'M' for magic!

It’s been nearly a century since the passing away of British Architect Robert ‘Fellowes’ Chisholm, yet we (especially Barodians) have a plenty of reasons to remember him even today. One of the pioneers of Indo Saracenic architecture, Robert Chisholm has given Baroda some of its most important landmarks like the Laxmi Vilas Palace, the Nyay Mandir, the Baroda Museum etc. among several others.

In his honor, the Robert ‘Fellowes’ Chisholm lecture was initiated in 2010 by the Indian Institute of Architects, Baroda Chapter. This was then further expanded as a colloquium jointly by the IIA and the ‘Indian Architect & Builder’ magazine. The 2013 Colloquium saw a photography contest, workshop & technology lecture by Dhananjay- Anita Dake and a keynote lecture by Gurjit Singh Matharoo of Matharoo Associates.

Inspite of being unable to attend the technology lecture earlier in the day, I did not wish to miss the keynote lecture at any cost and as it were to turn out I was not the only one to have felt this way. Although not many people (mostly non architecture) recognize him by name, his work speaks for itself as was evident when one of my very senior colleagues asked me in the morning, “are you going to attend today’s lecture by that sardarji, what’s-his-name? Very good projects huh!”

Surely enough, a large volume of students and professionals turned up at the CC Mehta auditorium to hear Gurjit Singh Matharoo talk about his projects and design philosophies. Annoyingly though, sponsor presentations before the keynote lecture took up a lot of time and the crowd grew quite impatient. However this restlessness barely seemed to affect Gurjit Singh, who owned the audience the minute he started his presentation.

Over the last decade, I’ve attended two of his other lectures and his presentation quality (both verbal and visual) has never ceased to amaze me. The opening-contents slide itself managed to grab quite a few eyeballs with listed topics like- The botoxed set, Holy cows, Succulent thighs- juicy breasts- and great legs etc. all rather cleverly yet provocatively titled in accordance to their corresponding projects.

It was all uphill from there and as the audience watched with bated breath Gurjit Singh Matharoo presented one project after another with the deft and skill of a magician for all his projects certainly have the inventiveness, creativity and freshness of a magic act. 

Perhaps the only common factor between most of his projects is the use of concrete as the primary material of construction but it has come into play after intensive research and a lot of questioning into the current ‘warped’ ideas of sustainability including the LEED rating system which unintentionally advocates making a glass box, trapping all the heat inside and then air conditioning it completely (voila!).

Rightfully questioning the current trend in architecture and the need for it to be over the top than its neighbour, Gurjit Singh tries to remain as minimal as possible adhering to his philosophy of ‘when in doubt, reduce; when not in doubt surely reduce!’ This philosophy is also reflected in the kind of budget constraints he has worked under finishing one of the private weekend retreats in as low a budget as Rs 7,00,000/- ( 6 Pounds/ Sq. Ft) 

Unlike most architects who make a design and then try to persuade the clients to see their way, Gurjist Singh Matharoo seems quite flexible and adaptive to the kind of design needs of his clients and on rare occasion even that irrational demand by the client’s Vastu consultants requiring him to alter the design completely.

Through each of his projects, he aims to create design (even cars and vans!) and design elements that could serve as prototypes for future models. Experimenting even at the cost of mistakes, he does not shy away from admitting them and rather than trying to hide them, he highlights them instead!

Quite to the contrary of what Gurjit Singh Matharoo maintains that he does not think too much but rather does his thing and then thinks, his work is living proof of the fact that perhaps the maximum amount of thinking goes into non-thinking and as always it continues to innovate and inspire.