Ladies and Gentlemen, Please welcome a brand new avatar of our most adored building material of the 20th century,The Cement Concrete, infused into fabric which is easily transportable, highly reliable and durable, fire-proof and water-proof!

Do we need anything more?! No.. I certainly don’t think so!

Like the 2-minute noodles, we here have the 2-hour habitable and safe structures! All you need to do is: wrap/fold it up in any shape/size and add water. Leave it to absorb water for 2 hours..tada!!
Your structure is all set and ready to be occupied!

Concrete Canvas, a UK-based company won the award Material of the year 2009- by Material Connexion for their innovative creation of a fabric that is concrete-infused, cement layered between fabric, that can bond with water, backed with PVC.

The fabric can be set to any shape or form, then allowed to absorb the water, causing it to set after 2 hours. The material can be used structurally. It is also a fireproof and a waterproof fabric which turns this as an excellent choice of material for disaster relief, military and commercial environments.

Some pictures below of the fabric by Concrete Canvas:

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This is a never seen before drug can. We have soda cans like diet pepsi and colas. This is a drug/ pain reliever which comes in this beautiful package. This can has been designed by Loren Kulesues from New York. He is a specialist in Industrial Design, 3-D modelling and Art-direction.

I came across this product design while I was just randomly surf the net, the thing which I’m inevitably addicted to. But I’m glad I’m learning something here! I like the design. Symbolically it conveys it’s a canned-drug, of course which it is supposed to be. Quite innovative and unique, like the attention grabber kind. Honestly, I would jump to take my meds everyday(without fail) if such kind of drug cans are introduced in the market. Just imagine the impact and possibilities of such designer cans and bottles for the pediatric medicine.

The designer called this as a Recreational Drug.

Very interesting!

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Continued from here….

Ironically, today’s buildings have ended up being concrete structures with glass façade as the reminders of the globalized way of living, existing with support systems like artificial air-conditioning and lighting. The buildings are sensitive. They need constant supervising to keep running things smoothly. In the city which has vast multitude of cultural and technological uniqueness and exquisiteness it becomes the prime responsibility of the Architect to identify, deal and offer a judicious and dateless solution which connects and appeals to the masses.

At all costs Aesthetics and Function has to clasp each other’s hands and set out on this tough journey in times of speedy cultural, technological and psychological shift happening, where world is shrinking not only by the virtue of technology but also due to the liberal mindsets of the inhabitants of the city called Bengaluru and not to forget the honor of being included as one of the most lively, progressive and a peaceful cosmopolitan city.

A Bengaluru architect named Arunjot Singh Bhalla, from a reputed Architectural firm in the city is constantly involved in modern day projects like these where the emphasis is on adopting global- style of Architecture, Work and Living Culture. He says “The Architectural character of this city has been in rapid flux. From ‘curtain glazing revolution’ ushered by IT Park in Whitefield to almost nostalgic, return to the ‘classic’ as seen in few recent projects. Bangalore’s skyline continues to evolve.” He also adds that “the new materials like Structural Glazing, Aluminum Laminate, Profile sections, Perforated Metal etc, have been only evolving since the IT revolution started. The new façade teamed up with potential labor and ample real estate opportunities attracted thousands of foreign companies along with their well-travelled professional desirous of having a ‘world-class’ experience at Work-place. The region is undergoing a turn-around like revolution which is making way for an International Style of living and Working with gated housing communities (usually self-sufficient) which are near to the work-places allowing the employees to practice the trend of Walk-to-Work.”

The style and materials adorning the skyline of Bengaluru has a crucial role to play in terms of showcasing the global-employee revolution that is happening in the economy. This shows that the trend is moving from closed door operations to the brand new concept of transparency in all dealings, while the latter concept is nowadays being used to symbolize Openness, Honesty, and Integrity.

Symbolism, in today’s world plays a major role in Architecture. The city’s density has compelled to go in for Vertical Architecture. Skyscrapers are becoming more and more visible when one looks up at the sky. The conceptual evolution has helped the modern day architects to explore and validate ways of combating the constraints of the city’s environment and other important factors. Ex: UB city on Vittal Mallya Road is at the heart of the city. An excellent example representing today’s contemporary transition happening in the city.

