Values

Values are important. Every era, consisting of a specific ‘place’ and ‘time’ creates a system of values which people believe. These become our guiding force to understand the Past, Present and Future.

At its core, values deal with spiritual aspects (going beyond the limitations of place and time) and generally prompting us to discover those things that are fundamentally unchanging and which form a base of human existence.  What are these values then? And how did they get generated?

We always interact with the environment around us. Based on where we are born and where we go, we encounter the experiences of ‘places’ and ‘time’. Places may mean the idea of geography – climate, topography, resource availability, flora, fauna and people themselves. What has dictated our universal response is the urge to survive and sustain ourselves. With this urge, we choose to deal with climate ( specific place), optimize natural resources and cooperate/ negotiate with each other. That creates architecture responding to a given context and generates multiple meanings of perceptions and conceptions of spaces.  Generations of interactive efforts with the environment leads to an idea of history/ culture/ memory. Although geography and history can be linked as a linear process, spiritual realization indicates moving beyond these parameters – which again, we sense as we continue to interact with the place. Therefore, can we say, that our responses are informed by geography, history and philosophy? 

As far as we can recall, climate in India has led to a very people centric idea of space creation. In other words, we seem to be surrounded by people, have to deal with people, have to consider their opinions and have to rely on one another for sustaining ourselves. Spaces so formed, seem to be multi functional, multi user and dense. Notions of privacy are blurred and what is created is a shared sense of community. Not that this is a romantic experience, but this is what it is – as natural as the rising Sun! And I am not saying that this is a perfect thing, it has many layers of complexities and contradictions. Therefore, any effort in conceiving an architectural solution (at least in India) is required to respond with the local climate and people’s needs (by “people”, we mean everything that spans from the immediate ‘client’ to the ‘society’ that comprises of ‘us’). Thus, in this background, can architecture be – just ‘form’ oriented? Can architecture only cater to ‘visual’ delight? Or does the understanding of ‘aesthetics’ include a response informed by climate and people? Thus, what we are referring to is the ability of architecture to create meaningful/ profound experiences in our minds. In other words, can we feel architecture as a medium to create an experience (spiritual at its highest intention)? 

The contemporary times involve quite a different set of value systems. There seems to be an urge to constantly prove oneself, push oneself, articulate oneself, define oneself, think only about oneself, meticulously ‘plan’ oneself, be sure of oneself and reach some destination as quick as one can. Thus, ‘I’ comes before everything else – even before people, climate, history and philosophy!! I am not quite sure regarding the quality of architecture this contemporary value starts to create. I am not quite sure, if phenomenal considerations to the aspect of ‘privacy’ will achieve beneficial results for humanity. Greatest of examples in architecture achieve a value of spirituality – connecting with generations and across places. Are we now only supposed to consider the reality of the ‘momentary’ gratification/ relevance, as compared to the eternal? 

Choice is ours.