GUEST ARTICLE in fact, all the spaces we use while achieving simple and stimulating aesthetics to complement the hot and tropical climate of this part of globe. The cities and even towns of our country are developing and people have started understanding the need for good experience be it for their residence, schools and institutes, working areas, even hospitals, hotels, shopping or even walking down a street. This consciousness in common man is the positivity the architecture world has been desiring to make our cities, towns, villages all designed to have a character that defines our Indian heritage in its true beauty. I am very hopeful that we shall soon have beautiful cityscapes with fine lines and designed spaces that we starve for every time we come back from a tour abroad.
Challenges for architects in India Architecture is a social art that touches all human beings at all levels of their existence everywhere and everyday. This is the only discipline, which encompasses the four major fields of human endeavor : Humanities, Science, Art, and Technology, actually putting into practice the professional inputs drawn from them. In sum, Architecture is the matrix of human civilization - an authentic measure of the social status, and an evocative expression of the ethos of an era. When conserved, it is heritage and when in ruins, it becomes archaeology, reconstructing tell-tale pictures of the past civilizations. India as a nation is presently undergoing a rapid and substantial revival and development and is moving with a fast pace to join the league of developed nations status from the so called third world developing nation but I strongly feel in this hurry to launch projects match up with competitors we are compromising our nationality and respect for our indigenous architects and designers.
ARCHITECTURE- The matrix of human civilization Trneds in Indian Architecture
travelled friend who term themselves as “interior decorators”.
The Indian market is booming with ideas and we observe that people specially the educated lot understands the role of an architect and consults a professional for even smaller projects like a shop, showroom or even small kiosks in malls. The average buyer of a residential flat or a house understands the need of interior designing in addition to the architectural services and is ready to consult and follow a professional interior designer or even a tasteful and well
The trend in the architecture scenario is diversifying and we see professionals experimenting with classical, neoclassical and a fusion of both but most of the times we see very modern and timeless design aspects using straight fine lines and playing with mass and forms following functions rather than creating huge excessively decorated antique forms. Be it residential, institutional, corporate cyber hubs, shopping malls, hospitals or other dedicated build-
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ings it’s a very positive scenario to notice people getting conscious of their responsibility at an urban level. The urban designers and town planners are certainly working at macro level but it’s amazing to observe that a common man has begin to respect the space they are using and also desire to achieve excellence in aesthetics and utility of the space while considering various aspects of architecture and interior designing that effects our day to day lives. The current trends are to optimize the functionality of, ||www.constructionmirror.com||
We notice globalization in all aspects of our architectural design, construction and real estate industries and we clearly observe lack of professional vision and methodical approach in dealing with large scale projects. To begin with ;at very initial design level we notice a reverse racial approach that crowns each and every foreign architects whom we respect for their foreign status more than anything and in order to facilitate their inexperience to handle projects being designed for this big population(only china has experience of such big numbers other than India) rather provide them a chain of Indian architects, consultants and workforce who first acquaint them with Indian design and work scenarios Indian markets, and actually end up designing, detailing and working out all aspects of the projects but only to hand over the entire good hard work and their vision in a sealed file for that foreign designers just for a final signature of his or few namesake comments to woo and impress and ensure that the top business tycoon thinks “he is on top of everything”. The Indian counter parts arrange best of hotel dinners, the golf games and the well comforted guided tour to THE TAJ MAHAL and Indian craft emporiums to impress the fairer skin from the so called first CONSTRUCTION MIRROR || OCTOBER 2014 45