2/24/2020 Architecture, Building, Practice | Aζ South Asia

 Writing  

Architecture, Building, Practice

Raje, Anant. "Architecture, Building, Practice." In Anant Raje, Architect. Selected works — 1971-2009,
edited by Shubhra Raje and Amita Raje, 308-9. New Delhi: Anant Raje Foundation and Tulika Books,
2012.

Architecture 
Too often, the magnificent buildings are forgotten. The spirit of the buildings and
the places they made are covered under the dust of time only to be inhabited by
those who do not understand their very purpose. Such is the irony of the genius of
them: the architecture, its era, its splendour is allowed to dissipate into the dark
ages of the present. The idea is not to get out in the distant past, but to see if the
present is inspired enough. 

The country, over a great period of time, has witnessed civilizations come and go.
The relics, the ruins and the buildings which have withstood the test of time are
expressions in the ambience of eternity. Time stood still in the silence of the hills,
the horizon and the expanse of skies, all manifest in single isolated columns to
arcades, walls, openings and avenues without roofs. The lessons are locked into
these, inviting anyone with enough curiosity, ready to explore and understand a
deeper meaning which may offer clues to their origins. Every architectural
composition in the past has been a model of a greater world, finite but unbounded.
Its manifestation embodies a tight framework of parts, each having its own
identity. 

The above statement comes with the realization that building is an intervention.
The changes it brings about are both physical and psychological in nature. Any
attempt to make a physical change in such a context of the climate and culture of a
place would be a direct attempt to change the inner relationships within the
culture itself. However, it would take a great effort and understanding to
appropriate the scale of physical form, as the physical form itself is a direct
intervention. The celebrative character and the sequence of spaces that evoked a
tremendous desire to communicate, through the language of ornament, an aura of
myths and symbols. This architecture is then a model of the underlying principles

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that govern the universe and the forces that give it order. At the root of it is
something deeply conceptual; design has not entered into it. An abstract concept
that finds its expression in plan. Its geometry – making the intangible into a
tangible way, knowledge into experience – a way of knowing. 

The architecture in India is one for ‘fair weather’, transparent, accessible,

contiguous, one that makes connections and encloses a hierarchy of public spaces
which themselves become important nodes of activities. The post-colonial work
has no conceptual structure and it remains compositional with such contradictions
as mass has no weight, enclosures don’t enclose, and light is considered for exterior
modulations only. The structure dissipates in mid-air before it hits the ground and
enclosures have no relationship with the volumes they enclose. The symbolism is
without substance and presents meaningless monoliths. 

New technology must realize forms that are compatible with the old patterns
which are relevant both to the culture and climate of a given place. Such forms can
generate new living traditions without snipping the lifeline between the old and
the new. 

Shastras need reinterpretation into contemporary language to show the

connection between the forces that shape human behaviour and its mystical cover.
The ideas of vastushastra must find their contemporary component, coming out of
the need to discard out-dated technologies and the need to recognize emerging
changes in the social and economic order. The reason for Architecture to be is the
reason for recognizing a spirit beyond basic needs. The reason for shastras is to put
an order to wild speculations and make runaway thoughts into a comprehensive
whole, and elevate the intellect to spiritual levels. 

Building 
I begin to formulate design elements which respond to both the inner needs and
outer levels of measurable activities arising out of contextual circumstance. I sort
out the spaces in plan that can respond to changes in time and are capable of
adjusting themselves to the overall order that constitutes its framework. The spaces
that are created outside the program of requirements are, architecturally, the most
important spaces. They set up a rhythm and establish identities to the spaces that
follow. The identity is stronger when the light characterizes the space along with
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the material that makes the enclosures. The order in plan must reflect the nature of
space and the material with which the nature is defined. I believe that a close and
compact plan not only ensures economy in space utilization, economy in structural
design, economy in overall building expenditure, but a meaningful solution to a
building in a hot and dry climate. 

I use singular and complex horizons that offer changing vistas along with
movement through spaces, bringing a number of spatial overlaps that are so vital
to time–space concepts. There is a structural symmetry in nature at its cellular level
and not ‘form symmetries’ in its external compositions. Conscious symmetry is
different. It has idealized ‘form compositions’, transcending to the spiritual realm.
A wheel must be symmetrical around its axis which is perpendicular to the
direction of its movement. Symmetries have lead us to discover their inner source. 

Breaking the programme down to identify spaces and formulate an order for the
material chosen that is capable of meeting various scale of architectural elements
ensures a certain continuity in projecting structural and spatial components, wilful
but restricted within the framework of the general ordering principle. The details,
however small or big, must respond to a scale. These are demonstrated beautifully
in temple complexes, medieval cathedrals, mosques and madrasas, as well as in
cities like Mandu and Jaisalmer. Here one observes that the parts of the buildings
are responding to one another, building up the whole. 

I see the scales and proportions of architectural elements as those that are directly
related to the nature of material. Both concrete and brick as materials of
construction have different strengths. Concrete is generous, but brick is not; space
enclosed by concrete is not the same as enclosed by brick. The scales of buildings
are directly related to the methods of fabrication. Most outdoor spaces, consciously
or unconsciously designed, came through climatic considerations and social
demand. The structures that enclose these spaces had an order. That order came
out of the choice of material. 

Practice 
My colleagues are those who work with me on the project from the start. There is
always a continuity and development of those concepts and ideas on which
previously a substantial amount of work is done. The structural and mechanical
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engineering material inputs constantly test the architectural concepts and begin to
become the mainstay in their own order. It is a happy moment when what to do
meets the means of doing it. 

The main critique comes from the structural engineer, to test the composition of
plan in relation to the possibility of systems envisioned and in response to the basic
material to be used either by choice or dictated by the demands made by the space
which it serves. His discipline has to meet with the ordering principle on which the
determinant elements of plan are established. The sense of light and the sense of
space are to be strictly adhered to. Making models at various stages of design
development is a method that leads to a better understanding of the spaces in
plans and sections, surface delineations and their geometry, volumes and their
proportions, and above all, those members of the structure so crucial to bring
natural light into spaces. The construction site and the architect’s office are two
inseparable parts of the work activity that direct the process of design. Within this
process lies the ability to correct and modify circumstantial responses arising out of
measurable situations and abstraction of thought and ideas developed in the office
and tested on site. 

There are two categories of projects. Those that are realized in all their forms of
completion, and those that have remained unrealized even though they are ready
to be built. The ones that are unrealized have as much impact on the history of
architecture as the ones that got an opportunity to be built. 
Also published as Raje, Anant. "Sketching." In Anant Raje, Architect. Selected works — 1971-2009,
edited by Shubhra Raje and Amita Raje, 310-13. New Delhi: Anant Raje Foundation and Tulika Books,
2012.

Content Related to this Document

Documents Posts

01. Raje, Anant. Sources and Interpretations. Ahmedabad: Anant Raje Foundation, 1983.
02. Raje, Anant. "What I learnt from Kahn." In Anant Raje, Architect. Selected works — 1971-2009,
edited by Shubhra Raje and Amita Raje, 317-19. New Delhi: Anant Raje Foundation and Tulika
Books, 2012.
03. Raje, Anant. "Sketching." In Anant Raje, Architect. Selected works — 1971-2009, edited by Shubhra
Raje and Amita Raje, 314-15. New Delhi: Anant Raje Foundation and Tulika Books, 2012.
04. Raje, Anant. "Response: IIA – Baburao Mhatre Gold Medal 1993." Journal of The Indian Institute of
Architects 59, no. 02 (1994): 3.

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