My journey in architecture ..

I want to talk more about the philosophy of our practice and why we think architecture is beyond its physical form. But before that, it seems equally exciting for me, to travel back to my memories, and to uncover a journey which made me realise the need of a philosophical body of work.

I remember receiving a very strange toy, as a birthday gift, from my maternal grandfather, probably when I was not more than 7-8 years old. The memories are so vivid, as the ‘toy’ was with me for long. It was a house, inside a glass box, and when you switch it on, there will be dancing lights. It wasn’t meant to be a toy. But he chose to give me that. My mother use to later tell me, he wished I build beautiful houses like that and one for her, rather than wishing my birthday. my journey with architecture begin there.

By the time I finished matriculation, I had this feeling, that I need to be an architect, without knowing what actually it means to be. May be, since everybody else told I can draw a bit, and may be that I didn’t want to follow my mother’s path in medicine, I found an easy choice. But to be truthful, it wasn’t just about an easy choice, I’m sure the glamour had also influenced me then. I had no relative nor family friends working in this field. But I remember two movies, “Kilukkampetty” and “Mayamayooram”, both in malayalam, which made me feel, being an architect is a glamorous stylish profession, where you can make a lot of money, have beautiful offices, own good cars and all you need to do is to keep drawing.

I was an average artist. But to stake my claim to become the architect, to enjoy the glamour, I did put a bit more effort to showcase everything I drew. Around the pre degree times, when all were busy, running behind competitive exams, I was more relaxed, as architecture wasn’t a much sought out course then. Remember my brother, who use to read quite a bit, suggesting the book “fountainhead” then. Quite cleche right to read fountainhead and take up the course ? But thanks to my great reading skills, I couldn’t finish even half the book then. I kept reading Tinkle, TinTin & bobanum molyum till my REC life.

I wouldn’t elaborate my bachelors life, in this bit of the story, but with all due respect to all my teachers, the roots of my work cannot be traced back to the college. I had great times there, learning life, enjoying life, making life long relationships, getting extremely professional, but not learning the subject. Instead we were just getting informed about the subject. Being in a premium institution like NITC (CREC when we joined), always give us an extra bit of confidence, which will reflect in our body language & each decision in our life. And sometimes, that confidence, become overdone, and in one such instance, we searched for an office space, and shifted our things from hostel to office and started working from there, way back in May 23, 2004.

We had quite a few works to begin with. As many of young architects, we wanted to conquer the world within a short period. I remember keeping the vision of achieving so much of turn over and so becoming one of the top rated architects of the state. quick money. quick fame. We did everything from a toilet to a multi story apartment to housing blocks and even started our own development firm. The “growth” was quick, from a two member home office to a 20 odd stand alone one. But then something was missing through out. We didn’t know what was missing though. We kept capitalising on our inherent aesthetic content to come up with few ‘beautiful’ elevations, and that was it.

It was an art camp in Munnar which turned out to be an eye opener for us. Away from our work, we made few wonderful friends, and met a person who took us through a spiritual journey of architecture. Till then, the spiritual part, was only about the so called superstitious “vasthu”. We set out for a journey, travelling from north to south Kerala, visiting many old illams, houses, temples, churches. It was a revelation, about the power of architecture, about the presence of architecture & it’s co-existence with history, context, nature & culture.

Knowing that I knew little, I took leave from the firm to take my masters in urban design at NUS. It was another enriching experience, but, yes, again I received a lot of information and not much knowledge. But the information were a lot more deep, which you could cash on for a fruitful career. I landed back the next day in calicut, after submitting my thesis. Thanks to my friend, Ajay, I got my certificate after 4 years. By this time, we had realised this profession was not as simple as we thought. It wasn’t about drawing. It wasn’t about glamour. It wasn’t about making beautiful buildings. It was much more. This realisation, helped us to begin, unlearning, trying to unpack all the information we had gathered, this time in relationship with life itself.

That was the beginning of a meaningful journey. We gathered experiences from wherever we could. we kept travelling with our friends, colleagues, seniors, especially to architecture events, discussing about the value of profession & its need in the soceity. We started to look at our masons & craftsmen with a lot of respect, and there were more to learn from them than from anywhere else. We started talking to our sites. Slowly, we were walking towards realising the need of a philosophical foundation for our works.

There may be numerous moments after that, which made us what we are now. First time I would have appreciated the quality of light, apart from drawing windows, would be years into practice, when we finished a little in-situ residence in wynad. I still remember the happiness in the face of the young girl, who started living in our five lakh house, with her permanently ill father. I remember observing the curiosity of people, building a sense of ownership, when we did a cute bus stop at calicut medical college. We started to spend a lot of time on our sites, and kept thinking, what makes space influence us so much.

In this journey, we started to discover ourselves more. The values embedded in me, from the relentless selfless service mindset of my doctor amma, and the bold leadership from my political & socially active achan started to resurface. I’m sure, influences from Nishan’s umma & uppa, also had its inspiring affect. There were lot to learn from many whom we encountered, the point was, we started to look for true knowledge. We became curious. we started to respect humanity.

Architecture is a highly mis-interpreted profession. It’s not just for elite. It’s not about aesthetics of the buildings. It’s about our everyday, and about our relationship with our fellow beings, our context and nature. Our philosophy began to form on this understanding and it’s been an interesting journey ever since.

Looking back, it wasn’t the education which made me. education just informed me. But experiences, however little, have enriched and evoked the senses, making me count every little moment. And there is so much to learn from around us.

Vivek