My batch mate: Sir, what’s the idea behind the architecture of IIMB?
B. V. Doshi: What do you feel? Do you feel free or confined…
My batch mate : Free
B.V. Doshi : Can you see the sunlight changing through the sky? Can you see the shadows playing inside? Do you feel inside the classroom or outside ?
The auditorium erupted in claps…it was the QnA session with Mr. B.V. Doshi after the screening of the movie ‘Doshi’ by Mr.Premjit Ramachandran at the auditorium of IIM Bangalore. Mr. Premjit and Mr. Bijoy Ramachandran, both were present too.
Now, back to the man and the evening. Have you ever felt to really thank God that you were given the opportunity to be somewhere where you would have wanted to be? I felt that way. The word privilege is just not enough. I could actually relate to her daughter when she said in movie that she just felt blessed. Blessings it was. Here was a man sitting in front of us who is undoubtedly one of India’s finest architect,one who has achieved almost everything in life the way he wanted, one who shakes the inside of you while speaking of frugality and simplicity and the heritage of India, yet listen to the words in which he describes himself -
“I am not an architect, that’s the problem…I am not an architect. For me it’s a search, only a search. Search for that unknown that I have not known, neither I know how it will manifest. That’s actually the essence of my work. It begins somewhere, ends somewhere. And in that process, I grow and the work grows. We grow together.”
There was no doubt that to be there inside the marvellous IIM Bangalore campus and listen to the man who created it, was an inexplicable feeling. It was mixing of so many emotions, like the way his designs let sunshine, shadows, breeze, rhythm and freedom to form a subtle harmony. You needn’t be an architect to feel this. Instead the feeling it could grow inside you or me or anyone is one of his greatest achievements, in my point of view.The movie depicted various stages of his life, his early struggle, his achievements in subsequent phases, his lifestyle, his family, his home and many many people awed and inspired and felt blessed by him. But what struck me most what his ideology. He talks about India being not centric, it being the best in achieving beauty through frugality. You could not only see but feel the simplicity. When he talks about God and its creation you feel pious inside. Like when he says–when you make a home for someone, think it as the man’s temple to offer prayer to God. How can you make his temple bad just because he is not so rich? Or when he says- all human beings are inherently compassionate and loveable animal, highly sophisticated. It opens up new horizons in your mind, lets new light come in. Another instance was when in replying to one question he said that the idea of using the word ‘home’ instead of ‘flat’ could actually bring the change in present material mindset towards housings. He told the importance of trees and steps in architecture to him as they tell him about the childhood days. Such simple thinking is so rare to see nowadays. I think his answer to the enquiry about his favourite architectural instance sums these all up best. His answer was - “My home”.
It would never end discussing the man and his life and the evening. I can go on and on and on… but all good things come to an end. So, here are three quotes to draw the curtains…..
“I have learned from Doshi the way to be ….yourself….always” - An admirer (I apologize for my failing memory)
“I think architecture is a matter of transformation. Transformation of all adverse situations into favourable conditions” – B.V.Doshi
“See Corbusier told me once, which I think is important that, even where there is somebody standing behind you, who is better than you and you are answerable to him” – B.V.Doshi
Tuesday, September 28, 2010
Tuesday, September 14, 2010
Tuesday, August 3, 2010
Monday, June 21, 2010
Doshi/Bristol
In association with Arnolfini, this is the first in a series of screenings which will introduce key international architects.
A labour of love for its director, Premjit Ramachandran, this is an insightful and much-needed portrait of the low-cost-housing pioneer and architect Balkrishna Doshi. Doshi has led the evolution of contemporary Indian architecture, interpreting the modernist ideals of his former boss, Le Corbusier, and working within the constraints of the local conditions of site, climate and available technology.
Link.
A labour of love for its director, Premjit Ramachandran, this is an insightful and much-needed portrait of the low-cost-housing pioneer and architect Balkrishna Doshi. Doshi has led the evolution of contemporary Indian architecture, interpreting the modernist ideals of his former boss, Le Corbusier, and working within the constraints of the local conditions of site, climate and available technology.
Link.
Thursday, June 17, 2010
Friday, May 28, 2010
Review: Sydney Morning Herald
The film “Doshi” follows the life and work of the famous Indian Architect Balkrishna Doshi and was conceived directed and scored by Premjit Ramachandran and Bijoy Ramachandran of 100hands who are based in Bangalore.
Doshi worked with Louis Kahn and Le Corbusier, two of the giants of 20th century architecture. Both had a profound effect on his work and life and modern day India, however he has sought to reinterpret this modernism of Europe and America to local conditions and climate, site and available technology.
At 81 years old Doshi is still very much engaged in building and in life and we are offered more than a simple outline of his work. The film and commentary give you an insight into the history and transformation of one of the 21st Centuries superpowers and the means by which its people have moved from a relatively agrarian and feudal society into a modern and technologically advanced country. It does so through the medium of architecture but I imagine the same may be applied to many areas of intellectual and technological activity.
Le Corbusier went to India to design Chandigarh, a capital city for the newly created state of the Punjab, and a post-independence symbol of progress and modernity. Doshi was a young architect at the time and worked for Le Corbusier on this and other projects in India. He thoroughly learned the lessons of modernism, but in time has modified these models with his particular understandings of the Indian way of life and its people. "India", he suggests contemplatively, "has survived and celebrated through a particular frugalness... by ingeniously finding several ways of using the same thing", this can be applied to clothing, furniture, buildings, music and technology.
