Iconic or Signature Building India Today Architectural Journalism Contest 2008
Anuj Daga, Final Year B. Arch. Rachana Sansad’s Academy of Architecture
understanding Charles Correa discussing City Centre, Kolkata, India.
UCN No. 400025-003
While architecture has been practiced in India for centuries, its education was the responsibility of the master craftsmen passed along from one generation to another. It was only in the 19th century whereby, the architectural form was a function of the resolution of forces acting upon it. Industrial revolution led to artisans and craftsmen losing their job to machines. This was perhaps the start of degeneration of a long history of art. The effect of industrialization was such that people HAD to accept it in their own terms. Modernism was one after effect of Industrialization, which deeply reflected in the lifestyle of the people around later. Pioneer architects like Le Corbusier, Walter Gropious etc. embraced modernism instead of leaving the machine behind. Modernism made quick low cost housing possible. It distanced itself from Imperialistic ideas. The prime reason behind the success of Modernism was that it was more responsive to science and technology. Geometry became the dominating force in architecture. Ornamentation was then shaped using geometry and light. The onset of modernization in India can be seen by the planning of Chandigarh – the first planned city of independent India and the reinterpretation of the sky scraper by Louis I Kahn in his works in Ahmedabad. Both these architects contributed immensely to the modern building collection in India. However, it must be noted that both these architects were non-Indians. When the responsibility of building a modern India was handed over to Indian architects, the 20 th century saw an extraordinary array of architectural explorations. While the Empiricists have been more conservative, believing that it is essential to base approaches to design on careful observations of the present, it was some architects who tried to re interpret Indian forms in their own rationalist ways using considerable logical speculation in their work. Whereas that was Modernism in the old ‘60s and ‘80s, when people had already started adjusting themselves to the Modern lifestyle and went ahead, many remained behind. Modern institutions always wanted to move ahead with more and more technology, while there were still old institutions trying to root down architecture in an Indian past. And thus, India has always been under a tremendous pressure of going modern or remaining well rooted into its tradition. As a result of this, we see a hybrid kind of environment that is created around us. Over the past years and decades, the process of architectural design has been developing more as a profession where the architect is expected to have the skill and dexterity of being scientific in imparting the subject. However, considering architecture as a ‘discipline’, an architect has a much larger responsibility than to “just build”. The act of producing architecture involves being able to see the 'final product' at many scales - the scale of space and experience (zoomed in) , the scale of the object within the city (zoomed out) and also very importantly the scale of the person - that is the street scale. As a rapidly emerging field, the definition of architecture keeps becoming elaborate. Today, in a globalizing world, the time period in which an architect delivers the final product has become equally important. It is at this juncture where “architecture” is vulnerable to convert into a “building”. However, architects must remember their role as designers of space and spatial experiences, which can be experienced at multiple scales and by multiple senses. It is important here, therefore, to question the idea of an iconic or a signature building. What is our idea of ‘iconic’ or a ‘signature building’? For most of us, iconic would be something which visually creates awe. Visuals have become a primary method of experience in our cities
today. Therefore, we see a different pattern of architecture evolving in urban areas. Buildings coming up in our environment command maximum visual attention of the masses. However, when an entire street is lined up with structures that bark their images upon people, the entire experience of a street turns into a blasé. On the contrary, what we see might be deceptive. Covering up the building in a curtain of glass, or making it colorful or aesthetic might not confirm the building as architecture. Forget the enormous amounts of energy pumped into such mechanically functioning buildings, they are so rigidly programmed that a user is very cleverly trapped inside into an isolated environment which does not connect one from inside to outside. In an increasingly image-conscious world, which contests itself with creating environmentally responsible future, one wonders what the idea of an ‘iconic’ or a ‘signature’ building must be? Architecture and design have the potential to convey meaning as well as information. This powerful trait is often overlooked in the rush to approach, as well as to analyze these disciplines in terms of their functional and purely aesthetic imperatives. The fact is that all design interprets as well as informs. What characterizes the best design is that it consciously utilizes that challenging and transcendent potential. Charles Correa’s architectural acts of instantaneous communication are a constant source of bafflement to observers. The eye is quickly gratified in the provocative image of the building; yet the sense of wonder, the message of the observed architecture is absorbed slowly and so, sustained in a more thoughtful manner. Correa uses architecture as a device to communicate beyond the expression of mere style and social position. After studying architecture at the University of Michigan and further at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Mr. Charles Correa set up his architectural practice in Mumbai, India in 1958. His work in India shows an adaptation of language that is deep rooted in the Indian culture and that which blends with the local surroundings. Although one may classify him as a ‘Modern’ architect, Mr. Correa’s buildings are truly regionalist in approach and confirm a non western approach. The Mahatma Gandhi Figure 1: The entrance of the City Centre Mall, Kolkata: The Memorial at the Sabarmati architect uses a language that is very simple, yet, creates nostalgia Ashram in Ahmedabad and his of the experience that he is going to give ahead. contribution to the planning of Navi Mumbai remain most notable and significant. Over the past decades, the architect has developed specific responses to urban architectural problems in India.
