Good travel advice: Do not ever ask “Is this the way to …?” Rather, ask, “what is the way to…?” Whenever you try to lead up the questions, you will get wrong answers, and that is quite painful in cases of getting lost.
In the last week, we had an interesting trip to Palampur region and met with the well-off Indian contact, Ashish, whose family owns a marriage hall, ice cream factory and tea estates, along with political power. He was rather humble and very helpful, taking us to a local college, where we received quite a bit of odd gazes. Then we surveyed St Paul’s Secondary School Science Building. Built quite a while ago, this school survived the massive 1905 earthquake and had great design features: lightweight, well-built, efficient and airy. After all these weeks, we found something that really worked well, but then again, the British came and did it. A whole tangent on British impact on India can be inserted here – but I don’t think I am qualified for it.
Looking back into surveying: It feels very overwhelming at first, we have to focus hard for 2 hours or more just to make sense of the plan and the configuration, yet once the logic is understood, it actually becomes (oddly) rewarding.
A bit on Politics: Free Tibet. Although I am somewhat ignorant on international relations, living in proximity to the largest Tibetan refuge community in India, I had to educate myself on Tibet-India-China relations. China is destroying Tibet in all aspects: environment, culture, religion, economy. Outrageous acts of torture and oppression in the last 50 years – just unbelievable. And not much to be found in Tibet anyway: barren desolate land, peaceful people, “roof of the world, closest to the Gods” as a monk put it around here. It seems that mountaineering tourism and overall land greediness forces this tranquil country with peaceful people join the global economy, unwillingly. And you cannot fight oppression with peace. Dalai Lama and his followers of compassion had to immigrate. So they are here in Dharamsala, but “not for vacation.” They have demonstrations, conferences and seminars on this issue, and a great Tibetan museum. But China is becoming the superpower, and India, EU or US don’t seem to be risking China relations for a (relatively) small community of Tibetans.
And secularism… I was indoctrinated with the value of this notion growing up in Turkey, an extreme secularist country, but now I am realizing that this approach is simply not mature. Granted, it provides a liberal playground for all citizens, but also deprives them from practicing religion even in their private lives. Secularism takes away spiritualism – and the balance is very difficult to regain. India, on the other hand, seems to be juggling religion and politics simultaneously, and quite aptly. 300 million Hindu gods, a notable population of Muslims and Sikhs and many other spiritual bifurcations exist, yet the country is still a functioning spiritual and secular country. So much to think and write on this, and again, I don’t feel qualified.
In more abstract terms though, what secularism seems to separate is ambition from meditation. We are all ambitious, driven, goal-oriented and pragmatic in our daily lives, and that can be summed up under the term of politics. On the other hand, religion should not (?) be any of the above – it is meant to be a meditative, non-thinking state of silence, listening, reflection and (perhaps) transcendence. The book Taoism by Osho…
On spirituality. Taoism by Osho contains soo many interesting insights, hard to recount. For those familiar to meditation, these thoughts would not have much novelty, but for me grown up as a fully secular, Western-oriented person, they are riveting. The value of doing nothing and being useless, turning the arrow inwards, absorbing rather than reacting, not talking, not “not talking,” just listening to meditate. Stripping away from pragmatic view – trying to stop for a while. Losing ambition in life, transcending usefulness and uselessness. Then Dalai Lama suggests developing empathy for others, being kind and compassionate, thinking about others’ suffering in general to understand suffering. Mind is quite a powerful thing, much more powerful than the rigid boundaries of logic. Paradoxes, parables and contradictory statements are also part of thinking. Theories are self-enclosed, self-absorbed, but parables point at the opposites and transcend them. Opposites should not be suppressed. This is all common sense yet hard to bring to life and live it.
Back to India: it is full of superstition– which is neither ambitious nor meditative. All these rituals feel like ‘lost in translation’ as they are acts that lost their meaning. People here fast once a week, do not eat salt on Mondays, no meat on Tuesdays, and no haircut Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays. Menstruating women are not allowed in temples. These surely relate to some sort of logic (fasting cleanses the metabolism, menstruating is not hygienic and temples are musty places with insufficient light and ventilation, etc), but sometimes it feels like trying to apply quran literally to today’s world.
There are other interesting issues related to globalization. Abhishek sums it up well: “We want all the girls to look beautiful, but also our girlfriends to dress properly.”
We had meat the other day. It was a feast after weeks of vegetarian food, i.e. ‘sabzi, dal, rice and chapati.’ So we went to a “lamb shop” which is essentially a slaughterhouse with lambs being cut in the backyard and cut further in a tiny box with fly nets all around. No refrigeration, the whole act happens quick enough to keep the meat fresh and hygienic. Not too different from drinking cow’s milk from the source or picking up apples from the tree – we got the meat and cooked it in the next hour. And for some reason, it was not disgusting at all, very delicious actually. It felt good to be connected to the sources and seeing the process – much less hypocritical than packaged meat with artificial red coloring and deep-freezed for a day.
