A+D Interview.Indd

ARCHIVE 2009 GURU AMONG TEACHERS

Bal Saini Emeritus Professor of Architecture University of Queensland

An Interview conducted by architect Rajnish Wattas (Q) with Professor Balwant Saini (A), on behalf of Architecture + Design about existing formats in architectural education all over the world, and particularly Australia. June 2009.

Architectural Education

Q. You have been at the helm of shaping architectural education in prestigious institutions in Australia as well as in other countries, what do you think have been the main strengths/ weaknesses of these models, and what are the areas that need restructuring in the present day context?

A. Architectural Education around the world varies enormously from country to country. Much depends upon the way the Profession operates in a speciﬁc environment even though there is a common thread that binds all the institutions – just ask the International Union of Architects (UIA). The common threads are basically design and construction. In some schools the former comprises as much as 50 percent of the curriculum. It is project based and in a few cases incorporates strong research component. Depending upon the interest and calibre of the staff many schools tilt towards any one of the 1 whole range of specialised areas. Some schools continue to ARCHIVE 2009 maintain the traditional topics of history and conservation while others are hiring staff with increasing interest in sustainable architecture, social and cultural issues.

Some middle European schools follow the tradition of hiring star teachers in active practice who rally students around them. Their relationship is maintained throughout their long spell at the school. Students get a good balance of theory and practice. The disadvantage is the graduates continue to follow the highly individual approach of their teachers which can thwart the students’ own creative potential.

Architects in India take their professional cue from Britain – a legacy of the colonial past. Indeed the inﬂuence of the RIBA is still very much alive. It is more open and broad than the mid-European system. It exposes students to a variety of experiences covering a much larger range of subjects. Both the British and the Mid-European systems have their pluses and minuses. I have seen good students coming out of both systems. Many are good not because of the system but in spite of it.

As for restructuring, schools of architecture should constantly review their objectives, especially in the current changing environment that continually presents new challenges.

Q. You have also had a great deal of inﬂuence and impact in the Indian academia of architecture; do you think the West- ern B.Arch model needs a rethink 2 ARCHIVE 2009 A. The Western B.Arch model at least in Australia has changed quite a bit in recent years. It accepts the proposition that not all students are destined to practice architecture or have the desire to go all the way to ﬁnish the long training programme of 5-6 years. Besides it is unfair to award a Bachelor degree after such a long study when arts and science graduates get theirs after 3 years.

The Australian schools of architecture now award the postgraduate degree of Master of Architecture as a professional qualiﬁcation. A non-professional Bachelor Degree awarded after 3 years precedes it. Its curriculum embraces a ﬁnely balanced mix of art, science and technology, surely a plus in a fast changing environment. Compared to a graduate in science or arts, it offers as good, if not better, preparation for young people who may change vocations as many as three or four times.

Students are offered diverse basic design skills that enable them to peel off at the end of 3 years to go into professions like architecture, urban design, planning or landscape architecture. It also provides an excellent springboard for work in interior or industrial design, graphics, animation, theatre sets, ﬁlm and television, multimedia and other ﬁelds where design plays a critical role

Not all these vocations offer ﬁnancial guarantees but graduates are more likely to do well if they happen to choose what they really like and have passion for it. 3 ARCHIVE 2009 The sticking point in most cases is when and in what circum- stances graduates should be allowed to call themselves architects. In Japan for instance, as with the engineers, the term architect (Kenchikushi) is used in a broad sense to indicate persons associated with the building industry. Even a well- trained carpenter, who has provided ample evidence of skills in design and construction over a period of time, is able to apply to local municipalities for recognition as an architect. But his area of operation is limited and he is not allowed to practice beyond the local district. Unqualiﬁed people practice design and construction on a similar scale in many other countries too but in Japan this is legally and formally recog- nised and structured to accommodate the diverse needs of the building industry.

Q. As compared to the B.Arch course of 5 years duration after high school, engineering degree courses are only of 4 years duration. This disadvantages many aspiring students of architecture. Do you think Indian schools can remodel their curricula accordingly?

A. I agree. Architecture courses are far too long. An intensive 4 year programme followed by a longer period for practical experience is a good alternative. As things are, students are often overworked and under-challenged creatively. Many, especially bright ones, get bored by the time they reach their 4th year. More and more are opting to take a year off for practical and maturing experience after 3 years before proceeding fur- ther with their studies. The two-tier system allows that. 4 ARCHIVE 2009

Balwant Saini (centre) with University of Queensland graduate students 1984 Q. Research doesn’t come quite naturally to the creative mind-set of architects, and therefore there is a kind of dis- dain for it, even in the academia. Do you think this can be remedied?

