Saptan Stories : An inspiration for design collabs

I have always been an admirer (read fan) of artistic collaborations. Be it in the field of music, films, dance or graphics, such alliances have been a great source of inspiration for me as an architect/designer. I find the whole idea behind 'collaboration' fascinating. People from different fields come together at one stage and work on to create something beautiful – something which is a mix of two (or sometimes even more) different ‘characters’ and attitudes. The artists bring out the best of their arts and the final result is a perfect example of what we call as ‘ek ke daam mein do’ (two in the cost of one).

Now, expand your vision and imagine having ‘ek ke daam mein saat’ (seven in the cost of one)! ‘Saat’, Hindi for number Seven, and that is from where Saptan Stories get its name (saptan is number seven in Sanskrit). What makes this even more interesting is the format. Seven different artists/illustrators from India and UK, each with their different styles and artistic characters, come together to interpret a storyline which grows every week as the Indian audience contributes a line to the platform. As they say, it is “India’s first ever crowdsourced digital art project” – a 7-week series which is a part of British Council’s ongoing India/UK 2017 – a yearlong celebration of 70 years of relationship between the two countries.

I was fortunate to witness the unfolding of the ongoing story in its fifth week. In the premises of their beautiful building, British Council India organized a small get-together where the artists revealed their fine artworks. The artists Adrita Das (Mumbai), Gavin Strange (Bristol), Gemma Correll (Suffolk), Janine Shroff (London), Priyesh Trivedi (Mumbai), Saloni Sinha (Bangalore) and Tom Mead (Bristol) were brought together by the Oscar award winning Aardman Animations, and were given this tedious yet never-done-before kind of project. As an artist and illustrator myself, I do relate to them and understand the complexities of interpreting the line of the story into an artwork especially when they do not have any idea of what lies ahead. As the story progresses every week, and a line is selected by online voting, it is impossible to guess what turn the story would take. That is what, in my opinion, makes it the most exciting campaign ever. Nobody knows what’s going to happen next.

The Illustrations for the Week 05 for which the winning lines were -

"I was falling through what seemed like a long tunnel, blinded by lights. I somehow landed on my two feet and found myself in a large hall. Walls covered in photographs. Photographs of my entire life."

Adrita Das

Gavin Strange

Gemma Correll

Janine Shroff

Priyesh Trivedi

Saloni Sinha

Tom Mead

Personally, I was bowled over by Tom’s inputs. The way he has managed to interpret the whole thing in his own characteristic manner is commendable. Unlike others, his interpretation in black and white gives the whole story a different edge. On the other hand, I was also shocked to see Priyesh’s signature ‘Aadarsh-baalak’ like-character in this very different and unknown realm! With each and every artwork that was revealed, I was forced to think ‘How they managed to do it?’ I found the whole idea of this project so unique and fascinating. Kudos to the team at British Council. Their efforts and hard work of all the artists have brought this never-done-before kind of project to its last stage. Everyone, even the artists, wishes that the story gets a happy ending!

The whole ‘experience’ brought me back to the point where I was asking myself, “Why don’t we, as designers and architects, do something like this more often?” Saptan Stories has definitely shown us a new perspective to look at the collaborations and cross-country art projects. 

Design is One by Vignelli

As an architect, in the starting of my professional career, I used to wonder about the limits of designing. What an architect should be able to design and what he must (or can) not?

One day, the principal of my office asked me to describe 'Design' in not more that five sentences. That day I realized that more than architecture, its design that matters! Designing is architecture. Architecture is designing. Its been around half a decade and I have tried my hand on architecture, graphic designing, cooking, marketing and.. I see design everywhere. In a knife to a billboard.. in a chair to a movie or a song. I see it everywhere and thus, now I have started studying everything to understand design in order to complete my quest.

What has inspired me the most till date is Massimo Vignelli's quote where he says that if you can design one thing, you can design everything! Vignelli, himself being an architect by degree, is celebrated as a graphic designer, a product designer and what not. The more I read or watch about him and his wife, the more I get inspired to try out new things. Lately, as I started working on some graphic design projects, Vignelli's idea of Design is One started making more and more sense to me.

He and his wife, work and design together, and have penned a wonderful guide for people out there in the field of Graphic design - THE VIGNELLI CANON - a guide or a handbook, this is a must for all those who are studying or practicing in the field of graphics. The best part it is available for all and can be downloaded here.

As the couple themselves have been working on this philosophy for long, I would and cannot describe it anyway. Having said that, what I extract from it is the motivation and confidence of experimenting in design. 'Design' is a process and it is just that the 'thing' you are going to design is what makes the whole difference. The process remains same, every time.

