A narrative of Sharada (the office)

As you approach the Sharada, the first sight that you would probably see would be the many mango trees - which surrounds the house from all directions. You would probably also notice that you don't see straight walls - there probably isn't even one parallel to the compound walls. With Mangalore tiles, balconies and terraces, what you will see is a house that was designed to suit the context it is built it in - Horamavu - the mango orchard.

If you are walking in on an extremely sunny day, step in through the gate, and you would instantly feel the shade of the trees. The leaves form beautiful patterns with their shadows on the floor - the patterns being something you would probably notice through the house - whether it be the light falling through the glass Mangalore tiles or the patterns the stairs form as you look up at the glass opening above the staircase

Are walls really necessary to divide the house into different spaces?

As you enter the house, through its little porch - you would be greeted by a floating wooden staircase - this, I would say  is another element along with the trees that the spaces in the house are arranged around. Walls and doors are limited.
Here, levels, angles and within that seating units, steps, and bookshelves divide the spaces between eachother. In the summers, when the mangos are in full bloom, just step into any of the multiple balconies and terraces that is connected to each room and there! they will be right there for you to reach out and pluck. Levels divide the spaces into each living spaces. The dining and kitchen form one level, the living - the next, the bedrooms the next.

Well, along with being a part of the office that designed the house, I am also a part of the office that functions in the house.  From the entrance porch level , step down into the  lowermost level of the house - and you would get into a space that while being a part of house, feels detached from it. Open the door here, and you would be led to garden which takes you back to the outdoors. The office space - so, ideally positioned - functions here.

Come over to the office one, I could show you around!

And they too leave

The last year has been one of the beat times at the Studio. Lots of fun times, lots of work, some exciting projects and fantastic design solutions. The environment has been one of fun, focus, creativity and lots and lots of laughs. Its been one of our most productive times.

A lot of that gaiety has been due to our fabulous batch of interns. Most had started their internship with us last July-August and continued till last month. More joined in Jan and all of them will be leaving by the end of May.

Afreen, Shaz, Kiri, Sid and Kavi have left and the office had quietened down. the next to go was Jamsheed and then Shreya. Ritika has also left and now only Meghna and Drashti are here till the end of the month. Though the new set of interns will start coming in by the beginning of June, those few days in transition will be a huge void.

Shreya, What an inspiration you have been! I have always been a reluctant blogger. Ananya though a contant blogger has been busy as well. You gave life to the sandarbh blogs and before long both of us (mostly because we have you since you are not here) have jumped into the project365 wasgon as well! Keep trying to think in German and finding the 'sexiness' in buildings and if not earlier, we'll see in New York for sure! Sai doesnt often bet on too many people easily but he as well is confident you'll be there! All the best! 

Jamsheed, The first thing I think about when I think of you is the day you joined. I hadnt spoken much to you before that and we all met at Harshita's place that evening. I still remember how you were telling us all about your ... er .... life. We will miss how you smile everytime you are confused! The look on your face when I totally boggled with you colours and tiles and tiling drawings! The most amount of work and dedication I have seen from you is when you were racing to finish the carpentary in Ally's room before her birthday. Kudos to you and all the best! 

Ritika, Ritika, Ritika, being as smart as you are, I always wonder how you manage to say the darnest things at times!! Your punctuality is to be learned from (and clocks set to!) and zest for life to be cherished. Sketch more, design more, travel more and have the bestest of times ahead. Also, we should all visit 'Azer-baijaan' together sometime for sure! 

Drashti, Sweety!! So glad we found out that you are Sweety before your internship winds up! We dont remember to use it enough though! You are the cadd, working drawing expert in office right now and I cant imagine who would do that after you leave! We will miss all the roommate tales as well!  Everything about you is so different from what meets the eye! So many facets to you! Stay that way - its what makes you awesome! 

