(Establishing an eternal language between the form and function)
(Article penned for "The Indian Arch'17", NASA, India)
It is a notion of affirmative manifestation that, “Appearances, most of the times are deceptive, rather than being receptive.” Having said this, it may be understood that the importance or the significance of a building being notable amongst, should not just be for the decoration and fabrication it could possess, but for the vivid and the extensive functional ability of the built form, serving the ultimate purpose of it. Interpretations without a substantial base would end up being insensible and so, here, an architectural institution has been cogitated to be visualized, in the square one of the evolutionary process to decipher the relativity between the form and the function in a practical domain and not just in the philosophical elucidations which deciphers the conventional concepts of the uncertain veracities.
Principally, an institution or precisely, an architectural institution should be extremely user adaptive, responsive and vibrant to the students to ensure a healthy and workaholic atmosphere. For the psychological bonding between the building and the users (students) to be cohesively strong, the building is subjected to be an extravagantly designed space unlike a shack. Being it an educational institution, it may be right and highly practical to follow and adapt ‘Brutalism’ in its architecture. This particular movement of architecture depicts and exhibits the properties of being plain, exposed, transparent and original in its forms. It has been a practice in earlier decades to use the style of Brutalism on institutions. One of the main hindering facts is that the building is left brutal to signify the truthfulness and honesty eternally, that has been intended to be predominant in a civic or an educational institution, so that the ethics and professionalism is well respected and reflected. The building being brutalized, gives the users a very good positive vibration and energy passively, through the muscular and strong bold characteristic built forms. The architectural institution could be formulated and proposed to be a combination of rational aspects those that define it physically through its built form, socially by becoming a landmark or a space of reference to demarcate the surroundings and psychologically through the language it chooses to communicate with the users. Firstly, the buildings could be licensed to remain brutal, for the various reasons discussed above. Secondly, the most important space in an institutional complex happens to be the library and so does it eventually require special contemplation and a sense of design dormant in it. Hence, the opening into the library could be made massively huge in terms of scale and proportion, so as to transfer the superiority of knowledge and wisdom over the students. It alongside triggers an itch in the wanting brains of students to conquer the unimaginable, thus creating a divine atmosphere in the library. Green is said and so has it been proved to be the colour that emanates freshness and embarks life. Hence, landscaping the spaces of the institution claims high priority. Greenery could also blend along with the slender structures alongside the corridors or major transition areas, for, it gives a beast-beauty effect and so does it create a striking picture. The classrooms could well be enabled to natural light through specific roof designs like that of the Chandigarh College of Architecture by Le Corbusier, since the use of electricity could extensively be cut short. To justify the primary statement of the institution being user adaptive, responsive and vibrant, a combination of the brutal concrete, which elevates the morals and disciplines of the profession and the beautiful greenery, which keeps up the livelihood and the very substance of happiness and enjoyment, ought to be in balance. The inclusion of water bodies further anchors the life of the building as it blends well with greenery. The picture of brutal concrete becoming submissive to the beautiful greenery, reflecting on a shallow water pool, cannot be any better than excellence and wonders. On introspecting the performance of the institution in an Urban mundane scenario with respect to the neighbourhood context, it is by nature of human notions, proved that the institution could attain a recognition of quality and excellence mainly with ornamentations and fabrications that may or may not blend with the necessity and functionality of the building. A visually subtle building, despite its excellence in the functional ability, significantly get to fail in the eyes of a layman or the public, as they psychologically abide and resort by elegant buildings, those that are visually and aesthetically pleasing. A visually dilapidated group of brutalised buildings would never be accepted by the users or be it public for contemplated, cynical and skeptically cited reasons as function is contended within the building, but the physical expression of the built form is something that gets projected in the first place of public recognition and reputation. Hence, the example of architectural institution, in other words, the built form, transcripts and establishes communication through a new language between the users, neighbourhoods and the building with regards to the function it is serenely containing within. Through these analogies and scripted factual interpretations, it could be stated or justified that a form irrespective of being on the backfoot, could well be a pinnacle and a matter of universal acceptance as long as it does not fail in blending, encompassing and performing the denoted function in it.‘Not that the form follows the function always, but that the function could also be the second face of the same Janus, which ensures that neither of the faces are double crossed.’Author’s note- (I, Arun Shankar. M doing 4th Year, B.Arch at Karpagam School of Architecture, Coimbatore, Tamil Nadu, hereby declare that this article is purely a work of mine and not a copy from any other source except that of the reference to Chandigarh College. Alongside, this article may be understood subjective and hence I request all the readers to understand it so in good spirits.)
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