NORWAY 2008

Year 1990: I have visited most of the European countries on my way from US to back home. The visit lasted almost a month through comfortable E-rail First class unlimited pass. The last day of my visit was Amsterdam, where I drew my plan for next visit to Scandinavian Countries sometime in future. This is precisely that imagination which was carefully nurtured and protected for many decades. The water edge of Norway is as much real in reality as you imagine through photograph.

The landscape is tentative (ephemeral) & figurative simultaneously. They seem to be contradictory however it seems to be compounded to form a unique terrain. The cold ripping thorough body mercilessly, shadows are always longer irrespective of the time of the day. The absences of point shadows are almost scary as longer one is destined to disappear anytime. Does that really shape the general psych/ culture of people! If yes than how, I think it really need careful examination of culture & value of that context.

The wealth of tropical climate is suddenly become as valuable for us as you peep out of window everyday, seeking for the morning sun. However the tenderness of light that definitely making general gesture of Norwegian to be humble, tender & reaching out. The usual day is one with rain, blizzards & cold. The time seems to be of no consequence for us, as absence of light makes it difficult for your perception to hold your judgment of time

The built landscape is leisurely following the planes to contoured landscape with great ease. The entire fabric appears to be a giant jigsaw puzzle; each of them is carefully interlocked with others. The result of that leaves unwinding trails negotiating the contours levels. The fabric finds it edge relentlessly at it meets water. The dialogue of colorful building & dark water is extravagant as much as unreal. It is further heightened by absence of sunlight most of the time.

LECTURE AT BAS, NORWAY
I am not very convinced about the lecture/ talk on urban design. I am very comfortable with undergraduate program because of my involvement for many years. The problem that postgraduate program suffers is that it really takes design cell as model without any further inquiry. My imagination of postgraduate study is about implied theoretical investigation than explicit problem-solution model. Furthermore, this problem persist due to its consistently dwelling on planning realm & not able to operate in design mode. I quite often get confused or not convinced by myself of such presentation.

ARCHITECTURE & FASHION DESIGN

All design disciplines are art form & have few things in common. However there is a difference between architecture & other design discipline is that it has stronger representational demand than rest. As one move away from architecture, art, literature, the representation becomes less dense or may not exist.

The recent jury of third year architecture has been very ridiculously dwelling on mannerist mode where idea of built form is pre-determined. The any variation from pre-determined form is succumb to severe criticism. I personally believe that we are jumping directly to the manifestation & not through the filter of inquiry. The manifestation can be anything, slight skewed geometry is not necessarlly mean quality architecture, or exotic materialism that percolates through recent architecture also does not mean quality architecture. Here, my argument in first paragraph of fashion design being less dense a artform due to its weak representational commitment is seem to merge with architecture beyond any recognition. The publication & media attention that architecture gets is detrimental to the discipline. The recent visit to BAS also confirms my notion that good institute refrain itself from any such deviation. We need much stronger critical theory to bring architecture where it belongs to, or i fear, if thats the course of future than media determines what is good architecture. In such case than media would flourish, architects would flourish, & collective mediocrity would flourish.

TAKSHEEL

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I have blur memory of him, during our first year studio in 2007. However the incident has left deep scar of deleted reality within my psych. I think about death very often, it scary because of the fact that its deleted reality of left ones. His face reappears on & off due to some reason. I have not able to rationalise that, & perhaps it need not to be at all. The sunrise & setting is conceptual & transition is moving reality. How do we accept the moving reality be non reality so suddenly.. The destiny is not real, perhaps destined is....... is there any way it can be rationalised!

DEHRADUN/ RISHIKESH

• After years of thinking & planning we could finally manage to visit Dehradun. The first impression os the place is that it is very clean town, perhaps the cleanest of all. It is mix terrain of what hill station setup & plain would be. It is very much visible in the trees & countours. The stay was very comfortable & clean. It's locatin is central to various hill stations & religious destination, hence it has floating population round the year. The visit to Rishikesh was revealing for me since you hear about its popularity for various reason. The last day Rafting was something resonate in memory for many years. However Haridwar was quite disappointing for its mess, perhaps thats how we are when it comes to our religious virtues. It also confirms my belief that not all popular relegious places are historical, if it does not have myth. We are not concern about history as much as myth. New myth is essential fuel for our survival & belief.

The experience of walking through several pathways deepens the notion of real reality. Now it is almost decided to visit Matheran once in two months as it offers almost everything that any hill station would offer plus traffic free walk for hours & kilometers of stretch in thick wooded trails.

GLIMSES OF MATHERAN

Year 1983, Group of 25 students went on hiking to Matheran via Karjat. Its a longer route, & climb is slightly dangerous. The visit had more to do with the test of endurance then the place you visit. I was in second year architecture then. The place appeared after tortoures climb was no significance, parltly to do with the amature responces to the built setup. The recent visit on 27th September was revealing since there was no tortoures journey. The place has more to offer than i expected, that bias has perhaps to do with past experiences. The place we stayed was ground storeyed cottage type setup within thick vegetation & also next to bazar street. The late eveing bazar street stilll had life, it just gave me an idea that any place which is padestrianised will behave like resort. Matheran is a classic example where you are forced to walk, see life moving around you. This experiences are becoming rare, unlike you pay to walk (Gym).