want to migrate to America and I think architecture is the best way. As soon

as I graduate I will apply for a Masters’ Degree course in South Dakota, get my visa and

leave India.”

Journey Seven: “My art teacher introduced me to the subject of architecture. He showed

me a book on Frank Lloyd Wright’s houses and I was amazed. I want to be that person!”

Journey Eight: “I want to serve society and make a decent living while doing it. If I hone in

on my skills, study technical systems, learn about materials and learn professional ethics, I

can be a serious professional.”

These multiple possibilities continue. But we as teachers need to know where our path own

path merges with those of our students; and where our paths will part. Where do we touch a

student’s life during that short spell and what are our limitations to change them? What

small gifts can we give them along their way? During a short juncture of their journey can

we make a small impact? Can we do this without becoming involved with students, as their

friends or as their personal confidants?

Can we leave personalities and campus politics out of our relationships with students? Can

we see the strong points of even our weakest teaching colleagues and help them to be

better teachers, instead of ridiculing them! Can we keep the distance of a wise guide and

still pass on values, inspirations, sensitivities and understanding to students?

On a larger canvas the course curriculum is the highway, or even expressway, down which

all of our students are racing. It has many lanes, many entries and many exits. This road can

be made monotonous or exciting. It is the quality of teaching that makes it either a smooth

and scenic ride, or a bumpy and tortuous one.

As teachers, I feel we have two kinds of gifts that we can bestow on our students:

One is to make youngsters see an image of themselves. We give them images of what they

can be and how their own inner strengths and values can transform into a “life” and a

meaningful role in society. That is a very personal gift from one person to another. It is

called inspiration!

But our collective gift, our group goal, must reside within the course content, the required

reading, the meaning of projects and the experiences we create for them and into which

they immerse themselves. We have to be good at teaching this curriculum and skilled in

making it real and lively to the students.

In brief we have to provide an excellent grounding in essential knowledge; in necessary

skills and in underlying values. As a group we have to decide what are those skills,

knowledge and sensitivities.

I can compare the first year of medical education and that of architecture and I know that

the young doctors have mastered Grey’s Anatomy, embracing the nervous system, the

skeletal system, the circulation system, cells and their nourishment and all of the organs

which control, monitor and fix this complex system. I am sure that at the end of the first

nine months of architectural studies our students will not have a clue of the electrical,

plumbing, air conditioning, structural and functional systems which are elements of every

building. Even upon graduation we are sending ill-prepared people out to solve the problems

of society.

The history of architecture is not made up of the sum of all of the buildings constructed, but

the structures in which a new insight, a new material, a new technique or a new way of

looking at space is employed. I wonder how many young architects are equipped with a

complete knowledge of this stream of history and if they know where they can make a

contribution, or how they can employ what has already been discovered?

I even wonder how good our new graduates are at free hand drawing and sketching so that

they can quickly study options and conceptualize solutions? Most of our youngsters are

imagining 3D images on a 2D computer screen. Are we making a marriage between the real

and the virtual world?

Do students know the values and design logic of harmony, proportion, scale, and balance?

Do they know that architects can become the touts of builders who only care for municipal

drawings and how much FSI can be harvested?

Are we exposing our students to the processes of urbanization and the roles of architects,

builders and planners to create a vessel in which the multitudes can live a beautiful and

poetic life?

Do our graduates know what phases one goes through to make a real building?

Do they know that there are numerous roles they can play within this maze of procedures

and expected outcomes?

Within this conundrum it is very important that young architects know that being “creative”

comes far down in the list of logical, rational and responsible professional things they will

have to do to be good professionals.

We spend far too much time trying to teach what we cannot teach, which is creativity, and

very little time teaching what we can teach, which is social responsibility, knowledge, skills

and sensitivities.

The result is that our graduates have a very wrong impression of what we actually do in an

architectural studio and they lack the real skills to do those things. Many imagine that after

a two or three years stint of work they can open their own offices and do large scale works!

They are not ready to suffer the low salaries and long working hours endured by chartered

accountants, young doctors and lawyers in training. We have not properly grounded them

on the path they must endure!

We have to bring our students and young architects back to basics! We have to make them

into responsible, capable and sensitive young professionals. I believe this is DO-ABLE!

The greatest gift we can gift a student is the knowledge that they will always be students.

We must teach them how to be continuous seekers and learners. We must show them how

opening one window of knowledge, shows one the way to still more windows and still more!

We must leave them hungry to explore these windows of knowledge, voracious to consume

ideas, and vibrant to study from tired to tired!

12 03 09 ccb : all rights retained by the author.

**This article is condensed from two talks to students and teachers at the Rachana Sansad

Academy of Architecture (Mumbai) and the Vadodara Design Academy (Baroda) in January

2009 and March 2009 respectively.

*Christopher Benninger is the son of a Professor of Economics and began his career teaching

design at the Graduate School of Design, Harvard University. At the age of 26 he was made

a Fellow of the University and a tenured professor. In 1971 he came to Ahmedabad to found

the School of Planning in what is now CEPT University, where he is a Distinguished Professor.

He founded the Centre for Development Studies and Activities in 1976, where he was the

Executive Director for twenty years. He ahs served on the BUTR and the Senate of the Pune

University. He has been on the Board of Directors of the Fulbright Foundation (India) and is

on the Board of Governors of the School of Planning and Architecture [SPA], New Delhi.

Articles about his works and by Professor Benninger appear in more than fifty journals in

many countries.

THE PRINCIPLES OF INTELLIGENT URBANISM


* * * * *

The Principles of Intelligent Urbanism (PIU) is a set of axioms, laying down a value-based

framework, within which participatory planning can proceed. After review and amendment

by stake holders, the PIU acts as a consensual charter around which constructive debate

over actual decisions can be evaluated and confirmed. The PIU emerged from several

decades of urban planning practice by Christopher Benninger in the Indian subcontinent and

Southeast Asia. They were the foundation upon which the new capital plan for Bhutan was

prepared.

The ten Principles of Intelligent Urbanism are:

Principle One: A Balance with Nature emphasizes the distinction between utilizing

resources and exploiting them. It focuses on a threshold beyond which deforestation, soil

erosion, aquifer deterioration, silting, and flooding reinforce one another in urban systems,

destroying life support systems. The principle promotes environmental assessments of

ecosystems to identify fragile zones, threatened natural systems and habitats that can be

enhanced through conservation, density, land use and open space planning.

Principle Two: A Balance with Tradition integrates plan interventions with existing cultural

assets, respecting traditional patterns and precedents of style. It respects heritage precincts

and historical assets that weave the past and the futures of cities into a continuity of values.

Principle Three: Appropriate Technology promotes materials, building techniques,

infrastructural systems and construction management that are consistent with peoples=

capacities, geo-climatic conditions, local resources, and suitable capital investments. The

PIU focus on matching interfaces between the physical spread of urban utilities and services,

watershed catchments, urban administrative wards and electoral constituent boundaries.

Principle Four: Conviviality sponsors social interaction through public domains, in a

hierarchy of places, devised for personal solace, engaging friendship, romance,

householding, neighboring, community and civic life. It promotes the protection,

enhancement and creation of “open public spaces” which ae accessible to all.

Principle Five: Efficiency promotes a balance between the consumption of urban resources

like energy, time and finance, with planned achievements in comfort, safety, security,

access, tenure, and hygiene levels. It encourages optimum sharing of land, roads, facilities

and infrastructural networks to reduce per household costs, increasing affordability and civic

viability.

Principle Six: Human Scale encourages ground level, pedestrian oriented urban

arrangements, based on anthropometric dimensions, as opposed to Amachine-scales.=

Walkable, mixed use urban villages are encouraged, over mono-functional blocks and zones,

linked by motor ways and surrounded by parking lots.

Principle Seven: Opportunity Matrix enriches the city as a vehicle for personal, social, and

economic development, through access to a range of organizations, services and facilities,

providing a variety of opportunities for education, recreation, employment, business,

mobility, shelter, health, safety and basic needs.

Principle Eight: Regional Integration, envisions the city as an organic part of a larger

environmental, economic, social and cultural geographic system, which is essential for its

future sustainability.

Principle Nine: Balanced Movement promotes integrated transport systems composed of

pedestrian paths, cycle lanes, express bus lanes, light rail corridors and automobile

channels. The modal split nodes between these systems become the public domains around

which cluster high density, specialized urban Hubs and walkable, mixed-use Urban Villages.

Principle Ten: Institutional Integrity recognizes that good practices inherent in considered

principles can only be realized through the emplacement of accountable, transparent,

competent and participatory local governance. It recognizes that such governance is

founded on appropriate data bases, on due entitlements, on civic responsibilities and duties.

The PIU promotes a range of facilitative and promotive urban development management

tools to achieve intelligent urban practices, systems and forms.

Presented at the World Society of Ekistics Symposium in Berlin Ekistics, October,

2001

FROM PRINCIPLES TO ACTION: CREATING HAPPY PLACES TO LIVE IN

Presented to the Seminar on Gross National Happiness, Thimphu, Bhutan

February 2004


* * * * *

Prof. Benninger was deeply honoured in the year 2001 to be commissioned by the Royal

Government of Bhutan to prepare the Capital Plan for Bhutan. The process involved

participation and consultations. The regime of planning and the regime of land have

inherent conflicts, and the stake holders, like all places, had a variety of agendas. But the

engagements were real and lively. These engagements were based on a charter of values

upon which all the participants could agree. It was a process of transforming the underlying

values of Gross National Happiness into axioms, or principles, against which issues and

decisions could be examined, debated and decided upon. To make these principles, and the

values which underpin them, more imageable, we decided to list them. This value based

process lead to what I would call THE PRINCIPLES OF INTRELLIGENT URBANISM. Thus, a

development process began with the creation of a kind of meeting place of minds; a charter

of principles against which any fiscal or physical input or expenditure could be reviewed.

The plan which emerged was structured by several themes. These included an Urban

Corridor, which assures an alternative to the automobile thru express buses that link

compact, walkable urban villages. Instead of a plan which zones uses, the plan employed a

composition of precincts, which facilitated different stages in the life cycle, different

dharmas and various aspects of the human psychology. Thus, there is a place for

householding, a place for learning, a place for right livelihood, a place for spiritual evolution

and a place for governance. There is a place for contemplation, a place for romance and a

place for friendship. The directive nature of the precincts act to protect the fragile

environment of the Wang Chhu and the forest covered hills and mountains which protect

and nourish it. More than sixty percent of the urban area is protected through limited

density, limited ground coverage and limited bio-mass destruction. More than thirty percent

is in fragile reserved areas where no building is allowed at all! Pathways, footpaths, foot

bridges, and a system of open spaces provide places for human interactions and

engagement. Looking back at the often joyous, often painful, and always enlightening

process of evolving a structure for the capital city, the axioms or principles can be stated

quite succinctly. Clearly these principles emerge from the concept of Gross National

Happiness.

It is important to note that a new paradigm is always measured, analysed and judged by the

methods of the old paradigms. Each historical paradigm creates its own basis, rationale,

descriptive tools and measures. Thus, a new horizon appears too hazy to visualise through

the old tented lenses of the old paradigm. Western society needs to measure everything,

and thus can not visualize the measureless! The Bhutanese way of seeing things is more

emotive, spiritual and diagrammatic, like a mandala. There is wholeness and a

completeness which we fail to see because it is not laid out to us like a Renaissance one

point perspective. Rather there are overlays of symbols and motifs, each implying meanings

and knowledge systems. In preparing the capital plan, we knew we had to work between the

spiritual and the empirical. The Principles of Intelligent Urbanism became a vehicle to

achieve this.

Thus, the Principles of Intelligent Urbanism (PIU) are a set of ten axioms that lay down value-

based frameworks within which human settlements negotiations and planning can proceed.

After review by stake holders, PIU act as a consensual charter around which constructive

debate over decisions can take place. Emerging from our experiences in planning the capital

city of Bhutan, the PIU was the basis for the new capital plan for Bhutan (Benninger, 2001).

These principals surely have relevance to the planning of human settlements in other

contexts. They hint that happiness may not be as illusive as mainstream development

professionals imply!

PIU’s first principle, Balance with Nature, emphasises the distinction between utilising

resources and exploiting them. It focuses on the exploitative threshold beyond which

deforestation, soil erosion, aquifer depletion, silting and flooding reinforce one another in

urban development, thereby destroying the natural environment. The principle promotes

environmental impact assessments to identify fragile zones, threatened natural systems and

natural habitats that can be enhanced through conservation, density control, land use

planning and open space management. To quote Lyonpo Jigme Thinley (1998), “Reality is

not hierarchical, but a whole, circular and enclosed system.” Putting the whole in front of

self interest is central to happiness. It is also central to intelligent urbanism.

The principle of Balance with Tradition integrates planned interventions with existing

cultural assets in consonance with traditional practices and stylistic precedents. Heritage

structures become focal points of views; axis of boulevards; zones of open space and parks.

Heritage treasures become the spatial “benchmarks” which define urban spaces and

neighbourhood districts. His Late Majesty, Jigme Dorji Wangchuck, achieved revolutionary

changes within a cultural framework, which was peaceful, yet transformational. He freed the

serfs, created the National Assembly, made written laws and the judiciary system to justify

them; replaced foot cartage with roads, and villages with towns; instituted elections; and

sent youngsters abroad to study teaching and medicine. He built schools and hospitals! He

formalized diplomatic relations with Bhutan’s neighbours and set a path for friendly co-

existence in a sea of strife! His shifting the capital to Thimphu, and rebuilding the ancient

Trashi Chhoe Dzong (as a symbol of modern Bhutan!), exemplifies his genius for using

tradition in the service of transformation and change. The Bhutanese experiment in

development, unlike those in nations around it which employed western models almost

mindlessly, was free of violence, strife and hatred. A balance with tradition uses a middle

path to maintain happiness in a world of change.

Appropriate Technology promotes building materials, construction techniques,

infrastructural systems and management practices consistent with people’s capacities, geo-

climatic conditions, local resources and investment capabilities. Materials and methods

which displace craftspeople, cottage industries and low energy traditional materials are

rejected. Appropriate technologies are in synch with the local culture, history and ways of

doing things. They involve people, rather than alienate them. Appropriate Technology

promotes happiness.

Conviviality sponsors social interaction through public spaces in a hierarchy of civic places

devised for civic life (companionship, solace, romance, domesticity, neighbourliness,

community, etc.). These are realised through quiet forests above the city for solitude;

walkways along the river and parks for romance; sidewalk cafes, street benches and civic

courtyards for friendship; Urban Village squares for communities; and neighbourhoods, well

defined, for families and close knit groups. It promotes urban villages, which serve clusters

of neighbourhoods, in the form of a walking city. A number of Urban Villages composed of

compact, walkable centres accommodating basic services, convenience shopping, parks and

an express bus stop, support lower density areas spreading from them.

The Public Domain is rapidly disappearing form the urban fabric, replaced by privately

owned and managed spaces, generated to earn profits. The shopping mall has gradually

replaced the street and the public garden, and the entrance to the mall is controlled by

vendors and limited to those who can pay. The very essence of urbanity is the opportunity

for chance meetings, to encounter the exotic and to experience the serendipity. Cities are

places of the unknown and of self discovery! Thus, the PIU reclaim the experience of

discovery and engagement with the new and the unknown. Conviviality and self realization

engender happiness!

Efficiency promotes a balance between the consumption of resources like energy, time and

finance, with planned achievements in comfort, safety, security, access, tenure and hygiene.

It encourages optimum sharing of land, roads, facilities, services and infrastructural

networks, thereby reducing the unit costs per capita, and increasing affordability and civic

viability. Using intelligent transportation systems, it structures nodes and hubs along urban

corridors and networks. It makes the employment of public mass transport a viable

alternative to the private vehicle. Well designed, efficient urban systems increase the

number of people who use costly urban infrastructure, to make the per capita costs less!

This breeds accessibility to basic services and leads to financially viable urban fabrics, rather

than deficit generating forms of spread out networks, so apparent in urban sprawl, in

“suburbia,” and in low density far flung bungalows, separated by vast open areas. Access to

basic services and the enjoyment of mobility can only happen within a framework of

efficiency. Efficiency promotes happiness!

Reliance on Human Scale encourages ground level, pedestrian oriented urban arrangements

based on anthropometric dimensions, as opposed to machine, inhuman scales. Walkable,

mixed-use, pedestrian villages dominate over single-function blocks that need extensive

motorways and huge parking lots. The scale of the so called progressive world is that of

expressways, motorways, monstrous office towers, vast blank walls of the shopping malls

with the private spaces locked inside. Human scale is low rise, is imageable, and small.

Building human scale environments creates understandable and meaningful spaces. Human

scale, balance with nature and with tradition, conviviality and efficiency are holistic parts of

a complete circle. Human scale and happiness are mutually reinforcing.

Creating effective Opportunity Matrices enrich the city as a vehicle for personal, social and

economic development through access to institutions, services and facilities. These create

opportunities for education, recreation, employment, business, mobility, shelter, health,

safety and basic needs. Cities exist for many reasons, but most formidable is the freedom of

choice and the vast networks of opportunity they create. Good cities provide a plethora of

alternative paths and ways by and through which individuals can reach their full potential

and awareness. They offer a variety of channels to ensure that basic needs are achieved and

that hidden desires and capabilities can be realized. The web of choices that good city

design presents to people is a generator of happiness.

The principle of Regional Integration envisions cities as an organic part of a larger

environmental, socio-economic and cultural-geographical system essential for its

sustenance. This axiom recognises that there is a symbiotic relationship between cities and

their hinterlands; hinterlands and their regions; and regions and the nation. It emphasizes

that there is a symbiotic relationship between nations and the common welfare of the world

citizenry. No city, no nation, no region is an island. The environmental mess of one region

spills over on to the others, like an atomic cloud dropping particles of pollution everywhere it

is blown. No nation is isolated form the terrorism engendered by the repressive policies of its

neighbours. Thus, all units of civility must fit one within the other like the Russian dolls that

dwell within one another in consonance. Happiness is the inner knowledge that the world is

just and fair; not just that one city, or one family, or an individual is well and justly cared for.

Balanced Movement promotes integrated transport systems of walkways, express bus lanes,

light rail transit corridors and automobile channels. The modal split nodes between these

transport means become the public domains around which compact, high density clusters,

urban hubs and mixed-use urban villages emerge. Freedom is enhanced by physical access

and mobility. A good urban system allows each member of a household to choose the time

and destination of the joy and opportunities they seek. An automobile will only provide

mobility to one household member; two automobiles will provide a modicum of happiness

for a second person! Only a well managed mass, public transport system will assure the

freedom to all which a good urban system provides. Happiness is tempered by choice,

possibilities, mobility and a variety of physical destinations.

Institutional Integrity, PIU’s last principle, recognises that good practices inherent in these

principles can be realised only through accountable, transparent, competent and

participatory local governance founded on an appropriate data base, entitlements and civic

duties. PIU promotes a range of facilitative urban development management tools to

achieve urban practices, systems and forms. A citizen, who is sure that the machinery of

administration and governance will treat them objectively and fairly, rests peacefully at

night. The mental torment that is generated by state terrorism, the misuse of power,

incompetent property records, the direction of the general welfare resources to the benefit

of a few; and by the manipulation of justice…thwarts personal peace and blissfulness. Good

governance results in happiness; the carefreeness that one can experience when they know

that all is right in the heavens!

A great deal of the discussion on Gross National Happiness has implied that happiness is not

quantifiable and that it is embedded into different cultures in different ways. True, that

trying to measure and to quantify happiness goes against the very concept of GNH, but

there are some common grounds where happiness dwells! This paper is based on the

experience of Bhutan composing its own future through the vehicle of an urban plan. At the

end of this process, I feel, we have much to share with the world where carrying principles

into action is concerned.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

(1)Benninger, C.C. (2001) ‘Principles of Intelligent Urbanism’, Ekistics 69, 412: 39–65:

Athens.

(2) Akkisetti Ramprasad (2003) Encyclopaedia of the City: London.

(3) Thinley, Lyonpo Jigme (1998) Keynote Speech delivered at the Millennium Meeting for

Asia and the Pacific, Seoul, Korea.

(4) Centre for Bhutan Studies (1999) Gross National Happiness, Thimphu, Bhutan.

(5) Christopher Charles Benninger Architects (2003) The Thimphu Structure Plan, Ministry of

Works and Human Settlements, Thimphu Bhutan.

(6) Benninger, C.C. (2001) Imagineering and the Human condition, The Graz Biennial,

Austria.

(7) Benninger, C.C. (2001) The Purposes of Cities, Lecture delivered at the Bauhaus,

Germany.

(8) Benninger, C.C. (1999) Development and Institutions, Lecture presented at the

Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA.

(9) Ura, Karma (1995) Hero With One Thousand Eyes, Thimphu, Bhutan.

Great Master’s Award: Kolkata Ceremony

18 December 2008


* * * * *

For an architect, receiving the Great Master’s Award is a watershed in his career. It is a rite

of passage few can imagine. First of all it is an honor bestowed by ones fellow senior

architects, who are articulate critics, as well as cautious admirers. Second this award is a

unique one. Over the past two decades very few architects have received this accolade and

those who did truly embrace the grate masters of South Asia. They include such names as

Laurie Baker, Geoffrey Bawa, Achut Kanvinde, Charles Correa, Balkrishna V. Doshi and Raj

Rewal. Who could dare to enter into such a pantheon of iconic, creative personalities? I feel

humbled by the very thought! All of these men were truly masters of our art.

They understood that ‘modern architecture’ was not just an act of creating bizarre and

exotic strange forms, but that ‘modern architecture’ is a social art bound within the craft of

technology. They understood that it is also a ‘ethical art’ wherein there is a truth in its

processes, and there must be honesty of expression to achieve transcendence. In many

ways architecture is a search for the truth of a building within its setting and context. All of

these former awardees fought against false ideas and bad architecture.

I reject postmodernism as a frivolous enigma and a self fulfilling ideology of personal

aggrandizement. I see my personal agenda as a mere continuation of a great tradition set

out by the masters who went before me back into the annals of history. I was fortunate

enough to have great teachers like Walter Gropius, Jerzy Soltan, Jose Lluis Sert, Kevin Lynch

and Fuhimiko Maki who laid out a strict path of struggle and self realization. They set out an

agenda which I beseech all of you to make yours also. It is a mission worth our endeavors,

our fellowship and our professional commitment. It includes an agenda with three thrusts:

First, the modern movement is focused on the social issues of urbanization, mass housing

and the public institutions that create a civil society. A modern architect is an urbanist in this

broad sense. His work must contribute to its context, be a part of its milieu and make life

better for the neighborhood within which it participates. Buildings cannot turn their backs on

their neighbors, be arrogant or be absurdly selfish.

Second, buildings must be true to the technology and materials and craftspeople from which

they emerge. Materials must be expressed honestly and the technology must be appropriate

to the context within which it is created. Modern architects, since the Nineteenth Century,

have explored new materials and technologies, but nestled them within local conditions.

Finally, modern architects are crusaders, spokespersons and even revolutionaries in their

fight against effetism and deceit. In India today we are bombarded with false architecture

‘cut’ from bad buildings in the West and ‘pasted’ into Indian environments, ruthlessly and

carelessly. Most of this crime is committed under the false ideology of Postmodernism that is

in fact a creed of greed and self aggrandizement. It is the craft of anal retentive, screaming

and yelling babies out for attention. There is a wild grabbing for FSI with no concern for the

creation of civic spaces, human experiences and the making of a good life for the common

man. Reject this! Speak out against this!

All of our modern agendas should lead us toward more natural, more appropriate and more

‘local’ styles. The blind imitation of Western fads must come to an end. Modern Indian

architecture must also be ‘regional architecture’ emerging from the climate, local materials,

local traditions and crafts.

The rise of media and of science has propelled us into the straight jackets of specialized

disciplines. The further we advance in knowledge, the less clearly we can see either the

world around us, or understand our own selves. We have plunged into what Milind Kundera

has called the ‘forgetting of being’. True modernism is an era when the ‘passion to know’

became the essence of spirituality. The essence of modern architecture is to explore that

which only a piece of architecture can discover. A building which does not express some

unknown segment of existence is immoral. Revealing truth is architecture’s only reality. The

sequence of discovery (not the sum total of what is built) is what constitutes the history of

modern architecture. It is only in such a cross-cultural, historical context that the value of

any work can be fully revealed and understood.

In my life as an architect ninety percent of my work ended up in the trashcan of my dreams.

Some work survived into the form of models and drawings made to scale. What got built was

a mere fraction of my life’s efforts. When people praise that small evidence of my truth, I

feel very nice. When they garland me, and call me a Great Master, I feel humbled, yet truly

elated. All of those trashcan dreams get reborn and come to life again with new meaning.

Friends, with these few words, I thank you for the great honor that you have bestowed upon

me to day.

* Winner of the 2007 Architect of the Year : ‘Great Masters’ Award.

SYMBOLS OF STATE

Published in Architecture Plus Design January 2009


* * * * *

Symbols convey messages through visual images, verifying the old adage that one image

says more than a thousand words! The Ashokan pillars, placed strategically within the

Ashoka’s empire carried his axioms of law, and heralded his state. The wheel of life, “Asoka

Chakra,” the lions and the lotus are emblematic of the modern day Indian state. Gandhi

overlapped it with his symbolic spinning wheel, implying self-reliance and the Chakra all in

one. So much did it symbolize the essence of the Indian state that the Republic of India

draws on its strength even until this date!

In Lutyens’ construction of a meaning system in the form of New Delhi, he drew on this

powerful imagery vide the gift of the Maharaja of Jaipur, of the famous Jaipur Column. As the

center piece of the national capitol complex, it gathers within it the mimicked meaning

system of the ancient Ashokan pillars.

An image becomes a symbol when that image merges with “a meaning system” indelibly in

the public mind. This flows into the Indian national flag where, again the Chakra (wheel) is

centre place, and on to the basic denomination of currency where the column appears

again, and so forth. Thus, an architectonic emblem has come to represent the very concept

of the Indian nation state.

Media tsars would call this process of blending a meaning system into a symbol of a

“product” as a branding experience, and would carefully articulate the embedding of the

symbolic logo intrinsically through the brands’ knowledge system. Here an explicit attempt

is made to merger a logo, icon or symbol, along with its implicit meanings, into the public’s

mass psychic and national culture.

Time is an essential component of this process, as state symbols gain legitimacy through

references to ancient values, monuments and historical moments of national glory, “piggy

backing” ideas, one upon the other, seamlessly making the present an unquestionable

outcome of a manifest national destiny. Historical reference, real or purloined (as in the case

of the fascist “lifting” of the Swastika and re-inventing it as the symbol of Aryan purity and

national socialist unity) is an essential element of a legitimate symbol of state. The longevity

of a nation state cannot be dependent on so fragile a concept as a government, which may

rise and fall, wither and reappear, through the avatars of political parties and charismatic

leaders. The state gives systemic structure to a system of ever-changing governance,

protecting cherished values and due processes of law, while facilitating seamless changes

between ruling groups of people. Thus, symbols of state gift permanency and strength over

time to a system that is inherently fraught with divisiveness, intrigue and self-destruction,

pulling the idea of nation with timeless unity thorough the vagarities of time itself.

It is therefore important to articulate the distinction between a “state” and a “government!”

The former is an implicit concept of essential modalities of ruling, which may be inscribed in

a constitution (or not as in the case of the United Kingdom). The latter is the temporal, and

always changing, explicit manifestation of ruling, controlling and administrating.

Unlike companies and their products, states are invested with a need for permanency,

complexity and size, and thus the state’s “branding exercise” requires humongous, highly

complex and permanent icons to sustain them. National capital cities are created,

restructured and expanded in order to perform as symbols of state, as well as to function as

legislative and executive centers of power. This, along with the creation of capitol

complexes, within those symbolic capital cities, is the major investment in the enterprise of

state making.

Historically, the Forbidden City in Beijing, along with the capitol complex core, composed of

symbols within symbols, including the Great Hall and Tiemien Square, stands out as such an

historical example, as does the Red Fort of the Moguls and all of the various “cities of Delhi”

which appeared and vanished and integrated into the present day metropolis. The attempt

at Fatehpur Sikri to crate a new capital city is yet another example that failed.

Sensing its loss of grip on the Indian Empire the British Government set out on the task of

creating an imperial symbol of state in the form of New Delhi, and in the creation of the

Capitol Complex itself at Raisina Hill. The choice of the Indo-Saracenic style was meant to

legitimize the Raj’s “state experience” within the logic of a cultural milieu and continuous

historical pale of rule. This suited leaders of the nationalist movement who shared the image

of India with the British, as opposed to the reality of Bharat, composed of hundreds of un-

governable mini-states. This super-state required a super icon as its leading symbol of state,

and the British were creating that, more or less in tandem with, but not in conjunction with,

the success of the Independence Movement. Ideals like democracy and socialism that were

seeded on British soil were to bloom in the subcontinent as integral to the new meaning

system that would become the modern Republic of India.

There is a historical parallel in George Washington’s quest for a new capital of democratic

America, named after him, and the creation of New Delhi. Washington realized that a

mercantile entrapot such as New York City would corrupt the processes of government and

dwarf the iconic statement of the new republic. He also imported an architect, L’ Enfant from

France, to layout the diagonal system of boulevards that converge on the Mall, much in the

same manner that the Raj Path collects Lutyens’ diagonal boulevards. Paris was, after all,

historically an Imperial city of rulers, and not as London and New York, a mere business city

of traders. Baker and Lutyens, along with all the others who participated in the plan

formation, drew heavily on the French model of boulevards, visual corridors, and

monuments creating alignments upon symbols of state and axial terminuses upon historical

references that were laced with grand parks, squares and arcades. The plan for the District

of Columbia in America was a clear reference.

The fall of the Ottoman Empire at the end of the First World War, prepared the rise of Auto

Turk, who was driven to create a modern, regionally balanced nation, with a new capital,

Ankara, in its center, and away from the corrupting influence of Istanbul. Australia selected

its new capital site and began work at Canberra.

The post colonial era was truly a season for capital city building, as the enterprise of state

making became a global one. The branding experience of a capital city was by mid-

Twentieth Century a time tested strategy to thrust the meaning system and grandeur of the

state upon the public iconography, sub-consciousness and working values. Nehru employed

it at the regional levels in Bubaneshwar, where Otto Koeningsberger prepared the plan, and

in Chandigarh where Jane Drew and Maxwell Fry implemented the capital plan, brining in Le

Corbusier to design the capitol complex. Gandhinagar followed in Gujarat as part of the

partition plan of the erstwhile Bombay State.

Pakistan, Nigeria and a host of other emerging nations set out to create symbols of state in

the form of capital cities. Oscar Niemeyer’s plan for Brasilia and his exuberant capital

complex geometry captured the national imagination.

Equally important was the emphasis given to the actual capitol complexes, formed of

symbolically conceived layouts. The Assembly at Dacca by Louis Kahn, Jeffery Bawa’s island

complex and more recently the new capital of Malaysia at Patra Jaya caught the worlds, as

well as their respective nation’s’, imaginations, acting as a kind of stamp of legitimacy.

In Bhutan, a Himalayan kingdom the size of Switzerland, the Wangchuck dynasty embarked

on a nation building exercise beginning in the 1950s, when the seat of governance was

shifted to the Thimphu Valley, where the vast fortress-monastery Trashi Chhoe Dzong was

rebuilt to house the royal government. Soon the requirements for space forced the

secretariat to spill out into a village of cottages in front of this national icon. The valley

sprinkled with villages morphed into a small town. By the year 2000 Thimphu had a

population of 47,000 people concentrated in traditional villages and spread along the Wang

Chhu River. The need to restructure the emerging city, paving the way for modern

infrastructure and amenities, resulted in the inviting of expressions of interest from

international consulting groups. The Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Kamsacs in

Denmark and Christopher Charles Benninger Architects (CCBA) in India, were short-listed,

and in June 2001 CCBA set up a studio in Thimphu.

After our selection, I reviewed my own plans for towns in Sri Lanka and India. I looked at the

work of my teachers Sert, Gropius, Kevin Lynch and Jane Drew. I revisited the Charter of

Team Ten, the CIAM guidelines for urban planning and lessons culled from Sert’s writings.

From this I wrote the Principles of Intelligent Urbanism that became a charter of concerns

and required actions that would guide our work. The plan that resulted focused on main

themes. It sought balance with nature; balance with tradition, regional balance, efficiency,

the creation of an opportunity system, the making of open spaces and emplacing of rational

transport patterns. It focused on the iconic Trashi Chhoe Dzong and structured urban

villages along the river, connected by an Urban Corridor. Large bio-diversity reserves in the

form of river front set-backs, forests, open spaces and parks were protected. River-front

paths, cycle lanes, parks and gardens were a main theme. Instead of western restrictive

zones, the plan was based of facilitative precincts, ranging from sacred precincts to urban

villages, to the traditional town core.

As this was the Structure Plan of an existing habitat, patterns had to be discovered from the

context and built upon. We found that ancient monasteries, temples, dzongs, chortens and

other sacred places were perched on hill tops, or aligned within valleys, in a manner that

they were all visually connected. In addition, the sub-valleys of the Thimphu Valley created

visual bowls from which vast “barrowed landscapes” could be employed. The geometry of

the river-valley, with its tertiary streams and micro-watersheds provided a systemic

structure, over-laid by the pattern of visually inter-linked sacred precincts. More than fifty

percent of the land is conserved in environmental, river front, recreational and open spaces,

making it a unique GREEN CITY focused on the emerging capital complex.

A new capitol complex lies at the apex of the organic meandering river plan. It is composed

of the Trashi Chhoe Dzong, with the new Tshechu Cultural Plaza attached to it’s north

facade; the Supreme Court further north; the National Council Hall to the east; the National

Secretariat composed of ten ministries to the west; and a Monk’s Dharamshala, all inter-

linked by gardens, paths and the Wang Chhu river.

References

BENNINGER.C (2002): “Principles of Intelligent Urbanism,” Thimphu Structure Plan, Royal

Government of Bhutan, Thimphu.

CAVES. ROGER, Ed. (2004): “Principles of Intelligent Urbanism,” in Encyclopedia of the City,

Routledge, London

GRAZ BIENNIAL COMMITTEE (2001): “Imagineering and Urban Design,” C. Benninger, in

Proceedings of the Graz Biennial, Graz.

ISLAM.NAZRUL (2000): Urban Governance in Asia, Pathak Samabesh, Dhaka.

JACOBS.JANE (1993): The Death and Life of Great American Cities, Random House, New York.

LECCESE.M, Ed. (1999): Charter of the New Urbanism, McGraw Hill Professional, New York.

LEWIS.P (1996): Tomorrow by Design, Wiley, John and Sons, New York.

MARSHALL.A (2000): How Cities Work: University of Texas Press, Austin, Texas.

McHARG.I (1975): Design with Nature, Wiley, John and Sons, New York.

SEN.A (2000): Development as Freedom: Knopf, New York.

SPREIREGEN.P (1965): Urban Design: the Architecture of Towns and Cities, McGraw-Hill, New

York.

TANIGUCHI.E (2001): City Logistics: Network Modeling and Intelligent Transport Systems,

Elsevier Science and Technology Books, Hoboken.

URBAN LAND INSTITUTE (1998): Smart Growth, Urban Land Institute, Washington D.C.

* Professor Benninger studied urban planning and architecture before he embarked on a

teaching career at Harvard University. In Cambridge, Massachusetts he worked under the

Master Architect, José Luis Sert. He founded the School of Planning at Ahmedabad, along

with his mentor Balkrishna Doshi and the Center for Development Studies at Pune. He was s

participant in the Delos Symposium and a Fulbright Fellowship brought him to India in 1968,

which he adopted as his home. He is an editor of CITIES, the British journal of urban studies,

and writes for journals as diverse as Biblio, Zoo and Ekistics. His work and ideas are found in

numerous journals, magazines, and newspapers, including a short story in Femina. He is the

urban planner of the new Capital Plan of Thimphu, Bhutan, where he is also the architect of

their new Capitol Complex. Benninger trekked to Bhutan in the 1970s when he advised the

Royal government on various development thrusts.

HINDU: Harsh Kabra 060606


* * * * *

Q: How do you look back on your many decades of association with India and its

architecture?

Ans: Architecture is composed of many layers of reality and architects are trained to deal

with such multi-layered complexities through templates and prototypes which can be

mindlessly applied to typical problems. Architectural schooling can either open up multiple

windows to self discovery (education) or pattern one to copy-out the right prototype each

time (training)! After one’s architecture schooling there are the on-sloughs of fads, fashions

and pop thinking which reign in one’s creativity. The media conveys the messages of what is

right and what is wrong. Young people try to find the tread of their future in the weave of

the media. Then there are the frameworks of the “gurus” who have projected their correct

ways and manners of resolving complicated conundrum. Quite unintentionally my

settlement in India saved me from all of these forms of entrapment, and enclosing

paradigms!

That India has thousands, no millions, of gods only reflects India’s intellectual bent toward

multiplicities of interpretations, perceptions and conclusions! Seeing things in

manifestations, rather than searching for the sole truth, is India’s single most creative

strength. Nothing is fixed, or boxed in; everything is in flux and changing. An idea is seen in

multiple ways, from diverse angles and in various mutations. There are avatars of even the

greatest of concepts: never one incorrigible path! If I have any credo it is in this continuous

changing, and in the deception of the truth. I would rather search the good, than know the

truth! The Indian schema is more concerned about the central soul of a concept and its

many physical and ideological interpretations, analogues and metaphors…. than in axioms,

principles, laws and rules.

As an artist and architect, India therefore has been my natural, organic home! I would have

been stifled by my own success in America. In America and Europe I would have always

been seeking creativity and have been trying to find myself with eye-blinders on, pointing

me in one infallible direction along with the mob, not letting me see all of the alternatives on

the sides. The media, money and fame would have been pointing me to the pre-defined

“right direction”. India is my land of being; America is a land of seeming!

Q: But isn’t America a great country where you studied in great universities and taught at

Harvard?

America is great because you can pretend to be what you are not; India is great because

you can find yourself and be what you are.” I learned a lot at Harvard and MIT because I had

great teachers. Having great teachers is the only form of good luck there is. But when I

started to teach at Harvard I realized I was falling into the world of seeming; I was hiding my

true nature to seem like something I was not. The taste makers were making me over.

Madison Avenue left its calling card and that I was getting seduced scared me. It was a fatal

love that made me panic! I liked what was happening to me, but I knew it would kill my

inner soul. At the first opportunity I fled to India.

Q: People often ask me about my views on contemporary Indian or Western buildings that

are coming up.

Response: I cannot address these queries as two irrelevant situations cannot raise a relevant

question! Buildings are just the result of the events of building. They are a kind of cultural

flotsam, or discharge, that rises up to the top where it can be seen. To be truly architecture

a structure must point to the future, while reflecting the past. What are more interesting are

the precursors to the events which gave shape to form, and the impact of the forms on

future events! Then an analysis of the products of events becomes meaningful.

To me architecture is not things, nor is it the process of making things….it is the experiences

of the people who live in milieus, or enliven places, imbibe forms, perceive spaces and

become lost in the in-between spaces, forgotten or intended, which impact on the emotions,

sensitivities and memories of individuals.

Just like cinematographers who plan out the sequences and experiences of people who view

their films, I try to program the experiences of people who move through my spaces. This

experiencing, while moving through space, is a kind of kinetic architecture. It is a

preconceived scheme! Then the people who live in these cine sets become the role players.

They give life and meanings to the spaces. Cold, artificial spaces become “places.” They

come alive within inhabitants as living organisms. That is what is so fantastic about any

great boulevard, piazza, square, promenade or vista! It is the experience of the Taj Mahal,

the multitudes of people experiencing together, which bring life and eternity into the

physical scenario. It is not just the amazing impact of the masonry! A human conviviality

swells out of the whole experience of being in the place. One feels proud to be a human

being and to be a part of something greater than oneself!

The images of the Taj Mahal, or of any humble structure for that matter, are just analogues

of the multifarious experiential systems operating within the context. Indian architecture, to

me, is this fluctuating and ever changing context characterized by the happenings within, as

opposed to the dull fixed images of packaged consumer items which is Western architecture

today. Let us say that architecture is a shared memory of those who have experienced it.

This memory uplifts the spirit, gives vision to the future and inculcates optimism! In a world

where the essential struggle is between the optimists and the cynics, this role of

architecture is very important!

In Europe recently I visited some of the new stunts which are parading as architecture. I saw

a really great engineering feat, which was a bad building and a terrible museum. It was a

screaming, anal retentive child wanting attention. It was not a mature artifact of a great

culture. Yet, here in India we laud such stunts without knowing their true significance. This is

an example of the Indian romance with the west. We have great respect, but underlying that

is suspicion. It is like the love affair between a patron and a woman of the night! There is a

lot of passion and attraction all smothered in deception and distrust.

Q: What are your views on contemporary Indian Cities:

Ans: Let me avoid the usual review of data on how crippled our Indian cities are. I’d rather

point out that Indian cities represent the dynamism and energy which thrive out on the

periphery of the global system, which gets suffocated in the center of the huge, hierarchal,

economy in which we live. In India we have regional literature, architecture, cinema and

poetry. In Thimphu we had eighteen entries to the Bhutan film festival last year. Have you

every heard about the film movement in Alabama? Well there is nothing to hear! It is too

close to the epicenter of world culture! Just as the Deccan Plateau is in the rain shadow of

the Western Ghats where little grows, so a good deal of the west is in the cultural shadow of

THE GREAT CITY. The great thing about Pune is that no one in Paris, London or New York has

ever heard of it! Yet everyone has heard of Newark, New Jersey where there is no soul, no

life and just empty shells and lost memories.

Indian cities, like hundreds of them in other countries in the periphery, are full of chaos,

fluctuations, uncertainties, contradictions and serendipity chance happenings! This is the

raw material of creativity! This is the stuff of free thought.

We live in a centrifugal world system where “center-periphery” dynamism operates. The

center is sucking and feeding off of the peripheral resources, and the periphery is buying

what the center produces, including ideas, fads, tastes and habits. The dense, wealthy

central core gets packed into a tighter and tighter ball of wealth and energy. The rich,

wealthy center is an imploding beautiful trap! People who run there cannot get out; like flies

into a fire they never to return. The debts they take to get in inhibit their mobility to get out.

Their ideas become a kind of debt too. Everyone is driven by right thinking, correct behavior,

correct taste, fashionable packaging and a few acceptable paradigms of what one’s life can

be. True art cannot evolve out of such a maze; it is out on the periphery where life dwells!

Art is just a reflection of life! One can make mistakes in art; one can explore options, and

must be an adventure.

Q: But isn’t India following the west?

Ans: It is true that India is grabbing at the “latest” and attracted to what is vulgar, mundane

and banal about American society. See the sms’s which are written wit da most banal of

American English! But this is just a minor malaise inflicting a spoilt, privileged sliver of the

middle class! Being products of the consumer driven media, what counts for them is what’s

on TV and what sells! There is a growing sub-culture in India that is not looking for work, but

for jobs! They are not interested in how much creativity they can garner, they are interested

in how many K’s they will earn. They feel driven to be “in,” and what’s “in” is what sells! And

buying is the opium of the masses! They need K’s to buy! It is the PRIVILEGE of these elite to

buy themselves into oblivion. They will all end up living in air conditioned little boxes; driving

between these little boxes in air conditioned little boxes. They will feel lucky to work in air

conditioned little boxes and when they get time off they can go out shopping with the entire

family buying, and buying and buying….more little boxes. Their heads will be full of little

ideas in little boxes and they will be happy in the drug of living in the life of a box!

So it is true that the illnesses of the centre spread out to the edges; but the periphery is

penetrating into the center also. Even Businessweek had to acknowledge my United World

College of India to be “one of the ten Super Structures of the World,” whatever that means?

History is always a tale of creativity and strength at the edge over-powering the center! It is

not always such finality, but rather a process of things less organized effecting the staid and

dull central organization. Creativity at the center is more akin to a Bonsai Tree. Very

organized and very interesting…but not at all creative! Vary interesting but surely not

beautiful. Last week in Madrid I was inflicted with a series of “happenings” and “events”

called modern art! These crude inanities were not only uninteresting, but far from clever.

One sees the same junk at the Museum of Modern Art in New York, or in Paris and London.

These artifacts are so ill-conceived and thoughtless that curators think they must be very

brilliant. The tastemakers at the center are confused! They lead, but they do not know here

they are going. There is an incestuous relationship between Western artists, critics and the

media who all chill out together. They cannot tell themselves from one another! This

intellectual nepotism leads to an inane “Yes”! Who would dare tell the king he has no

clothes?

Until a decade back in India we did not have mass media access to “the latest.” We had no

templates to tell us what to create and what’s “in.” It was skill, craftsmanship and hard work

that counted. What we “thought” was order garnered from chaos; was filtered out of variety;

was chosen from millions of manifestations! There were no eye-blinders called fashion to tell

us what to wear or what to pretend to be. Suddenly India is turning itself inside-out by trying

to re-define itself. Unfortunately, this re-definition is based on consumption and the false

sense of personal power it engenders. One’s self image is generated to earn and to spend,

rather than developing ourselves to our greatest creative potentials. One finds brilliant

youngsters doing factory line functions in so called IT centers; answering phones day and

night in so called BPO’s; cutting and pasting solutions to non-existent problems, and

churning out little nothings in MNCs’ so-called engineering units. Quality and Values are

being replaced by buying and consuming; moving in a vehicle and a kind of frenzy about

nothing. We are moving from a low energy and low consumption society to a high energy

consuming society. We are moving from high thinking and simple living to high living on

simplistic thoughts.

Q: What are the strengths and salient features of your city plans for Bhutan and your

architectural projects there?

Bhutan operates under a mind set which turns the Western Paradigm upside-down! Instead

of seeking Gross National Consumption, it is seeking Gross National Happiness. The essence

of this is the balance in life, or what is called the Middle Path in Buddhism. The balance

between humans and nature; the balance between the built fabric we lay down on this earth

and the natural terrain it lies on! This search seeks conviviality within community;

obligations and responsibilities as opposed to just seeking freedom. It is based in meditation,

self-discover and being, rather than media driven frenzy. We discovered two ideas in our

work which had a profound impact on the way we plan and design in Bhutan. One idea is

called the Principles of Intelligent Urbanism. It seeks ten balances between city

building/living and nature, tradition, technology, work, householding, play, meditation,

movement, governance, etc. These principles are a kind of charter which the urban

community agrees to put up to any new ideas or projects being proposed. This has resulted

in more than fifty percent of the urban land in the capital city being reserved for greenery,

water bodies and play areas. It has resulted in a concept of Urban Villages which fall in

micro-water sheds between rivulets flowing to the main river. It has resulted in the creation

of an Urban Corridor to which Urban Villages can be attached through inexpensive, low

energy public transport. These concepts were then turned into concrete and mortar; into

trees and water!

When it came to building new structures….the new National Capitol complex…we enriched

the idea of Critical Regionalism. Looking critically at the traditional system of construction,

which is based in an eternal logic, we analyzed the new functional and technical demands of

work and living and explored the interpretation of the vernacular building language which

would “fit well” into the contextual setting. This does not fall into any current fad or fashion.

It fits into a unique cultural setting and milieu.

People often ask me if my new capital plan for Bhutan is not a reaction to the decrepitness

of Indian cities. I see it the other way around: Indian planners have a lot to learn from our

work in Bhutan. Learning is not understanding what not to do; learning is discovering new

paths leading us to surety in what we are doing!

Q: You were recently awarded the prestigious commission to re-design the campus of India’s

first Indian Institute of Management, which is a world class center of learning? The fifteen

most celebrated architectural firms in India were short-listed for this project. What is your

reaction to your selection?

Surely, this was the most prestigious commission of the year in India. The Indian Institute of

Management Calcutta is a value based, intellectual center. The faculty there is very different

than most management faculties. They have a vision of the role of enterprise in the

formation of a new society and culture. They are very sensitive to trends and trajectories

and where we are going. So it is an honor and a challenge to work with such erudite clients

who are really looking for quality, and not just utilizing FSI, or not just being “cost effective”

in the banal sense of the concept. This project will be a joint effort to seek a new milieu for

learning, for discovery and for creativity. The built fabric must create an ambiance for

interaction, for self-discovery and for the development of personal discipline too. It must

satisfy the need for reflection and contemplation, while encouraging interaction on a number

of levels. We are working jointly with the Institute on this! It is not just the personal search of

an architect to make some kind of statement. We are also working within an existing

beautiful campus, characterized by the many water ponds and trees which mesmerize one’s

soul. We have to deal with a lot of old, uninspired buildings, but with a great potential to be

integrated into a new whole. We want for this to be a place of inspiration and discovery. We

want to further amplify a world class center of learning into the new business and cultural

environment. We want to impact on that emerging environment in considered and articulate

ways.

A campus, whether it is a capitol complex, or that of an institute, must have its iconic

qualities. It must give an immediate message about the values and importance of the place.

There should be a sense of the triumph of the human soul! People who live and work there

should feel transcendental about their mission in life. People who leave there must carry

eternal memories which help them overcome the mundane in life to reach for perfection.

Christopher Benninger: Pune, India: 14th June 2006: in response to Harsh Kabra

Lecture to Students of Architecture

Christopher Charles Benninger

* * * * *

A note to a young student

As a boy I came to know the work of Frank Lloyd Wright. From the moment I opened the

natural house, I did not put it down until I completed the last page. In a sense I have never

put it down and I am still reading it, discovering and searching for what inspired me on that

Christmas day. When i closed the book and walked out of my house, I was living in a

different world. It was after midnight and the black sky was clear with thousands of stars

gleaming in the heavens. Everything I saw looked different. It was not only nature which was

singing a song in my heart, but my soul had switched on and my mind had begun to think! I

saw things which I had never noticed before. Finely carved balustrades caught my fancy!

Sculpted stone gargoyles made me smile. I noticed that one wood was different from

another in its color, grains, nature and use. I was drawn to “feel wood” and to slide my

fingers across it, appreciating its inner soul. I noted that a wood floor was warm in the winter

and cozy to look at, while a marble floor was cool in the summer and soothing to sit upon.

Stained glass windows, fine brass handles, well thought out paving patterns were my

friends. I spoke to them, and i argued with sloppy workmanship and clumsy details.

Wright taught me that the human mind is a huge analogue for all things beautiful and all

things ugly. He taught me that a human being is both a monster and a saint all rolled up into

one; capable of creating incredible beauty, or of inflicting deplorable destruction and

ugliness. It is the human mind, which separates humans form other animals, which makes us

the monsters of terror and the creators of poetry, art and architecture. We alone can know

the exhilaration of transcendence!

What Wright taught me was very simple: seek out the truth, find the generic order in things!

See beauty in the truth! What he meant by the natural house was the natural self and the

natural life! Buildings are merely mirrors of the people who live in them. They reflect how

people behave, how people think, what their aspirations are and how they deal with

materiality! They illustrate how evolved people are in their spiritual realizations; whether

they live for material things, or they manipulate material things to reach transcendence?

They place people and societies somewhere along a scale between beasts grabbing at

survival to saints blessed with transcendental awareness. They distinguish people who only

“take,” from patrons who nurture and “give.” Buildings indicate the extent to which people

are in touch with the environment they live in; part of the context of the places within which

they build, and harmonious with the social traditions and modalities that bring bliss and

peace. Teachers like Liane Lefaivre and Alex Tzonis reinforced my credo, through their work

on what they call Critical Regionalism, in which new functions and technologies are

integrated with places, climates and cultures.

I believe there is something called generic architecture; that is architecture of carefully

composed fabrics, of structures, of systems, of materials that all participate in a common

order of nature, tradition, appropriate technology and social harmony. There is some rational

stream of thought, some common process of analysis, some general considerations and

modalities of study, which are always the precursors of beauty! In this there are eternal

principles, truths and modalities, bringing all architecture into one immense realm of

knowledge. In this sense we all belong to one huge “gharana” of architecture whose past

masters are Michelangelo, Leonardo de Vinci, the emperor Akbar and Thomas Jefferson!

Today we live in a world dominated by contrivers, posing as architects, who are just

screaming and shouting for personal attention. Our “architectural world” is like a crèche full

of anal-retentive babies all whining and screaming to be noticed by anyone who will look at

them. I would say these charlatans are less famous, and more notorious. Like the bandit

queen, they are well known for their outrageous acts, rather than understood and

appreciated for their contributions in a common search. As urban planners they carve out

their own city blocks and surround them with walls, turning once friendly public domains into

private spaces one pays to get in to. Inside of these secured, commercial turfs stuntmen are

employed to amaze us with things bizarre! We live in an age when “being different” is

mistaken for “being creative.” Ours is a time when “doing something new” is mistaken for

creating beauty! Being different often means being a conformist of a specific nature. The

skin-heads of my youth were seeking non-conformity through uniforms, so that they would

be accepted into a larger group! Instead of seeking to be different, we should seek to be

ourselves and to be happy with ourselves, whoever we are. Only when we are happy with

ourselves, can we make other people happy with the honest products of our honest toil.

In October 2001 I was invited to make a presentation at the European Biennale at Graz. I

noticed something very interesting! To be a “creative artist” in Europe, you need not create

anything, but you must wear the black uniform of the artist! You must dress totally in black.

You must wear black shoes, black socks, black pants, black belts, black shirts with black

buttons and black ties. When the cold rains blow in, you must wear a black jacket and a

black hat. I found that the super creative Europeans (as opposed to the merely creative

ones) wear black capes! For these people creativity is not a form of liberation, or the finding

of the truth. It is the creation of a lie in the form of a self imposed trap, and a make-believe

world. There are people in America and in Europe who never design anything, never search,

never question, but who dress in the costume of creators. They worry over finding just the

right black g-strings and bikinis! They are seeming and not being! If i were to speak out any

advice to a young student, I would say, be not seem! Carrying this paradigm further, there is

an entire industry in the west creating images and promoting the “uniforms of creativity,” at

the cost of the truth. This is called the media, the fashion industry, public relations and

notoriety! The taste-makers are telling thoughtless people what is “beautiful” and what “art”

is. The taste makers are telling people to “drop the names” of fakers who can not even

paint! There are people who pay to be photographed and published on page three at

drunken parties, standing about with illiterate chatterati, thinking of nothing, making no

contributions to this world. This projects an image to the youth of our times, that these

notorious personalities have achieved something.

It would be better to live, as ones own self in oblivion, than to be notorious for living in a

trap! And this is exactly what the modern world is becoming: a trap! Brilliant professionals

and artists are leaving their friends and native places finding wealth and huge spaces, but

emptiness. They work in cold offices to be granted two weeks of vacation in a year when

they can “be themselves.” They wear “correct uniforms” and speak politically correct

statements, dropping the right names and muttering endless clichés! From dreaming of

creating beauty, they end up worrying how they will pay their house loan installments and

their credit card bills! They think by wearing black, that they can live the make-believe life of

a creator, when in fact they are slaves of conformity. For them, life is a dead end! I hope

that all young artists, poets and architects who hear this will avoid all of the uniforms and

traps. Be yourselves and never seem to be what you are not.

A teacher and a guru

So my life as an architect, which began in my early teens, has been a life of searching for

truth. At first, when Wright visited me, I felt I had been visited by the archangel and that I

was the only anointed one! How wrong i was. Revisiting Wright some years later i realized

that most of what one learns is learned from others. One cannot know everything and need

not know anything! But one must search! One can learn from a leaf by studying its shape, its

veins and its tapestry. One can learn from the spiral of a sea shell. One can watch birds in

flight as they glide in the sky, or just study cloud patterns meandering about, for subtle

structures and illusive orders in our minds. One will learn through search and not through

mugging up knowledge!

I have known Buddhists who frown on kicking stones, because they know that even stones

have souls. There is structure and beauty in everything on this earth. In each part of the

universe is the entire universe! Pick up any stone and study it and you will discover the truth

of its texture, shape and strength. Perhaps a good teacher just teaches us to look down our

own mouths and to see the universe. A good teacher never teaches facts or knowledge; they

open windows on how to search, or maybe even just to search. Maybe the “how” and the

“what” should be left to each student? Teachers, I realize, do not tell us of techniques, or put

facts in our heads. What they do is inspire us to search for the nature of things, the truth in

matters, which is where beauty dwells. They often do this by revealing a glimpse of beauty

through humor, through a bit of unexpected love, or maybe in some quick sketch revealing

the rudimentary simplicity of some highly complex system. “Genius,” Einstein said, “is

making the complex simple; not making the simple complex!”

My true gurus have always been able to cast such unexpected light on the world. I

remember the great architect Anant Raje taking me to meet his mentor one Sunday

afternoon in Philadelphia. Luis Kahn had privileged us several hours alone with him in his

studio. A bit of good luck! At one point he crumpled up a sheet of A-4 sized paper and

handed me a pencil and asked me to quickly sketch it! As a young professor of architecture

at Harvard, I was keen to impress Kahn, so I immediately began creating a brain like image,

trying to get in all of the impossible complexity. Pretty good i thought, not knowing I had

entered the master’s labyrinth! He threw a fatherly laugh at me, grabbing my pencil and

making four quick line strokes into a rectangle of the A-4 proportions! He had showed me a

nature of myself to overlook obvious simplicity, in search of wrong, complex truths!

Creative attempts, exploratory acts and processes of discovery are modes that search for

self! I have heard Kahn talking to bricks in Ahmedabad and philosophizing at the Fogg

gallery about the sky being the ceiling of his grand courtyard in the Salk Institute. But this

one “teacher’s trick” was a personal gift to me, that I shall never forget. Inspirations are

always in the form of gifts of one kind or the other. Gifts of inspiration are perhaps in the

form of an image such as a quick sketch, or a gesture (like a smile, just when we need

encouragement), but it is always in a sign of what we can be, what we can envision and

what we can become. My own attempts at architecture are but small analogues of

something I yearn to discover, to draw into myself, and to make a part of me. These are my

feeble attempts at becoming something, which is already there within me, yet undiscovered.

In the early 1970’s I founded the school of planning at the Centre for Environmental Planning

in Ahmedabad, India. There my friend and mentor, Balkrishna Doshi, had just returned from

a visit to Venkateshwara temple at Tirupati. I was eager to hear of his experiences and what

had transpired within him on his pilgrimage there. He whipped out a thick, old-fashioned ink

pen and drew three instant lines, which captured the entire essence of the mountain top

temple in a second. Again, amazed at seeing the entire universe revealed to me at one

instance, i saw in Doshi the true genius that he is. But I also saw something that was within

me that i did not know. I could read his abstraction, because the nature of the temple, the

generic character of its simplicity, and therefore the beauty, was already a part of the

catalogue of my mind. Doshi had merely revealed this existing truth to me. In fact when i

went to Tirupati years later I was a bit disappointed. The clarity which Doshi had revealed to

me lay hidden in the complexity of the masses of pilgrims and the chaos of the management

of the place. Temporary Shamiyanas hid much of the temple’s form. I understood that the

“truth of Venkateshwara temple” was not something one just looked at and saw. It took a

deeper understanding of the elemental structure of the complex composition and the ability

to see through the chaos and the managerial machinations to get at the root of what was

there. Once more the lesson of simplicity, of the elemental, of the generic!

Again, I would repeat that my own architecture is but an analogue of something I yearn to

know, a utopia I desire to create; a glimpse of paradise in its pristine reality; maybe some bit

of heaven; or a small glimpse of the universe I’d see if I could gaze into Krishna’s mouth,

revealing my own vast truth, proving the larger conceptualization possible! Whatever the

search, we must keep in our minds that what we are searching for is already there;

something deep inside of us, undiscovered waiting to be found. We also have to realize that

all humans participate in that discovery and we are often shocked to see something and

feel, “hey, I’ve been hitting at exactly the same idea!” T. S. Elliot seemed to understand that

we are all part of the same endless search for truth, when he wrote in the sacred wood,

“immature poets imitate; mature poets steal; bad poets deface what they take, and good

poets make it into something better, or at least something different.” In that sense there is

just one large studio and we are all the draftsmen of its inspiration! We work with the same

vision and the same passion for truth and beauty.

Thus, searching often deals with the study of precedents, with study tours to classical

monuments, and seeking truth in prototypes. As a young architect I thought each design

was a unique creation! Great designers just reached into the sky and pulled ingenious

confabulations down from the heavens. I was thus disappointed one day when my teacher

Jose Luis Sert gave me the unusual privileged of visiting the “model room” where he

explored new concepts through styrofoam simulations at different scales. Too busy himself

to explain things to me he asked Joseph Zelewski, his senior associate, to do the honors. As

my past teacher at Harvard, and though thirty years older to me, Joseph was my best friend

at the time and was very keen to hear what a younger designer thought of the new town

Sert was creating on an island, just off the coast of Marseille in France. A lifetime

opportunity, no doubt!

The opportunity to create a new town, on a craggy mountain island grabbed my

imagination. I could see all kinds of new forms jutting out of the huge rocks over the sea!

But to my disappointment Sert chose to make this work into a kind of summation of all of his

past principles and prototypes! It was to me a terribly rational, collection of years of work I’d

already seen. Each part could be viewed in Sert’s publications and he had seemingly just

assembled all of these parts in to a large, no doubt beautiful, landscape! Joseph could sense

the disappointment on my face, and as he suggested we go to lunch, he asked for my

thoughts. Headed down the long, double running flight of stairs to church street, a sudden

flash of light ran up the dark chasm, and the short, round figure of Sert made a black image

in the light ascending the stairs. At a kind of moment of truth, a few steps below us Sert

asked, “so what did he think of it?” Being truthful and putting me in an awkward position,

Joseph said, (just as Sert was passing me, looking me straight in the eye) “he says that

there’s nothing new!” My fears that this would anger the master to call me to his office

immediately evaporated as he burst out laughing! A few steps further up he turned back and

said, “you know Christopher, this is not California!” He was mocking a place famous for

having to be different; for everyday craving to be new; and in a frenzy to be unique. Now

even Joseph smiled realizing that all was right in the heavens, and that this young upstart

had been put in his place!

The search and struggle for discovery are a difficult set of processes. But one can struggle,

and should not sit waiting for miracles to fall from the heavens.

As Le Corbusier said, “creation is a patient search.” Le Corbusier used to tell his protégés to

start thinking over a design problem, then to put it away in the head, and like a computer in

hibernation the mind keeps secretly working on the design! My teacher Jerzy Soltan, who

wrote le modular with Le Corbusier, has always been a firm believer in this. He always

encouraged me to take up two or three designs at one time, and to move my conscious

mind between them. But a little inspiration always helps!

Many young designers doubt if that magic called “inspiration” actually exists. If I mention

music and ask them the name of their favorite song and then why they like it, they know

they have been inspired! Some people get inspired hearing a romantic song that touches

their heart and they yearn to sing and they do sing! Noise becomes music. Some people get

inspired reading poetry and they yearn to write sonnets and they do create lyrics! Scattered

sounds, miscellaneous words, a melody and some tones become magical moods!

A form of good luck

A wise sage I once met in his cave-retreat somewhere on the rocky slopes of mount Abu

preferred to read my fate from my palm! As a young student of the empirical school of

thought, I withdrew from his inane suggestion, thinking what my teachers at Harvard and

MIT would think of a protégé who curried the favors of sages for their fate? But he charmed

me with his flashing eyes and warm smile, and questioned my logical abilities to reject his

findings, should I find them so whimsical? I suppose his charisma, directed at me through his

piercing eyes, and the lyrical landscape of the forested mountain slopes, perched high over

the desert of Rajasthan, swayed me like some magical potion.

He told me that I was a person of little wealth, but of great fortune! He declared that luck

was my life’s companion.

Tempted further, i coaxed him, “but what do you mean by good luck?”

With an incredulous sneer on his face, he informed me that there is only one kind of good

luck in life and that such good luck is to have good teachers!

I felt a chill spread over my skin, as if a sudden wave of cold air blasted the desert air,

leaving goose pimples momentarily all about me. He had unraveled a truth within me that

he could never have made out from my appearance or culled from his imagination! I knew

he was correct and that I would be a fool to reject what wealth may come my way! From

that day on, what had been a youth’s good fortune became a life’s endless search! To meet

wise people became a passion.

I believe that passion, and my fated trajectory of good luck, have navigated my life’s story

from a childhood Christmas gift to friendships, chance meetings, teacher-student

relationships, professional associations, chancing an encounter with my life partner, and to

work with some of the most inspiring people of our times. Most of the great teachers I have

had are anonymous, little known and often my own students and studio associates. I must

admit that i have been fortunate to have had many, many inspiring mentors. Some of them

have been rather well known too!

A search for truth

I suppose these friends, teachers and gurus, were actually examples and role models. Just

as the Olympic torch is passed from one runner to the next and is kept burning forever,

through their humanity and brilliance, a spark of inspiration is passed on. Some people get

inspired to support other people watching a good mother, or a devoted nurse. They do

nurture others. What we may consider mundane becomes profound and it generates a

meaningful life style.

An inspiration and creation

Education today has no link with inspiration and creation. Creating architecture, music,

poetry or love, are all the media of inspiration. These tangible products of creation inspire

others. Some great wheel of motion begins to turn. The moment of inspiration is a moment

of transcendence; an instance of discovery and self-realization all in one.

It is when human intellect and emotion combine and take flight in a euphoric world of

beauty and revelation. If there is a religion, it is a vehicle for such transcendence. For me

architecture is that religion. It is meditation, it is truth and it leads to spiritual moments of

enlightenment and revelation.

Still another lesson from The Natural House is that architecture is a language! Stone, wood,

bricks, clay tiles, brass, luminaries, glass, steel trusses, paving blocks, sanitary fittings are

all like the sounds which have to be transformed into the auditable words of a language! The

language of architecture is composed of the elements of “support,” of “span,” and of

“enclosure.”

In the Alliance Francais we evolved a very clear system of “support,” employing fourteen

inch brick bearing walls, insulating the interiors from the heat of Ahmedabad. We used a

small two feet, six inches square grid as a module to make square windows, or larger

multiples to make larger square doors of three by three modules, or medium multiples to

place exposed concrete beams five feet on centre, which also defined a large square

volumes below which were on a fifteen foot square module. This became a simple statement

of “span.” These same “words” were further used to create north facing skylights on the

northern façade and to lift skylights up, over the roof, bringing indirect light into the spaces.

A square grid on the floor, in the ceiling and on the walls, using the human scale module,

ordered the entire ensemble into a system of spatial cubes and graphic squares. Giving

poetry and playfulness to the language are the idiosyncratic “motifs” we introduced.

In the Alliance Francais we set a tall column in the centre of the main space. This was so

contrived that when a person moves in the space, they can see the walls behind the column

move! This simple visual device makes the space “move,” and makes architecture

experiential! Water spouts became motifs to add accent to the overall structure. Square,

modular window shade boxes protected small vistas from glare. A small balcony into the

main space was left floating by pulling the supporting column off to the side! These became

the signature parts and components, which evolved through the design process into a

language. All of these emotive acts must be realized through built form, or as parts of

materiality. Brick, exposed concrete, mild steel frames for square fenestration and glass

were all the material vehicles to reach emotive experiences. Like written poetry, which uses

printed words to reach emotions, we use “built words,” so that those who experience the

spaces we create step out of the material world and into one of lyrical experiences. In this

sense, buildings are the material poems that architects fabricate. Architecture is an

experience of a place and not the built form! Construction is merely a vehicle for us to pick

up people and move them through experiences into milieus of new experiences. In this

respect there is a commonality between stage set design and the design of places.

Architects confabulate material things, to make non-material experiences happen in their

built compositions. These “experiences” are often related to the visual and psychological

impacts of moving through space. They can also be the fall of light through space and onto

textured surfaces. It may be the way the first morning sunlight slowly falls from a skylight

drifting across a rugged stone wall during the day. It is not the wall, or the light, which is

architecture. It is the experiential phenomenon that is the architecture. It is the realization of

the universe turning; it is the morning revealing yet a new day in our existence; it is the

anticipation of what the new day may bring and our realization that we exist! We

confabulate experiences through the medium of building fabrics. Again, these fabrics are

woven from a language!

Much of what is transcendental; much of what is experiential is created through putting

together planned events, as people move through and planned experiences in space. In this

sense architecture is carefully contrived. We “set people up” through ground textures, which

are rough on the outside, but become smooth on the inside; through a dimmed entrance

opening into a well lit main space. We welcome a visitor first with paving texture, then hold

him by a wall, then cover him in a porch and finally embrace him in a low ceiling entrance

foyer. Then the space “explodes!” Just by raising the ceiling we can make him feel wow!

People who manipulate emotions and feelings better than we do are song writers and those

who sing them. In a romantic composition we are enticed into a mood by a light melody; a

silent beat slowly becomes more auditable, and we start to tap our foot without even

knowing what we are doing. A soulful voice begins to tell a story of sorrow, and we

empathize with the human condition. Poetic lyrics lights the allure of love and our emotions

swell! Within a few moments, the human mind, worried about all of the little irritations of

life, leaves the day to day banality of existence, and is lifted up into an illusory ambiance of

profound emotions. This is transcendence! Feelings of compassion and beauty are created!