Meghna, creative to the core and the perfect person to have opted to become an architect! I cant think of a better example of good employee and hard worker right now! You take all the challenges thrown at you head on and come out shining. I love the spirit and dedication! So glad you will be joining Sandarbh as an architect :-) 

Just a week before Drashti and Meghna leave and the void will be felt even if for a little time. I thought I would wait till both of you finish before putting this post up but then again, what better a way to remind you to throw us a going away party! 

Best wishes to you all from the bottom of our hearts! Stay happy, create amazing spaces and be in touch! 

What is your passion?

Yesterday's discussion during the morning meetings was centered around what to focus on our passions and inspirations or the needs of the clients and the daily running of the office.  Among other topics, it was about why we do what we do and the emotional investment we have to give to each of the projects - something I realized while creating a narrative for a house we were working on day before. (You can read about the process here)
What is the difference? The narrative made me look at the space differently. I needed a story, I had to connect, and so I had to notice - not just see. Today, when I think about the spaces I wrote about, I can see it clearly in my head. I can see the lights and how they create patterns on the floor. I can tell you about the window placements, I can tell you the dark spots. And I probably spend the same if not lesser amount of time as I did earlier.

Take that extra effort and enjoy the things you do, not only would the process be a beautiful experience for us, but it would bring in the human connect to every project. Thus making the process a much more enjoyable one for not only us, but for the client as well.

Not very sure if it was as a result of this particular discussion, the evening at office was different from the regular ones. There were more conversations floating around the office. The topics were varied - it went from the customised people we place in our sketchup models to debates about whether singular or multiple plants should be placed in the courtyard. The environment in the office was more chatty, and when this happened, the work didn't seem like work any more. It was back to becoming a group of people just following their passions.

Who is the architect?

It's sometimes fun to get into the crowd and check the type of roles that architects play in various fields.

The first architect I came across as a kid worked in a mall, as a part of it's management team. She overlooked the art installations, the decor and the layouts for the exhibitions held at the mall.  But this, in my point of view was not an architect's job. I carried the same idea even as I entered college. Here, I could see the other architects in and around college working in fields related to, but not exactly things I would call architecture.

Step into Sandarbh, and I was assigned a specific role within the office. It wasn't similar to the roles other architects who joined along with me was assigned - but i couldn't decide which one of it was 'architecture'. As I continued on the journey of discovering architecture, I found things different. Roles were divided, people did one part of the whole. Each role was important, each role had a purpose - that's when I realized, it was all architecture.

A couple of days back, I worked as a part of a team organizing Olam - a creatively curated market set in Trivandrum. As it turns out, the group was one filled with Architects.  realize that there is nothing Architects is meant to do or not do. I met architects who are graphic designers, I met Architects writing history books for their firms, I met Architects who live their life teaching NATA students how to get into architecture. I met project managers - where the projects were not necessarily buildings.
Architecture teaches us the broad set of life skills - design buildings or design logos - all that architecture teaches you is how to go about it. 

So what is your role as an architect?

New Vibes

The interns for the next term have all been shortlisted, confirmed, orientation mails sent out whats more, they have been added to our office watsapp group. The process of selecting this set was tedious. We received more than 200 applications for internship from all over India this term! Sai went through all the portfolios and Ananya has a whole excel sheet with so many criteria to figure out who to take in!

The final 13 are from Kerala to Delhi and everywhere else in between studying in some of the top architectural colleges in India. They are filling big shoes though because the last set of interns we had were superb. They have set a standard for work as well as play and the designs and drawings we have been churning out have been really inspired. Reiterating, biiiig shoes to fill. 

There have been interactions between most of us and the new interns now that they are part of the watsapp group. I can imagine just how lost they must be feeling seeing the number of messages and images coming in and the ceaseless discussions on design and site and meetings, deadlines and everything else under the sun! Sai tries to ease them in by trying to include them in the conversations. Trying to get them to open up a little bit about themselves. Such funny conversations we have been having!! The new kids have been trying to participate and be 'fun and innovative' about it and its made for some fun evenings so far. 

