Cosmic Architecture

In ancient India science, medicine, astrology, astronomy, mysticism, philosophy and spirituality lived in amiable juxtaposition, their boundaries overlapping and one enriching the other. Herein lays the truth and freshness that allows us more than 3000 years later to draw on its perspectives. Indian religion, Hinduism, culture and civilization are basically spiritual in nature. The principles of Vastu were formulated keeping in view, the cosmic influence of the Sun, its light and heat, the direction of the wind, the earth’s magnetic field and the influence of cosmos on our planet earth. Our ancient scriptures reveal that an exact and intimate knowledge of the manipulations of these energy fields to the desired intensity was known to our rishis. Hence in Vastu-shastra, selection of a site is an important factor since the plot represents a fixed form and it would radiate positive as well as negative energies depending upon its shape, proportion, direction and location of its openings etc. Astronomy is the foundation of astrology and they together with the calendar play an important role in different aspects of vastu shilpa, particularly in deciding the right time and day to commence the construction work.

The physical world, according to the principles of vastu comprises of five basic and essential elements known as Panchabhutas and they are:

1. Aakasha - Space, 2. Vaayu - Air, 3. Agni - Fire, 4. Jala -Water, 5. Bhumi - Earth.

The human body is also made up of these five elements, and again it is the very same elements that we see in building construction. The interplay of these forces sustains life and maintains a near equilibrium on this planet. Any imbalance in the interplay of these forces can result in chaos. An invisible equation operates, between the elements outside, the elements within the individual and his living place. While the first two are near constants, the third is a variable. Man can design buildings better, if he understands the effectiveness of these five natural forces. Generations after generations in India believe that the location, direction and composition of the buildings have a bearing on the health and happiness of the inmates. The Vastu influence of buildings on human beings is like the cosmic influence of the sun on our ecosystems. The Japanese art and Tibetan mandalas also reveal this knowledge.

"There is one timeless way of building. It is thousands of years old, and the same today as it always has been."

Christopher Alexander

Nature plays a vital role in all life forms, men, plants and animals. Natural forces like wind, light, directions, gravitational forces, magnetic forces have effect on human body and material. It can be felt by all of us while climbing up a mountain, driving down the slope or cycling against the wind. Thousands of years ago, our old masters had understood the secret power of these forces, which moves in our surrounding.

Most of our buildings have been constructed under economical, structural and technological considerations. But human factor is of paramount importance in creating an individually suited, healthy and ecologically sound building environment.

We are enveloped by a series of environmental. We all care about our homes and spend time, effort and money, trying to make them more comfortable. For most of us it represents one of the biggest investments we ever make. Our home can damage our health, the air we breathe and the water we drink, without our even being aware of it.

Similarly, the places where we work environmental hazards in our day-to-day life, which leads us to irresistible, endless physical and mental disorders.

Japanese Architecture :

The Columbia Encyclopedia, Sixth Edition. Copyright 2008 Columbia University Press.

Japanese architecture structures created on the islands that constitute Japan. Evidence of prehistoric architecture in Japan has survived in the form of models of terra-cotta houses buried in tombs and by remains of pit houses of the Jomon, the neolithic people of Japan.

Religious Architecture :

The more highly developed religious architecture of China came to Japan with the introduction of Buddhism in the 6th cent. Late in the 7th century. the great monastery of Horyu-ji, near Nara, was near completion. The gateway, temple, and pagoda remained practically untouched until the 20th cent., when they were faithfully restored. These buildings illustrate the first epoch of Japanese architecture (6th-8th cent.), which was characterized by gravity, frankness of construction, and simple, vital compositions, sparsely ornamented.

Current Developments :

Landscape ecologists find traditional feng shui an interesting study. In many cases, the only remaining patches of old forest in Asia are "feng shui woods," often associated with cultural heritage, historical continuity, and the preservation of species. Some researchers interpret the presence of these woods as indicators that the "healthy homes," sustainability and environmental components of ancient feng shui should not be easily dismissed.

Environmental scientists and landscape architects have researched traditional feng shui and its methodologies.

