At a time when citizens were expected to remain sheltered within their homes, H & R Johnson bridged the information gap between people and design professionals, by bringing their conversations to the public and raising critical and urgent questions on the role of Architecture and Design in the COVID-19 era.
Dinesh Vyas [DV]: I would like to start by asking one of our veterans; architect Prem Nath: you have been through many ups and downs in your professional career, what are your thoughts on our present situation?
Prem Nath: Yes, I have seen many ups and downs in my architectural career. After surviving four economic recessions, I learned to be grateful to my good fortune and continue to manage my office efficiently. The covid-19 pandemic is something very different, however. The year 2020 shall forever be remembered as the year of international lockdown. As an architect, it is my job to look towards the growth of our cities going forward. I like to say that every adversity, brings an opportunity. I believe we will have to live with the virus now, and it will be our duty to ensure that we pull ourselves out of this together, by envisioning suitable design interventions which will also help our country, going forward.
[DV]: What are some of your main take-aways from these few months of nation-wide lockdown?
JP Agrawal: The first thing, which is rather positive, is the environmental changes which have been occurring. You must have all seen the photographs of various cities around the world changing, because of the reduced pollution levels. The second thing is obviously the positives and negatives of “work-from-home”. When I find myself asking what next, however, I try to solve the immediate problems. In this case, everybody is stuck at home but wants to go out. That’s a great think about architecture, you can find design solutions to these problems. For example, by employing well planned balconies between apartments and buildings, you allow people to connect with each other, but also maintain social distancing.
[DV]: Will there be any significant change in the business models of architecture practices?
Nilabh Nagar: I don’t want to sound too repetitive now, as I think many people over the last two months have been listening to webinars saying very similar things. For me, however, I do think that this situation has presented us with an unprecedented opportunity to improve ourselves.Due to the lockdown, everybody is stuck at home with receptive and attentive minds. I think this is a great time to conduct surveys, whether its physical land surveys or drone surveys – this is a great time to collect data, and data collection will hold the key to understanding how we should design cities in the future. In terms of our practice, we have worked on becoming far more organised, and our instructions are precise. When we hold office meetings over web-chats, we are able to convey ideas with a lot more clarity – far better than shouting instructions across our rooms at work. Clients have also become a lot more disciplined, realising that they cannot contact us at any odd hours and giving us our time.
[DV]: What are some of your perspectives, both as a responsible citizen, as well as a informed designer, for the built spaces in the urban areas?
Sonali Bhagwati: I think the main long-term requirement of urban India would be to wake up to the reality that, even in metropolitan cities, 40% of citizens live in unauthorized colonies, urban villages or slums – and in all these places the concept of social distancing itself it not feasible. I think we need to start creating different models of working spaces, to provide an opportunity to these people to practice work from home. I feel we should invest in design as a catalyst for behavioural changes in society.
[DV]: What is your view on the changes, if any, that will occur for the hospitality industry going forward?
Bobby Mukherji: Most people in the industry are now playing the waiting game, with an optimism that this will not result
in a permanent scenario. Only if we don’t see a vaccine in the next two years, will we start taking drastic changes to alter the planning and design of the hospitality industry. In the short-term, we have already seen
some of the reactions to such spaces. Restaurants are operating at 30% capacity; fewer tables can be provided
in the same areas. Logistics of hotels will also change, as there can no longer be large buffet areas and
recreational areas which allow people to gather in groups. A lot of process must become automated, to prevent
unnecessary human interaction, as well as physical interaction with different surfaces. However, if this does turn
out to be a long-term problem, we will have to completely relook at the way we plan these spaces. Designs
will become a lot more room-centric, concentrating on the experience of the room, rather than its recreational
facilities and outdoor activities. So, at this time, it’s better for us to optimistically wait it out, until we push for a
complete overhaul of our planning processes going forward.
Anupam Mittal: There are two main aspects which I’d like to address during this conversation. The first and larger one, is the migrant labour issue, which is going to create many differences in our construction activities. The second, smaller aspect is our day to day habits and activities. I think creating labour colonies would be a step in the right direction while dealing with the migrant labourers. An organised transportation system to help them commute to the construction site from the colonies and vice-versa would be immensely helpful. Policies of affordable housing and rehabilitation should be made more accessible to all parts of our society. After we deal with these situations, we can attempt to deal with the smaller issues of changing our designs of spaces to suit the new habits we will have to adopt.
Sebastian Jose: It’s our responsibility to preserve our environment and spaces for our future generations. We’ve seen how nature has been re-inventing itself over the past two months of lockdown. That is a big lesson for all of us; left to itself, nature can heal, and this has been a grim reminder of all the damage we have done to our environment. So as design professionals, how do we respond to such a unique crisis? And as everybody has rightly said, there is no blanket solution to all these problems. Looking back and learning from the past, will help educate us on how we should go forward. There is a vast repertoire of knowledge that exists in the traditional construction techniques of India. Using local labour and materials, houses were built economically and efficiently, and made so that users could live lives of self-sufficiency. Building was always done in harmony with nature, and not against it. I think our post-covid response should align more with these traditional practices ⊗
