Renaissance Idiot's ramblings

 Gun House as built in 1960, copyright Charles Correa Associates, courtesy of Charles Correa Foundation * After wrapping up my fellowship at the Charles Correa Foundation in Panaji, Goa, I needed a time-off to think about what I was going to do next. After listening to about a hundred different versions of my future from everyone around me, and disagreeing with all of them, I returned back home only to quickly elope to Gujarat for a well-earned time off. Amongst the places I got to visit & the people I got to spend time with, one experience took centre stage for me. Working on the Correa Archive, I had developed a good understanding of Correa’s work. One such was the Gun House, and knowing I will be so close to it on this trip; I had to make it a must to go and see it. The idea of the Gun House, from its name, shape, to the stories of its current fate brought tremendous interest to my mind. It is rare to see a work of a significant architect that goes through such massive deg...

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...