A. Yes. Research is most important for any discipline that wants to be taken seriously - and architecture is no exception. I can understand why architecture students don’t embrace it. After completing their long undergraduate programme they are simply itching to design and build. For them research in architecture is another territory altogether. Besides, not all architects are attracted to do research and it is useless to foist this on students who show little or no interest in this kind of activity. 5 ARCHIVE 2009 Research in architecture is best conducted at post-graduate level but not all schools of architecture are adequately geared and funded for research. You have to have teachers who themselves have research experience and reputation as serious thinkers and scholars - teachers who can inspire those around them and generate an environment of open intellectual inquiry and discourse.

Q. In spite of many years of architectural education in the country, genuine and sincere research, meaningful publica- tions of papers, pursuit of Ph.Ds has not really caught on (perhaps because of allurement of creative work), do you feel we should perhaps de-emphasise insistence on all this, for the discipline of architecture? A. During their normal undergraduate education, architects are trained to do a certain amount of research as part of the normal process of design work. They are trained to systemati- cally collect all the relevant information required for estab- lishing a framework for the ﬁnal design of a building or series of buildings.

You have to remember that traditionally, training of architects has been largely based on the articled-pupil system where young students apprenticed themselves to a practice hoping to pick up some knowledge and experience on the way. Degree courses in tertiary educational institutions only started during late 1940s. Serious research in architecture started much later around 1960s.

6 ARCHIVE 2009 Architectural research is essentially applied research that is loosely linked with production problems. It is quite different from the kind of fundamental or basic research that seeks knowledge for its own sake normally conducted in universi- ties. Architecture is not a subject like physics, chemistry, social science, economics or history even though these are the kinds of subjects on which the fabric of architectural knowledge is built upon.

It is more like medicine or agriculture whose progress greatly depends upon the fundamental studies which have, at least on the surface, very little to do with the day-to-day work of the doctors and farmers. Just as it is not difﬁcult to see the impact of sciences such as chemistry, physics and biology have on medicine, and indeed the whole of the living process, it is equally obvious when one sees the combination of physics and chemistry in the development of building materials.

The range and potential of postgraduate research in architecture is wide and varied. My own experience has been largely concerned with building and planning in the tropics where I have come across numerous problems, answers to which are not found in the undergraduate curriculum. There are many gaps in the data architects use as their tools including such things as the climatology of different regions, the physics of heat ﬂow into buildings and methods of interpreting climatic data for building purposes.

7 ARCHIVE 2009 Other areas in this laundry list of topics include low-cost housing, high-density housing in tropical urban centres, and pres- ervation and restoration of historic buildings. You can add to this a whole range of fascinating areas such as efﬁciency in utilisation of energy (including alternative sources) in materials and development of advanced building techniques in the tropics, review standard speciﬁcations and building regulations and devise a code of practice that matches tropical regions with appropriate thermal performance standards using both comfort and energy criteria.

Q. How can architectural curricula in Indian schools made more dynamic and related to ground-level realities?

A. Ah, there’s a real challenge. Much depends on what and how the studio design projects are organised. Look for possibilities by talking to politicians, bureaucrats and others to identify current and possible future developments in the area.

Students tend to respond positively to a project that brings them closer to the community. In a recent urban development project in Brisbane students rented an apartment for a few weeks and used it as their ﬁeld headquarters. In this way they were able to reach directly people they were designing for. It helped them to become aware of their needs, hopes and aspirations concerning their immediate environment.

Then there are many broader issues (such as the impact of 8 ARCHIVE 2009 climate change) that are generating problems that require urgent attention. For instance architects could play a useful role in disaster relief operations, emergency shelter needed after hurricanes, bush ﬁres or ﬂoods. These are the kind of areas where architecture schools could give a lead to the profession.

Q. What do you think is ideal balance between ﬁeld skills, academic knowledge and research in a school of architecture?

A. There is no ideal balance that would ﬁt all schools since so much depends upon each particular school, its size, location, course structure, stated aims and objectives, and budget. A happy marriage between research and design can generate great results. Communication technology for instance has opened up all kind of new research areas for architects that will force us to re-think how to design buildings. Stata Centre at MIT Boston. Architects Frank Gehry and William During a recent visit I noticed that people in India, especial- Mitchell, ly the younger generation, have taken to mobile phones like ducks to water. They are constantly on the move and it won’t be long before they will be able to carry their whole ofﬁce in their pocket. Just provide them with access to a keyboard and with some urgent typing, they’d sit down in front of the nearest available computer anywhere, open its web browser and access all their documents. There is a major shift in the way we relate to time, to places and to other people, changes that will have enormous impact on architecture of the future.

9 ARCHIVE 2009 I’m reminded of an interesting project at MIT in Boston where Frank Gehry teamed up with Bill Mitchell, a professor of architecture and computer science, to design what he called a multifunctional ‘hybrid office space’ Stata Centre. It is planned like a zigzag students street that is open to the public 24 hours a day. It does away with the traditional offices and classrooms and instead offers a flexible range of nooks and crannies where café and lounges are intertwined with work desks, white boards and free Internet connections everywhere. It is possible that architects of the future may be thinking less about monumental buildings as such but more about light, shade, trees and gardens in demand spaces, drop- in centers with flexible layouts that facilitate interaction and collaboration. It’d be almost going back to the old days of mixed-use neighbourhoods and communal spaces.

