Let the gentle wind be the refreshment of my house…
Let playful lights & shadow become the design of my wall…
Let the twittering of birds be the music in my lounge...
Let the trickles of rain on my window pane be the glaze…
Let the smell of wet earth be the fragrance of my bedroom…
And let the world be my canvas, in the silence of my room...
Sometimes the best of the words cannot define the pleasure of living, feeling and relaxing in the lap of nature or an environment closer to it. It’s a thing that can never be achieved by its artificial counterparts. And the very next moment with a deep sigh I feel subtly objected to the contemporary architecture of today, also called as ‘COSMETIC ARCHITECTURE’. Every time, aesthetics in architecture is not about juxtaposing colourful & vibrant interiors, which loses its vivacity and becomes boring after few days or may be few months. What holds good for larger span of time should come naturally & be designed so. Such a space would be customised for every flipping moment, every flowing emotion, from dawn to dusk, from tears to whispers. As reflected in the words of legendary Jorn Utzon,
“I have made a sculpture…you will never be finished with it-when you pass around it or see it against the sky…something new goes on all the time…together with the sun, the light & the clouds, it makes a living thing.”
And as I agree with the beauty and the thought, in the confinement of words of this great Architect on his masterpiece, the Sydney’s Opera House, I feel it should become the main essence of our design to keep it alive, as that is the only reason, we are here for the structures to transcend our souls and its creativity. What more we can ask for, if we create such an ambience of sustainability in our buildings. The freshness of the surroundings can only be attained by using natural roots as the base line of our design.
Those very words of Utzon holds not only true for the grandest of buildings but for the very subtle, and one of the most utilitarian architecture of Late Laurie Baker. One can feel the richness & vividness of the low cost houses made by him. The inspirational pattern formed by the light and shadow placidly ventilating through jali walls, create an interesting collage with the raw materials used in the superstructure, this can never be reinstated by any of the newly advanced wall claddings or wall hangings.
And so here I confine myself, for others to reinvent and redefine, in order to leave for the human, by the humane (Architects) as all of us are going to use it, let’s CREATE something natural which resonates and reverberates forever and ever...