I remember conversations like this with the last set. Theres no Sid this time though to say the darnest things and lead the conversations. No Kavi to bring out her popcorn and sit back to read and laugh at what Sid says. Theres no Shaz who comes alive at night and actually participates in the conversations, no Kiri to be lost in chats. No Shreya to try witty comebacks. No Jamsheed to read everything quietly and not comment. No Ritika to judge the reactions and tell us that. Of  course Afreen was not expected to ever participate in these because the 'intern intros' usually happened in the late evenings and thats when Afreen is most busy! Meghna and Drashti are still around and still part of the group but they are being themselves and laughing quietly, not commenting. 

The new bunch seemed reluctant and confused initially. Now they seem more ready and confident. Mails exchanged with all of them recently had an infectious energy and excitement to them. They have all come forth and told us what they would like to do and they have all been assigned under each of the architects. All of them seem ready to plunge into this .... theres newness in the air .... looking forward to a renewed energy at the studio soon ..... 

Narratives and Designs

I had never thought that Architecture could ever be linked to writing. Sure, writers could describe spaces, bringing clarity to the process, or the end products. Architects, their methodologies could be explained. But can you actually design using words?

Whenever Sai spoke about narratives for design, I have always thought of it as a medium to convey the design rather than to create it. A million scenarios could be imagined for a space. How would creating a scenario help in design?

As part of developing the design for a project in trivandrum we had to develop the interiors for, I was asked to write about the spaces within the house. Confused as to what I was going to write about a house that was under construction, I spent the time I was traveling to the site thinking of a topic I could write about. I didn't get any ideas of  use. But as it turns out, all that preparation wasn't necessary.

As I entered the building, I could imagine the space unfold in front of me. As I began to visualize it, I could see the spaces, not as the half done construction site but as the home it is going to become soon. As began to write the story of the home and it's existence, I could describe the spaces as I saw it. It was like the building spoke to me. Each space had it's own vibe, a reason why it was designed.  I could see the little details on the dining table. I could see the kids playing, I could see the plants in the balcony. The light and the shadows  it created told a story. There I wrote about it, the more it got detailed. With that, the design was formed - not in lines, but in words.

Red Rhinos and Green Gardenias

Till a few months back, it was a ritual every afternoon for all of us at office to figure out where we were going for lunch. We didnt have much of a choice to 'figure out' though because out choices were limited to more or less just Green Gardenia - the neighbourhood Andhra family restaurant where the lunch was always a mystery - even if we ordered the same things over and over again!

The whole bunch of us (at least 15) would saunter down the lane and across the main road to try our luck with biriyani or meals or rotis and curry. The chef at Green Gardenia is amazing! He can make Dal Makhni in many many different ways! I dont think I have ever had the dal there tasting the same even twice!! Between all of us, we have even tried the Chinese there ( I find Chinese food dubious in most places, forget Gardenia which cant even get the Indian right most times!!) !

It was super fun though! We would occupy the same seats and the people there would more or less know our orders as well! Green Gardenia was where we experimented with food, bonded over biriyani and rotis, talked and laughed, watched the funniest memes on Rambo's phone and got our Bollywood fix - we cringed but sang along with the older songs and just cringed at most of the new ones! Even Ritika, who got her yummy lunch from home, would come along just for the sheer fun of it!

If we werent lazy and most of us were at sites on Hennur road, we would all head to Koels Pizza and order the yummiest pizzas with all extras added in! Then we would fight over how many slices Rambo had and was actually supposed to have!
If we felt like celebrating mid day, we would head to Straight Up. That was usually a Saturday feature where late lunches would wind up as late evenings :-)

The site visits towards Sarjapur and Whitefield are normally scheduled all together and the usual stopover for lunches then are the Big Brewsky or most of the time - The Red Rhino. I have been only once to the Red Rhino but I have heard so much about the place that I dont think my one experience counts! Loooong site meetings and hot, sunny days spent driving form one site to the other warrant good times and Red Rhino has always delivered! 

