Cause I love you, just the way you look tonight.

Chennai at Night

"Lights will guide you home,
And ignite your bones...."
                     Fix you, Coldplay


         For me the best part of a journey by flight between cities has always been that moment when the pilot hovers for a few minutes over the ground, preparing to land. The first few moments before landing, while I stare out of the tiny aircraft window, all I see is the vast ocean of black, a void, a sort of vortex that one would travel through to another dimension. The vortex seems to be dragging you deeper and deeper when, suddenly, there emerges from the endless darkness a couple of tiny twinkling lights. A few moments later, those few tiny lights seem to have grown into a multitude; into big and small, bright and dim colonies.            At this moment the aircraft is gently cruising through thin clouds at a height and angle that is perfect for one to see the profile of their city - the wide highways and railway lines, criss-crossing like the veins in a human hand and looking further, the intricate pattern created by the smaller streets and roof tops. Unlike the day time, the 'night city' does not distract you with the browns and greens of the topography. The night city is like a sky with constellations, connect the lights and you will identify landmarks - major buildings and bridges. 
        
  
      
"Cop lights, flash lights, spot lights,
Strobe lights, streets lights,
All of the lights."
                  All of the lights, Kanye West


         A lot of us often look up to the night sky from our bedroom windows or balconies and gaze at the ethereal beauty of the millions of stars twinkling and blinking like decoration on a Christmas tree. Those who live in the upper floors of a building are people who, I would say, are fortunate enough to experience the best of both : the 'night sky' and the 'night city'. 
         A view, at night, from a flyover or from an overhead metro or just simply from an apartment on the fifth floor is a different experience. This view may not portray the grandeur of the night city from ten thousand feet but what you will see is a silhouette of the skyline against the soft glow of incandescent light. At the horizon beyond the silhouette, the night sky meets the night city to merge into infinity. 


         As a part of the construction industry and having gone through a formal architectural education I have been lucky enough to see and experience things that the average person would not, even in his wildest dreams. Taking strolls at unearthly hours of the day in order to get a little inspiration or to just relax a while during an all-nighter has almost become a usual activity. These night strolls take me through streets which, during the hustle and bustle of the day, I would not have paid much attention to. The lonely streets, illuminated by the dull street lights, exuded an eerie yet tranquil aura which seemed so inviting. The 'night city' had its own tense yet laid-back pace. It is as if, while the people were asleep, the city was preparing for all the activity of the coming day. No doubt, I fallen truly in love with the 'night city'.


"It's hard to believe that there's nobody out there.
It's hard to believe that I'm all alone. 
At least I have her love, the city, she loves me
Lonely as I am, together we cry."
                   City of Angels, Red Hot Chili Peppers.  



Step out after hours and experience the other side of your city. Let the 'night city' take your breath away.        


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5 Signs That a Deadline is Round the Corner

Its been a while since I wrote a post and apologies for the long absence. Its been traumatic in the last couple of months but now I am back to churning out some fun articles in the coming days.

Whether or not you plan your course of work up to a deadline the last minute frenzy is almost inevitable. Even if you have all your work done the tense atmosphere before a deadline is always infectious. Most of us will have that uneasy feeling deep down of not having done enough. 

Read on for the 5 Signs of a deadline round the corner. 

#1. Here a cup, there a cup, everywhere a cup cup!

Caffeine is the answer to pre-submission panic so anyone living with an architect/ architecture student would notice a proportionate increase in the number of coffee mugs piling up on the work table. This generally means pulling an all-nighter because we desperately need to get something together for a review which is in less than 12 hours. What can be better than those dozens of cups of coffee to keep us awake?

#2. Inactivity/ Over activity on Social Networking sites.

Anyone who has architect friends on social networking sites might occasionally find their news feed flooded with random posts about music, movies and midnight snacks? Definitely a night before a submission. There seems to be no progress on the work front so Facebook and Twitter seems to be the best place to get some inspiration. On the other hand, you may find your hyperactive architect friend go into an indefinite period of hibernation because they just realized they had a whole lot of stuff to get done in order to pass the review the next day.

#3. Doubts about what day and date it is.

The last few days before a review/submission is always a blur. Practically every hour counts. So you will find some of us asking what day it is just so we are absolutely sure we aren't running out of time. Its absolutely normal for an arch student to ask you if its 7AM or 7PM. 

#4. DARK CIRCLES

You've probably smirked at those girls in adverts for concealer and BB creams with over exaggerated dark circles. Spot your architect friend looking like Wednesday from the Adam's Family? That friend has had less than three hours of sleep in the last 72 hours and believe me ain't nobody got time for makeup. Dark Circles are so Rad anyway. 

#5. Dude. Where's my phone? 

