Sculpt : The Conclusion

It started out as a simple conversation about sculpture and bringing it back as something that we do at Sandarbh. From that has emerged a Ganesha sculpture that now adorns the entrance to the workshop. The process as a whole was interesting - from prototypes made in soap to Ganpati himself emerging in the stone (You can read more about this journey here) I got the chance to have a word with Nikhil about his personal experience through the sculpting. Read on to know more...

" The starting of the process was the toughest part I feel. When I saw a picture of the stone that I would be carving, I didn't realise the scale of it. big or heavy it would be. It was really hard to get the stone in the jeep and bring it back to the workshop. Things started to get easier after that. This was the first time that I was using the angle grinder and it made carving a lot easier. My initial thought was that the whole process would be pretty fast, much faster than it actually ended up being. Pappu was very helpful throughout the whole experience. He was patient with me even as I found my groove of carving in stone. There was a point when I was facing issues with the proportions and I felt rather discouraged. Sai intervened and suggested that I reduce the sizes of the legs. As I worked with his advice, my confidence returned and I wanted to finish the sculpture, giving it my all. Once or twice the people walking by the workshop also stopped and complimented the work in progress. It felt really good. I'm very happy with the final product!"

-Mannat

A Glitch in Communication

In today’s day and age mobile phones and communication go hand in hand, and sometimes as one and the same. Coincidentally, last week this source of communication was down for both Sulu and Nayana. While one lost her phone, the other’s stopped working. It was in this week that we all realized how critical our phones are for communicating with each other- whether it is emails, phone calls or WhatsApp messages. Critical information is often no more than a call away and we constantly share drawings, details and cut-lists over WhatsApp. Communication is a major part of our work ideology at Sandarbh and not being able to effectively communicate with either of them actually ended up being more frustrating than any of us possibly imagined and we couldn’t wait for them to be back on their phones!

-Mannat 

Alec the Snake

When it comes to all things creepy and crawlie, I have a tendency to spot them no matter where they are hiding. I especially have a keen eye for lizards and seem to be the only one who notices the baby ones crawling around the office. And lizards really do freak me out. Every time I see one, my face pales as though I've been confronted by a ghost. But imagine a snake in the office - that seemed to freak everyone out!
Much like the Basilisk in Harry Potter, our dear little friend (who Harshitha decided should be called Alec) came in through one of the pipes and found a place for itself in the commode. Sai was the first to see it and took a while to actually tell anyone else. When he told Leena she went to check on it and tried to flush it down. One of her friends is a Snake Rescuer by profession and initially was quite confident that it couldn't be a snake. When Leena sent her a picture, her response was a true shocker - Yes, it was a snake and not just any snake, it was a Cobra!
Alec was quite scared though and had coiled itself so tightly that even a professional couldn't get it to budge. Now dealing with a frightened and aggressive snake is never a good idea and the decided course of action was to leave it alone. Only when it was calm enough could it move out of the commode.
For the most part we left Alec in peace, but every now and then someone would want to go take a sneak peek. As scared as I was, I hadn't seen the snake through all this. Sometime in the afternoon, I finally mustered up the courage to take a look and timidly followed behind Harshitha as she led the way. When she lifted the lid, we realised that the snake was no longer there. It was both a relief and an issue - the snake was no longer in the commode but now we didn't know where it had gone.
Alec definitely had us on our toes for the rest of the day!

-Mannat 

Birthday Bliss : Part 2

Yesterday was a great day and the night was even more exciting. We were at full strength with everyone from office showing up. I was rather apprehensive at first because I wanted everyone to have a nice time but it ended up being great fun. We ate, drank, danced and had a blast. At one point Sashank even tried to convince the DJ to play a Punjabi song specially for me.

This blog is a shout out to everyone at Sandarbh for making my birthday so special. Thanks guys!

-Mannat

Happy Happy Mannat-Day!

It’s been a busy day at work. I know Mannat must have brought in her birthday in eshtyle last night but the work day was hectic. 

But we did celebrate! Finally had the yummy chole she froze and got for all of us from home and so lunch was goooood! 

And now the real celebrations begin. We’re at the Bar Stock Exchange celebrating this awesome girl who brings such good energy and cheer to the studio! 

Mannat Suri, a very Happy Happy Birthday from all of us at Sandarbh! 

May you not have to go back to college and stay with us forever!! 😜 

Lots of love and stay as awesome!! 