The contemporary regional architecture of Bengaluru cannot be categorized. It is evolving day by day with due respect to the existing heritage buildings which once savored the limelight of the city. Change is arriving into every nuke and corner of the city and its dealings (Including the most prominent stone structure, Vidhana Soudha which was built in mid-fifties is expecting a change in accordance to time only to bring in the symbolical concept called Transparency on its façade.)

The current trend in regional architecture is ‘to be in sync’ with the modern-world in parallel ‘connecting’ to the city’s history and cultural heritage which forms the complete circle meeting all the constraints and shortcomings of yesterday, today and tomorrow, Uniting all the forces of nature, art and architecture giving the sense of United /Common/One Architecture.

Bengaluru, the capital of the Indian state of Karnataka is located on the Deccan Plateau in the south eastern part of Karnataka. Bengaluru has an estimated metropolitan population of 6.5 million, making it India’s third most populous city and fifth largest metropolitan area.

The historical references to the city predate to 900C, a modern written history of continuous settlement exists only from 1537, when Kempe Gowda I, who many regard as the architect of modern Bangalore, built a mud-brick fort at the site and established it as a province of the imperial Vijayanagara Empire. The first ever structure Bengaluru had ever seen on itself. Thus, it won’t be unfair if we say that mud-brick-stone construction was naturally adopted in Bengaluru owing to its abundant material infrastructure in the home city making way to the guesses that these were regarded as the basic Regional architectural materials in Bengaluru.

Regional architecture encompasses methods of construction which use locally available resources to address local needs. This kind of architecture tends to evolve over time to reflect the environmental, cultural, and historical context in which it exists. The building knowledge in traditional architecture is often transported by local traditions and is thus more based on knowledge achieved by trial and error and often handed down through the generations rather than calculated on knowledge of geometry and physics. This of course, does not exclude architects from using traditional architecture in their designs or being firmly based in their regional architecture.

Regional architecture often showcases the result forms of ultimate inspiration drawn from the surrounding nature of the specific region. It promises for the eternity to bring back the human and spiritual element which existed back then resulting to establish a different meaning to the word ‘Region-al Architecture’. Architecture back then, succeeded in forming a long-lasting relationship with its built environment. This reflected Humanity, Humility, and Honesty in terms of serving the purpose of the built form to its inhabitants and surroundings adopting the most unobtrusive way of existence.

Continued in the next post…..

Continued from part 1…

Pre-production: this is the process where the technical crew and equipments are hired. All the legal and other documents are set right and the filming process is ready to begin its glorious course of time. Can you recognize this phase? This is the phase where the architects have their drawings (of all kinds) ready with all the legal documents ready and signed by the producers (clients)?

Production: The shooting begins. The site is excavated. The mason asks the foundations to bury themselves firmly into the ground, holding it like they both had lost each other at a local fair that had happened 20 years ago. The foundation almost instinctively starts supporting the pillars, columns, structure with the live and dead load of responsibility thrown upon by its director.

With these kinds of pressure and stress, we humans only last for about 50 to 60 years or so in this unpredictable economy and life. Then what about these poor structures? Let’s be realistic and take the half of it? 25-30 years? Yes. It does.

Post-production: This is the part where the interior designer swings into action and transforms a skeletal frame into a beefed up good looking space. A space which, when filled up with people calls itself home/habitable space and not a square foot space.. This is the part where the Director fills up the film with background score, sound editing, visual effects and what not?!

The Director(architect) also creates a space with its own sounds,smells and charm. How much he succeeds in creating the sounds and smells in the spaces is left to his creativity and there lies a challenge for the designer. How can you make a living room smell the way the clients want it to? How do you teach the space to make its own music or pre-program it with the sound its owner likes? Complicated.

I am talking about spaces that are in the same frame with the lead actors, Light and Ventilation acting with Smell and the sound. This is a stellar star cast! A multi-starrer flick! A cocktail of dance, drama and comedy- on the rocks.

Sales and Distribution: The movie is all over the place. On radios, TV, in-between commercials, newspapers, magazines and now on twitter too. The movie is marketed aggressively. Just the way the project manager and the marketing manager brainstorm, market the pieces all around and all-over the place.

Architectural form and spaces can be designed to accentuate the way an individual perceives and experiences a space or object or building. The designer/director/creator can creatively and sensitively manipulate or direct the way an individual should experience the project from the minutest detail to the larger whole by orchestrating how we experience it- visually,physically,emotionally and spiritually.