Q. What would be a ﬁne balance between core faculty and visiting teachers from the ﬁeld in the schools of architecture?

A. It is difﬁcult to suggest a standard balance. Members of the core faculty are essential to insure continuity and to admin- ister the running of the institution. But most don’t have the time to conduct a private practice as well as teach full time. Beside some of them probably qualiﬁed twenty, thirty or even forty years ago. Many new subjects didn’t even exist then.

10 ARCHIVE 2009 Input from practising architects, whether as teachers or mere- ly as critics, is highly important. This means the schools must be located in a place where such practising teachers are available and there is budget to properly pay them.

Q. Most Indian schools are facing an acute shortage of quali- ﬁed faculty – as teaching carrier is still not a popular option for most young architects -- any suggestions for dealing with this situation?

A. Some architects are natural teachers - they love it. But there are others who may be excellent practitioners but have little or no interest in education.

Schools should look out for the rare species who are good at both teaching and practice. I have noticed lately that schools in Australia are attracting more and more big name architects by offering grandiose honorary titles such as an ‘Adjunct Pro- fessor’. Such ﬂattery works, even if there are no funds to pay them.

Q. Presently there is a directionless mushrooming of low quality schools of architecture in the private sector in India, any suggestions for creating more institutions without com- promising on quality.

A. The only way we can ensure quality is to give sufﬁcient teeth to the Council of Architects (COA)’s Accreditation Boards. I understand that they have approved 135 institutions. There 11 ARCHIVE 2009 will always be a demand from what we might call ‘second- chance’ students who fail to get admission to a university, IIT or NIT. If we are to meet the knowledge and skills challenges confronting the profession in the 21st century the Accredita- tion Boards would have to enforce exacting targets, rigorous quality assurance and full transparency. They already have the power to deal with backyard operators. They must insist upon minimum standards of architectural education embed- ded in their charter.

Globalisation of Architecture

Q. With the globalisation of the world and the new materials and technologies available, the local and regional architectural styles seem to be vanishing, and the sameness of architectural expressions visible all over the world. Do you think it’s going to become one boring universal architectural style all over?

A. It doesn’t have to. Both the regional and the cosmopoli- tan approaches can live side by side. It’s only when designers try to marry the two that problems arise. Many designers are not familiar with their own traditions. So they end up apply- ing superﬁcial cosmetics, a kind of instant history in bits and pieces foisted on perfectly simple and functional structures.

I don’t think there is such a thing as true regionalism. Per- haps what we are looking for is a kind of architecture that is 12 a unique response to a particular place, culture and climate. ARCHIVE 2009 Air-conditioned glass boxes don’t reﬂect this. Buildings designed to utilise passive control systems do.

To ﬁnd out if this is the right way to go we should ﬁrst recog- nise the rich tradition of our rural and urban buildings to see how to extract the principles that lie behind their evolution. They tell us much about construction that is cost effective, ecologically responsible and culturally relevant; design techniques such as courtyards, wind towers, rooftop terraces and jaalis and use of local and sustainable materials and water harvesting – just to name a few. The challenge is to re-invent these traditional methods in ways that are applicable to the contemporary setting. There are some good examples: Raj Rewal’s Olympic Village that takes its cue from Jaisalmer is one. Then I’ve always ad- mired the work of Sri Lanka’s architect Geoffrey Bawa who felt equally comfortable both with old traditions and new technology.

Bawa had travelled widely and was familiar with what went on The University of Ruhunu (1984) in southern Sri Lanka. in the West. But Sri Lanka was his home where he had devel- Architect Geoffrey Bawa. oped his concepts and skills in isolation without following the trends, styles and fashions current in Europe and the USA. For his inspiration, he drew heavily on ancient Sri Lankan traditions as well as on the work of the Dutch and English colonial regimes.

The results are sophisticated and high quality buildings, which serve their present day purpose. They sit well in Sri Lanka’s 13 ARCHIVE 2009 lush, green, tropical landscape. But they would not be so appropriate anywhere else. Bawa’s work offers important lessons for architects in countries where colonial domination and western systems have tended to suppress indigenous building traditions and reduce the number of people skilled in traditional crafts. He reminds us that architects must take a fresh look at traditional materials and methods of construction, appraise them scientiﬁcally and combine them with modern methods where necessary and create a new formal architectural language. By doing this, we could help to regenerate a culture that is unique and appropriate for our own region.

Q. How do you respond to the intense competition in the global space for architects?

A. Good designers who have something to offer will ﬁnd work wherever they happen to be. There is always room at the top. Getting back to our discussion about education our curriculum assumes everyone who wants to qualify as an architect has the potential to be a creative designer. In reality this is not so.