Birthday Bliss

 I love birthdays, especially more so when it's my own. However, this was my first birthday away from home, the first time I didn't celebrate with family. Luckily my sister is studying here in Bangalore and she took me out for dinner last night. The yummy food was followed up by scrumptious cupcakes (a smart replacement for a regular cake!) With so much good food in me, I was barely able to stay up for the midnight wishes. The night passed and next morning I was at work. I was greeted with hugs and wishes and felt super special. Even my friends from back home (who couldn't make it to Bangalore for my birthday even though they really wanted to) made sure to make my day special by sending a lovely cake for me. If that was not enough lunch was planned to be the channa that I had brought from home. Generally some of us go out for lunch while others order in or bring food from home. Today we all are together, enjoying the channa and other food we had ordered with it. It was a great day with all of us looking for the to the celebrations in the evening. Stay tuned to know more about that...

-Mannat 

Workshop Experiences with Tanvi – Part 2

While Day 1 was all about Tanvi finding her groove at the workshop, Day 2 was much more to her. Keep reading and you’ll know what I mean…

“ Day 1 was a bit slow and challenging as we had to do all the markings of the steps on the granite but the next day I felt a lot more confident. It was a bit of an ‘I got this’ mindset that I started off the next day with. Since the profile of each step was slightly different it was’t really a module and so it took us some time to get all the steps cut. The third day was a bit of a challenge again – this time with the marble cutting. The edges were quite broken and the cutlist had to be adjusted more so than the granite also. Furthermore, the marble was rather brittle. Even with a good blade the edges kept chipping and we kind of struggled with it. Eventually we managed to get the pieces we needed and all in all it was quite a success. The pieces are all ready now and I can’t wait to see what they would look like once they’re fixed on site.”

-Mannat 

Workshop Experiences with Tanvi – Part 1

With our workshop becoming more and more active, a lot of site work if being shifted there. The whole idea is to prepare at the workshop, get most of the work done there and only do the final finishes and/or assembly and fixing on site. Tanvi was made in-charge of one such task to be carried out at the workshop – the cutting and preparing of marble for cladding and granite for steps. Read on to know her experiences at the workshop

“ My experience with the stone cutting at the workshop was challenging but also fun. The very first day, we faced our very first challenge – the granite slabs were super heavy. For each slab to be cut, it had to be unloaded and kept on a sand bed that had been prepared. We used rollers to move about the slab and even with the efforts of 5 people it was really hard to move them. The first day was majorly all about the marking. We had to remove approximately 1” on all sides to achieve a perfect rectangle. After that it was all about figuring out how to cut and where to cut. With the stone sizes being slightly different from the cutlist, there was some amount of changing things up while we were working, a little bit of thinking on your feet. After all the marking was completed (which took most of the day), with the time that remained we started cutting. In terms of the cutting, today was a slow day and we were only able to cut two granite steps with the nosing and polishing done for them. Initially I really wasn’t confident about the work going on as this was my first experience with granite work. The first day was a little slow but we definitely picked up speed after that…”

Curious to know how things improved after Day 1? Stay tuned to know more…

-Mannat 

The Significance of Storage

I joined Sai and Leena for the first meeting with a prospective client today. As we discussed their interior project, we got to know more about their needs and requirements. What they wanted was quite straightforward - a minimalistic design with the focus on storage.And that's one of our beliefs too, no matter how great or fancy a design is, if it doesn't allow for enough storage space it is a failed design. On the other hand if the storage spaces are resolved - whether it is for clothes, appliances, toys, books or linen among many other things - then one has the luxury of making it a good design that works too. As we discussed more and more things for the various rooms, we spoke of all these requirements.
While discussing the children's room, Sai and Leena suggested a bunk bed to allow for more floor space to play around. Their concern was that the room won't be able to function as a guest room. Then Sai suggested that we could design the bunk bed in a manner that the bed also extends out to form a double bed. I have had the same sort of bed in my room for as long as I can remember and it made a lot of sense too since the room is small and shared by my sister and me. Similarly they suggested that the foyer not just have a shoe rack and a console or similar unit but also perhaps a place for the children to keep their sports equipment - balls, rackets etc. Again this was something that I grew up with. Just as we entered the house, we had a couple of steps leading down to the store room where an entire cupboard was dedicated to our playthings. The meeting ended soon after and we had somewhat of an idea to start designing with.
As we drove back from the meeting, I brought up these points with Sai and Leena. I wasn't sure if it was intentional or not but a lot of the points we discussed in the meeting were accounted for in my house. I for one thought it was possibly a coincidence but Sai definitely felt that my parents had kept these things in mind and they were not accidental. I was definitely quite impressed with my parents for understanding the significance of storage and space!

