A quick stroll through Parametric Urbanism

Parametric/ Parameter:  In mathematics, parametric equations are a method of defining a curve. A simple kinematical example is when one uses a time parameter to determine the position, velocity, and other information about a body in motion. [i]

That was a little brief to get introduced to the terminology - widely used in the contemporary design strategies. If one was to define the resultant of such equations, it is to provide a definition to complex forms seen in nature that can measure the ‘change’ in form, function or of any nature by defining them as variable parameters.

 a defined curve based on parametric equations - butterfly curve. -source:wikipedia

 Is urban(ism)... parametric?  Of course it is. Every urban condition is in constant change like every matter or collected matter in the universe with certain parameters driving the change. One could define ‘urban’ as assemblies of matter that includes you, me and all other physical elements that form a city and since every matter is under change and we (as humans) can only see through limited scales in our lifetime, hence do not notice the two scales: the one that spans over the period of our lifetime or the other that happen quicker than we can absorb in our senses.  But the city is constantly under change; shops give way to new ones- change in fashion and choice, houses change to multi-storeyed apartments -change in value and need, change in social culture- network interface with our lives, and the list is endless...

If the list is endless the how can we select the parameters for designing a city as we have constraints?

A city exists in an interrelationship between various parameters; social interaction spaces, economical development, availability of land, number of people and sometimes from its relation to other cities (e.g. recent the hit on European cities due o collapse in American leverage system). The Design parameters although could be restricted to more physicality with a data driven approach as a constant feedback mechanism can alter the design time and again to produce a set of changes that in turn allows the city to be more responsive than the earlier formats of city design which were driven by the zoning laws and basic initial masterplans (city of Chandigarh).

Parametric Urbanism - AADRL[ii]

In the initial 19 hundreds when first cities were designed with Howards idea of city design (on a clean slate of land all over the world) was realised due to a very necessity in the change in social structure. The origin of automobile as a form of transport forced to enhance the road width which completely changed the profile of the cities from the medieval era which had narrow streets and 3 storied houses. Today it seems no different to see cities zoned out in various housing, commercial and industrial sectors which during the early emergence from medial towns looked as huge surprises. Similarly, parametric urbanism today gives a similar impression that it is advanced from the traditional planning of zoning which works with techniques on a data feedback system are by far more efficient than the planning of today’s cities as the data inputs can give a more intelligent and efficient behaviour of overall cities performance. However the question of realising these designs is not a question as much to design but rather a question of social necessity –

‘For the Garden cities the invention like the automobiles and industries brought about the major switch. What is going to drive the contemporary city design system to be replaced by parametric urban design schemes if they were to be realised on clean a slate  again? ‘

 

“...all you touch and all you see, is all your life will ever be.

run rabbit run dig that hole, forget the sun

and when at last the work is done, don’t sit down

its time to dig another one...“

Breathe, Dark side of the moon- Pink Floyd

-Subharthi Guha

14^th Feb 2009 

 

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[i] source:  wikipedia

[ii] AADRL.net

Technology and the Mind

 

Technology is everywhere in use and is inconsequential of you adapting it or not, as the matter of fact, it is a part of the civilization in so many ways that its effect is seen in a every household computer today that is faster than the one that took Neil Armstrong to the moon.

From music , art and architecture, there have been drastic steps of reformation in the global saga of understanding and appreciation of these art forms. The differences are stunning.  The music industry went through interesting steps reforming the commercial zone by introducing electronic media which produced tracks much faster and used various experimental sounds. It revealed a new world of progressive house and others that have taken over the commercial industry of music completely (almost). 

But lately it is observed that due to the increase in network and piracy, the commercial structure has taken steps to introduce live performances of a few tracks in public after the launch of the albums to regain profit. One might argue here that the necessity of such a step and in a direction back to the live performances, maybe not so much like the rock era of the 80’s, but to a certain extent gives a touch of humaneness back to the field of music. Hence the band picks a few tracks....practises it for a live show(with real instruments) and performs it in public which somehow is different from the original but keeps the people interested to look upon them and produce something for the promoter. From the music of the traditional bands with musical objects we now have a parallel line of electronic ones producing tracks at a much faster and effective rate.  The participation of people in concert or the idea of seeing a live performance cannot be ruled out.  The use of real instruments thus is inevitable, however could have been actually done with if seen theoretically.

In contrast to music, architecture has a problem. Where music can deal with in in-between condition where it holds both the live stage performances with real instruments as well as electrical objects, architecture always needs to produce in reality, outside the box of the computer- for a constant scale – the human.   This new method in architecture has the capacity to produce forms that are unimaginable to the human creativity as the brain can only calculate or imagine certain number of dimensions at a time. The computer methods show results of forms and possibilities within a range which are incapable of the human understandings (like the large digit multiplication done by a calculator).

