Foreign hands building India
Foreign hands building India, Now a new generation of foreign architects has designs on India
Time was when there was only the oc casional eruption of concrete. Today India's skyline is a work in progress But while the towering new skyscrap ers, sprawling IT parks, glitzy airports and swanky townships reflect desi aspirations the blueprint, more often than not, is foreign.
Be it a slum redevelopment project in con gested Mumbai or Kolkata's new museum of modern art, the global imprint on the country' fast-changing urban landscape is evident. Made in India but designed by a clutch of foreign ar chitects looking to cash in on the country's real estate boom. For Edinburgh-based RMJM, the company behind the distinctive Scottish Par liament, a foray into India four years ago has translated into business of £1 billion. That, the company says, is unprecedented for a UK ar chitecture firm doing business in India. ``There' a cue here for UK business -- we need to be in India in a very big way," says RMJM CEO Peter Morrison. RMJM, which currently has 38 proj ects under way in India, is now looking to es tablish a permanent base in Mumbai.
Many others have taken the cue. Celebrated British architect Lord Norman Foster, who shaped London's skyline with buildings such as the Gherkin and designed the Reichstag in Berlin, has entered India in a tie-up with a Mum bai real estate firm, the Neptune group. Other big UK names in India are Laing O'Rourke, Davis Langdon and Mott MacDonald. Not just UK firms from Canada (Arcop) to Australia (Omiros One) have designs on India.
But does India really need foreign architects or is it just about getting a brand on the brochure? Most builders agree it's as much about star power as it is about international quality After all, well-heeled buyers respond to design ers with international reputations as much as they respond to a luxury label like Gucci or Pra da. ``When people purchase an expensive apart ment, a famous architect is extra validation they're making a good choice,'' says Kunal Baner ji of Ansal API which signed up US firm Chelsea West to design Manhattan-style condos at its Aquapolis project in Ghaziabad.
The Mahindra group's real estate arm Mahin dra Lifespaces, which has roped in US-based ar chitect and design firm HOK (of Dubai marina fame), says their reasons go much beyond the brand. ``The selection of an international archi tect or planner is driven by the unique needs of the project. For instance, the 325-acre Mahindra World City project is one of the largest such de velopments under implementation and to that ex tent the width and depth of on-ground imple mentation experience is currently available only with international firms who have conceived and implemented such projects in different parts of the world,'' says Anita Arjundas, COO of Mahin dra Lifespaces.
Size does matter and with Indian developers going beyond stand-alone commercial blocks and residences to converting huge swathes of land into townships and IT parks, a `foreign hand' does come in handy. ``Foreign firms can visualise and handle massive scale. Also, their designs are very innovative. They create land marks and not just buildings,'' says Shantanu Malik, DGM-Architect, Unitech Ltd.
It's a win-win for Indian architects as well ``Working with foreign firms gives us exposure to international standards. There is a lot to learn from their use of detailing and modern mate rials,'' adds Malik.
Unitech often hires multiple design firms for a single project. For instance, it has 10 global ar chitecture and design consultants for the $3 bil lion Unitech Grande, a super-luxury residential complex spread over 347 acres along the Noida expressway. This project draws on the expertise of US-based mall designer Callison, landscape artists SWA and EDAW, Britain's RMJM for ar chitecture and interiors and HOK for floor plans besides a course de signed by Australian golfer Greg Norman.
With so much de mand, it isn't surprising that Mark Igou, director in the US architectural firm Skidmore, Owings and Merrill Llp (SOM) has been shuttling be tween New York and In dia over the last three years. ``I spend more than three months a year in In dia, familiarising myself with the ground situa tion.'' And ground reali ty is what SOM -- the firm which has designed the Burj Dubai, which will be the world's tallest skyscraper when it is finished in 2009 -- is faced with in Mumbai where it is designing homes for slum dwellers in Mumbai's Santa Cruz as part of a masterplan for Unitech. ``It's a unique design challenge -- recreating the same sense of com munity that exists in their current housing so that people don't want to return to the slums they left,'' says Igou. SOM is also using the services of sociologists and cultural anthropologists to get sense of the social and cultural aspects of the lives of those being rehabilitated.
Whether it's slum housing or a swanky town ship, India is essential to the design inputs. ``Ed ucation and social interaction are both impor tant to Indians so our designs will reflect these needs. So residential units would have schools nearby and public spaces for people to interact,' he says. Besides projects like the Jet Airways headquarters in Mumbai, SOM is also working in Tier-II cities like Ahmedabad and Nagpur.
Be it the Indian ethos or the vagaries of its climate, Uruguayan architect Carlos Ott keeps it in mind when he is on the drawing board. Ott who has designed a technopark for Tata Consul tancy Services at Siruseri, Chennai, in associa tion with countryman Carlos Ponce de Leon, says "I am constantly studying the history and tradi tions of India, hoping to integrate some of its characteristics in my buildings. And though my work is definitely contemporary, the clues from the past are integrated in a modern vocabulary.'
Ott is building on the work that earlier for eign architects have done in India. Apart from Lutyens and Le Corbusier, several other inter national architects have showcased their designs in India. Ahmedabad's Indian Institute of Man agement reflects Louis Kahn's trademark style of veering towards monolithic masses resem bling ancient ruins. Christopher Charles Ben ninger designed the Mahindra United World Col lege of India, near Pune. British-born Laurie Baker planned the Fishermen's Village in Poon thura in Kerala, while American Joseph Stein gave shape to Delhi's India International Centre
Now, a new generation of foreign architects has designs on India. And their glittering com puter-generated images look set to redefine the country's skyline.