-Mannat 

Clarence's Misadventures, Rithik's Misfortune

While all of us have had our misfortunes with Clarence and the bike, Rithik definitely pulled the shortest stick. This is the story of a rather eventful day as shared by Rithik...

" Clarence and I were on the bike heading to a site in C.V. Raman Nagar. The journey when it started didn't seem like anything special. I was riding and Clarence was navigating. At some point he missed a turn and the Maps then rerouted. We were supposed to take a flyover now and just as we hit the midpoint of the flyover, the bike died. The first question I asked Clarence was how far away we are from the site. From the top of the flyover we could see most of the city around us and Clarence turns around and points towards a part of the city behind us and tells me that's where we had to go. In that moment I realised that we had missed a turn and had to go all the way around to reach our destination. The choice was between going all the way around or just crossing over to the other side and going back. Keeping in mind the Bangalore traffic the latter seemed like the logical choice. We crossed over to the divider navigating through the traffic coming our way. Once there the actual task began. We had to lift the bike over a divider that was 2' high. It was quite hard to pick it up even between the two of us. Finally we were on the other side, heading in the right direction. Some time after that we made it to site. There was no one there except the two of us. We put up the updates on the group and Sai instructed us on how to go ahead with the demolition work. The workers arrived on site and neither me nor Clarence could communicate with them in Hindi or Kannada. We finally were able to communicate with one of the guys in Tamil. They started demolishing the marked walls and we headed out to get some materials. When we got back to site we just waited and watched while the demolition was happening. A part of the wall that had to be demolished was getting held up because of the furniture in the room. Sulu asked if the two of us could remove it and it seemed doable so we agreed. I went into the room with one of the workers, climbing over the debris, to remove a cupboard and thought Clarence would join in to help. I lifted the cupboard from one end only to realise Clarence was nowhere to be seen. He'd done plenty of heavy lifitng on a previous site visit and only came in to support us just as the cupboard nearly tipped over. All of this adventure and it wasn't even lunch time yet! The rest of the day went off without too many issues but the experience of that morning is one that I don't think I'll be able to forget easily. "

-Mannat 

The Misadventures of Clarence

While Arjun is infamous for always getting lost, Clarence is definitely known for his misfortune with the bikes. Practically every time he takes a two-wheeler to site, something or the other goes wrong. We've lost track of the number of times he's been riding and the bike has run out of fuel. Then there has been the occasional flat tyre or the bike refusing to start. His bike stories are great to hear but not always so great when you're the one sitting behind and have to help push the bike to the nearest petrol pump. And everyone who has ever sat on the bike with him has had to push it at one point or the other, the only lucky exception being Sulu. The first time I sat with him, the bike would keep stopping at random intervals. The second time around we ran out of fuel and ended up pushing the bike across a busy junction. That's a record of two for two. Kruti who would often get paired up with him to go to site has many many such stories to share. One of our recent favourites though is the experience that Rithik had with Clarence. Come back tomorrow for a story worth every word. You definitely don't want to miss out on this one...

-Mannat 

Arjun surprises us all

All of us have certain characteristics that we are known for around the office and Arjun is definitely infamous for always being late. He has a tendency to get lost. Even when he leaves on time, he always ends up being late somehow or the other. We always joke around with him, telling him to come on time whenever we all plan to go out together (and often telling him that we're meeting an hour earlier than
Today, Arjun ended up surprising us all! We had all planned to attend a concert this evening and while we all left from office, freshened up and made our way to the venue, Arjun was to join us from site. We were all running a bit late but still were in good time for the main performance. Arjun on the other hand actually ended up reaching an hour before the band was even scheduled to start! While he was quite proud of himself that he got there without getting lost, we were equally proud of him for being not just on time but before time...

All in all it was a fun evening. We heard the band play and stayed around to dance even after. In fact the head banging, jumping and dancing was so intensive that most of us had aching necks and hurting feet the next day!

-Mannat 

Sweet Tooth

Arjun and Harshitha are probably my favourite people in office today and for a very good reason too!

