Lovin’ it


When a regular folk walks into a restaurant what does he see and think? “Great ambience, pretty chic, hope the food is good.” But what do you say about a person whose brain buzzes thus, “ hmmm mosaic floor pattern, gypsum board false ceiling, diffused lighting, 2m passageway, hope they let me into the kitchen to see the service flow.” Well this is an architectural student in love with his field.

When you begin your life as an architecture student it’s all very hazy. Some come from families where everyone is in the profession, some are good with handwork and were cajoled by relatives to give architecture a try and most wanted to be engineers but landed up here because of a lower rank in the entrance exam. Whatever be the story, nobody knows were they are going. To mix-up things even more they see the sheets made by their seniors and sink into the gallows of depression-----the task not only seems difficult but impossible.

But as we turn in our registration slips each one of us is endowed with a special something. It is something equivalent to Shiva’s third eye. Let’s call it our architectural eye. It is a 6th sense which makes us see, feel, hear, smell and experience architecture and architecture alone.

For some it happens in the first lecture when the professor talks about the ‘noble’ profession they have chosen, for some on a field trip when they see their work in the real world, for some in a sociology class when they realize it goes beyond concrete and mortar, for some when they read Fountainhead, for some in a design problem they give their body, heart and soul to and for some unfortunate souls it never happens at all.

Once awoken the passion for architecture is all consuming. You will never see a gate without noticing the details, never a drain pipe without tracing it back to the toilet it came from, never walk through a space without reading rhythm, harmony, balance written all over it. You will wake up in the middle of the night to experiment new things on your butter sheet; you will close your eyes and experience your creation. Days will be spent on the drawing board without food and water and without a word of complain or fatigue from you. When this day comes you will become a true architect.