Shankar Kanade's Architecture: Lohithashwa's House

Shankar Kanade's Architecture: Lohithashwa's House

Unique Event – Interior in Action

By Remigius de Souza

Architecture is finally completed by the user: Primarily it is for the user.

SN and NN Kanade at Jalavayuvihar township

Shankar and Navanath Kanade, Architects, have their firm under the name and style, "Shilp Sindoor". They are placed in Bangalore. Shankar has been instrumental in starting/ formulating 'courses of architecture' at many colleges. Shankar and Navnath have been teaching architecture for decades.

Shankar Kanade, over the years developed unique/ original construction system, locally known as "Chapadi", using local granite; and his project execution management achieved economy that benefit the home owners.

Lohithashwa

Lohithaswa is a noted Kannada film actor and playwright and a retired English professor. He has acted in more than five hundred Kannada stage plays, and television serials. He is popularly known for his dominating voice in the Kannada film industry.

Lohithashwa had invited some artists to join the art workshop to be held at his house - residence. They were on visit to Bangalore, on the occasion of an arts and crafts exhibition at national level held at Bangalore.

I was fortunate to pick up the unique event of 'art workshop' that shows many dimensions of splendour in this house.

Artist at work - Exterior open space

We speak, here, through photos, a popular medium, and word of mouth. We speak not how the architecture of house looks, but how it works. We don't speak of design aesthetics, but ethics in adapting it to a non-charted use, not prescribed in the architects' 'Brief' (of the proposed house).

Artists take a break

At Indian residences, in urban and rural areas, there are several occasions – birth, marriage, Pooja, festivities, death... harvesting of crops – when relatives, friends, community visit. This is a common feature.

The artists gathered here have come from different parts of India. Perhaps some are meeting each other for the first time, including the host.

Place occupied by an artist

The house has major use of local granite, a living material like clay and wood, favorite of sculptors.
At every step it is overwhelmingly evident that architect and client ware in tune and at same wavelength in the process of designing.
We witness this abode is made in excellent communion of architects, workers and user-the-family.

Artists feel at home

It is said, ‘People get the government they deserve’.Here we may say, ‘People get architect they deserve’!

Navanath, Lohithashwa and artist Patil inconversation

The artists here ware immersed in work, rest and interaction. That shows how everyone was feeling at home - in the 'place', not a 'space'.
We often see photos and thumbnail drawings of architecture in glossy magazines bereft of people, rather 'the user the god in sanctuary'. What do we perceive when we see such presentations of architecture in print media or e-media?

Home is place to work, rest, interact and grow

These photographs are clicked on ordinary camera, in natural light or room lights-on.
While clicking the pictures, there is least thought given to rules of aesthetics or ruling taste. These photographs are Celebration of People, Place, and the Occasion.

Place-making in house is dynamic

We don't place any customary mini-maps to guide the reader in the interior.
Kanade brothers could have furnished me with drawings, and other typical professional information to go with this text and photographs. I don't do it deliberately.
With printing technology earlier, then photography, movie, now Internet, we are moving away from Reality to Virtual Reality at every step in our elitist life.

Connecting Persons - Connecting Places

With miniature reproductions of maps and pictures (i.e. Hi-tech photographs) of exterior - interiors, we usually celebrate Architecture - 'the Holy cow, Mother of All Arts'.
Indeed how many, even professionals, can decipher 'anatomy of architecture' and comprehend 'scale and dimensions' of Reality in the illustrations? Of course, it depends on perception level of each one.

For example, 'Barcelona Pavilion' (by Mies) lived for decades, clean and neat, in black and white photographs. When rebuilt as a memorial, in a crowded urban area, how does it look now in real?

Kitchen is Sacred Place in Indian Abode

Kitchen is sacred place in Indian abode. Cooking or rather Preparing vegan food is highest art form, only next to Organic / Natural Farming. Both nourish Body, Mind and Soul (in my opinion). Other forms in these two primal fields are marketable commodity & consumerism.

Culinary Art is Highest Form of Art next to Farming

We, the urbanite Indians, try to adopt imported industrialization; we have not grown up with it as the Western are. Also we perhaps carry mimetic memories (received from our Great... great grand Mother) buried in our deep subconscious. And like molecules of water in ocean they keep coming up: Not everyone may wake up to the inner voice. There lies the answer to many anomalies in the developing India.

Artist's Participation in Cooking

I have heard, architecture, now in the West, is put in the new category named 'Creative Industry'. Why are they apologetic? Why can't they, or don't want to, turn the tide of Climate Chang or of whatever other ills, despite their so-called Progress and Development?