I believe we should broaden our training in early years and narrow it down to specialisation at the post-graduate level. The latter should be available only to those who show prom- ise and who are likely to be good designers. A two-tier structure will allow this.

14 ARCHIVE 2009 Q. You have worked and written a lot on building in tropical climates and on low –cost architecture, you think the ingenious, vernacular wisdom of these regions will survive.

A. I hope so.

One of the great pleasures of travel is to discover exotic architecture of traditional societies. The range is unlimited right across the tropical belt.

But this traditional landscape is changing, as more and more people are moving to live in towns and cities. Just to give you one example in the paciﬁc islands where galvanised iron sheets are replacing the traditional thatch roofs - not surprising, a tin roof is certainly more durable than thatch even though it rusts over time.

In many islands tourism has created shortage of traditional materials. I remember a case where in order to satisfy tour- ist demand for a romantic holiday in the islands, architects designed a ﬁve-star hotel in Vanuatu where woven mats and thatch roofs covered concrete block huts complete with win- dow air conditioners discreetly hidden behind a leafy camou- ﬂage.

When the contractors ran out of local materials they chartered aircrafts to ﬂy in additional bales of woven mats and thatch from the neighbouring islands.

15 ARCHIVE 2009 In such an environment it is all the more important to docu- ment the vernacular buildings before they disappear altogether. We should continue the good work done by people like Paul Oliver of Oxford Tech and researchers in Ahmedabad - Kulbhushan Jain’s work in Jaisalmer in Rajasthan and Kutch district of Western Gujarat comes to mind.

Q. You have traveled and worked as an architectural consultant, educator to many parts of the world, and more recently to China, tell us about modern Chinese architecture and its comparison with similar skylines emerging in India.

A. Beijing Olympics offered a great opportunity to the Chinese government to get the best and most advanced structures such as Paul Andreu’s new National Grand Theatre – an enormous titanium and glass dome surrounded entirely by water. The other well-publicised buildings are Norman Foster’s Beijing Guangzhou Kingold Royal Quay Capital International Airport, Rem Koolhaas’s ‘CCTV Tower (2012) Architect YiHe Zhang of Zenx (Chinese State and Television Network building), and Herzog International & de Meuron’s Birds’ Nest Stadium.

The bulk of new buildings in Chinese cities are similar to the International standardised air-conditioned glass boxes found all over the world including India. The sad part is that they are being constructed at the expense of China’s traditional buildings that are slowly being demolished to make room for the new.

16 ARCHIVE 2009 When I ﬁrst visited China around the mid 1970s the skyline of Chinese cities was very different. Its urban landscape was littered with Hutongs the narrow lanes formed by traditional courtyard houses called Xiao-Huan that have one or more yards open to the sky surrounded by a series of enclosed and semi-enclosed areas for cooking, eating and sleeping. Like In- dia, they reﬂected social and cultural patterns of China’s joint extended family.

In recent years due to more pressures on land and increased mobility the extended family where three generations of 10 to 50 people lived under one roof, is breaking down to accommodate smaller units of 3 to 5. Many such houses are now used as mass housing complexes often without basic amenities. Courtyards are built over creating squalid living conditions. Even within the extended family, nuclear family units are demanding more privacy and individuals rely less and less on combined family activities. Young people who have little or no afﬁnity with traditional culture and lifestyle are moving into western style villas or multi-storeyed apartments.

One area where China has an edge on India is its ﬁrst class infrastructure especially the fast motorways that link its ma- Xiao-Huan Chinese traditional jor cities. Compared to China, India’s infrastructure is in poor courtyard houses shape. Our industry has been expanding faster than the elec- tricity grid’s capacity to power it; air trafﬁc outgrown its airports; and cars are rolling off production lines faster than the roads to accommodate them.

17 ARCHIVE 2009 The current slowing down of its economy and competition for men and materials may give India a chance to catch up. I hope so.

Contemporary Indian Architecture

Q. In spite of your settling in Australia, you have been regularly coming to India/Chandigarh and keeping in touch with the architectural developments here, what are your impressions of places like Gurgaon, Bangalore, and other fast-developing Indian cities?

A. I’m afraid so. These new fast growing cities are a symptom of the growing middle class that has tripled in size to 250 million people. India of my youth suffered from stiﬂing controls and extortionate rates of taxes and the wealth did not shift from a few rich Zamindars to the business community.

Reforms of 1991 changed all that and moneymaking has become respectable again. The new group of millionaires is made up of professionals who have amassed fortunes in information technology and the knowledge economy.

Cities like Gurgaon, Hydrabad and Bangalore reﬂect this change. Its amazing how young people in these cities are wired to the internet and the rest of the world. It has already changed the way they shop, bank, listen to music, read news and socialize. Whether we like it or not, they are the cities 18 of the future. They tell us that it’s OK to be rich in a country ARCHIVE 2009 where, according to the government, a quarter of the people live on less than US$1 dollar a month.