Architectural schools study the principles as they applied to ancient vernacular architecture.

Geographers have analyzed the techniques and methods to help locate historical sites in Victoria, Canada, and archaeological sites in the American Southwest, concluding that ancient Native Americans considered astronomy and landscape features.

Whether it is data on comparisons to scientific models, or the design and sitting of buildings, graduate and undergraduate students have been accumulating solid evidence on what researchers call the "exclusive Chinese cultural achievement and experience in architecture" that is feng shui.

Feng Shui (today):

Today, feng shui is practiced not only by the Chinese, but also by Westerners. However, with the passage of time and feng shui's popularization in the West, much of the knowledge behind it has been lost in translation, not paid proper attention to, frowned upon, or scorned.

Robert T. Carroll sums up what feng shui has become in some cases:

"… feng shui has become an aspect of interior decorating in the Western world and alleged masters of feng shui now hire themselves out for hefty sums to tell people such as Donald Trump which way his doors and other things should hang. Feng shui has also become another New Age "energy" scam with arrays of metaphysical products … offered for sale to help you improve your health, maximize your potential, and guarantee fulfillment of some fortune cookie philosophy."

Others have noted how, when feng shui is not applied properly, or rather, without common sense, it can even harm the environment, such as was the case of people planting "lucky bamboo" in ecosystems that could not handle them. Still others are simply skeptical.

Nevertheless, even modern feng shui is not always looked at as a superstitious scam. Many people believe it is important and very helpful in living a prosperous and healthy life either avoiding or blocking negative energies that might otherwise have bad effects. Many of the higher-level forms of feng shui are not so easily practiced without either connections, or a certain amount of wealth because the hiring of an expert, the great altering of architecture or design, and the moving from place to place that is sometimes necessary requires a lot of money. Because of this, some people of the lower classes lose faith in feng shui, saying that it is only a game for the wealthy. Others, however, practice less expensive forms of Feng Shui, including hanging special (but cheap) mirrors, forks, or woks in doorways to deflect negative energy.

Even today feng shui is so important to some people that they use it for healing purposes, separate from western medical practice, in addition to using it to guide their businesses and create a peaceful atmosphere in their homes. In 2005, even Disney acknowledged feng shui as an important part of Chinese culture by shifting the main gate to Hong Kong Disneyland by twelve degrees in their building plans, among many other actions suggested by the master planner of architecture and design at Walt Disney Image engineering, Wing Chao, in an effort to incorporate local culture into the theme park.

Historical criticism :

Victorian-era commentators on feng shui were generally ethnocentric, and as such skeptical and derogatory of what they knew of feng shui.

In 1896 at a meeting of the Educational Association of China, Rev. P.W. Pitcher railed at the "rottenness of the whole scheme of Chinese architecture," and urged fellow missionaries "to erect unabashedly Western edifices of several stories and with towering spires in order to destroy nonsense about feng-shui.

Sycee-shaped incense used in feng shui - Some modern Christians have a similar opinion of feng shui:

It is entirely inconsistent with Christianity to believe that harmony and balance result from the manipulation and channeling of nonphysical forces or energies, or that such can be done by means of the proper placement of physical objects. Such techniques, in fact, belong to the world of sorcery.

Since the founding of the People's Republic of China (PRC) in 1949, feng shui has been officially deemed as a "feudalistic superstitious practice" and a "social evil" according to the state's ideology and discouraged or even banned outright at times.

Persecution was the most severe during the Cultural Revolution, when feng shui was classified as a custom under the so-called Four Olds to be wiped out. Feng shui practitioners were beaten and abused by Red Guards and their works burned. After the death of Mao Zedong and the end of the Cultural Revolution, the official attitude became more tolerant but restrictions on feng shui practice are still in place in today's China. It is illegal in the PRC today to register feng shui consultation as a business and similarly advertising feng shui practice is banned, and there have been frequent crackdowns on feng shui practitioners on the grounds of "promoting feudalistic superstitions" such as one in Qingdao in early 2006 when the city's business and industrial administration office shut down an art gallery converted into a feng shui practice. Communist officials who had consulted feng shui were sacked and expelled from the Communist Party.

