Ideas to Minimize the substantial weight shouldered by Earth

                 Something, such as a thought or conception, that a potentially or actually exists in the mind as a product of mental activity can be called an IDEA… An idea is usually generated with intent, but can also be created unintentionally. For an Architect an Idea is necessary invention that has to be done quite often, to mend the society as well as the NATURAL aspects one’s habitat.

                Environment is the surroundings which include all  forms of life plants, animals, human beings, air,  water, land, buildings, parks, vehicle etc.  Environmental degradation refers to an unfavorable  change of surroundings. It is the detoriation of the  environment through depletion of resources such as  air, water, soil, the destruction of ecosystem and the extinction of wild life.

                Cities have grown at thunderous rates in the last few decades. Settlements have proliferated wherever space is available, even in disaster-prone hillsides, floodplains or along water bodies.  Ad-hoc or absent city planning across a patchwork of disconnected city and state offices has left residents at risk on a number of fronts.

                As a result of this expansion Architects have to work on the IDEAS of establishing Habitats in air, water or anywhere, but the land. Many visions of the future involve people living in the middle of the ocean. This makes all kinds of sense, since oceans make up two-thirds of the planet's surface. The biggest question, though, is how can you go about doing this? And the good news is, there are plenty of ways to stake out some marine real estate. Floating urban components will be a new tool in the ongoing search to make our greatest cities worldwide more sustainable and livable. I strongly believe that we will enter an era of consumption urbanism in which floating urban components will help us to react quickly and sustainably to the growing mix of changes.

                Here are some ideas through which we can achieve the aim reducing the Substantial weight that our mother Earth Shoulders :-

1. Re-purposed oil rigs

                Oil rigs could offer the pre-existing infrastructure required to build something greater. Oil rigs are typically forgotten after their work is done (there are a reported 27,000 abandoned oil and gas rigs in the Gulf of Mexico alone), they could be among the coolest places to hang-out when venturing into the deep ocean. Their plan calls for the reconstruction of oil rigs into self-sufficient structures equipped with apartment complexes and marine research stations.

                                               

                 Alternately, you could stay at an oil rig repurposed as a hotel — either a luxurious oil-rig-aqua-resort or a diving station from where you can embark on your undersea adventures.

2. Artificial islands

                For some coastal nations looking to expand upon their existing real estate options, building an island from scratch is another valid, albeit expensive, option.

                Perhaps the best example of this is Dubai, the home to several artificial island projects. These artificial archipelagos are spectacularly beautiful and can accommodate the needs of tourists, the commercial sector, and even residents.

3. Underwater sea resorts

                But why limit yourself to living on the water when you can also live under it? This is the idea behind such projects as Hydropolis and Poseidon Mystery Island. Hydropolis is a $500 million-plus, 220-room hotel that's currently in development near Dubai in the Persian Gulf. Once complete, it will be the world's first underwater hotel. And if all goes planned, it would sit 60 feet below sea level and cost $1,500 a night.And a missile defense system to guard against terrorists. Poseidon, which is also under development, is a $200 million resort that's slated to be built near Fiji.

4. Sea towers

                Another option is the construction of a sea tower. Similar to the fictional structure portrayed in the film, The Life Aquatic, the tower would be based at the ocean floor and extend high over the surface. Giancarlo Zema has put together a design for such a structure, what he calls the Neptus 60 Cliff Habitat.

CULTURE AND TOWN PLANNING

The Topic is... What is Culture? and... How is it related to Town Planning?

This is actually a very interesting topic and very thoughtful... and got my attention suddenly.

First Question that comes to my mind is -

                -What is Culture?

Let's take upon the easiest of the researches :-

·         What Dictionary says ?

                The Art, customs and habits that characterize a particular society or Nation... their belief and their values is known as Culture.

What Wikipedia says ?

                Range of Human phenomena that cannot be attributed to genetic inheritance.

                The distinct ways that people live differently, classified and represented their experiences and acted creatively.

What 'I' think ?

                According to me culture is tradition... way of living, procedure of thinking, people's mindset that developed; and is still developing; due to the Geographical and Metaphysical environment of that  Area. Though, now a day's tradition or culture of a society may be linked to the Globalization era, however, this point is still highly debatable.

                Culture is arguably one of the richest and most complex concepts in any language. There are hundreds of definition and expressions in many locations.

Lets now take upon the Town planning.

Again... What does Town planning or Urban Design means?

                Well that's a technical and political process concerned with the use of land and design of the urban environment, including air, water and the infrastructure passing into and out of urban areas such as transportation and distribution networks is known as Town Planning... as stated by Wikipedia.