Lunches are not the same anymore though. Most of us get lunch from home and I actually cook! Its only Rambo who goes out every day for lunch. Sai and I go with him when I am lazy or swamped with work otherwise its quick work lunches with a short break after these days. 

The last week or so though, we have been going out a lot more. The same old banter and laughs and whats more, we have choice now! We have Chikpet Donne Biriyani to go to as well! 

We should try and do the lunches more often .... I cant help but smile everytime I think about the good times. I had missed our group lunches. The conversations and laughter and fun times. 

We really should do this more often. It binds us, these lunches. 

It Runs in the Family

I've always wondered how genetics works. If your 'vocational gene' can be passed on. Can kids of painters become great artists with less effort? Are doctors kids more inclined to healing? Are the children of sports persons more fit and agile naturally? 

There must have been some logic in ancient society having been organised as per vocation. Of course,they took it to an extreme but the idea that the off spring, especially if both parents are in the same profession, could be a natural at it is a very strong one indeed. 

Ally grows up around design discussions and construction materials, talks of architecture and clients most of the day and of course in numerous site visits. She has been attending meetings and going to sites since she was less than a month old. Shes been reacting to spaces and design for as long as I can remember. In fact, I think she thinks shes a big shot architect already!! 

Ask her though and she has a million other things she wants to do and be than an architect. But i see the inclination in so many things she does. Everything from Lego (she makes some spectacular structures) to the way she reacts to badly designed spaces. Shes always rearranged furniture in our house and in most restaurants (where they think shes cute and she can get away). Shes clear about the colours and things she wants in her room and is super confident when she tells me very seriously how she would convert one of the wndows into a window seat but putting a ledge out and a roof and how the other window would be a perfect step out balcony if we could make it a french window and extend the floor slab a little. She seems to have all of it sorted out perfectly in her head!! 

I have a lot of friends who have followed in their parents footsteps and they are doing amazingly well. They are content and happy with their choices. They do have an advantage - the understanding of the working of the profession from an inside perspective. They will know the nuances to look for and the way to deal with any issue comes more easily for them since they would have seen it done and tackled multiple times over. 

Though it sounds like a no brainer that Ally should be an architect, I can think of so mant other things that she could do and would be brilliant at! She knows that very well too. It will be a good wait to see where she heads and what she has in store to surprise us! 

As of now though I think she done with architecture, she very confidently told a client a few years back that she is a way better architect that both Sai and I .... till she decides to come back and better herself I think shes on a break for now!! 

Architecture over Personality

Architecture is one field of where your personality and career cannot be separated from eachother. A few days into getting architecture school, and the way I looked at buildings changed. I began to notice the little details of how buildings projected out, of the small details in the streets and once we began to learn urban design, of the patterns on the streets - where did the people crowd around, where did they socialize? 

Move to being a professional - yesterday, I  got back to a friend's house - one I had been to multiple times during my student days. But this time, my way of looking at it was different. I couldn't look at the house just as it was - like I did earlier. Looking at the tiles, I wondered where she might have procured it from. She didn't have glossy tiles anywhere in the house. It was all matt tiles. They had a deeper step down between the dry and wet areas of their bathroom. I wondered whether that was the client's or the Architect's idea. I see their wardrobe and wonder - whether it was done at the factory or the carpenters personally.  Even as a very exhausted me went to sleep,   I noticed the plug points that was right above the bed - probably easier to use, but wouldn't let people sit on the bed without hurting their backs. 

I wondered how I missed all of this when I was here earlier. Probably the efficiency of the mind to filter out details you don't need - and now that I deal with them, I wonder the story of how this house was made. I wonder about the architect they approached. I imagine the early conversations.  I guess the stories are not going to escape my curiosity for every house I go to now. 

So fellow architects, does your mind go fetching stories and details as well?