Partly because of the Cultural Revolution, in today's PRC less than one-third of the population believe in feng shui, and the proportion of believers among young urban PRC Chinese is said to be much less than 5%. Among all the ethnic Chinese communities the PRC has the least number of feng shui believers in proportion to the general population. Learning feng shui is considered taboo in today's China. Nevertheless, it is reported that feng shui has gained adherents among Communist Party officials according to a BBC Chinese news commentary in 2006, and since the beginning of Chinese economic reforms the number of feng shui practitioners are increasing. A number of Chinese academics permitted to research on the subject of feng shui are anthropologists or architects by trade, studying the history of feng shui or historical feng shui theories behind the design of heritage buildings, such as Cao Dafeng, the Vice-President of Fudan University, and Liu Shenghuan of Tongji University.

Feng shui practitioners have been skeptical of claims and methods in the "cultural supermarket." Mark Johnson made a telling point:

This present state of affairs is ludicrous and confusing. Do we really believe that mirrors and flutes are going to change people's tendencies in any lasting and meaningful way? ... There is a lot of investigation that needs to be done or we will all go down the tubes because of our inability to match our exaggerated claims with lasting changes.

Forming a cosmic web, galaxies in relatively nearby parts of the universe arrange themselves as spidery filaments or as giant walls separated by huge voids. That's what telescope surveys began to reveal in the 1980s, when astronomers charted the cosmos a few hundred million light-years from Earth.

A team of astronomers reported last May that they had seen hints of the same large galactic structures in a patch of sky 20 to 30 times more distant. Although researchers cautioned that the pattern of galaxies in this single region of the sky might not be representative of the cosmos as a whole, the observations suggested that the smooth, primordial universe developed lumps-networks of galaxies- earlier than some theorists have asserted.

From the pages of our history..

Dosti Acres, Wadala.

With a vision of architectural grandeur, the Dosti group developed the Dosti Acres in the central part of Mumbai in Wadala. Initially keeping their needs restricted to the low-rise development, the design of seven storeyed structures were finalized and constructed; but later Mr. Contractor convinced them on proceeding with 14 storeyed structures in the central part of the site. Thus to bring in more luxury to the category of necessity, the buildings took their shape over a one storeyed podium.The usage of low-pitched roofs, arched entryways and the landscaping is an evocation of the Mediterranean style of architecture. The retro style adapted by Mr. Contractor, blends easily with the surrounding greenery.

Allowing easy accessibility to the common activity areas like the clubhouse has also been an important planning aspect, which makes it convenient for the non-residents of the complex visit for activities like – gymnasium, sauna, skating rink, jogging, etc.

Thus, the complex not only promises a soothing view of the surroundings but also is an attempt to provide a healthy ambience for its residents and visitors; with an enduring edifice in the fast growing suburbs.

Art - Architecture

Architecture can be dead yet alive for what it interprets the thoughts, the abstract ideas, in their own way. "Art" and "Architecture" can never be simple, they need to be made.

As one said during the end phase of modernism " Death of an Author and birth of a reader"

But we never witnessed a style, for once we followed what Corbusier said - " Style never exists, it all lies".But in real sense, we never followed a trend, for that brilliance, in Corbusier's - Chandigarh, Kahn's - IIM, Correa's - contemporaries, which influenced "less" could have been "more".

These edifices have always been institutions or public spaces or cultural but never tried to fill the void that was housing.

For a true Architect - Rebirth of Author.. is what has to be witnessed, where architecture includes participation and dialogues. Dialogues between visitor and creator, author and reader. For author comes out from the box, the box of confinement to preach or to follow or practice architecture in a free style set apart from my constraints or rules.

If we cant create good architecture, we rather not. Good form( Gutesh in German)is modernism.

For all wants to witness is architecture...............