Sometime in the first half of the day, Arjun received a parcel from his mom. Curious as to what it was I decided to take a peak. What was inside the box was definitely interesting but the note with it had my complete attention. Arjun's mom had sent across a large packet of kit-kats along with the following note...

Leena was so happy was to receive this special little gift, she decided to share a part of this happiness with us. After enjoying yummy kit-kats in tiramisu, strawberry, creme brulee and other interesting flavours it was back to work for all of us.

A little while later just as we were about to head out for lunch, Harshitha brought out the goodies. She had just come back from a short trip home and had got all of us cupcakes. We picked from chocolate, red velvet and vanilla each topped with a heaping of icing. And just as we thought we were done for the day, out came the lemon cake. We cut it into slices for everyone to enjoy and it was the perfect balance of sweet and sour.

Too many sweets you say? I say it was just enough to satisfy all of our sweet tooths!

-Mannat

Tidying Up

While we celebrated Vishwakarma Puja yesterday, paying our respects to the Hindu God of architecture as well as the tools of the trade, we also decided to tidy up the office space and get rid of all the clutter.

As an architect in today's day and age, softwares and other digital tools are a must. However, I have often heard the phrase, "Don't let the tools become a limitation" At Sandarbh that doesn't happen. We are given the freedom to express architectural intent in any medium that suits what needs to be conveyed - whether done by hand or digitally or a mix of both. What does become a limitation sometimes is the vibe of the space. In an attempt to make the space more conducive to productivity, we reorganized and cleaned up. Desks and desktops were moved around, books and magazines were dusted and rearranged, materials and catalogs were placed systematically and whatever furniture was not being used in office was sent to the workshop.

The end result was a somewhat transformed space. Unlike our previous cleaning the sessions we did not dwell upon what the space could become but rather what we wanted the space to be like at this point in time.

-Mannat

Vishwakarma Puja

On the auspicious day of Vishwarkarma Puja, we were all invited to the workshop for prayer and offerings. Vishwakarma is known as the Hindu God of architecture and also the divine carpenter. The Mahabharata describes him as "The lord of the arts, executor of a thousand handicrafts, the carpenter of the Gods, the most eminent of artisans, the fashioner of all ornaments... and a great and immortal God." On this day offerings are made to Vishwakarma himself as well as the tools and machines used on site. 

As we entered the workshop, the site staff had put up decorations to celebrate the auspicious day. We paid obeisance to the machines and tools, and then were given sweets and special food that had been prepared for the Puja. 

As we stepped out of the workshop with full bellies after all the yummy food offered to us, we made sure we got a picture to commemorate the auspicious day - a picture of everyone from office and from site!

-Mannat

Mixed Feelings

As I am packin my bags, preparing myself to head back to Bangalore, I'm filled with mixed emotions. Part of me really wants to just stay home and not leave and the other part just wants to come back - the part that misses being independent, that misses work, that misses being a part of an organisation that's bigger than 'me'

Over the past three months I have definitely developed a taste for freedom - not that I didn't have that at home, but rather to do what I want, when I want, the way I want. Plus a lot does change once you start working and to go back home after my experiences at Sandarbh would be slightly challenging and interesting at the same time. As I had mentioned previously, I have definitely changed. The way I work, the way I live, the way I am - everything has changed and hopefully for the better.

I'd still love to stay home, to be with my loved ones in a space that I am most comfortable in, but for now I need to push myself out of my comfort zone. These changes are just the beginning. There is so much more out there for me and I'm willing to discover, grow and evolve one step at a time..

-Mannat

Intrinsic Changes : Part 2

Grow, evolve, change - All of these things are inevitable in the course of time. My journey here at Sandarbh too can be described as one of growth and of changes. And the changes are definitely of a permanent nature, I couldn't undo them even if I wanted to. I have learnt so much more about the profession (which is the sole purpose of training) but I have also learnt so much about myself and the person I wish to be.
There was a time when my middle name could have been panic. I was so easily affected by everything around me, in particular things that weren't in my control. There was a constant look of worry etched on my face and I would be incredibly anxious about most things. I definitely feel a lot calmer and more in control now. Yes, the panic makes an appearance every now and then but it is no longer constantly looming over me. I'm definitely more unaffected by external stimuli now and its visible in my work too. Not much has changed in terms of the kind of work but my approach to it definitely has.
These changes - some minor and others major, have been pretty obvious to me and everyone else at Sandarbh. Turns out my parents and friends have picked up on these changes too. Not everyone could pinpoint exactly what it was but they definitely sensed a difference in me.
The changes may be intrinsic, but they're certainly manifesting themselves extrinsically now!

