Doesn’t IIM Bangalore look abandoned?
Well, doesn’t it?
There are numerous articles praising the architectural beauty that is IIM -Bangalore by the Pritzker award winning architect B.V. Doshi. They all go in deep about the influence it draws from Fatehpur Sikri and the temples of Madurai, as though the building cannot be seen without its bibliography. Nobody fails to mention that the once barren 100 acres is now filled with rich flora and fauna and the charming granite of the built that sits adjacent. IIM-B is a tactile building yet no one seems to be engaging with it. The extraordinary use of scale and volumes hasn’t gone unnoticed. But, is it dynamic in terms of spaces but dead in terms of people? Has anyone seen an image of IIM-B with people other than architecture students on case studies?
The classrooms lead into tall triple height corridor spaces that opens out into courtyards all with a backdrop of green vegetation. When I visited the space as an architecture student, I was in awe. But over time, something curious caught my eye. On both my visits to the campus, the campus was most certainly deserted. The interwoven indoors and outdoors should result in chatter and life outside the walls of a classroom, yet doesn’t IIM-B look abandoned?
This may seem like an attack on the design of IIM Bangalore, but it is more an attack on the lack of criticism on architectural discourse in India today. Endless publications have written in details-that this article can’t go into-about the beauty and the genius in the design so brilliantly done by Ar. BV Doshi. We have idolized the likes of B.V. Doshi and Charles Correa that we fail to look at their works critically. As a community we cannot fathom the thought of criticizing the great masters!
This adulation and lack of criticism has trickled down into most talks and discussions today. Most of our forums comprise of yes-men singing praises of each other’s works. The few attempts at criticism in our country resonate along the lines of a poorly executed roast than an actual conversation! We readily oppose those who are outside of this overly romanticized narrative that we have clung onto since the first day of architecture school. We will play the devil’s advocate with any of policies that our government puts out, but we cannot take a look within the community and call out on the hypocrisies of our fellow architects!
In college we are taught to examine and question our peers works. I remember, fondly, all the disagreements and clash of opinions that I had with my friends. After college I see the professors and architects who encouraged us to be bold and to have an opinion, faint(fake)-heartedly admire one another’s works. Was it too quixotic to imagine that the real world of architects would do the same?
