..in conversation with Ar.Lijo Jose & Reni Lijo

Lijo and Reni brought some very interesting and totally radical thought process into the discussions. The word “identity” was examined with much deeper sense of understanding. Identity is not all about being visual. In a much broader sense it talks about the whole context. Lijo was constantly referring to the book “sapiens” to support his ideology of being an universal living being, appreciating the fact that the entire human race is indeed very young considering the age of the earth. So the idea of permanence and temporal and the idea of identity become so baseless, if we consider our race itself having one single identity of a very recent origin.

All we are talking about is “genetically” transferred identity which humans needed for essential survival. We are all living in an “imagined reality” where the idea of society and rights are being pushed into our brains in the continuing quest for survival.

Human beings had much more physical powers earlier. When this idea of settling down as a group to fight nature and its enemies, became prominent, the brain grew in importance. Language was born and writing as a skill was taught. The idea of humans always looking for new forms of survival have created these multi structuring in terms of political, social and lingual boundaries. The character of such settlements later inspired different forms and concepts to respond to the climate and nature of resources available.

As an idea, to believe that we as a small society has an identity to keep and to pass on to the next generation is naïve, considering the above understanding of evolution of human race. Identity is something that keeps evolving and whatever we see today is very temporal. There is nothing like “timeless”. That which need to die, need to die.

Talking about various architecture styles, Lijo was of the opinion that the earth itself is quite small and there is hardly any reason on why we should not attempt a particular style irrespective of the location, provided it reflected the client, his behavior, aspirations and lifestyle.

The word “client” was debated, trying to understand whether its only about the master of the house who employs the architects, or his immediate family, or his children or his parents. The question of permenance of a house was very valid amidst these thoughts, and considering a philosophy which sees the entire human race as very young and the entire world as very small, even the existence of a small house was arguably a very temporal phenomenon. A house is meaningful as long as it reflects the client and their lifestyle in the prescribed site context with respect to a particular time. The idea essentially supports creating global citizens who appreciates human race as one single entity.

Lijo expressed his strong beliefs against the idea of “psuedo-traditional” architecture glorifying forms and materials, which for him is a political agenda being pushed hard to make the struggle for existence much easier.

As per Lijo and Reni, its important to experiment in ones own creations and that’s what help them to achieve new milestones every time. Its not about a concious decision to be among hall of fame awards or to be featured in the news. Its about a decision to make mistakes and to learn and resolve something new resulting in a creation, which gives the creator a huge sense of satisfaction, the client a unique product and there is indeed much more fun in doing it. It’s a question of being a “social crusador” or about living the life with some fun and excitement. Essentially any good architecture should be a true reflection of its client, and rest is all about pushing limits and experimenting with available resources in a given context.

Art, he says, has majorly influenced his career and thought process. Being a universal l citizen in philosophy, Lijo and Reni never thought region as a barrier. His experiences in thrissur has been largely satisfying, with a lot of art appreciation and global exposure and hence never thought of any relocation. their experiments with art is center to their approach to any architecture design. Art according to them can not only be experienced but is also valid as a process. Though the result may be minimal, the process would have initiated a series of thinking which essentially seeps in slowly. Any good art as well as architecture should be evaluated on how best it seeps in deep inside you and not on the degree of appeal it has it on you at one single moment. Discussion ended, with an agreement to disagree on many philosophical thoughts, but acknowledging that the earth has enough space for all these multiple ideas and thought process to co-exist together challenging and inspiring mutually..