Time was when there was only the oc casional eruption of concrete. Today India's skyline is a work in progress But while the towering new skyscrap ers, sprawling IT parks, glitzy airports and swanky townships reflect desi aspirations the blueprint, more often than not, is foreign.
Be it a slum redevelopment project in con gested Mumbai or Kolkata's new museum of modern art, the global imprint on the country' fast-changing urban landscape is evident. Made in India but designed by a clutch of foreign ar chitects looking to cash in on the country's real estate boom. For Edinburgh-based RMJM, the company behind the distinctive Scottish Par liament, a foray into India four years ago has translated into business of £1 billion. That, the company says, is unprecedented for a UK ar chitecture firm doing business in India. ``There' a cue here for UK business -- we need to be in India in a very big way," says RMJM CEO Peter Morrison. RMJM, which currently has 38 proj ects under way in India, is now looking to es tablish a permanent base in Mumbai.
Many others have taken the cue. Celebrated British architect Lord Norman Foster, who shaped London's skyline with buildings such as the Gherkin and designed the Reichstag in Berlin, has entered India in a tie-up with a Mum bai real estate firm, the Neptune group. Other big UK names in India are Laing O'Rourke, Davis Langdon and Mott MacDonald. Not just UK firms from Canada (Arcop) to Australia (Omiros One) have designs on India.
But does India really need foreign architects or is it just about getting a brand on the brochure? Most builders agree it's as much about star power as it is about international quality After all, well-heeled buyers respond to design ers with international reputations as much as they respond to a luxury label like Gucci or Pra da. ``When people purchase an expensive apart ment, a famous architect is extra validation they're making a good choice,'' says Kunal Baner ji of Ansal API which signed up US firm Chelsea West to design Manhattan-style condos at its Aquapolis project in Ghaziabad.
The Mahindra group's real estate arm Mahin dra Lifespaces, which has roped in US-based ar chitect and design firm HOK (of Dubai marina fame), says their reasons go much beyond the brand. ``The selection of an international archi tect or planner is driven by the unique needs of the project. For instance, the 325-acre Mahindra World City project is one of the largest such de velopments under implementation and to that ex tent the width and depth of on-ground imple mentation experience is currently available only with international firms who have conceived and implemented such projects in different parts of the world,'' says Anita Arjundas, COO of Mahin dra Lifespaces.
Size does matter and with Indian developers going beyond stand-alone commercial blocks and residences to converting huge swathes of land into townships and IT parks, a `foreign hand' does come in handy. ``Foreign firms can visualise and handle massive scale. Also, their designs are very innovative. They create land marks and not just buildings,'' says Shantanu Malik, DGM-Architect, Unitech Ltd.
It's a win-win for Indian architects as well ``Working with foreign firms gives us exposure to international standards. There is a lot to learn from their use of detailing and modern mate rials,'' adds Malik.
Unitech often hires multiple design firms for a single project. For instance, it has 10 global ar chitecture and design consultants for the $3 bil lion Unitech Grande, a super-luxury residential complex spread over 347 acres along the Noida expressway. This project draws on the expertise of US-based mall designer Callison, landscape artists SWA and EDAW, Britain's RMJM for ar chitecture and interiors and HOK for floor plans besides a course de signed by Australian golfer Greg Norman.
With so much de mand, it isn't surprising that Mark Igou, director in the US architectural firm Skidmore, Owings and Merrill Llp (SOM) has been shuttling be tween New York and In dia over the last three years. ``I spend more than three months a year in In dia, familiarising myself with the ground situa tion.'' And ground reali ty is what SOM -- the firm which has designed the Burj Dubai, which will be the world's tallest skyscraper when it is finished in 2009 -- is faced with in Mumbai where it is designing homes for slum dwellers in Mumbai's Santa Cruz as part of a masterplan for Unitech. ``It's a unique design challenge -- recreating the same sense of com munity that exists in their current housing so that people don't want to return to the slums they left,'' says Igou. SOM is also using the services of sociologists and cultural anthropologists to get sense of the social and cultural aspects of the lives of those being rehabilitated.
Whether it's slum housing or a swanky town ship, India is essential to the design inputs. ``Ed ucation and social interaction are both impor tant to Indians so our designs will reflect these needs. So residential units would have schools nearby and public spaces for people to interact,' he says. Besides projects like the Jet Airways headquarters in Mumbai, SOM is also working in Tier-II cities like Ahmedabad and Nagpur.
Be it the Indian ethos or the vagaries of its climate, Uruguayan architect Carlos Ott keeps it in mind when he is on the drawing board. Ott who has designed a technopark for Tata Consul tancy Services at Siruseri, Chennai, in associa tion with countryman Carlos Ponce de Leon, says "I am constantly studying the history and tradi tions of India, hoping to integrate some of its characteristics in my buildings. And though my work is definitely contemporary, the clues from the past are integrated in a modern vocabulary.'
Ott is building on the work that earlier for eign architects have done in India. Apart from Lutyens and Le Corbusier, several other inter national architects have showcased their designs in India. Ahmedabad's Indian Institute of Man agement reflects Louis Kahn's trademark style of veering towards monolithic masses resem bling ancient ruins. Christopher Charles Ben ninger designed the Mahindra United World Col lege of India, near Pune. British-born Laurie Baker planned the Fishermen's Village in Poon thura in Kerala, while American Joseph Stein gave shape to Delhi's India International Centre
Now, a new generation of foreign architects has designs on India. And their glittering com puter-generated images look set to redefine the country's skyline.