One of Correa’s early work in Ahmedabad, where he was actively engaged, the building exhibits hallmark features of it’s time, like the intricate expression of exposed concrete through wooden panelling.
Read More
From Bangalore to Goa : Revisiting Charles Correa’s modernist architecture
More than a year after our Vertical Walk, Edgar Demello and I find ourselves on the podium of yet another Correa building, this time in the architect’s home state of Goa. “Our podium has similar detailing” I comment looking at the way the steps fold into the corners. “I like how you call it our podium” says Edgar.
For a while, it felt like deja vu…
Read More
Caring for heritage homes ~
The magic of sleeping under a tiled roof is unparalleled – like the relief it provides in hot Goan summers, especially on a hot summer afternoon after belting a plate full of xit-kodi and recheado bangde, the little specks of mist that spray your face in the monsoons, the pleasing sound of the pitter patter of rain drops, and the blind trust we put on this seemingly thin layer of baked clay…
Read More
Returning Home ~
Is home a place? Or is it a person?
Do you find it in a particular smell? Or in a particular tune?
Or, does it lie somewhere in the moment you over-hear a familiar phrase uttered between two strangers?
Read More
What I learnt from ‘The Meaning in the Making’
Sean Tucker has been a guru to me over the past couple of years in my journey as an aspiring photographer. By profession, I am an architect and would never really call myself a photographer, though it is something I enjoy immensely. If in some capacity I do fit the title, I have Sean to thank. It’s from Sean that I learnt the true meaning of being a photographer – right from…
Read More
A change of scene, amidst uncertain times
In April 2021, I left my all familiar surroundings of Goa for the large bustling city of Bangalore. As I packed my stuff, I began to think about the 3.5 years that went by for The Balcão and how it has been a springboard for success for me. But I do tend to think ‘what next?’. Having spent the last few years intensely documenting the Goan landscape, what does this move mean for my work on The Balcão, especially in this post-Covid world we now inhabit.?
Read More
Monsoon Blues
We are in the midst of September, and the rainfall has finally started to cease in Goa. Phew! It’s been a long time coming now. We already exceeded the annual amount of rainfall way back in the end of July, and so to experience another month of torrid rains was really tough. As much as…
Read More
What’s happening at the Augustinian Convent?
If you happened to have drove through Rua dos Judeus lately, you would have noticed work in full swing at the Augustinian convent : Labourers carrying buckets of mud on their heads, masons assembling laterite blocks, officials pointing into the distance and mumbling something to themselves, trucks pulling up, workers carting away debris – the…
Read More
Why do we conserve?
More often than not, I find myself in a room with people who do not get architectural conservation. ‘Why should we preserve that?’ ‘Its outdated’ ‘Theres a land crunch, we need to raze this to the ground and build over’ are just few of the reactions one could record. After countless hours spent in dissertations,…
Read More