The design can be contributing to interaction or void of such, depending on the intent. The experience can be enlightening or awe inspiring or can be dull and uneventful, and all of this can be achieved by how you want the people to view and feel about a particular space or form.

The Creator is the Controller. All other things are wholly controlled and are mere slaves of the controller. The way the Creator guides them, they fall in line and follow the Commands as and when he demands.

Today is Bollywood superstar Shah Rukh Khan’s birthday. A very happy birthday ShahRukh! I admire him for his achievements because he came from a simple middle class background and has achieved a lot in Bollywood where friends become foe overnight. He is a hard-worker. He seems to be extremely passionate about his work, film-making and acting.

When I look at film-making from the layman’s point of view or how much ever I have observed while watching Behind-the-scenes episodes just before the release, the creative head in me says:

“Architecture is like Film-making”.

You might say.. Interesting, but how?

Film-making is an act of making films, from an initial idea, story or commission through script writing, shooting, editing and distribution to an audience.

In Architecture, it all begins with a concept in the architect’s mind, like a story in the director’s head. The director is the Architect here. He is the one calling all the shots. He is the controller of the whole environment which he creates in and around his building just like how the Director gets the filming set done by the set designers and with the help of other technical professionals.

The drawing on his desk is his film in pre-production/production process. The main leads here are Light and Ventilation. Just imagine a flamboyantly designed building without these two and you’ll know why I chose these two as the main leads. Without light there is no vision and without ventilation a space becomes uninhabitable. Typically a film-making process involves several people and takes from a few months to years to complete, just like our building-construction process. It also has to deal with a huge range of socio-economic and political contexts and variety of technologies and techniques.

Stages:

Development: This is a stage where the director comes up with the concept and sits around with his assistant directors and the producer (client). Here the producer’s whims and fancies are heard and a product suitable to that is prepared. Nowadays, the producers give creative freedom to the directors. They seem to have this unflinching belief in their director’s concept. The producers are intelligent people. They are investing their hard-earned or hardly earned money on that and they want the product to be a success, a marvel in itself, a thing that breaks all box office records, creates history and an end product so remarkable that it eventually becomes a part of the producer’s and the director’s identity.

A producer chooses the director carefully. Either he goes to the master director or he approaches his assistants to branch out and don the cap of a director, which is every assistant director’s dream. This is why we should choose the place where we want to do our internships/apprenticeships very carefully.We should be choosers at all costs and not beggars. The teacher who guides us is equally important in this business, be it cinema or Architecture.So choosing carefully is the mantra. we are like a pound of clay. Gets instantly molded in the way the master molds it.

Cinema is highly glossed and gobbles up much media space and public attention.Nowadays Architecture too is looked upon as an unusual and an interesting profession. Strangely there is a huge increase in the matrimonial column with “Wanted an Architect-groom” or an “architect-bride”. People jump at the word Architect. Some of my non-architect friends say it is a sense of prestige to have an Architect as a spouse. Architects are sexy.  They are everywhere.. doing all sorts of things..creative,industrious,intelligent and fun-loving people who are notoriously known for their risk-taking ability and their readiness to experiments and experiences.

Bollywood is a big thing in India. We all hate it but can’t live without it. It’s like our local markets. We all hate it, don’t want to do a thing about it and the funny thing is we can’t survive without it. We casually ask people ” which movie did you watch recently?” but we usually hesitate OR it is uncommon to ask them “Hey! What book are you reading?” or “Hey! Did you visit that gallery? It has a showcase of paintings done by so-and-so artist.” The generation is changing.

We can’t help.We are like this only!

To be continued tomorrow…in part 2 of this series.

“In architecture the pride of man, his triumph over gravitation, his will to power, assume a visible form. Architecture is a sort of oratory of power by means of forms.” – Friedrich Nietzsche

Form is a three-dimensional response to volume. When one talks about the form of an object, that person is referring to the fullness, the three-dimensionality of that object.

Thinking in terms of drawing, form is the translation of the characteristics of what is happening between the lines:

• The inside of an object,
• The positive spaces, and
• The negative spaces.

Drawing can be broad; it has many things it has to deal with- line, composition, figure/ground relationships, focal point, color, etc.The line work of drawings can be either objective, revealing the physical nature of the object; subjective, revealing the personal attitudes and emotions of the artist, or a combination of the two.Think how personally we know the emotional intensity of Vincent Van Gogh through his treatment of such a mundane object as a little wicker chair.

