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Literary Review
Spaces we inhabit
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Books on Indian architecture by Indian architects are few and far between and these two are welcome additions, says MADHAVI DESAI.
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AS an Indian architect/author Gautam Bhatia is perhaps singularly responsible for making architecture popular for people at large since his earlier book Punjabi Baroque and Other Memories of Architecture. He has been fascinated with viewing architecture as a memoir, as a form of autobiography — a trend that continues in his latest book A Moment in Architecture. As the author states on the opening page, the book does not express an analytical, professional view of architecture but is a personal statement from the heart. The analysis is experiential, if at all, and the writing style is bordering on poetic prose, the bias of the understanding being architecture predominantly as art, perhaps because of the author's background in Fine Arts.
In a sense this is an essay continuous from his earlier books. The narrative meanders between the personal and the professional experiences of the author. The book takes you on a journey from Kashmir to Kerala, from Le Corbusier to Laurie Baker and from Japan to Italy in the realm of the imagination. Subjective interpretations give us glimpses from Mr. Bhatia's "window to the world". Vast arrays of topics from urban decay to corrupt morals in the society are covered in this very long essay that is the book. (There are no chapters or subtitles).
The autobiography touches on the author's childhood to adulthood experiences through various geographical locales and the architectural settings. At times, there is a conscious effort by the author to shed the perceptions he has acquired through his design discipline in order to free himself for a full sensorial enjoyment of the architectural experience. He is aware of the layering of history; the buildings/experiences Bhatia talks about are predominantly historical (from the Taj to Jaisalmer), which he compares to the contemporary scene, particularly in the Indian landscape. The book is graphically well designed and well produced (with many drawings, sketches and photographs) at times to the point of being distracting! The author's sketches are excellent and often express a wry sense of humour.
At the end, however, one wonders at the absence of substance in spite of a finely produced book and a sensorial, rich journey through the world of architecture. Perhaps the book should have been named "moments" in architecture?
Romi Khosla's book The Loneliness of a Long Distance Future: Dilemmas of Contemporary Architecture, on the other hand, is quite a contrast to Bhatia's self-focused, artistic/romantic view of architecture. Khosla, a practising architect whose first degree was in economics, expresses a broad-based understanding of architecture, history, and humanism. The focus of his book, therefore, is outward, towards the contemporary world at large, particularly Asia and some of the other geographical regions driven for years by ethnic conflicts. The book is a compilation of essays on wide ranging topics, written at different times, with two introductions, one by the author and the other by Prabhat Patnaik, the eminent economist.
The essay "Abstract and Ancient Futures" analyses two distinct approaches to contemporary design in the 21st Century: the abstract, scientific and rational attitude of the west against the drawing on religion and spirituality in Asia, Africa and the Islamic world that results in efforts at reinventing the past (ancient futures). It uses the Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao, Spain and the Temple of the Vedic Planetarium in India as symbols of these contrasting positions. The essay titled "Countermodernism" inquires into the quest for authenticity and the attitude to architectural conservation in Asia. In contrast to Europe, Asia is distinct in terms of its multilayered built environments where several periods of history coexist. Disillusioned with modernism, select architects have attempted to draw on living practices and traditional craftsmanship while using modern technology, linking their contemporary works to premodern forms and ideas that Khosla terms "unmodernism" or "countermodernism". The essay on the Aga Khan Award attempts to bring community-oriented, social projects as award-worthy exemplars in the mainstream discourses, particularly in the developing world. The writing on "Museums for Another Future" traces the history of the museum as an institution and highlights it redundancy in the postcolonial present, proposing two bold alternative concepts for far-reaching effectiveness in the 21st Century. The longest essay titled "The New Canaanites" has emerged out of the author's travels and experiences in the holy land of Jerusalem and other sites of Jewish/Palestine conflicts. The book terminates with two radical architectural proposals, one each for Kosovo and Jerusalem as modern architectural solutions for reconstruction in deeply wounded lands.
Through out the book Khosla comes across as an Asian, a humanist, and an architect with a bold vision for a new world order as well as a deep understanding of the historic roots.
Since books on Indian architecture by Indian architects are still few and far between, the addition of these two are welcome in the publishing world.
A Moment in Architecture, Gautam Bhatia, Tulika Books, 2002.
The Loneliness of a Long Distance Future: Dilemmas of Contemporary Architecture,
Romi Khosla, Tulika Books, 2002.
MADHAVI DESAI
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