Iconic or Signature Building

India Today Architectural Journalism Contest 2008

Anuj Daga, Final Year B. Arch.

Rachana Sansads Academy of Architecture

understanding Charles Correa

discussing City Centre, Kolkata, India.

UCN No. 400025-003

While architecture has been practiced in India for centuries, its education was the
responsibility of the master craftsmen passed along from one generation to another. It was only in
the 19th century whereby, the architectural form was a function of the resolution of forces acting
upon it. Industrial revolution led to artisans and craftsmen losing their job to machines. This was
perhaps the start of degeneration of a long history of art. The effect of industrialization was such
that people HAD to accept it in their own terms. Modernism was one after effect of
Industrialization, which deeply reflected in the lifestyle of the people around later. Pioneer
architects like Le Corbusier, Walter Gropious etc. embraced modernism instead of leaving the
machine behind. Modernism made quick low cost housing possible. It distanced itself from
Imperialistic ideas.
The prime reason behind the success of Modernism was that it was more responsive to
science and technology. Geometry became the dominating force in architecture. Ornamentation
was then shaped using geometry and light. The onset of modernization in India can be seen by
the planning of Chandigarh the first planned city of independent India and the reinterpretation of
the sky scraper by Louis I Kahn in his works in Ahmedabad. Both these architects contributed
immensely to the modern building collection in India.
However, it must be noted that both these architects were non-Indians. When the
responsibility of building a modern India was handed over to Indian architects, the 20 th century
saw an extraordinary array of architectural explorations. While the Empiricists have been more
conservative, believing that it is essential to base approaches to design on careful observations of
the present, it was some architects who tried to re interpret Indian forms in their own rationalist
ways using considerable logical speculation in their work.
Whereas that was Modernism in the old 60s and 80s, when people had already started
adjusting themselves to the Modern lifestyle and went ahead, many remained behind. Modern
institutions always wanted to move ahead with more and more technology, while there were still
old institutions trying to root down architecture in an Indian past. And thus, India has always been
under a tremendous pressure of going modern or remaining well rooted into its tradition. As a
result of this, we see a hybrid kind of environment that is created around us.
Over the past years and decades, the process of architectural design has been
developing more as a profession where the architect is expected to have the skill and dexterity of
being scientific in imparting the subject. However, considering architecture as a discipline, an
architect has a much larger responsibility than to just build. The act of producing architecture
involves being able to see the 'final product' at many scales - the scale of space and experience
(zoomed in) , the scale of the object within the city (zoomed out) and also very importantly the
scale of the person - that is the street scale.
As a rapidly emerging field, the definition of architecture keeps becoming elaborate.
Today, in a globalizing world, the time period in which an architect delivers the final product has
become equally important. It is at this juncture where architecture is vulnerable to convert into a
building. However, architects must remember their role as designers of space and spatial
experiences, which can be experienced at multiple scales and by multiple senses.
It is important here, therefore, to question the idea of an iconic or a signature building.
What is our idea of iconic or a signature building? For most of us, iconic would be something
which visually creates awe. Visuals have become a primary method of experience in our cities

