RECYCLING IN ARCHITECTURE

This is how one thing led to another.........
Aayushi said we shud do a seminar on recycling in architecture....
Amrita and I were only too happy with the idea......
the research part was fun.....
it was so much fun that we decided to break from the mould and went ahead and did a skit on the seminar stage, made a model out of recycled ciggie pacs,screened vedios and submitted a report on gobar plastered recycled paper.
the fun did not end just there.....
our report got published in the Council of Architecture magazine.....here is the link.....
http://www.coa.gov.in/mag/Sept-08-Lowres%20pdf/20-22-Neelakshi%20Joshi-Web.pdf
whatz more.......
i went ahead and participated in Indin Green Building Council's Create with Waste competition to make a dwelling completely out of waste..........
that was good and i got the jury commendation award and a chance to attend the IGBC congresss in mumbai....
things did not end here......all this has led to a great deal of awareness not only for us but for our entire looby mates as they get to see everything from recycled book racks made out of packing material to building models from old cartons..........
currently we are obssessed.......and hope to remain so for a long time.....

ARCHITECTURAL INSPIRATIONS
FROM IMITATION TO INNOVATION


Humans learn by imitation. We learn to speak by hearing people, to write by following the curving patterns of our teacher’s hand and to draft by watching our sleep starved seniors masterly rolling a Rotoring. However, life would be miserably dull if it were to stop at imitation. Blessed be the human faculty of innovation! Imitation makes talkers, typists and drafters. Innovation creates orators, authors and architects.

As young students of architecture we often find ourselves in a fix when confronted with a brand new design problem. Then beings the frantic search in magazines, journals and books for something similar. So far so good. After this most of us begin to go astray. Consciously or unconsciously, we copy from the sea of information presented in front of us. We do not stop to apply our brains. We do not stop to question, improve and improvise. That is where the innovation stops and a rut sets in. it becomes too easy to drift along with the flow rather that to challenge ourselves to swim against it.

Timeless architecture has always come when architects have broken down all shackles of norms. They have evolved but never forgot for whom and why did they build. Great architecture is always unique and user specific. Given the diverse shapes, sizes and values that we humans come in, no buildings should ever look the same again.

The source of imitation also makes a big difference. Given our fascination for all things foreign, we blindly copy from buildings that were designed in a different climate, for a different set of people and for a different reason. The most starking example of this would be our attitude when we were given a problem to design a commercial center. Pat came out designs that were replicas of air conditioned, multi coloured boxes we call malls. How many of us went out and explored the markets that exist in the old part of our cities? How many of us studied the culture and traditions of the Indian consumer? This does not mean that we appose change. You cannot afford to shut your eyes to the world when everything is moving so forward so fast. But that does not mean that it be done at the cost of local values, aspirations and needs.

Observe the work of two master architects – Raj Reval and Charles Correa. Raj Reval’s Asian Games Village present how cluster housing, a tradition in India to ward off heat by mutual shading, can be applied in a modern context to meet today’s demands. Charles Correa’s City Center would give any mall a run for its money by its beautifully placed kund, a feature to accommodate Calcutta’s ‘adda’ culture.

Five years of architectural education is designed to make logical thinkers and exceptional designers out of us. From subjects like rendering we move to hard core design. We are expectected to evolve from imitation to innovation. Five years of constant night-outs, backaches and bark circles would go to waste if we do not learn to love and appreciate the work we have set out to do, if we do not put our mind, body, heart and soul into it. At 21 you and I can afford to be idealistic fools. But I hope we still remain just as crazy at 51. So, dear reader, no matter who you are and what you do, fight it out and don’t give in. innovate, O Architect! Innovate.

Habit- a very plastic life.......dat bag followes me everywhere.....while shopping for veggies, in the clothes' store....even wayyyy up in the Himalayas....and itz wide spread influence is not the only problem. It's gonna be around even when my third generation would look out of their old age home!!!!!

Solution- dig out that old sling bag.......cloth,jute....anything....and learn to say NO THANK YOU I HAVE MY OWN BAG everytime the shopkeeper carelessly packs all the merchandize in innumerable poly bags.

Extreme- what to do about the tonnes of polythene all around us?? Some people have started using it in railroad construction and some as a filler element in buildings......go discover!

Habit- giving pointless gifts to friends like photo frames, stuffed toys, cards. Eeeeh....too big a crbon footprint and no real feelings.

solution- gift plants( potted!!!), seeds........

Extreme- no gifts dude. i love you...u love me......bas ho gaya!!!

Habit- Extra lights, fan, computer on stand-by......hmm.........
Remedy- 1. Absolutely no-waste policy......task lighting while working, using day light when possible, switching off devices when not in use.
2. CFL.......sare ghar ke badal dallonga!
Extreme - 1.switch off the fan every alternate hour and enjoy the sauna-like environment!
2.switch off the fan while working or watching TV......the brain is too busy to notice!

WORLD ENVIRONMENT DAY, 5th JUNE, 2008

The 'Inconvenient Truth' is beginning to sink in. Our ice caps are melting, costal towns are flooding and the temperature is rising. The nightmare of our geography books is turning into reality!!

'The Amusing Truth', however, is that the solution to solving these grave problems is very simple. Turning off the extra light switch, turning off the tap tightly and making intelligent green and environmently friendly choices. We, who are addicted to over consumption and wasteful means.....it's time to KICK THE HABIT!!!!

For one month, I dedicate this blog to these choices.........let's GO GREEN........

There is a sufficiency in the world for man's need but not for man's greed. ~Mohandas K. Gandhi

STOP!!!!!

