ARCHITECT RANJIT SABIKHI

Submitted by: Momd. Saqib Sarit Sekhar Bhunia

Contemporary architecture: ARCHITECT RANJIT SABIKHI

Ranjit Sabikhi received his B.Arch degree in 1957, and Masters in Civic Design in 1959, both from Liverpool University. He has been (Visiting Critic to the Harvard School of Design, and Washington University. St. Louis. Member of a panel of technical experts appointed by the government 10 prepare a new conceptual Master Plan for Delhi. Professional Advisor to' the IGNCA international Competition. And recently, jury member to evaluate a limited design competition for the new World Bank headquarters at Washington DC. He taught for 16 years at the SPA, New Delhi, before he left in 1975 as Head of the Dept of Urban Design. His architectural experience includes a two-year stint with Chamberlin Powell & Bon in London where he worked on the Golden Lane Housing project and early concept designs for the Barbican. As a principal in his own practice from 1961 onwards he has worked on substantial projects in India as well as in the Middle East and in South East Asia. Major works include educational institutes, housing, hotels and embassies. His work has been professionally recognized by awards and has also been included as part of international exhibitions on Indian architecture. He has participated in several international conferences and has also served as a member of the jury for major projects including the design of the New World Bank HQS in Washington D.C. Peter Hugh Girard Chamberlin (1919-78), was always known as Joe, and he seems to have had that larger than life quality typical of the great Victorian politician. Powell described him as a lovely man, who combined a gentleness of voice and manner with a powerful will. Geoffry Charles Hamilton Powell was born in 1920 in India, the son of an army officer. He studied at Wellington College and was expected to enter the army, before contracting tuberculosis, which left him with only one kidney. Unfit for the army, and with a talent for drawing, architecture was suggested as an alternative career, and he entered the Architectural Association in October 1939. He is thus of that AA generation, with Philip Powell and Jacko Moya, who were evacuated to Hadley Wood, and shared digs in Monken Hadley, north of London, the so-called Taliesin, christened by the small group after Frank Lloyd Wrights home. Christof Bon was born in 1921 at St Gallen, Switzerland, and studied at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Zurich. His father and uncle were restaurateurs, and Bon was noted for his culinary skills. He came over in 1947 and worked briefly for William Holford and Myles Wright on the City of London Plan, then went to Milan to work for Gianluigi Banfi, Lodovico Belgiojoso, Enrico Peressutti, and Ernesto Nathan Rogers (BBPR).

The 1950s in England pre-empted the 1960s in India - a logical delay, an inevitable hiatus in India, where Nehru's administration model and strategies needed more time to be set up to achieve professional authenticity and validity. Faced with the institutional challenge, the task before the new professionals was both gigantic and astonishing. Many groups were formed;
Contemporary architecture: ARCHITECT RANJIT SABIKHI

many architects set up to negotiate the imperfect administration and political structuring of the building programme. Some remained, some fractured. From a detached position, the dialogue in one such group, the Design Group, is recognizable almost immediately. Mr. Sabikhi is western trained, was at Liverpool School of Architecture, when it was regarded as one of the best architectural schools in the country. It also pioneered Civic Design, now called anything from Urban Design to Town Planning. Sabikhi's grounding, is thus 'dated in the chronological sense, and flexible in the ideological sense . Mr.Sabikhi saw Chamberlain, Powell and Bon wrestle with muscular concrete, pillars and columns in their institutional buildings in England, an alteration of a Mediterranean modernism with an English engineering precision, Choudhury will have seen Kanvinde and others wrestle with similar problems , if but a little displaced in the Indian context. Though suspicious of western influence, it is still clear that no indigenous architecture (or very little) has emerged, that either comments on the ambiguous relation with the west and still survives in its regional context. The Japanese, perhaps, have achieved this, though their traditional legacy is somewhat simplified and more accessible than the legacy of India's rulers over the centuries. Post-modernism has undeniable, put more emphasis on the visual aspect, the visual sell of the building. Taken favorable, this is considered the missing 'message' level of the building, or the iconographic link to other forms. Scorned, it is considered the superficial level, the ornamentation, the icing on the cake. But it is, always, somewhere in between. Sabikhi acknowledges that things have changed, and recently they, too, have 'tweaked' a few details, a facade here or a column there. The ubiquitous magazines cannot fail to have their influence. But, Sabikhi hurries on to say, nothing like the superficial details. In the District Centre, at Janakpuri, architect tried to refer (echo, recall, associate ... endless synonyms are possible) to the one major shopping image of Delhi. That image: the colonnade of Connaught Circus. Ten years ago, twenty years ago, when subjective wrong was justified as right, words like 'refer', 'echo', 'recall' were not part of the architect's vocabulary. Whether the model is Corbusier, Kahn, Mies, or Jaisalmer,Sikri or Connaught Circus, reference alone is not excusable. Presumably, as in literature or art, we have to assume there are competent, innovative ways of using reference, that bring dignity to both, without facile imitations or mediocrity . It is, as with literature and art, a question of dispersal. And, is open to unfulfillment. In other words, the reference, the echo, the recall, may just dilate. Here we discussed about some of his projects STAFF HOUSING FOR THE NATIONAL COUNCIL OF YMCA, NEW DELHI, 1963. The early sixties' period of architecture in India came under the immediate influence of the monumental aesthetics of the post Chandigarh era. Its a complex of four secretaries apartments and four junior staff quarters. The clients brief insisted on a physical separation of the two categories of apartments and this was developed in the form of a separating street. The same basic system of planning on a square grid with a system of alienating terraces on each floor ensured an overall unity of concept. YMCA INSTITUTE OF ENGINEERING FARIDABAD, INDIA INEW DELHI, 1969. The complex is dominated by the central group of academic buildings, flanked on one side by the group of student hostels, and on the other by the staff residences. A central pedestrian spine connects all the residential buildings to the academic complex cutting across pleasant landscaped
Contemporary architecture: ARCHITECT RANJIT SABIKHI

