The primal approach

Around 30 years ago, when architect Verendra Wakhloo left Germany to set up his practice in India, he discovered the curious case of the Indian city — a place that pretended to be urban but was rural at its core. Over the years, his architecture and urban planning firm Matra has created several landmarks across the country, and he has won prestigious awards such as the JK Architect of the Year Award in 1997 and the President’s Award in 2000. In recent years, Wakhloo, like several of his contemporaries, has been making consolidated efforts to create a dialogue between art, architecture, design and the public.

The second edition of the India Arch Dialogue (February 3-21, 2017), curated by Wakhloo and Rachit Srivastava, brought to Delhi the work of some of the world’s most respected architects through talks and an exhibition of drawings and photographs titled Voice of Sketches. BLink caught up with Wakhloo to gain insight into the landscape of Indian architecture.

What has been your takeaway from this edition of the India Arch Dialogue?

The exhibition has about 15 international and 15 Indian architects. We’d asked each of them for one drawing and one photograph of the finished building. All the international architects sent their initial abstract drawings, while the Indians sent in more finished sketches.

When you sit down to draw, you don’t know what will appear on the page. You allow your hand to make its own decisions. You see it in the drawings of the European architects. It’s an impulsive, primal approach. But the essence that the drawing captures is present in the final building as well. The Portuguese architect Aires Mateus’s drawings, for instance, look like they were cast in moulds and so do his actual buildings.

The fact that the Indian architects did not send in their abstracts is symptomatic. My understanding is that we work with preconceived images in our heads and create an assemblage. This reduces the possibilities of innovation that freehand drawing offers. The other reason could be that what is drawn never gets made. It’s a lifelong struggle for any Indian architect to convince his client to do something novel. You also see this in the fact that the international architects submitted public buildings, while the Indians sent private projects. We are still designing within our comfort zone.

But do you think innovation for innovation’s sake is a valid philosophy?

Not always — and especially with respect to technology. Everyone likes the idea of sustainability but try selling a mud house. In a presentation at a SEEDS conference, Sonam Wangchuk, on whom Aamir Khan’s character in 3 Idiots is based, said that if someone made a hotel with sustainable features you might convince clients to downscale. This is because the hotel industry has become the paradigm for residences in India. The comfort that people have in their hotel rooms is the illusion that everybody would like to take into their house. Smoothly finished walls and a butler have become our aspiration. I’m not sure what will have to change for us to dream differently.

That said, we need to always strive to be better. What is better? Today, in architecture, it is being subtler. Our little pavilion is a good example, I think. It’s quiet in its character and lays emphasis on the people within it. The lighting transforms the space into a spiritual one. I love architecture that can transform you without force. The extreme of that is when architecture is in your face; Gurugram is full of it. This too transforms you but often negatively.

Is there any building in India that, every time you look at it, you marvel at how perfect it is?

All structures that have a relationship between the inner core, the transitional space or foreground, and the outer environment are good pieces of architecture. More than a building, I admire the way cities such as Hampi, Fatehpur Sikri and Varanasi were imagined. Hampi is overwhelming in its physical presence and yet lies so perfectly nestled within a jungle of palm trees. When you walk through the markets and temples that have been carved out, you can sense the sheer scale of involvement that its makers and inhabitants had with the space.

Globally, what is the one trend in architecture that you are excited about?

I’m excited about two trends and I’m torn between them too. One is the idea of getting humble. You see it in the work of Peter Zumthor and David Chipperfield. They respect the existing urban fabric and create continuity with minor modifications. Then, at the other extreme, is the work of architects like Sou Fujimoto who try to create new building typologies. It’s a new way of imagining what our public spaces can be like.

One trend is conservative and the other noble futuristic. But they both look at the city as a space for adventure.

Blessy Augustine is an art critic based in New Delhi

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