MODERN INDIAN ARCHITECT (Page 1)

Like the Indian nation, the Contemporary Indian architect is a modern invention. In Structure and form, both are products of Colonialism. Consequently, both have Struggled With their colonial legacy in Shaping their postcolonial identity and purpose. While political analysts Will agree that the nation has emerged as a Complex, dynamically evolving entity, architectural Critics Confront a profession largely frozen in time. 

Of Course, the products of Indian architecture look different from the architectural products of the Raj, but under the Veneer of modernity, the basic ideology of the profession remains unchanged. The invention of modern Indian architecture Can Well be recounted as the Story of how architectural images Were appropriated from other times and other Cultures to meet Contemporary exigencies. In Sharp Contrast to, Say, politicians Who must, perforce, respond (even if only opportunistically) to the changing needs of the polity, the modern Indian architect unfortunately Continues to respond primarily toarchitectural images produced by Celebrated international architects. Relying on the architectural norms and solutions of other Cultural and economic contexts to Serve local needs Was a Strategy established to meet the priorities of the Colonial government. Not Surprisingly, the uncritical perpetration of this strategy in postcolonial India has meant that the country's architects are unable to Comprehend the Specific nature and Challenges posed by contemporary Indian urbanism. 

Architects in India regard buildings as Self-evident artifacts whose physical form encapsulates the Sum total of the design intent. The language used in Communicating the idea of the building is that of its images. Utilitarian Considerations reign: the programme provides the Why and What to generate architectural design. This is Contrary to the Contemporary theoretical discourse in the West, where buildings are Often justified as non-architectural ideas derived from Sources like literary theory, philosophy, Computational algorithms and Sculptural expression. India's is a profoundly practical architecture; One fixed by the Specificity of the client's needs and grounded by budgetary Concerns. In practical, rather than theoretical terms then, imported images of iconic buildings provide the contours of local architectural imagination and establish the conceptual boundaries Within which architects operate. 

These boundaries are not totally deterministic, but rather, quite flexible and porous. Indian architects have a wide range of images at their disposal and their choice among these influences the evolution of any architectural project. This choice reveals how architects negotiate the needs and desires of the client, the particular site and its context, the demands of the programme and the decisions and concessions made to address those demands and, finally, the physicality of the building (its image) and the Space it inhabits. Imported architectural images constitute the core of a local architectural vocabulary and practice Which is, regrettably, devoid of a theoretical Substance of its own. With which it could, in other Circumstances, have engaged in a productive dialogue with these images. The etymology of this visual vocabulary, therefore, determines the nature of the architecture that is produced. 

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