-Mannat 

Home Sweet Home

Its been over three months since I moved to Bangalore to be a part of Sandarbh. After the initial bouts of homesickness, the adjustment period and finally getting used to my life here, I have come back home for the weekend and it feels soooooo good to be back. Spending time with family in a a place I call my own- the feeling is uniquely comforting. Although in the span of three months Bangalore has somewhat come to be like home too, but the familiarity of a house I've lived in as long as I can remember truly gives me a sense of belonging.
Initially I roam around the entire house, bouncing around from room to room, taking in what has been the same for the longest time as well as observing any changes. A few picture frames have been changed in my parents' room, we have a new microwave in the kitchen, the stack of files lying in Grandmother's room has definitely increased in height and looks more cluttered whereas my room looks rather empty since my sister and I have both moved out.
Eventually I settled down in my room, just lazing around. I'm perched on my bed now, writing this blog. The TV is on but I'm not paying much attention to it. I feel like I'm almost sinking into the mattress, my head resting on a fluffy pillow, enveloped in a soft blanket. This definitely is Home Sweet Home!

-Mannat

Ganpati Bappa Morya!

First and foremost I would like to start off this blog by wishing everyone a Happy Ganesh Chathurthi. 

Lord Ganesha is widely known as the deity of fortuitous beginnings and the remover of obstacles. As we start off with our workshop in full effect, the making of a sculpture of Ganesha himself is one of the first few tasks being undertaken there. Over the past couple of days, Nikhil had been working on prototypes of the statue, trying to get the proportions right ( Read more about that journey in Sculpt and Sculpt 2.0 ) After some hit and trial, he had the proportions resolved in a miniature idol that all of us thought was absolutely adorable and unmistakably Ganesha. 

Now it was time for this to translate into stone. The process will take some time from beginning to end. He started off with nothing more than a boulder yesterday, but today on the auspicious occasion of Ganesh Chathurthi we finally see glimpses of Ganpati himself emerging from it!

-Mannat

Of Antiques and Intricacies

Somewhere in the beginning of my internship, a site visit brought back the excitement towards architecture that I had lost somewhere along the way in the course of my education (Read more about that experience here).

The house itself is very interesting. It is an of an extension of one of Sai's previous projects called Saravan (Find out more about Saravan here) . As of now the house is in the penultimate stages of the first phase. It is an interesting amalgamation of antique doors and windows, intricate cast iron pieces, colourful tiles in all sizes and colours sourced from various places. All of this may sound like a bit of a mish-mash coming together in one place, but trust me the result is anything but that. It's quirky and fun in the right ways. It is a bit much and yet perfectly balanced. Take a look for yourself and you'll know exactly what I'm talking about. 

We anticipate the second phase to be more modern with a steel A-frame structure crowning the home, but that's a conversation for another day...

-Mannat

Welcome to the Gang!

Sandarbh as an organisation has been growing consistently since I joined. With the workshop in the picture, we've only been continuing with that progress. Even in terms of the size of the organisation we have grown leaps and bounds. This week too, we had 2 new architects - Kavya and Rithik join the team. And as per the welcome ritual at Sandarbh, we had to have a party or get together within the first couple of days of them joining. And we did. Conversation flowed and we got to know more about both of them as they did about the rest of us. Chatter and laughter echoed through the office and boy were we loud! All in all it was a fun, chill evening - something we haven't done in a while and we hope to do more often. 

Rithik and Kavya - Welcome to the gang!

-Mannat

Stitch in time

All my life I have been that person who if wasn't fully prepared would not face the music. This attitude in hindsight has been quite detrimental too. Even today there are traces of this that linger in the way that I work. Even now I'm aware that it's not the best way to work but some habits are a little bit harder to break. I may have lost my negative attitude and may not be as emotional with regard to my work but this habit of mine has been a bit harder to shake off. Today was one of those instances where this habit got in the way and Sai was rather upset with me. Initially I couldn't understand why that was. I could come up with many more reasons for him to be upset, but this not being one of them. He later explained that sometimes one need not wait for that moment of being prepared, sometimes it  is more important to be proactive with whatever amount of information or preparation one has. This might sound contradictory to what I've said earlier with regards to preparation and planning but it's all about assessing the situation and responding to it correctly. Yes planning is essential but sometimes a stitch in time can save nine!

