jury duty

home early from jury duty at the academy of architecture- completely disappointed with the work.. a 'rural' project meant to be created in the vernacular 'flavour' like it is some kind of a formula.. case studies of other sloping roofed buildings in mumbai were supposed to help them build more huts in valsad. vernacular flavour = sloping roofs and courtyards.. awful awful buildings.

but perhaps less oppressive than the 'convention centers' at sion which was their 'urban' project.. enormous, scale less.. the only exploration there after a design brief that even went so far that it specified the colour of the internal walls (off white) was in roof and plan shapes. there was only so much one could say- no wonder me and pitkar got done early.

miles and eons worse than the experience yesterday at d y patil where i quite honestly was not expecting much. a young dynamic faculty was willing to risk the university by allowing the students to develop programs and choose sites. the projects were an art gallery in vashi with 'porosity' as a key word and the rural project was in kutch where the students through site studies decided the exact program and site for a handicraft center.

the projects were all right enough- but the students were enthusiastic and interested. vidya, my co-juror and me had very interesting discussions with the kids- especially this guy called ashish- i dont know how many of you remember the daniel libeskind lecture in college- but ashish was the guy who attacked his royal libeskindness with the accusation of being a scavenger of death. his projects, caught up in the architectonic urge to formalness could also be accused of the same- but it was good to talk to him.

i must say that neelkanth, satyajit and his co-faculty were able to inspire the kids like i think we at krvia have forgotten to do. as i mentioned earlier in the blog- we have become completely safe- all excitement has dissipated..

we have become the Man of of the 'School of Rock' - we need someone to stick it to us.

get some youthful charisma and charm back into the school.. i take back all i ever said about the danger of heroes.

at least they can inspire us when we are young as long as we remember to grow out of them when we get older.