O . o ° Mindscapes ° o . O

Because every damn time I signed on to Facebook, my feed went like this:

[Girl you found distasteful in high school]: Has posted pictures from her wedding!

Click here to view her photos, while wondering if perhaps you misjudged her, back in the day.  Find photos distasteful, even for wedding photos.  Feel slightly depressed, if also vindicated.

[Person you barely talk to who lives in a different city]: Is home from work!

[Guy you had several ill-advised hookups with three years ago]: Has compared you to his other friends!

Click here if you find this somehow enraging.  Click around some more, trying to figure out whom you have been compared with, but give up after a few minutes.  Feel somehow violated.

[Girl you know through an ex-boyfriend]: Is a fan of “Bill Withers”.

[Person you barely talk to who lives in a different city]: Is cooking dinner!

[Girl you were good friends with in 7th grade and haven't talked to since then]: Has sent you a friend request!

Click here to accept her request with enthusiasm.

Click here to send a message to this girl, summarizing what you have been up to for the last fifteen years, and asking what she is up to in return.  Wait weeks, but never receive a response.  Wonder why you even bothered.  Feel slightly irritated every time you notice that she is constantly on Facebook.

[Person you barely talk to who lives in a different city]: Hates morning commutes!

[Ex Boyfriend you are no longer in touch with]: Has left a comment on the photo of [some girl you don't know].

Click here, despite your better judgment, to read the comment and look at the photo of the girl, so you can see if she is prettier than you.  Decide that she looks kind of dull and is probably not as funny as you either.  Wonder why you even care?  Feel animosity towards Ex Boyfriend for no definable reason.

[Girl you like but haven't talked to in years]: Has thrown an apple at you!

Click here to pointlessly ‘throw’ a random object back at her in lieu of meaningful communication.

[Person you barely talk to who lives in a different city]: Is listening to a great album!

[Hipster you are vaguely acquainted with and were always a little scornful of]: Has posted pictures from the album “Amazing Wild New Year’s Blowout Party that was Full of Sexy Hipsters Who Are Cooler than You”.

Click here to view the album.  Judge all of the people in it because they are mugging at the camera and attempting to look sexy.  Also, everyone is drinking Pabst Blue Ribbon and wearing trucker hats.  Tell yourself you would rather have spent New Year’s Eve at home on your couch, which is good because that’s what happened.  Feel slightly bad about yourself for unexplainable reason.

[Person you barely talk to who lives in a different city]: Is a fan of “Pastrami”.

Click here if you are also a fan of “Pastrami”, because the zany, eclectic things we express fondness for help define us to others.

[Random dude you worked with two jobs ago]: Has given you a Martini!

Click here to ‘give’ a ‘drink’ to [Random Dude you worked with two jobs ago], because that constitutes rewarding social interaction or something.

[Person you barely talk to who lives in a different city]: Loves Grey’s Anatomy!

[Girl whom you vaguely recall got married right out of college]: Is now listed as ‘Single’.

Feel overwhelmingly curious and slightly appalled that this information was posted on Facebook and now as a result you are pointlessly aware of it.

[Girl who you shared some classes with in college]: Has tagged herself in a photo!

Click here to view the photo and note that while it is flattering, it also looks very little like how you remember the girl actually looking.

[Person you barely talk to who lives in a different city]: Is hungry!

[Person you don't know]: Has left a comment on the status of [Girl whom you vaguely recall got married right out of college and is now apparently single]:  “Hey!  What happened?”

Feel even more appalled that someone would publicly post a brief, impersonal question like that; do they really expect an answer?  Well, maybe.  After all, what does [Girl who used to be married] expect, after announcing her singleness on Facebook?   Begin feeling ill about the whole scenario.

[Guy you are vaguely acquainted with]: is listed as “In a Relationship” with [Girl you have met twice].

Feel faintly surprised at the match, but mostly indifferent.  Wonder how [Guy] and [Girl] decided that their relationship had reached the critical “Change Your Facebook Status” level.   Speculate as to whether they discussed whether or not to change their Facebook statuses at the same time, and, if not, wonder which of them did it first, and if the one who did it first worried that the other one would feel that it had been done prematurely.   Feel slightly depressed by this train of thought.

