Sen Kapadia at National Institute of Design | photo credit: Vinay Panjwani
Sen Kapadia, an architect rooted in modernism (while also its critic), belongs to the generation that left a mark on contemporary Indian architecture. He worked with American architect Louis Kahn on the IIM buildings in Philadelphia and in Ahmedabad in India before setting up his own architectural practice in 1977.
Sen Kapadia with American architect Louis Kahn
In his long career, he has contributed to the discourse as a practitioner, a theorist and an academic. His designs include the postgraduate campus of the National Institute of Design, the Computer Management Center in Hyderabad and a Buddhist pilgrimage center in Kushinagar. Kapadia’s architecture departs from the norm through a rigorous process of deconstruction. He prefers a departure from the tangible – his buildings are brought together as places of activity, creating new narratives from space, light and context, rooted in the experiential. In doing so, his designs criticized both precedent and the present, making them relevant in an increasingly non-linear world.
Out earlier this year, his new book, Sen Kapadia: In pursuit of meaning (CEPT University Press), was issued on the basis of CSMVS in Mumbai. For his colleagues in architecture, his friends and students, many of whom were in attendance, this is a book that has been a long time coming.
Sen Kapadia: In pursuit of meaning
Kapadia collaborated with architect Pinkish Shah (as editor) to create this book, representing distinctive forms of the former – through illustrations, drawings, conversations and text.
Edited excerpts from an interview with Shah.
How was the book made? It is not a conventional monograph, but a multifaceted presentation of Kapadia’s work and ideas.
A book was in the works for quite some time, as Sen retired a few years back. Then there was an outbreak of pestilence and at the instigation of his wife, he tried to express his discovery and philosophy in his own words. In June 2021, Sen invited me to work on it. I was happy but scared. Delighted, as I have long felt that his work needs to reach a larger audience, especially the younger generation who are often not aware of or aware of his work. Intimidated, because I knew Sen’s exacting standards and high expectations. this is despite [or maybe because of] Have known Sen for over 35 years. It was important to bring the work and his ideas back to the fore, allowing us to re-evaluate its relevance and its meaning for contemporary times. Over the course of several ‘Saturdays with Sen’, the format for the book came about quite naturally. It was never intended or conceived as a monograph, but rather a first-person account of one architect’s pursuits, practice and influences.
“The book is a first-person account by the architect, who was now ‘re-looking’ at his practice of more than 40 years through a selection of eight seminal projects, together with new essays that share his philosophy and values. And reflect.pinkish shaharchitect-editor
pinkish shah
Exploratory imagery holds a great deal of relevance when Kapadia develops concepts for projects. How does he use it as a means of building?
We should not mistake it for a ‘diagram’ as we usually understand it. [reductive/essential/abstract/organisational], It is an exploration of the ‘generative image’ of the building. A poetic sketch that encapsulates the story of what the building is about, or what it could become. It has oscillated from both creative and painterly to technical. In the course of his practice, Sen has used a variety of tools such as collage, serigraph, flat projection, axonometrics, color blocking, early wire frame computer models, three dimensional renders and their combinations of Indian miniatures, in an inexhaustible search for alternative concepts. Space and Form. In his archives, one can find many iterations of this search through different explorations of the picture. Sen’s portfolio of these representations is unique across the country.
guesses and pictures from the book
essence of a place
For Sen Kapadia, the search for meaning has been an ongoing quest. In an email conversation, he clarifies: “One must search for the meanings of the inner essence of things, without fear. That’s what I learned from the work of Le Corbusier and Kahn. That architecture spoke of place rather than space, which is deeply rooted in the psyche of the user. The concept of ‘place’ holds a central position in Kapadia’s vision for design. “Early in my career, I realized that architectural space holds a central value when it comes to transforming itself into a place. Though place occupies a central position in a composition, its true essence is not understood until we are struck by its other-worldliness quality,” he says.
Broker House in Pune
Gujarat Research Society, Mumbai
Rendering of the New National Gallery and Ludwig Museum, Budapest
Tell us about the choices in the cities that form the backbone of this book. What does Kapadia mean by the cities he designs?
The Five Cities device was conceptualized as a means for readers to informally engage with another aspect of Sen’s personality, in addition to serving as a sidebar to the main texts and projects. Sen reflects on five major cities that have had a profound influence on his development and a personal insight into his formation as an architect. These cities make Sen who he is: Bombay, for the fearlessness of growing up in a joint family in Girgaon in the midst of a rapidly changing city; Nathdwara, for discovering his deep roots and Indianness; Ahmedabad, for the freedom he gained from his love of kite flying in the dense inner city Masters [housing clusters], Pondicherry, for his spiritual awakening and search for a higher meaning; and finally New York, for turning him into the modern man he likes to think he is. Sen’s ability to draw from his environment is due to his sensibility to simultaneously immerse and engage, but also separate and distance to bring perspective and reflection to the felt experience. This heightened sense of understanding and self-awareness has allowed for a largely spontaneous and poetic way of working, where it can be both concurrent and independent.
The author is Professor of Architecture at Sir JJ College of Architecture, Mumbai.