                Planning is not just Physical science but it is Human science. This is important to understand that how Town Planning is related to Culture of a society.

                Planning: Let's take this word seriously. Planning is the organisational foundation from which all other functions flow. Planners make spaces. Planning the town involves the intricate details of understanding the requirements of the towns and its various divisions and utilizing the land to the best of benefit. It is like promoting development by implementing decisions and turning the town into a planned city, without interfering with the environmental features.

                Culture had been a most intuitive way for planning in Histories. Throughout the history we have read examples of well planned Cities. Designed cities were characteristic of the Minoan, Mesopotamian, Harappan, and Egyptian civilizations.

-Mohenjodaro

                Distinct characteristics of urban planning from remains of the cities of Harappa, Lothal, and Mohenjo-Daro in the Indus valley civilization lead archaeologists to conclude that they are the earliest examples of well planned and managed cities. Archaeological evidence suggests that many Harappan houses were laid out to protect from noise and enhance residential privacy; many also had their own water wells, probably for both sanitary and ritual purposes.

                Arguably some say... and I believe that India has an ancient History of refined urban planning which could have been popularised and been more effective than Chandigarh in terms of providing a more identifiable set of concepts and practices for its urban citizens. Udaipur in Rajasthan, Fatehpur Sikri, Hampi, Vijaynagar and off course the ancient Harrapan townships come to my mind.

                Sir Patrick Geddes was pioneering Town Planner who is known for innovative thinking in the fields of Cultural Planning. He coined the term Conurbation. His central Argument was that physical geography, market economics and anthropology were related. The purpose of his theory and understanding of relationships among the units of society was to find an equilibrium among the people and the environment to improve such conditions.

-Sir Patrick Geddes

                -What is A Cultural Plan?

                Vision meets strategy in a cultural plan. A cultural plan translates the cultural needs and identity of a community into a tool for implementing recommendation. The arts, and broader cultural resources, amenities and facilities are coming to be seen as strategic urban assets and they have an important and strategic role to play in the new economy. We can best identify this actual and potential role if we characterize the features and imperatives of this new economy in the following ways and identify the possible contribution of the arts and culture.

                -What is Conurbation?

A Conurbation is a region comprising a number of cities, large towns, and other urban areas that, through population growth and physical expansion, have merged to form one continuous urban and industrially developed area. In most cases, a conurbation is a polycentric urban agglomeration, in which transportation has developed to link areas to create a single urban labour market or travel to work area.

-NCR, India
(Conurbation)

Justice, Rights And Architecture

            The Ultimate goal of the Architects is to create a paradise. Every house, every product of Architecture should be a fruit of our endeavor to build an Earthy Paradise for people.                                                                      -Alvar Alto

            “Justice is fundamental to our notions of societal order, that is, to the order sustained between ourselves without recourse to force. There is an increasingly strong assumption that justice is something to which we, as humans, have a universal right.”

            The main purpose of this Article is to highlight the necessity of adopting a righteous approach in architectural thinking and practice in order to achieve justice through the process of production of space and the built environment. The Article focus on the affinity between justice and human rights. I am trying to display the interactions between architecture and rights and to explain the role of architecture in fulfillment and protection of humans and environment. Looking at the etymological meanings of “justice” and “right” in different languages, their ways of use and their philosophical conceptualization will show us the interrelations between these two concepts.

            Now two crucial questions can be asked:

            1. How Justice may architecture deal with...??

            2. How Justice can be fulfilled through architecture...??

           Architecture has an important role in the empowerment and achievement of the rights of people to desirable work, right to rest and leisure, right to “standard of living adequate”, right to education, and right to participate in the cultural life of community, which are mentioned in the articles 23 to 27 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. The role of architecture in fulfillment and protection of Justice can be considered twofold. On the one hand architecture is responsible for maintaining the accessibility of all human beings to facilities which constitute the minimum standards of human rights. For example, each and every human being should have access to shelter, education and work and should have the possibility of participating in the economical, politic, cultural and social life of his/her society. As its first obligation, architecture should facilitate these accessibility especially for disadvantaged and vulnerable groups such as women, people with disabilities, minority groups, people in the conditions of poverty, homeless people, refugees, migrants and nomads.

           

            On the other hand architecture should improve the conditions of these facilities in order to strengthen the minimum standards of basic individual rights. This is the second responsibility of architecture, that is to say, developing the conditions of housing, education, health, work, and economic, politic, social and cultural life of the society. This means producing spaces and buildings more affordable and adequate, people-centred, peaceful, safe and secure, healthy, green, and more respectful to human needs and abilities, to privacy, to different types of lifestyles and to different cultural values in the case that they do not violate human rights.

