Role reversal

Architects are experts in building, but inhabitants are experts at dwelling. Himanshu Burte visits three buildings in which the design was led by the owners

Homeowners often claim to have designed their houses themselves. Occasionally, but not always, they credit the architect or designer with just ‘drawing the blueprints’ or ‘supervising the workers’.

Architects and interior designers are resigned to cracking wry jokes about this easy erasure of their professional role, so unlike that of other professionals like doctors. After all, designing a building or even an interior space coherently is a learnt skill. Clients normally lack such training, even if occasionally some might have the talent. So the unhappiness of professional designers at being robbed of credit is legitimate.

But are there also projects where the client’s design and institutional vision has really made an equal if not greater contribution to the way a building turns out? Surprisingly, there are many examples, like the three presented here, none of which is a house.

How can a layperson match an experienced professional in the complicated task of architectural design? Broadly because design and building are collaborative acts, whether we know it or not. Each player has unique strengths, which can complement the other’s strengths and compensate for his or her weaknesses.

Broader vision of need
Some clients conceive of a project to answer a broad social need. They imagine the functional requirements and architectural qualities not as usual but with reference to that vision. Prithvi Theatre, Mumbai is one example. The client — the late Jennifer Kapoor — had a clear vision of an inexpensive space for performance that would also be a refuge of sorts for theatrewallas and would allow for creative experimentation. She found in Ved Segan a skillful and receptive architect, and together they created a little gem of a place whose impact on the national cultural scene is way greater than its small footprint.

The school in Imphal described below is another example. It had to have a children’s park open to the public after hours because the client, Braja Bidhu, saw that as an important need in a very anxious city lacking such amenities.

Expert in use
Architects might be experts in building, but inhabitants are experts at dwelling. Specialist architects are a new phenomenon — users have been building or designing for themselves for thousands of years. Clients who build a project for a specific personal use often understand their own spatial needs more richly than any architect. A sympathetic architect can, of course, listen and interpret these needs into a customised brief for design. When the needs are unique, the answering architecture can also be unique.

Adishakti’s theatre below is an example of how an experienced theatre director can have a vision for her own theatre that is unlike any usual theatre. Such a client is also more empathetic towards the unspoken needs and desires of other users of the space.

In the Imphal school, the client personally worked on painting each brick in the wall a slightly different colour to create a vibrant atmosphere attractive to kids.

Limits of professional knowledge
Like all professionals, architects have limits to their knowledge about their own discipline. There are design devices they have never tried, or new materials they have missed hearing about. Clients often do much research related to some aspect of architecture they find fascinating and can provide valuable inputs. It is then upto the architect to run with them and produce something that he or she may not have produced alone. Such is the case with the Bharati Vidyapeeth’s Institute of Environment Education and Research, Pune, whose polymath director suggested unusual, sensible and effective provisions for sustainable comfort in the design.

ADISHAKTI, AUROVILLE
Theatre design in India suffers from poorly designed performance facilities. So, a few years ago, eminent director Veenapani Chawla, like many others, decided to design and build a theatre that suited her creative vision. Vasudev Akkitham, a practising architect in faraway Thrissur, worked with her to build what is a cross between a lofty cathedral and an intimate Koothambalam (the traditional wooden temple theatre in Kerala). This theatre could not have been built without Chawla’s unique vision. It is unlike any other theatre. And yet all kinds of theatre, music and dance performances and workshops by internationally renowned artists have been staged here with great artistic success.

BVIEER, PUNE
Surgeons do not normally conduct architectural experiments successfully. But Dr Erach Bharucha is no ordinary surgeon. A renowned biodiversity expert, he runs the Bharati Vidyapeeth University’s Institute of Environment Education and Research in Pune. When he built this modest facility, designed by Vijaya Yadav, for conducting outreach and post-graduate training programmes he decided it would be a more sustainable building than usual.

Most significantly, he implemented a simple induced ventilation system, little used in India, which ensures comfortable interior temperatures at the height of summer. In the administrative block, an interior courtyard has a polycarbonate roof which heats up the space below by trapping the heat of the sun. The hot air in the courtyard rises up and activates extractor fans in the roof, while pulling in cool air through the windows into the rooms along the courtyard. The auditorium is most remarkable. Its RCC floor rises up from the ground on stilts and draws up cool air from the shaded space below through holes in the floor. This air circulates through the auditorium and rises out through external exhaust shafts. This system, a substitute for air-conditioning, saves large amounts of energy and money. Bharucha has also installed solar fountains and photovoltaic panels and converted a nearby debris dumping ground into a mini forest attracting vibrant bird life — which is useful for his teaching and research.

KIDS’ FOUNDATION, IMPHAL
This little primary school stood out from the atmosphere of fear and neglect that marked Imphal when I visited in 2007. It was started in 2005 by Braja Bidhu, a local businessman. Bidhu had an unusual programme for the school. Apart from classrooms, it has a children’s park open, at a nominal fee, to city children accompanied by adults. It also has a studio for an artist-in-residence who works with the kids. Bidhu had a specific vision for the design. He wanted curved forms as well as lots of colour. Local architect Bhavananda Singh produced an elegant form. Then the resident artist and Bidhu painted each brick in various pastel shades to create a wonderful shimmering wall surface reminiscent of the Impressionists. Producing that shimmer involved work. The bricks were specially manufactured with grooves on their surfaces. The long face of each brick is broken up into smaller squares so that three colours fit on one long brick face. The crowning detail was the popular birdcage in the verandah-corridor.