Your architect friend has not answered your call in the last two days. Do not panic. His phone is probably lost under a pile of cardboard or rolls of paper or just hasn't been put to charge in a days. A frantic search for the buried phone will start as soon as the need to call the plotters arises or maybe when the alarm goes off. You can be sure a deadline is a few hours away. 

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Inferno - Chennai's Heritage in Flames

         How often does one manage to see a building of fire? Every few months if you live in the city of Chennai. It was a pleasant Saturday afternoon, the weather had cooled down a little after the few thunder showers in the city in the last couple of days. I busy studying the busy streets of Broadway for an Urban Design project when a couple of people accidently ran into me. This was a common in the busy streets of Broadway so I continued to carry on looking at the road widths and encroachments. As I walked on I saw a crowd gathering on the road right outside the State Bank of India building. Another young man ran into me and I caught his gaze. I looked up to see what he was staring at and that's when I saw the SBI go up in flames. Thick smoke billowed from the Bank of Madras, one of the most exquisite examples of Indo-Sarasenic architecture in Chennai. The bank constructed in 1843 was an amalgamation of many regional banks in Madras in the 19th century. The fire raged on for two hours, the first and second floors completely gutted, it was finally put out at 7 pm. At least the response of the fire department was quick enough and the building was saved before it was reduced completely to ash.

Bank of Madras on Fire, 12th July '14

    Similarly, the government run Co-Optex textile showroom turned into a camp fire site in November last year causing a traffic jam that lasted an hour at a very crowded junction at Egmore. The building that is at least a decade old has caught fire more than once.
     The Indo-Sarasenic Moore market, a landmark in the city, was razed to the ground in a fire by 1985. It was rebuilt and the new structure has caught fire twice since then. The cause of these fires are often electrical short circuits. The cause of the Moore market fire outbreak was never actually found and the investigation remained inconclusive, but rumor has it that it was started by Southern Railway officials who wanted the land back as the market stood on Railway property.      
       So what is it with these frequent fire outbreaks? Just sheer negligence and public insensitivity towards heritage structures.
      While the government is busy building monuments and memorial arches, converting buildings from state legislatures to multi-specialty hospitals, nothing is done to protect or maintain existing structures which actually have historic significance. What is the future of these buildings that have survived a fire? They are treated as an invalid. They are cleared out, locked up and left to decay and crumble until some suited-up industrialist or politician with a receding hairline decides to tear it down and build something more safe and user-friendly. Some heritage buildings stand even till today over grown with weeds and moss with no future intended for them
            Some of these buildings are actually ancestral property owned by affluent families in the city. Having interned with the Indian National Trust for Art and Cultural Heritage in Chennai I have seen many proposals for renovation and conservation of heritage buildings shot down for reasons like "relevance to a modern context" and "risk of building collapsing a few years after renovation". Here 'modern' buildings less than a few months old are collapsing killing hundreds and yet people don't seem to trust an old building that has survived centuries. Ironic?
             While the governments in Brussels and Italy are busy formulating and implementing policies to save their historic cities and minimize the impact of urbanization, our Indian cities are losing a lot of it's colonial neighborhoods to the demand for housing and sprawling metros.
            My idea of a Utopian city in India would be one where the past, present and future co-exist, where history is an integral part of a cityscape and where people respect spaces and structures and Chennai city seems to have a really long way to go.


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Pop Quiz with Uncle Matthew

        I finally found a little breathing space from my hectic final year course work to write this blog post. All of us at Architecture School would have at some point had to do a survey to collect data to support theories and claims part of a project. So this particular magazine article required one such survey. The survey required participants to answer a questionnaire on reuse of buildings and preservation of historic buildings in the city. 
        Going door to door, to all the houses in my neighborhood, I finally dropped by Uncle Matthew's. His 42 year old house was two doors away from home. A retired Southern Railway employee, Uncle Matthew was known for his miserly existence and his extremely cranky moods. Yet everyone had to agree the man was a walking encyclopedia. There was nothing this man didn't have an idea about. My mother had talked me into making Uncle Matthew take the questionnaire. 
        Now, having lived in the neighborhood for 21 years, Uncle Matthew and Aunty Alice had practically watched me grow up. I spent considerable amounts of time playing with their granddaughter in my childhood. 
        When I did go across to their house I realized I hadn't been to their house in over two years. I noticed how frail they had become and how oblivious I was to the neighborhood and its people changing around me. Stepping into their dimly lit home was like rewinding my life at least 10 years. The house hadn't changed much and I made myself comfortable in one of the chairs in their living room almost by habit. After pleasantries were exchanged I came down to business. It was time for Uncle Matthew to answer the questionnaire. 
        My first question was if historic buildings were relevant to a city and if they needed to be preserved. Uncle Matthew, smiled, smirked more like, adjusted his dhoti, and continued slicing bits of green mango into a plate. He asked me if I knew what the first Colonial building to be erected in Madras was. Now here I was a final year student of architecture planning to make a living out of Architectural Conservation and writing, talking about neighborhood revitalization, the question caught me completely off guard. I had a reputation of being one of the smart kids of the colony and really couldn't afford to let that image slide from the minds of these old folks so I made a good guess and answered "Fort Saint George". 
        I had just initiated my a Pop Quiz. Uncle Matthew didn't seem to want to give up so easy. He quizzed me about the history of the neighborhood to national economy to current affairs. At the end of it I had learnt about the first railway line in India from Mumbai to Thane, the old city limits and how many roads in Chennai got their names from important British figures. Question after question I felt stupider and stupider and my wiz kid image was hanging in the balance. Finally I managed to steer the conversation back to the survey and asked Uncle if he would ever feel the need to move out of the colony. 
        Uncle Matthew offered me the plate of mango slices which I was in no position to refuse. So as I munched on the little bits of mango which uncle had so carefully cut for me, he enthusiastically began a history lesson on the neighborhood and the Integral Coach Factory in Chennai. 
         One and a half hours later, Mr. Matthew had convinced me to go around the neighborhood and look at it with a different perspective this time and I did. Soon after I left, I went up to Loco Works Bridge to catch the sunset. Now THAT was another surreal experience altogether. 