How do architects achieve this? What are the visual and graphic mechanisms at our

disposal? How can we manipulate peoples’ feelings, moods and temperaments? Are there

modalities of color, texture and light, which we can employ? Can we use scale and

proportion to inject a stimulus and get a predictable response? What is the impact of a

shape or a form? Do they draw people in, make them step aside, focus their attention in a

direction, and what do they discover when they change their glance to the focal point we

have enticed them to? Architects are masters of seduction, enticement, transformation and

the transcendence of the human spirit! How is this achieved? This is the search I call

architecture.

Lessons and axioms

While any creative person is searching for generic truths and for answers, over time they will

try to make sense out of what they are doing, to distil that sense into some kind of

conclusions about what works and what does not work. As one gets older these conclusions

and judgments start to fall into little lessons about what makes a good design and a well

designed building. I would like to share some of these conclusions, which drift to the surface

of my experiences, as flotsam emerges at the surface of a placid pool of water.

For me the individual moving in space is the focal concern. It is this concern, which

generates a spatial framework for design. I attempt to use highly controlled visual-spatial

compositions to achieve what Lefaivre and Tzonis have termed a design strategy of

arranging masses of artifacts in controlled disequilibrium in “a manner that is portent of a

changed state” (Tzonis and Lefaivre, 1998). My idea is not the form of space, not molded or

flowing shapes…but the kinetic juxtaposition of forms, channels, paths, vistas, stairs walls,

columns, etc. Which heighten a sense of awareness of both space and one’s place in space.

As Siegfried Giedion noted, “space should be conceived relative to a moving point of

reference, not as relevant to some absolute and static entity (Giedion, 1941). The central

column of the Alliance Francais in Ahmedabad was used later as a visual device in the

United World College, creating a moving point of reference. Such a column or, visual

landmark point, continually changes its placement with reference to walls and other

elements, heightening one’s sense and awareness of movement. In the capitol complex in

Thimphu, Bhutan the ancient “utse” temple within the fortress monastery, the Trashi Chhoe

Dzong, is used as that reference point for a number of structures and complexes within the

precinct. The new monk quarters, or Dharma Sthal, which will house the four hundred

novices in the monastery, links the center of the Dharma Sthal with the utse and heightens

the alignment with three Chortens place within the circle. The ministerial secretariat brings

one up on a small podium at the entry, which immediately presents to the visitor the view of

the utse and other temples within the Dzong. As one moves through the connecting spaces

this alignment reappears sequentially. Markings on the courtyards’ paving and the

alignment of trees within spaces continually reference one to the utse, Bhutan’s focal

religious icon. One does this with building masses also. They frame each other into

compositions, which continually change.

I would contrast this “kinetic fabric” with the stand-alone “plan-mass” statements being

created today and presented as world architectural monuments! University campuses,

particularly in America, are becoming “collections” of stand alone pieces, rather than

integrated fabrics, which characterized the early starts such as Jefferson’s design for the

university of Virginia. In such cases one finds architecture as an alienating idea, as a static

and as a forbidding visual force. Beginning with the Carpenter Centre at Harvard yard,

continuing with the graduate school of design and James Sterling’s “piece” there has been a

continuous process of destroying the integrated fabric of the yard with small attempts at

monument making, which are totally inappropriate. Each structure is trying desperately to

say something about the architect (of all people) and not much about the users and their

surrounding context. At best one finds these static boxes and forms interesting abstract

compositions and arrangements, presumed to be aesthetic.

We are not concerned with planning parcels of land, or individual building statements. We

are concerned with the communities who will live in our works and how these communities

reflect the larger societies they mirror. We are concerned with human interaction; with

human emotional interdependencies; with understandings of “public-ness;” with civility; and

with behavioral norms. These are the fundamental concepts of “society” and “civilization.”

Architecture can both contribute to and distract from these. Movement in space and the

visual noting of movement through various devices is the most dominant theme, which ties

this diverse group of work together. In addition to this understanding a group of design

principles are applied.

Design principles

Integration with the environment has been a design theme in all of my work. At the Alliance

Francais at Ahmedabad the “environment” was an urban setting of late nineteenth century

red brick structures. The new structure participated with the existing setting to form a small

public domain, where people can sit and relax. Site features and the local ecology help focus

and mold other design themes. At the United World College i was fortunate to have a vast

site in the mountains that could be apportioned between productive cultivation and natural

landscape, with a variety of terrain and vegetation within which to integrate creative living

space. At the capitol complex in Thimphu I had a heritage site centered on the centuries old

national icon, the Trashi Chhoe Dzong. Thus, the idea of context, which Wright saw as

nature, expanded as sites changed for me. Nature, urban fabric and heritage milieus all

became environments that tempered my design strategies. While there was a clear

mandate and program of activities in all of my projects, through which objectives were to be

met, and there were contextual features, which had to be addressed, other principles for a

“built environment” emerged that have been applied to my designs.

Architecture should be a natural expression of available resources, through the use of

indigenous materials like terracotta tiles, basalt stone for walls, shahabad stone for external

paving and lintels, and kotah stone for interior floors. Depending on the regional setting

these materials will change, and relevant new materials can also be critically selected when

appropriate to new functions. These materials are all expressed naturally, without the

application of granite or marble cladding, gaudy paints or mirrored glass. Form finished

concrete is also a way to use a new material critically and to express the reality of materials.

More than the selection and expression of materials, the materiality of our works stimulates

all of the senses from texture and feel; light and sight; and to density and sound. Even the

choice of landscaping modulates aromas and smell! Space is created by the cues emitted

from all of these senses. Thus, honesty of expression of materials is a fundamental design

principle.

Employment of human scale, as opposed to the monumentalism so often found in

institutions, is another principle. No building should dominate the landscape through brute

size, or heavy architectonic statements. The architectural milieu must provide personal

spaces, which belong to the inhabitants and engender interaction. This infers a “low-rise”

fabric wherein the roof-shape should be a humble reflection of the landscape. Where

buildings have to be taller, one can either step the massing down to the human scale, or

bring human scale elements up and into the structure, as was done with the protective

parasols at the entry to the Kochi refineries limited.

Continuity and harmony should be achieved through consistency in the architectural

language and the environment. It is important that common building systems tie a complex

group of structures into an integrated whole. For example, in a single campus or complex

one building can not be of reinforced concrete, and another of brick bearing walls, and yet

another of pre-fabricated concrete elements, and still another of steel, which we observe in

American show case campuses these days, where each architect is competing with the

others for attention. The university of Cincinnati even went to the extent of carving out

isolated sites, and allocating each to “name brand architects” to put up individualistic,

unrelated structures, much as a Nuevo-riche art collector shows off his ignorance of art by

decorating his house with Picassos, Pollack’s and Stella’s. The outcome is a travesty of good

design, taste and planning. Instead of uniting knowledge, as in the ideal university, these

structures emphasize the boundaries between people and academic disciplines, becoming

mirrors of what is wrong with the very system of education. Each building is packaged and

decorated in the “hallmark style of the architect,” instead of the theme of the university,

inured into the regional context!

An architectural language must be evolved through the selection of appropriate motifs.

Motifs can include functional components like door lintels, window shade boxes, ventilators,

waterspouts and various built-in components. These reflect the demands of climate and

culture on life styles, customs and habits. Murals cast into natural, exposed concrete enrich

the design. In Bhutan we looked at the enduring elements of buildings (the sloped white

walls; the dark brown fenestration; the red and gold colors; the wide over-hanging roofs; the

articulate doors and the iconography of Himalayan Buddhism. One can not “design a

language” overnight. Elements, ideas and components may emerge from historical

examples. An architectural language must evolve through a number of projects and

experiences.

A sustainable environment must be created. A campus cannot just be a cluster of buildings

on parcels of land. A building cannot just be a nice façade and an exciting section. These

have to be integrated man-bio systems where nature thrives and people are nurtured. The

sun, rains and winds must all temper the orientation of walls, roof coverage and openings.

These are not issues of style or fancy, but facts of the environment. At the Kochi refineries

limited we covered the generous glass sliding windows with louvers which totally blocked

any sunlight touching the building, while still allowing breezes and panoramic views of the

lush green Kerala backwaters. This “parasol” concept saved the refineries about thirty

percent of their annual air conditioning costs and cut the initial investment in air

conditioning by about forty percent, compared with the fashionable structural glass

corporate image imported from the freezing cold Atlantic north. At the YMCA international

campsite, we burroughed the structures within the natural slopes so that the internal areas

are insulated from the harsh summer heat!

A circulation system must separate vehicles from pedestrians and visitors from regular

participants. Noisy and, polluting vehicles must be kept at a distance. Movement must be

pedestrian and service/visitor vehicles must be separated from this walking network. The

circulation system can be a lattice, allowing choices of how one moves from place to place,

or a unidirectional tree, which keeps gathering larger and larger arteries into a main stem.

But as the designed systems get larger, the “stem” has to give way to the “lattice,” to

reduce congestion at the gathering points and to disperse traffic. In the living areas there

should be a tree-like structure, lending privacy and security to the most basic residential

units. A campus or a neighborhood is not a city, and the circulation system must honor this

distinction. On the other hand, a “city is not a tree,” to quote Christopher Alexander! A city

must provide choices, alternatives and flexibility through latticed networks.

The architectural scheme must establish a main structure through the circulation pattern

and the building technology pattern, which reinforce one another, integrating into a frame-

work. Trunk infrastructure must also generate a structural pattern on the overall design. The

building programme of functions will also have its order and structure, dividing into work

areas, service cores and passive areas like courtyards and gardens. The main structure must

respect the need for short span spaces to gather together, and for long span spaces to act

as focal points and nodal centers. These can be clustered along circulation stems and

channels, which are also trunk paths for major utility networks. Such an integrated

circulation network-cum-structural system works to separate casual visitors, vendors, and

suppliers from serious participants and key actors. In its subtle manner such a system

reflects the daily schedule, requiring quiet zones to later become discussion, music or even

loud zones, or vice versa. Space and movement; place and sense of being; form and

sequence; are all part of this integration of movement networks and building systems. These

elements are linked and integrated through a main structure.

Most of all, the ambience will be one of vision and a worldview. This does not mean the

projection of a cold, cultureless image through an industrialized international style. It does

not mean McDonald’s hamburgers will replace rice and dhal! It means applying principles

which can unite mankind into a world community of values: honesty in expression;

sustainable environment; respect for the individual; encouragement of constructive group

action; use of appropriate technology and creating balanced eco-systems. It is in its role of

promoting group concerns and life styles that architecture contributes to a future vision.

My campuses are based on the “vision” of a secure, safe and enjoyable environment. In

such an environment national, racial, religious, gender, sexual orientation and other

“boundaries” lose their divisive meanings. Architecture and planning are not merely

geometric problems. They are problems in which time, space, life and purpose all become

part of one reality.

The good and the truth:

Some conclusions

The ancient Greeks, who i greatly admire, were able to give their due to both the study of

aesthetics and ethics. Aesthetics was focused on pleasure, while ethics focused on morals.

Both studies applied concepts of balance, or what would be called in Buddhism as the

“middle path.” Pleasure included anything, which pleased the senses, ranging from taste,

smell, feel, sight and sound. Aesthetics could be practiced through city design, architecture,

drama, poetry, gymnastics, gourmet foods, clothing and sexual endeavors. All of these were

admired so long as they were not practiced in excess, nor neglected! In aesthetics there are

no issues of “right” or “wrong, but there are issues of balance, harmony and the golden

mean. The issue is how harmoniously things are done. Pleasure is a primary goal in life,

which i call the good! La dolce vita, or the sweet life is something any highly evolved person

has tried to perfect through education, considered practice, studying and friendship. Any

civilized person will avoid being directed by passion or lust, but will seek articulate and

considered enjoyment. Reading, sketching, thinking about the world, singing, exercising,

cooking good food, drinking good wine and seducing paramours are all part of the good life.

To miss any of these is to miss a slice of life! Architecture and city design are the venues of

the good, are the stage sets for pleasure, and are generic to the good life!

If a person can not experience the good, they have no reason to be concerned with what is

bad, the right or the wrong! Ethics need not concern them. Without the operation of the

pleasure principle, the ethical debates over liberty, justice and equality are empty drums,

having no meaning. Liberty to enjoy what? Justice to be judged correctly for doing what?

Equality of opportunities to what enjoyment and pleasures? Ethics are the monitoring

concepts regarding relations between civilized persons in their pursuit of pleasure! They are

intelligent principles through which pleasure is accessible to all! City design and architecture

are both vehicles of aesthetics and of ethics. City design is a social and economic vehicle to

bring the good to more and to more people, equitably, justly and liberally. It is a form of

pleasure and is guided by ethics!

While espousing beliefs in ethics, our institutions (schools, religions, governments, and

families) try to control and suppress aesthetics. Governments debate what people should

drink and have prohibition; who can marry whom and have marriage laws; who can eat what

and have laws about what kinds of meats people eat; and have censorship boards to decide

what kinds of films we can see. They are even concerned about the ways mature adults

express their mutual love! Thus, a democratic state can claim to support justice, liberty and

equality, while suppressing the individual’s rights to the good life. Seeking the truth, without

knowing the good, is a dangerous journey! Architecture and city design are all about that

journey. Architecture and city design are embodiments of both aesthetics and ethics.

In my view, we as designers must see aesthetics as our own internal reflection of some

generic or cosmic order, which is natural and true! We must see ethics, not as incursions

into people’s personal lives, but as questions to be answered such as,

1. Is it right to consume non-renewable resources at the cost of other living creatures, or of

future generations?

2.Is it right to live in opulence, while other people are starving and lack basic services?

3.Is it right to be dishonest for an honest cause? If we seek happiness, is it merely for

ourselves, or for all humanity?

4.If we create beautiful things, is it for our personal pleasure, The /pleasure of a few patrons,

or for all of humanity?

These are the kinds of ethical questions i would like all designers, planners and architects to

contemplate.

This brings me full circle back to seeking the truth, knowing who we are and being instead of

seeming! Ethics has to start within as an inner search and not from without. As the

Buddhists’ gurus propose, ethics is not imposed from without through laws, balances of

power and policing, but from within through compassionate wisdom, loving friendship which

both modulates personal power and strength. But without the good all of this wisdom, love

and strength cannot be applied! As the great renaissance thinker-architect, Donato

Bramante, proposed:

“It is better to seek the good, than to know the truth!”

With that slightly confusing quote,

I will leave this essay,

Hoping it breads thought within those who listen to it.

CITY DESIGN


* * * * *

Anyone who designs chairs will likely design tables. By designing the interiors of rooms,

architects are creating houses, and house creation is the making of the city. City design is

therefore a collective, as opposed to an individual creative act. While there are many urban

design precedents, mainly in the form of public squares and street facades in Europe, these

tend to project the misleading idea that cities are the fabrications of individuals. Cities, the

objects that make up cities and the structure of urban form, are in fact processes, and not

objects! They reflect the political economy of the place and the social structure of the

inhabitants. There is an inherent conflict between the regime of planning and the regime of

land markets, yet ironically the more planned cities are the more productive and profitable

ones! Population explosion, technological transformation, and economic concentration

tendencies have made cities more complex than ever before.

Utopians, town planners, land developers and bureaucrats have historically all tried to

create comprehensive, fixed urban plans, in which everything is predicted and estimated

and finally expressed in a comprehensive plan, which shows roads, densities, land uses, and

various development zones. I propose that comprehensive land use planning, as practiced

today, operates on the untenable presumption of human predictability.

The alternative is to identify the main structural elements of cities and to focus on their

design and management, leaving as many parts and elements alone to be self-generating. I

would call this alternative approach Ad Hoc Incrementalism wherein one creates a skeleton,

or a framework, within which various individual acts are facilitated and can happen almost

independently of one another. Instead of happening according to a preconceived schedule

and configuration, they will happen incrementally and according to the user’s needs and

capabilities. Instead of everything being planned by a central body, they will happen in an

ad hoc manner, driven by diverse needs and initiatives. Cities are not made, they happen!

A city designer’s role is to facilitate and enhance this kind of freedom to build, which all

pluralistic societies require. Such facilitation emerges with a clear understanding of which

decisions have to be collective ones and which should be individually made. The necessary

precursors for individuals, households and communities to start making their ad hoc

decisions should be set in place through consensus and participation. These collective

decisions include the demarcation of roads and transport systems; agreement on what are

conforming and non-conforming activities; understanding what an eco-system is and

agreeing on its protection through open spaces and conservation; demarcating plots and

creating a cadastral system; identifying public assets from nature, heritage, recreational

sites, views, etc., and setting out how to protect these. Such a consensus is reached after

the inhabitants agree on acceptable principles of urbanism, which they can use as

benchmarks during participatory discussions and decisions.

Over the years we have rejected the concept of “land use planning,” which promotes mono-

functional Central Business Districts that die at night and on weekends; bedroom residential

zones, which have no life in the daytime; or institutional zones which generate their own

stale monotony; and, machine scale arteries which surround and connect these sprawled out

zones, killing human scale and interaction. On the contrary, various kinds of compatible,

mixed uses must be encouraged to co-exist in vibrant neighborhoods and urban villages,

through the design of what we call “precincts.”

Urban planning has always had an elite bias, from the Garden Cities Movement, through the

present New Urbanism movement in America. The lower middle-class and “minimum wage”

groups, who make up the vast majority of urban populations, are pushed out of these

planned areas due to the costly large plots; unmanageable spread out infrastructure;

excessive building codes and bye-laws, making self help cities illegal and corporate housing

products out of financial reach. These draconian systems stifle incremental, self managed

construction. They stifle variety by impaling a corporate uniform style over acres of space.

The New Urbanism promotes mediocre, sub-urban, spread out, expensive, stifling, sprawl

with no economic base for job creation. This is neither NEW, nor is it URBAN! “Urban” means

dense, walkable, diverse, facilitating, job creating city fabric, which is vibrant and

complicated. Urban places have youth, immigrants, migrants, the rich and the poor! It

means a mix of activities, income groups and building types. The New Urbanism is not

urbane, it is Disneyland! The ‘show pieces’ of this movement are the elite never-never

worlds of Sea Side, Winslow and Celebration, all cities for wealthy, Anglo-Saxon, older people

whose greatest desire in life is to get away from cities, and the diverse populations they find

threatening! There are no institutions, employment generators, entertainment facilities and

entry is secured against “the dangerous outsiders!” This fabricated monotony reflects more

the new economy, where everything is bought as an investment to be sold at a higher price,

later on. There is nothing new, or urban.

In architecture, urban design and city planning one must be against something to be for

something! Things are not going wrong due to benign neglect, but due to carefully crafted

public policy! These social, economic, urban development and administrative policies

generate unaffordable, ugly, stifling and unmanageable urban fabrics. This happens because

the regime of land holding, land transfer and land use is controlled by anti-social vested

interests that see urban systems as mere short term investments to make quick money off

of an expanding system. These “developers” have no social qualms, no long term

perspectives, and no idea how cities work to make good life closer to more and more

people! My urban planning projects in Sri Lanka, India and Bhutan are all counterblasts to

the “get rich quick” New Economy and New Urbanism.

TWO CITIES: A FAILURE AND A SUCCESS

City Design and Architecture are both collective acts. They involve the designers, technical

consultants, contractors, inhabitants and the body politic in which they are conceived. One

can do a good plan and it will never materialize, or one can prepare a mediocre plan that is

a grand success. Below I present two good plans which have different stories.

From many endeavors to design urban environments, I would like to share our work in

Jaffna, Sri Lanka, and in Thane, a part of Greater Mumbai, in India. Both exercises employed

similar “planning processes” and goals. One plan came too late and failed to serve its

inhabitants, and the other came too early, and was picked out of the dust years later, and

very successfully implemented.

Cynicism over Optimism: Jaffna

The Jaffna Plan was part of Sri Lanka’s national strategy for reform and resurgence in the

late 1970’s. Jayewardene, the President, had a vision to deregulate the economy; open the

doors to global investors and encourage private initiative; decentralize powers and spread

economic investment to regional centers, creating regional balance within the country’s

diverse ethnic areas. To spread the good life beyond the capital city of Colombo, the

government selected seven cities as focal growth and service centers for which I was

selected as the Principle Advisor. The programme was funded by the United Nations.

Social and economic transformation always has beneficiaries and losers! Often small elites

in the military, monopoly industries and in the government loose their privileges and

unearned increments from development, when a system moves from regulatory government

ownership and control, to a more libertarian and participatory system. Without oppressing

the old elite, it is often fatal to liberate the people! While the optimists were planning for a

new, vibrant nation, the vested interests were becoming cynical about their future and were

scheming for own their entrenchment! What is the use of a military where there is ethnic

harmony and no aggressive neighbors? What is the use of a bureaucracy where there are no

permits and regulations? What happens to protected monopolies if the doors are opened to

competition? Fearing their eminent demise, these powerful vested interests prepared their

schemes to maintain the past, while we prepared out plans for the future!

First, we analyzed thee Existing Scenario. We analyzed the state of roads and public

transport; we studied the adequacy of potable water supply and sewerage disposal systems;

we documented electricity networks and street lights; we surveyed the schools and health

services facilities; we listed the public assets, open space system and unique character of

the city; we studied existing land uses, shelter patterns and the economic base; we looked

at the ancient water reservoirs, and linking channels, storm drainage patterns and solid

waste disposal systems. Second, we identified the gaps in the existing systems, the lacunae

where basic services did not even exist and we projected the population growth to see how

these stresses in the urban systems would increase over time? Third, with the existing

scenario and the visions of inhabitants’ gleaned from public meetings, we generated plan

options for the future. Forth, these were evaluated and an appropriate action plan selected.

Then, we created a “shelf of schemes,” including project estimates, from which to choose

incrementally in the future, which would resolve stresses in different sectors. These schemes

included the up-gradation of existing slums, providing essential services; and, laying out site

and services for new self-built shelters on small, affordable plots. This allowed for disjointed,

incremental and ad hoc decision making, and private sector development in the future,

around a structure plan of roads, trunk infrastructure, open spaces and activity precincts

decided upon by the local citizens. Heritage sites, including an old Portuguese “star fort,”

temples and colonial structures became focal points around which open spaces were

planned. Finally, a new Urban Design for the Town Centre was prepared.

Just as the optimists’ plan was unfolding, the cynics struck! First, the army called a curfew

and burned down the public library, full of Tamil literature and English language reference

materials. While outraging the Jaffna youth, for whom the library was a source of hope in

future careers, Colombo newspapers reported, “Jaffna youth burn library in riots, while army

declares curfew in city!” Then during another curfew the army burned the new town centre

shopping center, where the youth gathered and eyed new music, fashions, gadgets and fast

food shops, recently flooding Sri Lanka markets along with liberalization! A touch with the

outside world was broken in a night of state arson! The strategy continued with the bombing

of the local Member of Parliament’s house and other acts of state terrorism! This strategy

fulfilled two objectives of the cynics: First, it projected an image of the Jaffna Tamils as

dangerous, rebellious people from whom the Singhalese South needed protection by the

army; and second, it created a dangerous, terrorist movement in the Jaffna peninsula,

requiring the army to be armed and mobilized to “protect the nation.” The continued “riots”

in Jaffna, generated fear of Tamils in the capital city in Colombo, where the Tamils had

significant economic investments and, as a more highly educated minority, they held

important positions and owned fashionable homes and small businesses. These all went up

in flames in the state executed massive riots, where Tamil properties were marked by

saboteurs, and burned by mobs, while the police and army stood by doing nothing.

Jayewardene’s dreams when up in flames during a few fateful days of rioting and the Tamil

Liberation Front was created, who have ruled the Jaffna peninsula ever since. On the positive

side our plans for Galle, Matara, Hambantota, Kolitara and Ratnapura were all implemented

with various degrees of success, becoming models for later urban development in Southern

Sri Lanka. I present this case to emphasize that city design is part of a much larger social-

political fabric. Each design, plan or programme is merely an experiment, which may

augment either the forces of evil or of good, or my just fade away into history, perhaps to be

pulled up again from a dusty old shelf, bringing optimism back to life!

Optimism over Cynicism

Two years after the Colombo genocide, I received a phone call from Bombay, requesting

that I apply for short-listing to prepare a plan for the rapidly growing city of Thane in the

Greater Bombay (now Mumbai) Metropolitan Region. This ancient port town, with a

Portuguese “star fort” from the same era as Jaffna’s, had one of the first privately developed

industrial estates in India, the first railway station linking the town with Victoria Station in

Bombay in 1853, and a system of irrigation and water storage tanks, also reminiscent of

Jaffna. Unlike Jaffna, the town shared a border with booming Bombay, was rapidly growing

with a population of half a million, estimated to grow past a million within twenty years. In

addition to its own industries, it was becoming a middle class dormitory suburb of Bombay,

connected by the rail line and the Eastern Expressway.

The city was deteriorating faster than it was populating! The natural storm drainage system

had been built over leading to monsoon floods and the ancient water tanks were filled with

solid waste. The roads were too narrow and unpaved, planned for a town a tenth the size.

There were no fly-overs or underpasses at rail crossings. The water system was inadequate

for the population, and the slums-housing forty-five percent of the population-had not even

the minimal basic services. Sixty percent of the dwelling units had no sewerage connection!

The city was a public health engineering nightmare, water born diseases were rampant, and

the old parks, creek side and tanks were used as refuge dumps! If there were toilets in

schools, health centers, and hospitals the sanitary fittings were all broken and the drains

clogged up. Playgrounds and recreational spaces were encroached upon, dumped upon and

defecated upon! The city’s annual budget barely paid the salaries! We had a crisis on our

hands!

Seeing that the situation called for more than physical planning, we gathered social workers

to document conditions in slums, amenities and facilities. We created a consortium between

ourselves, a financial consulting firm to re-organize the tax system and streamline resources

mobilization, expenditure and accounting. We took on a large professional firm of public

health engineers to prepare detailed designs for immediate amelioration of drainage, trunk

water supply and sewerage management. Following a planning method similar to that in

Jaffna, we produced a Development Plan which focused on the alleviation of the severe

stresses that plagued the city. This was supplemented by a Perspective Plan articulating

how the city’s future population would be housed, serviced and transported. A financial and

administrative analysis of the municipal corporation resulted in a financial plan of action

which made the entity look more like a global business house than an antiquated local body.

Public health engineering was looked at from the “end users” viewpoint, rather than from

the gross trunk supply into the city of a gross amount of water going nowhere. The

development management system was re-designed to allow small house builders to

construct with no sanctions; medium sized projects to be valorized by professional architects

and engineers, leaving the city engineers more time to focus on places of mass gathering,

multi-storied structures and major engineering projects. Seismic and fire codes were

revamped to address the ground realities.

An “urban first aid” action plan was put into motion to clean out the tanks and clean off the

public open spaces, providing sanitary facilities to public buildings. A slum improvement

scheme was articulated, wherein paved foot paths, street lights, public bathing areas and

toilets for males and females were created, and storm water drains were emplaced. A traffic

management plan, along with a street lighting scheme, was completed. This “plan” was

more a disaster management programme than anything else.

While the “urban first aid” was carried out, the long term development lay in the dusty

cupboards! But like the Lok Nest Monster hibernating under water, the plan awaited its day

to raise its head. That day came almost a decade later, when a dynamic civil servant cleared

out the cabinets and found a ready made recipe for reconstructing his city. Within three

years the city of Thane was transformed with new roads, underpasses and overpasses, a

functioning storm drainage system, foot paths, modern sewerage and solid waste collection

system and potable drinking water going down to the end users! Thane’s resurrection

became a national model and a living proof that changes for the better are possible! Shortly

thereafter we applied the same rationale in the preparing the nearby Kalyan Development

Plan.

THE GOOD AND THE TRUTH:

Some Conclusions

The ancient Greeks, who I greatly admire, were able to give their due to both the study of

Aesthetics and Ethics. Aesthetics was focused on pleasure, while Ethics focused on morals.


“middle path.” Pleasure included anything which pleased the senses, ranging from taste,




no issues of “right” or “wrong, but there are issues of balance, harmony and the Golden

Mean. The issue is how harmoniously things are done. Pleasure is a primary goal in life

which I call THE GOOD! La Dolce Vita, or the sweet life is something any highly evolved

person has tried to perfect through education, considered practice, studying and friendship.

Any civilized person will avoid being directed by passion or lust, but will seek articulate and


cooking good food, drinking good wine and seducing paramours are all part of the GOOD

LIFE. To miss any of these is to miss a slice of life! Architecture and City Design are the

venues of THE GOOD, are the stage sets for pleasure, and are generic to the GOOD LIFE!

If a person can not experience the GOOD, they have no reason to be concerned with what is

BAD, the right or the wrong! Ethics need not concern them. Without the operation of the





intelligent principles through which pleasure is accessible to all! City Design and

Architecture are both vehicles of Aesthetics and of Ethics. City Design is a social and

economic vehicle to bring the GOOD to more and to more people, equitably, justly and

liberally. It is a form of pleasure and is guided by ethics!

While espousing beliefs in Ethics, our institutions (schools, religions, governments, and

families) try to control and suppress Aesthetics. Governments debate what people should





equality, while suppressing the individual’s rights to THE GOOD LIFE. Seeking the truth,

without knowing the GOOD, is a dangerous journey! Architecture and City Design are all

about that journey. Architecture and City Design are embodiments of both Aesthetics and

Ethics. In my view, we as designers must see Aesthetics as our own internal reflection of

some generic or cosmic order, which is natural and true! We must see ethics, not as

incursions into people’s personal lives, but as questions to be answered such as,

*. Is it right to consume non-renewable resources at the cost of other living creatures, or of

future generations?

*. Is it right to live in opulence, while other people are starving and lack basic services?

*. Is it right to be dishonest for an honest cause?

*. If we seek happiness, is it merely for ourselves, or for all humanity?

*. If we create beautiful things, is it for our personal pleasure, the pleasure of a few patrons,


These are the kinds of ethical questions I would like all designers planners and architects to

contemplate.

This brings me full circle back to seeking the truth, knowing who we are and Being instead of

Seeming! Ethics has to start within as an inner search and not from without. As the



both modulates personal power and strength. But without THE GOOD all of this wisdom, love


Bramante, proposed:

“It is better to seek the GOOD, than to know the TRUTH!”

With that slightly confusing quote, I will leave this essay, hoping it breads thought within

those who read it.

Ancient Wisdom : Future Scenarios

Some Thoughts on Pune


* * * * *

Pune City evolved from a riverside village; to a market town; to the capital of the Maratha

Empire; to a colonial cantonment town; and gradually over the late Twentieth Century into a

thriving industrial metropolis and intellectual centre.

Like all cities, Pune’s urban physical form has expressed the socio-economic transformation.

Each period of history used public policy to reflect the dominate political economy, and also

to mould the city within it! While it is believed that the original settlement containing a

bazaar near the present Kasba Peth developed its lanes around footpaths leading to temples

on the river, later patterns were planned and directed! During the rule of the Marathas a

rationale for urban planning and urban development evolved, which is unequaled since.

Subsequently, British land use planning visualized the city in terms of exclusive functional

components and drew a line between the alien life styles of various cantonments and the

“native city.” Town planning measures toward the end of the colonial period promoted land

pooling and redistribution through public-private partnerships, but the statutory mechanisms

ensured that each Town Planning Scheme ended in the courts with the average scheme

taking seventeen years from inception to realization. It has been many decades since any

new scheme has been ventured.

Present Scenario

What is now called a “Development Plan” is no plan at all. It is merely an abstract land use

plan, sprinkled with rather arbitrary reservations on private land where public amenities and

open areas are to mysteriously emerge. The chances are for an average citizen buying land,

using the services of so called real estate agents that they will end up buying a parcel

without adequate land records to prove the vendor’s ownership! Often it is impossible to

obtain a public demarcation of the property, because the original “layout” was surveyed

from a larger area, whose individual plot owners are unknown or unwilling, to cooperate by

paying their share of the demarcation costs. The so called Gunthewadi Act, working like

some kind of “loan mela,” attempted to regularize all the illegal plotting, inept road layouts

and bogus schemes, through a sweeping statutory mechanism, which throws on the

innocent land buyers the costs of poor public management and daring cheating! In such

plots roads may be widened into the owners’ land with no compensation at any time. The ill-

conceived layouts having no open spaces, public amenities or adequate roads compensate

the public by having their allowable built-up areas reduced to 0.75 percent, as if that will

make the future city work! The colonial and post-Independence statutory mechanisms and

administrative modalities have proven incapable of addressing the challenge of the modern

city. Whatever mechanisms do work, such as getting demarcation, being enrolled into the

city tax records, clearing plans and obtaining utilities connections involve open bribing of

public officials. Citizens have become victims of their public servants!

A Well Tempered and Articulated Policy Tool

While the system appears to be one of chaos, it is in fact one very suitable to the builders,

unscrupulous land developers, unqualified real estate touts and public officials who all

realize unearned increments from plying this system to their personal advantage. I say this

is a conceived public policy evolved through design to benefit the few at the cost of the

many! I say this is a well considered and tempered system of management designed to

meet the needs of land developers and cooperative public servants. This is an articulated

policy tool which has served the needs of a few who have worked it to their own

aggrandizement and wealth!

City Engineers and City Commissioners like to cite the scarcity of water, the paucity of

revenue and the shortage of electricity, when in fact the real scarcity is of true leadership

and vision; the only paucity is in sound urban management and the only scarcity is of good

practices. While Pune’s leading politicians have spent much of the past two decades

amassing personal wealth and fighting over fiefdoms, the administration has been dilly-

dallying over one plan after the other; one riverfront scheme and then another; and get

headlines reviewing various high level proposals for urban transport and water supply. The

Development Plan of Pune has been a mere two decades behind schedule! During that same

period Hyderabad, Ahmedabad, Thane and Surat, to name a few, have transformed into

viable urban settings and efficient economic engines!

This is a city where elected policy makers dabble in the administration’s job of

implementation; and the administrators are completely absorbed in policy formulation,

which is the job of elected city fathers (and mothers)! The city, its citizens and the physical

environment are all left to grow like septic cultures in a refuge heap! Meanwhile this great

city’s potential is dragged down by power cuts, faulty phone lines, internet speeds as slow

as 17.2 kbps and cell phone systems which are overloaded. Thus, the public sector in Pune

has no monopoly over the incompetent planning and management of economic

infrastructure. Unlike nearby growth centers, Puneites are inured to a life of harassment,

congestion, pollution and faulty infrastructure.

There are numerous sovereign and spatially distinct local authorities operating within the

Pune Metropolitan Region. These include the Pune and Pimpri-Chinchwad Municipal

Corporations; the towns of towns of Dehu, Alandi and Talegaon; fringe settlements like

Khadakwasala and Hadapsar; and the cantonments of Kirkee, Pune, Dehu Road and

Lohegaon. While some of the fringe villages have been amalgamated into the city, they

continue to share the dual phenomena of rapid, patchy growth with tremendous

infrastructure gaps! With multiple urban administrations co-inhabiting the same urban

economic space, there is a myriad of planning, development planning, proposal clearing and

implementation employed by the many local authorities. There is no cohesive agreement

amongst the local administrators even on where to put the refuse generated within the

urban region and how to recycle it! The Pune City Engineer announced at one point that five

hundred cleared plans would be withdrawn! The Standing Committee wants to appoint new

urban designers to redesign the river area development plan that the Municipal Corporation

awarded to the River Group of architects a few years ago. The so called “Development Plan”

was on display for at least the third time since it was due in 1987, and once again the

citizens of the city are asked to make fools of themselves by attending endless hearings,

where their voices go unheard! There are cases in the new plan where open markets are

proposed on an amenities plot where a sanctioned retreat for the elderly already is built! We

hear that a private expert’s Group has made a presentation to the City Commissioner for a

proposed Transport Plan for the city! We hear that a New York City Management firm will

transform itself into the garb of professional urban planners and prepare the future vision for

the blind! There is no coherent urban transport plan; no traffic management plan; and no

mass transport strategy! Meanwhile, the local authorities of the urban region continue to

dump sewerage and refuge into the rivers, polluting the natural aquifer system. Yes, there is

a shortage of water!

Ancient Wisdom

Perhaps the seeds of the distant future lie in components from the ancient past? During the

Maratha era, as the role of Pune expanded, new peths were added. These were clearly

demarcated neighborhoods assigned to caretakers, or Shet Mahajans, in the form of

conditional land grants. Each Shet Mahajan was required, through a covenant, to develop his

trusteeship within a specific time-frame and with specific public amenities. There were roads

laid out on rectilinear grids, storm water drains, public baths, plots for temples and public

gardens. There were areas for artisans and for commerce. All of this was supported by an

underground water supply system coming in from Katraj! The Shet Mahajan could pool land,

readjust land and redistribute land through a system of pricing and he could charge

development fees from the users. He could settle claims and collect taxes on commerce

within his jurisdiction. He knew all of his stake holders by name and the peth’s development

was a self-financing, joint venture. In 1637 Pune included the four peths of Kasba, Shaniwar,

Raviwar and Somwar. In 1663 Mangalwar Peth was added and Budwar Peth was added in

1703. By the time Shukrawar Peth was added in 1734, the population of the seven peths

was about 25,000 persons. Some of the peths had water tanks, gymnasia and shrines for

which they are well-known even today. During the early Maratha period the availability of

dry, flat land along the north-south trade route, and access to Kasba Peth encouraged the

establishment of further settlements to accommodate military agencies. Barracks, stables

and storage facilities for the army were located in Shukrawar Peth. The new areas of Ganesh

Peth, Ganj Peth and Guruwar Peth accommodated traders and craftsmen. Nyahal Peth was

the only new ward to develop in the eastern area. These peths, which developed through

public-private partnerships, provide a viable and logical urban pattern, enabling access to

urban services, amenities and public movement even now. Though Pune was ransacked by

the Nizams, in 1771, by 1776 it has gained a population of about 75,000 people.

Philadelphia in America that year had the same population and Philadelphia was then the

second largest city in the British Empire, next to London.

The so called innovation by the British of “town planning schemes,” is in many aspects a

weaker version of the Shet Mahajan system. While the Town Planning Scheme Act of 1937

provided a statutory framework, it lacked the innovation and leadership inherent in the Shet

Mahajan. Nevertheless, there is wisdom in the Town Planning Schemes also and states like

Gujarat have taken the lead in reforming the potential mechanism, such that it abets land

owners to transform their raw land into well planned neighborhoods. Since the Town

Planning Scheme of Bhamburda many decades ago, our public officials have virtually slept

on this urban development mechanism, which engages the land owners to restructure their

land, without any of them becoming the victims of land reservations that is an inherent and

unfair aspect of the Development Plans. Magapatha, in eastern Pune, proves that the private

sector can employ good urban planning, through the professional assistance of qualified

architects and urban designers. Here is an excellent example of urban planning with modern

sanitation, well laid out roads, open spaces, amenities and services. Surely this is a model

for Pune’s future, employing the aspects of the Shet Mahajan’s private sector wisdom for

economic viability, along with the clear understanding that good planning is good business!

Just as the Marathas provided reservoirs and aqueducts, Pune city has a long standing,

unrealized plan prepared by the Kirloskar Consultants over a decade ago, which if fully

implemented would transform the urban region.

Do our city fathers need to go to Ahmedabad to learn what private electric supply can do?

Do they need to go to Hyderabad to learn what a road is and what sidewalks are? Need they

travel to New York and Tokyo to learn what clean, fast and comfortable mass transit is when

it is there to see in Kolkata and now in New Delhi?

Future Scenarios

What is clearly needed in the Pune Metropolitan Region is a professional urban development

authority. This entity would remove the responsibility for urban planning, urban design, and

traffic management from the local urban authorities. It would take up mass transport

planning, land pooling schemes, river management, major water and sewerage

management schemes, road and refuse infrastructure planning. It would take the city’s

future out of the inept hands of overburdened local authorities. It would create “authority,”

with limited political interference and dabbling. It would bring together a group of

professional urban planners, urban designers, transport and infrastructure planners, along

with the local architectural profession, to look after the growth and the health of this fair

city. The local authorities would be relieved of development activities and left to focus on

the honest and competent management of urban infrastructure and services.

Thus using a professionally managed regional urban development authority, the Pune

Metropolitan Region can build on private-public partnership models that have been

successfully implemented within our context, rather than seek “foreign visions,” more

management consultant’s reports, and more revised development plans! We have

underutilized young urban planners and designers from Pune, who have returned to the city

waiting in vain to make a contribution. Let us use them!

What is now lacking is leadership from the top; vision from the top; and a voting public that

puts practical problem solving above irrelevant, emotional controversies!

Such a vision must include a systems way of seeing urban infrastructure; “inclusive

planning”, which caters to the urban poor who make our system work and to the middle

class managers who guide it; environmental management that protects the eco-system,

including the supply of potable water and the treatment of wastes and sewerage; economic

infrastructure such as electricity, roads, airport, industrial water sources and special

economic zones in the urban region to promote new starts in Greenfield sectors.

Most important to this great city is the people who inhabit it. If they are not assured

comfortable and safe neighborhoods with sidewalks, cycle paths, public gardens and

pedestrian ways, they will look elsewhere for their dream on this earth. Within these

neighborhoods a variety of housing needs accommodating various “abilities-to-pay” must be

catered to. These would all be parts of the brief we would hand over to our new Pune

Metropolitan Development Authority.

EVIDENCES


* * * * *

A CHILDHOOD

As a child I spent my days drifting in confusion. Nothing particularly inspired me, nor did my

studies, or my teachers, enthuse me to seek knowledge. My parents were of the opinion that

by putting me in a school I would be educated! They made half-hearted attempts to

introduce me to the Christian church, believing that religion and spiritualism were one and

the same. School, church, gymnasia, auditoria, the playing fields and most of what

transpired within them seemed a dull cloud hovering over me with no respite.

What did move me were the autumn trees in yellows, reds and oranges, and their winter

nude, black fingers reaching for the sky, with the fresh white snows of winter covering the

fields. Then the black fingers frosted with white powder snow, with the warm sun

momentarily melting them to water, turning the stick trees to huge, gleaming, crystal

candelabras of ice-glass glittering in the sun. The setting on of spring, with the last snows of

early April; the first flowers spurting through the soft white carpets, turning to the green

carpets of nature claiming the earth as its own. The grey, angry skies of winter, breaking

loose to the pink and violet morning heavens of spring….these were the things which

grabbed at me and drew my attention! Dulled by my school hours, I was awed by small

discoveries on my walks to and from my school. My personal life was composed of all things

natural and my friends were the chipmunks, squirrels in the trees and the rabbits in the

forests. My grades were poor and my parents sent me for counseling!

Post-war America in the early 1950’s; the social and economic milieu of a nation starved by

decades of depression and war; the institutional ambiance left over from decades of neglect;

all reflected themselves in the soulless, cold institutional architecture where I studied, lived

and played. The regimented lessons, competitive sports, the organized Boy Scouts, and the

moralistic church all imparted biases, prejudices and a judgmental bent of mind! These

institutions of opportunity, were actually the machines of conformity, all designed to churn

out little copies of one another, entrapping the new citizens in molds of pretended

individualism. We all wore Levis, “T-shirts,” tennis shoes and white socks. Even our

underwear was a choice between Fruit of the Loom for slacks, or a Bike jock under jeans!

When pink shirts, little pink suede belts, black pants and pink suede shoes were “in,” we all

felt very different, all wearing the same uniforms! And even Elvis Presley crooned, “Don’t

step on my pink suede shoes!” How different we all thought we were, wearing the same

uniforms and listening to the same music.

As a youth, I once boarded the “Tube” in London to Wimbledon, immediately focusing on

three very individualistic looking skin heads, with black unkempt jeans, black “T-shirts” and

black leather jackets. Just over from the States they looked weird and unusual! With their

shaven heads and casual, sloppy black attire, these boys seemed very idiosyncratic and

individualistic! At the next stop five more boys dressed in exactly the same attire boarded

the Tube, then at the next stop ten more, and finally the entire train was packed by these

uniformed clones, all packaged and decorated to be individuals. At Wimbledon thousands of

these robots were vomited out onto the platform, courtesy the London Metropolitan

Transport Authority! In my childhood one needed a uniform, even to be an individual! Later

my teacher John Kenneth Galbraith described our society as the “military-industrial

complex,” and explained how a vast “free enterprise” was controlled and directed toward

the construction of a powerful nation state vectored to rule the world. My boyhood friends

were becoming narrow minded, ethnocentric and sour hearted souls, molded to work in

factories, in banks, in schools, in hospitals and ready to die for mother, country and apple

pie in foreign lands!

Thus, my childhood was composed of two very different parts, each giving meaning and

distinctness to the other. Like the Yin and the Yang, a white and a black force intertwined

within me, chasing after one another. The black made the white more pure and beautiful,

and the white made the black more foreboding and ominous! I suppose, even today there

seems to be a contradiction in me. On the one side there is my love of beauty and pleasure,

my search for volume, space and form all defined in light. On the other side there is my

concern with poverty, inequality and environmental deterioration. I am often asked how one

balances, or even justifies, these two apparently variant natures?

A MAGIC GIFT

One Christmas morning, the myth of Santa Claus, and the ritual of giving gifts was to begin,

with the usual tree all decorated in tensile, blinking colored lights and glass bulbs uncrated a

few days earlier, to be repacked a few days later for the years to come. My eyes were

quickly drawn to a gift I had not foraged in my parent’s usual pre-Christmas hiding places. I

knew the others from looking under their bed, in the attic or in the high shelf over my

father’s cupboard, where he hid his condoms and porn magazines. Strange, I thought, that

I’d somehow missed this in my stealthful investigations of the previous week! It was in green

paper with a bright red ribbon, flat and rectangular. So I reached for it first, as our small

family of parents and one sister took turns about the tree with gasps of surprises, opening

boxes we’d surreptitiously uncovered just a few days before. I suppose the real fun of

Christmas was the cheating, the sneaking into others’ private hiding places, finding out what

we’d get and the charade of surprise! But I’d missed this one! Yes, Virginia, there is a Santa

Claus, who’d clearly flown in the night before on his sled, pulled by reindeer, slid down our

chimney and snuck into our living room to leave this special gift for me.

Like millions of Americans on that fateful morning, I reached out for the most intriguing of

gifts with my name on it, not realizing that it would change my life forever. It was a book

from my favorite aunt, Roxanne Eberlein. She was my favorite because of all my three aunts

she traveled the most; she was the most thoughtful, and she was having an affair with Adlai

Stevenson, who insisted on running for President of the United States twice and loosing. The

guise of their relationship was her being his confident, executive secretary and advisor. As a

child, this was particularly embarrassing on the day after the elections! It happened twice in

about four years! He redeemed his position in my childish mind when President Kennedy

made him the United States Ambassador to the United Nations! This came along with the

Ambassador’s residence on the top of the Waldorf-Astoria Towers, about forty-two floors

over Park Avenue, which he used perhaps twenty days in a year, leaving it to the nieces and

nephews of his lover, and even to his own children from a past marriage. Besides my sister

and I, who were regular freeloaders at the Waldorf, were Sir Robert Jackson, who was re-

organizing the United Nations, and his wife, the economist-Chairperson of the BBC, and the

once-upon-a time editor of the Economist, Barbara Ward. Natalie Owings, daughter of the

famous architect Nathaniel Owings, along with Stevenson’s son, John Fell, also dropped by. I

slept under huge water lilies rendered by Claude Monet in oils from his garden at Giverny,

loaned to the Embassy by the Metropolitan Museum of Art!

Back to the book! It was written by the architect called Frank Lloyd Wright, and though in

black and white (this was in the mid-1950s) every picture and every drawing grasped my

imagination. As I read the first words, sentences, paragraphs and pages, I became catalyzed

and moved! As I read through The Natural House I discovered who I was and what I

wanted to be. At least I gained the first insight to what my life’s search would be all about.

Reading the pages, I felt like a reincarnated avatar discovering who he had been in previous

lives, and what he’d be in this one! It was not just that I liked the designs and the drawings

and the photographs, and that I found meaning in the words. It was a testament that

unfolded a truth to me that actually already dwelled deep within me! Something that had

always been there inside of me, concealed from me, was now unfolded. I suppose this is

what is called INSPIRATION?

From the moment I opened The Natural House, I did not put it down until I completed the

last page. In a sense I have never put it down and I am still reading it, discovering and

searching for what inspired me on that Christmas Day. When I closed the book and walked

out of my house, I was living in a different world. It was after midnight and the black sky was

clear with thousands of stars gleaming in the heavens. Everything I saw looked different. It

was not only nature which was singing a song in my heart, but my soul had switched on and

my mind had begun to think! I saw things which I had never noticed before. Finely carved

balustrades caught my fancy! Sculpted stone gargoyles made me smile. I noticed that one

wood was different from another in its color, grains, nature and use. I was drawn to feel

wood and to slide my fingers across it, appreciating its inner soul. I noted that a wood floor

was warm in the winter and cozy to look at, while a marble floor was cool in the summer and

soothing to sit upon. Stained glass windows, fine brass handles, well thought out paving

patterns were my friends. I spoke to them, and I argued with sloppy workmanship and

clumsy details.

Wright taught me that the human mind is a huge analogue for all things beautiful and all

things ugly. He taught me that a human being is both a monster and a saint all rolled up into

one; capable of creating incredible beauty, or of inflicting deplorable destruction. It is the

human mind which separates humans form other animals, which makes us the monsters of

terror and the creators of poetry, art and architecture. We alone can know the exhilaration

of transcendence!

After The Natural House, the Yin and the Yang in me merged into one presence. Instead of

playing each other out and exhausting me in confusion, the black force empowered the

white beauty! I was now driven in whatever I did. And, good luck played an important role in

my life too!

I gave up on education and embarked on a search! Something magical had grasped me. I

stopped attending church and I forsook religion, finding spiritual moments in fits of creative

discovery. I quit the Boy Scouts and began scouting for the real boy I was. I began a search

for myself, which continues.

There is a story in Hindu mythology that when Yasoda opened Krishna’s mouth and looked

into it she gasped with amazement, seeing the entire universe! She also saw a glimpse of

herself! In Wright’s words and works I saw a glimpse of my own creative possibilities and I

was galvanized to go forth and seek! I saw that there was a chance that I too may one day

search and discover something of my own, which is but a small slice of the universe.

NOTE TO A YOUNG STUDENT

What Wright taught me was very simple: seek out the truth, find the generic order in things!

See beauty in the TRUTH! What he meant by The Natural House was the natural self and

the natural life! Buildings are merely mirrors of the people who live in them. They reflect

how people behave, how people think, what their aspirations are and how they deal with

materiality! They illustrate how evolved people are in their spiritual realizations; whether

they live for material things, or they manipulate material things to reach transcendence?

They place people and societies somewhere along a scale between beasts grabbing at

survival to saints blessed with transcendental awareness. They distinguish people who only

“take,” from patrons who nurture and “give.” Buildings indicate the extent to which people

are in touch with the environment they live in; part of the context of the places within which

they build, and harmonious with the social traditions and modalities which bring bliss and

peace. Teachers like Liane Lefaivre and Alex Tzonis reinforced my credo, through their work

on what they call Critical Regionalism, in which new functions and technologies are

integrated with places, climates and cultures.

I believe there is something called GENERIC ARCHITECTURE: that is architecture of

carefully composed fabrics, of structures, of systems, of materials that all participate in a

common order of nature, tradition, appropriate technology and social harmony. There is

some rational stream of thought, some common process of analysis, some general

considerations and modalities of study, which are always the precursors of beauty! In this

there are eternal principles, truths and modalities, bringing all architecture into one

immense realm of knowledge. In this sense we all belong to one huge “gharana” of

architecture whose past masters are Michelangelo, Leonardo de Vinci, the Emperor Akbar

and Thomas Jefferson!

Today we live in a world dominated by contrivers, posing as architects, who are just

screaming and shouting for personal attention. Our “architectural world” is like a crèche full

of anal retentive babies all whining and screaming to be noticed by anyone who will look at

them. I would say these charlatans are less famous, and more notorious. Like the Bandit

Queen, they are well known for their outrageous acts, rather than understood and

appreciated for their contributions in a common search. As urban planners they carve out

their own city blocks and surround them with walls, turning once friendly public domains into

private spaces one pays to get in to. Inside of these secured, commercial turfs stuntmen are

employed to amaze us with things bizarre! We live in an age when “being different” is

mistaken for “being creative.” Ours is a time when “doing something new is mistaken for

creating beauty! Being different often means being a conformist of a specific nature. The

skin heads of my youth were seeking non-conformity through uniforms, so that they would

be accepted into a larger group! Instead of seeking to be different, we should seek to be

ourselves and to be happy with ourselves, whoever we are. Only when we are happy with

ourselves, can we make other people happy with the honest products of our honest toil.

In October 2001 I was invited to make a presentation at the European Biennale at Graz. I

noticed something very interesting! To be a “creative artist” in Europe, you need not create

anything, but you must wear the black uniform of the artist! You must dress totally in black.

You must wear black shoes, black socks, black pants, black belts, black shirts with black

buttons and black ties. When the cold rains blow in you must wear a black jacket and a black

hat. I found that the super creative Europeans (as opposed to the merely creative ones)

wear black capes! For these people creativity is not a form of liberation, or the finding of the

truth. It is the creation of a lie in the form of a self imposed trap, and a make-believe world.

There are people in America and in Europe who never design anything, never search, never

question, but who dress in the costume of creators. They worry over finding just the right

black g-strings and bikinis! They are seeming and not being! If I were to speak out any

advice to a young student, I would say, BE NOT SEEM! Carrying this paradigm further, there

is an entire industry in the West creating images and promoting the “uniforms of creativity,”

at the cost of the truth. This is called the media, the fashion industry, public relations and

notoriety! The taste makers are telling thoughtless people what is “beautiful” and what “art”

is. The taste makers are telling people to drop the names of fakers who can not even paint!

There are people who pay to be photographed drunk at parties, standing about with illiterate

chatterati, thinking of nothing, making no contributions to this world. This projects an image

to the youth of our times, that these notorious personalities have achieved something.

It would be better to live as ones own self in oblivion, than to be notorious for living in a

trap! And this is exactly what the modern world is becoming: a trap! Brilliant professionals

and artists are leaving their friends and native places finding wealth and huge spaces, but

emptiness. They work in cold offices to be granted two weeks of vacation in a year when

they can “be themselves.” They wear “correct uniforms” and speak politically correct

statements, dropping the right names and muttering endless clichés! From dreaming of

creating beauty, they end up worrying how they will pay their house loan installments and

their credit card bills! They think by wearing black, that they can live the make-believe life of

a creator, when in fact they are slaves of conformity. I hope that all young artists, poets and

architects who read this will avoid all of the uniforms and traps. Be yourselves and never

seem to be what you are not.

TEACHERS AND GURUS

So my life as an architect, which began in my early teens, has been a life of searching for

truth. At first, when Wright visited me, I felt I had been visited by the Archangel and that I

was the only anointed one! How wrong I was. Revisiting Wright some years later I realized

that most of what one learns is learned from others. One cannot know everything and need

not know anything! But one must search! One can learn from a leaf by studying its shape, its

veins and its tapestry. One can learn from the spiral of a sea shell. One can watch birds in

flight as they glide in the sky, or just study cloud patterns meandering about, for subtle

structure and illusive orders in our minds. One will learn through search and not through

mugging up knowledge!

I have known Buddhists who frown on kicking stones, because they know that even stones

have souls. There is structure and beauty in everything on this earth. In each part of the

universe is the entire universe! Pick up any stone and study it and you will discover the truth

of its texture, shape and strength. Perhaps a good teacher just teaches us to look down our

own mouths and to see the universe. A good teacher never teaches facts or knowledge; they

open windows on how to search, or maybe even just to search. Maybe the “how” and the

“what” should be left to each student? Teachers, I realize, do not tell us of techniques, or put

facts in our heads. What they do is inspire us to search for the nature of things, the truth in

matters, which is where beauty dwells. They often do this by revealing a glimpse of beauty

through humor, through a bit of unexpected love, or maybe in some quick sketch revealing

the rudimentary simplicity of some highly complex system. “Genius,” Einstein said, “is

making the complex simple; not making the simple complex!”

My true gurus have always been able to cast such unexpected light on the world. I

remember the great architect Anant Raje taking me to meet his mentor one Sunday

afternoon in Philadelphia. Luis Kahn had privileged us several hours alone with him in his

studio. A bit of good luck! At one point he crumpled up a sheet of A4 paper and handed me a

pencil and asked me to quickly sketch it! As a young professor of architecture at Harvard, I

was keen to impress Kahn, so I immediately began creating a brain like image, trying to get

in all of the impossible complexity. Pretty good I thought, not knowing I had entered the

Master’s labyrinth! He threw a fatherly laugh at me, grabbing my pencil and making four

quick line strokes into a rectangle of the A4 proportions! He had showed me a nature of

myself to overlook obvious simplicity, in search of wrong, complex truths!

Creative attempts, exploratory acts and processes of discovery are modes that search for

self! I have heard Kahn talking to bricks in Ahmedabad and philosophizing at the Fogg

Gallery about the sky being the ceiling of his grand courtyard in the Salk Institute. But this

one “teacher’s trick” was a personal gift to me, that I shall never forget. Inspirations are

always in the form of gifts of one kind or the other. Gifts of inspiration are perhaps in the

form of an image such as a quick sketch, or a gesture (like a smile, just when we need

encouragement), but it is always in a sign of what we can be, what we can envision and

what we can become. My own attempts at architecture are but small analogues of

something I yearn to discover, to draw into myself, and to make a part of me. These are my

feeble attempts at becoming something, which is already there within me, yet undiscovered.

In the early 1970’s I founded the School of Planning at the Centre for Environmental

Planning in Ahmedabad, India. There my friend and mentor, Balkrishna Doshi, had just

returned from a visit to Venkateshwara Temple at Tirupati. I was eager to hear of his

experiences and what had transpired within him on his pilgrimage there. He whipped out a

thick, old fashioned ink pen and drew three instant lines, which captured the entire essence

of the mountain top temple in a second. Again, amazed at seeing the entire universe

revealed to me at one instance, I saw in Doshi the true genius that he is. But I also saw

something that was within me that I did not know. I could read his abstraction, because the

nature of the temple, the generic character of its simplicity, and therefore the beauty, was

already a part of the catalogue of my mind. Doshi had merely revealed this existing truth to

me. In fact when I went to Tirupati years later I was a bit disappointed. The clarity which

Doshi had revealed to me lay hidden in the complexity of the masses of pilgrims and the

chaos of the management of the place. Temporary shamiyanas hid much of the temple’s

form. I understood that the “truth of Venkateshwara Temple” was not something one just

looked at and saw. It took a deeper understanding of the elemental structure of the complex

composition and the ability to see through the chaos and the managerial machinations to

get at the root of what was there. Once more the lesson of simplicity, of the elemental, of

the generic!

Again, I would repeat that my own architecture is but an analogue of something I yearn to

know, a utopia I desire to create; a glimpse of paradise in its pristine reality; maybe some bit

of heaven; or a small glimpse of the universe I’d see if I could gaze into Krishna’s mouth,

revealing my own vast truth, proving the larger conceptualization possible! Whatever the

search, we must keep in our minds that what we are searching for is already there;

something deep inside of us, undiscovered waiting to be found. We also have to realize that

all humans participate in that discovery and we are often shocked to see something and

feel, “Hey, I’ve been hitting at exactly the same idea!” T. S. Elliot seemed to understand that

we are all part of the same endless search for truth, when he wrote in The Sacred

Wood, “Immature poets imitate; mature poets steal; bad poets deface what they take, and

good poets make it into something better, or at least something different.” In that sense

there is just one large studio and we are all the draftsmen of its inspiration! We work with

the same vision and the same passion for truth and beauty.

Thus, searching often deals with the study of precedents, with study tours to classical

monuments and seeking truth in prototypes. As a young architect I thought each design was

a unique creation! Great designers just reached into the sky and pulled ingenious

confabulations down from the heavens. I was thus disappointed one day when my teacher

Jose Luis Sert gave me the unusual privileged of visiting the “model room” where he

explored new concepts through Styrofoam models at different scales. Too busy himself to

explain things to me he asked Joseph Zelewski, his Senior Associate, to do the honors. As my

past teacher at Harvard, and though thirty years older to me, Joseph was my best friend at

the time and was very keen to hear what a younger designer thought of the new town Sert

was creating on an island, just off the coast of Marseille in France.

The opportunity to create a new town, on a craggy mountain island grabbed my

imagination. I could see all kinds of new forms jutting out of the huge rocks over the sea!

But to my disappointment Sert chose to make this work into a kind of summation of all of his

past principles and prototypes! It was to me a terribly rational, collection of years of work.

Each part could be seen in Sert’s publications and he had seemingly just assembled all of

these parts in to a large, no doubt beautiful, landscape! Joseph could sense the

disappointment on my face, and as he suggested we go to lunch he asked for my thoughts.

Headed down the long, double running flight of stairs to Church Street, a sudden flash of

light ran up the dark chasm, and the short, round figure of Sert made a black image in the

light ascending the stairs. At a kind of moment of truth, a few steps below us Sert asked, “So

what did he think of it?” Being truthful and putting me in an awkward position, Joseph said,

(just as Sert passing me, looking me straight in the eye) “He says that there’s nothing new!”

My fears that this would anger the master to call me to his office immediately evaporated as

he burst out laughing! A few steps further up he turned back and said, “You know

Christopher, this is not California!” He was mocking a place famous for having to be

different; for everyday craving to be new; and in a frenzy to be unique. Now even Joseph

smiled realizing that all was right in the heavens, and that this young upstart had been put

in his place!

The search and struggle for discovery are a difficult set of processes. But one can struggle,

and should not sit waiting for miracles to fall from the heavens. As Le Corbusier said,

“Creation is a patient search.” Le Corbusier used to tell his protégés to start thinking over a

design problem, then to put it away in the head, and like a computer in hibernation the head

keeps secretly working on the design! My teacher Jerzy Soltan, who wrote Le Modular with

Le Corbusier, has always been a firm believer in this. He always encouraged me to take up

two or three designs at one time, and to move my conscious mind between them. But a little

inspiration always helps!

Many young designers doubt if that magic called “inspiration” actually exists. If I mention

music and ask them the name of their favorite song and then why they like it, they know

they have been inspired! Some people get inspired hearing a romantic song that touches

their heart and they yearn to sing and they do sing! Noise becomes music. Some people get

inspired reading poetry and they yearn to write sonnets and they do create lyrics! Scattered

sounds, miscellaneous words, a melody and some tones become magical moods!

STUDENTS AND TEACHERS

A wise sage I once met in his cave-retreat somewhere on the rocky slopes of Mount Abu

preferred to read my fate from my palm! As a young student of the empirical school of

thought, I withdrew from his inane suggestion, thinking what my teachers at Harvard and

MIT would think of a protégé who curried the favors of sages for their fate? But he charmed

me with his flashing eyes and warm smile, and questioned my logical abilities to reject his

findings, should I find them so whimsical? I suppose his charisma, directed at me through his

piercing eyes, and the lyrical landscape of the forested mountain slopes, perched high over

the desert of Rajasthan, swayed me like some magical potion.

He told me that I was a person of little wealth, but of great fortune! He declared that luck

was my life’s companion.

Tempted further, I coaxed him, “But what do you mean by good luck?”

With an incredulous sneer on his face, he informed me that there is only one kind of good

luck in life and that such good luck is to have good teachers!

I felt a chill spread over my skin, as if a sudden wave of cold air blasted the desert air,

leaving goose pimples momentarily all about me. He had unraveled a truth within me that

he could never have made out from my appearance or from his imagination! I knew he was

correct and that I would be a fool to reject what wealth may come my way! From that day

on, what had been a youth’s good fortune became a life’s endless search! To meet wise

people became a passion.

I believe that passion, and my fated trajectory of good luck, have navigated my life’s story

from a childhood Christmas gift to friendships, chance meetings, teacher-student

relationships, professional associations, chancing an encounter with my life partner, and to

work with some of the most inspiring people of our times. Most of the great teachers I have

had are anonymous, little known and often my own students and studio associates.I must

admit that I have been fortunate to have had many, many inspiring mentors.

As a teenager four young teachers touched me and motivated me. One, Norman Jensen, a

little known but great painter, would laugh at my aerial view sketches and ask me, “Why

don’t you draw what you see?” Harry Merritt was a classic modernist, building unpublished

masterpieces in North Florida. Though shy for publicity, he carried the stature of a Master.

He made us proud to be young architects. He was an “architect’s architect” who made us

follow strict rules. He preached a truth in every decision, shooting rational questions at our

every line. “If a closet projects out of the wall on this elevation and it’s doing the same thing

on another, than the expression has to be the same!” He called this “honesty of expression.”

Robert Tucker was a teacher to the core. Thoughtful, humorous, probing and penetrating, he

knew how to take us down into the depths of our weaknesses, only to pick us up to euphoria

of some small strength the next day. He knew the craft of creation; he saw within each

student their own little nugget of gold; and taught us all how to become small jewelers,

crafting within the limitations of what we had, instead of wishing to be something we were

not! Blair Reeves was a father image who nurtured young architects, having them by the

dozens to his beautiful modern wood and glass house for food and slide shows of the

masters’ works. His own house was a living example which he need not talk of…it was there!

He taught the introductory course to architecture hopefuls, wherein about two hundred

aspirants were registered for his lectures. In the first lecture he would ask everyone to stand

up. Then he’d ask the front half of the students to sit down, stating “this is how many of you

who will be left at the end of this course!” Then he’d ask half of the hundred left to sit down,

saying, “This is how many of you who will be here at the end of this first year!” Finally, he’d

have twenty of us standing and say this is perhaps how many of you who will graduate as

architects; of whom half of you may ever build a structure you design!” But Reeves was not

the terrorist this story makes him out to be. He was a thoughtful nurse to the survivors! As

the semester wore on, and the number of empty seats grew, he introduced to us the huge

canvas of modern art, architecture, design and the people who created the modern

movement. His true love though was the preservation of historic buildings and he introduced

us modernist fundamentalists to the fact that we have a history, that we live in a history,

and that we are a part of the continuum of history.

Many of my mentors were my classmates and contemporaries. Marc Trieb who teaches at

Berkeley and I shared a small “match-box” cottage in Gainesville. His recent books analyze

what makes modern landscape architecture what it is, how the Bay Area Style emerged from

its context and how Le Corbusier conceived the Electronic Poem! At the 1962 American

Institute of Architects Annual Convention in Miami, we ignored the thousands of commercial

architects down for the party, seeking out Paulo Solari and Buckminster Fuller who were

there to win Gold Medals and give major lectures. Solari was very approachable, walking

about in leather shorts and barefooted in the grand Americana Hotel. On the last night there

was a huge dinner on the open grounds of the Hialeah Race Course where thousands of

happy architects ate and drank, catching up with old friends. Aged only nineteen, Marc and I

had yet to discover the miracles of hallucinates! Totally sober we walked bored about the

tables of drunkards, laughing and singing merely! With some amazement we noticed Fuller

and his wife surrounded by admirers, but alas drunk admirers! We joined the table and

managed to move the discussion from boisterous questions, into things more to Fuller’s

interest! After a few minutes he turned to us and said, would you like to join my wife and I

back at the Americana? Bright eyed youth that we were, we jumped at the opportunity. In

the coffee shop we stayed up until two in the morning, asking a few questions and getting

long answers. Some years later on Doxiadis’ yacht in the Aegean Sea I was amazed when

the great man walked up to me, shaking my hand, and asking what I had been doing over

the past five years. This was the kind of personal touch, which today seems unbelievable.

Marc Trieb has gone on to be a great teacher too. Bruce Creager and Gene Hayes, just a few

years our seniors kept us spell bound with their seemingly vast experience readily shared

with us over candle lit dinners and wine. Peter Wilson has continued through the years to be

my alter ego. Daniel Williams has become America’s leading Green Architect. Thomas

Cooper is a devoted New Urbanist with whom I can openly argue a counterblast. Edward

Popko creates the IBM software from which great ships are built, and many others who were

my classmates from those times have gone on to gain recognition in their chosen paths. At

MIT and Harvard my classmates and later my students were great sources of inspiration. Urs

Gauchat has gone on to turn the New Jersey Institute of Technology School of Architecture

from no place to some place, giving up a successful practice in Boston to do so! Michael

Pyatok, my closest confidant in Sert’s Masters Class, is America’s leading proponent of

affordable housing. He builds what he talks about! Christine Boyer, at Princeton, has written

the profound analysis on planning and capitalism, which is required reading in every school

of planning. Anna Hardman carries on our tradition at MIT, enriching students and fellow

faculty. What I am trying to emphasize here is that like sand on the beach, gurus are

everywhere. It is for us to find them and to learn from them.

In Herman Hess’s classic Siddhartha, a student walking in the forest seeking The Great

Teacher, happens upon Lord Buddha and asks him if he knows where The Teacher is. Lord

Buddha explains to the boy that there are no teachers, only seekers of truth!

When I went to Harvard University to do my master’s degree in architecture and to study

urban planning at MIT, I was surrounded great teachers, who had loomed in my head like

rock stars did in my contemporaries! Walter Gropius was actually a real person! He walked

and talked in our midst. His wife, Alda Mahler Gropius, was a mother figure to young

students. Sert, then Dean, had started the world’s first urban design course, and was a

pioneer in the dialogue between architects and urban planners, being both himself!

