The Intent of ‘Gray’ in Architecture
A letter written to the National Association of Students of Architecture (NASA) of India in 2015
It’s the same story for every magazine, not just Indian Arch, and a terrible trend that has reduced our audience and credibility to the world. Have you ever wondered why architecture is a zoned-out profession? Why we are able to communicate only to fellow architects, and not to a commoner on the street? Why architectural journalism is such a narrow field?
Well, let me first make it clear what is involved in a magazine. There is intent, and speculation, and action.
So let us start with where most architecture magazines go wrong and have been going wrong and will continue to go wrong because no matter how serious I am and how strongly I feel about the design of magazines, I’m just a student presenting my point in front of a very busy audience that ultimately is not going to listen to me. I’m going to go on anyway with a mammoth letter.
So here it is — first and foremost — intent.
Why was there an Indian arch in the first place? It is a student magazine, designed and funded by students of a particular college each year, which are supplied with data from students throughout India, and where architects are invited to share their words and works, that are meant to enlighten us. The — of, by and from — of student ‘beneficiary’ journalism with the occasional professional consultancy to put it in legal terms; the intent is thus not design but expression when we talk about — of, by and from — given the history of democratic ideals linked to it.
What went wrong? The intent of the magazine shifted from expression to comment over the years. I look at the previous issues and I see a meaningless trend. Every year, the college associated with the magazine comes up with a crazy ‘topic’ — like ‘transformation’ per se — last year’s theme; maybe to felicitate the illicit ideas of the editorial board or as a prerequisite of NASA. And let me tell you here, you lose 90% of your potential database here. Why, you ask?
Well first, maybe I am interested in Indian Arch but not in transformation. This leads to an evident disappointment where a potential writer/artist is lost to discontent with the topic of our debate. Indian Arch if your trace back to the earliest of its editions, was meant to harbor and display individual debates — not make one of its own and harbor mere comments. The intent is to inspire students to just observe and not propose arguments, but just events. Well, why again? What is wrong if we all participate in a debate, and propose our arguments?
I saw a book recently, on the transformation of cities that was written after speculation on some two dozen books, a dozen papers, and theses. And here I am a mere third-year student being asked my views and works on the same. Really people; are we really that smart?
Yes, producing competition briefs is good in a way for the same, because we produce designs. We produce something tactile and we are given reviews on the same. There are a trial and error in which the focus is more on ‘now’, the design of it and hence it helps us understand the narrowest of the ideas of any wide topic in a holistic manner. But here, there is no review. And once it goes up, online and in print. It is wrong. It is served with baseless arguments that ultimately reduce the quality of the magazine itself. The problem is we are asked to ‘speculate’ and it requires good research and experience that comes with time only. So the efforts of our 10% database, scientifically speaking, turn into crap. I’m sorry to use that word, but this is honestly what is being produced.
‘Speculation’ is a problem. We need observations and events and experiences, not speculations.
Having said that, we come to our last problem; action — whose and what — this determines our database and readership. Do you still talk to your school friends? Who are into engineering or medicine or literature or arts or economics or business or law or crime; have you ever asked, honestly, what they think about your work? Have you ever shared your experiences and tried to understand them in return, and then without getting your ego in between sought solutions, if posed with a problem? I can bet you haven’t. The intent of expression and consultancy demands action from inside and outside both and a symbiosis of students not just with professionals but beyond the scope of architecture. This requires an open-ended action. What should we put in, how should we put it in and how should we serve it; these are some of the questions we must ask ourselves to go beyond our limited readership. Once we do, that provides the scope of revolutions, fuelled by simple words. ‘Action’ needs to be something the other person wants, not what I want.
Having understood the mistakes, this issue of Indian Arch means not to produce a ‘topic’ but a ‘theme’, an open-ended subject for debate. What should it be? We thought it over for months and shortlisted themes that represented human emotions — like zoned, mosaic, etc. From there we narrowed down to the idea of colors representative of emotions and here comes grey. A color that is both badass and beautiful. A color that Norman Foster wears, what Louis Kahn designed with, and what Ando probably eats just to show his love for it. It is shabby but reflective. It is hard yet deep and it has so many interpretations. ‘Grey’ is impish. It is a sly altruist. And hence, for the first issue of the regenerated Indian Arch — to be — we chose grey as something worthy of a theme for the new era as an opening for discussions by numerous authors. Yes, it is still limiting of a database, as grey in itself can be called as a topic, but the brief was drafted in order to invite observations and not speculations, thus clearing our second problem.
We received some delightful articles and drawings that we have put in order now and serve to give the final touches. With that, we went to some more people, who are not architecture students; demanding write-ups, works, thoughts, and reviews — anything possible. The response was narrow as many did not respond yet we achieved getting some brilliant perspectives to add to our list of debates and experiences listed in this issue. The effort was revealing of the fact that how little we know of the aspirations of non-architects, how little we understand them, and how little do they think of architecture. It was a sorry state, the realization hitting us, that our felicitous design ideas have corrupted and degraded the field of architectural journalism to an extent where our profession has become invisible and irrelevant to most of our species today. Yet, we have served to bring up a magazine that provides a different platform of sharing content, and a different value of content altogether and through this issue, we the School of Planning and Architecture, urge the National Association of Students of Architecture of India, to rethink the way Indian Arch is approached, to make it more open-ended, to gain a wider audience, to be more approachable and comprehensible in our approach and to just be accepting of the world around us.
With that, we are working hard to get a Kindle issue of the magazine to reach out to a wider audience, for this issue is all about experiences in architecture now through the perspectives gained on mere colors, but it is, at the same time, more meaningful than just that. It will hold different meanings for different people with different phases in time. It is an epoch, and we are proud to have produced something of this sort. No matter how simple it looks, we have with our passion, though delayed by challenges, striven to provide the upcoming issues an international platform for presentation, a broader audience, a wiser database, a flexible and recurring format that is inviting and better credibility to gain sponsors and beneficiaries. I urge you all, as you have been a part of this issue, to go through it attentively and make changes in the way Indian Arch is made. It is made not be just designed. It is made to serve. It is made to express. It is not a submission. It is a portfolio of ideas and experiences of common people cruising in time — no matter who they are, how old they are, what they do. It is something –of, by, and from the students — but shouldn’t be necessarily architecture-oriented students or students at all. It is meant to enhance knowledge. So let us this issue forth, keep it open for knowledge is like perfume. As long as you keep it in a bottle, no matter how shapely it is, it will still be useless, and so will be the fate of the magazine.
Thank you!
