The Hoysaleswara Temple

During a drive of four hours from Bangalore, India's hub of information technology, one seems to slip gently back in time. The landscape gradually changes as we move through groves of coconut and banana trees. Past rocky outcrops scattered with temples, and with the coffee-growing hills of Chikmanglur on the horizon, one reaches Halebid — the site of the ancient city of Dwarasamudra, the 12th- and 13th-century capital of the Hoysala empire. Repeated invasions have left few traces of the once flourishing city, now known as Halebeedu or "the ruined city." One survivor is the Hoysaleswara Temple, built in the mid-12th century. It is set among ancient trees and verdant lawns and gleams like a gem in the afternoon light.

The temple has a high, wide, star-shaped plinth, and a wall treatment of strong horizontal bands of sculpture. It keeps the structure firmly grounded, seeming to defy long-gone invaders and the elements, even though the "shikhara," or superstructure, has been lost. Inside, the temple consists of a pillared hall with two twin sanctuaries. Both are faced by open pavilions, each housing a majestic polished stone Nandi bull. The interior of the temple is softly illuminated by daylight filtering through perforated screens on the eastern walls. The hall has highly polished, lathe-turned stone pillars, with capitals supporting brackets intricately carved with figures from Hindu mythology.

On the outside, continuous horizontal bands of ornamental borders, moldings, and canopied statues run around the temple walls, in accordance with the tenets of the "Vastu Shastra." Scenes from religious epics, legends, and the Hindu pantheon are recorded in detailed, high-relief carvings. For over a century, according to legend, generations of sculptors expressed their ingenuity, skills, and religious consciousness. Every panel has a story to tell in colorful detail.

(via Architecture Week.)

Luxury has become a hollow term

The term luxury has been completely abused in today’s context. Until two years ago, from a sari to an apartment to food was said to be minimalist with complete disregard for or a lack of understanding about whether what they portrayed was actually minimal or not. The same is now happening with luxury. It has become a hollow term.

Luxury was reintroduced into the international design world after years of it being dominated by minimalist style. It came as a sorbet to clean the palate of minimalism. It allowed people to see that they were able to reintroduce elements of design, such as ornamentation, back into their design ethos.

Luxury was meant to give people a chance to reinterpret their ethos in a more individual way than minimalism allowed. It led to a real loss of inhibition. But now, instead of moving beyond that transition point to a new design idea, everyone just throws their designs under the luxury blanket without even understanding what that term means.

Luxury is not just a price point; it’s not just a brand. Luxury is something that is not necessarily accessible, nor should it be. But people are doing the tackiest apartments with air conditioners stuck on the wall, straight-lined furniture, a few accessories—and calling it luxury. The worst part about it is that two years ago, the same design would have been called minimal. It’s just a buzzword people use to recycle the same poorly designed products, but packaged in a new term in an attempt to trick people into buying it. And people do because we’ve failed to create a strong design dialogue that helps explain terminology.

Before buying something labelled luxury or before labelling something luxury consider a few key points:

Does it fit your idea of beauty?

Is the quality truly impeccable?

Will it withstand the test of time?

Is it unique and worth waiting for?

(via Livemint.com)

Why is symmetry so satisfying?

In an early chapter of his interesting new book, Symmetry: A Journey Into the Patterns of Nature, Marcus du Sautoy describes a visit to the Alhambra, the great Moorish palace in Granada, Spain. He and his young son spend an afternoon identifying 14 different types of symmetry represented in paving patterns, ornamentation, and tile work. To the layman, the patterns may look simply like pretty forms, but to du Sautoy, who teaches mathematics at Oxford University, they are expressions of deep geometries that have their own names: gyrations, *333s, miracles, double miracles.

Du Sautoy's book is about mathematics, but his excursion to the Alhambra is a reminder that symmetry has always been an important part of architecture. Symmetry appears in small things and large: Floor tiles may be laid in symmetrical patterns; the design of door paneling can be symmetrical, and so can window panes. In frontal symmetry, the left side of a building's facade mirrors the right (the entrance usually being in the middle); in axial-plan symmetry, the rooms on one side of the axis are a mirror image of those on the other. If the women's restroom is on one side, chances are the men's is on the other. Sometimes not being symmetrical is important; the fronts and backs of buildings, for example, are intentionally different.

Symmetros is a Greek word, and ancient Greek architecture used symmetry as a basic organizing principle. As did Roman, Roman-esque, and Renaissance. Indeed, it is hard to think of any architectural tradition, Western or non-Western, that does not include symmetry. Symmetry is something that Islamic mosques, Chinese pagodas, Hindu temples, Shinto shrines, and Gothic cathedrals have in common.

Architectural Modernism thumbed its nose at tradition and firmly avoided symmetry. Being symmetrical was considered as retrograde as being, well, decorated. All exemplary Modernist buildings celebrated asymmetry: The wings of Walter Gropius' Bauhaus shoot off in different directions; the columns of Mies van der Rohe's Barcelona Pavilion are symmetrical, but you can hardly tell, thanks to the randomly spaced walls; nothing in Frank Lloyd Wright's pinwheeling Falling water mirrors anything else; and Le Corbusier's Ronchamps dispenses with traditional church geometry altogether. The facades of Philip Johnson's Glass House are rare instances of Modernist symmetry, although all the elements of the interior—kitchen counter, storage wall, and brick cylinder containing the bathroom—are carefully located off-center.

