De Earth, From a practice to a community




It’s after 10 years we decided to retrospect on our philosophy, more on its statement, rather changing the essence of the content. As for many, the lockdown provided us quality time to pause, slowdown and to reflect upon our work & life. Work & life, being so closely knit together for us, couldn’t be separated even by the lockdown. All of us 20, meet regularly, discuss, debate, share & work with very specific deadlines, for last 41 days, sundays and holidays being the only exception. We are also getting used to the technology, but rearing to get back to the office, where we can meet, fight & celebrate our work too.

During the course, we took one week off from the regular work, just to share & communicate to each other, what everybody feel about themselves, their colleagues, our office, the way we work, the results we achieve and the overall content of the processes. The quality of discourse was way beyond a normal discussion, thanks to the pause & the lockdown which helped us discover the potentials & risks in each one of us. Lots of aspects which we took for granted re surfaced as the key discussion points, with our senses getting sharper on the details. Overall, the pandemic exposed the vulnerability of human race and made us aware of the uncertainty ahead. And this realisation made us re-frame our philosophy a bit after 10 years.

We added a key word to the narrative. “To celebrate “. From “being sensitive to earth, neighborhood & client” we reframed it to “celebrating your being, co living with nature, respecting & celebrating the relationships” enabling us in “serving the humanity, and celebrating each day & each moment of our life & practice ”. This understanding led to a perspective change in the processes & inspired an added sense of ownership among all of us.

We realised that, only those in heightened level of self conscious can join hands in creating a meaningful design, nurturing the complex parameters of each project. We often neglect the human capital, while stressing upon systems, softwares, technology, process statements, deadlines and checklists. The moment we re-consider ‘human resource’ as ‘human assets’, we would realise the importance of being at our collective best, to make each day in the office count. Most of us, including the key decision makers & the staff, spend our best part of life in our office. If we find ourselves strained & stressed, and detached from the life we imagine of, we would soon be substituted by robots to perform the systematic work with much more efficiency. If we are expected to think, to contribute, to appreciate, to create, to collaborate, we need to be in the best of our conscious, and celebrate our being.

co living with nature, had always been close to our heart and the most fundamental in our approach. The pandemic, now reminds us about how ‘human virus’ had been adversely affecting the co existence of the eco system for centuries. Nature’s own cleansing act, in the form of pandemic & natural calamities, is providing us with reality checks & the need to be sensitive in our words & deeds.

This lockdown also has enabled us to appreciate our relationships better. Our relationship with ourselves, our family, our parents, our friends, our neighbours, our city, the nature around, the politics, the society, the economy, the environment. We took too much for granted. The moment we begin to respect these relationships & celebrate them, it will reveal a whole new world of possibilities in front us. The weaknesses become strengths, risks become potentials and the challenges become opportunities.

Each of our project grow from the quality of relationship we nurture with our client, with the site & with the team, in design, craft & execution. To explore the endless potentials of human beings, we need to learn to engage with each other with a lot more care, empathy & respect. We will begin to respect each of those little things in life, and reflect them in our design process. Whatever affects our society, affects us too, and by being socially conscious we can keep exploring our role in bringing a positive change. If we unlearn our theories, and start engaging with nature, exploring our relationship with its elements, light, air, wind & respecting our fellow living beings, we begin to create to belong. We will learn to celebrate the moments and these relationships through design.

Why leave your celebration to tommorow. We have seen how uncertain the world around us is. A small little virus had got the entire human race to a stand still. Why repent ? Why just work and wait for vacations to come to plan celebrations ? Let’s celebrate through our work. Every moment. Every day. Every week. Every month, through the year, in office, in our site, through our relationship with our clients & our neighbourhoods, and find extended possibilities of everything we engage with. This has been a revelation, on how important the idea of ‘being’ & ‘celebration of your being’ will be in bringing the best out of us. Thanks to the pandemic.

We look forward for more exciting journey ahead. “nurture, create,belong” still stays strong as our tag line. We have just strengthened the foundation of our philosophical journey, inculcating more humane values. We hope to transcend beyond a practice to a community of like minded professionals, who respect themselves, who enjoys being together, who explores the meaningful engagement with the nature & who celebrate their existence on earth, sensitively, sensibly & responsibly.

www.deearth.com
https://deearthblogs.blogspot.com

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