“Architecture is the learned game, correct and magnificent, of forms assembled in the light.” – Le Corbusier
Ever since the appearance of large societies and the creation of advanced tools, people have been persistently trying to augment better-built environments, utilitarian infrastructure and stronger communities. Architecture has been a powerful force (albeit shelter building), enabling people to build societies, intimate relationships, even influence cultures. As a result, it has prospered parallel to art, science and religion as a crucial driver in most civilisations, having played a vital role in the flourishing of the old world. We can say that architecture has its root entrenched in the subsequent development of modern societies. From Imhotep to Gaudi, the early pioneers whose names, for most, have been eclipsed by their unprecedented achievements were visionaries that impacted the lives of millions, including the critics that came after them. Their actions echoed those spaces centuries ago. But what was it that ushered the flood? How much did they impact our way of life and understanding of these complex spaces? And amid the trials and tribulations that eventually followed their success? And what plans did they have for the future? To fully understand the importance and impact of architecture on modern societies, we must look at it through a lens composed of equal parts of culture, history and human psychology. Only then we can fully appreciate its intimate connection to our modern cities and lifestyles.
Perception of Built-Environments
Architects have often romanticized the idea that art and architecture are but the threads of the same web. As much as that is true and we like to believe so, better would be to make everyone feel confident in it. After all, it’s equally correct that architecture is the domain of public service, and designers often complicate ideologies outside the realm of popular understanding. In such a scenario, can we hope for people to understand these designs? The intimacy that art forms with its subject is deeply personal and moving. Perspective plays a vital role in the way people perceive and eventually react and treat the built environment around them. It requires a practised mind to understand the pattern language behind the intended design, but unfortunately, not everyone possesses the skills or vigour to reason and understand the said language. Therefore, it should be the job of the architects to empower people with the tools that would help them understand the value of such designs because only then can we hope that they’ll treat them better.
Impact of Urbanism on Human Behaviour and Lifestyles
If everyone could understand the consequences of their built environments, direct or indirect, would they realise how important they are? With the capitalist drift in a consumerist world, where the quality of ideas is often just expended for the quantity of product, it seems exceedingly difficult to reverse the current course altogether. Which ultimately influences the people who will occupy those buildings. By studying the built environment of the past, combined with modern-day research on psychology and the environment, we’re coming to understand the effects of architecture on people in entirely new ways, which begs the question: Just how does architecture impact society? (Vangelatos, 2019).
The conservative history of a place is one of the major determinants that decide how people react to any built space. We cannot expect the traditional to understand and appreciate, let alone compliment, the contemporary without firm reasoning. A responsible design is contextual and sensitive to the local values of people, a quality that is often missing in the modern buildings of late. On the thought of not sounding too pessimistic, not all impacts are unwelcomed. For example, people now have access to more services and transit facilities which exposes the people who, until now, were excluded from the urban infrastructures and often left out. The traditional is merging with the contemporary. And this merger is driving one of the most vital symbiosis of the early 21st century, where rural and urban areas are coming under a unified development system.
The Present State and Where is it Headed?
If one looks carefully, a pattern is apparent, and it shows that a crucial cultural shift is underway in the Indian market, where people are finding the economic and ecological values in the contextual and responsible design of our built environments. India is at the crossroads, where we finally have started moving en masse to the road least taken, where builders are still uncertain regardless of the general inclination of the market. But with the revival of neo-modernist ideas and vernacular architecture in India and armed with numerous social platforms, architects are moving towards a fresh approach to design which is proving to be exceedingly appealing to the newer generation.
The previous two decades have been a constant struggle of ideas, where one side the builders were reluctant to stray from inferior designs, and on the other side, the architects who stood their ground for they believed that architecture is and should be a lot more than just about affordable but distasteful forms and decorative claddings. The tide is turning in favour of the latter, and the next two decades promise to be fertile grounds for emerging ideas and a new generation of architects and designers that will finally set India free from the shackles of what I like to call Capitalist Architecture.
References
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Post, T.J. (n.d.). Hong Kong attracts tourists with ‘Gram-worthy residential estates. [online] The Jakarta Post. Available at:https://www.thejakartapost.com/travel/2019/04/06/hong-kong-instagram-buildings-ping-shek-estate-montane-mansion-lok-wah-estate-rainbow-choi-hung-estate.html [Accessed 4 Nov. 2021].
Vangelatos, G., 2019. How Does Architecture Impact Society? A High-Level Look | Thought Leadership | HMC Architects. [online] HMC Architects. Available at: https://hmcarchitects.com/news/how-does-architecture-impact-society-a-high-level-look-2019-10-18/ [Accessed 4 November 2021].
GEOGRAPHY. (n.d.). Causes and Consequences of Urbanisation. [online] Available at: http://lumengeo.weebly.com/causes-and-consequences-of-urbanisation.html
petersonlittenberg.com. (n.d.). UD Tactics part 1. [online] Available at: http://petersonlittenberg.com/Architecture-UrbanDesign/UD_Tactics_part_1.html [Accessed 4 Nov. 2021].