Jacqueline Tyrwhitt, founding editor of Ekistics, would never leave a bad idea alone!

Gerhard Kallman, architect of the new Boston City Hall, was an icon of the 1960’s for his

bold and daring statements. Jerzy Soltan, who built Jacqueline Tyrwhitt’s lovely home Spiros

in Attica, and co-author of Le Modular, challenged students, faculty and guest critiques on

any topic possible. Juan Miro, the Catalonian painter, was often in residence as Sert’s

childhood friend. He painted amazing black forms on Sert’s patio walls, turning them into

masterpieces! My Master’s Class of twenty candidates dwindled down to sixteen within the

first month! That was before the days when Harvard filled chairs to collect its humongous

fees! There were high standards, ruthless performance expectations, and a family

atmosphere amongst the survivors! The sixteen of us were privileged to have our own time

and friendships with Yona Friedman, a colleague of Soltan’s in

Team Ten, Louis Mumford, Fuhimiko Maki, Dolf Schnebli, and other past students of Sert,

who came back to crit and jury our works. At MIT we had Kevin Lynch who wrote the Image

of the City, John F. C. Turner who wrote Freedom to Build, Herbert Gans who wrote The

Urban Villagers, Lisa Pittie who invented Advocacy Planning and Lloyd Rodwin who was

the Master Regional planner! Shadrack Woods at Harvard, who had just won the competition

to design the Free University in Berlin, and was preparing the new plan for Toulouse, was

notorious for his fiery arguments at juries, usually ending in his apartment at Peabody

Terrace at three in the morning, with loving students and young faculty still throwing

hypothesis. These were all people who took us students into their homes and hearts and

invested their time into our personal development, as well as our academic and intellectual

molding! We worked, studied, questioned, analyzed, drank, partied and ate together. Their

combined intellectual and human force was like a juggernaut plowing through all obstacles!

They understood the necessity of carrying students along with them, as their investment in

the next generations. They knew that they did not live for the moment, but for the future.

Some of the people who had the most profound impact on me were not my formal teachers.

Teaching design studios with Roger Montgomery, Gerhard Kallman, and Jane Drew, who all

became guides in my search, left me with a personal legacy.

Sir Robert Jackson gifted me a life subscription of the Ekistics journal in January of 1963

when we met briefly at Adlai Stevenson’s apartment. From that journal I came to know of a

larger world, and one not as happy as that I had grown up in. Some years later when I was a

student at Harvard, Jackson’s wife, Barbara Ward, took me under her wing as a protégé. She

thoughtfully invited me, at her expense, to attend the Delos Symposium in Greece. I flew to

Paris and bought a Mercier ten speed bicycle and proceeded the next fifteen hundred

kilometers via road, with my Harvard roommate, Christopher Winters. Reaching a bit

exhausted, but in great spirits, I was yet again welcomed into a new world. Constantinos

Doxiadis, Margaret Mead, Arnold Toynbee, Philippe Hera, Roger Gregore, Edmond Bacon,

Katherine Bateson and many others were aboard Doxiadis’ yacht which meandered through

the Aegean Sea, stopping at Mount Athos, Samothrace, Thebes, Mikanos and finally at the

Delos amphitheatre, where the Charter we had all worked on was read out by Margaret

Mead with the sun setting over the Aegean Sea behind her. At Samothrace Toynbee and his

life companion, Veronica, asked me to accompany them up a steep hill behind the

Samothrace Temple, from which the Winged Victory of Samothrace had come. Toynbee

surmised that there should be the ruins of an ancient Crusader Fort there, which did not

figure in any of the literature. Surely when we ascended to the peak of a small mountain,

the walls stood testament to his academic prowess! In his eighties at the time, the small

mountain climb was no easy task for Toynbee! Looking toward the east I saw an amazing

sight. The entire horizon was covered in an ominous, dark pall of haze! “My God, what’s

that, I exclaimed!” Toynbee laughed and said, “Oh, that’s Asia!” Having spent most of my

life in Asia I always think of that day as prophetic! I didn’t know then that my life’s work

would centre east of that pall!

Alex Tzonis, who was a young professor of architecture with me at the Graduate School of

Design, along with his brilliant life partner Liane Lefaivre, have continued to encourage and

teach me all at the same time. Their publication of my work, the Mahindra United World

College of India, in their recent book called Critical Regionalism, has been a source of

encouragement. At the risk of boring my readers I have searched over my past with fond

memories. I feel there is a lesson in this small review, which is that teachers challenge one,

fire one’s will to struggle for truth and become good friends too. Maxwell Fry founded the

modern movement in Britain in the late 1920’s. On each journey traveling back and forth

between America and India in the 1960’s and 1970’s, I always relaxed for several days at

Jane Drew and Maxwell Fry’s Gloucester Place townhouse. As Jane’s life partner, I fell under

Max’s influence. He and Jane, along with Le Corbusier, had designed Chandigarh, living in

India. We had much to discuss and share. Maxwell Fry was the man who offered Gropius half

his thriving practice so that the master could escape from Germany, getting out while he

was still alive! “Come and take half my practice, but for God’s sake get out!” Gropius was

instructed by all well wishers at the CIAM meeting in Venice. Without packing their bags they

just left for London, leaving the Bauhaus behind along with their precious art works and

personal effects! Maybe the Second World War was a great cauldron which molded giants

out of midgets. But the humane nature of these giants, were the distinguishing features

separating them from the midgets around them.

THE SEARCH FOR TRUTH

I suppose these friends, teachers and gurus, were actually examples and role models. Just

as the Olympic Torch is passed from one runner to the next and is kept burning forever,

through their humanity and brilliance, a spark of inspiration is passed on. Some people get

inspired to support other people watching a good mother, or a devoted nurse. They do

nurture others. What we may consider mundane becomes profound and it generates a

meaningful life style.

Against this scenario of inspiration and “natural teaching,” we have the present day

mockery of education. In Schools of Architecture we have people teaching who have never

seriously worked in a studio, or even built a building. Some have done esoteric Ph.D.s and in

America that seems to be the entry point qualification! Gone are the days when the teachers

were great builders and expansive thinkers. Expansive thinkers do not waste their time

getting Ph.D.s! People who get Ph.D.s are “pluggers” and survivors who are looking for a

secure job. They know if they go through the motions toward a doctoral degree, like a good

Xerox machine, their universities will vomit out their dream degrees. Every school of

architecture reaches a threshold point where there are more dilatants and esoterics than

real teachers. This mob of inexperienced fakers now makes the decisions. Political

correctness, replaces poetics! The consensus of the ignorant replaces the direction of the

wise! Just hard labor replaces insight and questioning. Writing a book, any book, raises one’s

value! We must never loose site of the fact that an architect is the master craftsman! She,

or he, is the inheritor of the Middle Ages guildsmen and the great sculptors of the

Renaissance. Ours is a profession whose roots lie in the master craftsmen-student

relationship, where even large canvases were labored over by Masters together with their

understudies. No more! It is with a great deal of nostalgia that I look back to my youth and

the kind of learning catalyzed even in isolated state universities, to which the present elite

colleges of architecture can not even aspire. This is because today the engine that

motivates the education of an architect is fees! The drivers of this engine are survivors!

They are people who are just waiting for their next promotion and salary increase. They will

jump jobs with any better offer! In India the situation is similar. We have people creating

new schools of architecture that inspire no one. There are no libraries, seasoned teachers, or

even proper studios. These educational industries produce graduates like Toyota produces

vehicles! We are mass producing hollow individuals who merely hold a certificate and who

can be registered. But they can not design, sing, and write poetry or nurture others!

INSPIRATION AND CREATION

Education today has no link with inspiration and creation. Creating architecture, music,

poetry or love, are all the media of inspiration. These tangible products of creation inspire

others. Some great wheel of motion begins to turn. The moment of inspiration is a moment

of transcendence; an instance of discovery and self realization all in one.

It is when human intellect and emotion combine and take flight in a euphoric world of

beauty and revelation. If there is a religion, it is a vehicle for such transcendence. For me

architecture is that religion. It is meditation, it is truth and it leads to spiritual moments of

enlightenment and revelation.

Still another lesson from The Natural House is that architecture is a language! Stone, wood,

bricks, clay tiles, brass, luminaries, glass, steel trusses, paving blocks, sanitary fittings are

all like the sounds which have to be transformed into the auditable words of a language! The

language of architecture is composed of elements of “support,” of “span,” and of

“enclosure.”

In the Alliance Francase we evolved a very clear system of “support,” employing fourteen

inch brick bearing walls, insulating the interiors form the heat of Ahmedabad. We used a

small two feet, six inches square grid as a module to make square windows, or larger

multiples to make larger square doors, or medium multiples to place exposed concrete

beams five feet on centre, which also defined a large square volumes below. This became a

simple statement of “span.” These same “words” were further used to create north facing

skylights on the northern façade and to lift skylights up, over the roof, bringing indirect light

into the spaces. A square grid on the floor, in the ceiling and on the walls, using the human

scale module, ordered the entire ensemble into a system of spatial cubes and graphic

squares. Giving poetry and playfulness to the language are the idiosyncratic “motifs” we

introduced. In the Alliance Francaise we set a tall column in the centre of the main space.

This was so contrived that when a person moves in the space, they can see the walls behind

the column move! This simple visual device makes the space “move,” and makes

architecture experiential! Water spouts became motifs to add accent to the over all

structure. Square, modular window shade boxes protected small vistas from glare. A small

balcony into the main space was left floating by pulling the supporting column off to the

side! These became the signature parts and components which evolved through the design

process into a language. All of these emotive acts must be realized through built form, or as

parts of materiality. Brick, exposed concrete, mild steel frames for square fenestration and

glass were all the material vehicles to reach emotive experiences. Like written poetry, which

uses printed words to reach emotions, we use “built words,” so that those who experience

the spaces we create step out of the material world and into one of lyrical experiences. In

this sense, buildings are the material poems that architects fabricate. Architecture is an

experience of a place and not the built form! Construction is merely a vehicle for us to pick

up people and move them through experiences into milieus of new experiences. In this

respect there is a commonality between stage set design and the design of places.

Architects confabulate material things, to make non-material experiences happen in their

built compositions. These “experiences” are often related to the visual and psychological

impacts of moving through space. They can also be the fall of light through space and onto

textured surfaces. It may be the way the first morning sunlight slowly falls from a skylight

drifting across a rugged stone wall. It is not the wall, or the light which is architecture. It is

the experience of phenomena that is the architecture. It is the realization of the universe

turning; it is the morning revealing yet a new day in our existence; it is the anticipation of

what the new day may bring and our realization that we exist! We confabulate experiences

through the medium of building fabrics. Again, these fabrics are woven from a language!

Much of what is transcendental; much of what is experiential; is created through putting

together planned events, as people move through and experience space. In this sense

architecture is carefully contrived. We “set people up” through ground textures which are

rough on the outside, but become smooth on the inside; through a dimmed entrance

opening into a well lit main space. We welcome a visitor first with paving texture, then hold

him by a wall, then cover him in a porch and finally embrace him in a low ceiling entrance

foyer. Then the space “explodes!” Just by raising the ceiling we can make him feel WOW!

People who manipulate emotions and feelings better than we do are song writers and those

who sing them. In a romantic composition we are enticed into a mood by a light melody; a

silent beat slowly becomes more auditable, and we start to tap our foot without even

knowing what we are doing. A soulful voice begins to tell a story of sorrow, and we

empathize with the human condition. Poetic lyrics lights the allure of love and our emotions

swell! Within a few moments, the human mind, worried about all of the little irritations of

life, leaves the day to day banality of existence, and is lifted up into an illusory ambiance of

profound emotions. This is transcendence! Feelings of compassion and beauty are created!

How do architects achieve this? What are the visual and graphic mechanisms at our

disposal? How can we manipulate peoples’ feelings, moods and temperaments? Are there

modalities of color, texture and light which we can employ? Can we use scale and proportion

to inject a stimulus and get a predictable response? What is the impact of a shape or a

form? Do they draw people in, make them step aside, focus their attention in a direction,

and what do they discover when they change their glance to the focal point we have enticed

them to? Architects are masters of seduction, enticement, transformation and the

transcendence of the human spirit! How is this achieved? This is the search I call

architecture.

ASIA AND THE WEST

People often ask me how my design approach was affected by the diversity of the Asian

environment and how this milieu differs from the western context I grew up in? With the

exponential expansion of the media, with globalization at our doorstep and with cultural

imperialism a reality, we all have to all consider such a question. What has happened to me

over the past four decades may be a movie played backwards in the life of young Asian

architects! So this is a good and difficult question.

When I left America in 1971 the great masters still influenced young architects. Kahn, Sert,

Van Eyke, Sterling and so many others were still active and we could meet with them and

discuss ideas. We believed in “credos,” value systems and principles. We were taught that

design grew out of the rational application of these! In America all of that changed by the

early 1980s. Individualism and publicity were what began to drive designers. By that time

the great masters had passed away. In India we were isolated from the mass media, the

magazine articles from the West, and from all of the hype! We more or less continued to

follow what we had always believed in. The “new economy,” the “new urbanism,” the “stab

them in the back and get rich culture of management,” had not reached us! It is like there

was a fork in the road and we never saw the divergent one and kept right on going!

But the Indian context had its own logic too! First of all the huge choice of materials

available in the States and Europe was not available here. Our techniques and methods

were very simple. This allowed us to concentrate on light, spaces and forms. After mastering

that we could get carried away by technology. The museum in Paris by Piano and Rogers

brought the west back in touch with technology. This did not “grab me” until much later

when I was ready to deal with it on my own terms. Unlike the villages of Greece and our

work in India, technology was becoming a “look at me,” gymnastics platform for stunts. An

entire school of charlatans emerged, taking technology off into the world of Disney Land!

Thus, the new hype of technology and also the importance of expression of mechanical

equipment, did not reach us in India, until years after it had started to mold design in the

west. In retrospect, we were actually working in the same ‘technology guided’ mould of

architecture, but we did not realize it, simply due to our limited choices. The design process

remained a very simple visual one, allowing for innocence. I see a correlation between our

simple stone and brick bearing walls and the work of Foster, Piano and to a lesser extent

Rogers. In the case of Rogers, technology is no longer a means, it has become the end! Our

isolation, gave us the “distance” to keep this new tool in its place. Though we do see “space

frames” floating around just for the sake of floating around and with no common sense or

purpose!

Fortunately, I missed out on Post Modernism! Since even those who contrived it never

understood it really, they missed out too! I will analyze this in a later part of this book, but

my contention is that small elite in America and in Britain fabricated Post Modernist

Architecture so that a tiny group of critics would have something new to write about and a

small group of their designer friends could be written about. Post Modernism in architecture

and the New Urbanism in planning are kind of conspiracies! The New Urbanism is neither

new, nor very much related to urbanism. The new economy had less to do with economics

than “fixing” the prices of IT shares and making quick money trading in a mirage. These

trends had a lot to do with the “get rich quick” and “get famous quick” culture of the West,

which is still in vogue. Attention grabbing, fashion driven packaging is what I missed!

India allowed me to find myself and work in my own contextual world. I could continue my

search without the distraction of all the hoop-la and hollering! As an aside, many Indian

motifs influenced me: Khund-like steps; ottas, sitting walls, niches in walls for statues, and

the placement of lights on small projections….so many unique Indian details. These began to

enter my work as regional motifs. The Indian climate also allowed the kind of opening out

into nature that I loved, and bringing the out-of-doors indoors! This is so evident my Centre

for Development Studies and Activities, in the United World College and others. In the YMCA

International Retreat structures are literally “in the ground.” This could only happen in India.

In the west structures were becoming hermetically sealed, centrally air conditioned boxes!

These “boxes” were only to be cleverly decorated. A global architecture was emerging with

no roots in climate, history, context, or landscape. In the United World College the angular

walls and roof slants are all drawn from the mountain forms in the distance. In the west a

building would use glass walls in the hot sun of Miami, or in the dark, freezing cold of New

York City. If Greek columns were this year’s fad, they would pop up like mushrooms in LA, in

Bangkok and in Hamburg! This is Globalism at its worst. In India we could follow what Liane

Lefaivre calls Critical Regionalism. We could deal with the issues of people moving

through space; we could deal with the tactile interaction of people with materials; we could

make scale changes out of stone and brick and help people to experience them.

TY DESIGN


* * * * *

Anyone who designs chairs will likely design tables. By designing the interiors of rooms,

architects are creating houses, and house creation is the making of the city. City design is

therefore a collective, as opposed to an individual creative act. While there are many urban

design precedents, mainly in the form of public squares and street facades in Europe, these

tend to project the misleading idea that cities are the fabrications of individuals. Cities, the

objects that make up cities and the structure of urban form, are in fact processes, and not

objects! They reflect the political economy of the place and the social structure of the

inhabitants. There is an inherent conflict between the regime of planning and the regime of

land markets, yet ironically the more planned cities are the more productive and profitable

ones! Population explosion, technological transformation, and economic concentration

tendencies have made cities more complex than ever before.

Utopians, town planners, land developers and bureaucrats have historically all tried to

create comprehensive, fixed urban plans, in which everything is predicted and estimated

and finally expressed in a comprehensive plan, which shows roads, densities, land uses, and

various development zones. I propose that comprehensive land use planning, as practiced

today, operates on the untenable presumption of human predictability.

The alternative is to identify the main structural elements of cities and to focus on their

design and management, leaving as many parts and elements alone to be self-generating. I

would call this alternative approach Ad Hoc Incrementalism wherein one creates a skeleton,

or a framework, within which various individual acts are facilitated and can happen almost

independently of one another. Instead of happening according to a preconceived schedule

and configuration, they will happen incrementally and according to the user’s needs and

capabilities. Instead of everything being planned by a central body, they will happen in an

ad hoc manner, driven by diverse needs and initiatives. Cities are not made, they happen!

A city designer’s role is to facilitate and enhance this kind of freedom to build, which all

pluralistic societies require. Such facilitation emerges with a clear understanding of which

decisions have to be collective ones and which should be individually made. The necessary

precursors for individuals, households and communities to start making their ad hoc

decisions should be set in place through consensus and participation. These collective

decisions include the demarcation of roads and transport systems; agreement on what are

conforming and non-conforming activities; understanding what an eco-system is and

agreeing on its protection through open spaces and conservation; demarcating plots and

creating a cadastral system; identifying public assets from nature, heritage, recreational

sites, views, etc., and setting out how to protect these. Such a consensus is reached after

the inhabitants agree on acceptable principles of urbanism, which they can use as

benchmarks during participatory discussions and decisions.

Over the years we have rejected the concept of “land use planning,” which promotes mono-

functional Central Business Districts that die at night and on weekends; bedroom residential

zones, which have no life in the daytime; or institutional zones which generate their own

stale monotony; and, machine scale arteries which surround and connect these sprawled out

zones, killing human scale and interaction. On the contrary, various kinds of compatible,

mixed uses must be encouraged to co-exist in vibrant neighborhoods and urban villages,

through the design of what we call “precincts.”

Urban planning has always had an elite bias, from the Garden Cities Movement, through the

present New Urbanism movement in America. The lower middle-class and “minimum wage”

groups, who make up the vast majority of urban populations, are pushed out of these

planned areas due to the costly large plots; unmanageable spread out infrastructure;

excessive building codes and bye-laws, making self help cities illegal and corporate housing

products out of financial reach. These draconian systems stifle incremental, self managed

construction. They stifle variety by impaling a corporate uniform style over acres of space.

The New Urbanism promotes mediocre, sub-urban, spread out, expensive, stifling, sprawl

with no economic base for job creation. This is neither NEW, nor is it URBAN! “Urban” means

dense, walkable, diverse, facilitating, job creating city fabric, which is vibrant and

complicated. Urban places have youth, immigrants, migrants, the rich and the poor! It

means a mix of activities, income groups and building types. The New Urbanism is not

urbane, it is Disneyland! The ‘show pieces’ of this movement are the elite never-never

worlds of Sea Side, Winslow and Celebration, all cities for wealthy, Anglo-Saxon, older people

whose greatest desire in life is to get away from cities, and the diverse populations they find

threatening! There are no institutions, employment generators, entertainment facilities and

entry is secured against “the dangerous outsiders!” This fabricated monotony reflects more

the new economy, where everything is bought as an investment to be sold at a higher price,

later on. There is nothing new, or urban.

In architecture, urban design and city planning one must be against something to be for

something! Things are not going wrong due to benign neglect, but due to carefully crafted

public policy! These social, economic, urban development and administrative policies

generate unaffordable, ugly, stifling and unmanageable urban fabrics. This happens because

the regime of land holding, land transfer and land use is controlled by anti-social vested

interests that see urban systems as mere short term investments to make quick money off

of an expanding system. These “developers” have no social qualms, no long term

perspectives, and no idea how cities work to make good life closer to more and more

people! My urban planning projects in Sri Lanka, India and Bhutan are all counterblasts to

the “get rich quick” New Economy and New Urbanism.

TWO CITIES: A FAILURE AND A SUCCESS

City Design and Architecture are both collective acts. They involve the designers, technical

consultants, contractors, inhabitants and the body politic in which they are conceived. One

can do a good plan and it will never materialize, or one can prepare a mediocre plan that is

a grand success. Below I present two good plans which have different stories.

From many endeavors to design urban environments, I would like to share our work in

Jaffna, Sri Lanka, and in Thane, a part of Greater Mumbai, in India. Both exercises employed

similar “planning processes” and goals. One plan came too late and failed to serve its

inhabitants, and the other came too early, and was picked out of the dust years later, and

very successfully implemented.

Cynicism over Optimism: Jaffna

The Jaffna Plan was part of Sri Lanka’s national strategy for reform and resurgence in the

late 1970’s. Jayewardene, the President, had a vision to deregulate the economy; open the

doors to global investors and encourage private initiative; decentralize powers and spread

economic investment to regional centers, creating regional balance within the country’s

diverse ethnic areas. To spread the good life beyond the capital city of Colombo, the

government selected seven cities as focal growth and service centers for which I was

selected as the Principle Advisor. The programme was funded by the United Nations.

Social and economic transformation always has beneficiaries and losers! Often small elites

in the military, monopoly industries and in the government loose their privileges and

unearned increments from development, when a system moves from regulatory government

ownership and control, to a more libertarian and participatory system. Without oppressing

the old elite, it is often fatal to liberate the people! While the optimists were planning for a

new, vibrant nation, the vested interests were becoming cynical about their future and were

scheming for own their entrenchment! What is the use of a military where there is ethnic

harmony and no aggressive neighbors? What is the use of a bureaucracy where there are no

permits and regulations? What happens to protected monopolies if the doors are opened to

competition? Fearing their eminent demise, these powerful vested interests prepared their

schemes to maintain the past, while we prepared out plans for the future!

First, we analyzed thee Existing Scenario. We analyzed the state of roads and public

transport; we studied the adequacy of potable water supply and sewerage disposal systems;

we documented electricity networks and street lights; we surveyed the schools and health

services facilities; we listed the public assets, open space system and unique character of

the city; we studied existing land uses, shelter patterns and the economic base; we looked

at the ancient water reservoirs, and linking channels, storm drainage patterns and solid

waste disposal systems. Second, we identified the gaps in the existing systems, the lacunae

where basic services did not even exist and we projected the population growth to see how

these stresses in the urban systems would increase over time? Third, with the existing

scenario and the visions of inhabitants’ gleaned from public meetings, we generated plan

options for the future. Forth, these were evaluated and an appropriate action plan selected.

Then, we created a “shelf of schemes,” including project estimates, from which to choose

incrementally in the future, which would resolve stresses in different sectors. These schemes

included the up-gradation of existing slums, providing essential services; and, laying out site

and services for new self-built shelters on small, affordable plots. This allowed for disjointed,

incremental and ad hoc decision making, and private sector development in the future,

around a structure plan of roads, trunk infrastructure, open spaces and activity precincts

decided upon by the local citizens. Heritage sites, including an old Portuguese “star fort,”

temples and colonial structures became focal points around which open spaces were

planned. Finally, a new Urban Design for the Town Centre was prepared.

Just as the optimists’ plan was unfolding, the cynics struck! First, the army called a curfew

and burned down the public library, full of Tamil literature and English language reference

materials. While outraging the Jaffna youth, for whom the library was a source of hope in

future careers, Colombo newspapers reported, “Jaffna youth burn library in riots, while army

declares curfew in city!” Then during another curfew the army burned the new town centre

shopping center, where the youth gathered and eyed new music, fashions, gadgets and fast

food shops, recently flooding Sri Lanka markets along with liberalization! A touch with the

outside world was broken in a night of state arson! The strategy continued with the bombing

of the local Member of Parliament’s house and other acts of state terrorism! This strategy

fulfilled two objectives of the cynics: First, it projected an image of the Jaffna Tamils as

dangerous, rebellious people from whom the Singhalese South needed protection by the

army; and second, it created a dangerous, terrorist movement in the Jaffna peninsula,

requiring the army to be armed and mobilized to “protect the nation.” The continued “riots”

in Jaffna, generated fear of Tamils in the capital city in Colombo, where the Tamils had

significant economic investments and, as a more highly educated minority, they held

important positions and owned fashionable homes and small businesses. These all went up

in flames in the state executed massive riots, where Tamil properties were marked by

saboteurs, and burned by mobs, while the police and army stood by doing nothing.

Jayewardene’s dreams when up in flames during a few fateful days of rioting and the Tamil

Liberation Front was created, who have ruled the Jaffna peninsula ever since. On the positive

side our plans for Galle, Matara, Hambantota, Kolitara and Ratnapura were all implemented

with various degrees of success, becoming models for later urban development in Southern

Sri Lanka. I present this case to emphasize that city design is part of a much larger social-

political fabric. Each design, plan or programme is merely an experiment, which may

augment either the forces of evil or of good, or my just fade away into history, perhaps to be

pulled up again from a dusty old shelf, bringing optimism back to life!

Optimism over Cynicism

Two years after the Colombo genocide, I received a phone call from Bombay, requesting

that I apply for short-listing to prepare a plan for the rapidly growing city of Thane in the

Greater Bombay (now Mumbai) Metropolitan Region. This ancient port town, with a

Portuguese “star fort” from the same era as Jaffna’s, had one of the first privately developed

industrial estates in India, the first railway station linking the town with Victoria Station in

Bombay in 1853, and a system of irrigation and water storage tanks, also reminiscent of

Jaffna. Unlike Jaffna, the town shared a border with booming Bombay, was rapidly growing

with a population of half a million, estimated to grow past a million within twenty years. In

addition to its own industries, it was becoming a middle class dormitory suburb of Bombay,

connected by the rail line and the Eastern Expressway.

The city was deteriorating faster than it was populating! The natural storm drainage system

had been built over leading to monsoon floods and the ancient water tanks were filled with

solid waste. The roads were too narrow and unpaved, planned for a town a tenth the size.

There were no fly-overs or underpasses at rail crossings. The water system was inadequate

for the population, and the slums-housing forty-five percent of the population-had not even

the minimal basic services. Sixty percent of the dwelling units had no sewerage connection!

The city was a public health engineering nightmare, water born diseases were rampant, and

the old parks, creek side and tanks were used as refuge dumps! If there were toilets in

schools, health centers, and hospitals the sanitary fittings were all broken and the drains

clogged up. Playgrounds and recreational spaces were encroached upon, dumped upon and

defecated upon! The city’s annual budget barely paid the salaries! We had a crisis on our

hands!

Seeing that the situation called for more than physical planning, we gathered social workers

to document conditions in slums, amenities and facilities. We created a consortium between

ourselves, a financial consulting firm to re-organize the tax system and streamline resources

mobilization, expenditure and accounting. We took on a large professional firm of public

health engineers to prepare detailed designs for immediate amelioration of drainage, trunk

water supply and sewerage management. Following a planning method similar to that in

Jaffna, we produced a Development Plan which focused on the alleviation of the severe

stresses that plagued the city. This was supplemented by a Perspective Plan articulating

how the city’s future population would be housed, serviced and transported. A financial and

administrative analysis of the municipal corporation resulted in a financial plan of action

which made the entity look more like a global business house than an antiquated local body.

Public health engineering was looked at from the “end users” viewpoint, rather than from

the gross trunk supply into the city of a gross amount of water going nowhere. The

development management system was re-designed to allow small house builders to

construct with no sanctions; medium sized projects to be valorized by professional architects

and engineers, leaving the city engineers more time to focus on places of mass gathering,

multi-storied structures and major engineering projects. Seismic and fire codes were

revamped to address the ground realities.

An “urban first aid” action plan was put into motion to clean out the tanks and clean off the

public open spaces, providing sanitary facilities to public buildings. A slum improvement

scheme was articulated, wherein paved foot paths, street lights, public bathing areas and

toilets for males and females were created, and storm water drains were emplaced. A traffic

management plan, along with a street lighting scheme, was completed. This “plan” was

more a disaster management programme than anything else.

While the “urban first aid” was carried out, the long term development lay in the dusty

cupboards! But like the Lok Nest Monster hibernating under water, the plan awaited its day

to raise its head. That day came almost a decade later, when a dynamic civil servant cleared

out the cabinets and found a ready made recipe for reconstructing his city. Within three

years the city of Thane was transformed with new roads, underpasses and overpasses, a

functioning storm drainage system, foot paths, modern sewerage and solid waste collection

system and potable drinking water going down to the end users! Thane’s resurrection

became a national model and a living proof that changes for the better are possible! Shortly

thereafter we applied the same rationale in the preparing the nearby Kalyan Development

Plan.

THE GOOD AND THE TRUTH:

Some Conclusions

The ancient Greeks, who I greatly admire, were able to give their due to both the study of

Aesthetics and Ethics. Aesthetics was focused on pleasure, while Ethics focused on morals.


“middle path.” Pleasure included anything which pleased the senses, ranging from taste,




no issues of “right” or “wrong, but there are issues of balance, harmony and the Golden

Mean. The issue is how harmoniously things are done. Pleasure is a primary goal in life

which I call THE GOOD! La Dolce Vita, or the sweet life is something any highly evolved

person has tried to perfect through education, considered practice, studying and friendship.

Any civilized person will avoid being directed by passion or lust, but will seek articulate and


cooking good food, drinking good wine and seducing paramours are all part of the GOOD

LIFE. To miss any of these is to miss a slice of life! Architecture and City Design are the

venues of THE GOOD, are the stage sets for pleasure, and are generic to the GOOD LIFE!

If a person can not experience the GOOD, they have no reason to be concerned with what is

BAD, the right or the wrong! Ethics need not concern them. Without the operation of the





intelligent principles through which pleasure is accessible to all! City Design and

Architecture are both vehicles of Aesthetics and of Ethics. City Design is a social and

economic vehicle to bring the GOOD to more and to more people, equitably, justly and

liberally. It is a form of pleasure and is guided by ethics!

While espousing beliefs in Ethics, our institutions (schools, religions, governments, and

families) try to control and suppress Aesthetics. Governments debate what people should





equality, while suppressing the individual’s rights to THE GOOD LIFE. Seeking the truth,

without knowing the GOOD, is a dangerous journey! Architecture and City Design are all

about that journey. Architecture and City Design are embodiments of both Aesthetics and

Ethics. In my view, we as designers must see Aesthetics as our own internal reflection of

some generic or cosmic order, which is natural and true! We must see ethics, not as

incursions into people’s personal lives, but as questions to be answered such as,

*. Is it right to consume non-renewable resources at the cost of other living creatures, or of

future generations?

*. Is it right to live in opulence, while other people are starving and lack basic services?

*. Is it right to be dishonest for an honest cause?

*. If we seek happiness, is it merely for ourselves, or for all humanity?

*. If we create beautiful things, is it for our personal pleasure, the pleasure of a few patrons,


These are the kinds of ethical questions I would like all designers planners and architects to

contemplate.

This brings me full circle back to seeking the truth, knowing who we are and Being instead of

Seeming! Ethics has to start within as an inner search and not from without. As the



both modulates personal power and strength. But without THE GOOD all of this wisdom, love


Bramante, proposed:

“It is better to seek the GOOD, than to know the TRUTH!”

With that slightly confusing quote, I will leave this essay, hoping it breads thought within

those who read it.

Ancient Wisdom : Future Scenarios

Some Thoughts on Pune


* * * * *

Pune City evolved from a riverside village; to a market town; to the capital of the Maratha Empire; to a colonial cantonment town; and

gradually over the late Twentieth Century into a thriving industrial metropolis and intellectual centre.

Like all cities, Pune’s urban physical form has expressed the socio-economic transformation. Each period of history used public policy to reflect

the dominate political economy, and also to mould the city within it! While it is believed that the original settlement containing a bazaar near

the present Kasba Peth developed its lanes around footpaths leading to temples on the river, later patterns were planned and directed! During

the rule of the Marathas a rationale for urban planning and urban development evolved, which is unequaled since. Subsequently, British land

use planning visualized the city in terms of exclusive functional components and drew a line between the alien life styles of various

cantonments and the “native city.” Town planning measures toward the end of the colonial period promoted land pooling and redistribution

through public-private partnerships, but the statutory mechanisms ensured that each Town Planning Scheme ended in the courts with the

average scheme taking seventeen years from inception to realization. It has been many decades since any new scheme has been ventured.

Present Scenario

What is now called a “Development Plan” is no plan at all. It is merely an abstract land use plan, sprinkled with rather arbitrary reservations on

private land where public amenities and open areas are to mysteriously emerge. The chances are for an average citizen buying land, using the

services of so called real estate agents that they will end up buying a parcel without adequate land records to prove the vendor’s ownership!

Often it is impossible to obtain a public demarcation of the property, because the original “layout” was surveyed from a larger area, whose

individual plot owners are unknown or unwilling, to cooperate by paying their share of the demarcation costs. The so called Gunthewadi Act,

working like some kind of “loan mela,” attempted to regularize all the illegal plotting, inept road layouts and bogus schemes, through a

sweeping statutory mechanism, which throws on the innocent land buyers the costs of poor public management and daring cheating! In such

plots roads may be widened into the owners’ land with no compensation at any time. The ill-conceived layouts having no open spaces, public

amenities or adequate roads compensate the public by having their allowable built-up areas reduced to 0.75 percent, as if that will make the

future city work! The colonial and post-Independence statutory mechanisms and administrative modalities have proven incapable of

addressing the challenge of the modern city. Whatever mechanisms do work, such as getting demarcation, being enrolled into the city tax

records, clearing plans and obtaining utilities connections involve open bribing of public officials. Citizens have become victims of their public

servants!

A Well Tempered and Articulated Policy Tool

While the system appears to be one of chaos, it is in fact one very suitable to the builders, unscrupulous land developers, unqualified real

estate touts and public officials who all realize unearned increments from plying this system to their personal advantage. I say this is a

conceived public policy evolved through design to benefit the few at the cost of the many! I say this is a well considered and tempered system

of management designed to meet the needs of land developers and cooperative public servants. This is an articulated policy tool which has

served the needs of a few who have worked it to their own aggrandizement and wealth!

City Engineers and City Commissioners like to cite the scarcity of water, the paucity of revenue and the shortage of electricity, when in fact

the real scarcity is of true leadership and vision; the only paucity is in sound urban management and the only scarcity is of good practices.

While Pune’s leading politicians have spent much of the past two decades amassing personal wealth and fighting over fiefdoms, the

administration has been dilly-dallying over one plan after the other; one riverfront scheme and then another; and get headlines reviewing

various high level proposals for urban transport and water supply. The Development Plan of Pune has been a mere two decades behind

schedule! During that same period Hyderabad, Ahmedabad, Thane and Surat, to name a few, have transformed into viable urban settings and

efficient economic engines!

This is a city where elected policy makers dabble in the administration’s job of implementation; and the administrators are completely

absorbed in policy formulation, which is the job of elected city fathers (and mothers)! The city, its citizens and the physical environment are all

left to grow like septic cultures in a refuge heap! Meanwhile this great city’s potential is dragged down by power cuts, faulty phone lines,

internet speeds as slow as 17.2 kbps and cell phone systems which are overloaded. Thus, the public sector in Pune has no monopoly over the

incompetent planning and management of economic infrastructure. Unlike nearby growth centers, Puneites are inured to a life of harassment,

congestion, pollution and faulty infrastructure.

There are numerous sovereign and spatially distinct local authorities operating within the Pune Metropolitan Region. These include the Pune

and Pimpri-Chinchwad Municipal Corporations; the towns of towns of Dehu, Alandi and Talegaon; fringe settlements like Khadakwasala and

Hadapsar; and the cantonments of Kirkee, Pune, Dehu Road and Lohegaon. While some of the fringe villages have been amalgamated into the

city, they continue to share the dual phenomena of rapid, patchy growth with tremendous infrastructure gaps! With multiple urban

administrations co-inhabiting the same urban economic space, there is a myriad of planning, development planning, proposal clearing and

implementation employed by the many local authorities. There is no cohesive agreement amongst the local administrators even on where to

put the refuse generated within the urban region and how to recycle it! The Pune City Engineer announced at one point that five hundred

cleared plans would be withdrawn! The Standing Committee wants to appoint new urban designers to redesign the river area development

plan that the Municipal Corporation awarded to the River Group of architects a few years ago. The so called “Development Plan” was on

display for at least the third time since it was due in 1987, and once again the citizens of the city are asked to make fools of themselves by

attending endless hearings, where their voices go unheard! There are cases in the new plan where open markets are proposed on an

amenities plot where a sanctioned retreat for the elderly already is built! We hear that a private expert’s Group has made a presentation to

the City Commissioner for a proposed Transport Plan for the city! We hear that a New York City Management firm will transform itself into the

garb of professional urban planners and prepare the future vision for the blind! There is no coherent urban transport plan; no traffic

management plan; and no mass transport strategy! Meanwhile, the local authorities of the urban region continue to dump sewerage and

refuge into the rivers, polluting the natural aquifer system. Yes, there is a shortage of water!

Ancient Wisdom

Perhaps the seeds of the distant future lie in components from the ancient past? During the Maratha era, as the role of Pune expanded, new

peths were added. These were clearly demarcated neighborhoods assigned to caretakers, or Shet Mahajans, in the form of conditional land

grants. Each Shet Mahajan was required, through a covenant, to develop his trusteeship within a specific time-frame and with specific public

amenities. There were roads laid out on rectilinear grids, storm water drains, public baths, plots for temples and public gardens. There were

areas for artisans and for commerce. All of this was supported by an underground water supply system coming in from Katraj! The Shet

Mahajan could pool land, readjust land and redistribute land through a system of pricing and he could charge development fees from the

users. He could settle claims and collect taxes on commerce within his jurisdiction. He knew all of his stake holders by name and the peth’s

development was a self-financing, joint venture. In 1637 Pune included the four peths of Kasba, Shaniwar, Raviwar and Somwar. In 1663

Mangalwar Peth was added and Budwar Peth was added in 1703. By the time Shukrawar Peth was added in 1734, the population of the seven

peths was about 25,000 persons. Some of the peths had water tanks, gymnasia and shrines for which they are well-known even today. During

the early Maratha period the availability of dry, flat land along the north-south trade route, and access to Kasba Peth encouraged the

establishment of further settlements to accommodate military agencies. Barracks, stables and storage facilities for the army were located in

Shukrawar Peth. The new areas of Ganesh Peth, Ganj Peth and Guruwar Peth accommodated traders and craftsmen. Nyahal Peth was the only

new ward to develop in the eastern area. These peths, which developed through public-private partnerships, provide a viable and logical urban

pattern, enabling access to urban services, amenities and public movement even now. Though Pune was ransacked by the Nizams, in 1771, by

1776 it has gained a population of about 75,000 people. Philadelphia in America that year had the same population and Philadelphia was then

the second largest city in the British Empire, next to London.

The so called innovation by the British of “town planning schemes,” is in many aspects a weaker version of the Shet Mahajan system. While

the Town Planning Scheme Act of 1937 provided a statutory framework, it lacked the innovation and leadership inherent in the Shet Mahajan.

Nevertheless, there is wisdom in the Town Planning Schemes also and states like Gujarat have taken the lead in reforming the potential

mechanism, such that it abets land owners to transform their raw land into well planned neighborhoods. Since the Town Planning Scheme of

Bhamburda many decades ago, our public officials have virtually slept on this urban development mechanism, which engages the land owners

to restructure their land, without any of them becoming the victims of land reservations that is an inherent and unfair aspect of the

Development Plans. Magapatha, in eastern Pune, proves that the private sector can employ good urban planning, through the professional

assistance of qualified architects and urban designers. Here is an excellent example of urban planning with modern sanitation, well laid out

roads, open spaces, amenities and services. Surely this is a model for Pune’s future, employing the aspects of the Shet Mahajan’s private

sector wisdom for economic viability, along with the clear understanding that good planning is good business! Just as the Marathas provided

reservoirs and aqueducts, Pune city has a long standing, unrealized plan prepared by the Kirloskar Consultants over a decade ago, which if

fully implemented would transform the urban region.

Do our city fathers need to go to Ahmedabad to learn what private electric supply can do? Do they need to go to Hyderabad to learn what a

road is and what sidewalks are? Need they travel to New York and Tokyo to learn what clean, fast and comfortable mass transit is when it is

there to see in Kolkata and now in New Delhi?

Future Scenarios

What is clearly needed in the Pune Metropolitan Region is a professional urban development authority. This entity would remove the

responsibility for urban planning, urban design, and traffic management from the local urban authorities. It would take up mass transport

planning, land pooling schemes, river management, major water and sewerage management schemes, road and refuse infrastructure

planning. It would take the city’s future out of the inept hands of overburdened local authorities. It would create “authority,” with limited

political interference and dabbling. It would bring together a group of professional urban planners, urban designers, transport and

infrastructure planners, along with the local architectural profession, to look after the growth and the health of this fair city. The local

authorities would be relieved of development activities and left to focus on the honest and competent management of urban infrastructure

and services.

Thus using a professionally managed regional urban development authority, the Pune Metropolitan Region can build on private-public

partnership models that have been successfully implemented within our context, rather than seek “foreign visions,” more management

consultant’s reports, and more revised development plans! We have underutilized young urban planners and designers from Pune, who have

returned to the city waiting in vain to make a contribution. Let us use them!

What is now lacking is leadership from the top; vision from the top; and a voting public that puts practical problem solving above irrelevant,

emotional controversies!

Such a vision must include a systems way of seeing urban infrastructure; “inclusive planning”, which caters to the urban poor who make our

system work and to the middle class managers who guide it; environmental management that protects the eco-system, including the supply

of potable water and the treatment of wastes and sewerage; economic infrastructure such as electricity, roads, airport, industrial water

sources and special economic zones in the urban region to promote new starts in Greenfield sectors.

Most important to this great city is the people who inhabit it. If they are not assured comfortable and safe neighborhoods with sidewalks, cycle

paths, public gardens and pedestrian ways, they will look elsewhere for their dream on this earth. Within these neighborhoods a variety of

housing needs accommodating various “abilities-to-pay” must be catered to. These would all be parts of the brief we would hand over to our

new Pune Metropolitan Development Authority.

EVIDENCES


* * * * *

A CHILDHOOD

As a child I spent my days drifting in confusion. Nothing particularly inspired me, nor did my studies, or my teachers, enthuse me to seek

knowledge. My parents were of the opinion that by putting me in a school I would be educated! They made half-hearted attempts to introduce

me to the Christian church, believing that religion and spiritualism were one and the same. School, church, gymnasia, auditoria, the playing

fields and most of what transpired within them seemed a dull cloud hovering over me with no respite.

What did move me were the autumn trees in yellows, reds and oranges, and their winter nude, black fingers reaching for the sky, with the

fresh white snows of winter covering the fields. Then the black fingers frosted with white powder snow, with the warm sun momentarily

melting them to water, turning the stick trees to huge, gleaming, crystal candelabras of ice-glass glittering in the sun. The setting on of spring,

with the last snows of early April; the first flowers spurting through the soft white carpets, turning to the green carpets of nature claiming the

earth as its own. The grey, angry skies of winter, breaking loose to the pink and violet morning heavens of spring….these were the things

which grabbed at me and drew my attention! Dulled by my school hours, I was awed by small discoveries on my walks to and from my school.

My personal life was composed of all things natural and my friends were the chipmunks, squirrels in the trees and the rabbits in the forests.

My grades were poor and my parents sent me for counseling!

Post-war America in the early 1950’s; the social and economic milieu of a nation starved by decades of depression and war; the institutional

ambiance left over from decades of neglect; all reflected themselves in the soulless, cold institutional architecture where I studied, lived and

played. The regimented lessons, competitive sports, the organized Boy Scouts, and the moralistic church all imparted biases, prejudices and a

judgmental bent of mind! These institutions of opportunity, were actually the machines of conformity, all designed to churn out little copies of

one another, entrapping the new citizens in molds of pretended individualism. We all wore Levis, “T-shirts,” tennis shoes and white socks.

Even our underwear was a choice between Fruit of the Loom for slacks, or a Bike jock under jeans! When pink shirts, little pink suede belts,

black pants and pink suede shoes were “in,” we all felt very different, all wearing the same uniforms! And even Elvis Presley crooned, “Don’t

step on my pink suede shoes!” How different we all thought we were, wearing the same uniforms and listening to the same music.

As a youth, I once boarded the “Tube” in London to Wimbledon, immediately focusing on three very individualistic looking skin heads, with

black unkempt jeans, black “T-shirts” and black leather jackets. Just over from the States they looked weird and unusual! With their shaven

heads and casual, sloppy black attire, these boys seemed very idiosyncratic and individualistic! At the next stop five more boys dressed in

exactly the same attire boarded the Tube, then at the next stop ten more, and finally the entire train was packed by these uniformed clones,

all packaged and decorated to be individuals. At Wimbledon thousands of these robots were vomited out onto the platform, courtesy the

London Metropolitan Transport Authority! In my childhood one needed a uniform, even to be an individual! Later my teacher John Kenneth

Galbraith described our society as the “military-industrial complex,” and explained how a vast “free enterprise” was controlled and directed

toward the construction of a powerful nation state vectored to rule the world. My boyhood friends were becoming narrow minded, ethnocentric

and sour hearted souls, molded to work in factories, in banks, in schools, in hospitals and ready to die for mother, country and apple pie in

foreign lands!

Thus, my childhood was composed of two very different parts, each giving meaning and distinctness to the other. Like the Yin and the Yang, a

white and a black force intertwined within me, chasing after one another. The black made the white more pure and beautiful, and the white

made the black more foreboding and ominous! I suppose, even today there seems to be a contradiction in me. On the one side there is my

love of beauty and pleasure, my search for volume, space and form all defined in light. On the other side there is my concern with poverty,

inequality and environmental deterioration. I am often asked how one balances, or even justifies, these two apparently variant natures?

A MAGIC GIFT

One Christmas morning, the myth of Santa Claus, and the ritual of giving gifts was to begin, with the usual tree all decorated in tensile,

blinking colored lights and glass bulbs uncrated a few days earlier, to be repacked a few days later for the years to come. My eyes were

quickly drawn to a gift I had not foraged in my parent’s usual pre-Christmas hiding places. I knew the others from looking under their bed, in

the attic or in the high shelf over my father’s cupboard, where he hid his condoms and porn magazines. Strange, I thought, that I’d somehow

missed this in my stealthful investigations of the previous week! It was in green paper with a bright red ribbon, flat and rectangular. So I

reached for it first, as our small family of parents and one sister took turns about the tree with gasps of surprises, opening boxes we’d

surreptitiously uncovered just a few days before. I suppose the real fun of Christmas was the cheating, the sneaking into others’ private hiding

places, finding out what we’d get and the charade of surprise! But I’d missed this one! Yes, Virginia, there is a Santa Claus, who’d clearly flown

in the night before on his sled, pulled by reindeer, slid down our chimney and snuck into our living room to leave this special gift for me.

Like millions of Americans on that fateful morning, I reached out for the most intriguing of gifts with my name on it, not realizing that it would

change my life forever. It was a book from my favorite aunt, Roxanne Eberlein. She was my favorite because of all my three aunts she

traveled the most; she was the most thoughtful, and she was having an affair with Adlai Stevenson, who insisted on running for President of

the United States twice and loosing. The guise of their relationship was her being his confident, executive secretary and advisor. As a child,

this was particularly embarrassing on the day after the elections! It happened twice in about four years! He redeemed his position in my

childish mind when President Kennedy made him the United States Ambassador to the United Nations! This came along with the

Ambassador’s residence on the top of the Waldorf-Astoria Towers, about forty-two floors over Park Avenue, which he used perhaps twenty

days in a year, leaving it to the nieces and nephews of his lover, and even to his own children from a past marriage. Besides my sister and I,

who were regular freeloaders at the Waldorf, were Sir Robert Jackson, who was re-organizing the United Nations, and his wife, the economist-

Chairperson of the BBC, and the once-upon-a time editor of the Economist, Barbara Ward. Natalie Owings, daughter of the famous architect

Nathaniel Owings, along with Stevenson’s son, John Fell, also dropped by. I slept under huge water lilies rendered by Claude Monet in oils from

his garden at Giverny, loaned to the Embassy by the Metropolitan Museum of Art!

Back to the book! It was written by the architect called Frank Lloyd Wright, and though in black and white (this was in the mid-1950s) every

picture and every drawing grasped my imagination. As I read the first words, sentences, paragraphs and pages, I became catalyzed and

moved! As I read through The Natural House I discovered who I was and what I wanted to be. At least I gained the first insight to what my

life’s search would be all about. Reading the pages, I felt like a reincarnated avatar discovering who he had been in previous lives, and what

he’d be in this one! It was not just that I liked the designs and the drawings and the photographs, and that I found meaning in the words. It

was a testament that unfolded a truth to me that actually already dwelled deep within me! Something that had always been there inside of

me, concealed from me, was now unfolded. I suppose this is what is called INSPIRATION?

From the moment I opened The Natural House, I did not put it down until I completed the last page. In a sense I have never put it down and

I am still reading it, discovering and searching for what inspired me on that Christmas Day. When I closed the book and walked out of my

house, I was living in a different world. It was after midnight and the black sky was clear with thousands of stars gleaming in the heavens.

Everything I saw looked different. It was not only nature which was singing a song in my heart, but my soul had switched on and my mind had

begun to think! I saw things which I had never noticed before. Finely carved balustrades caught my fancy! Sculpted stone gargoyles made me

smile. I noticed that one wood was different from another in its color, grains, nature and use. I was drawn to feel wood and to slide my fingers

across it, appreciating its inner soul. I noted that a wood floor was warm in the winter and cozy to look at, while a marble floor was cool in the

summer and soothing to sit upon. Stained glass windows, fine brass handles, well thought out paving patterns were my friends. I spoke to

them, and I argued with sloppy workmanship and clumsy details.

Wright taught me that the human mind is a huge analogue for all things beautiful and all things ugly. He taught me that a human being is both

a monster and a saint all rolled up into one; capable of creating incredible beauty, or of inflicting deplorable destruction. It is the human mind

which separates humans form other animals, which makes us the monsters of terror and the creators of poetry, art and architecture. We alone

can know the exhilaration of transcendence!

After The Natural House, the Yin and the Yang in me merged into one presence. Instead of playing each other out and exhausting me in

confusion, the black force empowered the white beauty! I was now driven in whatever I did. And, good luck played an important role in my life

too!

I gave up on education and embarked on a search! Something magical had grasped me. I stopped attending church and I forsook religion,

finding spiritual moments in fits of creative discovery. I quit the Boy Scouts and began scouting for the real boy I was. I began a search for

myself, which continues.

There is a story in Hindu mythology that when Yasoda opened Krishna’s mouth and looked into it she gasped with amazement, seeing the

entire universe! She also saw a glimpse of herself! In Wright’s words and works I saw a glimpse of my own creative possibilities and I was

galvanized to go forth and seek! I saw that there was a chance that I too may one day search and discover something of my own, which is but

a small slice of the universe.

NOTE TO A YOUNG STUDENT

What Wright taught me was very simple: seek out the truth, find the generic order in things! See beauty in the TRUTH! What he meant by The

Natural House was the natural self and the natural life! Buildings are merely mirrors of the people who live in them. They reflect how people

behave, how people think, what their aspirations are and how they deal with materiality! They illustrate how evolved people are in their

spiritual realizations; whether they live for material things, or they manipulate material things to reach transcendence? They place people and

societies somewhere along a scale between beasts grabbing at survival to saints blessed with transcendental awareness. They distinguish

people who only “take,” from patrons who nurture and “give.” Buildings indicate the extent to which people are in touch with the environment

they live in; part of the context of the places within which they build, and harmonious with the social traditions and modalities which bring

bliss and peace. Teachers like Liane Lefaivre and Alex Tzonis reinforced my credo, through their work on what they call Critical Regionalism, in

which new functions and technologies are integrated with places, climates and cultures.

I believe there is something called GENERIC ARCHITECTURE: that is architecture of carefully composed fabrics, of structures, of systems, of

materials that all participate in a common order of nature, tradition, appropriate technology and social harmony. There is some rational

stream of thought, some common process of analysis, some general considerations and modalities of study, which are always the precursors

of beauty! In this there are eternal principles, truths and modalities, bringing all architecture into one immense realm of knowledge. In this

sense we all belong to one huge “gharana” of architecture whose past masters are Michelangelo, Leonardo de Vinci, the Emperor Akbar and

Thomas Jefferson!

Today we live in a world dominated by contrivers, posing as architects, who are just screaming and shouting for personal attention. Our

“architectural world” is like a crèche full of anal retentive babies all whining and screaming to be noticed by anyone who will look at them. I

would say these charlatans are less famous, and more notorious. Like the Bandit Queen, they are well known for their outrageous acts, rather

than understood and appreciated for their contributions in a common search. As urban planners they carve out their own city blocks and

surround them with walls, turning once friendly public domains into private spaces one pays to get in to. Inside of these secured, commercial

turfs stuntmen are employed to amaze us with things bizarre! We live in an age when “being different” is mistaken for “being creative.” Ours

is a time when “doing something new is mistaken for creating beauty! Being different often means being a conformist of a specific nature. The

skin heads of my youth were seeking non-conformity through uniforms, so that they would be accepted into a larger group! Instead of seeking

to be different, we should seek to be ourselves and to be happy with ourselves, whoever we are. Only when we are happy with ourselves, can

we make other people happy with the honest products of our honest toil.

In October 2001 I was invited to make a presentation at the European Biennale at Graz. I noticed something very interesting! To be a “creative

artist” in Europe, you need not create anything, but you must wear the black uniform of the artist! You must dress totally in black. You must

wear black shoes, black socks, black pants, black belts, black shirts with black buttons and black ties. When the cold rains blow in you must

wear a black jacket and a black hat. I found that the super creative Europeans (as opposed to the merely creative ones) wear black capes! For

these people creativity is not a form of liberation, or the finding of the truth. It is the creation of a lie in the form of a self imposed trap, and a

make-believe world. There are people in America and in Europe who never design anything, never search, never question, but who dress in

the costume of creators. They worry over finding just the right black g-strings and bikinis! They are seeming and not being! If I were to

speak out any advice to a young student, I would say, BE NOT SEEM! Carrying this paradigm further, there is an entire industry in the West

creating images and promoting the “uniforms of creativity,” at the cost of the truth. This is called the media, the fashion industry, public

relations and notoriety! The taste makers are telling thoughtless people what is “beautiful” and what “art” is. The taste makers are telling

people to drop the names of fakers who can not even paint! There are people who pay to be photographed drunk at parties, standing about

with illiterate chatterati, thinking of nothing, making no contributions to this world. This projects an image to the youth of our times, that these

notorious personalities have achieved something.

It would be better to live as ones own self in oblivion, than to be notorious for living in a trap! And this is exactly what the modern world is

becoming: a trap! Brilliant professionals and artists are leaving their friends and native places finding wealth and huge spaces, but emptiness.

They work in cold offices to be granted two weeks of vacation in a year when they can “be themselves.” They wear “correct uniforms” and

speak politically correct statements, dropping the right names and muttering endless clichés! From dreaming of creating beauty, they end up

worrying how they will pay their house loan installments and their credit card bills! They think by wearing black, that they can live the make-

believe life of a creator, when in fact they are slaves of conformity. I hope that all young artists, poets and architects who read this will avoid

all of the uniforms and traps. Be yourselves and never seem to be what you are not.

TEACHERS AND GURUS

So my life as an architect, which began in my early teens, has been a life of searching for truth. At first, when Wright visited me, I felt I had

been visited by the Archangel and that I was the only anointed one! How wrong I was. Revisiting Wright some years later I realized that most

of what one learns is learned from others. One cannot know everything and need not know anything! But one must search! One can learn from

a leaf by studying its shape, its veins and its tapestry. One can learn from the spiral of a sea shell. One can watch birds in flight as they glide

in the sky, or just study cloud patterns meandering about, for subtle structure and illusive orders in our minds. One will learn through search

and not through mugging up knowledge!

I have known Buddhists who frown on kicking stones, because they know that even stones have souls. There is structure and beauty in

everything on this earth. In each part of the universe is the entire universe! Pick up any stone and study it and you will discover the truth of its

texture, shape and strength. Perhaps a good teacher just teaches us to look down our own mouths and to see the universe. A good teacher

never teaches facts or knowledge; they open windows on how to search, or maybe even just to search. Maybe the “how” and the “what”

should be left to each student? Teachers, I realize, do not tell us of techniques, or put facts in our heads. What they do is inspire us to search

for the nature of things, the truth in matters, which is where beauty dwells. They often do this by revealing a glimpse of beauty through

humor, through a bit of unexpected love, or maybe in some quick sketch revealing the rudimentary simplicity of some highly complex system.

“Genius,” Einstein said, “is making the complex simple; not making the simple complex!”

My true gurus have always been able to cast such unexpected light on the world. I remember the great architect Anant Raje taking me to

meet his mentor one Sunday afternoon in Philadelphia. Luis Kahn had privileged us several hours alone with him in his studio. A bit of good

luck! At one point he crumpled up a sheet of A4 paper and handed me a pencil and asked me to quickly sketch it! As a young professor of

architecture at Harvard, I was keen to impress Kahn, so I immediately began creating a brain like image, trying to get in all of the impossible

complexity. Pretty good I thought, not knowing I had entered the Master’s labyrinth! He threw a fatherly laugh at me, grabbing my pencil and

making four quick line strokes into a rectangle of the A4 proportions! He had showed me a nature of myself to overlook obvious simplicity, in

search of wrong, complex truths!

Creative attempts, exploratory acts and processes of discovery are modes that search for self! I have heard Kahn talking to bricks in

Ahmedabad and philosophizing at the Fogg Gallery about the sky being the ceiling of his grand courtyard in the Salk Institute. But this one

“teacher’s trick” was a personal gift to me, that I shall never forget. Inspirations are always in the form of gifts of one kind or the other. Gifts of

inspiration are perhaps in the form of an image such as a quick sketch, or a gesture (like a smile, just when we need encouragement), but it is

always in a sign of what we can be, what we can envision and what we can become. My own attempts at architecture are but small analogues

of something I yearn to discover, to draw into myself, and to make a part of me. These are my feeble attempts at becoming something, which

is already there within me, yet undiscovered.

In the early 1970’s I founded the School of Planning at the Centre for Environmental Planning in Ahmedabad, India. There my friend and

mentor, Balkrishna Doshi, had just returned from a visit to Venkateshwara Temple at Tirupati. I was eager to hear of his experiences and what

had transpired within him on his pilgrimage there. He whipped out a thick, old fashioned ink pen and drew three instant lines, which captured

the entire essence of the mountain top temple in a second. Again, amazed at seeing the entire universe revealed to me at one instance, I saw

in Doshi the true genius that he is. But I also saw something that was within me that I did not know. I could read his abstraction, because the

nature of the temple, the generic character of its simplicity, and therefore the beauty, was already a part of the catalogue of my mind. Doshi

had merely revealed this existing truth to me. In fact when I went to Tirupati years later I was a bit disappointed. The clarity which Doshi had

revealed to me lay hidden in the complexity of the masses of pilgrims and the chaos of the management of the place. Temporary shamiyanas

hid much of the temple’s form. I understood that the “truth of Venkateshwara Temple” was not something one just looked at and saw. It took

a deeper understanding of the elemental structure of the complex composition and the ability to see through the chaos and the managerial

machinations to get at the root of what was there. Once more the lesson of simplicity, of the elemental, of the generic!

Again, I would repeat that my own architecture is but an analogue of something I yearn to know, a utopia I desire to create; a glimpse of

paradise in its pristine reality; maybe some bit of heaven; or a small glimpse of the universe I’d see if I could gaze into Krishna’s mouth,

revealing my own vast truth, proving the larger conceptualization possible! Whatever the search, we must keep in our minds that what we are

searching for is already there; something deep inside of us, undiscovered waiting to be found. We also have to realize that all humans

participate in that discovery and we are often shocked to see something and feel, “Hey, I’ve been hitting at exactly the same idea!” T. S. Elliot

seemed to understand that we are all part of the same endless search for truth, when he wrote in The Sacred Wood, “Immature poets

imitate; mature poets steal; bad poets deface what they take, and good poets make it into something better, or at least something different.”

In that sense there is just one large studio and we are all the draftsmen of its inspiration! We work with the same vision and the same passion

for truth and beauty.

Thus, searching often deals with the study of precedents, with study tours to classical monuments and seeking truth in prototypes. As a young

architect I thought each design was a unique creation! Great designers just reached into the sky and pulled ingenious confabulations down

from the heavens. I was thus disappointed one day when my teacher Jose Luis Sert gave me the unusual privileged of visiting the “model

room” where he explored new concepts through Styrofoam models at different scales. Too busy himself to explain things to me he asked

Joseph Zelewski, his Senior Associate, to do the honors. As my past teacher at Harvard, and though thirty years older to me, Joseph was my

best friend at the time and was very keen to hear what a younger designer thought of the new town Sert was creating on an island, just off the

coast of Marseille in France.

The opportunity to create a new town, on a craggy mountain island grabbed my imagination. I could see all kinds of new forms jutting out of

the huge rocks over the sea! But to my disappointment Sert chose to make this work into a kind of summation of all of his past principles and

prototypes! It was to me a terribly rational, collection of years of work. Each part could be seen in Sert’s publications and he had seemingly

just assembled all of these parts in to a large, no doubt beautiful, landscape! Joseph could sense the disappointment on my face, and as he

suggested we go to lunch he asked for my thoughts. Headed down the long, double running flight of stairs to Church Street, a sudden flash of

light ran up the dark chasm, and the short, round figure of Sert made a black image in the light ascending the stairs. At a kind of moment of

truth, a few steps below us Sert asked, “So what did he think of it?” Being truthful and putting me in an awkward position, Joseph said, (just as

Sert passing me, looking me straight in the eye) “He says that there’s nothing new!” My fears that this would anger the master to call me to

his office immediately evaporated as he burst out laughing! A few steps further up he turned back and said, “You know Christopher, this is not

California!” He was mocking a place famous for having to be different; for everyday craving to be new; and in a frenzy to be unique. Now even

Joseph smiled realizing that all was right in the heavens, and that this young upstart had been put in his place!

The search and struggle for discovery are a difficult set of processes. But one can struggle, and should not sit waiting for miracles to fall from

the heavens. As Le Corbusier said, “Creation is a patient search.” Le Corbusier used to tell his protégés to start thinking over a design

problem, then to put it away in the head, and like a computer in hibernation the head keeps secretly working on the design! My teacher Jerzy

Soltan, who wrote Le Modular with Le Corbusier, has always been a firm believer in this. He always encouraged me to take up two or three

designs at one time, and to move my conscious mind between them. But a little inspiration always helps!

Many young designers doubt if that magic called “inspiration” actually exists. If I mention music and ask them the name of their favorite song

and then why they like it, they know they have been inspired! Some people get inspired hearing a romantic song that touches their heart and

they yearn to sing and they do sing! Noise becomes music. Some people get inspired reading poetry and they yearn to write sonnets and they

do create lyrics! Scattered sounds, miscellaneous words, a melody and some tones become magical moods!

STUDENTS AND TEACHERS

A wise sage I once met in his cave-retreat somewhere on the rocky slopes of Mount Abu preferred to read my fate from my palm! As a young

student of the empirical school of thought, I withdrew from his inane suggestion, thinking what my teachers at Harvard and MIT would think of

a protégé who curried the favors of sages for their fate? But he charmed me with his flashing eyes and warm smile, and questioned my logical

abilities to reject his findings, should I find them so whimsical? I suppose his charisma, directed at me through his piercing eyes, and the lyrical

landscape of the forested mountain slopes, perched high over the desert of Rajasthan, swayed me like some magical potion.

He told me that I was a person of little wealth, but of great fortune! He declared that luck was my life’s companion.

Tempted further, I coaxed him, “But what do you mean by good luck?”

With an incredulous sneer on his face, he informed me that there is only one kind of good luck in life and that such good luck is to have good

teachers!

I felt a chill spread over my skin, as if a sudden wave of cold air blasted the desert air, leaving goose pimples momentarily all about me. He

had unraveled a truth within me that he could never have made out from my appearance or from his imagination! I knew he was correct and

that I would be a fool to reject what wealth may come my way! From that day on, what had been a youth’s good fortune became a life’s

endless search! To meet wise people became a passion.

I believe that passion, and my fated trajectory of good luck, have navigated my life’s story from a childhood Christmas gift to friendships,

chance meetings, teacher-student relationships, professional associations, chancing an encounter with my life partner, and to work with some

of the most inspiring people of our times. Most of the great teachers I have had are anonymous, little known and often my own students and

studio associates.I must admit that I have been fortunate to have had many, many inspiring mentors.

As a teenager four young teachers touched me and motivated me. One, Norman Jensen, a little known but great painter, would laugh at my

aerial view sketches and ask me, “Why don’t you draw what you see?” Harry Merritt was a classic modernist, building unpublished

masterpieces in North Florida. Though shy for publicity, he carried the stature of a Master. He made us proud to be young architects. He was

an “architect’s architect” who made us follow strict rules. He preached a truth in every decision, shooting rational questions at our every line.

“If a closet projects out of the wall on this elevation and it’s doing the same thing on another, than the expression has to be the same!” He

called this “honesty of expression.” Robert Tucker was a teacher to the core. Thoughtful, humorous, probing and penetrating, he knew how to

take us down into the depths of our weaknesses, only to pick us up to euphoria of some small strength the next day. He knew the craft of

creation; he saw within each student their own little nugget of gold; and taught us all how to become small jewelers, crafting within the

limitations of what we had, instead of wishing to be something we were not! Blair Reeves was a father image who nurtured young architects,

having them by the dozens to his beautiful modern wood and glass house for food and slide shows of the masters’ works. His own house was a

living example which he need not talk of…it was there! He taught the introductory course to architecture hopefuls, wherein about two hundred

aspirants were registered for his lectures. In the first lecture he would ask everyone to stand up. Then he’d ask the front half of the students to

sit down, stating “this is how many of you who will be left at the end of this course!” Then he’d ask half of the hundred left to sit down, saying,

“This is how many of you who will be here at the end of this first year!” Finally, he’d have twenty of us standing and say this is perhaps how

many of you who will graduate as architects; of whom half of you may ever build a structure you design!” But Reeves was not the terrorist this

story makes him out to be. He was a thoughtful nurse to the survivors! As the semester wore on, and the number of empty seats grew, he

introduced to us the huge canvas of modern art, architecture, design and the people who created the modern movement. His true love though

was the preservation of historic buildings and he introduced us modernist fundamentalists to the fact that we have a history, that we live in a

history, and that we are a part of the continuum of history.

Many of my mentors were my classmates and contemporaries. Marc Trieb who teaches at Berkeley and I shared a small “match-box” cottage

in Gainesville. His recent books analyze what makes modern landscape architecture what it is, how the Bay Area Style emerged from its

context and how Le Corbusier conceived the Electronic Poem! At the 1962 American Institute of Architects Annual Convention in Miami, we

ignored the thousands of commercial architects down for the party, seeking out Paulo Solari and Buckminster Fuller who were there to win

Gold Medals and give major lectures. Solari was very approachable, walking about in leather shorts and barefooted in the grand Americana

Hotel. On the last night there was a huge dinner on the open grounds of the Hialeah Race Course where thousands of happy architects ate and

drank, catching up with old friends. Aged only nineteen, Marc and I had yet to discover the miracles of hallucinates! Totally sober we walked

bored about the tables of drunkards, laughing and singing merely! With some amazement we noticed Fuller and his wife surrounded by

admirers, but alas drunk admirers! We joined the table and managed to move the discussion from boisterous questions, into things more to

Fuller’s interest! After a few minutes he turned to us and said, would you like to join my wife and I back at the Americana? Bright eyed youth

that we were, we jumped at the opportunity. In the coffee shop we stayed up until two in the morning, asking a few questions and getting long

answers. Some years later on Doxiadis’ yacht in the Aegean Sea I was amazed when the great man walked up to me, shaking my hand, and

asking what I had been doing over the past five years. This was the kind of personal touch, which today seems unbelievable. Marc Trieb has

gone on to be a great teacher too. Bruce Creager and Gene Hayes, just a few years our seniors kept us spell bound with their seemingly vast

experience readily shared with us over candle lit dinners and wine. Peter Wilson has continued through the years to be my alter ego. Daniel

Williams has become America’s leading Green Architect. Thomas Cooper is a devoted New Urbanist with whom I can openly argue a

counterblast. Edward Popko creates the IBM software from which great ships are built, and many others who were my classmates from those

times have gone on to gain recognition in their chosen paths. At MIT and Harvard my classmates and later my students were great sources of

inspiration. Urs Gauchat has gone on to turn the New Jersey Institute of Technology School of Architecture from no place to some place, giving

up a successful practice in Boston to do so! Michael Pyatok, my closest confidant in Sert’s Masters Class, is America’s leading proponent of

affordable housing. He builds what he talks about! Christine Boyer, at Princeton, has written the profound analysis on planning and capitalism,

which is required reading in every school of planning. Anna Hardman carries on our tradition at MIT, enriching students and fellow faculty.

