Amidst the historic environs of the Jawahar Kala Kendra, When is Space? – an exhibition on concerns of contemporary architecture in India attempts to chart new intellectual trajectories in the pursuit of ideas that enable making of space.
Jaipur, the 18th century Indian city, is a verbalisation of a unique urban form and astronomical skills. Maharaja Sawai Jai Singh planned the city with an emphasis on concepts of the Navagraha – a scripture on traditional planning guidelines based on the model of the cosmos. Responding to the city as a metaphor, Charles Correa designed the Jawahar Kala Kendra [JKK] as an amalgamation of the act of looking at the past and simultaneously, the future. Since the opening in 1993, JKK has been established as one of the most significant works of architecture in India. Consciously referencing history adds to the copiousness of the works made as a part of When is Space? within the expanse of the JKK.
Curated by Mumbai-based architects Rupali Gupte and Prasad Shetty of BARD Studio, When is Space? was a response to the provocations articulated by drawing parallels between visions of Maharaja Sawai Jai Singh and ideas of Charles Correa along with concerns of contemporary architecture and design practices in India. As a part of the curatorial framework, Rupali and Prasad articulate three core ideas. The first idea explores the pursuit of ‘The Mathematics of the Universe’ interrogating the way in which mathematical logic is employed to reinvent form and space. The formulation of the second idea: ‘Typologies of Life and the Living’, studies the built-form typologies to re-articulate new ways of practice in order to explore ideas that emerge in the process. The third proposition titled ‘Forms of the Collective’ deciphers urban fabric layered over time to investigate if derivative forms can accommodate rationales for the new.
“To invent a new future and to rediscover the past is one gesture” – a text at the entrance of the exhibition is a subtle reminder that the displayed work consists of juxtaposed historical readings of Jaipur – including ideas of Charles Correa. The exhibition references a social memory in its attempt to bring together the fraternity to explore interventions in today’s cities by mapping them, introspecting on current urban situations, and working on newer ways to engage with them. In this manner, When is Space? finds a significant professional and citizen audience. It also lends itself as a platform to activate the JKK through constructed peripheries, thereby attempting to translate the provocations of curators by restructuring and re-conceptualising simple everyday constructs.
In the essay, ‘Scanning the Options – The New Landscape’, authored in the year 1989, Charles Correa writes about how architects need to be inventive to imagine better urban environments especially for the citizenry they serve. The harsh truth about how city dwellers economise space made Correa question: “…is there any way city streets and sidewalks could respond to their needs?” Samira Rathod of Mumbai-based SRDA (Samira Rathod Design Atelier) experiments with the anthropometric criterion and spatial experience of a wall as a habitat. ‘The Wall as a Room’ demonstrates how a wall is a volume within itself – full of possibilities within its girth.
In a world where space and land are amongst some of the most expensive commodities, Riyaz Tayyibji of Ahmedabad-based Anthill Design Studio looks at housing as an incremental form by creating a matrix of modules to visualise permutations of growth of a structure by speculating the incremental additions over time. Such explorations instigate conversations on spatial potential, ways of transformation, and tactical tools that are used for the process of appropriation of space.
Mumbai-based architect Vikas Dilawari contributes to the exhibition by retracing the idea of metamorphosis. The work involves presenting the restoration of an existing housing complex in the city of Mumbai and intends to provoke the viewers on the practice of conservation and restoration while proposing a viable option for the old housing across the city.
When is Space? not only looks at architecture through a lens of urban studies but also extends the conversation to conservation and sustainability through models of practice that reinforce the significance of public space. Mayuri Sisodia and Kalpit Aashar of Mumbai-based Mad(e) in Mumbai demonstrate how public toilets could function in cohesion with civic spaces by designing them holistically, and thus transforming utilitarian engineering systems in the design paradigm. The ‘Toilet Manifesto’ proposes a series of public sanitation typologies that hold the potential to transform the face of sanitation in urban and rural centres of India.
