Friendly or frowning mothers!

Lady with a child stroller

Have you ever run into a lady with an adorable and cute child in a stroller? Have you tried to smile and show playful gestures to the child to get its attention? I have had many such encounters, especially when I used to travel on the Oxford Stagecoaches which are designed to accommodate the needs of wheelchair users, mothers with strollers and the like. May I mention this, my such encounters were never pleasant or remarkable and I wish I didn't have to learn my lesson the hard-way.

Children, in any culture, are innocent and are happy to get a lot of attention, even from strangers. They are usually unaware of who strangers are... they are only concerned about who plays with them and who doesn't. Parents are usually the ones who train their kids, as they grow, about the realities of 'stranger-danger'. This is one of the most important and essential lessons to be taught in this peculiar age of crime, abuse and what-not!

The Indian culture (like many other cultures) allows us to show affection, when it comes to a quiet child in a stroller or the hyper-active kid trying to sneak away when the mother/father is inattentive. This is socially acceptable and it reflects the hospitable nature of Indians. Unlike Indians, the English are more intense when it comes to a stranger showing affection to their child. I believe it is good to be alert but it's more than uncomfortable when you come across a frowning mother just because you smiled at her child! Many a times I have almost been embarrassed by the extreme stares from over-protective mothers. It is entirely different to be a victim of crime and to be a victim of fear of crime. Such behavior reflects their own insecurity in a public place. Apparently, these frowning mothers have gotten under my skin and thereafter, I've begun ignoring and stopped even looking at lovable children.

It all fades...

Curious George

Imagine what it was like when you moved to a new place. The first impressions of a place is so vital in shaping your perspective about it. It's so natural for all human beings to be as alert as 'alert' can be when they are in a new place for the first time. They tend to observe and notice not only buildings, trees, cars, people, etc. but also the minute details such as the paving on the road, clothes people wear, the games they play, the streets with or without light, people's laughter, frowns, yawns, and all other features that one can possibly grasp in. It is human tendency to become adventurous and to explore the new place. From some unknown source within ourselves we feel the urge to go through unknown territories and unclaimed routes in order to get more acquainted to our new wonderland!

I have been living in Tulsa, Oklahoma, for the past two months. My husband and I moved here in May, 2010. As much as the excitement was for moving, we were sensitized and stimulated to grasp in all about the new place. We became intoxicated with all the freshness the Arkansas river had to offer us when we moved into our new apartment by the Riverside Drive. We had our own adventures when we ventured out on our bikes, sometimes biking for over 12 miles a day! Our dog Roxy, not used to having flying things around her all the time, would frantically run to chase birds when we tried to walk her by the riverside.

Treasure Hunt

It really doesn't occur to us that whilst we are so engaged in such 'treasure-hunts' we are creating a mental map of this place inside our very brains, or that without any conscious effort our brain starts analyzing every bit of information that one can gather and it starts to instruct us on what's good or bad, what's safe or unsafe, what's ours or theirs! The most interesting thing about human behavior is that after a certain limit we stop exploring, we stop observing, we stop gathering any more information. Is this defined by how much time we venture out or is it defined by the amount of information we have gathered for us to sustain ourselves in this new place? Do you realize the time when the 'new' place becomes 'old' for you? When does it all stop becoming part of an adventure and then become just part of daily errands? When did Roxy stop chasing birds because she was no more delighted to see them 'fly'? Why are we programmed to lose novelty? Why does it all fade away?  

Form Follows Function or Function Follows Form??

Louis Sullivan's
Wain Wright Building

"Form ever Follows Function" was a phrase coined by the architect Louis Sullivan in 1896 and Frank Lloyd Wright, his assistant, adopted and professed this phrase. It became one of the strong principles associated with architecture and industrial design that revolutionized architectural thinking in its modern age. This inspired many renowned architects like Le Corbusier and Mies Van De Rohe. Essentially this principle stated that the shape of a building or object should be primarily based upon its intended function or purpose.

Years after the era of Le Corbusier and Frank Lloyd Wright, the architectural education at many of the schools in India still propagate this school of thought. During my architectural education, the design process I was mentored into started with creating the layout of the room, or 'plan' as it is in technical terms, and then designing the form of the building. As much as it sounds boring, even the products of such design processes were excruciating versions of match-boxes or donuts! Some rational thinkers among my classmates would try the other way around... they would design the form of the building first and then squeeze it with the layout or the plan. Deconstructivists like Frank O Gehry, Rem Koolhaas and Daniel Libeskind have followed this principle, "Function Follows Form" to create their iconic buildings.

Seattle Central Library
by Rem Koolhaas

In real practice, such thinkers often come up with magnificent buildings that stand out in any skyline. But there have been issues concerning their buildings' functional efficiency even in terms of the building's capability to cope with the climate of the area. More often, utility is compromised for aesthetic appeal.

It takes more than just one fundamentalist approach to actually create a successful building that has an interesting and aesthetically pleasing form with an efficient and functional layout. Honestly, there is no one way out!

Unlike architectural design, when it comes to designing efficient cities or urban landscapes, there is only one single rule of magic! "Function follows form". This is where Urban Design differs from Architecture. Urban design deals with a multitude of layers including human and natural systems, economic and political organization, social networking, mobility of humans, goods and services through the ecological and urban web of a city. It deals with the formal and informal, organized and chaotic systems of order which necessitates a design process that allows the product to be receptive of and responsive to changes in time.

An abandoned building in
Youngstown, Ohio

I distinctly remember a lecture by Prof. Ian Bentley, where he said, "the uniqueness of a street is that its constructive elements (the buildings, its functions, roads, pavements, people, etc.) change according to their relative life spans; people in the buildings change quicker than the building's function; the function changes quicker than the building; the building changes form quicker than the pavement or the roads." Hence, if the roads or pavements are rigid, it doesn't allow buildings to change; if the buildings are rigid, it doesn't allow functions to change; so on and so forth. It is imperative for urban design to follow the principle of 'function follows form' because if the form is inefficient, any function will cease to exist over time. This is the natural process.

Now, you know why stores, buildings, apartments, homes and sometimes even entire communities become completely abandoned. It is simply because they were not built to be receptive or responsive to such changes! It is simply the failure of design!