What I am trying to emphasize here is that like sand on the beach, gurus are everywhere. It is for us to find them and to learn from them.

In Herman Hess’s classic Siddhartha, a student walking in the forest seeking The Great Teacher, happens upon Lord Buddha and asks him if he

knows where The Teacher is. Lord Buddha explains to the boy that there are no teachers, only seekers of truth!

When I went to Harvard University to do my master’s degree in architecture and to study urban planning at MIT, I was surrounded great

teachers, who had loomed in my head like rock stars did in my contemporaries! Walter Gropius was actually a real person! He walked and

talked in our midst. His wife, Alda Mahler Gropius, was a mother figure to young students. Sert, then Dean, had started the world’s first urban

design course, and was a pioneer in the dialogue between architects and urban planners, being both himself! Jacqueline Tyrwhitt, founding

editor of Ekistics, would never leave a bad idea alone! Gerhard Kallman, architect of the new Boston City Hall, was an icon of the 1960’s for

his bold and daring statements. Jerzy Soltan, who built Jacqueline Tyrwhitt’s lovely home Spiros in Attica, and co-author of Le Modular,

challenged students, faculty and guest critiques on any topic possible. Juan Miro, the Catalonian painter, was often in residence as Sert’s

childhood friend. He painted amazing black forms on Sert’s patio walls, turning them into masterpieces! My Master’s Class of twenty

candidates dwindled down to sixteen within the first month! That was before the days when Harvard filled chairs to collect its humongous

fees! There were high standards, ruthless performance expectations, and a family atmosphere amongst the survivors! The sixteen of us were

privileged to have our own time and friendships with Yona Friedman, a colleague of Soltan’s in

Team Ten, Louis Mumford, Fuhimiko Maki, Dolf Schnebli, and other past students of Sert, who came back to crit and jury our works. At MIT we

had Kevin Lynch who wrote the Image of the City, John F. C. Turner who wrote Freedom to Build, Herbert Gans who wrote The Urban

Villagers, Lisa Pittie who invented Advocacy Planning and Lloyd Rodwin who was the Master Regional planner! Shadrack Woods at Harvard,

who had just won the competition to design the Free University in Berlin, and was preparing the new plan for Toulouse, was notorious for his

fiery arguments at juries, usually ending in his apartment at Peabody Terrace at three in the morning, with loving students and young faculty

still throwing hypothesis. These were all people who took us students into their homes and hearts and invested their time into our personal

development, as well as our academic and intellectual molding! We worked, studied, questioned, analyzed, drank, partied and ate together.

Their combined intellectual and human force was like a juggernaut plowing through all obstacles! They understood the necessity of carrying

students along with them, as their investment in the next generations. They knew that they did not live for the moment, but for the future.

Some of the people who had the most profound impact on me were not my formal teachers. Teaching design studios with Roger Montgomery,

Gerhard Kallman, and Jane Drew, who all became guides in my search, left me with a personal legacy.

Sir Robert Jackson gifted me a life subscription of the Ekistics journal in January of 1963 when we met briefly at Adlai Stevenson’s apartment.

From that journal I came to know of a larger world, and one not as happy as that I had grown up in. Some years later when I was a student at

Harvard, Jackson’s wife, Barbara Ward, took me under her wing as a protégé. She thoughtfully invited me, at her expense, to attend the Delos

Symposium in Greece. I flew to Paris and bought a Mercier ten speed bicycle and proceeded the next fifteen hundred kilometers via road, with

my Harvard roommate, Christopher Winters. Reaching a bit exhausted, but in great spirits, I was yet again welcomed into a new world.

Constantinos Doxiadis, Margaret Mead, Arnold Toynbee, Philippe Hera, Roger Gregore, Edmond Bacon, Katherine Bateson and many others

were aboard Doxiadis’ yacht which meandered through the Aegean Sea, stopping at Mount Athos, Samothrace, Thebes, Mikanos and finally at

the Delos amphitheatre, where the Charter we had all worked on was read out by Margaret Mead with the sun setting over the Aegean Sea

behind her. At Samothrace Toynbee and his life companion, Veronica, asked me to accompany them up a steep hill behind the Samothrace

Temple, from which the Winged Victory of Samothrace had come. Toynbee surmised that there should be the ruins of an ancient Crusader Fort

there, which did not figure in any of the literature. Surely when we ascended to the peak of a small mountain, the walls stood testament to his

academic prowess! In his eighties at the time, the small mountain climb was no easy task for Toynbee! Looking toward the east I saw an

amazing sight. The entire horizon was covered in an ominous, dark pall of haze! “My God, what’s that, I exclaimed!” Toynbee laughed and

said, “Oh, that’s Asia!” Having spent most of my life in Asia I always think of that day as prophetic! I didn’t know then that my life’s work


Alex Tzonis, who was a young professor of architecture with me at the Graduate School of Design, along with his brilliant life partner Liane

Lefaivre, have continued to encourage and teach me all at the same time. Their publication of my work, the Mahindra United World College of

India, in their recent book called Critical Regionalism, has been a source of encouragement. At the risk of boring my readers I have searched

over my past with fond memories. I feel there is a lesson in this small review, which is that teachers challenge one, fire one’s will to struggle

for truth and become good friends too. Maxwell Fry founded the modern movement in Britain in the late 1920’s. On each journey traveling

back and forth between America and India in the 1960’s and 1970’s, I always relaxed for several days at Jane Drew and Maxwell Fry’s

Gloucester Place townhouse. As Jane’s life partner, I fell under Max’s influence. He and Jane, along with Le Corbusier, had designed

Chandigarh, living in India. We had much to discuss and share. Maxwell Fry was the man who offered Gropius half his thriving practice so that

the master could escape from Germany, getting out while he was still alive! “Come and take half my practice, but for God’s sake get out!”

Gropius was instructed by all well wishers at the CIAM meeting in Venice. Without packing their bags they just left for London, leaving the

Bauhaus behind along with their precious art works and personal effects! Maybe the Second World War was a great cauldron which molded

giants out of midgets. But the humane nature of these giants, were the distinguishing features separating them from the midgets around

them.

THE SEARCH FOR TRUTH

I suppose these friends, teachers and gurus, were actually examples and role models. Just as the Olympic Torch is passed from one runner to

the next and is kept burning forever, through their humanity and brilliance, a spark of inspiration is passed on. Some people get inspired to

support other people watching a good mother, or a devoted nurse. They do nurture others. What we may consider mundane becomes

profound and it generates a meaningful life style.

Against this scenario of inspiration and “natural teaching,” we have the present day mockery of education. In Schools of Architecture we have

people teaching who have never seriously worked in a studio, or even built a building. Some have done esoteric Ph.D.s and in America that

seems to be the entry point qualification! Gone are the days when the teachers were great builders and expansive thinkers. Expansive

thinkers do not waste their time getting Ph.D.s! People who get Ph.D.s are “pluggers” and survivors who are looking for a secure job. They

know if they go through the motions toward a doctoral degree, like a good Xerox machine, their universities will vomit out their dream

degrees. Every school of architecture reaches a threshold point where there are more dilatants and esoterics than real teachers. This mob of

inexperienced fakers now makes the decisions. Political correctness, replaces poetics! The consensus of the ignorant replaces the direction of

the wise! Just hard labor replaces insight and questioning. Writing a book, any book, raises one’s value! We must never loose site of the fact

that an architect is the master craftsman! She, or he, is the inheritor of the Middle Ages guildsmen and the great sculptors of the Renaissance.

Ours is a profession whose roots lie in the master craftsmen-student relationship, where even large canvases were labored over by Masters

together with their understudies. No more! It is with a great deal of nostalgia that I look back to my youth and the kind of learning catalyzed

even in isolated state universities, to which the present elite colleges of architecture can not even aspire. This is because today the engine

that motivates the education of an architect is fees! The drivers of this engine are survivors! They are people who are just waiting for their

next promotion and salary increase. They will jump jobs with any better offer! In India the situation is similar. We have people creating new

schools of architecture that inspire no one. There are no libraries, seasoned teachers, or even proper studios. These educational industries

produce graduates like Toyota produces vehicles! We are mass producing hollow individuals who merely hold a certificate and who can be

registered. But they can not design, sing, and write poetry or nurture others!

INSPIRATION AND CREATION

Education today has no link with inspiration and creation. Creating architecture, music, poetry or love, are all the media of inspiration. These

tangible products of creation inspire others. Some great wheel of motion begins to turn. The moment of inspiration is a moment of

transcendence; an instance of discovery and self realization all in one.

It is when human intellect and emotion combine and take flight in a euphoric world of beauty and revelation. If there is a religion, it is a vehicle

for such transcendence. For me architecture is that religion. It is meditation, it is truth and it leads to spiritual moments of enlightenment and

revelation.

Still another lesson from The Natural House is that architecture is a language! Stone, wood, bricks, clay tiles, brass, luminaries, glass, steel

trusses, paving blocks, sanitary fittings are all like the sounds which have to be transformed into the auditable words of a language! The

language of architecture is composed of elements of “support,” of “span,” and of “enclosure.”

In the Alliance Francase we evolved a very clear system of “support,” employing fourteen inch brick bearing walls, insulating the interiors form

the heat of Ahmedabad. We used a small two feet, six inches square grid as a module to make square windows, or larger multiples to make

larger square doors, or medium multiples to place exposed concrete beams five feet on centre, which also defined a large square volumes

below. This became a simple statement of “span.” These same “words” were further used to create north facing skylights on the northern

façade and to lift skylights up, over the roof, bringing indirect light into the spaces. A square grid on the floor, in the ceiling and on the walls,

using the human scale module, ordered the entire ensemble into a system of spatial cubes and graphic squares. Giving poetry and playfulness

to the language are the idiosyncratic “motifs” we introduced. In the Alliance Francaise we set a tall column in the centre of the main space.

This was so contrived that when a person moves in the space, they can see the walls behind the column move! This simple visual device

makes the space “move,” and makes architecture experiential! Water spouts became motifs to add accent to the over all structure. Square,

modular window shade boxes protected small vistas from glare. A small balcony into the main space was left floating by pulling the supporting

column off to the side! These became the signature parts and components which evolved through the design process into a language. All of

these emotive acts must be realized through built form, or as parts of materiality. Brick, exposed concrete, mild steel frames for square

fenestration and glass were all the material vehicles to reach emotive experiences. Like written poetry, which uses printed words to reach

emotions, we use “built words,” so that those who experience the spaces we create step out of the material world and into one of lyrical

experiences. In this sense, buildings are the material poems that architects fabricate. Architecture is an experience of a place and not the built

form! Construction is merely a vehicle for us to pick up people and move them through experiences into milieus of new experiences. In this

respect there is a commonality between stage set design and the design of places. Architects confabulate material things, to make non-

material experiences happen in their built compositions. These “experiences” are often related to the visual and psychological impacts of

moving through space. They can also be the fall of light through space and onto textured surfaces. It may be the way the first morning

sunlight slowly falls from a skylight drifting across a rugged stone wall. It is not the wall, or the light which is architecture. It is the experience

of phenomena that is the architecture. It is the realization of the universe turning; it is the morning revealing yet a new day in our existence; it

is the anticipation of what the new day may bring and our realization that we exist! We confabulate experiences through the medium of

building fabrics. Again, these fabrics are woven from a language!

Much of what is transcendental; much of what is experiential; is created through putting together planned events, as people move through

and experience space. In this sense architecture is carefully contrived. We “set people up” through ground textures which are rough on the

outside, but become smooth on the inside; through a dimmed entrance opening into a well lit main space. We welcome a visitor first with

paving texture, then hold him by a wall, then cover him in a porch and finally embrace him in a low ceiling entrance foyer. Then the space

“explodes!” Just by raising the ceiling we can make him feel WOW!

People who manipulate emotions and feelings better than we do are song writers and those who sing them. In a romantic composition we are

enticed into a mood by a light melody; a silent beat slowly becomes more auditable, and we start to tap our foot without even knowing what

we are doing. A soulful voice begins to tell a story of sorrow, and we empathize with the human condition. Poetic lyrics lights the allure of love

and our emotions swell! Within a few moments, the human mind, worried about all of the little irritations of life, leaves the day to day banality

of existence, and is lifted up into an illusory ambiance of profound emotions. This is transcendence! Feelings of compassion and beauty are

created!

How do architects achieve this? What are the visual and graphic mechanisms at our disposal? How can we manipulate peoples’ feelings,

moods and temperaments? Are there modalities of color, texture and light which we can employ? Can we use scale and proportion to inject a

stimulus and get a predictable response? What is the impact of a shape or a form? Do they draw people in, make them step aside, focus their

attention in a direction, and what do they discover when they change their glance to the focal point we have enticed them to? Architects are

masters of seduction, enticement, transformation and the transcendence of the human spirit! How is this achieved? This is the search I call

architecture.

ASIA AND THE WEST

People often ask me how my design approach was affected by the diversity of the Asian environment and how this milieu differs from the

western context I grew up in? With the exponential expansion of the media, with globalization at our doorstep and with cultural imperialism a

reality, we all have to all consider such a question. What has happened to me over the past four decades may be a movie played backwards in

the life of young Asian architects! So this is a good and difficult question.

When I left America in 1971 the great masters still influenced young architects. Kahn, Sert, Van Eyke, Sterling and so many others were still

active and we could meet with them and discuss ideas. We believed in “credos,” value systems and principles. We were taught that design

grew out of the rational application of these! In America all of that changed by the early 1980s. Individualism and publicity were what began to

drive designers. By that time the great masters had passed away. In India we were isolated from the mass media, the magazine articles from

the West, and from all of the hype! We more or less continued to follow what we had always believed in. The “new economy,” the “new

urbanism,” the “stab them in the back and get rich culture of management,” had not reached us! It is like there was a fork in the road and we

never saw the divergent one and kept right on going!

But the Indian context had its own logic too! First of all the huge choice of materials available in the States and Europe was not available here.

Our techniques and methods were very simple. This allowed us to concentrate on light, spaces and forms. After mastering that we could get

carried away by technology. The museum in Paris by Piano and Rogers brought the west back in touch with technology. This did not “grab me”

until much later when I was ready to deal with it on my own terms. Unlike the villages of Greece and our work in India, technology was

becoming a “look at me,” gymnastics platform for stunts. An entire school of charlatans emerged, taking technology off into the world of

Disney Land! Thus, the new hype of technology and also the importance of expression of mechanical equipment, did not reach us in India,

until years after it had started to mold design in the west. In retrospect, we were actually working in the same ‘technology guided’ mould of

architecture, but we did not realize it, simply due to our limited choices. The design process remained a very simple visual one, allowing for

innocence. I see a correlation between our simple stone and brick bearing walls and the work of Foster, Piano and to a lesser extent Rogers. In

the case of Rogers, technology is no longer a means, it has become the end! Our isolation, gave us the “distance” to keep this new tool in its

place. Though we do see “space frames” floating around just for the sake of floating around and with no common sense or purpose!

Fortunately, I missed out on Post Modernism! Since even those who contrived it never understood it really, they missed out too! I will analyze

this in a later part of this book, but my contention is that small elite in America and in Britain fabricated Post Modernist Architecture so that a

tiny group of critics would have something new to write about and a small group of their designer friends could be written about. Post

Modernism in architecture and the New Urbanism in planning are kind of conspiracies! The New Urbanism is neither new, nor very much

related to urbanism. The new economy had less to do with economics than “fixing” the prices of IT shares and making quick money trading in

a mirage. These trends had a lot to do with the “get rich quick” and “get famous quick” culture of the West, which is still in vogue. Attention

grabbing, fashion driven packaging is what I missed!

India allowed me to find myself and work in my own contextual world. I could continue my search without the distraction of all the hoop-la and

hollering! As an aside, many Indian motifs influenced me: Khund-like steps; ottas, sitting walls, niches in walls for statues, and the placement

of lights on small projections….so many unique Indian details. These began to enter my work as regional motifs. The Indian climate also

allowed the kind of opening out into nature that I loved, and bringing the out-of-doors indoors! This is so evident my Centre for Development

Studies and Activities, in the United World College and others. In the YMCA International Retreat structures are literally “in the ground.” This

could only happen in India. In the west structures were becoming hermetically sealed, centrally air conditioned boxes! These “boxes” were

only to be cleverly decorated. A global architecture was emerging with no roots in climate, history, context, or landscape. In the United World

College the angular walls and roof slants are all drawn from the mountain forms in the distance. In the west a building would use glass walls in

the hot sun of Miami, or in the dark, freezing cold of New York City. If Greek columns were this year’s fad, they would pop up like mushrooms

in LA, in Bangkok and in Hamburg! This is Globalism at its worst. In India we could follow what Liane Lefaivre calls Critical Regionalism. We

could deal with the issues of people moving through space; we could deal with the tactile interaction of people with materials; we could make

scale changes out of stone and brick and help people to experience them.

Imagineering and the Creation of Space


* * * * *

A number of urban theorists have raised a core question regarding the determinants of urban form, urban planning and design. Most notable

question the assumption that rational decision making by professionals would continue to be the method of designing urban spaces! Rather

theorists propose that urban form could become just another commodity, a product to be consumed--- if not produced for profit. Or perhaps,

as illustrated in God’s Own Junk Yard, our urban environment may become just a by-product, or worse still the residual flotsam of the

production and consumption process?

The Power of Design

In Delirious New York, Koolhaus substantiates the formative role of “business” and “the market” in shaping large projects. No one really

doubts that capitalism is the formative catalyst in molding its own artifacts, and in guiding the plans of “people’s governments,” as well. But

capitalism goes beyond just profits…it is about ruling and about the “practice of power.” Capitalism is more than just making an efficient

factory, or a profitable office building; it surpasses inventions, copyrights, packaging, marketing, sales and profits. It is about images that

express decision-makers’ roles, and their domains of power! The idea of Chrysler, the idea of The Bank of China and the idea of Rockefeller are

as much about imagery as anything else. Without an image, aggressive competitors would well have swallowed up these entities long ago.

The same is true of nation-states. In international politics and multinational business, alike, there is a thin line between survival and successful

imagery.

I propose we extend the argument into the realm of domains of power and how governments, corporations and other large institutions use

urban spaces and urban places to temper their domains of power.

Autonomy and the Size-Hierarchy Scale

There is another issue of the self determination of urban designers that needs to be addressed here. The issue of artistic autonomy has been

brought to question. While the “great man theory”, according to postmodernists may belong in the trash heap of history, there lingers as issue

of the role of articulate and considered decision making by professional teams and their integrity in a process. Corporate imagineering, the

deployment of virtual reality…. versus the creation of genuine expressions…. has been muted as an integrated issue. I would like to propose

that the larger the artifact being designed, the less would be the autonomy, or the singular role, of any one “creator.” For that matter, even

the autonomy of any major professional design team would reduce in proportion to the size, and scale, of any artifact being created. Opposed

to this is transforming designed experiences into “branding experiences”, devoid of human scale, proportion and cultural content.

I feel Team Ten was exploring this dilemma way back in the 1960s, and that they were saying, “If no one is going to be responsible, if no one

is going to be the designer, then it would only be through the creation of a value system, with related principles, that we can get quality out of

large, urban infrastructure projects.”

Much of their work was in the form of experiments with smaller projects that would generate these principles. Aldo Van Eyk’s parks, his

orphanage, and the Free University by Candilis Josic and Woods come to mind as significant experiments in this direction. There was also a

concern that “methods,” the ‘international style” and other cookbook schools of thought were devoid of the kind of value base and lyrical

expressions that urban fabric requires.

At the smaller end of this size-hierarchy scale, an individual can still design coffee cups, chairs and houses. The issues arise in the design of

larger slices of urban fabric. While an artist can design his own chair, or make a sculpture, s/he cannot compose a town! This size-hierarchy

scale seems to make eminent good sense, because a town design impinges on more people than a chair, and there are more technology

options that will affect the lives and consumption patterns of thousands of households, enterprises and individuals in a town. On the other

hand, the likes of General Motors should not become the “artists” either, effectively lobbying governments on the kinds of subsidies to be

placed on energy, transport modes, roads and urban layouts!

What is disturbing is when a convergence begins to appear between thinking trends, corporate interests, and political naivety. The American

creed of The New Urbanism, like the creed of CIAM, carries with it the danger of cookbook rules for urban design. Even Smart Growth, while

reaching back to the panacea of formulae, labels non-believers as “libertarian.” In case you do not know, in Americaneese, that’s a bad word

for individualism, conservatism in the sense of advocating individual freedom, over the common good. There is indeed a deeper issue here

which urban designers and planners must address. Is autonomy what we are really looking for in the design process? Alternatively, are we not

looking for design that responds to some kind of social and contextual contract; responds to principles and ways of thinking, but not to rules!

Anything Goes! Ugliness Can Be Pop Art!

Robert Venturi and Denise Scott Brown began to look at urban landscapes in much the same spirit that Andy Warhol looked at cans of tomato

soup…as a form of pop art, or relevant cultural expression. A “Coke can” is, no doubt, an important part of the popular iconography. But we

cannot call it “popular art” either! The 1960s protest symbol, the raised fist, is “popular art.” Unlike people’s art, we are getting flooded with

corporate, common images, which are thrust on the popular imagination. Times Square is a gross example of this, but it is happening in less

obvious ways, in every setting. I have always had a deep, intuitive sense of doubt about Warhol, Brown and Venturi. In their desire to be

catchy…to grab the public eye… they were dignifying ugliness, aligning themselves with a way of thinking---!

Koolhaus’s barons of New York City wanted their mega projects to act as icons of their family’s names and prestige---while profiting

simultaneously! But this was more in the spirit of Renaissance patronage for self-aggrandizement, than advertising products or making spaces

into products or mundane branding experiences!

Walt Disney Incorporated was, and is, on a very different path. It has designed several ‘brand name,’ spatial products…each having its own

market niche and commercial value, which is packaged and marketed with great success. They each sell under names we all know, ranging

from Mickey Mouse to the Pirates of the Caribbean. Recently the Disney Company has opened a real estate division that has moved

“imagineering” off of the film sets and into the streets---the New Urbanism market place. The Millennium Township, near Disneyland in

Orlando, is their first product. While Levitt Town’s were in the same genre---packaging the American Dream into an affordable commodity---

the Millennium project rests more on imagery than on mere functional factors like good location and affordability. Studies like the Taste

Makers and the Levittowners explored the use of ‘packaging’ and marketing to create consumer products out of urban fabric. Our concern

here is, thus, a long-standing one.

Given that urban design and city-planning fall on the “large end” of the hierarchy of autonomy in art, it is clear that few individuals will sit

alone and compose large-scale urban scenarios. What are the alternatives to corporate domination and its commercial iconography?

*. Participatory design;

*. Indigenous accretion;

*. Professional planning, and value based design teams, and/or;

*. And, still the individual visionaries.

All four are becoming ever more illusive propositions. Most likely a combination of these alternatives, would be employed by large corporate,

or government entities.

How Spaces Use People

In fact, it is not so much the process of space creation, as the way the spaces are used, which should really matter. In this sense we should be

more concerned with ‘conception’ than production. Or, conversely, how spaces use people should be a concern to us! Do we conceive this at

the outset? Disney creates the spaces, the characters and the storyline. Disney begins with terms of reference, performance standards and a

clear brief on the product elements and characteristics, with a clear focus on the targeted consumers. In fact the consumers and what the

product must DO TO THEM, is the core of the brief. There is something here to be learned from corporate animations! As designers we must

know what our compositions are doing, how they move people, how they play with emotions and experiences. What is objectionable though is

that the Disney design method rejects context completely. If a lake is needed machines are brought in and one is made. If a lake is in the way

it is filled! In a similar way people are conceptualized and made into the set characters. While the project makes the same claims of higher

density, footpaths and common open spaces that most New Urbanism communities do, one questions the kinds in social interaction that may

emerge. The high costs, isolation from work places and limited housing design types lead one to conclude that the community will be one for

older, well-to-do Anglo Saxons! The Millennium project raises numerous social issues about heterogeneity, about occupational and job

opportunities and about variety in communities. It is a product, not a community!

Some spaces are convivial and catalyze social interaction. They make interaction happen! Some spaces temper one’s curiosity and direct

one’s interest. Other spaces respond to the need for variety and diversity. A spatial system can “set up” sequences of events and experiences

which challenge the users spatial intellect. As an urban designer, one can create ‘hang out nooks,’ stairs to sit and sun oneself on, corners to

hide in with a friend, and low walls to sit on and talk things out. A courtyard can be an empty, dull shell, or a lively outdoor café. There can be

a sidewalk, and then there can be a sheltered arcade, with interesting little vendor stalls? Some spaces are of human scale, making one feel a

part of the ambiance. Others are monumental and tell us of our insignificance! They are so scaled out that one is offended! Or, they are “gray

areas,” which are devoid of any character or quality, and are abusive to the human spirit.

Many urban spaces are bland, colorless and have no textures. There is a message of neglect in these artifacts. They speak of an authoritarian

attitude of governance toward citizens. I am reminded of a photograph in The Natural House labeled “Find the Citizen?” It is an aerial image of

East Side of Manhattan through the bellowing exhaust of a thermo power plant.

Is Quality Measurable?

What should disturb us, as urbanists, is the quality of life being generated, and the scales on which we are able to conceptualize ‘quality.’

Kevin Lynch taught us that cities have several aspects, or elements, which can be enriched to improve the quality of urban places. He noted

landmarks, boundaries and districts, amongst others. Lynch proposed that good urban fabric is not homogenous; it is varied and articulated. In

The Image of the City he emphasized boundaries and landmarks, which give further articulation and meaning to urban places. An urban core

can have its own unique edge, can have distinctive entries and can sponsor movement through a network of walkways and paths. Small parks,

gardens and courtyards can further accentuate these experiences. Exploring an urban core can be an Odyssey through places, challenging

ones’ senses, demanding one move further and deeper into unknown domains and precincts. Laying out such a scenario is no less than

conceptualizing the cinematography of a film. We are designing experiences! There are urban elements, urban components and urban

relationships, amongst and between them, which generate urban systems. It is essential that we identify these parts, analyze them in terms of

how they ‘work’ on us, and assess how we feel and how we think they should be used.

There are also systems of ‘architectural values’ that are used and abused (contextual relevance, honest expression of materials; human scale;

building modules based on anthropometrical dimensions and production sizes; graphic proportions, etc.). All of these factors come to one’s

mind when lamenting the banality of the new urban forms emerging. These forms are more concerned with “appearances”, with skin, with

packaging, than with any of the concerns and values I have noted above. While we should be moving into the four dimensional world of

experience, such forms move us back into the two dimensions of graphics.

Most important are the unplanned, serendipity and pleasant human interactions which are facilitated and enriched by catalytic urban spaces:

A chance meeting; eye to eye flirting; boy meets girl; and boy meets boy! Good urban fabric leaves the parks and the boulevards open for all

to walk upon, hawk upon and play upon.

Images As Antidotes

America becomes a focus of thought, because it has a narrow vocabulary of traditional patterns from which to evolve new forms. There have

been a plethora of books on American barns; on highway hoardings; on shopping centers; on massive industrial complexes… all with the

intent of proving that there is, indeed, an American urban tradition that we can learn from. While such studies are popular American doctoral

thesis topics, they exhibit little virtuosity in the form of defining an urban language. The repertoire is a very limited one to draw on! It raises

the question, is Learning From Las Vegas possible? While bland America provides, so to speak, a ‘clean slate’ to work on, the reality is a milieu

of “sameness,” or at best the trivia of endlessly repeated Disneyland imagery. The New Urbanism is a remake of the Leavitt Towns of Long

Island. We’ve added sidewalks, Victorian gingerbread motifs, and front porches and then declared that a kind of miraculous ‘smart urbanism’

has resulted! Indeed the sameness, the trivia and the banality of the Leavitt Towns is more hurtful, because they are surely the tradition.

Disney knew well the boredom of his compatriots, as well as their lack of exposure to varieties of experience. He provided an antidote of sorts,

in the form of packaged milieus, each with its own contrived traditions and fantasized geographical settings, which were then effectively

marketed as themes! The problem here lies within a kind of reality wrap; a large and influential society began to gain its intellectual and

emotional stimulation from fantasy and escape. Substance began to fade away and wither into a new virtual reality, created and produced by

corporations.

One laments, with a bit of nostalgia, that real places very much existed in America as recently as the early 1950’s, with there own styles, local

dress mores, accents, and even food habits. There were places like Cross Creek in Florida that ate its own alligator soup, Key West where

Hemmingway could escape to write, New Orleans with its own music and style, Cannery Row with its unique culture of poverty, Greenwich

Village with real thinkers and painters. Even Faulkner’s hometown, Oxford Mississippi, has been transformed into a cartoon of the Deep South,

a stylized hyper-image of itself. Any ambiance that had genuine qualities, or a unique character, was “made over” into a kind of hyper-reality

of what the place once was in the public imagination, depleting its authenticity. These “made over” packages were then marketable---products

for sale. Tourism became a vehicle to distribute these products to millions of consumers. These hyper-real settings provide relief to the real

urban ambiance of Coca Cola signs, McDonald Arches, and curtain walled buildings.

If religion was the opiate of the masses in the Nineteenth Century, Walt Disney is the opiate of the masses today!

Tourism/Urbanism

In such a milieu, it seems appropriate that most genuine architecture is in the form of new art museums! And most genuine art is found in

those museums. Galleries, where something “new” can be seen, either sell high-end “art investments,” or trivial “arts and crafts” brick-a-

bract. Again these are largely destinations for tourists, who are the consumers of these products. There was a time when people traveled,

without any planned schedules or destinations. They were seekers---adventurers! In fact the entire concept of “tourism” has emerged from

consumer societies over the past several decades. The key requirement of the new tourism is that “nothing should happen!” There should be

nothing unexpected, unplanned or serendipity. The new tourism that is conceived and packaged, allows people to consume places! Tourists

use expressions like “let’s DO SPAIN” next year. Having DONE SPAIN, they will have to “do” some place else the following year. Again,

consumerism! Tours have been designed, packaged and produced so that the essential qualities of a traveler, an explorer, or god forbid, an

adventurer, are methodically distilled from the product. All risks, all dilemmas, and all strange people have been removed. Tourists do not

need ingenuity to solve problems, to mediate with people, or to just plain make friends. In fact they want to consume people, instead of meet

them. They feel uncomfortable unless the native people are being paid by them to do something for them.

Tourism has become an analogue for urbanism. Variety, diversity, and experiences are to be removed. Nothing unplanned, nothing unforetold,

in short---nothing new should happen!

Meaning Systems

Having thrown up that paradigm, I would now like to drift into my work in the Himalayas. Here we are planning a new capital city that is an

over-lay on to an existing scenario. To describe that scenario fully would take thousands of words. So, instead I would like to explain to you

what a prayer flag is! In a way it is an analogy to an urban design.

In its most simplistic form, a prayer flag is a form of votive offering. A very long strip of cloth is tied along a very tall pole! The color of the

cloth signifies a mood. The mood may signify an event, like a death in a community, or the initiation of a new house, or the starting of a new

season! It may just forebode of good will! If one looks closer at the cloth, there are characters hand painted or block printed on to it, which are

in fact words, which lay out mantras. As the wind blows over these flags, it is believed that the mantras are endlessly let off in to the breeze,

and that they float about over the city.

When one walks through Thimphu valley, along the Wangchhu’s clear streams, they are enclosed by verdant forests, which reach up the

mountain walls from the river. There at the top, or better said, at the edge--- making a silhouette of the hills against the endless blue sky---one

can make out a strange articulation. If one looks more closely, and analyses that edge, it is finely articulated by rows of large prayer flags, of

varying heights and configurations, presiding over the city, letting off their favorable mantras!

So we have this image and there is also this hidden meaning. The city is being protected, enriched and empowered by this guardian wall of

auspicious prayer flags!

There are other artifacts, with other meanings. There are mani walls, or prayer walls; there are prayer wheels; there are chortens with prayers

inscribed within them; there are lakhangs, or temples, and there are monasteries full of monks. There are also gateways, which welcome

visitors. There are decorative signs and symbols, which emanate good feelings. And there are prayer flags that preside over the Thimphu

Valley and gather the geographic space into a “place.” Spaces are empty; places are full of meaning!

All of these artifacts---all of the meanings they communicate---charge the atmosphere with an aurora. The mutual understanding of this

meaning system, and the sharing of its aurora, generates a deep form of conviviality.

These artifacts then, are kinds of mechanisms created to generate meanings. And these meanings are shared feelings and sentiments of the

inhabitants. These meanings are the essence of their community.

So now there are the elements of “shared meanings,” and “conviviality” in place making.

Urban Verbs

Just as Kevin Lynch defined districts, boundaries, landmarks, etc. as the nouns of urban design, I would propose these meanings are the

“verbs.” They begin to move feelings and sentiments in directions, just as static, immobile “nouns” in literature need verbs to “get things

going.”

In this context decoration becomes important because different motifs become symbols of various intangible attributes: like “good luck.” By

applying, what appear to be decoration, onto these components, additional meanings and emphasis is provided. Are these then not the

adjectives and adverbs of urban design?

All of these signs, symbols and elements become a language, which “speaks” a knowledge system.

The “auspicious” is elemental to the Bhutanese knowledge system; just as the “rational” is elemental to our own Western systems of thought.

The Urban Uniform

New York City, the Cartesian grid, the ‘x’ and the ‘y’ axis, are all our tools for thinking. We Westerners are mental animals of paradigms; we

tend to think of one thing versus another, of ’x’ versus ‘y.’ We like a world of good versus bad, of polar views. We feel very comfortable with

questions which ask if there is a god or not, but the idea of their being multiple manifestations of something, or many aspects of an idea, is

not a comfortable proposition. Part of this emerges from our written tradition, as opposed to verbal ones. The written tradition means we must

be able to write things down, and that begins to mould how we think. For example there are thousands of Hindu gods! It is not really practical

to write about several thousand gods---One with a few saints---that’s within the bounds of the written media. Verbal traditions are more

expansive, flexible and imaginative. Pagnini, the two thousand aphorisms on language, was put to written form four hundred years after it was

created. It was passed on over those years through root memory from teacher to student! Consider a mandala? It is a four dimensional

diagram! It is a diagram of the universe, which describes matters in terms of mythological beings and places and relationships between

places. Most important, every significant thing is a manifestation of something else; and has hundreds of forms of manifestations! These can

be ‘avatars’ or accretions. And these are not mere forms of things, but interpretations of feelings, moods and attitudes.

The experience of ‘this life’ then is an adventure, that of a traveler, not of a tourist. Nothing is sure, or truly understood, or if it is--- it can be

looked at in many different ways. Milind Kundera, in The Art of the Novel, opines that ‘uniforms’ possess the Western mind. He explores the

possibility of a culture of ‘multiforms.’ He laments the fading of individual choice, the loss of the inner freedom; the absence of uniqueness! I

feel we must address the same issue in urban planning and design. In another essay, Slowness, Kundera vents his anguish on the ‘hyper-

experiencing’ that characterizes contemporary life. Everything is momentary, fleeting, at high speed; one image comes quickly over the other,

like the nervous clicking from channel to channel, from website-to-website, while one is still bored even of the clicking itself! What is most

disturbing about the emerging, consumer generated ambiance, is that it is a kind of media for a Cartesian, monosyllable kind of thinking. It is

devoid of variety, of differences and of manifestations. It is fundamentalist in the worst sense! There is a subtle fascism in it all. Boredom is

the least of its sins; mono-thinking, intolerance and a kind of mental blindness are the deeper states, which are causes for concern.

The Ethos of Urban Space

Image-makers are media makers, and we define and design the ‘ethos’ that control essential feelings. “Ethos,” according to Gregory Bateson

who created the term, is the way a culture emotes about events and happenings. When Bateson derived this term he saw it as a tool to

distinguish between cultures according to their defining elements. He knew that the way people felt about events and places, was the way

they were---their essential culture.

Different spaces emote different behavior. In India visitors to Hindu temples, instinctively remove their footwear, regardless of their own

religion. Entering a mosque will evoke hushed silence. While in a marriage shamiana there may be a lot of chitchatting. Places then emote

signals, which request specific forms of behavior, let off an ambiance. Imagineering, no? A thread of history woven into everyday

behavior,yes!

A Design Approach: The Differentiated Web

The basic concept of the Thimphu Plan is to create a network, or movement system, which separates pedestrians from vehicles, and which

promotes movement. By movement, I do not mean movement for fun or pleasure---I mean movement that engenders social interaction! The

concept is not so much a geographic one as a conceptual one. If there are “server and served” spaces, as in Kahn’s sense of things, then the

web is a facilitator to various specialized modules of spaces that have to fit into the web---houses, shops, religious and institutional structures.

We decided at the outset, to use the traditional building components of the Himalayas as a kind of “Logo Set” to play with. The Served Spaces,

or Buildings, could be plugged into or “set-into” this network. We see the network as a “differentiated web.” One line of the web becomes a

long corridor, or as Shadrach Woods would have said, a STEM. The stem runs parallel; along the riverbed and is so planned that over decades

it can adapt to newer, and varied technology. Trunk infrastructure would also run along the corridor. The corridor will be differentiated by

Nodes and by Hubs. The nods and hubs are points in the system that are in fact public transport stops, place of modal split, as well as the

centers of various types of pedestrian precincts! The nature of these precincts are discussed below.

IN SEARCH OF ARCHITECTURE


* * * * *

Architecture through history has always been a part of mentalities which criticize, question and ultimately rule the society. Architects have

always left the lasting images of the societies which patronized them. As societies fade away it is the architect’s foot prints which remain as

the patrons. They leave the final images by which each era is remembered---made into a myth.

Contemporary Architecture

The dominating role of the architect is fading in the fashion-driven market that gives form to most of our environment. Modern civilization

seems to be enchanted by the realm of the image, by projecting the values of “packaging” to the determent of architectural contexts.

Contemporary architecture is seen as a permanent surface decoration; the wrapping of materials around functional interiors. Urban

deterioration and “ugliness” reside in the interaction between economy and politics in a manner which determines the role of architects in

society. Mostly, contemporary architecture is a kind of escape from the vapid world of materialism, into a shallow amusement, or at best into

self indulgent deception. It is aiming at a new creative statement which actually discloses a wide spread dearth of ideas. The architect is

driven by tasteless clients to provide forms, colours and textures which are understood in the media of fashion as “being there,” when in fact

the resultant buildings are nowhere. The architect has merely put his signature of approval on a client who craves for social recognition.

Beyond the graphic frenzy; somewhere past the Babylon of symbols and signs, the abiding force of architecture demands a commitment to

human dignity, an honest expression of materials and technology and a search for meaning, as opposed to the frantic stimulation promoted

by current design trends.

On the Role of Patrons

One must add that goodness lies deep in the human soul and there are patrons [as opposed to clients] who call forth the good in the architect,

and from such a relationship beauty can emerge. Whatever good we can achieve, lies deep in our patron’s faith in architecture and the free

hand they give to “create something beautiful, which would be a lasting gift to the world.” Inundated by the desensitized environment, the

thrust of architecture constantly struggles to create precincts of peace and meditation. In such a sanctuary, protected and free from time---

architecture exchanges its mechanical

form, and its crass packaging, for a poetic and mysterious one. The immediacy of contexts and their poetic ambiance reveales what is most

real and fundamental. The architect must aspire to construct a sustaining spatial domain that goes beyond the allure of mere packaging.

Architecture and Fashion

Architecture reimpassions a world whose values have been destroyed. In an era when civilization has deployed its most devastating forces

against man and his environment, architecture must maintain faith in a transcending future: a future that can mend a wounded world, crippled

by the onslaught of signs, symbols, images, tricks and flippant styles; a future that challenges a society immersed in self-indulgent visions.

Architecture ceases to be a mere “package” when it ceases to conjure fashion, and it begins to unfold its unique pursuit. It is in the bliss of its

presence that architecture deducts from all the chaos a life - affirming reality.

Architecture and Context

My own pursuit for architecture was rekindled in the vast Sahayadris Mountains; in nature; where trees meet the sky; a place of

unencumbered horizons, yet where nature dominates each possible view. There is a resolute beauty in the profusely barren hills of this

dispersed environment, haunting in its solitude---not a solitude filled irreverently with the urbane glamour of disposability. The ever present

mountains tenaciously project fantastic architectures of shade and form. During the hot seasons the mountains offer no shade from the

relentless sun. During the monsoon the mountains offer no protection to push back the storm unleashed. In this natural setting one can not

hide in fashions.

The mountains cast cool radiant shadows over villages, over lakes; across rivers and vast territories. Each shadow pointing to another; not

contrived on economic impetuses [like a city], not devoid of any shared, transcending vision [like a city]. This is not a setting for the fabricated

urban packaging, all wrapped in yesterday’s new idea. Architecture in such a setting must take a stance resisting alien, urban conditions,

rather than a perpetuating attitude towards them. In this context I built my own institute, CDSA and more recently the Mahindra United World

College of India.

Principles which Guide Design

The task of struggling in this awesome landscape, trying to find a meaningful way to build, drew me toward some abiding principles. It was

under the cover of these principles that I felt prepared to address the mountains; to work with nature and to reject fashion. Let me be more

specific about these principles---what values I feel should rule architecture:

Context

A building should be part of its context. It should reflect and extend the scale, proportions, textures and colours of the parent area. It should

integrate into the existing movement system, into the contours, and into the visual back drop.

Scale

Buildings should engender a human scale. An inhabitant, or a visitor, should be greeted by a low-level landscape and entrance; move in under

low spaces, or through a small foyer, and then be introduced to larger spaces which emphasize the human scale through counter-point. There

should be motifs, like windows and doors, which scale down massive walls; or motifs like water spouts---which are almost antropromophic---

which throw poetic shadows over strong stone walls.

Proportion

Buildings are assemblies of elements and motifs. These must all relate to one another. The sizes, measurers, placement of things, and

locations of elements, must all fit into a system. Like a human body everything has its place, its proper size, its relationship to all the other

parts. What appears to be fanciful must have some deeper logic.

Simplicity

“Genius,” Albert Einstein said, “is making the complex simple, not the simple complex.” In architecture this means one defines a language. For

each element [support/

span/enclosure] of a building, or a campus, one must define the simple “words” one wants to use and stick to them. For “support” one could

use the word stone bearing wall; for enclosure, one could use the word glass sliding walls; for span one could use the word sloped tile roof.

What ever the words, choose them carefully and stick to them.

Nature

As far as possible we should use natural materials, expressing their inherent beauty. Climate, budget and context may temper this; we may

have to dress a brick wall in plaster clothes and colour the plaster with paint. But we should seek out natural colours---earthen hues! Our

buildings should not appear like over-decorated and painted hardequins. The natural beauty should come out. This aspect can be enhanced by

merging landscape with built form---bringing the outside into the building. Courtyards, quadrangles, verandahs and porches all work toward

this end.

Function

Buildings have specific functions, and more important generic functional systems as well. They demand to be divided into long spans and

short spans; into noisy areas and quite areas; into public areas and private areas. The “zones” must be connected by an appropriate

circulation system, dividing pedestrians from vehicles; service areas from user areas; etc.

Motifs/Decoration

Buildings are not mere machines to live in. They transcend mechanical necessity. But the spirit of transcendence must not be confused with

the glitter of costume jewelry, with gaudy make-up---a kind of interior decoration turned inside out! A more relevant search may be for

“motifs” or “objects” which solve little problems, and in doing so add an element of delight to our work. These could be water spouts;

columns; steps; ottas; little windows, doors, statues, reliefs and lintels. These could be incidental, yet powerful adjectives and adverbs which

describe and embellish our architectural language. These details must be used with constraint and consistency. They must play against the

strong “nouns” and “verbs” of the architectural language [support enclosure, and span].

When I faced the Sahaydri Mountains; when I was constrained to speak in their hills; both humbled by their immensity, and encouraged by my

ego, these principles became my code and with a certain confidence I attempted to create architecture.

DE- SCHOOLING ARCHITECTURE


* * * * *

“I wanted a different structure…one that would be like a monument. Of course if Christopher even designs a square building it will be a

monument”, said Dr. Gunwant Oswal, founder of The Center for Life Sciences, Health and Medicine (CLSHM), a center that treats brain and

neuro-developmental disorders, especially in children, based on a holistic system of medicine. From 1968- 2000, Dr. Oswal operated out a 800

sq ft clinic in Pune’s Bhawani Peth; however as word of the efficacy of his complementary system of medicine spread, he felt he needed a

larger space to carry out research and treat children with special needs. For two years Dr. Oswal looked for an appropriate site, a place where

children and their parents would feel at ease. Finally he found a quiet site on a hill in Kondhwa with a sweeping view of the city and adjoining

forest land.

And then there was the quest to find an architect who would design premises that would be conducive to his practice and patience. Seeing

Christopher Benninger’s design of The Mahindra United World College on the outskirts of Pune, Dr. Oswal, approached him carrying with him

the tome ` Frank Lloyd Wright, a Visual Encyclopedia’, with post-its marking pages featuring different architectural elements that he wished to

have in the centre. Dr. Oswal’s commitment to his cause of treating special children, not turning away any child for the lack of finances, and

the fact that Christopher is also deeply interested in Wright’s architecture, set the pace for the project. Dr. Oswal invested his life savings into

the centre, supported whole-heartedly by (NAME) his wife; as well as daughter Pooja and son-in-law Shrirang, both doctors, who also practice

at the centre

“I realized this is a project for very special children. They are eager to live and to learn. They are lively, loving and observant. But they are

deprived of the normal joys of childhood; growing up and coming of age. My first intention was to reach out to them, rather than to draw them

into a dull, rectangular, monumental institution which says: “You don’t belong here! You don’t belong in this world!” So I wanted to make a

very different kind of building, but not in a patronizing way, that mocks mental disabilities. I had to allow myself---my child-like self---to

emerge, let go and to speak out. I had to de-educate myself from all of the Cartesian ways of thinking; the X and the Y axis; the squares,

rectangles and boxes, which for normal children is called SCHOOLING. I realized that I too had been taught in squares and boxes; taught to

think in parallel lines! It was very easy to stick in that tried and true path, but the result would be a box!”

“In my “letting go”; in my DE-SCHOOLING of ARCHITECTURE, I travelled through a trajectory which crossed the trajectory of my user group.

This is how I very consciously took on the behemoth of CARTESIAN THINKING and tried to break that down the way an ancient army would

attack a fortress wall: ramming the closed door of thought; breaking the walls of false knowledge; destroying the culture of thinking which

would put me into a BOX! In my struggle to de-school myself, I could come up to the beautiful, uncluttered level of existence of these special

children where they can see things putatively, naturally and in the essence. I realized that seeing things generically, getting a glimpse of the

essence of things, is seeing beauty!”

After spending hours discussing the project, over several meetings, one day looking at a tile roof-courtyard scheme, Dr Oswal asked, “But how

does the wind travel through this structure?” The question offered the solution for the design. “In the end it was the westerly winds which

ordered the structure into a series of pathways for wind to travel in, which we would also walk in! Air and people would move in the same

channels, which like the wind would meander about! The high walls on the south would provide shade from the southern sun! There would be

pocket gardens and secret places. There would be plantation here and there, and each space would integrate with some outdoor space. The

angular wind walls would form a honeycomb of indoor and outdoor spaces and places, generating a lot of energy”, says Christopher of the

unusual (X sq ft) complex with a 200 ft frontage and spreading across a basement, ground and first floors.

A hint of the architectural approach of the complex is offered at the main entrance where flower beds seem to define the compound and the

main boundary wall is set away from the road. “In Europe institutions are filled with people in the evenings. I wished to offer a similar

expression. So the main wall is set within the premises and there are low broad steps for people and passer-bys to sit”, says Dr. Oswal.

Beyond the steps, transparent gates offer entry into the complex graced with pristine white walls creating a sense of peace and space. “White

walls are something I have always loved since my youth in the Aegean Sea where azure blue waters, shaded white walls, a touch of blue

woodwork and shadows everywhere, caught my attention. I felt in this project- which is a small project -the use of stone might be dark and

oppressive, and used white walls instead. Dr. Oswal shared this concern and the outcome is rather natural”, says Christopher.

The ground floor takes care of all the needs of patients-from the reception room, waiting areas, doctors clinics, dispensary, green spaces to

relax, a pantry, an area for patients and their parents to dine, a lotus pond, statues of the Buddha as well as of a mother and child in open

spaces –that are easily reached as the building runs along two meandering west-east movement lanes that offer shade and catch the cool

westerly breezes and direct them through the structure. The first floor has a bedroom, a guest bedroom, terrace and lobby; while the

basement, with direct access also with a ramp, is a venue for seminars. Along with the pockets of flowers and foliage within and around the

structure (planted with a variety of exotic, indigenous and foreign plant varieties), the all natural flooring of Jaisalmer, Dholpur, Red Agra and

Kotah stones make for a natural and soothing ambience. The gentle mist of water droplets being sprayed on plants cools the temperature,

offers a soothing sight and its soft murmur is also soothing.

The bonding with nature is also conveyed in the slightly sloped water spouts that return rain water to the earth.

Walking through the building, space -enclosed and open as well as interior and exterior- engages and merges with another. “The idea was that

each out-of-doors space would have two or three relationships with at least two or three indoor spaces! And each indoor space would relate on

its sides with sequential outdoor spaces. Thus, there evolved a number of sequences, links, chains of experiences which would always be

different in iteration, depending on the way you moved in the labyrinth. The skylights and the light wells and the light courts are all vertical

and horizontal mechanisms to achieve this”, adds Christopher. The columns are triangular and were placed to turn spaces into arcades and

make the spaces integrate as one. They are fitted with coloured ceramic tiles to enliven them and make them playful.

Apart from designing a center that would be child-friendly, there is also a commitment to being eco-friendly as no wood has been used in the

design; solar panels have been fitted to warm water; and most importantly space and materials have been used to minimize dependence on

electricity. While there are tall glass windows inside the building that bring in natural light, breeze and outside views, there is hardly any glass

on the outside. “We really are not inconvenienced when the electricity goes off, because the rooms are all full of natural breezes and light.

What else do we need fossil fuel energy for? Maybe the gadgets that clutter our modern life need power. But the architecture here is “energy

free.” I think this can always be accomplished if one leaves openings on several sides; if one uses light shafts and wells; if one mingles nature

in courts and walkways. These things come naturally in India where the climate is salubrious”, says Christopher.

The architecture and design of CLSHM conveys a meeting of minds and hearts of the architect and client, and their commitment towards

creating a space and environment that offers visitors with special needs much needed solace, as well as a positive, enriching and meaningful

experience during their visit.

OMENS OF A MAGIC GIFT


* * * * *

As a child I spent my days drifting in confusion. Nothing inspired me. Neither my teachers nor my studies enthused me to seek knowledge. My

parents thought by putting me in school I’d be educated; by putting me in sports I’d become athletic; by putting me in a church I’d be in touch

with the ultimate truth! They confused religion with spirituality! Most of what transpired in these institutions seemed like a dull black cloud

hovering over me, with no respite.

What did move me were the autumn leaves in reds, yellows and oranges and their winter nude fingers reaching into moody skies. Come

snowfall and the black fingers would frost into white powder, momentarily melting, and then freezing stick trees into gleaming crystal

candelabras of ice-glass, glittering up-side-down in the bright sun. These were the things that grabbed me and drew my attention. My personal

life was composed of all things natural and my friends were the squirrels in the trees and the rabbits in the forests. These were all omens of an

organic truth to be revealed!

Thus, I was composed of two different parts, each amplifying the meaning and the meaningless of the other. Like the yin and the yang, a white

and a black force intertwined within me, chasing after one another. The black made the white more pure and beautiful, and the white made

the black more foreboding and ominous!

One Christmas Day morning my eyes were drawn to the one gift I had not foraged in my parents’ usual hiding places. I knew all of the others

from looking under beds, in the attic, or on the high shelf over my father’s cupboards where he hid his condoms and porn magazines. So I

reached for the unknown first, as my family members all gasped with hypocritical surprise opening boxes they’d all secretly discovered only a

few days before. Like all children that fateful morning I reached out for the most intriguing gift first, but unlike the others this portended to be

a talisman of my future! It was a magic book that would change my life forever.

As I read the first words, sentences, paragraphs and pages of Frank Lloyd Wright’s The Natural House I discovered who I was, and what I

wanted to be. I gained my first insight into what my life’s search would be all about. Reading the pages I felt like a reincarnated avatar

discovering who he had been in previous lives and what he would be in the future.

It was not just that I liked the designs, the drawings and the photographs, or that I gleaned meanings from the words; it was a testament that

unfolded a truth in me that in fact had always dwelt deep within me! Something that had always been there slumbering inside of me,

concealed from my consciousness, was now unfolding. I suppose this is called inspiration, or even self discovery. From the moment I

openedThe Natural House I did not put it down until I had completed the last page. In a sense I have never put it down and I am still reading

it in my soul, discovering and searching for what inspired me on that Christmas Day more than a half century ago.

When I closed the book just past midnight I was living in a different world. I walked out of my house into the freezing air with thousands of

stars glistening in the vast heavens. Everything I saw looked different. It was not only nature that was singing a song in my heart, but my soul

had switched on and my mind had started to think. I saw things I had never comprehended before. Finely carved balustrades caught my fancy.

Sculptured stone gargoyles made me smile. Sliding my fingers over materials I could sense their inner souls and I spoke to them. I argued with

sloppy workmanship and clumsy details.

Wright taught me that the human mind is an analogue for all things beautiful and all things ugly. He taught me that a human being is both a

monster and a saint all rolled up into one, capable of creating incredible beauty, or of inflicting deplorable destruction and ugliness. It is only

the mind that separates us from other animals making us the monsters of terror and the creators of poetry, art and architecture. We alone

may know the exhilaration of transcendence!

After reading The Natural House the yin and the yang within me merged into one presence, instead of playing against each other,

exhausting me, the black force empowered the white beauty. I was now driven in whatever I did. I gave up on education and embarked on an

inner search! Something magical had grasped me. I stopped attending church and I found spiritual moments in fits of creative discovery.

Such a moment of self discovery is what I call INSPIRATION!

It is a flash of wisdom that calls out to us, telling us what we want to be and forces us to yearn to be that. It catalyses life’s search; it embeds

an urge; it creates a desperate need to seek what we do not possess; it beckons us to know our inner soul; it sets us upon a path from which

we can not return.

Wright taught me in that simple book to seek the generic order in things; see beauty in the truth! I understood that buildings are merely

mirrors of the people who live in them. They reflect how people behave, how people think, what their aspirations are and how they deal with

materiality. They illustrate how evolved people are in their spiritual realizations; whether they live for material things, or they employ material

artifacts to reach transcendence. They place people and societies somewhere along a scale between beasts grabbing at survival and saints

blessed with transcendental awareness. Architecture distinguishes people who only “take,” from patrons who nurture and “give.” Buildings

indicate the extent to which people are in touch with the environment in which they live; the extent to which they are a part of the places

within which they build; and are harmonious with the social traditions and modalities which bring bliss and peace.

But life is not a fairy tale story. It is a maze of choices and we have to learn as we go. We make some good decisions and some bad ones. But I

believe we are driven by our GENERIC INSPIRATION to learn from our mistakes and move on. We are guided to recognize lessons when they

come our way and to learn from them! With the fire of inspiration inside of us, life itself becomes a great university of learning. We are

learning lessons all the time.

Let me share some lessons that life has taught me. I feel my rendezvous with Wright, his inspiration, made it possible for me to learn from

them.

ONE: To gain something beautiful, one may have to give up something beautiful.

Until age fifty-two I was immersed in an academic career. I was designing buildings only for my friends who were social workers, and for

myself I designed a campus. One day sitting in my lush green garden campus in near Pune, surrounded by fifteen acres of fruit trees,

flowering plants and verdant lawns, a young architecture student came unannounced to meet me, insisting to have our picture taken together.

Like many students who visit the Center for Development Studies and Activities he was studying my designs and my campus layout!

At that moment I was completing the fiftieth policy paper I had written on “development” and it struck me that no student had ever come to

have a photo session after reading one of my hefty papers!

At about the moment we said “cheese” I immediately decided to quit my post as Founder-Director of CDSA, and to devote my remaining life’s

efforts to architecture. Amongst other things, I had to give up the sprawling campus I had created for myself and move into a tiny rented

apartment studio with modest equipment. The decade since that fleeting decision has never allowed me time for regrets, or even to look back

with nostalgia! But I had to give up my very own little dream world, created over twenty-five years, to seek transcendence through my art. By

giving up something beautiful, I found something more beautiful!

TWO: It is better to BE what you are than to SEEM what you are not!

Human beings are conformists by nature. We feel comfortable when we look like and act like the people around us! We seek norms and

standards, instead our inner reality! We think we are searching individuality and freedom when in fact we are mimicking personalities and

images we aspire to be like. We are seeming to be what we are not!

In 2001 I made a presentation of my new capital plan for Bhutan at the European Biennale, along with some of the greatest painters,

cinematographers and architects of our times. I noticed something very interesting. To seem a “creative artist” in Europe you must wear the

black uniform of an artist! To be a creative youth in Europe you must attend concerts waving your hands in the air just like several thousand

other conforming youth, pretending to be “free!” To be different, unique, and “an individual,” you must wear the “uniform of the different!”

You must wear a uniform----dress totally in black; wear black shoes; black socks; black pants; black belt; black shirt; black tie and black jacket!

Even your underwear must be black. I realized that for these people, in fact for most people in the world, being creative is not a form of

liberation, but is living a lie! There are people who never design anything, never write, never draw, and never search, never question, but who

dress in the black uniform of creators. They are not being; they are seeming. If I have any lesson from Wright to share with young students

and old men, it is to BE, and not SEEM!

THREE: Don’t be euphoric when people praise you, or depressed when people criticize you!

In Buddhist thinking there are axioms called the Sixteen Emptinesses and there are two of them where I have learned to keep my emotions

“empty.” I became euphoric when my design won the American Institute of Architect’s Award: 2000, but having reached the final list for the

Aga Kahn Award in 2003, I lost! I realized that my happiness should come from the process of design and from my own understanding of my

efforts’ inherent beauty. About the time I settled with myself in this philosophy of emptiness, I learned that the project which won over us for

the Aga Khan award was disqualified as a fraud; the authors had misrepresented it as a design created by the village people! But that did not

make me happy either! I have learned that creation is a patient search, and is not some kind of competition. To be true to one’s art one

must be empty to both praise and criticism and know oneself! Truth is the ultimate search of all artists.

FOUR: Even then I feel, “It is better to Search the Good, than to know the Truth!”

I suppose it took me too long in life to distinguish between Ethics and Aesthetics; Morals and Artistic Balance! Ethics is a rather exact science

of rules; of right and of wrong; and there could be some generic truth within them! However this world is not black and white, but rather grey

and fuzzy! On the other hand, aesthetics is the search for pleasure, which I call “The Good!” Pleasure is gained through the senses: feel, smell,

taste, sight and sound. These elicit excitement, contentment, fulfillment and a range of human happiness’s! Thus, we find the good in the

sound of music, in the rhythm of dance, the taste of food, the arousal of romance, the smell of flowers, the stimulation of art, the titillation of

reading and discourse and the inspiration of architecture. But one can have too much of a good thing! Aesthetics is a question of balance, or

what the Buddhists call the “Middle Path.” Beauty is a search for that Golden Mean, that harmony which brings all forms of visual, sensual and

intellectual pleasure into balance! Harmony is the search. If you are a lover of food, don’t eat too much; don’t over do this or that spice; don’t

cook too long or too less! If you love wine, don’t drink too much, but be sure to drink some! In your love life don’t be too passionate, or too

neglectful!

The Good Life, or the Sweet Life, is all about balance, pleasure and the pleasure principle! I realize that most of us are trapped in our Victorian

fear of pleasure and have no aesthetics! We are on an endless trip seeking the truth! We are judging others, meting out what is right and what

is wrong; dying as empty drums that never made ourselves happy, or spread that happiness to those nearby them. Art and Architecture are

the paths to “the good!” They stimulate enjoyment, delight and balance...la dolce vita…the sweet life! It is better to search this good life than

to think one can ever know the ultimate truth!

FIVE: There is only one form of good luck: having good teachers!

Years ago the industrialist Adi Bathena, who founded Thermax Industries, introduced me to his ninety year old teacher. Adi himself was

seventy-six! We were sitting on the lawn of the Turf Club and Adi went into a long story how he quit his comfortable job at age forty to risk all

in a new venture making boilers. He explained to me his middle class roots and that it was not within him to adventure out so far financially.

Smiling at his teacher, he noted that without his encouragement, guidance and assurance he would have continued in marketing Godrej

products as a salesman. Then he turned to me and said, “Christopher, in this world there is only one kind of good luck, and that is to have

good teachers!” I have never been able to forget that truth over the years that followed, and I realize that my teachers at Harvard, MIT and in

India have been my only “good luck.” They gifted me inspiration, that inner need to search! They challenged me to do better, they taunted me

to work harder; they opened new windows through which I could see myself in some distant future; they were role models of hard work and

devotion.

THEMES AND MOTIFS IN ARCHITECTURE THE DILEMMA OF STYLE


* * * * *

One of the characteristics of being human, a characteristic not found in other species, is the ability to use symbols and signs to manipulate

concepts within one’s mind. Here I do not mean using symbols for the mere communication of ideas. We go beyond the intellectual life of fish

and birds and formulate ideas, constructions and concepts.

Our ability to conceive things is critical to human development. Symbols are used in human thought to stand for things which are not present.

Words are symbols we constantly use. Imagination is the human function of making images in our heads.

Human being can imagine situations which are different from those in front of their eyes. A child can remember absent things, but only later in

his development can he manipulate non-present things, even adding components he has invented, but never seen. We explore a fantasy

world and experiment with the rational world in our minds.

As architects we are interested in the rational exploitation of future experiences. We want to visualize in our minds different images and

alternative situations in terms of built form which can arise out of the same given conditions [site, regulations, programme, geo-climatic

context, budget etc.] Though the constraints are very limited the variety of images is great! Our language of build is full of symbols which

allow us to create fabrics of build in great variety.

Caught in a world of vast choice, how does a designer go about deciding on which mental image to pursue through an investment of effort in

design? Unfortunately, like a child; most designers can real intellectually one with things they can remember having seen. Or thing in front of

them! They have not developed their ability to manipulate absent symbols. Creating new symbols, perhaps a third stage of imagination, is

beyond their consideration. Only education can overcome this gap.

The above lacunae bring forth the need for style! Styles present the designer with a ready made “kit” of images to choose from in which

different assemblages appear “new” or “different”. At best the designer pulls forth in his imagination bits and pieces of absent things which he

has already seen assembled according to simple rules usually in magazines.

Post modernism is the current style for the simple minded. It is a system of symbols [Greek pediments, classical columns, Palladian rose

windows, and “period” windows, etc. which can be thrown together to make interesting facades. Even images from Disney World have been

taken into the pantheon of readymade, post-modern, components. Whatever weakness this style may have is overcome by the application of

expensive materials [granite, Italian marble, minored glass, tinted metals etc.]. A kind of make-up, like lipstic, is applied as if buildings, like an

unattractive person, can be ‘treated’ for defects according to occasion of time of day.

The legitimacy of symbols is an area of debate. As a classicist I believe that our architectural language must emerge from the THEMES of

construction. Quite simply these themes are:

[a] Support

[b] Span

[c] Enclosure

To explain this let’s consider the theme of SUPPORT. We are limited to bearing walls, on the one hand, and columns on the other. There are

geodesic and hyperbolic alternators, but these are limited in applications due to cost, labour and constraints of techniques.

We basically have to choose between a frame structure and a bearing wall. But herein there are numerous choices as to materials, geometry,

configuration. At the CDSA campus I have chosen a simple system of parallel stone bearing walls. But their orientation, rigour of spacing, and

play against one another build a higher order of positive – negative rhythm. Likewise SPAN is a simple system of beams running across these

walls with tiles above. ENCLOSURE is in the form of sliding glass panels. It is in the simultaneous choice of THEMES and their inter relationship

that imagination is required. Motifs are stuck on later! At CDSA the motifs support the themes by locating vistas [windows], modulating wall

planes [window boxes] and directing movement in space [ottas, stairs, small walls]. Directionality and orientation are confirmed [only

confirmed mind you!] by statues, pots and various anqtiques. But all of the motifs we have applied are incidental to the overall effect of the

building cluster. We could have successfully used a totally different set of motifs, maintaining the essential themes.

Architecture, true architecture, emanates from a language of themes, not motifs. Post modernism is constructed on a language of motifs. It

does not qualify as architecture. It is exterior decoration wherein motifs are applied to wall surfaces just as interiors are “finished.” Architects

are not in the business of decoration. God knows, however, that there is a great need for many buildings [inside and out] to be hidden under

decoration. But this is a kind of cosmetics, rather than a search for raw beauty. Intellectually, the manipulation of motifs is child’s play. It

would be better to design as birds and bees do: they use single minded fabric of build [wax honey comb or woven basket nests] and stick to

their THEME. Yes, bees and birds who can’t think per force of nature, build architecture, while the thinking mind makes a mess out of motifs!

DECORATION.

We are not the doyens of a fashion industry. We are not the slaves of an ignorant quick-rich cliental who know nothing of architecture. We are

the guardians of an intellectual tradition in which principals of proportion, structural systems, appropriate use of materials, choice of

meaningful motifs are the essence of art. It is the ability to make components of build into symbols and configurate them through of relation

that architecture emerges; architecture of some lasting value; architecture which represents man’s higher aspirations.

Style is the illness of the feeble mind. Be it post modernist, Punjabi Baroque or Ethnic – style is merely an excuse for something which has not

been conceived.

TIMES JOURNAL OF CONSTRUCTION AND DESIGN


* * * * *

Question One :

Background: I became an architect at age twelve when my aunt presented me with a copy of Frank Lloyd Wright’s The Natural House. After

unwrapping my gift, I sat down to read it staying up the entire night. In many ways I have never put that book down as it contains all of the

truths and principles one needs to mold his creative mind. That was a quirk of good luck. I say good luck, because “good luck” is having

good teachers, either in the flesh or through their words. By the time I entered university I knew the plans, sections and elevations of every

building designed by the leading architects of the early Twentieth Century. I was fortunate at the age of eighteen to study in Florida at a time

when masters like Paul Rudolf and others had found retreat there and an entire new school of contextual modernism was emerging. As its

leaders moved north into the mainstream, I followed to Harvard University where I studied and later taught. There I was the beneficiary of

good luck yet again, having teachers like Jose Luis Sert, Shadrack Woods, Fuhimiko Maki, and many more. While team teaching I worked side

by side with Jane Drew, Doxiadis, Walter Gropius, Gerhardt Kallman and others who were acclaimed masters. The modernism I was part of

involved aesthetics, technology and social issues. The latter drew me to urban planning and to the Massachusetts Institute of Technology

where again good luck struck with teachers like Kevin Lynch, Herbert Gans, Haracio Caminos, Don Shawn, Negroponte guiding us. These

masters formed a true gharana of intellectual thought, and they could trace their links from teachers to students to teachers right back to

Michelangelo! A summer symposia on Constantinos Doxiadis’ ship introduced me to Arnold Toynbee, Buckminster Fuller, Margaret Mead,

Barbara Ward and Jacqueline Tyrwhitt. All of these people lent me their personal assistance when I founded the School of Planning at

Ahmedabad and the Centre for Development Studies at Pune. From them I learned to ponder various maxims like “more is less,” a house is a

“machine for living,” or “form follows function.” A weekend with Phillip Johnson at his glass house in New Canaan Connecticut introduced me

to his definition, “architecture is the art of wasting space!” Meetings with Luis Kahn on the IIM,A campus and back in Philadelphia taught me to

be honest to my work and ruthless in its pursuit. My teachers are a great burden on me as I owe them everything. I listen to them everyday as

I work; I hear their criticism; I sense their impatience with me; their devotion haunts me!

I came to India on a Fulbright Fellowship in 1968 and bang, again I landed in Balkrishna Doshi’s new School of Architecture at Ahmedabad.

People like Vikram Sarabhai and Kamla Chowdhry were part of a small coterie of intellectuals who all argued and discussed the myriad of new

institutions coming up. These were indeed heady days when the roots of modern India were being tempered and defined. I returned to

Ahmedabad in 1972 to found the School of Planning, as a Ford Foundation Advisor there. I never left India after that!

