Vivek Sabherwal, Architect
sabherwalvivek@yahoo.com
Architecture is the crystallization, the residue in some way of the life of the time and character of the place, the nature of the man of that time – therefore extremely indicative and valuable – the only record we now can read concerning civilizations that have disappeared.
Architecture should not be seen as a collection of buildings but as a “great living creative spirit”. Architecture is life, or at least life taking form, and therefore it is the truest record of life as it was lived in the world yesterday, as it is lived today or ever will be lived. We are all inspired. But by what, or how, remains the question. Inspiration is a prayer, a deep felt wish.
To really believe in something is the greatest boon man can live with. It is a bad architect who believes in one thing but conforms to another. It is often asked, “What is truth?” Truth is natural, Truth is organic. A man’s conscience is really the mainspring of his soul. So listen attentively to your conscience, let it be your guiding star. A good design squares up with the conscience. The materials and the shape square with the purposes of the building. More and more, the thing you see becomes the thing you are. Look into the thing, not just at it. That is Architecture. As you get closer to the real thing, you get your true feelings into it and it becomes a religion. There is no architecture that is not religion, in the non-sectarian sense.
Stand square on your spiritual feet.
We no longer live on simple terms, in simple times or places. Life is a more complex struggle now. It is now valiant to be simple, a courageous thing to even want to be simple. It is a spiritual thing to comprehend what simplicity means.
All we need, to meet the evils we are suffering from now, is a little more freedom, a little more honesty, and a little more courage.
In the modern world, the chief obstacle to any real solution of the moderate cost house problem is the fact that our people do not really know how to live. They imagine their idiosyncrasies to be their “tastes”, their prejudices to be their predilections, and their ignorance to be their virtue where any beauty of living is concerned.
Buildings, like people, must first be sincere, must be true and then be as gracious and lovable as may be. Simplicity and repose are qualities that measure the true value of any work of art.
What is needed the most in architecture today is the very thing that is most needed in life Integrity. Just as it is in a human being, so integrity is the deepest quality in a building.
Integrity is not something to be put on and taken off like a garment. Integrity is a quality within and of the man himself. So it is in a building. It cannot be changed by any other person either, nor by the exterior pressures of any outward circumstances, integrity cannot change except from within because it is that in you which is you, and due to which you will try to live your life (as you would build your building) in the best possible way. To build a man or his building from within is always difficult to do because deeper is not as easy as shallow.
“Do not look at Nature, look into Nature”- Frank Lloyd Wright.
The above statement has many deep layers of meaning and understanding. Nature means not just “out-of doors” clouds, trees, terrain and animal life, but refers to their nature as to the nature of materials or the “Nature” of a plan or tool.
I am convinced that Nature provides the nourishment needed for the development of the spirit of man.
The next step is to be with Nature, and to be emotional with it. According to Mr Wright, a genius is one who has an eye for Nature. Nature begins somewhere inside. Feeling for Nature is feeling for life. Some people never flower because they never open.
You can listen to music and understand it. You can look at a painting and understand it. But a building stands there as an experience. To understand it, you have to live in it, or work in it, or worship in it. Architecture like any art, must be continuous rebirth-and always reveal its human significance, its purpose. It must not be reiteration and a restatement, but always a beginning.
The age-old philosophy of Laotze is alive in architecture. Space within is the reality of a building and not the walls or ceiling, and the essence of architecture is space, flowing outward, space flowing inward. Only when the buildings are comprehended from within… their own special environment… are they really seen.
As Frank Lloyd Wright said, “A man’s building gives you the man. When you build something, you cannot hide. What a man knows, you can see; what he does not know, you can also see”
Great Architecture is the greatest proof of human greatness.
Vivek Sabherwal, Architect (sabherwalvivek@yahoo.com)
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