Houzz Forum: State of Indian Architecture Today and Tomorrow
Four of the country's most acclaimed architects reveal the true state of Indian design and where it is headed
This discussion series brings together the country’s top design professionals to voice their opinions and insights on all matters related to architecture & design.
Architecture in India has experienced a myriad of changes through history – varied cultures, religions, rulers, climates; there have been numerous influences that have shaped its built fabric. In today’s times, multiple dichotomies have given rise to many styles of architecture; while some exist both in the past as well as the modern times, some make an effort to belong to a larger global scenario. Has it given rise to chaos in our cities and towns? Perhaps. It has also brought us to question, “What defines Indian architecture today and what is its future looking like?”
Architecture in India has experienced a myriad of changes through history – varied cultures, religions, rulers, climates; there have been numerous influences that have shaped its built fabric. In today’s times, multiple dichotomies have given rise to many styles of architecture; while some exist both in the past as well as the modern times, some make an effort to belong to a larger global scenario. Has it given rise to chaos in our cities and towns? Perhaps. It has also brought us to question, “What defines Indian architecture today and what is its future looking like?”
© The Busride Studio
Zameer Basrai
Architect, The Busride Studio, Mumbai
State of architecture today
“It is useful to ruminate over the context of India in 2017 to unravel the state of architecture within it. Flaunting a brash pro-development, politically right-wing, socially conservative government, India is looking ahead at an unfettered few years. Only time will tell if these years are those of progress or of regress. In architecture, the last few years have seen a resurgence of old themes: housing, environment, mobility, flexibility, identity, heritage, sustainability, amongst others.
Amongst the architecture fraternity, these themes are still valued and maintained in high regard as worthy pursuits. But even the most heroic of old themes seem to be underplayed in practice, almost shrouded by the all-pervasive theme of progress. These themes are clearly disregarded as ‘outdated’ by patrons and enthusiasts of the new government’s vision of the country. This vision of new India promulgates images of new business districts, rapid urban transport and exclusive neighbourhoods.
Most architects have chosen to engage with these new patrons and the visions they bring with them, knowing very well the inherent conflicts of interest. Now, all this might sound ominous but there’s a silver lining.”
What’s to come
2017 will see some of the most subversive architecture being produced by the country. The more discerning the patron, the more subversive the architect.
The smartest inclusion of socially and environmentally sustainable architecture will never make itself apparent and remain in the guise of some gated neighbourhood, redevelopment project or memorial. On the surface, the architecture will comply with the vision of new India, and underneath incubate visions of an alternate future of a diametrically opposite nature.”
Zameer Basrai
Architect, The Busride Studio, Mumbai
State of architecture today
“It is useful to ruminate over the context of India in 2017 to unravel the state of architecture within it. Flaunting a brash pro-development, politically right-wing, socially conservative government, India is looking ahead at an unfettered few years. Only time will tell if these years are those of progress or of regress. In architecture, the last few years have seen a resurgence of old themes: housing, environment, mobility, flexibility, identity, heritage, sustainability, amongst others.
Amongst the architecture fraternity, these themes are still valued and maintained in high regard as worthy pursuits. But even the most heroic of old themes seem to be underplayed in practice, almost shrouded by the all-pervasive theme of progress. These themes are clearly disregarded as ‘outdated’ by patrons and enthusiasts of the new government’s vision of the country. This vision of new India promulgates images of new business districts, rapid urban transport and exclusive neighbourhoods.
Most architects have chosen to engage with these new patrons and the visions they bring with them, knowing very well the inherent conflicts of interest. Now, all this might sound ominous but there’s a silver lining.”
What’s to come
2017 will see some of the most subversive architecture being produced by the country. The more discerning the patron, the more subversive the architect.
The smartest inclusion of socially and environmentally sustainable architecture will never make itself apparent and remain in the guise of some gated neighbourhood, redevelopment project or memorial. On the surface, the architecture will comply with the vision of new India, and underneath incubate visions of an alternate future of a diametrically opposite nature.”
© Archphoto India
Samira Rathod
Architect, SRDA, Mumbai
“A dear friend sent me a picture of a mosque from Cairo, I could not help but feel, sadly, why can’t we build like this again? A large mosque, bold and stark, singularly dominant, without frivolity, powerful and monumental and yet in its craft and abject simplicity, one saw humility and an honesty of construction that bore itself unabashedly. It looked like nothing else one had seen before, and yet it was centuries old. It wasn’t an image of anything.
Every time I see a building from the (historic) past, I am awestruck. It never fails to move something within and stir up a lingering emotion, an attribute that seems conspicuously absent in most of our architecture, today.
State of disorder
Unfortunately, we are in a time where the idea of a perfect image suffices to satiate us, and chasing this has become a compulsive disorder. Architecture is burdened with technology, and though buildings have gotten smart and dandy, they are removed from any grain of poesy. Every space is a deja vu of the other, trendy.”
Return to more honest times
In the years that are to follow 2017, architecture should see a comeback to its core values of space-making, imbued with craft, profused with light and air; an honest architecture that is, above all, endearing, enduring, intimate and human. Buildings that could tell a story and talk to the trees.”
