Volume 03 / Issue 01

November
2013

INDIA

R200

023

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NEWS

11

An anthology on women in Indian photography

The advent of photography brought
many changes especially in terms
of how we document the historical,
social, gender and political aspects
of a society in which the image
stems from. Prior to photography,
it was only painting of portraits
that could capture an aspect of a
person or place or culture that was
closest to what reality was, but it was
nowhere close to the accurateness
of photographs. As it provided
a real-time image, it was more
objective than subjective, and many
preferred the exactness of science.
The British in India introduced many
important technological/scientic
innovations and photography was
one of them. In fact, as early as the
1850s photography was available
in India. In a recently held exhibition
by Tasveer in collaboration with
Saffron Art threw light on an
absolutely rare aspect of Indian
photographs the women. Aptly
titled Subjects & spaces, women in
Indian photography showcases rare
photographs taken from the 1850s
to 1960s, of women from different
backgrounds posing for the latest
device of that time the camera.
Initially photographs were mostly
clicked by the British for archiving
purposes, and some photographed as
amateurs for their personal albums
to take back to England as memories
of India and its people. Mostly the
portraitures were clicked inside
studios with elaborate backgrounds
of architectural elements and the
postures were mostly a reection
of Western style and design. These
images were meant for displaying
at home or private spaces rather
than for public display. The collection
shows an interesting aspect of how
these women interacted with the
camera with a stranger behind the
lens clicking those photographs,
especially during the 18th and the
19th century Indian society, where
women were mostly behind veils
and were not accustomed to meet
or talk to strangers, let alone pose
for the camera. But, in the image
titled Group portrait, c1875 showing
a group of presumably Marathi
women is quite interesting, as the
subjects defy any form of femininity
in their posture or even the way
they look at the camera, rather they
exude dominance and power. It
takes a while to spot the little boy
standing next to them. Also, one
must remember that in the 19th
century, it was extremely difcult to
photograph large groups of people,
getting them to stay still for the long
exposure time. A photograph titled
Palanquin with bearers; c1860 is an
interesting one, as these were the
carriages that women used to travel
in, so that no one could see them in
public spaces. Another image that
draws attention is The Reclining

Group portrait, c1875

Ladies in a bathing ghat, c1870

The Reclining lady; c1870

lady; c1870 shows an Indian woman

posing in a sensuous manner but
her face holds a blank expression.
Since it has been clicked in a studio,
one can see in the background the
column and the posture has a hint of
Western inuence in the photograph.
Other works such as a scene from
the movie set Dahej, 1950 shows
women performing their respective
roles in the household; another scene
from Boot Polish, 1954 portrays
the woman as a mother. Also, a
photograph worth mentioning is a
demure image of Maharani Gayatri
Devi, c 1945 that reects the image

of a woman that was acceptable to

the Indian sensibility of the mid20th century society in terms of her
expression and attire. Looking at the
group photos; Ladies in a bathing
ghat, c1870, Group portrait, c1880
and First lady cyclist, 1920 describes
the country and its people in real
time and makes one wonder how life
in those days was for the women of
India. The images from this exhibition
are for sale, and are sold as a limited
edition boxed folio of Archival
Pigment Prints. Kalyani Majumdar
www.tasveerarts.com

domus 23 November 2013

12 NEWS

Keeping the storyteller safe

smoke, drink, wear western clothing,
and are out way past the good girls
bedtime probably deserved it.
What one doesnt take into account
while writing such reports, Khan
added, was how this bias, no matter
how subtle, introduced by the writer
trickles down to the reader, colouring
their judgement of the issue at hand.
Thus, in essence, the reader starts
questioning whether or not the
assault is credible or justiable, in
some cases and instantly judges
the survivor, eventually hampering the
actual process of justice.
In addition to addressing the
complexities involved in telling
the story of sexual assault, the
programme also concerned itself
with the storyteller in particular,
dwelling on safety mechanisms that
could be incorporated at individual
and organisational levels to better
protect reporters and photographers
on assignment, in the Safety in
the Field: Keeping the Storytellers
Secure segment. Photographer and
lmmaker Ashima Narain shared tips
and tricks she learnt over the years,
reinforcing the need for a practical,
common sense approach to navigate
unfamiliar territories safely while
at work.
As a photographer, Narain mentioned,
one needs to learn how not to draw
attention to oneself in order to truly
capture moments on lm. But on
the ipside, a camera always attract

attention, often unwarranted and

unwanted. Narain recounted incidents
of stalking, verbal and physical abuse,
and how she managed to nd a way
around these problems to get the
photographs, while ensuring personal
safety to get the job done to the
best of her ability.
Women, in India, have a strange,
bittersweet relationship with public
spaces. While one must negotiate
public spaces to get to places or
work, education and other such
commitments, one is also faced with
the harsh reality of being unsafe
practically everywhere. The
workshop, thus, was topical, given the
rise of assault cases in recent times,

Announcing the new Jury Chairman

We are pleased to announce that
Kaiwan Mehta, Managing Editor of
Domus India has been elected as
the Jury Chairman for the fellowship
cycle 2015-17 by the board of
directors of the Akademie Schloss
Soitude, Stuttgart, Germany, on the
recommendation of its director. The
Akademie is considered one of the
ve best artist residency programmes
internationally. The Akademie Schloss
Solitude is a public-law foundation
that offers an interdisciplinary and
international fellowship program for
artists and scientists. Since 1990,
the Akademie has supported artists
in the disciplines of architecture,
visual arts, performing arts, design,
literature, music/sound and video/
lm/new media with residency
and work fellowships. Since 2002,
young people from the science and
business sectors are also eligible for
fellowships within the art, science &
business program. The Akademie
Schloss Solitude is nancially
supported by the German state of
Baden-Wrttemberg. Mehta in his
capacity as Jury Chairman will be
inviting, and working with jurors,

but more than anything, compelled

women to think about their own
safety and take necessary measures
to stay alert and avoid getting into
potentially harmful situations, if
and when they have a chance to.
Sharmila Chakravorty

NEWS

A media workshop on the twin

themes of Women & Safety: How
can the media tell that story better
and Safety in the Field: Keeping the
storytellers secure was organised by
a Mumbai-based magazine, Time
Out. Though it was targeted at
journalist and photographers who are
constantly negotiating unfamiliar and
potentially risky territories due to the
nature of their work, almost anyone
and everyone would have related to
the workshop.
Conducted by journalist, writer and
researcher Sameera Khan, the
programme on ensuring objective
media reportage was aimed at
sensitising media persons on the
ethics of reportage relating to sexual
assault cases. As a reporter, one
is simply expected to report facts
objectively, without introducing
subjectivity or personal prejudices.
However, Khan showed an alarming
number of media reports on sexual
assault cases that clearly reected
the reporters opinion, or plain
ignorance and insensitivity, on the
matter. Most categorise the survivor
(in cases of rape and sexual assault)
either as the good girl who did not
deserve it, or a bad girl who, by
virtue of actions and circumstances,
was just asking for it. By that logic,
women in ethnic wear, from cultured
families, who are home by the time
the sun sets should not be raped or
molested, while those who choose to

Palm scapes by
Mrinalini Mukherjee

selecting fellows, setting up thematic

ideas, in the elds of visual arts,
architecture, design, literature, video/
lm/new media, music, humanities
and economics. This international
programme has had Fabrizio Gallanti,
Renate Ackermann, Phillip Ursprung
and Corinne Diserens as some of
their Jury Chairmen in the past. Some
of the Jury Members in the past
have included Dan Graham, Jurgen

Mayer H, Catherine David, Eyal

Weizman, Stan Allen, Peter Zumthor,
Ivan Vladisavic, Hans Ulrich-Obrist,
Sarat Maharaj, Herta Muller, Teresa
Hubbard/Allan Sekula, J M Coetzee,
Beatriz Colomina, Harun Farocki,
Yves Behar, Saadane Af, amongst
many others.

An exhibition of new bronze

sculptures by the esteemed artist
based in New Delhi Mrinalini
Mukherjee is on till 23 November
2013 at Nature Morte. Mukherjee
has become known for a fearless
investigation of materials over a
career now entering its fth decade.
She made her mark in the 1970s and
80s with ambitious works of dyed and
woven hemp bers and went on to
investigate ceramics and cast bronze.
Her most recent body of work takes
the bronzes to new levels of technical
prociency and commanding scales.

www.akademie-solitude.de/en
www.naturemorte.com.

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domus 23 November 2013

16 NEWS

New culinary rituals

but also the technical and practical
aspects of their projects. The best
results were a container for eating
in the workplace, a reworking of
the traditional lunch box (by Attila
Veress) and a system of modular,
coloured telescopic containers that
articulates and interprets dishes,
food and culinary rituals (by Michela
Voglino).

Shelf-Y is the very rst accessory for

spiral staircases: a shelf conceived
to exploit the space under the stairs
that is generally under-used, a useful
space for storing books, magazines
or objects of various kinds. It is a
symmetrical structure that is made
up of two elements in plexiglass
that once in position enhance the
staircase not only from a functional
point of view but also bring added
aesthetic value. Designers Marco

www.bmwgroup.com
www.designworksUSA.com

Vantusso and Paolo Colombo

have paid particular attention to
sustainability via the use of FSC
woods, recycled plastic, natural
glues, water-based paints so as
to make Shelf-Y 100% recyclable.
It is produced in two sizes for spiral
staircases with a diameter from 120
to 140 cm.
www.fontanot.it

Photo BMW Group

Food in Movement was the

theme of the rst edition of the
BMW Creative Lab, conceived by
BMW Italia and the BMW group of
DesignworksUSA (in partnership with
Fratelli Guzzini) to highlight the talent
of young international designers.
After seven months of meetings and
discussions and having to explore
various avenues including lm,
interviews and market research
winner Attila Veress and the four
nalists all showed great attention
to the symbolic value of exchange

Accessorial space

Les Turbulences

NEWS
Serpentine Sackler Gallery by Zaha Hadid Architects Zaha Hadid Architects

Art beneath the veil

The new building at the Serpentine

Gallery in Kensington Gardens,
designed by Zaha Hadid, opened
on 28 September. The rst artist to
present his work under the white
fabric tensile-structure was Adrin
Villar Rojas of Argentina.
The new outdoor pavilion, that
extends over approximately 900m2,
doubles the already generous
exhibition space in the gallery that
up until now, despite only 43 years
of existence has hosted works by

over 1,600 artists. The Serpentine

Sackler Gallery, named after the
philanthropists Mortimer and Theresa
Sackler who made its realisation
possible, further consolidates the
importance of this London site in the
world of contemporary art.
www.serpentinegallery.org

The Fonds Rgional dArt

Contemporain (FRAC) celebrated its
30th anniversary with the opening
on 14 September in Orlans of
the much talked-about building/
sculpture by Jakob + MacFarlane.
In front of the 18th-century former
prison that has been housing the
centres activities since 1999, three
steel and glass tentacles emerge,
known as Les Turbulences. They
are the result of a computerised
algorithm that, deforming the

pattern of the historic building, has

created a structure of lightweight
pre-fabricated metal tubes with
the function of accommodating
visitors. A light installation by the duo
Electronic Shadow completes the
project. The party continues until 2
February with the 2014 edition of the
Archilab festival entitled Naturaliser
larchitecture.
www.frac-centre.fr

domus 23 November 2013

18 NEWS

First lady cyclist, c. 1920

Tasveer in collaboration with Saffron Art

showcased a collection of photographs
taken from 1850s to 1960s in an
exhibition titled, Subjects & spaces,
women in Indian photography
(Also see page 11)

domus 23 November 2013

20 NEWS

Two young Parsi ladies, c. 1910

Tasveer in collaboration with Saffron Art

showcased a collection of photographs
taken from 1850s to 1960s in an
exhibition titled, Subjects & spaces,
women in Indian photography
(Also see page 11)

22 PROJECTS

domus 23 November 2013

Projects / Sitting as glazed boxes

(See pages 86 91)

24 PROJECTS

domus 23 November 2013

Projects / Discernable Patterns

(See pages 92-97)

Sometimes your hands

could use a hand.

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26 PROJECTS

domus 23 November 2013

Projects / Poetic link, tectonic integrity

(See pages 80-85)

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QDPHDQGDGGUHVVDQGVLJQRQWKHUHYHUVHRIWKHFKHTXH''s&DVKZLOOQRWEHDFFHSWHGs7HUPVDQGFRQGLWLRQVDUHVXEMHFWWRFKDQJHIURPWLPHWRWLPHs'LVSXWHVLIDQ\ZLOOEHVXEMHFWHGWRWKHH[FOXVLYHMXULVGLFWLRQRIFRPSHWHQWFRXUWVLQ0XPEDLRQO\s:HZLOOQHYHUGLVFORVH\RXU
SHUVRQDOLGHQWLDEOHLQIRUPDWLRQWRFRPSDQLHVQRWRZQHGE\6SHQWD0XOWLPHGLDZKRZDQWWRPDUNHWSURGXFWVRUVHUYLFHVWR\RXLI\RXUHIXVHWRHQWHUWDLQDQ\PDLOIURPFRPSDQLHVQRWRZQHGE\XV

domus 23 November 2013

CONTENTS 35

Contributors
Jasem Pirani
Suprio Bhattacharjee
Ekta Idnany

Author
Kaiwan Mehta

38

Editorial
Two years of Domus India

Photographs
Rohit Raj Mehndiratta
Rajesh Vora
Bharat Ramamrutham

Nicola Di Battista

42

Editorial
Domus, the human city

Kenneth Frampton

44

Towards an antagonastic architecture

Alan Fletcher

47

Confetti
Beware wet paint

Kalyani Majumdar

48

Many hands, many forms

Shanay Jhaveri

52

Interlocking the magical, the marvellous

and the mystical

Martand Khosla

54

The workings of architecture

Aprita Das

56

Captial between the covers

Authors
Kenneth Frampton
Historian

Alan Fletcher

Design

Shanay Jhaveri
Visual Arts Researcher

Marthand Khosla
Architect

Title

Mustansir Dalvi

58

A sense of repose

Writer & Publisher

Smita Dalvi

60

Collating a journey

Mustansir Dalvi

Eduardo Souto de Moura

62

An unscientic autobiography

Alberto Campo Baeza

64

An idea in the palm of the hand

Werner Oechslin

66

Man as intellectual

Architect

Kaiwan Mehta

69

studio VanRo architects

Projects
Pandoras jaali

Alberto Campo Baeza

Jasem Pirani

80

SJK Architects

Poetic link, tectonic integrity

Arpita Das

Architect & Historian

Smita Dalvi
Architect & Historian

Edurdo Souto de Moura

Architect

Suprio Bhattacharjee

86

Malik Architecture

Sitting as glazed boxes

Architecture Historian

Ekta Idnany

92

DCOOP Architects

Discernable patterns

Hans Kolhoff

Hans Kolhoff

98

Hans Kolhoff

Two ministries in The Hague

Hans Kolhoff

108

For an architecture of the city

110

Rassenga
Bathroom

Werner Oechslin

Architect

R200

November
2013

INDIA

023

LA CITT DELL UOMO

Cover: in the Jaisalmer Airport by studio

VanRo architects, an element like the jaali weaves colours, forms and light in the
building, without much value difference
between the element and the structure

domus 23 November 2013

Managing Editor
Kaiwan Mehta
Senior Assistant Editor
Kalyani Majumdar
Senior Sub-Editor
Sharmila Chakravorty
Art Director
Parvez Shaikh
Senior Graphic Designer
Yogesh Jadhav
Digital & Graphics
Ninad Jadhav
Rohit Nayak
Mangesh Rahate
Director, Marketing and Sales
Geetu Rai
Marketing Team
Parth Bal
Administration, General Manager
Bobby Daniel
Spenta Online
Viraf B Hansotia

Domus Magazine founded in 1928

Publisher and managing editor
Maria Giovanna Mazzocchi Bordone
Editor
Nicola Di Battista
Art director
Giuseppe Basile
Brand manager
Anna Amodeo
International director
Soa Bordone
Licensing & Syndication
Carmen Figini
t +39 02 82472487 gini@edidomus.it
The College of Masters
David Chippereld
Kenneth Frampton
Hans Kollhoff
Werner Oechslin
Eduardo Souto de Moura
Study Centre
Massimo Curzi
Spartaco Paris
Andrea Zamboni
Special projects
Luca Gazzaniga
Website
www.domusweb.it
Facebook
www.facebook.com/domus

Marketing ofces

Twitter @domusweb

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Tel: +91-22-2481 1062 Fax: +91-22-2481 1021
Website: www.spentamultimedia.com
Domus, magazine of Spenta Multimedia, is printed and published
by Maneck Davar, on behalf of Spenta Multimedia.
Printed at Spenta Multimedia, Peninsula Spenta, Mathuradas Mill
Compound, N. M. Joshi Marg, Lower Parel (W), Mumbai 400 013.
Published from Spenta Multimedia, Peninsula Spenta,
Mathuradas Mill Compound, N. M. Joshi Marg, Lower Parel (W),
Mumbai 400 013. Editor - Maneck Davar.
The views and opinions expressed or implied in Domus are
those of the authors and do not neccessarily reflect those of
Spenta Multimedia. Unsolicited articles and transparencies are
sent in at the owners risk and the publisher accepts no liability
for loss or damage. Material in this publication may not be
reproduced, whether in part or in whole, without the consent of
Spenta Multimedia.

023

Editor and Publisher

Maneck Davar

domus 23 November 2013

Medium: Digital print on archival paper, mounted on dibond panels

Size: 60 x 352 cms. 2013

EDITORIAL 37

Country and city: everyday strangers, 2013

Artist: Arunkumar H.G

Detail

The photo frieze shows workers standing on foot-paths in urban space. This work-force
assembles in huge numbers and then disappears within a short time. Everyday, at a
specied time and place, they wait to be taken to an unspecied destination for work. They
are migrants from villages who come to the city for temporary employment. The money
earned helps to keep their meagre farm practice alive. In cities their work is mainly hard
labour; even so, I can no longer sense the pain and harshness of their lives in the word
labour. Perhaps I should call them toilers. How do we identify this scene, this order, which
is visible yet so transient as to become invisible?
Arunkumar H.G

domus 23 November 2013

38 EDITORIAL

TWO YEARS OF DOMUS INDIA

Kaiwan Mehta

With this issue we begin the third year of Domus in India. It has been
two years of dening architectural journalism and criticism in India,
opening a space for discourse in the elds of architecture, design and
visual culture in India. It has been an attempt to recover as well as
shape the space for discussing architecture, which has been absent
in many ways, or existed only intermittently, in a very rareed way.
We only hope these attempts are useful, and contribute to these elds
productively, and creatively.
Those involved in the practice and eld of architecture of
architecture directly, as well as the others rstly need to understand
how architecture is way beyond building and shaping buildings.
Within the community of architects itself there are many ways of
thinking about architecture for some it is business, for others its
about juggling sizes and looks, and for some it is art, philosophical
engagement and a way of life! This situation puts a certain kind of
pressure on how one discusses architecture within a journalistic
space like the magazine, which is also the crucial critical space. A
magazine has to mirror the profession and eld it represents on the
one hand, but also has to challenge it harshly, critically, responsibly
and creatively. To showcase the debates and dilemmas of the
profession, the ideas and thoughts in the eld and the struggles of
producing buildings within the architectural eld is what a good
architectural magazine should be engaged in. Architecture, and
its object the building exists within a plethora of practices and
ideas; it is an aspect of historical and philosophical or ideological
conuences as well as a result of building material and technological
developments and availability of patronage, an economic
environment, and so on.
At one level we understand the building, and the designed object
from within the eld of architecture and design, but what is also
very necessary is to understand how other subjects and disciplines
approach the building as the object of architecture, and rather the
building or the designed object as a subject within the cultural and
public sphere. Architecture and design are elds that belong to the
everyday world, as much as they can be the objects of philosophical
and historical debates and within the practice of journalism and
criticism this has to be essentially acknowledged. In many ways for
Domus India, to engage with architecture and design is a way to
address many questions regarding the world and culture we occupy
and live in. We begin engaging with architecture but it soon turns
into an investigation of everyday life, the worlds of philosophy, history
and politics that shape our individual and public lives. The journey is
one that is intellectually investigating our roles as professionals, our
responsibilities as creators of objects in a large and complex world, as
well as our thinking as human beings occupying and using space as
well as resources in a rich and challenging society.
The architecture magazine is not an interior decoration catalogue
to browse through to select your next sofa or table-lamp, nor is it a
lifestyle magazine to be skimmed through while getting your hair
coloured, and it clearly need not spend time on discussing which
celebrity has built what house, and shopped furnishings from which
international trade fair, and it cannot fall prey to real-estate and
development promotions. And yes, at the same time all of the above
are part of this trade the making of buildings and shaping its
surfaces and the magazine will need to acknowledge all of that, but
not become a handmaiden to any of them. The magazine should never
be seen as the competitive space, at the professional level, but one
that is creative and challenging. A magazine will need to establish a
scale of standards but also dene approaches towards a productive
and rich profession and practice. It should not be about claiming what
is good or what is bad, but about understanding how the profession
and eld is developing and what should be focused on to generate a
dialogue within, and outside, the profession.
With these principles and intentions one makes an attempt to frame
every issue of Domus India as a cohesive document that month after
month will build up a rich narrative of architectural and design
practice, as well as visual culture in India. At all levels this remains
an attempt, and may be only a drop in the ocean, but we hope this
works as a trigger, encouraging debates and arguments in the
professional and philosophical discourse in the eld.
We look at individual projects but always within the context of the
practice, the process and culture that produces it. We evaluate and

