Does your building make business sense?

This is from an article that I wrote for Business Gyan :

The origin of your business or entrepreneurial venture has been a creative idea. Some years have been spent in developing that idea, in seeking capital, in marketing the idea, in learning to focus and in making the idea a long-term goal. Through all this, your business has nested itself in one, or more than one physical environment. This may have been a garage to begin with, an office in a commercial building, two floors in an expensive location in town and today, you may be a company with its own building or about to occupy its own premises. If you have the time, it may be worthwhile today to do a Post-Occupancy Evaluation of the building and to ask yourself and your team – Does our building make business sense?

Here is a link to the full article

City Design in India

It may be useful to establish a Research unit to support a Municipal Corporation or Urban Development Authority in every Indian city.

This unit is required to develop further design concepts that will benefit the city in the long-term. There would be research activities conducted here (both by the Unit Staff & external Consultants) without the pressures of time and the urgency of constantly executing projects and “making a visible difference”. Projects would be allowed time from 6 months to 2 years before implementation takes place. Short-term deadlines and handling of the day-to-day problems of the city would be carried out by the other departments of Municipal Corporation or UDA. A Research unit of this kind will maintain consistency of vision for the city’s development over the years.


The following projects may be initiated at the Research Unit for City Design (RUCD) :
- Socio-economic and physical surveys of specific areas within the city
- Documentation of Streets & Public spaces
- How to utilise Geographic Information Systems (GIS) for Infrastructure planning, such as water supply, telephone cables, sewerage system, drainage system, etc.
- Developing Urban Design guidelines
- Development of Urban spaces – squares /plazas and spaces between buildings -Improving Traffic sense and Civic sense amongst the Public (through awareness campaigns & educational packages for schools)
- Renewable energy systems – implications for the city, e.g. solar energy for street lighting
- Street design & Art in Public plazas
- Exploring the use of Rain-water harvesting on the city scale
- Environmental planning
- Fellowship programme for design & planning studies
- Exposure lectures / programs/ visits for the town planning staff
- Maintaining a network of Resource persons / professionals for projects to be undertaken
- Evaluating Building & Planning norms and making them more realistic and designed to make a better city
- Evolving strategies for the sustenance and future development of old, historic parts of the city
- Building and maintaining a Public library of City Design & Planning (with books on Urban architecture, Street development, Landscape Planning, Squares & Plazas, Lighting, Outdoor Environment, City Planning, etc.)
- Questionnaire Survey of Residents in the city regarding the day-to-day problems and facilities required.
- Questionnaire Survey of Visitors to the city (this may be carried out particularly at Professionals’Conferences being held in the city)

Ganapati Karkhanas

The men worked quietly on the plaster of paris idols. They let us come in, let us watch them at work. It was so unusual to be in a place with so many ganeshas. The streets around Shivaji Chowk in Pen, 45 min.from Panvel, in Maharashtra are lined with Karkhanas or workshops that create the Ganapati statues that are sent to Bombay and to towns all over Maharashtra. It is said that more than 70% of the statues that are sold in Bombay are made in Pen.




Each of these ganeshas are destined to have a life of their own, in street corners in Bombay and elsewhere that are preparing themselves to celebrate the arrival of the elephant god - the megastar of the ganesha festival.





These are not the most ideal conditions for the artisans to work in and yet the work goes on. Can tourism not bring in the funds that can also upgrade working environments within the ganapati karkhanas?

There was natural light falling on the quiet ganesha in waiting. The men who were skilled with their hands and had made these gorgeous idols from ordinary clay were men to be admired.

A ganesha tour could indeed be a beautiful experience for many of us. It could be a one-day trip that would begin with the ganesh darshan at the karkhanas, then, a walk down few of the streets in Pen, to know the still prevalent vernacular architecture of the konkan region, a lunch and then, some looking around in the local bazaar and interacting with the local people.

A vernacular house could be identified for lease to be managed by Maharashtra Tourism Development Corporation or as a Private sector enterprise in the vicinity of Shivaji Chowk, similar to the heritage houses developed by Pondicherry tourism as boutiques, restaurants & coffee shops.

A traditional street that could be developed as part of the walking tour in Pen in addition to the visits to the Ganapati Kharkhanas.