Did you know that a person drinking coffee everyday in a disposable plastic cup generates 12Kg of waste annually? Not only this, the amount of energy used and carbon di-oxide generated to make these coffee cups is appreciable. Plus recycling in not a reality for us yet so these cups will be lying around the beautiful campus for some days and then in a landfill for the next 10,000 years!!!!!!!!

All this can stop if you make a little room in your bag to carry your own mug. Impractical…..weird……just too much work??? Not really….if you just try.


We are lucky to live in a beautiful campus. We must do everything in our power to preserve it. Little deeds done today can make a big difference tomorrow.

A Valentine’s Day letter…….



Dearest Ija,

It’s February and love is in the air. Girls and boys are busy finding ways of expressing their undying love for each other. And here I am, thinking about you…..
Laws of nature tell us that life is all about moving on. Grow up, find a job, find a man, start a family and renew the cycle of life. But thank God for love!!!
The love that still makes you think about the comfort of your son before you go to sleep every night. The love that makes me sad when I think of my mother in an empty house. The love of my father who keeps filling my bank account lest I should need something. The love that comes from sharing the same house and life for eighteen years with your siblings. The love of aunts and uncles who spoil you with treats……
My love for you that comes from years of playing on your lap, from learning the alphabets off your tongue, from eating food off your hands, from the warmth of the sweaters you knit for me, from your sweet smell that filled my nostrils each night we cuddled together, from the long discussions we had about Mahatma Gandhi and Harry Potter….
If 14th February be a celebration of love then, Lady, I salute you and I salute our love!!!

Yours always,
Neelakshi

(Ija is the Kumaoni word for mother. Strangely, I always addressed my grandmother as Ija)

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.

My Buddhi Bahadur Strongest


It began in Dagshai, a small town lost somewhere in the mist of Himanchal Pradesh. We lived in an old lonely house on an old lonely hill. My parents were at work all day long and at parties all night long. The little gaps of time thus created were filled by Buddhi Bahdur. This brings us to the question….Who is Buddhi Bahadur?

He is a resident of Nepal who served in the Indian army for the past 25 years, fought many wars and is finally retiring and going back home. But when he was in Dagshai with us he did a few other things as well. He was our nanny and one hell of a nanny was he!

In the evenings he took us bird hunting. My brother, being elder, got to handle the gun whereas I was assigned the task of spotting and recovering the prey. Later in the evening we used to sit outside the house and roast the birds and eat them semi cooked. Nothing can taste that good!]

He never stopped us from pillow fighting each other to death, from keeping weird pets (hens, chicks, bats, and owls) or anything that made us truly happy. But he was strict about getting dressed for school at time, polished shoes and impeccable uniforms.

I’ve heard he was a fearless soldier and has served in Kashmir for a long time but there is another side to his personality as well. In Dagshai, he used to live in the mortal fear that the alleged ‘Maim ka Bhoot’ will come and get him. So often we would find him at our door at two in the morning, covered in sweat because he had a feeling that the ghost was calling out his name!

He has the tiniest hands and feet and the gentlest tone when speaking. He played all our games, listened to our tearful tales, cured all the boo-boos and sang us to sleep. This same man was an ace shooter, a platoon leader and a meritorious soldier. I salute him and the many roles he played and played so well!

Why THiNK………….

First think about your web-life. Has it not changed rapidly? You no longer mail friends…..you drop by scraps. Your photos are up for display to the world. You have suddenly started preferring random videos on YOUtube to chat shows with famous personalities. Where do you go looking for information, not Britannica but wikipedia. Firefox and Linux spreading like wildfire. And the biggest one of ‘em all……THE BLOG.

WHY?

Because, as Time magazine suggests, the spotlight has shifted to YOU. We don’t want to listen to the general on a news channel briefing us about the situation on the warfront when we have a soldier pouring his heart out on a blog.

We don’t want one professionally made movies anymore……some moron with a camera filming an average day in his dorm seems much more interesting.

We don’t want telephone calls or even e-mails when social networking rocks.

GLORIFYING MEDIOCRACY???

Are bloggers just a bunch of wannabe writers doling out crap about non-consequential things? Should a regular Joe be allowed to tamper with the baap of all information- the encyclopedia? What is so good about the amateurish video clips the world is going crazy about?

I SAY,NO

Because blogs, wikipedia, YOUtube and the gazillion social networks are not trampling upon the already existing ways of information interchange. They are carving a new space for themselves, an alternative. And like it or not everybody riding this wave( now officially called WEB 2.0….though nothing official about it!) is lovin’ it. We have lived linearly too long relying on a bunch of specialists to tell us what we know or do. Its time for a different perspective.

CHANGE

Maybe it’s time when the junta jumps up from the ‘ people’s poll’ corner of the newspaper and spreads to the pages.

BUT, WHY AM I WRITING THIS?

Because bitrip and now THiNK are both a part of this phenomenon. I might now recognize many of my fellow BITians on the road but I get a peek into what they think and do from their blogs. Calvin and Hobbes may tickle me a lot but it is an altogether different experience to read a comic strip about the life around me done by someone living in the adjacent hostel. A book on famous one-liners may be good but it cannot beat the nonsensicality of H4ism. News channels with hundreds of investigating teams blew up the death of a student here but Rhea’s simple observation and remembrance was closer to the truth.

So….START THiNKing but don’t forget to open the lid of your head when you do so that the world can peek in.

COME and be a part of the first THiNK forum/meeting/briefing/celebration on 24^th January……

BECAUSE it’s time ME AND YOU took over.