Architects press for more creativity

The art of 'fusion' is making its existence felt in nearly every field today including interior designing and architecture.

Using the traditional architecture forms from several historical countries in a new form with upgraded technology, has come up as the choice of the time, explained Dean D'Cruz, the Goa-bases architect at the lecture series of architecture organised by Ambuja Cement Eastern limited.

According to Kapil S Bhalla - partner and principal architect of Mumbai based Studio for Environment & Architecture (SEARCH) , the scope of innovative work is high in India today.

"The general awareness regarding architecture and interior designing has significantly risen in India since the last few years both at corporate and individual level", said Bhalla.

Bhalla designed the recently launched restaurant called 'Sourav's ' in Kolkata.

"The major idea behind this form of art is to reflect the ideology, activity and character of the client and that has been followed also in the skipper's (Indian cricket team) restaurant", added Bhalla. Cruz though presented a bit different picture regarding the Indian market.

"Though the awareness among the general people is increasing but there still exist a lot of inflexibility among individuals. People often land up with their own plans and is little left in the hand of the architects " he explained.

He stressed against the general belief that this type of professional service for residential establishment is beyond the capacity of general people.

"The usual practise is to charge a fixed per cent of the total cost of construction "" it ranges from 8-10 per cent", he added.

Cruz further pointed that with the emergence of more technical courses in areas like information technology (IT), there has been a steady decline in the number of quality students for studies in architecture.