INTERVIEW ROLE PLAY ACTIVITY
It's an interesting activity of role play conducted by me and my groupmate Mishti Madan as an interviewer and interviewee.
Starting with the interview includes the introduction about our interviewee Architect Bimal Patel. Having studied at St Xavier School in Ahmedabad, Patel received his first professional degree in architecture from CEPT in 1984. Over the years Patel designed and built numerous architectural projects ranging from single-family homes to institutions, industrial buildings, and urban redevelopment projects. Patel has been conferred with numerous awards including, the Aga Khan Award for Architecture (1992), UN Centre for Human Settlements Award of Excellence (1998), World Architecture Award (2001), and the Prime Minister's National Award for Excellence in Urban Planning and Design (2002). He was bestowed with the Padma Shri Award in 2019. Patel is currently serving as the president of CEPT University in Ahmedabad since 2012.
Looking forward to the interview, a few questions were asked from our respectable interviewee such as, "What inspired you to be an architect?" To this sir, Bimal Patel answered, "You must have heard about my father, Late Hasmukh Patel who was also a prominent architect in Ahmedabad. To be honest, I never wanted to be an architect in the first place, I wanted to be a physicist. But then growing up in a modern architecturally sound house designed by my father and that is where I would have learned how to describe a project as I would listen to my father telling visitors about the design and the concept. So, my major inspiration was my father. So along with architecture, the thoughts on why India as a country was not being able to achieve its potential influenced me to explore urban planning. "
Further to this interviewer added to the conversation, "It is said that Patel is more of an observer than a designer and this is perhaps explained by the fact that he doesn't even own a television set at home. Is it true sir?" Onto this Patel replied with, "I received my first professional degree in architecture from CEPT in 1984. But being in CEPT, was one of its own kind. I didn’t get time to even brush my teeth during my college time, so it was rare for me to watch television. My main focus is on problem-solving and in course of solving them, purveying aesthetic delights. In CEPT we have been taught how to understand, design, plan, construct and manage human habitats. This is what helped me to be the one who I am today."
Adding on to this the next question was, "How does your journey in architecture start, what all were your philosophies behind your designs?" BIMAL Patel replied: "After my professional degree from CEPT in 1984, I worked for a year in Ahmedabad along with my father and then I moved to Berkeley for my further studies at the College of Environmental Design. From there I graduated with M.arch, M.C.P., and further ph.d from the Department of City and Regional Planning. My first building project was on campus at The Entrepreneurship Development Institute, Ahmedabad. And designed several other projects like Kankaria Lake development, Sabarmati Riverfront, and most prominent of all are Swarnim Sankul and Gujarat High Court. As one says, management adopts good management practices while striving for excellence in design, planning, and construction. So, the design philosophy is rooted in the fact that design is essentially a problem-solving process for the quality of work. Each of the projects provided an opportunity to approach and resolve novel design problems with groundbreaking solutions."
Coming onto the next were some questions about his renowned projects. "In the Kashi Vishwanath Corridor project, there has been criticism over the demolition of lanes and homes that are characteristic of Banaras. What were the challenges?" Upon this, he replied " People have a lot of views about Banaras and very little information. Once I do that presentation maybe people will think it’s not as problematic as they thought it was because they will see the logic behind it… This temple gets a hundred thousand people… you must have visited the place, it’s a security and safety risk. There’s a 1916 speech by Gandhiji at Banaras Hindu University, in which he says, ‘I went to Kashi Vishwanath temple last evening, and I speak as a Hindu. Can’t our temples be more spacious? Can’t they be clean? Why do they have to be like this?’ That’s what Gandhiji had to say. And in some ways these improvements around temples… it’s about saying, listen, common pilgrims are getting fleeced… The (new) project is a big improvement. They are building toilets, a shaded area in which 3,000 pilgrims can line up, there is a place where they can put their chappals and not get fleeced, it’s a place that can be kept clean and you don’t have to look at the ground while walking. Why do we have open running gutters as part of romantic India? I will show you places where this galis you are talking about are actually encroachment, built on top of heritage structures, on top of temples."
Next was the capital of India - The Central Vista Project "Does it really need to change? What is your strategy here and how will you come up with expectations just like Lutyens designed it for the first time?" Onto this Patel replied "It might be a radical change but certainly not something that breaks with the past — it’s something like taking the past and working with it. As we go around making this major change, we will try to do it in a way that is not a rupture with the past. One big motivation for Parliament’s modernization is the expansion needs. As the population is increasing we need more governing bodies for the nation and that requires more space to accommodate them properly without having a problem sitting. Anybody who’s trying to make administration work more efficiently will see the need for having appropriate infrastructure. This is not to build new buildings; the buildings are the means of modernizing administration and making it more efficient. When you are doing additions, you have to be respectful. I am being very careful in wanting to continuously reinforce the essential diagram of Lutyens, rather than work against it. I believe that if someone looks at it, they will not complain about at least that dimension."
Upon this interviewer highlighted the point of pollution and unpaved streets coming up with a question "How much of India would be of concrete?" Patel answered in a very informative way like, "Nonetheless, we will constantly humidify the site. Most construction sites are wet. Humidifying sites during demolition is easily possible and can be built into the contract. One idea is to house construction workers at the end of the metro line so that they take the metro and come to work like others. The contractor doesn’t have to be given separate land for housing construction workers. Perhaps you need to stagger timings so that construction workers come like that. We could have noise barriers, like noise protectors. " And this leads to the end of our special interview with Architect Bimal Patel, a very interactive, informative one.
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