-Mannat

Tangible Dreams

As I mentioned yesterday, the idea of a workshop turning to reality has already been set in motion. The next step now is taking our dreams and ideas of the workshop and tailoring them to suit the needs of the space and the needs of the organisation. We've been having several discussions about this both in office and outside it.
How would the layout be? Would we want to shift the entire office there? How would it work if most of the woodwork and fabrication was done in the workshop and only assembled or fixed on site? Would we open the workshop to other people on a pre-decided basis? How would we design the space? Would we use certain parts of it to display our work - both in terms of architecture and the products we wish to create?
A whole bunch of questions with answers that we're not yet certain about. But it's definitely interesting to see how the tone of the conversation has changed. Early we would have these discussions but they didn't necessarily have a sense of finality to them. The discussions now seem to have more of a decisiveness. It's no longer about the idea of it but rather how we envision the space now that its a reality!

-Mannat

Intent + Belief = Reality

Recently, Ananya had written a blog titled 'It's all about the Intent' and I couldn't have agreed with her more. Everything that we do, starts with an intent. Without the intent to do something, it cannot be transformed into a reality. But sometimes just the intent is not enough, one must also have a strong sense of belief too. Over the course of his career Sai has noticed that a project finishes on time if along with us the client also believes that it will. But somewhere we weren't applying this principles to the project of our dream.
The idea of a workshop for Sandarbh has been floating about since the day I joined and before that too. The vision of an office with a more hands on approach where working, learning and doing came together was something that excited us all. The dream was in place, so was the intent. But somewhere I guess none of us believed that it could be achieved at this point, it seemed like something reserved for the future (even if it was the near future) But a lot has changed now. With a small leap of faith, the workshop is now closer than ever. It is no longer a dream for the future but rather a part of our present, something that is becoming more and more of a reality even as I type this blog...

-Mannat

Sculpt 2.0

A lot of the things that we've been discussing in office off late are finally turning into a reality. I'll talk more about this in the upcoming posts but one of the endeavours that has transformed from conversation to action is the idea of sculpting.

Nikhil started off today with a few sketches of a Ganesh sculpture. But before any of these could be set in stone (literally), Sai suggested that he try out the same as a prototype in soap. He started off with a simple bar of soap with just a cutter and a plastic spoon as his tools. Through the day we saw the progress. 

When he first showed us what he had made, it looked amazing from the front (much like his sketches) but the side profile didn't do it justice. 

As he kept working on it, the whole thing came together as a true sculpture, resolved in all 3 dimensions. We're all waiting to see what this would look like in stone!

-Mannat

First Time Around

One of my favorite parts about being an architect is to make models. In fact that was one of the things that first drew me to architecture - the whole idea of something on paper being turned into a reality in space. However, as much as I enjoy model-making it has been a series of trial and errors in college. Often when I have got my models laser cut, I've got the result that I have wanted. Other times, there have been a few pieces that I didn't account for, or pieces that didn't particularly fit the way I wanted them to. In times like this my father would often tell me that I need to plan better, that a little more thought and time could have prevented the failed attempts.
This is something that I have found to be true not just in the domain of making models but even in the real life construction of buildings. A little thought, planning and preparation goes a long way. Sai often insists that it's better to take another day to plan everything and make arrangements for a particular task on site that to rush into things. After all, it's easier and more efficient to do things right the first time around. In most cases, coming back to rectify things later results in both double the time and the effort.
This is another one of those principles that we're putting in place now. For a task to be scheduled certain pre-requisites have to be met on site. The drawings have to be ready and approved, material has to be on site atleast two days in advance and all arrangements in terms of tools and machinery have to be made. Only with all of this in place can the task proceed. In the moment, it may seem like a hindrance but in the long term it's better to get it right the first time around!

-Mannat

Under the Weather

As we're getting more familiar with the processes that we're putting in place, the levels of predictability are increasing. It may be because we are more organised or we're in a better position to anticipate, but the fact remains that there are lesser variations from what is intended and even those variations to a certain extent are within a range of foresight. Work aside, there has been a lot more predictability in my life too and a lot of it is thanks to the work environment cultivated at Sandarbh. But the one thing where I haven't been able to assign any amount of predictability to is the weather in Bangalore (which in my opinion is also the best thing about this city!) The weather here is beautiful but you never know what to expect. It could be an incredibly cloudy day but there would be no rain. Or it'll be incredibly sunny and suddenly it'll start pouring. You could leave the house in the morning, well-clad to deal with the chill in the air and an hour later be faced with sweltering heat. Coming from Delhi,  these minute to minute variations in the weather are something that I'm not used to and surprisingly neither is my body. Yes,I love the weather in Bangalore but my body doesn't seem to agree with me. Owing to this unpredictability, I have been a bit under the weather off late.
Let's hope that I can continue to enjoy this beautiful yet unpredictable weather for the rest of the time that I'm here, just in better health!

