Urban Curtain
Years of involvement in architecture and many trips to various parts of the globe began an observation of repetitive patterns on building facades spread everywhere - all sides, all corners, all angles of any and every city. They feel monstrous and intimidating from outside, but comforting and pleasant from inside. They question the unique identity of the place, but infuse an uplifted international character to the city. The series of urban curtain is a capture of this architectural language as a question to the community.
Post world war era saw a new style of architecture we all know as 'Modernism'. The architects wanted to create architecture that was free from past, and efficient like a machine. The invention of materials like concrete, glass and steel that allowed buildings to go higher and higher, to an extent that going higher was seen an expression of power and dominance. Technology innovations of computers and design softwares made copy-paste architecture of high-rise buildings very simple and efficient for everyone. The world discovered new 'urban curtain', the curtain that was spreading fast and lining every city of most countries, the curtain that made the city modern, powerful and most of all - global.
The photographs in this collection portray the Urban Fabric in isolation. Free from colours, habitation, transport networks and heritage penetrations, they question the global nature of today's architecture. The spread of this curtain of steel, concrete, glass, aluminium, cement is viral. Today's generation see it as a symbol of being up-market. Does not-being-same-as-all mean being vernacular? Does being modern mean loosing local identity? Do our future cities will all be the same? These black, white and grey images with strong impeccable repetitive patterns form a pitch for today's architects, to question the design that will shape the future of our urban development.
Post world war era saw a new style of architecture we all know as 'Modernism'. The architects wanted to create architecture that was free from past, and efficient like a machine. The invention of materials like concrete, glass and steel that allowed buildings to go higher and higher, to an extent that going higher was seen an expression of power and dominance. Technology innovations of computers and design softwares made copy-paste architecture of high-rise buildings very simple and efficient for everyone. The world discovered new 'urban curtain', the curtain that was spreading fast and lining every city of most countries, the curtain that made the city modern, powerful and most of all - global.
The photographs in this collection portray the Urban Fabric in isolation. Free from colours, habitation, transport networks and heritage penetrations, they question the global nature of today's architecture. The spread of this curtain of steel, concrete, glass, aluminium, cement is viral. Today's generation see it as a symbol of being up-market. Does not-being-same-as-all mean being vernacular? Does being modern mean loosing local identity? Do our future cities will all be the same? These black, white and grey images with strong impeccable repetitive patterns form a pitch for today's architects, to question the design that will shape the future of our urban development.