Infrastructure such as roads, water supply and drainage systems may need upgradation if a floating tourist population is expected. The tourist facilities that could be provided here are:

• Restaurant with local cuisine
• Tea shop that is clean and with a ganesha storyline for the theme
• Rest rooms/Toilets
• ATM
• Ganapati Souvenir shop
• Ganesha Museum

There are an increasing number of craft tours and textile tours that allow us to explore the world of the artisans in India. "One day in the life of a silent Ganesha" could be one such fulfilling experience for the discerning tourist.


One of the karkhanas visited was the : Wadke Bandhu Kala Mandir, Kasar Ali, Pen - Raigad. ph: 02143- 254237 & 93707-17877

Coffee shop, then and now

The coffee shop one went to in the old days was the ‘Indian Coffee house’ or the ‘Udipi’ restaurant that offered the “filter coffee”. Today, indian cities have a variety in coffee shops – the Café Coffee day, the Barista and so on. These do not sell the indian filter coffee. They sell “cappuchino” and “café au lait” amongst other european coffees. The present-day coffee shop is a new kind of space within our interior architecture needs. And, how does one design such a “place to hang out” where the cup of coffee of western origin is more expensive than the filter coffee of indian origin? What do the young users of these new spaces expect?

‘Pastries,Coffee & Conversations’ was designed as a place for young people in Visakhapatnam. The new HSBC building was being built and there was soon going to be an increase in the demand for an already successful home-based bakery outlet in the vicinity. The client’s brief was - coffee shop that was simple and yet different.

The inspiration for the furniture came from George Nakashima’s work. It was designed with inexpensive curved pieces of teakwood that remain when the sides of a tree trunk are cut to make the clean slices for sale. The butterfly joint was used to link the pieces for the tabletop and the chair seat and back. Wrought iron was used for the support for both the tables and the chairs.

The space was envisaged as all-white textured walls with the richness of the polished teakwood and the lighting being the accent. This was a contemporary space because it belonged to the present. It hoped to link the new with the old. The space and the way the light was nurtured were new, the materials came from the past and the detailing was both old and new.

Understanding our Streets

What are the origins of a street?
How is a street in a village different from one in the town or in a city?
Where does a street come from?
Where does it go?
How does a street grow?
How many kinds of streets does a city have?

In a village . . .
When several houses are built near each other,
The path connecting them becomes the STREET

In a town . . .
A popular trading route makes people settle gradually along it
and slowly this becomes a MAIN LINKAGE or street

In a city . . .
When many streets exist already,
further growth of industry, increase in population
results in planning of additional ROADS or Streets

There will be different streets based on where they start or finish and also based on their inhabitants and on the kind of buildings they have; a street leading to a temple will be different from one leading to a cinema hall.

Can an Indian street be enclosed within two parallel lines?
Where will the cobbler sit?
How to accommodate the roadside shrine?
the Paanshop
or
the Sugarcane juice stall?

Jaisalmer and pre-cast construction

Jaisalmer as a city, as urban fabric, is in total harmony with its soil, its terrain and the lifestyle of its people. A city in yellow stone, a sculpture that emerges out of the landscape. But, Jaisalmer is a man-made sculpture of small well-designed parts. The parts that make the harmonious whole are the key to the urban fabric that one sees today in Rajasthan.

It is a system of carved elements - stone slabs, beams, columns - pieces put together, the putting together - a carefully pre-planned process. Stone carvers - the artists, the artisans working in groups to deliver the pieces as required, with every piece cut, carved, to make a railing, to turn it to make a junction or to break the monotony of a symmetrical façade.

Stone blocks cut and carved to make an arch, a doorway, a jharokha, brackets that support a circular jharokha, brackets that are radiating out from a point and therefore vary in their sizes, but must be carved to precision to take their place away from the courtyard of the carver's house, in the walls of the palace.

And today, centuries later, can Bombay, Calcutta or Delhi boast of a harmonious city fabric inspite of the progress made in construction technology? Should we not rethink about the city as a whole and apply the technology to the whole rather than to a part, a sole building? We make individual buildings with our technological inputs. Can we not energise our entire city system which may produce a building that reflects the common ideology? Can we use stone again? Can we carve again? We can, but perhaps at greater expense and therefore we may look for a less expensive alternative.

Can precast concrete elements take the place of stone slabs, beams, columns, brackets, railing? If we were to analyse the system of building in Jaisalmer and devise thereon a system for use today, we will perhaps have an answer to a better city fabric woven into the other townscapes and reflecting the current mind structure too.