- Ananya (Architect)

Janaky Sadan - the story

A few days before back, as I went to Thalassery for the renovation of my home, Sai gave me an exercise to sit in each of the spaces and analyse them. So here is the outcome of that excerise -

"Sometimes, when I have to sit by myself, I climb up the staircase and sit on the steps watching the green. During the rains, a small stream develops in the land that I see in front of me.  Hopefully nobody ever buys the plot. The green is beautiful, the stream is beautiful and when it rains, everything is damn beautiful. It's  my favorite place to work. I have designed a lot of spaces sitting here. I read books here, I get coffee and watch the rain here, I have cried here. It's extremely peaceful. As I am sitting here, I can hear the rustle of the leaves, I can hear the crows and other birds. And someone is playing the guitar from a distance. My dad says that from this spot, you could see Andaloor Kavu, the temple this village is named after. But now you don't anymore. Houses and coconut trees have filled the rice fields that once used to be there - blocking the view to the temple.

It's just not this spot. The whole of upstairs was for relaxing purpose I think. Achachan used to come upstairs and lie down for a while in one of the bedrooms we call his bedroom now. That sort of worked like a library. All the books were here. They are all.gone now. It was here that Achachan and me used to lie down and he would tell his army stories. Otherwise the upstairs was never used.

I guess the house is used to not having spaces used for it's own purpose. The dining was sort of the study. The stair balcony space was my working space. One plug point there and I would be there forever. The most drastic usage fluctuation was the storeroom. In the store, along with the utensils and random storage, was achamma's Pooja. A table and a shelf in the corner of the store room. Early morning, Achachan would pick flowers from achamma's beautiful garden and keep it in front of the idols. If I was around, i would do it too. And she would come, sing her bhajans, chant her mantras and place the flowers in front of the idols. There was a specific one for each idol. The space still has the same vibe. Amma says it's because the positive energy is still prevalant there. Amma can't use the same space though. She feels it's a little too claustrophobic. So she's bought a Pooja and placed it in the living. You would think it's weird when you are enter. But it works very well for her. Amma meditates, and does her yoga and lights a lamp.

Amma and achamma are very different people in the way they use the house. Achamma had a ritual sort of a schedule for her daily schedule. She needed her things kept in the right places, she would save all of her things including plastic bags etc., There are utensils from 50 years back still in the house looking brand new. Amma, doesn't have such a devotion to her kitchen. But she would prefer this kitchen to the one she currently uses. She likes the traditional method of working - grinding spices for the powder than buying them, taking water from the well and boiling it in the choola in the bathroom, grinding using the ammi kallu than the mixer. It's probably because she doesn't get a chance to do this in Kuwait. But she loves it here. So whether achamma used the kitchen or Amma does, you see the back entrance to the kitchen filled with spices being dried, with the ammi kallu placed there, and many other activities along with the drying clothes. That's one of the places where the women hangout. The neighbors would come and talk to us once in while.

The traditional way of doing things is probably what attracts me to the house. There is a proper bathroom with a shower and everything that is connected to the living and a bedroom. But I rarely use it. The bathroom that I like to use is the back one, the one which you have to go through the kitchen to use. It doesn't have a shower, you have to take water from the well, pour it into the vessel which has fire burning under it to heat it up. All the waste paper of the house goes here.
It's probably one of the rare houses where the utility is larger than the kitchen. There is a large laundry, there is large ironing space, space for cutting fish, space for washing the fish leftovers space for the over and microwave, space for hanging clothes, it has it all.

So as I leave the house, I see the once beautiful garden now in ruins. The house is a ghost of what it was earlier. I can imagine a lot of things for it though. I can imagine the kolai being as filled as it was earlier . It's not just our house. It's everybody's house. I imagine it on its old glory - the house with visitors all the time. Where the any one could sit anywhere in the house and say "enthalla" ( what's up) to everyone who is entering."

- Ananya (Architect)

Care

At first look, you would think that all that an architect does is design and draw. Even an architecture student while in college would think the same too. But once you start practicing , you realize that design - although important, is just a small part of the story. A large part of the story are - conversations. Design, estimates, planning, materials, details are weaved through these conversations. And what are these conversations for? Ultimately these conversations lead to care and how much care we show for each of the projects. It's understandable - most of the designs we do are for dreams - for stories to be made in the future. Homes are some things people aspire to do probably just once in their lifetime. The designs would be something they thought for years. Obviously if we were to design it, we will care.

