Mar 7, 2010

23. urbanwindows - a practice

Its really been a been a long time since I wrote anything about architecture, in fact I've never written anything about Architecture on my blog . . . I wanted to write about architecture on the UW blog but due to differences in the opinions between me n my partner, this post finds a place on my blog. . . . in order to justify why it took such a long time to write something - well, I would say, just like In architecture, what is very important to come up with something "worthwhile" to show off is "THE TIME". . .

One year into practice and still nothing to flaunt with you all, makes me feel miserable, though there's so much in the virtual form to display. That is not something I am interested in flaunting, un-built Idea or should I say "Unsold Idea". . .

So here's what we did over the past year, Though its not something that I will be showing in terms of the pics or photo realistic images or diagrams, nor am i interested in showing that, but I would rather talk about the path, as its important for us to know what we've traversed. . . .

One of the best things about running your own practice is that you are responsible for all the mistakes and the outcome of those mistakes. . . its a steeper learning curve, when you cast work with time . . . the satisfaction that one gets when the idea is realized is immeasurable. . . When i am talking about our own practice, does that give the same satisfaction to the person working for us, may be not but we try to avoid situations that we never enjoyed when we worked elsewhere . . . We try to make sure the office enjoys the privilege of being casual at work, at least at this point in time, yet keep it professional when it comes to our response to our clients. . .

So, What is it that we've accomplished in this one year of practice - nothing . . . but we've survived, survived the test of  time . . . Survived the odds of having to make a living out of the practice we do and yet achieve the creative satisfaction that A MIND craves for . . . We've been successful in the first part but faltered a bit on latter . . . Why I say we faltered was merely to satisfy the first task - that was to survive. . . earn our bread n butter, at that point in time "JAM" was a luxury n Wine was never in the thoughts . . . One thing I can say proudly is that we've been to move to a bigger office from our first office which measured approximately 8'x16'. . . and co-incidentally this also happens to be our best design till date, within the limits of time and money, with a certain amount of satisfaction to boast off . . .

So what is it that gives us joy in our own project, which we hardly find in the projects that we did for clients who paid us for our survival, may be our needs were always within the limits of the factors that curtail the design. . . . with a studio space that is connected to the main door through an opening in the partition wall, that can be covered with a sliding display panel that doubles up as a discussion table, with the windows being covered with our trademark sliders that cut off 100% light when we don't need it, with space to scribble our thoughts and a space to pin them up. . . . an extended studio space for the future - just in case, we grow beyond what we actually want to - why I say beyond what we want to, is because then we'll[me n akbar] have to move to the other side from the main design space, where the actual fun is . . . . We'll be isolated then. We also have a Customized TT table which is about a foot shorter than they normally are - in a typical Kaaka tea stall detail that also doubles up as a display space for our works. . . . that's all about the office, do visit to believe what we say. . . . oops almost forgot, its Black n white - we are the colours. . .

We've had varied experiences with clients from different walks of life, some understand what we go through and some don't, and then there are a few who just walk out in the middle of the project. Now its not difficult to handle the first two types of people but the third kind always hurt. It hurts mainly because of the fact that you are so close to realizing what you've been dreaming of and suddenly you find that you are no longer needed. . . That hurts. . . :) But we don't have any regrets about the people who've walked out, We've learned from them too . . .

The survival over the past one year has made us confident of one thing and that is We are NOW prepared to say NO. . . When we started out we were lucky to have few clients who really helped us find a foothold in the profession, They were the reason for our survival . . . They were a source of regular income. So what is it that we did for these clients, WE DID WHAT THEY WANTED, why we did that ? ? ? That's a simple question - The answer is we had to . . . for survival, to keep the practice going, find new clients in the hope that they'll help us quench our thirst for creative satisfaction. . . . Then finally came the day when we decided, this is it, its time to say "NO", No to people who want us to do what they want us to do . . . When I say No to those who want us to do what they do, I mean - drawing the line exactly where they want us to. . . .

When we did say no to these people who helped us survive during the tough times, the first thing that stuck to us was Fear, Fear of being able to find new clients, to be able to survive . . . It was never easy to say NO, but it was inevitable, given the fact that we were heading nowhere doing what ever we were doing . . . In future, we hope that we find people who'll be able to meet their needs with our efforts being rightfully channelized to achieve an "end product" that both the client and the architect can say with pride "it belongs to me" . . . .

1 comment:

  1. you have chosen to be taught than learn....Here We all have to Learn.:-)

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