Abstract:
This paper is an attempt to examine one of
the strands of Indian modernity that does not
subscribe to the industrial presupposition as
the basis of its discourse. Rather this is a
modernity situated in a paradigm that is
"agricultural" with far reaching implications
both culturally and environmentally.
The Paper is comparative, building up
contrasts between concepts that underlie a
modernity that is "Industrial" and one that is
"agricultural". It explores their respective
attitudes and modes of "reduction". The first,
"Minimizing" and its aesthetic equivalent,
Minimalism is located in the industrial and
particularly in the processes of mass
production. The second, "frugality" is its
equivalent in an agricultural paradigm, and is
rooted in relationships and concepts whose
aesthetic and therefore architectural
potentials have not been adequately
elaborated. This paper aims to study the
architectural implications of "Frugality" with
its emphasis on the rural-agricultural rather
than the urban- industrial, bodily relationship
to space rather than visual and mental
constructions of space, and an intimacy with
the material, the tactile, and a world that is
"Full". Historically speaking this paper
explores the aesthetic and architectural
implications of a "Gandhian" Modernity as
being distinct from the ubiquitous modernity
that is our "Nehruvian" legacy.
Architecturally the paper develops, in contrast
to the idea of "transparency", that ubiquitous
spatial need of all modern and minimal
architecture, the idea of "Porosity", an
attitude of material continuity that does not
distinguish between differing forms of matter.
Where as the first requires a spatial
continuity, the latter is based on a continuity
of material. Through the description and
analysis of Gandhiji's residence, Hruday Kunj
at his Ashram on the Sabarmati in
Ahmedabad, this paper elaborates on the
experiences of such architecture