The City Centre, Kolkata, one of the most recent projects of the architect (completed in 2004), was conceived as a convergence of functionality and aesthetics. Adding to that, the architect has tried to bring in the organic nature in the shopping mall by an innovative reinterpretation of an Indian market. Instead of bringing up a large chunk of building on an otherwise large land, the City Centre has been broken up into smaller fragments of forms interlinked by small bridges, courtyards and semi open spaces. Such a strategy not only makes the mall environmentally friendly, but also develops a character which is so typical of any Indian bazaar. The idea of mall being an introvert environment has been deconstructed and the place has been developed as porous organization of simple forms. On entering, the architect decides to give multiple experiences to the user by placing a kund and taking the user upwards through a flight of steps to create a sense of ghat, which traditionally has been a meeting place for people in Kolkata. The culmination of the experience of the entrance is its dissolution into the numerous streets of the bazaar.
Figure 2: The re interpretation of the Indian street bazaar: While people keep gazing at shops on both sides, other smaller activities are allowed to be placed in the wide corridors which not only give a sense of informality, but also give a unique character to the mall.
While going across these streets, one is introduced to the sudden arrival of courtyards, appropriately scaled down to relate to the human level. The eateries are allowed to spread onto these ‘streets‘ as would normally happen in a khau galli. The interesting patterns of routes that
the people make from between all such activities can be seen from strategically created levels which connect the inside and outside. The City Centre does not define itself by creating boundaries, but itself goes and meets its surroundings. Though contemporary in its design, it still embodies the spirit of Kolkata. At one of the places, a horse drawn tramcar has been restored to link the place with its own Imperial past. Added to that, the Kalighat paintings and the art wall echoes the cultural history of Kolkata. The space creates a niche for people from all age income groups. Figure 3: The spatial organization of simple forms create a number of corridors which become ‘streets’ of experience and give porosity to the entire complex. Note that the complex has not boundaries, but it itself draws the roads inside.
Different parts of the complex are taken up for various activities during festivals, seasonal exhibitions or public awareness. The City Centre thus assumes a truly public character and almost becomes an icon, not visually, but notionally, through the multiple experiences its offers to visitors. It is truly a building to look up to, for the architect has tried to create not only a modern building, but a building which is equally responsive to its past, present and future.
Bibliography: Bhatia, Gautam. Silent Spaces and Other Stories of Architecture, Penguin India Ltd. Bhatia, Harshad. The Wow-Factor, Architecture+Design, October 2005. Bhiwandiwala, Jimmy. Relevant Notions, Architecture - Time Space and People, October 2005. Lang, Jon. A Concise History of Modern Architecture in India, Permanent Black. Truelove, James Gayson. This Way - Signage Design for Public Spaces, Rockport Publishers Inc.
Websites: www.citycentrekolkata.com www.wikipedia.com
