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Transitioning towards New Normal – Redefining the Work Space Architecture

Posted on by Samruddhi Jethe

In this post-pandemic world where a new perspective towards life is added, it is now pronounced as the new normal. The changing needs have altered our visions and perceptions towards architecture. But if the change is constant, why is it the new normal?

It has always been primarily health that made us view the world from a new lens which changes the narrative of architecture. This very factor has spurred architects around the world to view design fabric through a new dimension. The pandemic has blurred many pre-defined lines when it comes to home, work, hospitals, public spaces & transit stations, and more. Formerly, the wrath of the pandemic terrified people and made them come closer to their families to gain comfort. This altered people’s perspective toward life and made them realize that comfort is a habitable change that brings the betterment of life. Thus, this knowledge and understanding have brought the essential evolution of the places around them.

The first thing that comes to our mind when we talk about pandemic change is – Work From Home: WFH. This pandemic has changed the role of our house, wherein we have started re-imagining the same space with a broadened horizon. It has started playing a lot of roles under the same roof. The concept of home offices have come into the picture as now there are dedicated spaces to work as well as to foster their hobbies in free time. This approach got every corner its own identity with optimistic designs adding a new dimension to architecture. Designers focused on finding and highlighting the niche for the personal needs of the client like pin-up area, relaxation zone, thinking spot, breathing planter, etc. The entire outlook towards enclosed balconies, a terrace garden, courtyard, or porches has been altered which is becoming the future sustainable reality. This noticeable stance has been a calling for good interior and furniture design, ultimately, architecture as a whole.

Talking about the home offices, just like providing a home office room or converting garages into the workspace, we can have the concept of a work pod in compact spaces. The concept of a work pod is to have work-associated amenities. Work pods could be different types like indoor work pods, shutdown work pods, outdoor work pods, etc. Outdoor work pods will allow you to work in the green pocket while shutdown workpod will provide a new look after office hours.

Nowadays, many prefer the concept of sharing a workplace to make it more feasible & economical. This emphasized the concept of an open office with different types of studios, meetings, conferences, etc zones. The notion of workspace feels more practical as one can reach the office by choosing the nearest workplace by leveraging the benefits of time flexibility and various conveniences. Having said that, one thing that crops up in our mind is the existing commercial office buildings. So, what about those? As quoted perfectly, “To justify its existence, the office will have to become a destination with a purpose.” For many, this serves as an indication that the model which has traditionally been designed for commercial office space, may soon be far-fetched in the future. Well this direct to change a little ornamentation of the structure in current needs. There’s no second thought that the needs and wants of every employee differ and so do the circumstances depending on the organization and its culture. But given a deeper thought, hybrid models are one of the most practical models of the future offices where people work remotely a few days a week & work from the office for the rest of the days.

It is apparent from the above that the changes post-pandemic have ignited the need for structural alterations. As such, along with work from home/office, other sectors like institutional, transit, redevelopment, etc.–topics we might touch upon in the coming days, have also been entitled towards change after the pandemic. To sum it all up, this is not the new normal.

The Unique Recession–An Inevitable Consequence of the Pandemic

Posted on by Samruddhi Jethe

The new threat of pandemic has thrust new cadres of experts into the public eye. Now that we’re heading into a sharp and sudden economic downturn, popularly known as the recession, with ballooning unemployment and a steep decline in the market conditions, the world’s attention must be driven towards – How is this post pandemic recession different from the others in the past?

For many in the design community, however, this pandemic has caused them to reevaluate their life’s work, and what it might mean to design for a world that will never be quite the same, with practically implementing the theories of distance spacing in our designs. After all, necessity is the mother of invention, and here, in architecture, more so implementation. It will immensely affect our perception as citizens with respect to the importance of distance spacing especially when it comes to how we gather in and use large public spaces, like plazas, parks, hotels, fitness centres, shopping centres, offices, markets–flea, seafood, etc. distance spacing is one of the many concerns we might have to face in this recession.

Though we look at the brighter side, the elephant in the room still remains unaddressed.

What can we expect next as architects? How can we mitigate the damage? This recession can be short, painful and very different from any that have come before. Though the subsequent recovery might be just as quick and historic as we just have to restart, and not technically recreate.

And who knows, once we get our policies and principles right, we might end up finding the challenges and opportunities disguised as market instability.

The architects should identify the real problems associated with time as well as space and provide efficient solutions for the same. This in turn shall also be supported by the industry to promote or make citizens understand the importance of the design approach by us. Because citizens tend to invest only when they understand the benefits.

As well said by an architect Tadao Ando —
“I would like my architecture to inspire people to use their own resources, to move into the future.”

That’s why, when you look at all the projects that are on halt, it is shocking. However if you look at the greener side of the same problem those people are not permanently displaced. Those people potentially can go right back on a recall to the job or project that existed before. Hence, it wouldn’t be wrong to say – we have lost the time but not
money.

The important thing here is to realize that this predicament was triggered by a health crisis. The economy’s cycle is hampered while in the earlier recession the economy suffered because of the structural issue. Switching to pandemic, we didn’t have any similar issues. We were struggling to get growth. Whereas, now we have to restart with
a boost to recover the backlog because of the pandemic and we will be back on track.

This recession is different for us. It’s only us, who have set the ball rolling and do not have to start from designing the ball.

