“BEING AN ARCHITECT GIVES YOU A CHANCE TO DEVELOP YOURSELF ALONG WITH YOUR WORK”
Architect Verendra Wakhloo loves to explore and draws inspiration from whatever catches his eyes in and around his immediate surroundings
Srinagar born Verendra Wakhloo actually spent his early years along the plains of river Ganga in Bhagalpur, Bihar, running into the sugarcane fields and climbing trees, which were the initial toys of his innate world. “Those were the days of sarod, the sound of a temple bell, the mortal sky, and deep and bright colours,” says Wakhloo, 62, whose projects create a dialogue between art, architecture, design, and the public. During his time at the Technische Hochschule Karlsruhe (THK), Germany, from 1977 to 1985, his new toys were testimony of the technology-driven civilisation and spilled into his architectural education. “The seed for exploration into modernism was sown by late professor Fritz Haller at THK,” he says. It was this desire for exploration and innovation that led Wakhloo to start Matra in 1990, the architectural and urban planning firm along with three partners. The formative years of the company were influenced by the masters of Indian modernism such as Charles Correa and B V Doshi. In the last two decades, the studio has done several projects ranging from institutional to industrial and private residences, mainly in the northern part of India.
What is your design philosophy?
Influenced by my experiences of historical monuments during my stay and travels in Gujarat and Madhya Pradesh, the initial work was in search of an Indian identity. A synthesis of both worlds seems to be possible through a dialogue as we move from the known into the unknown to find new timeless design principles. Being an architect is a great opportunity and a chance to develop yourself along with your work. You have to travel towards your inner self, freeing many notions that come along with your education and exposure, in order to evolve and create authentic work.
How will you define the ideation process?
Everyone knows how to build and a design has to explore solutions through a dialogue and sharing of the ideation process. It is an act of the moment without considering any architectural style. The forms do not occur suddenly, but are an outcrop of a process of becoming conscious. Finding the germinating idea is a tedious exercise and is mostly pursued through sketches and models. We do not start with an overall form, but with conditions and logic of construction and material. It is never a fully formed image that pops in your head.
How important are context and construction?
One of the most debated topics and with often simplified interpretations, context is key. You do realise, without being an architect, how your memories of childhood are connected to the surrounding and how they form a part of your life. Smell, sound and light are all a vivid part of our memory, a world that majorly happens outdoors. I was completely overwhelmed by the cultural heritage of India; by the density and weight, aloofness, magic, and the entire archetypal form of traditional buildings. The materialisation of a building is an ongoing process that continues to influence its development. The anatomy of a building is transcultural and drawn from a global archive, references that are not contemporary, but do respond to harmony between the place, use and form.
Any favourite project?
The Kaleka residence and studios located in Kaladham, Greater Noida, is the working space of artists Ranbir and Rashmi Kaleka. The brief was to design two identical buildings without windows. In the studio, daylight pierces through vertical and horizontal incisions in the blocks. The sublime atmosphere of the internal spaces is cut by trajectories of concrete and steel staircases, which emerge to visually expand the entrance and compress themselves to finally disappear into suffused light. The interiors are created at ground and basement floor for studio work with a trapezoidal shaped library at the mezzanine floor overlooking the 20 ft high studio. The first floor is used as a residential suite with a small carved out terrace.
What and who inspires you?
Many buildings and architects belonging to different epochs and places have and continue to influence my thinking. The strongest influences are Le Corbusier, Louis Kahn and Rem Koolhaas.