To Students

Is Life only ‘mathematics’? Does one find answers to all the questions by getting information from various sources, applying numerous “check lists” and believing that it would give an automatic result? If all the variables of a given situation are known in advance and there are tried and tested solutions for “dealing” with those variables, then, does an amalgamation of such solutions guarantee a perfect output? Can considerations of ecology, culture, thought, time, behaviour be contained and described as a set of formulas that one can apply for any condition? If this is what we are led to believe by the internet, then we don’t know how ‘Life’ works.

I am led to state the above questions by observing and thinking about how students seem to respond to a “situation”. Simply put, any given situation for the students, seem to represent a mathematical problem, for which, a set of formulas would guarantee a perfect solution! (How convenient can that be and how stupid ‘we’ – the previous generations were – trying to scratch our brains and being utterly screwed up attempting to respond to a situation!). Am I being wrong in believing that Life is a mystery and no action can guarantee a full proof result? For, the students seem to be quite unaware of this ‘Unknown’ parameter of Life – indeed, there is nothing left to be known after all!

I take a case of students being told to design a residence for a given family of 6 members in Pune. So, off they went to “see” or “study” the site, its topography and draw the Sun movement pattern (East to West isn’t it simple?!); show wind directions by some arrows pointing South – West (“default” information about Indian monsoon winds); assume a standard set of requirements such as living, dining, kitchen, bedroom, toilets, balcony, family room, study room, and so on (how else would humans live anyway?) and assume concrete technology (that’s what they see around of course!) and assume four walls, with a flat roof with some doors and windows thrown in and stairs (to go up or down) and the entire thing is guaranteed to look “awesome” or “exciting” or “interesting” (whatever that means).....Really? I never thought designing houses could be simpler than brushing my teeth!

In dealing with how students tend to think and perceive any subject of architecture, a few revelations need to be stated here –

Student’s mind seems to be in continuous engagement with online/ virtual environment. Unfortunately, the most common information that is bombarded on us is highly fragmented, nonsense and can’t be applied to a given situation as it is. Mostly, understanding of culture, architecture, environment requires deep thought and interpretation of a given place/ situation/ context. ‘Interpretation’ involves decoding about how one perceives the world and therefore, it is unique to the individual. In architecture, this means understanding relationship of climate to people to materials to culture and aspirations and the making of the built form itself. Thus, it is necessary to relook at the given situation and question the status quo. Questioning and introspecting is an act that helps in transcending the ‘given’ and reinterpret a situation and generate an appropriate response. In all this process, acknowledging the ‘Unknown’ is fundamental. This is reality, wherein the past (mostly known and stable), the present (dynamic) and the future (probabilities) are related. Thus, there is a whole range of mental ability that one is required to tap into, to conceive a sensitive architectural built environment, which includes not just the rational, but also emotions, feelings, experiences, memory, and the risky (the nebulous) aspect of the Unknown! That makes architecture. The role of the Unknown in all our actions is required to keep us grounded and on our toes. To be 100% sure of a result or a product is a sign of a mistake – which is what the students do not seem to realize. As teachers, we are not asking 100% perfect solutions from the students, but we are asking them to come up with their own way of understanding a situation and responding to it.  It is a path of self discovery. What this process does is to break our own thought patterns that have created wrong judgements, biases, and conditionings and to see things as they are supposed to be seen and discovered. Every step taken in this direction takes us closer to the Truth, although being aware that Truth can’t be known in entirety.

Thinking about past, memory, time, culture, history and how they affect us requires effort, focus, commitment and introspection. This means to focus on the issue at hand and giving dedicated time for the situation. That also means to block any kind of a distraction from our mind. Is the current dependence of online media able to give you this dedicated time? Are you able to make out relevant from the irrelevant?

Thus, restricting our unnecessary exposure to fragmentary data on internet is required to stay focussed. Secondly, personal time for withdrawal and introspection time at the beginning of the day and before going to sleep should begin. This time helps us to review our life in panorama, set priorities, set some goals and go an some direction.

