With three decades of prolific experience, Matra Architects led by Verendra Wakhloo is a practice based out of Delhi. Verendra Wakhloo writes about architecture as an ever-evolving paradigm – as an institution of values and exploration that is ideologically oriented to many identities and forces. He offers an insight into the ethos, relationships and principles that are essential in conceptualisation and realisation of the ecology of architecture, practice and people of Matra.
DESIGN AS A JOURNEY
“Architecture is not created by one, it is by many. And not only dealt by many, but constructed by many, also thought through by many. An idea emerges through a process, a dialogue which we open up,” acknowledges Verendra Wakhloo. A dialogue that Matra Architects has been trying to initiate for three decades under his guidance.
It is a practice that is deeply thoughtful and reflective – a kind of a slow learning which has been sculpted through the journey of a lifetime, from dialogues, from forces internal and external. In very tangible terms, this approach seems to emerge as an embodiment of the journey that Verendra Wakhloo has undertaken.
“I was born in Srinagar, Kashmir and at the age of two, we migrated to Patna and within a short time to Bhagalpur, in Bihar, where my father at a mere age of twenty was engaged as a lecturer teaching plant physiology, a field of botany,” he says. “We grew up, my sister, my identical twin brother and I in the Gangetic plains of Bhagalpur 1959 onwards, just about ten years post India’s Independence; Bihar appears in my memories as depicted in the film ‘Do Beegha Zameen’, extremely poor and feudalistic. Our life within the premises of the TNB College, a campus perched along the ghats of the River Falgu, a tributary of the Ganges, presented a very symbiotic and vibrant natural and communal culture. Bounty of the surroundings, exploring unknown territories, the sounds of ‘sarod’ and temple bells, the deep colour of the sky are some of the vivid impressions that I have from those days, all set against frugality, just a single ‘charpoy’ and a few steel trunks as the only furniture piece in our two room house.”
DESIGN THROUGH EXPLORATION
Verendra Wakhloo and his twin brother, Ajay Wakhloo (1959)“In hindsight, the Bihar experience turned out to be a period where we learnt to drop fear in contrast to today’s urban upbringing, that poses many limitations for a ‘free’ development of children, often driven by the education systems,” he states. In this context, as a child he began mapping his environment very carefully – almost instinctively, leading him to discover a strength and confidence that endures.
Raised in a science-oriented family; (his grandfather was a geologist and his great grandfather, a teacher, his father, a microbiologist with a passion for developing research programmes), this interest in experimenting only increased with a home laboratory and a darkroom in the later years in Germany where his siblings and him ‘spent rainy days indoors, experimenting with developing fireworks and photography.’ “I think today our studio carries this legacy of teaching, sharing and explorations,” he says.
The sense of this exploration is still visible in the studio’s stance on taking risks and developing newer things. Each project is a new start, with a new assigned purpose within the ideals of the whole. It is a studio that is invested innately in the idea of construction and exploration – “A decade ago, we started exploring concrete construction techniques and we pushed our engineers to drop conventional design methodologies they would rely on, of course we have to untiringly inspire the entire design team and generate a fertile work milieu around us as to help everybody participate and collaborate. It is a very long discourse, I mean, we take invariably four to six years to complete each project,” they share. The spectrum of projects and typologies is suggestive of this position – intuitive but speaking of a wide repertoire.
DESIGN THROUGH DIALOGUE
Like the spatial logic of their architecture, the organisation of their practice is a non-hierarchical structure, and is predicated on making connections. One of the defining aspects of their process, he attributes this to the fact that he is one half of a twin. “We had each other, my brother and I, to indulge in endless conversations, narratives that would cover all that we were observing and identifying along our journey,” he recalls of a time through the demanding, four-day long journeys between Bhagalpur and Srinagar where there was no other pastime available to them as children. The dialogue led to observations and observations became a subset of knowledge. “Talking to each other initiated observation and investigation, the key to learning and I think no institution can substitute these explorations. Architecture in our studio does not initially unfold itself through drawings, or models, but through conversations, a dialogue that extracts stories, buried deep in us, stories we do not talk about as they are forgotten, and we seem not to know about them. Only when we are questioned, or engaged in talking, we discover our own stories; stories made in that very moment, using the language,” he elaborates.
