There is something happening in
the urban Indian environment, which is taking the previous generations by
surprise and destabilizing the status quo about the idea of Indian culture.
Summarily, this can be termed as a transition period for people, accelerated by
the digital revolution. The chosen topic is extremely broad and I choose to
limit my observation to my domain - architecture.
Since the time I have been
involved actively in academics, I am having the opportunity to interact with
students on subjects like Architectural Design, Dissertation, History of
Architecture among others.
Ideas required for the conception
of architectural space require synthesis (or consideration) of parameters
related to climate, culture (or people), materials and technology – to suggest
a few. History of architecture, too, concerns with the act of creating architectural
spaces and understanding the ‘context’ for that activity. Both of these
subjects are related with climate, people, resources and time. Or, fundamentally,
they are concerned with the idea of perception
and conception of spaces.
The central question to be
considered by people involved with architectural practice or academics is – what is the inspiration for the perception and
conception of architectural spaces? With the study of history of
architecture and as our own experiences in practice will indicate to us, our inspiration
for conceiving architectural spaces comes through our interactions with the physical
+ real place. We exist in some place, at some point of time and interact with
some people and must respond to available resources at our disposal to create
architecture. This entire phenomenon takes place in “real time” that is to say
that our ideas are formed by our interactions with our surroundings that we
perceive in “real time”. Therefore the entire discussion on what seems
relevant, appropriate, contextual, affordable and flexible has connections with
being rooted to a “real time” experience.
This connection with the “real
time” place itself is changing with the increasing penetration of digital/
virtual environment in the minds of younger generation. The younger generation,
with unlimited access to the virtual environment, is bound to be heavily
influenced or informed by the ideas that keep circulating in the “virtual
place/space/time” nexus. There are a lot of issues tied with the aspect of
virtual penetration. What the students see in the virtual environment, they can’t
or don’t know what is relevant. By faster replacement of images and the fluid
nature of virtual environment, the students’ minds do not entertain any thought
for a long time. They are unable to stretch their imagination or focus on a
thought, pursue it and come to some conclusion.
It is time for us to accept that
the young generation’s ideas are now
going to be strongly influenced by the “virtual reality” and the perception +
conception of architectural spaces is going to take place through the
interaction of “virtual” + “real-time” environments. This should be seen as an
opportunity for us as well, since this situation is going to make us face the
following questions:
1. The
idea of “place”: Should all ideas come only from a fixed geographical bounded
place through our modes of perception (where we exist) or can they be
influenced by ideas which had been implemented at some other location and at
some other point of time? Thus, what needs to change is the definition of the “experience
of place” that is simultaneously local and “virtual-global”. With this, we need
to further refine ideas pertaining to relevance or appropriateness of a design
solution. Thus, the meaning of “context” is no longer strictly real time or
real place specific, but can exist anywhere in between the real and the
virtual. Thus, our roles as guides or mentors to the students have to be increased
manifold times.
2. The
idea of local - How much to emphasize on hand skills, local employment, local
skill sets, local empowerment, displacement and replacement of known systems of
knowledge with newer systems, displacement of time tested methods with fast
track methods of execution – all these become important to be considered.
3. What
happens about the idea of history, culture, tradition, ethics, memory,
heritage, conservation (anything that is related to the notion of the Past) may
be subjected to open debate. Perhaps the Past may be seen with fresh
perspectives. Perhaps what should have been discarded long time ago, will be
concluded. What has stood the test of Time, will be evident again and may offer
a glimpse of eternal concerns of humanity. Perhaps a new awareness of the Past
may develop.
4. Idea
of self – Idea of ‘self’ has seen a significant change. As more and more of our
time is consumed by digital environments, we seem to be losing touch with “real
time” interactions with people that happen in “real time” places – streets,
courtyards, staircases, passages, gardens, maidans and so on. This will prompt
us to reconsider the importance of public spaces and any experience that is
born out of “real time” interaction with people. Should public spaces be
designed and for what purpose? What do you call “public”? Should all spaces be
privatized? All these are hard questions to be confronted. Been on
International Soil for some time and having experienced what can extremely
privatized space can do to the entire society, I suggest that this issue needs
to be looked at very critically.
5. Idea
of social constructs – How do we perceive life? How do we deal with people
because of age, gender, caste, religion, nationality, language and so on? This
is a phenomenon evident in our behavior – whether one likes it or not. Most of
these social constructs are embedded in geographical and historical perception
of place. And if the virtual environment is going to blur the rigid boundaries
of geographical place and if it is going to generally increase our exposure to
newer environments, how would we perceive ‘people’? Would it be more inclusive
or more divisive? Would this newer, fluid, virtual environment offer us an idea
regarding what are people’s fundamental concerns and would that lead us to
design spaces that respond to such fundamental concerns of humanity? Shouldn’t
we guide our students to such understandings?
6. Idea
of affordability – This concern is tied up with the emphasis of generating a “local”
response – accommodating local culture, material palette, local skill sets of
construction, local climate and so on. Should this discussion be kept aside?
Should the relevance of technology, local concerns be continued to be voiced to
the students?
Above were some
of the issues that we seem to face today. The journey ahead is to be done
together – mentor + students and need not be done in the traditional
hierarchical manner, where whatever the mentor says is right and what the
student says need not be entertained. The
current situation has a lot of learning to offer for both.
