Having a 2 years experience in practical field of architecture in India, the academic knowledge we share during our 5 years bachelors is completely different from that we come across in our working style, its not about technical aspects of the architecture but the approach to the project. As in our bachelors course of architecture we have economic as a subject were we been taught how a projects responds to a particular context were it respond to the users in and around the building it might be at a micro level or urban level. Architecture in India is a sway from the western culture, its more of statement of architect’s perspective than context based approach. Though sustainability in architecture is not an alien thing but in the roots in old Indian Architecture.
In India we have paradox perspective in architecture were some relate to define architecture for the people were as some are just driven away to increase the cost of construction and getting out with whole some percentage of amount from it. From my personal perspective main part of sustainability starts once the building is constructed , it should be made self sustainable for entire life span of the building and also design in such a way so it can inculcate new inventions. The west is no place to look for inspirations or solutions. We will have to evolve our own patterns of development and physical growth, our own methods and materials of construction and our own expression of foregoing. This realization should create a sense of vacuum and because of the poignancy of the feeling of vacuum, architects should start looking in different directions for various answers. It is the contention of these farsighted that we architects, with a hard nosed realism, that in such kinds of dense developments, with simple methods of construction and conventional low cost materials, when laid out in a planned manner, that we will find the answer urban housing for our really poor masses.Prefabrication has potential in large scale housing, large span structures and industrial buildings on anywhere were repetitive units can be employed. But so far in India, industrialization of the building industry has not made great headway for lack of technological infrastructures to support it, therefore its influence is only limited to fascination of imagery. However, one aspect of technology that can be successfully applied in architecture is invention and manufacture of new building materials from industrial waste to replace the traditional building materials like steel and cement of which there are tremendous shortages.
A Scenario to think upon !!
Posted in Aditya Kadabi, Economics of Sustainability Comments closed
Cities infrastructures are networks, functional networks that allow the connected buildings to make optimal use of their design. A building could stand alone, but if separated from the city infrastructure, it becomes more like a sculptural object., it would segregate its inhabitants from the rest of the city and produce exclusion in social and economical terms. Separating mobility from transit and expectations and incentives from people is a problem of the same essence, it is like ignoring a certain potential that if integrated in the “living organism” that the city is could be a source of richness.
Medellin, colombia@gondolaproject.com
Posted in Economics of Sustainability, Michele Braidy Comments closed
Architecture: For growth or sustenance?
The answer to our problems lies with buildings. Do you actually believe you can separate buildings out from the infrastructure of cities and mobility of transit and the expectations and incentives of people?
It is off course naive to state that solving “buildings” can solve the economic problems that we face today. Nonetheless, buildings(or built environments) are to a city what particles are to matter. They make up the city and therefore cannot be isolated from the urban fabric. The life of a city lies in the activities that takes place in it and buildings harbor a large percentage of them. While designing a building we need to look at its context within the complex urban scenario. It is no new knowledge that a pedestrian friendly city is more livable but to do so, one must perform thoughtful design interventions within the existing urban conditions from the basic level ie; at building scale instead of just starting a whole new development from scratch in total isolation.
Posted in Economics of Sustainability, Remita Thomas Comments closed
Happiness and Architecture
It is very tempting to seduce ourselves, as architects or as anybody keen on architecture or otherwise involved in the design process that the answer to our problems lies with buildings. Do you actually believe you can separate buildings out from the infrastructure of cities and mobility of transit and the expectations and incentives of people?
It is undeniable that architecture has a certain contribution to the problems that we face today. Architecture creates a sense of place of a city. We can recognize a city by just looking at the architecture. It is an intimate relationship between human and architecture. We travel from one building to another and eventually the one that we call a ‘home’ to reside. It is a sense of belonging that supports the expectations and incentives of the inhabitants. The way the buildings are designed and placed in a city can project a potentially huge impact on the society. As the logics of ‘Emergence’ indicates, how people use the infrastructure and various elements in the city (which is affected by the buildings around) and produce ‘swarm behaviour’ is the base of a successful metropolitan. The result is doomed to be slow and almost impossible to discern in a short term. Unfortunately with the development of technology in most of the urban cities nowadays, we get so much of ‘advancement’ that we skip a lot of connections that form the basis of a healthy
Posted in Economics of Sustainability, Wen Shan Foo Comments closed
Thoughts..
As architects tend to see things holistically, I think focusing on buildings instead of urban infrastructure is like working on a detail of a wind for example. Building planning is a detail of a bigger plan, in that case urban infrastructure. Even though architects do not design cities as a whole, the tend to connect the urban environment to the building itself or even focus more and connect to components and details of the building. So my thinking is that the connection between urban environments and buildings is not a first degree connection but architects tend to achieve it and try to shape the bigger picture with smaller parts.
Why people tend to think that a profitable project for a developer, does not have a good impact to the community warfare? My opinion is that people tend to look things superficially and locally, not holistically. A better change in the economy of a community in my opinion is strongly based on how holistically people thing. To elaborate, people think that a profitable project for a developer has a good impact only on the developer itself. If people would think more holistically, they would think the impacts of all of the decisions the developer took and the impact all of those actions had in the community.
Posted in Apostolos Marios Mouzakopoulos, Economics of Sustainability Comments closed