Internal Courtyard is Traditional Feature in Architecture

 I suspect the term, 'Architecture as Creative Industry' has its origin in the 'Hybrid and GM Seeds' in the realms of a basic need 'Food' in Agriculture.
Now the new category of architecture evolved from the primary need, 'Shelter', is to subjugate autonomy the 'User' as 'Producer' at the mercy of 'mass producer and supplier' i.e. Industry and Market.

Artist at work

International Style (of architecture) is misnomer coined by the puppets of powers in Industrial society. 

Courtyard as a work place

Art is not for Art's sake. Any art, artefact or event is an expression of culture.
Culture is a gift of Land and Water – Mother Nature – enriched by biodiversity of the place, from the Poles to Equator. Culture, therefore, is local, never international. Only 'trade' is international.

Culture is in the People

Culture is in the people, not in any artefacts or events. Heritage Conservation, therefore, should be the Conservation of People and Natural Biodiversity.

QUOTES

1. When I had (first) visited Lohithashwa’s house, my spontaneous response was “I am reminded of India’s rock cut architecture”.

2. “At the art workshop other arts also flourished. Several artistes – potters, painters, and sculptors – were passionately working: I feel this may be a best, and the most appropriate tribute to Kanade ever received for his work.” (SHANKAR KANADE, ARCHITECT)

NOTE: 1. The opinions, comments, expressed in this post are mine. They don’t reflect views of Shankar and Navnath Kanade.
2. Shankar Kanade's profile: SHANKAR KANADE, ARCHITECT 

Remigius de Souza | Date: 21-01-2012
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©Remigius de Souza, all rights reserved.

Entertainment Explosion 2

24x7 Entertainment Explosion - 2

by Remigius de Souza 

MOSTPEOPLE* would say, ‘music is their hobby’, which may not mean they play musical instrument or sing. Invariably they hear music on some or other electronic gadget. Forty years ago, there took place a ‘great’ event, but it was not reported in the media, didn’t pull a crowd.

A young music lover Mr. Khadpekar, a student of architecture, invited Pundit Kumar Gandharva to perform solo concert at Ahmadabad. Punditji’s immediate reaction was, ‘No Ahmadabad. The crowd there appreciates music by thunderous clapping during the recital.’ However, after the explanation he readily agreed.

A small group, perhaps less than fifty, some of them from Baroda (now Vadodara), came to attend the concert. The event took place on an open platform at the premises of the Ahmedabad School of Architecture.

Punditji requested to shut the mike and the (loud) speakers. Seeing the uneasiness among his listeners he assured it was perfectly alright for him, and that they would enjoy it better. They were worried because they knew that one of his lungs was removed, and it would be strenuous for him without the ‘sound’ system.

Now it was direct contact between the singer and the listeners, mouth to ears. It was a unique experience, mostly available to private “baithak” – gatherings.

During his recuperating years he was forbidden even to sing. During that period he moved across Malava, Madhya Pradesh, listening and collecting folk songs. He was touched by the simple folks and their traditional music of Malava. He had turned the disadvantage into an opportunity. And a new Indian classical music emerged.

Punditji was generous, open and accessible, a teacher in true sense who could learn even from the humble folks. Indian classical music too was touched by the inimitable maestro. I personally was touched by him and the event that left a deep lasting impression on me.

FEW DECADES LATER, I was at a party hosted by a friend while in Bangalore. Typically there was music on an electronic gadget. At some point I said it is not music but only its replica that dissipates energy. Shankar Kanade protested. I said, ‘This is only a reproduction, which has lost its original quality, howsoever advance a gadget or technology may be.’

Though I did not remember the above event, I perhaps was prompted to say this by my subconscious. Such reproduction or representation is a virtual reality. It is just as a word ‘tree’ or a picture of a tree is not a reality. It may perhaps help someone to recall, depending on one’s perception of the ‘real’ sound, the ‘real’ event, the ‘real’ environment where it takes place; otherwise it is an object without soul – a mere technology.

In his later years Punditji had taken to teaching ‘Bhajan’ when he was acutely aware that his pupils were not getting to the meaning of the words they sang and thus singing remain as technology – a skill.

Punditji is no more. The cassette tapes of his music attached with copyright as well as the cassette players that played his music have gone to dumping yards. However Punditji’s monumental tribute to Malava’s folk songs continues to reverberate in the ears; it’s universal beyond global.

In the name of music we patronise ‘leisure industry’ (the term is an oxymoron) at a price. For that matter work – any work – comes at a price. If there are no singers, why not listen to the air, water, plants, birds… children, if there is little ‘nature’ still left in our environment? Why not dance to its tunes?