            We can observe that, especially in the so-called post-modern era, studies about the first duty of architecture, which includes empowering the accessibilities of all human beings to basic facilities, have been insufficient. Whereas the second task of architecture, which is recovering the conditions of space, has been focal point of many architectural practices, studies and researches. As a result, while the majority of people are living deprived of their basic rights. Architecture is working on improving the living conditions of a small amount of privileged people consistently.

             For Example, Center of Science and Technology For Rural Development, i.e., COSTFORD an organisational setup founded by Dr. Laurie Baker, a nonprofits, voluntary organisation of social workers, educators, architects, engineers, scientists, technologists and others, strives to facilitate for empowering and enabling the poor and weaker sections of society to improve their living conditions by application of appropriate and people-friendly technologies and adopting participatory, transparent, and gender-sensitive processes.

           But in most of the cases architectural education and profession are nearly ignoring the needs of underprivileged people when their main focus is designing “brilliant” and luxurious buildings and environments. While, none of us, as architects, have never been thought about how architecture can provide shelter for homeless people or developing the conditions of urban poor, we learnt all of the “glittering” buildings of star architects like Frank Gehry, Rem Koolhaas, Zaha Hadid or Baron Norman Foster. As a consequence, in terms of living conditions, the gap between prosperous part of society and distressed part is getting deep. I think architects are accomplices in this process and I have to agree all critics which condemn architecture to render service to power and capital. For taking a step toward realization of justice in architecture, I think that architects should focus on their first obligation, which is obtaining accessibility to all people and planning different programmes which aim to answer the needs of vulnerable and disadvantaged groups. Putting human rights in the centre should take place as the main goal of architectural education and profession.

            Throughout the history we remember the great examples of iconic structures all over the world like the Great Wall of China, the Egyptian Pyramids or the Taj Mahal. But the facts, the dark realities and the sacrifices that were made during the construction process or after that are forgotten in front of the grandeur of the massive structures.

            The 'awe' of China has followed the history and continued till the date. China's new leadership abandoned breakneck growth pursued by its predecessors and moved to address the consequences of severe environmental degradation, unbalanced regional growth and social 'Injustice'. A variety of concerns over the Games, or China's hosting of the Games, had been expressed by various entities, including allegations that China violated its pledge to allow open media access, air pollution in both the city of Beijing and in neighbouring areas. The Beijing Olympic have been a spectacular sporting event but they took place against the backdrop of human and environmental laws violation and a great deal of 'Architecture' is 'responsible' for this degradation of not only the society, but also killing  the moral values of the people present in the locale and the high end dignitaries of China as well.

            "Chinese people did support the Olympics, but they also need reasonable compensation. The government shouldn't have used the Olympics as a big hat to put on their heads", says "Gao Lin" Chinese Architect and Socialist.

            The government always blamed outsiders for politicizing the Olympics, but domestically they made the Olympics a political issue. They don't believe that their houses were torn down for the Olympics. The real purpose was/is moneymaking. Beijing officials defended their relocation of nearly 15,000 people as part of the massive construction projects that transformed the capital into a 31-venue showcase for this summer's Olympic Games. The exploitation of the locales is continued till the date after 5 years of past Beijing Olympics.

            Good design is not about form following function. It is function with cultural content. By adding "cultural content" to the concept of "form follows function," objects cease to be finite or predictable. Maybe the right way to interpret the dictum is to first acknowledge that the function needs to be clearly understood before the form is considered. Architecture arises out of our need to shelter the human animal in a spatial environment and to enclose the social animal in a group space. In this sense architecture serves our institutions and expresses the values of our culture. The practice of architecture is the most delightful of all pursuits. Also, next to agriculture, it is the most necessary to man. One must eat, one must have shelter. Next to religious worship itself, it is the spiritual handmaiden of our deepest convictions.

            We must opt for the Sustainable development for architectural growth and less exploitation of the people. Proper spaces must be allocated to the massive projects such as in Beijing and we must go for the cost effective ways of housing.

            Cost effective houses are not just for poor, they are for everyone. The equation that a cost effective house is the house for the poor, implying a bad looking house, can definitely be proved wrong. This entire classification is wrong.

                  Life Demands a noble architecture for noble uses of noble men. Lack of culture means what it has always meant: ignorable civilization and therefore imminent downfall.                                                                                  -Frank Lloyd Wright

ILLUSIONISM IN ARCHITECTURE

J.K Rowling has prophesized -

           "Imagination is not only the uniquely human capacity to envision that which is not, and, therefore, the only foundation of all invention and innovation. In it's arguably most trans-formative and revelatory capacity, it is the power that enables us to empathize experiences which never actually happened."