Question Two :

Experiences versus Images : Yes, I am more into designing “experiences” than “images.” People are not cameras! They are not sitting still

forever focused on some clever angle or image. They are moving, feeling and thinking about where they are and the nature of the ambiances

they move through. That is a kind of intelligence my partner, Ramprasad, who is a psychologist-anthropologist calls kinetic intelligence. There

is no IQ test for that, but it is fundamental to the human experience. People are always absorbing what they see and they leave an

environment with memories, fuzzy no doubt, but strong impacts on their psyches. They are not really passive participants as they walk

through space, which impacts on them emotionally and intellectually. A space may help them grow in their kinetic intelligence, or it may

suppress their growth….most spaces do the latter. The IT and BPO offices coming up today retard people’s kinetic intelligence. They numb

their senses and block natural perceptions. A stimulating space should make people critical, make them ponder, make them ask questions.

My creation of the Mahindra United World College of India was one of the first projects where I took a mature architectural language and used

that vocabulary to design everything “in motion,” like we were creating a film. The story was not lineal and historical, but spatial and kinetic!

The design was more sequential and cinematographic in that one scene, or sequence was created to fade seamlessly into another; or to

abruptly change the scale, or suddenly open up a vista. The YMCA International Centre at Nilshi Lake in the mountains, and Dr. Oswal’s Centre

for Neurology are further developments of this theory and approach. These are all experiential works, not just objects, forms and images. They

are living, inter-related experiences.

Question Three :

Communicating : Yes, architects, cinematographers, novelists, singers, actors all want to leave some personal mudra, or stamp behind.

Maybe some archeologists a thousand years down the line will use tooth brushes to unveil our works? What we build is our “lean on eternity,”

for better or for worse. For some this becomes a kind of race to be different! They loose touch with their contexts!

This Litmus test of the quality of my work is the response of common people….farmers, laborers and drivers! Many, who visit the Centre for

Development Studies, which I designed for myself, feel that it is a religious or spiritual space. They remove their shoes without being asked.

They sit and meditate in the main court. They become silent in their ways and whisper to one another. They are in a transcendental mood and

they are inter-acting with my spaces. They are giving back to the spaces the respect that the spaces give to them. Seeing this, my ego is up-

lifted. As an artist I feel the completion of a circle.

Art is not for magazines and journals, for exhibitions and lectures….it is for everyday use, like shoes and combs! Yet, there must be that extra

“lift” that takes people out of the day to day humdrum and up into the beyond. Architecture, to be art, must tap the nerves which are unique

to the human race; nerves which can create tears and laughter; nerves which can make us dream! To create such experiences, one can not

pretend to be sida-sada! An artist is after something intangible. S/he is clever in their craft! To move from the mere hint in one’s mind that this

intangible exists, to its creation through the medium of the senses takes a lot of personal confidence, a lot of perseverance. Art is not for those

who wallow in humility. I prefer honest arrogance to hypocritical humility. But I am not creating edifices and images just as personal

monuments. I am creating spiritual places where personal spirits dwell; I know that my creations are no temples, but I also know that those

who come there may be in touch with the transcendental. If I am remembered for that I am happy!

A transcendental place….one just comes upon it. One momentarily leaves this earth and dwells in another world and experiences the non-

programmatic in life. The day to day is left behind. I see this in the faces of my workers as they leave my sites in the setting sun. They walk

away; they pause; they turn and look at their work; and they smile. It is a special smile of satisfaction one gets from creating something

esoteric and lyrical through the medium of the physical. It is not the smile of a man who cuts a piece of stone. It is the smile of a lyrical poet,

and these common people become energized in the knowledge that they are part of something greater than a pile of bricks. In watching their

faces I get my greatest satisfaction as an architect. They are after all, the makers of my thoughts! I cherish their sentiments, more than any

art historians!.

Question Four :

The Edifice Complex : But what I have said above must not be confused with the “Edifice Complex.” Today there is a lot of nonsense created

by illiterate designers who are like screaming children looking for attention. Instead of finding harmony with their context they purposefully

insult it! A crazy red wall; sad faces painted on a dome; pink and black stripes to get you to turn your silly head! These retarded, anal

retentive infants mistake inanity for creativity. They are not aware that we are put here to create a timeless way of living. We are part of a

past; breezing through the present; and creating the future. That is a huge responsibility. Instead of sublime smiles, they evoke the laughter of

ridicule. Yes, there are commercial architects who are happy if they can only turn your head!

Question Five :

Awards: The Mahindra United World College of India is one of my favorite projects, not just for its introduction of kinetic architecture, but as a

piece which draws from the mountainous scenery, from the local language of build, from the programme, yet breaks away from the

“programmatic!” There is something far beyond stones and concrete. There is poetry and lyricism. But the piece was born out of the faith of

clients who soon became patrons of the arts. Keshav, Harish and Anand Mahindra all placed tremendous faith in me and that faith was a huge

weight on me. Frankly, no one knew what the buildings looked like when we issued the line out drawings. I knew in my mind. I had my little

sketches. My team knew my language and could quickly convert it into working drawings. We were just keeping ahead of the contractors. The

American Institute of Architects/ Business Week Award should have been given to my patrons, not me!

I am designing another campus now near Lonavala for a self made man in the shipping industry in Singapore. He studied in the School of Hard

Knocks, not at Harvard or MIT. But like the founders of the great institutes he is creating the Samundra Institute of Technology which will be a

maritime institute unlike any other in the word. It will not just be functionally different, it will be a spiritual place. He is always pushing me,

arguing with my team, questioning the field team and pushing our capable contractors to do things faster. His passion for the end result, and

for the very creation itself, catalyses our spirits. This is what creates architecture from the creators. People, who start out as clients,

unknowingly become the patrons of the arts. We are merely their vehicles!

Question Six :

Directorate of Town Planning at Hyderabad: Chandra Babu Naidu asked me to create a center for governance in the form of the new

Town and Country Planning Directorate in Hyderabad. I had won a competition and he called me and said, “let’s do it better; let’s make it

people friendly; let’s make it eco-friendly; let’s say something new about the way government works for people.” We made a huge parasol to

keep the sun off of the building! We let a fine mist of water float down from within it, so it would evaporate, passively cooling the air; Air-

conditioning which is free, clean, healthy and natural! In their wisdom the new government has asked us to proceed with the design.

Question Seven :

The New Capital : In Bhutan I was honored with the commission to prepare the new capital plan of Bhutan at Thimphu, built over an existing

town. A small country, Bhutan has the highest per capita income in the SARAAC region. Within that Structure Plan we have designed fifteen

Urban Villages, an Urban Core and the Trashi Chhoe Dzong Urban Design. The Dzong is an ancient fortress-monastery seven hundred by two

hundred and fifty feet! Around it we are designing the National Secretariat, the Dharma Sthal for four hundred monks, an upper house of

parliament and other buildings. These all draw on the past, on the timeless way of building, on the Bhutanese dharma system; on the natural

environment and available materials. Rivulets become green finger parks defining small areas for building Urban Villages. The Wang Chhu

becomes the natural spine of the plan. An urban Corridor links the entire valley with clean, rapid, mass transit. A walkway about an upper

contour, where the forests begin marks the end of all construction. All of this is falling into place. It is guided by my ten principles which I call

the Principles of Intelligent Urbanism. These deal with balance: balance with nature, tradition, efficiency, conviviality, opportunity

systems, mobility, and the civil society. What is emerging is a contextual approach to planning, to urban design and to architecture where the

relevant elements and components of the past are critically analyzed for their future relevance, and these are applied, along with new

technologies and functions to create a uniquely Bhutanese architecture.

While Tibet and Ladakh are merely copying the past, creating museum pieces out of new artifacts and fossilizing their cultures, Bhutan is

enriching a living vernacular; a living culture that is full of vibrancy, variety and richness! The challenge of working in Bhutan is to know the

past, analyze it respectfully and to use it as a spring board to create a new future.

Question Eight:

Sustainable: Sustainable architecture is part of a larger issue: “A timeless way of living; a timeless way of building!” This has to do with

lessons from the past, dealing effectively with the present; and using this wisdom to build better and more relevant futures. Today is already

yesterday! With each pen stroke we are designing new cultures and societies. Efficiency, energy conservation, mental balance, hygiene and

health are all essential for our future survival. Democracy is a greedy beast; each politician wants to line their own pockets with the

degradation of future generations as the price tag. It is only people, people’s movements, educated and concerned citizens who can reign in

this avarice. Architecture has a role to play in this movement. Architecture is not just sticks and stones….it is a social craft, with social

responsibilities! Aesthetics, technology and social concerns can all integrate into one. The very word “profession” means that we profess a set

of values! At the Samundra Institute of Maritime Studies we are creating the largest single photo-electric wall in the world with the help of Tata

BP! This will power a great deal of the institute passively through renewable energy. We are using sun protective louvers to block the heating

rays! Simple cross ventilation contributes too!

Question Nine:

New Starts: My up-coming projects include the new air-conditioned indoor stadium and civic center in Ahmedabad. I have engaged the world

famous structural designer Massimo Majowiecki who created the light weight roof over the Rome Olympic Stadium. We are using local

materials and craftspeople and the native talent of Ahmedabad’s formidable professional community to achieve our goals.

This past week in Thimphu, I have been working on a concept for the new upper house of parliament. It has to find its roots in the past, but be

an icon for the future democracy. We are seeking compelling imagery from the regional context, yet critically transliterating it into a

contemporary idiom and vernacular. This results in a timeless way of living! Yes, we are jumping into the future, but we are floating on the

parachute of the past!

Question Ten :

Some Advice? If I had a message to the construction and design communities it is to become one community and work for society and our

clients. We are inter-linked, inter-dependent and complimentary. Today architects and contractors work at logger heads. Not aware of their

own interests clients promote this, thinking wrongly that such conflict is healthy competition! The fault lies in our colonial way of managing

construction. Item-rate tendering is a bad way to do things. Ideally, rates would be quoted only when concept sketches are complete and the

detailed technical drawings would then be developed jointly by the architect-contractor team. Each would own up to the approach, the

technologies, the materials and the joinery. The present system makes the architect into a watch dog, and the contractor a seeker of

architect’s faults. The client is the ultimate looser. The architect and the contractor live to work “at each other” another day! We must change

this archaic system and change it fast.

LOST SPACES: The Search for Public Domains

Prof. Bhagwat, Diana Menzies, Jayant Dharap, Distinguished Frs.


* * * * *

URBAN PLANNING IS TOO IMPORTANT TO BE LEFT TO URBAN PLANNERS!

GAPS IN URBAN INFRASTRUCTURE ARE GRABBING ATTEN.

CHALLENGE IS LOST QUALITY OF LIFE.

WHAT IS DISSAPPEARING IS OUR:

*. Slow, calm, convivial life style in the name of being busy! What happened to strolling at night chatting with friends; throwing a blanket in a

garden; playing with the kids; chance meetings with strangers; exploring lanes.

SLOWNESS TAKES ON A CLUSTER OF VIRTUES WE ARE FORGETTING.

*. Contemplation, dialogue, thoughtfulness, introspection.

BUSYNESS IS CONFUSED WITH PRODUCTIVE WORK:

E-mails, sms’s, cell talk, driving, memos, meetings…

Prioritizing gadgets and machines/ they dominate us!

WE ARE NOT ONLY LOOSING OUR PUBLIC SPACES AND HISTORICAL PLACES WE ARE LOOSING OURPERSONALITIES!

THIS IS WHAT IS CALLED DEVELOPMENT!

What are professionals doing? We are contributing to this!

*. Stand alone buildings in walled compounds;

*. Focusing on the interior atrium…not outside;

*. Making elevations, not the “in-between places”;

*. Screaming babies we want attention thru strange structures, instead of integrating with the context;

*. Putting roads/flyovers in river and canal beds, sea-sides, on hills, urban forests and urban farms;

*. Destroying footpaths to widen roads/create parking;

*. Glorifying bad planning ideas (New Urbanism) to create jobless, gated, expensive, ghettos for the rich.

URBAN PLANNING HAS TAKEN A BAD IDEA AND SPENT ONE HUNDRED YEARS TEACHING PEOPLE HOW TO DO THE WRONG THING

BETTER.

PUBLIC SPACES ARE THE VISABLE VICTIMS! We are the losers! What are Public Domains?

*. Spaces which bring people together;

*. Spaces which catalyze conviviality;

*. Spaces which have a formal function, with informal activities;

*. Serendipity venues; Unexpected, pleasant things happen;

*. Built for one thing, they often celebrate another.

*. Spaces which belong to everyone;

*. Spaces which are secure, yet allow a variety of dress and behavior.

*. Where one can be alone amongst many!

*. Nice, interesting, open, clean, secure, friendly spaces.

PUBLIC SPACES BECOME PLACES WHEN THEY ENGENDER SUCH QUALITIES.

There is a hierarchy of PUBLIC DOMAINS from national, iconic and formal places, to city domains, to district domains, to neighborhood

domains, to community domains.

In Bhutan we were asked to prepare the Structure Plans for four cities, including the capital, Thimphu. We were asked to detail them out in

terms of participatory, land pooling local area plans. All of these designs were structured about public domains and networks. Then we were

asked to design the National Capitol Complex to facilitate the advent of democracy (Upper House of Parliament/ten ministries/ PMO/ Supreme

Court/ Monks Dharmshalla/ Tshechu Ground/ eight Fold Path/ Labyrinth of the 16 Emptinesses).

IN THIS ENDEAVOR WE ATTEMPTED :

1) To bring public ceremonies from inside to outside;

2) To prioritize the “in-between” spaces;

3) To integrate within the traditional building context;

4) To create a completely walkable, garden public domain;

5) To symbolize the sanctity of the State (Dzong); the Rule of the constitution (S. Court); the separation of the Executive and the Legislative;

to give a place for the people; to distinguish between the “popular” and the “sacred”.

6) Make the Green dominate and to protect it in a Precinct.

7) To create a national ICON for DEMOCRACY.

8) Visually structure the complex around the Utse/the Trashi Chhoe Dzong/ Sacred alignments.

9) To anchor the Chorten Lam! (Linking valleys /provinces-Dzongs-tradition).

10) Use sacred symbols (chortens/mani walls/ prayer wheels/ gates/ paths);

11) Engage the people and the leadership in a dialogue on the public domain;

12) Act through Design!

Companions and Early Mentors at the Beginning of a Long Journey


* * * * *

As a teenager four young teachers touched me and motivated me. One, Norman Jensen, a little known but great painter, would laugh at my

aerial view sketches and ask me, “Why don’t you draw what you see?” Harry Merritt was a classic modernist, building unpublished

masterpieces in North Florida. Though shy for publicity, he carried the stature of a Master. He made us proud to be young architects. He was

an “architect’s architect” who made us follow strict rules. He preached a truth in every decision, shooting rational questions at our every line.

“If a closet projects out of the wall on this elevation and it’s doing the same thing on another, than the expression has to be the same!” He

called this “honesty of expression.” Robert Tucker was a teacher to the core. Thoughtful, humorous, probing and penetrating, he knew how to

take us down into the depths of our weaknesses, only to pick us up to euphoria of some small strength the next day. He knew the craft of

creation; he saw within each student their own little nugget of gold; and taught us all how to become small jewelers, crafting within the

limitations of what we had, instead of wishing to be something we were not! Blair Reeves was a father image who nurtured young architects,

having them by the dozens to his beautiful modern wood and glass house for food and slide shows of the masters’ works. His own house was a

living example which he need not talk of…it was there! He taught the introductory course to architecture hopefuls, wherein about two hundred

aspirants were registered for his lectures. In the first lecture he would ask everyone to stand up. Then he’d ask the front half of the students to

sit down, stating “this is how many of you who will be left at the end of this course!” Then he’d ask half of the hundred left to sit down, saying,

“This is how many of you who will be here at the end of this first year!” Finally, he’d have twenty of us standing and say this is perhaps how

many of you who will graduate as architects; of whom half of you may ever build a structure you design!” But Reeves was not the terrorist this

story makes him out to be. He was a thoughtful nurse to the survivors! As the semester wore on, and the number of empty seats grew, he

introduced to us the huge canvas of modern art, architecture, design and the people who created the modern movement. His true love though

was the preservation of historic buildings and he introduced us modernist fundamentalists to the fact that we have a history, that we live in a

history, and that we are a part of the continuum of history.

Many of my mentors were my classmates and contemporaries. Marc Trieb who teaches at Berkeley and I shared a small “match-box” cottage

in Gainesville. His recent books analyze what makes modern landscape architecture what it is, how the Bay Area Style emerged from its

context and how Le Corbusier conceived the Electronic Poem! At the 1962 American Institute of Architects Annual Convention in Miami, we

ignored the thousands of commercial architects down for the party, seeking out Paulo Solari and Buckminster Fuller who were there to win

Gold Medals and give major lectures. Solari was very approachable, walking about in leather shorts and barefooted in the grand Americana

Hotel. On the last night there was a huge dinner on the open grounds of the Hialeah Race Course where thousands of happy architects ate and

drank, catching up with old friends. Aged only nineteen, Marc and I had yet to discover the miracles of hallucinates! Totally sober we walked

bored about the tables of drunkards, laughing and singing merely! With some amazement we noticed Fuller and his wife surrounded by

admirers, but alas drunk admirers! We joined the table and managed to move the discussion from boisterous questions, into things more to

Fuller’s interest! After a few minutes he turned to us and said, would you like to join my wife and I back at the Americana? Bright eyed youth

that we were, we jumped at the opportunity. In the coffee shop we stayed up until two in the morning, asking a few questions and getting long

answers. Some years later on Doxiadis’ yacht in the Aegean Sea I was amazed when the great man walked up to me, shaking my hand, and

asking what I had been doing over the past five years. This was the kind of personal touch, which today seems unbelievable. Marc Trieb has

gone on to be a great teacher too. Bruce Creager and Gene Hayes, just a few years our seniors kept us spell bound with their seemingly vast

experience readily shared with us over candle lit dinners and wine. Lydia Rubia was an artist and a powerful designer who mixed her Latin

passion with a keen rationality to create wonderful designs. Peter Wilson has continued through the years to be my alter ego. Daniel Williams

has become one of America’s leading Green Architect. Thomas Cooper is a devoted New Urbanist with whom I can openly argue a

counterblast. Garry Rigdale accompanied me from Florida to Cambridge and returned to Gainesville to devote his life to teaching. Luis Kizonak

joined Harvard with me, topping our first semester and became a leading designer for TAC before he prematurely died in Kuwait of a stroke.

Edward Popko creates the IBM software from which great ships are built, and many others who were my classmates from those times have

gone on to gain recognition in their chosen paths. At MIT and Harvard my classmates and later my students were great sources of inspiration.

Urs Gauchat has gone on to turn the New Jersey Institute of Technology School of Architecture from no place to some place, giving up a

successful practice in Boston to do so! Michael Pyatok, my closest confidant in Sert’s Masters Class, is America’s leading proponent of

affordable housing. He builds what he talks about! Christine Boyer, at Princeton, has written the profound analysis on planning and capitalism,

which is required reading in every school of planning. Anna Hardman carries on our tradition at MIT, enriching students and fellow faculty.

What I am trying to emphasize here is that like sand on the beach, gurus are everywhere. It is for us to find them and to learn from them.

In Herman Hess’s classic Siddhartha, a student walking in the forest seeking The Great Teacher, happens upon Lord Buddha and asks him if he

knows where The Teacher is. Lord Buddha explains to the boy that there are no teachers, only seekers of truth!

When I went to Harvard University to do my master’s degree in architecture and to study urban planning at MIT, I was surrounded great

teachers, who had loomed in my head like rock stars did in my contemporaries! Walter Gropius was actually a real person! He walked and

talked in our midst. His wife, Alda Mahler Gropius, was a mother figure to young students. Sert, then Dean, had started the world’s first urban

design course, and was a pioneer in the dialogue between architects and urban planners, being both himself! Jacqueline Tyrwhitt, founding

editor of Ekistics, would never leave a bad idea alone! Gerhard Kallman, architect of the new Boston City Hall, was an icon of the 1960’s for

his bold and daring statements. Jerzy Soltan, who built Jacqueline Tyrwhitt’s lovely home Spiros in Attica, and co-author of Le

Modular, challenged students, faculty and guest critiques on any topic possible. Juan Miro, the Catalonian painter, was often in residence as

Sert’s childhood friend. He painted amazing black forms on Sert’s patio walls, turning them into masterpieces! My Master’s Class of twenty

candidates dwindled down to sixteen within the first month! That was before the days when Harvard filled chairs to collect its humongous

fees! There were high standards, ruthless performance expectations, and a family atmosphere amongst the survivors! The sixteen of us were

privileged to have our own time and friendships with Yona Friedman, a colleague of Soltan’s in

Team Ten, Louis Mumford, Fuhimiko Maki, Dolf Schnebli, and other past students of Sert, who came back to crit and jury our works. At MIT we

had Kevin Lynch who wrote the Image of the City, John F. C. Turner who wrote Freedom to Build, Herbert Gans who wrote The Urban

Villagers, Lisa Pittie who invented Advocacy Planning and Lloyd Rodwin who was the Master Regional planner! Shadrack Woods at Harvard,

who had just won the competition to design the Free University in Berlin, and was preparing the new plan for Toulouse, was notorious for his

fiery arguments at juries, usually ending in his apartment at Peabody Terrace at three in the morning, with loving students and young faculty

still throwing hypothesis. These were all people who took us students into their homes and hearts and invested their time into our personal

development, as well as our academic and intellectual molding! We worked, studied, questioned, analyzed, drank, partied and ate together.

Their combined intellectual and human force was like a juggernaut plowing through all obstacles! They understood the necessity of carrying

students along with them, as their investment in the next generations. They knew that they did not live for the moment, but for the future.

Some of the people who had the most profound impact on me were not my formal teachers. Teaching design studios with Roger Montgomery,

Gerhard Kallman, and Jane Drew, who all became guides in my search, left me with a personal legacy.

Sir Robert Jackson gifted me a life subscription of the Ekistics journal in January of 1963 when we met briefly at Adlai Stevenson’s apartment.

From that journal I came to know of a larger world, and one not as happy as that I had grown up in. Some years later when I was a student at

Harvard, Jackson’s wife, Barbara Ward, took me under her wing as a protégé. She thoughtfully invited me, at her expense, to attend the Delos

Symposium in Greece. I flew to Paris and bought a Mercier ten speed bicycle and proceeded the next fifteen hundred kilometers via road, with

my Harvard roommate, Christopher Winters. Reaching a bit exhausted, but in great spirits, I was yet again welcomed into a new world.

Constantinos Doxiadis, Margaret Mead, Arnold Toynbee, Philippe Hera, Roger Gregore, Edmond Bacon, Katherine Bateson and many others

were aboard Doxiadis’ yacht which meandered through the Aegean Sea, stopping at Mount Athos, Samothrace, Thebes, Mikanos and finally at

the Delos amphitheatre, where the Charter we had all worked on was read out by Margaret Mead with the sun setting over the Aegean Sea

behind her. At Samothrace Toynbee and his life companion, Veronica, asked me to accompany them up a steep hill behind the Samothrace

Temple, from which the Winged Victory of Samothrace had come. Toynbee surmised that there should be the ruins of an ancient Crusader Fort

there, which did not figure in any of the literature. Surely when we ascended to the peak of a small mountain, the walls stood testament to his

academic prowess! In his eighties at the time, the small mountain climb was no easy task for Toynbee! Looking toward the east I saw an

amazing sight. The entire horizon was covered in an ominous, dark pall of haze! “My God, what’s that, I exclaimed!” Toynbee laughed and

said, “Oh, that’s Asia!” Having spent most of my life in Asia I always think of that day as prophetic! I didn’t know then that my life’s work


Alex Tzonis, who was a young professor of architecture with me at the Graduate School of Design, along with his brilliant life partner Liane

Lefaivre, have continued to encourage and teach me all at the same time. Their publication of my work, the Mahindra United World College of

India, in their recent book called Critical Regionalism, has been a source of encouragement. At the risk of boring my readers I have

searched over my past with fond memories. I feel there is a lesson in this small review, which is that teachers challenge one, fire one’s will to

struggle for truth and become good friends too. Maxwell Fry founded the modern movement in Britain in the late 1920’s. On each journey

traveling back and forth between America and India in the 1960’s and 1970’s, I always relaxed for several days at Jane Drew and Maxwell

Fry’s Gloucester Place townhouse. As Jane’s life partner, I fell under Max’s influence. He and Jane, along with Le Corbusier, had designed

Chandigarh, living in India. We had much to discuss and share. Maxwell Fry was the man who offered Gropius half his thriving practice so that

the master could escape from Germany, getting out while he was still alive! “Come and take half my practice, but for God’s sake get out!”

Gropius was instructed by all well wishers at the CIAM meeting in Venice. Without packing their bags they just left for London, leaving the

Bauhaus behind along with their precious art works and personal effects! Maybe the Second World War was a great cauldron which molded

giants out of midgets. But the humane nature of these giants, were the distinguishing features separating them from the midgets around

them.

SYMBOLISM AND GEOMETRY OF THE NATIONAL CAPITOL COMPLEX OF Bhutan


* * * * *

We are presently engaged in the preparation of the urban design of the Trashi Chhoe Dzong Capitol Complex covering about one and a half

square kilometers. This design is a necessary precursor to the design of the various components of the capitol complex. In this activity we

have to keep in front of us that we are not merely accommodating functional needs for space; we are creating the future symbol of the nation.

VENACULAR AS SYMBOLISM

Each culture, its society and the nation which governs it, has a unique identity! It is this identity which distinguishes one country from another,

evokes national pride and empowers individual citizens with the courage to protect their culture and way of life from being over-run and

dominated by alien cultures. Cultural identity inspires people to create lyrical gifts to their nation in the form of literature, the arts, music,

dance, architecture and design. In an era of globalization, of cultural imperialism and of regional hegemonies, national identity is paramount to

national survival. It is culture which gives legitimacy to the idea of nationhood.

We cannot assume that Bhutanese culture will just somehow survive and that through benign neglect that it will continue to grow and flourish

independently, as it has done for centuries. Mass communication, education and urges to be part of the larger world all can act against the

survival of a culture and therefore its people as an independent society. Mainstream culture, as evidenced in North American, Europe, India

and China, is essential for polyglot, heterogeneous societies of large nations, but can spell the end of smaller and more unique communities.

One may shrug their shoulders and say, “So what?” This is a casual and irresponsible response. The mainstream, global culture is imperfect.

As it evolves, it exaggerates its embedded features, which may be long term weaknesses. As it grows in strength and assimilates smaller

cultures, it becomes less introspective, less self-critical of its own assumptions and actions. This is an historical cycle evidenced from the times

of the Egyptians, Persians, Greeks, Romans, Germans, British, Russians and now America. The expanding imperial wave finally implodes into

its own centre, and new values, mores and habits are required to resuscitate the world order. Just as isolated rain forests hide the cures to

future diseases, so do the smaller, more unique cultures hold within them lessons for the world as larger societies grapple for answers to

chaos. Thus, cultural regionalism is not a matter of fanatical nationalism, which wrecked havoc over the world in the Twentieth Century.

Rather it is a necessary condition for national survival and for gifting to the world aspects of this uniqueness, as homogenized, mass cultures

loose their potency and relevance. From Ladakh, to Mustang, to Sikkim and to Tibet, the great Himalayan Civilization is threatened with

extinction by films, television, music, fashion, architecture and transportation, cultural diffusion and political hegemony.

Vernacular contents are the local practices, mores, and codes of behavior, language, dress, music, art forms, habits, signs, symbols and

motifs, which are particular to a culture and therefore become the abiding images of that culture. Invading, imperial forces have always

attacked the main icons, or symbols, of a culture first. Occupying Delhi was always the objective of contenders to rule the sub-continent! The

Red Fort was the symbol of governance. In the War of 1812 the British Navy lobbed a bomb into the American Capitol Building Dome, bringing

it to the ground!

Thus, the key symbols of a culture are drawn from the emotive expressions of the people themselves and deposited in monuments, which

then symbolize the entire complex culture. Cultural diffusion, a most implicit process, and cultural imperialism, a very explicit process,

continue as a part of economic and political competition. While opening doors to the outside world, let us not do so innocently! Let there be a

concomitant strategy to protect the identity, culture and uniqueness of Bhutan.

In Bhutan there is a cultural continuum between a small chorten, a mani wall, a cottage, a village lakhang, a large manor house, a monastery,

and the great dzongs. Elements of the small chorten can be found in the largest dzongs, and in fact in all of the architectural expressions of

the land! Yet, there is a huge variety of components even within the dzong prototype. The Trongsa Dzong is organic, the Jakar Dzong has

prominent round turrets; the Paro Dzong is geometrical and the Trashi Chhoe Dzong is a grand, horizontal monument. Thus, the identity of the

Bhutanese citizen, of the community of Bhutanese people, is largely drawn from the architectural imagery, which contains diversity within

unity. While food habits, dress, painting, language, dance and music also play their role, the aspect of governance is largely communicated

through architecture. A unique feature of Bhutanese architecture is that it draws its essence from the vernacular, rather than alien, foreign or

historical imperial references as do American, Indian and European symbols. Perhaps Bhutan’s greatest strength is the continuum of its

national symbolism, rooted in the vernacular iconography and spreading through to national icons!

Like Russian dolls, which fit one with in the other, the artifacts and iconography that make up the architecture of Bhutan, fit in all together.

Yet, unlike Russian dolls, the inter-fitting parts are not merely scaled down replicas of one another. They are diverse expressions, yet with the

same traits!

THE WISDOM OF THE DZONG AND ITS SYMBOLISM OF THE STATE

His late Majesty, King Jigme Dorji Wangchuk, understood this phenomenon in great depth. He understood that for centuries the various dzongs

of Bhutan were the very image of law and order; of spiritualism and sanctuary. He understood that unifying Bhutan around his new vision of

modernization would only be successful if the transformation took place within the cultural context. On his vast palate of agenda were the

freeing of the serfs, creating a national assembly, codifying laws, rationalizing an oppressive revenue system, professionalizing the

administration, entering into relations with other countries and the UNO, building the first roads, telegraph system and electric facilities,

creating a modern education system, health care system and army; and imitating various industries. He initiated the process of defining

distinct branches of governance separating out judicial and legislative functions! On his vast canvas he laid out a huge landscape, and like a

Mandela it required a centerpiece to anchor all of the parts together. Thus, he embarked on the project to rebuild the ancient Trashi Chhoe

Dzong, as the actual and symbolic headquarters of his new state and nation. Using all of the elements and components of the vernacular, he

emphasized horizontal lines, simple geometric forms, and in an approach very similar to the American modernist, Frank Lloyd Wright, created

a contemporary icon symbolizing the new Bhutan. To some at the time the Herculean task of rebuilding the Trashi Chhoe Dzong appeared a

wasteful expenditure on a grand scale. Yet, through this one effort His Majesty gathered into one monument all the ideas, imagery and

meaning held in the country’s numerous dzongs. While earlier dzongs were associated with the penlops and ruling families of particular valley

regions, the Trashi Chhoe Dzong symbolized the entire nation. Herein lies a lesson of great wisdom about the symbolism and the state!

GEOMETRY AS SYMBOLISM

Shapes, their scale, their compositional relationships to one another carry meanings! Within geometry are set the relationships between the

parts. Not just the physical parts, but the roles, powers, hierarchies, functions and most of all the authority of the parts. By placing a royal

palace in the centre of a capitol complex, one is ceding to the monarch total control over the other wings and branches of governance.

Historically Karlsruhe, Versailles and the Rashtrapati Bhavan expressed, through geometry, the singular authority of the rulers. They were the

focal point from which all lines radiated out in a single direction.

The American capitol complex focuses everything on the people’s representatives, the national legislature. Chandigarh places the judiciary,

the legislature and the secretariat in an equitable composition, including the governor’s house representing the state. It is a most democratic

symbol, incorporating the idea of checks and balances.

Thus, the geometric composition of a national capitol is of critical importance for generations to come. Such compositions are mirrors of the

political system and precursors of the future success of the nation. It is now the vision of His Majesty to transform Bhutan into a democratic

nation, where no one branch of government can overpower any other branch; where the ethos and value system of the state are enshrined

into a constitution, which in turn embodies the state!

THE TRIPARTITE NATURE OF DEMOCRACY

A system of division of powers gradually emerged in the governance of nations. This was a long process beginning with unicentric rulers,

expanding into bipartite systems where the interests of powerful land lords were represented in the early assemblies, which later expanded

into more democratic bicameral legislatures, with empowered judiciaries wielding the power of “judicial review!”

Unipartite Symbols

Throughout history rulers have attempted to bring decisions inward, toward a unitary, centralized command. Right from the Pharos to

European Kings, this unipartite system of governance characterized all nations. Versailles is the perfect symbol of this with power virtually

radiating out from the King’s palace. On the city side the streets virtually fan out like fingers from a hand, and the same symbolic structure is

used to lay out the vast gardens on the park side. The symbolic geometry of the Vice Regal Palace in the New Delhi imperial capitol layout,

was devised to emphasize the central power of Her Majesty’s representative in Imperial India; another example of a unipartite symbol. In a

unipartite system of governance all branches of governance are integrated into the state mechanism.

Bipartite Symbols

Many countries like Great Britain, and the countries of Northern Europe, underwent gradual transformations into constitutional monarchies and

then representative democracies, with the monarchy remaining as the head of state, often including the judiciary. There were long historic

periods where the monarchies held the executive and judicial powers, and an elected body created the laws of the land. A bicameral, or upper

and lower house configuration protected the interests of land and property, while also checking popularist frenzy. In Britain this bicameral

system evolved with a bipartite structure separating the monarchy and parliament with the symbolic division between Buckingham Palace and

the Houses of Parliament. Each symbolized a center of power and the two were unconnected. The Parliament and the Monarchy even acted

independently and at odds with of one another, creating conflicting situations.

Bipartite systems usually lead to landed families and wealthy traders controlling the legislative branch, opposing the centralized interests of

the royal families, or even the elected presidents, as is seen in Latin America. In oligarchies, it is usually the wealthy commercial lobbies,

whose interests differ from the national popularist interests, which creates a schism. Economic interests are monopolized and civil liberties are

thrown to the wind. As such oligarchies are not elected democratically, but through an indirect system of representation. They are motivated

by what may be called “hidden agendas,” usually of a monopolistic commercial and exploitative nature. Under such circumstances these

governments are not seeking symbolic expressions, but rather prefer to conceal the operations of governance. In such systems the essential

judiciary branch is suppressed, or non-existent, or just a decorative hand-maiden of the system.

The early American system of representative democracy was in fact this kind of arrangement! Though checks and balances were built into the

nature of the constitution, the right to vote was highly restricted to an educated, male, elite gentry, until the early part of the Twentieth

Century. Thus, Capitol Hill dominates over a large Mall, expressing the power of the elite representatives, who were not democratically elected

through general franchise, but who ruled over the new nation. It took more than two hundred years for the judiciary to mature and to stake its

rightful claim to power. While judicial review is not written into the United States Constitution, it is implied that it is the role of the judiciary to

protect the Constitution. As recently as the 1950’s and 1960’s, where for the first time the judiciary became proactive in guaranteeing the civil

rights of minorities; personal rights took precedents over economic rights. Thus, the Washington Mall represents the bipartite spirit of the

ruling gentry and the indirectly elected president in the White House. Here the PEOPLE were given symbolic representation in the open lawns

of the Mall itself, where there are parks, monuments and various attractions commemorating major historic figures and events. This vast open

space links the bicameral legislative houses to the executive, and later with the judiciary attached. It is an imperfect symbol of what exists

today in practice. Rather it traces symbolically the growth of a mature democratic system.

Rule, Misrule and Unruly!

It is important to note that very few new capitols symbolize democracy with a capital “D”! The new capitol complex in Dhaka was built under

Pakistani Rule, as an attempt to keep East Bengal within its dictatorial fold and only symbolizes a limited regional autonomy. In New Delhi (a

symbol of imperial colonial power), as elsewhere, there are very dated symbolic meaning systems. Interestingly, the Soviet Union remained

ensconced within the walls of the feudal Czarist Kremlin, symbolizing the continuance of central, dictatorial rule. Perhaps the new capital of

the state of the Punjab, and that of Brazil, are the only two modern, democratic symbols available as precedents to study. Others are really

historical fragments, relics of past experiments and adventures, representing rule and misrule, which met with various degrees of success and

failure.

Checks and Balances: Emergence of the Tripartite Concept

In the Twentieth Century the realization that the judiciary has a key role to play as guardians of the Constitution, and therefore indirectly the

state, gave rise to the concept of checks and balances and the tripartite nature of good governance. The judiciary has to see things from a

distance, dispassionately and with a rational, long term view on the implications of new laws, administrative orders and interpretations

affecting the lives of the citizenry. Clearly, from a symbolic point of view, the judiciary has a key role in the iconography of the national capitol

complex. It must be within the capitol complex, have a key axis mediating in the interest of the state and constitution between the executive

and the legislative branches of government! Thus, in the thematic layout of the capitol complex the judiciary must fall in its own sacred space,

at some distance from the other branches of government, yet within the composition!

Therefore we come back to the importance of the concept of the state, its fundamental values, and the Constitution as an incarnation of the

state!

THE STATE: AN EMBODIMENT OF BELIEF SYSTEMS

The concept of a state is an ethereal one, emanating from history and from culture. Whatever values, human rights, and limitations on

authority that are written into a constitution are but mere fragments of the national value system, cultural wisdom and spiritual system. The

laws of a country can be no more just than the values inherent in the people of that country. These values emanate from the ethos of history,

from predominant spiritual systems, from the customs and mores which guide everyday life and from the symbols of these threads, such as

the monarchy, the Buddhists Path and the iconography of the nation. At present these values are held in Trusteeship by His Majesty and the Je

Khenpo. Under a constitutional democracy, His Majesty, as Head of the State, will have the role of preserving and safeguarding the values of

the State and the Constitution which are reflections of the people. It is essential that the symbol of the State, the Trashi Chhoe Dzong, remains

the centerpiece of the Capitol Complex. All of the other branches gain their authority from the State and the Constitution, which lays down

their powers, roles, functions and limitations too!

Some of the ancient values enshrined in the State are:

*. The Drukpa Spiritual Path;

*. The Monarchy: Duty, Loyalty, Judgment, Courage and Truth;

*. Common Wisdom of the Bhutanese People;

*. Tolerance of Diversity within Unity;

*. Catalyst of Modulated Change; and

*. Respect for the people and an ear to their views!

Under the new Constitutional powers, authority will be further disseminated and decentralized into branches. Authority will be given

conditionally, in trusteeship, and can be withdrawn if used unconstitutionally!

THE JUDICIARY

The Judiciary’s role vastly expands under the Constitution. While previously the Judiciary played an impartial role in deciding on innocence or

guilt; judging on the legality of various actions by individuals and agencies under the laws; and as a point of appeal regarding executive

decisions: it is now to protect the State and the Constitution through its review and veto powers over laws enacted by the Legislature and over

orders passed by the Executive. It shall have powers to declare laws unconstitutional and to interpret laws within the context of the

Constitution. It will have judiciary review powers over acts and decisions of the executive branch. Thus, it is essential that the judiciary have a

prominent geometrical position within the National Capitol Complex. By aligning with the Trashi Chhoe Dzong, its reflection of the State

becomes real. By sitting intermediary between the Legislature and the Executive its considered interpretation of the Constitution in judging on

their actions is compositionally established. The Judiciary also has the difficult task of insulating itself from popular frenzy, unjust beliefs and

momentary emotions of the people. It always has to keep the State and the protection of the Constitution, and its values in front of it and not

be swayed by popular sentiments. The judiciary must be shielded from the Plaza of the People by the symbol of the state! This too must be

found in the composition of the National Capitol Complex.

THE EXECUTIVE

Elected Governments form policy and promote legislation required to implement policies. Governments are composed of Ministers, Councils of

Ministers and their Prime Minister. But the actual implementation of policies through programmes and projects is an executive function of the

administration. While it is the mission of the Executive to carry out the Governments’ policies, the Executive is professionally bound by the

laws of the land to act within their own system of ethics, expressed in a Civil Code of conduct. They can not do something unconstitutional or

illegal just because they are told to do so. They have both regulatory and facilitative roles and these powers must be applied in an

unprejudiced and disinterested manner. They take national policy and turn it into programmes and projects. They take political goals and turn

them into objections and even targets! They prepare budgets and monitor expenditure. They are responsible to the people to deliver services

and order, yet they must act within the law of the land and in the shadow of the State! While their policy directives emanate from the elected

leaders, out of the Legislature, they are also responsible to the Head of State for their ethical and professional behavior. Thus, the Executive

Branch of Governance sits between the Judiciary and the Plaza of the People. It is shielded from the Legislative branch by the State.

THE LEGISLATURE

As a participatory and representative system, the new constitutional government will be guided by elected representatives, with both a lower

house and an upper house. This bicameral Legislature will debate policy, create laws, monitor expenditure, analyze government actions, form

commissions to expedite enquires and to monitor the Executive. Most important it will form Governments, elect Ministers and create

committees. The upper house must confirm treaties, declarations of war and review the appointment of senior officials. Committees will have

the critical role of legislative reviews, and even investigations into executive propriety in the conduct of governance. The Legislative Branch of

government must sense the pulse of the people and transform desires and requirements into rational policy frameworks. In theory the

legislative branch can create amendments to the Constitution to check and balance the vetoes and interpretations of the judiciary! The

Legislature must have its own geometry in the National Capitol Complex too. Fortunately, the present National Assembly will be more than

adequate to house the People’s Representatives. An Upper House will also be required, which can be accommodated near by.

THE PEOPLE

Just as the Washington Mall represents the people, so a People’s Plaza will symbolize the people of Bhutan, their common wisdom, their needs

and their desires. It will remind all of the other branches for whom they serve! It will be placed between the Town Core of Thimphu and the

Trashi Chhoe Dzong. It will include a statue, paved areas, landscaped sitting and contemplation areas. It will give every citizen of the country a

place to come and to be a part of the National Capitol Complex in the same manner that the Central Vista in the New Delhi Capitol Complex

arrangement works for the people of India and the Washington Mall works for the people of America.

CHECKS AND BALANCES

The new Bhutanese Constitution enshrines Bhutanese values, guarantees rights of citizens and lays out procedures for enacting laws and the

governance of the nation. It envisions various “branches” of governance, which moderate and modulate each other. It provides measures for

any two of the three branches to curtail the other branches should they behave in an unconstitutional manner.

This is a system of “checks and balances,” and for this system to work each “branch” of governance must have its own strength, identity and

symbolic PLACE in the geometry of the National Capitol Complex. It should be an obvious, transparent, overtly expressed aspect of the system

of governance. Thus, the actual laying out the National Capitol Complex is not just a functional fitting of things into limited space; it is an

emblematic expression of the nation of Bhutan, with deep seated meanings and ramifications. Just as a mandala is an emblematic diagram of

the cosmos, of the order of the universe, so the organization of the capitol is an emblematic diagram of Bhutanese Governance.

A unique emblem would emerge, as Bhutan has a unique history and culture. It has never been ruled over by a foreign power! It has a State

which has evolved through history in a modulated, continuous manner. Though labeled as an isolationist nation, it has in fact drawn judiciously

and consciously from a variety of cultures, societies and nations. Yet, never in haste or under pressure! It has had a benevolent monarchy at

the helm of progress and peaceful transformation. The culture itself sets out rules of conduct between family members, neighbors, village

communities and all fellow citizens. All of these values are enshrined in the culture’s iconography.

EMBLEMATIC VERSUS EMPIRICAL KNOWLEDGE SYSTEMS

Hints vs. tested and replicated/ test of time/ overt vs covert/ embedded vs extroverted

MEANING SYSTEMS and EMBLEMS

URBAN DESIGN AS EMBLEM MAKING

(markers/energypaths/spaces/places/landmarks/boundaries/zones/sequences/connectors/barriers/views/alignments/monuments/landscape/

barrowed landscape)

CRITICAL REGIONALISM

*. Regionalism (human scale/nature/movement/ground/a.t.pay/ap.tec./effic

*. Context as Generator

*. What Time is this Place

*. Critical Analysis

*. Appropriate Technology and Relevant Forms

*. The Role of Motifs

THE SUSTAINABLE CITY


* * * * *

Cities are the engines that pull the economic development train. They are centers of social change, innovation, employment and economic

expansion. They sponsor diversity, tolerance and are a refuge from oppression. They are growing faster than planned for and are yielding

benefits to their hinterlands and nations. But unplanned, rapid urban growth brings a multitude of stresses on the people and upon the

environment.

The Urban Crises of Sustainability

The environment suffers in multiple dimensions as the ground water is exhausted and replenished with polluted waste, poisoning the

subterranean strata upon which city rests. Paving over and closing natural earth filters denies even normal recharge into the city’s aquifer

systems. The water run-off flushes streams and rivers and carries silt into the their beds, raising water levels and accordingly widening

channels, causing erosion on the edges and flooding in storms. Hillsides are encroached upon resulting in the felling of trees, more soil erosion

and more silting. Blocking natural drainage networks causes flooding and the destruction of natural habitats. The general biomass is depleted

as roads, buildings, parking lots and paved grounds replace biomass carpeted areas. Natural migration corridors of fauna are destroyed,

breeding and gathering places of birds disappear and the ecological balance is lost. Waste water is not filtered, or re-charged, into the eco-

system and is dumped untreated within rivers, ponds, lakes and streams. Along with toxic sewerage dumping, chemical wastes from industry

destroy natural life in water bodies turning them into stagnant, toxic breeding cultures for a myriad of micro-organisms whose impact is life

threatening. This is all compounded by building on river edges, making roads within riverbeds, felling trees indiscriminately and is exasperated

by air pollution. The toxic air pollutants emitted by building construction sites, building operations, vehicles and machines cover our human

settlements with a haze of poisonous gasses. Respiratory diseases and chemically catalyzed cancers are some of the tragedies breed by our

new city ecology.

Green City Design

If the human race is to survive and flourish it must address this crisis at the individual level, household level, community level and the city

level. Herein comes the issue of urban planning and urban design. The Principles of Intelligent Urbanism is a set of ten axioms for urban

planning, around which issues can be debated. It provides an integrated method of addressing all urban issues as a factor of the others.

Balance with Nature is an axiom of the PIU that specifically lays out areas where city building connects with environmental degradation. PIU

principles Balance with Tradition and Balance with Efficiency bring heritage assets and infrastructure onto the same page as urban

environment. Without a charter of principles to begin with, talking about sustainable urban design will lead nowhere.

The Essential Planning and Design Actions:

Urban design must employ several essential strategies to turn the tide of the dying city. Green cities are achievable! Buildings, vehicles, waste

and drainage systems, energy consumption, paved areas and machines are culprits that must be addressed simultaneously.

Protecting water bodies is essential. First all dumping sewerage and industrial waste disposal into water bodies must be stopped and

alternative waste methods employed. Many of these waste processing technologies generate composts and valuable organic fertilizers.

Second building within, or next to, water bodies must be stopped in its tracts! This means no roads in rivers! This means a “no build” set-back

from all water bodies and restrictions on all paved and built-over activity. A ninety-nine year notice must be issued to all buildings located

within water front ecologically fragile set-backs. Such encroachments must be phased out and demolished. The land owners must be

compensated within land pooling and TDR schemes. They can be given a tax holiday on municipal taxes to defray their losses.

Protecting hill slopes is essential : As building on the slopes increases the percentage of areas covered by paving and buildings increases.

There must be a proportional reduction in building and paving pressure as the slopes increase. This would be reflected in FSI’s allowed and in

percentages of roads and other paved areas allowed over land on slopes, which would both reduce as the slopes increase.

Mass public transport is essential: Countering the mechanized vehicle is essential. It is both a source of fatal accidents and air and noise

pollution. There are multiple alternatives to driving privately owned vehicles between origins and destinations. Public mass transport must

happen through a variety of modes, such as underground rail, raised rail, rapid buss networks, midi-bus loops, rickshaw zones and pedestrian

corridors. Mass transit that moves large numbers of people safely along high density corridors is the only solution. There must be a

hierarchical network of mass transport systems, each over-laying the other and meeting at nodes of modal split. These modal split nodes are

where different types of transport share termini and stations. An express bus loop may over-lap a raised metro train; or a midi-bus network

may overlap a RBT loop. Cycle and pedestrian pathways may over-lap midi-bus bus networks! These templates and tiers must be shifted and

adjusted to fit each human settlement’s potentials and constraints.

Creating integrated open space systems is essential : The planning of inter-locked open space networks balances nature and allows

pedestrian and cycle movement within the confines and safety of the enclosed corridors. Open spaces will straddle water bodies and reach up

hills along the natural drainage streams. The open space network of a city will mirror the natural drainage system, and include larger

recreational and environmental reserves. As the hill slopes surrounding cities increase in slope the densities allowed reduce to zero and the

hill tops become urban nature reserves. Even relatively level cities in South India have ancient, inter-locked terraced ponds and channels

wherein the slightly higher ones feed the successively lower ones.

Creating the pedestrian realm is essential : Walkable towns and cities is a very “do-able” goal. The number of European examples is

endless and the joy of visiting them is immeasurable. Pedestrian corridors can link into points of modal split and synchronize with the mass

transport network. These links are the life arteries that tie together open spaces and heritage areas. Parking decals must be sold to citizens

who park in the dense, narrow lane precincts of the city core. The price of decals must represent an annual rent for the market value of the

space covered by the vehicle. Stricter regulations regarding vehicular entry within center city, high density areas must be created, including

the sale of annual entry passes. Paris has recently introduced a bicycle system wherein users have swipe cards to unlock and ride cycles. The

first hour is free, and nominal charges are applied to longer usage. Each bicycle is “tracked” in the computer system telling from where it was

picked and where dropped and when racks approach being full a van collects and redistributes bicycles. Bicycles and walking corridors can be

inter-meshed and integrated with open space and water-front systems.

Greening cities is essential : “Greening Cities” is an excellent strategy for reducing ambient temperatures, cutting air pollution and

recharging air. Road- side; riverside; pond-side; stream-side; boundary-side and park planting are all measures to increase the sustainability

of cities at very little cost. Urban forests and roof top gardens and agriculture are feasible components of an ecologically sound city. Simple

technology exists to transform roof surfaces into gardens that also provide significant insulation from heat gain, reducing the energy

consumed for air cooling.

Micro-Energy Systems are essential: Energy generation within cities can be sustainable. Each building site can generate significant

savings through solar water heating. Three to five percent of the buildings’ energy requirements can be generated on site through

photovoltaic or small wind powered generators. Another twenty percent of a city’s energy needs can be generated within the city limits via

wind energy. By the use of sun light reflectors bringing light deep within the building envelopes another two percent of energy can be saved.

Just the use of low energy luminaries can save three percent of a city’s energy requirements. Reflective paints on the roof tops of existing

structures can save ten percent of the cooling costs of the floor beneath the roof!

Linking a green tax to the sustainable performance of buildings is essential: Buildings alone account for more than fifty percent of energy

requirements and pollution in cities. The India Green Cities Movement is promoting green buildings along the lines of the American LEED

ratings system. The Tata Energy Research Institute has promoted TERI standards for sustainable architecture. These approaches result in the

recycling of water, on-site sewerage processing, cutting power consumption for water heating, lighting and air-conditioning, reducing heat

gain in buildings and employing low energy technologies. Any structure on a plot admeasuring 2,000 square meters, or more must be a TERI

accredited Green Building, or equivalent. A scaled system of municipal taxes must be applied to compensate the city for environmental

offenders, applying higher taxes as the structure gets less green points.

Recycling water is essential: Recycling all types of water used, whether within a house, a building, a neighborhood or a city is a feasible

manner of saving water. Numerous technologies for water recharging exist and many cities require new buildings to recharge their individual

sites. Cities are composed of micro-watersheds just as rural areas are, and the principles of watershed management must be applied to cities

and villages alike. Water management begins from the highest areas with contour bunding, planting along bunded contours, stream bunding,

small catchment peculation tanks and lift irrigation. It moves on to water storage cisterns in private plots and neighborhood recharging

systems.

Sustaining a diverse animal population in cities is essential: Attracting fauna back to cities can be done through the promotion of all of

the measures noted above. Roof top bee hives, protected bird mating and nesting areas, restoring river-side habitats and making water clean

enough for fish and water life is essential to create a balanced ecology in cities.

Creating Green Citizens is essential: Green Education is essential for creating good citizens. At all levels of education, knowledge of

ecology, sustainability, conservation of non-renewable resources, environment and green measures must be a part of the educational

curriculum. Every school child must be sensitive to the issues, the problems and the range of possible solutions, if some day we are to have

truly green cities. Each company and public institution must have a green vision statement promoting a “green corporate culture.” The

management of wastes and energy and the recycling of water can easily be improved through participation.

About one hundred years ago the Garden Cities Movement was initiated by Ebenezer Howard. No doubt it was naive, elitist and conceptual.

But it sparked imaginations about the future of green cities. Patrick Geddes, a micro-biologist and community sociologist made plans for

greening and cleaning towns such as Thane. Howard’s idea was to make cities into gardens and parks where people just happened to live.

Geddes’s concept was to involve people in the cleaning of ponds and streams, by linking them to religious festivals and community

celebrations. Frank Lloyd Wright’s Broadacres City was a utopian model based on America’s vast open areas and city based agriculture. Le

Corbusier’s Radiant City envisioned the employment of high-rise construction to free vast tracts of ground areas for recreation, parks and

forests and he either lowered mass transport arteries below eyesight into the landscape with pedestrian over-bridges, or raised the roads up

so that pedestrians and cyclists could freely move about under them in vast parks.

The new capital city of Bhutan plan for Thimphu, designed on the Principles of Intelligent Urbanism, strives to protect nature, and the people

who live within the city. More than fifty percent of land is protected as orchard, stream and river side, open space, ecological conservation and

hill slope lands. In the late nineteenth century great public urban parks and gardens were created.

Cities are people. Cities can be no better than the people who live in them! The Thimphu plan is an experiment and there are many that object

to it and put their personal fortunes above that of society. We have ample models and information upon which to build a Green City model and

apply that model as relevant to our growing, contemporary cities.

*Professor Christopher Charles Benninger has taught at the Graduate School of Design [Harvard University], is a Distinguished Professor at

CEPT [Ahmedabad] and on the Governing Council of the School of Planning and Architecture [New Delhi]. He studied urban planning at MIT

and has advised the World Bank, Asian Development Bank, United Nations Centre for Human Settlements, the Planning Commission, HUDCO,

the National Housing Bank and numerous urban development authorities. His new capital plan for Thimphu, Bhutan presented him an

opportunity to employ his Principles of Intelligent Urbanism, which have been evolved from his work in India, Sri Lanka, Malaysia and

Indonesia. He is on the board of editors of CITIES [UK] and his articles on urbanism appear in Ekistics [Greece], Habitat International and

numerous other journals. Note: all rights are reserved by the author. 1425 words. 23-11-08

THE SUSTAINABLE CITY


* * * * *

Cities are the engines that pull the economic development train. They are centers of social change, innovation, employment and economic

expansion. They sponsor diversity, tolerance and are a refuge from oppression. They are growing faster than planned for and are yielding

benefits to their hinterlands and nations. But unplanned, rapid urban growth brings a multitude of stresses on the people and upon the

environment.

The Urban Crises of Sustainability

The environment suffers in multiple dimensions as the ground water is exhausted and replenished with polluted waste, poisoning the

subterranean strata upon which city rests. Paving over and closing natural earth filters denies even normal recharge into the city’s aquifer

systems. The water run-off flushes streams and rivers and carries silt into the their beds, raising water levels and accordingly widening

channels, causing erosion on the edges and flooding in storms. Hillsides are encroached upon resulting in the felling of trees, more soil erosion

and more silting. Blocking natural drainage networks causes flooding and the destruction of natural habitats. The general biomass is depleted

as roads, buildings, parking lots and paved grounds replace biomass carpeted areas. Natural migration corridors of fauna are destroyed,

breeding and gathering places of birds disappear and the ecological balance is lost. Waste water is not filtered, or re-charged, into the eco-

system and is dumped untreated within rivers, ponds, lakes and streams. Along with toxic sewerage dumping, chemical wastes from industry

destroy natural life in water bodies turning them into stagnant, toxic breeding cultures for a myriad of micro-organisms whose impact is life

threatening. This is all compounded by building on river edges, making roads within riverbeds, felling trees indiscriminately and is exasperated

by air pollution. The toxic air pollutants emitted by building construction sites, building operations, vehicles and machines cover our human

settlements with a haze of poisonous gasses. Respiratory diseases and chemically catalyzed cancers are some of the tragedies breed by our

new city ecology.

Green City Design

If the human race is to survive and flourish it must address this crisis at the individual level, household level, community level and the city

level. Herein comes the issue of urban planning and urban design. The Principles of Intelligent Urbanism is a set of ten axioms for urban

planning, around which issues can be debated. It provides an integrated method of addressing all urban issues as a factor of the others.

Balance with Nature is an axiom of the PIU that specifically lays out areas where city building connects with environmental degradation. PIU

principles Balance with Tradition and Balance with Efficiency bring heritage assets and infrastructure onto the same page as urban

environment. Without a charter of principles to begin with, talking about sustainable urban design will lead nowhere.

The Essential Planning and Design Actions:

Urban design must employ several essential strategies to turn the tide of the dying city. Green cities are achievable! Buildings, vehicles, waste

and drainage systems, energy consumption, paved areas and machines are culprits that must be addressed simultaneously.

Protecting water bodies is essential. First all dumping sewerage and industrial waste disposal into water bodies must be stopped and

alternative waste methods employed. Many of these waste processing technologies generate composts and valuable organic fertilizers.

Second building within, or next to, water bodies must be stopped in its tracts! This means no roads in rivers! This means a “no build” set-back

from all water bodies and restrictions on all paved and built-over activity. A ninety-nine year notice must be issued to all buildings located

within water front ecologically fragile set-backs. Such encroachments must be phased out and demolished. The land owners must be

compensated within land pooling and TDR schemes. They can be given a tax holiday on municipal taxes to defray their losses.

Protecting hill slopes is essential : As building on the slopes increases the percentage of areas covered by paving and buildings increases.

There must be a proportional reduction in building and paving pressure as the slopes increase. This would be reflected in FSI’s allowed and in

percentages of roads and other paved areas allowed over land on slopes, which would both reduce as the slopes increase.

Mass public transport is essential: Countering the mechanized vehicle is essential. It is both a source of fatal accidents and air and noise

pollution. There are multiple alternatives to driving privately owned vehicles between origins and destinations. Public mass transport must

happen through a variety of modes, such as underground rail, raised rail, rapid buss networks, midi-bus loops, rickshaw zones and pedestrian

corridors. Mass transit that moves large numbers of people safely along high density corridors is the only solution. There must be a

hierarchical network of mass transport systems, each over-laying the other and meeting at nodes of modal split. These modal split nodes are

where different types of transport share termini and stations. An express bus loop may over-lap a raised metro train; or a midi-bus network

may overlap a RBT loop. Cycle and pedestrian pathways may over-lap midi-bus bus networks! These templates and tiers must be shifted and

adjusted to fit each human settlement’s potentials and constraints.

Creating integrated open space systems is essential : The planning of inter-locked open space networks balances nature and allows

pedestrian and cycle movement within the confines and safety of the enclosed corridors. Open spaces will straddle water bodies and reach up

hills along the natural drainage streams. The open space network of a city will mirror the natural drainage system, and include larger

recreational and environmental reserves. As the hill slopes surrounding cities increase in slope the densities allowed reduce to zero and the

hill tops become urban nature reserves. Even relatively level cities in South India have ancient, inter-locked terraced ponds and channels

wherein the slightly higher ones feed the successively lower ones.

Creating the pedestrian realm is essential : Walkable towns and cities is a very “do-able” goal. The number of European examples is

endless and the joy of visiting them is immeasurable. Pedestrian corridors can link into points of modal split and synchronize with the mass

transport network. These links are the life arteries that tie together open spaces and heritage areas. Parking decals must be sold to citizens

who park in the dense, narrow lane precincts of the city core. The price of decals must represent an annual rent for the market value of the

space covered by the vehicle. Stricter regulations regarding vehicular entry within center city, high density areas must be created, including

the sale of annual entry passes. Paris has recently introduced a bicycle system wherein users have swipe cards to unlock and ride cycles. The

first hour is free, and nominal charges are applied to longer usage. Each bicycle is “tracked” in the computer system telling from where it was

picked and where dropped and when racks approach being full a van collects and redistributes bicycles. Bicycles and walking corridors can be

inter-meshed and integrated with open space and water-front systems.

Greening cities is essential : “Greening Cities” is an excellent strategy for reducing ambient temperatures, cutting air pollution and

recharging air. Road- side; riverside; pond-side; stream-side; boundary-side and park planting are all measures to increase the sustainability

of cities at very little cost. Urban forests and roof top gardens and agriculture are feasible components of an ecologically sound city. Simple

technology exists to transform roof surfaces into gardens that also provide significant insulation from heat gain, reducing the energy

consumed for air cooling.

Micro-Energy Systems are essential: Energy generation within cities can be sustainable. Each building site can generate significant

savings through solar water heating. Three to five percent of the buildings’ energy requirements can be generated on site through

photovoltaic or small wind powered generators. Another twenty percent of a city’s energy needs can be generated within the city limits via

wind energy. By the use of sun light reflectors bringing light deep within the building envelopes another two percent of energy can be saved.

Just the use of low energy luminaries can save three percent of a city’s energy requirements. Reflective paints on the roof tops of existing

structures can save ten percent of the cooling costs of the floor beneath the roof!

Linking a green tax to the sustainable performance of buildings is essential: Buildings alone account for more than fifty percent of energy

requirements and pollution in cities. The India Green Cities Movement is promoting green buildings along the lines of the American LEED

ratings system. The Tata Energy Research Institute has promoted TERI standards for sustainable architecture. These approaches result in the

recycling of water, on-site sewerage processing, cutting power consumption for water heating, lighting and air-conditioning, reducing heat

gain in buildings and employing low energy technologies. Any structure on a plot admeasuring 2,000 square meters, or more must be a TERI

accredited Green Building, or equivalent. A scaled system of municipal taxes must be applied to compensate the city for environmental

offenders, applying higher taxes as the structure gets less green points.

Recycling water is essential: Recycling all types of water used, whether within a house, a building, a neighborhood or a city is a feasible

manner of saving water. Numerous technologies for water recharging exist and many cities require new buildings to recharge their individual

sites. Cities are composed of micro-watersheds just as rural areas are, and the principles of watershed management must be applied to cities

and villages alike. Water management begins from the highest areas with contour bunding, planting along bunded contours, stream bunding,

small catchment peculation tanks and lift irrigation. It moves on to water storage cisterns in private plots and neighborhood recharging

systems.

Sustaining a diverse animal population in cities is essential: Attracting fauna back to cities can be done through the promotion of all of

the measures noted above. Roof top bee hives, protected bird mating and nesting areas, restoring river-side habitats and making water clean

enough for fish and water life is essential to create a balanced ecology in cities.

Creating Green Citizens is essential: Green Education is essential for creating good citizens. At all levels of education, knowledge of

ecology, sustainability, conservation of non-renewable resources, environment and green measures must be a part of the educational

curriculum. Every school child must be sensitive to the issues, the problems and the range of possible solutions, if some day we are to have

truly green cities. Each company and public institution must have a green vision statement promoting a “green corporate culture.” The

management of wastes and energy and the recycling of water can easily be improved through participation.

About one hundred years ago the Garden Cities Movement was initiated by Ebenezer Howard. No doubt it was naive, elitist and conceptual.

But it sparked imaginations about the future of green cities. Patrick Geddes, a micro-biologist and community sociologist made plans for

greening and cleaning towns such as Thane. Howard’s idea was to make cities into gardens and parks where people just happened to live.

Geddes’s concept was to involve people in the cleaning of ponds and streams, by linking them to religious festivals and community

celebrations. Frank Lloyd Wright’s Broadacres City was a utopian model based on America’s vast open areas and city based agriculture. Le

Corbusier’s Radiant City envisioned the employment of high-rise construction to free vast tracts of ground areas for recreation, parks and

forests and he either lowered mass transport arteries below eyesight into the landscape with pedestrian over-bridges, or raised the roads up

so that pedestrians and cyclists could freely move about under them in vast parks.

The new capital city of Bhutan plan for Thimphu, designed on the Principles of Intelligent Urbanism, strives to protect nature, and the people

who live within the city. More than fifty percent of land is protected as orchard, stream and river side, open space, ecological conservation and

hill slope lands. In the late nineteenth century great public urban parks and gardens were created.

Cities are people. Cities can be no better than the people who live in them! The Thimphu plan is an experiment and there are many that object

to it and put their personal fortunes above that of society. We have ample models and information upon which to build a Green City model and

apply that model as relevant to our growing, contemporary cities.

*Professor Christopher Charles Benninger has taught at the Graduate School of Design [Harvard University], is a Distinguished Professor at

CEPT [Ahmedabad] and on the Governing Council of the School of Planning and Architecture [New Delhi]. He studied urban planning at MIT

and has advised the World Bank, Asian Development Bank, United Nations Centre for Human Settlements, the Planning Commission, HUDCO,

the National Housing Bank and numerous urban development authorities. His new capital plan for Thimphu, Bhutan presented him an

opportunity to employ his Principles of Intelligent Urbanism, which have been evolved from his work in India, Sri Lanka, Malaysia and

Indonesia. He is on the board of editors of CITIES [UK] and his articles on urbanism appear in Ekistics [Greece], Habitat International and

numerous other journals. Note: all rights are reserved by the author. 1425 words. 23-11-08

ARCHITECTONICS : The Technology of Poetry


* * * * *

Architecture throughout the ages has been driven by a three tired agenda. High architecture from the Renaissance to the “Chicago School”

was driven by similar agenda. There has been a continual battle against false styles that impale a fashion from the past upon modern

technology in a manner that hides the true technology under stylized decoration. What you see is not what you get! This commercial, false

style is known as effetism. Over history there has been a concern with new materials and technologies and there has been a concern with

contemporary problems and issues. These three concerns have been the agenda of modern architecture.

Reform and Activism:

First, there has been the continual battle against false “styles” and fashions that employ motifs, details and pseudo technologies derived from

previous eras and promoted commercially using the profession as a mere mercantile vehicle. Whether it was Frank Lloyd Wright in America, or

Le Corbusier and Gropius in Europe, or Michelangelo in the Renaissance, this battle against effete practices has marked the sustenance of

architecture. The armies of the mercantile architects, supported by academic theory, have been a formidable challenge in every age. This

battle has given modern architects a mission, an identity and a cause. [Image One: India House front Facade]

Social Issues and Problems:

Second, Architecture with a capital “A” finds its relevance by addressing the contemporary societal problems of its time. City planning has

been at the forefront for millennia, along with fortifications for defense. With urbanization mass housing in congenial neighborhoods became a

focus. The creation of open spaces and public domains, relevant to the creative association and interaction of social groups, has been a

contemporary focus. In the Sixteenth Century Italian architects were looking for “the ideal” whether it was in the form of the human body, a

country garden estate or a city design. This often led to the generation of prototypical people, perfect templates for urban designs and

idealistic gardens (Leonardo da Vinci’s Ideal Man and Ideal City). In Persia it resulted in a search for the perfect world which is an analogue of

paradise expressed in carpets and gardens (Persian Gardens; Mogul Char Baghs, etc). In our own era, the search for solutions for the masses

of people crowding into cities and living in hovels, without any public open spaces has been the focal point. Architects like Jose Lluis Sert, who

initiated the first urban design course at Harvard; Kevin Lynch who sought the mind’s orientation within large urban complexes, or the Team

Ten group who called for “the humane” in the form of urban spaces and places all herald this cause. Green or sustainable architecture has

emerged as a Twenty-first Century issue. A range of new, urban building types have been addressed in the past century ranging from railway

stations, airports, factories, stadium, towers for housing and offices, schools and corporate buildings. New building types in urban settings

often demanded and exploited new technologies.

Technology:

Third, architecture has always sought out the most relevant technology. This has been true from the Gothic era where “flying buttresses” of

stone were exploited to their maximum; to the Nineteenth Century Expositions where steel and glass were exploited aesthetically; to present

day steel frame towers and post-tensioned flat slabs. Whether it was James Watt building spinning mills in the early Nineteenth Century or

Eiffel creating long span exhibition halls or Paxton exploiting glass and steel or Roebling exploiting tension structures or the “Chicago School”

of architects reaching for the skies with their steel frames, architects have always used technology to push their cause forward. Spanning the

longest distance with the least structural mass seems to be a feat for an architect that carries a tinge of Olympic success. Maillart’s bridge

over the river Arve challenges one’s spirit. Carrying the heaviest loads with the lightest structure is another arena of unspoken competition.