Now, when we look at designs that have such bottom up approaches which allows us to use control and produce the final product as per the changes and drifts introduced, the act of live performance in scale is still relevant in architecture just like the music shows that need to be made with real instruments for a complete electronic album. The architecture hence has or needs to look at two constantly new scales with probability of using the human vision in the larger picture scale, maybe is just a necessity that cannot be ruled out. Although the other techniques would help in creating objects of design but the idea of space however would might have to remain in control of the mind based design approaches which take into account the human scale, structure, methodology and other perception of senses in consideration.

Here we have a situation today with a constant conflict between which of the tracks to move on....technology .....or the  strokes of the mind based designs. Being on the edge is a critical condition in which the decision on that point of time could affect changes and history for a period of time, although one would argue that over a longer period (1000 yrs) of time the consequences of the performance is irrelevant of decisions.  However, design has been achieved in both terms but the concern of architecture is the scale that cannot and should not be altered. Computer aided design does have an immense potential in object design however which do not comply with cost effectiveness and sometimes as decorative pieces like the screensaver and sculptural. But the stroke of the brush of a painter .... indeed cannot be replaced.

 

-Subharthi Guha

2 January 2009

Beyond the Rationale: The SIXTH SENSE

View of our solar system from inside our Galaxy

All the dreams we have ever dreamt, the wildest thoughts that have ever occurred; from the largest of cities ever built to the biggest machines that are made for use; including you and me; are all confined to our planet earth. Beyond which lies a universe... unknown, which has never been experienced. We have made constant attempts to understand what lies beyond, for over 10 thousand years.

In our world, we strive for a Rationale. Science demands a proof. This has given us all- the world of mechanics, electronics, the dotcoms and the also cities which now live day and night. Interestingly, the entire world we know of or can ever perceive is through our senses. It is our body’s only access to the understanding and experiencing the universe. We need to touch, taste, smell, hear or see to believe in anything or experience it. But all our 5 senses cannot perform an understanding; it is the mind that translates it. The mind is where the realisation takes place. It brings the existence of the rationale that built the world we have.

BUT, we all dare to dream; we also feel emotions that elate us with joy. A simple gesture of a kid can bring us happiness; an act of doing can show affection and a small gesture of a hand can translate an emotion of love and compassion. These are all perceptions of the mind. They do not exist in the real world but yet give you a sense of living that is joyous. For centuries we have tried to translate them through movies, poems and scripts. There have been many stories told.

We cannot appreciate the climax of a story unless they have built it up a thought through the entire movie. It creates an impression and hence the climax becomes an emotion. The Taj Mahal for example is a beautiful building but probably more so because of the story of a great king who built a monument in memory of his loving queen. One needs to build a memory to translate an emotion. The new born child has no emotions he just responds to his senses but as time goes by, he has memories and then the understanding of the emotions follow. An old man carries a lot of thought and associates it with anything he sees as he has gathered a lot of memory through time. The mind is then our SIXTH SENSE that once opened lets you into the world of emotions.

Some spend their whole life gathering emotions while others live to recall a few good moments. A few travel over the Himalayas to train the mind in order to understand both the rationale and the subjects beyond it. In many parts of the world still today people leave their homes and follow the path of the Buddha, to become one perhaps.

But the Buddha went only to return back to people. It is called the prestige in the world of magic. Where a magician disappears in an act, which of course is marvellous in itself but he has to return back to stage. That is what takes an audience by surprise. An act, they say, is not complete without a prestige[i]. That act of the Buddha was his doing. A doing after the understanding of the mind. It is to have the ability to perform with all 5 senses along with the 6^th through the mind and apply in every performance of life. To cherish an act of doing... is living.

Our universe is in many many layers. We can only understand and feel what is appreciated by our 5 senses but the mind can show you the insights of what lies beyond, provided we choose to believe. Most of the universe that lies beyond the rationale is supported by theories and perception such as the big bang and the black holes.....they are just like our dreams when we sleep. They will always be that unless our primary senses transform through ages[ii].

A picture of the earth from Apollo 17

We live one life and in it how much we want to understand is left to our own choice but to live the fullest with only six senses in our toolbox we need to have a thorough understanding of the tools and then as they say....the sky is the limit.

Subharthi Guha

14^th July 2008

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[i] Dialogues from the movie “the prestige”

[ii] 1 age is nearly 2050 years when the sun moves from one constellation towards the other. Right now we are in the pices age

Celebration

5 Ratha’s, Mahabalipuram (600 AD)

When you stand in front of the “5-Rathas” in Mahabalipuram, they do not hit you with the 1st impression of grandeur that we are used to seeing in the architecture of the Red Forts, the Qutab Minar or the Taj Mahal. Rather, just as these thoughts have passed your mind, you sense a gesture of certain humbleness that tells you that here the architects, sculptures and artists were never on a mission to impose their Gods.

The simple postures of the "Lord Shiva” in dancing, eating, making love, and sleeping positions, convey a rather different vision on how people in the 600 BC looked at gods, to the centuries that followed in the temples in Tanjor and the other parts of southern India. The idols suggest a much closer relation to the daily activities of the common man; they presumably believed in celebrating the form- ‘life’, with a common man’s icon -“the Shiva”. He was what a man was to be - a Giver, an Organiser and a Destroyer, all the powers that every man would hold in his lifetime on earth. The architecture hence celebrated a gesture of being, with simplicity in form and rhythm but with a new kind of design.