The thing that really impresses me about people in these places is their willingness to experiment. They see climate change and the economic crisis as an opportunity for environmental- ly and socially responsible growth: the kind of growth that in- vests in eco-solutions such as ITC’s new building in Gurgaon; the global wind power company Suzlon’s new green campus; and architect Karan Grover’s Sohrabji Godrej Green Business Centre in Hyderabad.

Q. A lot of people here feel that the rapid, mindless expansion and growth of the Indian city is killing its human values, as there is no place for the deprived sections of the society and lack of basic civic amenities? Your comments.

A. I believe we face a monumental task to preserve human values, as you put it, unless we start doing something about the lack of infrastructure. By one estimate, only 13% of the sewage the country’s 1.2 billion people produce is treated. Three quarters of the population has no access to a proper toilet. India’s ports, roads, railways and airports have been operating close to or beyond capacity. Urban population is expected to double over the next two decades, if not earlier; yet its cities are choking. Mumbai has 19 million people, half of whom live in slums. Its rail network is overloaded and its roads are clogged up.

19 ARCHIVE 2009 While we have started to do something about the infrastructure, the main problems of housing shortage in the country continue to present a major challenge.

Q. There is also a growing feeling that the Indian cities will never be able to tackle the problems of slums and squatter settlements, as there is far too much poverty for any urban planning strategy to tackle it – your comments?

A. Despite all the hype about ‘India Shining’ it is not hard to see there are large pockets of poverty in India. Call them what you like whether they are the bustees of Kolkata, the chawls of Mumbai, the charries of Chenai or juggies and jhaunpries of Delhi, they’ve all become an important and often dominant feature our towns and cities.

Over the years there’ve been many schemes to improve the wretched conditions. Some of them were launched as early as 1956. State governments have tried to provide water supply, sewerage and drains, community baths and latrines, street lighting, widening and paving of existing lanes and footpaths. Public laterines in a Indonesia’s Some token progress has been made here and there but the Jakarta canal. The canal also acts as a source of water for drinking authorities ﬁnd it hard to cope with the constant stream of and household washing. people who keep on moving from villages to towns.

So its not surprising that the housing authorities are more concerned with problems of ﬁnance and land, the two key in

20 ARCHIVE 2009 gredients of housing, than with the issues of environmental quality and physical comfort for the poor.

As far as urban planning strategies, we’ve talked about such issues for well over four decades. I remember no one seriously took up the challenge. No one wants to bite the bul- let. Discussions go on and ideas – some good ones - are put forward. Nothing is likely to happen unless there is political will and support from governments that are willing to give a high priority to national planning, backed by appropriate administrative structure for large-scale implementation. As things are politicians make policies on the run, policies that are largely geared to ﬁt in with the short election cycles. As Chinese would say, ‘we are living in very interesting times’.

Q. Are there any useful lessons for India to learn from the Chinese cities and other countries to emulate?

A. The problems of Chinese cities are no different from those in India. But they have more runs on the board. The government plays a big role in their economy (it owns all the banks for instance). In a crisis like the recent earthquake, its one- party system is a help rather than hinderance. The question is do we want to pay the price tag that goes with it?

City-states like Singapore have little relevance to a large country like India. Brazil, under the President Lula’s guidance, offers interesting lessons in dealing with problems of pollution, crime and unhealthy urban environments. 21 ARCHIVE 2009 In the end grandiose solution is not the answer. In a country like India professional assistance has to operate at micro level, requiring small scale effort based on common sense and the economical use of limited local resources. It is the kind of work Scottish urban planner and educator Patrick Geddes proposed in India over a century ago.

Geddes proposed reducing the number and width of paved streets in residential areas, and turning the land into more usable forms of open space, thus minimizing the cost of highly elaborate mechanical sanitary facilities. He suggested that the money saved should be used to increase the number of gardens and playgrounds, to plant fruit trees and improve existing tanks. His ﬁeld work in towns like Madurai in Tam- ilnadu, are classic examples of what he called “conservative surgery”.

Geddes’s painstaking and commonsense Ghandian approach requires professionals who are prepared to dedicate their lives to win the conﬁdence and support of the people they are trying to help. It is the kind of work that fails to attract the majority of architects and planners who usually come from middle-class families and who have been reared in well-serviced environments. They tend not to involve themselves in what seem like less glamorous activities. Working to improve slums and squatter settlement is far from their mind.

22 ARCHIVE 2009 Chandigarh

Q. As you have always kept in touch with the growth of Chan- digarh, guiding research on it and visiting it regularly for a large number of years --- what are your impressions of the new changes?

