Vellore District Architecture Forum

Vellore District Architecture Forum VDAF is a platform for the Vellorians to share their thoughts on Architecture, Environment and Sustainable Development. Vellore has wonderful things and have been place where the first War of Independence took place in 1806AD. A human massacre on the 10th of July 1806 is a notable one the monuments are the witness for this even today. I as the first architect of Vellore have initiated this forum to invite young professionals and institutions to participate and enrich the forum.

The Loo Project .............Wins!

The Loo Project mentored by Jaffer AA Khan as part of Spatial Design Studio 2 at the Spatial Design, School of Art and Design, AUT wins for execution at the Katherine Mansfield House and Garden Museum (KMHG), Wellington, New Zealand.  The KMGH Board in their recent meeting have decided to select the designs of Ms Huizong Wan, a 2nd year student of Spatial Design, to be implemented. The project was the brainchild of Jaffer AA Khan, who introduced this as the "Loo Project" as a part of studio programme. The studio was an excellent opportunity to bring real time projects to research and propose at pragmatic level. The total number of entries were independent effort of 22 students and further shortlisted to 5 finalists. Ms.Huizong Wan an extra-ordinarily talented student came out with a bold scheme and produced wonderful drawings to represent the idea and mentored by the studio unit master. The HoD of  Spatial Design Mr Andrew Douglas and Ms Emma Anderson Director KMHG, were  encouraging in the project and were part of the jury team.

The day my dad met Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru

The day my father met Nehru…………!

It was 1955 and Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru was on an official visit to the Christian Medical College and Hospital (CMCH) to inaugurate a medical ward dedicated to Kamala Nehru in the hospital campus. My father was the Executive Office (EO) of a village panchayat Dharapadvedu which is located just after the Katpadi Railway Junction and exactly on the only road that took anyone to Vellore. The erstwhile first Prime Minister of independent India was to pass by that route as he travelled by train from  Madras.

As the administrative head of the region, my father had all responsibilities to take care of the safety and security of the Prime Minister as he would travel in an open car greeting the crowd of people who had assembled there to get a glimpse of this greatest son of Indian soil.

The Cavalcade was on its way and my father, a freedom fighter himself decided to to hold the party for few minutes honour the Prime Minister on his way by garlanding him and offer him a specially made orange juice. He did stop the cavalcade and honoured Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru, one of the  founding fathers of our nation,  with a garland and a glass of juice. Panditji, without any hesitation took this in public and shook hands with my dad. I wasn’t even born then.

Nearly thirty years later, in the year 1984 his son, myself was  to get the most coveted Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru Memorial Award for academic excellence by the Government of India. It is now 60 years since this nostalgic incident happened but it is so fresh in the memories of my family  through the diaries of my great  father.

Well done dad………….I hope you will be happy wherever you are and proud of me on this national award as well.

Revamping Architectural Education in India…….A thought!

Revamping Architectural Education in India…….A thought!

Professor Jaffer AA Khan, Auckland New Zealand

Architectural education in India has a long history. At the time of independence, the country had the only institution in Bombay (Mumbai), Sir JJ School of Architecture which split from the Bombay School of Art in 1913. It was such an honored school that it was the only school in Asia and for a long time the GD Arch Diploma from the school was recognized by the Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA). The standard was so high that the students who graduated  from JJ School were regarded very high and they were in demand even in Great Britain ( India was part of the Empire). The school has a long history which is worth a study by every architecture student of India to understand the legacy of architectural education in this country . It is ironical that with more than 450 schools today , the RIBA does not recognize even a single school in the country due to the fact that the standards of education comparing to global scenario has diminished to such a level that we can only  boast of numbers  by adding schools every year but not the expected  standards.

We have seen that, the last decade was the great surge in the number of architecture schools and more than 50% of them came up during this decade or so. One must credit the Council of Architecture (CoA), the schools multiplied without any idea and today many of them face shortage of faculty as it is most difficult to find them and that to find the good ones. The Architects Act of 1972 mandated the Council of Architecture to approve schools to impart architectural education in good faith. The 1984 Minimum Standards of Architectural Education was a gazette document and laid down the foundation for the minimum faculty qualifications for various academic positions. Then came the un-gazetted version of the 2008 Minimum Standards of Architectural Education which being enforced now by the Council and its appointed inspectors.  The draft version of the 2014 is still in the draft condition and one does not know when this will see the light of the day.  Hence,  the 1984 Minimum Standards hold good for any such appointment of faculty  or their qualifications to serve the Council in any manner stipulated in the Architects Act 1972.

Presently, the architecture program is five year full  time study period  with a year of training included . The Council insists flexibility of the program and accepts that the training period of one year could be after the third year or after the fourth year when the students are free from any academic commitments, and  they could  get to graduation straight on. But there is growing concern among students that, the institutions should not collect the fee for the period they are not to be attending any classes or University examinations. The CoA is unclear about its policies in this aspect as one could see the growing restlessness among students. The institutions have their own argument on this matter though many students feel that the CoA inspections are a farce in many ways and does not serve the purpose as many faculty are brought to be present as actors for the  period of inspections who are paid a sitting fee. The Act actually stipulates that such inspections should happen once in five years, but not to be frequented as it happens now.