challenge processes as much as we discuss and try to understand the

making of individual projects. The magazine often discusses projects
within thematic or typological frameworks, such as leisure homes or
building skins and facades. At the same time engaging with history
recent and distant, is very important for us; and history is not limited
to monuments, conservation or nostalgia, but evaluated for its sense
of the contemporary. The magazine works in many ways as a museum
in paper, a museum that is being built up every month, issue by issue;
and this museum is no commentary on the past, but on the present.
In fact, our section Museum for Architecture in Contemporary India
consciously documents forgotten moments and histories, objects and
ideas, which the contemporary is made up of. The form of the essay is
very important to us, as it keeps alive roaming ideas, bringing them
to a momentary story-line for discussion and rumination, and then
allowing them to oat in many more minds and, in the process, grow.
Another area we have focused on is the printed word books on
art, architecture and design, as well as those on urban cultures and
politics. New ones are discussed, while old ones are pulled out to
understand their continuing relevance. Their making, design and
production are as important to us as much as their content. And
from this issue we launch a new series Pages through my mind
that invites, and welcomes architects, designers, urban theorists
and researchers, artists and critics to visit books that marked an
impression of some sort in their intellectual and professional life.
In this issue we have contributions from Delhi-based architect
Martand Khosla; Shanay Jhaveri, who is a researcher in the areasof
art and lm, living between Mumbai and London; and Arpita DasRebeiro, who is a writer and publisher based in Delhi. Architects and
researchers, Mustansir Dalvi and Smita Dalvi look at two recently
published monographs on two architects from India, Anant Raje and
Shirish Beri; and these ruminations contribute to our museum
on paper.
In the Projects section we look at an infrastructure project, the
airport at Jaisalmer, which helps us discuss a classic motif and
architectural element the jaali; and along with it, we continue our
discussion on the typology of leisure homes.
This issue is also the beginning of a new look for Domus, with Nicola
Di Battista heading the international Domus as its new Editor now
onwards. The following details from our Milan ofce inform you of the
new avatar and working under the editorship of di Battista Nicola
Di Battista was born in Teramo, Abruzzo, on 20 October 1953. In 1986
he established his own ofce in Rome, where he currently resides.
From 1989 to 1995 he was the deputy editor of Domus magazine.
From 1997 to 1999 he was a professor of architectural design at ETH
Zurich. He teaches at various Italian and overseas universities, and
his work in education and research runs parallel with his design
practice. Di Battista is a professor at the Faculty of Architecture in
Cagliari, Sardinia. Projects currently underway include the renewal
of Castello Fienga in Nocera, Campania, and the renewal of the
Castello San Michele in Santa Maria del Cedro, Calabria, both with
Eduardo Souto de Moura; the Natural History and Archaeological
Museum in Vicenza, Veneto; and the Lewitt Foundation in Praiano,
Campania. These commissions testify to his awareness of the past
and his desire for continuity between elements of history and
contemporary innovation. In 2011 he won a competition to design
an extension for the National Archaeological Museum of
Reggio Calabria.
The new Domus under the editorship of Nicola Di Battista will be
primarily a means of deeper investigation. Its main objective will
be to recreate the collective conditions indispensable to a brighter
prospect of architecture and related discipline. The ambition of this
Domus is to forge, month by month and issue by issue, a new outlook
on contemporary architecture. It will be a non-sectarian magazine
addressed to an ever-wider readership. The new Domus under Di
Battista will be focused on the readers, emphasising the magazines
mission to engage and expand the vast eld of knowledge and broad
cultural horizons that are essential to the architectural profession.
In addition to a restyling of contents and graphics, Di Battista will
launch an innovative concept of editorship. The magazines own
traditional valuable editorial department will be backed by two
new groups of specialists: the College of Masters, with ve of the
most important and recognised representatives of contemporary

domus 23 November 2013

EDITORIAL 39

architecture: David Chippereld, Kenneth Frampton, Hans Kollhoff,

Werner Oechslin and Eduardo Souto de Moura, and a Study Centre,
a team of young professionals who have been selected for their ability
to offer a fresh perspective on contemporary architecture.
The establishment of a college reects a clear choice. Masters are
indispensable for their presence, opinions and incitement, but also for
their advice. We are convinced that between them and the younger
generations a special, friendly relationship can be re-established,
containing the capacity to carry the discipline forward. We wish to
examine our contemporaneity through the eyes of these masters,
who make their discoveries where others have ceased to look,
explains Nicola di Battista.
On the other hand, the purpose of the Study Centre, operated
by young architects and scholars, is to carry out research for the

Chandigarh
Jaisalmer

Boisar

Vrindavan

magazine, in order to explore the many issues of our past and

present and to develop materials useful to architects today in their
efforts to progress into the future. The Study Centre will give aid to
the editorial staff, will be responsible for keeping our website up to
date and for organising such exhibitions and events as the magazine
may wish to stage in the course of time.
At Domus India, we are not only happy to belong to a rich and
long tradition like Domus, but we are excited to work with the
new directions set out within the new avatar of the international
magazine. We enjoy working towards developing a magazine that
within the intellectual framework of Domus magazine can scan the
eld of design and architecture in India, developing a structure and
language appropriate to this scan. km

Rishikesh

Tal Chhapar

Gurgaon
Delhi

Jaipur
Udaipur
Mandar
Manipur

Sanchi
Gandhinagar
Ahmedabad
Surat
Bhavnagar
Valsad

Shirpur
Veraval
Raigarh
Karjat

Mumbai
Alibaug
Goa

Madanapalle
Bengaluru
Coimbatore
Coonoor

Timba
Lonavala, Pune,
Wadeshwar

Warangal
Hyderabad
Vijaywada

Hampi
Manipal
Cudappah

Calicut

Bhopal
Batanagar

Kolkata

Chennai
Dharmapuri
Mysore
Madurai

Kochi, Muziris

An indication of places and cities covered in Domus India over the last two years

domus 23 November 2013

40

3
9

4
10

11
5

6
12

domus 23 November 2013

41

13

18

14

19

15

20

16
21

22
17

Diagrams that introduced the lead features from November 2011 to October 2013

domus 23 November 2013

42 EDITORIAL

DOMUS, LA CITT DELLUOMO

Nicola Di Battista

DOMUS, THE HUMAN CITY

The truth, to be precise, is that the soil

on which people live is neither the earth
nor any other element, but a philosophy.
Human beings live on and in a philosophy.
Translated from Jos Ortega y Gasset,
On the Darmstadt conference, 1951

In the Italian language, the word arrivederci is certainly a beautiful one.

It naturally expresses a farewell, hence a parting. At the same time, it
implies the prospect of a later encounter, of meeting again. So it is a key
word and a convincing one, indeed by now so familiar outside Italy that
it needs no translation. With immediacy and precision, it conveys a sense
of association that speaks of Italy and Italianity.
In truth, that was not quite what I was thinking way back in January
1996, when I saluted Domus readers with a cordial and highly
improbable arrivederci, then written more out of regret, I believe,
than real conviction.
So today, to have been asked to direct the prestigious Domus magazine
lls me with pride, though I have to say it also makes me feel a
bit nervous.
It lls me with pride that the publisher, Maria Giovanna Mazzocchi
Bordone, or la dottoressa Mazzocchi, as everybody always calls her
affectionately, has with a great act of trust appointed me to preside
over her oldest and noblest magazine, which has even given its name
to the whole publishing house, Editoriale Domus. My warmest thanks,
dottoressa. I sincerely hope to full the trust you have placed in me.
Yet the challenge is a daunting one: to edit a magazine that has published
nearly 1,000 issues over a span of 100 years, that has represented,
interpreted and promoted an impressive number of stories, facts, works,
aspirations, dreams, battles and utopias pursued by humans for other
humans. The pride and joy of my new responsibility is thus tinged with
a certain trepidation, in the awareness that my rst task is to continue
this history.
Domus is not only our own history, but also a collective one that belongs
to all people. Id like to get back to the word arriverderci that I spoke not
in the conviction that I might actually return to my readers, but as a
cordial farewell and especially as a placation of my discomfort for having
had to break off abruptly and irremediably something that had been built
up so assiduously, with patient effort. The arrivederci was in reality an
expedient to make that parting less traumatic.
Coming back to Domus unexpectedly enables me to honour that promise
now. At the same time, it forces me into the shoes of the person who made
that promise lightly, in the certainty that the circumstances that might
compel him to keep it would never arise.
Today, therefore, my rst thought is for those readers to whom I said
goodbye back then with an arrivederci. If I could, I would call them one
by one. Im sure I would nd them similar in spirit, for if they so
favourably received a magazine patiently created for them with such
deep attachment and involvement, it was because we endeavoured to
forge, for and with them, an outlook on the architecture of that time,
on its urgencies and successes, but also its doubts and difculties.
Our project had become, above all, theirs.
Of course that was a long time ago. The world has changed completely
in the past 20 years, and the changes have been so rapid and frenzied

as to give us the feeling of an unstoppable, almost crushing vortex.

New media, new technologies, instruments and ideas have shaped our
time in an entirely different way to that of the recent past, giving the
strong impression that everything has changed, that nothing is as it
was before. Well, this is certainly true. If we pause to look at the
extraordinary technological innovations in our everyday lives, we realise
that we are in the midst of an incredible revolution, certainly one of the
biggest in the long history of humanity. But if we ask ourselves whether
these formidable conquests by technology have actually helped to change
our lives radically and for the better, we might begin to entertain
a few doubts. Architecture should serve to create places where people can
live, work and enjoy themselves fully, freely and poetically.
How much more prosperity is the mighty contemporary technological
machine contributing to the lives of human beings today?
There is no doubt that people now live better and longer, but is this
enough? Is it we who govern technological innovations, or do they impose
their rules, pace and contents on us?
On this old continent of ours, the gap between north and south, rich and
poor, class A and class B citizens, is more glaring than ever.
Dramatically, our beloved Mediterranean seems to no longer enjoy peace,
and actually be headed toward self-destruction. And the bystanders
are many, too many. So where are the architects? It would seem that
contemporary architecture has no good answers for humanity today, that
it is no longer capable of claiming a role for itself in designing the present
and envisaging a future full of hope for the construction of a better
world on a human scale, tailored to our needs. Against the contemporary
barbarism of built space, can architecture adopt and claim an active new,
propulsive role at the service of the collectivity, in order to recognise in its
disciplinary knowledge something indispensable and necessary to its own
existence? It would seem that the role left for architecture is a secondary
one, where it acts on things already decided and xed by others.
For these reasons and also as an homage to Ernesto N. Rogers, who
when he was appointed to the editorship of this magazine in 1946 added
to the title Domus the words mans home we have chosen a new
motto: the human city. With this we also refer to Giuseppe Lazzati and
Adriano Olivetti, who were chronologically the last convincing expanders
of this approach.
We believe that the words human and city along with the word
domus constitute a ne point of departure. They allow us to emphasise
the priorities that must once again become the base for innovations in
architecture today, the solid and robust foundations of a renewed season
of progress and civilisation. As such, our goal is specic: may everyone
concerned with the designing of houses, furniture and tools put people
back at the centre of interest.
However, I must say that the human city is also meant to act as a
contrast to what might be dened as the clients city, which appears
to have become the only type possible: a city globally recognised from

domus 23 November 2013

2013. Foto Scala, Firenze

EDITORIAL 43

Piero della Francesca

(1415/20-1492),
Madonna del Parto,
detail. Museo della
Madonna del Parto,
Monterchi, Tuscany

north to south and from west to east, from the Americas to Asia as the
imperative and ineluctable answer to the building necessities of our
times. Against the closed and sectarian city of clients, our aim is to work
on the open and hospitable human city, a city for people. This change
of direction would enable architects to adopt a more seriously ethical
professional approach to the major issues of contemporary life. Above
all, it would serve to underpin a new renaissance, by harnessing all the
extraordinary innovations available in order to design places to the best
of our ability, as best suited as possible to the material and spiritual
needs of humanity in these times: nothing more, but nothing less either.
No challenge to the contemporary architect could be more hugely
important than that of designing for human beings instead of for
clients. By forfeiting this, architects have gradually lost their main
prerogative, which is to provide answers to the concrete requirements
of a community, a population, concerning the construction of their living
environment.
By forgoing this collective expectation, their wisdom has been applied
time after time to this or that request, as a partial and particular but
never comprehensive and general answer.
This reduction has been fatal to architects. Their expertise has been
applied and bent to the wishes and requirements of the individual,
thereby losing the collective character that used to be its hallmark.
Architects by now seem able to design only what the client expects them
to, and they do so for the most part with an obsessive search for the new
and the bizarre as the real touchstone of their labours.
In response to the many issues raised by our times, it is for human
beings that we must design instead of for clients. But only if we still
cherish the ambition to engage in what is above all an eminently
collective task.
So without any misunderstandings or misinterpretations wed like
to specify that the human city represents a specic focus, the main
focus of interest for this magazine, meaning those to whom we look
and those to whom we speak. The human city is intended here as
a feasible, viable alternative to the clients city, which continues to
spread across the world today as the only one of any apparent interest
to contemporary architecture and thus the only one that interests
architects. An alternative is possible, and we shall endeavour to build
on it with unswerving perseverance, in the awareness that the effort
required is enormous. It can be attempted only by bringing together the
largest possible number of protagonists, from producers to consumers.
And so our appeal today is to everybody, to all those who want to share
their eagerness to build a better world. It can be done. Together we can
foster and achieve that wish.
Now if my rst thought on opening this editorial went familiarly to
its older readers, my second out of respect and not for any reasons
of hierarchy is addressed to its new readers. In particular, to the
young, and especially to young students. What are the large numbers

of students of architecture, in this country and others, saying and doing,

and what do they want? What are their aspirations, what future do they
imagine, what are their ambitions, their motivations?
Schools, and perhaps an architecture magazine too, should ask
themselves the same questions, so as not to leave students to look for the
answers by themselves.
We will try. Even if we know that the medium of the magazine is no
longer seen by students today as good, necessary and indispensable for
their training. We do not claim to convince them with words, but ask
them only to follow us, to judge us for what we publish, and perhaps
help us change and improve the contents of our publication. Finally, my
thoughts turn to our many foreign readers, who have always backed this
magazine and boosted its great success over the years. Today, with the
novelty of the now numerous local editions of Domus, translated into the
readers own language, we can enlarge our message by addressing
a wider readership, which we hope will continue to grow. ndb

domus 23 November 2013

TOWARDS
AN AGONISTIC
ARCHITECTURE

44 PROJECTS

It is indeed unfortunate that human society should

encounter such burning problems just when it has become
materially impossible to make heard the least objection to
the language of the commodity; just when power quite
rightly because it is shielded by the spectacle from any
response to its piecemeal and delirious decisions and
justications believes that it no longer needs to think;
and indeed can no longer think. Would not even the
staunchest democrat prefer to have been given more
intelligent masters?
It is sometimes said that science today is subservient to
the imperatives of prot, but that is nothing new. What is
new is the way the economy has now come to declare
open war on humanity, attacking not only our possibilities
for living, but also our chances of survival. It is here that
science renouncing the opposition to slavery that formed
a signicant part of its own history has chosen to put
itself at the service of spectacular domination.
Guy Debord, Comments on the Society of the Spectacle (1988)1

1. The State of Things

Das Spiel ist aus (The game is over)2 is the title of a poem
by the Austrian poet Ingeborg Bachmann, by which I believe
she meant the project of the European Enlightenment,
the vision of Schiller, Goethe, Hegel, Schinkel, Marx and
Freud, in a word, Jrgen Habermass unnished modern
project, which, it now seems, will never be realised, not
even partially; not because we lack the resources and the
technique to do so, but because we are unable to muster the
necessary political will to effect a decisive change, for we
are totally deluded by the Society of Spectacle and thereby
rendered impotent as a body politic, and by the repression of
alternative modes of being, by which we might still be able
to save ourselves.
Le Corbusiers elegiac vision of une ville radieuse of 1934,
his erotic project of Baudelaires Luxe, calme et volupt,
will never materialize, not because we lack the essential
wherewithal, as the oil-rich, instant city of Dubai makes
abundantly clear, but because the species-being has
been unable (so far) to make the ethical and political leap
necessary to engender a society capable of living within an
ecological domain of homeostasis. Instead, we seem to be
transxed by the auto-destructive task of laying the world
to waste and ourselves with it, as rapidly as possible. The
hegemonic power of the universal West is such that there
seems to be no other model than the proigate project of
Americanising the entire world, the limitless consumerist
dream by which all are equally mesmerised the symbol
and instrument of which is the automobile. It is this device
surely that has proven to be the primary apocalyptical
invention of the 20th century, with result that the world now
consumes in a few weeks the amount of petroleum it used to
burn in the course of a year in the middle of the last century.
This is the heart of the Pandoras box from which much else,
equally deleterious, patently stems, even if we hesitate to
acknowledge the cumulative evidence. Thus one may readily
claim that the mass ownership of the automobile is the one
agency from which much else follows: the advent of global
warming; the melting of the ice cap; the phenomenon of

Guy Debord, Comments on

the Society of the Spectacle,
Verso, New York 1998, p. 39.
2
Cited by Anselm Kiefer in
his speech on the occasion
of receiving German Book
Trade Peace Prize in
Frankfurt, 2008.
1

See Wendell Berry, The

Unsettling of America:
Culture and Agriculture,
Aron, New York 1978, pp.
39-95.
4
The corporate tyranny of
genetically modied seed
as evident in the ongoing
struggle between the Indian
environmentalist Vandana
Shiva and Monsanto chemical
to preserve the rights of
Indian farmers to keep their
3

seed for re-sowing.

5
It is estimated that some
30,000 animals and plants
are becoming extinct every
year. Among the threatened
species are pollinating
honey bees. It is obvious that
their extinction would have
disastrous consequences.
6
See Looking Back on the
End of the World, edited
by Dietmar Kamper and
Christoph Wolf, Semiotext(e),
Columbia University, New
York 1989, p. 29.
7
Clifford Krauss, Plan to Ban
Oil Drilling in the Amazon
is Dropped, in The New York
Times, August 17, 2013, pp. B1
and B3.

extreme weather; the elevation of the sea (now projected

as becoming as much as one metre by the end of the
century); the pollution of the oceans and the destruction
of the rainforests in our reckless pursuit of oil reserves;
the suburbanisation of the planet, surely to be followed
by its eventual abandonment and desertication; the
insupportable air pollution of our megalopolitan centres; the
subtle corruption of democratic processes in terms of both
governance and the prosecution of justice these aporias
occurring equally at both an international and national
level. Much of this is surely due to the overwhelming power
of global mega-corporations, accompanying worldwide
electronic surveillance and concomitant restraint on the
exercise of investigative journalism. Needless to say, I
have in mind the global oil, chemical and pharmaceutical
corporations, the industrialisation of agriculture,3 the
genetic modication of food4 and the maximisation of the
supermarket system the latter effectively inducing the
demise of main street and with it the provincial city as a still
remaining potential for local culture and direct democracy.
In short, the globalised maximisation of prot as an end in
itself, at no matter what cost to biodiversity,5 or even to the
survival of Homo sapiens, the extinction of which is now,
for the rst time, distinctly foreseeable. Perhaps no one has
written more succinctly about our current paradoxical state
of hyperactive paralysis than Jean Baudrillard, who, at a
symposium entitled Looking Back on the End of the World,
staged at Columbia University, New York in 1986, remarked:
We are no longer in a state of growth; we are in a state of excess. We
are living in a society of excrescence, meaning that which incessantly
develops without being measurable against its own objectives. The
boil is growing out of control, recklessly at cross purposes with itself,
its impacts multiplying as the causes disintegrate. [] This satiation
has nothing to do with the excess of which Bataille spoke, which
all societies have managed to produce and destroy in useless and
wasteful exhaustion. [] We no longer know how we can possibly use
up all these accumulated things; we no longer even know what they
are for. Every factor of acceleration and concentration brings us closer
to the point of inertia.6

Two current news items merit our attention in this regard.

