Nobody’s Baby

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Unlike fully developed economies Architecture is at a pretty nascent stage in India. Both the service providers and seekers have not yet been able to fathom it’s real potential . As such it is an uphill task for all the practising Architects to educate before practice, which unfortunately is not very well received.

In West an Architect is like an institution that has a certain character/style and only those who approve of his/her designing traits/skills approach the consultant. Once the site is finalised, they simply cite their requirements and then it is the architect’s duty to transform the space into a functional art form as per the well understood designing skills.

Whereas in India the client’s brief is not limited to just requirement but here they even meddle with the design concept & process at every stage too, like hiring an artist and dictating what/how to paint. As a result there is a major chaos & cacophony of design and the end product is nobody’s baby.

Typically if a project turns out well people take the credit themselves and if it goes South then it is the Architect’s fault.

People miss the point that a consultant is to “advise” not “seek advise”.

In India “respect” comes only through “fear”. When in trouble people visit holy places. Respect for any profession , in Indian context ,is directly proportional to the risk involved. Hence Doctors, Lawyers, Chartered Accountants , Teachers (necessarily in that order) have more respect in India as compared to an Architect. Reason is simple-Generally people approach an Architect when they are in the pink of their life. Though there is a tradition of camouflaging need with desire, primary reasons of an urban Indian to approach an Architect are:

-Post retirement usage (want to leave it for my son)

-Marriage round the corner( how can I bring her in this old shabby house)

-Growing family space demands( kids need their space as their friends have)

-Business is booming( let’s invest to earn more by showing the clients how big we are)

-Excessive disposable income( World I’ve arrived & have joined that richie-rich club )

-Because others hire an Architect we should have one too

-We need someone to vet our decisions.

-Need somebody to put across their point of view & convince others in the family etc.

By far the most common expectation from an architect in India is:

Create a masterpiece better than everybody else & that nobody has seen before.

Though ancient India is full of amazing architectural marvels which are no less than elsewhere in the world , post Independence India probably was exposed to modern architecture only when Chandigarh was designed and that was only about 70 yrs ago . But that scale was too big for common citizens to comprehend. The trickle is taking it’s time to reach the masses and the understanding shall take even longer.

Trust Takes Time and all Architects in India are waiting.

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Published by MaverickCreatz

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42 thoughts on “Nobody’s Baby”

      1. To be recognised by a majority in our country is to be a part of massive urbanization projects and be policy makers. Unfortunately all government bodies in our country are populated by bureaucrats.This phenemenon is predominant across all sectors in our country. Thoughtprovoking

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  9. Very relevant subject, but at some level, general mediocrity in the professional space also has been a contributor to the lack of confidence. Secondly, you have rightly touched upon the social behavioral aspect as well. I am sure even the big and respected names in the country are. It spared of the meddling.

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  10. Well written and emotionally expressive soft aspects of the architectural profession that lay out perceptions, ignorance and prejudices. Would love to see an utopian piece from yo sometime that motivates the young to a brighter future for the profession.

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  11. Going through your blog, it proves that simplicity is the essence of all advanced knowledge. Your total command on the subject is evident from your writings. You make a very complicated subject like Architecture easy for us to understand. It helps us gain perspectives that we did not know. In the quest for standardisation, the world is losing all creativity. This is also because people want to spend the least amount of money for the most important thing – architecture. Thank you for writing so well Ambuj. Architects like you are the need of the hour. More power to you.

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  15. Very good insight of the underlying issue of Architecture in India and elsewhere.
    Lot of people see Architecture superficially, hence the demand for a “Masterpiece”.
    The irony is that in US Architecture is one of the hardest college major.
    Your pro-activeness will help bring awareness to the masses and help the profession.

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  16. Interesting insight, including from some of the comments. There is a functional aspect of Architecture in everyday life which we don’t realise but only feel – a famous brick and mortal architect who many in software community follow (Christopher Alexander) said Quality Without A Name (QWAN). In many ways it is indeed art – where there is a question on valuing the creativity. Who says what is better … thanks for penning your thoughts.

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