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Architectural marvels
CAPPER HOUSE and Queen Mary's College figure quite prominently, in word and picture, in a book that has just hit the bookshops but will be formally released only early in April. The book, the first published by the Indian National Trust for Art and Cultural Heritage's Tamil Nadu Chapter, is entitled "Madras: The Architectural Heritage".
It was a few years ago, when a friend sent me a guide book to the buildings of Aberdeen, Scotland, that I suggested to INTACH-TN Convenor P.T.Krishnan that he should think of doing a similar book for Madras. It was an idea that remained at the back of his mind till Frank Schiffer, a young German architect from the University of Berlin, decided to spend a year with him, looking at Indian architecture and the architecture of Madras in particular. Frank was just the man Krishnan was looking for, he was an architect, he was interested in heritage, he was a photographer and was interested in graphic design, and he not only relished the idea of roving around Madras but, as a foreigner, appeared to have carte blanche to take photographs of buildings, the most innocuous of which if being `shot' by an Indian would have had watchmen and others descend on him like a horde of furies.
With pictures and design looked after by Frank, an INTACH-TN member, an architect with conservation training at York University in the U.K., and a visiting lecturer who taught architectural heritage, seemed the ideal person to team with him. And so K.Kalpana became the architectural heritage trailblazer of the team and its writing half. Together they have produced a splendid black and white record of the built heritage of Madras, Frank providing a wealth of striking photographs, an eye-catching design and clever sectoral adaptations of the Eicher Road maps of the city, while Kalpana briefly traces the histories of the buildings and looks more deeply at their special architectural features. Anyone going through the book will undoubtedly be struck by both the historical as well as architectural wealth of the city.
Two things, however, are what I like the book best for. One is the seven walking trails the two authors have suggested that readers follow to get glimpses of numerous known and unknown buildings. And the second is the number of unknown buildings - mainly ordinary homes of another age, with pediments, pillars, balustrades, gables, monkey-tops and what have you - that have been featured, making you want to search them out and hope they'll be preserved. These two extra inputs make this an even more valuable guide for anyone interested in the city, and a `must' for his or her library, not to mention the pleasure of exploration.
S. MUTHIAH
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