SAMEEP PADORA >>

Being an active participant in national seminars and conventions, What are your views of the various educational approaches by different universities in the country?
As far as the structure of architectural education in the country is concerned, there is a great need to ground the system in present day reality, to phase out existing paradigms of education based on versions of early modernist thought. To consciously avoid falling into the trap of adapting stylistic ideologies There is a need to redefine the role of design and architects in contemporary rural, semi urban India, - the aspiring cities of tomorrow. To assert a progressive conceptualism fired by an unconditioned sensitivity.

Tell us about your early works…they reflect a strong character of modernity with derivations from natural forms and a conscious evasion of the straight line…
Even though non -linear form and space was a kind of preoccupation in the earlier work its presence was largely contextual.
For example in the showroom project the elliptical mezzanine is structured such that its form achieves in contradistinction, a strong presence in an otherwise staid environment.
Another project with a predominant emphasis on curvilinear space was the gallery for light fixtures. The evolution of the space was largely an extension of the work of sculptor Richard Serra and his thoughts in spatial delineation through the "Torqued Ellipses" series.
So the effort has always been towards articulating a spatial experience, the nature of the pre-scribed geometry has really been a tool of appropriating the spatial intent. There is admittedly however an effort to push ones own design sensibilities away from prevalent accepted norms, To look for beauty where one accepts it the least, to translate the for granted into the sublime…!

Over the years of your young practice, what were your experiences working with various design briefs, clients, attitudes and design perceptions?
Nothing… neither 5 yrs in school or a masters degree truly prepares one for the first experience of a space that has been conceptualized and built by the individual. The feeling is indescribable; it is almost a document of a very personal nature, a mapping of intent and process and most of all the heart.
The greatest learning however is the fact that it is extremely hard to resist the temptation of compromise and that there is a price to pay for ones pursuit of an ideal. Also there is a growing realization of the inadequacies of ones inculcated skills and their futility and irrelevance to prevalent socio-cultural problems. In the end for unconditioned sensitivity there needs to be an unbridling of the ego.