The rst of these is the decision taken by the Chinese
technocratic elite to forcibly move, over the next decade,
250 million rural people from the agrarian hinterland
into dense, high-rise urban fabric. This ironic reversal of
the precepts of the Communist Manifesto of 1848 has the
ostensible purpose of creating a consumerist base upon
which to expand an internal Chinese economy comparable
to the current production/consumption cycle obtained in the
US. The second item concerns the equally draconian decision
by the Ecuadorian president, Rafael Correa, to abandon,
for lack of international commitment, his attempt, via a
UN-backed trust fund, to raise 3.6 billion dollars, in order
to preserve 4000 square miles of virgin rain forest from the
ravages of oil drilling. These seemingly unrelated incidents
are symbiotically linked by a recent commitment on the part
of the Chinese Republic to consume some 40,000 barrels a
day of Ecuadorian oil.7

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domus 23 November 2013

PROJECTS 45

2. What are Architects for in a Destitute Time?

This paraphrase of Hlderlins question can be applied to
contemporary architecture, since the bulk of contemporary
practice is global rather than local, with star architects
travelling incessantly all over the world in pursuit of the
equally dynamic ow of capital. Herein we are witness
the vox populis susceptibility to the mediagenic impact of
spectacular form which is as much due to the capacity of
superstar architects to come up with sensational, novel
images as to their organisational competence and technical
ability. Hence, the advent of the so-called Bilbao effect,
where cities and institutions compete with each other in
order to sponsor a building designed by a recognisable brand
name. In recent years this has been nowhere more evident
than in Beijing, where diverse architecture stars rival each
other to design one spectacular building after another.
Hence Herzog & de Meurons sensational National Olympic
Stadium of 2008, which was followed by Rem Koolhaass
equally sensational 230-metre-high CCTV tower of virtually
the same date. We are informed that the latter is destined
to programme some 250 spectacular TV channels a day
to an audience of one billion people. Given the sensational
aestheticism sought in both these works, it is surely no
accident that they would each make a totally irrational and
structurally uneconomic use of steel.
Koolhaass catatonic atypical skyscraper is symptomatic
of a world in which cities rival each other for the dubious
honour of sponsoring the highest building in the world, the
title being held, as of now, by Dubai which, while barely
a city at all, has nonetheless to its renown the 160-storey
Burj Tower. In this vein the Manhattanisation of the world
proceeds without redress, in which each successive highrise (no matter where) is little more than another freestanding, abstract cipher testifying to the presence of global
speculation. As Tadao Ando put it some time ago: I think
over a certain height, architecture is no longer possible.
In the meantime, any kind of ecologically coherent, rational
pattern of land settlement continues to elude us, despite all
the efforts made in the 1960s and 70s8 to arrive at low-tomedium-rise densities as alternatives with which to resist
the unending expansion of commodied urban sprawl, which
is still being sustained by subsidised motorways serving
such low densities as to make any kind of public transit
economically unfeasible.
Here and there, there are exceptions to this pattern: the
designated bus lanes of Curitiba, Brazil; the high-speed
trains of Japan and the European continent; and the
technological lyricism of the Zurich tram system. But in
the main, the automobile prevails. Moreover, after the
spectacular travesties of Milton Keynes and Marne-laValle the non-place urban realm par excellence in both
instance, we have virtually abandoned the idea of projecting
new cities. As Mies van der Rohe put it in the early 1950s:
There are no cities, in fact, anymore. It goes on like a forest.
That is the reason why we cannot have old cities anymore;
that is gone forever, planned city and so on. We should think
about the means we have for living in the jungle and maybe
do well by that. Such resignation would not be shared by
the distinguished Portuguese architect lvaro Siza, who
remarked to me some 20 years ago: Yes, I have many

8
See Roland Rainer, Livable
Environments, Verlag fr Architektur
Artemis, Zurich 1972; also Serge
Chermayeff and Christopher
Alexander, Community and Privacy:
Toward a New Architecture of
Humanism, Anchor Books,
New York 1965.
9
See Paul Ricur, Universal
Civilization and National Cultures,
in History and Truth, Northwestern
University Press, Evanston1965.
10
See Kenneth Frampton, Towards
a Critical Regionalism: Six Points for

an Architecture of Resistance, in The

Anti-Aesthetic, edited by Hal Foster,
Bay Press, Seattle 1983.
11
See Fredric Jameson, The Seed
of Time, Columbia University Press,
New York 1994, pp. 202-203.
12
See Kenneth Frampton, Rappel
LOrdre, the Case for the Tectonic, in
Architectural Design, 50, no. 3/4, 1991.
13
See Kenneth Frampton, Five North
American Architects, Lars Mller
Publishers and Columbia University,
New York and Zurich 2012.

projects, but I am not happy. How can one be happy when

Europe has no project?
In 1983, following Alex Tzonis and Liane Lefaivres essay
The Grid and the Pathway (1981), which was inspired by
Paul Ricurs post-colonial thesis distinguishing between
Universal Civilization and National Cultures,9 I elaborated
the Tzonis/Lefaivre concept of Critical Regionalism in my Six
Points for an Architecture of Resistance. This text appeared
in Hal Fosters anthology of essays on postmodern culture,
published under the title The Anti-Aesthetic.10 Eight years
later Fredric Jameson, in a brilliantly critical overview of
various postmodern architectural stratagems entitled The
Seeds of Time, put paid to any illusions that we might still
entertain as to the geopolitical possibility of a regionally
resistant culture, despite the fact that it was precisely this
mythical promise that exercised an inuence on many
peripheral architects. In his comprehensive critique of my
nave proposition of 30 years ago, he wrote:
Framptons conceptual proposal, however, is not an internal but rather a
geopolitical one: it seeks to mobilize a pluralism of regional styles (a term selected,
no doubt, in order to forestall the unwanted connotations of the terms national
and international alike) with a view towards resisting the standardizations of
a henceforth global late capitalism and corporatism, whose vernacular is as
omnipresent as its power over local decisions (and indeed after the end of the Cold
War, over local governments and individual nation states as well).
It is thus politically important, returning to the problem of parts or components,
to emphasize the degree to which the concept of Critical Regionalism is necessarily
allegorical. The individual building here belongs no longer to a unique vision of city
RNCPPKPI
UWEJCUVJG$CTQSWGPQTCURGEKEEKV[HCDTKE
NKMG.CU8GICUDWVTCVJGT
to a distinctive regional culture as a whole, for which the distinctive individual
building becomes a metonym.11

Despite Jamesons sensitive appraisal of my interpretation of

the Critical Regionalist thesis, he nonetheless arrives at the
precipitous Marxist conclusion that any vestige of regional
otherness and identity has preciously little capacity to
resist the subtle spectacular domination of corporate power.
However, the fact remains that regional differences continue
to be cultivated, above all, at the level of regional cuisine
and viticulture, even though such cultural differences have
always remained open to subtle forms of hybridisation
throughout history. Even if we have no choice but to forego
any nave assumptions as to local sovereignty, regionally
counter-hegemonic tectonic form surely still retains at
the grass roots level the capacity to resist the variously
reductive forms of stylistic postmodernism with which the
hegemonic power of the centre prefers to surround itself.12
Thus, for me, a liberative promise for the future resides in
an agonistic architecture of the periphery as opposed to the
subtle nonjudgmental conformism of ruling taste emanating
from the centre. I attempted to suggest exactly this in my
marginal participation in last years Venice Biennale. My
anthology Five North American Architects, displayed in
the Arsenale, asserted the presence in North America of
a counter-hegemonic otherness cultivated mainly on the
periphery of a vast continent, as opposed to the pluralistic,
aesthetically reductive false differences patronised in subtle
ways by hegemonic power.13

domus 23 November 2013

46 PROJECTS

14

Ju
Kooho

ng

Development Association Indigo in Mali, a small town of

1000 people in Guinea, the name of the institution being
derived from the traditional indigo-blue cloth produced by
women in the region. Eventually Kiveks would commission
the Finnish architects Heikkinen-Komonen to build three
works for her in Guinea; her own house in Mali (1989), the
Poultry Farming School in Kindia (1990) and a local health
centre nearby. One should note that the school came into
being largely because of Diallos conviction that the most
important priority for the future well-being of Guinea society
was to increase the amount of protein in the daily diet. In
all three buildings Heikkinen-Komonen used inexpensive
materials, which were readily available, such as bamboo
screens, concrete blocks, large bricks made of stabilised earth
and roof tiles made of cement, reinforced by glass bre.
From the point of view of the poetics of light and the regional
aura, the single-storey Villa Eila in Mali is perhaps the
most aboriginal building of the three. Here a continuous
monopitch tiled roof and a long woven bamboo screen wall
covering the southern face serve to enclose four volumes
under a single roof. By contrast, the Poultry Farming
School is almost classical in its minimalist composition,
assembled about a square courtyard. This square is enclosed
by two single-storey volumes situated to the south and the
northwest corner of the court.
The buildings are made out of blocks. The rst is the
permanent dwelling for the instructor/caretaker, while the
second consists of three separate, four-person dormitories
for students. The dominant element situated on axis to the
east of the square is the double-height lecture hall with its
monumental timber portico. The latter is a tectonic tour
de force in lightweight timber construction built out of
transverse beams, elegantly and economically stiffened by
wire cables. Finland was also involved in the realisation of
a womens centre in Senegal in 1995, located just outside
the city of Rusque. This single-storey building, made out
of concrete blocks dyed bright red, consists of a simple
U-shaped enclosure. It is tting that this womens centre
was designed by three young Finnish women, trained as
architects in Helsinki, namely Saija Hollmn, Jenni Reuter
and Helena Sandman. Here the powerfully expressive image
stems from the theatrical form of the protective enclosure,
from the red colour and the subtle perforations here and
there in the perimeters block work.
I would like to include in this essay on the potential scope of
agonistic architecture a comment on the extraordinary work
of Studio Mumbai in Bombay, founded in 1995, under the
direction of the architect Bijoy Jain. Studio Mumbai seems to
be on a Kropotkinian approach to building culture, harking
back to the workshops of William Morris and even further
back in time to the carpenter as the rst architect. In many
respects, Jain, although trained as an architect, has become
a kind of latter-day master-builder whereby he serves as a
coordinator of carpenters. Through a kind of transgressive
creativity, Studio Mumbai has demonstrated its mastery
not only over carpentry and joinery but also over ceramics,
coloured plasterwork, masonry and milled stonework.
All the same, one has to acknowledge that the beautiful houses
that Studio Mumbai has built in the state of Maharashtra are,
in the last analysis, rather expensive, bourgeois residences
that could hardly be more removed from the more modest
works I have touched on here. Nevertheless this is still a kind
of reciprocal, other architecture, wherein, by denition, Jain
has chosen to distance himself from the brand architecture of
our society in all its aesthetic guises.

Photo

One of the most surprising and gratifying aspects of

contemporary practice over the past two decades has been
the way in which accomplished architects from the so-called
rst world have found themselves building from time
to time in the equally eponymous third world. This, in
itself, may not be that unusual, but what has been unique
of recent times is the exceptionally rened sensibility and
rigour that has invariably been applied to the regional
and, at times, aboriginal situation, so that one has the
uncanny sense that the outcome could not have been more
practically and poetically achieved if it had been handled by
locally rooted architects rather than outsiders. One of the
rst instances of a work of this order is John and Patricia
Patkaus Seabird Island School, built for a Northwest-Pacic
Indian band in Agassiz, British Columbia over the years
1988-91. A number of things are notable about this work.
First, it was commissioned by an exceptionally enlightened
civil servant from the Canadian Ministry of Education;
second, the architects realised that for the band to be able
to construct this school by themselves, a model would
have to be prepared since it was evident that they were
not able to read drawings, particularly for a work of such
extreme geometrical complexity. Finally, there are striking
topographic and cultural aspects to this work: above all, the
humpback form of its shingled roof, which echoes the prole
of a nearby mountain, and the canted outriggered timber
spans of its portico, which overhang the southern front of the
school. The latter makes a subtle reference to the sh-drying
racks that used to feature prominently in front of the Indian
houses in wood that line the coastline.
A comparable, reciprocal work for a prominent member of an
aboriginal Australian tribe was built in Yirrkala in Northern
Territory of Australia in 1994 to the designs of Glenn
Murcutt. I have in mind the Marika-Alderton House, built
for Banduk Marika who was then a tribal representative
in the Australian parliament in Canberra. This two-storey,
virtually all-timber house stands elevated one metre off the
ground in order to avoid ooding and provide a clear view of
the horizon a traditional defensive feature of importance
in the native culture. Situated 12 degrees south of the
equator, where humidity reaches 80 per cent, the house had
to be capable of being completely opened up so as to facilitate
cross ventilation. This is the primary reason behind the
storey-height, hinged timber shutters which, when raised,
also provide sun shields for the veranda of the house. Since
the house is located on sand dunes close to the ocean, it is
provided with a slatted timber oor to allow sand to fall
through. The main volume of the house was made equally
permeable by virtue of pivoting metal roof vents, oriented by
weather vanes, so as to align their vents with the prevailing
airow. These devices were installed so as to equalise the
pressure within and without whenever the house is subject
to winds of cyclone force, which raises the risk that internal
pressure will blow the house apart. As in the case of Seabird
Island School, this house makes an allusion to the native
domestic tradition without the slightest attempt to replicate
it. With its metal standing-seam roof, metal roof vents and
metal structural frame and tubular uprights to stiffen
the timber frame and its cladding, it is an unequivocal
translation of the traditional hut into modern form. In this
regard, one should note that the building was prefabricated
in Sydney, and trucked overland to its site in the north. In
effect this building established a totally new standard for
Australian aboriginal housing in the region. Prior to this,
the native populations of the area had been settled by the
government bureaucracy in inadequately ventilated concrete
blockhouses. Another remarkable contribution to aboriginal
culture in the post-colonial era was made in the mid-80s
by the remarkable Finnish gure of Eila Kiveks who
became involved with the Finnish reception of the Guinea
intellectual Alpha Diallo, who rather remarkably had elected
to translate the Finnish national epic, The Kalevala, into
Fula, his native language. After Diallo unexpectedly died in
Finland, Kiveks arranged for the return of his remains to
Guinea and soon after went to Guinea herself to establish
a local craft centre which had the aim of improving the
status of women in the country, along with the overall
health of the society. To this end, Kiveks founded the

KennethmFran
pto

See Chantal Mouffe.

Agonistics: Thinking the World
Politically, Verso, London
2013, p. 57. As she put it
after Massimo Cacciari, The
modern state is torn from the
inside under the pressure
of regionalist movements,
and from the outside as a
consequence of the growth
of supranational powers
and institutions and of the
increasing power of world
nance and transnational
corporations.

By the term agonistic

I wish to evoke the idea
of an architecture which
continues to place emphasis
on the particular brief and
on the specic nature of the
topography and climate in
which it is situated, while
still giving high priority
to the expressivity and
the physical attributes of
the material out of which
the work is made. I have
taken the term itself from
the political theory of
Chantal Mouffe, recently
published under the title
Agonistics. Thinking the
World Politically (2013).
While architecture,
obviously, cannot act
politically, by appropriating
the term I wish to evoke a
pluralist architecture that
is categorically opposed
to the stylistic, hegemonic
spectacularity of the
neo-liberal worldview,
that is to say the falsely
sensational and supercial
aestheticism of our time. In
my view, it is precisely this
ever-changing fashionable
emphasis on the decorative
or minimalist envelope
that has effectively robbed
architecture of one of
its most fundamental
attributes, namely, the
time-honoured mandate to
organise and orchestrate
the space of public
appearance in a culturally
signicant manner.
Mouffes agonistic political
theory also mentions a
reappraisal of the region as
a counter-hegemonic entity
capable of countering to
an equal degree both the
faltering nation state and
the overarching force of
an indifferent globalised
economy.14
Kenneth Frampton
(Woking, UK, 1930) is
a critic, historian and
theorician of architecture.
He is Ware Professor of
Architecture at the Graduate
School of Architecture,
Planning and Preservation
at Columbia University,
New York.

domus 23 November 2013

Raffaella Fletcher/alanetcherarchive.com

CONFETTI 47

CONFETTI
NFE
ETTI

Alan F
Fletcher
letcher
drawing
ing for the cover of Domus,
no. 734,
34, January 1992

Marcel Duchamp used tthe

he phrase
Beware Wet Paint to em
mpha
asise
emphasise
the fact that it takes time to judge
the value of a work still in progress.
Alan Fletcher quotes him as
a comment on his drawing
in the book The Art of Looking
Sideways, Phaidon, London 2001

domus 23 November 2013

DOCUMENTARY CONFETTI 49

MANY HANDS, MANY FORMS KUMARTULI

Ceaseless monsoon rain and scorching hot and humid weather
cannot dampen the spirit of the kumors/kumars (potters) of
Kumartuli as they continue shaping clay to create idols for
more than two centuries
Kalyani Majumdar

As autumn approaches, the narrow

winding lanes of the potters locality
called Kumartuli/Kumortuli turn
into the busiest streets of Kolkata
(formerly known as Calcutta). Rows
of clay idols can be seen on both
sides of the lanes as the Mahalaya
(an auspicious occasion observed
seven days before Durga Puja)
approaches and the countdown
begins for Durga Puja. It is that
time when artisans work day and
night to give forms to hundreds
and thousands of idols as the city
gears up for its biggest sarbojanin
utsav (community festival). Situated
on the banks of Hooghly River
and surrounded by Shovabazaar,
Bagbazar, Shyaambazar and off
Rabindra Sarani formerly known as
Chitpur road, Kumartuli is located
in North Kolkata. As one negotiates

through the labyrinthine lanes of

Kumartuli, it looks nothing less than
an art and sculpture workshop.
One can see idols arranged on
the streets in the open to get
dried up and some are still in their
evolutionary stage with only the
straw bases, waiting to be shaped
into idols. These are moulded from
Sal wood, straw, bamboo and clay.
One can witness the genesis of Maa
(mother) Durga and her childen
Saraswati, Lakshmi, Ganesh and
Kartikeya along with the lion (her
carriage) and Mahishasura. Some
are moulded in the traditional single
structure known as ek chala and
some are fashioned in the more
contemporary model of multi-framed
idols of the entire family. The name
Kumartuli or Kumortuli comes
from the Bengali words kumor

meaning potter and tuli meaning

locality. The kumors usually come
from a long lineage of craftsmen
who have been sculpting Durga
idol for generations. Traditionally,
the eyes of the goddess known as
the chokkhu daan (gifting of eyes)
is always the last element to be
sculpted and is believed to be done
by the oldest member of the kumor
family on the day of the Mahalaya;
though now with the stress to meet
deadlines and commercial nature
of idol-making, many artisans have
done away with many such traditions.
Originally, the kumors came from
Krishnanagar in Nadia district and
settled in Gobindapur Village one
of the three villages which later were
merged to form Kolkata, with the
other two villages being Kalikata and
Sutanuti. They would make clay toys,

Opposite page: the courtyard of

renowned Kabiraj (traditional medicine
man) Gangaprasad Sens house in
Kumartuli is used for moulding clay
idols. His house has been organising
one of the oldest Durgotsavs annually
This page: left, a potter at work in his
workshop in Kumartuli; right, the idols
showcase the latest trends in fashion,
as we can see a Mahishasur with sixpack abs and chiselled face

domus 23 November 2013

50 CONFETTI

utensils and pots for livelihood. When

the East India Company decided
to build Fort William at Gobindapur
village, the inhabitants of that
area migrated to Sutanati and it is
believed that under the instruction
of the Company, John Holwell was
given orders to designate areas
according to the nature of profession
of the inhabitants; Kumartuli was one
such area that was designated as
a residential area for all the potters
and craftsmen. In those days these
kumors were invited by the old and
nouveau rich Indian households
mostly the Zamindars who were also
the rst few patrons and organised
Durga puja in their houses to
make clay images of Durga and
other idols. These houses had
thakurdalans/thakurbaris (separate
building used for annual festivals).
The thakurdalans were high-ceilinged
at-roofed buildings. Apart from
the autumn festival, the artisans
were called round the year to sculpt
ornamental elements such as the
fairies, foliages, other patterns and
inlay works on brackets and columns
of the houses as many modelled
after the Western inuence, thus
giving rise to a fusion of Indo-Bengal
form of ornamental art for residential
built forms. With time, as Durgotsav
shifted out of the thakurdalans and
became a community festival, the

common people became the new

patrons of Kumartuli. Also, every year
one can easily predict the current
trends in vogue by looking at the
idols; this time it was Mahishasurs
six-pack abs and chiselled faces that
were in popular demand straight
out of a Greek mythology.
From its humble beginning to postIndependence, Kumartuli has risen
to become the exclusive exporter of
idols of the goddess to the Bengalis
settled in different parts of the world.
Clearly, Kumartuli is more than just
an urban space in Kolkata that
produces clay idols for Durga Puja.
It has been an active participant
for more than two centuries in
maintaining a continuity of cultural
tradition and craftsmanship, and
has witnessed the trajectory of
the changing socio-economic
and political climate of the city
the transition from pre to PostIndependent India and from Calcutta
to Kolkata.

Left: one can see the idols at their

different evolutionary stages, some
standing with the straw frames and
waiting to be shaped with clay coatings
at a potters shed
Below: the diyas (clay lamps) are spraypainted in order to save time to meet
commercial deadlines

domus 23 November 2013

Right: the exterior space

of this traditional house
in Kumartuli is being
used by potters during
the busy months.
Below: in the old days,
the house number and
the name of the owner
was usually engraved
with lead on stones
All photographs by
Kalyani Majumdar

CONFETTI 51

52 CONFETTI

PAGES THROUGH MY MIND

INTERLOCKING THE MAGICAL,

THE MARVELLOUS AND THE MYSTICAL
Exploring Raghubir Singhs articulation of his own
individual negotiation of being an Indian artist and
drawing, borrowing from the West, nding modernism
and attempting to develop a bi-focal vision
Shanay Jhaveri

Below: cover of the book,

River of Colour, 1998

domus 23 November 2013

Guided only by personal affect, I have

chosen Raghubir Singhs (19421999) River of Colour: The India of
Raghubir Singh (Phaidon, 1998).
A number of the concerns that
presently preoccupy me, consume
me, possess me, ragingly converge
not only in Singhs effulgent images,
collected in this volume from across
the length and breadth of his
career, but also in his own words,
its introduction, River of Colour: An
Indian View, now a seeming and
tting epitaph.
I feel uncomfortable in that my
selection of River of Colour, should
suggest that it is or must be
considered essential. It, along with a
number of other titles, such as Geeta
Kapurs Contemporary Indian Artists
(Vikas Publishing, 1978), or the twovolume tome Masters of India Painting,
11001900 edited by Milo Beach,
B N Goswamy, Eberhard Fischer
(Paul Hoberton Publishing, 2011),
the catalogue of Charles Correas
Vistara exhibition (Festival of India,
1986), early issues of Marg magazine,
Bhupen Khakhars self-produced
catalogue Truth is Beauty and Beauty
is God (Gallery Chemould, 1972),
to name a few, are part of a private
itinerary, that have and continue to
contribute to my own intellectual and
emotional growth.
Singhs articulation of his own
individual negotiation of being an
Indian artist and drawing, borrowing
from the West, nding modernism
and attempting to develop a bi-focal
vision, while xated on the geography
of the subcontinent, resonate strongly
with me and my current endeavours.
By selecting this one book, I am
also gesturing towards Singhs
entire catalogue, and practice, his
erce commitment to colour, and
the specicity of its place within a
historical Indian tradition and way
of being.
Singh writes:
Before colonialism and before
photography, Indian artists did not
see in black and white, though
they made delicate drawings
lled in with colour. The medium
of drawing, as it is known in the
West, has never existed in Indianeither aesthetically or technically:
India has never had a Leonardo,
Rembrandt or Goya. Even the
exquisite drawings of the Moghul
court are far different from the
drawings of the West in that they
are heightened with colour, or with
tan washes known as nil kalam.
Unlike those in the West, Indians
have always intuitively seen and
controlled colour. Our theories, from
early in antiquity, became a owing
and rhythmic entity of Indias river of
life its river of colour. According to

domus 23 November 2013

the nine Rasas which guide Indias

classic aesthetics, the human
imagination is detached from earthly
bondage and attached to a ight of
fantasy, interlocking the magical, the
marvellous and the mystical. These
conditions, of which colour is an
intrinsic part, have forever red the
mind of India.
When one takes a creation of the
West, such as the camera, and is
inuenced by the concepts of the
West, from Marxism to neo-realism
to magic-realism; or if one takes
the concept of street photography,
from Kertesz to Gary Winogrand,
and transforms it through ones own
voice, the standard of excellence
always remains vision and vision
alone. Vision is rooted in ones own
culture and upbringing, however
much it might have borrowed
from other culturesThe Indian
photographer stands on the Ganges
side of modernism, rather than the
Seine or the East River side of it.
There is also something inspiring
for me, in that Singh spent his entire
life as a bookmaker transacting with
all the joy and pain, difculty and
criticism that came with working
with the format of the picture book.
Beyond the surface seductions, his
books operate at different levels,
spread after spread, drawing on
history, mythology and interfacing
trenchantly and intricately with the
contemporary conditions in which he
shot, and found India.
River of Colour, the volume itself
with its graphic cover, a side bar
of colours, to the suites of images
punctuated by evocative quotes,
phrases from which like From One
World to Another, Reservoir of
Mythic Images, Among the Women,
Let Difference Reign, In The Act
of Living become chapter heads,
collectively and decidedly draw me
home. More than just the production
of a mood, between all the words
and images in the book, I am moved
and forced to ask myself the simplest
of questions, how do I see and where
do I see from? The River of Colour is
a bracing encounter.
Singh, once again:
Imprinted in my memory is another
picture of pain: a tunnel-like corridor
in my Jaipur home, connecting two
courtyards of our haveli-house. A
veiled sweeper-woman attens
herself against the wall, along with
her broom and the metal pan in
which she collects garbage, to let
me and other family members pass
untouched by her polluted self.
In spite of her poverty, she wears
faded but colourful clothing. The
yellow and red sari she wears is
lightly spotted with silvery tinsel,
whose sheen is dulled by use.