Kandariya Mahadev Temple

This is the largest and most typical Khajuraho temple. There are abput 900 statues. Dedicated to Lord Shiva, it soars 31 m high. The sanctum enshrines a lingam, while the main shrine is ornately carved and depicts various gods, goddesses, apsaras (heavenly maidens) in elaborate detail. The entrance arch, the massive pillars and ceilings are adorned with exquisite carvings that leave the visitor spellbound. Beyond the archway of the Kandariya Mahadev, lie the six interior compartments; the portico, main hall, transept, vestibule, sanctum and ambulatory. The ceilings are particularly noteworthy and the pillars supporting them have intricately carved capitals. The transept's outer walls have three horizontal panels showing deities of the Hindu pantheon, and groups of lovers, a pageant of sensuousness, vibrantly alive.

Shalimar Bagh

A subtle air of leisure and repose, a romantic indefinable spell, pervades the royal Shalimar: this leafy garden of dim vistas, shallow terraces, smooth sheets of falling water, and wide canals, with calm reflections broken only by the stepping stones across the streams.

While the recent history and development of the Mughal types of gardens is credited to Emperor Jahangir of theMughal Dynasty, the ancient history of the garden that existed here is traced to the 2^nd century when it was built during the reign of Pravarsena II. Praversena II founded the city of Srinagar and ruled in Kashmir from 79 AD to 139 AD. He had built a cottage for his stay at the northeastern corner of the Dal Lake and had named it as Shalimar (‘Shalimar’ in Sanskit means "Abode or Hall of Love”). It is at this location that Emperor Jahangir built his celebrated Shalimar Bagh, his dream project to please his queen. During the Mughal period in particular, Emperor Jahangir and his wife Nur Jahan were so enamoured of Kashmir that during summer they moved to Srinagar with their full court entourage from Delhi, at least 13 times. Shalimar Bagh was their imperial summer residence, and also the Royal Court.

The layout of the garden is an adaptation of another Islamic garden layout known as the Chahar Bagh in Persia. This garden built on a flat land on a square plan with four radiating arms from a central location as the water source, could not be exactly replicated to the hilly conditions in the Kashmir valley.

Thus, modifications to suit the location were designed, which involved the main channel running through the garden axially from top to the lowest point. This central channel, known as the Shah Nahar, is the main axis of the garden. It runs through three terraces. This layout saved on radial arms and the shape became rectangular, instead of a square plan of the Chahar Bagh.

The garden was linked to the open Dal Lake water through a canal of about 1 mile (1.6 km) length and 12 yards (11 m) in width that ran through swampy quagmire. Willow groves and rice terraces fringed the lake edge. Broad green paths bordered the lake with rows of chinar trees. The garden was laid in trellised walkways lined by avenues of aspen trees planted at 2 feet (0.61 m) interval.

The first terrace is a public garden or the outer garden ending in the Diwan-e-Aam (public audience hall). In this hall, a small black marble throne was installed over the waterfall.

The second terrace garden along the axial canal, slightly broader, has two shallow terraces. The Diwan-i-Khas (the Hall of Private Audience), which was accessible only to the noblemen or guests of the court, now derelict, is in its centre. However, the carved stone bases and a fine platform surrounded by fountains are still seen. The royal bathrooms are located on the north-west boundary of this enclosure. The fountain pools of the Diwan-i Khas, the Diwan-i-Amm, and in turn, the Zenana terraces are supplied in succession.

In the third terrace, the axial water channel flows through the Zenana garden, which is flanked by the Diwan-i-Khas and chinar trees. At the entrance to this terrace, there are two small pavilions or guard rooms (built in Kashmir style on stone plinth) that is the restricted and controlled entry zone of the royal harem. Shahajahan built a baradari of black marble, called the Black Pavilion in the zenana garden. It is encircled by a fountain pool that receives its supply from a higher terrace. A double cascade falls against a low wall carved with small niches (chini khanas), behind the pavilion. Two smaller, secondary water canals lead from the Black Pavilion to a small baradari. Above the third level, two octagonal pavilions define the end wall of the garden.

