The Spirit of Indian Architecture: Vedantic Wisdom of Architecture for Building Harmonious Spaces and Life

In recent times, when architecture has found many different expressions and there have sprung up more 'instant' experts, the question still remains - Where is architecture headed today? Why are we getting more building but no architecture? Why our cities become a symbol of chaos and decay? Has the 'global village' become a more conglomeration of pockets of habitations? Is it not paradoxical that with all the expertise available to us, we are even more confused and directionless? Why are we not the masters of our development even in this golden age of science technology.

D.K. Bubbar, a renowned architect and the author of this book, had these and such question since his days as a students, why was it not possible to use architecture scientifically and correctly for the improvement of human life, to enrich our surroundings, spaces and life to create harmony. But he soon realized to his dismay that these genuine queries were quickly brushed aside, leaving the author to embark on a solitary voyage that has been ongoing for more than forty years. A voyage of study, research, experimentation, discovery and realization. This book takes the reader through a journey in time and explained with amazing simplicity how the ancient can blend seamlessly with the modern and how age-old principles can be adopted to suit the today’s architecture.

The author conceptualized and coined terms such as “Humanized Architecture“, ‘Proportionate Dimension’ and ‘Harmonious Space’. The strength of the paradigm that he proposes lies in the fact that it make the reader sit up and take notice of the glaring defaces in the thinking, planning and implementation of how we build and utilize space for living, working and sharing environment with our co-habitants. He then provides solutions for an organic and symbiotic way of development that can be scaled up right a single dwelling to as large as a whole township.

The author is non-dogmatic as well as non-religious in his approach and proposes radical yet simple solution with scientific explanation and rationale behind his methods. He is quick to point out that this is book, written in the ’modern’ context and even the term ‘spirit” used in the title of the book has not been used in any religious, but rears to the ‘essence’, the ‘core’. He has been an experimenter and a truth-seeker all along his life here he share the results of his findings with the reader, who can benefit at every level.

This Path-breaking work addresses severed issue for the very first time and reveals many findings about Indian architecture in details never researched or published any were before. Indeed, this project is the culmination of the author’s endive lifetime’s work. The book brings to a sharp focus the relevant and logical, and refuses to tread the path of the herd. The book amazes and enlightens though question and answers. It reasons and rationalizes. The strength of his writing is that it sparks a thought process in the mind of the reader. The reader, then, is no longer a passive reader but is turned into a ‘discoverer’.

The book has been divided into three sections. Section I, deals with ‘humanized’ architecture - the scale, space, and the basic elements of architecture with a new vision that is not only refreshing but also immensely practical in the modern age. This section scats the basis for the rest of the book. Section II, details the strategies for planning settlements-homes, neighborhoods and indeed entre townships. The focus is on achieving truly ‘harmonious’ living in balance with nature. This section propounds a workable and sustainable model of living, without the sures, strife and chaos associated with modern urban development. Section III, emphasizes the role of training, without professional results are not possible. Indeed, a trained mind, armed with reason and an inner strength, can achieve what others cannot. The narration is lucid, direct and replete with many scientific facts. The book is also rich in visual content and contains more than hundred drawings, Plans, illustrations, examples and actual case studies.

The target readership of this book would be anyone from a student of architecture to an accomplished architect, urban planners, and educationists and policy makers, and indeed anyone who is interested in improving the quality of life. In its finality, the book, a textbook, as the author likes to call it, is not only a unique work on architecture but on the art of living itself.