Consuming Passion

Aniket Bhagwat introduced Karan Grover and went on to share his ideas about responsible design and what should consume the Indian architect today.

When one studies the preoccupations of the designer in any age, he seems to be guided by a range of political, cultural and economic influences that shape that age. History will bear this out.

India has been no different, as a quick investigation of the post-Independence decades reveal.
 

In the 1940s, the imperative to shape a new nation was paramount – one that broke the shackles of its past, and emerged as a phoenix. Le Corbusier’s Chandigarh and structures like the Bhakra Nangal Dam epitomised this period.

Soon enough, the simmering socialist thought conquered the nation’s imagination. And what began as a series of experiments in the late 1960s, fructified as social housing schemes along with government-funded institutions that were in sync with the protectionist economic regime.

Doshi’s Aranya Housing at Indore, or Correa’s Housing at Belapur, exemplified this thought. The designer was, however, already restless, and his identity seemed at peril.

Investigations in the vernacular, the ancient ways of building, found their echo in buildings such as Jawahar Kala Kendra in Jaipur, and in Laurie Baker’s learning and interpretations of the vernacular.

By the ’80s, the economy had begun to open up – and, powered by the IT industry, it was paramount to seem global. Sure enough, the architect responded by building steel and glass edifices that seemed to be part of an extended, albeit rootless, family that had overrun the world.

Today, with global concern about sustainability, the architect has focused all his energies on demonstrating “energy responsible” ways of building.

The question is not whether one period was right or wrong. It is not about judgment, as much as it is about recognising that designers will, like all strata of society, respond to that which seems the dominant influencing imperative. And today that imperative is energy sustainability.

Unfortunately, some fundamental lessons seem to be forgotten each day.

Design, which was influenced by culture, the arts, the social habits, the intellectual and physical context, now seems to rely for its credibility, only on being certified as “green”.

Bit by bit, like a train uncoupling its wagons and chugging forward sans passengers and cargo, design has dropped concerns of art, culture, social context and intellectual content, and the lone carriage of “sustainable design “ remains. An age-old way of what has and will continue to be the backbone of design is being forsaken.

A study of those projects that shape our canons (eg. Antonin Raymond’s timeless Golconde House at Pondicherry, Nari Gandhi’s many houses around Bombay, Achyut Kanvinde’s ATIRA and PRL buildings at Ahmedabad) will reveal that it is the projects that transcended the immediate and allowed conversations in time, that have prevailed; not those that were the popular flavour of the decade. Good design, then, has always held on to some fundamentals. (See matrix below.)

It will serve us all well to determine for ourselves what this matrix can be, and how it should guide us.

Each student or professional, I believe, should invest some energy in determining what is his guiding matrix; and the more generous it is, the more broad-based it is – the more it is likely to find meanings and values that may transcend time.

There is not one matrix; but many personal interpretations of a credo that we can subscribe to, and allow our thoughts and work to be guided by.

Note: The selected images from the work of M/s Prabhakar B Bhagwat, seen here, attempt to articulate interpretations of a sustainable design matrix.

Introducing karan grover, the Man with a Mission
There are always two aspects to introducing a person… what he does, and who he is.

The factual part of introducing Karan is simple. Karan runs a highly successful, well-known design practice out of Baroda. A graduate from Baroda and then AA, Karan has, from his first, MB Dave gold medal for his thesis on ‘Pedestrian Precincts’, not looked back.

From early workshops with Hasan Fathy, Karan has gone on to be an Aga Khan award nominee, was one of the 14 Asian architects who showed their work at an exhibition in Tokyo, doggedly pursued his dream and ensured that Champaner got a UNESCO World Heritage status, won the first Leed Platinum rating for his building in Hyderabad, served as a panelist for the Clinton Global Initiative, presented keynote addresses at the United Nations, is now the permanent honorary fellow of the National Academy of Environment, and was a member of the World Economic Forum’s panel on sustainability.

So, there’s a lot we can say about what Karan does; but it’s more important, I feel, to focus on who he is.

The first thing that strikes you is that he has tremendous energy; to do anything - travel around the world, lecture, organise events, argue a point, work on a project, anything!
The second thing you realise, is that he speaks his mind. Blunt, honest, but always with style.

Then you notice that he is a stickler for precision. The way an event is organised, the manner in which dinner is served, an appointment given to someone, the manner in which work is looked at - it has to be perfect and precise.

Then you are always confounded by his generosity. He will do unexpected things for people he knows little, and I am testimony to that. And the sheer breadth and thought behind his act will leave you gasping with surprise.

But above all, you realise that he has a mission, an extraordinary one. To make climate change, to make conservation, to make architectural dialogue the centrepiece of everyone’s thought process.

It is unarguable that he lives a larger-than-life existence with great passion; proving the age-old belief that if you do something with extraordinary commitment, and passion, extraordinary success will follow.

Ladies and gentlemen, Mr Karan Grover!