The architecture that has taken a concrete shape in India around the Indus and its tributaries—one of the earliest cradles of civilization called Indus Valley Civilization—has a long history. There is a certain “poetry within strong principles, rules” reflecting in every creation of ancient Indians. Grandeur may be missing, but like termites, the ‘natural-born house builders’, Indians have certainly implanted beauty, functional beauty, in everything they had created. From a tiny hut that formed an ordinary man’s dwelling place to mighty temples that housed their gods, “there is beauty, the beauty of the theory, the poise of the law.” Creativity abounded all around—creativity in making ‘beauty’ from the locally available resources, that too, with least distortion to the nature around them.

With the advent of computer-aided designs and mathematical algorithms, today’s architects have been creating still more beautiful structures—the likes of which have never been seen—but by mostly using exotic materials, and thus becoming not only more expensive but also demanding newer skills, both in designing and execution. Many newer ideas are doing rounds in the field of architecture: minimalism, rationalism, functionalism, neo-baroque and neo-classical revivalism—all aiming at, perhaps, designing such dwellings which enable people to live in contact with their souls despite technological innovations. Indeed, today, architecture has crept into every human endeavor.

With the kind of revolutionary improvements that have crept into design process, duly aided by digital techniques, resulting in a ‘new architecture’, a need has emerged for efficient and effective dissemination of the latest knowledge among all those associated with architecture and its practice. IUP is therefore launching its bi-annual journal, The IUP Journal of Architecture, to cater to the needs of researchers in the academic institutions and the practicing architects.

It is our earnest desire that the academicians and the professionals will make use of this journal to their best advantage. The first paper of the maiden issue, “The Importance of Local Spirit and Sense of Place: Side Effects of the Underestimation in the Modernist Town Planning” by Ettore Maria Mazzola, raises an intriguing question: “Do the spirit and sense of place have any say on the quality of inhabitants’ life?” For an answer, the author goes on to explore the social-architectural evolution that took place in the early 20th century Rome. Based on the understanding thus acquired, the author asserts that there is no valid reason for the politicians and the town planners to let the ‘historical centers in cities…become unlivable’ because of ‘the traffic jams’ created by the absence of public spaces in peripheries, the inhabitants of which ‘are forced to come…looking for the missing spaces.’ The author is of the opinion that architects can facilitate “the blending of social classes” while constructing public housing.

The next paper in the issue, “A Buddhist-Systems Paradigm for Conserving Cultural Built Heritage: Development of a Conceptual Framework for Conserving Non-Secular Monuments in South and Southeast Asia” by Jamie MacKee, articulates an alternative paradigm for the conservation of non-secular monuments in South and Southeast Asia exploring the plausible synergy between Buddhist principles of interconnectedness, interdependence and mutual conditioning and systems theory. The alternative paradigm facilitates the understanding of the key relationships that give the heritage its values and meanings.

In the third paper, “Aesthetic Pleasure of Indian Rasas in Inlay Designs of Mughal Architecture of Agra”, the authors, Pooja Sharma, Ila Gupta and P Jha, argue that ancient Indian theories—rasas and bhavas—have influenced the inlay designs of the Mughal monuments of Agra in creating aesthetic pleasure to the viewer. Their research has identified six predominant rasas: adbhuta, veera, shringar, shanta, karuna and roudra. The authors opine that the inlay designs are all presented with standardized technique and skill, offering aesthetic pleasure to the viewers through the presentation of the most abstract forms in concrete and real terms.

The author, Bill Thompson, of the next paper, “Trauma and Tradition in Architecture”, presenting reality as a concept which joins all creatures, great and small, and also separates them in time and space, argues that architectural projects are the best examples to bring in change by viewing ‘tradition’ more as a global desire for the development of comfort rather than as a dictate of the society that forces us to convert the mundane into a spectacle, instead of letting us, the spectacle creators, lead mundane lives that are free of pain and discomfort.

In the next paper, “Non-Parametric and Parametric-Based Computer-Aided Geometric Modeling: An Overview”, the author, Runddy D Ramilo, tracing the origins of computer-aided geometrical modeling in architecture, describes the basic methodologies of geometric modeling supporting the latest computer-aided design applications. He also discusses the parametric design tools that are of late being used in architecture.

Sarah Benton, the author of the last paper, “An Argument for Digital Media in Practice and Ephemeral Generative Potential”, extends the debate for and against the role of digital media in architectural designing.

With active collaboration from our patrons, we are sure this journal will emerge as a platform for the architects in the country.

-- GRK Murty
Consulting Editor