FUSION IN ARCHITECTURE

By Manjra Yadav, Architect


The globalization of architecture and design has brought about a insipid uniformity, even in countries that have had a plenteous architectural and cultural heritage. Typically, the traditional architecture of a country responded to its climatic conditions and cultural influences. Materials used were indigenous and easily available; and detailing took advantage of skilled local craftspeople. 

Large countries like India have fairly diverse climates and cultures across the regions, and hence have a varied architecture as well. At times even within a region, the local architecture may have absorbed different cultural influences through the centuries. Varanasi, as an example, has a very Indian architectural imagery for most of the areas adjoining the river, but the main town has a very colonial look. In Goa, influence of Portuguese has created a new 'traditional' architecture that has almost blotted out the vernacular style that existed before it. 

Unfortunately, today our towns, which originally had their own interesting identity, are now almost identical to each other. In an effort to create an interesting architecture, architects are taking up elements, often from distant lands. Therefore we have Roman, Greek, Mediterranean and Spanish facades that speak of a neo-colonialisation of India--something we fought to rid ourselves of more than 50 years ago. Contrary to popular belief, in India we do not consciously adopt a western style in order to identify with the west. We use it because we have failed to recognize our own architectural vocabulary, a style of architecture that can easily match the grandeur of the Romans, the classical symmetry of the Greeks, the stark simplicity of the Mediterranean. We seem to have forgotten our past; the architecture Rajasthan, Agra, Old Delhi, Lucknow, Varanasi, Mandu, Kerela and so on. We have a wealth of architecture in India.

There is enough richness in our traditional architecture to inspire us and, combined with today's materials and technologies, conceive a true fusion of past with present; the contemporary--supported by new technology and well engineered materials--with the charm and high craft quality of the traditional.

Before one embarks on a quest for an effective fusion of design, one must be able to recognize the essence and soul of a traditional architecture. In many parts of the world, architects are working with this fusion in order to save their heritage. We need to do this in India as well.

Architecture of India

The architecture of India has been as magnificent as its history, culture and religion. The shades of many outer influences can be felt in Indian architecture because of the country's discourse with other regions of the world throughout its history. Established building traditions of India and outside cultural interactions impacts the architectural methods practiced in India.

Indus Valley civilization (7000 BCE-1500 BCE) possessed a flourishing urban architecture. The residential buildings were mainly brick and consisted of an open patio flanked by rooms. Private bathrooms, were found in nearly all the houses of the Indus Valley Civilization. The residential buildings were also serviceable enough. The major cities associated with Indus Valley civilization, including Mohenjo-daro, Harappa, and Kalibangan, were laid out on a grid pattern and had provisions for an advanced drainage system.

During 1500 BCE-200 CE, multi-storied buildings which consistently used arched windows and doors were common in walled and moated cities with large gates.  Fortified cities with stupas, viharas, and temples were constructed during the Maurya empire. Wooden architecture was popular and rock cut architecture became solidified. Temples were build on elliptical, circular, quadrilateral, or apsidal plan using brick and timber during this period.

During early common era (200 CE—1200 CE), Universities flourished at Nalanda and Valabhi. These universities had housing capacity for thousands of teachers and students. Visible as a distinct tradition during the 7th century, South Indian temple architecture consisted essentially of a square-chambered sanctuary topped by a superstructure, tower, or spire and an attached pillared porch or hall, enclosed by a peristyle of cells within a rectangular court. Adhering to the shikhara temple style architectur, richly decorated temples including the complex at Khajuraho were constructed in Central India. North Indian temples displayed increased elevation of the wall and elaborate spire by the 10th century. 

Mughal architecture and Indo-Islamic architecture influenced Mughal Era (1526 CE-1857 CE). During this period Persian influence is noticable in Mughal tombs of sandstone and marble show. The Red Fort at Agra (1565–74) and the walled city of Fatehpur Sikri (1569–74) are among the architectural achievements of this period. The Taj Mahal, built as a tomb for Queen Mumtaz Mahal by Shah Jahan (1628–58) is undoubtly the most beautiful construction of this period.

