A Timeless Way of Living

By Ar. Christopher Charles Benninger

In architecture we are passing through a period in which the baby who cries the loudest gets the milk. What I mean is that architects are screaming and yelling like babies to grab attention. Façade architecture – the packaging of buildings in trendy wrappings – is popular. Fashionable western architects are ‘selling styles,’ not making architecture. Each building they make looks like a copy of the one before it.

These architects are playing on only one sense, the visual, leaving touch and textures, smell and sound, volume and proportion to the winds. Common sense, context and integrating with nature have become passé. In other words architecture is at one of its low historical points where most of its practitioners are chasing style and crude popularity. This bad taste is media-driven from cities, outward to the smaller towns. It works on the center-periphery phenomenon where more and more energy builds up at a central point until the system explodes. While this is happening at the center, there is more calm, thought and reflection out on the periphery. Often more creative works can be expected from either Ahmedabad or Pune than from Mumbai, and from Mumbai more than from New York. But young architects always look into the distance to find local truths. When they seek truth at the center they will only find opaque theories, not relevant processes and methods to create true art.

Over the past decade young architects have grown up in a digital world. Their experience of architecture has been in virtual reality: 3D on a 2D computer screen. While this has helped to push the limits of the visual world, it has suppressed experiential architecture that finds its true measure not only in vision and sight but also in touch, smell, sound, sequence and movement. In the resulting cacophony we even find young architects wondering: What is Architecture? They want to know what the reality of architecture is.

Continuously Educating Ourselves

Education in architecture is a search for the reality of architecture. There are several ‘givens’ about this reality that form the basis of education and practice. I list a few of them:
  Architecture is built; it is construction; it is technology.

       Architecture is a response to functional needs; it is a product with performance standards.

Architecture is social action. Every building either gives to or takes from the social milieu. At the most basic level the exploitation of the maximum Floor Space Index - a commercial factor – becomes an indicator of the architect’s ‘social commitment.’ Architects can also create new public domains. They can make schools into places that stimulate learning. They can bring nature into people’s everyday lives. They can create social housing.    
Architecture is an exercise in economic analysis. Every client has a budget that is an estimate of the value of the economic operation of the building in producing something - at least happiness in a home or inspiration in a school.

     Architecture is history as it is a part of a behavioral pattern which persists over time. It is a process in the present, which draws on the past and creates the future
    Architecture is poetry, because in the end it must go beyond the programmatic. It must say something about the human condition that is not explicit. It must raise people’s spirits and spark their curiosities.

Architecture exists just one step outside materiality. It dwells in our sense of experience, our immediate memories and in the identity of a place.

Critical Regionalism

I feel each country in the world, and each region in each country, has its own unique expression of architecture. There are elemental concerns (confused as global concerns) that attract the efforts of all sincere architects of good intention. All true architects seek the honest expression of materials, the employment of human scale and proportion, integration with nature, a belonging within context, a gift of meaning and sense of place for the inhabitants. All of these characteristics can be discovered through the study of traditional buildings and neighborhoods in their own contextual settings. One need not go to London to find architecture. Every regional context holds the secret of good architecture. Bangalore, Kochi, Aurangabad, Ahmedabad, Chennai, Pune, Kolkata, Delhi and many other such places are regional centers with strong local contexts to draw architectural lessons from. Why not begin one’s search for architecture by studying the vernacular structures in one’s own vicinity? Maybe all of the secrets lie within a ten-minute walk? In vernacular cultures there is a lot of variety and self-expression that comes from within people and projects out. In global culture there is a homogeneous mono-culture oppressing in on the individual and stifling creativity.

Vernaculars: Attitudes/Components/Elements

Thus, when a young architect is searching for his unique identity as a designer, that search for a language can begin within a hundred-kilometer radius from his home! Maybe it begins right at home!

Every architect must have a language, and in fact I believe each region enshrines an architectural language, or its own dialect. This is part of a cumulative heritage that can be studied, imbibed, and used as a vehicle to catalyze new and relevant design ideas. Such an approach generates a fellowship between local competitors, as a common and mutually shared approach emerges in their way of doing things. I am proposing that regional architectural languages can be defined by seeking out regional attitudes toward space and place making; by searching for and defining basic components; and by understanding the elemental characteristics that  persist through and gift meaning to local structures. Let me further elaborate on these aspects of regional styles and languages.