Sculpture too exists on these levels. By nature, sculpture is very specific. It’s very much about forming an object, having three dimensions, existing in space, but, of course, it will also take on the personality and the thoughts of the artist who is crafting the piece.

Leonardo Da Vinci attempted to establish that Art is a mental activity and a science, searching for objective reality. On the other hand, we know that art is an expressive act, relating directly to the subjective experiences of the artist, springing from an “inner necessity” as Kandinsky pointed out. Searching for the structural form of an object is an intellectual part of the objective processes of seeing. Feeling the emotional form of that object is also an important part of art making.

Art is never accidental and arbitrary- the great artist is always purposeful and focused. There are undoubtedly two ways of drawing visible things- by using outlines to define them precisely, or by treating the planes and curved surfaces as masses through surface directional lines, values, and tones. The lines are either drawn on a flat plane, as a drawing, or in a three-dimensional space, as a sculpture. The way the artist thinks of the object in relation to the space around it is a key decider on his approach to the work. Frank Gehry, the architect for Disney Hall, used sculptural principles when designing this building. Just as any good sculpture, this building activates the space around it.

Antoni Gaudi, eminent Spanish architect, once observed, “The straight line belongs to man, the curve to God.” Gaudi, who is known for his irregular and fantastically intricate designs, claimed that his works were inspired by nature. Throughout his life, he studied nature’s angles and curves and incorporated them into his designs. Some of his greatest works, most notably the La Sagrada Família in Barcelona, have been acclaimed as original works with an almost hallucinatory power.

“Architecture (is) a theatre stage setting where the leading actors are the people, and to dramatically direct the dialogue between these people and space is the technique of designing.” – Kisho Kurokawa

Creating dramatic architecture can be challenging even for the most accomplished architect. That is perhaps why most modern-day architects have preferred the straight line to the curve despite the advantages offered by computer-aided design. For the few who have, defied conventional attitudes to strike it out on their own, curves are a gift from nature. A number of architects today are willing to experiment with curves. The challenge is creating flamboyance without compromising on function. Today, one finds houses and commercial buildings with winding staircases and curved rooms, balconies, sit-outs, roof slabs and driveways.

As students, we find Curves extremely fascinating, be it in plans, sections, views and elevations. Curves can be liberally used in designs to achieve interesting, energizing, and favorable effects. Everything in nature is in curves. Curves reflect and resonate with nature. They constitute the original geometry and are flexible, unlike straight lines that are rigid.

The first shelter man had ever built was a tribal hut which had curves. Eskimo igloos and caves where the human settlements were evident had curved profiles in their appearance. Designing a building with curves helps it to blend easily with the natural environment.

Curves, divide the inside and outside spaces smoothly. In conjunction with natural light, they generate so much positive energy inside a building. But unless handled carefully, curves can also disorient the occupants by deflecting and dissipating energy. After all, the objective of Architecture is to create vibrant spaces that are enjoyable and inhabitable.

Skylights in elliptical or curved shapes are a popular method of bringing natural light into a building to achieve the right harmony with the interior elements. If straight lines can create rigid, hard, harsh, and oppressive spaces, curves generate flexible, soft, and smooth spaces.

In reality, one of the reasons for poor acceptability of curves as an architectural element is that it creates dead spaces. There is reason in the argument that curves create incidental dead spaces but only when it clashes with non-merging, non-assimilating elements. It is also a question of creating coherent space. Incorporating curves into the design of a building does not only add much to the cost of construction but it needs practiced masons and a vast multitude of other facilities and also it cannot be ruled out that it results in considerable amount of wastage in material.

After a nice 1 month vacation from blogging, I am back. This time for more good, loaded with new blogging ideas. So many that I have decided to take up NaBloPoMo, starting this November. Every month, at NaBloPoMo they have a monthly theme. But for this November, they have NO THEME as their theme. Today, on the 31st October, I am signing up for National Blog Posting Month-meaning I’ll have to post every single day without a miss. A perfect test to my commitment to be a blogger(nothing full time-just an intellectual outlet- if it is worthy of that word)

I wanted to take this challenge last year. I was a bit apprehensive about it as I was very new to blogosphere. Now, that I know the ways I don’t think I need to think twice. Challenges are good. There should be challenges and rivalry. It keeps things interesting. Incidentally, adds more drama to our lives.