Talking to each other initiated observation and investigation, the key to learning and I think no institution can substitute these explorations.
It is revealing that they work out of an open hall, a loose divided studio which enables this dialogue freely and dilutes boundaries. And even more revealing is that these dialogues become often the basis for many a project or a charette within the office. “Priyank was narrating a few years ago about his childhood experiences in his village house, which formed a part of a set of courtyard houses, built on small plots serving different generations, an agglomeration of structures, that had ‘voids’ and ‘solid spaces’, interconnected through staircases. We were surprised to see a beautiful building type that carried his story, emerge out of this conversation. Thus, architecture can be a manifestation of our personal stories, rich in experience and since we engage very often with residential works, we try to integrate client’s stories, that surface generally in a dialogue with the design team,” he mentions. Within the studio, the design develops collaboratively with inputs from the team, especially in the initial stages of the project. Concepts are developed, alternatives studied and redesigned in countless physical sketches and models. As an outcome, the office is lined with study models, generated for various projects – of different materials, different scales.
An ever inspiring and provocative quote by Picasso that Verendra Wakhloo cherishesThe dialogue extends to clients as well. Each client is seen as a potential patron and sooner or later, the clients owing to the time and involvement they contribute, become patrons. “Our relation to the client”, he emphasises, “is very essential, because otherwise this kind of architecture that we are practising, this kind of studio environment is not feasible.” They engage very closely with their clients and their stories. If the weave is rich, the engagement becomes more intense. “We have also discovered that the clearer a client is, about his ideas, notions about living, the more sublime the architecture can get. The mental clarity of a client can enhance the quality finely of the spaces.” For them, visuals that a client borrows from digital platforms are a deterrent for creating architecture. In fact, there is this wonderful quote by Picasso which he cherishes and refers to, ‘If you know exactly what you are going to do, what is the point of doing it?’. It conveys to their clients that there is no point of the exploration if they already know what they want. Therefore, it is imperative that a dialogic interface is created with the client to extract a clarity and potential of the project.
Additionally, Verendra delineates that “the primary agenda to making a building is to ensure comfort to people whilst architecture and we occasionally debate this in our studio, provides an opportunity to reflect on pertinent issues that are relevant to a specific as well a larger eco-system, poetically but often provocatively. The Jenga House, Delhi echoes this debate and develops a building type in a dense urban area that reinstates a balance between built and open areas, fundamental to integral living and often neglected in recent urban projects. ”
The form of the Jenga house (2017) is generated by sculpting out vertical and horizontal volumes of two L-shaped juxtaposed building units. Programmatically, the articulation developed as a response to the client’s aspirations of having two identical residential units. It harnesses the integrity of a space defined by principles and process.
Provocation can lead to engagement and architecture is the canvas for this very engagement.
DESIGN AS AN ATTITUDE
“That you accept your past is very essential,” resumes Verendra as the conversation prompts a deeper insight into the ethos of the work and he reflects on the montages from the course of his own life. He spent his formative years, schooling and higher education in Germany. “Migrating to Germany in 1967 was initially a big shock for me but brought also tremendous excitement with it. We happened to take a liner from Mumbai to Venice, cut across the Suez Canal, that soon after was locked down for six days as the war raged between Israel and Egypt,” he reminisces.
“The emphasis on subjects growing up in Germany was on architecture, but with many opportunities of musing on arts and my childhood fascination for sculpture, watercolours, canvas, received a boost by our regular visits to now a very well-known modern gallery in Saarbrücken, which holds a vast collection of German impressionism and expressionism. The idea of constructing objects, weaves through our work and we definitely enjoy it. I consider myself more as an informed craftsperson, who likes to explore, re-interpret and re-evaluate craftsmanship in architecture and the best examples are the handcrafted Jenga House, the Kaleka Studios and the Wood House.