            This is one of the long sought understandings in life - what is difference between reality imagination and illusion. Although that's not the point of discussion, but we just went through illusion in psychology, the interesting thing about the illusions is even though you know they are wrong, you still can't see it right. God made the foam look real and the real an illusion. He concealed the sea and made the foam visible, the wind invisible, and the dust manifest. You see the dust whirling, but how can the dust rise by itself? You see the foam, but not the ocean. This is how illusion works. as French Phenomenological philosopher Maurice Marleau Ponty says "Vision is brain's way of touching". Illusion is all about doping one's mind with an idea which actually never existed. The term illusion refers to a specific form of sensory distortion. Unlike hallucination which is a distortion in the absence of stimulus an illusion describes a misinterpretation of a true sense.

            We are lucky to be one of those people who wish to build "Sandcastles" through ideas, to make a place where our imagination can wander. Illusion had fancies over the minds of people over the generations in History which is continued till the date. Effect of illusion when combined with architectural and artistic elements, a parallel new dimension is created in the brains of intellectual species. Methods of illusion had been widely used since the evolution of mankind into social beings.

Archaeologist Duncan Caldwell has surveyed the Paleolithic art of several caves in France and discovered a recurring theme that he says can't be simply accidental. Throughout the cave of Faun-de-gaume, and examples from other sites as well, drawings of woolly Mammoth and Bisons often share certain lines or other features, creating overlapping images that can be first as one Animal, then the other. Rarely, if ever, do they do the same with other Animals.


            Similar examples are cited in the Meenakshi Temple, Madurai, India. The ceiling of Meenakshi Temple is covered with intricate patterns and images which creates phantasm when the spectator's observe.

-An Elephant or a Bull...??

-Meenakshi Temple, Madurai

            Paintings do actually appeal in terms of optical illusion, however, there exists another clever ingenuity of ILLUSIONISM IN ARCHITECTURE which was first used by the Greeks. The earliest record of illusionism is found in about 5th to 4th century B.C. that is about a competition between two painters. Trompe-l'oiel (Illusion) was reintroduced during the Renaissance period becoming the principal method of "Realistic Real Representation".

            Renaissance Architecture is the architecture of the period between the early 15th and early 17th centuries in different regions of Europe, demonstrating a conscious revival and development of certain elements of ancient Greek and Roman  thought and material culture. Stylistically, Renaissance Architecture followed Gothic Architecture and was succeeded by Baroque Architecture. Though the phrase originates in the Baroque period, when it refers to perspective illusionism, Tromp-l'oeil dates much further back. It was (and is) often employed in murals. Instances from Greek and Roman times are known, for instance in Pompeii. A typical Tromp-l'oeil mural might be depict a window, door, or halfway, intended to suggests a larger room. Perspective theories in the 17th century allowed a more fully integrated approach to Architectural illusion, which when used by painters to "open up" the spaces of a wall or ceiling is known as Qudatratura. Examples include Pietro da Cortona's Allegory of  Divine Providence in the Palazzo Barberini and Andrea Pozzo's Apotheosis of St. Ignatius on the ceiling of the Roman Church of Sant'Ignazio. Andrea Pozzo was an Italian Baroque Architect. He was best known for his Grandiose frescoes using illusionistic technique called Quadratura, in which architecture and fancies are intermixed. They are remarkable and emblematic creation of High Roman Baroque.

            Fictional Tromp-l'oeil appears in many Looney tunes, such as the Road Runner cartoons, where, for example, Wile E. Coyote paints a tunnel. This is usually followed by the Coyote's foolishly trying to run through the tunnel after the Road Runner, only to smash into the hard rock face.

            Also it is featured in fictional movies and novels like Harry Potter and Indiana Jones.

One of the best examples can be seen in one of the Movies of Christopher Nolan's INCEPTION

            Greek buildings Narrate many Different types of Illusions, for they may be illusions of symmetry, scale,distance weightlessness and even dematerialization. The first use of Entasis is probably in the later Temple of Aphaia in the 490s B.C. and most often seen in the temples of Doric order built by the Ancient Greeks in the Renaissance Building in Hellenistic period and Roman Architecture. An early-Articulated and still widespread view, espoused by Mathematician Hero of Alexandria, is that Entasis corrects the optical illusion of concavity in the columns which the fallible human eye would create if a correction were not made.