Urban morphology in India has been studied before. Architects and planners know today how courtyards, streets and built-form come together to make Indian cities. Contemporary Indian architects are designing townships for industrial empires. Many of these reflect the Indian norms for City Planning, yet the built-form is a collection of units that are in concrete, and sometimes alien.

If we could merge the appropriate technology being researched and practised in some parts of India with these early canons of planning to generate urban patterns of relevance and create an aesthetic that one can relate to, we will again have cities and townships that we can be proud of.

It has spices, it has quiet…

Kumily has places that sell spices, it also has places that sell food and some quietitude. The restaurant at Ambadi is well-frequented by foreigners. Ambadi is a hotel which was built more than 20 years ago and is designed by Laurie Baker. Set amidst the forested area of Kumily, it is built in exposed brickwork and roofed in mangalore tiles.

It is an architecture that knows the culture of Kerala and the people of Kerala. One wall is crafted with brick and stone that make a portraiture of a Kathakali dancer. The rooms have verandahs that are themselves protected by tree canopies. A performing art form that is also now a building art. It lends the façade a textural quality.

Another part of the hotel has a longer verandah that uses for a railing, a mix of unshaped wood from the jungle nearby and a more orderly motif in teakwood. The old trees have been preserved and perhaps more planted. Sunlight filters in through the branches which rest comfortably, sometimes on a wall, sometimes on a window overhang. Here, one does not say, ‘this is building, this is landscape’. They came together and grew together.

Ambadi has also architectural detailing of an exquisite nature. There is the staircase that speaks of the hours of dedication of an artist in wood, there are the carved windows in wood that may have once been part of a tharavad. Laurie Baker often recycled doors and windows into his projects, from houses in Kerala that people chose to demolish to build a lavish, modern home. In this part of Kumily, as in many other parts of Kumily, you see the trees and you hear the birds. You take back with you the smell of spices and the touch of silence.

Designing an apartment complex

Contemporary architecture in the cities in india is now a reflection of the needs of the urban indian.

In cities such as Bangalore and Chennai, these needs stem from the development of the IT industry, the large employment it generates, the rise in the standard of living and the growing expectations of a population of young people who are participants in this revolution. As this happens, there is a new architectural typology that is emerging – the Residential complex that consists of apartment units, a clubhouse and a convenience store.

In 2006, residential development in urban india is taking on a new perspective. The search is on for shelter that is not just a place to live but a place to create a new lifestyle. The price of the land is higher than the structures that are constructed on it. Therefore, it is more economical for a developer to build apartment complexes instead of a colony of houses or “villas” as we refer to them today. Each apartment unit sits with many other apartment units in a large complex that also offers a clubhouse, a swimming pool and a central landscaped area.

In chennai, it is the Old Mahabalipuram road where many such “gated communities” have begun to develop. What is a “gated community” and where does this term originate? In America and in some European countries, it is common for the rich city dweller to buy a house in the countryside which is one among a group of houses, sometimes nestled amongst the mountains and which is gated, i.e. provided with high security. People feel the need to have a house that is safe from the crime and violence of the city.

In India, living within a gated community is symbolic of a new lifestyle. It implies that you can afford an apartment that is well-constructed, that is maintained by a good management service that you pay a monthly fee for, that provides your children with a play area, that is private and safe, and that provides you with the amenities you need to counter-balance a work-life that is hectic and harsh on your health.

The design process for one such residential complex began with conceptualising a complex of building volumes that would be an interesting play of masses & voids; where the different planes of the façade would be planes of bright colours from a warm palette; where the light and shadow of a tropical sun would make the architecture a different experience.

What one learnt is that in chennai, the apartments that sell within a residential complex are the ones that get ample south breeze; where the kitchen & puja room are located as per vastu; apartments which overlook the ‘centrally landscaped area’ and which have two car parks. This is what is important for a buyer.

For the builder, that is the one who sells, it is important that the price of the land he purchases or partners on is reasonable; that the infrastructure – road and electric supply are available; that the architectural design is good; that the plan, the elevation & 3D views translate quickly into a brochure that is attractive; that the advertisement in the newspapers is appropriate and timely; that the apartments are booked early so that he recovers the money invested in the land or that which is needed to bring in the material for the construction to begin.