Many practising architects express that they have to unlearn and re-learn after graduating from the University as you are not taught to respond adequately to the demands of the building sector. My undergraduate course amidst the transition from postmodernism to deconstruction was formed by one of the finest masters, may be not an accomplished pedagogue, but surely an exceptional practicing architect, working out of Solothurn (Switzerland), who amalgamated practice and research, Professor Fritz Haller, very well known for the “USM Haller” furniture system, the “mini, midi, maxi” industrial building systems as well for his publication, the “Integral Urban – A global model”. I vividly remember three of his timeless and invaluable advices to students – (1) Keep water out of the building to ensure longevity – (2) To assess the design quality of any furniture, just turn it upside – (3) Resolve the corner of a building elegantly. In the later part of our studies, readings and tutorials imparted to us the ethos and design principles of Louis Kahn, Le Corbusier, Aldo Van Eyck and Frei Otto’s insightful lectures on the efficiencies of natural phenomena were backed up by excursions. All this has left an indelible impression on our work till date, free from “isms” and a strong focus on typology and construction systems which I relentlessly and mindfully pursue with my team in the studio. We all try to stimulate the evolution of our work, ontogenetically by emulating works from other cultures and I am very comfortable with referring to historical and present global knowledge pool.”
Priyank makes a possible connection here, “The cultural displacement forced you to leave behind your childhood narrative. It is a very important phase of your life, It gave you the inner strength, very relevant for our work today and I feel, in a way, it has made you very detached and in view of your professional life, free from attachment to any ‘ism’ or any particular construction system or material which generally cripples the diversity of a studio.”
His move back to India in 1987 was incidental. He had graduated with advanced studies in Town Planning and Urban Design with two years of dissertation in Industrial Design. During this time, he came across a Dumont publication on Indian Masters, namely Charles Correa, B V Doshi and Uttam C Jain and a publication by Electa Moniteur titled ‘Architecture in India’, where he read about M N Ashish Ganju’s work on the Riverfront in Srinagar. This solidified for him, the possibility of entering this world of India’s tryst with Modernism and the quest for an ‘Indian’ identity. It was an appealing aspect that drew him back. The first few years of his career were spent under the auspices of Sangath with Balkrishna Doshi, and Ashish Ganju in Delhi before embarking on his own. Working with Ashish Ganju opened up new ways of thinking – of engaging with the past which became essential to his life and work. Eventually, he went on to become involved in other pursuits such as teaching, motivated by Ashok B Lall. His engagement and interactions with students became another avenue for exchange of ideologies and prompts in this journey.
Balkrishna Doshi, 1986. Verendra Wakhloo spent the first few years of his career, learning under B V Doshi at Sangath and MN Ashish Ganju in DelhiA reading of the projects in the early years suggests this search for an idiom, more regional, more about India. “Our culture is very gravitational, it is discernible in the dance forms, in architecture and probably in other creative engagements as well, unlike the European ballet dancer who is tenaciously trying to overcome the gravitation, certainly a delusion and so does probably the architecture, by resolutely reducing mass, trying to “touch the skies”. While staying at the IIM Ahmedabad and working at Sangath with B V Doshi, way back in 1986, I used the opportunity to experience and study the fascinating archetypal architecture of stepwells at Pathan, Modera, Adalaj and visited Mandu and Champaner, places that are rarely visited or known today with students of architecture. These initial impressions resonated with my childhood memories of the ghats at Varanasi and found later a translation in few of our projects (Chandiwala Sports Club, Delhi-1993),” he narrates.
