A Space Within

Kumar feels that the majority of houses here lack character,and have a monotonous look and feel. While owners of most bungalows here may disagree with Kumar and nod in favour of their imposing structures,for Kumar the argument goes beyond designing a house only as living space. As he sees it,a house is an intimate space – and space cannot be understood out of culture. “Culture is something that speaks through you. It must also speak through your house,” says Kumar,as he ruminates on the ‘delinking from culture’ in the architecture that he sees here.

While we in the tricity pride ourselves on our imposing structures,Kumar’s words make one ponder. What makes one further reflect on his words is a look at the residences,institutes and industrial projects designed and executed by him and his team. There one sees what he means when he speaks about “the loss of culture” in buildings here. Look up his works on vernarch.com

Vernarch is short for Centre for Vernacular Architecture,Kumar’s non-profit organisation that has been designing and executing turnkey vernacular architectural projects in South India. Vernacular architecture is a little-known and less explored field that is concerned with “architectural and building traditions and practices that are cost-effective,ecologically sensible and culturally relevant”. It promotes the use of locally available materials,traditional building techniques and climatically relevant building design.

For a chartered accountant who chose to bring about social change by turning to building construction,Kumar has come a long way. In 1989,he formed a cooperative of construction workers to undertake building projects. The profits earned by the centre from designing and building homes,offices and institutional buildings go directly to the workers.

To quote the March Hare from Alice in Wonderland where houses in major northern cities are concerned,Do we like what we get,or do we get what we like? Kumar rightly points out that the urban landscape is being fundamentally transformed into something completely unrelated to culture,climate or traditions of this part of the world.

As Walter Lippman,an American writer who twice won the Pulitzer Prize said,“Where all think alike,no one thinks very much.” Want to try something different?