Photos by: SMD

     The Fall colors are at their peak, here in the Northeast of America. On a recent walk in the woods, I found a leaf that stood out among a pile of generic yellow leaves (see above).  In the pastiche of this leafy season, recently I finished reading a wonderful book about an architect, whose work stands out in a crowd, like the leaf above. Reviewing this book will fit in very well with the creative forum of this blog. Hence here is its review.

Book review of: CONVERSATIONS WITH FRANK GEHRY

Author: Barbara Isenberg (published in 2009)

      For a long time I have been following the architectural work of Frank Gehry, through articles in the media. Each time I see his work it appears very sculptural and different from the norm. I wonder how does he justify these buildings fitting in the context? How does he conceive the concept? How does he synthesize the form? Surely his mind must be different and there must be a lot more to his mind than meets the eye. With this questions galore in mind, I was drawn to this book like ‘Winnie the pooh’ to ‘hunny’.

      To begin with, the title itself assures the reader that this is not a coffee table book with just pretty pictures. There is an awesome conversation through out the book, that reveals the brilliance of a very creative mind, in his own words. Now for the gist of the book. The book is about the evolution of a creative mind that leads to a fabulous architectural career. In doing so,  it takes the reader on a fantastic journey. A journey of buildings that starts with wood, stucco and goes on to steel, titanium and beyond. What it reveals is a heady combination of old world charm and new-age technology. By old world I mean a mind that assimilates, analyses, synthesizes and creates. When you combine this deep thinking with top of the line technology, what you have is a Frank Gehry design.

      To illustrate this, there are many examples of how he uses art (mostly paintings) as an inspiration to generate concepts and forms e.g. the Giorgio Morandi’s bottle villages made him design homes as villages i.e. each room being an independent entity. Here are the examples: Schnabel House, Winton House, Wosk House.  He says, “When I discovered the pictures of Morandi, I just went nuts because Morandi was drawing bottles which were essentially one room buildings and creating villages of bottles….You get a lot of stuff out of it. It breaks down the scale. It humanizes without resorting to decoration, so individual pieces can be very tough and industrial even. The architecture is the play between the spaces….It interested me that a building itself could be pretty banal, but if you juxtaposed it with something else you could create an ensemble that was more interesting. The whole is greater than the sum of the parts.”

      Two more fascinating examples of  using  a painting for inspiration are about how the pleated headdress in a Vermeer painting inspired him to generate forms in Maggie Centre (Dundee, Scotland) and the Issey Miyake store in New York city. Paintings inspire him so much that he frequently visits museums to remove a mental block!

      As for his buildings fitting in the context, one only has to read about it to understand how well they fit. A classic example is the Weisman Art Museum in Minneapolis. The client wanted the museum to relate to the Mississippi river. “Frank chose a gauge of stainless steel that’s thin enough so it ripples and breaks up the light in the same way the ripples on the river do… the sunset is reflected off the building in the same way it is reflected off the Mississippi.”  There are many global projects discussed in the book, that reveal his understanding of the context. It was a treat to read about the Walt Disney Concert Hall, Guggenheim Museum (Bilbao), Stata Center at MIT, Pritzker Pavilion (Chicago), Nationale – Nederlanden Building (Prague) and the IAC building in New York. There is a photo with 30 design options for a single project (Disney Hall). An architect who works that hard is surely best suited for the project.

      The dialogue in the book brings out the struggles, agonies and ecstasies of each project. A classic statement that reveals this is when he saw Bilbao for the first time, he said, ” Oh my God, what have I done to these people?”  The narration also has many lighter moments e.g. when he says, “Neutra was so full of himself “ and Frank Lloyd Wright  ”had a master-slave”  hierarchy in his office. You know how he thinks by the way he talks using metaphors. An example that is hard to forget is when he says that many buildings in Paris have a pretty facade and a plain rear elevation. Its like a woman in a Oscar-de-la-renta dress with a curler behind her head! The dialogue is complimented with over 200 photos of  his projects and building models. To add to this feast are many hand drawn sketches that reveal the genius in his hand. Most of them seem to be minimalist doodles in fluid strokes, drawn with a cool confidence, that comes only with experience.