With the growing concern on quality of education and the paucity of the faculty to teach, it is important that the CoA  relooks at the architecture program and help make it comparable to international standards through serious debate and deliberations and implementation in the best interest of the future of the profession. One would suggest a model that can be  more practical to split the architecture program  in three parts like 3+1+2+1. The first three years will be a Bachelor degree program like BArch  (Bachelor of Architecture Studies), the one year of practical training under any architectural firm. Then if the student wants to pursue higher studies he could join post-graduation M.Arch ( Master of Architecture Studies) ,which will be a  2 year full time  program. Then the final one year will be to work and produce a portfolio for registration as an architect with the CoA. More so  this gives a chance for a student to reduce full time study and a break at third year level , enabling them work for a few years and then seriously think of doing the post-graduation to either register as an architect or enter academics. This method has been followed by Australia, New Zealand and many other countries are looking at the positive side of the program due to its employment prospects and the flexibility to the students to have bachelor degree in three years when they could be employed as, Architectural Designer, Design manager, Design Technician and Draftsperson.  In fact the Master’s program could be further compressed to 18 months to enable practicing architects to qualify themselves as post graduates, in case they would look at academics as their alternative career. In the UK the RIBA , last year agreed for a shake- up in architectural education for 50 years. The proposal reduces three years from the average amount of time to qualify.

It is time for the CoA to relook and revitalize the system before they keep on adding more number of schools. The first step would be to review the system thoroughly and seek the advice from the practicing and academic fraternity who have an open mind for a change and to create a robust system involving technologies and research into the program.  This change should be for the betterment of the future generations of architects and to make them leaders in the profession but not otherwise. 

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Judge Dredd and ………the demolition men……………….!

The founding fathers of the architectural profession in India were great enough to give us the Architects Act which was passed by the parliament in the year 1972 and thereafter the rules related to the Act to enable to perform its duties. This is perhaps one of the few Acts that have not been amended or the least amended considering the fact that we have traversed a long way since 1972. Today the country boasts of having nearly 450 schools and more than 60000+ registered architects and it certainly has become a daunting task for the Council of Architecture (CoA) to monitor the schools to ensure the quality of discourse of a good standard if not comparable to international level and to maintain the so called profession of architecture. Sometimes we are the laughing stock as we struggle to prove even today that we are great designers and we have the wherewithal and license to design while the other professions cannot. We hardly see how the profession is taking shape globally, either we are blindfolded or refuse to accept our position to encourage a global agenda for our new generation of architects who seek knowledge through higher studies elsewhere.  When I open my FB and other social media networks, I get to chat with students from all over the country. The one thing that is for sure through their conversation is that 9 out of 10 complain about their faculty who fail to inspire and the  schools with no proper infrastructure . Have we ever analyzed this problem?  I thought I faced this some 33 years ago but seems to be a never ending story. Is this a global phenomenon?  It looks like it . But not to the proportion that we face in India.  I always used ask a question.  Has India got any school at all of global standards? I see non on the list. Who is to blame for this? Is it the system? Is it the CoA? Or is it the profession itself which only complains and does nothing about it?

I remember the CoA inspection team in 1983 at the School of Architecture and Planning, Anna University. I was a Teaching Research Fellow and handled the 1^st year Basic Design Course (my favorite) with much of opposition from my senior faculty, who always complained that I am teaching the students more than what they should learn at 1^st year level. But I justified my job and worked hard on evolving new exercises week after week.  Then one day the “demolition men” descended from up above i.e. New Delhi. They inspected all the classes and finally came to my studio. They saw all the work displayed and who studio was full of student work. They were awe stuck and asked me a question. How do you teach Basic Design? Perhaps they were looking at an answer to explain the pedagogy that I would have followed. But my answer was; I don’t know! I still vividly remember that one member liked it so much that when CoA team met the faculty members, they specifically pointed me and declared openly that, I am the only sensible teacher in the whole school. This sent shock waves through the entire faculty community and I was targeted by almost immediately by my senior faculty who decided that I did not do a good job and hence must be stripped of the Basic design Course from my list of favorite subjects for the next academic year. I was so disappointed and felt that these bunch of rascals were chopping off my hands and felt the loss very deeply in my heart. I cried and begged to reinstate with the program but I remember the Acting HoD at that time, who took the law in his own hand like “Judge Dredd” and bluntly refused to budge.  I returned to the hostel with my spirit gone and totally disenfranchised. As I reached the hostel I was handed over with a telegram (these are obsolete now), offering me a scholarship by The Aga Khan Foundation, Geneva, Switzerland which enabled me to pursue my Master’s in Architecture at the Bartlett school of Architecture and Planning, UCL London. What a relief for me. I walked back to the school that afternoon and handed over my resignation as a Teaching Research fellow. This is how you are treated if you are an honest teacher.

In India the CoA has been the validator and monitor of the architecture programs. One feels that there is too much in their palate. The very existence of Indian Institute of Architects (IIA) spread all over India is totally sidelined. If only they worked together to make the system more robust and meaningful. I have suggested in 1995 that The Architects Act 1972 should propose an amendment to establish a Council in every State and to reorganize the structure of such a Council membership to enable to have creditable professionals who are in practice and academicians of good standing, to partake in the process of improving the quality of educational standards and thereby the profession. There is already a growing concern world over that these councils or boards that monitor educational standards or professions act like the “Judge Dredd” in a negative manner and selectively send  their  “Demolition Men” to schools or have disciplinary committees to carry out their  mission.  This is the reason that there have been moves to establish alternative platforms to address the concerns.  In the US there seems to be an alternative to NAAB which is fast emerging and one day we could see this happening worldwide and India as the largest democracy is not far from this phenomenon. So beware “Judge Dredd” pull the strings and be careful the next time you send your “demolition men”.