CONFETTI 53

This is a memory from childhood.

The woman has disappeared from
our lives as if she was ever part
of it. Through what V S Naipaul
has analysed in India: A Million
Mutinies Now, we have changed
more in this century, than perhaps
in three thousand years. Against
this backdrop, I sometimes think of
that woman. The thought gives me
a pang.

Top: Raghubir Singh, On Vivekananda rock,

Kanyakumari, Tamil Nadu, 1994, photograph
2013 Succession Raghubir Singh
Above: Raghubir Singh, Shiva as rider of the bull,
Thanjavur, Tamil Nadu, 1993, photograph
2013 Succession Raghubir Singh

Pages through my mind is a section initiated on

the occasion of our second anniversary where
we invite architects, artists, critics and writers
to briey discuss books that contribute to their
intellectual journeys in special ways

54 CONFETTI

domus 23 November 2013

PAGES THROUGH MY MIND

THE WORKINGS OF ARCHITECTURE

Three lesser-known but seminal literary titles, with
varied approaches to architecture and urbanism,
attempt to outline the overarching role of the builder
Martand Khosla

The broader architectural discourse

will no doubt cite the seminal works
of architects, critics, philosophers and
writers such as Corbusier, Frampton,
Jenks, Koolhaas to Bachelard,
Tanizaki, Correa, Jacobs and Calvin.
However, I have chosen three
lesser-known works which were
path-dening at critical moments
in my architectural education. While
the three books vary vastly in their
approaches to architecture and
urbanism, they hold the idea of
the community central to the role
of architecture and through this
lens assess the role of the builder
politically, socially and materially.
Lubetkin and Tecton
Architecture and Social
Commitment (Arts Council of
Great Britain, 1981) was brought
out to accompany the rst exhibition
of the complete works of Berthold
Lubetkin from his student days till
his disillusionment and voluntary
retirement from architecture
in the early 50s. The essays
contained within this book address
core ideologies of the place of
architecture within society. Lubetkin
establishes the need for good design
to be available to all, and most of all
to the poor. As the architect of some
of Englands most key public health
and housing projects during the pre
and post war years from the Finsbury
health centre to the High point
and Halleld estates, Tecton under
Lubetkin is shown to the reader at
a transformative moment in shifting
political attitudes from welfare state
under Labour government policies to
conservative attitudes in the mid 50s.

This trajectory is mirrored in the

current Indian condition in several
ways. The book very astutely
illustrates the determined social
and political stance of Lubetkin in
his dealings with the state and its
architectural institutions. However
appealing it may be to identify
Lubetkin primarily with his sense of
social justice, the equally compelling
value of this book is its emphasis
on the importance of intuition and
beauty within a larger context of art
and architecture, particularly when
functionalism dened architecture
at the time. Overall, this book is
an excellent documentation of
a brilliant architect and thinker
(perhaps unfairly overshadowed by
his contemporaries like Corbusier)
and his incredible commitment to the
profession without compromising his
core values.
Local code The Constitution of
a city at 42 N Latitude (Princeton
Architectural Press, 1993). A
small fantastical book written by
Michael Sorkin and published by the
Princeton Architectural Press, Local
Code sets out a constitution for an
imagined city at 42 Degrees North
Latitude using a code of bye laws.
In addition to its unique form, the
greatest innovation within the books
content is that Sorkin does not
segregate the physical infrastructure
of a city or community from its
sociological and emotional capital.
While establishing at a very basic
level the constitution of a city,
it manages to touch upon every
aspect of the city and the lives of
its residents.

domus 23 November 2013

CONFETTI 55

Opposite page: covers of the books

Before object after image, Koshirakura
landscape 1996-2006, Local code The
Constitution of a city at 42 N Latitude,
and Lubetkin and Tecton Architecture
and Social Commitment.
This page: right, pages from Before
object after image, Koshirakura
landscape 1996-2006; below,
pages from Lubetkin and Tecton
Architecture and Social Commitment

For me, this book managed to

achieve bringing together two critical
aspects in the development of a
city: It offers a holistic approach
to what a city and quality of life
of its inhabitants must be while
democratising accessibility to the
core components of urban design.
The benets of the code and the city
are intended to be accessed by every
citizen, thus creating awareness
and eventually an active role for
individuals within the evolution of the
city. The books utopian approach as
such becomes insignicant, because
its content (not necessarily in its aim
but in its manner) is a framework for
the critical building blocks of new
communities in our extremely rapidly
urbanising planet.
Before object after image,
Koshirakura landscape 19962006 (AA Publications, 2007)
is an extensive catalogue of ten
years of a workshop held in the
remote village of Koshirakura in
Niigata, Japan under the instruction
of Architectural Association tutor
Shin Egashira. The book provides
an insight to, and lesson in, an
incredible commitment to selfreection of the individual architect.
On its rst level, the book explores
and documents materiality and the
individuals tactile relationship with
construction. It sets up paradigms to
test macro theories of architecture
within real communities and reasserts the signicance of time
within architectural practice. The
workshop was an exceptional
architectural experience, primarily
due to the repetition of returning

to the same place every year for

over a decade. This continuity of
place allowed the author and the
participants to be able to create
objects (from furniture to small
buildings) for a community and
then return to re-assess them,
alter them materially as well as in
their approach to construction and
design. This approach is completely
different from the current practices
of architecture where there are
two conditions: before building
design and post-completion.
Egashiras workshop questions the
idea of completion and explores
the role of the designer/builder
when they are embedded within
the community for whom they
are building. This book is vital
for its self-critical assessment of
its failures and successes while
attempting to establish an approach
to architecture, at both a micro
and macro scale, within a world of
multiple truths and realities.

Pages through my mind is a section initiated on the occasion of our second

anniversary where we invite architects, artists, critics and writers to briey
discuss books that contribute to their intellectual journeys in special ways

56 CONFETTI

domus 23 November 2013

PAGES THROUGH MY MIND

CAPITAL BETWEEN THE COVERS

An exploration of the city of Delhi and its multifaceted descriptions through literary works over the
years the same city, interpreted and perceived
uniquely by all those besotted by its charm
Arpita Das

A few weeks ago, I was happily

engaged in paperwork for a
new book for my publishing list,
a translation of Intizar Husains
forgotten classic about the capital,
Dilli tha jiska naam (Sang-e-Meel,
2003). The book begins with Husain
reminding his reader of how Mir had
described the city, that its not any
other town. As I read about Husain
saying the fatiha over Ghalibs derelict
gravesite, I realised that, having been
a student of history, most of my
reading on Delhi lay in the realm of
the citys medieval and early modern
history. I knew more texts and facts
about Mehrauli, Shahjahanabad and
provincial and imperial Delhi than
the making and planning of the city
following Partition. My shelves were
full of older books by Gordon Risley
Hearn, Percival Spear, Stephen
Blake, R E Frykenberg and Narayani
Gupta and more recent ones by Sunil
Kumar and Mahmood Farooqi. But
for this piece, I decided to step out
of my comfort zone and look instead
at more recent books which engage
with matters that have become part
of our current understanding of the
city oral narratives pitted against
master narratives, refugees and
rehabilitation, evictions and bastis,
and the citys invisible communities.
Debunking master narratives
Ravinder Kaurs Since 1947: Partition
Narratives among Punjabi Migrants of
Delhi (OUP, 2007) is a rare book in

that it looks at how the Indian state

conducted itself vis--vis the Punjabi
refugees in Delhi as perceived by the
refugees themselves. It is a focused
ethnographic investigation which
looks at the experiences of hitherto
marginalised groups like widows and
dalit families in terms of rehabilitation
after reaching Delhi. In many ways
the book makes clear for the rst
time how these groups and the lite
negotiated the tectonic shifts of
Partition differently for instance,
the former actually travelled across
borders at the last minute by land,
while the latter largely planned their
move much in advance and many of
them travelled by air. Prepare to leave
aside a number of well-established
images and myths as you read Kaurs
excellent unravelling of the Partition
master narrative. The refugee in
Kaurs work is not lacking in agency
the Punjabi refugee made Delhi
his/her home engaged deeply
with its politics and economy, using
the label of refugee strategically
when the occasion demanded it.
In a more recent work on Delhi by
Ranjana Sengupta, Delhi Metropolitan
(Penguin Books, 2008), the author
explores the same idea and points
out how Delhi is what it is because
of what the refugees who came to
the city at different points made of
it she alludes to the rich human
capital represented by the sheer
variety of communities nding their
way into Delhi.

An older book about a more

recent event which also bases its
ndings on ethnographic narratives
(in an East Delhi trans-Yamuna
resettlement colony called Welcome)
is Emma Tarlos celebrated work
Unsettling Memories: Narratives of
the Emergency in Delhi (University
of California Press, 2003), which
turns the popular idea of the victims
of Emergency in Delhi on its head
by highlighting their participation,
sometimes enthusiastic, sometimes
reluctant in the DDA housing policies
and family planning policies prevalent
in that period. Very often when
caught in the impasse between these
two policies, vulnerable sections like
rickshawpullers, sweepers, peons,
labourers, craftsmen, kabadiwalas,
street vendors and poor housewives
had no choice but to divert ones
effects by participating in the other.
A more recent work on the
Emergency, Delhi Calm
(HarperCollins India, 2011), a
graphic novel rich in nuanced and
at times fussy detail by Vishwajyoti
Ghosh, takes an entirely nouveau
look at the Emergency. Like Tarlo, he
too is the outsider-researcher, too
young to have any memory of the
Emergency, yet with a childhood rich
in transmitted Emergency narratives.
In this beautifully crafted book, three
idealistic and left-oriented young men
VP, Parvez and Vivek tell the story
of the Emergency in Delhi, home to
the countrys leader Moon, and her

opponent The Prophet. A powerful,

engrossing narrative, Ghoshs book
is the perfect way for a youngster
to begin to make sense of the
Emergency in Delhi.
Delhi Flneurs
Historically Delhi had its fair share
of wandering chroniclers, a tradition
carried on by writers like R V Smith in
the latter half of the last century; two
more names may be added to this list
now, those of Sam Miller and Mayank
Austen Soo, aka, the Delhiwalla.
Sam Millers Adventures in the
Megacity (Penguin Books, 2010) is a
book I encounter often on the Delhi
Metro, in the hands of foreign visitors
and earnest young local students.
I often think that if the much-loved
Mumbai is Maximum City, Delhi for
how much it has been reviled, even
by its own occupants, should be
labelled Minimum City. Sam Millers
Megacity however reveals itself in
its nooks and crannies as the author
engages in spiralling explorations,
the narrative never losing its lazy, laidback strolling tone.
Nooks and crannies are also the
subject of Mayank Austen Soos
work who is well-known to many
readers of his column and blog,
Delhiwalla. His new book Nobody
Can Love You More (Penguin Books,
2012) is a rare account of the red
light area of Delhis G B Road, in
which he paints the extraordinary
lives of the citys sex workers in

domus 23 November 2013

intimate, sometimes disturbingly so,

portraits where he is himself present
at the corner of every frame. One of
the most poetic parts in the book is
where he wonders what happened
to the former red light district of
Delhi, even as he wanders through
the decrepit corridors of the once
powerful Chawri Bazaar.
Perhaps the most unusual new book
on Delhi in this genre has been
written by a Pakistani visiting the
city, Raza Rumi Delhi by Heart:
Impressions of a Pakistani Traveller
(HarperCollins India, 2013). The title
reminded me of books by itinerant
chroniclers in colonial times, and
this candid account of Delhi and its
people is engrossing from the very
rst page. I relished the unusualness
of a Pakistani writer very much in love
with Delhi. Sample this for instance,
Delhi is a multi-petalled lotus like the
Bahai Temple and should be nurtured.
Not even books written by bonade
Delhites would have showered such
literary love on the capital.
Invisible Communities
made Visible
Another marginalised community
the oft-evicted slum dweller is the
subject of Kalyani Menon-Sen and
Gautam Bhans Swept off the Map
(Yoda Press, 2008; Hindi edition,
Nakshe se Bahar, Yoda Press, 2009),
which follows a community of slum
dwellers displaced from a former
resettlement colony Yamuna Pushta

CONFETTI 57

to the more recent one in Bawana as

part of the rush to beautify the capital
city for the imminent Commonwealth
Games of 2010. The book is based
on ethnographic studies and oral
narratives of the women in these
slum-dwelling families, and hence
offers a rare, gendered look at this
increasingly critical problem of
contemporary urban India.
Informal settlements in Delhi are
again the subject-matter of Trickster
City (Penguin Books, 2010; Hindi
edition, Behrupiya Sheher, RajKamal
Books, 2007), an anthology put
together by 20 young voices using
genres like memoir, reportage and
ction to do so. Every discerning
visitor to the city should pick up this
book and read it in order to delve
into the citys invisible histories,
where one encounters words like
demolition and displacement often.
Much like how Tarlos and Kaurs
books make evident the blind spots
in state narratives, this remarkable
book counters middle-class
narratives of modern Delhi, narratives
rife with references to criminal
behaviour, sanitation and middleclass benevolence.
Of Hijras and Djinns
Many years ago, Delhi writers
Khushwant Singh and William
Dalrymple introduced their readers
to two other hitherto invisible
presences in the capital. In Singhs
novel Delhi (Penguin Books, 1990),

we encountered Bhagmati the hijra

sex-worker used as a metaphor for
the beleaguered yet faithful city itself,
and in Dalrymples The City of Djinns
(Penguin Books, 1994), the elusive
jinn known to inhabit old tombs
and ruined structures made a rare
appearance. Perhaps, we will
see more of them in new books on
Delhi soon.

Pages through my mind is a section initiated on

the occasion of our second anniversary where
we invite architects, artists, critics and writers
to briey discuss books that contribute to their
intellectual journeys in special ways

58 CONFETTI

domus 23 November 2013

CONTEMPORARY MUSEUM FOR ARCHITECTURE IN INDIA

A SENSE OF REPOSE
SELECTED WORKS OF ANANT RAJE
Designed to delight the trained eye of the architect, the
monograph Anant Raje Architect, Selected Works 1971-2009
comprehensively outlines the architects body of work, but it
could have further explored a critical analysis of his ouevre
Mustansir Dalvi

Anant Raje is part of an exclusive

group of architects and academics
who addressed both the modernist
as well as the independent Indian
state that synthesised during the late
40s until the late 70s. Coming out
of an education system (the Sir JJ
School) in the 50s that was on the
cusp of change from the traditional
art-based learning to an industrial
age of modern materials and
building systems, Rajes modernist
architectural expression remained
steadfast throughout his career. Jon
Lang, architectural historian, has
asserted that few Indian architects
have maintained as steady an
intellectual and formal architectural
mood as Raje.
Having worked with Kahn in
Philadelphia and Ahmedabad, and
associated with Doshi and Kanvinde
in the early part of his practice,
his oeuvre can rst be seen in the
context of being After the Masters
(to invoke the title by Bhatt and
Scriver), but his work soon took on
an individual expression that was
unique to his sensibility of a quiet
practice seeking the universal in a
fast-changing age. Perhaps this is
why his work has not been in the
public eye as much as it should have
(except perhaps for the Institute of
Forest Management in Bhopal). One
therefore welcomes the publication
of his selected works in a monograph
put together by his family, just a
couple of years after Rajes passing
in 2009. The book is an extension

of a draft of his works that Raje had

himself begun to put together a few
years earlier, so one can surmise his
hand in the selection of projects and
the short pieces of text written by him.
The monograph begins with the
extensive documentation of Rajes
seamless continuation of Kahns
IIM at Ahmedabad, then moves
on to a selection of his private
residences and public institutions
and is bookended by a few texts
written by him. What gives this
book an edge is the inclusion of
some competition projects that
those interested in his work can
appreciate, to see the development
of his specic architectural
vocabulary used with a poetic slant,
the familiar recontextualised. His
entry for the Ministry of External
Affairs competition in 2000 that
was situated on the Rajpath in the
heart of Lutyens iconic schema
is especially interesting for the
manner in which Rajes referentially
modernist-edge conditions and
shaded courts and galleries play
with the grandiosity of the Kingsway.
The pulled-back curved facade that
forms the grand entrance opens out
on the street that begins an axis that
continues through the complex. This
seems to be Rajes nod to Lutyens
and Baker, as most of his other
works explores the possibilities of
creating spaces using geometrical
forms placed asymmetrically.
Throughout his work one can see the
striving of a seeker of order. His use

of large internal volumes, courtyards

and multilevel passageways (Piranesi
and Rome being invoked variously),
all geometrically articulated with
screen arches in concrete, RCC
ties create formal and structural
order through corbels and lintels
perforating brick and stone masonry.
The inclusion of many exploratory
sketches, especially those playing
on the development of lintels are a
special delight. Two aspects of Rajes
architecture remain notable, beyond
his architectural expressiveness. The
rst is his complete control of the
site, his understanding of the local,
especially in the large institutional
projects and the second, the use
of the section in making interior
space. While both seem to derive
from the lessons Raje learnt from
his association with Kahn, both the
nature of the architectural plan and
the handling of natural light are
recast under Rajes own hand in a
specically Indian context.
Although Raje did not write much
about his work, it is by reading
his drawings and observing the
photographs of his buildings and
its models that the clarity of his
conceptions can be enjoyed. The
monograph then, is a book specially
designed to delight the trained eye
of the architect. Rajes systematic
and deliberate processes of design
development emerge through
sketches, drawing and the many,
many models. Here is the best place
to see a classical modernist at work.

Raje describes sketching as an

exploration in searching for form
and spaces without any accuracy
of dimensions or material choice;
while model-making establishes a
connection between the thoughts,
ideas, sketches; simultaneously
identifying anchor points around
which the whole project could make
a beginning for development.
This book is very much a memorial,
a tribute to an important architect of
the second half of the 20th century,
made all the more poignant by his
recent loss. By putting the book
together, editors Shubhra and Amita
Raje have given us Anant Rajes
work in one place. William Curtis and
Gautam Bhatias introductory pieces
too are anecdotal eulogies to his
architecture and his persona. What is
absent is an analytical appreciation of
his work and its larger inuence on
the architecture of his time, especially
in the building of national institutions
in the rst three decades after
independence and of the relevance
of his architectural expression in the
present day. The subjective presence
does tend to background a critique
that would perhaps have made this
book even more signicant. One
hopes that this book is only the rst
on Anant Raje, and forms the basis
for more detailed future consideration
of his body of work.

domus 23 November 2013

CONFETTI 59

This spread: cover and

layouts showing the
design of the monograph
Anant Raje Architect,
Selected Works 19712009, Tulika Books, 2012

60 CONFETTI

domus 23 November 2013

CONTEMPORARY MUSEUM FOR ARCHITECTURE IN INDIA

COLLATING A JOURNEY
Spaces Inspired by Nature, the life-story of architect
Shirish Beri told with poetic ourishes, deploys journey
as a metaphor to delve into the story of his works
Smita Dalvi

Some years ago, while building and

organising a new library in a school of
architecture, this reviewer sought to
create a category called Architects
Works and Writings. It was soon
apparent how few monographs
on Indian architects existed, as
compared to those outside India
and again these were concentrated
mostly on just a few seminal
architects who dominated the Indian
discourse until recently. There are
very many important architects
amongst the early pioneers, on whose
works book-length publications were
found lacking. As the decades have
passed, the continuation of Indian
architectural discourse has thrown
up a post-pioneer generation of
architects who have now a signicant
body of work behind them, whose
perusal would provide indications of
emerging trends in our contemporary
architecture. Surely, there is a huge
gap waiting to be lled up by quality
publications of the works of past and
present Indian architects.
One publication this year has tried
to address this gap. Super Book
House, Mumbai recently published
a comprehensive monograph
on Shirish Beri, who, in a career
spanning almost forty years, has
built works ranging from private
residences to educational complexes
and large public projects across the
country. When the publishing house
approached Professor Yashwant
Pitkar with a single-line brief to edit

a book on a contemporary Indian

architect whose approach is different
from the run of the mill, he had no
hesitation in choosing the work of
Shirish Beri whose projects, writings,
lectures and conversations had
created a marked impression on
him. As it turned out, this book is the
result of an extensive collaboration
between the publisher, the editor and
the architect Pitkar describes the
process of making the book as one
of slow and deep unfolding.
What is most interesting about this
book is its structure. For, interspersed
with the projects are Beris written
and sketched expressions. Each
set of two projects is bookended
by his illustrated essays and poetry.
The essays are more like collections
of rambling thoughts, posers and
anecdotes seeking connections
between nature, art, architecture
and life. There is a seamless rhythm
set up in the book that constantly
keeps the reader acquainted with
the architects outer manifestations
in form of his buildings and his
inner thought processes, integral
to that creation. The opening essay,
Working with nature...towards
sustainability sets a tone towards not
just architecture but life in general.
Beri asks whether mans relationship
with nature could become a universal
archetype for a sustainable future.
He advocates an approach towards
architecture that grows out from
the place and its spirit rather than

imposed technocratic solutions.