Here is the sneak peek to the documentary Design is One

What's in the Plan?

From the beginning of the graduation course to joining an architectural firm or further in one's own practice, Plan is one of the most used and terms. A plan is basically a graphic representation, a drawing or a diagram to showcase how something will be arranged. Of course, there is one other definition of the word Plan - i.e. to create a proposal of how things are going to be done - like a holiday plan. But, in this particular post, I am going to stick to the first definition.  

If we talk about the conventional approach towards designing among colleges, we find that students are given a site for a semester and if the kids are taught well, they would begin with drafting a 'plan' keeping the site constraints in mind. One good way of charting out a plan is to work on GRID. That helps you to understand the 'scale' (of whatever you are proposing) in a better way. One of my batchmates was one step ahead. She used to work on plans with free hand and make the grid herself - with exact spacing and size - which I believe was a remarkable skill for a college student. On the other hand, some people, like me, preferred working with free hand only - without using the grid - which, I discovered a bit later, was the wrong technique. I would make the plans (free hand) and think that the product would be good. But as soon as I transferred those plans to 3D, I realized the huge difference between what was built and what I was imagining. Then I realized the power of grids. 

But working on the plan first altogether seems to be a less apt (if not wrong) approach now. During my last years in college, I was deeply under the influence of the works by Christopher Alexander, an Architect, a mathematician and a design theorist. I saw few of his lectures online and read extensively about his 'process' of designing. What I discovered was something which I was 'casually' told by my faculty years ago - prepare models! Yes. A whole 'new' approach towards designing. Where plans are made at a later stage and the structure is built first (on a smaller scale). In one of the videos where his architecture has been discussed, Alexander says, "Life can not be produced by drawings. Life can only be produced from a process." Here is the video where you can look into his career in depth -

Whatever be your design problem, preparing and working out on models right from the conceptual stage would change the way you see things. A 3m long wall is just a line in a plan but the same wall is also 3m high when u work with a model. A room might seem to be a 2D square in plan but it has a volume in a model. A model lets you 'experience' space well before it is even conceived.

No doubt, great architects work only on a plan. But they became great after working on models first. This practice, if followed religiously, will teach you the relationship between a line and space.  

Seamless Transitions

There is a new category or genre of music available on media these days - it's called 'Mash-up'. Well, actually the genre is old but the name given to it is rather new suiting the needs and attitude of the new generation - fast paced. Earlier the same thing was there and was sold under the name of 'melody' - a song that has different songs clubbed together in such a way that the listener gets the feel of every song in one. A similar 'feel' is created in a 'remix'. DJs around the world pick up many songs and create a wonderful melody or mash-up out of them by adding music and elements we fall for. I was reintroduced to this form of art recently when I visited the college. Few of my juniors gave a complimentary jam session and sang few melodies.

Later one day, Sahil - my partner in crime - randomly came up with a lyrical mix of songs. Lyrics of different songs stitched together on the common words. The transition from one song to another was so seamless that, on one go, it seemed to me 'one'. 

What makes melody a successful design? What keeps us attached to the melody even when there are several songs combined in one? The Seamless Transitions, probably, is the answer! Places or notes or spaces where one can shift gear easily without creating chaos. In songs, particular notes which can stitch those two songs together - musicians will be able to put a better light on those technicalities.

Such seamless transitions, if given perfectly in architecture, can allow us to create multiple spaces in one space. Different microclimates under one common roof. The same has been attempted and achieved at several places. The best example I have visited is Jawahar Kala Kendra, designed by Correa Sir. The building complex in itself is a series of different experiences. Experiences which are totally different from each other. Another good example is the Indian Habitat Center in Delhi by Joseph Allen Stein.

These buildings or complexes allow you to have a series of experiences stitched together under one roof! So, learning about providing details is one thing... keeping those details together is another skill.

Thus keeping the value of such transitions in design could be an achievement in itself.

Architectural Photography

Clean Lines Open spaces is a remarkable documentary on the mid-century modern architecture. Apart from narrating the details of Modern architecture the most striking feature of the movie was the showcasing of buildings with such remarkable precision and perfection. Of course, if you are shooting a documentary, having a focus on details would be the first criteria in mind so as to connect with the viewers. But the way they have shot it, is appreciable, as they have managed to connect wonderfully. The documentary is such, that I would like to write a whole new post to describe it and thus, I am leaving it here as it is. 

