Nari Gandhi
NARI GANDHI TROPHY 2011
“Inspired by Yesterday Aspired for Tomorrow” PREMISE:
India simultaneously lives in three time zones. Moorings from the past and aspirations for tomorrow coexist today to create the present. In India therefore history is not a fossilised past but rather a continuum of the tradition. History lives on as tradition. A land of long history and deep traditions, its architectural landscape has innumerable edifices that have transcended time to remain timeless even after centuries and millennia. They have sustained the rigour of place and people over time. This has been so due to consistent process of adaptation over changed time and circumstance. Continuum of core traditional ethos along with adaptation of the new dimensions of the changed times. Their survival over time is in itself the proof of its acceptance and appropriateness over changed time and circumstance. These examples are the worthy resources to learn from them about their Spatiality (quality of timelessness), Sustainability (resource management) as well as plurality (Sociocultural appropriateness). Why is it that architecture of yester year continues to inspire awe, even at times after functional obsolescence (i.e. step wells)? What are the spatial qualities that render them awe inspiring and experientially engaging across time? What makes them environmentally sustainable to remain energy efficient for climate comforts? What have been their constructional strategies to optimise on material resources? What are the design attributes that render them socio-culturally appropriate? Can we not learn from such time tested architecture and apply their principles of timeless aesthetics, environmental sustainability, constructional efficiency or functional plurality to the contemporary architecture. To interpret and apply the essence of traditional wisdom with their due adaptations for times to come.
TASK:
Select a contemporary architectural design project from past three decades
“Inspired by Yesterday Aspired for Tomorrow” PREMISE:
India simultaneously lives in three time zones. Moorings from the past and aspirations for tomorrow coexist today to create the present. In India therefore history is not a fossilised past but rather a continuum of the tradition. History lives on as tradition. A land of long history and deep traditions, its architectural landscape has innumerable edifices that have transcended time to remain timeless even after centuries and millennia. They have sustained the rigour of place and people over time. This has been so due to consistent process of adaptation over changed time and circumstance. Continuum of core traditional ethos along with adaptation of the new dimensions of the changed times. Their survival over time is in itself the proof of its acceptance and appropriateness over changed time and circumstance. These examples are the worthy resources to learn from them about their Spatiality (quality of timelessness), Sustainability (resource management) as well as plurality (Sociocultural appropriateness). Why is it that architecture of yester year continues to inspire awe, even at times after functional obsolescence (i.e. step wells)? What are the spatial qualities that render them awe inspiring and experientially engaging across time? What makes them environmentally sustainable to remain energy efficient for climate comforts? What have been their constructional strategies to optimise on material resources? What are the design attributes that render them socio-culturally appropriate? Can we not learn from such time tested architecture and apply their principles of timeless aesthetics, environmental sustainability, constructional efficiency or functional plurality to the contemporary architecture. To interpret and apply the essence of traditional wisdom with their due adaptations for times to come.
TASK:
Select a contemporary architectural design project from past three decades