A. I was born in a village not far from Chandigarh. It was not of course the city as we know it today; just a village: one of the many that were within sight of the Capital Building Author- ity that needed to acquire large chunks of land to build the new capital, disrupting in the process communities that lived there for many generations. My birthplace Shukrulapur (Near Kharar) was spared but Lambean my mother’s village was swallowed up by the new city. Needless to say I have watched the development of Chandigarh with a great deal of personal At the Project Office in Chandi- interest. In fact I have learned to see this city as my second garh 1953. Balwant Saini (from home, Chandigarh is always on top of my list every time I get right) with Pierre Jeannaret, Jeet an opportunity to visit India. Malhoutra and Nair.

During recent visits I have to admit it is starting to look more like a retirement village especially when I compare it with the vibrancy and youthfulness of the satellite cities like Panch- kula and Mehrauli.

Don’t get me wrong. I love the old city. But as Comedian Barry Humphries would say, for me, returning to it is like going to a Ball and having to dance with your mother all evening. 23 ARCHIVE 2009 Q. How do you think C’garh can keep a sane balance between the rapid growth its experiencing and its world-famous heritage of modern architecture?

A. It can’t. So why not preserve it and guard its heritage from the encroachment of rapacious developers. Growth is inevi- table but let it be conﬁned to places outside its periphery.

Q. There is some kind of disconnect between the architectural idiom of Le Corbusier’s work or rather his team’s modern architecture with the resident’s preferences of architectural expression, especially with the present-day trend of ﬂashy glass box, aluminium and steel ‘IT’ architecture. Why is it so?

A. Le Corbusier worked in India 50 years ago. His use of la- bor-intensive reinforced concrete and brickwork was clearly Le Corbusier (Left) with Pierre suited to the times: It is still relevant for most of the construc- Jeannaret in Chandigarh 1953 tion in India.

But the world - and India, has moved on since. We are all part of a global economy and our construction industry, at least in cities, has learned to match the sophisticated techniques used elsewhere.

In this context, we shouldn’t forget the work done by Pierre Jeanerette who, along with Jean Prouve and others, pioneered the use of aluminum and glass for prefab structures back in 24 ARCHIVE 2009 France. As early as 1930s and 40s, they were already experi- menting the transfer of manufacturing technology from industry to architecture: they were the fore runners for using techniques we now consider normal. Prouve’s lightweight pre-fab housing factory in Nancy was already churning out mass–produced aluminum framed houses for refugees.

The lesson for young architects in India today is not to copy what Le Corbusier or Pierre Jeanerette did in India back then but to follow their passion, immense energy and innovative curiosity for new materials and techniques to meet the challenge ahead of us.

Q. Do you think the city should relax its stringent byelaws, though many older residents feel that it will open the ﬂood gates of misuse and Chandigarh would lose its special char- acter of a clean and green city?

A. No: the city should not relax its stringent bye-laws. Pre- serve it as long as you can.

After 50 odd years the city is beginning to fray at the edg- es. This is not surprising; after all this low density largely horizontal city was planned for a much smaller population of mainly public servants. After the Partition the nation want- ed change. So we got a city whose planning concept is quite different from the close-knit structures of traditional Indian towns and cities. That’s why it seems to lack intimacy and warmth. 25 ARCHIVE 2009 On the other hand, because it is different, it may be the reason why we admire it. The old cities in India are largely con- gested, ﬁlthy and chaotic. Chandigarh is clean, orderly and offers peace and quiet. But I do ﬁnd it dull and uniform to the point of boredom – a bit like going to a restaurant with a set menu.

Q. Chandigarh also faces the acute problem of slum-dwell- ers; in spite of various resettlement schemes, more and more waves of unauthorised squatters come, after one has been resettled. Is there a way out of this conundrum?

A. This ‘problem’ is not unique to Chandigarh. It’s happening everywhere, in all the major cities in India. In fact un-autho- rised squatters have become a permanent feature of most of the urban centers throughout the developing world.

I believe the solution lies in opening up new serviced land where the poor can build their own shelter by whatever means available. You may of course have to revise your building codes to accommodate this - and that means accepting sub- standard housing – a difﬁcult move to accept. The time for action is now otherwise the problem will only get worse.

The record of governments to deal with this problem is not good. Their policies always tend to favor the middle and up- per classes. Over the years the governments through HUDCO and other organizations tried pre-fabrication. They all failed 26 ARCHIVE 2009 because of the high cost of manufacture and delivery. Don’t wait for a miracle: that’s unlikely to happen anytime soon. As far as architects are concerned, as I mentioned before, they are simply not trained to deal with these problems. It has more to do with ﬁnance and land than buildings.

Green Architecture

Q. The ‘Green Building’ issue is presently of major concern in India, as the country is a major engine of growth in the developing world. Though a lot of empty academic buzz or tokenism is there, but it’s far from any real impact. As a pio- neering expert of tropical architecture what’s your take?