The Shalimar Bagh is well known for chini khanas, or arched niches, behind garden waterfalls. They are a unique feature in the Bagh. These niches were lighted at night with oil lamps, which gave a fairy tale appearance to the water falls. However, now the niches hold pots of flower pots that reflect their colors behind the cascading water.

Another unusual architectural feature mentioned is about the doors of the Baradari. In the garden complex, the Baradari had four exquisite doors made of stones supported by pillars. It is conjectured that these stone doors were ruins from old temples that were demolished by Shahajahan. The garden also provided large water troughs where a variety of fountains were fixed.

Even in later years, during Maharaja’s rule, the gardens were well maintained and continue to be so even now as it is one of the prominent visitor attractions around the Dal Lake.

The garden is considered to be very beautiful during the autumn and spring seasons due to the colour change in leaves of the famed Chinar trees.

The gardens were the inspiration for other gardens of the same name, notably the Shalimar Bagh, Delhi in Delhi (built in 1653, which now also has an upscale colony) and Shalimar Gardens in Lahore, Pakistan built by Emperor Shah Jahan in 1641.

Housing in Mumbai..

Bad effects are from the heritage point of view that first and foremost, grade III listed heritage buildings should be excluded from redevelopment under rule 33(7) and 33(9). Due to this rule being applied indiscriminately across all so called 'old' buildings, irrespective of their heritage value, they are going ahead and pulling down good buildings too.

Localized poor condition in some parts of a heritage building are being shown in surveys as completely bad so that they can pull down the entire building, sell the old wood, material, etc. as well as consume higher FSI. It is a complete racket.

Developers support the modification to the rule as they get more FSI under the modified rule. The proposed cluster redevelopment scheme proposes an FSI of 4 or even higher, so they keep loading the city with new development with minimum open spaces, etc.

The modification has several harmful long term impacts for the city and people such as load to existing infrastructure of the city, worsening the quality of life, promoting poor construction, promoting a new haphazard and thoughtless architectural and urban design language that will alter Mumbai's character.

One of the most basic points against the modification is to question why FREE housing or accommodation of any kind should be given to tenants / occupants of space in the city. Why should a person occupying a tenement of 220 sqft or less get 300 or 400 sq. ft. and what happens to the Rent Control Act?

The modification is driven by vote bank politics and not by any desire to improve the condition of the city. It is a fact that there are more tenants than landlords in the island city; hence the politicians want to appease the greater number of people. It is also a fact that the politicians are themselves builders and developers in Mumbai, and hence have modified the law to suit them.

If you study the density and pattern of development of an area such as C-Ward (that is proposed to be redeveloped using the cluster redevelopment model), then you can see the existing architectural, social and cultural grain of the area, that is finely woven due to its low-rise and dense pattern of redevelopment.

This pattern of building will be replaced by the even more dense (due to additional loading of FSI) high-rise pattern of building, that will completely alter the fabric of the old city.

Much of the suburbs of Mumbai are largely characterless and homogeneous due to the building byelaws that allow this kind of thoughtless redevelopment. Infrastructure in the suburbs is already inadequate to cope with the population that is living there. The modifications to DC Rule 33(7) and 33(9) will similarly overload the existing infrastructure of the island city, leading to a reduced quality of life for all who stay or use this space.

Blanket solutions and rules are not applicable in a city like Mumbai. Different areas require different solutions.

What is required is:

- a rational survey of the existing building stock to be done, to identify poor buildings,

- amend or abolish the rent control act that has distorted the value of land and housing in the island city,

- apply sensitive and sensible (vs. lucrative) solutions to the existing problem being faced

- give incentives to people who want to repair their buildings skillfully

- allow reconstruction more through owners rather than builders

- Remove free redevelopment and offers for free housing - those who can afford to stay here should stay, rest should move northwards etc.

Dis(s)tress

The language of architecture is a vague term used to classify them selves. What it means is rather defined which rather confines which rather puts into a fixation of constraints.

"Witness" rather to be 'experienced' which is a linear technology as it requires an address and a start of lines...