      Besides architecture, it was interesting to read about how his creativity is applied to designing other products e.g. furniture, paper lighting, lamps and jewelry. The story behind the conception of the million dollar Bilbao brooch was truly hilarious.

      This book answered all the questions I had posed in my mind about his work.  While this blog demonstrates how architectural skills can be used to write, paint, do gardening etc.  and I have also written articles that explain how different  creative fields are similar (e.g. painting and writing, writing and singing, writing and architecture), this book demonstrates how a mind can assimilate different sights, people etc to create great architecture.

       A mind that operates at so many levels is sheer genius and an inspiration to the younger generation of architects. His buildings are a true legacy of his life. The book is inspiring, recharging and makes you see the world in a new light. It may even make you think like Frank Gehry. Thank you Mr. Gehry for creating such a great legacy. In conclusion, this book is a ‘must read’ and keeper for architects.

Ratna

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BLOG STATS: 26,805 hits

Last year on this blog: Grand Finale In Raag Bhairavi

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Magic for me is when all the ideas, all of the thoughts, all the time devoted to realizing a project come together and produce something that the world thinks is beautiful.

- Frank Gehry

      So far you have seen the drawings with plans and elevations for each function. Now to make the Tango even more evident, here are just the elevations. When put together, it is easier to grasp the  flexibility of this arena’s design in its totality.

1. Open Air Theatre

2. Republic Day Parade

3. Independence Day celebration

4. Circus Arena

5. Fairs & Exhibitions

      These are just five forms. Depending on the scale and type of activity, many more forms can be generated, doing Tango in Architecture.

Ratna

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BLOG STATS: 26,549 HITS

Last year on this blog: Leafy Families

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Cherish your visions; cherish your ideals; cherish the music that stirs in your heart, the beauty that forms in your mind, the loveliness that drapes your purest thoughts, for out of them will grow all delightful conditions, all heavenly environment, of these, if you but remain true to them, your world will at last be built.

- James Allen

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In continuation of the previous post, here are some drawings that demonstrate how the arena takes a different form for each new function.

3. Design of Arena for Independence Day celebration (Capacity: 23,815 seated people)

On this day, a large gathering of citizens, foreign diplomats, ambassadors etc. come to this location to hear a speech given by the prime minister. To seat them, the long central zone was chosen and covered with roofs at varying heights. You can see the three different heights in the side elevation. The front elevation looks like a flight of birds ready to take off. In doing so it symbolizes independence. Hence the design for ‘Independence Day’.

4. Circus (Capacity: 1910 seated people)

This is designed for any travelling circus troupe, visiting this city. The temporary nature of this arena is very conducive for this kind of activity.

5. Fairs and Exhibitions (Capacity: 9800 standing people)

This is designed for the following functions:

(i). State exhibitions to sell and display ethnic products from each state.

(ii). Product Fairs:

• (a) To introduce a new product in the market
• (b) To sell wholesale products, sold in the city otherwise.
• (c) To have open-air fair activities for children (e.g. giant wheels and merry-go-rounds etc).

To add a sense of playfulness and informality to this bazaar kind of ambience, the roofs were flipped alternately. Notice how it looks in the side elevation. In reality, this elevation will have many roofs in perspective, flipping alternately, adding to the drama of this design.

So far you have seen the drawings with plans and elevations for each function. Now to make the Tango even more evident, please see the next post.

Ratna

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      In continuation of the previous post, here are the drawings that illustrate the different forms the arena takes for different functions. But before that you can see the site plan which explains the context of this arena.

  Site Plan

      Now for the Tango. Just watch the changing elevations. The permanent columns symbolize male in the Tango and the fabric symbolizes female. Of course 20 years back I didn’t  see it as Tango!

1. Design of Open Air Theatre (Capacity: 10,200 seated people)

This is designed for the following activities:

• Music concerts
• Poetry recital sessions
• National debates
• Election speeches by political leaders
• Space for political and social expression
• Celebrating national level victories
• Folk dance, drama etc to entertain foreigners and diplomats.

2. Design for Republic Day Parade (Capacity: 12,285 people)

      On this day the public views a long parade of Indian Armed Forces and folk dances etc. Hence the design consists of covered seating on two sides for the audience. The middle zone is left open for the moving parade.

