An hour before the event – the first in the Reading Architecture series – some of us began to wonder if we had chosen the wrong date. The streets were emptier than usual, and those outside were glued to their phones. It was the day of the Cricket World Cup Final, and India was playing Australia. To our surprise, though, it was a full house!

The event was planned as a two-part introduction to the Basvanagudi area of Bangalore and the idea of ‘formal analysis’, culminating in an exercise of basic formal analysis at the Krishna Rao Pavilion, a forgotten modernist structure at the heart of Basavanagudi. Since our greater goal is to deliver complex, critical ideas and paradigms to audiences otherwise excluded, our hope was that the heritage walk, as a regionally familiar format, would help participants ease into the more obscure format and content of the second half. And based on the reception we received, we think it worked!

The first half was led by Madhuri Sharma, an architect based in Bangalore with roots in Basavanagudi. Beginning at the Indian Institute of World Culture (IIWC), she led the group of 23 to and through the century-old house of Krishna Rao (the erstwhile Dewan of Mysore), the former Home School building, the local Anglican Church, and some of the area’s conservancy lanes. Participants got a sense of the philanthropic efforts that were responsible for the making of the neighbourhood. They also observed and discussed colonial construction methods such as Madras roofing, and in parallel, the forgotten ways of life around which these buildings were designed. The conservancy lanes, in particular, were a reminder of a time when none of today’s modern sanitation facilities, social mobility, and dignified labour could be taken for granted.

The Anglican church, although modest, interested our participants with its small stained glass window imported from England. At this point, seeing the large group, the priest decided to start a service! Between this and all the photography, our walk stretched out to be longer than planned. But the group was clearly having great fun and we got some excellent photographs as well!

We then had a short break – with beverages and biscuits from the local Iyengar bakery – before returning to the IIWC for the seminar part of the event. Madhuri began with some larger history and historical maps that contextualised the sights of the walk, before handing over the reins to Monisha Raju, who then discussed the basics of formal analysis. Designed by MS Srinivas, her presentation included some brief theory, before moving on to local examples that participants were encouraged to look at formally. We got some nice ‘oohs’ and ‘aahs’, with the audience particularly enjoying our discussion of the Vidhana Soudha, the city’s beloved landmark. They were then introduced to the Krishna Rao Pavilion, sponsored by the Krishan Rao of the house they had visited earlier and designed by the German architect Otto Koignesberger. Located at the centre of Basavanagudi, it was a part and product of the same culture that they had gained exposure to earlier in the day.

The group headed to the pavilion soon after, where they began work on our ‘Everything’s a Remix!’ worksheets. This worksheet featured local and global examples with a set of formal keywords each. For each keyword, the participants had to determine whether it applied to (a) only the associated example, (b) only the pavilion in front of them, (c) neither of them, or (d) both of them. The goal was, firstly, to get participants to begin seeing formally, or at least understand what seeing formally entailed; and secondly, to gain exposure to a vocabulary of formal description. While taken for granted elsewhere, these are skills that seem to elude most architects and students of architecture in India, and we wanted to address this.

The exercise was surprisingly well-received. Participants gathered in circles and discussed among themselves. The pavilion, which most would have otherwise ignored, transformed into an object of curiosity and architectural interest. By the time the workshop concluded, it was a dark 7pm. But the group remained enthusiastic till the very end, and we hope they returned slightly better architects 🙂

Event Reading List

‘Otto Koenigsberger and Modernist Historiography’ by Vandana Baweja, in Fabrications, Vol.26, No.2 (2016)

Discusses the work of Koenigsberger in India alongside an insightful critique of the current status of historical research on modernist architecture in India.

Form, Space, and Order by D.K.Ching

An excellent compendium of formal elements and strategies in architectures across the world, even if it offers little help in applying these ideas for analysis.

On the Study of Indian Architecture by James Fergusson

This lecture makes two arguments: that architecture – its formal reading –is one of the best windows into a civilisation’s past, and that architecture in Britain has much to learn from India.