Anshuman Jena Dixit Suman Wahengbam Dhanajit Singh Huzaifa J Ahmedabadwala

Ways of Concieving Architecture

The tools a craftman uses can be, in many cases vital towards achieving certain quality of

workmanship. Each tool has a certain feature but at the same time, has many limitations.

If a painter were to change his medium from paint to say charcoal, the piece he/she is working on,

would express itself in a different manner. Similar can be said about a musician who changes from a

acoustic guitar to an electric one. The song remains fundamentally the same yet it communicates

differently to the listener.

As architects, we too rely on certain tools and techniques in order to design habitats and environments.

In recent times , our community has transitioned from using pen and paper to a digital interface in order

to realize space.

However what has remained unchanged, is the fact that we conceive spaces using visual media and

methods. Juhani Palassma pointed out in his book "The eyes of the skin"; in which he says, 'The

gradually growing hegemony of the eye seems to be parallel with the development of Western ego-

consciousness and the gradually increasing separation of the self and the world ; vision separates us

from the world whereas the other senses unite us with it.'

The aim of our seminar will be to explore a newer media of conceiving spaces and try to enquire into the

possibility of a new "genre" of design tools/methods which can help us perceive space more

comprehensively. We aim to find answers for our enquiry by trying to understand, may be, ancient

temple architecture. How did the people build these temples yet there remains no physical evidence of

their plans or drawings?

Even today, in rural areas, people build their own houses. They are capable enough to plan good

houses, without "drawing" a single plan or section. Proving that pen and paper is not in essence, the life

line of an architect. Which makes us think that maybe the Indian civilization evolved a completely

different methodology of designing spaces of such complexity and intricacy.

Finally, if we are able to uncover newer methods, can we push it to its limits where we can imagine a

world where even visually disabled persons can practice architecture? Where design is a more spatial

exercises rather than just a "table-desk" task. One, where we are more involved on site than at a office

pushing papers day in and day out.