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The stones and their stories
RANA SIDDIQUI
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The British Council brings Sir Edwin Lutyens’ architectural marvels to New Delhi through a photo exhibition.
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PHOTO: SHIV KUMAR PUSHPAKAR
On Lutyens’ landmarks Margaret and Paul Waite at the Queen’s Gallery in New Delhi’s British Council.
For a common man, it is almost impossible to have an inside view of our Rashtrapati Bhavan. For the interested ones, here is an opportunity to have a glimpse of this landmark edifice of our colonial legacy at Queen’s Gallery in New Delhi’
s British Council till November 5. These days the gallery is laden with furniture especially brought from Rashtrapati Bhavan. It includes chairs, long sitters, tables and a model of the building with a clear view of how this stately structure looks from inside. It also has a few pictures of some of the architectural marvels from which celebrated British architect Sir Edwin Landseer Lutyens drew inspiration when he designed Rashtrapati Bhavan. To pay tribute to Lutyens and his Indian connection, the Queen’s Gallery has brought together some of the un-exhibited photographs of the architectural buildings he designed across India, especially in Delhi, and the world. These include The All India War Memorial (India Gate), King George V Memorial near Rashtrapati Bhavan, The Hindu Stone of Mahabalipuram (now Mamallapuram), The Nizam of Hyderabad’s palace, Lambay Caste of Dublin, The British School at Rome, The Cenotaph, Whitehall, London and so on.
The exhibition titled “Rashtrapati Bhavan in Context, The Work of Sir Edwin Lutyens OM” is brought by Paul Waite, a well known architect and one of the trustees of the Lutyens’ Trust. It is curated by Margaret Richardson OBE, a veteran when it comes to exhibitions on Lutyens’ works.
Love for India
Pointing out at a statement made by Lutyens that declares his love of India, Margaret says, “Lutyens has often been quoted as saying that he hated India which is wrong. It is just that being an architectural purist he hated ‘sham’ and overly-decorated buildings, including a few ones in India too. But he travelled to India too often and was an authority on Indian symbolism, religion and architecture. In fact, he designed the Rashtrapati Bhavan keeping in mind the Indian sentiments without compromising on his architectural principles. You would be surprised to know that he designed the Bhavan by taking columns from the Ajanta caves. Its dome was taken from the Sanchi Stupa and Ashoka railings. That way it was the fusion of the East and the West.”
Says Waite, “To bring the President’s Model outside, we had to cut the sides of the door because the wooden platform on which it is erected was too big.” He adds that Lutyens would come for five months every season to stay in India to design the President’s house. “Money spent on the complete structure is debatable. But it was cut short by three times. So the figure was phenomenally low. Its initial budget was four million,” he says.
It is learnt that Lutyens wanted to change the face of what is today Old Delhi. But people there protested because it would have robbed it of its traditional look and culture. “That’s not right,” says Waite. “In fact, he was very conscious of the old values of Delhi. But yes, the whole of Delhi was designed to be like what New Delhi is today but he couldn’t because it was getting very expensive and there was the problem of drainage, sanitation, transportation, etc. Through his sketches and designs we get to know that he was commissioned to do many architectural buildings in India which never materialised. One of them is the University of Lucknow.”
Margaret, who is also writing a book on Lutyens’ architecture, however, laments that exhibition of architectural photographs doesn’t usually excite people for they think it is more of an academic exercise than an artistic one. They should be made to realise the importance. Teachers should take students on a round of such exhibitions to make them aware of the making of a building step by step, she adds.
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Friday Review
Bangalore
Chennai and Tamil Nadu
Delhi
Hyderabad
Thiruvananthapuram
|