While their architecture is about an admissible approach to modernisation, and looks to the past, it is in all respects, thoroughly contemporary. “Our nascent project, a very small guest house, the Vivekanand Research and Training Institute in Mandvi, Gujarat as well the Bachelor’s Hostels for Vam Organics Chemicals Ltd in Gajraula, constructed way back in 1990 as a funicular shell system, is arguably influenced by Charles Correa, his fascination for planning around courtyards and the expression of mass in a building, in response to the Indian geography. For them, the idea of climate appropriateness in architecture need not always be explicit and architecturally expressed. To be sensitive to climatic concerns is adapted in the way the buildings are designed. In the same vein, the VRTI located in a singularly hot and dry region is planned with a cavity wall system and the visitors have vouched for the comfortable stays they have had in their guest-houses over the years.
A continuation of this work methodology is reflected in the recent proposal for the Folk Art Museum, located within the busy commercial district of Udaipur, a subterranean building type that acknowledges the demand for a large public forum and facilitates a 2000 seating amphitheatre for regular musical performances as well. However, the synthesis of these ideas is never ritualised – there is not ‘one’ way of doing a project. Analysis goes beyond the basics and functional considerations of the programmes and with each project, a unique engagement with details and spatial dynamics is formed. In this way of working, they enjoy the scale where they are involved with all facets of each project, where there are no hierarchies, and eventually, a close relationship develops with clients because of the interactions and the process.
Somehow, I think, we have curated for ourselves a certain meaning of architecture. For us, architecture has to have gone through a certain process.
DESIGN AS A PROCESS
“I think the joy in architecture lies in not conceiving but making,” is one of the conceptual positions that offers a convincing picture of their outlook. Matra has essentialised a way of looking at the practice of architecture instead of having the architectural profession define them. Everyone grows into this organic, exploratory process. And the process itself is not easy, in a sense of the word. It demands a commitment and a struggle. “We would stand 8-10 hours supervising the building. With such a small organisation and such kind of work, it is hands-on.” They maintain that they are craftspeople, learned craftspeople, and as he alludes to it, he might be a ‘Renaissance man,’ especially with the belief in enabling the ‘handmade’ to transpire in their architecture.
‘Matra’ as a name also subconsciously evolves from that idea. “When Matra was established, I was reading about Carlo Scarpa and his thoughts on measure. I must have found an equivalent or asked Sunita (my wife) about it. I thought Matra sounded good, it sounded like ‘Ma’, the sound had something very primeval about it. With my fascination with India, returning home, it felt quite powerful – Matra sounded right. It was about balance, about measure, about scale, about proportions. In hindsight, I never thought for a second to put our name, Sunita’s or mine. In that sense, I am a medieval man, because in the earlier Renaissance, the names of the makers were not available. In fact, the name is a vanity-driven idea. I still believe deep down that putting a name to work is not required,” he summarises.
Architecture remains a bit esoteric. It builds on the notion that everyone harbours a different attitude when they inhabit or visit different building programmes and each detail evolves from there. Whether it is about designing an unusually frugal, raw powerful gallery for a developer in a shopping mall or engaging with different type of staircases, he explains how certain things are driven by site decisions.”
Our drawings are not complete, our drawings are in progression all the time. I think that is the organic way of architecture. If I call something organic, it is not about the appearance, it is the process of doing it.
There is a wooden cup on his desk, souvenir from a visit to Japan, that exemplifies this hierarchy of design decisions and contexts. In his words, “An exquisite wooden red cup from Japan that epitomises a relationship between object and subject. To reveal only one of the many aspects, the unconventionally shaped large handle demands that you interlace your fingers around the knob, feel the warmth of the tea and relish the tea ceremony; a very intrinsic aspect of a culture, where time is taken to celebrate a cup of tea. It’s about perfecting an object and yet making it appear effortless and meaningful.”
Finding a form is not a mechanical process, but about mapping forces. Forces of different nature, along the lines of how their architecture is synthesis of the Wakhloo’s education and aspiration. Plurality is the key. The forces are diverse, that you may feel that there are no connections. Yet a thread of continuity ties it all that contextualises the outcome, smaller things that build up to a stronger narrative.