today. Therefore, we see a different pattern of architecture evolving in urban areas. Buildings
coming up in our environment command maximum visual attention of the masses. However,
when an entire street is lined up with structures that bark their images upon people, the entire
experience of a street turns into a blas.
On the contrary, what we see might be deceptive. Covering up the building in a curtain of
glass, or making it colorful or aesthetic might not confirm the building as architecture. Forget the
enormous amounts of energy pumped into such mechanically functioning buildings, they are so
rigidly programmed that a user is very cleverly trapped inside into an isolated environment which
does not connect one from inside to outside. In an increasingly image-conscious world, which
contests itself with creating environmentally responsible future, one wonders what the idea of an
iconic or a signature building must be?
Architecture and design have the potential to convey meaning as well as information.
This powerful trait is often overlooked in the rush to approach, as well as to analyze these
disciplines in terms of their functional and purely aesthetic imperatives. The fact is that all design
interprets as well as informs. What characterizes the best design is that it consciously utilizes that
challenging and transcendent potential.
Charles Correas architectural acts of instantaneous communication are a constant
source of bafflement to observers. The eye is quickly gratified in the provocative image of the
building; yet the sense of wonder, the message of the observed architecture is absorbed slowly
and so, sustained in a more thoughtful manner. Correa uses architecture as a device to
communicate beyond the expression of mere style and social position.
After
studying
architecture at the University of
Michigan and further at the
Massachusetts
Institute
of
Technology, Mr. Charles Correa
set up his architectural practice
in Mumbai, India in 1958. His
work in India shows an
adaptation of language that is
deep rooted in the Indian culture
and that which blends with the
local surroundings. Although one
may classify him as a Modern
architect, Mr. Correas buildings
are truly regionalist in approach
and confirm a non western
approach. The Mahatma Gandhi Figure 1: The entrance of the City Centre Mall, Kolkata: The
Memorial at the Sabarmati architect uses a language that is very simple, yet, creates nostalgia
Ashram in Ahmedabad and his of the experience that he is going to give ahead.
contribution to the planning of
Navi Mumbai remain most notable and significant. Over the past decades, the architect has
developed specific responses to urban architectural problems in India.

The City Centre, Kolkata, one of the most recent projects of the architect (completed in
2004), was conceived as a convergence of functionality and aesthetics. Adding to that, the
architect has tried to bring in the organic nature in the shopping mall by an innovative reinterpretation of an Indian market. Instead of bringing up a large chunk of building on an
otherwise large land, the City Centre has been broken up into smaller fragments of forms
interlinked by small bridges, courtyards and semi open spaces. Such a strategy not only makes
the mall environmentally friendly, but also develops a character which is so typical of any Indian
bazaar.
The idea of mall being an introvert environment has been deconstructed and the place
has been developed as porous organization of simple forms. On entering, the architect decides to
give multiple experiences to the user by placing a kund and taking the user upwards through a
flight of steps to create a sense of ghat, which traditionally has been a meeting place for people in
Kolkata. The culmination of the experience of the entrance is its dissolution into the numerous
streets of the bazaar.

Figure 2: The re interpretation of the Indian street bazaar: While people keep gazing at shops on both
sides, other smaller activities are allowed to be placed in the wide corridors which not only give a sense of
informality, but also give a unique character to the mall.

While going across these streets, one is introduced to the sudden arrival of courtyards,
appropriately scaled down to relate to the human level. The eateries are allowed to spread onto
these streets as would normally happen in a khau galli. The interesting patterns of routes that

the people make from between all such activities can be seen from strategically created levels
which connect the inside and outside.
The City Centre does not define itself by creating boundaries, but itself goes and meets
its surroundings. Though contemporary in its design, it still embodies the spirit of Kolkata. At one
of the places, a horse drawn tramcar has been restored to link the place with its own Imperial
past. Added to that, the Kalighat paintings and the art wall echoes the cultural history of Kolkata.
The space creates a niche for people from all age income groups.
Figure 3: The spatial organization of simple forms create a number of corridors which become streets of
experience and give porosity to the entire complex. Note that the complex has not boundaries, but it itself
draws the roads inside.

Different parts of the complex are taken up for various activities during festivals, seasonal
exhibitions or public awareness. The City Centre thus assumes a truly public character and
almost becomes an icon, not visually, but notionally, through the multiple experiences its offers to
visitors. It is truly a building to look up to, for the architect has tried to create not only a modern
building, but a building which is equally responsive to its past, present and future.

Bibliography:
Bhatia, Gautam. Silent Spaces and Other Stories of Architecture, Penguin India Ltd.
Bhatia, Harshad. The Wow-Factor, Architecture+Design, October 2005.
Bhiwandiwala, Jimmy. Relevant Notions, Architecture - Time Space and People, October
2005.
Lang, Jon. A Concise History of Modern Architecture in India, Permanent Black.
Truelove, James Gayson. This Way - Signage Design for Public Spaces, Rockport
Publishers Inc.

Websites:
www.citycentrekolkata.com
www.wikipedia.com