The Edgy Relationship Between Money and Architects

Posted on by Samruddhi Jethe
In today’s digital world, most of us are struggling with our professions to earn the living wage because many professions are being paid poorly. Although this is no news for architects as they’ve been fighting to get paid fairly since architecture was first defined as a profession. Why is the work of the architects undervalued? The answer lies in another question – How many of us actually know the importance of hiring an architect? According to me, hardly any clients are aware about the importance of hiring one and even lesser actually appoint one. Architects may provide for public safety in their designs, but they are not directly associated with saving people’s lives so much as in the other areas. In addition to the lack of appreciation associated with lives, licensed architects in India have a median pay of about 15k/month. For well established architects, the opportunities surrounding them are in millions but only few architects surpass those in reality. It isn’t always talent that comes into the picture but also the demand for architects in the industry. Despite a cultural reputation that would suggest otherwise, architecture is notoriously low-paying. Why does it have to go begging when it is one of the most essential processes which helps in transformation of society for a better environment and lifestyle? This is about the experienced ones. What happens to the interns? Truth often is bitter and in this bitter world most of them are not even paid stipend during their internship period. We as architects always hire the talented one. The word talented is emphasized here because everyone needs quality before anything. And getting an idea without having to pay for it is a win-win. Though interns have lack of architectural knowledge but their inputs add a different way to the valuable perspective in design. Nowadays many architectural firms fail to make payments to their subordinates and conveniently blame it on their clients. But does this situation make them stop fulfilling their basic needs or change their lifestyle? Not always. But people who are under their umbrella, who helped them to achieve peak in their journey suffer a lot. Sadly though, we live in a hypocrite world where only good work & high responsibility is expected of them with low or no remuneration. In part, it is due to human mindset. Architecture is a missional profession. Most of us would do it for free—and often do—simply because we cannot help ourselves. The salaries of architects reflect that willingness and the relative value. No amount of marketing effort, branding or hype, can create monetary value for our services if we’re happy to do what we do and accept minimal pay for doing it. As I mentioned earlier, it is the human mindset that counts.

8 Habits of Highly Creative People

Posted on by Samruddhi Jethe

What’s life without a tinge of creation? We all as humans – complex structures with a blend of logic and emotions are the epitome of creation. Human body itself is an impeccable art of creation with proper composition and designing of the anatomy; each and every component placed as perfectly as the parts in a jigsaw puzzle. Creativity too as a matter of fact and as neurologists paint it is far more complex than the right-left brain distinction (the theory being that left brain = rational and analytical, right brain = creative and emotional). Moreover, psychologically, creative minds are arduous because they are complex, paradoxical and do not follow a specific pattern or routine. Although they are separated by the multitude of traits, behaviour and social influences, there exists a cosmic connection that binds them together on a level surpassing all the variations. Creativity is a paradox. It aims at an unusual agglomeration of idea generation with a multi-dimensional perception to the same problem. This leads into generation of patterns that on a sub-conscious level define and connect the creative minds across all dimensions. Hence, every highly-creative person has these 8 basic habits which he/she can perfectly relate to.

1. Incessant Thinking
One single thought fragments into thousands of others further branching out into an infinite number of thoughts; the new thoughts being poles apart from the mother thought. For a creative thinker, thinking is not a job or a task, it is something involuntary, more like breathing – an ongoing, uninterrupted and ceaseless process.

2. Persistent Perfection
To us who are friends with perfection know that it is not a destination but an eternal journey in itself. However, the closest we can reach to perfection is through self-satisfaction. No matter the satisfaction of others – clients, managers, employers, friends, followers, etc. it is the self-satisfaction that hits the spot giving our mind an orgasmic pleasure. Working towards amendments until the deadline is something we can vigorously nod our heads to.

3. Setting the Notion in Motion
To those using the right side of their brains are very well-versed with the fact that a phantasm or an idea can take birth anywhere right from a café bustling with people or a library crowded with books to showers or even the toilet seat; the gallery or the study. There is always a Sheldon Spot; there’s always a home to our ideas, where creations come to dwell.

4. Happiness ∝ Satisfaction
For creative minds it is the satisfaction – internal rather than external that yields immense level of happiness. To see our core ideas transform into fully grown plans and projects, taking shapes and structures is the apex level of happiness a creator can possibly derive. Which means, happiness for us is directly proportional to satisfaction.

5. Self-satisfaction is the Primary Moto
Time, space and distance are mere terms and numbers when it comes to working towards anything creative. It is solely our passion for the art that drives us to selflessly attain the contentment until it reaches its paragon. Primarily, it is the art that motivates us to work selflessly. There are other motivations- tangible and intangible but nothing beats the motivation derived out of self-contentment.

6. Creation and its Communication
At times we stumble upon an idea, complex and raw, clump it together with words – broken and crooked and with all might and power try communicating it to our clients, coordinates or subordinates. 8 out of 10 times, the person’s poker face gives away his/her imagination that the idea is facing a huge gap of communication. We, as creative minds are not really good with communication. Creation is a mess, imagination when it is made to convince, is even messier.

7. Connection with Creation
It is rightly said that great minds think alike. More so when it comes to us. It is the creativity smouldering inside that connects us to each other at a deeper level irrespective of the art, domain or the profession. We, the right-brained people with our broken creative language communicate with a finesse that only we, like minds can relate and imagine.

8. All about Appreciation
Self-satisfaction is one thing and appreciation from the clients, employers, managers, etc. another. We don’t expect appreciation but if one does end up appreciating, it is like the icing on the cake. It acts as a booster to move ahead with pronounced, distinct determination. A token of appreciation works as a receipt that acknowledges our creativity and ideas related to it.

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