“Architects work like detectives and have to look out for indications in their project context, that are filled with myriad of information and find a path that gradually will disclose answers. Finding the form is a very intensive design process and generally ideas don’t pop up in your head till you identify the governing relevant force. The eternal quality of a design is articulated by the synthesis of diverse forces, that need to be free of vanity. To understand our frequently debated question on timeless quality of a design, we have created a set of tangible guidelines that respond to the larger idea of geography (sun, climate, human psyche), a permanent phenomenon and to the transient phenomena (aspiration, technology, material science).”
An apt example of this is the Wood House which he touches on – “We perched the Wood House at the lowest buildable contour of the available land and perceived it as a part of the larger environment, despite of the odds of having to negotiate a fairly steep path, as against the stereotyped picturesque placement that would frame the Himalayan range. Building at different locations across the northern part of India has made us realise the constraints on a building material market, transport, extreme climate, shortage of water, trained skills, and motivated us into exploring dry construction systems. In this particular case, we developed glue-lam structural members for large spans, made of local Sal wood, in absence of adequate wooden sections.
In the Sethi house, the office worked as a laboratory, where they experimented not only with architectural ideas but detailed out the entire mechanical engineering and structures. To maintain an optimum and efficient control on temperature in the house, a geothermal cooling system was deployed in the house. Over the years, the client continues to engage with it by monitoring the temperature and maintaining a logbook. For them, the response and progress unto this end is the success of the detail.
“It is a very important faculty that we should develop as an architect; we should always question, we should always see around and see what the issue is,” mentions Priyank. The artistic legitimacy is about time, patience and sharing observations – seeking to always question, how to resolve things. For instance, in the Jenga House, a new bye-law in Delhi that stipulates stilt floors became the subject of the larger question.
Travel is viewed as a lens of learning which Verendra often undertakes to see a particular building in its specific environment or context – to understand the true essence of it. “It helps us to not just learn but gain strength about what we are doing is right, rightly. Because a detail has been achieved with a similar process in another building – we know that while we may not be creating the right product but at least the process is right. It somehow reinforces that idea, “says Priyank.
You are stretching the evolution by emulating, by learning from other cultures, so travel becomes very important as architects.
DESIGN AS TOOLS – SKETCHING & MODEL MAKING
“You cut my hand and I stop thinking” (Fritz Haller). Sketching is not seen as a representation of an established idea or a product but more as process of form finding, is living in a moment where the hand, the eye, the brain and the most personal inner-self come together, perhaps conspire a story and lend structure to the story. Whilst sketching buffaloes returning home by just using simple tools and the line in an idiosyncratic way, I charge the manifestation with ambiguity, enough to initiate the path of further investigations. I do not know generally what it leads to, but the idea that you start with something, in this case with a few buffaloes and you draw their horns, still seemingly incomplete, and then the horns expand into circular lines, seemingly meaningless, but suddenly the hand, the messenger of your mind, may reveal a formation of water ripples that sets the group of buffaloes into motion and an engaging narrative is created.
Nearly all sketches are tools and yet mediums of exposing the relation between subject, their inherent underlying generative structure(s), captured in an emotive moment“We are here to open the way of Future to children who belong to the Future.” – The Mother. The series of sketches and models of the Auro School for Integral Education in Surat are based on interpreting pedagogical and curricular principles of integral education, referencing to the writings of Partho Sanyal in ‘Integral Education: A Foundation for the Future’. The aim is to make learning an adventure and a delight, through exploration, discovery, enquiry and research, and the quality of the built environment is essential to the vision. The nature of spaces in the initial typological studies attempted to respond to the key ideas of integral education that centres on the holistic growth of children at different stages of their development. The school is planned as a community of diverse qualities of open/enclosed, created by organically arranged modules/cells. Sketches and models draw a synthesis of this dialectic engagement.
The idea that you do something only when you need it is actually a fallacy. Because our work as an architect is a continuous work – that means you have to give fodder to your brain, and to your creativity.
