The difference
between good buildings and great buildings is that, good buildings are
appealing to the eyes, but great buildings tell you things you don’t know and
remind things you have forgotten. All buildings should strive to be great
because life is too short to walk through a dull-witted place. A building in
any place should reflect the perplexing variety of colous, shapes, thought,
form and spiritual ideas. Architects may be seen as people who just build
houses, but what good is a house when it is not a home? After all, home is
where the heart is, and with the heart comes a strong emotional connect. As
occupants grow, evolve, change with time. In this context, one of the biggest
challenges for architects today is to make structures that are future proof,
not only in terms of lifespan but also how it can seamlessly blend with change
in time.
In an era that is
increasingly dependent on digitalization and technology, a tendency to create a
sense of isolation arises. Architects and designers are starting to recognize
the intimate relationship an individual has with his or her immediate physical
surroundings. Maybe that’s why they say architects are now becoming poets,
creating indelible and reminiscent spaces that elicit various emotions within
us. Neutral architecture can be called aggressive and can make us feel isolated
from our environment. But in buildings that move us, there is an element of
care. It isn’t a question of whether a building makes us feel good or bad, it’s
about being moved. That’s what emotion actually is. We feel a sense of
involvement, passion and intensity. It is something that is sowed deeply and
will stay in our memories. Maybe that’s why people love visiting old towns and
beautiful villages, as they rekindle our nostalgia and infuse us to feel moved.
Movement in the built
space can be of two categories.
1. Contained movement
2. Represented
movement
Contained movement is
where it is not the architecture that is thought of as moving, but the eye,
mind or the imagined body or forces. For example, religious buildings,
historically significant or a place where something monumental happened in the
past, good or bad, that sparks emotions in you every time you see it. Like how
one look at The Taj hotel in Mumbai takes us back to that fateful day when
terrorism won over secularism.
Represented movement
on the other hand, is an implication or illusion that the architecture itself
is in motion. Pioneers in architecture like Zaha Hadid have mastered the art of
visually depicting motion in her buildings.
It is an architect’s
responsibility to make a personal connection with the environment to trigger
our memories and emotional responses. It is how well he or she can make
the space as interactive as possible. Architecture is known as frozen poetry
and music for many reasons. Principles like repetition and contrapuntal rhythm
are found to be undistinguished in both music and architecture.
Even as we try
to make buildings that are resistant to the future, we must consider the
dynamic world we live and the factors that would influence these changes.
Architects must consider all the constraints and try to overcome them in their
designs.
It is no secret that
there is an immense growth of population today. This leads to an augmenting
requirement of space which we lack. So there is a necessity in the way cities
organize their space. The concept of “More for less” is what is running the
market these days. The result is mixed-user space, that combines public and
private spaces to make living and working in an urban area easier for everyone.
Traditionally, cities are categorized into different zones such as residential,
commercial and industrial, but in mixed spaces, these functions are intermixed
on the same block. This concept makes cities more walkable and friendly,
keeping residents happier and healthier, both physically and emotionally
overall.
As the world is
becoming a technologically driven conglomerate, architecture must also adapt to
the changes that occur. Technology is the base for anything and everything
today, though people may argue that it isolates a person from the environment,
it is also responsible for life-changing interactions also. Technology creates
a problem and solves it also. A prime example is the improvement in security
today. As the crime rate is increasing, people are highly dependent on security
for safety of life and property. Nowadays, every building is essentially equipped with good security, like Dionisio Gonzalez’s imagined natural
disaster-proof homes. So here, technology just enhances the importance of the
structure.
When we are talking about good architecture, we must
consider its resistance to natural calamities. There have been numerous
cases here poor architecture resulted in
the destruction of houses even when there was a mild change
in climate. India has witnessed its fair share of buildings incinerated beyond
recognition during the times of crisis like the Uttarakhand floods ,the
2004 tsunami, the Chennai floods and most recently, the infamous Kerala
floods. So today, a lot of care is taken to make the building strong enough
to withstand such emergency situations
and also provide easy escape
routes for the people. Health is an important design value to consider as it is of paramount importance
that we have a healthy
living environment.
Concepts like
freestanding buildings,
distribution of sites to
maximize the distribution
of sunlight that
reaches individual structures, access to clean breathing air and natural ventilation in structures
and reduction of toxic
emissions through selection
of appropriate materials
are now being implemented in all buildings.
Innovation today, comes in many shapes, sizes and forms. Mobility of
structures is gaining popularity thanks to its compact nature and portability.
‘Houses on the go’ are becoming a fad in west. Flexible structures that can be
dismantled are also preferred these days.
Inviting nature in our spaces is a fool-proof way of bringing out an
interactive and emotional structure. Advances in sustainable technology have
given birth to so many amazing structures. One fine example is the pending
Zaryadye Park in Moscow, Russia, which is a
full park, replete with various micro-climates, held within an enclosed
glass building. The objective was to balance nature and culture, creating a
“Wild urbanism”, where both people and animals are welcome.
Eco-Friendly housing is the go-to solution to all the problems, be it
affordability, efficiency, availability and aesthetics. The common brick and
cement are being replaced with newly discovered materials. Materials like the
rice husk-ash concrete, mycelium, insulite, rammed earth, cross-laminated
timber, wool bricks and ferrock are some of the futuristic building materials
that are slowly revolutionizing the way people build houses. One can also
go old-school and use materials like mud
bricks, bamboo and clay that are
making a comeback in newly built
houses . These are locally available, which makes it cost efficient. When it comes to aesthetics, nothing beats a pretty green plant! Green walls
and terrace gardens are the
new fad, they not only keep your house
cool, they make you look cool too!
Architecture can influence us emotionally and physically through so many
factors like environment, technology, sociology and demography as elucidated
before. But this is how life at present works and how life in the future is
expected to be. But it is because of the monuments from the past that we have a
rich and vast indigenous resource today. More that the essence of the monument
or the religion or philosophy it represents, the very fact that it withstood
centuries and decades of mother nature’s wrath and still stands tall today is
what gives the endemic people a sense of pride and revered respect to their
ancestors. For instance, the Brihadeeshwara Temple in Thanjavur, Tamil Nadu,
India is one of the most celebrated monuments from the Chola Era and is a
UNESCO World Heritage site. It is a masterpiece that defied the law of nature
and still stands in all its glory. The very existence of the temple, let alone
it’s marvelous architecture invokes a sense of pride and love in anyone who
sees it. That is the omnipotence and paramountcy of architecture.
Every era of civilization is marked by a distinct style of architecture.
As Frank Lloyd Wright rightly put it, “Every great architect is-necessarily a great
poet. He must be a great original interpreter of his time, his day, his age.
Architecture is not just art, it is though, the mother of all arts, and a
defining characteristic of changing culture. By keeping an eye on new emerging
trends in architecture, we can catch glimpses of our future cities.
The changes the world has faced till now and will face
hereafter are multifarious, with architecture playing a
pivotal part in it.
As accurately put by
Frank Gehry, architecture should
speak of its time
and place, but
yearn for timelessness. Architecture is a very
powerful tool that is used to create very strong foundations in
the construction of change
and it will prove to be
very successful when
we, the architects of change, combine
mind and matter to come up with an exemplary output that glorifies
sustainability, harmony and peace for a bigger and better future.
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