Between 1857 CE—1947 CE, European colonialism and British Raj bought with it a wide array of influences to Indian architecture. Colonial architecture became assimilated into India's diverse traditions. Fusion has been a consistent feature of modern Indian architecture and is visible in the architecture of 'Rastrapati Bhawan' during this period.

Modern Indian architecture (post Independence 1947 onwards) also incorporated modern values as India became a modern nation state. Indian buildings, even today, reflect India's culture and myths. The ancient Indian architectural text of Vastu Shastra is widely used for planning houses, residential complexes, office, commercial, industrial and other building types. The economic reforms of 1991 further bolstered the urban architecture of India as the country became more integrated with the world's economy.

Indian architecture reflects its various socio-cultural sensibilities which vary from region to region. Growing awareness of ecology has influenced architecture in India during modern times and 'Green Buildings' are now a very popular concept. Urban housing in India balances space constrictions and is aimed to serve the working class.

The Importance of Making Indian Cities More Sustainable

India needs thriving cities to reap benefits of potential demographic dividend i.e. a young and rapidly growing population. It is estimated that an additional 26 cities of one million or more will be added in India by 2030 to its 42 one million plus cities today. Also, by 2030, the population in cities will soar to 590 million (340 million in 2008). According to a new MGI research, cities could generate 70 percent of net new jobs created to 2030, produce around 70 percent of Indian GDP, and drive a near fourfold increase in per capita incomes across the nation. 

To achieve this. Indian cities needs to be more sustainable. However, Indian cities are deeply dissatisfying, with a glaring incompatibility between aesthetic engagement and utility. Our cities are today marked with traffic congestion, the absence of reliable public transportation, the unsympathetic view towards pedestrian rights, the lack of adequate road signs and the creation of new bottlenecks by new flyovers. Building livable cities should be the goal of the development.

According to the McKinsey report, however, India has sufficient time and the means to address many of these issues. The report has outlined 5 strategies to meet its urban financial obligations. These are:

1. Monetize land assets.

2. Maximize property taxes and usage charges.

3. Establish a formula-based grants systems from state and central government.

4. Use appropriate debt and private-sector participation (public-private partnerships).

5. Create enabling systems and city development funds to facilitate use of revenue sources.

In the light of the above, urban sustainability has become a very important issue today.

Green Architecture - Environmentally Conscious Design Technique

Green Architecture, also known as Sustainable Architecture, is a growing trend throughout the world. This environmentally-conscious design technique is largely driven by certain goals and principles. The basic goals are:

- To reduce the impacts on the Earth from constructing buildings and their materials like embodied energy, pollutants, mining and harvesting.

- To reduce the occupancy related impacts like fuel use, land pattern disruption, maintenance etc.

- To reduce the impact of the structure at the end of its life (decaying in place or joining a landfill)

- Creating a more desirable human experience by using natural materials.

Green Architecture helps create or renovate the existing buildings in a way that they have a minimal impact on the environment. One of the primary goals of green architecture is to reduce to the amount of energy required to keep inhabitants comfortable. Similarly, the postion of building on a property can make a significant difference in energy efficiency. A building uses less energy if it generates its own. Green architecture designs often include the use of solar energy to supply most, if not all, of the electricity needs of the occupants of a home or office building particularly for heating hot water which is generally the biggest use of energy in a household.

Water efficiency is also one of the concerns of Green Architecture. It depends on water conserving fixtures like ultra-low flush toilets and low-flow showerheads. Green designs may include grey water systems that use waste water from laundry, dishwashing and bathing. The water can be recycled on-site for landscape irrigation or flushing toilets.

What should India's future cities look like?

Indian cities, in comparison with cities around the world, are sorely under-invested, and the biggest challenge is creating an improved quality of life that balances economic opportunities with access to social amenities like housing, schools and hospitals, urban services and infrastructure. With 250 million people to be added to India's cities and towns over the next 20 years, the country needs a vision of the future, to inspire the next generation of cities to become world-class centres of urban endeavour, business, finance, sport and culture, while ensuring that smaller cities become stronger and more able to efficiently participate in the growth story. So what should India's future cities look like?

