Charles Correa and the Average Indian Middle Class

In the ‘80s, like a vast majority of architecture students, I got into the field by accident. The accident being - not getting enough marks to get into a ‘higher branch of Engineering.’

That we were the poor cousins of Engineers, was highlighted when I was back home for my first semester break.

Now, the Average Indian Middle Class Family of neo India trained it’s children to get into Medicine or Engineering, which, apparently ensured them a safe future with the Government or a rosy future abroad. So your status in the social ladder depended on just one fact : the name of the college you got in. Well, Architecture or not, but I just about managed to score well on that. I was in a prestigious university (now) called IIT.

So here I am, back home after scaled the social peak, and was going somewhere with my chest out and head held high, with my father, also with C.O. and H.H.H., when we met the Average Indian Middle Class Neighbour. He stopped us asked the obvious.

This was the moment we had worked so hard for.

“So, son, which college did you get into?”

“IIT! “ came the superior reply.

“Great. Which branch?”

The result of that question was instantaneous on my father. Chest un-puffed a few millimeters and the head went from ‘held high’ to held medium’ position.

“Architecture”

Pregnant silence from Average Indian Middle Class Neighbour.

Dad chipped in, “Architecture isn’t too bad a branch, you know. Charles Correa just got the RIBA Royal Gold Medal at LONDON.”

Average Indian Middle Class Neighbour. was suitably impressed and moved away, respectfully. (If we had Google those days, we would have impressed him more.)

That’s what Charles Correa did.

Changed my career from a safe, social rung to something where I could aspire something beyond a car, a home or a foreign posting.
As an Architect, I could dream to be as famous as I could have been had I stuck on to Arts and not chosen Science as a stream.

Charles Correa didn’t just put Indian Architecture on the World Map.

He gave the profession respectability the way it happens in India.

The GOK of Architecture

This morning, I got a WhatsApp message from my nephew. We have a special relationship, statistically. He is my only nephew in the world. And I am his only Uncle in the whole wide world.
The text goes: 

 
"Quick question, I have in interest in architecture, and since you are an architect, I was hoping you could give me some advice as to what you do, and what the entire job is about. Thanks!"

I was in a fix! And a 'ponderundrum'(when you reach a conundrum while pondering. Also called Writer's Block)

Still pondering, I remembered what a client once said, "you should be able to explain your job in words so simple that your child can understand."

To test my client's philosophy, I immediately asked him, 

“By the way, Sir, what do you do?" 

"I do hotels”.

Great going, Mr. Client! Unfortunately, I can’t do that. I just can’t answer a longish question of profound depth in three words.

28 years after barely managing to graduate from Architecture School, I wonder if I’m qualified to – what’s that word when you blah like an expert- expostulate- about Architecture.

My Dad had the same question as he dropped me off at college, “What is Architecture?" I didn’t have an answer. Seeing my obvious embarrassment, he quipped in, “Well, that’s why we’re here!". I made a note to find out by the next time I met him. 

I did carry an impression about Architecture, though.

Thanks to our Famous Family Encyclopedia. We had volume 1 of a 32 Volume Set from a publisher whose name escapes me- not Britannica but a pretty big name begins with an ‘O’ or a ‘W’. No, I can’t remember. Anyhow, the volume covered part of the letter 'A': ‘Aardvark to Arizona.’ Of course, the intent was to buy all the 32 volumes, but we moved back to India before The Great American Encyclopedia Salesman dropped in for his next visit. Yes, we escaped by the skin of our teeth. 

("And what has this to do with Architecture?” says the Little Pop up in my Head.') 

Well, in that Famous Family Encyclopedia, I had, for the first time, felt Architecture. All I still remember, as clear as the day, is a black and white picture of Eeiro Saarinen’s TWA terminal at JFK Airport, New York. A building ahead of its times, that appeared like a majestic eagle, its wings spread out, ready to fly.

So, for the 18 year old me, Architecture was just that: a feeling.

Once in college, I forgot about my resolve to answer Dad’s question: “What is Architecture?" I was busy discovering independence. Staying on your own, late night movies, and Very Late Night Bun Omelettes at the legendary café: Bhatia’s. We were learning lines, drawings, Art. We were learning how to sharpen pencils, preserve sheets, balance a Tee Square and yes, we also learned the alphabet all over again.

At that time, Architecture was Sheets. 

Back home in my first semester break, I was walking around with Dad, when we met his 'friend’. In those days, ‘friends’ competed with each other over the academic performance of their children. A typical Facebook status update would have been: ‘Son got through IIT, Roorkee, AIIMS, but flying to the US with 100% scholarship.’

Uncle ji shot off the most loaded question of that age:

“Hello, beta, which college did you join?" 

The Chhabra Family had gone through many trials and tribulations over the last year, but now was the time to swell up one’s chest and announce:

“Roorkee”(one of the top 5 Engineering colleges of India) 

“Which branch of Engineering- Civil?” 

Puffed chest deflated a bit as I let out that I got the last in the list of choices. In fact, for the herd of the ‘80s, architecture wasn’t exactly a choice.

“Architecture.”