[Guy you were close to in college but haven't seen in five years]: Has sent you an invitation!

Click here for details on this invitation to “An Awesome Show I’m in that is Happening in a City You Haven’t Lived in Since 1999.”

Feel flattered by the invitation, but also confused.  You’re probably not going to hop on a plane to see the show of a friend you haven’t spoken with since college.  But you still feel too guilty to respond to the invitation with a “No”, so you absurdly put “Maybe”.

[Person you barely talk to who lives in a different city]: is beginning to depress you with their constant updates.

Click here to scan through your Facebook friends and realize that very few of them represent actual, current friendships or even associations that you remotely value.  In fact your list of contacts feels like an eerie social graveyard of expired friendships, badly ended relationships, and vague, past acquaintances you care very little about.  Begin to feel depressed by the fact that so many people have passed in and out of your life without leaving much of an impression on you.  Wonder how a website that is so meaningless, vacuous and shallow has become so overwhelmingly popular (particularly with younger generations), and what that means about how we view social interaction today and the direction in which it is going.

Pour yourself a real, actual drink.  Note that you have a closer relationship with Jim Beam than with most of your so-called Facebook friends.

Leave Facebook.

The unique role that emotion, memory, and familiarity play in defining a place and its resulting resistance to change. 

            For me, everything begins with walking down a street. The street is perhaps the best avenue (pun intended) to exploration of what exists, what works and what doesn’t in the smallest module and the most basic level of what is called a community. Here, receptive to observation and interpretation, is the open book of people, place and time. I would go as far as to say that the street serves to describe (and to a minor extent, define) the lifestyle and culture of a society. Perhaps it may serve me well to write a thesis on the street itself, but this essay has other aspirations.

            Behavior of people in public and on the street is an assured way to read into why a place is as it is, and why it continues to remain so. The street is representative of a culture. One significant aspect of culture is its resistance to change. A culture develops over a long period of time, transcending generations and fleeting fads, in a series of overlapping layers. Repetition of the same kinds of behavior promotes the resultant appearance of a certain defining characteristic and aesthetic of a place. These spaces grow organically, in response to need. It can thus be said that they have been ‘designed’ subconsciously, without a predetermined thought process. The only process has been that of time and evolution. Very rarely are cities conceived in whole; in fact, a single gesture forming or dictating the shape of a city is next to impossible. A designer may provide an outline, but cities and cultures grow and evolve on their own over time; they may resist outside intervention, but are never stagnant.

            What dictates this evolution? What brings about an inertia that resists intervention and change? How can architecture introduce controlled change in the behaviour of people? Further, how can designers create a scenario that invites positive and revolutionary change in a place?

            Cities, like humans, experience inertia by falling into a mould created with time and experience. As much as we try to deny it, the fact remains that we are creatures of habit. Most of our daily acts are dictated by routine, and most of our life-decisions are influenced by expectation. On a larger scale, this dictum is mirrored by the spaces we inhabit. Humans seek comfort in familiarity, and spaces in a certain context are designed as a dream which is comfortable by virtue of its predictability. It is simply easier to create something that produces a known, albeit imperfect result, than to experiment with something new which may result in disaster. This is what sustains a certain behaviour and expectation of a place. However, we need to realize that there is a flip side to this assumption: what is unpredictable, and thus uncontrollable, need not always be negative. Many of the greatest results are brought about by accident. These serendipitous accidents can be brought into consciousness and channelized to produce desirable change. This is the job of architects.

Architecture is a backdrop to life. The role of architecture and its impact on behavior are commonly undermined, and perhaps this fact can be used to benefit design. Only invisible intervention works towards real change. This is because change must be introduced subtly and gradually. Any disturbance to current behavior and lifestyle is perceived as a threat to the self, especially in vulnerable cultures where impact of foreign entities is becoming rapidly incumbent. Designers commonly make the mistake of distancing themselves from the spaces they design, the mistake of ‘playing God.’ This furthers the notion of designing with an end product in mind as opposed to an open-ended search. Many users interpret this as a cause of their extinction, because it voids the existence of current themes, attitudes and behaviors that do not fit into this ‘rosy picture.’ To know a place, one must live in it, use it as a ‘user’ would. Only in this manner is it possible to understand the dynamics and impulses of a place. Not through case studies, generalizations or prejudice. Every place is unique, as it should be. Every place must be studied as if it were the first and only one of its kind. Not all revolutions need be radical. The best ones rarely are.

