The YinYang Entrance Plaza

Concepts

Buildings

Interiors

Residences

Process of Design

Most exciting part in the process of design is when the requirements are in front of me and I try to make sense out of the written ones and the few unwritten ones.

Only a part of the requirements will be put out and the rest are for you to figure out. And there will be subtle but strong messages about the taste, background and architectural exposure of the client.

Once you have this understanding of the project where you know what is expected out of you (which is not often so easy!), the design follows / flows…!

The project above is an entrance gateway design for a Naga client, who didn’t know what to expect. He had a picture with him; the picture of an entrance arch which he saw somewhere.

In this case, the client's exposure to architecture was limited to the few recollections of Naga Architecture (refer image). Also noticed that the image he shared was slightly monumental in scale and was quite modern. That’s when I hit the bull’s eye!

The idea to recreate the Naga feel in modern clean lines took off from there and at the end of it all, I got a happy client!

Hitler's Architecture

Did you know that Adolf Hitler in his early years, earned a living by using his artistic skills to produce paintings that were sold to the public or used for postcards?

Hitler studied fine arts, music, opera, painting, sculpture and architecture. While living in Vienna under conditions of poverty, he read voraciously and spent whatever meager income he had to attend lectures, concerts, opera, and the theater. Even when he barely had enough money to survive he refused to compromise and always purchased the best paints, brushes, paper, and canvas.

As a remarkably prolific artist, he is estimated to have created between 2000 and 3000 drawings, watercolors, and oil paintings. His artistic talent revealed itself at an early age and continued painting and drawing throughout his life. Even while behind the front lines in World War 1, he continued to paint in his spare time and contributed instructional drawings and cartoons to the military newspaper.

His art continued throughout his leadership of Germany and included detailed building plans, furniture design, city planning, and monuments. Hitler considered the lack of architectural standards to be a serious problem. The words below are his thoughts on city character:

“In the 19th Century our cities began to lose the character of cultural centers and became simply human settlements.

When Munich was a city of 60,000, it wanted to be one of the major German centers of culture. Today nearly every industrial city claims this honor, usually without being able to show any significant accomplishments of its own. They are nothing more than collections of houses and apartment buildings.

How can such an insignificant place have any appeal? No one will have particular loyalty to a city that lacks any individuality at all, that avoids anything resembling art.

Even the big cities are becoming poorer in real works of art even as they increase in population.

The modern era has done nothing to increase the cultural level of our big cities. All the glory and treasures of our cities are the inheritance of the past.”

Architecture!

Architecture is

*Creativity *******Applicability*

*Responsibility ***CoMMitment*

*Opportunity ****Destiny*

Architecture IS•