The one thing, veteran architect and conservationist Ramu Katakam longs to see in a building is a sense of harmony with the earth. Not surprisingly, he has now written an entire book to document Kerala's timber architecture which is one of the prime examples of the compatibility that man made structures can have with the land they stand on.
Glimpses of Architecture in Kerala (Temples and Palaces) published by Rupa and Co is a remarkable effort documenting the various aspects of Kerala's traditional architecture.
While Ramu delves deep in the architectural detailing, photographer Joginder Singh trains his camera on the communion between the buildings and the surrounding landscape. These are not random shots. Each photo sums up what the author and photographer have experienced within a structure and what they have learnt about it their research.
This is not a touristy, coffee table book. It has emerged out of the concern that Ramu has for vanishing vestiges of history. Through this book he has visited the past to make us understand just how deeply insightful master craftsmen and visionaries were in building structures that remain meaningful to their surroundings till date, in contrast with the buildings of today which are estranged from the past and the present in their hurry to look futuristic.
Every picture says something important. The yellow exterior of the Sri Subramanyaswami temple at Kochu Ollur has been shot in a tranquil moment and we see patches of sunlight nestling on the walls, a man curled up in sleep under a sheltering eave and the temple edifice letting in glimpses of the palms just beyond its walls. Just this one picture captures the complete harmony between man, architecture and nature.
According to Ramu, Kerala's architecture represents a perfect example of proportion, geometry and simplicity. The extensive use of timber in these structures happened he says, because of Kerala's natural reserve of forests. And slowly as time went by, the simple plan and shapes of early Kerala architecture "got refined in detail and scale."
Ramu also points out that "much before Corbusier in the modern era evolved a proportion for building based on the human scale, one sees (in Kerala) buildings being made in scale with the human body to create a form in balance with man."
The perfect symmetry of pagoda like sloping roofs next to silk cotton trees, the drama of towering deepams in expansive courtyards, uncluttered blue skies, a time worn laterite wall with a resident crow resting on its chipped dome, turmeric coated idols, cavernous ceilings with rich details, finely carved columns and rafters, quiet shrines and walls of dancing flames-the-book captures all this and more.
Ramu and Joginder make us realise how impoverished modern design idioms are with their ephemeral glamour and how important it is for architects to build in compliance with natural elements rather than their own ego.
