Impressions of India
Street view rendering of the new school
It all began with a phone call from a former client here in Seattle saying that someone from India had visited their private school and expressed interest in developing a similar school in Mumbai. Since he was so impressed with the design of the school in Seattle, he wanted us to be the architects for his new school in India!
Do these things really happen? – In India, they do.
Riverside location of the school
The visitor turned out to be the chairman of an educational society that had been founded in 1945 and has developed a number of primary and secondary schools as well as higher education institutes, mostly in rural areas. His goal now was to create a completely novel and comprehensive school concept for India covering pre-K through 12th grade: its home in a centrally located redevelopment district in Mumbai would be designed to support a curriculum focused on the way children learn through their senses and through experimentation.
Education is a huge growth industry in India. It is the path that will transform India into an economic and political powerhouse, and everybody, it seems, is buying into the dream. For us it is rewarding to know we can make a small contribution on India’s journey to eventually overcome the huge economic disparities that are the vestige of the traditional caste system. Today’s India is a dynamic society that has unleashed enormous economic forces – visible everywhere in Mumbai in huge infrastructure projects and gleaming new high rises, sometimes directly next to slums.
And these are our first and most lasting impressions upon our first visit to Mumbai: the country’s rapid rate of transformation; our hosts’ warm hospitality; the vivid colors of women’s saris; the congestion and sheer humanity on the streets day and night, filling every nook and cranny with some use; and yes: American traffic rules do not apply.
Working in India is quite different from our conventions in the US. Most building projects there use the fast-track delivery method, meaning parts of the building are still being designed while construction has already begun. General contractors are not commonplace, and so the architect’s responsibilities typically include quantity surveys and cost control; indeed, their contract often guarantees construction cost, which is possible only due to their degree of control over the delivery process. Despite these comprehensive responsibilities, architects’ fees are about a quarter of our US rates, so hiring a foreign architect is a substantial investment. In our experience clients are much more inclined to rely on our expertise and trust our judgment, which makes decision-making straightforward and unencumbered.
Our meetings with clients, the local architect, engineers, and last but not least the permit specialist, are cordial, intense and productive affairs. After a 25-hour flight half way around the world, it is a good idea to double-team these meetings, so when one of us gets tired, the other can pick up the slack. Understanding the rules of the game is perhaps our biggest challenge: land use codes are less prescriptive and vastly more flexible than in the US, and there are many differences between the building codes in our countries. It gets even more interesting when it comes to construction practices: What a delightful surprise to learn that the most cost-efficient way to waterproof a roof is through tiling! Who would have guessed that the preferred way to finish back-of-house floors is with the local Kotah stone? It covers the floor of Mumbai’s Victoria Station, that jewel among colonial-era buildings in downtown Mumbai. We love the color and texture of this stone and wish we could have it in our classrooms, but our partners consider it too utilitarian, too commonplace for this purpose. We choose a limestone from Rajasthan instead.
While some of these practices seem archaic, made possible only by the incredibly low cost of labor, our project also features such advanced technologies as car lifts, a sewage treatment plant, grey water recycling, solar hot water collectors, and a state-of-the-art, highly efficient HVAC system that is just now starting to take hold in the US. Resource-efficiency is an intrinsic element of any undertaking in India.
Once back at home, stuck in a traffic jam on the way from the airport, we can’t believe cars actually stay obediently in their lanes, with all that empty space between them. Like traffic in Mumbai, our collaboration process with our partners in Mumbai strikes us as evolving, organic, resilient: early on we realize that deadlines are understood as suggestions, not imperatives; with time we figure out workable communication protocols and find pragmatic arrangements for the division of the work at hand. It has been a very long time since I have received so few e-mails on a project, and while this could be viewed to reflect a certain lack of control on our part in the process, I choose to see it as another adaptation to the specific cultural context and an unexpected expression of resource-efficiency.
A friend’s travel advice sums it up beautifully:
India is a very “go with the flow” environment and nothing will happen exactly as you plan it. But, if you can accept the unexpected, you will be endlessly surprised and delighted. The magic is in letting go and being present. The one word that will serve you best, regardless of the situation, is…SURRENDER!
Construction recently started and the basement walls are taking shape. Meanwhile, the design of mechanical and electrical systems is getting finalized, exterior and interior details are next, and site details will finally complete the design phase in a few months from now. We have no doubts that this project will come together in the spirit of the place and that it will be the home we have envisioned for a bold new approach to education in India.