-Entasis

-Parthenon, Acropolis

            The Greatest of all examples cited in the architecture of Greek Civilization is Parthenon, Acropolis. In Parthenon the corner columns are made to be 1/40th larger in Diameter than the other column and the spaces around them smaller than the rest by about 25cm. This corrects the illusion created by the bright background of the sky, that they appear to be thinner and further apart than the further columns that stand in front of the darker building wall.

           In India. legends such as Kalidasa take us to the entire different world of illusions by his writings for example Malvikagnimitram.

मालविकाग्निमित्रम

Also the art of Camouflage (to disguise someone to be something else) was widely used in the battles between the emperors for the thrones, as mentioned about Chandragupta Maurya when he was in the process of unification of India. The Architectural icon of India, the "crown of palaces" Taj Mahal is also product of many different types of Illusions. One of the major illusions is the correctional Illusion, the four minarets surrounding the Taj Mahal were built angled away from the Taj, so that in case of a natural disaster the minarets wouldn't fall on the main structure. Moreover, architectural illusion makes it so that if the minarets weren't angled at all. they would appear to be angled toward the Taj. The Taj Mahal utilize architectural aspects to create the Illusion that exists, also it exhibits the "patterned optical illusion" on the floor of marbles.

            In the Twentieth Century, artists began to play with the perspective by drawing impossible objects. These objects included stairs that always go up or cubes where the back meets the front. Such works were popularized by artist M.C. Escher and mathematician Roger Penrose. Although referred to as the Necker cube and the Penrose triangle can be built by using ANAMORPHOSIS when viewed at certain angle, such sculptures appears as the so called impossible objects.

-Penrose Staircase

            Architecture of Illusions are installations based on specific visual illusion, generated by the design of the geometric characteristics of 3-Dimensional Space. One of the installations deals with the well known Ames Illusion better known as the distorted room demonstrated by the psychologist Albert Ames. A room, trapezoidal in both plan and section is perceived as a usual rectangular room from a determined view point. People moving along the 'distorted' side of the room are seen as enlarging or shrinking and the two objects of the same size were perceived  at considerably different scales.

            One of the most famous Architects of all time Le Corbusier designed the expressionist modernist chapel Notre Dame du Haut in 1955 which became the icon of 20th century European Architecture. The chapel gives the impression that it was designed inside out. Side chapels puncture the massive main roof permitting controlled light to illuminate them individually.

            Many renowned Architects like Perkin Eastman, Leo A Daly and Chapman Taylor are a few names who use massive illusions in their Designs. They twist and turn the structure in such a manner that it becomes an optical Marvel. More recently,

            Rolls Royce cars all used illusion in their grilles to give an illusion of Greater Solidity.

            When we talk about Architecture and Illusionism in Architecture, it is meant for comfort and eternal joy and Happiness which comes in the minds of person who is experiencing it. In 2002 The Sky Factory was formed which envisioned the same via illusion. They envisioned to being inside a world wherein the pristine beauty of nature exists, where fine arts and technology help to deliver the peace and balance that come from authentic experiences of the depth of Nature.

            Throughout the History, Illusion in Architecture have appealed to the minds of people and enthralled their souls with the joys of Illusions. In future when people will fight for places to live and bestow themselves, Illusion will provide them big spaces in real small lands.

            As Anonymously said - If there exists something in real.....

That's  ILLUSION

KESHAV KUMAR AGRAWAL

AN INTRODUCTION TO THE BLOG

            I am 4th year student of Architecture  working as an Architect Trainee under C.P. Kukreja Associates, New Delhi.

            Born and brought in various part of North India, have traveled to many other parts of the country as well, because of phantasm of Travel History and Architecture.

            I had been writing since I was a child, but frankly, even today I am not able to figure out my writings and their purpose, but recently when some of my articles got published in Architecture Magazines and won some events I cleared my way to write and created this Blog.

            This Blog is focused to all the students associated to field of Travel, History and Design. However, design is a 'endless' word to discuss about and a tough job too, but clusters of bridges are made to link the map of Heritage and Modern Architecture researched by travelling across the areas through different mediums and that being my aim of writing this blog, "Research".

            The Blog is an attempt to drive readers through different phases of Heritage, Culture and Architecture present in India and rest of the world.

            In the recent past dated back to three years, I have been travelling across India in search of Architectural descriptions found in different regions which are associated to different cultures and civilizations. But according to my vision, the smell of the past is incomplete without the descriptive results of the present that will affect the future which I will try to incorporate in my Blog.

Keshav Kumar Agrawal
B-Arch, 4th Year