"By 2040 two-thirds of us are expected to live in the cities. To overcome the contradictions of urban living, we need solutions based on a collective vision of how we want to live and what we have to do to get there; then we have to invest in that future", asserts Aashish Karode in an article published in The Hindustan Times few days back. Here are the excerpts from this article:

With continuous inward rural migration and increased global connectivity, Indian cities are on the radar, as every informed citizen seeks to understand the mantra for their sustainability and efficient functioning. Recent reports put India's urban population at 340 million, roughly 30% of the total population of the country. This percentage is expected to grow by 40%, to 590 million, by 2030. This means we will need about 700 million sq metres of residential and commercial space for homes and jobs. And, to meet demand, we will need to create about 180 million jobs, 7,400 km of roads, new airports and subways, millions of square feet of schools, colleges and shopping malls, and so on.

Our cities are deeply dissatisfying, with a glaring incompatibility between aesthetic engagement and utility. Take the increasing angst of traffic congestion, the absence of reliable public transportation, the unsympathetic view towards pedestrian rights, the lack of adequate road signs and the creation of new bottlenecks by new flyovers. Add to this the impersonality of our buildings, our callousness towards streets and landscapes, our irrational priority on low-rise land use planning that has led to the shortage of affordable housing in urban hubs.

Development without urban design loses touch with the 'place', the architecture and the form of the city. The result is a monotonous and arbitrary repetition of traits that, instead of interpreting and emphasising the particularities of individual places, weakens them and produces a homogeneous quality, be it Mumbai, Nagpur, Kanpur or Delhi.

One way to avert this is through citizen-initiated proposals for urban development with clear local concepts, based on ideas relevant to particular places. Policymakers could then address how people want to work, travel, shop and earn and stimulate the desired quality of life in each city.

In the coming decade, cities will be judged by their environmental performance, quality of life and how well they are prepared for future challenges. 'Place making' and 'sustainability' will become important concepts in our urban design. On this score, Indian cities have not performed well. While it does take vision, long-term planning and time to turn a city around, we already have some excellent models in Surat, which has so rapidly revamped its waste management system, and New Delhi, which transformed its roads, infrastructure (via the Metro) and district centres.

The idea of sustainability can seem like a luxury at a time when so many cannot afford homes. But with more than half the world's population living in towns and cities, incremental improvement towards 'place making' and 'sustainability' will become vital.

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Aashish Karode is an Architect, urban designer and partner at Design Atelier

Is Architecture Art?

Architecture is the art of building. Architecture relates human requirements and construction materials in a bid to furnish practical use as well as an aesthetic solution. Architecture, according to Richard Meier, is the greatest of the arts, and it encompasses thinking that other arts don’t even deal with. He further elaborates, "Like relationship of the work to the individual human being – the person who uses it; the person who experiences it; the person who sees it; and how that person perceives that space. You know there’s an old adage that a sculptor can make a square wheel, and an architect has to make a round one".

However, according to Richard Meier, to be a work of architecture is creating a work of art. He says, "Well I don’t say all buildings are architecture, first of all. So there’s lots of buildings that have nothing to do with architecture. They have to do with economics. They have to do with an enclosure, but I wouldn’t consider them works of architecture".

Architects Who Design With Purpose

The new emerging generation of architects wants to do more than create beautiful architectural designs. It’s out to protect the environment and create designs that make great places to live, work, and play. The purpose of architecture is to shelter and enhance man's life on earth and to fulfill his belief in the nobility of his existence. Architects who design with purpose think of local climate, culture, and economic conditions before starting on to a new project. Green architecture is definetely the new 'mantra' of these designers. 

"Architecture to me is about this gracefulness of life, about loving the interplay of forms in graded light, the visual connections between spaces and the landscape variation that includes plant life, air, earth, and water as part of each building," says Aashish Karode, the Principal, Planning & Design Services at Design Atelier, New Delhi, India. He further states, "I believe that improved performance and sustainable practices in Architecture and Urban Design have a staggering impact on busineses as also the entire economy. In fact a 60% of the power consumed by the economy is accounted by the built environment".