But, the documentary reminded me of Helene Binet. In 2013, in 361 Degree Conference (happens every year organized by IA&B) as the speaker list was too long in the three-day event, I was clueless of what she does and what she was supposed to speak on. An Architectural photographer, I eventually discovered about her as she spoke. Her portfolio majorly concentrated on Zaha Hadid and thus she spoke about the beauty of Zaha's building structures.

As a student, it was an amazing experience to witness how different people have different perceptions towards the architectural structure. For Helene, it was the beauty of those building curves that mattered the most, leaving aside the function of the same. (That reminds me of an article of critical appreciation in architecture - it dealt with the perceptions you could keep in mind while studying a building. But will discuss it some other time.)

As an enthusiast photographer myself, I always felt that an image/photo must convey the story of the subject it focuses on. I always try to, somehow, capture the 'spatial' qualities of a building in a 2D photograph, which is as impossible as it sounds. But in order to do that, I always struggled with the dilemma of including or excluding people while shooting architecture. With this confusion in mind, while listening to her lecture, I was wondering if she could give her insights on such an issue. Somewhat, she did. She mentioned that the purpose of capturing a particular frame actually defines a photograph. She mentioned about different themes on which here images are based, Light & Shade, Space, Materiality, Texture, Function, etc. it could be anything that you want to capture in a photograph. This, to some extent, was the answer to my quest. If you want to showcase the function of a particular building, take your shots including people. On the other hand, if you want to showcase the beauty and play of architecture, exclude everything.

This lecture, Composing Space, has the same Title as of the one I attended. This particular one held at Harvard GSD and would provide you with the in depth details of her works and elements of architectural photography as well. As an Architect, I have always felt that the 'scope' of this field is boundless and thus, for those who have a knack for capturing building edges, clean spaces, amazing structures, this might be an interesting catch!

Why Cooking is a good idea for Designers?

Advantages of having a super- cook mom -

1. You get endless variety of delicacies on the menu every time you sit for a meal.
2. You don't need to experiment with cooking, as you don’t even realize that it is a necessity until your mom is out for a trip. 

The same happened with me a few months back. Our mythological books talk about devi Annapurna. Apart from being the world to us, moms are definitely that devi, for sure! Thus, the whole idea of trying my hand on cooking started with my mom planning a short trip out of town for a week. Well, quite frankly, even though I always had this feeling that I would do justice to this 'art', I was quite scared of trying it in the beginning. But very soon I realized the magic and 'Design' behind the art of cooking. I realized why it is called an art. I realized the importance of 'details' required to be applied (just like any other design) to get the perfect result.

Months after my initial trials, last night, while preparing vegetable pulao the idea of charting out these 'details' came to my mind.

Cutting/Chopping

Like any other design process, the earliest stage is 'preparing the resources'. And for the same, one needs to be precise and fluent with the tools. In this case - knife and other cutting instruments - play the lead role.
During that epic moment when you hold the knife for the first time in your life - it all seems easy. But the actual problem begins here only - 'holding' the knife correctly is an art in itself. Well, it took me more than a couple of trials to get closer to the right technique. (Yes, I am still figuring out how it works!) 


Things you learn  
1.Analysis of the science behind the design of knife.
2.Textural study of vegetables - as each vegetable needs a different angle.
3.Visualizing the aesthetics behind cutting - for eg. You have to judge and choose whether the so called potato-fries-type-cut is ok for making curry potato or not.

Adding the spices
Spices are the integral part of cooking process in India. And I must admit, it is the trickiest and one of the best kept secrets too. From Daadi-Nani to Maa, you ask anyone about the quantities of spices and the answer would be, "andaaze se". Actually, it is the wisdom that they have earned during all those year when they were learning this art. Its like asking a painter the quantity of colors he has put in while preparing a masterpiece. 


Things you learn
1.Elements like Proportions. With each and every trial, you get closer to what it needs to be like.
2.The aromatic sense of cooking - suddenly you realize that you have this ability to smell and tell what seem to be good and what not.
3.Cultural and agricultural appreciation of our country - Its awesome to research a bit about all the spices that you have put in, it will connect you with what you are making.

Veg Pulao 

Mixing it all together
Now this is another tricky part. This heading actually has two meanings - mixing of the already cut veggies and masalas AND mixing all the work together... yes, TOGETHER!
Dealing with the first, one needs to be super precise about mixing technique as this stage can either make or break you 'design' apart! 
One needs to be THERE while mixing, each and every second. Consider as if you are blending two separate layers of design together.  A good blend will mold out the final product well.
While looking at the second perception, you need to be good with your management skills. It is all about time and project management. Unlike other design problems, cooking doesn't give you the privilege of trials. Every single step here is the final step. You can’t keep strolling around while the water is boiling in vessel. 