But coincidentally, a meeting I had yesterday opened my eyes about this. As a part of a commercial project, I ended up attending a meeting with a professional who wanted us to design the decor for a restaurant they were to launch. "We would want you to do as minimum as possible for the design", she said very categorically. Investing on materials for them would be a dead investment as it cannot be taken back with them after their rental period gets over. The board of the company did not give as much importance to design as they gave to the commercials. At the end of the discussion, after a whole discussion about how we shouldn't spend a lot of time designing, they ended the conversation saying - "I hope it ends up being a fun, youthful space!."

So the care is not just for the design. The care should be for the client too. We have to understand, decipher and feel the emotions behind the words they speak. And only then, is when the designer becomes the architect.

But unfortunately, the first time you learn about it is not  when you are advised but when you experience it. And when you experience it is when your architectural training begins.

- Ananya (Architect)

Hello Stranger

Cab rides can be pretty beneficial to Architects. Last night, as we got into a cab back home after dinner, I noticed that the cab driver's Truecaller showed that he worked as a manager at a bank. 

"Hey, do you work at a bank?", I asked him wondering why he was driving a cab if he worked at a bank

"No, I don't know why Truecaller says that, I am a business man", he replied with a smile. 

Curious about what he was doing riding a can instead of running his business, I asked him more.  After a few minutes of conversation, I figured it out. He owned a few cars and rode them once in a while to understand the market. "Also, I have a granite factory", he said. 

Me and sulu sitting in the car smiled at eachother. We had a  couple of projects we had issues acquiring some stone. "Hey where is your factory? Do you deal with other stones?", We asked quickly. 

Within the time he dropped us home, we had figured it all out -his name, his company name, the kinds of services we could get from him and some intensive knowledge about granite.

The stories don't end here, the welder we found while going for site visits , the artist we found after Rambo's bday party and invited for one of our projects. Architects can find information and people wherever we go - all we have to do is look for it. 

So look out, look around - your next break though might be standing right next to you.

- Ananya Suresh (Architect)

From the Urban to Rural

I spent the whole of yesterday traveling. The last two nights were spent sleeping on a moving bus as it went taking circles around hills any on the way from Bangalore to Thalassery. As a part of site inspection for a project, I was sent to Thalassery for a day's trip. One in which, the same bus driver who took me from Bangalore to Thalassery, bought me back too.

The trip felt longer than I thought it would. It felt like I was there for days for some reason. It was extremely tiring, because a bus taking circles around hills isn't the best place to sleep. So, as I sat, dazed and exhausted in the house, looking at the surroundings to notice, note and write about everything. After a while of sitting at site, I couldn't help but notice the difference between urban and rural sites. The air was clearer, the noise of traffic and cars wasn't there and there weren't skyscrapers and large buildings covering the skylines. I could hear the birds chirping, water was moving in a stream close by. As I sat on the terrace of the house, I could see the green fields around and wondered how it would look like 20 years in the future. Would it be like Bangalore, dusty and polluted? How was it like earlier, before the house and the structures around came up?

As we travelled back to Bangalore, I could see the environment change. The trees were getting replaced by buildings, the air was stuffier and the sound of birds chirping was replaced by honks. But here I am, traveling back to Bangalore, to build more, to replace more trees by concrete.

Do Architects actually create beauty?

Thesis?

I vividly remember the time when our first thesis review was scheduled. After listening to the importance of the Architectural thesis for 5 years, it was big deal for all of us. The first review wasn't very elaborate. All we had to do was to describe the project we were to take and show them the abstract. But hype around the first review was intense. 

Throughout the whole course of Architectural school, the thesis was given utmost importance. Every sketch we made, every line we drafted seemed like it led onto the thesis. Amazing design sheets were called "Thesis level sheets". The thesis sheets of our professors was a bench mark. 