A. Yes, there has been a lot of talk about why we should go green, what we should do to be green, but very little about how do you design green buildings? So far, there have been stylish gestures of little substance.

A building eats up energy all its life – whether in its construction, operation or demolition. So to be realistic architects should ﬁnd out the effect of their design decisions on energy Sohrabji Godrej Green Business conservation by calculating the energy budget throughout the Centre in Hydrabad construction and life of a building.

The ﬁrst challenge for architects is to select building materials that consume least energy in their manufacture, transport, storage, application and maintenance. The second challenge 27 relates to energy-conscious design, which employs passive ARCHIVE 2009 climate control systems already well developed by researchers in the architectural sciences.

There are many design tools that help us to do this but the one that made lots of sense to me is called the Building Materials Assessment System (BMAS). It provides indicators of the environmental impact per given area of typical wall, ﬂoor, or roof and ratings for some typical building elements. These indicators can help designers to select appropriate materials and calculate ratings for particular materials and assemblies. This information is then fed into overall design proposals through a form of bill of quantities to obtain values for the building as a whole. The designers can then specify materials which are ecologically sound and by doing this they would encourage ITC Green Centre Gurgaon their manufacture and supply. At the same time they can also inﬂuence and help bring about desirable changes in client at- titudes.

Q. With heavy dependence on mechanical means of cooling/ heating; do you think its all over for developing ingenious climate-balanced styles of architecture?

A. Not at all. It is a pity we rely so heavily on mechanical means to heat and cool our buildings, and they certainly don’t help clean the air. A recent study found that the indoor pollution in buildings is as much as 5 to 10 times higher than outside levels.

28 ARCHIVE 2009 We know that we can only clean the air, any air, properly if we use very expensive particulate and charcoal ﬁlter systems, normally reserved for special situations. For the majority, it is a case of Indoor air = Outdoor air + whatever we add in- doors.

The ‘tighter’ the building, the longer the added chemicals re- main and the higher the indoor contamination. We design buildings to conserve energy and other running costs. The ra- tionale is that heating or cooling ‘fresh’ outdoor air requires more costly energy than recycling indoor air, which is already about the right temperature. This is false economy because recycling air can spread disease. Air-conditioning systems do not produce fresh air, they only contaminate it.

We can conserve energy in buildings by using passive design ideas that rely on natural energy such as solar energy in planning, design, construction and maintenance. We can evaluate building location, siting, orientation, conﬁguration, layout construction in terms of their contribution to energy consumption and conservation.

It is not difﬁcult or cumbersome. We have come a long way since the two Hungarian brothers Olgay and Olgay legitimized this subject through their written and experimental work at Princeton University during the early 1950s. All the data and the knowledge base are there. We know how to simulate and assess the effect of climate on indoor environments based on analogue principles in which computers are used as calculat- 29 ARCHIVE 2009 ing machines. With all the tools at our command, we can now accurately predict the behaviors of a representative building, which is subject to normal exposure.

Q. What’s the way for the architects in India to address and develop ‘self-sustaining ‘ architecture and really put it on ground in a socially-economically acceptable manner?

A. It is true that architects as a profession play a very small, almost insigniﬁcant role, inﬂuencing no more than a fraction of the building activity. There are other forces at work that involve other players such as the clients, the contractors and the building materials and equipment manufacturers. As professionals we may play a minor part but we are still looked upon as role models and are expected to lead. A good start would be to set an example ourselves by understanding and learning about issues relating to ecology and sustainability. By example, we then educate, coax and persuade our clients and contractors to do the same. It may appear to be a small contribution, an idea. But doesn’t all our work associated with design of a building start with an idea?

Q. Would some iconic work by leading architects in this direction help?

A. Yes, it certainly would. Young architects love heroes who make excellent role models. During early 1950s in Chandi- garh’s Project Ofﬁce I remember some of my colleagues even 30 ARCHIVE 2009 started to speak English with a French accent. It doesn’t happen in the medical profession. Few worship Howard Florey or Louis Pasteur like we worship Le Corbusier or Frank Lloyd Wright.

Q. How can the schools of architecture pitch in this direction and perform a leadership role?

A. In most architecture schools where environment and energy issues form an important part of the curriculum, the subject of architectural science is normally learnt in formal classroom rather than in the studios where students spend most of their study time. The disadvantage of this system is that very little, if any, of this knowledge ﬁnds application in solving design problems. It would be better if energy assessment were built into each and every design project.

Perhaps a start could be made by conducting refresher courses for design teachers who then can pass on their knowledge to students. Design teachers have an enormous inﬂuence over the students but most appear to have little or no interest in energy issues. The courses could specially emphasise practical application; where energy issues are brought directly to the drawing board, the point at which vital decision are made involving choice of materials and construction techniques. That is the only way they will become meaningful to a student. The subject could also be offered as part of the professional development programmes especially geared to meet the day- to-day needs of the practicing architects. 31 ARCHIVE 2009 Personal

Q. What are your memories of early days in India as a bud- ding architect?

A. Mostly bitter sweet. The profession was in its infancy. Civil engineers largely controlled the building industry – a hang- over from the colonial times. Architects in government out- ﬁts like the PWD had little clout and there were many battles yet to be won. The love/hate relationship with the engineers went on for years - well into the 1960s when registration of architects and other regulations ﬁnally became a reality.

