PRAXIS is a curatorial project to chronicle contemporary architecture practice in India, with a particular emphasis on the principles, the structure, the challenges and the ideology. This film – a panorama of the first phase of the PRAXIS initiative – documents eleven studios from across India.
A Panorama on Contemporary Architecture in India
In the advancement of urban architecture, glass has played a key role and Şişecam Flat Glass has worked extensively to bring forth glass products catering to safety, functionality and aesthetics. Originating from Turkey, Şişecam Flat Glass is a multinational glass production company with manufacturing facilities in fourteen countries and a presence spanning 150 countries. With an experience of over 85 years, Şişecam Flat Glass has worked with the motto, ‘The world is our market’. Their values are grounded in building fair, transparent and mutually beneficial relationships through knowledge exchange with collaborators in all fields in the construction industry.
Glass can be perceived in two ways – through the lens of materiality and utility. In its innate properties, it offers control on several levels. With the right treatment and application one can modulate heat, light, noise, safety, visual connect, physical connect, ventilation, the feel of a space and aesthetic requirements of a space. Secondly, and more importantly, glass can be perceived as an idea.
How does this material extend as a means to an end to facilitate ideas?
Tracing the roots of its usage, an understanding emerges that historically, glass was used for smaller fenestrations or as fragmented parts of a whole such as in a stained-glass window. What was once a luxury material started to become more accessible during the industrial revolution. As iron and steel construction technologies developed in parallel, the glass and metal combination became key in the modern architecture movement. Glass started to appear in public spaces that demanded naturally well-lit large spaces. As towering glass-clad skyscrapers started rapidly dotting the horizons, developments in structural glass led to the material playing a critical role in today’s urban architecture. In a tropical climate like India, where heat is unavoidable, the usage and sourcing of this material evokes careful consideration. In this context, Şişecam Flat Glass is one of the world’s leading glass producers that is set apart by its brand values. As General Manager of Şişecam Flat Glass India, Mukesh Sharma articulates, Şişecam believes that glass is not a commodity, but a functional product that adds value to the user.
Continue reading The Potential of GlassIn this lecture, Dr Himanshu Burte speaks on the nature of Laurie Baker’s human-centric architectural practice; as an empiricist, environmentalist and extremely critical and creative practitioner.
So it is going to take a while for me to recover from one hour of Geoffrey Bawa and after this lush serenity, especially because I have to follow it up with an argument. But, I will go ahead and I am going to be talking about Laurie Baker. I have kept what I am saying fairly narrow and it is mainly in the form of a straight-on argument I am offering, and I am hoping that we can have a discussion afterwards, whenever we are scheduled. I have actually changed the title from what is published or what was originally given to it, because I actually took the title of my obituary for Baker, written just after he passed away and because of the resonance with yesterday’s discussion around Gandhi and Architecture.
I will begin by looking at the context, the objectives and the premises of what I have to say. To begin with, since this is about heritage and we are talking about Modern Heritage particularly, I approach heritage with the understanding that every map is really a plan. It just does not show you what is there, but it is a project. Heritage in that sense, I see as an exercise in constructing the future. By constructing the past in certain ways, by preserving certain memories and ascribing certain meanings to it, we are really constructing and doing the work of creating a future that we want. That I think extends to some extent to Prem‘s point, though I am sure he would not necessarily disagree with this. So, given that this is what is involved in thinking about heritage, it becomes very important to be conscious of our value positions and especially about the ethic of architecture, its politics, economics, the aesthetics and of course, the actual processes and practices that go into making the practice or the product itself.
Continue reading GANDHI OF SPATIAL DELIGHT: THE CRITICAL PRACTICE OF LAURIE BAKERThrough his art and architecture, Martand Khosla has created a niche that lies at the intersection of the two fields. His installations embody philosophies from this undefinable space, as he extracts questions using art as a voice, and architecture as principles, to raise concerns about humanitarian aspects of societal and political systems.
The practice of Martand Khosla inhabits a transitional space between art and architecture, which enables him a platform to address concerns that transgress architecture as independent habitable spaces. He co-founded, and is a partner of the architectural practice RKDS (Romi Khosla Design Associates), which has obtained both national and international recognition through its award-winning designs.
Continue reading Martand Khosla: Experiments of Urban EnquiryIn this lecture, Kazi Khaleed Ashraf discusses the works of two prominent contemporary architects – Muzharul Islam and Louis Kahn as counterpoints to modernism in the Indian subcontinent. He also speaks about understanding modernity, modernism and the positions either took in the way they practised architecture.
In the pursuit of framing and reframing modernism, perhaps we might have to rethink the various ways we described modernism, tropical modernism, we might have to call it – monsoon modernism. Monsoon in the subcontinent is what sank European modernism; that is something to think about. I have been tasked to talk about two architects – Muzharul Islam and Louis Kahn. Muzharul Islam is from Bangladesh. He is what one could describe as the kind of a father figure of modern architecture. That term, ‘father figure’, is how Ranjit Hoskote described Charles Correa. If you replace Charles Correa with Muzharul Islam and other specific details, that is Muzharul Islam in Bangladesh. He was an architect, teacher, activist and most importantly, he was openly engaged in politics. He was a hardcore Marxist, a politically engaged persona. So I think among all the pioneering architects we are discussing here today, this is an interesting moment to think about an architect, who is both – an architect professionally engaged with the larger cultural milieu, and also devotedly engaged in politics. And the other person whom you are more familiar with, especially I am thinking about the younger architects and students. I am not sure how much you are familiar with Muzharul Islam so I will be taking up the task of talking about him in the next fifteen-twenty minutes, but you are surely familiar with the other person, Louis Kahn, who was invited to Bangladesh, and Muzharul Islam was involved in that invitation.
Continue reading CONTRAPUNTAL MODERNISM: THE ARCHITECTURE OF MUZHARUL ISLAM AND LOUIS KAHN
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