The book features about a dozen
projects in greater detail, well
illustrated with clear drawings,
evocative sketches and excellent
photographs accompanied by
the architects own descriptions
analysing the design process and
governing concerns in each. There
is an exhaustive list of projects with
thumbnails in the closing section.
Accompanying the book is also a CD
titled The Unfolding White: Shirish
Beris search for wholeness which
is a good value addition. The Hirwai
Farmhouse at Nathawade, one of
his earliest projects for himself is
perhaps the best example of his
avowed philosophy: spaces inspired
by nature. B V Doshi, in his note to
the architect in the opening section
of the book says, ...to me this retreat
made me aware of your personal
search for freedom. Sanjeevan
Primary School and Laboratory for
the Conservation of Endangered
Species at Hyderabad display his
playful and unconventional approach
towards space organisation which
is at once in harmony with the sites
topography and natural features.
On the other hand, projects such
as Dharwad Engineering College
or the Computational Mathematics
Laboratory at Pune display a nuanced
sense of structure, construction and
meticulousness towards detail. One
abiding theme that leaps through all
of his work is a seamless integration

of the built spaces with landscape,

both natural and man-made.
The book provides a glimpse
into the multi-faceted creative
persona of the architect. It is, in
a sense, the life-story of Shirish
Beri told with poetic ourishes
the autobiographical vein is
unmistakable. He deploys journey
as a metaphor to delve into his
inner self, who, since his childhood,
shared an intimate relationship
with nature and which remained a
constant motif for all his creative
endeavours. In his foreword,
Christopher Charles Benninger, who
was also Beris mentor during his
student days at CEPT, Ahmedabad
weaves a portrait of Beri as a
young architect whose body has
aged but the persona retains the
same creative energies and values.
This book on life and works of
architect Shirish Beri is inspirational
for young students and architects
and a valuable addition towards
dissemination of discourse on
contemporary Indian architecture.

domus 23 November 2013

CONFETTI 61

This spread:
cover and pages
from within the
monograph
Spaces Inspired
by Nature, Super
Book House, 2013

domus 23 November 2013

62 CONFETTI

AN UNSCIENTIFIC AUTOBIOGRAPHY
With an introspective portrayal of his early years of study
and work, his friends and teachers, and his own approach
to architecture, Eduardo Souto de Moura pays homage
to Aldo Rossi and his book #5EKGPVKE#WVQDKQITCRJ[
Eduardo Souto de Moura

I was born in Oporto, Portugal in

1952. In 1958 I became a student
of an Italian school 100 metres from
my parents house. For four years I
had teachers I remember with great
fondness, like Signora Morelli and
the music teacher, Padre Facciola,
who introduced me to the language
and culture of the Romans and
instilled in me precocious admiration
for classicism, from which I have
never been freed.
Then ve years of high school, a
sort of Middle Ages, a night of
darkness where I learned French,
which was mandatory and gave
me access to existentialism, very
fashionable at the time: JeanPaul Sartre, Albert Camus, Boris
Vian, etc. but above all Arthur
Rimbaud. Il faut tre absolument
moderne was the conviction with

which I entered Fine Arts in the

1970s to study architecture. The
rst years were all about social
sciences: Marxism, sociology,
anthropology, structuralism and
so forth. The thing is, the teachers
really believed that the synthesis
of design could come about
once we mastered the analytical
disciplines. Our drawing book was
the linguistics course by Ferdinand
de Saussure and as far as drawing
was concerned, it was something
technocratic and reactionary for
those revolutionary times.
What happened with the Carnation
Revolution was that the Ministro da
Habitao, who was an architect
(Nuno Portas), founded the S.A.A.L.
(Servio Ambulatrio de Apoio Local
or Mobile Service for Local Support),
which gave economic support to

student task forces in order for

them to design social housing.
Common sense was what
ultimately saved us. Since we
didnt know how to design, we
had to invite a professional who
knew the mtier. lvaro Siza Vieira
accepted and for ve years I
worked intensely in his atelier. This
fantastic person taught me the way
to approach problems and build a
project a slow apprenticeship in
reality and history. Out of modesty, I
never used his nal forms.
I became acquainted with Aldo
Rossis famous essay Architecture for
Museums, and then he became my
teacher at Santiago de Compostela
in a design course where I nally
understood the much talked-about
autonomy of the discipline, so
disputed at the other school, which
I barely attended because I was
working so much with Siza. We
worked on the housing projects
of So Victor, vora, Boua, Berlin
and others.
For reasons that I would come to
understand later, lvaro Siza red
me, arguing that being a collaborator
(on a permanent basis) was not the
best way to become an architect.
I worked with my Urban Design

teacher, architect Fernandes de S,

who handed me the Mercado de
Braga project, which I built and which
Jean Nouvel picked for the Paris
Biennale in the 80s.
After spending two years in
the military, I managed to win a
competition for a Cultural Centre in
Oporto, which I also built.
I had gathered the basics to start
my independent professional life,
with the conviction that I could help
rebuild a country after 48 years
of Fascism. To give you an idea,
it was necessary to build half a
million houses.
It is very clear that Portugal worked
differently from Europe and France.
Robert Venturi and Aldo Rossi
proposed postmodernism but
Jean-Franois Lyotard was not able
to convince me because (fascist
regime) Salazarism had been a
kind of postmodernism, which was
strange, because we were post
without ever having been there
before. I was closer to Jrgen
Habermas and his criticism of the
Venice Biennale, and everything
brought me closer to Mies van der
Rohe and the opportunity posed
by his principles for that moment
of change. With so many makeshift

domus 23 November 2013

CONFETTI 63

Malik Architecture SITTING AS GLAZED BOXES

Below left: Ludwig Mies der Rohe.

Drawings in the Collection of The
Museum of Modern Art, edited by Ludwig
Glaeser, New York 1969. 60 x 45 cm.
Below right: Mis van der Rohe, edited
by Max Bill, volume XII of the Architetti
del movimento moderno collection,
edited by Lodovico Belgiojoso, Enrico
Peressutti, Ernesto N Rogers, Il Balcone,
Milan 1955. 12.5 x 17 cm

Opposite page and above: their common

passion for the work of Ludwig Mies
van der Rohe has led Eduardo Souto de
Moura and Nicola Di Battista to collect
every available book on his oeuvre.
This shared interest has built up a lively
competition between them, measured in
inches of shelf space laden with books
about the great German architect. Left,
Souto de Mouras library in Oporto; right,
Di Battistas library in Rome

facades around, Less is More was

a breath of fresh air. That included
modernism, neoplasticism, industrial
construction as the future, the
permanence of the classical even
with modern materials.
I was invited to lecture in Lausanne
and Zurich, and later I taught at
Harvard University, where I met my
friend Jacques Herzog.
In the impasse of the 1980s, Herzog
had the clear-sightedness of working
with local/vernacular culture and
contemporary art, showing in his
work that the universe is a place
without walls (Miguel Torga).
In Zurich I met Donald Judd, who left
an impression on me forever for the
way he explained leaving sculpture
and wanting to be an architect.
Today, 30 years later, I still work with
Siza and enjoy it. I meet Herzog
regularly and collect books and

images of Mies. I was recently

given one of Mies at home with
the windows shut, wearing a silk
dressing gown, lying down on an
utterly banal non-designed velvet
sofa, drinking a Martini (?).
In another, I see him sitting down
on an anonymous armchair, reading
by a table lamp, surrounded by
paintings by Klee, Kandinsky,
sculptures by Picasso, records by
Bach maybe, and books no doubt by
Saint Augustine.
Mies spent his life quoting Saint
Augustine, saying that beauty is the
mirror of truth, but Mies was a liar.
He lied constantly in his construction
details, which he generally covered
over and hid with other more
theatrical materials. This is the
contradiction that interests me most
in his work.
Mies had an all-glass apartment

in his own building on Lake Shore

Drive, Chicago, but he never moved
into it.
He always lived surrounded by
walls, without much light and full
of works of art.
To nd out why Mies never moved
house is to understand the future
of architecture.
Why it is that at the Farnsworth

House it is only possible to put up

one painting, one photograph on top
of a cabinet? Why it is that architects
such as Mies are forced to lie
in their projects? To understand these
things is to understand Friedrich
Nietzsches sentence We have art so
that we may not perish by the truth.
Maybe that is the reason why we
continue to be architects.

domus 23 November 2013

64 CONFETTI

AN IDEA IN THE PALM OF A HAND

Crafting tiny architecture models teaches
students how to condense an idea into meticulously
expressive form
Alberto Campo Baeza

Back in time, Jewish law prescribed

that when a rst-born son was
presented in the temple shortly after
birth, the offering consisted of two
turtle doves or pigeons. And if the
family were very poor, a handful of
wheat would sufce: the wheat that
would t in the palm of a hand.
That wonderful Jewish custom, which
I learnt about when writing this text,
moved me deeply on account of
what it shares with my proposal of
making models capable of tting
into the palm of a hand. One of
my young academic collaborators,
Jos Jariz, was recently awarded a
PhD following the presentation of a
brilliant doctoral dissertation that he
produced when he was my assistant
for an MPAA course (Mster
en Proyectos Arquitectnicos
Avanzados) that I held in Madrid
in 2011. And, for the essay I had
requested for the facultys yearbook,
the topic he chose was the Platonic
allegory of the second navigation.
In the Phaedo, Plato refers to how
in the rst navigation the boat is
pushed onwards by the wind, while in
the second there is no wind,

and it is the force of the oars in the

hands of the crew that drives the
boat forward. The second navigation
that Jariz refers to, as I do today,
is the exercise that I rst put to my
students: that of constructing a
model so small that it ts into the
palm of a hand. This is what
a materialised idea should be able
to do, because an idea has no size,
so it ts in the palm of a hand.
Over and over I cite to my students
William Blakes poem, where he
evokes universal interdependence
between entirely different entities:
To see a world in a grain of sand...
hold innity in the palm of your
hand. In the same vein, that very
idea of holding something (in this
case, architectural form) in the palm
of ones hand was my intention
with this exercise. To achieve this,
the model needs to be produced
in a size and scale that demands
the elimination of everything
superuous, condensing the idea for
the project to the utmost, rather like
materialising the architectural idea in
its purest state.
I never tire of repeating how

domus 23 November 2013

CONFETTI 65

Opposite page, top: Alfonso GuajardoFajardo, model of the Cala House,

designed by Alberto Campo Baeza.
Opposite page, bottom: Jihanghoun
Zhou, models of the interior (left)
and exterior (right, on top of paper)
of Casa Malaparte, designed by
Adalberto Libera.
This page, bottom: Fidel Gutierrez,
model of Villa Savoye, designed by
Le Corbusier

in architecture, as in any creative

work, it is indispensable to have a
clear and denite idea of what one
wants to do: Architectura sine idea
vana architectura est. (Architecture
without an idea is meaningless.)
The highly positive experience of
my strategy for that Masters course
prompted me to request these
little models once again from my
regular students for the current
academic year 2012-2013, right at
the start, as they were embarking
on their own projects and were still
germinating ideas. Here again the
strategy proved to be extraordinarily
worthwhile.
I must confess that it is something
I too have been doing with my own
projects for some time, including
my latest project. So what is the
purpose of such a reduced model?
Indeed, what is the purpose of
making a model at all at a time when
computers can generate 3D virtual
models that are able to rotate in all
directions? Well, although this is true,
it is also true that one can never
achieve on a at screen what can
only be produced with a real model:

the simultaneity of understanding

three-dimensional space and its
relationship with human beings
and light. The understanding of its
relationship with natural light, when
the model is placed under the real
sun, is something ineffable and
infallible. I have never seen anyone
placing their computer screen in
the sunlight to see what happens.
Because nothing would happen.
And furthermore, if this scale model
is small, very small, and devoid of any
unnecessary additions, it must be
capable of representing the
idea that one wants to develop in the
project with maximum precision. That
is the ultimate goal of the exercise.
So the approach with these little
scale models is not the same as
someone making a miniature.
Far from it: what I am looking for
here is the precision of the idea
expressed through form. That little
scale model, that idea in the palm
of a hand, prompts serious reection
on the project itself, the kind of
reection that is characterised by
research and at times can prove
difcult for non-architects to

understand. That tiny model is an

extremely efcient tool of project
research. The models made by some
architects at that MPAA course were
quite outstanding. These students,
all of them architects, perfectly
captured the spirit of the exercise in
demonstrating that an idea can t in
the palm of a hand.
And I must say that the models
prepared by my current students
at the beginning of 2013 are just
as interesting.
There is nothing more satisfying
for a teacher than to verify the
validity of new learning strategies
applied over time with the hand
of experience.
And in this particular instance
it is that same hand that makes
it possible to capture ideas ideas
materialised in small models.
Because for a true architect, an idea
ts in the palm of a hand.

66 CONFETTI

domus 23 November 2013

domus 23 November 2013

MAN AS INTELLECTUAL
The translation from idea to the physical reality of matter
and form is accomplished and ennobled by the human hand
melding with the tools of the craft
Werner Oechslin

Opposite page: Georg Baselitz, Die

Hand - Das brennende Haus, 1964-/65.
Oil on canvas, 135 x 99 cm. Courtesy
of Archiv Georg Baselitz & Fondation
Beyeler, Basel.
Right: a book by Le Corbusier,
Architecture du Bonheur. LUrbanisme
est une clef, Forces Vives, Les Presses
dle de France, Paris 1955

1. The plastic elements are what

trigger subjective reactions.

CONFETTI 67

What is the reason that architects

still feel the need to draw with
pencils? Why is it that they wish to
keep their drawing instrument rmly
in hand, like an extended nger that
places marks directly on paper? The
dental hygienist uses ultrasound to
clean teeth quickly and efciently
by expertly aiming its sonic waves.
But then she reaches for her old
instruments, scalers in all shapes
and sizes, to continue and complete
the work thoroughly. When asked
why she does this, she answers that
the traditional scalers give her direct
contact. They allow her hand to better
feel the precision of guiding and
controlling the work. All her contact
with the tooth and its calculus
is experienced instantaneously,
physically. The hand feels immediate
feedback, which is accompanied by
non-homogeneous noises that reect
manual pressure on the tool and
the resistance of whatever needs to
be removed. When things get out
of hand they get out of control. A
tool is an extension of the hand. The
more hand and instrument fuse into
a single tool and allow for reliable
coordinated action, the better the
results. This is all the more important
when the action is not simply routine,
mechanical or copying. For a brief
moment, Amede Ozenfant and Le
Corbusier subscribed to this idea
when they swore by the origine
mcanique de la sensation plastique
and at the same time focused on
psychophysical parallelism in order
to achieve something like objectivity
of action and of artistic invention (!):
Les mmes lments plastiques
dclanchent les ractions subjectives.1
No, this does not refer to automatism

that substitutes creativity with a xed

pattern. It is the absolute opposite!
We want to have as much dexterity
as possible for our handiwork,
because we are dealing with a
highly delicate translation-process of
intellectual images into the physical
reality of matter and form. All our
imagination and fantasy needs to be
put to paper right away by means of
the hand, ngers and pencil, starting
with a preliminary sketch. So the
architect holds the pencil in hand and
guides it, making the stuff owing
from (abstract) inspiration and
imagination appear directly on the
paper. At the end of their essay Sur la
Plastique in the rst issue of LEsprit
Nouveau (1920), Ozenfant and Le
Corbusier contemplate completely
different psychological moments,
where the eye determines the course
of a line and the muscles guide the
way the line moves. According to
Victor Basch, whose work the two
men reference, lments sensoriels
et formels form the framework of a
given aesthetic effect. Also Helmuth
Plessner reveals how the senses
interact in his book Die Einheit der
Sinne (1923). Eyesight is credited
with having haptic properties.
Eyes can handle objects. And
all converges toward agreement
between eyesight and manipulation.
The hand with its extension is guided
by the eye to trace a line, make a
drawing or sketch a gure.
Of course now we are accustomed
to observing this process even in the
examination room of a surgeon or a
cardiologist. All their instruments and
their whole arsenal of endoscopic
devices are deployed in a wellarranged set-up of perfect tools.
Yet one small difference remains:
artistic creation does not emanate
from the existing bodies at which
the intervention is aimed, but from
gments of the mind. Even though
none of this can be so precisely
separated (in view of the constantly
active memory function, so familiar
to every psychologist), it is easy to
understand why people worry about
this particularly fragile and delicate
process of creation and cling to
the immediacy of the action that is
determined by thinking and feeling.
In his inuential Handbuch der
Archologie der Kunst (1830),
Karl Otto Mller denes art as
a representation (mmesis), an
activity through which something
internal is externalised. Art seeks
to do nothing but represent, and
is content with that, which is what
distinguishes it from all activities
directed at obtaining a particular
goal. Being limited to the process of
externalisation and representation
distinguishes the artist as well as the
inventor-architect.
Le Corbusiers conviction that the
type of lines encountered in cities is
what makes us feel psychologically
good or bad, makes him write in
Classement et Choix that the proof is
physiologique, irrfutable.

domus 23 November 2013

68 CONFETTI

This page: below, a photo portraying the

hands of the writer Franz Blei graces a
book edited by Emil Schaeffer with an
introduction by Adolf Koelsch, Hnde
und was sie sagen, Orell Fssli Verlag,
Zrich-Leipzig 1929; bottom, inside the
same book, hands of the novelists Jakob
Schaffner (left) and Leo Tolstoy (right)

2. The carpenter is but an instrument in the hands of

the architect. Leon Battista Alberti, De Re Aedicatoria,
Prologue.
3. Neither the bare hand nor the unaided intellect has
much power; the work is done by tools and assistance,
and the intellect needs them as much as the hand.
Francis Bacon, Instauratio Magna, 1620.
4. I undertake this essay in praise of hands as if in
fullment of a duty to a friend. Even as I begin to write,
I see my own hands calling out to my mind and inciting
it. Here, facing me, are these tireless companions who
for so many years have served me well, one holding the
paper steady, the other peopling the white page with
hurried, dark, active little marks. Through his hands man
establishes contact with the austerity of thought. They
quarry its rough mass. Upon it they impose form, outline
and, in the very act of writing, style. Henri Focillon, loge
de la main,1934.
Translations by the editor (Domus 972)

In LEsprit Nouveau we nd a more

advanced and universal version
of this: Voil la base, elle est
humaine. The process of externally
representing something internal
is human in the most profound
sense, a characteristic of human
culture. So nothing can diminish
the great concern we have for this
process. By consequence, our will,
rooted rmly in experience, is that it
doesnt get grabbed away under any
circumstances. To the contrary,
we want it rmly in hand.
Since Plato onward, a kind of
misunderstanding has arisen
regarding the specic competence
of the architect, considered to
only give instructions to the
workers. This led to the idea
of separating the processes of
invention, designing and realisation.
In the 15th century, Leon Battista
Alberti actually said: Fabri enim
manus architecto pro instrumento
est.2 Here in the prologue to his
De Re Aedicatoria (On the Art of
Building) Alberti downsizes the role
of the workman, and in the next
sentence he says that the architects
intelligence and method makes him
competent regarding form (tum
mente animoque difnire) as well
as competent regarding matter
(tum et opere absolvere). At a
closer look, it becomes obvious that
these relationships, as well as the
completeness of the creative process
of architecture are one with the
concept of the manus, the hand:
handling, needing to hold something
in hand, and composing by hand.
And above all, the hand, along with
the intellect, is humans preferred
instrument. In the second aphorism

of his Instauratio Magna (1620)

Francis Bacon writes: Nec manus
nuda, nec intellectus sibi permissus,
multam valent; instrumentis et
auxilibus res percitur; quibus opus
est non minus ad intellectum, quam
ad manum.3 Both the intellect and
the hand must work together in
order to set ones hand to a
project and bring it to fullment by
representing it. This is what it takes
to make a work.
Henri Focillon writes about this in
his eulogy loge de la main (1934)
and added it to his book Vie des
formes. In the process, he looks at
his own hands: Jentreprends cet
loge de la main comme on remplit
un devoir damiti. Au moment o
je commence lcrire, je vois les
miennes qui sollicitent mon esprit,
qui lentranent. Elles sont l, ces
compagnes inlassables, qui, pendant
tant dannes, ont fait leur besogne,
lune maintenant en place le papier,
lautre multipliant sur la page blanche
ces petits signes presss, sombres
et actifs. Par elles lhomme prend
contact avec la duret de la pense.
Elles dgagent le bloc. Elles lui
imposent une forme, un contour et,
dans lcriture mme, un style.4

PROJECTS

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studio VanRo architects PANDORAS JAALI

Taking design cues from the region it is
situated in, the Jaisalmer Airport employs
the undulations of the Rajasthani sand dunes
and the jaali as design references to develop
a formal programme of an airport, often
interchanging the scope of the architectural
element and the building structure
Text Kaiwan Mehta
Photos Rohit Raj Mehndiratta

domus 23 November 2013

72 PROJECTS

1.
The Jaisalmer Airport was an
engineering contract for Delhibased Studio VanRo Architects;
they are a sister-rm of Mahendra
Raj Consultants Pvt. Ltd. In such
projects a schematic functional
plan is provided by the Airports
Authority, with which the design
rm then works to develop a
building. The architect then enters
as a designer of the building
that will now contain that preset
schematic functional plan. And
in the case of this airport the
architects, Studio VanRo, headed
by Vandini Mehta and Rohit Raj
Mehndiratta, decided on two
motifs as the principle design
cues the sand dunes that one
associates with the city and its
region, and the architectural
element of the jaali.
2.
The mention of the word jaali
opens up a Pandoras Box! With
a history of architecture that has
for the last 60-70 years struggled
to describe and negotiate an
Indian-ness or a regionalism
of sorts, the jaali has been the
favourite element. Whether it is
the region of Arabia or parts of
Africa, or India, the jaali has been
the constant idea of reference.
Raj Rewal or Jean Nouvel, Spain,
India or France, one can use and
employ the jaali as a medium to
contextualise architecture and the
idea the building is going to adopt.
Surely, on most of these occasions
one has also enjoyed what the
jaali does in its specifc avatar. In
stating project references to the

use of jaalis in contemporary or

Modern design, one is only trying
to understand the tenacity of this
concept the jaali. In this case, for
me, the jaali now becomes a much
more universal concept than it is
represented to be. As an image, it
refers to certain specic notions
climate, region (and hence also
religion, although this is clearly
and surely debatable), and even
culture (which in turn often gets
associated with religion). So then,
is it the concept of the jaali, or its
image-value that we use the jaali
for? From Sarkhej in Ahmedabad,
to the work of Laurie Baker and
brick walls, the tomb of Salim
Chisti in Fatehpur Sikri, to the
American Embassy building in
New Delhi or the work of I M
Kadri in Mumbai, the jaali, as an
architectural element, has had
quite a journey and can raise
many questions.
Often jaalis contain and dene the
built-volume, and often they only
decorate an enclosed space; one
for me is as good as the other, but
the realisation of the difference
in the two is important. It is not
important at all to ascribe value
between the two roles mentioned
here, but it is necessary to know
the mechanics of each role, as
that is what will liberate the
jaali from being assigned the
role of memory-recall. Just as in
the case of a column, which is
essentially an architectural (to
begin with structural) element,
and it is its moulding that makes
it an element of a particular style
or historical reference. But in