This discourse warrants a larger canvas and a more detailed explanation. For our purposes, it should suffice that what exists is deep-rooted, and resistant to change. Intervention is a question of trial-and-error, because there is no definite answer, only a series of experiments. Armed with observation and imagination, I believe it is possible, though difficult, to transform a locale through workable solutions. This process need not be tedious if the existing culture and attitudes of people are understood and celebrated whilst bringing about meaningful change in a place. Architecture, after all, is the play of spaces. It need not be as rigid as the materials used in buildings. Architecture, too, can be evolutionary... and revolutionary.

It all begins with parking your car and taking the risk of walking down the street.

Failure aims to teach you this

Aim again, and do not miss

Only this,

Is there no more?

Hear the knocking at the door,

Chance has come, do hear the call

Open up, do not forestall

Is that all,

Or is there more?

A lesson taught at every core

Cannot be learnt, it is a fact

Without a rash and thoughtless act

Only that,

And nothing more.

Only that, there’s nothing more.

Sometimes it is not enough to know, based on faith. Sometimes you have to test your faith and see to believe... to march forth with yet stronger resolve.

What you see is seldom what you get. But your faith always tells you otherwise, that what you see may just be a glimpse of what maybe, of what can be possible... and you must hold onto this possibility and hope that what you see is not an illusion, but only a prevue of greater potential ahead. Maybe not immediately ahead, maybe not for years into the future. You may never even be around to see your dream come true.

All great movements begin by one step in faith. In hope. In anticipation. In optimism. In resilience. These small, faltering steps never snowball into revolutions. They are followed by more small, faltering steps... staggering, hesitant, sidetracking from time to time, but moving on all the same. When you're not moving forward or backwards or in any direction, you are standing still.

Most of those who become a part of a revolution do not share the same intent or focus or drive or motive as the one who conceived the revolution. It doesn't matter. What matters is that it happens. What matters is you are not standing still.

Taking that first step in faith is what's important. The rest will follow. Or so you continue to hope on faith alone.

This post is dated December 6, 2007

 "Everything built by the hands of man on this earth is a living proof of the existence of the One God. Do I not strive to preserve it?"

These words are not my own, but none I could write would better serve to describe my sentiments on this, the blackest of days as considered by many. Eons have prepared for and led to a single defining moment. It takes the amalgamated effort of the centuries of history behind my country, the decades of history behind my people, and the years of history behind me, to understand, in this moment, that it is not a mere structure or place or even memory that roots me to something. It is all in me, an intangible, eternal, unseeing faith.
After all, in the words of Shakespeare, "All the world's a stage, and all the men and women merely players." She who truly wishes to address her God in prayer may bring down her forehead on any inch of this planet and call it a mosque.
No built form is eternal. Preservation is but to delay the natural process of decay, to hold for a while longer in reality what will forever be held in memory. Contrarily, deliberate annihilation is the erasure of that creation, which, apart from the demolition of what was tangible, stains it in memory forever.

To quote again, "Is there another mortal standing in this perspective?"
And to answer, perhaps very late, but not too late, and in fact, at a very suitable time, yes.

I am.

We wear the mask that grins and lies,

It hides our cheeks and shades our eyes,

This debt we pay to human guile;

With torn and bleeding hearts we smile,

And mouth with myriad subtleties.

Why should the world be over-wise,

In counting all our tears and sighs?

Nay, let them only see us, while

We wear the mask.

We smile, but, O great Christ, our cries

To thee from tortured souls arise.

We sing, but oh the clay is vile

Beneath our feet, and long the mile;

But let the world dream otherwise,

We wear the mask!