-Mannat 

Let's Go Shopping

Today was one of the hottest days that Bangalore has seen in a while (as was told to me by people who have been here for a while) It also happened to be the day that Leena and I had picked to go and select Marble and Granite with a client. As we approached the place the image in my head was very different from what I saw. There was a large open area with nothing but slabs and slabs of granite being displayed. We walked around, thinking out loud, wondering what would look good where, how a certain part of the stone would look as compared to the slab or even how whole slabs could be used as statement pieces. We were shown the various finishes that we could select from - polished, lappato, sandblasted and many others. What really fascinated me was that the same finishing process could have different results on the different types of granite. The lappato finish looked vastly different on different slabs based on their inherent characteristics. After going through various indigenous and exotic stone slabs and picking a few favorites, we headed towards making a few selection in marble. The array of different kinds of white marble was certainly striking, especially with the sun reflecting off them!

What was wonderful to see was the variety of options that nature had to present to us. Even within the same kind of granite from the same place, there were variations depending which side of the mountain the stone came from. And some of the pieces that we saw were true beauties of nature. Never in my life had I thought that I'd be this excited about a slab of stone!

-Mannat 

Life Cycle of a Project : Part II

As I was saying yesterday, the life of a project is cyclic in nature and can essentially be broken down into certain major components. The cycle of course starts with the client - understanding their needs, requirements and preferences. These are then converted into a design keeping in mind other factors like the site conditions, the context, the bye-laws among many others. Add to this  ideas like architectural styles, standout elements, highlighting features and ultimately you have a design ready on paper.
But this information is not enough to take the design to site. Before it can be implemented specifications and estimations need to be put into place. Only once these decisions are taken can one move to the stage of procuring materials for site. With the drawings, material and human resource on site, the two-dimensional design starts turning into a three-dimensional entity in space. Ultimately this built form is handed back to the client, thus completing the cycle.
Each of these steps requires a different profile of work and consequently a somewhat different skillset under the umbrella of being an architect. These additional skills are the basis of the division of work at Sandarbh. Some people are better with logic and numbers than others, some better at visual presentations, while others still may be better at communicating through words. It only makes sense to utilize these skills to their highest potential and assign jobs accordingly. After all, you'd never ask a fish to climb a tree right?

-Mannat 

Life Cycle of a Project

As most of you know by now, my Sundays are usually full of being lazy and unproductive. Today while I lay in bed doing pretty much nothing, Dhruvi sat there putting together a mid semester report for her internship. We're halfway through our respective internships now, with just a couple of months left and she's required to submit a part of her work experience portfolio this week. Sometime in the evening I got curious and asked her to show me what she was working on. The first few pages of the report were dedicated to explaining how Sandarbh works as an organization and it's important to explain this too. Unlike a lot of other offices, we don't divide ourselves as teams that handle particular projects. Instead everybody works on all the projects in some capacity or the other. It's an interesting approach to be honest. Everyone may not be aware of all the details of every project but we all have a fair idea of what's going on with each of them.
One of the things we've been discussing in office these days is the life cycle of a project and how it can essentially be split into 6 aspects from beginning to end - starting from the marketing leading to design, to estimations and project management and ending with site execution and commercials. Come back tomorrow to know more about the division of each of these 6 teams and their roles and functions through the projects

-Mannat 

Machine over Man

You know how you have those sci-fi movies amd TV shows where robots and artificial intelligence take over human lives? Well this blog is certainly not going to take that route. But one has to admit that machinery certainly makes a lot of human effort redundant.
One of our projects is running on somewhat of a deadline. Within a month the client wishes to move in. But in this situation if the door and window frames themselves take fifteen days, then what about the rest?
Instead if you do the same quantum of work in a factory which has all the machinery set up, the same activity will take one-third of the time and certainly less human effort. Obviously one wouldn't want a scenario where machines take over, but in certain cases like this one, machinery certainly takes over man!

-Mannat