Thursday, May 3, 2018

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!

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