I) Attitudes

Attitudes toward spatial arrangements and place making are embedded in the experiential use of architecture. What is sacred in a place and what is profane depends on local culture. Is there a difference between a mundane door that provides security and a profound ‘portal’ that is a transition into a sacred space? Does every place have its own sacredness that must be celebrated? Does a central courtyard define movement from the public realm of the street to the private, more personal realm of a dwelling? How does a door ‘proclaim’ the transition from an impersonal street to a special place? Does the courtyard catalyze conviviality? Does it demarcate the domestic sphere from the occupational sphere? Does it tell outsiders to temper their behavior to a more respectful and considerate mode of interaction? Do murals, statues, paintings and artifacts begin to speak about the particular likes, nature and concerns of inhabitants? Are they cues telling visitors who they are meeting and what behavior would be appropriate? Different regions use and modulate attitudes toward ‘space and place making’ in different ways. There can also be significant shared ideas and concepts between regions. Attitudes are not exclusive, they just exist. Think of the various doors you have seen in your life. Imagine their sizes, materials, colors and shapes. Some are set back in shaded niches or are introduced by a cozy porch. Some have an alcove inside where one can sit and play chess on an otta built within the niche. Some are so large that they have a small door within a larger door. Some focus a view on a statue in a courtyard to draw you within. Some hide what follows, creating a sense of mystery, and then surprise. Various regions express their own attitude toward a door, an entry, a portal and the ‘in-between space’ separating  the aura of one from that of another.

There are major themes or attitudes toward built form from which regional languages can be understood:

Attitudes towards Nature:

‘Fallingwater’ by Frank Lloyd Wright is striking in the way it integrates with its natural setting. It exhibits an attitude of being a part of nature. On the other hand, Le Corbusier’s ‘Villa Savoye’ floats in solitude, detached from nature. It is an attitude of abstract reality. A Rajasthani mud house rises from the earth, while a Rajput palace towers magisterially over its domain.

Attitude towards Proportion and Scale:

If you stand in front of the High Court at Chandigarh you feel dwarfed by the immensity of its portal. If you enter ‘India House’ there is a scale that is intermediate. It shares the intimate experience with a hint of a larger realm of things. It startles with its combination of roles as a home, a studio and a public institution. Entering Dr. Oswal’s Center for Health, Life Sciences and Medicine, one is made to feel at home, intimate and secure. Scale and proportion are used in different ways in different regions, be it the Chola temple complexes of South India or in the great Mughal tomb gardens of North India.

Attitude towards Materials:

Each region has its own local building resources which can be used and expressed in different ways. In Karnataka one finds wonderful granite fit for columns, beams and roof slabs. In some areas there is abundant clay for bricks, hollow tiles and roofing tiles. In Himachal Pradesh the abundance of sturdy wood generates its own attitude to how slate, wood and stone can be harmoniously employed.

These are not building technologies or techniques. They are commonly held concepts of how one crafts spaces and forms places. The work of Shankar and Navnath Kanade, Jaisim and Shashi Bhooshan emanate from their distinct regional attitude toward materiality.

Attitudes towards the Sacred

In New York City there are churches, synagogues, mosques, temples and meditation places. But these highly revered andIn New York City there are churches, synagogues, mosques, temples and meditation places. But these highly revered and sacred places are small events in the larger functioning of the city. In Paris the historical and heritage sites take on a character of sacredness. These are very special and cherished common properties that form an important part of the French psyche. In Indian cities like Pune, Old Delhi or Varanasi one finds thousands of small, medium and large temples that texture the urban fabric. Each shopkeeper has created a small temple within a shelf over his cash register, in every wall there is a niche with a deity, or a symbolic hint of one. Sacredness is kind of omnipresent and omnipotent. Even a house in India is made up of sacred space and place elements forming a sacred whole. The direction of the entry, the location of the kitchen, the alignment of the temple in the kitchen and the sacredness of the kitchen itself, are all part of local attitudes that must not be disrespected. The work of Girish Doshi, Sanjay Patil and Deepak Guggari in Maharashtra speak of this attitude.

