http://www.telegraphindia.com/1040330/asp/calcutta/story_3062061.asp
Designs that look ahead and experiment - What relevant architecture
signifies
Relevant architecture is all about problem-solving and not just
decorative building blocks, acclaimed Ahmedabad-based architect-planner
Bimal Hasmukh Patel said on Monday. The modernism guru was in town for a
presentation on the topic 'Is modernism still relevant?' at the Ambuja
Cement Lecture Series, in association with the Indian Institute of
Architects, West Bengal Chapter.
Patel, the youngest recipient of the prestigious Aga Khan Award for
Architecture (in 1992 for designing the Entrepreneurship Development
Institute of India, Ahmedabad) felt the "abstract vocabulary of modernism"
was crucial and that any design solution should "look ahead and experiment",
focusing firmly on points of functional needs.
A doctorate and Master's degree-holder in city & regional planning and
architecture from the University of California, Berkeley, and a graduate
student instructor in the same US institution, the 43-year-old has also
designed the National Institute of Management, Chennai, and the Gujarat High
Court building, among others.
Currently involved in redesigning the riverfront in his hometown,
Patel is not averse to working on a signature project in Calcutta, if it is
"challenging and relevant enough". While nothing has crystallised at the
moment, it is learnt that the Ambuja Group, that gave the city the
Balkrishna Doshi-designed Udayan, The Condoville on the Bypass and is
gearing up to unveil Charles Correa's City Centre in Salt Lake, is keen to
involve Patel as well.
"We find some of Bimal Patel's work extremely exciting and would love
to have him design some landmark project in Calcutta at a later date," was
all Bengal Ambuja Housing Development Ltd managing director Harsh Neotia
would say. Patel himself felt it wasn't lack of political will but
managerial support, which was the main stumbling block to urban planning.
"Calcuttans need not be despondent about the pace of development in
their backyard. With the urban agenda slowly but surely coming to the
forefront, things are bound to change. The days of romanticising about the
rural ambience are over and everybody now realises cities are the real
engines of growth. True, the outlook on long-term planning still leaves a
lot to desire, but the mindset can't change overnight. We must remember even
the western cities were in a wretched state 100 years back," said Patel.
There is no point in blindly aping the West with complete disregard to
regional aspirations and conditions, warned the architect. He also felt
Calcutta must concentrate on "creative reuse" of its magnificent colonial
buildings after restoring their crumbling facades and stressed the need for
a "meaningful project by the waterfront to encourage dialogue with the city"
.
A visiting faculty in the School of Architecture, Centre for
Environmental Planning and Technology, Ahmedabad, Patel has delivered
lectures at various symposia and institutes, including Pratt Institute, New
York, The Aga Khan Program, MIT and IIM, Ahmedabad. He has also received a
clutch of international awards, like the AR&D, Emerging Architect, Commended
Award, 2001, World Architecture Award, 2001, Salzburg Seminar Fellowship,
2000, UNCHS Best Practices Award, 1998 and the American Institute of Indian
Studies, Research Fellowship, 1990-91.
- SUBHRO SAHA