Book launch on Indian architecture

CHENNAI: The hall at Vivanta, Taj Connemera, was packed to the brim as eager members of the Madras Book Club, architecture students and other enthusiasts gathered at the launch of Rahul Mehrotra’s Architecture in India since 1990, under the aegis of the Prakriti Foundation and Madras Book Club. A practising architect, Rahul Mehrotra is also an educator, who works in Mumbai and teaches at the Graduate School of Design at Harvard University, where he is Professor of Urban Design and Planning and Chair of the Department of Urban Planning and Design.He’s a member of the steering committee of Harvard’s South Asia Initiative, as well. No surprise then, that his work generated enormous interest among students and enthusiasts of aesthetics, in turn.“I’m going to share my intuitive experiences, to try to look at young practitioners, and the landscape of plurals that defines India in a global scenario,” explained Rahul Mehrotra, as he led his audience through his presentation on architecture in India, from 1990 to 2010, with beautiful slides. “It became very clear to me that in a country like India, architecture is not the only spectacle by which society expressed its aspirations — sometimes, there’s no space for architecture.” According to him, this notion that the architect is a prima donna who represents society is not quite right. He added, “Every society has space for ostentation, and I mean that in a positive way. In our society, it’s often weddings and jewellery that occupy first place. Architecture is now becoming an outlet for ostentation as well. It wasn’t in the centre-stage then and that, I hope, is changing now.” The presentation itself, lasting more than an hour, traversed every area, from modern architects who excelled at temple-building, to designs that mixed in old and the new successfully.It was also delivered at break-neck speed, without almost a pause – which only served to illustrate just how proficient Mehrotra was, at his subject. “Globalisation, of course has a certain glamour, but brings severe disruptions too.Thus, the emergent architectural urban landscape is one where globalisation concurrently transformed the local landscape while being transformed, itself.”