….. Starting from Zero “I'm not a teacher: only a fellow

traveler of whom you asked the way. I pointed ahead - ahead of myself as

well as you.” ― George Bernard Shaw

BINUMOL TOM

• Economy of India - seventh-largest in the world by nominal GDP  - third-largest

by purchasing power parity (PPP).• Architecture and its Construction are the most

conspicuous forms of economic activity• In India, construction is the second largest economic

activity after agriculture.• Investment in construction accounts for nearly 11 per

cent of India’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP). • The Planning Commission of India has proposed an

investment of around US$ 1 trillion in the Twelfth five-year plan (2012-2017), which is double of that in the Eleventh five-year plan.

The Economics of Architecture

ADVANTAGE I N D I A…. INDIA GROWING YOUNGER, CHINA and OTHERS are AGEING….

Demographic dividend – high – great potential for economic gains.

Education – crucial in transforming the collective energy of our youngsters into mature ideas, well developed skills, and a sense of confidence, hope and capability.

Architecture and its Education – very imperative

Source- ECONOMIC LIFECYCLE AND DEMOGRAPHIC DIVIDENDS: EVIDENCE AND IMPLICATIONS FOR INDIALaishram Ladusingh, Ph.D. M.R.Narayana, Ph.D.

ARCHITECTSPRACTISEMain Stake holders:ARCHITECTS, ENGINEERSCLIENTSCONTRACTORSSERVICE PROVIDERSLABOURERS

EDUCATIONMain Stake holders:TEACHERSSTUDENTS(MANAGEMENT)

TO BE ARCHITECTS

How are buildings constructed? – Indian Scenario

THE IRONY

So is the education scenario!!HISTORY – Egyptians, Greeks, Romans, Byzantine, Gothic, Renaissance, Industrial revolution, Modern “isms”, Post modern…. So on and so forth

Guild system – visit to places, documentation, hands own experience, practical oriented

Theory focussed educational system – is it the axe that cuts down the life of architectural education?????

PAPER DEGREES/ REGISTRATIONS

So is the Research Scenario !! Research – Is altogether a different story – AICTE, DST, DoE, KSCSTE (Kerala)……… - all engineering focussed.

So is the education scenario!!B.Tech – after acquiring the paper degree, these days, firms provide a ONE year training to every graduate … reason to undo what was taught and to redo what has to be learned!

Architecture – 1st stage of B.Arch gets over the student is send for training (6 months to 1 year) – GOOD Practise.

How to teach/ learn Architecture? PEDAGOGY, ANDRAGOGY and HEUTAGOGY

Story of a verdant garden

EDUCATION PRACTISE

How to teach/ learn Architecture? World view Vs Regional viewWe teach them to draw inspirations from styles evolved from the past that have addressed climate, local materials, craftsmanship and culture….

What do they learn from the practitioner’s creation in reality?

How to teach/ learn Architecture? Regional Context…

What lessons do we learn from the history of the site and of the people who will occupy our structures?

How are we contributing to regional culture?Or detracting from???

Aping the west!

Quite happy working in Air conditioned little boxes.

Aren’t we bombarded with false architecture… rather cut and paste from the west

Well filled mind Vs Well formed mind • Students of today – well informed• Architectural Education – not just

theoretical nor practical• But….. A process of exploration which end

up in a product • Good Buildings come from Good people, and

all problems are solved by good design…

"It doesn't matter what we cover, it matters what they discover.

Prof. Noam Chomsky

Whatever good things we build end up building US….

Jim Rohn

GUIDING PRINCIPLES IN TEACHING STRATEGIES

LEARNING IS AN ACTIVE PROCESS -This means that we have to actively engage the learners in learning activities if we want them to learn what we intend to teach. Hands own experience …

We have to give varied activities to our students for “hands – on – minds – on” learning.

Danielson, 2002; 75% and 90% retention rates are learning by doing.What I hear, I forget.What I see, I remember.What I do, I understand.

2. The more senses that are involved in learning, the more and the better the learning“Humans are intensely visual animals. The eyes contain nearly 70 percent of the body’s receptors and send millions of signals along the optic nerves to the visual processing centers of the brain…we take in more information visually than through any of the other senses” (Wolfe,2001). 