Leisure, opposite to work, is absolutely free, anywhere, to anyone irrespective of one’s status.

The millions of folks – the tribal and peasants – enjoy leisure actively, not by passive activity of watching Virtual Reality on electronic gadgets, all over India. They practice it not only during festivities but also during their daily chores.

On account of leisure the Industrial Civilisation is bankrupt and pauper.

Leisure conserves /restores energy: Leisure arrests entropy.

See previous post:
24x7 Entertainment Explosions

CRICKETFRENZY IN INDIA-- A page from dairy 2003

Note: The word, 'mostpeople', was used by poet E E Comings in Introduction to his collection of poems.
Remigius de Souza | 25-05-2007
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© Remigius de Souza, 2007

Essays in early Indian architecture (Book Review)

By Remigius de Souza

Essays in early Indian architecture

Author: Ananda K. Coomaraswamy

Edited by Michael W. Meister

Publishers: Indira Gandhi National Centre for Arts, New Delhi, and Oxford University press, Delhi, Bombay, Calcutta, Madras. 1992 

Price: Rs 400/- pp xxviii plus 151, Illustrations: 164.

"Vastu, add the meaning, “real estate” (Meyer, “Liegenschaft”): “Vastu includes houses, fields, groves, bridges (or ghats, setu-bandha), ponds and reservoirs,” Arthasastra, III, 8”(A. K. Coomaraswamy, Indian Architectural Terms, P. 97)

THE BEGINNING OF 1993 saw two significant events in Indian architecture.
The INGCA and OUP made available five essays by Ananda Kentish Coomaraswamy (1877–1947) which were earlier inaccessible to the public.
The other event was the theme chosen by the National Association of Students of Architecture (NASA), India, “Back to the Roots” for their national convention held at Bhubaneshwar, Orissa (now Odisha).

Though it may not be perceptible, very few are aware of the Indian ethos in different areas of creative life and expression. But at the end of 20th century, with the imminent fall of ‘industrial civilization’ (or ‘economic civilization’), the awakening of ethnic identity is a global phenomenon. Parallel to the environmental movement, there is a ‘Anti-celebration to Columbus Day’ all over the world, and a new awareness in different disciplines.

The essays by Coomaraswamy reappear when people of India (not the statisticians) are groping for salvation in an ever-increasing chaos. The much sought-after development aping the west has only worsened the living conditions of the people of mainstream India. While this book may pamper the inflated Indian ego, it may be life-saving plank to multitudes in 20th century modernity called consumer civilization.

The common theme of the essays is to present a picture of secular, domestic, urban, rural architecture of India 2000 years ago, the remains of which do not exist because of impermanent nature of materials used. The book is about how the common man’s architecture, a hut of a villager that became a source – a form-giver – and developed into a unique architectural style, complex structural system and highly developed building vocation – into a tradition that materialised in thousands of and continued during the late medieval period under royal patronage ( Chapter IV. Huts and related temple types, P 103).

For instance, “Tree-cult”, tree worship which was adopted by the Buddhists in “Bodhi-gharas” was an animistic practice of the people before Aryans came ( Chapter II. BODHI-GHARAS, P 19).

Though Coomaraswamy does not mention so, the “ Tree-cult” still exists in India in different forms, for example, “Tulasi-vrindavan”, holy Basil (Ocimum sanctum L.) on a platform or in a pot, is a common feature of the Indian household. The plant is known for its medicinal values and is also an organic insecticide. “Brahman” – a banyan tree with a built platform, is a common feature of villages in Konkan region – a well known monsoon forest region on the West Coast of India. “Devarai”, sacred grove, is a “protected forest” by the people for the Indian villagers and forest dwellers, by unwritten law of ancient tradition, though not recognised by the development projects, or by the British-made “Forest Acts” that still continue in modern India.

Why Tree-cult? Coomaraswamy has not posed this question here. Did some visionary scientists or wise men of the aborigine communities initiate tree-worship as a measure of environmental protection?

A. K. Coomaraswamy opens up the first essay on “ Cities and city-gates, etc.” with a statement, “…cities are despised and there are no ceremonies for urban life”(P.3). He quotes “It is impossible for one to obtain salvation, who lives in a town covered with dust” (Baudhayana Dharma Sutra, II, 3, 6, 33).

Elsewhere he says, “…but the village is still typical centre of Aryan life” (History of Indian and Indonesian Art, p 15) referring to Maurya period. Indian society has remained agrarian even under the wave of industrialization.

