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.  

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!

Books for Urban Design

A quick guide for the Urban Design Studio. We were introduced to the subject of Urban Design by Razdan Sir when he started taking the ‘The theory of Town Planning’ subject for us and learning from someone like him is like diving into the ocean of information and knowledge. Though we stuck to the syllabus in that semester but Sir kept telling us about good books of Urban Design. But ‘how theory could help us design’, this was another quest, which was answered in eight and ninth semester when we actually started working on an Urban level studio. At this time, Aditya Sir added on few more good reads to the 'list'. Also, Urban Design is an all new language in design and thus to learn and understand a new language you must be aware of its basics, I feel.

Recently, one of you asked me for some inspiration for Urban Design and I realized that I should share the list of books (some I have read myself and some I know are good) with you guys so that you can dig into something right for the subject.

So, here we go, My favorite 10 UD books. (in random order)

1.  The Image of the City – by Kevin Lynch

2. A Pattern Language – by Christopher W. Alexander

3. The timeless Way of Building – by Christopher W. Alexander

4. Urban Design Handbook: Techniques and Working Methods – by Urban Design Associates

5. Good City Form  - by Kevin Lynch

6. Design With Nature – by Ian L. McHarg

7. The Death and Life of Great American Cities – by Jane Jacobs

8. The Theory of Good City Form – by Kevin Lynch

9. Urban Design (Series) – by Cliff Moughtin

10. The Architecture of Town and Cities -  by Paul D. Spreiregen

Well, these will help you for sure. Moreover, you can also look for the How Buildings Learn Series (videos by Stewart Brand) . Those who are interested to read in depth about architecture in ancient India can get a copy of Architecture of Manasara for themselves. There are nine volumes of the same but I have seen and read (partially) the Seventh Volume till now.

All the best.