Modern Times
BUILDING THE HYPOTHESIS Delhi stood perplexed at the stroke of midnight. This might sound very dramatic but right after independence the city was left in a field of opportunity. It could either accept historicism and run back to the times it once flourished before colonial influx or choose to cast a new dawn for the rest of its progression. The city was vulnerable because of a lack of identity and having cited as the new capital of the independent nation had a huge task at hand to develop a role model of progression and development. Industrialization in the west took the world by storm and at the brink of dawn Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru envisioned India to reach at par with the western hemisphere and see the country grow stronger, self-reliant and flourishing with ideas, economic output and a healthy population. Modernism and its preachers inspired Nehru to form his vision of an independent India and that went onto bringing the forms of modernism that took over the country and the city of Delhi. This went onto directing the built-scape of the country, set up the design engineering institutional ambience, sought to harness the materials of the new age—steel, glass, concrete, plastic, plywood—to make buildings, furniture and everyday objects that met real needs (Khilnani, 2012), introduce mass production of a human scale and dimension and eventually change the lifestyle, design style and educational pedagogy of India. Modernism arrived in India when the country was newly born, vulnerable and somewhat, gullible. This vulnerability surrendered to the ideologies, expressions and structure of modernism and the country began to wear modernism and all its glory. The following fields were struck by modernism: •
Architectural design o Spatial planning o Introduction of function like group housing, high rise, commercial centers, museums, transit hubs, educational institutions, political centers, embassies, etc. o Physical expression and iconography
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City and urban planning
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Materiality - steel, glass, concrete, plastic, plywood, etc.
Gautam Kabir Prabhash Protyasha Radhika Sarth