(Allied Design Course)
This course was taught by Malaksingh Gill and I chose this course as it was about finding your intention and purpose as an architect and learning in what ways you can give back to society and nature. It was also about knowing "who are you building for?"
For the first two weeks, it was all about studying vernacular and green architecture and the people who are practicing it. Understanding the responsibility and the power an architect holds was something that really blew my mind. I studied the works of different architects who practiced green architecture in India including Malak.
We also went to one of Malak's ongoing project in Kamshet which was halfway completed and studied how it was made- the design and the construction.
I was surprised by what can be done with green architecture.
We not only studied the works but also tried them ourselves. We made a structure that had an arch and stairs with bricks, lime mortar, and mud mortar and it had a cob wall too. From learning the proportions for different mortars to how the forces will work in the structure, we had to calculate everything including the moist, and rainy climate, and finish the arch within 10 days which included the design process and buying the materials, with 20 team members/new laborers.
The design was significantly based on load distribution and balancing the forces.
As we were making the framework in wood, we had to figure out the arrangement of the same.
The arch did shift a little more than it should have but its still circles back to learning how things are done. But on the brighter side, the boy who stood on it did survive after the photo was taken.
To end this post, my takeaway from this course was that there is no right or wrong in architecture (apart from the structural basics:)). It is just about what's right and what's better than that. It's your strong sense of intention and purpose that makes the choice for you. Also, the choice isn't/shouldn't be led by the technology you think you have. Technology will keep on changing and evolving for the better or for the worse, and therefore it shouldn't be considered a limitation for something you believe in. Thinking beyond what already exists is the key to everything.
Another important learning was that words like sustainability, natural, non-reusable or non-recyclable, harmful for future generations are some very vague terms that cannot be defined or it might be too presumptuous to define as they mean different things to each person. For example cement is as natural as lime mortar or mud mortar,it'ss just the difference between the number of pros and cons they all have.
So we just need to hold tight to our values, beliefs, intentions, visions, and all the other words you wanna call it to DO WHAT YOU WANT.
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