TRANSFORMATION

‘The present’ is a deplorable scenario of urban decay where chaos takes over amidst uncontrollable growth. When this is coupled with the grotesque transformation of human relationships and notions; the result is an austere incompetence to cope with many implications.

These scenarios are catastrophic and have superseded the tranquility that persisted a few decades ago. We feel a relief only when we contemplate the burning ashes of our present civilization. The reason for this could be agreed upon is the inability to cope with the excessive acceleration in the way we live.

The destruction in the overgrown distorted visions of society directs us to stop, take a deep breath and start all over again. We must regain control over our actions before it is too late and our actions start taking control over us.

Lately, the architectural scene has changed; characterized by many ‘isms’ has become overcrowded. New ideas are fragmented and an attempt is being made to bring about unusual formats, which makes them difficult to understand. Change has become so rapid, that its effect is neutralized. There is no time to adapt to and absorb and appreciate one particular change. This has made people negligent towards design.

World of design if split into various categories could be accounted as traditionalists, modernism to post – modernism to deconstructivism, designs portraying non – Euclidean geometry and environment – conscious designers.

It is true that ‘change is a necessity’. But not that change where the quality of experience in architecture is lost. The loss for which people tend to reject today’s architecture. We witness the proliferation of building in stile because mainly ‘they sell better’.

This translates into a constant reference to the vernacular because of the necessity to envision architecture as an all-inclusive discipline that is able to accept and accommodate the spontaneous, the repetitive and the contradictions of everyday life. Any discipline which denies the everyday will be denied everyday.

The urban form can be interpreted through the design of buildings that appear traditional and yet are suitable for a modern way of life. Tradition derives from the word tradere, to convey. What is intended are the links between different generations, heritage flowing from one member to another. Tradition contrasts with the rational. The means for this is not conscience, but the binding character given, unplanned by precise social configurations.

Past and future should therefore coexist in our mind as a continuum. Architects today are devoted to change and hence tend to separate past from the future, with the result that the present becomes emotionally inaccessible.

This means that we must search for our true environment within the emerging values of modern society. Architects through design must enhance both aesthetic and ethical values, in the face of the need of the society to recognize and comprehend, in a creatively dynamic process of give and take aimed at discovering, understanding and accepting the inevitably new conditions of contemporanity.

... Inspired by urban environments