From this competition evolved stone columns and beams, domes that became ever larger, vaults, arches, buttresses, steel frames, shells,

geodesic domes and tents! All of these employed a range of “new” materials and techniques to attach them together. Technology is where

architects merge with engineers into one indistinguishable profession. Together they faced challenges of “buildability” and efficient processes

to bring new technologies into mass production. Discoveries and improvements in stone cutting; mortar; water proofing; cement formulas;

steel; glass; plate glass; sealants, paint, cladding, tensile steel and ferroconcrete have all been answered with new expressions, one more

poetic than the next. [Image Two: View of Maillart’s Bridge over River Arve]

These three agenda operate hand in glove! They are not searches one embarks on as three separate paths which will miraculously rejoin

together. A holism in resolving urban conundrums through integrated technological solutions is the journey. But it is a journey and a search for

beauty, for lyricism and for poetry. Workings through the medium of “things” architects seek the immaterial! It is a step outside of materiality

where architects create the transcendental!

Technology drives architectural forms and character. Walter Gropius and his community of artists and industrialists through the medium of the

Bauhaus saw materials, and the technologies that shape form and join them, as the key to design for to modern living. The nature of wood,

must guide the search for what wood wants to be. Chicago architects studied the behavior of steel frames in composing their towers. The

structure qualities of steel tell us what steel can do for us. Antonio Gaudi studied the flow of forces within a possible structure by hanging

string networks upside down and seeing the shapes they would take on their own and used these natural configurations to pattern his large

works. Frank Lloyd Wright exploited the “cantilever” to achieve a sense of freedom and flowing space. Pier Luigi Nervi exploited buttresses

and shells to create poetic grand spaces. [Image Three: Nervi’s Palazzetto dello Sport]

The marriage between poetry and technology sets architecture aside form plain old engineering! Architects like Calatrava in our time; Pier

Luigi Nervi; Ove Arup; Frie Otto; Paxton; Eiffel; Watts; etc., traveling back into history blurs the distinction between architect and engineer who

were artificially separated through “specialization” and “professionalization” in the French polytechnics and the Ecol des Beaux Arts in France.

Today engineers and architects are struggling to work in an integrated manner with one another. New systems and materials have emerged

which are bringing about a fusion. In my own work we are evolving a language from flat slabs; roofing systems and enclosure envelopes that

create a relevant, expressive architecture. Many architects, working closely with engineers and high-tech vendors, are doing this. Three

materials systems come to my minds which are shaping my work:

Steel:

The workshop at the Samundra Institute of Maritime Studies is an example of close cooperation between an architect and an engineer. In this

structure I first prepared an intuitive design of how I wanted the structural members to be placed. Then my engineer, Bal Kulkarni, worked

with me on the gauges and diameters of the steel tubes and the kinds and sizes of welding and bolts based on my designs of fastenings. We

played back and forth and finally settled upon a solution. Then we put it for vetting with the Client’s structural engineers and added cross bars

for side wind loads and we stabilized the joint between the columns and the floor connections. We created a ninety meter long by eight meters

high photovoltaic wall to the south that both generates electricity and filters light through the jaali-like wall cutting the cost of lighting

drastically. Our design for the new indoor air-conditioned stadium at Ahmedabad is another tour de force in the exploitation of steel and

tensile structures in the roof canopy. Image: [Image Four: View of the Workshop at SIMS]

The Flat Stab:

At the multi-storied Tain Square we explored the flat slab where previously only concrete frame structures had been used. The idea is to allow

each home owner within a labyrinth of apartments to move and layout their own room plans. At the Suzlon World Headquarters we worked on

an 8.4 by 8.4 grid with 1200 diameter concrete columns. This resolved both the parking grid in the basement and allowed the use of open-

landscape modular office systems within the main halls. [Image Five: View of Tain Square]

Louvers:

At the Kochi Refineries Limited we introduced the idea of aluminum louvers to shield a glass wall office building from the blazing sun. We were

inspired by the traditional wood louvers in Kerala temples and palaces. The system keeps the hot sun away form the building envelops and

results in a savings of energy used for cooling. It also reflects sunlight up to the interior ceilings, saving on the lighting costs. [Image Six: View

of Koichi Refineries Limited]

Glass:

Glass is a complex material that can be used with films, by laminating two pieces and by providing an air gap between two sheets that

reduces heat gain and glare. Low E glass cuts heat gain in one sheet. We have exploited glass by facing the vast areas to the North and North-

east; by shading them from sun with louvers and through the application of films, laminating and toughening. [Image Seven: Interior View of

SIMS Workshop]

Roofing Systems:

Steel roofs are becoming more common in our vocabulary. In areas of heavy rain fall, like Bhutan and in the Western Ghats we have found a

new solution for water proofing. New laminated aluminum sheets with insulation are changing the way we address elementary shelter

problems. It is impacting on the way we express ourselves. [Image Eight: Aerial View of Ahmedabad Stadium]

Exposed Concrete:

I have always tried to use exposed reinforced concrete as a pure aesthetic material in my buildings. But the construction profession finds it

difficult to produce the kinds of finishes we get in Japan or Europe. It is simply a matter of discipline. The vibration must be right, the additives

correct and the shuttering and formwork must be clean and well supported to prevent sagging. [Image Nine: View of MUWCI Administration]

Cladding Systems:

ACP sheets are an easy, relatively inexpensive and fast way to complete a building. [Image Ten: View of Stair Silos at SIMS]

The Challenges:

All of these materials offer exciting solutions and creative potentials. Yet the vendors are slow to come on board our journey. When one bends

glass there often are small bubbles; plate glass bulges out from the frame creating wavy surfaces and one still finds marks on toughened glass

where clamps were used. Many suppliers can not give the colors one wants in the LEED rating one needs. Roofing suppliers are ignorant of

LEED ratings of their materials, have ugly ridge joints and employ a very limited vocabulary of sheets, ridges and sofits. Sanitary fittings are

difficult for our plumbers to fit and even the toilet seats are complicated to attach and expensive to replace. Suppliers of structural steel tubes

and sections are limited and what is specified, though in the catalogue, may not be available. Foreign suppliers are not dependable in their

lead times and a few totally fail in delivery.

Integrating our Industry

What we lack is backward and forward integration within the industry. Our vendors are still “dalals” or traders! They are just picking

something up in China, and selling it, “as it is” in India. They should be working out how the material joins with itself in different corners and

shapes! They should be exploring how it is actually applied on sites and how it attaches to other building components. They should be working

on the water-proofing problems where their materials join others. They should be interested in how their systems behave in the Indian sun and

chilly nights, and how it connects to the main structure allowing it to expand and contract! But they are not interested. They can not meet

their demands. They are just trading and selling items picked up there and sold here. There must be a dialogue between our traditional

materials and our new materials and methods. Sandstone cladding can be fixed to a wall in a number of ways. Dry or wet? Stainless steel or

brass? A wet-dry combination? Who knows the truth? It can be integrated with aluminum louvers and wood fenestration. [Image Eleven: India

House Louvers]

One Stop Shop

In Latin America an architect is a designer, an engineer, and a contractor! The clients come to one place and the product is delivered to the

users according to performance criteria. We have to learn from that system where all of the “buildability”, performance, economic and

aesthetic considerations are rolled into one. [Image Twelve: Interior of Ahmedabd Stadium]

*Christopher Benninger studied Urban Planning at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Architecture at Harvard, where he later

taught. He founded the School of Planning at Ahmedabad in 1971 and the Centre for Development Studies and Activities in Pune in 1976. He

has prepared the Capital City Plan for Bhutan and is now building the Capitol Complex there. The Indian Institute of Management, Calcutta; the

Suzlon World Headquarters; the International School Aamby and the Samundra Institute of Maritime Studies are recent works. Benninger has

won the Architect of the Year Award 1999; American Institute of Architects’ Award 2000; Golden Architect Award 2006 and Great Master’s

Award 2007.

URBAN ICONS


* * * * *

When I was a child an image of the Taj Mahal became my image of India! It seemed that the Eiffel Tower was also France; and the Great Wall

of China was indeed that vast land. As I grew up and traveled I hung new facts, ideas, and concepts onto these images, in the same manner

that children decorate Christmas trees making them more meaningful and complex. Looking back, I realize that these iconic representations

never faded, nor were they replaced. These emblems became intellectual skeletons that held large bodies of reality, composed of many

structured ideas. Thus, my icons were memorable images that anchored my awareness of reality and allowed me to expand my knowledge

system within a structure that could be sourced when needed. One icon can lead me to more sub-icons, and so forth, providing me with a

pantheon of information, all hung on one symbol that carries along with it the meaning of an entire cluster.

To some extent these icons melted into the complicated mosaic of my perceived truth, giving me a sense of reality. Yet these icons persisted

in my memory as the symbols of something much larger. The human mind is an interesting contraption that works on a hierarchy of labels

which identity things, in a simplified and stereotyped form. This results in over-simplifying matters and creating implicit biases about “the way

things are.” But it also allows us to deal with masses of otherwise unrelated data and facts. Icons, symbols, emblems and simulacra work as a

theory of knowledge that is founded on signifiers, labels and images. Like a tree trunk, with branches and then little twigs from which leaves

flourish, the mind uses an incredible network of inter-linked icons, which freely relate to form a far more complex matrix of concepts.

In his book, The Image of the City, Kevin Lynch proposed that the human mind uses “landmarks” within urban areas, or “districts,” that have

visible “edges” to create a mental knowledge system of the city. This mental map includes “paths” and “nodes”. Urban Icons play the same

roles for cities that landmarks play in urban districts, or that mega-icons play for nations and cultures. National capitol complexes like Lutyen’s

Raj Path in New Delhi; the Mall in Washington, D.C.; or on a smaller scale, the new Capitol Complex in Thimphu, all use iconography to

compose a pattern. They use an iconic language to symbolize the legislative, judicial and executive branches of government. The language

implies a system of checks and balances in democracy, or, as in Versailles, the all pervasive power of a monarchy.

All languages are generically symbolic, and any system of symbols can compose a language. Written words signify both the phonetic sound

and the cognitive idea which it represents. Identifying and labeling “differences” is an important process in the cognitive system of

representation. In the same way urban icons signify both the object itself and various cognitive ideas the building represents.

Our cities are formed by a myriad of building types with every function needed by the human race to carry on their existence. Some structures

transcend beyond the mundane tasks of daily life, and become cultural, religious, psychological or business icons. As small groups of people

organize into larger societies, they require iconic monuments to signify their organization and structure as a unique civilized people. This

becomes more pronounced as cultures and societies evolve into nation states, and these political structures require symbolic identity in order

to sustain themselves and grow. Thus, urban icons are conscientiously created, explicit statements, about the nature of cultures, societies,

nations or political systems. Sagara Familia is an explicit statement about the rising nationalism of Catalonia, though we may see it merely as

an unusual and creative experiment. The Pyramids were conscientious statements about the eternal order of the Pharos. The symbolic nature

of these structures far surpasses any functional requirement they may nominally fulfill.

Carl Jung and Sigmund Freud considered symbols as capacities within the mind to lodge and store any fact, idea or concept. Within the

cognitive mental system any symbol can find free association with any other symbol. These associations and relationships build ideas out of

facts, and through free association, build concepts out of ideas. Thus, our mental constructs of cities, that are as complex as New Delhi, are in

fact clusters of iconic memories that interact and generate multiple layers of knowledge, interpretation and meanings. The vast majority of

urban fabric has no symbolic or iconic content! It is just a texture upon which life continues. This mundane urban fabric however forms a

backdrop, or canvas, upon which a vast and highly complex urban landscape can emerge.

Landmarks create “familiar” objects to which we all develop affection. We like these because they give us the sense of peace that comes with

knowing where we are! As Kevin Lynch noted:

“Way-finding is the original function of the environmental image, and the basis on which its emotional associations may have

been founded. But the image is valuable not only in this immediate sense in which it acts as a map for the direction of

movement; in a broader sense it can serve a general frame of reference within which the individual can act, or to which he can

attach his knowledge. In this way it is like a body of belief, or a set of social customs: it is an organizer of facts and

possibilities”.

Sociology can be seen as the science of analyzing the structure of relations between groups of people. These relations may be economic ones

between classes or productive entities. Thus, the iconic Bank of China by I.M. Pei is more than just a place where clerks carry out financial

activities. It is the symbol of China’s economic dominance. Likewise, Saint Peter’s Basilica in Rome signifies the dominance of the Roman

Catholic Church. As such its very scale and explicit monumentality create a clear statement, a symbolic statement, of the world grasp and

power of the Roman Catholic Church. In the same manner New York City is a collection of icons which mingle in our memories and give us a

conglomerate image of the city. An endless list of skyscrapers ranging from the Chrysler Building, the Empire State Building, the Rockefeller

Centre, the United Nations, and the new Hurst Building all work together to make a network of multiple and interacting icons, images and

memories. That is what makes New York City such an exciting and vibrant metropolis.

Just as New York City is full of economic icons, Paris is full of cultural icons. The churches, palaces, gardens, museums, squares, “passages”,

quays, arcades, and monuments all create a language in the mind about the city. While the core idea of New York City is business dominance,

and the city’s global economy, the core idea in Paris is cultural dominance projected through images of its history, religious past, art and haut

culture! London’s core interest is governance and global reach. This interest is not “governance” in the sense of administering towns and

cities, but the concept of ruling through law, justice, policing and a range of British institutions which make it a world power. Civility, “good

British taste”, due process and manners are what the city is all about. Rather than making “business” the central focus of the society,

business seems a vehicle for the diffusion of the British idea of the civil society. In a similar manner New Delhi is a collection of imperial,

“ruling” and governing icons, while Mumbai flaunts its economic icons: the Air India Building, the Stock Exchange and so on. Urban icons are

indeed not just the image of the city, but the language of the city. No doubt all cities contain a variety of icons which represent the economic,

political and cultural essence of the city.

The mind stores a limited number of iconic images creating an operational representation of the city. It may store mental images of urban

districts like Connaught Place; urban edges like Marine Drive in Mumbai; or urban landmarks like the Qutub Minar, but all of these are iconic

and their symbolic meaning far outweighs any functional use one may attempt to construe. The mind may store a cluster of icons like the

White House, the Capitol Building and the Washington Monument, all clustered together in one complex. It may lodge images of zones defined

by landmarks and edges, each having vibrant specialized activities and unique characters generating a remembered ambiance. The resulting

“mental map” of the city is different for each person! Thus, our feelings about various cities are very different than the feelings of our friends

about particular cities.

What is clear is that architecture plays the pivotal role in the creation of urban icons, and thus the making of the cities of our minds. It is this

system of urban icons that weds us to memories giving structure and content to each city we visit, or potentially experience. A city guide is

little more than an attempt to document an encyclopedia of urban icons, and in a sense to “pre-load” the basic data on the city into our

mental hard discs! Thus, we enter a new city with a pre-loaded template of patterns, urban form and structure making it easier for us to

navigate in a new ambiance.

It is important that every structure in a city does not scream out like an anal retentive infant demanding attention. This “screaming” by nuevo

riche builders and clever architects is creating a cacophony of visual chaos. Urban design, which should give order to street facades, and

structure the “skin of cities”, is non-existent. In our administrators’ minds there are only two dimensional city plans and three dimensional

buildings. Instead of utilizing them for the city good, they are only controlled, contorting the city like Chinese feet tied to grow in an odd,

dysfunctional form. The idea of urban fabric: the notion of arcades supporting rather dull, yet dignified street fronts; the idea of “passages”

leading to pocket plazas and open gardens; the idea of boulevards terminating with monuments; the idea of vistas being created by building

alignments and axis; the idea of sea fronts and river edges being urban events which structure the city . . . . . none of these are part of our

mental map of how to make cities.

Our present design culture lacks any knowledge of the city image as a total field of the interactions of elements, patterns and sequences.

Urban cognizance is basically a time phenomena oriented about an object of immense complexity. A beginning step in gaining a holistic

understanding of our cities will be to grasp the elemental parts. But a much bigger step will be to understand the role of components,

structured relations between them, and the systems of knowledge and meaning that emerge. In this sense, urban icons are a starting point

from which one can explore the urban fabric, analyze its weaknesses and begin to set a “design problem” for enhancing and facilitating better

urban experiences and life styles.

Urban icons not only have a putative value as pieces of art; or as the best representatives of entire typologies of buildings; or as cultural

symbols and signifiers, but they are the generic material from which great cities emerge. The structures presented here in this journal are a

clue to a meaningful science of imagineering more beautiful, more vibrant and more livable urban settings.

References:

Benninger, Christopher C., “Imagineering and the Design of Cities”, Proceedings of the European Biennale at Graz, Biennale Secretariat, 2001.

Boulding, Kenneth E., The Image, Ann Arbor, University of Michigan Press, 1956.

Kepes, Gyorgy, The New Landscape, Chicago, P. Theobald, 1956.

Langer, Susan, Feeling and Form: A Theory of Art, New York, Scribner, 1953.

Lynch, Kevin, Image of the City, New York, Cambridge, MIT Press, 1959:

Thiel-Siling, Sabine, Editor, Icons of Architecture in the 20th Century, New York, Prestel, 2004.

Trowbridge, C.C., “On Fundamental Methods of Orientation and Imaginary Maps,” Science, , Vol. 38, No. 990, Dec. 9, 1913, pp.888-897.

Whitehead, Alfred North, Symbolism and Its Meaning, New York, Macmillan, 1958.

Wohl, R. Richard and Strauss, Anselm L., “Symbolic Representation and the Urban Milieu,” American Journal of Sociology, Vol. LXIII, No. 5,

March 1958, pp. 523-532.

*Christopher Benninger practices architecture from “INDIA HOUSE,” his studios in Pune, and from his studios in Thimphu, Bhutan, where he is

designing the National Capitol Complex. He studied Urban Planning at MIT and Architecture at Harvard University where he later taught. He

founded the School of Planning at Ahmedabad and the Center for Development Studies and Activities at Pune. He is a Distinguished Professor

at CEPT and on the Board of Governors of the School of Planning and Architecture at New Delhi. In 2007 he received the Golden Architect

Award for Lifetime Achievement.

VANIJAYRAM: A TRIBUTE


* * * * *

This evening I have been bestowed a great honor to speak here before a great artist, who has brought joy and bliss to people near and far.

She is a legend sitting before us.

One may say that music and art are merely for pleasure and a pass time of the fickle minded.

But true art, great art, instills within the common people an appreciation for beautiful things. They get attracted to a melody, a rhythm, or to

lyrics. At first it may be a form of temporary pleasure. But they end up loving beauty, seeking beauty and in trying to find what is beautiful

within their own work and life.

If all of our people here in India had a sensitivity for beauty, then they would look for the beautiful not only in the songs that they hear, or in

the paintings that they see, but also in the roads which they would yearn to be boulevards; the foot paths that they would yearn to be

promenades; the drains that they would yearn to be wonderful reflecting pools, and so on into rail stations, public busses and airports.

I think if there were more people like the maestro sitting here before me the very essence of our society would transform, as has happened in

Paris, Vienna and other wonderful human environments.

The fact that so many of us have joined together here tonight to celebrate this great singer shows that we as people have a desire for the

beautiful. It shows that we love people who bring beauty into our lives. We see in this person the embodiment of our hopes and our ideals for

the future.

It is in this sense that Vanijayram is a person of profound meaning and is a benefactor to our Indian civilization. She carries within her voice a

message which spreads over cities, through valleys and into the small villages and hamlets. Let us honor this great legend who sits amongst

us and shower her with our love and our good thoughts.

* On The occasion of her visit to INDIA HOUSE in October 2007

SOME THOUGHTS

Interview with the Indian Express in February 2007

* * * * *

Ragini: Could you please guide us through your background starting with your education and finally your foray into Architecture ?

CCB : At the age of twelve I was gifted Frank Lloyd Wright’s the Natural House, which I immediately read from cover to cover. In many ways I

have never put that book down, as the principles and axioms laid out are still relevant to my every day creative life. That chance gift proved a

talisman for my future and soon I had collected and read every book by Wright and a large repertoire on his life. That too, catalyzed me on to

read about “the modern movement”, Mies van der Rohe, Le Corbusier and many others. By the time I entered formal architectural education I

had a good grasp of practically every significant work of architecture produced in the first half of the twentieth century. Thus, in my formal

studies I focused more on design, theory and courses in the Social Sciences. I did further studies under the famous Spanish architect Jose

Louis Sert, Jerzy Soltan of Team Ten, Kevin Lynch, Fuhomiki Maki, who remain well known today. I went on to study urban planning at the

Massachusetts Institutes Institute of Technology.

But a great deal of my education was informal and circumstantial. I was welcomed into the homes of Philip Johnson, Charles and Ray Eames,

Jane Drew and Maxwell Fry. Doxiadis welcomed me as his guest into the Delos Symposium Group and the economist Barbara Ward was my

patron and guide. I suppose this “early start” helped me in a great way to become the youngest tenured professor of architecture at Harvard

when I was in my mid-twenties. Good luck, I believe, comes only in one form: having good teachers. By the time I founded the School of

Planning at age 26, it was my turn to play teacher.

Ragini: Why did you choose Pune to settle in ?

CCB : A fascination with India brought me to Ahmedabad’ s School of Architecture in 1968, where I fell under the spell of my guru, Balkrishna

Doshi. Even when I left Ahmedabad in 1969, I was drawn back to teach studios with Doshi during my summer breaks and finally Doshi

convinced me to leave Harvard and join CEPT at Ahmedabad where I founded the School of Urban planning. My love affair with India began in

Ahmedabad where the smell of Neem curried the air and the first rains were for told by the earth’s aroma blowing in before the torrents. In

Ahmedabad we had strange visitors like Louis Kahn, the designer of the Indian Institute of Management, and a chorus of designer icons. There

was not television, few cars, less phones and a lot of time to think and make friends.

At some point the idea struck me that I should found my own trust and create my own institution under it. I also yearned for a refuge within a

verdant landscape, a relaxed chota peg in the evening and an intellectual community. These factors lead me to Pune, the quiet hill town of

eleven lakhs population, with cozy little pedestrian lanes, bicycles and greenery. Like most of my life’s choices, this was erratic and

immediate. Not looking back! People have compared my leaving Harvard and settling in Pune as a self imposed exile, but I feel I was actually

returning to my ancient abode of a previous life. I never felt a stranger in India, and Pune has always been my home.

Ragini: Your projects are known to speak a ‘language’ of their own. Could you tell us specifically with regard to Pune how your ‘language’ in

relation to each of your projects has changed to suit the changing parameters of this city. We would like you to trace this change in your own

words from your first project to your current plans of re modeling the COEP My earliest projects in India were children’s villages in Kolkata and

Delhi; a new town in Jamnagar and the Alliance Francais in Ahmedabad ?

CCB : My early works included the first large neighborhood built by HUDCO, which pioneered the idea of Economically Weaker Section

Housing. I completed this project at age thirty and soon after took up three large Site and Services Projects in Chennai, the Busti Improvement

programme in Kolkata and the first project of the Hyderabad Urban Development Authority, which was a large township of two thousand core

houses along with all of the urban amenities. By the time I founded the Centre for Development Studies and Activities in Poona, I had created

about 20,000 houses for the urban poor. I used some of the money I made from these works to found the Centre here, and used the income

from my UNO assignment in Sri Lanka to plan seven cities to by the campus land for CDSA at Bhavdhan, then all farm land. My early works in

Pune were for the Buddhist Community here and elsewhere in the state and I continue to work on the large campus for Buddhist Studies and

Social Work in Nagpur. My first well known project in Pune was my own campus for the Centre. That composition was published widely in India

and abroad. It drew from Pune’s regional context, using Basalt Stone, Shahbad paving, sloped tile roofs and verandahs. This cozy campus of

ten buildings remains one of my favorite pieces. Many of the design ideas emerged from my earlier works (the Alliance Francais and the

Children’s Villages). This project was a clear precursor for the Mahindra United World College of India, which used the same language but

found a new poetry and deconstruction of geometry. The United World College was a sure hint to Pune that it would play a role on the global

stage a decade later. It had a global impact winning the American Institute of Architect’s 2000 Award for Excellence. Business Week called it

one of the ten modern “Super Structures of the World,” and I was deeply honored by my Indian colleagues to win the Architect of the Year

Award for that project. The YMCA International Camp Site, in the mountains north of Lonavala carries these concept and thoughts much

further. Here the structures go under-ground, become on with the landscape and live with nature. The project won the 2006 national award for

the Best Public Building in India from the Indian Institute of Architecture. But it is merely an extension of my search, rooted with the Deccan

landscape, materiality, and tradition of build, human scale, and search for oneness with nature. My most recently completed work is a clinic

for mentally challenged children for the famous Gunawanth Oswald who is using indigenous medicines to attach a wrath of the human race. I

feel my architecture is of a scale and “feel” which will make youngsters feel at home. There are other large projects nearing completion in the

region, probably the most Avant Guard being the Samudra Institute of Maritime Studies. The landscaping is on now and I expect this large,

modern campus to be complete within nine months. Owned by a Singapore shipping firm, this project reflects India’s role as a global leader

and centre. My client is of Indian origin, of humble background and our campus is his personal gift to the country which gave him so much. It

will be very different, while building on the principles I have been exploring for decades. It is part of my Deccan regional style, while

challenging global cliché’s. A large international residential school is also coming up in Aamby Valley andwe are re-building the Taj Blue

Diamond Hotel. These we can talk of later.

Ragini: While designing the Mahindra World College your you spoke of basing your design tenets on the Buddhist learning centres. Are there

in similar parameters that you have referred to while working on your current project dealing with the COEP ?

CCB :The COEP is a new project, yet to enter the design phase. At this point the VISION STATEMENT is being formulated, and the design will

be an extension of that.

Ragini: Would you please give a brief on how you are re modeling the COEP ?

CCB : Even though it is premature to discuss the design, there are certain elements which we would surely take as axioms for developing a

campus Master Plan.

These would include:

1) linking the two “halves” of the campus, through a plaza over the N.H. No. 4(the road can go under the plaza);

2) conserving and “centering” the heritage buildings;

3) enhancing the greenery, using the existing iconic trees as center pieces;

4) employing the river front and the “barrowed landscape” across it/up and down the river views, to emphasize the campuses unique

riverfront location;

5) Clarify an entry to the campus; designate parking areas (maybe underground) for two and four wheelers; Make the campus a pedestrian

one (now the vehicles and pedestrians are inter-mixed);

6) Design an “open space system” linking courtyards, paths, arcades, porches, sit-outs, lawns, river front, views and some sports areas into an

integral network.

Ragini: How do you view the changes that the city has seen since the time you have made it your home ?

CCB : Poona, then, was truly a provincial town, which was green, walkable and cozy. There were 350 old wadas, virgin hills and not much

traffic. It was convenient and safe to ride a bicycle. Fergusson Colleges, M.G., and Senapati Bapat Roads all had twelve foot wide side walks.

There were cute little coffee houses, like Delite on F.C. Road where one could pass the time, the there was no pollution. There were very few

restaurants, no five star hotels and to get to Delhi one had to go to Bombay to catch a flight or even a train. People used to pass their time

after dark walking about in the streets where vehicles hardly plied.

Ragini: How do you feel architecture has evolved in this city?

CCB :Architecture has become an irrelevant game of seeking FSI, copying facades from other cultures and climates, and building things cheap

which can be poned off on our future generations to maintain!

Ragini: What are your views on the development of Pune vis- a- vis the balance with nature and tradition?

CCB : Poona transformed into Pune largely at the cost of the environment and of the human spirit! Trees were cut to widen roads, canals were

filled in for a rush of two wheelers; the city, like me faced “middle age spread” becoming six times the area, using the same basic road

network, water resources and sewerage system. There have been no Town Planning Schemes in Pune in about fifty years! People are too

conservative to imagine a Metro, which is the need of the hour. Despite my pleas, there is no Urban Development Authority and our dear city

has no Master Plan, Structure Plan, Local Area Plans, or other tools of civility! It is clear that chaos is the city policy. Our politicians are only

divided about sharing the spoils, but they are United in seeing there is chaos in which ad hoc and opaque decision making, where personal

interests rule over the common good of the city.,

Ragini: Have we achieved this balance?

CCB : What is it that we need to focus on as the city’s skyline changes rapidly. Pune’s problems have been raked over many times. If we want

to achieve anything we merely need to look at cities like Ahmedabad to find Indian answers. Ahmedabad has no power cuts, because the

matter has been privatized for the past fifty years; Ahmedabad has a functional Development Plan which has generated a good road system,

bridges and wonderful parks. From Delhi we can learn how to make a Metro! We can make things like the Delhi Haat and the Garden of Five

Senses. We have nothing to learn from Shanghai or New York: all the lessons are staring us in the face right here in India. Look at Hussein

Sagar Lake in Hyderabad, or the River Front in Ayodya! Great projects which are very people-friendly and creating wonderful public domains.

Ragini: How does Architecture today reflect the changing trends and lifestyles of Puneites?

CCB : Architecture reflects the tendency to “go it alone” and say the hell with everyone else! Lacking a civil plan, public transport, or a

functional civic body, the trend is to build within your compound walls, limit the entries and guard them. There is no architectural,

infrastructural or public project in the city for the past ten years that contributes to the public good. Everyone is consuming electricity as if the

city were some Middle East kingdom, with fuel to burn. The open spaces that do exist are in shambles! The hills and the lakes and the river

fronts are all garbage dumps. If Bangalore is the Garden City, Pune is the Garbage City. What do we have to be proud of in terms of public

spaces and places? Where do you take visitors to the city to show off culture, heritage and tradition? After Tulsi Bagh and Pravati Hill, we can

only show waste lands, congestion and messes! Maybe we should tell them to take a stroll down Ganeskhind Road, if they can find a foot

path?

Ragini: Could you elaborate on how technology has changed the way architects today think and act. This in relation with what you call

“fashion marketing” and also with relevance to Pune ?

CCB : Today, architecture is developer driven. We have few groups like Panchil who actually strive to do something better and neater. What is

wanted is to get as much FSI as one can stretch their legal imaginations to get. Then we want to wrap this all up in the cheapest cladding we

can find, and sell it off before the dirt cakes on the elevations and the façade turns a nice runny black. Which project is creating new public

domains? We could achieve that in Tain Square where something is “given to the city” in terms of a public, gathering place. But again we had

a builder who wanted to do something good and build a reputation on good deeds! Technology in buildings is basically in the form of pre-

mixed concrete, flat slabs which have obviated columns in office spaces, and the use of glass, metallic cladding and some stainless steel.

These are not really architecture, but Unique Selling Points! This is the market, not art! In all of this, can we see a better city emerging?

The Dharmachakra

Chos-kyi ’khor-lo


* * * * *

The wheel represents motion, continuity and change, turning onwards like the circling sphere of the heavens

Buddhism adopted the wheel as its main emblem of the ‘wheel-turning’ chakravartin, or ‘universal monarch,’ identifying this wheel as the dharmachakra or ‘wheel of dharma,’ of Buddha’s teachings. The Tibetan term for dharmacharka (Tib. Chos-kyi’khor-lo) literally means the ‘wheel of transformation,’ or spiritual change. Swift motion represents the rapid spiritual transformation revealed in the Buddha’s teachings; it is able to cut through all obstacles and illusions.

The proposed Dharma Sthal at Trashi Chhoe Dzong takes the shape of the Dharmachakra, as the monks are part of the wheel of transformation.

The Buddha’s first discourse at the Deer Park in Sarnath, where he first revealed the Four Noble Truths and the Eightfold Path is known as his ‘first turning of the wheel of dharma’.

Open Spaces

Published in Sunday Economic Times


* * * * *

Journalists often mistake me as a soothsayer, when I am a mere architect! They ask me what Pune, or some other city, will be like in ten or

twenty years. I have no answer except to lament that, “If you choose the ten things you like best in the city, they will not be there in ten

years!” The wide sidewalks are being thrown out to make parking spaces, the foundations get in the way of traffic and the hill slopes are up

for grabs

While the urban population of India is swelling, the open space accessible to people is shrinking. In 1968, when I first came to India, there

were a mere ten cities that could boast a population of a million or more. Today there are fifty-five and each of them are four times the size

they were four decades ago!.

Unlike the West, a great deal of India’s social life and recreation takes place out-of-doors! We are a nation of street side stalls; hang out places

and informal encounters. This is what makes India a vibrant social environment and what dulls the senses in the West. I use the

word conviviality to characterize this very positive quality of Indian urban fabric. Conviviality depends on the existence of accessible public

domains; places where there is unrestricted access, where there is a minimum comfort level in terms of safety, cleanliness and room for

gathering. Our personal standards are not high, a pan shop will do! But we must have our places to gather, chat and meet strangers.

Conviviality is India’s ancient answer to cold hearted, pay-as-you-go, canned entertainment. It is encounters with old friends and serendipity

brushes with strangers that make the Indian street socially dynamic and emotionally exciting.

Like water and air, open spaces were once believed to be free! But more and more open spaces are shrinking and being privatized. The

quality of a “public domain” is being robbed from us as we ape the west in building privately owned malls and amusement parks. This forces

more and more people onto the roads, as even footpaths are being curtailed to provide movement channels for more vehicles and places for

them to park. Like water and air, open spaces have become commodities to be packaged, conditioned and sold to those who can afford them.

Air conditioning, bottled water and pay-to-enter public domains are animals of the past decade. They were largely unknown in one’s recent

memory.

Given the reality of rapidly expanding population, rising land values, densification of cities and the resulting enclosing and packaging of

everything, there is a new role for designers to enter the fray and to design “public domains.” I would like to note that while the

transformation of open spaces into private domains is rampant, there are excellent examples in the Sub-continent where designers and public

authorities have reversed this process, often using traditional Indian precedents as a basis to move forward. Let me cite a few good examples:

Weekly street markets have always been places of gathering, meeting and bargaining. The Delhi Haat is an example where an abandoned

sewerage drain was filled over and reincarnated into a vibrant public domain. In his design Pradeep Sachadev integrated modern hygiene and

space standards with footpath vending, window shopping, browsing, traditional fast foods, and places to just hang out. “Meet you at Delhi

Haat,” is the common response in Delhi to where shall we get together! In the planning of New Delhi, numerous pocket parks, green areas

around ancient monuments and formal gardens were planned. Nehru Park, Lodi Gardens, the Raj Path and Central Park are but a few to name.

Walking in Connaught Place has been a must for every visitor since the day it opened. These designed open spaces have given back to the

city what formal planning took away. The lessons for India lie in our own traditions and recent history. Marine Drive is another example of a

vibrant open space to which all can flock, regardless of one’s income or social status!

In Ahmedabad where the population has grown four fold in as many decades play fields, un-built plots, road set-backs and a number of

informal no man’s lands were places for meeting and recreation. They have largely been walled in! Gated housing societies and exclusive

malls have isolated the well to do from the average citizen. But here the Municipal corporation has taken creative action to refurbish old

gardens and parks, fill in stagnant drains and transform them into convivial public domains and most exciting of all, is the grand Sabramati

River Front Development Project designed by the Architect Bimal Patel, gifting to the people of that great city an amazing series of

recreational options. In a similar manner the ancient Mogul tank, Kankaria Lake is being totally reinvented by the Ahmedabad Municipal

Corporation as a people’s pleasure zone, with a refurbished zoo, water sports, promenades, gardens and a new indoor, air-conditioned

stadium where thousands of citizens can witness spectacles, sporting and cultural events. The city of Hyderabad offers many lessons for the

future in the manner that Hussain Sagar has been transformed into a wonderful open space for all walks of life to gather and relax in the

evenings. Other examples are the revitalization by Landscape Designer Ravi Bhan of the Ayodya river front and the historic structures which

interface with the water body.

Side by side function specific public areas are slowly transforming. The new domestic airport in Mumbai, designed by Hafez Contractor,

establishes new standards of public convenience and functionality. So also, the new metro stations in New Delhi, Chennai and Mumbai are

trend setting in their comfort levels and modernity. The Millennium Park in Kolkata created by the Metropolitan Development Authority, offers

a cool riverside garden, with piped music emanating from greenery and soft lighting. In our new capital plan for Thimphu, the Wang Chhu

River and its finger tributary streams are the structure over which an open space system has been created. The green blanket of forest which

dips down from the mountains is demarcated by a cycle-foot path several hundred feet over the city, dotted with grottos, archery ranges,

picnic spots and view points.

In all of the above examples it is the public agencies which have played an essential role in generating positive change. We need to highlight

these new starts and positive initiatives so that governments know that quality open spaces for the masses are achievable. In all of the cases I

have noted, well known designers have played a critical role. Government has used its own strengths and those of private consultants and

developers to create things of lasting beauty for their people.

Professor Benninger studied Urban Planning at MIT and Architecture at Harvard University where he later was a professor of design. As a Ford

Foundation Expert he founded the School of Planning at Ahmedabad in 1971 and the Centre for Development Studies at Pune in 1976. He has

prepared urban plans in Indonesia, Malaysia, Bhutan, Sri Lanka and in many of India’s cities. He presently over sees his architectural design

studios in India and Bhutan, where he is designing the new Capitol complex and has prepared the capital city plan.

THE URBAN MESS: WHERE DO WE GO FROM HERE ?

An Interview in the Indian Express on 16 August 2007


* * * * *

Since my return from Bhutan a week ago, I have been reading in the press a collage of views, nostalgia for better times, criticisms of

individuals, wild accusations, hopes and fears for the future. Several themes emerge like corruption, lack of top leadership and gross

incompetence. The answers are in all of these and in none of them. When it rains we curse the PMC, when it’s hot the MSEB and when it’s cold

we forget all we’ve learned during the past eight months! We curse public servants, but neglect that our cell phones and broadband services

don’t work either!

I myself cannot help but compare the little town of Thimphu where electricity is 7/24, where phones are dependable, where there is an

adequate airport, where storm drainage works and the roads are reasonably level and functional. The town has even gone wi-fi! Like Pune,

Thimphu has inadequate technical staff, over-stretched budgets, and no clear lean on appropriate technology. Like Punaries, they are good

people, but not angles! What Thimphu does have is a STRUCTURE PLAN with participatory Local Area Plans integrated into it! What it does

have is an over-ridding authority providing technical and financial planning support! The Bhutanese resisted urban planning, land pooling and

reservations until they realized that GOOD PLANNING IS GOOD BUSINESS. They looked at Singapore, Kuala Lumpur and Hong Kong and found

the key difference between these centers of capitalism and Indian cities was the utilization of urban planning! They also found a good balance

between the top-down structure planning of major drainage networks, roads systems and sanitary infrastructure, and bottom-up local area

planning where all the private land is pooled, banked and redistributed into rectangular plots on a logical road grid, after removing about

thirty percent of land for amenities, open areas and roads! We must learn from them!

Pune amazingly has no plan! The cantonments have no plans! The boroughs and villages have no plans. How can the Pimpri-Chinchwad

Development Plan work alone with such chaotic neighbors? Patchwork and piecemeal planning and development will not hold this metropolis

together and bring it into the coming Century! Like every other city in India, worth the name, we need an Urban Development Authority, and

one which works.

What is clearly needed in Pune, Pimpri-Chinchwad, the boroughs, cantonments and numerous villages which make up this

urban conglomerate is an Urban Development Authority!

Look at cities where tangible progress has been made and what do you find…an Urban Development Authority. Such an authority has planning

powers, eminent domain powers to acquire land for the public good; resource mobilization powers to take loans from development finance

bodies, powers to buy, sell, lease-in and to lease-out various forms of property; professional cells of environmentalists, of heritage

conservationists, of social infrastructure planners, of city and regional planners/urban designers, of design engineers and project managers, of

financial analysts and investment planners, of joint venture managers, and a strong public relations wing. Successful urban development

authorities can buy and bank land; work over the entire metropolitan region; have penultimate rights over all other boards, authorities and

state owned corporations operating within their jurisdictions. Therefore the MIDC, CIDCO, MHADA, MSRDA, MSEB, PMC, PCMC, or any other

state development agency that wants to function within the metro area, must do so in accordance with the UDA vision, mission, plans and

strategies.

Preparing a Plan of Action will be the first job of the UDA. In tandem with the preparation of land suitability studies, drainage studies,

ecological analysis and heritage documentation, a Fire Fighting Plan would swing into action focusing on existing half-built projects, transport

bottlenecks, critical gaps in sanitary and preventive health systems (sewerage and water supply), lacunae in user-end services in slums and

high density areas. The authority would take over all major infrastructure projects in the metro area, master planning, structure planning and

local area plans. It would have built-in participatory and micro-level planning tools that involve the effected local residents. It would look at the

weaknesses of existing authorities, and their strengths. It would out-source project management, design and implementation to professional

consultancy firms, with dire consequences for cheating. It could sell bonds; enter joint-ventures with private companies and state

corporations. The authority would have in-house expertise cells; consultative citizens committees and private sector alliances. The UDA would

prepare a long term Structure Plan, initiate joint-sector ventures like a private electric corporation (facilitating it by provision of land), a

regional sewerage management corporation and major infrastructure JV’s. It could revive the forgotten plan to create a world-class

international airport. Simultaneously, the Maharashtra Regional and Town Planning Act must be amended to enhance the use of the Town

Planning Scheme and to give UDA’s needed authority to mobilize funds and to carry out major works. Perhaps it is a personal tussle between

Pune’s two favorite sons, and their feudal fiefdom of the two local municipal corporations, that make this essential step a dream. Gentlemen,

May I request you both to drop your cudgels and put Pune first?

This would put the ball back into the private sector in Pune, which still is unable to provide dependable broadband services, cell phones,

competent construction capabilities and other basic services. Is anyone calling them corrupt?

Most important to this great city are the people who inhabit it. If they are not assured safe and comfortable roads, storm drainage,

comfortable and safe neighborhoods with sidewalks, cycle paths, public gardens and potable water, they will simply look elsewhere for their

dreams on this earth! This goes equally well for the intellectual talent which has flocked to the region both as corporates and small

consultancies. They can quit Pune as fast as industries abandoned Calcutta in the 1970’s! This is a critical juncture for the metropolis: growth

or decline: enrichment or deterioration?

The writer is a master architect who after studying city planning at MIT and architecture at Harvard set up the School of Urban Planning at

Ahmedabad as a Ford Foundation Advisor; worked with the World Bank on the development of Kolkata, Chennai and Mumbai; advised the

UNCHS (Habitat); and carried out research for the HUDCO, Planning Commission, various central ministries. He prepared the well known action

plan for Thane’s development, and the Structure Plan of Thimphu. He has worked with the ADB preparing numerous plans for Malaysia and

Indonesia.

MODERN, POST MODERN and the INTERVENTION OF THE EFFETE


* * * * *

The spirit of a piece of architecture is the spirit of continuity:

each work is an answer to the proceeding ones; each work contains all of the previous experiences of the world of architecture! But the spirit

of our time is firmly focused on a present that is so expansive and profuse that it shoves the past off of our horizon and reduces time to the

present moment only. Within this system a building is no longer a work of art, or what the French would call an “oeuvre.” It is no longer a

thing made to last or to connect the past with the future. It is just one current event among many, a gesture with no tomorrow. This is the

situation of an effete society, with effete architects producing an effete collection of meaningless objects that belong to no one, contribute to

nothing and add nothing to the future. It was due to the modern project, due to the emergence of modern architecture as an aesthetic and

social movement, that the thinking community of architects grasped an image of themselves. Having a vision of their place in history, a

mission came to light allowing architects to take control of their art, their lives and their destinies. The words that follow attempt to put this

phenomena within the perspective of time and of history.

MEANINGS OF MODERN

Modern is a commonly used adjective employed to describe many things. What does it mean? In architecture we all know of the “modern

movement” and we have heard of “modern architecture.” Without really knowing what modern architecture is, we have heard of

“postmodern” and we really don’t know what that means either

If we don’t know what these movements are all about it probably means we are designing in a vacuum? Hopefully some kind of rationalist

logic is guiding our work toward the creation of functional and livable buildings. Hopefully we are learning from our contextual tradition how to

solve problems that we encounter in our day to day problem solving.

But most young architects are lured by magazines and journals and the media into designing “for the press.” We see spectacular building

stunts on television and in the newspapers, and we think, “Can we ever create something like that?”

In the argument that follows I am arguing that we are all barking up the wrong tree. We, in effect, don’t know what we are doing. Instead of

using our brains and thinking things out logically we are in effect looking at PAGE THREE, the social news, in order to decide on the clothes we

will wear, as if life is some huge fashion ramp, and as if we will be judged by the outrageous costumes we will wear. All of us want to be

modern, as opposed to “traditional”, we want to be liberal as opposed to conservative and we do not want to be left behind by history. In my

argument I am stating that being “modern” is not just being different for the sake of being different, but that we have to be a part of a value

system, have a vision, know our mission, and set an agenda around these. We are architects, not a political party! Our agendas and visions

are evolving and each of us has to set our own agendas and confirm our own values through work. Thus, this dialogue is not a prescription,

but a “sifting of ideas” so that each one of us can settle into our own comfort zone of who we are and what we want to be in this great

profession. I feel it is important that we start with a discussion of what the word “modern” means to us.

American Modern

In America the word modern means the “latest”, something new or contemporary! There is a tinge of the innovative, or of a discovery. But it

may just imply a style, fashion or the way something is packaged. It could be a “new look,” or just the “in thing!” Each year the American

automobile industry changes the style of each car and these are rolled out with great fanfare as if the last year died and the New Year’s birth

is a world event. On the other hand European and Japanese auto manufacturers go on making little by little improvements, but the body of

each car, its style, year to year, looks the same. In fact they may involve more unseen improvements in the technology that what is taking

place behind the “new body” of the American car. In a consumer market what is seen is what is purchased! Fashion shows have models

walking the ramp, showing off preposterous costumes, just to grab attention. Strong boys are wearing little bikinis and emaciated thin girls are

looking bored, sashaying in huge outfits on the ramp. But this is the game of style and we are all supposed to play.

Architecture is a more serious craft. Once built, we can not just throw our designs into the washing machine, or give them to a poor aunt. Our

efforts will be around for some time. Perhaps the word “contemporary” is a bit kinder as it may refer to the era in which we are living and

building, its technology, and its social structure, modes of production and machine processes.

American “modernism” deserves a close look. Most Americans carry with them the luggage of a foreign culture. They want to keep the good

things and throw out the trash. They want to free themselves from the bondage of the past traditions and redesign themselves and be “free!”

Perhaps it is this parting with tradition and it is the exploration of self that makes American modernism attractive.

European Modern

“Modern” in Europe defines an age, or an era. In the sciences and philosophy the work of Galileo and Descartes tempered the birth of the

“modern” age. God, testaments and religion were replaced by empirical observation and scientific axioms. It was now mankind that declared

the truths of the world. Having its roots in Greek philosophy, the modern European spiritual identity found itself immersed in questions to be

answered. It interrogated the world, not in order to satisfy any particular practical need, but because the “passion to know had seized

mankind.” Man desires a world where good and evil can be clearly distinguished as he has an innate and irrepressible desire to judge before

he understands. Religions and ideologies are founded on this desire. This “either-or” encapsulates an inability to tolerate the essential

relativity of things human, an inability to look squarely at the absence of the Supreme Judge. This makes the wisdom of uncertainty hard to

accept. The modern European novel is the journey of this narrative from a closed traditional society into one or relativity and uncertainty. As

God slowly departed from the seat whence he had directed the universe and its order of values, distinguished good from evil, and endowed

each thing with meaning, Don Quixote set forth from his house into a world he could no longer recognize. In the absence of the supreme

judge, the world suddenly appeared in its fearsome ambiguity; the single divine truth decomposed into myriad relative truths parceled out by

men. Thus, was born the Modern Era. The thinking self, according to Descartes, is the basis of everything and thus one has to face the world

alone! This anoints a heroic attitude on man’s personality. Cervantes takes this further making each individual face the world of uncertainty;

to be obliged to face not a single absolute truth alone, but to deal with many contradictory truths. One’s only certainty in this conundrum is

the wisdom of uncertainty. “I think, therefore I am!”

Modern Architecture

Modern architecture emerges out of our times. But how young is modern architecture. Surely Paxton’s Crystal Palace created in 1851 was

young! And the Watt and Bolton’s spinning mills in the first decade of the Nineteenth Century were new and dynamic! What about the Eiffel

Tower, or the Galleries des Machines built in 1889? All of these are “modern architecture” not because they are “new”, or because they are

“contemporary”, but because they address the modern human condition and the social and economic era in which they were conceived. They

are “modern” because they express themselves through technologies that did not exist prior to their realization. Perhaps technology is the

key to their claim to being modern. All of these structures are a counter-blast to the fake, and false plaster of Paris Neo-Greek, Neo-Egyptian,

neo-Spanish Colonial and Neo-Roman buildings that were cluttering cities in their times. Buildings in Europe looked like one thing on the

outside, but were something different on the inside. Even today, the mercantile architecture of our times makes up 99 percent of our urban

landscape. These false, untrue and effete statements are a travesty to our intelligence and taste. Maybe the people also look different on the

outside from what they are within? Maybe they seem to be what they are not! Thus modern architecture lies in the fault line between seeming

and being; it creates an inbetween space between lies and truths. Out of this chasm emerges an agenda which characterizes “modern

architecture.”

*. Thus modern architecture has a three tiered agenda:

*. The fight against the lie of effetism!

*. The search for improvements in the human condition!

*. The employment of technology for the human good and for beauty!

Postmodern

About fifty years ago, around 1970, the history of architecture began to stagnate into a stasis, while this hibernation was anointed with a label

of postmodern. It seems all of the concerns of the modern movement were just forgotten in a long sleep which engulfed the minds of

architects. A French movement in literary criticism and philosophy became the opiate infusing illusions into the great art! Like the impact of

the Ecol des Beaux Arts in the late nineteenth Century that smothered the modern movement in America and Europe, this hallucinatory drug

captured the spirit of architecture and took us off on a dream. Quietly we left behind the search of function. Commercial ornamentation again

crept in to our language. Community design, mass housing, open spaces and the public domain were quietly put on the back burner, and

gradually out of site. Honesty of expression, a dialogue with materials in the search for their capabilities, nature and expression faded. The

aesthetics of honesty was replaced by consumerism and marketing. In place came cute ideas, clever little stunts, even spectacular

monuments and on the main street superficial packaging, fashions of the season, styles and bill board architecture. A huge chasm gradually

emerged within the city culture of the modern era, through a growing alienation between individuals and their urban settings. Lost in a

heartless urban ennui, in a mental daze of sleepy acceptance, the consuming public lost touch with community, neighborhood and even

neighbors. Television and shopping replaced conviviality.

Hundreds and thousands of buildings have been produced in the past five decades. But these structures add nothing to the nature of being.

They neither inspire not catalyze human interaction, nor sponsor “coming together,” which happens naturally in urban fabrics like Granada

and Seville. These buildings discover no new segment of existence only confirming what has already been built and said. In confirming what

has already been said, what everyone is saying, they fulfill their purpose. They confirm the stupidity of life that everyone is living. By

discovering nothing, they fail to participate in the sequence of discoveries that constitutes the evolution of architecture. They place

themselves outside the history of architecture, or maybe in what is meant by postmodern; that is they come after the history of architecture!

Postmodern Architecture

Effetism

The sole raison d’être of a building is to explore that which only a true work of architecture can discover. A building which does not express

some unknown segment of existence is immoral! Revealing knowledge is architecture’s only reality. The sequence of discovery, not the sum

of what is built, is what constitutes the history of modern architecture. The truth of architecture is contextual, but not nationalistic! There are

analogues between meaningful work in India, Europe and Latin America. It is only in such a cross-national context that the value of work can

fully be revealed and understood.

The rise of the sciences propelled man into the tunnels of specialized disciplines. The more he advanced in knowledge, the less clearly could

he see either the world or his own self and he plunged into the forgetting of being? Architecture followed suit and soon modern man was living

in a Spanish Colonial House and driving to teach in a Roman monumental IT training centre. Perhaps at night he would buzz over to the

Corinthian Club for a Cuba Libre. Every thing is false and make-believe! All seems and nothing is reality. Imagineering has become the science

of pretending and even one’s life becomes a pretense. In the modern world commercial building sells dreams, fashions, pretending and

imagining what is not. Modern housing estates and shopping centers are becoming amusement parks for escape.

If Leonardo da Vinci and Michelangelo, along with Cervantes and Descartes were founders of the Modern Project then the end of their legacy

ought to signify more than a mere stage in the evolution of architectural forms; it would herald the death of the modern era! We have seen

the murder of architecture! We know that architecture is a mortal as the human race itself. We have visited schools of architecture where

there has been no birth, much less a murder. As a model of the human spirit, grounded in the relativity and ambiguity of things human,

architecture is incompatible with the mercantile dominated universe. This incompatibility is deeper than the one that separates a human

rights campaigner from a torturer; or a secular man form a fundamentalist. Because it is incompatible in the very nature of artistic expression,

as opposed to just a moral, or political paradigm; because the world of the various truths of architecture, and the world of commercialism are

molded out of entirely different substances. The new world of marketing; of salesmanship; of the new economy based on a few multi-

nationals, of the new urbanism is a kind of totalitarian world. This postmodern world deals with issues and decisions around them in terms of

black and white; good and bad; right and wrong; and The Truth. Branding has no place for ambiguous messages. The branding experience is

not an exploration, an adventure or a journey. It is a statement pounded into one’s head again and again through cut and paste graphics and

cute ideas. Architecture deals with nuisances, relativity, personal perceptions, ambiguous lyricism. The commercial and the mercantile world

excludes relativity, doubt, questioning and it can never accommodate the spirit of architecture.

The Modern Architecture Agenda

Modern architecture does not mean a bunch of modern buildings. It is a state of mind, conceptualized within a social, economic and historical

framework. Modern architecture is a reality only because it emerged through an agenda of change and actions with a mission and a vision.

The modern architecture vision is to create a better world, an ideal world or even a perfect world equally for all citizens. That mission can be

seen in the spirit of Leonardo da Vinci’s Ideal City designs and the designs of many of his predecessors and followers. Humanism, the human

being in the centre of things, has been the flag that rallied thousands of young architects to the modern architecture cause. Civil life, city life,

urban life and urbanity have been the central focus. Civic spaces, boulevards, parks, gardens, river fronts and concepts for entire cities have

been on the pallet of architecture for centuries; but at the heart of these utopian dreams is simply a journey toward the good life! Often this

work involves nostalgia for a simple, green, clean rural life lost in the rush toward industrialization and urbanization. Even through the design

of sophisticated country villas, architects have attempted to illustrate a possible future. Arcadia, a romantic image of a lost rustic world of

perfection, a world at peace within itself, has been a binding artistic concept linking learned people in hamlets, farms and cities. The city

planning and urban design agenda are not those of great design statements and heroic monuments, but the plans that fit in “everyman” into

a world of beauty, work, recreation, family life and reflection. Le Corbusier’s La Ville Radieuse, or the Radiant City, was a well thought out

place where masses of people could live and work. It was a place where each seeks out his or her own individual opportunities? Wright’s Broad

Acre City put the same search into the American context and made a statement of an ideal way of living which fit everyone into the template

of life! In the midst of the last century, José Lluis Sert sponsored some of the first charters of good urban design and founded the first course in

urban design at Harvard. In our own studio we have promoted The Principles of Intelligent Urbanism through our planning work in Sri Lanka,

India and Bhutan.

While creating a harmonious living environment for all was central to the agenda, technology was of equal importance to the agenda. As Le

Corbusier said, “a house is a machine for living.”

To push this agenda, is to fight other agendas! Mercantile architecture has its own rationale, its own frame work and its own agenda!

Commercial architecture follows the rule of Floor Space Index; cheap materials; flashy facades and creating false dreams. There is also the

academic agenda of writing and theory, a museum agenda of the high priests of art, and a media agenda of making and breaking artists. All of

these agendas make alliances and strategies for dominance. Thus we are not silent spectators to life and the continuous changes going on

around us.

Totalitarian Regimes

The Cute Box as Escape

CIAM and Team Ten

Stunts and Spectacularism

Where Do We Go From Here?

Notes:

Modernity: a life style;

Modernism: an ideology; objects, mono-thinking, not celebrating difference, but the common; uncomfortable with dissonance/

Modern architecture: a movement;

City as a wealth distributor/concentrate wealth;

Social puzzles that emerged from industrial revolution and urbanization;

Potentials to harness mass production to bring products to masses;

Exploiting the potentials of new technology.

Great Cities Are Not Built on Myths


* * * * *

Great cities are not built over night, but good towns can be destroyed in a decade! When asked to project the future of Pune some years ago, I

could only ponder that the things, I liked best about Pune would be gone. I am saddened that my own sarcasm should become so prophetic!

Indeed, it is perhaps our own intellectual cleverness, the gift of turning nostalgia into lyricism and the ability to argue that has allowed us to

live on myths, instead of pragmatically creating our own future.

Several myths seem to permeate our common wisdom that becomes the very barrier to our achievement of civility. I would like to challenge

some of the more blatant ones:

MYTH ONE: Knight on the White Horse Theory. It has been opined in the pages of the IE on a number of occasions that some benign Member

of Parliament will descend on the city and create a paradise on earth. Our Members of Parliament would do the city a greater service by

staying in New Delhi and attempting to create public policy vide the vehicle of enlightened statutory measures, than dabbling in the creation

of sewerage treatment plants, wider roads, flyovers and transferring local officials who dare to point out a bit of corruption here and there. We

are gradually becoming a nation where the administrators make policy and the policy makers are directing implementation. I agreed that we

were blessed with the one minute wonder of the National Games when a Member of Parliament used his considerable personality to widen

some roads, create attractive fountains and build a large sports facility which brought pride to our city. Anomalies must not become rules. In

fact, had our Members of Parliament spent less time quarreling amongst each other, and worked in New Delhi for our common good, this city

would have been a far better place.

MYTH TWO: The Politics is a Dirty Game Theory. When the Emergency was called, I was surprised to find that the most vocal complainers

had never exercised any of the rights they claimed to have lost. Few were registered to vote. None belonged to political parties and even

fewer imagined standing for local elections! It is high time that some of the city’s foreign returned industrialists, educators, managers and

activists actually participate in this animal called local democracy and try seeing if they actually believe in it! There is no substitute for getting

“our hands dirty in local politics” just as the founding fathers of the country did way back in the 1920’s and 30’s!

MYTH THREE: The Public Officials are Corrupt Theory. The fact that if any clean shaven, blue tied, Ivy League corporate manager in our city

were to take a challenge to run this fair city, they would head into the Western Ghats within a week, never to be seen again! The fact is our

civic administrators are under-paid, over-worked, maligned and insulted almost on a daily basis. Most of them work into the night as their

daytime hours find khadhi clad wheeler-dealers demanding their time. They are under-staffed with scopes-of-work far greater than any human

being could ever achieve. They are “fire-fighting” crises after crises with inadequate resources, small teams and continuous interference.

Before we take the names of civic servants lightly, let us increase their salaries to fair corporate ones, give them managerial status and treat

them like the corporate leaders we want them to be!

MYTH FOUR: The Villainous PMC Theory. We all like to imagine that the Pune Municipal Corporation is the villain of the peace; responsible for

every public wow and incompetent in handling the creation of basic infrastructure. Every metro-area of Pune’s size has a Metropolitan

Development Authority of some sort or the other……NOT PUNE! These regional infrastructure development agencies are corporate bodies with

resource raising powers, planning, design, implementing engineers, financial managers, project managers and a host of capable personnel

who can achieve feats like the New Delhi Metro! What we have in reality is two municipal corporations, several local boroughs, a number of

autonomous cantonment boards and many villages. All have their own say in city development. One only has to visit the jurisdictions of the

Ahmedabad, Hyderabad or even Kolkata Urban Development Authorities to see how much better our competitors are, due to this needed

institution. With such a well crafted public infrastructure development corporation in the fray, over-stressed civic officials can concentrate on

the job of making the existing, old and over-stretched systems work while a new one is created. A metropolitan region without a development

authority is like an economy without a bank!

MYTH FIVE: Foreign Management Consultants Theory. It is fashionable these days to imagine that a few well spoken Indian MBA holders,

working in Western management firms, will dance into Pune with a Xerox machine and give us God’s Answers to all of our problems. Any ten

reasonably intelligent Punaris can sit down with a few worn out copies of Urban Vision Statements, and pump out a new vision statement in

half a day! This easy, yet expensive, panacea is just another “quick fix” dream. This is a kind of “Dream Management” that will act as an

opiate of the masses, at least until the next elections!

MYTH SIX: The Myth of the Medicinal Effect of a Dose of Free Enterprise. All great cities, whether in the Pacific Rim, America or Europe have

been guided and ordered by a strong system of planning rules, urban design frameworks and Structure Plans. They have been backed up by

state intervention in land ownership, land pooling and land banking. Good planning is good business! Unfortunately Pune is a lawless frontier

town when it comes to planning! We’ve had no legal statutory plan since the 1980’s. Town Planning Schemes which are so effective in Gujarat

have been moribund for half a century in Pune. Who knows whose land you are buying in this conundrum? We even have an act that

regularizes illegal plot layouts, while taking away unsuspecting buyers’ property rights! Let us not fool ourselves that our little colored maps

with a few roads drawn over them are really urban plans! If we cannot build a simple house with out blueprints, how can we build a city

without any kind of legal instruments? I welcome Joint Ventures for urban Development and management, but within the framework of good

plans.

My hope for this great community is that we build a future city through solid institutions and statutory mechanisms, using highly qualified

urban managers and planners, while giving respect to those who struggle on our behalf to make Pune a better place to live.

(The writer is a Harvard and MIT educated Architect and City Planner, who has planned several cities in Asia and is an advisor to World Bank

and UNO on urban issues).

ARCHITECTURAL MARVELS : THEN, NOW AND BEYOND

Inaugural Session, 12th of September, Agra, India


* * * * *

My Dear Friends:

It is a great honor to be here before such an august assembly of professionals, and to be honored to give the Key Note address of this

important gathering. It is therefore my duty to challenge this assembly in a future path of good thoughts, good deeds and good creations! It is

the search for the good that brings us all together, before this marvel which is a product of all things good!

Today we stand in the shadow of one of the true wonders of the world. We are all blessed, gifted, and I may say dwarfed, merely by the

accident of being here.

We are dwarfed

*. by beauty,

*. by technology,

*. by craftsmanship,

*. by art,

*. by ingenuity,

and, moreover by the shear magnitude of HUMAN WILL.

This is surely a triumph of intelligence, poetry and daring, over darkness, evil and chaos. It is a statement of THE OPTIMISTS over the

PESSIMISTS! It calls forth from the human race to give its best, being a model that inspires anyone who chances to glance its way.

What we are gifted by is not a mere image!

What we are gifted by is not the chance to be awestruck, as we are by a visit to Disney Land, or standing under a very tall building!

This marvel of beauty reaches out to the human mind, soul and body at every imaginable level of communication: In making us feel good

about being a human; in making us wonder how it was possibly built, and the mastery of its architects back then. It charges us with the reality

that we too are capable of much more than what we think we are. It calls out to us demanding that we can also make marvels!

This icon manifests the HUMAN SPIRIT and what it means to be human. It takes us out of our physical world and makes us feel architecture

is a few steps away from, and beyond, materiality. It says; we can dream!

To dream, to imagine, to create and to make the world a better place than we found it, IS THE ESSENCE OF BEING HUMAN. This monument

calls out to all of us to make that extra effort, and to walk that extra mile. It is the spirit of the past calling out to the spirit of the present, and

to the spirits of the future, binding us all into one reality of humanity.

Great art, like the Taj Mahal, lifts people up and away from the day to day drudgery of life; it lifts us above the grinding management of little,

little day to day, affairs; and brings us in touch with the magic of being. Our hopes are enhanced, our minds are challenged; and moreover we

get a sparkle in our eyes that just maybe we can also make something beautiful. If not the Taj Mahal, than a good building; if not a good

building, than a wonderful small sketch, or some tiny crafted thing that carries within its seed, the great idea of beauty triumphing over

ugliness and crudeness. In all things of great beauty, from those tiny to those humangus, are the same two elements of humanity and

perfection.

The Taj Mahal is a monument of human love and human adulation. It is a monument that honors the most beautiful of human emotions. Unlike

the Pyramids or the Coliseum, the Taj Mahal is human-centric. The age of Humanism, the placing of the human being at centre stage, is the

beginning point of what I think of as the “modern era.” From this full vessel of love for humanity, flow broader concerns to make life better for

all who inhabit this earth.

The Taj Mahal is a dramatic symbol of perfection; the search for an ideal; and a statement that there can be paradise on earth! This search for

the ideal man; for the ideal garden; for the ideal city and for the ideal society finds its roots in Plato and Socrates. It is a search that has

tempered the best of minds in all of the ages. The very idea that each of us can redesign ourselves, and redesign the world is fundamental to

being a modern person!

Thus, for me the Taj Mahal is the source of an epic journey. It is like the few drips of moisture out of a stone cave, the nurtures a stream, and

gathers into a great river. The Taj Mahal is “A SOURCE” from which a great search for the perfect world and a human centric world begins!

When we stand in awe before the Taj, let this message call out to us; let us be challenged to serve humanity; let us be challenged to seek out

and to find perfection!

* Professor Christopher Benninger (b.1942) studied urban planning at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and architecture at Harvard

University, where he later taught. He worked under Jose Luis Sert, the Mater Architect, and Jerzey Sultan of Team Ten. He was a member of

the Delos Symposium, headed by Constantinos Doxiadis. He founded the School of Planning (Ahmedabad) and the Centre for Development

Studies in Pune. He is a distinguished Professor at CEPT and on the Board of Governors of the SPA. His United World College won the 1999

Designer of the Year Award, and the American Institute of Architects (BW/AR) Award 2000. He is one of six architects in India to win both the

Golden Architect and the Great Master awards, amongst many other awards. His current projects include the new capitol for Bhutan; the new

IIM Calcutta campus, the Suzlon World Headquarters campus; amongst others. His work can be seen at www.ccbarch.com. More than fifty

journals around the world have covered his architecture, creative writing and technical papers. *

An Architecture for Learning -THE MAHINDRA UNITED WORLD COLLEGE OF INDIA


* * * * *

In 1993 the Indian Industrialist, Harish Mahindra, approached Christopher Benninger to design the new college the Mahindra family wanted to

create as a gift to India. Affiliated with the United World Colleges movement, the college would be the tenth such institution worldwide, under

the Presidency of Nelson Mendela, with Queen Noor as the Chairperson. Mahindra and Benninger shared values which grew out of their

common educational experiences at Harvard, merged with their love of Indian traditions and culture. Both had an utopian image of an ideal,

independent community of scholars who would address global issues. For Mahindra, this represented a chance to mirror his corporate journey

from a national group of companies, to a multi-national conglomerate. He saw the future in terms of an expanding world economy, tempered

by sustainable growth and humanistic values. He wanted this philanthropic initiative to act as the visible torch bearer for these values. For

Benninger, the design offered an opportunity to integrate his quarter century of experience in the sub-continent with the lessons of his gurus

in the West, who included Jose Luis Sert, Constantinos Doxiades, Jerzey Soltan, Shadrack Woods, Jane Drew, Maxwell Fry, Kevin Lynch, Yona

Friedman, Barbara Ward and Jacquline Tyrwhitt. Benninger maintained close relations with his teachers throughout his career saying, “The

only good luck in life is having good teachers.”

At the outset of their venture Harish Mahindra called upon Benninger to, “Create a gift to the world of lasting beauty and quality.” In true

Renaissance style, the Mahindra family tripled the size of their donation during construction to see that the campus emerged into a reality. To

quote Benninger, “Great architecture requires the vision of great clients. I call them patrons of the arts. Without them an architect’s concepts

remain mere dreams.”

Benninger first arrived in India in 1968 on a Fulbright Fellowship, returning back to Harvard in 1970 to teach design. In Cambridge he worked

in Sert’s studio and completed his MIT degree in urban planning. He settled in India permanently in 1972 as a Ford Foundation Consultant.

Some labeled this as a ‘self imposed exile’(1). It was toward the end of the Indian Golden Age. Mahatma Gandhi was still ‘alive’ in people’s

hearts and minds. Benninger often quotes Gandhi’s indicative, “Live in a village and plan for the world.” He founded the School of Planning at

Ahmedabad [1972] and the Centre for Development Studies and Activities, Pune [1976]. He often noted that he craved the a life of “being in

reality,” as opposed to studying it from afar. “Being an outsider is elemental to seeing problems in new ways. It leads to more creative

insights and angles from which things can be seen and related,” Benninger opines that, “Architecture involves social, spatial, cultural and

technological relationships, and being an outsider allows one to throw off the given truths, to re-consider them, and to re-think what the

nature of things are. We can never know the truth in architecture, but we can search the ‘good’ in architecture. We can search pleasure,

beauty, balance and comfort etc.”