- To be continued in the next post.

Ratna

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BLOG STATS: 26,263 HITS

Last year on this blog: Forever Tango

      This post is about the design of ‘A Multi – Purpose Arena’, which was my M.S.Arch thesis at IIT, Chicago (1989-1990). The purpose of this post is to explain how east and west can fuse architecturally. It feels strange to summarize an entire thesis in a few blog posts! In an effort to warm up this blog for such a technical subject, I have drawn parallels in nature. Here is Tango in summer and fall. In order to understand it better, it is recommended that you also read the following posts:

• Introduction to architectural student work
• Leafy rangoli
• Methodology for futuristic Indian architecture.

      Now without getting into the technical details, I shall explain Tango in architecture over a series of consecutive posts. The site chosen for this arena is located in Old Delhi, India. It has a physical spread of 11 hectares. On its eastern side it is flanked by the wall of an old historical monument called the Red Fort. The wall is 90 feet high and 2000 feet long. The city itself is of high density and low-rise in nature, with mixed land use (commercial, retail, residential etc). The site is the largest chunk of green land in this dense urban setting. To draw a parallel in the west, its like what Central Park is to New York city. The program for this project deals with three major issues. They are:  Public activities – annual and daily functions, parking and traffic. The design concept involved the following parameters:

1. To shift the present surface parking into a below grade area, which would also accommodate other facilities for the arena.
2. To use the structural grid of the lower level for bringing order in the design of the arena, at grade level.
3.  To create a temporary structure with transparency, so as not to dominate the Red Fort.
4. To generate a design module which can take a different form for each different function, by varying its angle, height and location on site.

      Below you can see the model of this module. The slender columns are the only permanent structures. The use of fabric makes the arena temporary and flexible in nature. As for Tango, you shall see how this module generates a variety of forms for the following functions:

Event/ Function……………………………Capacity

Open air theater………………………………..10,200 seated people

Republic day parade………………………….12,285 seated people

Independence day……………………………..23,815 seated people

Circus……………………………………………..1910 seated people

Fairs and exhibitions…………………………9800 standing people

Top View

Front View

      The engineering technology for erecting this structure with varying forms is western but the use of canvas in an outdoor, informal setting with a tropical climate makes the design eastern. Hence it demonstrates Tango in architecture by fusing east and west.

Ratna

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BLOG STATS: 26,014 HITS

Last year on this blog: Leaves, Trees & A Forest

      Today is the Hindu festival of Diwali. One of the customs during Diwali is to make rangoli outside the entrance to one’s home. This is done to welcome Laxmi (the Godess of wealth) into one’s home. This year I have made rangoli with fall leaves (see below) instead of rice powder etc. Its colorful, quick and made with local resources. By doing so it bridges the east and west. Rangoli custom from east and fall leaves from the west.

  Leafy rangoli

      As I write about it, it is also a way to warm up this blog for a upcoming technical post titled ‘ Tango in Architecture’, as per my promise. This post is supposed to be about the architectural design for a multi-purpose arena, which was my thesis at IIT, Chicago, in 1989-90. Twenty years back when I designed it, the world was a very different place. Most of the west did not know most of the east and vice-versa. There was no internet, no Google! When one of my thesis advisers asked me, ” Is Chandni Chowk like South Michigan Ave?” my answer was of course ” NO”. I made a trip to India and made a short film to capture its ambience and character. Besides this I also designed the arena so as to bridge the east and west, architecturally.

      Now the world has changed! Everything is a click away. Everyday one comes across interesting examples of fusing cultures. Here are a few that explain the diversity of this phenomenon:

• Bharat natyam to the tune of four seasons.
• RTKL’s design of hotel Maratha Sheraton in Mumbai. It fuses modern architecture with eastern decor. The interior has walls adorned with paithanis and paintings depicting the coronation of Shivaji maharaj.
• A.R.Rehman’s music in many Bollywood films fuses Indian music with non-Indian e.g. the music in Slumdog Millionaire.
• Tabla restaurant in Manhattan fuses French and Indian cuisine by serving pork chops with sabudana khichadi.
• A book titled ‘ Dreaming in Hindi ‘ which is about a New Yorker who goes to Udaipur to learn Hindi.
• My book of short stories.