Among several features of city, Coomaraswamy describes city-gates: toranas and gopuras, which were used for protection and security or for honorific and ornamental purposes. In contemporary times, Mr Shankar N. Kanade, architect, has used city-gates in “Jala Vayu Vihar” township at Bangalore (now Bengaluru), enhanced by adding elevated water storage tank. In present day context, more than being ornamental it gives identity to a place in urban chaos; it is a symbol of celebration, besides utility. Isn't it embedded mimetic memory in Indian mind!

Indian Architectural Terms (P. 71 – 99) is a critical essay on two books written by Prof. P. K. Acharya, “Indian Architecture According to the Manasara-silpasatra” and “A Dictionary of Hindu Architecture”. It is a combative but constructive criticism. This essay helps to learn ‘how to criticise and how to take it, and gives access to ‘meanings’ of the terms.

Take the term, Vastu, much in currency these days, for example: “Vastu, add the meaning, “real estate” (Meyer, “Liegenschaft”): “Vastu includes houses, fields, groves, bridges (or ghats, setu-bandha), ponds and reservoirs,” Arthasastra, III, 8” (P. 97).

He has presented over 100 sculptured relief works in photographs and drawings – some of them restored in exquisite drawings by him, as visual evidence, from monuments built in or carved out of rocks centuries ago. The author referred to textual evidences from Sanskrit, Prakrit and Pali law books, epics and Kavya literature. These reliefs were executed by sculptors, guilds of master craftsmen who documented epics of Indian civilization on stone surface. It is worth noting that the sacred texts were handed over by mnemonic method, though writing was known, for reasons of accuracy, which is still being observed. In the relief sculptures there is no scope for errors or adulteration or manipulations.

The population of India around 1st A.D. was perhaps 30 million or so, with growth rate of probably less than 0.01 percent per year. As the feudal power over people increased, which is now growing to a global scale through its invisible tentacles, the epic writer in stone is now visibly disintegrated.

What happened to the guilds as the population grew? For instance, the communities of stone-cutters called “Wadar” and “Beldar” living in the slums of cities and towns not far from the famous monuments of Karla, Bhaja, Elephanta, Kanheri etc. and several forts in Maharashtra. Are these the descendants of the guilds of the ancient times? Just as the Brahmin descendants of the sages – Vashishta, Agasti, Vyas, Bhrugu, Vaishampayana etc. whose pedigree has been maintained by the high caste?

What Michael W Meister probably missed in the conversation with Joseph Rykwert is to give 20th century parallel in modern architecture to A K Coomaraswamy’s thesis of “primordial hut as a form-giver” to historical Indian Architecture (Afterword: Adam’s house and hermits’ hut: A conversation, P. 125) . In the twentieth century modern (western) world architecture there are only “master form-givers”, whose works go down as second hand and third hand imitations to the masses: Indeed a true expression of economics of Industrial Civilization that give the fruits of its development and progress, prosperity and powers to the society by the “trickle down formula”. This formula is also applied to the education system to support industrial civilization.

In today’s context, awareness of environment, ecology and energy which are being destroyed at unprecedented rate, Coomaraswamy’s work of timeless quality is all the more relevant, a ground prepared for ‘further work’.

It is a book for all: scholars and architects, planners and politicians, pundits and leaders alike: a collector’s copy. It may also help a new vocabulary – a new form of expression to emerge – a departure from twentieth century architecture and other disciplines (born and developed in the West); a restoration of dignity of labour; a change in planning parameters; a right to manage their own affairs to the local communities. What John Papworth calls, “Democracy after all does not mean government for the people; it means government by the people. We hope, in Coomaraswamy’s words, “…mark a final victory of the conquered over the conquerors” (History of Indian and Indonesian Art, P. 5).

(NOTE: This is an edited version of book review, published in INDIAN ARCHITECT & BUILDER, Mumbai, May 1993, P. 85-86)

Image: Portrait of Ananda Coomaraswamy by Arnold Ronnebeck, 1929. This bust represents Coomaraswamy at about the same he was working on "Early Indian Architecture" and other wor
ks in transition (P. 103).
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© Remigius de Souza, all rights reserved.

SHANKAR KANADE, ARCHITECT

Shankar Kanade, Architect: Illustrated Profile

 

S. N. Kanade

Man who walks the talk, my friend and guru

By Remigius de Souza

Jalavayu Vihar Township, Bangalore is a unique urban-scape. The township is not an assembly of stereotypical blocks. The varied skyline of the buildings, the shaded lanes that connect to open spaces add to the human scale. There are many elements that are rooted in traditional Indian towns. Perhaps they come from mimetic memory! These photographs show how the inmates have used their skills in plantation to add their signature. In this the complex helps to flower human potential. (This is an updated post.)

