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philosophy

Philosophy / Approaches

Ar. Bheemesh is very influenced by Ar. Laul's style and techniques of working. As he began to get his own projects he found it only natural to apply those ideas.

He says that rather than concentrating on appropriate architecture, one should first talk about appropriate lifestyle.

He does not see his work as a direct result of a stated philosophy, but more practically as a response and solution to certain realities that he recognises in his projects. According to him “Architecture is the art of organisation.” Which means that for him the role of the architects is to be the link and the canalising force of the entire process.

He believes that in case of a small project with a single client it is easier to satisfy all the need of that individual. But, in case of bigger projects such as housing schemes, one cannot possibly satisfy the needs of every end user. In such a case the appropriateness would lie in finding a solution using locally available resources and attempting to satisfy as much as possible the needs of the client/ end users.

He remarks that applying alternative building techniques for government projects is difficult, as the junior engineer in charge of supervising is capable of estimating only those technologies mentioned in the Standard schedule of Rates SSR, and hence does not want to take a risk of evaluating any new technology, which has chances of getting his career stalled.

In order to be able to conveniently work with any appropriate technique, it is important to have a building centre in the nearby area. The role of which will be to Design, Develop, Detail, Disseminate and Demonstrate. Thus, the building centre or the Nirmiti Kendra should take up the activities of research and development of technology, production of materials and contracting work.

He believes that an appropriate technique need not necessarily be low cost, as it has a much larger role to play in being appropriate.

For him an appropriate or alternate technology is the one, which uses locally available material in an optimum manner to achieve maximum strength without compromising on the aesthetic, social and cultural factors.

He attempts to be able to educate the mason/labourer involved in the process of construction. He believes that if the architect simplifies the technique, the work becomes faster, affordable and the mason is able to learn and reuse the process again independently. Also if a certain technique needs to be implemented on a large scale, it needs to be as simple as possible.

He believes that in order for certain norms of architecture to be accepted by the general public, certain facts have to be mystified. Only then will they attain mass acceptance.

He believes that for a person to be able to identify with his space, the space should first have a strong identity and that it should consequently bring out the user's identity. Hence, social identity is as important as the economic value of the building.

For him design is research. He takes each project as a step ahead from what he did before.