INDIAN ARCHITECTURE AN EXPERIENCE OF LIFETIME

By Ar. G. Venkatesh (architect-town planner)

Introduction:
When anyone of us think or utter the word
Architecture, suddenly the things that comes
into our minds are buildings. And mostly
those are ancient, historical or more recently
built modern but the magnanimous or famous
buildings which are worth seeing, worth visiting
and worth remembering. Being an Indian and
being an Indian Architect-town planner I always
wanted to create such memorable buildings,
which the world will recon.
I always wonder, after more than 60 years of
independence what has Modern Indian
Architecture given to the International World of
Architecture and Planning. For that, the simple
confirmative test is to get the answer for the
question Why any Tourist visits India? The
Answers are but obvious we all know. But not
to see any modern buildings which any Indian
Architect has created on the mother land. Most
recently one of our state tourism minister said
in his speech while inaugurating one tourist
spot that We all know the tourist do not
come to the state for seeing good buildings
because that they have already seen that in the
other parts of the world, .. When I listened
to it on television, I really felt shame on our
system, and also the performance and role of
our architects.
It has been more than 60years we have been
independent, still we are applauding ourselves

THE SKYLINE : INDIAN ARCHITECTURE

with Taj Mahal, Qutub Minar, Charminar et al.

Auroville, Lotus temple are few exceptions but
again it is not an Indian architects work. The
Architecture in India today can be classified
categorically as (1) Ancient Religious buildings,
(2) Historical Palaces and buildings (3)
Administrative and other buildings, but all made
before our independence, lastly (4) Few
contemporary residential buildings, Office
buildings, Malls and Individual residences. And
the last ones do not leave any imprint on our
minds. But if we go back and see, before
Independence we had British architecture,
before that we had Mughals Architecture and if
we go far more back, we can find the ancient
Indian Temples and Palaces made during
different periods of Indian kings and rulers
which still make their presence felt.
But at the same time I believe, the Indian
architects are equally capable of creating such
Iconic buildings, Architectural Marvels and
Memorable buildings. So, why we Indian
Architects are not able to create those
marvelous creations? For that we all know the
obvious reasons the process, the system and
the way the Indians take the Indian Architects
Architecture. Or is it the other way round that
the Indian architects are not able to
concentrate on their creativity and do more
convincing kind of architecture, because as
soon as they start practicing architecture, the
basic necessities of Bread and survival stops

them to think in those creative directions and

they get drifted towards the need based
architecture. Then comes the question, are the
Architects in India getting paid less or the Client
or the owner not convinced to pay up to their
caliber or are the architects are not up to the
mark, in terms of creativity. A building becomes
a good one only, when if the client commissions
the architect to do justice with the site and the
building. By Commissioning I mean a kind of
submission and belief of the client in the
architects creativity and allowing him or her to
create a world which is ArchitecturePredominant. It still remains a distant dream
for many of the practicing architects in India.

Present scenario of Architecture in

India: Architecture at the cross roads
Indian architecture is a mixed bag kind of
Architecture like the kind of population mix it
has. It has its own style and diversity. But
speaking in terms of Architecture, it needs a
direction, it requires a self introspection, and it
requires finding its class-apart kind of
architecture. We are now still away from mixing
technology and architecture like the way other
part of the world has been using, which we can
call Archi-Technonics.
The Architecture in India now is standing at the
Crossroads, where it sees political will on one
side, peoples housing demand on one side, the
future of Indian Architecture on one side,
making an impact at the world level on one side

THE SKYLINE : INDIAN ARCHITECTURE

and the future of the Architects itself on one

side.
India has been bestowed with many
opportunities but those opportunities have not
been used properly. We have not been able to
cash the events like Cricket world events, Asian
Games, Common Wealth Games like many
other international events into an opportunity
to create world class buildings like other parts
of the world have done. The other countries
have made such opportunities converted into a
mission to develop the city and architectural
marvels, which we call it as Induced
Development, successfully. Like China, during
the Beijing Olympics has created a different
world of architecture altogether. And similar
thing we can see all over the world.
Coming Back to India, Why the T3 of IGI airport
New Delhi has been designed by HOK, Why the
house of Mukesh Ambani Antilla is not
designed by any Indian architect, why the Gold
Certified Hotel Park, Hyderabad not designed by
an Indian architect rather than James Law, why
the Cybertecture International, in Mumbai is
designed by Skidmore Owings and Merrill
(SOM), why the proposed Namaste Tower in
Mumbai designed by WS Atkins not by any
Indian architect.
In all the above statements the question and
the answers lies within which makes all Indian
architects into introspecting themselves and
their way of working and all our administrative
and political setup to think and rethink and
rethink about it.

Contrary to that, the Foreign Architects are

designing buildings in India inspired by Indian
Ideology in India, for instance the Auroville
which symbolizes & Exhibits Indian spiritualism
or be it the 300m tall Namaste Tower, a Hotel
which is a design which resembles the
Namaste gesture, two wings of the hotel are
clasped together like hands greeting. They are
learning from our rich Indian culture and giving
back the same to us, which we appreciate. The
bottom line is that our Indian Architects in
general has not been able to make an impact on
the minds of their Indian Clients be it
Government or Private.
This also can be positively argued in other way
that Why cant the Indian Government take a
decision and decide that our Indian Architects
will be given priority over International
architects when it comes to designing any major
National Projects. Although the Invitation of
International architects do create a competitive
atmosphere and inspire our Indian architects to
create something of international level but
somehow in a way they also discourage the
Indian architects in fetching such projects. At
the same time it is not like that the Indian
architects are not given chance. But they have
failed miserably. For Example take the case of
Delhi Metro Station at ISBT; even if u r not an
architect, you will not find anything to
appreciate about the architecture which it has
created, one will have to ask to find the
entrance and in contrast to the Metro-rail

compartment, the building looks like an odd

man out kind of thing.

