Minimalist Architect

What is it about minimalism which makes so much sense?

• Is it the absence of chaos?
• Is it an opportunity to be with what is absolutely essential & required?
• or is it a mindset. An approach to simplify life?
• Is it just fashionable statement or an Avant Garde moment to declare?

Maybe it is all of the above or it is a choice which makes (can be at any stage of life). But one thing has become quite clear to me as an architect that minimalism looks like an idealists approach (given the chaos of things that we are subjected to in our everyday life), but it is a tough call to make it real. Our hole life is revolving around capitalist movements and our highly consumer driven surrounding, so knowingly we are part of it from early on in our life (this does exclude certain section of people).

Over 10 years of my architectural design practice I have been trying to do what works best for the project, the client and to me (do notice the hierarchical order of choice that I have allowed over the years). So as an architect from India my first thoughts are not about less or more but about a good composition of elements & facts, features, etc. Most often it is DONE.

DONE is a way which has a little bit of this and a little bit of that to it which at the end is less as per the project requirement but more from many perspective.

So, the eternal question arise;

                      "What is more?"
                      "How much is less?"
                      "How much of it is enough? / When can we say that it is enough?"
                      "Is it already enough?"

Then I am always reminded of Mies-van-de-Rohe and his famous words

                      "LESS IS MORE"

My practice has been trying to explore this question only at a visually appealing level / aesthetic level, but now I have come to conclude that it is a mix of three main elements, which are;

1. AESTHETIC (Appeal)
2. Choice to decide upon the extent of less or more
3. & a pragmatic decision about the essential.

Even after saying this it is just this much that we need to focus on?

I feel NO.

Its going to take much more than that. With numerous products available in the market locally & globally the tough call will remain in making the decision which is well evaluated and balanced.


NOTE:
The thoughts in this article did arise when me and my team at SDM Architects started working on a School Design Competition in Africa, which was looking for support in terms of funds and design. Moments / opportunities like these puts you in a state to re-think and re-position your take about spending the hard earned construction money which an NGO has managed to raise for getting a basic school infrastructure for children who have bare minimum for there everyday life.