The posts may range anywhere from 250 to 800 words, depending upon the idea and my research(spending time in the library.. yay!).The posts will touch upon different spheres and sectors of subjects and topics that are sometimes directly and remotely connected to Architecture. This is a universal subject. It has connections starting from Languages to Performing Arts, Science to Advanced Science, Courtrooms to Politics.. And it just spirally spills over flowing into the infinity space of darkness with its light, life and a distinct aura, conquering more and more area of its existence.

When I saw them first I couldn’t believe they were shoes, designed by a London architect Julian Hakes.

I mean.. look at them, they look like some interior design related product costing about zillions of dollars!They are unbelievable!

Then somehow convincing myself that this is indeed a shoe, I tried to imagine how one would fit their foot into this thing which doesn’t look like a conventional shoe at all!

The shoe does not have a foot plate. The design consists of a single piece that wraps around the wearer’s foot forming support for the heel and the ball.The foot naturally forms a bridge between the two.The product is made of carbon fibre, laminated with rubber on the side that touches the floor and leather on the side next to the skin.

The Designer’s text.

{Dezeen}

Originality… If we say and assume it is there. Then yes, it is there. If we say it is not, then it is not. Everything that we create seems to be a copy of the blue-print that the Mother Nature has created for us over a good period of time. Perhaps.. using the good old Trial and Error method. It has taken her to evolve over billions of years to come up with these brilliant perfectly designed environments in which there is a coherent relation between all living and non-living things.

Like we do in Architecture, designing never stops. Maybe we learnt it from nature. We too keep developing upon the existing designs only to make it look a complete design.

But Mother Nature says – Designs are never complete. There is always one or the other free end, flying away, along the path of the wind, gloriously showcasing its ugly existence, in our perfect-complete-genuine-design, which later expects us to manipulate it intelligently and weave it seamlessly into the existing design. As the design grows, over a period of time, it turns itself into an equally complex and a very challenging task to tackle.Here,it shapes up into a strangely personal and impersonal piece of work, both at the same time.

Any original work of art is necessarily original. It is the first and last, one of its kind, in the order of its existence. Those creations have freshness and authority. If it lacks the depth and meaning that one searches in the work of art then it goes on to become a mere cheap-showy creation. Naturally it loses its charm. The charm that brings about the feeling of ever-greenness and timelessness.

A masterpiece is always a set of original ideas put together, like the characters in a novel. They behold our interests, evokes emotions, appears to be mysterious and engages the on-lookers for a long period of time often surprising them with unexpected rush of adrenaline just by looking or feeling that piece of art and architecture. They are intelligently, often strategically juxtaposed and the spaces are deliberately designed to seduce and sometimes designed to make us realize the existence of spirit and its religion-Spiritualism.

Creativity is  an extremely unpredictable part of our existence.Masterpieces also become sources of inspiration for others. Sometimes the Artists build upon the idea they have deduced from that piece of art and other times they simply carry-on weaving the story detaching the existing part mercilessly, depending upon the understanding and intellectual capabilities of the designer. No wonder Artists have variety of tastes- they are seen at movie screenings, plays, galleries, parks, sport centers, shopping malls, parties, gardening exhibitions doing what not.

No one knows from where you get an IDEA. An IDEA to create something – like the trigger of a gun,when pulled, hunts down the perfect prey that’ll create History. The IDEA. And everyone yearns for one to fall into their laps.

It is not only about designing or drawing something on a piece of paper, the true artist’s intentions and thoughts/insights are known to the audience only when he explains it to them, in his own words or actions.Of course there is also a talent of reading art and architecture, but it is limited only to the reader’s sphere of understanding. It is almost a psychic phenomenon to read the minds of the artists.

I have observed a lot of times – What’s there on our mind always/somehow melts down as an artwork. Not necessarily everyone should be an artist to do this. But it is a psychological way of relieving the pressure on the brain, by getting the dexterous hands to work on something. Some show it in their culinary skills, some express them through expressive arts or some plainly express it by the way they tap their foot. The expression is a continuous process like breathing oxygen. So when we do all these, originality is an undeniable fact. Often it is seen and observed that these type of accidents results in stunningly genuine creations that we fondly call as masterpieces.