Renaissance Idiot's ramblings

Manhattan New York as seen from a boat returning from Ellis Island by John Salatas, 15 April 2017. Retrieved from Wikipedia Commons. This essay is in continuation to reviewing A Place in the Shade by Charles Correa.  The essay starts by letting us know that Correa has become a part of the steering committee in the Aga Khan award. This opens him up to the contemporary outlook of the architectural professional.  Correa asks what the mythic image is, and the value it holds in the mind of the architect. In a way, it's an extremely helpful ruck sack of ideas and concepts that an architect relies on to come up with solutions for the design. But, at the same time, is a curse that limits the architect to critically look at the site and the context that needs addressing. Constantly with Correa, we see him value and fall back on this topic of site context and its climate. Correa refers to Islamic architecture and its spread to the east and how it moulded and reinvented itsel...

In 1956, a woman carries cement at Le Corbusier’s Capitol Complex, Chandigarh, India, in front of the Secretariat. Photograph by   Ernst Scheidegger, via Museum of Modern Art, New York. This is in continuation to reviewing Charles Correa's book, A Place in the Shade.   At 'Celebrating Chandigarh' symposium 2002, Correa finds himself talking and explaining about the need and the sheer stroke of genius that Corbusier was. And how lucky India was to invite and involve this great architect and visionary in its inception as a country. It is no doubt that Corbusier's involvement paved the path to all modern architecture in India but the amazing fact was that he respected India's culture, something Correa also values in his principals. Corbusier through this, was able to build the new architectural style that put India in the cutting edge of architectural marvels; where architects from around the world were trying to replicate this technology and design seen in...

(Above) Le Corbusier looking towards the High Court Building’s main façade. This is continuing the review of essays by Charles Correa in his book, A Place in the Shade.  To claim that Correa is a free thinker would be an understatement. The man can be both, a harsh critic and a benevolent supporter and for the case of Le Corbusier here, he is both Through Chandigarh's Capital Complex, Correa strips Corbusier of every layer showing every little sentiment the man shared in designing buildings and what he seemingly ignored in his quest. Corbusier had the task of making this newly independent country's newest city, all the while establishing the language of architecture for the coming future.  Correa introduces himself to the reader before the critique and praise of Le Corbusier, in a way that gives credibility to the man. From the ideals of climate, culture, material, design and more. Charles Correa is no preacher, but the embodiment of a practitioner with a rich set ...

As I sat down with a copy of the Place in the Shade and read the introduction text by Correa, it prepared for the journey through the thoughts of the Greatest Architect of India. Correa's words stand as strong as time itself as I would realise while reading this book. Knowing full well that I'll have to read this at different points of my life; and that with every read, Correa would tell me something new every time through those same string of words. Correa starts off the book with a superhero origin like story of the phenomena that unknowingly shaped him into the designer at the world knows him now as. Correa talks about the skill of imagination as a child customizing train tracks into complex layouts for his amusement and softly transitions to the topic of architectural design while traversing the topics of film, drama, Chinese gardens and interior design here we see Charles Correa, someone who has practiced and mastered the use of the Ritualistic Pathway talk abo...

The following are some thoughts and ramblings that went across my mind when reading the The New Landscape by Charles Correa. Picking this book up after my completion of the course of architecture was a huge tragedy. I can only imagine how much of a better sensitivity and realness my designs could have portrayed in their conception, which eventually were superficial at best. The book is rightfully said as a must read for every architect/planner willing to practice in India and the ideas and lens of critical thinking are a boon to the profession.  The fact with building the urban world is the higher density that comes along with it. And to bring this to reality, to build forms of over 4 stories, exponentially increases the cost of construction due to the use of RCC. This ultimately marks the price of housing to rise leading to the outcome being only  affordable to the upper and middle class, forcing the lower class to move to the street.  Indian cities, for exam...