Pao- Bhaji

Things you learn
1.Time management - no one can teach you this like cooking does.
2.Innovation - mixing spices? Done your study? Try out what you can add.


Patience
At last, when all is prepared, it’s the time to ‘cook’, literally. This is the time which if spent less wouldn’t bring in the taste and if overdone would spoil the whole design. This phase is like meditation, one need to forget every other thing in the world and concentrate on the design. One needs to be super patient with the veggies and spices while they do-the-dance together. Just be a silent spectator and keep your eyes and nose open as the moment the ‘chemicals’ start reacting, you will know that its done!

Things you learn
1.As the topic says – patience!
2.Self-analysis – you realize your mistakes and you note down where do you need improvement during this stage.
3.Overall, any design – if done with dedication – will give you happiness and cooking is one of such forms of art/design. I find cooking as a stress buster and a practice that a designer must always try to improve him/herself! I hope I am improving!

With some garnishing 

Special thanks to my friend Anuja Khokhani, whose cookery blogs inspired me to take up this art as a challenge. You can check her blog here.  

Celebration of Life

"Our journey on Earth is like a burning matchstick. We know that the matchstick will burn itself out once it reaches its end. But sometimes, all it takes is small gust of wind to extinguish the flame of life...! " - Rohan Thakur, Way Back Home

It’s another normal day but with a pinch of special treatment. The very same day – when you were brought to home (as if from a market) or dropped (by the gods) wrapped in white piece of cloth – that’s what mums tell us when we are young. Family and friends wish you and make you feel ‘special’ and eventually the day starts belonging to you! It is ‘your’ day after all and the mood is set up for celebration. It is very happy feeling which we are trained to experience since childhood. Well, ‘my day’ (almost always) used to be the first or the second day of the new academic year and thus I was pampered by new class teachers on the very first day – quite a good feeling indeed! But now, twenty six years after that happy day, things are not quite same. I find myself draped in some weird thoughts.

Why we celebrate Birthdays?

Of course its the anniversary of the day when you were born… when you inhaled oxygen for the first time, when you got 'life'...

So, on birthdays we are celebrating LIFE!

But then, what is life? Its a journey. A journey towards a definite destination. It’s a journey that has begun and will end, for everything that has been created will be destroyed. It’s a journey in which you do not travel alone; you are born as a kid and your parents, within the cover of their love, care and protection, help you reach a stage where you can talk and interact with other kids. There the first ‘connection’ of this journey is made – the relationship with your parents! This connection helps building you more connections when you are sent to school. In school you meet up several like-minded kids daily. There you start building up 'frequencies' with most compatible of the lot - you call them ‘friends’. With the help of these buddies you move on in your journey with much more ease and security. Then, as we grow up, the importance of 'gurus' come into play. Though, a 'guru' is a very indefinite post as anyone can be a guru (a teacher) but let us stick to the technical term for now. With the help of a guru you learn the 'basics' of life. A code of conduct (education) is given by these gurus, which if you follow during the journey of life, might turn you into a civilized human being. Being civilized means you are a part of civilization and thus thousands of people who are moving along with you in this journey of life, directly or indirectly, are connected to you in some or the other way. When you realize that you are supposed to be concerned with the society (civilization) as well, you come out of the bubble you were living in and your connections or circles grow even more. Some connections are emotional and thus strong as they are natural bonds; and others are professional, meaningful, meant to solve a purpose and thus remain weak but equally important for the journey. And one day you realize that in this journey of life, which you were supposed to walk alone, you are actually being accompanied by thousands of people, everyone connected to you somehow.

Thus, in fact, on birthday you are celebrating your life and you are also celebrating the relationships that you have gained till date - you are celebrating your childhood, your adolescence, your youth, your family, your friendships, your companions, etc. And maybe that’s why we celebrate it every year so that we can update our own 'bahee-khaata' (balance sheet) of relationships that have been added in.

That makes sense.

But, unknowingly, during this journey we grow 'attachments'. Attachment with those very same connections that you have been building till date. Attachment with those whose presence we celebrate every year on our own birthday. Attachment is a nice thing, it reminds you that people love you and care about you. One feels good to know that someone else values him more than anyone else. But then it comes with a feeling of insecurity. Attachment comes with a feeling of fear - fear of losing the ones you are attached to. Till date you have never traversed through the journey of life alone. No one does. At every step you have taken help from someone. That has made you 'dependent'. And thus you ‘fear’. You are afraid because you don’t know how to travel alone. One would never learn that throughout his life.