THE MAHINDRA UNITED WORLD COLLEGE OF INDIA

I. LEARNING ENVIRONMENTS

Introduction

The Mahindra United World College of India is affiliated with the United World Colleges movement founded by Lord Mountbaten and

headquartered in London. Including the new Indian college, there are nine other campuses spread around the world. The United World

Colleges teach the two-year, International Bacheloriate program, based on the globally recognized Geneva curriculum. The college is designed

for an annual induction of one hundred candidates, hailing from over sixty countries. Thus, my mission was to create a community of scholars,

housed in its own facilities, adequate for two hundred residential students, twenty-five faculty members and about thirty support staff. I

envisioned this as a unique institution for India, integrating value systems of the East and the West, while seeking an integrity between

empirical thought and the human spirit. Like the Centre for Development Studies and Activities, which I founded with Barbara Ward as the

Patron in 1976, I wanted to create a milieu which imparts value-based education, while building competencies within a framework of

constructive humanism. The shared experience of international education and community service creates responsible world citizens, wherein

students enhance their skills and knowledge through the International Bachelorate course and participation in development projects. Personal

discovery and global awareness prevail over classroom education in the arts, sciences, languages and mathematics. Human relations and

integrity are amongst the qualities the college enhances. The architecture must do more than reflect this, it must catalyze this!

I often cite the influence of C.A. Doxiadis and the Delos Symposium Group on my later work. At the 1967 Delos Symposium we were infused

with hope and commitment, woven into a fine fabric…a vision of the world as a single human community. Everyone was analyzing this from a

different perspective. Barbara Ward was linking the global economy with environmental sustainability; Buckminister Fuller saw technology and

science converging for the enhancement of the human condition, Margret Mead drew lessons from cultures and contexts to form hypothesis

about future societies; Arnold Toynbee picked history apart into trends and events, pinpointing concerns and opportunities. Doxiadis had a

holistic vision, we know as Ekistics, which pulled all of these world views into a global vision. As a young person this was all very heady stuff,

and I left with my own vision of the future and my own image of what I could personally do. The college concept matched the Delos idea very

well! Doxiadis always wanted to give a concrete shape to ideas. He wanted concepts to be mirrored in a physical vision of reality.

The academic program called for a classroom cluster, a library, centers for science and fine arts, a multi-purpose hall, a catering facility and

an administration area. In addition there would be a separate residential area for all the faculty and students, clustered around a common

medical facility and student center.

In a letter to Harish Mahindra I proposed that, “the campus must provide practical shelter for functions to be carried out, while also standing

for experiential space in which the spirit moulds minds into attitudes and expectations. Built form is a true reflection of our image of reality

and our lean on the absolute.” I insisted that, “the core faculty group at the MUWCI must be committed to a life style which is charged with

idealism, but based in programmatic approaches. In the end analysis the success of our venture depends on the inspiring capability of the

core group, and the allure of the environment. Each catalyses the other”(1).

Through our correspondence the strategies became clearer. We both felt the use of local materials in the design would embody universal

truths. “While building from local stone and clay tiles, we shall search out forms which reflect the forests, the mountanious landscape above

the site, and the rice terraces below. We would attempt to form spaces which are human in scale. We would provide for all of the functions

and tasks which both join people together into common pursuits, as well as offer them spiritual privacy in their search for the ideal in

themselves.”(2)

Harish Mahindra often pondered over the nature of inspiration and the meaning of education. He pondered over what role architecture could

play in their realization.

I felt that, the campus must address an inherent contradiction: the focussing of life toward institutional aims and objectives, and the liberation

of the ‘creative’ in each individual toward the discovery of what is uniquely humane in them. This contradiction involves a dynamic tension

between the wandering mind, which is always searching, and the demands for concentrated effort, which is always focused. This tension is a

force which must be understood and expressed(3).

The college held out the promise of being a strong partner in an international movement, synthesizing its global orientation with India’s

traditional universalism.

The Setting

My terms of reference included identification of the site. I explored the ancient mountain trails of the Marathas and the heardmen’s upland

pastures, searching for an ideal location for such a community to be created. I was intrigued by the vast open spaces of America, as utilized in

the layouts of Mount Vernon, Monticello, the University of Virginia, and Taliesin West. I explored the mountanious region between Mumbai on

the Arabian Sea, and Pune up in the Sahayadri Mountains. I wanted a place accessible to Mumbai and Pune airports, hospitals, libraries, book

stores and entertainment, but adequately insulated from pollution, urban sprawl and distracting amusement. I yearned to create an enclave in

the high pasture lands, which separate India’s vast Deccan Plateau from the sea. The ancient Maratha Empire had constructed walled forts

and administrative settlements on such plateaus, perched over the verdant rice fields and meandering rivers below. I felt this would be a way

to bring the students close to nature, yet isolate them from the distractions of city life. Finally, I selected a hill ridge in a village called

Khubavali, about three hundred feet above the Mulla River valley, dotted with a patchwork of green patty fields, affording the campus

dramatic views through a valley, which is surrounded by high mountains.

Concerns

My visits to American campuses made me critical of current architectural trends. With a sense of nostalgia I pondered what happened to the

ideal of the university? Each ‘discipline of study’ wants to be separate from the ‘university.’ The objective seems to be the opposite of the

goal! Each architect wants to make his own statement, through his own isolated building. Each faculty has its own, isolated plot in the

university sub-division. Just as they have isolated their own little lives in suburbia, people want to isolate their own little minds on campuses!

Everything is broken into components, into compartmentsm, and then it’s packaged into little boxes and little things! Instead of integrating

and catalyzing, the entire exercise seems to be to close off and to ‘block out’. That’s the problem with nations-states; with corporations, with

urban opportunities and with suburbia. The New Urbanism is a fine example of this decay! It is neither new, nor it is urban! It is an expression

of personal gain---all isolated into a personal investment, all expressed in little houses! In the end what can not be hidden is that the entire

design is just an investment package, for an isolated, homogeneous group of investors to lock their dreams into something which can be sold

later for a profit. Everyone’s investment is safe from the dangerous people. This is not ‘communitas,’ this is not a goal, and this is not where

we should go!

The Mahindra college offered an opportunity to make a counter statement about what we ‘are’ and what the world is all about. It was a chance

to put community before profit; a chance to put ideas above greed! One had to pick up the idea of built-form, and say look…we can start all

over again, we can build a habitat which centers around mankind; around context and around sharing! The plan became a kind of counter-

blast to what was going on! Everyone was confusing globalization, de-regularization, and privatization with some kind of goal. It was as if

ameliorizing past errors was a vision of the future! It was not! So the Mahindra college design was a chance to go back to basics; back to

history to define relevant traditions again, and most of all, back to humanism!

II. PRECEDENTS

Architecture does not emerge from imagination alone! It is part of a continuum of history, and is born from the evolution of society and its

technology. It is essential to look back in history and to see how ancient schools, learning places and universities evolved from the same

climate and terrain. I have been interested in the early Buddhist centers of learning in India, which include Taxila, Nalanda and the Ellora-

Ajanta cave complexes.

Though they exist today only as archeological ruins, there were Buddhist centers of learning in the sub-continent built over two thousand

years ago. Their plans can be visualized from excavations which make their spatial qualities and functions fairly obvious(4), and speak of

design principles which are relevant even today.

Scattered over the Ganges basin of India were Hindu Gurukulas which educated young boys in the fundamentals of mathematics, ethics,

mythology, warfare, language, cosmology, philosophy, agriculture and social mores. These schools were usually set within a walled court with

an entrance at one end and a pavilion at the other. In more evolved residential schools, study cubicals were lined along the two remaining

walls, where students and teachers also slept. Most important was the garden courtyard, shaded by generous, broad trees. These, and other

types of residential schools were always located in an isolated place(5). Gurukulas were common even until recent times and would be the

oldest type of educational institution found in India.

Taxila

Perhaps the oldest known university in the world was at Taxila [600 BC – 200 A.D]. Subjects ranging from archery, astrology, medicine,

mathematics, Buddhist philosophy and the Hindu Vedas were taught in various ‘colleges’ spread along a main boulevard(6). These ‘learning

centers’ were dispersed within a complex, cosmopolitan trading center which linked Asia to the West. In each center a respected teacher,

assisted by senior students, ran the learning programs. The method of learning ranged from the memorization of ‘slokas’, to didactic

discussions and debate. Students and faculty lived together around a common assembly hall. The Maurya Empire’s expansion provided an

impetus to Taxila, as did the influx of the Greeks during the third and second centuries BC. Like many universities today, Taxila was an urban

university, whose built form was integrated into the urban fabric.What is relevant to me is the “courtyard plan.” At Taxila all the learning

centers, or colleges, were constructed as a series of courtyards, in which indoor and outdoor spaces merged almost inperceptively. Though

this integration took place in a highly urban context, the idea of an inside-outside continuum caught my imagination.

Nalanda

The Buddhist university at Nalanda was founded by Ashoka, the great Mauryan emperor and patron of Buddhism. Nalanda, unlike Taxila, has a

university campus which includes a number of monasteries and temples. Temples in India have always been centers of dance, music,

philosophy and ethics. For Westerners who find it difficult to accept a mixture of scientific reasoning with subjective theology, one must look

no further than Oxford or Harvard, which have chapels centrally located within their plans. What interests me more about Nalanda is the

grouping of user spaces around interior courts, and the further grouping of monasteries into a cluster. Various courses of study were all taught

at Nalanda from the Third Century BC, right up to the 12th Century AD, including mathematics, logic, grammar, medicine, Hindu and Buddhist

scriptures. Buddha himself visited Nalanda and Mahavira, the founder of Jainism, spent fourteen years studying there.

Nalanda was the first planned university with a large central library in three structures. There were seven large halls for teaching and three

hundred smaller class rooms. About three thousand monks, and even more students, lived in residential “quadrangles(7).” I feel strongly

about the quadrangles and the way monasteries were grouped with stupas and academic structures. The over-all plan is interesting not in the

manner in which it creates ‘negative’ spaces, but in the way the building masses, containing independent enclosed spaces, were aggregated

in a lineal row, with other activities clustered around them. Landscaping also played a strong role, which tempered my ideas in the Mahindra

College. There was an enclosing wall and a system of lotus ponds.

Ajanta and Ellora Cave Monasteries

Unlike Taxila and Nalanda, the cave monasteries at Ajanta and Ellora were isolated from distracting urban centers. As schools for monks, the

complexes included assembly halls [Chaitya] having a stupa within, a central dome and relics of the Buddha. There were ‘viharas” which were

living-cum-study halls. I was quick to acknowledge the similarity of these monastery sites to that of the Mahindra College, located in the same

Sahayadri Mountains. Ajanta is set in a horseshoe, semi-circular scarp, overlooking a gorge within green fields and a river below. The campus

which flourished from the Second Century B.C. until the Seventh Century AD interested me due to its link with nature, use of natural materials,

exploitation of views and isolation from urban areas(8).

Through history architects have always dealt with the same realities and problems. We have always delt with gravity, with foundations of

stone, with doors and windows, with people moving, with living, with working or sleeping in these places. Walls have always been there, and

they will always be there. The column has always played a transcendental role, as well as a structural one. A new structure is always

determined by an old precedent, either from history, or from within an architect’s own evolving ‘ouvre’ which is, or should be, in the nature of

experiments. In addition to physics and natural forces we are dealing with issues of social cohesion and humanistic qualities. One has to see

his work as laboratory, life-sized experiments, wherein the successes and errors of history---and of one’s own work---feed into further work.

III. ARCHITECTURE: AN EVOLVING CRAFT

In addition to the influence of these historical examples, my own work developed slowly over several decades. There are two aspects of my

life in India that allowed my work to evolve.

In India, until the Internet arrived recently, we were isolated from Western fashion and ‘trend swings.’ US architectural magazines were just

too expensive! We frankly did not know what was going on which was a true blessing. Benign neglect, would be a proper way to view it. Post

Modernism was kind of a joke, which we never took seriously. We looked at modernism critically, but we never lost sight of its origins: social

and technical issues; community and the human conditions! Another blessing was that I never earned a living running a practice. I ran a studio

more as a ‘play thing,’ or as a kind of personal laboratory. I was never in a hurry to ‘be fashionable’ or to sell ‘design.’ I was doing social

science research, building a new institute, studying rural development trends and the environmental system. Architecture was more of a craft

which had to find its place in all of this. But I learned from my craft, and my craft evolved.

The Theological Library at Ahmedabad

In 1972 I was approached by a group of priests to design a library to house a rare collection of religious books, written in the vernacular

Gujarati language. This structure of inter-connected spaces illustrates most of the features I have integrated into my architectural language.

Water spouts, window boxes, courtyards, exposed bearing wall materials, and form finished concrete work are all precursors to his present

language. The project employs a rigorous structural system which is exploited spatially with sky lights, parallel beams, and other ideas

prominent in current works. The circular stair, bridge and interior balcony all “move” people in space. The free standing column in the center

of the two-storied main hall generates the “figure ground” movement I employ widely today. The “plug-in” toilets have been resolved into

pure geometry, strangely reminiscent of archigram arrangements(9).

The entire system is based on human proportion of seven feet - six inch ceiling heights, and square paving patterns, from which the plan is

generated. These aggregate into the fifteen-foot square floor grid. When reflected in the ceiling’s structural system, these are divided further

into five foot on center, fifteen foot long beams, which in turn “pop up” as skylights! The massing of this very small structure is used to

enclose a small courtyard, between two Nineteenth Century brick structures. Most of the elements, motifs and proportional systems have

been carried on into the Center for Development Studies and Activities at Pune, and later into the Mahindra College. The ‘light shafts’ of the

Student Center at the College find their origins in the skylights of this early work.

The Centre for Development Studies and Activities [CDSA]

The CDSA campus at Pune, India was created in 1988 as my own work place, campus, where students came to study and to carry out research

on development issues, strategies and plans(10). CDSA was an experimental piece of architecture wherein I, as my own client, could test out

many of the ideas which later appear in the college. For example: “bas relief” form finish murals; exposed random rubble stone walls, tile

roofs; class rooms facing on to a court or garden, via glass sliding panels, and numerous other features are evident. Many of these devices

and motifs can be seen in the Theological Library [1972] also. There is an evolution of ideas, rather than random trials. CDSA, in fact, lies

within the same micro region as the Mahindra College and the use of the “borrowed landscape” at CDSA, wherein one focuses on distant

views, was later evolved further in the college(11).

CDSA’s campus plan and activities are conceived from the concept of a Greek gymnasium, and in that spirit are set in a suburban

environment, on a terrace of land along the fall of a hill slope. The campus includes facilities for both intellectual and physical development,

keeping the holistic development of the human being as an objective. In the Clouds, Aristophanes describes the ‘Academy’ with its trees and

its terracing on a hill slope, as a typical suburban Athenian gymnasium:

“But you will below the Academe go, and under the Olives contented.

With your chaplet of reed, in a contest of speed with some excellent rival and friend.

All fragrant with woodbine and peaceful content, and the leaf which the line-blossoms fling.

When the pine whispers love to the elm in the grove in the beautiful season of spring.

In ancient times, Athens was almost ringed with these pleasant spots in which garden parks, athletics, social and intellectual life blossomed

freely. These were also places where statues and art works were commonly found. By the fourth century B.C. each of the three main suburban

gymnasia of Athens had become the seat of a philosophical school of thought. Political and ethical discussions were frequent topics of concern

amongst the members. Socrates frequented the Lyceum and Plato established his school next to the Academy. The cynics found their home

around Antisthenes at Cynosures. Aristotle and the School of the Peripatetic identified with the Lyceum. Because of their importance in

Athenian life in general, but more particularly because of their association with philosophical schools, the gymnasia have an equally intense

significance for the history of humanity as the acropolis or the agora(12). In Maharashtra, the CDSA is a centre of the pragmatist school of

philosophy, and the institute is deeply involved with very real development efforts.

The gymnasium of Delphi was magnificently situated high on a hill beneath higher slopes, and it was required to adapt the slope for the

gardens by creating terraces. Along the lines of Delphi, CDSA’s hill slope near Pune has first been terraced into a dense garden. The flat court

of the academic quadrangle reflects the podium of many Greek structures. The ‘grouping’ of buildings around this podium, focused on views

and statues, also draws its roots from the classic Greek tradition. Superimposed over these references are elements of a strictly Indian origin.

The ottas [sitting platforms], Kund-like steps, courts and tile roofs all draw their inspiration from the traditional Indian milieu. The Center’s art

collection includes statues by contemporary Indian artists like Piraji Sagara and Ghanshyam Gupta Prasad. It includes ancient brass statues,

priceless Mogul and Rajput miniatures, and original screen prints donated by Balkrishna V. Doshi. All of these enrich the building fabric woven

from classical roots.

Set in the Sahaydri Mountains, the campus consists of eleven structures, including four “houses” which group around and bridge over an

internal street. There are also a “club house” for cooking, eating and symposia, and a cluster of classrooms, a library and study/offices around

a central “Podium.”

As a plan pattern, or foot print, the CDSA campus is also a link between the Theological Library and the Mahindra College designs. It is

composed of parallel stone walls. These east-west oriented elements protect the interiors from sun and heat. Running perpendicular to these

stone walls are glass sliding panels which separate the interior spaces from the exterior gardens. These transparent screens lead on to the

verandahs, which draw-in gardens, courts, platforms and other devices integrating interior and exterior spaces. The verandah ceilings also

serve as “basins” to catch water running off of the tile roofs. All of these elements are found in the Mahindra College, yet the two campuses

are indeed very different, each having a very unique use of “space molding,” shaping of forms and sequencing of events. At CDSA the pitched

tile roofs are “held” by stone walls which prestage the Mahindra College sloped roofs in their angular shapes. I made the roof slopes to the

west significantly steeper [45 degrees] than the slopes facing east [30 degrees], as the heavy rains pour in from the West! This unusual

change in slopes generates asymmetrical ‘end’ walls in elevation. Ideas like these are further exploited at the Mahindra College. Clustering of

the five structures around the podium follows a strict, discipline. The east-west elongated spaces enclosed within parallel Basalt walls, open up

to views of the mountains on the west, and the growing metropolis of Pune to the east. Tiled roofs are laid on marine plywood, supported by

steel rafters with an exposed teak wood vineer aesthetic on the ceilings inside. The sloping roofs accommodate mezzanines connected

through interior balconies and two-storied interlocking spaces. An interesting play of spaces has been created where the classrooms open out

into their own private landscaped courtyards, which again visually connect to the main court through square openings(13).

In the choice of materials, finishes, detailing and spatial design, I am attempting to consolidate the wisdom of the past, while searching for

new relationships and patterns. The inertia of Post Modernism, that is becoming narcissistically oriented around the single building statement,

is rejected. In this small complex the “single building” is being destroyed, and fused into a more complex fabric. Yet, there are very

individualistic expressions for various functions.

Dhamma Hall and Meditation Pavilion at Nagaloka

In Nagpur a Buddhist campus known as “Nagaloka” has been coming up over the past decade. Nagpur is the center of modern India’s

Buddhist movement. The campus includes a Dhamma Hall, or discourse room, where lectures and discussions are held. There is also a library,

administration hall, dharmashala, multi-purpose hall, monk’s communities and meditation pavilion. All are set around a large open space,

centered on a statue of Lord Buddha. I was influenced by the Deer Park at Sarnath where the Buddha gave his Sermon of the Turning of the

Wheel, outlining the Five Fold Path. In this spirit the interior park is an unstructured gathering space, which will be planted informally with

shady trees.

The Dhamma Hall

The Dhamma Hall at Nagaloka is the main public meeting hall where the Buddhist triad-Buddha, Dhamma and Sangha-are brought together.

Buddha, or the image of ‘enlightenment,’ is positioned at the end of the central aile of the hall, with a clearstorey over the Image. This anti-

space in which the image rests is a kind of shrine. It is where the pious can do their ritual rounds of the image. It is a ‘purer’ space than the

main hall, which has more sanctity than the entrance porch.

The Sangha, or the ‘community’ can meet in the Dhamma Hall to discuss and to practice the dharma, or the ‘law’ of Buddha. This large hall is

spamed by five concrete shells, which rest on columns, framing the Buddha image. The columns visually suggest a separation between the

Buddha’s realm and the realm of the sangha, or community. Meditation, and the image of the Buddha as a vehicle of transcendence, are

essential elements. Hollow exposed brick bearing walls, enclose three sides of the hall. Glass folding doors open on to the large entrance

pavilion, which is also sheltered by a twenty meter long shell.

Thus, the configuration is one of seven, twenty meter by four meter structural concrete shells. The Kotah stone floor, detailed in white marble,

is patterned to reflect the structural divisions of the shells, with the central shell connecting the main entrance door to the Buddha image. The

hall is used for discourses, meditation and public gatherings. The entry porch, or pavilion, derives its origins from pindhi, or open verandahs

which are “separators” between the house and the street, or at a grander scale between a city and the vast wilderness beyond. A pindhi can

be a humble shed to comfort a tired passer-by, or it can be a dignified symbol of a whole city(14).

Thus, the structure communicates three levels of sanctity in the form of a pindhi, the actual dhamma hall and the shrine. Each has a distinct

function, and is a distinct place. There is a stark classicism about this structure which I purposefully employed to sanctify the amluance. It is a

twenty meter square hall, with two twenty meter long shells defining the ‘ends.’

While the Dhamma Hall is functionally very removed from the Mahindra College function, one can see the same language at work: natural

expression of bearing materials; form finished concrete, the motifs and classic proportions. The round columns separating the Buddha shrine

from the sangha, also are static references, which make other features move when the human body moves. The Buddha image is also

anchored into a static position, forcing each individual to visually align with it!

The Meditation Hall

The meditation hall is a Vihara for monks. Vihara, in Sanskrit, relates to wandering about, or movement. As a verb it means to ‘go around,’

contemplating, or visiting a reclusive grove of trees or a garden. In short it is a place for retreat and isolation. It is cut off from the world.

Originally the monks wandered about India, and beyond, to propagate to Wheel of Law, or Dhamma, settling in retreats during the monsoon.

These monsoon retreats, or avasas, gradually became permanent establishments know as viharas. During the Buddha’s time Veluvanarama

was a vihara in a forest grove and Jivakarama was a vihara in a mango grove of Rajagriha in northern India, which Buddha himself visited. As

these institutions began to be established in cities, they had to physically seclude the vihara from the surrounding settlements.

The meditation pavilion is, thus, completely surrounded by a wall, forming an interior court. There is a vestibule, or entrance structure and

there is a shrine area. This division of elements can be found even today in the balrals of Kathmandu Valley. Unlike the Dhamma Hall the

Sangha and Buddha share the same sacred space; for the monks the dhamma has fused their sangha life with that of the Buddha ideal!

The plan is a spiral, with the intention of confusing participants’ orientation. Moving in a circular pattern, one immediately looses their sense of

direction. The need for orientation is replaced suddenly by the Buddha image! The image sits in a small pavilion, which is placed geometrically

in the center of the courtyard. In this way the garden atmosphere of ancient times is recreated. The experience is of sitting in an isolated

green area, if not a forest.

This is a place for contemplation and for meditation. All materials are naturally expressed. Harmony is achieved with other structures in the

campus through common materials, motifs and proportions, engendering an architectural language.

IV. LESSONS AND PRINCIPLES

Movement in Space

These historical examples, and my earlier works, are precedents upon which the Mahindra College design is based. For me, the individual

moving in space, is the focal concern. It is this concern which generates a spatial framework for design. I attempt to use highly controlled

visual-spatial confections to achieve what Lefaivre and Tzonis have termed a design strategy of arranging masses of artifacts in controlled

disequilibrium in “a manner that is portent of a changed state(15).” My idea is not the form of space, not moulded or flowing shapes…..but the

kinetic juxtaposition of forms, channels, vistas, stairs, walls, columns, etc., which heighten a sense of awareness of both space and one’s place

in space. As Siegfried Giedeon noted, “space should be conceived relative to a moving point of reference, not as relevant to some absolute

and static entity.”(16) The central column in the Theological Library, used extensively as a visual device in the Mahindra College, creates a

moving point of reference. Such a column must continually change its placement reference to walls and other elements, heightening one’s

sense and awareness of movement. One does this with building masses also. They frame each other into compositions which continuously

change.

I would contrast this ‘kinetic fabric’ with the stand-alone ‘plan-mass’ statements being made today, particularly in American university

campuses. In such cases one finds architecture as an alienating idea, as a static and as a forbidding visual force. Each structure is trying

desperately to say something about the architect [of all people], and not much about the users and surrounding context. At best I find these

static boxes and forms interesting abstract compositions and arrangements, presumed to be aesthetic.

We are not concerned with planning parcels of land, or individual building statements. We are concerned with the communities who will live in

our works, and how these communities reflect the larger societies they mirror. We are concerned with human inter-action; with human

emotional inter-dependencies; with understandings of ‘publicness,’ with civility and with behavioural norms. These are the fundamental

concepts of ‘society’ and of ‘civilization.’ Architecture can both contribute to and distract from these.

Movement in space, and the visual noting of movement through various devices, is the most dominant theme which ties this diverse group of

work together. In addition a group of design principles are applied.

Design Principles

Integration with the environment has been a design theme in all of my work. Site features and the local ecology help focus and mould other

design themes. At the college I was fortunate to have a potential site which could be apportioned between productive cultivation and natural

landscape, with a variety of terrain and vegetation, for a creative living space.

While there was a clear mandate and program of activities through which objectives were to be met, some principles for a ‘built-environment’

emerged were applied applied to the design. These were:

1.The architecture should be a natural expression of available resources, through the use of indigenous materials like terracotta tiles, Basalt

stone for walls, Shahabad stone for external paving and lintels, and Kotah stone for interior floors. These materials are all expressed naturally,

without the application of plaster or paint. Form finished concrete was also a way to express the reality of materials. Honesty of expression

was thus a design principle.

2.Employment of human scale, as opposed to the monumentalism so often found in institutions, is another principle. No building should

dominate the landscape through brute size, or heavy architectonic statements. The architectural milieu must provide personal spaces which

belong to the inhabitants and engender interaction. This infers a ‘low-rise’ fabric wherein the roof-shape should be a humble reflection of the

landscape.

3.Continuity and harmony should be achieved through consistency in the architectural language and the environment. It is important that

common building systems tie a complex group of structures into an integrated whole. For example, one building can not be of reinforced

concrete, and another of brick bearing walls, and yet another of pre-fabricated concrete elements, and still another of steel, which we observe

in American show case campuses these days, where each architect is competing with the other for attention.

4.An architectural language must be evolved through the selection of appropriate motifs. Motifs can include functional components like door

lintels, window shade boxes, ventilators, water spouts and various built-in components. These reflect the demands of climate and culture on

lifestyles, customs and habits. Murals cast into natural, exposed concrete enrich the design. One can not ‘design a language’ over night.

Elements, ideas and components may emerge from historical examples. An architectural language must evolve through a number of projects

and experiences.

5.A sustainable environment must be created. A college can not just be a cluster of buildings on parcels of land. It has to be an integrated

man-bio system where nature thrives and people learn. The sun, rains and winds must all temper the orientation of walls, roof coverage and

openings. These are not issues of style or fancy, but facts of the environment.

6.A circulation system must separate vehicles from pedestrians; and visitors from regular participants. Noisy and polluting vehicles must be

kept at a distance. Movement must be pedestrian and service/visitor vehicles must be separated from this network. The circulation system

must also be a lattice, allowing choices of how one moves from place to place in the work area. In the living areas there should be a tree like

structure, lending privacy and security to the most basic residential units. A campus is not a city, and the circulation system must honour this

distinction.

7.The architectural scheme must establish a main structure through the circulation pattern and the building technology pattern which

reinforce each other, integrating into a framework. The main structure must respect the need for short span areas to gather together, and for

long span spaces to act as focal points and nodal centers. Such an integrated circulation network-cum-structural system works to separate

casual visitors, vendors, and suppliers from serious participants and key actors. In its subtle manner such a system reflects the daily schedule,

requiring quiet zones to later become discussion, music or even loud zones, or visa-versa. Space and movement; place and sense of being;

form and sequence are all part of this integration of movement networks and building systems. These elements are all linked and integrated

through a main structure.

8.Most of all, the ambience will be one of global thinking. This does not mean the projection of a cold, cultureless image through an

industrialized ‘international style.’ It does not mean McDonnel’s hamburgers will replace rice and dal. It means applying principles which can

unite mankind into a world community: honesty in expression; sustainable environment; respect for the individual; encouragement of

constructive group action; use of appropriate technology and creating balanced eco-systems. It is in its role of promoting group concerns and

life styles that architecture contributes to a future vision.

The college is based on the ‘vision’ of a secure, safe, and enjoyable environment. In such an environment national, racial, religious and other

‘boundaries’ loose their devicine meanings. Architecture and planning are not merely geometric problems. They are problems in which time,

space, life and purpose all become part of one reality.

Modernism

A small diversion is required here! I must emphasize that I am not a Post-Modernist. I look back with nostalgia to a great modernist tradition

filled with Wright, Le Corbusier, Kahn, Sert and other expressionist, modern architects. I feel that modernism was highjacked by bureaucrats

and developers to save and make money, and then this boorishness was kidnapped by the post-modernists as their antithesis! Instead of

booking the rapists, they labeled the abused as whores! The post-modernists have misrepresented modernism to make themselves appear

new, when they are just a continuum! The roots of architecture lie in social purposes, in technology, physical movement, in nature, in visual

and mental stimulation. Architecture is the beauty which emerges when all of these elements are mixed together.

The modern movement finds its basis in a social agenda and in an understanding of technology. Technology, in the modern sense, does not

mean the tallest, largest or longest structure! Technology does not mean steel and glass. Technology means the fusing of quantitative

systems and value systems toward an appropriate application. Because labour in India is plentiful, and highly skilled in stone work, it would

not be appropriate to build a tensile structure, where a stone wall would do. That would not be ‘modern.’ The so-called Post Modernists have

disjointed quantitative and value systems. They use techniques merely as a form of gymnastics to attract attention. The so-called ‘Post

Modernists’ have abandoned a social agenda. At the College social interaction, social hierarchies; community and privacy; provision of

‘settings for interaction’ and ‘places of exchange’ are formative aspects of the plan. This is why it is modern architecture.

We are still very much a part of the modern movement. Perhaps we are late modernists, but modernists we are! Post-modernism is a ‘word’

used by historians and critics to fit their own personalities and identities into a framework. The architects they write about are flattered to be

cited as new and different. Post Modernism is not a period, or a movement, like modernism. It has been created by academics to resolve their

own identity crises. Post Modernism is not the product of ‘architectural oeuvres’ created over time, which culminate in a true movement. If it is

a movement, it is a movement of superficial style, of packaging, of decoration, of cold monuments and of ‘things.’ Recent works on American

campuses isolate people, isolate intellectual disciplines, and alienate one building from another. This is the opposite of what a university

stands for. It is preposterous! We must break this tragic historical trend. A campus must work as a whole, as a total organism, with a purpose.

Animals have needs, people have purposes! Why do we see so many campus designs which are mere expressions of need?

V. APPLICATION OF PRINCIPLES

Spatial Organization

Hierarchy of space plays an important role in the organization of the college plan. The academic campus is organized around a central

quadrangle with passages radiating off of it. One enters the campus through the “Mahadwara,” or an ancient wooden carved door, set within a

massive entrance wall, which acts as a symbolic ‘guard,’ or a sentinel to the campus.

Inside a world of meandering stone walkways, takes one through the reception area, the Administration Building and on to where a long view

up to the Catering Center chimney tower, stops the eye. It is the stone walls which carry one along, as if exploring a medieval hill town. The

walls are massive, angular, bent in and thrust out---all in a conceived scheme of movement and experience. One is attracted to an opening

into the Academic Quadrangle at the end of this sequence, but not before one’s view is diverted up a pedestrian ramp, leading to the porch of

the Science Center.

This porch rests on columns, at a pivotal point, dominating the open area below it, as a Greek temple would preside over a village. With a

circular opening in its roof, and five round columns holding it up in the air, the porch literally turns space around it. These two events, the

‘long view’ and the ‘turning porch’ add excitement and discovery to one’s journey deeper into the fabric of the campus.

The sequence from the Mahadwara ends as one moves into the academic quadrangle. This is the hub of the campus, where all of the

classrooms are located. Each of the four corners of the quadrangle opens out to views, and to different activity areas, such as the campus

lawn, which spreads down the western axis, toward a grand vista of Mulshi Lake with its dramatic sunsets, all framed by the strong, directional

Library wall and the heavy masonry of the Art Center. To the east, the quadrangle opens through a narrow passage, focused on a small

pyramid with students perched on it. A ramp moves on up from the pyramid to the Catering Center. In similar ways the quadrangle opens to

the south, down the amphi-theatre steps, ramps and gardens to the Multi-purpose Hall. These are all flowing, “lattice” spaces, inter-connected

with one another, unlike the more ‘tree-like’ cul-de-sacs in the residential village.

Social Hierarchy and Spatial Patterns

Just as villages in this region of India are divided into hamlets, or ‘wadis,’ so the residential village of the campus is divided into four ‘wadis.’

Each wadi entrance has a wind tower, in which antique wooden carved doors from old Maharashtrian ‘wadas’ or large houses, are fixed to

signify “passage” from the unstable universe into the stable space of household life. In each hamlet there is a Common Room with telephones,

kitchenette, T.V., launderette, etc. This common area is a spatial pivot between a Student Yard and a Faculty Yard. Each student yard has six

houses or wadas around it. Like the traditional wadas of the region, these also have an internal, walled-in court, using verandah to link rooms

together. Again, in local vernacular, these enclosed courts are known as chowks.

These four communities are clustered around a landscaped Mall where amenities, such as the Students’ Center, Swimming Pool, Medical

Center and Nurses’ Quarters are located. Sitting areas and walkways are used to link the hamlets together. The Mall is the highest social

gathering space, next are the four Common Rooms, next the eight Yards, and finally the twenty-four wadas and twenty faculty cottages. Each

wada and each ‘cottage’ has a chowk, where household social units gather. Thus, there is a social scaling of various sizes of inter-action within

groups, which is also reflected and strengthened, through the spatial pattern of the college, embracing the entire community. The scaling is

reflected in built-form in a hirearchy from village, wadi, wada and then chowk!

Within the ‘wadas’ each student has their own spatial domain: an individual sleep/study area. Four of these spaces form a dormitory room, in

which the most basic social group lives, originating from four different countries. Two dorm rooms, an entrance area, a box room and a wet

core are linked by the verandah and chowk, forming a ‘house.’ These houses are very similar to the small courtyard houses, one finds in the

villages of western India.

Integration of Open Spaces and Interior Spaces

At the college external gardens, connecting walls, passages, courts, ramps and quadrangles serve to integrate interior and exterior spaces.

Each classroom has its own private garden court where the learning process can spill out-of-doors. The result is the penetration of nature into

the built form. In the Library and in the Administration Building, entrance porches and glass atria twist exterior space into the interior. In the

Academic Quadrangle and the Science Center, interior quadrangles are employed, with low covered passages around them. In the Student

Center, Catering Center and Multi-purpose Hall and other structrures verandahs are used as ‘in-between’ spaces which integrate the interior

with the exterior. Thus, the school is conceived as a sequence of low and high walls, gardens, passages, verandahs, sit-out platforms,

courtyards, atria, ramps, steps and orchards, creating the ambiance of a natural park in which activities seem to be incidentally set. This idea

is similar to that of Mogul complexes where the structures are actually “pavilions” opening into gardens. In such compositions the definition

between interior and exterior areas is vague and nebulous. A number of Indian devices are employed, like “ottas,” or sitting platforms, or

“kund-like” steps. Even low walls are employed to bring people together as “sitting walls,” rather than as barriers.

Movement, Time and Perception

In all of the designs at the college an ‘apparent,’ yet deceptive, informality in order is used to create a dynamic tension, which keeps the eye

moving, exploiting kinetic sensations. Columns are used as static benchmarks to demarcate space, with the walls as moving backgrounds. In

this manner the mobile human being becomes the focal point, as a ‘third force,’ whose location, or ‘situation’ is marked by stationary

columns, against walls which appear to move behind the columns.

Unlike my earlier works, which are organized around a modulated Cartesian grid, the MUWCI is organized around ‘patterns’ which are

integrated through the use of a common language of build. This has allowed us to ‘plug in’ new structures, in a flexible manner, along the

radial paths leading out from the Academic Quadrangle. This can be linked with the Indian perception of “time.”

Time in the West is very different than in the East. A Hindu will reincarnate in to another manifestation at a later date! He must live out his

present dharma and be sincere in the duties it bestows on him. In his life he will be a bramhachari, or virgin student, a householder, a sanyasi,

and then he will retreat to the forest and die. He knows who he is. He knows what he must do. He knows where he is going, and that if he is

true to his ‘station’ in the cycle of birth, death, and re-birth, some day he shall surely reach nirvana! He is not rushed for money, achievement,

fame, celebrity and immortality, because he is part of a continuum. Time is something to be experienced, enjoyed---and lived! Time is not

making it to a deal at 10:45, or the EMI on a loan! The Buddha envisioned reincarnation like a flame blowing from one candle to the next. The

soul flows on through various manifestations! In such a time frame movement and perception become sources of enjoyment and experience.

Slowness

In Slowness, Milan Kundera transposed a modern couple into a Sixteenth Century setting. His twentieth century man had no time to consider

where he was going, he was concerned only about the speed he moved. He never asked why? He was only concerned about ‘getting there.’ In

India, historical time frames are laid, one over the other! A new building will overlay a colonial building, which overlpas a Mogul structure,

which overlays a Vedic structure! The artifacts of history are part of the theatre of life. A building complex must have a threshold, there must

be ‘in between’ spaces which allow people to absorb the change between one space and another. There must be ‘ottas’ to sit on and to think

about life! Time, space and movement temper our conception about the nature of the world.

In most of New York City there is no place to sit down, or to just saunter about. Slowness may even catch the eye of a security guard, who

may question ‘what are you up to?’ Unless we design places for slowness, we necessitate speed. And when people rush to a destination there

will be no place to sit down and to think! We live in a paradigm in which we are either hyperactive workaholics, or we are drugged into the

unconscious by alcoholic! We are either working, or “on vacation.” There is no place to sit down! Vacations are for people who feel guilty

about slowness, who do not contemplate, and who have no place to sit down. Architecture must celebrate transition, it must welcome a pause.

It must engender contemplation and provide for slowness. A glass box with elevators, with air-conditioned passages, with cubicles that have

no chairs for visitors…these confections are the opposite of architecture. In New York I saw a building full of ramps behind a glass wall. But

one ramp only lead to another ramp, and then to another! Even a device made for slowness, became a contraption for the

hyperactive...everyone moving, but to nowhere! And there was no place to sit down!

Visual Devices

The school design employs what the I call a ‘magical visual trick,’ which is to utilize the vast mountains in which the campus sits, as the

‘designed spatial environment.’ The buildings themselves are reflections of mountains. It is almost as if the campus is a miniature model of

the

mountain ranges and hills, so that when one views a distant mountain behind a structure, it appears to be the same visual scale, and to be of

the same size, as the mountains! Angles reinforce this illusion, as do earth mounds, which straddle the buildings. What results is the

harnessing of the vast natural landscape into the visual imagery and architectural illusions, as if these monoliths were designed themselves to

enhance an existing architecture, instead of the other way around!

Just as a Mogul miniature painting brings a wide range of elements of vastly differing sizes into the same visual milieu on a flat canvas, so also

the designer scheme uses the ‘flat canvas’, or ‘visual plane’ concept in a new and innovative manner.

A unique visual feature of the school is the employment of bas-relief murals, cast in the form-finished concrete ceilings. The images, drawn

from nature, include birds, snakes, lizards, fish, turtles and people. There are also stars the sun, moons and other cosmic images. A cosmic

river flows around the ceiling of the entire academic quadrangle. There are also imaginary primordial beings, and beings eaten by other

beings!

Systems of Order

While individual buildings enjoy considerable variety in terms of their plans and generic order, the campus is bound together by a strict

system of dimensions, proportions, and a highly consistent visual language. It is the manner in which the supporting elements within the

language interact, that adds variety and intrigue. Columns and walls are used in counter point; square windows in heavy masonry lend a

sense of playfulness to serious masses; motifs [water spouts, ottas, ponds, steps, lintels and windows] are used to engage the eye’s vision and

to catalyze movement on visual planes.

Just as Indian women place a bindi on their foreheads to denote one of the most powerful energy centers, spaces are ‘marked’ and then

aligned with one another in ways which interlink centers of energy in the campus complex. For example, the four openings of the Academic

Quadrangle are aligned with the four cardinal directions of the earth, such that one’s line of vision coming into the quadrangle from the East,

is focused down a narrow passage, through a square opening, which frames a small image of Mulshi Lake, in the distance West. This energy

line draws in a far off landscape, more than ten kilometers away, making it a miniature painting within an architectural composition. The

alignment is by no means obvious, nor is it accidental. It is subtle, almost hidden---a reality known only to those who live and work within the

campus. The relationship is an abiding one.

VI. COMPOSITION, COMPONENTS AND DESIGN

Design Process

In our studio work there is always a large team. I do not have the luxury of painters and writers to sit alone and ponder. Ours is ‘an art of

mobilization and management,” equally as it is of sensitive manipulation of forms and spaces. For this teams are essential. In our studio senior

architects study, search and ‘re-search’ the initial sketches I make. When the pattern and its employment of language is clear we call in the

air conditioning, structural and services engineers. At this point a ‘re-think’ is inevitable. Then the specifications, quantities and costs have to

be considered, and maybe we start again. Design is not a lineal proposition. We try to involve all of these people as early in the process as

possible. That is the meaning of a ‘studio.’ In a studio everyone is part of ‘art making.’

What is important in team work, is that the studio has established its own values and rules. Everyone works within the same language, and

follows the same principles. Extensive and complex designs can not be realized unless the work is divided amongst a group of like-minded

architects. This stimulates constructive debate and discussion from which appropriate alternatives emerge. Making buildings is a lineal

process where one stage of work follows another. It is difficult to go back into a previous stage. But design is an iterative…a back and forth

process! The two are at odds! There is an art in resolving this contradiction between making buildings and making designs, also.

While the campus is a single, unified composition, like a symphony, it has its own ‘movements,’ or components, with their own internal

rationales. Some of these components merit analysis.

The Mahadwara

The Mahadwara is the main entrance to the college. It is the portal! The centerpiece is an ancient wood door from a wada. The door is so large

that it needs a door within a door for daily access. A large masonry structure holds and orients the door. It induces one into a movement

system, leading one down a meandering lane closed in by massive stone walls, into the heart of the campus. The feeling is very medieval, as

if one were in an ancient Maratha Fort, or an Italian hill town.

The door opens due North, and one enters the campus on the auspicious North-South cardinal axis. The Mahadwara has its own unique shape

and mass, much like the entrances to Egyptian hyperstyles along the Nile River. The use of such an “anchoring” device to set up directionality

within a diverse and complex design, adds a unique sense of place to the campus. The Mahadwara sets one in motion, establishes a landmark,

fixes a cardinal point and lays out an axis. It is the beginning of a system of signs, or ‘mudras’ which give meaning to the composition.

Academic Quadrangle

The Academic Quadrangle is the heart of the College. It houses three large faculty rooms, an open student lounge, and twelve classrooms.

These are all connected by a low pavilion which skirts around the interior quadrangle, which is densely planted. On the outter side, each

classroom has sliding glass panels facing private courtyards and gardens where learning activities can extend out-of-doors! Again, as in CDSA,

low verandahs protect the glass panels and act as basins to collect water from the sloped roofs. The cardinal directions which rule the campus

layout, radiate out from the center of the Academic Quadrangle, moving North [toward the Mahadwara], South [toward the Multi-purpose

Hall]; East [toward the Catering Center] and West [toward the College Lawn framed by the Library and Art Center]. The views and sight lines

which link all of these interior and exterior spaces are highly articulated and moulded. One means of doing this was in the treatment of the

end walls of the four enclosing components of the Academic Quadrangle. In one case the two walls turn at 45 degrees leaving only a narrow,

eight foot wide passage focused toward the Catering Center [East].

On the opposite side [West] the two walls are perpendicular, providing a wide open, generous view toward the College Lawn and on to Mulshi

Lake, with the mountains in the distance. The North-South openings are intermediate conditions, with one wall turned at 45 degrees and the

other at 90 degrees. The subtle manipulations of the openings in to the quadrangle create an illusion that the Academic Quadrangle is a free

form structure. In fact it is a very tight pattern, composed of parallel bearing walls facing into the open quadrangle, much as large farmers

houses orient toward a central work court. Views through the four open corners add intrigue to visual sequences. There is a ‘bas relief’ mural,

depicting a mystical river, meandering around the low ceiling of the connecting pavilion in the quadrangle. The edge condition between the

central garden and the covered walkway is handled with stone bearing walls, and cylindrical exposed concrete columns. These are all

positioned to control views and emphasize sight lines.

Administrative Building

The Administrative Building was designed after the Academic Quadrangle was fully functional, so I started the design by extending one of the

large, opening walls of the Academic Quadrangle, which I wanted to pull right up to the Mahadwara. This ‘long wall’ would pull people along

with it! Right from the beginning I wanted some kind of central atria with the offices projecting off two sides, as if half the Academic

Quadrangle was repeated as a cellular growth off one of the Academic Quadrangle walls! The scheme called for a Headmaster’s room, three

Directors’ rooms, a Faculty room and two large work areas for reprographics and accounts. These, and a Board Room, would all be connected

by a low secretarial area, with sitting and waiting spaces. Early on in the design the “long wall” was shifted in a parallel manner, mid-way, to

provide an entrance porch. This break accentuated the narrow entrance passage connecting the Mahadwara with the Academic Quadrangle.

Finally, the Board Room was “freed” from the main structure and turned at an angle. Like the Academic Quadrangle, verandahs between the

offices and the gardens are employed to shelter the glass sliding panels. The verandah roofs, as at CDSA, act as water collectors from the

inclined tile roofs over the offices. Though the plan is very strongly determined by programmatic requirements and functional considerations,

there is another compositional layer of thinking which was equally determinant in fixing the final scheme. Massing, forms and spatial relations

were all studied, altered, manipulated and re-structured to give the desired result. The roof of the Board Room was kept flat so that the

diagonal, due west view from the Science Center would not be blocked when it transversed over the Administrative Building to the Mulshi Lake

in the distance. In a similar manner the entry, waiting areas and secretaries area were kept low. This also provided a very human scale in the

entry ensamble, and a generous scale change upon movement into the offices. All of these low areas spin around a glass wall, bringing a small

garden, and light, into the center of the composition. Thus, spatial manipulation, light and movement were other layers of thinking. The

Amphi-Theatre

The college campus is as much an out-door environment, as it is an indoor one. A number of landscape features are used to link various

structures to the gardens, earth mounds, orchards, tree grooves and lawns. These structures are used as visual devices which tie diverse

shapes and forms into a unified whole. The Amphi-theatre is essentially a wide staircase, which I would compare with the Spanish Steps in

Rome. It is a humble reflection of the same concept.

Steps are more than a way to go up or down, they are an event! I romanticise such elements as land locked beaches where people can gather

to sun themselves in the winter air, or to lounge about and admire one another.

The Amphi-theatre space is divided by a wall, with “cut-outs” to peep through, placing a ramp behind it. Young people like to look at each

other, and to be looked at! They are at an age where physical beauty and the challenge of beautiful ideas vie for their attention. How one

dresses---sloppy or neat---carries meaning! A college campus must address this need to ‘be seen’ and ‘to see,’ as it is an important aspect of

personality development. It makes the experience of architecture a very real, and a very personal one. Perhaps only the Greeks understood

this.

The Amphi-theatre opens onto a wide-open stage, composed of a paved platform, with a green carpet of grass beyond. The jagged mountains

act as the backdrop. The Amphi-theatre serves as a connector between the Academic Quadrangle and the Multi-purpose Hall, which sits eight

feet below. The containing walls, which are continuations of the Multipurpose Hall and the Academic Quadrangle tie the elements into a

unified composition. It is like bringing Miami Beach to the Sahayadri Mountains, or Rome to India!

The Multipurpose Hall

The design of this vast interior space has to meet a number of diverse requirements. It has to house the annual International Baccalaureate

exams, with specified table sizes and spaces between each table, in addition to the air temperature and light levels. It has to function as an

auditorium with a stage, green rooms, focused lighting and seating. The space is used for yoga, dance, music programmes, drama, lectures

and convocations. Most important, a clear span space of 5,500 square feet had to be provided, and the air conditioning system had to be

housed in an unobtrusive manner.

The high ceiling is spanned by a triangular lattice structure, with smaller triangles set within still larger ones, in order to generate a hierarchy.

Each of the six larger structural triangles has a skylight over its central small triangle. The result is a honeycomb effect articulating the large

area into human scale modules.

The air conditioning system plays a formative role in the design, with the air diffusion louvers forming a continuous ring around the interior

space to ensure balanced temperatures. Compressors in different towers can be utilized singly, or all together, so that one can optimize

energy consumption, yet diffuse air through the same distribution ring. Thus, integration of the services with the structural system was a

formative aspect of the design.

Four large towers house the mechanical equipment above and provide space for green rooms and storage below. Between these towers are

glass sliding panels, opening onto terraces on the east and west, and onto covered verandahs on the north and south. These huge glass

panels frame vast panoramas of the distant mountains. The sloped roofs over the verandahs and towers reflect this dramatic landscape, and

tie this large structure in with the theme of the campus. Most of all, the various forms, slopes and openings are deployed effectively to break

down the mass of what otherwise would have been a huge box! We have located this structure on the lowest elevation, keeping its roofline

under the adjoining building line, connecting them with walls, amphi-theatre steps and a generous ramp.

The Library

The campus is envisioned as an organism which can live like a city or a town. Mass education, and mass media begin to numb our senses

when a learning environment is placed in an infrastructure grid, such as an American high school, or into a megastructure concept.

It is a basic principle of cognition that, the universal can be perceived only in the particular, while the particular can be thought of only in

reference to the universal(17). The homogenizing effects of mass media tend to simplify everything. In architectural schemes a similar trend

occurs. Megastructures tend to say “everything is the same: a room is a room.” Structural glass walls have a similar message. This over-

generalizes everything. On the other hand people are making these obnoxious individualistic statements on their isolated little plots. Both are

uniforms, when a pluraform is needed!

I designed the Library a few months after I designed the Academic Quadrangle. I was worried that our campus would become monotonous,

over generalized and boring. In such a situation it is the nuances of the general which provide meaning. A library is not a classroom. It needed

to be celebrated in a different manner, yet it required the same kind of generalized language, a language which grows out of the landscape,

materials available and the craftsmen’s technology.

Thus the materials, the motifs, the proportions and scale are a mere continuation of the over-all college generality, while the “foot print” and

pattern take off on their own. They are particular. A long wall boldly directs the view toward the valley, distant mountains and sunsets. As in

the Administration Building, the wall is broken in the center, and half the wall is pulled on to its own parallel alignment, providing an opening

porch. A parallel line of sky lights, columns, beams and ceiling light tracks run through the structure, while the glass atria and folded,

enclosing wall take on their own, yet rigorous, geometry.

The hill slope is used to provide a higher ceiling in the reading room, as there is a split-level from the entrance area, which one stepping down

into the reading room. The shear glass wall which twists external space into internal atria space, contains a dense garden and acts as a light

well. It fills the walled-in volume with radiant greenery. Again the design works on a number of distinct, yet inter-related planes of thought.

One plane is how the internal space is sculpted, and how the external form contributes to the over-all experience of the campus. Another layer

is the structure of bearing walls, parallel columns and parallel skylights. Another layer is the pattern of function, movement and program.

Finally, there is a layer of “light,” and how various components of the language integrate “visual demands” [sight lines; atria focus; structural

alignments; kinetic columns] with lighting. For example, the vertical slit windows bring light directly onto columns, which use their curved

surface to diffuse this light back onto the interior walls. Finally, all of these layers are integrated into a stable and unified composition.

Repetition is an important concept in music and in architecture. In a fugue a series of notes becomes a thematic pattern, which is repeated

over and over again in a manner which explores the potentials of the pattern! The same concept is employed in Indian classical ragas,

wherein the musician has more choice in his personal exploration of a given set of notes. Interpretation plays a greater role. In architecture

the language is one of the systems where repetition occurs. That is like a fugue. But the patterns provide more freedom, like a raga, as the

architect has to understand what is articular about each structure! At still another level, architectonic elements can be repeated. For example,

the turning glass wall connected to an entrance porch, formed of a main wall broken in the center, and set on two parallel lines, was used later

in the administration building.

The Anjali Anand Art Centre

While I believe I find my roots in the Rationalist School of Design, I feel one can extract tremendous variety out of very logical paradigms. The

three studios of the Art Center fly out from a central courtyard like the huge wings of a mysterious, prehistoric bird, taking the visual

gymnastics of the campus to extremes, yet maintaining a very logical organizational fabric. The studios are used for multi-media work---

painting, print-making, sculpture and sketching. There is a small pottery court with a kiln attached.

The courtyard verandah and studios have characteristic murals in their exposed concrete ceilings. Either a flock of birds pass overhead, or

various reptiles appear to swim above. Two giant snakes intertwine each other, as they move about verandah ceilings. Celestial stars, moons

and “faces in moons” play about on the studio ceilings.

At the most generic level, my early sketches for this structure were composed of simple parallel walls, with glass sliding doors opening to the

central courtyard. The parallel stone walls turned in a “U shape,” enclosing three sides, using skylights to illuminate the deep ends. The large

glass walls at the ends of the studios evolved later. In fact the students of the college, who I was interacting with, demanded them! The

studios focused into a courtyard, which is articulated by kund-like steps, focusing down into Mulshi Valley. These parallel walls gradually

shifted, as did the elevations and roof angles, until a totally new composition evolved. Large structural glass windows allow light from the

north-east, north and north-west to flood the studios. The result is a very powerful, apparently free form, composition. This structure was one

of the last we designed for the college. While some of the elements [a “light pilon” to be seen from the valley below] are not complete, the

structure epitomizes what our studio has been attempting throughout the campus. The language is still tight, yet the pattern is very particular,

molded to a specific activity. It is functionally structural, while visually unstructured.

The Science Center

Several components of the campus are purposely Cartesian; they are on a strict grid. This is in blatant contrast to the angular composition.

The introduction of this “difference” gives meaning to the norm. It was also fitting for the program of the laboratories, which had to be “fed”

by preparation rooms and accessed separately by students. Three covered pavilions, at a low [7’-6” high] level connect the entrance, the

internal quadrangle, and an informal gathering space at the deep interior. Each is penetrated, above by a circular cut-out opening. The

alignment of these circular cut-outs, and the movement of people, is purposefully contradictory to the grid of the plan layout. A diagonal

alignment is created. This “alignment” also creates a direction and vista line, focused over the Administration Building directly on to Mulshi

Lake ten kilometers away. This reflects, and reinforces a similar diagonal axis and vista running from the Catering Center, through the

Academic Quadrangle, across the College ….to the Lake. Again, repetition is important to bring out visual themes!

I like to repeat visual and movement experiences at different locations and scales, to emphasize their auspicious qualities, and to link people

with nature, as these lines all relate to the sun’s path, to natural vistas and to elevational shifts. I believe spaces are very important in the

realization of architecture. A very low space is an excellent introduction. There is then a transition to higher spaces! The movement from low

to medium heights, makes medium feel large! People begin to live space, to feel it, to enjoy it. They begin to understand the architect’s game

with space. They begin to analyze what the architect is doing, just like music lovers go again and again to hear the same composition. They

get more out of it each time! What people find in the Science Center is that they have to move on a diagonal, and there are strong sight lines

on the diagonal, but the “built space” is a Eucledian idea on a Cartesian grid!

Again, a contradiction is nesseled within the concept, and this contradiction demands a reaction! People are moving one way and working in

another way! The circular “cutouts” into the entrance pavilion, into the quadrangle, and into the back nitch all act as frames. One sees the

moon; a variety of cloud forms, or at night the stars glimmering---all framed and made important. Herein enters the concept of place! The

Science Center is a unique functional and movement experience. It transcends, in the user’s psyche, into a special experience. It develops a

personality of its own and one relates to it! That’s what a place is all about, as opposed to spaces, good or bad!

One other point. The porch, or the pavilion, is very classical. It portrays the same formal message as does a Greek portico, with columns and

pediment. Again, this pavilion “presides” over the campus. It is a kind of statement that empiricism is a ruling force. It is not an absolute force,

because other human values temper empirical facts, and channel these facts toward application. It is important that we know that the only

truths which exist, must be subject to testing and to repetition! Such truths are rare indeed. It is more meaningful to search the good! This is

what this composition is all about.

The Catering Centre

The Catering Centre is composed of dining, entrance, and serving handwashing/plate disposal areas. There are also washing-cooking-

preparation areas; dry, wet and cold stores, as well as an office, electrical room and a laundry.

The central feature of the scheme is the large cauffered triangular ceiling, sixty feet on its three sides, broken further into four triangles, thirty

feet on the sides, with each of these being further sub-divided into sixteen triangles. The central cauffers in the four intermediate structures

are sky lights.

Sitting nooks are created by attaching 30-foot stone masonry triangles to the sides, with the remaining thirty feet being glass-sliding panels

opening to generous verandahs. The complex is the highest in the campus, and has unobstructed views out to the mountains and valleys. The

low verandahs framed in the massive stone nooks and dining hall work to bring human scale into the scheme. The large exhaust chimney over

the kitchen is used as a landmark for aligning vistas.

The Student Centre

The Student Centre illustrates the diversity of ‘publicness’ in today’s society---the influence of building context and function on human

interaction(18). Public spaces that sensitively reflect context and function instill in their users some underlying public bound, or a collective

subconscious. The recognition of a collective subconscious is one of the intangibles that breathe life into true architecture. It turns spaces into

places. Tucked into the hill slope, the Student Centre acquires its genius loci from its given context. Just as a Greek gymnasium engendered

both physical and mental development, the Student Centre caters to a wide variety of activities, including aerobics, games, hobbies,

refreshment, the college newspaper room, music, and discussion groups. There is a small hall for parties and discos. This facility is the center

of the residential cluster, allowing students to use it around the clock.

The Student Centre is an ‘energy centre,’ from which energy lines radiate out. The campus is formed of energy centers and energy lines,

along which people move.

The design is based on a folded stone retaining wall, which holds the upper hill slope. This wall is composed of six vertical light shafts which

reach up into the sky. Each shaft holds a room, or niche, for activities. A folded glass wall separates these spaces from a generous verandah,

which frames a dramatic view of the Sahayadri mountains.

The Student Centre is not an area for amusement, or time pass. It is an area for ‘re-creation’ and entertainment. It stimulates the mind,

stimulates skill development and develops character. The building catalyzes stimulation. It has to generate activity! The activity rooms curve

around the large verandah. The light shafts, with sky lights, follow the sun! Again, the walls and bearing structure have one pattern; the

column and radial beams another structure, the spaces still another and, again, movement another. The sense of place created is the constant

force!

Where Do We Go From Here

The design of an object can be just that! It can be a solid, fluid form which looks like it is moving, but it is not! Such plastic shapes are

conceptualized on one layer of thought, which is that of photogenic form. Even sculptors have moved away from such a simple conception,

introducing moving parts. Caulder’s work not only looks like it is moving, it does move, and as one walks past a Caulder, everything around

moves! Kandinsky moved away from static images through his kinetic sketches. But architecture is a magazine hungry art, and has regressed

back into the exercise of object design, not be experienced, but photographed.

Architectural design has to be conceptualized through the design of elements on different layers, which are then integrated through an

accomodating concept. These layers would include the architectural language, the functional plan-diagram, the external form and its response

to context, the circultion network, light, the kinetic movement idea, the assembly of structure, the network of services and many more layers.

Each has a structure, or pattern, which has to adjust to all of the other layers. This final integration, or accomodation, is achieved through the

device of a main structure, or a concept which integratres these layers. Analysis of these layers, and the adjustment into a main structure

happens at all scales of design ranging from miniature paintings up to regional plans.

There is a continuum of design thought ranging from regional plans, urban plans, campus and neighbourhood designs, individual building

designs, murals and furniture. Design is similar to the Russion dolls which fit one inside the other. But there is a major difference. Each design

has scale boundaries which limit its size and articulates edges, internal structure, and networks. Even an ‘endless grid” like Manhattan meets

its river boundaries abruptly, demanding a park or a marina! In other words while our dolls within dolls are similar, they are also very different!

Yet the themes and principles, which integrate and give meaning to buildings and campus designs, are also relevant at the city and regional

levels. In a campus plan we have a rare opportunity to ‘try out’ ideas which have relevance to the larger society, and to the far vaster canvas

of regional and city planning. There is also a link with smaller spaces and objects!

Campus plans are micro cosmos of much larger ideas and concepts. What we achieve, or fail to achieve, in such a confection casts a shadow

over the potentials of larger scenarios. An individual building becomes a more annal retentive kind of exercise. It is the small child struggling

with its own reality and its own identity. That is the way campus plans are conceived today. A campus plan which is merely a group of annal

retentive children, each put in its own crib where it can yell and scream for attention is a tragic kind of failure. Whether it be the University of

Cincinnati, or Harvard University, clients are not building environments. Rather they are collecting things. They have one piece by Pei, another

by Sterling, another by Gehry, yet another by Venturi! All of the annal retentive infants are yelling and screaming. Entertaining as infants are,

there is a colossal cost involved here. A campus must do more than mirror the narcissism of suburbia! A campus, like a university, is a

microcosm of the whole. It is a fragment of the cosmos, making a statement about the nature of man, about mankind’s future!

The very nature of culture and communitas is at stake here. I propose that culture means patterns of behaviour which persist over time.

Artifacts ‘fix’ that behaviour, and contribute to the determination of traditions. What we design and what we build, and what we infer, and

what we ‘fix,’ IS THE NEW CULTURE.

What architects and planners are saying today is that each one is on his own; they are saying ‘get what you can while you can.’ They are

saying that self gratification is the goal of society, and the purpose of culture! This is a historical reverse and a tragedy. This a contradiction to

the essence of Ekistics!

The campus of the Mahindra United World College of India is a counterblast to these false preachers of New Urbanism and Post Modernism.

References

1.BENNINGER, C. (1995): Letter to Harish Mahindra, Pune, 22nd November, Personal Archivies.

2.BENNINGER, C. (1996): Letter to Harish Mahindra, (Pune, 30th January, Personal Archivies.

3.BENNINGER, C. (1990): Centre for Development Studies and Activities, Mimar: Architecture in Development, No. 37, December, 1990, pp.

30-

4.ALTEKAR, A.S. (1944): Education in Ancient India (Banaras, Nand Kishore and Brothers).

5.KANVINDE, A. and Miller, J. (1969): Campus Design in India (Topeka Kansas, University of Kansas).

6.MARSHALL, J. (1951): Taxila, London (Cambridge, Cambridge University Press).

7.GHOSH, A. (1965): Nalanda, (New Delhi, Archeology in India).

8.DESHPANDE, M.N., et. al. (1967): Ajanta Murals (New Delhi, Archeological Survey of India).

9.SMITHSON, A. (ed.), (1968): Team 10 Primer (Cambridge, MIT Press).

10.BENNINGER, C. (1990): Centre for Development Studies and Activities, Architecture Plus Design, Vol. 7, No. 3, pp. 46-53.

11.RAO, P. (1990): Fabric of Build: The Art and Architecture of Chirstopher Benninger, Indian Architect and Builder, Vol. 4, No. 10, pp. 6-

27.

12.WYCHERLEY, R.E., (1962): How the Greeks Built Cities (London, Norton & Company).

13.NAIDU, A. RAMPRASAD, (1999): World Class: The Mahindra United World College of India, Indian Architect and Builder, Vol. 12, No. 5,

pp. 30-43.

14.PANT, M (1994): Buddhist Monasteries of the Kathmandu Valley Towns, Ekistics, Volume 61, Number 368/369, pp. 306-316.

15.TZONIS, A. and Lefaivre, L. (1998): Beyond Monuments, Beyond Zip-a-tone, Le Carre Bleu, (Paris, Le Carre Bleu).

16.GIEDEON, S. [1941]: Space, Time and Architecture (Cambridge, Harvard University Press).

17.COSSIRER, E. [1988]: The Philosophy of Symbolic Form (Cambridge, Cambridge University Press).

18.MAKI, F. [1999]: The Pietro Belluschi Lecturers (Cambridge, School of Architecture and Planning, Massachusetts Institute of Technology).

THE NATIONAL COUNCIL : National Capitol Complex Thimphu, Bhutan


* * * * *

IIf after several thousand years archeologists were to uncover this site they should see in the purity of the plan a purity of purpose; they should wonder what kind

of a people built with such surety. When they see the foundations of the Great Hall they should imagine what lofty visions these people had! They should know

that even a small nation, with a humble background can create great monuments to its beliefs and values. They should know that truth can raise its voice to the

world that there are strengths hidden in the human soul which are mightier than the strongest armies! This discovery should humble them. They should know that

a dharma exists which inspires and guides the human spirit! The discovery should give them courage in the magnificence of the human will. They should feel

moved to carry on the spirit even in the face of great difficulties and obstacles.

But, God willing, this shrine of democracy will endure until that time as a beacon of convivial and consensual rule. It shall shine in the hearts of the Bhutanese

people forever! It will float in their memories as an image of their duty to rule themselves with compassion, love and friendship.

>>LECTURE SERIES INDEX

NEW INITIATIVES FOR PROFESSIONAL ORGANISATIONS IN ARCHITECTURE


FIIA, FITPI, AIA, APA, ISOCARP

* * * * *

Our professional organizations are the backbone of each practitioner. As our profession becomes more complex, the importance of the Indian

Institute of Architects and the Council of Architecture increases. Professional organizations can make new initiatives that will enhance the

profession. Many of these areas can be addressed immediately, and others must be seen as long term goals. The gamut of areas that can be

enhanced is vast. In the following note I have expanded on some of these.

Employed Architects

As more architects are produced, the potential for every practitioner to open their own proprietorship firm, or start-up company, will diminish.

This means employed architects will seek longer term relations with employers. But the present scenario offers few long term rewards to long

term employees. To start with the salaries being paid to senior employees have been low: It is only in the past two years that they have

reached parity. There are no PERKS. Long term advancement opportunities are unclear. Professional organizations should suggest minimum

monthly salaries right from “trainees,” to freshers, to more experienced employed architects. These should be related to “city types” as per

the cost of living in different towns and cities. Annual holidays and leaves should be standardized. Annual increments and cost of living

considerations should be laid out. A system of “positions” starting from Trainee, Junior Architect, Architect, Senior Architect/Project Manager,

Associate, and finally firm Director should be proposed. The skills, knowledge and sensitivities of each position must be laid out. At the same

seniority level there should be different skill profiles, recognizing the many important roles and paths required to reach team excellence. The

normal years of employment associated with career advancements should be standardized. The work of our profession is shared amongst our

employees through our considered guidance.

Many senior architects opine that they cannot find middle level professionals to enhance their firm’s technical and management capabilities.

The reason is that the prospects do not keep pace with increasing experience levels of employed architects. Expectations grow faster than

employment conditions. The professional organizations could outline a model of “profit sharing,” after a salary ceiling is reached. The annual

inflation of the cost-of-living should be built into salary increments. Salaries should be based on relevant experience related to expected roles

and this should correlate with years of experience. The kinds of PERKS seniors may expect and the kinds of proactive and significant

contributions Senior Architects, Project Managers, Associates and Directors must make to deserve the PERKS should be stated! Thus, a

segmented salary structure must be evolved that promotes increased knowledge, enhanced skills and matured professional sensitivity.

Honesty, loyalty, proactiveness, ingenuity and similar assets, are less easy to measure but are “felt” by principals of organizations.

Yeoman Architects

Fresh graduates enter the profession with low skills and knowledge levels. They need three years minimum to transform from mere graduates

into a capable practitioners. Certificated Public Accountants, Doctors “in residence,” and entering lawyers all serve as novices for several

years prior to registration. This “in job” training is essential. Practical training, or Office training, of three to six months does not suffice. We

need to change our registration rules to ensure that we quality only persons who know their profession through work experience.

The Management of Professional Practice

There are no guidelines or norms regarding how an architectural practice should ideally be run! What percentage of fee harvested should go

towards consultant’s fees, salaries, overheads and profits? What kinds of contract documents should a firm use? What kinds of taxes must be

paid and when? Standard invoicing and billing procedures and formats should be available. Safety, hygiene, and office environmental

standards should be suggested. Standard letters of appointment, trial periods, and termination letters, should be “on file.” A list of basic and

essential office reference books should be recommended. A model office filling system must be proposed. Numbering systems for drawings,

AutoCAD information layers and document archiving should be standardized. The “layering systems” for different consultants to work on must

be established. Rules regarding office decorum, dress, acceptable behavior, honesty, client confidentiality and the intellectual property of the

office can be common amongst all offices.

Most architects have little or no access to the basic information on the “practice of architecture.” Professional organizations can fill these

group lacunae.

Eco-friendly Architecture

Green Architecture and environmental sustainability are key architectural concerns. The Chamber of Indian Industries set the ball rolling

with their international Green Buildings Conference in August 2004 at Hyderabad. The Indian Institute of Architects, and many local

associations, have highlighted sustainable architecture. With the WTO and ISO entering India there is a danger that the “building products”

industries will reaping huge profits in the products certification process. An American organization called LEED is entering India and will certify

“green architects” and “green buildings,” charging high fees for these services! A question arises as to the over-laps between traditional

professional practice, and foreign certifying agencies. Should we not strengthen our own professional associations by introducing our own

Green Ratings. There is an international trend toward putting old wine in a new bottle through “green washing” products to be seen as “eco-

friendly!” Hype and publicity should not replace good professional practice.

