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Life in Architecture: Madhav Raman
Building resilience towards extreme weather is an urgent task that, Raman says, has to start from one’s home, one's design practice
Preeti Singh
6 October 2021
Houzz India Editor
Madhav Raman is the co-founder of Delhi-based Anagram Architects. He is an urbanist, architect and writer. Since its inception in 2001, Anagram has been the recipient of multiple accolades, such as the Aga Khan Award nomination, the IIID (Indian Institute of Interior Designers) Award, the Brick Award, the Archi Bau Award, the Design Daily Choice Award 2020 and the 2A Asia Architecture Award, among others. Raman is also a prolific speaker and has given talks at institutes such as the Indian Institute of Business (ISB), the Charles Correa Foundation, the School of Environmental Planning, Institute of Urban Transport and Kamla Raheja Vidyanidhi Insititute of Architecture. He also hosts a design studio for the School of Planning and Architecture. Raman is a vocal advocate for adaptive urban design and sensitive contextual architecture.
In this conversation that focused on building for extreme weather, Raman stresses that “there needs to be a shift from merely sustainable to being resilient”.
In this conversation that focused on building for extreme weather, Raman stresses that “there needs to be a shift from merely sustainable to being resilient”.
- From a building and design perspective, does extreme weather worry you?
For me, the raging crisis that’s being completely ignored is water. But it’s not an event-based thing. We have not done enough in design and engineering to actively mitigate use of water and deal with waste water. This covers rainwater harvesting to gardening to the whole shebang. There’s been no thought given to the whole water cycle that a building undertakes. In the past hundred-plus years, piped water and sewage – urban planning – happened to Indian cities. So there was a supply and there was an evacuation from the home, but that whole end-process was not handled in a macro centralised way. And there was no thought given to it at the individual household/building level either. One just plugged into a system and then externalised whatever the repercussions were.
Now we are in a situation in the cities, where because of the inefficiencies in the supply of piped water and evacuation of sewage, the biggest crisis is water and water management. The ground dries out, the soil dries out, vegetation becomes difficult. Then we are covering up the water-absorbent soil with cement; the water cycle in the city is completely ignored. Because of climate change, there are periods of 3–30 days where some climate aberrations play out, like deluge-level flooding. And these month-long events tie into the fact that the whole water cycle of a building in a city has not been thought of in a simple, closed-loop system in a granular house level. Therefore, these chunks of water that come onto cities take it to an apocalyptic level.
Anagram Architects designs a unique studio-cum-residence for Anita Dube, the curator of Kochi-Muziris Biennale 2018
But in cities, it is more on the individual level that people need to look into resilience. For example, slums in a city are a very unique situation because they are unable to bounce back from disasters, as they have not been designed into the city plans. Therefore, what ends up happening is that centralised systems and institutional resilience are captured only by the formal citizen.
As designers and engineers, we are not trained to participate in construction in informal precincts. We need bylaws, plots, piped water, piped sewage guidelines, then we can do our business. Both rural India and the informal sector in the cities are blind spots.
- How can this be addressed by design?
- How does one build architectural, design resilience in villages, cities?
But in cities, it is more on the individual level that people need to look into resilience. For example, slums in a city are a very unique situation because they are unable to bounce back from disasters, as they have not been designed into the city plans. Therefore, what ends up happening is that centralised systems and institutional resilience are captured only by the formal citizen.
As designers and engineers, we are not trained to participate in construction in informal precincts. We need bylaws, plots, piped water, piped sewage guidelines, then we can do our business. Both rural India and the informal sector in the cities are blind spots.
- What should be the role of the government? The government is overrated. For ecological change, we cannot trust any government. I think the basic contracts between housing societies and their local government – at whatever scale possible – like Residents’ Welfare Associations (RWA) – are what are going to make the change. The reliance on government for something that is for collective benefit will never be an ambitious plan.
There has to be a social movement that needs to accept that we are at a level of an emergency. There needs to be a shift from merely sustainable to being resilient. That can only be a cultural movement. And the vanguards are architects and engineers because we are able to specify that culture.
We need to prioritise ecology over sociology, and it shouldn’t be an Earth science movement but a cultural movement. One should not want it because its the right thing to do (which it of course is) but you should want it for an aesthetic reason. Our job is to be able to seduce people to opt in to this ecological trend. If there is an urban flood and the belief is that you are not managing water well at an individual home level, people don’t respond well to the idea of penalties or social responsibility, they resist that kind of change. Therefore, our job is to make systems like eco-friendly waste disposal systems and air conditioning a lot more fashionable and cooler. They have to tickle the human inclination for enjoyment and aesthetics. The message should be – don’t do this for the planet, but do it for yourself.
- Damage is being done by 5 per cent of the Indians, the top rich Indians. The richest people tend to go through these spasms of voluntary penury. Japan for example – it wasn’t like Japan was always a minimalist society. There was a certain economic comfort after which they became minimalist. Modernism and minimalism came after certain economic comfort. It’s impossible to tell most rich Indians to live like a Gandhian or do the right thing, but they will do it once they feel the enhancement through lifestyle rather than it being like a prayashchit (atonement).
- So resilience to extreme climate has to start at the grass roots – at individual design practice and at homeowner level.
I feel that all engineering and design practices need to imagine themselves not as global players but as local players. So when a student goes to college in Delhi or Bombay, they shouldn’t imagine to set up shop like I did – in order to achieve global fame and wealth. They should want to go back to their local community and set up shop there and want to be the local hero.
Read more:
Life in Architecture: Sameep Padora
Tell us:
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