A state of time, which see around a world of constraints, which see an opposing origin. Radicalism. RADIX. An opposing/ derogatory language abusing to the world of so called "purity".

"Get off my cloud"

Coop Hamilton - language- of- rather- buildings is a brilliant usage of deconstruction and post modernist architecture. Architecture to comment on these manifestations of the architectural neo avant - garde, vilifying the presumed aesthetization of the style and parodying its false motives.

The work of Eisman and Tschumi strive towards willful and theoretical deformation towards the metrically problematical solution to existing confusing traditional mass.

Architects/ theorists such as Eisman and Tschumi used their own writings to legitimize their architectural projects – a self reflexivity that isn’t without a merit, at least as a limiting point for radicalizing the trajectory of built form.

Coop – Hamilton upsets the purists’ nature of the projects with deliberately apologetic program, , allowing the sheer force using the innate aspects of architecture – such as tension, counterbalance their works, allowing the sheer force of building materials to impact upon their structural selves and inducing a struggle from within the actual materials.

What is rather seen is a result of stripping which results over action and a reaction.

The resulting forms are a search beyond – mere physics – a result of time.

Destroying in order to Recover…

Deconstruction

Deconstruction was first developed by French philosopher Jaques Derrida. The definition for deconstruction is not easy to understand, and Derrida and his interpreters actually intend it to be difficult. It was first meant to be a method of interpretation and analysis of a text or a speech. He introduced the concept of deconstruction as a text or speech. The entire idea was to draw out conflicting logics of sense and implications. the main objective was to show that text never exactly meant what it said. Though it had been applied not only to text but also to the visual arts and architecture.

The approach of deconstruction in architecture is to get architects, think of things in a new way, to view architecture in bits and pieces. Also to develop buildings which shows how differently from traditional buildings c, buildings can be built without losing their utility and still complying with the fundamental laws of physics. Especially, in 1988, when deconstruction was first promoted in architecture.

Derrida takes the word deconstruction from the work of Martin Heidegger. In the summer of 1927, Martin Heidegger delivered a lecture course now published under the title, Basic Problems of Phenomenology. Given the topic of his lectures, Heidegger appropriately begins them with a discussion of the nature of philosophy and, particularly of the philosophical movement called phenomenology. Borrowing creatively from his teacher, Edmund Husserl, Heidegger says that phenomenology is the name for a method of doing philosophy; he says that the method includes three steps -- reduction, construction, and destruction -- and he explains that these three are mutually pertinent to one another. Construction necessarily involves destruction, he says, and then he identifies destruction with deconstruction, Abbau (20-23). Heidegger explains what he means by philosophical destruction by using an ordinary German word that we can translate literally "unbuild."

Different architects of different places seemed to be placing buildings and bits of buildings at odd angles so that they clashed and even penetrated each other. The geometry in these architects had been set up, but has at least one overlaid and clashed with the other. Also, there is much different kind of clashes such as: clashes in history and....leaves construction without its form.

Ironically, given much of the current discussion of Heidegger's work and the work that derives from his, Heidegger's answer is, "No." We can use these concepts, horizons, and approaches against themselves to discover what produced them. We might, for example, think about Aristotle's discussion of form and matter, using those very terms to show their inadequacy. What, after all, is matter? Any answer I give is in terms of another form rather than in terms of matter. Questions: "What is that desk made of; what is its material?" Answer: "Wood." But the word wood gives us a form, not a matter. I can ask, "What is the wood made of?" and give a reasonable answer, though one still in terms of form.

As we use the terms matter and form against them, what starts out looking like a perfectly sensible question becomes problematic. By problematizing the distinction, we begin to get at least a glimpse of the problem to which Aristotle was responding. Perhaps we begin to wonder -- to think -- in the same way that he did. If we do, perhaps we begin to do philosophy with regards to Aristotle's questions rather than simply to repeat the scholarly exegesis of Aristotle's philosophy.

Deconstruction can be a matter of showing whom the text has omitted, overlooked, or forgotten. There are various others whom we may forget. Sometimes we fail to remember God, someone with whom, contrary to many expectations.