Visionary artwork
Such a fancy word Architecture is! Honestly, just google architecture and you will see yourself mesmerized by this fancy expression. Every architecture student enters this glamorous world of glassy and glossy giants, which are sculpted purely through narrations of imagination, to craft their own fantasized destinations. But the joke is the promise of giving free design ideas and free work and free blah blah to your friends and families after becoming an architect, haunts you in the journey of pursuing architecture. Shush, it is a lot more complicated than this joke.
Authentic architecture is beyond all of this. It is beyond every definition with which you start studying it, beyond every story, every art, every imagination, and every other aspect.
The performance of “Seer”
First of all, architecture gives you some vague supernatural abilities. In this instance, do not imagine yourself teleporting here and there after becoming an architect. The power architecture grants are of becoming a “Seer”. A seer who is advanced in shifting perspectives, from one dimension to the second and from second to the third. You will think that anyone can do this. Partly agree, but do you think of anyone who can work from the fourth dimension in this 3rd-dimensional reality? No, right.
Scenic Art Made of Light & Shadow
Living in this third-dimensional world, our mind always wonders if there is a fourth dimension and from where, whether there is someone who can affect our life in this 3rd dimension. The truth behind this is still unfolding, but we as an architect are already skilled with this perspective. We are the seers of this 3rd-dimensional reality, who visualize the futuristic advancements of this world in advance, by merely conceptualizing ideas and thoughts, for sitting in studios for hours and hours stuck in the giant sheets of sketches, intricately detailed models, and drawings, and renderings of infinite combinations of softwares. Every architecture student will get to know that, all of these 3D projections stacking up in this reality are simply the shadows created by the seers who are entitled as architects. It is a play of shadow that the unique intellect of every architect is projecting on this world and the whole world is purely enjoying and witnessing this magical exhibition. After studying architecture and witnessing its hidden aspects in concealed projections, one can truly understand the importance and beauty of architecture and the architects who sculpt it.
The language of “Intimacy”
When one starts to study architecture, the architecture in their mind only revolves around the ideas of building masses in this existing world, which will allow users to get amused by their distinct creations. Only after the encounter with the true meaning of architecture, does the learner start to decode the language of architecture. The language that may seem difficult to read at the beginning, unfolds the layers of perspectives through which architecture is assembled. This language can only be perceived by intimacy. Not only by physical and emotional intimacy but through spiritual intimacy as well.
Physical and emotional intimacy
Architecture schools put in front of you a wide range of topics to study. The language of intimacy is not what they primarily focus on but ends up comprising throughout the course. When one is told to sketch a particular monument in this course, the outcome of that sketching is expected to be a live drawing, which will successfully portray the liveliness of that architecture. One could only do it successfully if one follows the language of intimacy while sketching it.
By not only touching every material of that monument to get the story of its construction but also by making an effort to hear the narration of the history that monument has dying to tell for all of the years. All of these things make that sketch alive and leave a mark in your memory that allows you to have a broader perspective of things, which eventually results in building thoughtful concepts in your future life. Emotional intimacy always follows physical intimacy.
Urban sketching
Mumbai’s iconic chawls
This intimacy is also followed by nature. Architecture homes humans but other living species also try to accompany these intellectual creatures. The barn swallows love to have human neighbors and why should not they be tempted to have these beautiful creations as a neighborhood? This is the language of architecture that binds all entities together. Only when you learn this language, you start to build spaces by being considerate and compassionate to all of those who are present there.
Meet the barn swallows
Spiritual intimacy
Physical and emotional intimacy nurtures spiritual intimacy. We, humans, start our day from our own house and follow endless daily activities throughout the day on different architectural grounds. We spend most of the time indoors, in some of the other boxes of humanitarian creations and hence it efficiently affects our internal and external senses in this present life. By learning the truth of architecture, every architect tries to maintain a harmonious relationship within the built environment and the natural extant, to have a meaningful life. The mere play of light and shadows in the built environment creates various spiritual intimacies that bring people close to their senses and promote a chain of reactions in people’s minds. Here, it attains spirituality.
Chasing the light
The conclusion
Changing perspectives of intellect is the pure gift of learning architecture. The architecture allows people to perceive masses from various perspectives and permits them to have their meanings behind it. Only after studying Architecture, one get to know the persuasive influence massive creations have on the countless species residing in it and surrounding it. Hence, architects, through their inceptions, hold the power to not only change their perspectives about the world but also change the perspectives of communities for a wholesome outcome.
