How architecture has changed !!!

Architectural Boom in India

Can all of us build the Taj for our beloveds?

In most case, we may want to but do we have the means to do so?

What if we could?

Well, the whole plant would be turned into a cemetery with ghost giving company to the living!

What then is the reason for this apparent “inability”?

The list of reasons is long with one major change being the way architecture itself has undergone a sea change.  

Architectures of the ancients had two things in common. They had passion and expression…..and plenty of money and resources. What they did not have which evolution and constraints have handed down to us is the use of Technology. Technology in every sphere be it designing to usage of unheard-of materials to newer methodology to R&D has seen to it that we now have structures which would not have been possible a few centuries back. We can now dream of a kilometer-high building!!!

Another reason for change has been the change in our lives from hunter-gatherers to farmers to small-town or village dwellers to a global citizenry. Democracy has seen to it that all or none are kings. Our homes, offices, spaces and utilities now reflect this global truth of equality. Inequalities though not as stark as before are increasingly getting erased due to availability of resources ie money.

Geologists say that our Mother Earth seems to be at its quietest in the last 6 lakh years which directly affects the number of deaths due to natural calamities. More humans on the plant means lesser space per person on the ground. Where does one go? Upwards. High rises are thus the order of the day. The past and its technologies to do with Architecture are of no use here. One is left to devise new ways to harness material and nature so as to make spaces high up in the air. 

A high population and advent of a political system which gives us all equal rights means that in addition to houses which go vertical, other structures like roads, rails, dams, factories etc need to be made in ways which give optimum returns to us humans for the price incurred. This, again means we walk into the unknown as there is no great body of knowledge to guide us from the past. We create history as we go along which is very much the case with Architecture. A case in point? China. It has built some of the most radical structures which till the recent past was thought to be impossible like the Three Gorges Dam and the Lhasa Railwayline.

Pune, part of the Industrialized western belt of India, is an area of humongous growth, both industrial and residential. Being endowed amply with water, air, sunshine and good earth, it is one hotspot most Indians covet to occupy in some form or the other be it a bunglow, a flat, a row house or any other idea one can think of. Being the cultural capital of Maharashtra (as opposed to the commercial capital, Mumbai), it has always been a city of the educated and cultured to whom besides the rest, aesthetically designed homes was always an absolute necessity. Keeping pace with times, architechts inPune like Soverign Architects, have always been an intrepid lot ready to take up any challenge that seems interesting and challenging.

Where you still dream of having your very own Mahal (with or without the Taj!), you sure know where to go!

Happy constructing!!