After 6 months busy working, the sheets that I had closed after our Thesis jury was never opened again. I included parts of it for my architectural portfolio, but Sai says he never looked at it when he hired me. I haven't seen my thesis report since and neither do I know about it's whearabouts. And it probably won't matter. 

So what was all of the 6 months of research and hard work for? 

Today's discussion at office was centered around processes. Every activity has a direction and steps within that direction. It's the same with any activity - small or large. Even a simple sketch of a plan would have to be done in various steps. The thesis is probably a part of the process leading to a graduation to a degree to a COA number and legally practicing architecture. 

So hey student Architects! Your thesis is important. But probably not as much as they tell you it is. So have fun, enjoy the process and things will get sorted on their own. 

Happy designing!

What language does your subconscious speak in?

"What language does your subconscious think in?" Sai asked us in general. Drashti had no clue, Leena and Anirudh said English. I thought about the last time I was asked  the same question. I had ended up thinking of this for days and days until I figured out mine was English too. There is probably a lot more to think - the language is just a starting point to understand your subconscious. 

Each of our design instincts are derived by our subconscious. And just like the language the subconscious speaks in, each decision the subconscious takes is evolved over the experiences that happens over our lifetime. It's probably why experienced architects take less effort developing their designs. They have basically taken time to understand and train their subconscious to understand the client's needs. Who would be better than a child to design a room for a child? But thinking about it, I don't really need to be a child to design for a child. All I needed to do was to take the effort to imagine being one. I needed to meet people, and not just meet - consiously take the effort to understand their fears, their aspirations and train myself to understand the emotion behind the words. 

Sai elaborated to Drashti about using the subconscious to step in the client's shoes and imagine like the balcony she was designing was being used by her .  

But out of nowhere, another question rose in my head -

The subconscious has a negative too. My fear of stairs may be projected in my staircase design. I would probably cage my stairs in grills if I had to design one for myself.

 How do you get over that?

An Opinion About Everything

Anirudh is down for a small holiday to Bangalore. He is Ananya’s younger brother and he has been coming to ‘work’ since he came down. He is putting together our ... er , my new desktop. Totally snazzy and powerful and cool is what I expect it to be. I am sure that it will be all of that because he’s a teen and I believe no one knows the latest specs in putting together a desktop like a teen will.

Anirudh has also been going on site visits. I learned today that he had a lot to say abot our projects. He liked the spaces in some, details in another and the interiors in yet another. He must have been bored to death being dragged from site to site but that doesn’t seem to have curbed his architectural opinions at all!!

It’s great actually! It’s awesome that he is telling us what he thinks. It’s a younger, more fresh and a very unbiased from education perspective that he will have. I didn’t go to site yesterday. Hindsight, it would have been good to hear from him what he had thought. I only now know tidbits from what everyone told me.

It’s a good thing to have opinions about everything. All of us do. But it takes courage to express it. Especially when your opinions are on the designs done by architects (including your sister) who are the ones with you at site and at home!!

Well done Anitudh! We should go to site together sometime. I need your kind of opinions. 

Architecture and the outdoors

After a couple of site visits and going around the city, Harshita while driving the car said," Everything gets so much more clear when we get to the sites and figure things out". The rest of us in the car could only say the same and agree.

One of the main reasons why I joined architecture was because I thought that the nature of work is mainly outdoors. You get to travel more, you get to meet people, you get to experience different kinds of lifestyles. But frankly, I don't think I take full advantage of this side of architecture. I think architecture is best practiced at the site. As I watch the carpenters use various simple techniques to do their complex work, as I see the plumbers and electricians and figure out their method of working,I realize that many of the limitations that I think exists, doesn't actually exist.
But most of the times, after studying fictional sites and fictional people for our academics, the outdoor nature of architecture is quite forgotten. We get caught up in the little dimensioning or nuances of the software we use for the drawings that the whole purpose of us doing it is lost - that is  to finally get it executed.

