Beruflich Dokumente
Kultur Dokumente
By Zain Mankani
The result is, of course, that architectural forms gain a kind of rigidity –
an unflinching pose that reflects the stagnant, man-made environment
inside it. Nature has to be kept out by creating a curtain wall, and yet
has to be called in by ensuring that the curtain is sheet glass. Modern
architecture’s defining form is hence the glass box.
Now that the image of Modern architecture has been fully assimilated
in our minds, the enthusiasm that has always surrounded the issue of
climatic suitability continues unabated (in fact the enthusiasm is itself
a phenomenon of Modernism), but the responses generated by this
interest have become peripheral. Indeed, the very rigor with which
architects today advocate the philosophy of climatic propriety in
design is suggestive of the fact that the issue has actually been
pushed out of the circle of design proper, so that it is now a separate
entity about which one can think consciously.
Even courtyards become glassed-out visual treats, and worse yet are
indoor courtyards inside multi-storied boxes with plastic plants and a
panaflex sky!
The most potent proof of this notion is provided by the work of none
other than Le Corbusier – the most vocal proponent of the Modern
movement. If one compares his Villa Savoye, in Poissy France, with his
Villa Shodhan in Ahmedabad, India, one may be startled at the manner
in which the same principles of design are employed in opposing
climatic contexts.
Villa Shodhan is also a cube, like Savoye. But here the façade, instead
of being taken up by the long window, is composed into large, deep
brise soleil or sunshades, which keep the building in shadows and let
cool breeze into the interior spaces. The villa also has roof terraces,
but owing to the sunny weather, the terraces are not open to sky but
are covered with a thick concrete roof that runs over the roofs of the
rooms as well like a parasol. The parasol roof is a particularly effective
passive cooling device since it is through the roof that a building gains
most heat. This second roof is a thick slab that resists the sun’s
radiation. When the radiation does get through, it enters the air pocket
between this and the roof of the living spaces and is dissipated by the
breeze.
The punctured façade is still more admirably used as the face of South-
east Asian architecture in the Textile Mill-owner’s Association (TMA)
building. In the TMA, Corbusier turns the entire façade into a screen of
concrete fins angled to draw in the breeze, and set with plantation. The
large, angled perforations of the screen converge into one multi-story
opening where the entrance ramp rises up to meet the façade, forming
a grand entrance. The free-plan concept is also here more visibly
indicated by the use of cylindrical volumes for the internal rooms.
These are perceived from the outside as a playful composition of
platonic forms contained inside a permeable cube.
Starting from the rigid, polemical stance expected of one who is setting
out to bring about a revolution, Le Corbusier modifies his approach to
arrive at the inclusive designs he achieves at Ahmedabad. He is able to
do this because of his ability to integrate the context into the design. It
is this integration that is a pre-requisite of contextually appropriate
architecture – whether the contextual factor is climate or any of the
other aforementioned factors.
Our context is replete with elements that are willing to be modified into
a new vocabulary – one that allows them to retain their use and
familiarity, while giving up their obsolete technology – but only if we
are willing to take lessons from these fine examples around us.
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