Previous spread: details of the jaali,

animated in light and shadow.
This page: below and bottom, the jaalilaced facade of the arrival terminal of
the airport.
Opposite page: view of the trusses

these cases it is the moulding,

and its interpretation, that
occupies architecture, than its
basic existence as an element
(structural or architectural). So
how does architecture deal with
its elements?
3.
Taking this building as a cue, and
attempting another way to deal
with the employment of motifs
and elements of architecture from
building traditions, histories and
regional favourites, one wishes to
propose the idea of a Pop idiom in
architecture. Here, one will now
have to recall a lot of architectural
examples in India, referred to as
Modern-Indian in their (stylistic)
approach. Often these buildings,
public in nature, often funded
through public money, as state
institutions or infrastructural
projects, recall a visual language
that is termed traditional or
regional, nearly a sons of the
soil equivalent elements of the
land, they do indeed popularise
the architectural form to a taste.
Do these motifs make a building
Indian? We can ask, how does
it do so, and why does it do so?
Why do we employ the use of such
references? And what safety jacket
does these motifs and elements
provide architects with?
4.
One can never ask all the
questions of one building; and
in no way one is suggesting here
that the Jaisalmer Airport we are
looking at should respond or stand
up to all these thoughts, questions
and propositions. However,

domus 23 November 2013

74 PROJECTS

it is precisely the occasion of

such buildings that allow us to
ruminate and meander through
ideas and questions.
Speaking specically, the
Jaisalmer building develops
the jaali-idea into a formal
programme. In projects of this
nature where the architects had
to constantly negotiate with the
architects and engineers from the
Airport Authority, the jaali has
been well-employed as a design
principle, and one can imagine
how this would have been a strong
negotiating tool too with an ofcial
government body. The references
in terms of colour and material
are clear in how they codify a
belonging to the place Jaisalmer.
The jaali in the play of scale and
size animates completely the
interior atmospheres and spaces.
It interacts with structure and
space, by way of casting shadows,
repletion of the pattern in the
ooring layout, appearing visually
from many parts of the building
and sitting stolidly as the denite
shape-giver of the building. In
such cases one also sees the
building animated differently
in night and day, as the light
quotient moves from the outside
to the inside as the sun rises and
sets. In many such ways, the jaali
works successfully in generating
an atmosphere in the otherwise
very function-driven spaces of
the building. One enjoys the jaali
much more in this building as a

way of modulating and creating

the sequence of visual experiences
in the interior of the building, at
least visually so; whether the jaali
refers to a context of a regional
afliation is not important then.
However, in the overall formal
structuring of the built-volume,
one wonders still if the jaali
could have been used as a design
tool that liberates form from a
rigid belonging to its denite
programme (one sure has to
consider here that the programme
and sequences of spaces was
a given to the architects, and
understandably non-negotiable).
The airport building is ultimately
an infrastructure project and the
scope of architectural play and
formulation in such buildings
have to be considered. The
building does celebrate with

its jaalis and trusses a sense of

height and monumentality, often
part of such programmes. What is
interesting then is that structural
members such as the truss, as
well as an element like the jaali,
both weave colours, forms and
light in the building, without
much value difference between
the element and the structure.
The jaali does successfully achieve
a form-perspective, a sense of not
being the skin, the screen or the
envelope, but a form indicator, one
that leads the formal gesture of
the building. The following notes
on the building design approach
and structure are written by
studio VanRo, and reproduced
here; since these descriptions
provide a sense of the material
and physical scale as well as
sense of the building. And the
This spread: above and right,
jaalis often contain and dene the
built-volume of the airport, as well
as decorate the enclosed space.
Left: the building does celebrate
with its jaalis and trusses a sense
of height and monumentality

domus 23 November 2013

76 PROJECTS

PROPOSED
TERMINAL
BUILDING

SCHEMATIC FUNCTIONAL DRAWINGS PROVIDED BY

THE AIRPORT AUTHORITY (AA)

SITE PLAN

17

77
7

6
13

8 8 6

8 8 8 8
8 8 8 8

6
6

4
3

A
7

7
13

10
10

8 88 8

7
7

12
7 13

8
7
8

10

7
13

10 6 6

18

15

9 6

16

GROUND FLOOR PLAN

11

6
6

11

12 8

12M

domus 23 November 2013

PROJECTS 77

1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17

CITY-SIDE ELEVATION

AIR-SIDE ELEVATION

12M

8
4

Security hold area

Security check
Check-in hall
Arrival hall-baggage claim area
Passenger and visitor concourse
Services
Toilet
Ofces
Airport manager room back-ofces
Commercial area
VIP lounge
Pantry
Fire escape
Entrance
Exit
City-side road
Air-side road

8
3

SECTION AA

11

15

11

15

11

15

15

SECTION BB

12M

NORTH-EAST ELEVATION

11
13

8
15

SOUTH-WEST ELEVATION

10

10

11

7
16

12M

Project Name
Jaisalmer Airport, Jaisalmer
Client
Airport Authority, India; MRC Pvt Ltd.
Prime Consultants
MRC Pvt Ltd.
Architectural sub-consultants
studio VanRO
Design Team
Airport Authority: Kalpana Sethi, Debashish
(Role: Pre-schemaic plan concept; over view of project
development)
Studio VanRO: Rohit Raj Mehndiratta, Vandini Mehta,
Dharmendar Panchal, Jwalant Patel
(Role: Development of overall Architectural Concept
and detailing)
Structural Consultants
MRC Pvt. Ltd.
Other Consultants
Electrical: Abett Consulting Engineers
Civil: MRC Pvt. Ltd.
Landscape: Studio VanRO
HVAC: Naveen Kishen and Associates
Plumbing: RK Gupta and Associates
Acoustics: I. N. Basu and Associates
PMC: Airport Authority
Prime Contractor
Era Infrastructure Ltd
Builtup Area
10,000 m2
Approximate Cost
r 60 crores
Construction Duration
2009 2013
Completion Year
2013

78 PROJECTS

domus 23 November 2013

domus 23 November 2013

PROJECTS 79

relationship of discussions on
material negotiations along with
ruminations on conceptual ideas
and approaches is an important
task in assessing buildings and
their roles in our lives and histories.

This spread: view of

the interior spaces of
the aiport, animated
differently, as the light
quotient moves from the
outside to the inside as
the sun rises and sets

Building design approach:

The roof structure comprises
of curvilinear trusses spanning
65 m placed at 10 m intervals.
Inside the 65 m x 90 m columnfree space there are two storey
concrete structures which provide
separate spaces for different
functions related to arriving
and departing passengers. As a
passenger enters the terminal
building from one end, he
experiences the 23-m-high space
which tapers down as he leaves
from the other end. In order to
give the arriving and departing
passengers similar experience of
high and low space volumes, the
trusses have the high end on the
air side of the arrival hall and on
the city side in the departure hall.
The facade, in keeping with the
context, becomes a double skin
wrap of GRC jaalis and glass,
forming a crafted platform for the
animated roof form and rekindling
suggestions of tradition/
modernity. On the city side there
is a dramatic 12.5-m-wide porch.
The entrance portico, with GRC
jaali work scales and crafts the
suggested platform to rekindle
the mythic aura of Jaisalmer.
Vertical slices create a rhythmic
skin that is anchored by the twin
domes and the circular element
to mark the point between the
two roof structures, between the
arrival and departure halls. The
play of light through the vertical
jaali screens scale the linear space
and provides a counterpoint to
the glass facade that marks the
entrance to the airport. The gable
ends extend the platform base
into a band set against the curved
roof surface. The band repeats
the intricate jaali pattern as it
reinforces the horizontality of the
desert-scape.
The landscape of the site is
controlled by the idea of the
geological movement that
overlays sand and the fossilised
rock strata that forms much of
the site. Using native species,
the manner of planting directly
on land or as a continuous
planter that spirals upto the
airport imagines the geological
substrates and its movement.
The entrance is marked by an
abundance of Pilla Kanner,
shaped to indicate true north and
the imagined east-west horizon.

Structure:
The new Jaisalmer Airport
Terminal building has a unique
and bold concept of enclosing a
large 65 m x 90 m column-free
space to create two distinct and
separate spaces of 65 m x 42.5
m each to act as arrival and
departure halls with a dividing
buffer space of 5 m x 65 m. The
column-free spaces have been
created with ten 66-m-span twohinged steel arches of an irregular
shape placed at 10 m centres. An
arch springs from a hinge on one
side, gradually rises to a height
of 23 m in an irregular curve in
a span length of 53 m and comes
down sharply to the second hinge
on the other side in the remaining
span length of 13 m.
Each arch is made of four
274 mm OD ms pipes in a
conguration which starts as a
500 x 500 mm square at the
hinges and gradually ares to
a trapezoidal form with the
maximum dimensions of 3000
mm depth, 2500 mm top chord
and 1500 mm bottom chord.
The are takes place in a chord
length of 13 mm from each hinge
and is constant in the Central
chord length of 66m. Each face
of the trapezoidal arch is a
triangulated warren truss. The
ten arches are interconnected
with four cross triangle-shaped
trusses. The external faces of the
two arches on either end have
vertical wind trusses with sliding
connections with the arches which
support glazing or sheeting or
stone jaalis on the gable ends.
Jaisalmer is in Zone III as per BIS
Code for Earthquake Resistant
Design of Structures and has
to be designed for an importance
factor of 1.5. It is also subjected
to dust storms of high velocity and
a large variation of temperatures.
The structure has been planned
and designed to cater to the
stresses generated by these forces.
The arches have independent
concrete footings which are tied
together with reinforced tie
beams. The total consumption of
structural steel is 1060 tonnes,
to cover an area of 6120 sqm
which gives an average steel
consumption of 170 kg per sqm,
including both gable end areas.

SJK Architects POETIC LINK, TECTONIC INTEGRITY

Drawing inspiration from the form of dried leaves, the
Weekend House in Alibaug with its leaf-shaped roof
pods overlapping each other, appreciates its site context
and morphology while essaying an artistic expression
Text Jasem Pirani
Photos Rajesh Vora

82 PROJECTS

EP
LAN

domus 23 November 2013

LEISURE HOUSES

1'-1"

1'-1"

15
'-5
"
8'-4
"

5
10
15
20
ME

SITE PLAN

SHUTTERING DRAWINGS

TRE

5M

domus 23 November 2013

PROJECTS 83

10

11

12

1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12

3
4

Entrance
Living pod
Pool
Lily pond
Kitchen
Den
Central courtyard
Kids pod
Master pod
Garage
Changing rooms
Pump room

5
6

8
9

GROUND FLOOR PLAN

SECTION THROUGH POOL & DEN

5M

Project
Weekend House
Location
Alibaug
Architect
M/s. SJK Architects
Design team
Shimul Javeri Kadri, Vaishali Shankar,
Roshni Kshirsagar, Sonali Bhargava,
Priya Dedhia & Foram Parekh
Project Area
604 m2
Civil Contractors
M/s.Akash Constructions
Interior Contractors
M/s. Impex Engineers
Structural Consultants
M/s. S & S Associates
Initiation of Project
April 2006
Completion of project
April 2012

domus 23 November 2013

84 PROJECTS

Since earliest times mankind

has sought inspiration from
nature for our built structures.
However, until the dawn of
the modern era in architecture
and design, the true structural
character of a building was
invariably fully or partially
encased in an ornamented
cladding, of often stylised motifs
of nature. The modern emphasis
on honest structural expression
has resulted in more sincere
and innovative interpretations
of nature in spatial structures.
The direct inspiration of nature
and the increasing use of
advanced parametric digital
design tools that replicate
virtually instantaneously
evolutionary processes results
in structures that are not only
elegant tectonically and in terms
of economy of means, but also
aesthetically pleasing.
Mumbai-based architect Shimul
Javeri Kadri of SJK Architects
was blessed with a site located in
Alibaug at the base of a hill but
far away from the sea. The task
at hand was to build a weekend
house that is located away from
the chaos of Mumbai. In the
architects own words, It was a
beautiful property we wanted
to include the hills and trees and
the gentle winds the leaves
strewn over the earth were the
perfect cue. The form of the leaf,
gentle but sloping, was perfect
and our very rst sight of the
plot yielded a site plan made of
dried leaves.

The programmatic forces

and the nature of the site are
seen as elds of potential for
architectural investigation here
and the resulting interdisciplinary
nature of architecture that led
to tectonically expressing form.
Steven Holl once rightly said,
Architecture and site should
have an experiential connection,
a metaphysical link, a poetic
link. When a work of architecture
successfully fuses a building
and situation, a third condition
emerges. In this third entity,
denotation and connotation merge;
expression is linked to idea which
is joined to site. Few projects
create such frisson of excitement
and sense of genius loci as this
weekend house. Whether viewed
from the air or eetingly glimpsed
from behind coastal bushes, this
lush land with native coconut,
mango and neem trees has been
activated by the form of leaves.
The leaves overlap one another
and form pods that are distinct
to each part of the house and the
spaces and paths between the
pods encompass the surrounding
landscape. The architect
recogniSed that this unique site
needed to be understood in terms
of its surrounding landscape and
required a sculptural solution,
rather than a conventional
orthogonal design.
The sense of a continuous
landscape is also maintained
within the interior, with
organically orchestrated
movement of occupants around

Previous spread: the overall design is

primarily dominated by the over-sailing
roof shells that resemble fallen leaves,
which are held closely together.
This page: below, view of the interior
volumes;
bottom, the roof forms pods that are
distinct to each part of the house and
the spaces and paths between the pods
encompass the surrounding landscape

the site, carving views through

the site. This has been achieved by
overlapping and distributing the
programmatic elements through
the site.
Seen from the eastern hills, the
design of the roof is of signicance
to the contextual response from
within the site. The leaf roofs
open and rise to the north and the
east and lay lower and deeper on
the south and the west to protect
from the south-west monsoon and
harshness from direct sunlight.
The form is not just an artistic
expression but an appreciation
of site context and morphology.
The leaf tectonics are structurally,
climatically and ergonomically
designed. The leaf-shells are
constructed of dense concrete and
steel web structure, to generate
beamless roofs supported over
steel columns lled with concrete.
The challenge was to determine
the roofs structural geomentry
amd construction of the leaves
themselves. The emulated leaf
veins, through the process of
shuttering, have effectively
eliminated the aggressive density
of the concrete and created a
kinetic harmony within the house
complex and the site.
The architects during their
investigation process had modelled
the roof extensively to ensure that
sun and rain and overlapping
heights worked seamlessly. And
that the ergonomics allowed for
doors, windows and cupboards
that still adhered to orthogonal
principles to sit within the

domus 23 November 2013

framework of the unorthogonal

leaf. The elegance of the plan
lies in its simple organisational
approach of the section of each
pod. Whereby, the roof is made
of dense concrete, leaving the
space under entirely free to be
organised independently as
programmatically betting.
With the gentle breeze and the
sounds of the sites being carried
through the space the building
engages with its surroundings
beyond the physical realm. Danish
architect and urban planner,
Steen Eiler Rasmussen in his book
Experiencing Architecture raises
the question whether architecture
can be heard? He argues that
architecture does not radiate light
and yet it can be seen. We see
the light it reects and thereby
gain an impression of form and
material. As architecture does not
produce sound, it cannot be heard
but different forms and different
materials reverberate differently.
The resulting articulation of the
pods as seemingly independent
structures free of the exterior
shells and with their own internal
expression rejects the prevailing
dogma that the inner form should
be as one with the exterior form
physically; metaphysically, the
nature-inspired design allows
the occupants to be in the garden
and inside the house at the same
time. The building engages its
surroundings, and forms a part
of the landscape, with its roof
blending into the vegetation.
The overall design is primarily

PROJECTS 85

dominated by the over-sailing roof

shells that resemble fallen leaves,
which are held closely together.
The architects were successful
in responding to existing site
tectonics which is due to its
poetic metaphoric imagery and
tectonic integrity with its origins
in nature. The architects belief
in a nature-inspired organic
architecture gives it a harmonious
sculptural integrity.

Above: the nature-inspired design

allows the occupants to be in the
garden and inside the house at the
same time.
Below: the leaves strewn over the earth
were the perfect cue for the architects

SJK Architects POETIC LINK, TECTONIC INTEGRITY

Drawing inspiration from the form of dried leaves, the
Weekend House in Alibaug with its leaf-shaped roof
pods overlapping each other, appreciates its site context
and morphology while essaying an artistic expression
Text Jasem Pirani
Photos Rajesh Vora

82 PROJECTS

EP
LAN

domus 23 November 2013

LEISURE HOUSES

1'-1"

1'-1"

15
'-5
"
8'-4
"

5
10
15
20
ME

SITE PLAN

SHUTTERING DRAWINGS

TRE

5M

domus 23 November 2013

PROJECTS 83

10

11

12

1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12

3
4

Entrance
Living pod
Pool
Lily pond
Kitchen
Den
Central courtyard
Kids pod
Master pod
Garage
Changing rooms
Pump room

5
6

8
9

GROUND FLOOR PLAN

SECTION THROUGH POOL & DEN

5M

Project
Weekend House
Location
Alibaug
Architect
M/s. SJK Architects
Design team
Shimul Javeri Kadri, Vaishali Shankar,
Roshni Kshirsagar, Sonali Bhargava,
Priya Dedhia & Foram Parekh
Project Area
604 m2
Civil Contractors
M/s.Akash Constructions
Interior Contractors
M/s. Impex Engineers
Structural Consultants
M/s. S & S Associates
Initiation of Project
April 2006
Completion of project
April 2012

Milano, by DelTongo, in a combination of glossy lacquer and laminate units. Design by Prospero Rasulo.

Kitchens | Appliances | Wardrobes | Bedrooms | Living | Dining

Delhi
C 158 Okhla Phase 1
New Delhi 110020
+91 11 26814650 / 51 / 52

Mumbai
19, Raghuvanshi Mills, Lower Parel,
Mumbai - 400013
+91 22 67476746 / 8182

info@grandeurinteriors.com | www.grandeurinteriors.com

Bengaluru
546, Amarjoyoti Layout, Domlur,
Inner Ring Rd. Bengaluru - 560071
+91 80 41228555 / 9555

domus 23 November 2013

84 PROJECTS

Since earliest times mankind

has sought inspiration from
nature for our built structures.
However, until the dawn of
the modern era in architecture
and design, the true structural
character of a building was
invariably fully or partially
encased in an ornamented
cladding, of often stylised motifs
of nature. The modern emphasis
on honest structural expression
has resulted in more sincere
and innovative interpretations
of nature in spatial structures.
The direct inspiration of nature
and the increasing use of
advanced parametric digital
design tools that replicate
virtually instantaneously
evolutionary processes results
in structures that are not only
elegant tectonically and in terms
of economy of means, but also
aesthetically pleasing.
Mumbai-based architect Shimul
Javeri Kadri of SJK Architects
was blessed with a site located in
Alibaug at the base of a hill but
far away from the sea. The task
at hand was to build a weekend
house that is located away from
the chaos of Mumbai. In the
architects own words, It was a
beautiful property we wanted
to include the hills and trees and
the gentle winds the leaves
strewn over the earth were the
perfect cue. The form of the leaf,
gentle but sloping, was perfect
and our very rst sight of the
plot yielded a site plan made of
dried leaves.

The programmatic forces

and the nature of the site are
seen as elds of potential for
architectural investigation here
and the resulting interdisciplinary
nature of architecture that led
to tectonically expressing form.
Steven Holl once rightly said,
Architecture and site should
have an experiential connection,
a metaphysical link, a poetic
link. When a work of architecture
successfully fuses a building
and situation, a third condition
emerges. In this third entity,
denotation and connotation merge;
expression is linked to idea which
is joined to site. Few projects
create such frisson of excitement
and sense of genius loci as this
weekend house. Whether viewed
from the air or eetingly glimpsed
from behind coastal bushes, this
lush land with native coconut,
mango and neem trees has been
activated by the form of leaves.
The leaves overlap one another
and form pods that are distinct
to each part of the house and the
spaces and paths between the
pods encompass the surrounding
landscape. The architect
recogniSed that this unique site
needed to be understood in terms
of its surrounding landscape and
required a sculptural solution,
rather than a conventional
orthogonal design.
The sense of a continuous
landscape is also maintained
within the interior, with
organically orchestrated
movement of occupants around

Previous spread: the overall design is

primarily dominated by the over-sailing
roof shells that resemble fallen leaves,
which are held closely together.
This page: below, view of the interior
volumes;
bottom, the roof forms pods that are
distinct to each part of the house and
the spaces and paths between the pods
encompass the surrounding landscape

the site, carving views through

the site. This has been achieved by
overlapping and distributing the
programmatic elements through
the site.
Seen from the eastern hills, the
design of the roof is of signicance
to the contextual response from
within the site. The leaf roofs
open and rise to the north and the
east and lay lower and deeper on
the south and the west to protect
from the south-west monsoon and
harshness from direct sunlight.
The form is not just an artistic
expression but an appreciation
of site context and morphology.
The leaf tectonics are structurally,
climatically and ergonomically
designed. The leaf-shells are
constructed of dense concrete and
steel web structure, to generate
beamless roofs supported over
steel columns lled with concrete.
The challenge was to determine
the roofs structural geomentry
amd construction of the leaves
themselves. The emulated leaf
veins, through the process of
shuttering, have effectively
eliminated the aggressive density
of the concrete and created a
kinetic harmony within the house
complex and the site.
The architects during their
investigation process had modelled
the roof extensively to ensure that
sun and rain and overlapping
heights worked seamlessly. And
that the ergonomics allowed for
doors, windows and cupboards
that still adhered to orthogonal
principles to sit within the

domus 23 November 2013

framework of the unorthogonal

leaf. The elegance of the plan
lies in its simple organisational
approach of the section of each
pod. Whereby, the roof is made
of dense concrete, leaving the
space under entirely free to be
organised independently as
programmatically betting.
With the gentle breeze and the
sounds of the sites being carried
through the space the building
engages with its surroundings
beyond the physical realm. Danish
architect and urban planner,
Steen Eiler Rasmussen in his book
Experiencing Architecture raises
the question whether architecture
can be heard? He argues that
architecture does not radiate light
and yet it can be seen. We see
the light it reects and thereby
gain an impression of form and
material. As architecture does not
produce sound, it cannot be heard
but different forms and different
materials reverberate differently.
The resulting articulation of the
pods as seemingly independent
structures free of the exterior
shells and with their own internal
expression rejects the prevailing
dogma that the inner form should
be as one with the exterior form
physically; metaphysically, the
nature-inspired design allows
the occupants to be in the garden
and inside the house at the same
time. The building engages its
surroundings, and forms a part
of the landscape, with its roof
blending into the vegetation.
The overall design is primarily

PROJECTS 85

dominated by the over-sailing roof

shells that resemble fallen leaves,
which are held closely together.
The architects were successful
in responding to existing site
tectonics which is due to its
poetic metaphoric imagery and
tectonic integrity with its origins
in nature. The architects belief
in a nature-inspired organic
architecture gives it a harmonious
sculptural integrity.