Samira Rathod
Architect, SRDA, Mumbai
“A dear friend sent me a picture of a mosque from Cairo, I could not help but feel, sadly, why can’t we build like this again? A large mosque, bold and stark, singularly dominant, without frivolity, powerful and monumental and yet in its craft and abject simplicity, one saw humility and an honesty of construction that bore itself unabashedly. It looked like nothing else one had seen before, and yet it was centuries old. It wasn’t an image of anything.
Every time I see a building from the (historic) past, I am awestruck. It never fails to move something within and stir up a lingering emotion, an attribute that seems conspicuously absent in most of our architecture, today.
State of disorder
Unfortunately, we are in a time where the idea of a perfect image suffices to satiate us, and chasing this has become a compulsive disorder. Architecture is burdened with technology, and though buildings have gotten smart and dandy, they are removed from any grain of poesy. Every space is a deja vu of the other, trendy.”
Return to more honest times
In the years that are to follow 2017, architecture should see a comeback to its core values of space-making, imbued with craft, profused with light and air; an honest architecture that is, above all, endearing, enduring, intimate and human. Buildings that could tell a story and talk to the trees.”
© Mathew and Ghosh Architects
Soumitro Ghosh
Architect, Mathew and Ghosh Architects, Bangalore
Indian architecture today
“While discussing the state of architecture in India in the age of ‘now’ and as one looks up at the future, the present-day eclecticism is a sign of an emerging economic, political and world order that is going to be challenging, difficult and promising. It’s a condition of evolution and constant realignment and diverse paths – some intellectual, some pragmatic, some both and some none.
Often practices of good and serious green intent of sensitivity and architectural design processes with production methods of resistance are what we tend to record and reward. While these remain an infinitesimal number, their recognition is valuable in such distraught times.
Soumitro Ghosh
Architect, Mathew and Ghosh Architects, Bangalore
Indian architecture today
“While discussing the state of architecture in India in the age of ‘now’ and as one looks up at the future, the present-day eclecticism is a sign of an emerging economic, political and world order that is going to be challenging, difficult and promising. It’s a condition of evolution and constant realignment and diverse paths – some intellectual, some pragmatic, some both and some none.
Often practices of good and serious green intent of sensitivity and architectural design processes with production methods of resistance are what we tend to record and reward. While these remain an infinitesimal number, their recognition is valuable in such distraught times.
© Soumitro Ghosh
Need for will and imagination
However, new imagination and a stronger will is necessary for architecture to make a difference. The unwritten future of architecture of India shall take the shape of the desire, engagement and ability of its people and how they choose to evolve from the present to refocus on the centrality of humanism of life or living and a humanistic space which shall include new narratives beyond architectural skills and responsiveness to find a connection to all.
A new fiction is waiting
Amidst the present anxiety about its form for tomorrow, Milan Kundera writes, ‘We must never allow the future to collapse under the burden of memory.’ That’s a good clue to start with, it recognises the value and role of history but also its tendency and capacity to load its obligation to every potential moment that is to be the future.”
Read More:
Houzz Experts Speak: Indian Interior Trends for 2017
Androgyny in the Architecture of Homes
Tell us:
What are your thoughts on the state of Indian architecture and design? Share with us in Comments below.
Need for will and imagination
However, new imagination and a stronger will is necessary for architecture to make a difference. The unwritten future of architecture of India shall take the shape of the desire, engagement and ability of its people and how they choose to evolve from the present to refocus on the centrality of humanism of life or living and a humanistic space which shall include new narratives beyond architectural skills and responsiveness to find a connection to all.
A new fiction is waiting
Amidst the present anxiety about its form for tomorrow, Milan Kundera writes, ‘We must never allow the future to collapse under the burden of memory.’ That’s a good clue to start with, it recognises the value and role of history but also its tendency and capacity to load its obligation to every potential moment that is to be the future.”
Read More:
Houzz Experts Speak: Indian Interior Trends for 2017
Androgyny in the Architecture of Homes
Tell us:
What are your thoughts on the state of Indian architecture and design? Share with us in Comments below.
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Aniket Bhagwat
Architect, M/s Prabhakar B Bhagwat, Ahmedabad
Indian architecture today
“If you take stock of the way architecture has evolved since Independence, it has in some ways always closely echoed the aspirations and the angst of a fast-growing, complex country. We started by rejecting the Colonial imprint and gave ourselves the wonderful architecture of Le Corbusier; that was our search for our identity.
Again, just before the country opened up its economy in the 1990s, we saw architects once again seeking identity – this time in the many narratives of the vernacular or even in the cosmic. And then the floodgates opened; and with the new winds led by the IT Industry, we once again saw a new search for identity, this time wanting to be part of a global world.
I suspect all this will change this year and onwards. 2017 is a marker of change.
Indian architecture tomorrow
We are becoming a different nation. More assertive in many ways, more dismissive of criticism that we find ill-intentioned, and edging to declare a national identity. We are a nation in search of a narrative that was always there, but one which is being consolidated. I suspect the work that will find favour and be celebrated will be that of people who develop their own convincing language in design; people will want architects who develop narratives that are not generic or indulgent or borrowed, but specific to the culture and place.
Beginning this year, we will see architecture that is assured, treads lightly and is not afraid of being individualistic, separate from the crowd. But it must be relevant or it will be dismissed quickly.”