Shankar N. Kanade at Jalavayu Vihar

SHANKAR NIVRUTTI KANADE, my classmate, and friend for fifty years, is based in Bangalore and practices architecture and planning with his brother Navanath.

He has been teaching since 1960s, first at the Ahmadabad School of Architecture (now CEPT), later in various colleges in Karnataka. He, with others, founded department of architecture in Hassan in Karnataka. He also set up a course/ curriculum for another college.

The user use their autonomy to add in finishing touches

Kanade, on his own initiative, developed an indigenous construction technology, known as “Chhapadi” in Karnataka. It is highly labour intensive and uses local resources – people and materials. He worked on this system without any institutional support or finance. He designed and built several houses including his own, and mass housing for public sector.

Despite his friends’ advice he never took a patent for this product. Now others are using it. I heard that someone got an award for her/his design that used the technology. But the important factor is the unskilled/ skilled workers have learnt something new and benefited. His “pro-poor” product empowers the poor to earn livelihood.

The gateway holds o.h. water tank

I have seen and experienced some of these houses. When I visited Lohithashwa’s house, my spontaneous response was “I am reminded of India’s rock cut architecture”. I had also visited the house when Lohithashwa had hosted art workshop there, where other arts also flourished. Several artistes – potters, painters, and sculptors – were passionately working: I feel this may be a best, and the most appropriate tribute Kanade ever received for his work.

The township features traditional lanes

 I also visited his high-density township – “Jalavayu Vihar”; it is not built with the same technology mentioned above. At its ‘core’ is the ‘primordial image’ of Indian towns, but it’s not a prototype.

Plantation added by the user

 It has gates, shaded lanes, and multilevel open spaces, which give relief visually and physically from high-density development. Kanade brothers use and mold the Fifth Dimension of light of the tropical India, as building material.

The major material is local granite

When I returned there were friends gathered at Kanade's home. Architect Sanjay Mohe asked, ‘What did Remi see?’ Absentmindedly I replied, ‘Remi saw tiny honeybees busy’.

Kanade brothers use tropical sun to best advantage

There were honeybees smaller than house flies. They are harmless, and like common sparrows they make their homes in the snitches. Unlike beehives, they build small vessels to store honey, supported with wax tie bars. I was reminded of Aldo van Eyck who said, “… City is a big house”.

Movement through different scales

When Kanade came to Mumbai to study architecture, from his village in Sholapur district on the border of Maharashtra - Karnataka states, for some time he, with two other friends, lived in a slum in Santacruz. They called their home, “Chandramauli”, meaning a hut where moonlight penetrates through its roof (so also rainwater). Sounds romantic while reading!

Kanade's architecture is user-friendly

In some other country, Kanade would have received invitation form every college and association of architects. But who takes notice here? He is neither a foreigner nor foreign returned. Perhaps there is no budget provided for such luxury. What about his students and apprentices, who might have joined teaching?

Multiple uses of open spaces

Kanade never mentioned in decades that there is some research in ‘Building Technology’ going on in any college. While teaching the juniors in Ahmedabad, he gave exercises that took them to carpentry workshop.

Play of shade and light everywhere

Crores of Rupees are invested in establishment, infrastructure and running the colleges, besides the youth energy and their creativity that is spent on the campuses. [I raised this issue in my article, “Letters and Number plus Things to Make”, published in the JIIA, January2000 (edited version), and in ARCHeFUNDA, September 2000, (full text) edited by Prof. Harimohan Pillai.

Open spaces are connected lanes

What is the result? I heard that some highbrow management students asked the Nobel laureate Muhammad Yunus to give them a model of “social banking” like his “Gramin Bank”. So that they could ‘copy-paste’ – ‘cut-paste’ in their dissertations and theses, to add to their credibility. They want ready answers! That’s education, youth creativity and energy!

There is movement in skyline too!

When we say architecture in India, it is a tail end or an extension of western architecture, which is not ‘universal’ in India. Kanade, of course, is a follower of the western trend that took place in India, now for more than hundred years.

Shankar and Navanath Kanade at Jalavayu Vihar

I personally may not agree on many established points regarding education, architecture and aesthetics, which I made public in my paper “Architecture and Biodiversity in India”. By their silence, my friends – Kanades and others, and the Indian fraternity of architects about this paper, I believe it remains controversial. The simplistic reason, I guess is the status quo attitude of educationists, which is typical of the bureaucrats. Yet, Kanade’s contribution to the building technology remains unique.
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Remigius de Souza