HOW WAS C-51 REDESIGNED Continued......

Therefore: regardless of who a house is for, in the urban format, more than what one should include in the design-criteria, one should exclude, which is when designing an urban house starts to become a soul-search as much as it is taught to be in schools of architecture the world over since times immemorial.

No doubt, that while 50 years ago soul-search was cultural-correctness, today it is a necessity. “What makes one tick?”  or  “What is it that one can’t live without?”, if such questions can be answered without conflict,  as a  client  one  has  done  one’s best to help one’s architect help oneself.

Here is how I decided on WHAT TO DESIGN?

Best  expressed  in  an  imagined  dialogue  between  Me  the  owner  [O]  and  me  the  architect [A]:

• AWhats wrong with just continuing to live in the existing house?
• OIt is not beautiful. Doesn’t have much character.
• ADescribe what is character. (PAUSE) What is beautiful?
• O(TRIES TO PUT IT IN WORDS)
• AOkay, we’ll come to that later. (PAUSE) From what I  have  gathered,  you  should  be prepared to get poorer by 50 lacks.
• OI can push with a loan.
• A(PAUSE) And how do you pay off the loan?
• OSell a part..
• ASo we are talking of building at least 2 units?
• OYes.
• ANot necessarily equal?
• ONot necessarily equal.
• ANot necessarily identical?
• ONot necessarily identical.
• ATo    pay off   50 lacs,    you   need to sell the smaller unit.
• OI suppose so…………
• ABetter to design the GF as the smaller one in that case.
• OWhy?
• ABecause it would be better to sell the GF.
• OWhy?
• ABecause we all walk through the ground floor to get to the floors above. Right?
• ORight.
• ABe  it  India,  be  it  the  most  developed  part of the world, there is no getting to the top without walking through the bottom. Okay? So, comparatively, the ground floor is always more disturbed than the rest of the building.
• OBut what about the lawn?
• AFrom all that you have told me,  the  only  thing  desirable  that the GF has that the top floor does not, is the lawn.
• OYes.
• ASo if the lawn comes to the 2F as well, the picture is complete?
• OYes.
• AFine then, that settles it.
• OLawn at the top is not a problem?
• AIt is.
• O???
• ABut in    a new    building    it is possible to implement all the solutions to such an acquired problem.
• OWhat are those solutions?
• AWater disposal to begin with.
• ONot water proofing?
• AThat’s next. (PAUSE) First you make sure you accumulate no water. It should all flow down without having to be pushed.
• OBecause rain will fall when I am asleep and rain will fall when I am away…………?
• AThat’s right.
• OThe rest is taken care of by water proofing?
• AThe “wetness” to be precise, is taken care of by water proofing.
• OSo what we plan is to build the ground floor to sell…………
• ALet the staircase that takes you to the first floor begin from a lobby from where the GF flat is entered into and let that lobby be the entrance lobby       to     the building also.  Let  the stairs then pause  after a single flight on the FF in  another lobby. Let the person who arrives in this lobby be  faced  with  2  doors---one  to the office room and one to the apartment.
• OA duplex apartment?
• AYes. Two bedrooms on the first floor, another and a study on the 2F. Let the main kitchen be on the 2F with the dining also there. Let the hall on the FF be just a formal drawing room.
• OWhat about adding a kitchenette on the FF?
• AAdd it.
• OSo really   what    is  developing here is  a  space  that  can  separate  as a 2 bedroom flat if needed?
• AWith the office space maintaining an independent entry from the FF lobby, that overlooks the single flight staircase going down to the GF…………
• OSo  the  apartment-combinations  possible  here  are the whole FF & 2F as a grand duplex with a lawn on the 2F and a separate office space on the FF and…………
• AAnd when the split comes, it comes just by way of the stairs that lead from the FF to 2F being entered into from a third door on the FF lobby.
• OThe same lobby into which the stairs from the GF had ended?
• AThat’s right.
• O(LONG PAUSE) So now with basics taken care of, the soul is free to exist?
• AWhat do you think?
• OI think that is so.
• AWhen the soul is free, so is the building.
• OFree for?
• AFree to be beautiful.
• OYou make it sound as if the building is human.
• ASince I am a man, I can only think its a woman.
• O(LAUGHS)
• AThe services of a building are the fitness regime of a beautiful woman. It is what she eats and what she drinks and how much exercise she needs in routine.
• OThat organizes her?
• AExactly. Once organized, she is ready to be ready.
• O(SMILES)
• AShe has to strike a pose and wear some clothes.
• O…………
• AThe pose she will   assume will   be the form of the building. In (modern) architecture, anorexic has no minus points. Anorexic is equal to minimalistic and minimalistic is the most challenging form of beauty. Beauty when beauty is defined as it always was classically----the state of being true to form, true to promise, mysterious, but always resulting in surprise and discovery. And unwasteful. Never contrived.
• O…………
• AThe clothes she wears are bare necessities.     Those     are finishes clad on to the building.
• OThen what about the natural finishes?
• AThat’s pure flesh. The skin of the woman.
• OThere is no matching that.
• AThere is no matching that.
• O……………
• ANo fabric can rise above it. It can at best, equal it. No cladding can rise above it. It can at best equal it.
• O…………
• ABut what rises above both kinds of finishes, is the form of the building, the sculptural part, the pose of the woman, the proportions.

----------------