The Tata Energy Research Institute (TERI) has an indigenous Indian green building rating system. The Green Building Council of India has

spread to most cities.

Building Regulations

Building Codes is an area presently dominated by engineers through the Indian Bureau of Standards, where architects are also participants,

along with the Indian Standards Institute. Professional organizations must be more proactive in this area. While serving on the Bureau of

Indian Standards Committee for Architecture, Town Planning and Building Materials, and I felt architects are under represented. The engineers

working in this area are excellent and we have much to learn from them. But our profession must be more involved!

Intellectual Property

The presentation drawings, statutory drawings, working drawings, and contractual documents are all the intellectual property of the Architects

who create them. Clients cannot recycle them. Even the “concept” belongs to the architect. Where a builder may take an architects’

intellectual property to a cheaper architect, and make modifications to the original design, the architect may still charge the corrupt

practitioner for malpractice and for plagiarism! Architects, who ‘hustle’ other architects’ clients, must know that they need a No Objection

Certificate from the original contracted architect. This would generally be given after the originator has been paid by the client for their

intellectual property.

Urban Planning

Town Planning Standards have largely been negotiated between the builders’ lobby and corrupt politicians, with town planners as the mid-

wife. Architects must lend a voice to the town planners who fight a lonely battle against vociferous, wealthy and crude builders whose only

aim is to leverage their profits. Unfortunately, only a few architects with vested interests, who are regular visitors to municipal corporations,

are the ones to actively participate in the debate on building bye-laws. The example of the “second” Transfer of Development Rights,

bringing effective floor space indexes up to 2.0 from 1.2, is an example where our cities are being sacrificed to generate more “chargeable

constructed area,”without the necessary supporting infrastructure and parking! Presently, the miss-use of basements, and the under provision

of “parking” should be a major concern. Perhaps FSI should be even higher than 2.0? But the concomitance facilities must be part of the

package.

Town Planning is too important a subject to be left to town planners! Architects must support them by playing a constructive role.

Safety

Safety is another area of concern to the architectural profession. Architects are becoming more active in the seismically safe built

environment, with a number of workshops and seminars being held yearly. Areas like fire safety, potable water management, hygienic waste

disposal, worker safety, and electrical safety need to be promoted aggressively.

Conservation

Historic Buildings and Architectural Assets Preservation is an important role of professional organizations. Architects have already played a

leading role in conserving heritage sites and structures, primarily through INTAC. While many professional organizations are active in this area

we can do much more. At the under-graduate level a course in heritage conservation needs to be introduced. There should be more post

graduate degrees in historic building preservation, and awards to “showcase” the profession’s role. We also need to conserve some of our

Post-Independence modern classics! Heritage bodies will not even recognize these. As a profession we have our own heritage and it is our

duty to protect it for future generations.

Materials and Fittings

A vast array of new materials has arrived on the Indian market. Many are untested in our climate and with our labor force. We are applying

slick looking ACP onto mild steel supports that are quietly rusting, hidden behind the glamour. We are specifying tiles that cannot be replaced

as none are kept in stock. We are specifying toilets that our plumbers cannot repair and the seats cost Rupees 3,000 each to replace. Many

are ‘seconds’ quality and others are poorly engineered copies of originals. Few have a performance record in India. Common bricks are of poor

quality having no shape, standard color or compressive strength. We need an information exchange on materials to share our experiences.

Project Management

Construction Management has been in the hands of engineers. It is a positive sign that a few schools of architecture have initiated

professional, post graduate courses in Construction Management as this is a professional area which is lagging. It is a logical extension of our

profession that can be enhanced at all levels. This is an area where our graduates can be absorbed and they can play an important

professional role. Architectural graduates with post graduate qualifications in Construction Management will be better qualified and sensitized

to manage architectural sites, than engineers drawn from irrigation, hydral, roads and similar project exposures.

As the field of Construction Management has emerged over the last decade, it has eaten into traditional roles of architects. Often construction

managers are MBA holders, without even a civil engineering, or an architectural undergraduate degree. They attempt to become the ‘arch’ in

the ‘tecture’ by gaining the role of clearing the architect’s payments. This must be stopped!

Legal Agreements

The Contractual Roles of our profession need to be deepened more than expanded. We are adding more specialization without strengthening

our core areas of professional delivery. We must develop standard contracts between:

*. Architects and their Clients;

*. Architects and their Structural Designers;

*. Architects and their Services Designers;

*. Clients and their Contractors;

*. Clients and their Service Equipment Suppliers;

*. Clients and various Sub-Contractors;

*. Clients and Landscape Designers;

*. Clients and Interiors Designers;

*. Clients and their Construction Managers; and

*. Clients and their Vendors.

In a system where we are all operating the same framework of standards and contractual understandings, the quality of our products can only

improve. We must develop standard commercial conditions for employing contractors so that item-rate bids are viewed on an even playing

field. We need standard methods for calculating extra and additional items.

We need standard documents like Letters of Intent; patterns for issuing and guaranteeing Mobilization Payments; formats for Rectification

Lists and Compliance; Certificates of Virtual and Actual Completion; certificates releasing retention amounts and standard forms of guarantees

to protect clients in areas related to water proofing, color fastness, materials performance and the like. Contractors’ Water Proofing Liabilities

must be underwritten through indemnities and Legal Documents. We must design the contracts under which clients engage Construction

Management and Project Management firms to protect the sanctity and the role of architects as masters of the construction process. It is not

unusual to find Construction Management firms “clearing the fees of architects,” while their major job is to follow and implement the

architect’s plans and specifications.

We also need to protect the rights and genuine interests of contractors and vendors whom greedy clients try to cheat. Corporate clients often

try to harvest undue profits by systematically delaying payments to earn interest on retained payments!

Liabilities of Architects

Liabilities of Architects will emerge and grow with the advent of GATS and the WTO. Professional Liability Insurance costs are very exorbitant

even in the west. This requirement benefits the insurance industry at the direct cost to the architects, adding legal liability to the architects.

Architects may have to bear this additional cost and the clients may refuse to raise fees accordingly. Added to this are the lawyers fees and

effort expended involved in settling claims. This practice leads clients to bring legal cases against architects, because they know architects are

insured! In America even a conceptual sketch is no longer a creative artifact. As one of my American colleagues pointed out, “every sketch,

every working drawing and every signed shop drawing is a potential court document as evidence in a case against an architect.” We as a

profession will be remiss if we do not understand the implications of the WTO, and how it will profoundly change our profession.

Design and Build

Design and Build is the model for the practice of architecture in Latin America. In our present set-up, architects do all the work for other

people who amass all of the wealth. I am not advocating Design and Build as a model, but I would like to provoke a professional debate on this

topic. Even uneducated and uncertified “Real Estate Agents,” who provide nominal professional services to clients, demand and get fees of

four percent (2% each from seller and buyer) on the land and on the civil works, while architects are paid their fees only on the civil works

cost! While the architect’s involvement on projects lasts for several years, an agent may reap benefits in a matter of hours. Such agents have

no overheads, no deliverables, no liability for the product they sell, and no investment on professional education. Most do not even have

offices! They have no commitment to the civil society in terms of town planning, hygiene, safety, parking requirements and environment. If we

analyze the developer’s inputs into small residential projects, on say a one thousand square meter plot, the architect is assuming

responsibility for most of them! Architects are even involved in preparing investment plans, cash flows and project return estimates for

financial institutions. We are often asked to sign expenditure statements which the clients submit to financial institutions when going for loans

and payments. In the years to come, whether directly, or through “benamis,” more and more architects are bound to become designer-

builders, with family members taking up the less technical tasks of marketing, land matters and accounting. It makes more sense for

professional organizations to organize this trend rather than leaving it to drift into an “informal sector activity.”

In the over-all scenario of the construction industry, architects are assuming the role of “sweat shops” in a system where those who make the

least efforts yield the highest returns! Our young employees bear the immediate costs of this inequitable system, and our profession bears the

long term costs. We need to interact with our fellow professionals in Latin America to learn how this system works as a professional model.

Continuing Education

Architects need to keep learning all of the time. “Continuing education” is a responsibility of professional organizations which is neglected. In

every town there should be “half-day,” to one week, courses to up-date mid-career and senior architects on services systems, new structural

systems, water proofing methods, energy conservation, cladding, paints and finishes, new sanitary fittings and public health systems,

integrating utilities into building systems, energy conservation, etc. These refresher courses should be taught by professionals, and not by the

marketing representatives of manufactures. This is a need which professional organizations can fill and the profession will be better equipped

to serve the public as a result. The American Institute of Architects has accredited various colleges, institutes and universities to teach a wide

variety of “refresher courses.” Some are available ‘on line” via the Internet. In order to maintain one’s membership, an architect must clear a

minimum number of “continuing education credits” each year. All of these courses are advertised on the institute’s web site and

in Architectural Record, its official journal.

Teaching Architecture

Like medicine, law and business accounts knowledge cannot be imparted by fresh graduates and housewives. A Masters Degree is a

necessary, but not adequate qualification to teach. Most teachers in architectural colleges do not have a clue as to how a building is put

together. Running short courses is not the answer. It is just better than nothing! Without ‘practitioner teachers’ we are running a system

where the blind are leading the blind. This must change!

The Architectural Curriculum

We try to teach what cannot be taught, which is “creativity,” and we neglect what can be taught: technical knowledge, skills and

professionalism. Like medical students who study Grey’s Anatomy, architectural students must know completely all the technical systems of a

building at the end of the first year. Then they must be on construction sites and only later in design studios. They need to know that the

practice of architecture is a step by step process laid out in a contract and based on a schedule of deliverables. Planning the creation these

deliverables, integrated with the deliverables of consultants, is the key! The roles of sub-consultants must be understood. It is essential that a

‘common course’ in architectural history is constructed, using common graphics, simple texts and lecture structures. Most young architects do

not have a clue of the linage of our history, or where our present work stands with regard to the past and the future.

Networking and Communicating

Professional organizations have a prime responsibility to communicate to their members the essential legal, technical and aesthetic

information related to the practice of architecture. New books relevant to India should be reviewed. Seminars and competitions should be

communicated well in advance. In India we have a number of excellent professional newsletters, magazines and journals, including The

Journal of the Indian Institute of Architects, Architecture+ Design, The Indian Architect and Builder and the COA’s official journal Architecture:

Time, Space and People.

What is missing is a high quality web page with windows into Members’ Interests (including payments of fees by credit card on-line, and

renewing registration on-line); a window on “Resources and Sources” (including books, journals, technical reports, new materials, building

products, regulatory codes, standards and bye-laws).

A good web page with separate “windows” for curious Potential Clients (including the fee scales and a model contract); a page for students

and intending Applicants to Colleges of Architecture, for Employees in the architectural firms (explaining minimum wages in different city

types and the types of positions and related duties), for Building Materials vendors, for Legal Documents, for building precedents and case

studies, for “continuing education,” for employment and“Architects Wanted” will serve a critical role. The relevant standards for specialized

building types and the Building Control Regulations and Building Bye-Laws of various cities should be “on-line.”

Professional organizations must also consider employing professional public relations and policy analysts who “lobby” government, state

legislatures, parliament, the Bureau of Indian Standards, private and public sector client groups, educating them and advocating the causes

and laws which will strengthen our profession’s ability to serve the public better.

Fees for Services

The present fee scales are not realistic. They do not recognize the higher taxes architects now pay; the number and variety of consultants

which must be engaged; the increased co-ordination efforts; the higher cost of living of employees; and the expanded design considerations

architects must address. All of these efforts cost money, and the practicing architects need the backing of their professional organizations to

be able to obtain adequate fees through contracts, which cover the real costs of providing high quality services. The present minimum fees of

five percent for institutional buildings must increase to seven percent, and the other fee scales accordingly must increase. Minimum specified

fees, after all, become the maximum! It is interesting that a statutory body like COA specifies five percent for institutional buildings while the

University Grants Commission only budgets four percent in its grants. The National Building Corporation tries to pay three percent and less.

Software

Modern architectural practice runs on computer hard-and software. We have become “IT-based” enterprises. Even so, about eighty percent of

our practices use illegal, pirated software. The reason for this is very simple: up-to-date software and the use regimes specified by vendors

‘price’ useful, legal software beyond the financial reach of honest, hard-working practitioners. It is simply beyond their “ability-to-pay.” The

pricing of software is very much along the lines of colonial mercantile economic models. Buy the raw materials cheap; process them cheap;

brand them and package them expensive and sell them back to the source of the raw materials at a huge “un-earned increment.” More than

reaping huge profits this model serves as a mechanism to keep the economic colonies ‘outside the law’! This plays a role of sorting

architectural practices into the formal sector and the squatters, just like the housing market. In so doing the IT industry has created classes of

practitioners: the legal and illegal!

This matter is helped a great deal by the fact that architectural software would be a monopoly item as defined under the Monopolies

Restriction and Control Act, if it were not cleverly exempted in the name of “opening our economy.” There should be a regulated maximum

price as in essential medicine. It is high time Indian architects come out of the closet, explain their true identities as “illegals” and demand a

fair deal. This must be done by our professional bodies as individuals will be victimized. The colonial IT industry and marketing groups have

obtained draconian ‘police rights’ allowing them to raid architects’ offices and to seal their computers, denying them their “right to livelihood’

as guaranteed under the Constitution. In the same manner that medicines are sold in India at “affordable” and “fair” prices software should be

regulated, and yes charged for. If drafting software were available at fifteen percent of the present legal price, the vendors would quadruple

their profits through a mass market. This is in everyone’s interest!

Foreign Architectural Practices

There are many reasons we should all welcome more competition and enhanced professionalism on to our playing field. That can happen if

senior foreign firms come and set-up offices in India. However, there are several trends that should concern our profession. International

Project Management firms run by engineers are employing local personnel to carry on an architectural “practice,” which is actually owned and

operated by non-professionals and by architects not registered with the Council of Architecture. Other firms are sending “marketing agents”

into India who set-up a camp offices and then market their vast foreign portfolio, with no Indian experience or legal registration here. These

are marketing wings, who then sub-contract the statutory, working drawings and tender documents to local commercial firms. They provide

Concept Designs and Master Plans to ignorant Indian Clients. This does not enhance our profession or contribute to the nation’s intellectual

wealth. These practices place Indian architects in a subservient position

The ‘arch’ in Architecture

Architects are paid to work in the studio and on the site. Managers are paid to talk, write letters, have meetings and to prepare MOM’s. I

always say I’m from the “working class,” not the “talking class.” But the Project Managers, and Construction Managers, and Client’s

Representatives are all paid to talk. Unless their day is full of meetings, talking and recording what they say, then they have not earned their

day’s bread. What do they talk about: OUR WORK! And, the more we talk, the less work we do and the more they have to talk about! The

foreign firms coming into Indian are large enough to keep aside ten percent of their staff as a professional ‘talking class.” This could be USP

that will push aside the Indian Architect.

It is a sad fact that corporate India favors MBAs over M.Techs, where salaries and command lines are concerned. This is the greatest lacunae

in India where real technologists are given the back seat to the “talking” class.

Often management is the act of doing the wrong thing, better and better. It is the politics of casting aside responsibility for failures and taking

credit for someone else’s success.

It is no wonder that we have over one thousand institutes imparting management degrees today! We cannot allow ill-informed managers to

steal the “arch” from architecture, and believe that the ‘tecture’ will survive. On the other hand we have to understand that good project

management, which respects the architect, is essential and makes walking our path easier. But we have to aggressively make our powers,

responsibilities position clear.

Essence of True Professionalism

inally, I would like for us all to remember the courage of the late architect Acyhut Kanvinde. Six months before he died, at that time a

gentleman in his late eighties, he was engaged to sit on the jury for the selection of the design for a new capital city in Central India. Seeing

the unethical procedures being followed by the senior most bureaucrats and technicians throughout the process, he walked out of the final

selection meeting! Before catching his flight back to New Delhi he wrote a critical letter to the Chief Secretary, who was chairing the meeting,

refusing to associate his name with the fraudulent process, and returning his Rupees One Lakh fee as a Senior Jury Member. This is the

essence of professionalism: vision, courage, honesty, fair play, procedures and transparency.

HARISH MAHINDRA: PATRON OF THE ARTS ARCHITECTURE

As told by Architect Christopher Benninger

FIIA, FITPI, AIA, APA, ISOCARP

* * * * *

Harish Mahindra was a man one can never forget! Not because he was one of the “M’s” of M & M, but because he was a very simple man with

a vast vision. I first met Harishji when I was invited for an interview of architects to design the Mahindra United World College of India. That

was in September 1993. Sure that I would not be selected from amongst a panel of my seniors, I introduced myself as an architect who would

refuse “to build a monument!” Harishji smiled, catching my ploy, and said “well, we don’t want to build cow sheds here!” and then laughed.

But he looked through the photographs of my work carefully, and said he’d like to visit the campus I had designed for myself in Pune.

Accordingly, he came to Pune.

As luck would have it my jeep broke down on my way back from Ahmednagar and I missed Harishji, who was taken around the campus by my

associates. Always the optimist, Harish did not take offence. He called me the next day thanking me for not bothering him, and for giving him

a chance to see things in solitude. He closed off saying, “you’ve got the project!”

My early meetings with him put me on unsure footings, and I was aware of his critical mind and his penetrating manner of looking at things.

But the sheer fun of the way he viewed life, his insights, his jokes and his commentaries soon put me at ease. We spent some intense

evenings over drinks and discussing the project, which I’ll never forget. We also had some great arguments over the college, with each of us

declaring we’d resign from it, and then a room full of laughter when we both knew we’d called each other’s bluffs to the point of the ridiculous!

When the college Headmaster joined the team he asked me if I ever had arguments with Harishji. I said, “Not arguments---fights!” Harishji was

very wound up in his work. He wanted it to be a contribution to the country, but he had to do it within a budget ceiling! We kept going over the

budget ceiling! It had to be done in fourteen months! We lost our first site and we needed a new one immediately. The contractor quit half

way through! All of this was very tension provoking, but Harishji knew how to light a candle, rather than curse dark!

There was not a moment I spent with him that was not stimulating, engaging and always with an element of fun. I think the fun was there

because he loved life and he enjoyed life. That special spirit effused everything he did. He always used to tease me about my designs, ending

a review in his office saying, “Christopher, if it’s a good design it’s mine, if it’s a bad design it’s yours” and then he’d laugh that special

devious laugh of his.

At my lecture at the NCAP in July 1999 I tried to explain how Harishji was a true patron of architecture, and not a client. I gave the example of

how Harishji handled meetings in the board room. During the early stage of the design, when I was literally fumbling for a concept and the

ideas which would flow from it, I had to make a number of presentations. We had a large team involved in the project which included the

college CEO, the Headmaster, accounts people, the construction management consultants the three main contractors, numerous advisors---

not to mention the board members and many others. Harishji knew how to handle relations between team members and get the best out of

them. He understood the essence of each man, what made him tick and what he yearned for. He noticed that I’d get agitated with people pin

pricking the designs, and he also noticed that people were trying to get his attention by showing how clever they were in challenging what we

were designing.

Without my realizing it, Harishji started calling me early to his chamber and he’d ask me to go over the designs and drawings with him. I got a

feeling at these meetings that he just wanted to encourage me to do the best I could, and that when I showed him the drawings he really

didn’t care what they looked like, as long as I was sure they would be something really good. Sometimes I’d catch his eyes wandering

elsewhere while I was explaining the design. He’d just say “great, great, don’t make cow sheds!” Whenever I showed him sketches, he would

be praising and encouraging me. Just when my ego would be floating I would realize that Harishji could not read my sketchy drawings and the

doubt stuck me that I may be deceiving him! Then as we’d go to the meetings he’d say, “remember if its good it’s mine, if its bad it’s yours!”

then I’d doubt who was fooling who!

At the meeting the first item on the Agenda would always be “Review of the Architect’s Plans.” People’s eyes would gleam and there would be

secret smiles on their faces as they readied for the plans to unfold to their attacks! Then Harishji would say “Item One, I’ve seen the drawings

…they’re great, now Item Two,” and to the disappointed faces he’d continue the meeting.

The fact is he had really not studied the plans, and he wanted me to know he had not studied them, and he wanted me to know the ominous

responsibility he’d put on me. “You are alone in this,” he once told me. Then he said, “We’re all alone. Anything else people tell you is not

true.”

At the meetings there would be lots of talk about details, schedules, bottlenecks and problems. People would always say, “We are going to

solve this! We are looking into this.” Harishji would cut in, saying, “never say ‘we,’ always say ‘I’!” Harishji was a man who put his faith in

individuals, not committees and not in groups. As an architect this was very refreshing.

If there is any aspect which distinguished Harishji---made him a true patron---it was his craftsmanship in shaping human relations around his

vision and around his mission.

Being with him while he conceptualized the college, watching him deal with the profound in the idea, and the mandane in the project---all in

one breadth---is something I shall never forget.

Every era raises up its art and its architecture, but architecture does not change over night---it drifts! It drifts behind techniques, behind

economics and behind social trends. But most of all it drifts behind the “vision” of patrons.

I believe there are no great architects, but only great patrons of the arts. Harishji was one of the patrons and like a Renaissance prince of

Florence he knew the beauty of life. He knew that life was short, so he enriched it, and he made it fun to be alive! Architecture was just one of

the ways through which he celebrated life! And through this celebration he become a true patron!

Good Planning is Good Business

Prof: Christopher Benninger

One of the ill-myths of the Twentieth Century still regarded as common wisdom is the paradigm that poses planned societies against the so

called “free markets.” The fact is a well tempered land regime supports consistently performing urban development markets! This is a

symbiotic relationship, not an antagonistic one.

Planning appears antagonistic where it is poorly conceived and inaptly executed. Where there is scant participate of stakeholders, and a large

influence of corruption, the regulated system is but a pawn in the hands criminals. This is not planning! This is Pune!.

Despite all of the media hype, Pune remains an unplanned city! The last Development plan cleared for central Pune City was completed

decades ago. Town Planning Schemes are matters of history. The fact is that this huge metropolis has no holistic integrated plan.

Moreover, what we call Pune is not Pune! There are numerous local authorities, cantonments, municipal corporations, an infotech city,

MIDC industrial estates and now SEZ’s all growing independently.

While the Pimpri-Chinchwad Development Plan was completed ten years ago, the Pune Municipal Corporation still falters in the malaise of

procedure, completing its patchy planning work in ill-conceived, adhoc and isolated chunks. The units of planning have no meaning. What is

the rationale for a Balewadi –Bavadan Plan? Is it one watershed? Is it a Ward? Is it a common catchment area for infrastructure networks? Is it

the constituency of any elected official?

Who plans the Kirkee, Dehu Road, Lohagaon and the Pune Cantonment? What about Alandi, the Hinjewadi Infotech Park, MIDC estates,

Pirangut and many other growing areas? Who knows what the Pimpri-Chichwad New Town Development Authority is doing? Why is it

restricted to a tiny corner of the metro? Does it still exist? While all other metropolitan regions in India have development authorities, we lag

behind here also.

On what basis do we set FSI Ceilings? Why FSI 1.0 for residences and 2.0 for I.T. buildings? Why not 3.0? FSI is supposed to relate to the

carrying capacity of an area, not to the whims of people. Why not relaxations for weavers and potters? No one has an answer!

There is no integrated road development plan inter-linking the diverse islands of urbanization and urban miss-management. Different bus

systems ply common roads in the metropolis. The rapid transport bus system is exclusively for PMC buses and not for private buses, or cars

with multiple passengers. What is the rationale?

We have remodeled our airport for the fifth time in so many decades, but are over-shadowed by Hyderabad, Ahmedabad, Bangalore, Cochin

and many others. This fifth incarnation is but a shadow of what the region requires. Where is our new airport?

How can students walk across University Circle? Can bicycles safety ply University Road? Why are cycle signs installed where no lanes exist?

Why do people drive two wheelers without helmets, four wheelers without seat belts and that too on the wrong side of the road! Do we have

motorized traffic police to bring order?

Why were side walks removed on Fergusson College Road and M.G. Road to make space for parking. Streets are for people!

The electric supply situation in Pune is primitive with an unpredictable, daily off and on chaos of starts and stops. The lack of any surety in the

power sector has created an inefficient galaxy of privately owned and run generators, polluting the air and the sound of the city. This is the

most inefficient and dirty way to produce power. Tons of food goes rotten daily as refrigerators go off. Workers sit idle and owners pay their

wages. Imported fossil fuel is burnt, while indigenous power sources go waste! There is no plan for a private power generation company in

Pune like the AEC or Torrent in Ahmedabad. There is no plan for sustainable energy!

Lack of a modern sewerage system has resulted in the pollution of the subterranean aquifer system upon which a large percentage of the

Pune population depends for drinking water through tube wells. This has proved a bonanza for local corporators who ply water tankers through

their drought-prone constituencies! Like everything else, there is a “number two system” in potable water supply. Vast areas have been taken

under urban jurisdictions that no local body can imagine to serve. There was a regional water supply plan prepared by Kirloskar Consultants

more than a decade back! Why has it not been fully implemented? And, What next?

Extensive and deep rooted corruption in every aspect of the management of local authorities has deepened the situation. Paying bribes is “de

rigor” and there is a hand out to accept them in any aspect of the city’s development. Doing business in Pune involves a great deal of

“laisioning” to get through the maze of opaque rules, discretionary powers and corrupt officials.

The fact is that free enterprise thrives on planned systems. A property market cannot function unless buyers have some surety that land use

zones are stable; that water supply, sewerage and storm drainage will function; that there is 24X7 electricity; that roads will access properties;

and that legal disputes will not arise over boundaries and even ownership.

Reserved plots for schools, hospitals, gardens and public utilities further enhance land values! The total lack of planning, and the lack of

coordination between public bodies, assures the inhabitants of the Pune region that such a secure land market will never exist! Is this

oversight or a public policy? Is it neglect or considered policy?

The recent land grabbing attempts on the COEP campus, involving the collusion public officials who did not even record the compliant of an

invasion of over one hundred miscreants on to the campus, sends a threatening message to average citizens. If the nation’s oldest

engineering college can become prey to land grabs, where does the resident of a lonely cottage stand? What security of property does the

common man have? Will the local chowki refuse support, being a part of the crime?

Koregaon Park is an example of a residential neighborhood being turned into an intense commercial hub lane by lane, bribe by bride.

Boutiques, bars, eateries and restaurants are spreading like a cancer through this once pristine residential area. Koregoan Park can only boast

of being Pune’s Pot Pong.

Moreover a Development Plan is really not what people think it is. It does not assure access to ninety percent of the habitable land; it does not

institute rational plot boundaries, nor does it amalgamate odd shaped and small pieces of land into rectangular plots and into sizes useful for

the population. Many layouts now within the Pune Municipal Corporation, which were sanctioned by village panchayats under the Pune

Regional Master Plan, have not created standard road widths, reserved open space plots or amenity spaces. Even the demarcation of

individual plots was not done. It is now very difficult because it requires the cooperation of numerous plot owners with diverse interests and

claims. Narrow lanes with no turn around cul de sacs make access difficult.

All of this chaos severely reduces the land supply and curtails the market turn-over, driving up prices artificially, excluding more buyers. Such

a perverted land market benefits no one except the spot investors who cash in through buying and selling during upward market swings. It

benefits corrupt officials whose bribes grease the system. It benefits land sharks who steal land! It benefits realtors who openly facilitate

vendors who try to sell land that does not belong to them!

In a rapidly growing and vibrant city like Bangalore there are still ample opportunities to buy bungalow plots and to build one’s dream house.

Likewise for Ahmedabad and Hyderabad. Not so in unplanned Pune. There simply are no sanctioned layout schemes!

In free market urban economies as diverse as Singapore, Atlanta, Tokyo and Frankfurt planning has been carefully done. Plots have been

pooled, reconfigured and the areas for roads and public amenities deducted, prior to handing the remaining land back to the original owners.

This essential technique called LAND POOLING, once common in India, is no longer used. It was developed in India under the name of Town

Planning Schemes. Due to antiquated legislation the procedures resulted in endless legal disputes and the process came to a stand still. In

Gujarat the legislation was corrected and land pooling is an effective, participatory land development tool.

In the interest of effective land markets and property tax systems we must restructure and amend the concerned town planning legislation, so

at least peripheral areas can be pre-planned.

A half-baked measure called the Gunthewari Scheme created a one year window for illegal layouts in urban fringe areas to be regularized. This

was something like a “loan mela” where defaulters are rewarded and honest citizens pay the price!

All this has been done at the cost of the public and of those who unknowing purchased plots in illegal layouts. Under the Gunthewari act

owners were given one year to have their illegal plots demarcated, and newly registered under the bonanza! On the reverse of each

registered plot plan a seal was placed declaring that any regularized plot under the scheme would suffer loss of road widening compensation.

For road widening land acquition there is no FSI compensation, and no TDR credit. As most of these plots are connected by three meter wide

lanes, which are inadequate even for two vehicles passing one another, road widening is inevitable! For road widening land will be acquired!

Unknowing plot owners will pay the price, with roads paved right up to their bed room windows!

FSI is also restricted to 0.75 on these plots to compensate the “public interest” as no parks or amenities were provided in the original illegal

layouts. Thus, the population densities are arbitrarily reduced so that those remaining inhabitants with no amenities, or open spaces can enjoy

the absence of any public amenities in less pain.

And, what is happening in all of the slums, chawls and illegal buildings where the majority of Punaries live? There is inadequate potable water,

no sewerage systems, muddy footpaths, no street lights, over-crowding, illness, illiteracy and deprivation! Hope is only an election slogan! In

free wheeling, open economy Singapore, sixty percent of the people live in public housing.

Surprisingly in Thimphu, Bhutan what cannot happen in Pune has happened!

Every piece and parcel of vacant land in the new capital plan has been pooled into a common land bank and then planned into a rational

arrangement of parcels. The remaining demarcated plots have been handed back to the original owners. Thus, unlike in Pune, no one

arbitrarily losses their land to a public land use just because someone else makes an ad hoc decision to place a school or a park on their land!

Under Land Pooling owners surrender thirty percent of their land for roads, open spaces and amenities. The seventy percent which is returned

to them has an immediate value enhancement of a hundred percent over the unplanned value! Now useless, angular and fragmented and odd

shaped land parcels are transformed into marketable, rectilinear properties! A raw material becomes a commodity.

Forty-three thousand square feet worth Rupees forty-three lakhs is returned as thirty thousand square feet, worth Rupees Eighty-six lakhs!

When the roads and services are put in place, the value jumps again to Rupees Two crores! At the same time a viable urban resource

mobilization takes place through related land taxes and the collection of development fees! These resources are then re-invested in new

urban infrastructure.

In Thimphu, the urban area was divided into fifteen “Urban Villages” where Local Area Plans were integrated into the city’s over-all “Structure

Plan.” Thus, trunk infrastructure, major arterial roads and the regional open space system remained untouched, while land owners

participated with planners to employ their “pooled land” to create viable Urban Villages. Each Urban Village over-laps micro-watershed.

Each Urban Village has a Village Square with a post office, health centre, crèche, pub, cyber-cafe, dry-cleaner, amenities shops and park. This

garden square is at a walk-able distance from walk-up apartment buildings that are allowed the highest densities and FSI’s. Near the high

density Village Square is as Express Bus-stop that is a “pull-off” from the Urban Corridor that runs through the spine of the lineal valley city.

There are also pay-as-you-park lots allowing people to leave their vehicles and move around in the city from the Urban Villages to nodes, hubs

and the Urban Core along this mass transit corridor!

This plan encourages walking, promotes efficient mass transport and assures good land use practices. It relates densities to mixed land uses,

Floor Space Index and infrastructure levels. What is outstanding in the Land Pooling system is public participation, micro-level planning,

facilitation of infrastructure networks and private development. Plot layouts are not left willy-nilly to greedy land sharks, but are professionally

patterned and assembled.

With all of these near-by examples staring us in our face we prefer to create a dual system of legal and illegal development; planned and

unplanned urbanism; serviced and un-serviced plots; sincere employees harassed by corrupt officials; multiple authories with no plans!

We need not look to the west, and say this is all beyond our means! We can learn from our neighbors! Even in nearby Gujarat, there is a

revival of the Town Planning Scheme mechanism that is a great stimulus to their urban economy. It is in the interest of all realtors, architects,

engineers, contractors and developers to insist on good planning. All citizens of Pune will live a better life in a planned city.

Good planning is good business!

Interview of Christopher Charles Benninger

by Gajbe Poonam and RajguruPrachi,

students of BKPS college of Architecture, Pune

4th of January 1999

O1. BKPS; Qs: what inspired you to become an architect?.

CCB Ans: To be “inspired,” I feel, means to discover something essential about one’s “self” and to be motivated to explore that aspect in as

much detail as possible. It may take a life time. When I was twelve years old an aunt of mine gave me a book by frank Lloyd Wright called The

Natural House. It was a Christmas gift and I was on vacation. When I picked up the book I did not put it down until I completed reading it.

When I did finished reading it I felt I was an architect. I have felt I am an architect ever since.

2. BKPS, Qs: you are from America. Why did you choose to come to India?

CCB Ans: When I grew up my parents lived in South America for some time. My grandmother was born in Czechoslovakia. My mother was of

French origin. My room mate in college was a Bangladeshi and is now Dean of the College of Architecture and Town Planning in Dacca. My

guru, Jose Louis Sert, was from Spain. To me national boundaries only exist on maps. Nationalism is a nineteenth century idea. But I am here.

You are right. I came here to learn. I came here to explore my “inspiration” further. One can learn a great deal from even the common people

of India. They live very simply. One can also learn by looking at ancient monuments. It makes you question history. It makes you ask what

forces created those fantastic objects and what happened to the forces, while the objects remain. It makes you wonder what objects you will

create and what are the forces molding your creativity? I came to India to explore these facets---to explore my own reality in a deeper

manner.

I was fortunate that both my teacher Jose Louis Sert and B.V.Doshi were closely associated with Le Corbusier. So when I arrived in Ahmedabad

on a Fulbright Scholarship in 1968 I went straight to Doshi’s house. From that day until this one I have been associated with Doshi and with

CEPT. I have learned a great deal from Doshi also. He has a childlike, insightful mind. I chose India because it is a fertile ground in which to

learn. I have continued to learn something new each day, and thus never felt it was time to leave. Someone once asked me what is meant by

good luck? I said “good luck is having good teachers.” India has been my teacher.

3. BKPS, Qs: Were you readily accepted in India?

CCB Ans: That is an interesting question because no one is really accepted anywhere! In the end analysis we are all on our own. But on

another level, on a personal level, I feel I do not have enough time to do justice to people who have been so open and so kind to me. Some

years ago I resigned from the Centre for Development Studies and Activities which I had founded in 1976. I opened my studio and even now,

during a recession, I have too much work. It has always been like that. When an architect has work he is accepted. Even when he lives in his

own country---if he has no work ---he feels dejected. I have always felt accepted.

4. BKPS, Qs: What is the general difference of the working environment of America and India?

CCB Ans: America is a corporate state. The difference between a corporate and a socialist state is that in socialism there are guarantees and

everyone “who’s in,” is secure. In America nothing is sure. The person who produces is “in.” India is neither a corporate nor a socialist state. It

has developed in a strange way beyond those definitions. There is a lot of “disorganization” here. Things are not organized. That is the good

and the bad of India.

5 BKPS, Qs: What is good about it?

CCB Ans: What is good is that India is perhaps one the last frontiers. India is both the oldest country in the world and the youngest! But, it is

still a frontier. We are able to design entire colleges and institutes, new towns and entire neighborhoods. The work here is very exciting and

full of promise. Such projects are very unusual in the west. Everything is already built!

6. BKPS, Qs: What can be done to improve the situation in India?

CCB Ans: As an architect, I feel we have to educate decision makers on several fronts. They need to be able to judge what is “good

architecture and what is bad architecture.” When they can do that they will be in a position to “patronize” architects, instead of being the

“clients” of architects. They will know who they can trust as a professional. They will not try to tell the architect what to do when in fact they

know very little about the nature of building, of art…of architecture.

I would say on a larger scenario that India must hold on to her own good qualities. It is not a question of improving; it is a question of

understanding what is already inherently good. One sees politicians copying the dictatorial behaviour of Islamic states, claiming they are

protecting Hinduism from Islam! One hears people speaking in a manner about minorities, as if they were cultured in the intolerant west!

Individuals try to tell us which film to see and what painter is good, and which is bad. Why should politicians make judgements on a film like

Fire, which has already cleared the censors? Why should politicians judge a design for river front development in Pune. Do they, or the City

Commissioner, know anything about urban design? The School of Architecture at Ahmedabad was attacked in July by known right wing

individuals. The Government of Gujarat did nothing and thus gave silent “lip service” to violence and fascism. When the machinery of the

state is used to vent personal frustrations, and when it protects criminal acts, every citizen must ask what is going on? No one can stand by

and claim to be an innocent observer when their Constitution is being raped by elected officials. When a chief Minister knows who the guilty

are, and he tells his administrators not to act, he is not only guilty himself, he is a traitor to his Constitution. The people who trample on the

Constitution talk about nationalism, and you ask me what can be done to improve the situation? As architects and as intellectuals we must

make our voices heard.

7. BKPS, Qs: What architectural satisfaction are you getting?

CCB Ans: An architect is satisfied when his creative ideas are realized. That is both a function of the society, and of the architect, and of the

patron. I feel very elated to find small sketches in the office which I had made just a year ago and today these sketches are buildings! That

transition involves tremendous co-operation, first from within our studio, and with our consultants; then from our patrons; then from the

project managers and contractors. Most of All we have several thousand masons, iron mongers, carpenters, casual workers and then our

supervisors on our sites. As an architect I gain a great sense of satisfaction when I see that my crafts-people are getting excited about the

work. They never know the final vision when they start. They just get devoted to cutting a stone well; to placing it properly. They work with

faith and devotion without knowing where they are going, or what will happen. But like a mother who cannot know of her own creation until

it’s birth, these crafts-people are very proud when the shadow of reality begins to fall on them. The entire tempo picks up on site; there are

hidden expectations. There is a spirit in the air that something marvelous is happening which no one can define. To me, that marvelous

feeling, which emanates from the crafts-people, is the essence of satisfaction for an architect. The smiles on their faces are a kind of

judgement---no, a confirmation! In the beginning they can not see the end, but in the end they know what is poetic and what is mandane.

They are not the creation of the middle class or born from luxury. They have time and there is a poetry in their blood. They do not want to

prostitute themselves to create something ugly. They are simple people and they know what they are doing: good or bad!

8. BKPS, Qs: What was the concept behind CDSA and the Mahindra United World college of India?

CCB Ans: Your question is good one because we architects talk too much. There are, you see, different kinds of intelligence. There is verbal

intelligence, there is nurturing intelligence; there is spiritual intelligence; there is spatial/graphic intelligence, and so on. Sometimes a

carpenter is more intelligent than me [especially in skill intelligence] and he smiles at my inability to deal with his concepts. I have to learn

from him like a child, and re-do my sketches! In the same way an entire industry has grown around verbal architecture, which is an inherent

contradiction. We talk and “intellectualize” verbally about spatial and graphic concepts. There are people, even architects, who need to talk all

the time. They are distracting themselves from the world of spatial intelligence, into the world of verbal intelligence [like I’m doing now].

9. BKPS, Qs; But since you are using verbal intelligence in this interview, why not sketch it a little more?

CCB Ans: You are very clever, so I will play your game. First, my work is based in some very simple ideas. One is to use materials in their

natural form and colour. Another is to search for some “fabric of build” By this I mean structural inter-relationships between the support, span

and enclosing elements of architecture. The fabric has a “weave.” The weave is a pattern in how things go together. One has a choice

between weaves! One must match the function with the weave. CDSA is very direct in using parallel masonry walls in one direction and

parallel sliding glass doors in the other, with a tile roof over these walls. The poetry lies in where and how one breaks this rather obvious

pattern. The poetry is in the kinds of courtyards, passages, pavilions, verandahs, halls, rooms, stairs---in short in the kinds of spaces which are

formed with the pattern and the relationships between these spaces. In the Mahindra College the language is the same, but the weave is

totally different: it is more complex! On the other hand there are less choices, as some of the systems employed are more specific and more

determinate. As a composition the Mahindra College is complex. The scale and programme of the college demanded that. There is a limit to

how large any fabric, or pattern, can grow. So the challenge was to inter-relate several different, but related patterns, so that specific

functions gained their own identity. While the composition is very complex it is also very responsive to the landscape; to the mountains all

around it. It is not a composition floating in space. Views, backdrops, winds, light---all play their formative roles.

10. BKPS, Qs: What do you think about contemporary architecture in Pune?

CCB Ans: Architecture has become part of the superficial packaging of products. It is external; it is decoration; it is fashionable. Our

contemporary times emphasize speed. Lack of attention, impatience, fleeting excitement rule our minds from MTV to street facades.

Whatever happened to the beauty and grace of slowness? What happened to considered decisions, to articulation of ideas, to analysis of

contexts and situations?

Architecture is hiding behind tasteless decoration. People, uncultured people, want quick flash! They want a few moments of futile excitement.

The architects are giving people what they want. It is not architecture; it is decoration. Some architects are into “style.” They provide their

clients with ethnic, modern, post-modern or some other style. I feel we could lump them together into a style called Early Ugly! Art reflects

society, so we should not be surprised. But people mature. Architecture will adapt to a more mature public.

11. BKPS, Qs: What improvement should there be in architectural teaching?

CCB Ans: Let’s remember that education has become an industry. Like the building industry, investment has out paced consumer demand.

We are now producing about twice as many architectural graduates each year as there are jobs! This is a disaster for which we all are

responsible. We have recognized numerous, “fly by night,” schools. The students of these schools of architecture are nothing less than victims

of incompetence. They are like heart patients being operated on by shop keepers! We are playing with their lives. They are not learning a

profession! They are not learning “architecture”. They don’t even have libraries that facilitate “self education.” Over time the graduates will

become touts. They will lack values, ideas, standards and direction! They will gravitate to other professions. That would be best. But the end

result will be that practicing architects will be a minority in the membership of the Council of Architecture! This is an example of how

government passes a law with a good intention, and a counter-intuitive result occurs. The architects act was to regulate and protect the

profession: we must ensure it does not become the vehicle that destroys the profession.

Going beyond the macro issues there is an issue of where one should focus education. I feel one basically has to make young architects

sensitive to “proportion,” proportion is not just the relation of dimension” A” to dimension “B”. Aesthetics is the study of proportion. Pleasure

is an ultimate aim in life. Proportion modulates pleasure. If we eat out of proportion, we loose consciousness---the pleasure of eating and we

become fat; if we drink too much we loose consciousness---the pleasure becomes pain! All the GOOD things, including colour, light, texture,

shape, form, structures, and space---all the good must be balanced. The Greeks called this balance the Golden Mean. Their search was for

pleasure, but pleasure in proportion which they called “the Good.” Verbal intelligence seeks the “Truth;” spatial intelligence seeks “the Good.”

Architecture is pleasure; good architecture is balanced and thoughtful---proportionate! Yes, aesthetics should be the focus of students efforts

and education.

12. BKPS, Qs: what would you like to tell young architects?

CCB Ans: first, love your art! Second, live your art. Visit every new building you can! Develop your own criteria for “the Good.” Discuss these

with your friends. Read about architects; but also spend lots of time in the library studying plans, elevations and most of all sections! Young

architects appear lost to me. They don’t read; they don’t sketch; they don’t think spatially---they are verbal. That solves a big problem for the

“over-production” I noted earlier: survival of the fittest! But on an individual level this spells ruination. Architects think through sketches, not

through words. I don’t mean “pictures” or representations of what exists. I mean “diagrammatic sketches” of spaces, relationships between

areas, dimensions! Thinking flows from the hand, not from the month! I would request young architects to spend more times alone, to spend

more time in silence, to spend more time in contemplation. But have a pen in your hand, have a book open---stimulate yourself---get inspired!

13. BKPS, Qs: can you give us something to think about?

CCB Ans: “It’s better to search good than to know the truth!”

Looking Back and Looking Forward

A.Ramprasad Naidu and architect Christopher Benninger converse about the role of the client in the evolution of an architecture for the future.

Naidu: The new millennium has raised a number of questions and a lot of expectations. In a field like architecture, what should we expect?

Benninger: Architecture does not change over night-it drifts! It drifts behind techniques, behind economics, and behind social trends. But

most of all, it drifts behind the “vision’ of clients. We should be more concerned about the kind of clients emerging in the new millennium,

than the kind of architecture! Architecture will follow!

Naidu: You would not mention this unless you considered it a crucial aspect. Can you elaborate?

Benninger: Unlike many arts, architecture requires clients as a starting point! Painting, music, sculpture and many other poetic endeavours

are carried at the artist’s expense, and can even be based on their whims! They get inspired, they create something and someone later buys

it! Not so with the mother art. For architecture to flourish, a society must have patrons, not clients.

Naidu: Why would you differentiate between clients and patrons? Isn’t the latter a manifestation of the former?

Benninger: Clients merely want a vehicle to achieve their functional ends, at the least cost! Clients lack ‘vision’. They fail to understand the

potential for architecture to lend them identity, or for a key building to be a kind of icon which communicates transcendental values for which

the client stands. Clients who want to use their structure as a vehicle to lend grace and poetry to the greater society are called ‘patrons,’ not

clients! They are placing trust in an artist and allowing him the freedom to explore all the lyrical potentials tied up in the nature of their

building.

Naidu: By ‘freedom’ do you mean to say, they just let the architect do what they want?

Benninger: Nothing of the kind! In fact they get involved in the design process with the architect. They know what ‘quality time’ means. They

review the architect’s building programme, cost estimates, site layouts, building designs, BOQs, proposals for contractors, change orders,

payment certificates… the works! But different patrons have different styles. There are patrons who are busy. They know that they will

destroy a project by passing it on to a manager. So they just say, “Look, it is your baby. Make it great. You are a professional. Don’t let me

down!”

Naidu: That sounds very noble, but can you give examples?

Benninger: Yes, there are so many. Nehru patronized Le Corbusier at Chandigarh, and Vikram Sarabhai patronized Louis Khan at

Ahmedabad. There are many more! No doubt different patrons work around different constraints, but the intention is to make a gift to society

in all of the cases. I have been fortunate to have patrons like Harish and Anand Mahindra, Tulsi Tanti, the Tatas, B.S.Teeka and the Bhutan

Cabinet of Ministers.

Naidu: Do you mean to say, that the kind of architecture we will have in the new millennium depends on what kind of clients, or patrons, we

will have?

Benninger: Exactly, you have got it precisely! Unless clients have a ‘vision’ about their future…not only future profits. But the kind of

environments they are producing for their employees and for future generations, they cannot be called patrons.

Naidu: What about the immediate future? Should we not look at the lead sectors in the economy, and see what they are doing? The

information technology (IT) sector, which is growing by leaps and bounds, must be great for architecture. Would they not make great patrons?

Benninger: The IT sector is an excellent case, even though it portends of doom. Over the past decade infotech parks and infotech cities have

come up all over. But the environments are, on the whole, dismal. The IT sector has an embarrassing track record with architecture. Since

they are considered leaders in the emerging economies, they are bound to influence the way people think. Though they have invested a lot in

new campuses over the past decade, none are worth noting. Where architecture is concerned they have literally “missed the boat.” They are

not the only losers; society has missed a great chance also!

Naidu: Do you mean the new InfoTech parks and cities are bad?

Benninger: I cannot really say badly, because the firms are getting what they want. The designs are simply uninspired. They give nothing

back to the society which created them. They say nothing positive about the future, or even something gracious about the past.

Naidu: Can you be more specific?

Benninger: Yes! Most IT projects are screaming and yelling retentive babies. They are mirrors of the clients who yearn for fame and

notoriety, as if they were rock stars. Even a single campus is a clutter of amusements, odd shapes; Greek, Roman; Early Ugly, Late modern

and Postmodern all cluttered into one walled in and “gated” campus. Even if one architect is the creator there is no thread of order; and no

common elements; no architectural language. The architecture is always trying to be spectacular, while being mandane! We get pyramids,

globes, eggs, cones, huge pergolas and even a Roman Piazza! These are all mixed together as the multiple personas of one simple technology

company. This is architectural schizophrenia abusing the public. It reflects a lack of identity of the companies and the individuals which lead

them.

Naidu: Do you feel this is a sign of future?

Benninger: I do think it is a sign, but it is not of the future. There are also people with vision, with traditions, and there are still people who

understand something about art and architecture. I have had excellent experiences, and I know I will continue to have them. Patrons keep

emerging. One cannot say where these patrons will come from either. They should know when to question an architect, when to praise an

architect, and when to show a long face. Some institutes are also patrons. Who knows, some day an IT group may even build a marvel in

architecture, or better yet, a humble, gracious campus.

Naidu: What can architects do?

Benninger: We talk too much about educating ourselves and have done very little to educate the public and clients. Architectural journals are

trying, and I feel they have made an impact. But we are a very involuted profession. We spend too much time talking to each other. Also, we

need to be tough! We need to tell clients where to get off! We must enter contracts, and we must stick to the profession’s fees. I feel by being

honest and direct with clients, we educate them. They may be annoyed with the first meeting, but they will remember you, and they will

either come back to you later, or try to show you later that they are not the “nin-com-poops” you have shown them out to be. But they will be

back to architecture somewhere, sometime, because everyone has an ego!

WHAT MADE RAJE LAUGH


Friends, we have lost a great teacher and a great architect by the name of Anant Raje!

He is very special to all of us who knew his work. He is still more special to all of his students who learned how to think from him, how to

question and how to make decisions. He is very special for those of us who shared a beautiful intimate friendship with him.

He laid out an Epic Path in front of us and showed us the poetry of being a tiny part of it. Most of all he showed us how small we are by

painting on a huge canvas. He made the human condition real.

Man, pretending to be God, while being mere humans, was Raje‘s endless joke. Man greedily seeking fame and money in the name of art was

Raje’s joke. Man reaching for greatness and instead grabbing “meaningless success,” was Raje’s Joke!

The friendship was beautiful because he always made us LAUGH. Raje spoke to his friends through the medium of stories. These were epic

stories about Le Corbusier, Louis Kahn, and great projects and amazing people.

Raje called upon all of us to be great men, and we shared a dream I would like to call THE GREAT MAN THEORY. It was a “theory of the

possible” and of the human condition. It was an idea that challenged us.

Four decades ago, in 1970, I was teaching at Harvard and Raje called me on a June evening from Philadelphia, beckoning me to join him early

the next morning. He wanted us to visit the Richard’s Medical Center, see Furess Hall and share other architectural marvels of that city.

We walked for miles and talked for hours. We drank red wine in the evening, and we went to sleep charged with memories and dreams of

great architects.

Awaking on Sunday morning, Raje told me that he had a special gift for me! Kahn had agreed that he would spend Sunday afternoon alone

with us in his studio.

You see, for Raje to share his great treasures; for Raje to share his knowledge; for Raje to put the window glass of life in front of us, and to

challenge us, was his personal mission.

Louis Kahn, for Raje, embodied all of the aspects of a great man that one needed to know. Raje used his iconic image of KAHN as an

intellectual mirror through which he, and all of us around him, could see ourselves. Kahn made the complex simple, while we made the simple

complex in the name of design. Kahn could quickly grasp the fundamentals of complex problems and interpret their complexities into simple

forms and great spatial systems that all became iconic images.

Raje’s “Kahn” became my Kahn. Like Allah and Mohammed, what Raje had to say about Kahn carried a profundity and a sense of the eternal

Truth. Through these stories of truth Raje laid bare all our ambitions and our weaknesses. By rendering this epic image of Kahn, the perfect

architect, Raje made each of us feel very small and fragile.

While listening to Kahn, four decades ago, he crumpled up an A4 sheet of paper, handed me a pen and said “sketch it!” As I fumbled to pen

down the incredible complexity, he grabbed the pen back and drew four lines, making the image of paper in its true simplicity. Raje laughed!

I realize that Raje played this “trick of truth” on me continuously, making me sharper in my thoughts. In his generosity and insights, Raje the

cheela, went beyond Kahn the guru.

When Raje would tell a story about Kahn, Le Corbusier or Picasso he would usually end it with an incident where a well known architect,

misused architecture for personal glory, rather than as a path toward truth.

Yet Raje also saw the beauty in this “wrong step,” because there is poetry in man’s weakness. There is a slice of each of us in every wrong

step. Man seeks love, fame and fortune that weaves a lyrical story keeping the epic possibility just beyond his coveted reach! In a sense Raje

knew the fundamental stupidity of mankind; understood man’s weaknesses; and by comparing arrogant architects, or fools; with HIS ICONIC

KAHN he expressed humorously great errors, blunders and follies. Man approaches epic greatness, but trips over lyrical desire at the last

moment, loosing eternity for immediate gratification.

This “exposure” was Raje’s own personal insight that he shared with intimate friends. Raje could analyze the essence of a problem; lay all of

the pieces before you; point to the solutions, and then humorously give an example of the wrong solution to the same fundamental problem,

exposing why perfectly intelligent people would take the wrong step. In Raje’s unique wisdom of folly and weakness we could see our own

predicament in life. When he made us laugh, we were all laughing at ourselves!

Raje knew that life was short and he knew that he would die! He knew that in this short life TRUTH and the STRUGGLE FOR PERFECTION was

his path in an epic search. Raje also knew that all of the students, architects and friends he was talking to were potentially great architects. He

told his stories not to mock individuals, but to call forth the profound in humanity. It was his love for humanity that drew him to teaching and

story telling, and it was his love for humanity that made him laugh! I suppose, to me personally, Raje was the penultimate teacher. Raje

always gave more than he took; Raje always shared what he had.

What Raje never said, nor ever hinted at, was that he himself was an avatar of greatness. He never praised his own ideas or concepts. He just

explained them, leaving each of us to absorb what we could. But Raje was indeed the essence of a great man on an epic path. It showed in his

knowing smile, in his sketches, in his anger with bad details and in the wonderful compositions and epic designs he left for humanity. Yes, Raje

was a Master Builder!

Raje never doubted that he had been to the Promised Land, or that he knew what heaven’s vaults, domes and arches looked like. He merely

wanted to share his grand vision with anyone he thought could understand it. There was always sureness and never doubt.

When Raje told his stories, there was always Ameeta, an architect and his life companion next to him. Their’s was a partnership and a shared

journey. Like Raje she knew the humor of life. She was his secret sharer. This made him still stronger and still more sure.

And over a glass of wine he laughed and laughed! He laughed at all the funny people who could not understand how simple the TRUTH is! And

Raje laughed and laughed, while he shared his GREAT VISION and inspired all of us fortunate enough to know him.

And Raje is still laughing!

* Christopher met Anant Raje in 1968. He taught Raje’s future wife Ameeta Parikh, in 1969 in a CEPT studio.

A TIMELESS WAY OF LIVING


In architecture we are crossing through a period when the crying baby gets the milk!

What I mean to say is that architects are screaming and yelling like babies to grab attention. Facade architecture, the packaging of buildings

in trendy envelopes is popular. Fashionable western architects are “selling styles,” not making architecture. Each building they make looks

like a copy of the one before.

It is only one sense these architects are playing on, and that is VISION, leaving, touch and textures; smell and nature; sound and volume,

common sense and proportion to the winds. In other words architecture is at one of its low historical points where style, fade and crude

popularity are projected.

This “bad taste” is media driven from cities, outward toward the smaller towns. It works on the centre-peripheral phenomena where more and

more energy builds up at a central point, until the system explodes. While this is happening at the centre, there is more calm, thought and

reflection out on the periphery. Often more creative works can be expected from Pune than Mumbai and Mumbai more than from New York.

But young architects always look in the distance to find local truths.

Over the past decade young architects have grown up in a digital world. Their experience of architecture has been in Virtual Reality: 3D on a

2D computer screen. While this has allowed pushing the limits of the VISUAL WORLD, it has suppressed experimental architecture which finds

its dimensions not only in vision/sight but in touch, smell, sound, sequence and movement.

CONFUSED

In all of the resulting noise, cacophony, yelling and screaming we even find young architects wondering WHAT IS ARCHITECTURE. They want

to know what the reality of architecture is.

CONTINEOUSLY EDUCATE OURSELVES

Education in architecture is a search for the reality of architecture. I feel there are several “givens” about architecture which must be the

basis of education and of practice.

architecture is built; it is construction; it is technology;

architecture is response to functional needs; it is a product with performance standards;

architecture is social action as every single building either “gives” or “takes” from the social milieu. At the most basic level the

exploitation of Floor Space Index is a social indicator. Architects can also create new public domains. They can make schools places

that stimulate learning.

architecture is an exercise in economic analysis as every client has a budget which is an estimate of the value of the economic

operation of the building in producing something! At least happiness in a home.

architecture is history as it is a part of a behavioral pattern which persists overtime. It is a process in the present, which draws

on the past and creates the FUTURE.

architecture is poetry, because in the end it must go beyond the programmatic! It must say something about the human

condition. It must raise people’s spirits and spark their curiosities.

CRITICAL REGIONALISM

I feel each country in the world, and each region of each country, has a unique search for architecture. There are elemental concerns

(confused as global concerns), but every regional context holds the secret of GOOD ARCHITECTURE. Bangalore, Trichy, Cochin, Managalore,

Aurangabad, Ahmedabad, etc. are all regional centers with strong contexts to draw from.

VERNACULARS:

ATTITUDES/COMPONENTS/ELEMENTS.

Every architect must develop a language, and in fact I believe each region should have a language or a dialect; an architectural language!

This is a group effort.

I. ATTITUDES

There are several themes/ or attitudes from which regional languages can be drawn:

attitudes towards Nature :

o Exclusive or Integration.

o Artificial or “green” response to Climate

attitudes towards Scale:

Monumental or Human

attitudes towards Material:

Cosmetics versus Honest

Global Expression versus Geographical resources

attitudes towards Proportion

Articulated or Ignorant

Working Modules/Machinery versus chaotic.

5. Attitudes towards Vehicles

Make them king !

Exclude them and create pedestrian precincts.

6. Attitudes towards Context:

Evolution or Revolution

Learning from, or insulting

7. Attitudes towards community

Create cozy passages and plazas

Build up to the road line

II COMPONENTS AND CONNECTIONS

At a very simple level architectural language is made up of nouns (or components, or things: support columns, movement stairs, roof

spans, enclosures and ramps). It is also made of verbs, or connections or action.

To me, this is the easy part of making a language. Identify ten components and use them. What are the roof, shade, stair, support, span,

envelope devices and their connections.

III ELEMENTS

More difficult is the understanding of the elements of architecture:

ELEMENTS PERSIST THROUGH SYSTEMS: They are everywhere.

LIGHT AT DIFFERENT TIMES of day, or the year.

IMAGES IN SPACE as ONE MOVES THROUGH THEM.

SHADES of/and COLOURS and their traditional meanings.

RELATIONSHIPS:

AXIS BETWEEN POINTS AND VIEW LINES, AS IN MEENAKSHI TEMPLE.

ANGLES OF REPOSE “STANDING POINTS” TO SEE GOPURAMS AND SANCTUMS

REPETITION – DOMES IN HUMAYAN’S TOMB;

INTER-PENETRATION (AKBAR’S TOMB) DIAGONAL VIEWS THROUGH COLUMNS WATER BODIES/SANCTUM.

TEXTURE – GRAIN AND “FEEL” OF STONE

SOUND-VOLUMNS (ECHOES AND REVERBERATIONS)

GHARANA OF ARCHITECTURE :

We have musicians known as gharanas, and in philosophy we have “schools of thought.” We need “schools of thought” and gharanas in

architecture. In ancient regions I could see unique schools of thought emerging. We could have clear attitudes towards nature, sense,

materials and proportion.

We could have unique components to create support, span and enclosure. We could have special motifs for shade, stair, floor, seats and

connections.

We could have our own elements and unique ways to employ them.

I challenge you, young architects of India. Make your own language and your own style.

LE CORBUSIER:

THE MODERN PROJECT AND THE CHALLENGE

Lecture by Prof. Christopher Charles Benninger

The time I have to present this lecture is short, but the subject embraces at least two centuries of technological, artistic, economic and social

history. What I refer to is the modern age of which Le Corbusier became a symbol and an icon.

The connections between technology, urbanization, society and art are complex and lengthy, yet our attention spans are short. Perhaps this

is where Le Corbusier and his contemporaries excelled us? He could bring all of these factors, trends and all of the artifacts resulting from

them onto one page.

My intension in this discussion with you is to bring us all onto that page and for us to pick up the journey where Le Corbusier left off!

To do this I must make sweeping assumptions about economic and technological developments, and historical events that span over the

Eighteenth, Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries culminating in a movement formalized in the International Congress of Modern Architecture

(CIAM), of which Le Corbusier was one of the important members. There were many other members of this movement including Walter

Gropius, Jose Lluis Sert, Mies van der Rohe, Frank Lloyd Wright, Buckminster Fuller, Pier Luigi Nervi, just to name a few. In India we have

Balkrishna Doshi and the devoted team here in Chandigarh who drove the modern movement in its early years.

The forces that drove the modern movement are more powerful and more compelling today than ever before, yet we have lost our bearings

and drifted into effetism, spectacularism and pure amusement park stunts. Even our view of Le Corbusier is one of a man who created

monumental sculptures, rather than of a man with a social mission to drive design and technology toward the solutions of a rapidly urbanizing

world. It is a self inflicted ignorance, along with a fascination for things foreign, and things strange, that has diverted us from our professional

mandate.

I want to drive home the point that Le Corbusier was not a “stand alone” artistic figure, but that he was part of a vast social movement

composed of many revolutionary people and organizations. All of these people had a common goal of bringing the force of technology to the

common good of the masses, who were being up-rooted from their rural existence and thrown into a new urban environment where their basic

human needs were not met. This human crises inspired Dickens to write of working class London in the Nineteenth Century and it is the

condition of masses of Indians today.

Perhaps the first incidence of this concern being put in the forefront was the Werkbund Movement in Germany. The movement understood

that the role of the designer was to take products whose costly production made them exclusive possessions of the rich and to mass produce

them at low cost bringing them to the door steps of the poor! Early modernists like the Belgian Henry van de Velde, founder of the Weimar

School of Design, stated that, “a completely useful object, created by the principles of rational and logical construction can only capture the

essence of beauty.”

Thus, there was a schism in the art world between those like Ruskin and Mackintosh who saw the machine as an enemy of art and those who

saw it as a friend with great potential. The new breed saw the machine world as offering great opportunities for mankind. In fact it

was in the Weimar School of Art where the links between practical workshops, design and consumers was first created, as the products of the

students were sold through commercial shops. Gropius took over the Weimar School in 1919 and founded the Bauhaus there. Under his

leadership the marriage between industry, art, architecture, design, and town planning matured.

Thus, the modern movement grew out of a sea change in technologies, and in modern production, that demographically drove rapid

urbanization pushing masses of people into unplanned and inept city forms that could not offer even a modicum of civilized living and culture

to the NEW MAN. The modernists discovered that the solution lay in technology itself and not in sentimental reflections of a bygone time. The

modernists knew that designs portending to be Greek Temples or Roman Forums were lies! They branded these lies as EFFETISM. Le

Corbusier’s edict that “A CITY IS A MACHINE FOR LIVING” expresses this new understanding. He understood that there was a complete

integration of art, architecture and city planning. He saw the need for a new aesthetics, a new way of building and urbanism.

The modernists also realized that “machine art,” and indeed affordable art, had to be simple, minimalist and rationally produced through

logical design. Thus, the search for a new aesthetic emerged, where architects like Mies van der Rohe claimed “LESS IS MORE!” A new

aesthetic emerged from America, somewhat independently through the voice of Frank Lloyd Wright, who demanded that “FORM FOLLOWS

FUCTION.”

Thus, the Modern Movement collected a band of like minded revolutionaries who knew their history and where they stood in the light of

history. They saw the light and they grabbed the moment!

That is why I have come here today:

TO ASK YOU, YOUNG ARCHITECTS OF INDIA, TO GRAB THE FLAME OF MODERNISM AND TO RUN.

I have come here to ask teachers of architecture to blend a taste of history, social change and aesthetics into the teaching of

architecture

I call upon all of you to stop the monster of effetism; stop making iconic blunders in the name of design, and to get back on track

with rational and logical design processes.

We have the huge challenge of a mushrooming urban society growing right in front of our eyes and we are sleeping.

Now out of this sea change I wish to state two facts:

One, modernism, or the modern architecture that Le Corbusier championed, is primarily concerned with humanist values in adapting an

agrarian society into an urban one; modern architecture has primarily addressed itself to human alleviating suffering in over-crowded slums

with no educational, recreational or health facilities that ensured a minimal human living condition. It has also championed high technology

and a new aesthetic. That is what we see, but that is not was lies under the skin. What lies under the skin is an agenda, a set of values and a

movement.

Second, I wish to say that Le Corbusier was part of that movement which saw the potential of taking the drudgery of mass production and the

evils of urbanization and turning them into a tool for the good. He realized that a new culture and a new civilization must be created around

the new technology, a new aesthetics and the new social reality. The idea that industry can mass produce everyday necessities at a

hundredth of the cost of hand tooled elite production, and thereby bring a better life to more people fired the Weimar Art School, Werkbund

Movement, the Bauhaus, the Art Nuevo Movement; the Modern Architecture Research Society (MARS), the CIAM; the Metabolist group and

Team Ten.

Moreover, the idea that DESIGN IS A RATIONAL PROCESS grabbed the modernists. They saw a link between stating of a problem; stating

performance criteria; sketching options; evaluating options and making rational design decisions through drawing and modeling simulations

as a correct process. The later modernists espoused the need for better contextual understanding and a more specific focus on the users of

buildings and artifacts.

Le Corbusier’s gift to us lies in his heroic efforts in writing, in painting, in furniture design, in housing, in designing buildings and in planning

cities. His legacy lies in networking, in coordinating and in organizing large groups of people.

Le Corbusier was neither an architect or a painter or a city planner. He was a Modern Man who saw the need to design a new culture and a

new society. Design was his tool and his medium of change. More than anyone, he threw out effetism! He replaced romanticism

with OBJECTIVE REALITY as his life’s narrative.

More than anyone he saw the dangers of nostalgic and romantic aesthetics as the Trojan Horse of reactionaries. Effete design is the soft edge

of careless minds to destroy the search for a new society. Effete art and architecture for, Le Corbusier, were like a cancer growing in the

society destroying it.

I call upon you young architects to grab the gauntlet that he has thrown to you. Reject effetism, reject stupid iconic designs, start thinking and

be rational. Have a design process and follow it.

It is very important to tear down the image of Le Corbusier as being a stand alone, one of a kind man. This false GREAT MAN THEORY has

replaced his true meaning with a false role model. It has lead young architects to think that GETTING FAMOUS is the goal of architects!

The Great man Theory has lead young architects to cheating and to copying monumental, ugly stunts created by megalomaniacs in the west!

A kind of mercantile architecture, driven by builders and developers, has replaced the search for urban solutions and the creation of a relevant

urban aesthetics.

Doing something DIFFERENT, something UNUSUAL or something SPECTACULAR has replaced our search for a NEW SOCIETY. This is the

tragedy of our times and of our profession. Le Corbusier epitomized the heroic characteristics of his age. He exemplified courage and daring!

He used publicity artfully to push the MODERN AGENDA, not his own image!

By putting Le Corbusier up on a pedestal we are separating his quest from our own; by idealizing him as a maverick and an oddity, we are

distancing ourselves from his reality; by making him the one-off case; we are deigning his and our own place in history; we are estranging his

duties and our duties.

We must see him as a simple man who was a part of a large movement! We must see him as a part of a large circle of devoted workers. We

must see ourselves as his fellow workers. We must join the movement! We must get back to the basics of our role and our life’s work! We

have forsaken his mission, his values and work. Let us reach out and pick up the threads where he left off.

I call upon you, young architects of India; make your own beginning and make the modern movement come alive. Give purpose to yourselves

and meaning to your work! Walk in the true foot steps of Le Corbusier!

Christopher Benninger studied architecture at Harvard under Jose Lluis Sert who was a close associate of Le Corbusier. Other teachers from

the Atelier Le Corbusier included Shadrack Woods, Jerzy Soltan, and Joseph Zalweski. Benninger worked in Sert’s studio while teaching at

Harvard and came into close association with Jane Drew and Maxwell Fry with whom he taught a joint studio. In 1968 Benninger came to India

and worked with Balkrishna Doshi on a Fulbright Fellowship. In 1971 he returned to India to become founding Director of the School of

Planning at Ahmedabad. Christopher Benninger also founded the Centre for Development Studies and Activities in Pune, whose campus

became a well known work of architecture. He has been honored with the Designer of the Year Award, the American Institute of

Architects/Architectural Record Award for Excellence; Golden Architect Award and Great Master’s Award. He was the first winner of the

Recognition of Excellence in Architecture Award in India and has been listed as one of the Top Ten Architects in India by Construction World

Journal for several years.

Five Lessons Life Has Taught Me

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