When people in our society hear about someone who’s an architect or an aspiring architect, they think that it’s one of India’s wealthiest professions. Although architectural practice considered as one of the noble professions but not treated as one. Some part of being wealthy in the construction industry is true, only for the elite and established practising professionals. The respect and credibility of this profession have decreased in the past.
Architecture in India is a 5-year graduate course but students nowadays think multiple times before entering architecture schools. There is no doubt in the perks of the course, the neverending knowledge, overall personality development, creativity in design, and learning about new technologies from all over the world. With these pros come the cons of the amount of hard work we do as students and in architectural professional practice, the sleepless nights and thousands of subjects with multiple assignments But the question arises that Is it even worth it?
As innovation advances and India sees impressive headways in each industry, it is getting more difficult to oppose the popular saying ‘Globalization is inevitable’. Today, we can undoubtedly distinguish the effect of globalization on each industry, and the architectural or construction industry isn’t an exemption. Globalization is getting numerous noticeable variations in the field of Indian architecture lately.
A steep rise in the land values, setting up of new structures, infrastructure, and expanding demand for replication of global structure design guidelines somewhere else on the planet is undeniably one of the significant explanations for stimulating Indian design to accept numerous new changes. There’s likewise a shift in the overall perception of style joined by a rise in the bar for comfort levels by the clients, adding to this change.
Another solid driver in contemporary architecture today universally is the corporate marking system behind the design of structures for any enormous organization, public or MNC. There is a solid requirement for the structures to have a reasonable ‘character with adherence to certain set down parameters to cause the structures and the brand they represent to be instantly recognized.
The ultimate goal of a designer is to assemble a wonderful structure by utilizing materials that can live through the ages, however shockingly, it isn’t the pattern now. As of now, architecture is all about amassing the most recent products in numerous manners which will in due time lose their worth, yet that isn’t Indian design that we have learned about previously. The father of our country, Mahatma Gandhi once said that an ideal living space ought to be constructed by utilizing products and abilities gathered inside a 5-mile range of the plot.
Today is the period of multiplexes, shopping centres, and films, so there is an extraordinary need to amuse and make consistent novelty, one might say. Structures are progressively being seen as commercial commodities. This might actually prompt the vanishing of value architecture work, which was once the essence of Indian design. As such, there’s a threat that architecture has now transformed into a materialist buffet that totally relies upon innovation to exhibit various styles of abundance and render something very similar to the purchasers.
The buildings with open participation from architects are very less, the nature of these buildings is supposed to be public but there is no participation from the consumers and no open design completion for architects or aspiring architects that value design. The government is reluctant in its role of providing buildings and public spaces and spends less on infrastructure, and when the government participates in it the good architecture does not reach the public and instead is absorbed in the capitalist game of profit.
In India, good architecture is only accessible to the rich and elite groups. Thus creating an absence of architecture for all, not everyone can appreciate the work of art, technology, and intelligence. Therefore, architecture in an independent country rarely ever had a public or social agenda.
Today also the most famous and appreciated buildings in India are the ones built by the British government, such as our railway stations (Chhatrapati Shivaji terminal, central Chennai terminal, etc.), public gathering spaces (Connaught Place) which again do not serve the poor section of the Indian population. Even the grand schools were constructed by the British which are convents and missionaries. A school building should be transformative, as can the exposure to public space.
Architectural Practice is difficult in India nowadays. The essential justification for this is the unpredictable market circumstance. While government projects and state infrastructures were viewed as a steady source of income a couple of years back, the approach of ‘lowest bidder gets the project’ has incurred significant damage. The fierce, dishonest competition has prompted firms to quote sums that are lesser than one-10th of the standard compensation.
Another major threat to the profession is the unlawful encroachment of unqualified quacks and individuals without a license to the profession. There are thousands of people who, with no instructive capability have slipped into the business, attempting to pull in clients with unfavourable turns of phrases like “Get the complete plan of your home for just 1000 Indian Rupees.”
Architectural Practice in India serves today just the financial first class, and with an organization that is progressively shifted towards private capital, without satisfactory shields to secure the interests of individuals – one can only assume that the circumstance will decline. The practising architects and our architecture schools play an important role in this economic scenario for architects because they have not developed a culture of inquiry and building for the public good.
