Celebrating Habitat - exhibition

After loads of effort, finally this Sunday I made it to the much talked about exhibition of Master Architect Doshi. ‘Celebrating Habitat’, at National Gallery of Modern Art, Delhi is a retrospective of the Architect’s life hence his projects. I have been to a handful of architectural exhibitions before – in college life mostly – and always ended up finding myself a bit more curious and a bit more incapable of ‘understanding’ the projects from wall-hung plans, sections and few complementary models. This was one of the reasons why I got interested when a friend of mine came up with the idea for his thesis where he wanted to connect people with architecture through ‘exhibiting architecture’. 

This exhibition is a bit different. The ‘recreated’ spaces are the USP and you know it the moment you enter the hall. Greeted by a low-height ceiling a sense of intimacy created by space gropes you in. The exhibition allows you to move freely as the projects are not arranged chronologically. The scale and size of that ‘model’ pushes you to look for its ‘real’ counterpart. And there, on the right, you see a life-like photograph of the Architect’s residence with the plans and model. And there only you discover the actual implementation of the low-height ceiling and the small intimate space. That very moment, you know… this is different!

On the right hand side, you find another private residence project done by the architect and few sketches accompanied by a note written by him. As photography is prohibited in the exhibition (thank god), thus what I could carry back from there were only few notes/writings mentioned at different places. (Confession: These notes actually helped me to understand and relate to the exhibition in a much better way) The sketches were done by his grand-daughter (also the curator of this exhibition) in childhood, I guess. The note that accompanied them read, “Become like a child… and break free from normal conventions.” Here he was inspired by the drawing of a face drawn by his grand-daughter and thus decided to become a child whenever he works on a project – every time, think like a child, as if you have not done anything like it before, break free from what the education has bounded you with, and start from scratch… every time. This very note was enough to be considered as a souvenir from the exhibition.

A quick glance on the paintings done by him (handmade perspective views in a painting – I mention that with a feeling of awe and surprise) and a collage of ‘local’ pics with a quote written on top, “Indian lifestyles are like blotting paper. Simultaneously local and global, holistic and sustainable…”

Then the masters of the master – Corbusier, LIK, Tagore and Gandhi. A green backdrop with their photographs and quotes, I managed to note a few.

Corbusier – “Remember. Every morning you are born in the skin of a donkey…”

LIK – “search for spiritual in architecture…”

Tagore – “look for viswa bharti. Be a part of nature and build around nava rasaas…” (This is something I still have to google, thus have no idea what it means..)

And this was followed by a model of the exhibition area mentioning what is where, again with a note by him, “this is not an exhibition of an architect but an exhibition of an artist who sees all the stages of place, bldg at one glance.” Indeed, what he said could be easily seen and felt. What I found ironic was that Corbusier being his mentor, one can easily find traces of his style in Doshi sir’s work – but what puts them apart from each other is the fact that Corbusier was an artist who designed buildings… and Doshi sir, we know him as an architect and he calls himself an artist! Interesting. Indeed there is a very thin line between both these practices.

Then the projects – NIFT, Delhi, Sangath – plans, models, sketches, drawings – and people who came with ‘families’ found it difficult to understand and created nuisance and demanded for somebody to explain ‘something’ to them. (Thanks to the girl present there who actually explained everything to them, phew, hectic job!) Suddenly after this minor episode I read on the wall in front, “There is no greater teacher than intuition…” and I smiled to myself. The ‘forced perspective’ tunnel that was recreated with Sangath’s model is an incredible effort to create the ‘experience’ of scale/space. Experience can only be felt. It is not something that can be ‘explained’. This is a step ahead in ‘exhibiting architecture’.

Then few steps take you to the Hussain-Doshi gufa (a.k.a. amdavad ni gufa) and CEPT corner. Again, a wonderfully recreated space with the help of photographs and actual space is commendable. I haven’t been to CEPT yet, but could feel how that particular part of the building would actually be. Moved on with other projects and a door designed by him, strategically placed in between the hall. Small cutouts in the wall also gave the glimpse of other projects showcased behind it, creating a relationship and continuity. The next installation bowled me over.

The Intangible city, a collage of plans of all the townships done till date by the architect placed as a plan of a city itself with a river flowing through it. Previously, on a wall one of his quotes had mentioned how he feels like a river flowing in search of sea and how his architecture defines his life. Suddenly I felt smashed by the enormous quantity of brains that he might have put in to create something like that! With this kind of ‘introduction’ to his planning capabilities one can now see the details of these townships. Vidyadhar nagar, LIC housing, Aranya… with very interesting sketches and an intelligent interactive model of Aranya showing the possibilities and permutations and combinations of housing plan. A wonderful conceptual diagram explaining the stages from encroachment to urbanization explains everything. As I have been working on participatory housing planning/designing for Dharavi, I found a line written on wall catchy, “Participatory communities with choices to grow and build.”

A quick glance on the assembly building project and a residence – again with to scale model of the ‘otla’ and staircase with four columns recreated. The ‘journey’ ended in the central space created by four columns, like a vedi, replicating a sitting space in the Architect’s own residence. Saw the movie ‘Retrospective Film on Architect B. V. Doshi’ before leaving the exhibition.

Overall it is an experience one must have.

Short film -
                                 

P.S. One might not be able to understand the ‘experience’ of a space in a photograph, but photographs can actually help you understand this article in a better way. So click the link - Photos of the Exhibition by Dinesh Mehta