II) Components and Connections

At a very simple level architectural language is made up of basic functional parts. These are nouns, or components which are things. Fundamentally, these are supports, spans and enclosing envelopes. A bearing wall of stone may be both a support and an envelope. A span can be in the form of a beam, vault, shell or a flat slab. Supports can be stone or concrete bearing walls and steel or concrete columns. The possibilities are limited, but we must conceptualize each of these three kinds of components separately. A language is also made of verbs, or connections, ‘hinges’ or stems to move through. Connectors can be arcades, courtyards, promenades, water pools, visual axes, passages, portals, bridges, stairs or ramps. These create experiences as people have to move through them. As people move, all the walls, columns, windows and objects in their line of sight move in relative terms and architecture becomes kinetic. To me, identifying these components is the easy part of making an architectural language. What are the local support, spacing and enveloping components?

Identify ten components and use them. What are the typical roofs, shading elements, types of stairs, supports, spans, envelope devices and their connections? How can we draw these components from history and from our contextual surroundings? Can we use them in a manner that employs respect toward and amplifies local attitudes? Architects in Ahmedabad are careful to articulate these components as a regional attitude to architecture.

III) Elements

More difficult is the understanding of the elements of architecture:

Elements persist through systems. They are everywhere. A glance at them tells you where a building is located. You see light blue plaster walls – almost white in the bright sun – and you know you are in Jodhpur; pink, and you are in Jaipur; yellow floors and earth-colored stone walls, and you are in Jaisalmer.

The characteristics of buildings in different regions and contexts will be different. In Bhutan the red band around a building declares it as sacred. The pagoda roof over roof in Kathmandu valley creates a local identity. The community tanks of Kolkata are the focus of neighborhoods. The tanks of Tamilnadu are more formal and defined.

Perhaps the attitudes, the components and the elements are all intermingled. But young architects must take their sketchbook and document their environment. They must see how light is employed; how shades of colors are used; how textures in floors are laid out; how echoes and reverberations of sounds are handled; how alignments, landmarks and axes generate sequences of modulated experiences.

Each school of architecture should run a workshop, sending students into towns, villages and hamlets to document attitudes, components and elements which define a regional architectural language. These should be looked at critically to assess their validity and relevance to contemporary needs, functions and lifestyles. Analogies between traditional and contemporary materials and technologies can be conjectured. Possibilities and potentials for applying local concepts to new designs must be debated. Findings should be listed. New prototypes should be attempted, based on old plan concepts and spatial arrangements.

Gharanas of Architecture

We have in Hindustani Music the concept of gharanas, and in philosophy we have ‘schools of thought.’ We need ‘schools of thought’ and gharanas in architecture too. In ancient regions one can see unique schools of thought emerging. The history of architecture in a given place is a narrative of the culture of the people who have lived there. The changes in style mirror the society which has evolved in that place. The buildings are landmarks along the journey of history that give meaning to a context. We can have clear attitudes toward nature, materials and proportion. We can have unique components to create support, span and enclosure. We can have special motifs for shading stairs, floors, seats and connections. We can have our own elements and unique ways to employ them. These will evolve as the functions, technology and the culture of a place evolve.

A wonderful challenge calls upon young architects to expose the meaning and reality of architecture in their local contexts. They will discover the identity of their own culture and begin to enrich and mature that identity. They will find meaning in their work and purpose in their lives. I challenge you, young architects of India. Make your own language and your own style.

Ar. Christopher Charles Benninger

Ar. Christopher Benninger is one of India’s most highly decorated architects. Benninger studied urban planning at MIT and architecture at Harvard where he later taught. He settled in India in 1971 founding the School of Planning at Ahmedabad as a Ford Foundation Advisor where he continues as a Distinguished Professor. His name appears along side Geoffrey Bawa, Charles Correa and Balkrishna Doshi as one of the six recipients of the Great Master Architect Award in India presented every three years.

His recent book, Letters To A Young Architect which brings to the general public ideas related to the built environment was on the Top 10 Best Selling Non-Fiction Books List for 18 weeks in India.