I have talked too much on non-design issues. So, back to the reason I came here:
Definitions matter. So, what is vernacular architecture? How is it different from indigenous architecture? Does it have to be built by local people? Could a fort be an example of vernacular, as it is “designed” to some extent? Gutierrez defines as an unselfconscious process, without any theoretical pretense, full involvement of the owner and flexibility to expand further in the future. But the question retains its validity.
Another insight is how vernacular varies around the world, despite similar climatic/material constraints. For instance, the tropical environment of South America and Southeast Asia, along with predominant bamboo/mud construction does not wholly determine the architectural typology. In Gutierrez’ terms, there are social and physical determinants. In fact, the social determinants such as safety, religion and economics explain why Southeast Asia and Latin America with similar materials, site and climate produced different vernacular architecture. This is a very interesting topic (with a good excuse from travlling).
About definition of design. Again, Gutierrez takes a good shot at it: Design is form plus context. We take one slight section of the world and decide to reshape it, whereas the context determines our logic of reshape. Form is the part of the world we have control over. Fitness is a relation of mutual acceptability between form and context. Form fluctuates between intention and materiality. Intention is defined through economy, firmness, function and delight (tetrahydral structure)
Reading another article by this engineer/scientist Langenbach, I felt sorry for my hometown Istanbul, which is notorious of having lost its precious vernacular architecture examples over one generation. Apparently, it was a “wooden city” very well designed to withstand earthquake of any force. Perhaps this will influence what I do sometime in the future – it’s just a shame what modernity brings about.
Enough abstraction for now. J We had another adventure in the riverside. Beautiful trek into the unknown for 2 hours, following a local old man as our informal guide, crossing two rivers (very exhilarating but also incredibly dangerous because of monsoon season, apparently. We survived, but a widespread leech attack we had to encounter. Quite a crisis, nasty small worms going in the legs and sucking blood and coming out. Tetanus shots in the hospital late at night, washing the clothes 4 times and general anxiety – but I still think the hike was worth it.
Now about earthquakes: Energy dissipation is best design mechanism. Stiff and brittle structures cannot withstand the massive forces, and massive earthquake forces are bound to come, and they acquire significant damage. Timber and masonry buildings, on the other hand, perform very well if maintained, and only shed off plaster as a sign of absorbed energy or “working” in traditional terms. They do not have strength, but they have capacity. But if the structure is too ductile, that’s not great either. Earthquake design is finding the delicate balance between stiff and flexible, resistance and sway, strength and capacity. The dhajji dewari structure with timber skeleton and mud infill is a great example of this design approach. Especially if the mortar is rich in lime and poor in cement, the building has a large chance of surviving the earthquake.
There is also a social issue. All research suggests that there is less mortality with timber construction. Concrete gives the illusion of being strong, which might be lethal as its reinforcement details might be absolutely insufficient. It does not hint at its weaknesses, stands upright with ego, yet is weak inside in its connections.
Other things in short:
We had long days of wrapping up the documentation. Truly hard work. Finally, we completed all 10 buildings, amounting up to 220 pages of documentation! It’s not perfect, but it’s a great start casting the net too many issues pertaining to historical buildings in Kangra District.
Then we spent a few more days preparing the powerpoint presentation. We like it, so let’s hope SEEDS Delhi likes it as well. J
After all this work, we decided to give ourselves a break for a few days. So, an ayurvedic full-body massage was our ‘event’. One thing is for sure: East knows how to heal the body & mind better than the west because east knows that they are not separate entities. West ignores this fact, crazy…
Then we took an amazing trek to 3250 meters, an ascent of 1.5 km. 28 km of walking in two days. Perpetual rain, great sunset, sleeping in a tent with local tea shop owners and a German couple. Great. Feeling clean.
Meanwhile, we also met Jackie’s professor David from Oxford Brookes, who came to Dharamsala for vacation for a week or so. Very interesting person, originally an architect, but turned into development in health and education. An interesting insight: “Only 1% of buildings in the world are designed by architects!” So he turned into the human side, and lived in many countries in the last 10 years. Oxford Brookes looks very interesting in general… Very humanistic, development-oriented architecture program.
And finally, on August 19th, we had to farewell the town of Shamnagar to go to Pathankot and board the train to Delhi. We said by to Auntie and other neighbors and took off in the tiny Suzuki-Maruti car and the luggages stacked on top of it. Of course, with the India factor, our tire popped, and many other adventures involving cows, broken bridges and monsoon rains, but finally we got to Pathankot and boarded the train. Amazing train ride, very comfortable, and after smooth 12 hours, we got to Delhi.
Then we presented on August 21st in SEEDS office. So much to write about on this event on its own. But before that, I need a bit more vacation. J
And a good quote to wrap this experience up, by the venerable T.S. Eliot:
“We shall not cease from exploration
And the end of all our exploring
Will be to arrive where we started
And know the place for the first time.”
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