Read more.

Bauhaus design

Home loan rates may have peaked: Parekh

Home loan rates may have peaked, according to Deepak Parekh, chairman, HDFC, the largest housing finance company in the country. Interest rates are linked to inflation and there have been signs that inflation is moderating, said Mr Parekh.

“Interest rates are linked to inflation. If inflation is controlled, interest rates can also be contained. In the past two weeks, we have seen from the data coming out that inflation has marginally tapered off. If the trend continues, it would mean that the peak has come already.

I think, with oil and commodity prices tapering off and food prices stagnating, we have peaked already,” said Mr Parekh. However, he added that there were some who believed that there would be one more round of interest-rate hikes.

Delivering the keynote address at the Ficci summit on real estate on Wednesday, Mr Parekh said that slowdown in the real estate market — a long overdue adjustment — was needed, and this, to some extent, has already happened. He pointed out that the real estate industry was still not out of the woods. “I do foresee some more pain in the real estate market in India,” said Mr Parekh.

Mr Parekh also had a suggestion to industry for avoiding situations like the one witnessed in Singur. According to Mr Parekh, the main problem in such cases is that land acquisition is done at fair value, but subsequently when project plans are announced, the value of that land escalates and then the original sellers feel cheated or disgruntled with their compensation.

“It is difficult to find outright solutions, but experience shows that the need of the hour is transparency in such land dealings, clearer land titles and making those losing their land stakeholders in the project.

Offering them equity in the project will give them long-term economic benefits, rather than leaving them with the fear of being displaced and then subsequently becoming the grist for someone else’s battle,” said Mr Parekh.

The doyen of the country’s housing finance industry was also critical of the move to extend higher floor-space index (FSI) for redevelopment projects in South Mumbai. Last week, the Supreme Court allowed the Maharashtra government to demolish pre-1940 buildings and replace them with new towers.

The state government has been allowed to grant builders increased development rights as an incentive for redevelopment. According to Mr Parekh, higher FSI will result in building within five feet of one another. “Where is the open space? Where is the water? and how will the sewage system work?” said Mr Parekh.

He pointed out that some of the old structures had hundreds of dwelling units. And for rehousing, there was not enough space for redevelopment after everyone is rehoused.

(Via Economic Times)

Giant eco-pyramid to be unveiled in Dubai

Dubai – where else?! (TGW) – Timelinks, a Dubai-based environmental design firm, has revealed concept renderings of a giant eco pyramid, named Ziggurat, with the official unveiling set for the Cityscape Dubai event October 6-9 this year.

Ziggurat will be 4000 feet high and would be capable of housing one million people – even better, it will only take up 2.3 square kilometers and will be carbon neutral.

The pyramid will utilize natural energy resources including wind power and steam power to achieve this. The building will also have an extremely efficient public transportation system that goes both horizontally and vertically. Timelinks has patented the designs for the structure.

Via :: Inhabitat

Cass Gilbert, Skyscraper pioneer

Cass Gilbert Birth:

November 29, 1859 in Zanesville, Ohio

Cass Gilbert Death:
May 17, 1934

Cass Gilbert Education:
Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Boston, 1878-1879

Important Buildings by Cass Gilbert:

• 1900: Broadway Chambers Building, New York City
• 1902: Essex County Courthouse, Newark, New Jersey
• 1904: Festival Hall and Art Building, St. Louis, Missouri
• 1905: , St. Paul
• 1907: US Custom House
• 1913: F.W. Woolworth Company Building, New York City
• 1915: Completed the Arkansas State Capitol Building
• 1917: Allen Memorial Art Museum at Oberlin College, Ohio
• 1921: Detroit Public Library
• 1926: Plans for George Washington Bridge, New York
• 1928: New York Life Insurance Building
• 1935: U.S. Supreme Court Building, Washington D.C.

Quotes by Cass Gilbert:

• "In conducting business (especially for the office) never forget that the greatest danger arises from cocksure pride."
• "Beware of over-confidence; especially in matters of structure."
• "It is only the young and callow and ignorant that admire rashness. Think before you speak. Know your subject."

^{-from Maxims for My Office Organization}

Related People:

• William LeBaron Jenney
• William Sullivan
• William Holabird

Why Cass Gilbert is Important:

Although Cass Gilbert's name is rarely mentioned today, he exercised enormous influence on the development of architecture in the United States. He is perhaps best known for his gothic skyscraper, the Woolworth Building, which was the world's tallest building at the time. Combining modern technologies with historic ideas, Gilbert designed numerous public buildings, including the state capitols of Minnesota, West Virginia, and Arkansas. He was consulting architect for the George Washington Bridge, which crosses the Hudson River in upper Manhattan, New York City.

(via About.com)