DESIGN AS TRANSFORMATION
Priyank gestures to the growth of the practice, to the maturity that they are grounded in. “The issue of longevity,” he says, “is very important. Initially, we worked on many details and we were very keen on expressing those. Now the idea is to eliminate “distractions”. We are focusing on what will last – not just details, or materials, but the space, as a quality – the idea is to achieve a quality that can last. The Jenga House project was a pivotal moment of learning. The clients are over time very organically putting life into the building. It is indeed a very lengthy and slow process, that demands patience and trust. After all, I can only create what I am. If I want to create a certain kind of architecture, I should also have that practice in my life. It should be a belief. It is a very important reality which I took many years to assimilate.” These ideas carry a lot of charge, potency that the process upholds and this approach has been consistent for the studio. In this imagination, it is compelling to see how ideas take on different complexions and forms, memories, identities migrate to acquire richer meanings.
Now the idea is to eliminate ‘distractions’. We are focusing on what will last – not just details, or materials, but the space, as a quality – the idea is to achieve a quality that can last.
Priyank Jain
This profound take also leads to represent a way forward for Matra, like its oeuvre, inextricably entangled: where everything relates to everything else. Verendra probes into a deeper perspective as he continues to trace the evolution of his practice that has layered collectively over the years. “Earlier when I came back to India, the buildings were massive, bulkier, like the ziggurat one, inspired by my fascination with India. Then in between, as I got involved working with younger people, the architecture moved towards lighter buildings constructed in steel. These were very different from the ones we are doing now. Partly, that has to do with Priyank’s presence because I am connecting with myself better through him. It is very important with whom you work and what equity and or equation you have with the person.
The present situation is very promising for my personal development as I see the future possibility of refinement to a level where when you enter the space, you are moved by it. That to achieve would be the ultimate architecture in my opinion – a kind of centricity of space, a centricity of experience, devoid of clutter. Our agenda is not to make someone comfortable with clutter, a bookshelf, colours, carpet, lighting and with the familiar tricks of the trade. Imagine that you do not need anything but yourself and the space to feel comfortable, in a more metaphorical sense: a sacred place.
…I see the future possibility of refinement to a level where when you enter the space, you are moved by it. That to achieve would be the ultimate architecture in my opinion – a kind of centricity of space, a centricity of experience, devoid of clutter.
I think the museum may slowly evolve towards this experience. It became clearer to me in a discussion with Ashish Ganju. He said, “You are placing the building on an elevation but it is not floating, it is a part of the ground. However the way you have designed the roof, it is a part of the sky.” May be we are heading towards connecting both – the earth and the sky, a metaphor though quite challenging yet the only way forward. For me, this is a very important value – the transformative quality of architecture. The transformation towards a harmonious living. The transformation at a humanistic level, at the level of the user, the transformation in the process of making it at the studio and the people who are crafting it. The idea that in a studio you create an environment that is so harmonious that the product that you share becomes harmonious. Their attitude is also part of this transformative act. All of them are in different roles yet everybody is exchanging information. All of them are participants. The people of the studio also grow with the architecture, and change. The positive change is the barometer.
I see architecture as an instrument, not limited to the client to have a transformative experience, which may or may not happen. Then you gradually begin to see and realise the possibilities, rather than thinking of the end product less as static but more a dynamic proposal. I think that is what architecture could be, should be. Architecture should be transformative.”⊗
VERENDRA WAKHLOO is the Principal Architect of Matra Architects and Rurban Planners in Delhi. Incepted in 1990, the firm has worked across diverse programmes and scales over the last three decades. Their approach is about designing context sensitive architecture and detailing that integrates material and logic of construction, in search of archetypal form. Verendra has taught at TVB School of Habitat Studies and has been honoured with many awards including: HUDCO Commendation Award 1990, GEDA Prize 1991, JK Awards 1997, MGAHV Commendation Award 2002, A+D/ Spectrum 2002 (Commendation Award), IIA Award 2008/2018, AYA – JK Award/1995/2020, World Architectural Community 2011/2018/2019/2020, AD 50 India 2016/2017, AD 100 India 2018/2019/2020, Kohler Bold Design Award 2018, Trends Excellence Award 2016/2017/2018/2019 amongst others.