Cutting stones?????

Building Taj Mahal

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COMMANDMENTSOF

ARCHITECTURETHAT

I TRY TO COMMUNICATE

TOMY STUDENTS

Society and Architecture Not just another drop of water in the ocean but is the ocean itself….

No architect can stay as an outsider

Architect should understand the stress experienced in the societies…

Employing foreign architects? Case of Chandigarh….

Administration – understands the implication of the doings of Architects on people, society, civilization??More funding for research and development!

Society needs a good image of itself. That is the job of an Architect. (Walter Gropius)

Spirituality and Architecture • Indian life is so filled with spirituality… reflected even in

our gestures, why not feel it in the spaces we create?

• We as humans inhabit Earth and we build structures because that’s our shelter, that’s our places of work and to support our lives.

• In a way that there’s this triangle of human, structure, and Earth.

“Only work which is the product of inner compulsion can have spiritual meaning” (Walter Gropius)

Dance and Architecture • Like how a dancer creates a

particular spatial configuration heavily dynamic, an architect with the help of animate and inanimate elements of nature creates dynamic spaces….

• Does Architecture still be quoted as FROZEN MUSIC ?? Or something more???

• Architecture is a conscious sculpting of dynamic habitable spaces similar to that of the spaces crafted by a trained dancer…

• Responding to the wealth that exists in our movement

History and Architecture • If you like history… embrace it• If you don’t like history… please don’t

rebuke it

To provide meaningful architecture, is not to parody history but to articulate it (Daniel Libeskind)

Equality and Architecture • Access to opportunities to develop ourselves to do things in

life that bring joy for everyone…. • Can’t right Architecture and Planning contribute to be the

cause of equality amongst all people?• Ancient India – Vastushastric Planning – Chaturvarnyam –

was it an attempt to bring a balance in society? • Fairness and Justice? Still miles away• Laurie Baker on slums… (A SLUM is a shame and a disgrace,

not to those who live in it, but first to those in authority, then to planners and builders and then to all of us who pass by on the other side of the road and pretend that no slum exists)

• Do such values impinge on how we design human settlements?

• Can our design skills act as channels and paths of access and opportunity for others?

Engineering/ Technology and Architecture

• Buildings must be true to the technology and materials and craftsmen from which they emerge.

• Truthfulness in Architecture

Architecture begins where engineering ends. (Walter Gropius)

Corruption and Architecture – A bad story… oops reality

• Architecture is a public art - A DYNAMIC & INSEPERABLE FUSION OF ART &TECHNOLOGY

• WHO in our society complains about the corrupted architecture. why?

• Is it due to lack of design literacy: may be they think that it has little effect on his day to day life, financially out of reach, intellectually irrelevant

• Relevance of Architectural Criticism

Invention and ArchitectureThe process followed in Architecture is one’s own path of discovery and invention…

Hence the essence of education is not transfer of knowledge…. It puts responsibility for study in the student’s own hands and minds.

Architecture is invention … Oscar Niemeyer

Nature and Architecture“What, O earth, I dig out of thee, quickly shall that grow again: may I not, O pure one, pierce thy vital spot, not thy heart!”(Atharva veda, 12.35)

Architecture should not be reduced to just styles that passes away with times…. But should be heightened as SOCIAL COMMITMENT..

My own contradictions and confusions of the so called GREEN/ ECO Architecture!!

NATURE BUILDS!BIRDS & INSECTS

ARE THE PROFICIENT BUILDERS IN NATURAL WORLD.

WHO TAUGHT THEM TO BUILD?

HUMAN BUILDSHUMAN BEINGS ALSO LEARNED

ARCHITECTURE BY INSTINCT.IT EVOLVED AS A NATURAL PROCESS OF

SATISFYING PRIMARY NEED BY ONESELF WITH THE HELP OF SOCIETY ONE LIVES

GREED…. Maslow’s hierarchy of need!!

Let us mould less “ego” architects, and more “eco” architects (Jamie Lerner)

Winter always turns to spring….

But the quality and quantity of flowers and fruits of the spring will depend on how hard the gardener works during the winter!!!

The Secret key to Success

THANKYOU