Above: the nature-inspired design

allows the occupants to be in the
garden and inside the house at the
same time.
Below: the leaves strewn over the earth
were the perfect cue for the architects

domus 23 November 2013

LEISURE HOUSES

PROJECTS 87

Malik Architecture SITTING AS GLAZED BOXES

Set on a hillock in Alibaug, an existing house
acquires an interesting additional building with a
dagger-like roof and an emblematic, almost-fortied
exterior that effortlessly disappears half into the
ground on which it sits
Text Suprio Bhattacharjee
Photos Bharat Ramamrutham

A few months ago I had the

opportunity to engage with
this startling private residence
sitting atop a hillock in Alibaug,
across the harbour from the
city of Mumbai. That building
designed, detailed and executed
by Malik Architecture with an
extraordinary sense of tenacity
raised many signicant questions.
It sits on top of that hill, frozen
just before that cataclysmic
moment where it would slide
down the slope. It is of course a
remarkable achievement, and
eye-catching beyond doubt.
An interesting challenge lay
ahead when the architects
were commissioned to build a
second house on the same site.
Taking advantage of an existing
excavation a little further down
the access road to the rst house,
the architects proposed to ll this
void on the site by inserting a
house that disappears half into
the ground.

A long stone wall sits broadside

along this access road. A large
opening offers access between
two sunken courts. On the left
are the family entertainment
spaces two enclosures veering
off a raised oating deck one of
them encased in a concrete tube
that cantilevers over the pool
deck below. The other smaller
room nds itself surrounded
partially by a court screened
off the access road by the
aforementioned stone wall.
Moving ahead from the entrance,
one walks under a glass canopy
across what is the primary spatial
feature of the house a ssure
or court that separates the two
primary blocks and focuses ones
gaze past the careening volumes
and decks to the rolling landscape
beyond. Past this, a staircase
along an angled concrete wall
offers access to the lower level
and the pool deck, while beyond
lays the more public realm of

the house the living and dining

areas along with the kitchen. The
living and dining rooms sit as
glazed boxes within a landscape of
large verandahs and overhanging
roofs. The kitchen along with
the powder room closes off what
becomes the service zone of the
house. The living room borders a
large verandah overlooking the
driveway below, protected in some
way by a generously cantilevering
steel roof that is anchored back
into the concrete sub-structure.
From the driveway, this daggerlike roof element becomes
emblematic as one takes the turn
to drive up along the stone wall
that contains the excavation as
well as imparts an almost-fortied
exterior appearance.
The private portions of the house
lie below the entrance level
accessed by a staircase shielded by
a hulking angular concrete mass.
A third of the plan is given over to
the necessity of services for a large

This spread: the staircase

that leads to the semiopen court, with views of
the landscape beyond

domus 23 November 2013

88 PROJECTS

13

13

11
4

14

13

3
1

3
13

13

13

13

13

B
5

13
14

14

12

15
13
E

14

F
ENTRY LEVEL PLAN

8
8

10

10
5

12

10

10

14

12

8
6

12

10

10

14

14

15
12
E

F
0

LOWER LEVEL PLAN

10M

domus 23 November 2013

PROJECTS 89

2
ENTRY LEVEL
00

LOWER LEVEL
-120
POOL LEVEL
-163

12

1212

ROOF LEVEL
+130

77

2
6

12
12

12
12

13
13

11

88

12

12

SECTION BB

1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15

ROOF LEVEL
+130

Main entry
Living room
Dining room
Kitchen
Entertainment RM/ Den
Bedroom
Floating deck
Bathroom
Powder room
Services
Service entry
Court
Court below
Deck
Pool

ENTRY LEVEL
00

14
14

LOWER LEVEL
-120
POOL LEVEL
-163

15
15

12 12

12
12

SECTION EE

12

12

ROOF LEVEL
+130

09

ENTRY LEVEL
00

LOWER LEVEL
-120
POOL LEVEL
-163

1515

1414

10
10

10
10

10
10

11
11
12
12

SECTION FF

10M

Project Name
Alibaug House II
Architect
Malik Architecture
Design Team
Arjun Malik, Jiger Mehta
Suzanna Machado
Structural Consultants/Contractors
Strudcom Consultants Pvt. Ltd.
Civil Consultants/Contractors
Uctpl - Unique Concrete
Technologies Pvt. Ltd.
Other Consultants
Plumbing
S S Gangan Plumbing and Fire
Fighting Consultants
HVAC
Coolair Systems
Landscape
DESIGN CONSULTANTS
Rain Water Harvesting
MUNGEKAR ENTERPRISES
Pool
CONNOISSEUR SYSTEMS
Cladding
Vm Zinc / Vijaynath Interiors and
Exteriors Pvt. Ltd.
Interiors
Uctpl - Unique Concrete
Technologies Pvt. Ltd.
Carpentry
Touch Wood Dcor
Builtup Area
2007 m2
Construction Period
2010 2013

domus 23 November 2013

90 PROJECTS

house such as this while on

either side of the court, bedroom
spaces nd their way between the
jagged walls of concrete. These
spaces open up to enticing private
courtyards or light-courts. But
they only marginally open up to
the central court. This reinforces
an inert atmosphere within this
court not a positive aspect in
such a large house. Perhaps the
conict between degrees of privacy
has resulted in a space that is as
photogenic as it will be devoid of
life when not in use.
Up another stairway one nds
the green turf-laden roof of the
house interspersed with the voids
of the light-courts as well as the
glazed openings for the skylights.
From this level the green slope of
the hillside leading up to the rst
house in the distance is contiguous,
and reinforces the intention of
this house to meld into the land as
much as is possible.
More solid and earthbound, this
house nonetheless shares some
architectural antecedents with
the previous house, with its
fragmented formal disposition as
well as shard-like elements that
seem to thrust out aggressively to
spear the views beyond. Where in
the previous house, steel formed
the overwhelming structuralmaterial driver, here it becomes
exposed concrete. Angled planes,
twisted walls, thick oors form a
weighty but dynamic visual and
formal language. As in the rst
house, there are thrilling details,

This page: below, view of the pool

deck; bottom, the dagger-like roof
element and the almost-fortied
exterior appearance.
Opposite page: angled planes, twisted
walls, thick oors form a weighty but
dynamic visual and formal language

like the aptly named oating

deck to the left upon entering
that, well, does what its moniker
indicates through a difcult-tobelieve-how-it-was-achieved-onsite tectonic articulation.
From the outside, the house,
despite the grey concrete, and its
obvious earthbound nature, comes
across as light and airy an
experience that is reinforced by
the experience of the inside but
also machine-like to an extent
not unlike the rst house, that
gloriously celebrated this aspect.
It seems to be too perfect and
well-nished raw edges (if any
during construction) have been
smoothened and the execution
is of a remarkable quality as
can be seen in the sharpness of
the prow-like edges that must
have been a task to build. There
are obvious comparisons one can
draw with other practitioners
across the world, and the principal
architect himself has been a
part of one (the ofce of Londonbased Zaha Hadid). On second
thoughts, a raw-ness would have
strengthened the earthbound
character of this house and
especially because of the inferences
that can be drawn other than
that of the bunker that I wrote
about on the earlier house.
The strongest aspect of the
architecture here is its allusion to
geological forces the movement
of the earths tectonic plates, the
rifts and chasms that become
part of this movement, as well

as the startling formations

that result from these. These
sensations are evoked strongly
and forcefully only in the
interior spaces especially the
interstitial circulation zones, with
their brooding concrete masses
in deep shadow interspersed
with angular shafts of light and
tantalising diagonal vistas. This
could be the cave a metaphor
evoked passingly in the earlier
house. Here, the complementary
nest is intertwined with this
quasi-troglodytic experience.
But from the outside, this
geological metaphor dissipates
unfortunately. Only the central
court, with its teetering cliff-like
promontory hulking over the
staircase, seems to reinforce that
conceptual driver. One comes
back to the thought that this
house could have retained a raw,
unnished character in places if
not across also because of its
almost pavilion-like disposition on
the upper level.
As a set of two houses wherein
the rst one, an emphatic and
extroverted piece of architecture,
creates a man-made context
for the insertion of the second
house, a more experiential and
introverted work, one can nd an
interesting dialogue. And they are
by the same set of hands which
makes this enticing to behold.

domus 23 November 2013

LEISURE HOUSES

PROJECTS 93

DCOOP Architects DISCERNABLE PATTERNS

The Kashid House, a weekend home in Alibaug with
architecture that stays true to its elemental functions of
shelter and comfort is imbued with a sense of reverence
and honesty as a whole, but assumes a more playful
investigation when it comes to the parts
Text Ekta Idnany
Photos Rajesh Vora

At rst glance, the house in

Kashid by DCOOP Architects
lends itself to very expedient
visual consumption. The diagram
in its graphic and material
reading is almost elemental, with
rusticated random rubble walls,
Mangalore-tiled roof, detached
column and wooden framed doors
and windows. The expediency is
purposeful in its nal manifest
but yet it is delayed when one
starts to look closely at the sum
total of the parts that combine
to make the whole. A deeper
reading of the architecture and
the drawings reveals a perhaps
understated interest in collage.
While the architecture
intentionally does not challenge
the archetypal programmatic or
functional content of a weekend
house, it produces an extremely
effective, if simple diagram on the
arrangement of the programme.
Programmatically the house is
organised to a lopsided T pun

Opposite page: the living rooms

exhibit a series of panelled and
louvred windows.
This page: above, the sandstone
staircase; below, every
element in house is visible in
its fundamental and essential
nature and nothing superuous
can be added or subtracted

(and oxymoron) intended

with one of the arms, assuming
the living spaces and the other
arm the sleeping spaces of the
house. However, beyond this
basic organisation the architects
differentiate the programmatic
parts using volume and denitive
material expediency. The largely
unassuming rectangular single
volume of the living room and
the kitchen has a symmetrical
double-pitched roof, is clad with
innocuous random rubble and has
large expanses of glazed windows,
contributing to the conventional
image of the weekend house.
In stark and ironic contrast,
the volume containing the
sleeping spaces is taller, massier,
asymmetrical, with deliberate
volumetric extrusions where
punctured and painted red! Even
internally the architects seek
to set up the contrast by the
deliberate juxtaposition of the
relatively docile kotah stone used

domus 23 November 2013

94 PROJECTS

5
A

Elevation 1

6
1
B

B
6

GROUND FLOOR

Elevation 2

ELEVATION 1

ELEVATION 2

6M

domus 23 November 2013

PROJECTS 95

1
2
3
4
5
6

Entrance
Living
Dining
Kitchen
Bedroom
Toilets

SECTION AA

1
Details of wall section
2
1
3

2
3
4

4
5
6
7
8
9

ISMB 150 Metal I-section rafters

as per structural drawings
25 x 50 x 3.2 mm thick MS
box purlins
8 mm thick gusset plate as per
structural drawing (aligned to
centre of rafter and strut)
ISMC 75 metal struts as per
structural drawing
Bench nished in 12 mm thick
old BTC wood
Stone oor nish
25 mm thick mortar
6 inch stone cladding
Plinth beam

SECTION BB

Project
House at Kashid
Location
Alibaug, Maharashtra
Client
Jaidev Merchant
Architect
DCOOP Architects
Design team
Quaid Doongerwala,
Shilpa Ranade
Hemal Shah, Nidhi
Subramanyam
Project Area
200 m2
Civil Contractors
Vijay Shinde
M/s Punarnava
Constructions
Sudhir Goswami
Carpentry
Khan Feroz Ahmed
Project Estimate
R85 Lakh
Initiation of Project
2010
Completion of Project
2012

6
7

8
9
10

SECTION CC

WALL SECTION - WS1

6M

domus 23 November 2013

96 PROJECTS

in the living room against the

ery and graphic sandstone used
in the staircase and landings
leading to the bedrooms. It is
in this material reading that
one can at rst identify that
the architectural dialogue is
primarily interested in part to
whole relationships.
The next reading supporting
the argument can perhaps be
gleaned out of the assembly of the
structure, masonry, fenestrations
and roof parts contributing to
the whole. There is a conscious
attempt by the architects to
expedite the tectonic reading of
the architecture. Immediately
at the porch one is greeted by a
prominent freestanding column
that supports a naked steel beam
that further supports the metal
struts and the steel rafters of the
roof. The entire assembly could be
perceived as a historical tribute
to architecture in one well-stated
line. Every element is visible in
its fundamental and essential
nature and nothing superuous
can be added or subtracted.
The same tectonic and material
honesty continues throughout
the interiors of the house as well.
The materials used internally
wood, stone, cement boards,
plaster, paint all appear in
their most guileless form, thereby
avoiding any subterfuge in how
the building comes together. Even
spatially and volumetrically
one can sense through the
large, unhindered well-lit and

This page: below, parts of the house

exhibit a Mondrian-like graphic
composition; bottom, the living room
is a largely unassuming rectangular
single volume.
Opposite page: the rusticated random
rubble walls, Mangalore-tiled roof,
detached column and wooden framed
doors and windows that make up the
weekend house

ventilated volume of the living

space that the architecture
stays true to its function of
shelter and comfort.
While it is in the formation of
the whole that the architecture
continues to take itself seriously,
one can sense an immediate
departure from this seriousness
when one looks to investigate the
parts that put the whole together.
The architecture assumes a
light-hearted exploration when
it comes to the fenestrations.
Exceeding beyond the essential
functions of light and ventilation,
the architects choose to employ a
more graphic approach with the
doors and windows. The living
rooms exhibit a series of panelled
and louvred windows that are
composed within the essential
grid of the super structure
the divisions of the mullions
contributing to the rhythm of
the structural bays of the shell
and the roof. But it is in the
doors that one sees a break from
essence. The several bays of
double doors leading to the back
of the house are rendered in a
Mondrian-like composition.
While pragmatically the
composition of the rotated L
panels might be the result of
necessity to lock the doors but
essentially the juxtaposition
serves to reinforce the part to
whole relationships established
throughout the house.
In fact, looking closely, one
can identify the repeating L

motif throughout the house.

Most prominently it appears in
the concrete L beam that gets
embedded in the wall to form
the in-situ bench along the bays
of the louvred windows. But
graphically it can be perceived
in oor plans, the shape of the
porch, the panelled doors, the
juxtaposition of the extruded
volumes on the facade of the
house, the rubble cladding on the
external walls and the gable walls
within the house. Even if this
repetition is not premeditated,
it is denitely a result of the
natural geometry and language
that the architects are interested
in, and therefore subliminally
intended. However, at no point
does it tend beyond graphics to
ornament. It would perhaps not
be wrong to say that DCOOPs
approach to architecture as a
whole is imbued with a reverence
and honesty, but it assumes a
more playful investigation when
it comes to the parts. While the
whole lends itself to a simple and
expedient image, it is the graphic
heterogeneity of the parts that
causes one to pause, look longer
and nd discernable patterns
and pleasure.

Hans Kollhoff TWO MINISTRIES IN THE HAGUE

A solid and compact urban base relates to the
surrounding fabric and literally supports two
monolithic towers in clinker and white granite

Photos Susanne Wegner

domus 23 November 2013

100 PROJECTS

The project for the Dutch

ministries of Justice and of the
Interior originated from an
international competition held
in 2002. Our design, which won
rst prize, became the basis
for the ofcial urban plan that
required the destruction of a
housing development built in the
1970s. A smaller part of the site
was eventually given over to a
private development designed by
Christian Rapp, consisting of a
residential tower standing on a
commercial base.
The pair of towers rise up from
a block that opens towards the
pedestrian street called Turfmarkt
with a cour dhonneur cum garden.
The building rests on concrete
poles plunging over 20 metres
into the ground. The reinforced
concrete elevator shafts and
exterior walls of the base and
the towers provide stabilisation.
With their 36 oors standing 150
metres tall, the ministries towers
stand out in the urban context
with pilaster-facades of brick
(for the Ministry of the Interior)
and granite (for the Ministry of
Justice). The grey-green granite
cladding of the base, made up of
four-centimetre-thick sandblasted
slabs, is xed to the bearing wall
via conventional stainless steel
anchors with thermal insulation
in between. The elastic joints are
sandblasted. At the corners of
the ground oor, thicker slabs with
an L-shaped section have been
used supported by steel consoles.
This effectively emphasises
the expression of stability, which
is also the intention of the

bushhammered plinth. The

rather at facade of the rst two
oors overlooks the street with
wide openings and connects to
the ground with a curved prole,
while terminating in a ne string
course. The display windows of
the shop fronts are framed with
brass-coloured aluminium proles.
The facade of the second to the
fourth oors culminates in a high
main cornice, which accentuates
the buildings granite base and the
common functions of the ministries.
Here, the same box windows
that are positioned between the
pillars in the towers above are
used as separate openings. The
double windows allow for natural
hand-adjustable ventilation
throughout the building. The
exterior aluminium frame with
single glazing is anodised in a
bronze colour, while the interior
frame is double glazed with an
aluminium frame left in its natural
colour. Made with prefab concrete
elements and the use of formwork
for the conjunction of brick and
stone, the towers facades are
articulated with pilasters that,
clad in the same polished green
granite of the base, break past the
top edge of the wall and terminate
in a crown. The joints between
the elements disappear behind
the overlapping panels, becoming
invisible when viewed head-on.
Between the double windows,
slim granite pillars create a
fragile connection between base
and crown.
Cut into the block, the steeply
angled atrium has a main glazed
front that gives onto the garden
with revolving doors and brasscoloured aluminium proles.
The garden is enclosed by a

Pages 98-99: a view of the towers

from below, showing their
compositional and constructive
harmony.
This page: below, the bronze model;
bottom, view from downtown.
Opposite page: for the cladding,
common materials Wittmund clinkers
and Sardinian granite were chosen
to harmonise with the context

Photo Hans Kollhoff Architekten

FROM THE ARCHITECTS

PROJECT DESCRIPTION

granite bench that protrudes

from the buildings plinth. This
bench supports a fence made
of ornamentally treated square
posts and curved rectangular
steel proles coated with a bright
anthracite colour. The tips are
lacquered in gold.
The air-control system respects the
requirement to be able to open the
windows in each space, and every
ofce is tted with individually
adjustable radiators. Staff can
therefore control temperature
and air ow for themselves.
The average temperature in
the building is maintained by
concrete core activation, which
allows for a slow and almost
imperceptible climate regulation.
Air conditioning is distributed
in the suspended ceilings of the
corridor zones, in order to have a
ceiling height of over three metres
in the ofce zone along the facade.
The building is accessed from
Turfmarkt. Crossing the garden
and passing through the revolving
doors, one enters the four-storey
atrium, which is clad with a
cream-coloured, almost white,
smoothly honed travertine.
All the necessary climatecontrol and lighting systems
are integrated into the glazed
roong structure, constructed
on the geometry of the triangle.
The twenty-one lamps by Louis
Poulsen are the only hanging
elements in the hall.
At the end of the hall the visitor
arrives at the pavilion-like
reception desk, a steel construction
with brass-coloured aluminium
proles, equipped with state-ofthe-art communication equipment
which only discretely appears
behind the counter. The adjacent

domus 23 November 2013

102 PROJECTS

Canal
Trees
New Ministry Buildings
High-rises
Recent buildings
Historical buildings

SITE PLAN

FLOOR 11 PLAN

FLOOR 36 PLAN

PLAN OF LEVEL -2

GROUND FLOOR PLAN

0 5M

domus 23 November 2013

PROJECTS 103

To comply to the brief,

which specied very
extensive oor space
(130,000 m2), instead
of concentrating all the
functions into one block,
the architect preferred
to build a large base
common to the two
ministries, from which
the towers rise, each 36
storeys high. On top of
the base is a roof terrace
for employees

The Dutch Ministries of Security and

Justice, and of the Interior and Kingdom
Relations
Architects
Hans Kollhoff Architekten
Design team
Alexander Pols, Silke Rrig
Structural engineering
Zonneveld
Plant engineering
Deerns
Landscape design
Peter Wirtz
Artwork
Per Kirkeby
Site supervision
Brinkgroep
Client
Rijksgebouwendienst, LAia
Building contractor
BAM; Ballast Nedam
Stonework
Campolonghi
Clinker bricks
Klinkerwerke Wittmund
Prefabricated concrete units
Decomo; Loveld
Total oor area
130.000 m2
Design phase
2002-2007
Completion
2008-2012
Cost
330.000.000

0 5M CROSS-SECTION

domus 23 November 2013

104 PROJECTS

Above and left: general view of the

entrance from the public street. Below,
right: detail of the entry railing and of
the grey-green granite seat starting from
the base of the complex. The cladding
slabs of the base are 4-cm-thick granite,
xed to the bearing wall by conventional
stainless-steel anchors

SKETCHES OF THE RAILING DRAWN ON A COMPUTER RENDERING

domus 23 November 2013

PROJECTS 105

Above: detail of the facade of the

Ministry of the Interior. The frames are
in bronze-coloured anodised aluminium,
with double windows that can be
opened manually for natural ventilation.
The facades are built with prefabricated
concrete units, and the clinkers and
granite were assembled directly in
the form
CONSTRUCTION DETAIL OF FACADE AND BRICK FACING

domus 23 November 2013

106 PROJECTS

gallery for temporary exhibitions

is lit by wide windows overlooking
the garden. Passing the reception
one enters the security area, the
towers elevator lobbies and the
central lobby.
The lower oor hosts the
conference hall, which is situated
below the atrium and accessed via
a long, narrow lobby. The upper
oors also serve the ministries
shared activities, with ceiling
heights varying between 3.0 and
3.5 metres. Here one nds the
conference area, the restaurant
level and nally the ministers
oor. The main spaces of these
functions located in the base are
concentrated around the courtyard
with a view towards the garden.
In addition, there is a small staff
garden on the rooftop of the base.
From this level upwards the ofce
functions develop independently
in separate towers. The top oors
of the towers host the sky lobbies
large conference rooms with
adjacent lounge and bar areas.
From this point one is offered a
spectacular view towards the sea
to the west, towards Amsterdam
and Rotterdam, and eastward
towards the expanse of Dutch
lowlands.