      As for Chandni Chowk, even that has changed. Now there is a Metro train that brings people from all over Delhi to this once forgotten part of Old Delhi. There is even a movie called ‘Chandni Chowk to China’! In the pastiche of all this fusion in different mediums, I am planning ‘Tango in Architecture’. It fuses western engineering technology with eastern design and hence demonstrates the bridging of cultures in the medium of architecture. With this as a warm to a future post, I wish all of you a very happy Diwali and a prosperous new year.

Ratna

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BLOG STATS: 25,792 HITS.

Last year on this blog: Leaves, Trees & a Forest

      We live in the era of 24/7 news, blogs, twitter and a barrage of media in print. All these pour the noise of the world into our mind. But sometimes if you make connections among different sectors, it can lead to something creative. With this in mind, let me take you on a journey that connects the dots from Bill Clinton to Wall-E and led to the germination of an idea, to give back to the world.

FROM BILL CLINTON TO WALL-E

      In my search of a way to give back to the world, I read and blogged about President Clinton’s book titled ‘ Giving ‘. In it he has cited many great and simple examples of how ordinary people have created miracles to bring about positive changes in the world. One example that stood out was about a hair dresser in a small town. After giving a hair cut to a customer she would collect the hair from the floor and recycle it into a wig. Then she would donate the wig to a cancer patient who had lost hair after intensive chemotherapy.

      This summer an article appeared in New York Times by Nicholsas D. Kristof,  about how the younger generation is loosing touch with nature. Here are the pertinent points from the same:

• … for most of us in the industrialized world, nature is a rarer and rarer part of our lives.
• … in a thoughtful book by Richard Louv, “Last Child in the Woods,” that argued that baby boomers “may constitute the last generation of Americans to share an intimate, familial attachment to the land and water.”
•  Only 2 percent of American households now live on farms, compared with 40 percent in 1900. Suburban childhood that once meant catching snakes in fields now means sanitized video play dates scheduled a week in advance.
•  A British study found that children could more easily identify Japanese cartoon characters like Pikachu, Metapod and Wigglytuff than they could native animals and plants, like otter, oak and beetle.
•  Mr. Louv calls this “nature deficit disorder,” and he links it to increases in depression, obesity and attention deficit disorder.
•  Let’s acknowledge that getting kids awed by nature is as important as getting them reading.

      There was another article about a community garden in the inner city. When the local kids were shown an eggplant bush, one of them asked ” Does it grow eggs?” These are the same kids who think that the source of milk is a grocery store, cow is not in their picture.

      In a recent interview of the first couple by Time magazine ( September 21, 2009) , they shed much light on the importance of volunteering. America is going through a recession and the first lady says, ” I think these are challenging times … now is the time to get involved in your church. Now is the time to go to your kid’s school and participate. …There are so many ways within your own community that you can get involved and you can add value to your own self-interest.”

      President Obama says, ” We’ve always had a strong tradition of individualism…and self-reliance, and that’s one of the most special, precious things about America. But you’ve also had a running thread of community… voluntary associations and organizations. And that’s been just as important in creating the bonds of trust and the community infrastructure that means kids are growing up healthy.”

      Recently I saw the movie titled ‘ Wall - E ‘. Here is its synopsis. To me it was horrifying to see the earth without any greenery, in this movie. To top it all there was a robot making TMUs (Trash masonry units) to construct skyscrapers with. The human race had abandoned the earth and moved to a space station where they just sat all day and looked like pneumatic, obese dolls.

      The gist being, Bill Clinton says give. Nicholas Kristof says get in touch with nature. The Obamas say volunteer in your community while maintaining your individuality. Wall-E exposes the horrors of a non-green and life-less earth. And here I am blogging about mostly nature in this blog

      As I connect the dots between all these issues, it occured to me that this blog can be used as a means to give back to the world. So nature packages have been created for teachers (of elementary schools) who can share them with their students. All that they have to do is view them on smart boards and computer monitors. With the blog’s  global reach, it would be like volunteering for schools all over the world!  The objectives of these nature packages are as follows:

• To make children awed by nature.
• To inculcate a love of nature in them.
• To make them aware about nature’s constantly changing and refreshing qualities.
• To help cure nature-deficit disoder.
• To create an urge in children to go out and explore nature.
• To expose them to nature-based art.

