The Hindu Business Line : From brick and mortar to steel and glass

For a long time, Chennaiites looked up to the LIC building on Mount Road (now Anna Salai) as a construction marvel: not just for its sheer size but also for the glass that went into its making.

Glass is back in vogue now and it takes different avatars in buildings today: as bricks, frosted, stained or glazed. It is freely used on the façade (wall cladding) and in various ways in the interiors.

Corporate buildings, commercial buildings or residential structures are no longer painted structures. It is not uncommon to come across a couple of buildings with glazed windows (what the architects call as structural glazing), one with a polished granite façade, another covered in tiles and yet another using natural stone blocks on the same road.

The change is visible and perceptible. The Ramco office in Adyar has a glass façade, white tiles make up Raghavendra Kalyana Mandapam's front elevation, Spencer's is packaged in artificial stone and the IOC building at Teynampet is sheathed in fibre sheet.

Most architects of the metropolis feel that the use of newer and newer materials is a direct fall-out of economic liberalisation.

It is easy to sit in Chennai and order the best material in the world for construction work.

Another influencing factor is exposure that the architects and clients get these days.

People travel abroad often and come back with ideas, and a lot of new information is also gleaned from the Internet, magazines and TV.

"Earlier, we had to convince our clients about the use of new materials, or using materials differently. We have always worked with glass. But now we find that people accept the use of glass more readily. I even go for covering one wall of the bathroom with frosted glass," says architect Krithika Subrahmanian.

She says that there is more structural glazing than masonry in the building she has worked on in Santhome in Chennai.

Though she finds that glass is not suitable for the tropical Indian climate, it is preferred because of its association with `hi-tech' buildings.

"Since technology has come to control climate," says architect and interior designer, Pramod Balakrishnan, who runs `Edifice', "it is possible to experiment with newer materials.

As more and more spaces are getting air-conditioned, the way materials are used also changes."

The IT industry also seems to be influencing change to a great extent as these companies are able to import a lot of stuff associated with their offices.

Krithika says she experiments with colours and woods in the number of small IT offices she has done work for.

The change in office culture is also a great contributing factor, says Pramod Balakrishnan, who is in the process of constructing a Wipro office in Sholinganallur and who was the brain behind the Polaris office in Navalur, both in the outskirts of Chennai.

"Levels are breaking down and so we are able to use glass partitions in offices," he says.

Aluminium, steel, different kinds of wood, granite, natural stones, terracotta tiles, easy-to-maintain paints and a whole host of artificial products are flooding the market.

Krithika believes in mixing the materials: for example she has used granite and wood for the floor and wood and steel for display cupboards.

"It is a pleasure to work in Chennai these days because we are able to experiment more," she says.

"More than anything else, people should be prepared to spend for the use of these new materials," says architect R Guhan, who designed the S S Nadkarni Technology building in the IT park in Bangalore and the Keerthi Stupa for Adi Sankara at Kaladi.

He says even houses have begun to use expensive glass bricks innovatively, (like covering the wall of the staircase) as they let in light and are easy to maintain.

Architect K Rajagopalan, who runs Raj and Associates, says, "The preference for innovative materials is growing and people are giving importance to interiors as much as exteriors."

Though he is partial to using natural materials such as granite, Cuddapah, Kota (which he has used in the Slum Clearance Board Office in Thirumangalam) and Shahabad stone and marble, he also uses structural glazing (like in VVD Mahal, Tuticorin) `only for aesthetics'.

A past president of `The Indian Institute of Architects', he finds that buildings are still a brick and mortar affair and that "we can only play with the materials used."

He was one of the first to use cork for flooring in his office and in a hotel in Kodaikanal and an executive room in Tuticorin.

Architect P T Krishnan agrees that the newer materials are used for a niche market and clients at the top-end.

Most of the other buildings are dependent on mostly local products.

"People seem to have the money to spend on newer material, the bulk of which are imported," says P T Krishnan. "But are we using these intelligently, to suit Indian conditions."

Like Pramod Balakrishnan, he finds that architects and clients want to import not just materials but also the forms, which may not be suitable for Indian conditions or its ethos.

He says he has reservations on some materials, which are used without proper evaluation, since an architect also has a social responsibility in ensuring that local materials are used and local style and character are preserved.

His thinking goes like this: Extensive use of glass is bound to push up the energy need of a building, which is ultimately borne by the owner or a tenant.

This also calls for 100 per cent standby power, leading to more and more pollution. Wood, especially if it is not renewable variety, should be used to the minimum. There is either cost in terms of money or a social cost involved in the injudicious use of these materials, he argues.

All this thinking is reflected in his buildings: The Ashok Leyland office in Hosur where he has used polycarbonate strips for natural lighting in the factory; The Venkateswara College of Engineering with its austere cement façade; the functional AASI building on Mount Road; and the Madras School of Economics in Guindy.

He uses reflective glass only to replace glass and not to cover entire stretches, and uses all kinds of stones ("I am personally against polished granite exteriors") and experiments with energy-efficient lighting.

He goes in for electronic gadgets that help save water, timber that is harvested, such as rubberwood, or synthetic flooring.

"We are letting products dictate our style, but the architect should have the freedom to import these styles and make them work in the Indian context," he says.

"Every material has its limitations and it is important for the architect to work with the strengths of the material," Pramod Balakrishnan adds.

Totally against what he calls `magazine architecture', he says, "It is easy to copy but difficult to invent."

"Architects and their clients are borrowing `images' from developed countries and trying to implant them here," he says, and Krishnan agrees, "Everyone wants a miniature Singapore in Chennai, but that will not suit our climate."

"Whatever the type of building, it should suit one's cultural needs," adds Balakrishnan. He finds glass "anonymous, sterile and not contextual", and so he uses it in a way that does not call attention to it. "Not nakedly, not loudly," he explains.

What is bothering some of the architects is that in getting caught up in the international imagery, India might lose its diversity, which is dynamic.

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