Below: view of the base

block and main entrance.
The garden through which
the ministries are entered
is protected by a railing,
at the base of which a
long stone seat offers
hospitality to passers-by

Top: in one corner of the triangular foyer

is an elegant staircase leading up into
the base block.
Opposite page: the four-storey atrium,
featuring a pavilion-like reception desk,
is oored with cream travertine. Climate
controle and lighting are integrated in
the structure of the glazed roof. The
cabins of the central elevators have
windows overlooking the atrium

domus 23 November 2013

HANS
KOLLHOFF

108 PROJECTS

For an architecture of the city

In defence of
Europes urban
culture and the art
of building with
a sense of balance
and awareness.
Hans Kollhoff writes
of the disciplinary
rigour needed to
create architecture
that promotes
quality public space

If one turns off the highway halfway between Amsterdam

and Rotterdam and heads towards The Hague and the sea,
one approaches a high-rise city that is nonetheless still a
small town. As far back as the late 16th century,
The Hague was known as Europes biggest, most afuent
and beautiful village.
But The Hague is not only geographically situated between
the two Dutch metropolises: Amsterdam, a placid city with
its breathtaking urban texture of careful craftsmanship;
and Rotterdam, which wants to consign its war destruction
to memory by means of innovation and dynamics, not unlike
Berlin. In a certain sense, The Hague is an expression of both
as well as being the seat of the Dutch government. Like
nowhere else in the world, the city boasts a simultaneous
drive to maintain an urbane cosiness while fullling the
global functions of what is (broadly speaking) an important
industrial nations administrative and political capital.
In the middle of its historic centre, The Hague still looks like
the aristocratic capital of the country of quick architecture,
where destruction and construction ensue each other faster
than anywhere else in Europe. It is here that the ministries
of Justice and the Interior now reach higher towards the sky
than all the citys church towers, offering broad views of the
sea to the west, Amsterdam to the north, Rotterdam to the
south and the vast Dutch lowlands extending to the east,
with orthogonally arranged elds, meadows and greenhouses,
conned by canals and country roads lined by poplar trees.
Commendable conviction was required to locate the

ministries in the historic centre rather than in the periphery.

The decision involved an intrepid belief that the citys
historical urban structure should be compatible with such
complex bureaucratic entities, which all too often assume
the form of megastructures that spell urbanistic disaster.
At a time marked by a widespread tendency for market
forces and architects to run riot in their approach to the
cityscape with expressions like green building or future,
and now that the craft of building has given up any
aspiration to assert itself as architecture, it is legitimate
to worry about the continued existence of a great European
culture, which manifests itself not least in the constructions
and texture of the city.
For architects it is an unprecedented challenge.
The task, namely, is to do justice to the Royal House and
the government of this proud country, while simultaneously
satisfying the continually changing needs of an
administration that, particularly today, is facing an ordeal
whose demands The Netherlands is confronting like no other
European country.
Our project is not the rst attempt in The Hague to reconcile
the old city with contemporary large-scale projects. Arriving
from the station, one passes through the windy hall of a
megastructure that houses the Ministry of Housing, Spatial
Planning and the Environment (VROM). Further towards
the inner city one passes the dazzling white City Hall by
Richard Meier. Opposite stand the old ministries, which,
after less than half a century, seem to be worn out in their
exposed concrete tristesse. Finally theres Rem Koolhaass
Dance Theatre, which has been slated for demolition to
make way for a new construction. All of them, it appears, are
ephemeral structures, whose facades are facing a process of
dismantlement. Its no surprise that a social-housing block
erected barely 30 years ago, the so-called Black Madonna,
had to be destructed (a current euphemism for demolition)
for the construction of the new ministries. The concrete
prefab elements with black ceramic tiles and their clumsy
joints were almost asking to be demolished. Yet across the
street, the desire for permanence emerges in the form of
a remarkable urban design by Rob Krier, with all its postmodern image-xation: brick buildings that strive for a
continuation of the historical urban texture, even though the
pathos of traditional architecture is all too early discovering
its limits in the shortcomings of subsidised public housing.
In response to the design brief, which called for a single
structure shared by the two ministries, we proposed an urban
block with a pair of close-set towers. Of course, one could have
chosen a right-angled geometry for the towers layout, but
the historic city plan of The Hague suggested otherwise, due
to its lack of an orthogonal grid and its complex, hierarchical
and organic articulation. This urban conguration ultimately
traces back to the old hunting lodge of the counts of Holland,
who used to reside in Haarlem. Hence the name The Hague,
or the counts enclosure. Subsequently the royal residence
and the parliament building were developed adjacent to the
Vijver, the pond excavated around 1400 in front of the castle.
It is from here from the Noordeinde Palace, the Vijver or
the great orthogonal square called the Plein that one must
view the new administrative centre if the citys silhouette is
at the heart of the discussion. From these points the towers
had to appear slim and elegant despite their large oor areas
dictated by economical factors.
A visual wedge cuts the tower block in two, creating two

domus 23 November 2013

stelae with sharp angles in plan. In spite of their height

the expression of a decidedly different scale the towers
are nonetheless part of The Hagues old city centre. Indeed,
not wanting to feel out of place, they rise up from the urban
mass with a common materiality of brick and stone: a
variegated red Wittmunder Torfbrandklinker (clinker bricks
baked on peat), an almost white granite from Sardinia, and
a grey-green granite (Verde Savannah) that wraps around
the base monolithically. Consequently, the towers do not
simply stand on a plinth but project out of its mass, or even
directly from the earth into the sky. For this reason the
incision into the volume slices all the way down to street
level to create a cour dhonneur: a small garden that lends
the large building an inviting and familiar air.
Peter Wirtz designed the garden with slightly raised beds
shaped like the lenticular sand bedding underground.
Luxuriant vegetation with different owering combinations
which change throughout the seasons as we see in Japan
protrudes into the street to welcome not only those who work
here but also people approaching the city from the station.
This sight is even more magical because the courtyard is
rather tight and the towers are so high that sunrays rarely
lter through.
From Turfmarkt (the pedestrian street on the north side)
one enters the garden through the gate of a fence that is
suspended from one corner of the building to the other like a
garland. A normal garden fence, it appears to be a decorative
element and thus camouages its security function to
become an important part of the complex, thanks also to the
stone bench on which it stands. This bench, an extrusion of
the plinth, serves passers-by and city residents more than
the ministries, inviting people to sit and rest in the same
way as the benches of certain historical Italian palaces do,
such as Palazzo Rucellai in Florence.
With its glass front stretching between the towers, the
atrium stands like a pavilion in the garden. Thus, in their
approach to the ministries, visitors and staff are offered
a pleasant moment of serenity as they walk through the
greenery. Inside, employees are received in well-lit and
generously proportioned ofces, with windows that can
be opened individually even at a height of 150 metres
above street level. This opening system relies on a highly
sophisticated technique that makes the work spaces as
comfortable as possible, and the technical apparatus
practically invisible.
Our monolithic granite plinth harks back to the Dutch urban
architecture that was cultivated by the classicism of Jacob
van Campen and Philips Vingboons. On the other hand, the
facade pilasters that protrude from the base and leave the
horizontality of the oor slabs behind, refer to the American
skyscraper tradition. They freely push upward through the
main cornice as if the vertical thrust from a certain height
upward can no longer be suppressed.
The cut-outs on the upper oors required a deviation of the
vertical forces. Initially, the design envisaged carrying these
loads along diagonal buttresses, which would have conveyed
a gothic impression and triggered the sensation of dynamic
verticality. However, as this solution would have sacriced
overall elegance for constructional reasons, the decision was
made to deviate the forces through the inner walls, reducing
the towers expressiveness in favour of the classical strength
of vertical pilasters that terminate in a ligree crown.
Despite their size and importance, the ministries seek to be

PROJECTS 109

nothing other than urban buildings. This is demonstrated

not only by their silhouette on the citys skyline, but also
through the attention to public space within their physical
presence. The surface of the completed artefacts creates a
familiarity analogous to our own bodily experience.
A dissected organism or even a yawning joint can create
a sense of discomfort that goes against our need to feel safe
in everyday life. In order to render the built volume as a
monolithic entity, it is essential to eliminate or camouage
the joints. Where this is not possible they must be
articulated tectonically a twofold operation that involves
dividing and connecting the parts by means of suitable
proles. As well as articulating the plinth, block, tower
and crown, these mouldings create a relief on the facade
surface that evokes a perceptible notion of proportion to
our eyes, and hence also to our haptic sense. And since the
eye instinctively scans what it sees before it, and isnt at
ease until its sure nothing risks breaking or falling down,
the architect should set out to consolidate the monolithic
impression wherever possible. After all, in contrast to
modernist sincerity, which generally turns out to be a
banality, architecture has never relinquished the desire to
exhibit a beautiful presence. This beautiful presence shines
through at particularly delicate points, where, in gothic
churches for example, wall, pillar and vault meet and require
an intricate, sculpturally stimulating piece of stone masonry
to mediate between the parts, not merely serving the whole
but also celebrating it. In our context, a similar stone is to
be found at the connection of the bench to the skyscrapers
plinth and the rising wall: a tectonic climax at two specic
points. However, this apparently simple element is in reality
a great challenge for the artisan, since the machine and the
contemporary economy are pushed to their limits here.
This building rests upon hundreds if not thousands of pillars
that, despite plunging to a depth of over 20 metres, still do
not nd rm ground. In the end, they nd sufcient support
with the friction generated by penetrating numerous layers
of sand. Here, above all, our respect goes out to the Dutch
engineers, who always meticulously plan and simulate the
building process in advance, uniquely letting precious time
slip by without any activity on site. By the time the Dutch
put the rst worker into action, in every other part of the
world the construction site already tends to resemble a
garbage dump. Everything here is neatly in its place.
It almost seems miraculous how the iron fortication is so
precisely xed to allow sufcient space for the mortar and
its compression. On this construction site which lacked
storage space the trucks approached with perfect timing
to unload the facade elements just before they were raised
up the tower fronts one after the other, where they were
distributed horizontally and nally xed to the wall.
Anyone seeing this spectacle would not only have been
impressed by the contemporary industrialised building
process, but would also have started to realise that the
shabby state of construction today and the mediocre
architectural mainstream are not unavoidable.
Finally Id like to mention the bronze sculpture by Per
Kirkeby, which originated from an ambitious competition.
Kirkebys untitled work catches the attention of passers-by
as well as staff on their way in and out of the ministries.
For me the piece embodies the continuous morphological
swinging of collapsing and rising, making it a symbol of the
earthbound endeavours of humans and architects.

domus 23 November 2013

110 RASSEGNA

RASSEGNA

Photo Kalyani Majumdar

BATHROOM

domus 23 November 2013

RASSEGNA 111

The bathroom is the domestic interior that sums up some of

the paradoxes of contemporary living. Until a few years ago, it was
customary to endow homes with a parlour and a second, more
modest room for daily usage, or rather a smaller dining room.
Nowadays the living room is condensed into a single space, often
given over to other uses, while the multiplication of bathrooms has
ushered in a hierarchy derived from the roles hitherto performed
by other rooms. The guest bathroom has rightfully now joined
those interior spaces appointed to represent family status, having
become the showcase and no longer the mirror of its inhabitants.
By sacricing function to prestige, bathrooms have become the
part of the home where the biggest economic effort is made.
The origin of the daily rites performed in domestic interiors, as
Bernard Rudofsky reminds us, should guide our common sense
and direct our thoughts and investments.
Domus Study Centre

Above: the front cover

of Domus no. 288,
November 1953 (with
an abstract composition
by the American artist
William Klein), the issue
in which the article
by Bernard Rudofsky
featured here was
rst published
Opposite page: bathroom
in an old castle with
maps pasted on its walls

The bathroom is one of our lost opportunities. History tells

us clearly what we are losing, but we pay little heed
to its lessons. Our love of tradition is limited to its most
recent: to its prejudices.
The bathroom, or rather the modern version of it that we
have adopted, is an example. The bathroom in its present
form is a purely mechanical arrangement: the movements
to which we attach the name bathroom today were once
simply the ablutions that preceded the bath itself. And the
place in which they are performed scarcely deserves the
title of bathroom.
Despite current ideas about cleanliness, the benecial
effect of the bath as a tonic to the nerves is reduced to
the rare occasions of medical therapy and to sea bathing.
[...] Nor would it be so serious to indulge in these shabby
washing systems of ours if with them we had not lost, due
to a combination of unfortunate circumstances, that liberal
attitude which the ancients knew how to apply to their
bodies, and which we have forgotten. [...]
We all take our baths in reclusion, generally in a cell,
seldom or never penetrated by the sun. In our unbalanced
love of euphemisms, we call this cell a room: the bathroom.
Usually it contains a bath, an implement introduced in
the days of the stereotyped machine and of the electronic
corset, and certainly not invented by us. [...] And if at school
we are threateningly taught to despise bathrooms and
their pomp, as a cause of the decadence of Rome, we can say
that the real cause was actually a very subtle one: when
the invaders from the North intercepted the aqueducts
one after the other and water was reduced to a drip, the
pleasure of taking baths disappeared. [...]
Ancient descriptions of these baths leave no doubt about
the fact that the social function of the bath had remained
essentially intact since antiquity. No document exists to
suggest that people went to the baths secretly and furtively.
They did things comfortably, and with their baths they
wanted food and music. [...]
The rst step to free the bathroom from its vulgarity is
to separate these ill-assorted elements, the bath and the
water closet. I would like the bathroom to become the most
important room in the house. Instead of being an addition
to the bedroom, the new bathroom should be a continuation
of the living room or, if you prefer, of the dining room.
In both cases it should give onto a small interior garden
for sunbathing. In a sense, this new room could recall the
greenhouse of times past, characterised by plenty of air
and light and above all by the absence of furniture. And
the bath, be it mass-produced or not, should be supremely
comfortable, and above all, one should only enter it when
perfectly clean. Do not be astonished. We are still in time
to change our mentality about baths, just as we have
changed it about clothes, in the last generation.

Bernard Rudofsky, Decadence of the bath,

in Domus, no. 288, November 1953

domus 23 November 2013

112 RASSEGNA

BIRLA WHITE
Birla White has introduced a range of
unique value-added products to get
beautiful, smooth ake-free walls with
Birla White Wallcare putty. It is a base
coat that is applied before painting.
For perfect and even walls, Birla White
Levelplast is used to cover-up wall
undulations and unevenness. Birla
White Textura is a cement-based wall

texture nish that adds a distinctive

character to the walls. Another
revolutionary product is the Glassbre Reinforced Concrete (GRC)
and being lightweight and mouldable,
can be crafted for all kinds of
architectural elevations.
BIRLA WHITE
www.birlawhite.com

KOHLER
C3 bidet seats
Kohlers C3 bidet seats are designed
with state-of-the-art technology and
imbedded with personal convenience.
The C3 toilet seats with bidet
functionality offer a gentle wash,
preset to individual preferences. A
touch of the keypad controls the rate
and temperature of the water ow
and also offers benets far beyond
traditional plumbing. The self-cleaning
functionality wands ensure a complete
hygienic performance. Heated seats,
a selection of water temperature and
ow settings, deodoriser function, user
presets and warm air drying at three
speeds are just some of the attractive
features that it offers. It is a true
amalgamation of an utmost hygienic,
comfortable and environment-friendly
experience.

ROCA
Design, innovation, sustainability,
wellbeing and leadership the
companys brand values dene Rocas
range of new solutions that provide
the answer to any requirement in
the bathroom space. Rocas 2013
Novelties bolster its image as a global
trendsetter. As an extension of its
ability to offer integrated bathroom
solutions, Roca will feature the
Dama-N collection. The collection
places a whole world of possibilities
within the customers reach. With its
neutral lines and rounded curves, the
collection features a combination
of vitreous china products (basins,
WCs, bidets, etc.), furniture and other
accessories, making it an essential for
any aesthetic bathroom.
ROCA
www.in.roca.com

KOHLER
www.kohler.co.in

STONARTS.D
Having one the most advanced
technology of production in the world,
Stonarts.D is one of the largest tile
stores in India and has a unique new
range of Leather tiles. These tiles
are water-resistant and are treated
with a micro diamond sparkle polish;
these tiles shine and sparkle as
they deect light in various angles.
Also this innovative treatment is not
only aesthetically appealing but also

functional making the leather tile

versatile, so that it can be used in
wet conditions and making it waterrepellent. The Midas-Gold Snow from
the new range of tiles is made from
unique limited-edition leather and is
available in various patterns, designs,
makes, textures and compositions
available to suit every need.
STONARTS.D
www.stonartsd.com

HANSGROHE
Axor Starck Organic
Axor Starck Organic, with its organicminimalist design and harmonious
lines reminiscent of shapes we see in
nature, provides an exciting, powerful
and sculptural immediacy to your
bathroom with low consumption.
Designed by Philippe Starck, the two
ARCHITECTURA
Villeroy & Boch
A complete collection of bathroom
ttings, Architectura has been
designed to suit all kinds of bathrooms
and offer the designer a variety
of options. The sinks are available
in three shapes (round, oval or
rectangular), with three different
installation options (surface-mounted,
built-in or under-top), while the
sanitary ttings and urinals (square or
round) are easy to install and maintain.
A series of units and accessories
complete the range.
VILLEROY & BOCH
www.villeroy-boch.com

handles blend in visually with the body

of the mixers. The levers of the mixers
appear to merge seamlessly with the
mixer bodies and also display the
current temperature and ow. Axor
Starck Organic blends with the most
diverse range of bathroom styles.
HANSGROHE
www.hansgrohe.in

domus 23 November 2013

JAQUAR
Jaquar is one of the market leaders
in the bath ttings category and has a
presence across 30 countries and has
been transforming the industry from
merely utilitarian to an inspirational,
lifestyle-centric one. Jaquar has also
successfully diversied into various
bath verticals like sanitary ware,
shower enclosures, water heaters,
concealed cisterns, and wellness
products like whirlpools, shower
panels, showers, steam cabins

DELTA
Vero
Delta Faucet has introduced its new
Vero bath collection. The collection
features water-efcient showerheads
and faucets in an elegant ribbon
design. The clean lines in a ribbon
and modern styling of the look,
lend contemporary elegance to a
bathroom. Delta Faucet Company
is best known for its innovations.
Showerheads in the Vero collection
feature H2Okinetic technology that
offers a shower experience like no
other. Each showerhead contains an
internal system that sculpts the water
into a unique wave pattern, creating
a consumer-proven feeling of more
water, without using more water. The
Vero bath collection is a full suite of
products to provide a coordinated look

RASSEGNA 113

and spas. Bathrooms can be one

of best destressing zones of any
home. Presently there are 21 Jaquar
Orientation Centre across the country
providing bathroom solutions. The
centres are a perfect place to not
only discover Indias widest and latest
range of bathroom products, but also
see a live demo, get expert advice,
and seek installation assistance and
estimate assistance.
JAQUAR
www.jaquar.com

throughout the bath and is available

in chrome.
DELTA
www.deltafaucet.in

NEWFORM
Linfa lime acts as a meeting point
between the functional requirements
of bathroom environments and a
new concept of space increasingly
modern and focused on functional
performance. It is an eco-friendly
collection that combines the idea of
saving and neatness together with
a smart design. Energy saving is
assured by the innovative positioning
of the cartridge which, when the lever
is opened, enables cold water instead
of mixed water to ow out. Moreover,
Linfa is equipped with an aerator that
reduces the rate of ow to ve litres
per minute, thus saving water and
comes in green, white, black, brown
and yellow.
NEWFORM
www.newformindia.com

DORNBRACHT
Sensory Sky
Dornbracht has introduced a new
showering product called Sensory
Sky and is a unique experience that
touches all the senses. Created by
Sieger Design, the Sensory Sky has
a wide and at showerhead with
separate sprinklers for head and body
and is inspired by natural phenomena.
It has different types of rain, fog, light
and fragrances that complement
one another to create complex

GENESIS
Creative Lab +
The Genesis ceramic sanitary ttings
now includes a new series of countertop sinks and basins. Based on the
same rounded form that characterises
the entire range, they come in

ACQUACHIARA
Mamoli Rubinetteria
Acquachiara is a single-lever
mixer that has been conceived
as an eco-friendly, exible and
reasonably priced product that
can be used in bathrooms of all
different sizes and styles. With a
simple and streamlined design,
the elements in the series have
a temperature, pressure and
energy restrictor. A cartridge
featuring hydraulic seals with
high-precision ceramic discs
ensures uidity of movement in
the controls over the course of
time.
MAMOLI RUBINETTERIA
www.mamoli.com

choreographies and there are three

settings for the users to choose from:
one that sensitises and sharpens
the senses with warm fog and light
rain, another that evokes feelings of
cleansing and liberating as a summer
cloudburst and a third that protects,
envelops and stabilises with water
droplets glistening in the colours of
the rainbow.
DORNBRACHT
www.dornbracht.com

assorted sizes and types: four hand

basins ( (35 x 35, 50 x 22, 50 x 30
cm and in the corner version 35 x 35
cm) and three counter-top models (
48, 55 x 37 and 60 x 40 cm).
GLOBO
www.ceramicaglobo.com

114

RNI NUMBER MAHENG/2012/45937

Regd No. MH/ MR/ WEST/ 305/ 2013-2015

116

3RVWHGDW0XPEDL3DWULND&KDQQHO6RUWLQJ2IFH0XPEDL
on 26th & 27th of Previous Month Published on 1st day of Every Month