My observations regarding students, their behavior and work output suggests a combination of issues that they seem to face:

1.       Lack of focus and non clarity regarding the task at hand – Although a number of students used to be unclear in their thought processes also in the previous years, the tendency of being completely unaware of oneself seems to be increasing day by day. Among other things, I attribute this situation to over exposure and over indulgence to the information they keep receiving from the internet and other digital environments, thereby unnecessarily cluttering their minds with enormous data, which they are unable to digest or sort out or relate to anything. The importance of reviewing and introspecting what one has read, assimilated or observed by sitting alone can’t be underestimated. One needs to set aside time and create a mental space where different thoughts condense, or connections are found or the redundant is washed out and personal learning happens. These intrinsic qualities of the mind are to be explicitly told to the students and they must feel these qualities themselves. The mind can be trained to halt at a point, focus at a point and question the factors that create it. I feel, this mental space is ought to be given to the students, otherwise they might find it difficult and confusing to relate to their immediate environments. More and more time of the teachers seem to be spent in assisting the students to clear their own confusions and unfortunately, it can take a toll on the teachers themselves. The solution for this, somehow, lies with creating a culture or a proper habit of thought – right from school.

2.       Students seem to be too much self absorbed with the virtual world, so much so that the immediate real – time environment doesn’t seem to exist for them (or not important enough for consideration). By immediate real-time environment, means to realize that learning happens also from Nature, people’s values, aspirations and thereby discover one’s own calling.

3.       Students don’t seem to manage their time effectively, since they remain engrossed in virtual environments and important things remain unattended thereby creating a panic situation in the end. They are not aware that getting things done from other people requires human management of sorts and requires sustained efforts to deal with people. Real life scenarios, where cooperation and collaboration with people is required, can’t be solved with a click of a button. It is messy, complicated, and requires practice of human judgment. This learning is also very crucial. Staying in one’s own bubble created by virtual reality doesn’t allow the students this fundamental experience. Therefore, some tasks dedicated to interact rigorously with peers, colleagues, relatives or any anonymous person must be given to the students.

4.       Students do not seem to offer their critique (informed opinions, viewpoints, positions) on anything – they just accept what there is and reproduce the information again. It seems that they are on “auto-mode” where they continue to say, do, act in some kind of a “programmed” way influenced by internet….the words they choose to speak, the values they mistakenly think they cherish are casually said – as if they were a ‘given’! Or “wisdom” has become some kind of a standard formula to the students….that, by playing some kind of acrobatics, Life’s mysteries (if there are any left) are solved at a drop of a hat!

5.       It is a grave mistake to assume that the internet has answers for everything, or that it can decide what is right or wrong. And this malaise sets in right from school – where everything is given on a platter to the students. In the growing exposure and dependence on information by the students, and by giving less time to question facts and their own ideas, they seem to lose out on realities formed by introspecting their own experiences, feelings, observations and increasing awareness of their own surrounding environment. More and more talk generated by the students is tending to be rational (predictable), descriptive (the obvious), unimaginative (uncritical) without an iota of reference to any kind of feeling or personal value or a personal concern.

I can see where the quality of such mundane thought will eventually lead in terms of architecture – spaces which rely heavily on technology and building services (why should anyone scratch their brains and think about ‘outdated’ things such as climate and culture when technology can give you a ‘perfect box’); spaces that become extremely standardized (the universal ‘box’) for any situation, any place and for any kind of society – indicating complete disconnect with the local situation of responding to climate, people and the sense of place. In other words - spaces that tend to give an anonymous, impersonal, inhuman and a static feel. What we may tend to face is the trap of producing standardized solutions (and believing that they are applicable) to the diverse local situations existing on our planet. Another version of architecture, that may be conceived, is one of a hotch-potch – irrelevant and countless juxtapositions of numerous spaces making a structure. Just as a McDonald seems to offer us countless ‘varieties’ of the basic coffee (they all taste pretty similar) for consumption, architects may end up offering a variety of forms to clients at a drop of a hat – as if they had a magic wand for everything!

The point is both the responses stated above indicate a refusal to think deeply about the situation at hand and a denial to generate architecture relevant to the context. Just as two people are not the same, the architecture which is supposed to be the supporter of human activity and occupation and community living, obviously can’t be standardized for all societies. Secondly, just as a person has a strong character, tendency, in the same way – the architecture that is conceived ought to have a dominant idea (the soul of the project).

This calls for being immersed in the real – time situation. The danger of the internet imagery is that everybody thinks the same, tells the same and does the same! Therefore, academic exercises need to be designed in a way, wherein students would be required to continuously challenge the status quo and observe the workings of Nature around them. Secondly, silencing the mind is a crucial requirement in today’s times. By silence, one can feel the contours of one’s own thoughts, which has a direct implication on the nature of spaces that one sets out to design. Better, compassionate, sensitive, healing thoughts will generate similar quality of spaces for everyone to live. Fragmented, excited, anxious, hasty thoughts will tend to generate similar quality of spaces – half hearted and unloving and chaotic.

Thus, students – watch how you think!