Ek ruka hua Faisla

In a closed room, emerged a debate regarding capability to teach in a school of architecture in Bangalore. The dramatis personae included an eminent architect and design Chair, the principal,  the chief trustee, the Council of Architecture (COA) representative and supposedly respected academician, and a few others to add gravitas to the sombre settings.

Some snippets:

“…pardon my saying so, but this profile of this person indicates a rolling stone. Many job changes, two years at most in each job. How can one expect a commitment towards teaching?”

“…Maybe. But since I am a rolling stone, I have not gathered moss. There is an innate ability to relate various subjects with architecture, people and design in general. This wide angle view is necessary today. It is vital for a student to know that architecture does not begin and end with drawings”

 “This is all philosophical talk…I have given more than 20 years of my life to dedicated teaching, with commitment. The profession of architecture is now a specialized field. It is no longer the subject or craft of a time where an architect would design the door handles and the latches. In teaching architecture, one needs to be “focused” and “should get the class to focus” on the subject being taught at that moment. “If I am taking a class on Interior Design, I will talk only about Interior Design and not about urban design because it is not relevant. A student has to know what to specialize in…”

“I agree, yet disagree with what you say… Yes because a student has to know what is the relation of a subject/discipline with his /her role as an architect. No, because Architecture is now indeed so specialized, it is even more vital for an architect to know when and where to bring in a specialist and what to expect from them.  If we go by what you are saying, then we will have an architect who will design the building without cognizance of topography, accept the fact that its services will go haywire over the site. One day the sustainability consultant will come and show that the building is wrongly oriented and hence it will have huge energy impacts. The next day, the landscape architect will come and show that critical site features could have been sensitively woven into the design and trees need not have been cut. The third day, the structural engineer will come up and say that the bulk of the work will need expensive structural solutions because much of its going away from basic structural logic. And in the near future citizens will remark caustically about how one building can be so in-your-face and totally disrespectful of its context and surroundings. That is the architect who will emerge from compartmentalized education”.

“Show us your work”

“ These are projects I have worked on, in the offices I have worked in as you can see in the top right hand corner of every slide. They are not my projects since the copyright is with the respective offices. I have letters to show from the offices that I have worked on these projects. I am not claiming them as my projects. ”

“These are not your projects ?”.

“Then…what have YOU done? Show that.”

“I have completed these projects for these offices.”

 “I will sound pompous, but I have worked on these- Medical College, Superspeciality Hospital, Healthcare Township, Adaptive re-use of heritage estate, Masterplan for Urban revitalization of this precinct, Trauma Centre, Resort, temple, Slum Rehabilitation buildings…”

“OK…The projects are all about Conservation, Urban design, Landscaping, Low Cost housing etc. What is your strength in Architectural Design? You are not practising Architecture, so how can you say you can teach Architecture?”

“What can you teach?"

“I have taught services, Indian History, Construction, Basic design, Architectural design, Urban Design, Landscape Design, Theory of Design. Conducted study tours, workshops on large span structures and green buildings.”

“No…tell us ONE subject you can teach fully.”

“I realise I cannot teach. Thank you for your time, Gentlemen and Ladies”.

As Dylan sang...

How many years can some people exist, before they allowed to be free?

The answer my friend, is blowing in the wind, the answer is blowing in the wind.

But the questions remain...

Q1: Can Design exist without philosophy?

Q2: Is the education system  today capable of distinguishing between information and knowledge transfer?

 Q3: Is the architecture student of today so dumb that hand-holding becomes the essence of instruction? Or is it that the Faculty is playing it safe?

There is no answer. Or perhaps it is blowing in the wind.