      The listing for these nature packages is in a page titled ‘Nature Packages for Teachers’, on the bottom left corner of this blog’s screen. This is what it looks like. It contains many of the existing posts from this blog and will get more additions as time progresses. So if you are a teacher, a parent, a child or even an adult (with no nature in life), please feel free to view and read them. Also spread the word about them as it is a free service.

      As I wrap up this post, you too can connect the dots from Clinton to Wall-E  and create your own way of giving back to the world.

 Ratna

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BLOG STATS: 25,452 HITS

Last year on this blog: Changing Colors Of Changing Seasons

      A new month has begun today and it has brought with it the season of brrrs. Octoberrr, Novemberrr, Decemberrr. Needless to say, if you live in the NE of America, the brrrs continue right till April end. Now that the second anniversary celebration of this blog is over and the vote of thanks given, its time to start a new year on this blog. To begin with, here is a painting in warm colors, to start off this chilly season.

  Fall, Oct.2001

      Its also a good time to set forth the goals for this blog. They are as follows:

•  To continue to use this blog as a means to give back to the world.
•  To create a renewed interest and awareness about the book.
•  To attract a suitable literary agent/ publisher, so as to make the book a reality.
•  To review many books.
•  To make connections between different sectors and generate new ideas, by tying it with the media and current events.
•  To share innovative architectural ideas through design.
•  To share the links of the blog’s posts with different magazines, forums and organizations, so that they get published outside of this blog as well.
•  To share the joy of painting by giving a step by step demonstration (if time permits).
•  To generate more traffic by sending the blog’s links to schools and colleges.

      The global reach of a blog can make it very accessible and hence influential. Recently this blog crossed the milestone of 25,000 hits. As this blog gains momentum, I request all of you to share its link with people of similar interests and thank you all for your time.

Ratna

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BLOG STATS: 25,236 HITS

Last year on this blog: Globalizing Samosas & Fall Colors

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Ask yourself what makes you come alive, and go do that, because what the world needs is people who have come alive.

- Howard Thurman

Fall is here!

      Fall has officially begun. But before this blog gets immersed in its glorious colors, I would like to say a few words about spring and summer, this year. What the ‘refresh’ command does to the computer’s monitor, the changing seasons do to the human mind. In fact the impact of the latter is even more refreshing! This year spring was wonderful and the summer, although rainy, produced spectacular results in my garden. Both of these seasons inspired me to indulge in nature photography and acted as a catalyst for me to write.

      On reviewing many of the past posts, it occurred to me, that the best way to describe them would be to call it ‘romanticism in a digital era’. Romantics were painters who depicted a sensitivity to the power of nature, during the age of industrialization with machines. Hence replacing painting nature with digital photography of nature would be romanticism in a digital era. In case you missed enjoying these past two seasons, here are a few lines that summarize them as I bid a farewell of gratitude to them.

I would like to thank,

The yellow and red branches that inspired me to review two books by Khaled Hosseini,

The baby leaves of Hydrangea in green, that trigerred me to air out green architecture,

The florescence of Maples in spring, for creating a lovely palette of different shades,

The white flowers of berries for bringing out the tenderness on Mother’s day,

The resilient weed that brought out a parallel with Slumdog Millionaire,

The blue sky & pink roses that gave true colors to father sky and mother earth,

The strawberries for taking me on a fruitful journey from white to red,

The roses for creating Kashmir in the backyard,

The slowly blooming Hydrangea that created a parallel of growth between nature and a nation,

The flowers and sky for creating beauty in matching colors,

The dramatic summer sky for giving me respite from a nauseating book,

The lily trees for giving big returns on their investment,

The Hydrangeas in mixed colors for giving me the pleasure of watercoloring vicariously,

The tomatoes for tying nature to serendipity,

The pistachio green for inspiring me to review a book,

The Nasturtiums for teaching a new lesson in parenting and

The green leafy vines for creating the joy of Tango.

With this I hope your spring and summer were as colorful and joyous as mine, this year.