Noticing the repetitive and redundant nature of thesis topics selected by my peers (Themed Resort, Forest Resort, Eco-Tourist Camp, Health Retreat and Spa, Equestrian Club, Tourism Hub, etc.), and the approach to thesis as a large-scale version of the regular Design Studio, I was very disturbed and decided to take some time off to disconnect myself from college and decide how I would like to go about my thesis.

I went through the topics of students from other colleges such as CEPT and MIT, and noticed that none of them were able to fill in the blank: 'Design of a _____.' The stress seemed to be on something else entirely. After much thought and navigation of unexplored territory, I decided that my thesis would be exploratory and open-ended instead of generating a definitive solution. Even if such a solution were to be arrived at in the end, it would be resultant of the exploration of my capabilities and the potential of the topic, rather than a predetermined outcome. When I returned to college a year later, I had done my homework, and shifted my focus, but the faculty had not. 

I took my time and was careful not to frame my topic so that it could be converted to a fill-in-the-blank that would allow the conjuring of an image of a particular building type and would sabotage what I was trying to do. Finally, I arrived at Bringing Down the Walls: Contemporary Structures in the Historic Core. I did not determine what I would be designing from the very beginning, and instead concentrated on the study of a mohallah in the Old City, the inherent problems, and possible need for intervention. Initially, my internal guide did not have any problems with my direction of working. The first two months were very open-ended, which the juror for the first internal review termed 'lacking in focus.' The first stage being case-study, I presented none, but only the reasoning behind why I selected the context that I had scrutinized. My study would build up to what my role as an architect would be in the scenario. I decidedly refrained from mentioning any building types for lack of guarantee that one of these would be the ideal solution, and lest it be classified as such and carved in stone till the time I reached the end of my thesis. I was able to generate very few drawings at this stage. However, when this presentation of a broad idea that would eventually converge did not fit into the predetermined sequence of the thesis schedule, my internal guide called for a 'rosy picture' that I should have foreseen when I began my thesis.

When much of the study was over, I was able to fully understand what needed to be done in the area to rejuvenate the activities and keep from losing its character. The solution, I believe, is to reclaim a series of open spaces and old structures that are currently abandoned or being misused, which would be interconnected and form a network of informal activity in the mohalla. It was not advisable to add more structures except the very basic to the already existing narrow and chaotic streets. I altered my topic accordingly, to Bringing Down the Walls: Contemporary Spaces in the Historic Core. I was also able to present the information graphically, in the language that architects speak and understand. At this point, my priorities seemed to coincide with the preset schedule, and everyone was happy. However, the lack of a definitive solution that could be justified without loopholes posed a problem. It seemed that I must not 'bite off more than I could chew' and work only within my means and capabilities. I was simply not informed or equipped enough to design what I think are relevant solutions to the issues I outlined; I was asked to concentrate on a very peripheral aspect of the solution, because of missing information which I would not be able to collect or handle with my limited skill-set. Moreover, there is no guarantee that my solution would actually 'work.' Making assumptions and exploring the way to an almost-rosy picture was out of the question. In the end, it seemed, the juror's comments and suggestions were binding and had to be enforced as a dictum. 

From the above experiences, I can only raise these questions: Is the purpose of a thesis the providing of solutions that work with a guarantee, or is it the journey of self-discovery that tells how capable you are and what your potential is? After identifying a problem and outlining the potential solutions, am I to abandon the idea due to lack of skill, and shift my focus to a marginal part of the entire proposal just because it can be presented in the format of plan-section-elevation within the time constraints? Is it necessary that students dealing with larger scale projects also generate the same drawings as those dealing with small-scale projects? How can an urban design project be expected to show working drawings with the same level of detail as an interior design? Also, does the satisfaction or conviction of the guide or juror, and the success of the student in fully justifying their design determine the success of the thesis? Why can't I, as a student, hold a contradictory opinion to that of the juror/ faculty, and also be allowed to take my own course regardless?

Isn't that what thesis is all about: an unproved statement put forward as a premise in an argument (dictionary definition; the definition of premise being 'a statement that is assumed to be true and from which a conclusion can be drawn')?