The first time I realized this was when we had to pick handles and tiles for a couple of clients with very specific requirements. I surfed the internet for various brands and options for tiles and handles. Descriptions and images were the references. After days of futile effort, frustrated with the internet when we ended up at a tile shop for more ideas, the days of effort ended in just 2 hours of discussion.

How I wished I had realized this earlier!

Wisdom in the morning

The number of us in the office has dwindled in the past week. We are between interns and the longish  weekend has taken a toll as well.
The office meeting today was more cozy, more focused and as usual and eye opener for all of us.

We were discussing material quantities for concreting a roof. We heard all the quantities that Mallika had calculated and were nodding along in concurrence with her when Sai decided to do one of his ‘sanity checks’ to reconfirm the numbers. He broke down the items such that as per the calculation, we would need 3 bags of cement to concrete 100cft of roof and just like that, there numbers became more than just numbers. For all of us it became cement and sand and jelly. It became a roof to be cast.

The meeting is long over and everyone got back to the tasks at hand. But the simple association that happened in the morning lingered in all our minds. That we are not working with only drawings and numbers. We are working with cement and bricks and sand .... and more than that we are working with dreams and aspirations and all the emotions linked with it .... 

To the Old and the New

Early morning scenarios at Sandarbh was always a busy affair. Every time I entered the office in the morning, there would always be a couple of people already waiting for me.   Sometimes Shaz and Kiri would be there tossing things at eachother. Shreya and Drashti would be complaining about their roommate. Aafreen would be chilling on the couch.  In a couple of minutes, the office would be filled - with conversations, and a lot of activity. A couple of them would go back to the work they had left from the previous day. The rest of them would come annoying me with "What work do you have for me today". The rest of them would join us for our morning meetings. My day would be consumed by jumping from one person to another. When these interns had joined the firm for their 6 months internship, it felt like all of them would be around for ages. 

But I guess time is something you definitely can't take for granted. The office I entered into today was particularly different from the office I used to enter a month back. Starting with Shaz, Kiri, Aafreen, Sid and Kavi the crowd slowly began to reduce. Slowly, the extremely noisy office began to become more silent.  Today's office missed the physical presence of it's people. Rambo called in sick, Meghna was working from home and with that, the morning meeting was a short affair.  Work was being carefully balanced between all the members. By 4pm, the office was empty with each of us working from different parts of the city. 

It is pretty saddening to suddenly see all the crowd vanish. The constant noise is being missed. Kiri's random dance moves are being missed. Shreya's trivia is being missed. Aafreen's crazy stories are being missed. 

But with that said, as these interns move on - the silence is not for too long. We look forward to the new and larger crowd to join us here. And when they arrive, the crowd and the commotion comes back too. 

Hey new interns ! looking forward to welcoming you guys!

Childhood

As a part of a site visit to a under construction residence today, we ended up having a long discussion with the client about the kids bedroom we had designed for the house. As a part of the discussion little details of the space led to various narrations of how the little kids would use the space. These narrations almost made me want to go back to being a kid all over again. 

When I go back and think about the bedroom I used as a kid, what I remember from it are the posters and paintings that you would find covering any blank wall in the room. I had used all the space I could get in showing my passion and creative skills. It's still feels nostalgic thinking about this.And when I talk to Sulu and Harshitha about the same, I realise that everyone has their own fond memories of the space they used during their childhood. 

I guess it is this emotion that drives the design for any kids bedroom. The effort is to make these memories extremely fun for the kids. So we design the rooms with interesting spaces and multiple levels.  In Linu's residence for example, the kid's bedroom is one of the most fun space in the whole house. The mezzanine which is the sleeping space is at a higher level than the rest of the room and is accessed with a ladder and is attached to a hammock which covers the rest of the room. I can imagine the kids never wanting to get off the hammock. Atleast I wouldn't want to. A swing is attached to the bottom of the mezzanine. I can imagine fun sleepovers, cozy nooks and a space they would love to be in. 

What more do the kids need?