Q. How did you decide to become an architect in those early and nascent days of the profession in the newly Independent India?

A. After graduating from the University of Melbourne I had three possibilities for a job when I arrived in Delhi. An offer for an executive position with Burma Shell (I had previously worked as a senior architect with the Shell Company of Aus- tralia), to apply for a position as a teacher at the Delhi Poly- technic or to start a private practice on my own. The problem with the last option was that I had no ﬁnancial reserves to help me survive while I looked for clients.

The Burma Shell CEO was most accommodating consider- ing the Company had no position for an in-house architect. The nearest oil-based product that had remotely to do with 32 ARCHIVE 2009 building was bitumen, which was used extensively for water- prooﬁng roofs and for road construction. The salary offered was astronomical and the package included a house, servants, and a car, membership of exclusive clubs, and out-of-pocket expenses. After thinking over for a few days I realized it’s not for me. I haven’t studied architecture for six years for nothing, I thought. The suffocating atmosphere of working for a large company would have surely driven me up the wall.

So polytechnic it turned out to be. Elizabeth Ghuman, a middle aged Scottish architect who headed the ﬂedgling School of Architecture, asked me to take charge of the ﬁnal year students, many of whom were only a few years younger than my- self. Immediately I began to feel at home. Then I met Cyrus Jhabvala who told me that my job was the one he had vacated to go into full-time architectural practice. He gave excellent advice and helped me enormously to settle in.

I loved my new job. My colleagues were amiable and helpful, and it was fun to work with many young, enthusiastic and very talented students. But there were frustrations too especially dealing with the Education Ministry bureaucrats. It was not long before I had a major row with them. Contrary to the agreed conditions of my appointment they told me I had no right to private professional practice. My pleas fell on deaf ears. The arguments continued. The clerks won. After four frustrating years, I ﬁnally resigned to take up an offer to teach at my old school in Melbourne – and I had the right to full practice. 33 ARCHIVE 2009 Q. What was the impact of Le Corbusier’s work in C’garh and of Louis Kahn’s in Ahmedabad in those early days of Indian architecture?

A. I was only halfway through my undergraduate course at Melbourne University when I took some time off to work in the Project Ofﬁce in Chandigarh. Both LeCorbusier and Louis Kahn’s work in Chandigarh, Ahmedabad and Dhaka made a great impact on planning and architecture in the subconti- nent. Le Corbusier’s own training went back to his early asso- ciation with Auguste Perret, the French pioneer of reinforced concrete and the renowned German architect Peter Behrens while Louis Kahn trained in a rigorous Beaux-Arts tradition.

The profession, as we know it today, did not exist in India during colonial times, and the presence of these two architects made a big difference. They stimulated everyone around them. Much of my early work, and the work of others that had the good fortune to be associated with them, carried the stamp of their personality. My final year student project at the University of Melbourne�a Documentary Film Produc- tion Centre�and my first architectural commission�a large house in Melbourne’s seaside suburb of Beaumaris�reflected Le Corbusier’s design approach. But they were little more than a pale imitation of his work. It took me the best part of two years before I was able to shed his influence and discover my own design language.

34 ARCHIVE 2009 Q. As a writer, researcher, academician and consultant architect-planner for a long number of years, what would be your advise to a young architect?

A. The world is all doom and gloom right now. But I like to see the glass half full rather than half empty. It may look like the worst of times, but who knows? It may be the best of times. For a young architect there are ample opportunities for un- precedented creativity.

Q. You have varied intellectual interests and pursuits, ex- ploring interesting relationship between other arts/ ‘trends’ and architecture, such as your recent work on music and architecture – tell us more about these interests?

A. As an octogenarian there is a constant battle to keep my brain cells ticking over. This is not hard; there’s so much to do. Apart from giving interviews like this I am currently edit- ing short ﬁlms and also enrolled for Dante Alighieri Society’s Italian language classes for no other reason except that I love Italy and the Italians. Italy is so much like India, chaotic and vibrant. They look as if they don’t even need a federal government since everyone muddles along quite nicely, thank you.

Q. What’s the secret of your leading a rich and active life full of travel, writing, teaching, mentoring and reﬂecting on architecture; notwithstanding ageing?

35 ARCHIVE 2009 A. There is no secret. More and more of my friends and colleagues are falling like leaves off a tree. I have simply learned to take each day as it comes.

An edited version of this interview was published in Architecture+Design magazine New Delhi - a Media Transasia Publication. June 2009. pp.86- 104.