Uncle ji replied in a consolatory tone,

“Waise Architecture bhi achhee branch hai” (even Architecture isn’t too bad)

At 19, Architecture meant a location in Dad’s social ladder.

The next few years we get into and out of Architecture as we designed schools, did not design hospitals, built an arch, did not build models, went on Youth Festivals, and had our first drink, first cigarette, first love and first heart break. Read the Fountainhead, booed at boring lectures from great architects. We spoofed about Architecture through songs, skits and corny acronyms like Brotherhood of Roorkee Architects, Society Of Frustrated Architects, to name a few

Sometime before my final year, my Dad, who had clearly forgotten my pending answer to “What is Architecture?” seemed pretty animated for the first time.

“Architecture is a good as Engineering!”
Before I could object and expostulate in detail about the differences, he continued,

“I met this guy at a bus stop. He had a roll of sheets, and I knew he had to be an architect. (I cleared my throat to clarify that Architecture wasn’t the only…). I spoke to him about Employment Prospects for Architects. He works for the Government. There are vacancies in the Government filled in through Examinations. Yippee!”
He didn’t really say,” Yippee!” Neither did he say the Punjabi equivalent: Balle balle. He was too staid and controlled for that. But he definitely felt all of those and more.

For my Dad, Architecture was a job.

I graduated, and spent a decade doing everything but erect a structure. I ran errands, made drawings, met clients, made more drawings, measured many sites,  learnt computers and got a management degree. My personal life saw marriage, children, many cities, houses, riots – all the agonies and ecstasies that one’s life would see.
Then I just stopped. Aged 33, I took off my corporate ties and shoes, put on my jeans and sandals and started my own practice. That was one thing Architects could do that Engineers couldn’t. Take off the corporate doggy-collar.

That day, Architecture meant independence.

I still didn’t build houses. I had acquired experience in designing offices. I ploughed my trade, always trying to make my difference. I was happy to move a client who said “Only Grey shades please” to be able to say 7 years later, “Sanjeev, no more Grey in my projects.” Or changing the atmosphere of a place by using an aquarium as a partition.

Those years, Architecture meant atmosphere.

As I grew older, the projects grew larger and the industry more complex. There were more agencies managing and reporting than the ones actually executing the project. In the new millennium, one spent as much time in electronic masturbation, dodging the blame game, as one did designing. Your project was successful, not when someone praised your design. But when you got paid for it.

Architecture was any other business.

As I go through the senior years of life, I travel more. The boring archaeological sites don’t bore me anymore. They excite me (and bore my kids). I can see what those people could do centuries ago, and I still can’t. I see the holes that can’t be plugged by big, really big builders, and wonder how many of these fancy structures will be standing a thousand years from today? I’m not sure about 50 years.

Architecture is creation of history. 

So, Architecture can mean many things to many people. It can mean different things at different points of time.

One of the greatest architects, Charles Correa once told me while solving my complex design problem in seconds. “See, it’s simple to be a good architect."

For Correa, Architecture was simplicity.


Laurie Baker, the Gandhi of Architecture, believed that the solution to every design problem was here, in Nature, in the earth.

Well, for this Britisher who made Kerala his home and used vernacular architecture in cities: 

Architecture meant Home. 

So, dear Nephew, I leave you not with answers, but with more questions, that will lead you to your truth.

Oh, and for Dad, my answer to “What is Architecture?" is:

"GOK” (God Only Knows)

Since Dad is with Him now, I guess he would have got his answer.
If he wants to.

Women in Design: from Cave Woman to Zaha Hadid

Controversial topic? Attention seeking gimmick? Read on to judge…

History of Women in Architecture and Interior Design

Historically, women have abstained from an active role in this realm of design and creation. For something, which should require more ‘womanly’ traits to imagine, it is, perhaps the need to frequent site, and deal with its discomfort, distance and workmen that have caused this abstinence.

Quoting from Wikepedia:

‘The first cognizant record of women in this profession is in France. Katherine Briçonnet (ca. 1494–1526) was influential in designing the Château de Chenonceau in the Loire Valley.’

But, then, the first human design was not a building. Early Man first inhabited caves, and beautified its interiors. And, when the physically stronger man had gone out hunting, our guess is, yes, the First Designer was a Woman! 

Today’s Women in Architecture and Interior Design

Architecture and Interior Design have always been a preferred professional course for women world over. Stemming from the feminine leaning to art, colors and decoration, women (and their families) started preferring Design as a profession because of other reasons, like: “Comfort of more women in this profession”, “Less exposure to factory, machinery”, “Design is suited to the softer nature of a woman” etc.

 Today’s woman learnt nothing could be further from the truth. Maybe there were more women in Design, but hardly any in Engineering and Construction! The ‘less exposure to factory, machinery’ gets more than compensated by exposure to far flung sites with little or no amenities and other hardships that come with the territory. And, finally, ‘suited to the softer nature of a woman’ goes out of the window when you have become the Iron Lady to get work done from contractors, handle clients’ expectations and ensure you get paid.

Seeing the hours that go into a project at it completion stage, one need not even bother to go into another reason for women taking to this profession in Asian countries: ‘easy job that allows you to balance personal life and devote time to your family’!