Abin Chaudhuri of Kolkata-based Abin Design Studio and Sameep Padora of Mumbai-based sP+a look closely at configuration, experience and the methods that are employed to re-imagine space within JKK by excavating ideas on which the building and the city of Jaipur were designed initially. These installations explore what art and architecture can incite by overlaying materials, textures and ideas in an existing context. Responding to the geometry of the dome by placing a globe made of chiselled bricks with embedded slate beneath it, artist M Pravat explains how lives are shaped by the spaces we inhabit.
‘The Malleability of All Things Solid’ by M Pravat: Artist M Pravat responds to the geometry of the dome of the JKK by placing a globe chiselled out of bricks beneath it‘Story of Cubes’ by artist Teja Gavankar breaks the scale of ‘Madhyavarti’ – the central courtyard space, by distorting the pink sand stone used to clad the JKK. The installation transcends the existing space by lending a spatial vitality – proposing an alternative to the otherwise orthogonal plan.
‘Story of Cubes’ by Teja Gavankar: The linear grid of the pink sandstone is crumpled to break down the orthogonality of the courtyardIn an attempt to activate spaces within JKK, the installations work with wavering boundaries and blurred distinctions between the built and the un-built. ‘The Floating Roof’ by the Mumbai-based Urban Project translates the idea of the way a human body understands space within a context and the limitations of the experience. Samir Raut of Mumbai-based Studio Eight Twenty Three illustrates how materials have the power to seamlessly connect disjunct spaces, thus instigating a moment of contemplation on a culture of craftsmanship and its intrinsic relationship with the nature of materials.
Vistara – the seminal 1985 exhibition on ‘The Architecture of India’ – is an important milestone in the architectural timeline of India. It established a datum for the subsequent architectural exhibitions. In the last few years, efforts have been made to curate extensive research, documentation and analytical studies through exhibitions like the ‘The State of Architecture’, ‘In the Name of Housing’ and ‘Death of Architecture’ that have raised significant questions for contemporary practices and processes of design thinking in India. While some exhibitions deal with the narrative history, some are projective maps of specific conditions, while others indulge in abstract commentaries. When is Space? reflects on the concerns around a built environment that space-making practices enable. It is an attempted visual comment on the inequities and the absurdities one often encounters in the dynamics of the urban realm.
One may argue that some of these attempts fall short of communicating abstract ideas or involve a degree of self-indulgence and intellectual redundancy, but they prompt conversations on urgent concerns that would otherwise not find a meaningful platform. It is important to stress on the sheer awe of encountering ideas in architecture through spatial media that employ varied architectural scales to converse. One wonders about the quality and nature of impact this exhibition would have had on the citizenry that extends beyond the architecture and design fraternity since the installations and abstractions attempt to transcend the burden of an architectural language. In this endeavour, When is Space? is an ambitious project. Within the JKK- a powerful work of architecture in itself, the experience of this encounter is one of simultaneous reflection and provocation.
WHEN IS SPACE? – commissioned by the Jawahar Kala Kendra was curated by Rupali Gupte and Prasad Shetty. The curatorial team consisted of Anuj Daga (Assistant Curator), Kaushal Vadake, Dhruv Chavan, Dipti Bhaidarkar (Logistics) and Shveta Sarda (Translations). Rupali Gupte and Prasad Shetty are architects, artists and urbanists based in Mumbai who jointly set up the BARD Studio and co-founded the School of Environment and Architecture where they currently teach. Their journey has moved from an urge of mapping cities and developing corrective interventions, to looking closely at urban conditions, formulating newer ways to speak about them, and developing engagements to live and find delight in them. Their work often crosses disciplinary boundaries and takes different forms – writings, drawings, mixed-media works, storytelling, teaching, conversations, walks and spatial interventions. They have a wide range of publications and have worked, taught and lectured across the world.
