I was recently invited to Trichy, Tamil Nadu, by the Department of Architecture, NIT Trichy for a event titled Archcult 2019, an inter-collegiate event that has participation of more than 60 architecture colleges. I was invited as a guest speaker and to also conduct a workshop titled ‘Scrapyard Architecture’.
The theme of the guest lecture series was ‘voices’ and I was thrilled at the opportunity to speak up about finding my voice in architecture and beyond!
Remember how we all literally find our voice when we are born. We cry and as infants often use that cry to be heard or get what we want.
As we grow from infants to children we become silent observers as we soak in the experiences that become a part of our lives. These impart values that come from our parents, grandparents, family and others. These values guide us as we become adults. From these we understand the right from wrong, the truth from lies, the good from bad.
And just like in our ordinary lives, as professionals too, as architects, we strengthen our values that we will uphold when we practice as architects. How are these imbibed and practiced?
As a child I remember being a silent observer to nature and it’s magic when I would follow my father in his routine explorations in our ancestral village of Mashem, Canacona. I have fond memories of growing up in Panjim running freely in the fields, on rocky beaches and Altinho hill.
The sounds of the sea, the shade of the mangroves, the salt in the air near salt pans, petrichor, cow dung on the floor, the wealth of the khazans. I had not learnt about it in books, nor had my father ever told me about these in detail. We had simply experienced all of these. It was only later that I gained knowledge about how khazans were built by our ancestors more than thousands of years ago and have now been recognized as our safety barrier against floods and climate change. About fantastic architects in nature – the fiddler crabs and mud lobsters building deep tunnels under the bunds in the khazans, the pagoda ant nest and how the extremely stingy ants allow the rufous woodpecker to use it’s nest for it’s babies, about otters and how they love to poop together as they stay together!
When in college, there were instances where my seniors and colleagues inspired me to practice certain values in support of equality and justice.
It was only after I had graduated that I had a taste of real practice as an architect and discovering my skills in conducting myself as a professional. Whilst working briefly after graduation with Arch Ramesh Bandekar, there were 2 instances that influenced me. One was speaking up against illegal hill cutting for building and the second was when I had to engage with the mason and his family who were living on one of the construction sites. When I had to regularly check on them, I became aware of their challenges and could therefore guide and help them far beyond what a regular architect’s job entailed.
During my early years of setting up my practice of design and build, there were many situations where my knowledge, convictions and experienced were questioned and challenged. But my grounding in values both in my childhood and pre-adult life helped me in pushing the boundaries of my architectural practice and to lay a strong foundation for my work beyond architecture.
Books in school or college don’t really teach us all, but our mentors and practical work do nurture us with the right values and grounding.
At Archcult’19 in Trichy, I loved interacting with the students after the lecture and looked forward to the workshop. My colleague Vishal Rawlley led the workshop on architecture from waste and the rest of our team of architects and interns facilitated as leads to each of the participating groups. And my supermen in tow Vikram and Varun chipped in where ever needed. The outcome was super. Architect Pratiksha Budavi led her team to create a cool hang out semi circular space made from waste cycle tyre rims and discarded pipes. Each of the circular rims were detailed with thin paper rolls, ropes/ cloth cords woven to form interesting patterns. True to her innate passion there were also a couple of garden plants saved in pots hanging at the entrance. Her team was super dexterous and worked over the two days to complete the structure. Architect trainee Kirti Rathore led her team to create a warm cocoon of a space that seemed like a labyrinth of sorts. Beginning at a V-shaped entrance leading into a series of short sections with screens made from different items of waste eventually leading to the cocoon lined with soft grass, hay and a large crate box one could crawl into or sit on!
Elisha Fernandes our second intern, with her usual grace got her team to collect old used leaf plates, bicycle rims and spokes and bamboo. Over the two days, the location for the proposed structure looked like a pile of scrap with all the participants working hard sorting and tying individual components.
Yatharth, our third intern who works magic with his hands had dreamed up a jaali canopy with his team. They made a kind of light weight screen of pipe circles tied with binding wire.
Vishal’s team was very skillful, like him, as they tied used plastic bottles of different sizes and shapes together with rubber strips making an interesting triangular canopy that cast celestial patterns on the ground. This canopy was tied to the orange post with radiating benches that was made by my team using pipes, binding wire and a bamboo. Thanks to Ashutosh Shukla for inviting us.
We worked together collaboratively as a team, as young architects, as artists, as a family, like a tribe. No other value is greater than one that allows you the freedom to be, to practice what you believe in and preach, to speak freely, to be empathetic to one another, to community, to environment and to our planet.
(Tallulah D’Silva is a practicing architect in Goa)
