6:11 PM
TAIN
In architecture we are crossing through a period when the crying baby gets the milk!
What I mean to say is that architects are screaming and yelling like babies to grab attention. Facade architecture, the packaging of buildings in trendy envelopes is popular. Fashionable western architects are “selling styles,” not making architecture. Each building they make looks like a copy of the one before.
It is only one sense these architects are playing on, and that is VISION, leaving, touch and textures; smell and nature; sound and volume, common sense and proportion to the winds. In other words architecture is at one of its low historical points where style, fade and crude popularity are projected.
This “bad taste” is media driven from cities, outward toward the smaller towns. It works on the...
Tuesday, March 29, 2011
Friday, March 25, 2011
"Good Planning is Good Business" by Christopher Charles Benninger, Architect.
One of the ill-myths of the Twentieth Century still regarded as common wisdom is the paradigm that poses planned societies against the so called “free markets.” The fact is a well tempered land regime supports consistently performing urban development markets! This is a symbiotic relationship, not an antagonistic one.
Planning appears antagonistic where it is poorly conceived and inaptly executed. Where there is scant participate of stakeholders, and a large influence of corruption, the regulated system is but a pawn in the hands criminals. This is not planning! This is Pune!.
Despite all of the media hype, Pune remains an unplanned city! The last Development plan cleared for central Pune City was completed decades ago. Town Planning Schemes are matters of history. The fact is that this huge...
Monday, March 21, 2011
Garfield Mondays.
Mondays – it’s not only Garfield that hates Mondays, a vast majority of us do. Monday morning blues hit us so hard, half of us are left staggering. After the weekend, most of which is spent in utter enjoyment, the idea of getting back to a structured work environment in a job/course we may or may not enjoy is simply too much to take in! For two days, one day for some of us, we forget about deadlines and other things like that.
Spending time with friends and family, self grooming procedures, catching up on movies – that’s how the weekend is spent by most of us. Mondays seem dull and drab after exciting weekends. But the question arises, would weekends seem as exciting if there was no prospect of a dull Mond...
Saturday, March 19, 2011
"HARISH MAHINDRA: PATRON OF THE ARTS ARCHITECTURE" by Christopher Charles Benninger, Architect.
Harish Mahindra was a man one can never forget! Not because he was one of the “M’s” of M & M, but because he was a very simple man with a vast vision. I first met Harishji when I was invited for an interview of architects to design the Mahindra United World College of India. That was in September 1993. Sure that I would not be selected from amongst a panel of my seniors, I introduced myself as an architect who would refuse “to build a monument!” Harishji smiled, catching my ploy, and said “well, we don’t want to build cow sheds here!” and then laughed. But he looked through the photographs of my work carefully, and said he’d like to visit the campus I had designed for myself in Pune. Accordingly, he came to Pune.
As luck would have it my jeep broke down on my way back from Ahmednagar...
Tuesday, March 15, 2011
Dancing in the moonlight.
Similar to the last post about music, dancing is a sought after respite. It may not be as big as music, but dancing is definitely and quickly making its way to being a sought after respite.
As Van Morrison said many years ago, you really cannot dance and stay uptight. Dancing comes naturally to all of us, whether it is a strange bopping movement of the head or a violent flailing of the arms. Not all of us are expert dancers, but that doesn’t matter. Letting go of our inhibitions and just letting the music take over us, getting completely lost helps us unwind in the most untraditional way. But however untraditional it may be, it is quite easily the most effective. One doesn’t need to be at a dance club or at a party around other dancers to take the benefit of this simple unwinding tool – the...
Saturday, March 12, 2011
Music in our lives, music in our souls.
Everyone loves music. I say that statement with no statistical data to back me up, but it’s a statement that doesn’t really need any statistical backing. But in case it is met with opposition, let me rephrase that. Almost everyone loves music.
There are very few people who don’t like music, and even fewer that actively DISLIKE music. Music continues to be the most commonly sought respite in the world, the one thing that people turn to for a distraction from their own existence. Whether it be a happy existence or a miserable one, music helps everyone – offering a little something for everyone.
Some say that people like to listen to music that suits the mood they’re in. that is probably true of people that are in good moods. But what about people in bad moods? Do they listen to depressing...
Friday, March 11, 2011
"NEW INITIATIVES FOR PROFESSIONAL ORGANISATIONS IN ARCHITECTURE" by Christopher Charles Benninger, Architect.
Our professional organizations are the backbone of each practitioner. As our profession becomes more complex, the importance of the Indian Institute of Architects and the Council of Architecture increases. Professional organizations can make new initiatives that will enhance the profession. Many of these areas can be addressed immediately, and others must be seen as long term goals. The gamut of areas that can be enhanced is vast. In the following note I have expanded on some of these.
Employed Architects
As more architects are produced, the potential for every practitioner to open their own proprietorship firm, or start-up company, will diminish. This means employed architects will seek longer term relations with employers. But the present scenario offers few long term rewards to long term...
Tuesday, March 8, 2011
"An Architecture for Learning -THE MAHINDRA UNITED WORLD COLLEGE OF INDIA" by Christopher Charles Benninger, Architect.
In 1993 the Indian Industrialist, Harish Mahindra, approached Christopher Benninger to design the new college the Mahindra family wanted to create as a gift to India. Affiliated with the United World Colleges movement, the college would be the tenth such institution worldwide, under the Presidency of Nelson Mendela, with Queen Noor as the Chairperson. Mahindra and Benninger shared values which grew out of their common educational experiences at Harvard, merged with their love of Indian traditions and culture. Both had an utopian image of an ideal, independent community of scholars who would address global issues. For Mahindra, this represented a chance to mirror his corporate journey from a national group of companies, to a multi-national conglomerate. He saw the future in terms of an expanding...