Gender Bender:  has Nature predisposed that Women in Architecture and Interior Design will do better than man?

Traditionally, women have been found to make better drawings, neater sheets and more attractive designs than men. And men have been found better in areas involving construction, structures and engineering.

While women experimented with colors, men played safe, sticking to the shades of greys and blues they dressed to office in.

So you had more women in the design studio, more men on site. For color schemes, architects would consult their stay-at-home wives, and the clients would consult theirs.

For decades we were happy to accept these as gender predispositions. In fact, ‘colorful men’ were treated as affeminate. While women good at Engineering or site work were considered unfeminine or manly.

What’s the truth? 

Watch this space for more....

DESIGNING THE SUPER-LITH: QUESTIONING THE ARCHITECT’S ROLE IN TODAY’S ENGINEERED MARVEL

Architecture has always been the ‘anonymous’ profession. This is one movie where the lead doesn't even get an honourable mention. Ironically, the word 'architect' gets used pretty generously in our lives. When we hear “Indira Gandhi was the architect of India’s victory in the ’71 war”, we know there was a Sam Maneckshaw and a host of war heroes that fought the war. But when we talk of the best architecture, what does the layman know? The Taj Mahal gets credited to Shah Jahan. Many of us think ‘Eiffel’ is some French classy word attached to a memorial, and definitely not the name of the engineer who designed it! The list is endless. Add to this that the architect for the Taj  Mahal had his hands cut off, the architect for the Taj Hotel committed suicide and the architect for the Sydney Opera House didn't get his complete fee, you have grounds for a new sob-a-thon.

This blog, however, isn't about self-pity, but about the endangered species of architecture. Engineering is once again breathing down our necks. One of my teachers told us “the Civil Engineer is your mother-in-law!” Well, that mother-in-law has a whole family plopped on our sofas, and pushing us out of our comfy zones.

How did this happen? Didn't we deal with this, centuries ago? Even in India, The Architects Act was passed in the '70s, giving architects a foot-hold on the economy.

Technology is what happened.

Yes, the same technology architects ignored in college (except the nerds). The same technology we let the engineers keep control of in the industry. We were happy enough to feel that we had the control since we hired them (the ones who got hired by the client and did not listen to us were mean !@#$^&*s).

If that weren’t bad enough, there was new technology coming in. Things that moved, things that blinked, things that opened or closed because other things were blinking; things that were becoming these mean, unmanageable thingies!

Let’s look at this further in our next blog: Who designs today’s Super-Lith? 

Dear Oh dear; my interior

In my early days in the furniture industry, I spent a lot of effort educating ‘non-architects’ the difference between ‘Architects’, ‘Interior Designers’ and ‘Interior Decorators’. It didn’t help when our technical partner from Canada came in with a new term ‘Interior Architect’.

Why did I need to educate them, anyway? On the face of it, because they were selling furniture to architects. But deep in my heart, because of this huge pecking order in the industry, going back to Indian Education System, where intelligence=marks=degree=Architect. Interior design was a still a 3 year diploma in the early ‘90s. In very crass terms, calling an architect an interior designer, or, even worse, an interior decorator was, yes I'm gong to say this - belittling him.

It looks like the debate wasn’t limited to our own little ‘egosystem’. I recently read a British book titled ‘Drawing Out the Interior’ which preambled with this definition:

Interior Architect: Does more structural changes while designing the interior

Interior Designer: More to with planning, furniture and mill-work (American for carpentry)

Interior Decorator: Colours, finish, upholstery and stuff

(I wish I had read thas book before this life defining incident happened):

This goes to the period when I had my own design practice, and clients had been introducing me as ‘My Architect’, ‘Layout Designer’, ‘Interior Designer’ and even ‘General Interior Contractor’. Of course I corrected them each time, till a client gallantly and with pomp and show introduced me to his guest as,

“this is Sanjeev, my interior.”

I felt like his you-know-what. 

The Ego of the Architect

  “Sanjeev, in which semester are you guys taught the subject ‘Ego’?” was a typical question of Mr. G, my boss and the All India Sales Manager for the no.1 furniture brand. No points for guessing what prompted this. Yes, another humbling meeting at an architect’s office, where Mr. IIT+ IIM Hot Shot was made to wait and was quizzed by kids lesser than him in age, qualification, salary and (his definition of) intelligence.

In implying that architects have big egos, he must have been right. After all, isn’t this blogger spending more time taking a shot at a ‘Non Architect’?

So what is this ‘Ego’ we are talking about? We could look at what Wikipedia says, what the dictionary, Dr. Freud says, or what Mr. Google says.

But should we?

If we don’t need any research to be an undisputed expert on multi-billion industries like sports and films, why not offer an opinion on what we live with 24x7?

Somebody once said….OK let’s get true here. Somebody liked (in real life) what I said about Ego, which is:

“Ego is that helmet by which we guard the weak parts of our psyche.”

In other words, Ego covers up our insecurities.

Going by that, the architect has loads to cover up.

Yup, loads of insecurities……..let’s look at them in our blog ‘Architect! Thy name is Insecurity.’