His own office Sagath which in Sanskrit means moving together through participation is in essence a village, “trees, gardens and steps” and offers a real insight into how the outside world and influences are consumed, understood and reconstituted as his own. In this building or more accurately institution, you can see the influences, Chinese mosaic, Gaudi, Frank Lloyd Wright, Le Corbusier, “everything is there.... It is like a good food that you enjoy but made by the best chefs, But you are the one that is digesting this food. You have to convert this into your own blood and your own life.. Borrow everything and finally become yourself" ... Gandhi put it this way, “open the windows but see that your roof is not blown out, make sure that the foundations are strong. “…. You have to be deep inside an Indian who is frugal, who can invent, who can take a chance and who can starve”.
His institutional buildings, his schools, his low cost housing, his own home, all show a profound understanding of architecture but also of people, how they live and connect. He is full of reverence and with an Indian take on the meaning of "God", who is still profoundly wound up with his belief system and understanding of life.
“Life is to be lived not regulated” he states. But he has concerns for the future, he laments that much of the architects time is now taken up with mundane survival. “What can you give me, for how much money and in how much time?” The pragmatism of modern capitalism is also being felt in Doshi’s life and work. He notes that increasingly we are interested in conclusions; we have no time to understand process. “How can you enjoy the food if you have not aware of how it was cooked and how it all came together.”
He also asks us to consider the future and the past comparatively. How did people in the past have such profound understandings of material, scale, the size and even the kind of elaboration and joy of working you witness in ancient monuments? A place to sit, a place to rest your hand, “how come we do not think of this public realm today?” he asks.
In modern India he laments the lack of institutions, of communities, of civic spaces that inspire you. “What will we have to show as our heritage, our contemporary heritage? Yes you may have a beautiful house but what is outside it? What kind of street? Car parking, hotels, entertainment of a cheap type... we want to be alone isolated and enjoy ourselves, socially relevant architecture I do not think we have anymore, institutional architecture is gone.”
The architectural profession has become submissive and has nothing to do with society at large, Doshi feels, and apart from rare instances this is may also be true in our own society. What value to we place on the public realm? This is a beautiful film that offers some very relevant insights into the production of great architecture, institutions and what age and wisdom brings to a truly creative life.
Link.
Doshi worked with Louis Kahn and Le Corbusier, two of the giants of 20th century architecture. Both had a profound effect on his work and life and modern day India, however he has sought to reinterpret this modernism of Europe and America to local conditions and climate, site and available technology.
At 81 years old Doshi is still very much engaged in building and in life and we are offered more than a simple outline of his work. The film and commentary give you an insight into the history and transformation of one of the 21st Centuries superpowers and the means by which its people have moved from a relatively agrarian and feudal society into a modern and technologically advanced country. It does so through the medium of architecture but I imagine the same may be applied to many areas of intellectual and technological activity.
Le Corbusier went to India to design Chandigarh, a capital city for the newly created state of the Punjab, and a post-independence symbol of progress and modernity. Doshi was a young architect at the time and worked for Le Corbusier on this and other projects in India. He thoroughly learned the lessons of modernism, but in time has modified these models with his particular understandings of the Indian way of life and its people. "India", he suggests contemplatively, "has survived and celebrated through a particular frugalness... by ingeniously finding several ways of using the same thing", this can be applied to clothing, furniture, buildings, music and technology.
His own office Sagath which in Sanskrit means moving together through participation is in essence a village, “trees, gardens and steps” and offers a real insight into how the outside world and influences are consumed, understood and reconstituted as his own. In this building or more accurately institution, you can see the influences, Chinese mosaic, Gaudi, Frank Lloyd Wright, Le Corbusier, “everything is there.... It is like a good food that you enjoy but made by the best chefs, But you are the one that is digesting this food. You have to convert this into your own blood and your own life.. Borrow everything and finally become yourself" ... Gandhi put it this way, “open the windows but see that your roof is not blown out, make sure that the foundations are strong. “…. You have to be deep inside an Indian who is frugal, who can invent, who can take a chance and who can starve”.
His institutional buildings, his schools, his low cost housing, his own home, all show a profound understanding of architecture but also of people, how they live and connect. He is full of reverence and with an Indian take on the meaning of "God", who is still profoundly wound up with his belief system and understanding of life.
“Life is to be lived not regulated” he states. But he has concerns for the future, he laments that much of the architects time is now taken up with mundane survival. “What can you give me, for how much money and in how much time?” The pragmatism of modern capitalism is also being felt in Doshi’s life and work. He notes that increasingly we are interested in conclusions; we have no time to understand process. “How can you enjoy the food if you have not aware of how it was cooked and how it all came together.”
He also asks us to consider the future and the past comparatively. How did people in the past have such profound understandings of material, scale, the size and even the kind of elaboration and joy of working you witness in ancient monuments? A place to sit, a place to rest your hand, “how come we do not think of this public realm today?” he asks.
In modern India he laments the lack of institutions, of communities, of civic spaces that inspire you. “What will we have to show as our heritage, our contemporary heritage? Yes you may have a beautiful house but what is outside it? What kind of street? Car parking, hotels, entertainment of a cheap type... we want to be alone isolated and enjoy ourselves, socially relevant architecture I do not think we have anymore, institutional architecture is gone.”
The architectural profession has become submissive and has nothing to do with society at large, Doshi feels, and apart from rare instances this is may also be true in our own society. What value to we place on the public realm? This is a beautiful film that offers some very relevant insights into the production of great architecture, institutions and what age and wisdom brings to a truly creative life.
Link.
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