Cherishable moments with the Guru of Architecture – Ar. Balkrishna V. Doshi
(On Friday, 26 July 2019 with the faculty of V.I.T.’s Padmabhushan Dr. Vasantdada Patil College of Architecture, Pune.)
(On Friday, 26 July 2019 with the faculty of V.I.T.’s Padmabhushan Dr. Vasantdada Patil College of Architecture, Pune.)
On the occasion of the 20th anniversary of FEED, Ar. Balkrishna Doshi, honoured with Pritzekar Prize 2018, was invited for a dialogue with Ar. Neelkanth Chhaya and Ar. Narendra Dengle on Friday, 26th July 2019. On the following day the faculty of PVPCOA was blessed with a closed interaction with him on Saturday, 27th July 2019 at Hotel Ramee Grand. All the faculty members along with Mr. Jitendra Pitaliya, Secretary, Vivekanand Institute of Technology and Ar. Prof. Prasanna Desai, Director, Padmabhushan Dr. Vasantdada Patil College of Architecture, were present for this informal discussion with the doyen of architectural academics and creator of and premier institution in architecture. He candidly shared the experiences as well his concerns about the state of affairs in architectural education with the budding academicians with all the involvement and enthusiasm that he is known for.
PVPCOA has lot of publications on the academic environment like yearbooks, compilation of submission briefs, compilation of practical training portfolios, reports on Relative Study Programs of 1st , 2nd and 3rd year classes, Post graduate studies report, Reports on studies done in public domain etc. The faculty wished to share these with him and obtain his critical comments and advise for further improvement. In the beginning he shared his experience with many other college students coming for internship at Sangath studio, and observed how woefully they lack the architectural skills, sensitivity of surroundings and pro-activeness to learn on their own, majorly because of the inadequate exposure given by the institutes and lack of vision in shaping the young minds.
While browsing through the abovementioned publications one by one, he immediately grasped the intense involvement of the faculty in conceptualizing the contents and guiding the students so that their hard work does justice to the publication. He hoped that these publications, which are of high quality and content, will be made available to other institutes through on-line sharing as well as publishing the hard copies. He advised that it is a moral duty of mature institutions to show the way to the budding colleges in developing appropriate body of knowledge. He talked about helping other schools just like the blossom of a flower so that everyone gets the “Fragrance”. PVPCOA faculty and management has understood the message and resolved to work towards it. He cited the example of how “Varkaris” took the learnings of the “ Bhakti” movement to different parts of the country.
He advised the faculty to do away with “Rote Learning”, while not forgetting the value of constant practice like “Jap” done by the religious people, and infuse “Joy and Fun” in the teaching as well as learning. The faculty must experience poetry of life, music in life and the rhythm of life themselves and transfer the same to their systems. This could happen only when one “breaks out of the box”. In the process one must learn to face the failures also. The real teaching happens when students get the correct mindset to understand and learn architecture. The faculty must be able to put the “Arka or crux of the matter” in front of the students. According to him, students should not be bound every time in studios and classes. The real learning happens beyond their classrooms by getting exposure and gathering real life experiences – he remarked.
He shared the experiences with Le Corbusier when he was working with him during the construction of city of Chandigarh, and explained how Le Corbusier could fathom the depth of Indian way of living through constant study, observation and sketches.
The faculty querried of him as to why architecture has not been able to connect with the masses in our country and why it remains a pseudo field where architects interact with architects only. To this his answer was that we always have been speaking about buildings but not the living environment and its quality. He asked the facturly the fundamental question : If Taste is for the food , what is for the Architecture? In our culture , according to him, Vastu was the word for Architecture which in real sense means “Environment”. This he explained why his iconic institute CEPT was names as “ Centre for Environment “ and not “ College of Architecture.” The essence of the name also formulated the word : ConCEPT !
During the interaction with the faculty, he with his boundless love for the students, could also find time to inaugurate the publication on “ Understanding the city – Lucknow”, report of the relative study programme of Third year in 2018. The students and the faculty who had worked day and night to compile the report were blessed with his encouraging words.
Even with his hectic schedule of engagements, with his unbounded energy and love for academics, he could find time for this interaction and truly blessed the institution and the faculty with his sagely advise. The institution pledges to put his advise in practice.
PVPCOA has lot of publications on the academic environment like yearbooks, compilation of submission briefs, compilation of practical training portfolios, reports on Relative Study Programs of 1st , 2nd and 3rd year classes, Post graduate studies report, Reports on studies done in public domain etc. The faculty wished to share these with him and obtain his critical comments and advise for further improvement. In the beginning he shared his experience with many other college students coming for internship at Sangath studio, and observed how woefully they lack the architectural skills, sensitivity of surroundings and pro-activeness to learn on their own, majorly because of the inadequate exposure given by the institutes and lack of vision in shaping the young minds.
While browsing through the abovementioned publications one by one, he immediately grasped the intense involvement of the faculty in conceptualizing the contents and guiding the students so that their hard work does justice to the publication. He hoped that these publications, which are of high quality and content, will be made available to other institutes through on-line sharing as well as publishing the hard copies. He advised that it is a moral duty of mature institutions to show the way to the budding colleges in developing appropriate body of knowledge. He talked about helping other schools just like the blossom of a flower so that everyone gets the “Fragrance”. PVPCOA faculty and management has understood the message and resolved to work towards it. He cited the example of how “Varkaris” took the learnings of the “ Bhakti” movement to different parts of the country.
He advised the faculty to do away with “Rote Learning”, while not forgetting the value of constant practice like “Jap” done by the religious people, and infuse “Joy and Fun” in the teaching as well as learning. The faculty must experience poetry of life, music in life and the rhythm of life themselves and transfer the same to their systems. This could happen only when one “breaks out of the box”. In the process one must learn to face the failures also. The real teaching happens when students get the correct mindset to understand and learn architecture. The faculty must be able to put the “Arka or crux of the matter” in front of the students. According to him, students should not be bound every time in studios and classes. The real learning happens beyond their classrooms by getting exposure and gathering real life experiences – he remarked.
He shared the experiences with Le Corbusier when he was working with him during the construction of city of Chandigarh, and explained how Le Corbusier could fathom the depth of Indian way of living through constant study, observation and sketches.
The faculty querried of him as to why architecture has not been able to connect with the masses in our country and why it remains a pseudo field where architects interact with architects only. To this his answer was that we always have been speaking about buildings but not the living environment and its quality. He asked the facturly the fundamental question : If Taste is for the food , what is for the Architecture? In our culture , according to him, Vastu was the word for Architecture which in real sense means “Environment”. This he explained why his iconic institute CEPT was names as “ Centre for Environment “ and not “ College of Architecture.” The essence of the name also formulated the word : ConCEPT !
During the interaction with the faculty, he with his boundless love for the students, could also find time to inaugurate the publication on “ Understanding the city – Lucknow”, report of the relative study programme of Third year in 2018. The students and the faculty who had worked day and night to compile the report were blessed with his encouraging words.
Even with his hectic schedule of engagements, with his unbounded energy and love for academics, he could find time for this interaction and truly blessed the institution and the faculty with his sagely advise. The institution pledges to put his advise in practice.
Ar. B.V. Doshi greeted by Mr. Jitendra Pitaliya, Secretary, V.I.T.
Felicitation of Ar. B.V. Doshi by Mr. Jitendra Pitaliya with a portrait by Sandeep Kale (Student of 2019 Batch) in the presence of Ar. Radhika Doshi Kathapaliya and Ar. Girish Doshi
Ar. B.V. Doshi shares his visions with Team 6 of PVPCOA.
No comments:
Post a Comment