Well, the purpose I initially went for was left half done but I did go home that evening a little wiser and with a brand new perspective for my project. It's amazing how much one can learn from just talking to people and keeping our eyes and ears open to all that's around us. 

Loco Works Station- To infinity and beyond

  
   

Black Holes in the City- Chennai's Dying Malls

Spencer Plaza, Mount Road, Chennai

        Strolling into Spencer Plaza, at Mount Road, made me wonder if it was a weekday or weekend and a quick check on my phone confirmed it to be a Saturday. This mall which is a landmark in the city of Chennai and as large as three phases of shops and boutiques seemed absolutely deserted. A few visitors were walking about casually looking at the merchandise on display, some munching away corn and cookies from the respective stalls. Walking down the narrow aisles, trying very hard to evade an occasional clothes rack of night gowns and tee shirts and a scary mean-looking shop owner trying to get you to buy a carpet or a printed salwar I noticed most of the shops were on clearance sale or were packing up for good. I sneezed half a dozen times. The place hadn't seen a mop in eons.
          I remember coming to this mall as a child for everything that I wanted to buy, be it clothes for my birthday or a new bag and stationery for a new year at school. We always lost our way, my mother and I, and every visit to this mall was an adventure. The mall built in 1863 and reconstructed in the 1980s was one of the largest in South Asia at the time and the largest departmental store in India. Now people visit the mall only for specific purposes, mostly to purchase cheap electronics and accessories for phones and computers and to get a tattoo or piercing.
          There are other rather old malls and plazas in the city, Spencer's was just one such example, which were THE places to go to on a weekend when people just wanted a break from the monotony of life. They now seem to be dying centers of activity as their newer and fancier counterparts coming up in the city cater to the current standards of living of people. The newer malls seem to draw the crowd consistently with luxury brands, restaurants, clubs, food courts and multiplexes which offer new age entertainment, while the old ones reply on their regular customers to remain in business. Some of the older malls thrive also because they house offices in their premises whose occupants aren't in no hurry to move out.
           These dying activity centers are now a good breeding ground for antisocial activity as security is limited to none. The small crowd and empty shops result in many a dark corner and safety is not guaranteed. These places are thoroughly exploited by couples to get some alone time as they use the small crowd and the little chance of being caught by their angry conservative families and friends who might be at the mall at the same time, to their advantage.
             Many of these malls have historic value as they were built as early as the 1800s and I always feel that any building of some historic significance adds to a cityscape. I think its really up to the owners of these gigantic commercial spaces to keep these places alive and . Be it marketing gimmicks like flash mobs and badminton tournaments or just bringing in merchandise and the kind of entertainment people are looking for at present days. I went about asking my shopaholic friends what they thought these old malls lacked. The most common answer was lack of security, cluttered aisles, dim lighting and clouds of dust lingering in the air which gave the place an eerie atmosphere and terrible customer service. So it is clear that a better effort has to be made in order to maintain the space and provide enough security and services so people are not put off when they visit. If the owners of the various boutiques took the effort to make their shop fronts attractive and be a little more customer friendly rather than scaring potential clients by harassing them to make a purchase at their shop, it would automatically make shopping more enjoyable. Perhaps social media and newspapers can help highlight this issue and this blog post I hope makes a small difference.

Fountain Plaza, Egmore, Chennai

Post in the comments below if you feel something can be done to help bring activity back to these landmarks.
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This article was inspired by a post on a social networking site by a good friend +Manjith Mothiram who addressed this issue. Cheers to that!