Architecture to designers like Aashish Karode begins with the excitement of creating lively environments where the symbolism of the architectural artifact and the embedded landscape enliven the whole ensemble.

Goals of Green Architecture

The concept of Green Architecture can be traced to the energy crisis and the pollution concern in the 1970s. It may be assumed that the green building movement originated in the U.S. because of the need and desire for more energy efficient and environmentally friendly construction practices. Apart from the environmental reason, there are other motives to construct green buildings including economic and social benefits. The recent sustainability initiatives call for an integrated and synergistic design to both new construction and in the modification of an existing structure. This modern approach is called as sustainable design and integrates the building life-cycle with each green practice employed with a design-purpose to create a synergy amongst the practices used. On the other hand, the the aesthetic motive of green architecture is to design a building that is in harmony with the natural features and resources surrounding the site.

The practices and techniques in creating (or retrofitting of an existing structure) green building reduces and ultimately eliminate the impacts of new buildings on the health of human beings and the environment. The methods employed are using sunlight through passive solar, active solar, and photovoltaic techniques and creating green roofs using plants and trees. The provision of rain-harvesting in green building minimizes rainwater run-off.

The practice and technolgy may differ from location to location but there are certain fundamental principles that persist from which the method is derived. These are Siting and Structure Design Efficiency, Energy Efficiency, Water Efficiency, Materials Efficiency, Indoor Environmental Quality Enhancement, Operations and Maintenance Optimization, and Waste and Toxics Reduction. Similarly there are few universal steps in designing sustainable buildings: specify 'green' building materials from local sources, reduce loads, optimize systems, and generate on-site renewable energy.

Green building or sustainable building is the practice of creating structures and using methods that are environmentally responsible and resource-efficient throughout a building's life-cycle. The common goal of green buildings is to design a structure that reduces the overall impact of the built environment on human health and the environment by efficiently using energy, water, and other resources; protecting health of the occupants and improving employee productivity; and reducing waste, pollution and environmental degradation.

Many countries have already developed their own standards for green building or energy efficiency for buildings and others are busy evolving for themselves.

How Green Is Your Building’s Wood?

By Aashish Karode

How can architects, developers and builders know for sure that lumber for building their projects comes from sustainably managed forests? Sustainability is defined internationally as: meeting the needs of the present generation without compromising that ability for future generations. An ideal way to ensure that wood is harvested in an environmentally and socially responsible manner is to choose wood from a state with strong forest practice laws. Tough standards and regulatory oversight offer assurance that comprehensive rules are followed and enforced.

The environmental attributes of wood for construction of homes has been measured and found to be superior to alternatives such as steel and concrete. The United States Green Building Council’s Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) program recognizes wood for green building, especially if it is grown within a few hundred miles of where it is grown. How green is your building's wood? Green comes in many shades. But architects, developers and builders can feel assured of sustainability using wood products that are locally grown and manufactured, and that are grown in places with stringent and comprehensive laws that govern the practice of forestry.

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New Directions for Living Roofs and Walls

The evolving technology of green roofs has been leading to the use of greater diversity in their designs. After years of implementing green roof designs, the international industry has seen a steady move towards more diversity in both elements of construction and plant materials. What is most fascinating of the improvement in green roof design is the use of plants on these roofs which, along with other naturally decomposing materials, aid in greater biodiversity. No longer are sedums the only plants that are being used on green roofs. At the EcoBuild Conference in London 2010, exhibits featured new green roof designs showing a greater use of ornamental grasses and other flowering plants including some bulbs.

Germany and Austria have been the leaders in green roofs for many decades now. In Linz, Austria, all new construction built after 1985 must have a green roof installed on it. The change has been remarkable. Green roofs and living walls are beneficial for our environment in reducing urban heat island conditions, reducing dust, cooling spaces, and habitat for several species in an urban.

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