Bijoy Ramachandran founded Hundredhands in 2003 with his partner Sunitha Kondur, and currently serves as the Design Chair for the post-graduate program at BMS College of Architecture in Bengaluru. Ramachandran has a Master’s degree in Architecture and Urbanism from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and a Bachelor’s degree from BMS College of Architecture; he has also attended the Glenn Murcutt masterclass in Sydney.

Before returning to India and establishing his practice, he worked on a range of master plans and urban design projects with Koetter, Kim & Associates in Boston and Cooper, Robertson & Partners in New York.

In addition to practicing architecture, he has also produced two documentary films: one on the celebrated Indian architect Sri B.V. Doshi and also ‘Architecture and the City: A Bangalore Perspective’, on the topic of design practice in Bangalore.

The talk ‘The Afterlife’ will be held at Arthshila Ahmedabad on Saturday, 02 July 2022 at 6.30 pm.

About the Talk:

It is compelling to consider the inherent promise of the unbuilt project, especially competition proposals. The ones usually celebrated as a visionary are those produced either as individual speculations or early project proposals yet to begin their journey to realization. These projects, usually symbolized by a provocative first sketch, a representation of a singular vision, are often upheld as the purest expression of architectural ambition. They are seen as ‘unadulterated’ visions of what could be, revealing an architect’s position with regards to the abstract nature of a commission and holding more value than the proposals which have had to engage with the clients, the site, and other contingencies over time. They promise newness – unencumbered by these shackles, free to imagine provocative new ways of inhabitation.

It is the shared and negotiated vision, coming as the result of finding consensus, managing budgets, and spending an adequate amount of time in conversation and contemplation, that is of greater value than the pristine, unmediated projections of so many competition schemes and hypothetical propositions. Like David Chipperfield says, one is hoping to engage in this ‘conspiracy of circumstance and participants’. We must move away from the seductive notion of the creation of architecture as a form of immaculate conception and celebrate it as the result of negotiation and ‘reflection in action’. A form of shared authorship and the outcome of a ‘scenius’. The provocation is the start of this conversation and not, in my mind, an end in itself. I am a lot more interested in its afterlife.

Two competition entries, one built and the other unbuilt will be presented to discuss this hypothesis.

Bijoy Ramachandran founded Hundredhands in 2003 with his partner Sunitha Kondur, and currently serves as the Design Chair for the post-graduate program at BMS College of Architecture in Bengaluru. Bijoy has a Master’s degree in Architecture and Urbanism from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and a Bachelor’s degree from BMS College of Architecture; he has also attended the Glenn Murcutt masterclass in Sydney.

The talk ‘The Afterlife’ will be held at Arthshila Ahmedabad on Saturday, 02 July 2022 at 6.30 pm.