Ratna

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BLOG STATS: 24,990 HITS

Last year on this blog: Vernal Equinox

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All the great blessings of my life are present in my thoughts today.

- Phoebe Cary

      September is a wonderful month. There is excitement in the air. The children are back to school , the parents have some down time , summer is morphing into fall and its also time to celebrate this blog’s anniversary. Its the second one this year. Hence now is a good time to recapitulate the highlights of this past year.

Spring Celebration of four seasons in this blog.

Summer

Fall

Winter

      First and foremost, there has been a lot of photography, that followed the rhythms of the four seasons, in the northeast of America (see above). Secondly, there has been a celebration of color in three mediums, namely, nature, literature (yellow and red) and  architecture (green). Thirdly, much to my delight, there has been a lot of writing, that took different forms e.g.:

• Farmer’s almanac ( grapes, strawberries, tomatoes )
• Gardener’s diary ( lilies, nasturtiums etc )
• A mother’s journal (tulips, nursery school hunt, kiddy art, life’s lesson )
• An artist’s palette ( spring green, pink and blue, watercolors )
• An architect’s portfolio ( nursery school, factory design )
• A glimpse into my book ( a short story )
• Movies ( e.g. one , two ), music (pappu) and even dance (e.g. one  and two )
• Book reviews ( e.g. one, two, three etc.)

      Since enough has been shared with all of you, about my book, I decided to write about books that I have read. Writing book reviews was very enjoyable as it gave me something new to write about and use my critiquing skills as an architect. It also made me analyze the writing style of other writers and helped me to confirm in writing, my understanding of other books.

      This has had a very positive affect on this blog, as it has attracted many new subscribers. Keeping them in mind, many posts were prepared with links to old articles, so that they understand the depth of my writing. Also in order to share these book reviews with a wider audience, some of them have been posted on Amazon, which is linked to this blog now! This is with the hope of generating traffic in amazonian numbers and to get the attention of literary agents and publishers, towards my book.

      Now for another development. Starting a blog is like planting a tree. The different categories are like its branches. When you plant a tree you cannot predict which branch will grow into what direction and how far it will grow. Similarly you cannot predict which direction a category or a post will grow in and how far it would create ripples. To make this point clear let me tell you of a great example. Some time back a kindergarten teacher put a query on the web regarding if anyone had a home-made film showing how a sunflower plant grows? In response to this I sent her a link from this blog that contains photos explaining the life cycle of a sunflower. Lo and behold, this post got so many hits that now it ranks as the second most popular post,  with over 800 hits!  Who would have guessed?

      As this blog grows I am sure it will find many applications in curing nature-deficit disorder, expose children in urban settings, to the beauty of nature, changing seasons and generate an awareness about the green planet. So if you are a teacher in a school with smart boards and computers, please feel free to bring this blog into your classroom. Many of the posts can be used as an educational tool (it will be explained in another post). Except for my book (which is copyrighted) everything is free for you to share with your students.

      Now as part of the anniversary celebration, here are a few vital statistics:

• It has crossed the milestone of 20,000 hits and is approaching 25,000 hits now.
• As of today, 144 posts have been published and 478 comments received. This does not include the more than 50 spam comments it receives in European languages, each month
• Here are the top 10 posts:

1. Democratic race in red and yellow colors – 858 hits
2.  The lifecycle of a sunflower – 844 hits
3. From Mother India to Indra Nooyi - 714 hits
4. Concept for a nature inspired stadium design – 455 hits
5. Sun dappled paintings by mother nature – 452 hits
6. Reflections of life - 370 hits
7. Architecture – 354 hits
8. From Vermeer to banana leaves - 349 hits
9. Creating spring with the colors of winter – 337 hits
10. Synopsis of the book – 319 hits

      With this, I thank all of you for visiting this blog regularly. Please do not hesitate to leave comments, as the synergy between the blogger and the visitor, leads to new ideas. Special thanks are also to Lata and Nanabhau, who follow this blog religiously and leave thoughtful comments. Lastly, keep visiting this blog and spread the word, for once the book is out, you can tell the world that you knew me when I was happily blogging

Ratna

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BLOG STATS: 24,751 HITS

Last year on this blog: First blog anniversary in summall

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Success is a journey, not a destination.

- Deepak Chopra