Of metal spine and glass skin

Of metal spine and glass skin
Deccan Herald
How does a city like Bangalore, which is so distinctive, come to cover itself with so much of faceless glass and concrete?

Native Bangaloreans have seen Bangalore morphing from a quaint small town with red tile buildings and sprawling greenery to a city of steel and glass boxes doting its skyline.

Landmark buildings disappear by the day to give way to huge edifices that do not even attempt to replicate Bangalore’s old graciousness. Suresh Gowda, an old timer, recalls how he loved to have tea on the terrace of Victoria Hotel. The hotel in the heart of town opposite the distinctive Mayo Hall is today replaced by a massive shopping mall, Bangalore Central.

Amongst the latest structures to join the demolition list are the erstwhile offices of the State Information Department. A landmark on Infantry Road, the information department buildings will be replaced by a new six-storey glass building at a whopping Rs 6.5 crore. Meanwhile, the Bangalore Urban Arts Commission, which was set up to oversee the preservation of heritage and historical structures, has been allowed to die a natural death, with its term not being renewed after its expiry in 2003.

The recently acquired funkiness of Bangalore does not impress those who have seen the City grow. According to Priya, a housewife, “This is not the Bangalore I knew, where trees are felled for flyovers that are never constructed; where flashy buildings with bright neon lights mattered so much.” Most other youngsters are oblivious to the environmental damage that such buildings cause, though all of them conceded that Bangalores’ aesthetics is slowly and gradually being wiped off by the emerging glass trend.

However, there is reason to take heart. Not everybody is happy with just glass. According to architect Chitra Vishwanath, the environmental damage caused by glass buildings is enormous. “The buildings are centrally air-conditioned. They let out CFCs and heat. Even glass facades that are used today do not provide complete natural lighting,” she says.

Anil Bhaskaran, chief architect, Ideacenter adds, “Use of glass as building material in India is counter productive. Glass traps heat inside the building and we, in India buy high-tech air conditioners to cool down the atmosphere inside the building. In European countries and United States, use of glass is good. They need heat to be trapped inside the building.” The growing glass trend “somehow reflects the time” adds Chitra. “It reflects the western ideas and time. I don’t use this material (glass). It looks ugly and has ruined the aesthetics of Bangalore,” she rues.

Anil believes that Bangalore has it’s own architectural heritage which we in our eagerness to ape the west are loosing. An attempt to acquire elements from the past is clearly visible in a few buildings like The Bombay Store, Barton Center and Prestige Meridian along Central M G Road. Hotel Leela Palace, which seeks to link with heritage India by acquiring bits of the looks of a Rajasthan palace, or the straight -forward and unabashed return to ethnicity as the Ganjam Mandapa on Bull Temple Road. High-end users are also getting out of the use of glass. Wipro’s corporate headquarters on Sarjapur Road is a good example. Spacious, red brick, not very tall buildings surround landscaping that uses contours of land and has artifacts placed all along it. And the buildings have just enough glass needed for large windows, which make the interiors full of light.

With fusion being ìinî in every field, it is now gaining foot in architecture too. Bangalore may well succeed in retrieving from the past a part of its long term identity after globalisation.