Thoughts, views and Ideas on architecture

Thoughts and views on architecture education and profession, contributed by the community of architects, students, educators and more.

All views expressed in this section are of the respective authors, and does not reflect the position of ArchitectureLive!

“Spirited with the basics” - ART AND ARCHITECTURE

Spirited with the basics – Art and Architecture

The team at Art and Architecture is focused on the core skills of architecture to keep the design process enlivened and simplified. The team kept themselves inspired and refreshed with enjoyable activities through the lockdown such as photo documentation of their favourite city parts, artwork, documenting personal and studio work and more. The lockdown was an opportunity to explore opportunities for other creative activities.

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"Learning from the digitized work efficiency during the pandemic" - Aanai Studio

Learning from the digitized work efficiency during the pandemic – Aanai Studio

Aanai Studio’s services are focused on furniture, interior design and architecture,  inspired by indigenous craftsmanship, sustainable materials, and design ingenuity for built interiors. The pandemic has provided an opportunity to rethink the studio’s research and development, separate personal and work life, both adding to their work fluency. This gives them time to pursue other personal interests too, much needed in today’s work-from-home scenario.

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P.K.Das and Samarth Das

Rebooting Work Routines and Stalled Public Contributions – PK Das and Associates

Within the studio at PK Das and Associates, digitized work methods and remote meetings have revealed a better organization of work items thanks to the methodical online framework that the studio developed. Subsequently, fresher routines have evolved from these changes. Contributions to the public realm in Mumbai has been an important facet of the practice for over 25 years, but the curtailing of MPLAD expenditure during the lockdown has stalled this progress too. 

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Nurturing a technological and Socially relevant practice through the pandemic - DesignAware

Nurturing a technological and Socially relevant practice through the pandemic – Takbir Fatima, DesignAware

DesignAware has been working with tech-based design methodologies since their founding year, thanks to the team’s background in technological awareness related to architectural design. The studio experienced a multiplied impact due to the floods in Hyderabad during the pandemic. The lockdown and the post-flood situation has spurred the team to rethink their practice strengths and equip more resiliency. This direction has also pushed the team to nurture their studio practice itself as a physical entity, in addition to their successful initiatives in educational and socially relevant projects.

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Santhosh Shanmugam

Safety and good health, both physical and mental, was our priority during the pandemic. – Santhosh Shanmugam, Shanmugam Associates

Shanmugam Associates has been long-sustaining as a mainstream architectural service provider, with a focus on core design methodologies. The team found their contingency plans to lend a helping hand during a stoppage of work and life during the pandemic. The back-up for identifying renewed inspiration for the team and their workflow was given by the contingency plans.

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Balaji temple at Andhra by Sameep Padora and Associates

Balaji Temple at Andhra Pradesh by Sameep Padora and Associates has achieved a very sophisticated level of abstraction: Praveen Bavadekar

The following critique for the Balaji Temple at Andhra Pradesh, an award-winning project designed by Sameep Padora and Associates, was shared by Praveen Bavadeker. Praveen Bavadekar is Principal at Third Space Studio.
The Balaji temple in Nandyal explores and abstracts the long tradition of the temple typology in India.

The architectural philosopher Andrew Benjamin wrote that every act of design was an act of repetition and that architecture is about exploring what not to repeat. This building too repeats or emulates certain tropes of the Hindu temple so that it is recognisable as a temple yet it doesn’t replicate those tropes but rather breaks them down to constituent parts to then again reconstruct it.

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Architecture Practice Strategies During the Pandemic 2020

Architecture Practice Strategies During the Pandemic 2020

The paper titled “Practice Strategies During The Pandemic 2020”, has a focus on the younger and emerging practices alongside a few established senior ones, in the major metros of Ahmedabad, Bangalore, Chennai, Delhi and Hyderabad in addition to tier II cities too. The article aims to highlight the globally and nationally unexpected economic boot camps into which Indian architectural practice found itself due to the unfortunate outbreak of COVID-19.

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IIM Ahmedabad: Averting an imminent historic catastrophe

IIM Ahmedabad: Averting an imminent historic catastrophe, Dr. S.S.Bhatti

Buildings in Louis Kahn’s IIM Ahmedabad Set to Be Demolished” is the caption of the eminent architectural historian William Curtis published on December 23, 2020, in Architectural Record. He has done an insightful analysis of the problem and written a persuasive piece to dissuade the authorities concerned from their suicidal resolve. For me, the heart-rending news highlights a glaring irony.

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Tribute to Architect Kuldip Singh on his 76th Anniversary, by Shobhana Menon

Tribute to Architect Kuldip Singh, by Shobhana Menon

Kuldip Singh architect –  the name immediately conjures up visions of two iconic Delhi buildings designed  by him to most people –  Palika Kendra on Sansad marg and  NCDC office building  on Siri fort road – not realizing that he and his work were much more than these two buildings.

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Photostory by 'Bhawna Jaimini and Natasha Sharma'

Can Waste Bring Communities Living in High Density Vertical Slums Together?-A Photostory by Bhawna Jaimini and Natasha Sharma

Natwar Parekh Compound is a public housing neighborhood in the east of Mumbai inhabiting people from slums across the city. With tightly packed grid of 61 buildings on a 5 hectare plot, the density of Natwar Parekh Colony is around 4500 people/ha (Density of the most populated city in the world, Dhaka, is 550 people/ha). Open spaces make up less than 18% of the site area, none of which are usable for any recreational or community activities, keeping residents limited to their 225 square feet apartments. – Photostory by ‘Bhawna Jaimini and Natasha Sharma’

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