gardens without crossing any of the vehicular roads. The central complex which houses a variety of activities was conceived as a kind of pin-wheel structure allowing the expansion of different wings in due course depending on future needs NATIONAL DAIRY DEVELOPMENT BOARD REGIONAL TRAINING CENTRE, JALANDHAR. The 1950s in England pre-empted the 1960s in India - a logical delay, an inevitable hiatus in India, where Nehru's administration model and strategies needed more time to be set up to achieve professional authenticity and validity. Faced with the Institutional challenge, the task before the new professionals was both gigantic and astonishing. Man\] groups were formed, many architects set up to negotiate the imperfect administration and political structuring of the building programmed. Some remained, some fractured. From a detached position, the dialogue in one such group, the Design Group , is recognizable almost immediately. The programmed called for a small training center comprising two classrooms and an auditorium, a library and a residential unit with eight monitories for local trainees and a set of four guest rooms. It was decided to consolidate the different requirements into a single complex whilst retaining the distinct identity of the training center as well as the residential unit. The two areas are organized around separate courtyards connected by a short corridor. NATIONAL DAIRY DEVELOPMENT BOARD, STAFF HOUSING, NOIDA. UTTAR PRADESH . This project envisages the development of a hundred dwelling units on a two-acre site for the National Dairy Development Board (NDDB) staff at NOIDA. The site. which is almost triangular, faces a storm water nullah and bund on the west towards the River Yamuna with residential units distributed along the boundaries within required set-back lines. All parking has been restricted to the north-eastern edge of the site and partially extends to serve the B type units along the south-eastern boundary. The remaining land is landscaped. The residential units have been classified into five different types and converge onto the central green, facing a club. YAMUNA APPARTMENT, NEW DELHI. Yamuna Apartments was one of the first co-operative group housing schemes to be completed, and although they have been built within the same constraints as applicable to other housing development in the city including DdA's own housing they present a refreshing contrast in concept and design. JANAKPURI DISTRICT CENTRE NEW DELHI. INDIA. The early sixties' period of architecture in India came under the immediate influence of the monumental aesthetics of the post Chandigarh era The District Centre at Janakpuri developed on a 35 acre site serves as an important shopping centre india came under the catering to the needs of a large residential population of the area. Simultaneously providing for social. cultural, and recreational requirements through the provision of cinemas, a meeting hall. library cultural center and a hotel. Specific spaces have been defined for the erection of signs and hoardings, and in order to be able to camouflage the multitude of fixtures such as air coolers, air conditioners, etc., a system of precast concrete louvers has been proposed. These louvers are spaced wide enough to allow light and air to penetrate through, but from a distance, they still read as a screen which, in tum, fonns part of the standard facade and serves as a unifying element. TAJ BENGAL HOTEL, KOLKATA , INDIA

Contemporary architecture: ARCHITECT RANJIT SABIKHI

The Taj Bengal, a 250 room hotel is conceptualized as a triangular form enclosing a central atrium the form being dictated largely by the shape and location of its site. Intended as a major urban hotel in calcutta, effort has been made to endow it with a definite sense of place, as well as an ambience in keeping with the context of the city. The building draws from the colonial backdrop of the city and at the same time attempts to integrate with the garden environment of the adjoining Zoo by extensive landscape and plantation.

MOGHUL SHERATON AGRA, INDIA-1995. The opportunity to refine the integration of internal and external space in a meaningful composition came with the design of the Mughal Hotel at Agra. Here again Fatehpu Sikri and the Mughal and Rajasthani forts served as models and sources of inspiration. A substantial site of 13 acres provided Hotel (1979). the basis for a garden concept. HUDCO BAZAR BIKAJI CAMA PLACE, NEW DELHI. The architecture of the HUDCO Bazaar tries to mediate the scale and activity between Bhikaji cama Place and Mohamadpur Village. While the side facing the Bhikaji cama Place contains large shops and offices in three storied stepped buildings, the building edge joining Mohamadpur Village with its lower height and shaded pergola areas for infonnal and other service activities. is more sensitive to the character of the village. DLF CENTER, NEW DELHI Located on a site adjoining the historic Jantar Mantar Observatory, the DLF CENTRE follows the curved form of the erstwhile Narendra Place building on the same site and also reflects the curved form of the Park Hotel on the opposite side across Parliament Street.

Contemporary architecture: ARCHITECT RANJIT SABIKHI

Contemporary architecture: ARCHITECT RANJIT SABIKHI