Future of the Indian Architects &

Architecture:
With whatever experience I have of more than
15 years of my practice from my architectural
college days to till date of practicing and
teaching, I have a gut feeling, that there is no
dearth of Indian Architectural Intellect in the
country. The only thing we need is that to get
them recognized by the Indian Agencies either
government or non government.
When we talk about the future, the first thing
that comes into our minds is the students of
Architecture and Planning. On the context, our
Indian Graduate and Post Graduate Architects
and Urban & other Planners are studying in
Indian Institutes prefer working with
architectural & Planning MNCs , and giving their
best to those firms who are doing all these new
Indian projects, by being in India or in other
parts of the world. I hope I made my point clear
in terms of the architectural happening in India.
When we can do for others outside our country
why cant we do it for our mother land? Reason
we all know, is the remuneration. We have the
Human Resource but we are not able to use
them like Resource, we have got Man Power
but we not able to use it like a Power.
The Reason may be that the impacts on the

THE FUTURE : AFFORDABLE . ICONIC . ARCHITECTURE

minds of Indians left by the British are still alive.

Take for instance, the names of any new
housing project or commercial project which
are coming up in India in recent years, they
reflect the same. Most the names reflect either
Greek-o-Roman names, European names or any
other English or American names of city, town
or mythology. And they are not the result of any
fascination of the Builder or developer towards
these
names
but
because
the
developers/builder know that these names only
will attract Indian customers, only such names
will give them feeling of an elite class, or
standard far more than the Indian
contemporary. Because the Indians either
common man or elite likes to identify
themselves with such names. Be it a Whitefield
(Bangaluru) or be it British Park (Bhopal), all
shows this fascination for foreign architecture
and names.
But we can find real Indian architecture also
prevailing India in some parts of India but that
too to woo the foreigners in the form of Hotels,
Resort, Naturopathy centers, India Spas et al.
Now recently only in last 10-15 years we find
some good architectural towers, by Our Indian
Architectural Giants, like Architect Hafeez
Contractor for making The Imperial (name is
not Indian mind you) finished in 2010. Then the
Lodha Bellissimo (meaning most beautiful in
Italian) and designed by Kapadia Associates. But
the Godrejs selected internationally known
Singapore Architects for their project Planet

THE FUTURE: AFFORDABLE. ICONIC. ARCHITECTURE

Godrej. But still we are yet to make a mark on

the Map of International Architectural circuit
with our creations. We still cannot find any
competitor for the Lutyens Connaught Place
(Now named Rajiv Chowk but still known as the
same CP) or be the Indian Parliament House.

The Future Requirement of Indian

Architecture is Affordable Housing
and Iconic Buildings:
The present condition of Indian Economy
requires basic requirements of housing in a
large number. The demand and supply gap in
housing is alarming. This scenario definitely
shows The young Indian architects a
direction, a scope for a future which, calls them
to be there in the international circuit of
architecture. And that is Housing. On the
contrary the real Indian Middle income
population and the lower income group which
are in a significant percentage of 120crore
Indian population, force the Indian housing
sector and other architecture to think in a
different way an Indian Way of architecture.
The common man, who is more concerned
more about his own family and salary, with a
limited budget, living in rent, or living in an
illegal
settlement,
makes
the
Indian
architecture and architects to think in a more
conservative and yet creative architecture in
terms of costing. But the common man wants
More in less. So there is two face of
architecture in the present and in the future; -

One which is concerned with the common man

directly-Affordable housing and the one
which is not directly concerned with the
common man -Iconic Building.
So there lies a lot of opportunities and scope in
both the areas. And the kind of requirement of
housing which India needs today has and will
have is enormous. The homeless people are in
majority. Seeing this scenario what I believe is
Indian Architects should turn their heads
towards creating something unique in terms of
housing and that too affordable housing and so
towards the Creating Iconic Buildings to turn
the heads of international community towards
Indian Modern Architecture.
With this in the end I would like to say, in India
we have got lot of opportunities which lies untapped in the form of housing. I feel Creative
Affordable Housing is the area towards which

the Indian Architects should concentrate and

give the world the best out of it, because this is
the need and opportunity both for the Indian
common man and common Indian architects.
There is a lot more to be done in this area than
in luxury housing. If you can design a wonderful
affordable housing it will be like a Ghazal or
poetry written in adversity which sounds
soothing and which touches our heart.
As far as Iconic buildings are concerned I have a
strong intuition & belief that in the near future
India definitely will be seeing few architectural
marvels which will set an example for the world
that will symbolize How a world class building
can be created at an Affordable cost with cost
and energy efficient techniques which are the
need of the hour also.

Author: Ar. G. Venkatesh is a practicing architect-planner, with expertise in Housing sector since last 15 years and runs his
organization Sahastraksh Consultant, Bhopal MP India. He is a graduated from MACT (now MANIT) Bhopal (MP) and did his Post
Graduation in planning (specialization in Housing) from School of Planning CEPT University Ahmedabad
Gujarat. He is also a visiting faculty of Housing & Architectural Design at School of Planning CEPT University
Ahmedabad, School of Planning and Architecture (SPA) Bhopal and Maulana Azad National Institute of
Technology (MANIT) Bhopal. He is also the chairman of publication committee Madhya Pradesh Institute of
Town Planners. He is one of the panelists as practicing Architect-Town planner for evaluation of large
townships in Bhopal Municipal Corporation (BMC) and doing project viability & suitability study for sites
indentified by Government under IDSMT Scheme in Madhya Pradesh Vikas Pradhikaran Sangh (MPVPS).He is also the member
of American Planning Association.
Contact the author at - hr.research@sahastraksh.com or www.sahastraksh.com