In Conversation with Shankar, Navnath Kanade

It was one of the most memorable and mesmerising mornings full of interesting conversations and cherishing moments with the Kanade Brothers. Ar. Shankar Kanade was honoured with the JK Cement Great Masters award in March 2024. Even though now retired and settled in Nagaj, the legacy of Shankar Kanade continues in his architecture and through the numerous lives he impacted throughout this incredible journey of his. Ar. Navnath Kanade, the practical partner, the eloquent storyteller and the inspiring teacher, joined his brother upon returning from overseas and together they redefined housing typology in Bangalore during the 80s and 90s through their practice, Shilpa Sindoor. “Every material wants to live. It pleads to the architect, please give me a rightful place, so that I’ll be happy. If you don’t, I’ll curse you.” Navnath Sir unfolds the conversation with this powerful quote that he says he and Shankar Sir have always lived by. And so far, the materials have been kind to them. Answering to the query of their design approach, Navnath Sir says, “In most of our housing designs, the courtyard was the starting point, the heart of the house around which the design evolved. It becomes the base level, above or below which, the other levels start emerging. The typical notion of ground, first and second slowly begins to fade away as spaces assume their individual identity.” He further adds,”A house should liberate you. Barring the bedroom and toilet, other spaces do not need to be private. We connected all these spaces via levels so that they begin to appear as one. The living, dining and kitchen are practically one and, in some cases, the dining absorbs the courtyard below,making that a part of it too.” Always a teacher at heart, Shankar Sir fondly interacted with the students. Shankar Sir explained.”I realized the power of seeing in architecture. I would randomly go and see buildings that fascinated me. Learning through seeing became my creative process. The more we see, the more we can visualise.” To this Navnath Sir wittingly added,”sadly today, we don’t look at buildings, our mobiles do! We postpone the “seeing” to later.” He recalls the time when it would take meticulous planning before clicking a single photo owing to the limited and expensive reels. “Perhaps, abundance,” he says, “in more ways than one, has left us confused, in the middle of a vast sea of information while we frantically search for knowledge within it. Scarcity, back in the days, was indeed a blessing.” Further, Shankar Sir questioned to what extent is our current design education holistic? As a student of design, are we equipped to read sculptures carved in the walls of our ancient temples? The presumably dancing ladies on the Belur – Halebid temple, are they really dancing girls or are they in fact ladies made to pose for the sake of it? He emphasizes to the students; how important it is to travel the country and the world to be able to fine read between a static sculpture and a sculpture in motion! Presenting his opinions on the education system, Navnath Sir revered that knowledge gained in college is outsourced- from teachers, books or videos, and absorbed by the students and eventually delivered as is in the exams. It is a test of memory, not of creativity. So how do we change that? Here, he also quoted Charles Correa who had once said, “Don’t transport knowledge as it comes to you, transform it!” The process of transformation, makes you involved, makes you think and that is where creative learning begins. The conversation further coursed a few years back to the Base group. Talking about the Base Group, Navnath Sir reminisces how the late Nikhil Arni was instrumental in getting the group together. Enthused to hear more about architecture, he invited Sanjay Mohe, Edgar Demello, Prem Chandraverkar and others to join our conversations. We would share slides of our recent work, discuss education, travel stories, debate upon contrasting visions, all the while sipping chilled beer, thereby forming the Beer And Slides Evening (B.A.S.E.) group! As the conversation steered towards conclusion, a student raised a question on how we can define good architecture. Shankar Sir answered, “There are a lot of good buildings around us, from outside, but very good architecture. Britishers built huge, magnificent buildings across several Indian cities – Delhi, Kolkata, Mumbai… but they are not good architecture. In contrast, much of our past Hindu or Mughal architecture is actually architecture and less building where the building mass, openings and interior spaces are the outcome of a singular, cohesive process and not as compartmentalised layers. Generally, houses can be seen having a lot of windows. But, if you see in most of our designs, they do not have windows. They have openings, carved out from the mass of the building. And that is where I differentiate between building and architecture.” Navnath Sir concluded by saying, “To simply understand the difference between good architecture and good building, consider the national anthem of India. The impact it has when we read it, is a good building. But, the impact it creates when we sing it, that is good architecture.”