After i posted this previous post, Aabid dropped me a message asking what i meant by the last sentence, “Architecture can become more inclusive, by understanding what rhymes with the everyday, ordinary, familiar and relevant.” On rereading, it also seemed to me a bit of disconnect to what i was saying earlier on how to bend the genres of modernism and vernacular.  I have been thinking of his question and I thought i could explain it a bit more. 

I have reproduced here a brilliant text on ‘Genre’ from Seth Godin’s recent book called ‘The Practice : Shipping Creative Work’. I thought of paraphrasing this subchapter, but it is so crisply written, it couldn’t be made any shorter. (note all bold emphasis is mine)

“Genre, not Generic 
The world is too busy to consider your completely original conception.
The people you bring your work to want to know what it rhymes with, what category it fits in, what they’re supposed to compare it to. Please put it in a container for us, they say. We call that container “genre.” 
That’s not a cheap shortcut; it’s a service to the person you’re seeking to change. 
Generic work is replaceable. A generic can of beans can come from any company, because they’re all the same.
But genre permits us to be original. It gives us a framework to push against. 
Shawn Coyne has written brilliantly about genre. Not generic, which is boring, but genre, which gives your audience a clue as to what this work is about. 
What’s the format? What should it cost? What does it remind me of? Ski resorts are a genre. So are monster movies. 
Without genre, we’re unable to process the change you seek to make. It’s too difficult to figure out what you are doing and for whom, so we walk away.
No one goes out of their way to get a copy of a commodity because copies don’t make change happen. Copies aren’t worth much.
Genre is a box, a set of boundaries, something the creative person can leverage against.The limits of the genre are the place where you can do your idiosyncratic work. 
To make change happen, the artist must bend one of those boundaries, one of those edges.
Generic is a trap, but genre is a lever.”

It is a consolation to read this and it is an interesting premise to work with. 
Isn’t this what Nolan did with The Dark Knight Trilogy. He took the very familiar super hero genre and pushed the boundaries – imperfect hero, real world scenarios, strong supporting characters, super powers backed by science and an iconic first origin story (1)

Isn’t this what Alvaro Siza did with the genre of Modernism – made it malleable to the specificity of a place. Like in the house at Mallorca, he fragments the overall form of the house to negotiate with the landscape, unlike the super-neutral white boxes lifted from ground. 

Isn’t this what Geoffrey Bawa did with the vernacular – pushed the language of the local and the familiar to adapt to new typologies. Like in Lunuganga, the additions made by him removes the weight of the stereotomic volumes of the vernacular to more translucent fluid spaces connecting the nature and the built form.

Architecture can become more inclusive, by understanding what rhymes with the everyday, ordinary, familiar and relevant.

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Notes :
(1) A extended read on The Dark Knight Trilogy : https://screenrant.com/dc-batman-the-dark-knight-superhero-movie-best/

This is what Nassim Nicholas Taleb writes in his eccentric (I am saying this because he hates academics) and excellent book ‘Anti-Fragile: Things that Gain from Disorder” about interesting thought experiment ‘Buridan’s Donkey’ :

“A donkey equally famished and thirsty caught at an equal distance between food and water would unavoidably die of hunger or thirst. But he can be saved thanks to a random nudge one way or the other. This metaphor is named as Buridan’s Donkey, after the medieval philosopher Jean de Buridan, who – among other, very complicated things – introduced the thought experiment. When some systems are stuck in a dangerous impasse, randomness and only randomness can unlock them and set them free. You can see here that absence of randomness equals guaranteed death” 

If one is aware of this condition, it might make it easier for one to keep a certain momentum in design process. Imagine as a student how many times we have lost steam waiting to make the ‘only right’ choice. As now i am in the teaching boat, i need to be a bit more precise in this articulation, as a student might use this against me to make design decisions. This irrational sounding ‘random nudge’ must be placed in between the ‘whim’ and ‘rational’. The ‘nudge’ (also a nice word to keep in mind for teachers) has to lean towards ‘rational’ side, i guess. I would read the ‘hunger’ in the donkey as ‘rigour’ here. And there are ‘two’ options, so i equate this to more ‘possibilites’ on paper. Then the ‘random nudge’ can be justified, if it ticks both the boxes of ‘rigour’ and ‘possibilities’. If this nudge works, a teacher has to be careful enough not to ask the student to justify that move in design process. 

Here is a nice clip from Big Bang Theory which makes the point. 

Yesterday India won the match against Australia in Melbourne. It was a remarkable win away from home, and that too after the disastrous 36 all out at the first match in Adelaide. One interesting note in winning match was that Rahane was the captain as Kohli is on break. Suresh Menon writes in his column in The Hindu that “It was confirmation of another theory — that you can be a successful captain either in the asser­tive Virat Kohli manner or in the com­posed Rahane manner. “. Menon also adds later “that cricket teams tend to reflect the temperament of their captains.” 

These two approaches – calm and assertive – is applicable to other situations in life too. In particular this is a recurring question for me as a teacher . All of us at some at point of time have  studied under these two types of teachers. We respond to them differently. But i am still unsure which is a better method when teaching, as it also depends on one’s own personal character a lot. I have heard of many teachers who were more assertive when they were young than they were old and vice versa. I prefer and assume to be a ‘calm’ one  but not sure if i behave the same way too. The temperament of the teacher always reflects in the class.

Ron Ritchhart writes in his brilliant book on learning ‘Creating Cultures of Thinking’ about teachers role of modeling in learning environments  “As a culture shaper, modeling operates on both an explicit and an implicit level. Explicitly, we may demonstrate techniques, processes, and strategies in a way that makes our own thinking visible for students to learn from and appropriate. Implicitly, our actions are constantly on display for our students. They see our passions, our interests, our caring, and our authenticity as thinkers, learners, community members, and leaders. Adult models surround students and make real a world that they may choose to enter or reject.” 

Notes : (1) A note of thanks to Aabid Raheem (his blog) to introduce me to Ron Ritchhart‘s book.  (2) Suresh Menon ‘Between Wickets’ column in The Hindu dated 30 December,2020