In an early morning walk to these off shore rock-cut structures, the noise of the waves accompanies you along with the visual delight. At a closer look, some seem unfinished, while others are carelessly done, compared to the rock cut caves of the Ajanta and Ellora that predates this by over 500 years. But, this is where the south-Indian temples found their style of architecture that has followed ever since. (The stepped roof that is seen all over with carvings and statues that are sometimes engraved but mostly stuck onto the different roofs and gateways.) With a transformation to seeing God in a completely different perspective-the almighty, the ‘Gopurams’(gateways) grew larger and larger and the shrine ‘mandappa’ got wealthier while the priest’s and kings arose as a power houses, later forming a different society altogether.

We can possibly analyse a building by the help of the next 3 catagories:

1. FACE: The grandeur or its form

2. HEART: The details or reasoning (response to climate, site, function, craftsmanship, materials, light, spaces etc)

3. TRAIL: The thought behind a building or the concept that lasts long after your visit that makes a place in memory.

The structures of Mahabalipuram do not have a face to boast about, they do have a heart that pumped the architecture of Dravidian temples till date but surely they leave a massive trail that needs to be rejuvenated. A thought that gods are not descendants from heaven who possess supernatural powers, but humans just like you and me. And it is this celebration of such a supreme thought in 600 BC that makes these structures so unique. They built for a simple pleasure in building: the act of doing, with ideas of celebration. Their thoughts were similar to the first man who ever made fire- he never invented it for us to light a gas stove but just his want to do it which gave him his own satisfaction. The people of Mahabalipuram did no different, they had a kind of thought that all of humanity still strives for.


-Subharthi Guha
10th May 2008

Architecture – An Idea

Under the hat of Globalisation we are experiencing a major economic boom which has an impact much like the “industrial revolution”. Although one understands the necessity of such an evolution in day-to-day life, but architecture is seeing a repeat of an era, much similar to the “International Style”.

Today, we see architecture as a necessity to provide shelter to the needed in the fastest way possible. This boom is majorly been experienced in countries like China( who have recently opened its doors), south east Asia and India, most of which are developing countries. Massive projects on urbanisation and housing, which was once in a lifetime commission for an experienced architect, today, is knocking at almost everyone’s door. The result is such that in our mission to achieve the Manhattan skyline, which given a choice the people of Manhattan would no longer celebrate, our cities are left for erosion.

But this is not the first time. When Louis Sullivan, an American architect, said “that form ever follows function”, many miss-interpreted and chose to “follow the function” and forgot the form. This suited the time of industrial revolution perfectly as more and more buildings arose without a thought and served true functionalism. It took many years for one to realise what Sullivan really meant - every object, he said, that exists in nature, has a form that is based on its function, yet a leaf of one tree is different from the next, although their functions are quite similar. The form is the ingeniousness of man and nature. It is the buildings soul and our creation. It can never be borrowed from a hospital to a school, just like a eucalyptus leaf would never fit a banyan tree. They are both part of a tree as both the buildings are part of our needs.

The presence of thought in architecture originates from the early cave-men who drew paintings on their walls to symbolise certain animals and methods of living such as hunting, cooking and human synthesis. No Pharaoh could have ever built a pyramid for his own selfish motive to obtain rebirth and enslave millions for such a personal cause. The reason lay in the belief of their civilization, in a ritual performed inside these huge buildings exactly at a time just before the flooding of the Nile valley, which showed citizens the proof of their belief each year. Similarly, no European church could have ever been built if it was a selfish motto of the Church to show its supreme power, rather it was the faith in religion that people could be organised in hundreds to perform such a collective act.

We are living in an era in which we strive for reasoning through our senses. Like all objects and matter, we too have limitations. Our imaginative universe exists in many layers and the observation from one layer is directly perceivable to the immediate interactive layers that lay above or below it. The rest is a belief or understanding, based on either derivations or perceptions or a theory.

The architecture that appeals to every one of us like the Great Pyramids, the Churches, the Temples, have a thought rooted in its design. Not just because they are grand structures but for an underlying thought which was formed by the understanding of various belief. These thoughts extended beyond our reasoning world which is why we visit them still today.

It is these thoughts that have gone missing. Today our only prides lie in the super high-rise buildings that to some extent signify the technical achievements by the reasoning man and nothing more. They remain just one-liners with no story to tell.

No matter whatever we build, architecture would continue to represent a time in every civilisation that we ever lived. It is always evolving, as the only constant that remains in our rational understanding of the universe is ‘evolution’. We have come through the industrial revolution and we will come through this economic one as well. But unless we give our thoughts into what we build as architects, it will not be worth and would remain just a mere impression like the skyscrapers of Manhattan.


-Subharthi Guha
21 April 2008.