But one travels alone in death. People accompany them till a point 'jiske aagey koi sath nahin jaata' - The ultimate destination. Everybody in this journey is traveling to reach that point. Some call it moksha, some call it nirvana, and some wish to see jannat and some heaven. Everyone comes to life and travels so as to reach the same destination.

One attains this destination when he is freed from the bondages; bondages of life.

Wait, bondages? Where they came in from?

Q. What are the bondages?

A. The attachments B. The relationships C. The connections or D. All of them

Well, that brings us to the conclusion that on birthdays we actually celebrate our BONDAGES.

Then, there are different forms of bondages also. After being travelling in this journey for twenty six years one realizes his/her responsibilities towards other fellow travelers. Imagine it as a caravan. You are tired and you want to have some water and sit and relax somewhere under a tree but you cannot as the caravan won’t stop for you. Thus, if you want to 'celebrate life' (birthday) in a particular way, you cannot, as you are bounded by responsibilities.

So, another conclusion is that on birthdays we also celebrate our responsibilities, whether we wish to or not, we have to.

All in all, we celebrate!

Maybe we celebrate due to our responsibilities, bondages or even out of fear. We are afraid of the 'uncertainties' of this caravan. You don’t know when you'll have to leave the caravan or when others will leave it. ‘Leave’ is the wrong word. Actually, we are afraid of when the journey will be over. But this fear also starts diminishing as you carry on with this journey (or live for more years). The experience of life tells you how to react when someone else's journey is over. But then it gets complicated when someone else completes his journey before you do. It becomes difficult for those who are left behind to continue the journey.

But, if we know that all are moving towards one single ultimate destination then why we don’t celebrate it when someone reaches his destination? Why we don’t celebrate death? “One can see the 'celebration of death' in Banaras”, one of my friend recently told me. Fascinating! Isn’t it? We do not celebrate death as we, who are left behind in the journey, always find the death of other person 'untimely'. We feel that someone who left the journey before might have not reached his destination. Thus we repent the loss, for some time, and then we move on with the caravan.

We have mastered this art of ‘moving on'. So much so that we have particular set of days to feel sorrow. We know that any moment of this journey could be the last one and thus we celebrate things which value or cater directly to the 'moving' caravan. For, we don’t have any idea about what is happening with those who have completed the journey.

Under the influence of this 'anticipation' of what is going to happen next, we created birthdays. We ourselves designed a model where we celebrate life and not the death; we celebrate the beginning and not the end. As we celebrate death of only those whom ‘we’ think have reached their destination based on the number of years they traveled. In this model of celebration we celebrate everything that is worldly, which has been attained in this life. Thus all the things attained (materialistic or emotional) during this journey is celebrated on birthdays. This model also defines that the 'living' person is incapable of identifying or visualizing anything beyond this journey of life. Whatever we achieve, whatever we can see, everything that is 'known' is thus celebrated. On the other hand, everything mysterious, indefinite, unsolved remains as an imagination. Thus we celebrate all practical things as we find ourselves incapable of listening to our intellect (imagination).

The brain thinks consciously and sub-consciously - the mixture of practical and emotional. A child doesn’t think practically. An old person is also emotional - those who are near to the world of 'unknown' are emotional. One becomes practical only when one is travelling through life so as to understand and adjust to the needs of the caravan. As soon as you leave the childhood, a sense of being practical and responsible comes into force which stays till the age drops. Thus we celebrate practicalities and formalities on birthdays.

So, finally, being in the age of practicality I should celebrate my formalities too.

Together, today I am celebrating

LIFE – All my Relationships – friendships – responsibilities – bondages – uncertainties -  fears – practicalities – formalities – and of course the Journey itself

Usually I do not celebrate all these on my birthdays. Usually it is a pretty much ‘happy’ child like affair which ends up treating my dear ones and spending some time and talking to those who are close to me. This time, instead, my mind is celebrating the uncertainty of this journey called life. Unfortunately, I got to witness the ‘end’ of the journey of few dear ones in the past year. The attachments, the memories, the times spent, all goes for a six in one moment. One ‘moves on’ ultimately with the caravan. But the effect of those ‘untimely’ exits on those who were travelling along is unbearable. The uncertainty is cruel. And thus I wanted to mark down and register my state of mind on this day of my journey.

Today indeed I celebrate the lives of all those who are with me throughout this journey much more than I celebrate my own life. Reminds me of these lines –

“Zindagi ko bahut pyaar humne diya…

Maut se bhi mohabbat nibhayenge hum…

Rote – rote zamaane mein aaye magar,

Haste haste zamaane se jayenge hum…

Jayenge par kidhar, hai kise ye khabar,

koi samjha nahin koi jana nahin…!”