Why build out of context?: Infosys Campus, Mysore- an opportunity missed
Architects and urban designers in India (and many others interested in cities and design) have lamented the paucity of innovative urban architecture in India. So little of what we build in India makes a statement and reflects excellence. And what does, sadly, recreates a Western aesthetic with no reference to our own culture, identity and certainly no relation to the local context in which it is built. This is worrying not only from the point of view of continuity and identity, but from the sustainability perspective as well.
So when I reached the Infosys Campus outside Mysore that I has been excited about, I was in for a shock. I was there to participate in the India Urban Conference, a mega event to bring together practitioners and researchers to ponder on India’s ongoing urbanisation and related issues. I had seen pictures of the glass dome and had heard from many about the fantastic facilities on the campus created by N R Narayana Murthy as a training centre par excellence. I was curious to see what the rest of the campus was like, and I was really excited to go to Mysore, one of India’s prettiest and most culturally rich cities, of which I had some vivid memories from a childhood trip.
We landed up after a five hour drive from Bangalore Airport to confront one of the most manicured, pretentious and copycat set of architectural construction I have ever seen. An hour-long security heck to enter this haven and the presence of guards ‘watching’ you at ever corner did not increase our pleasure or experience in any way.
To add to it, I was a part of the organising team of the ‘City in Public Culture’ sub-theme in the event. Our group was, therefore, in the most amusing position of emphasizing the value of culture, context, identity and heritage in mainstream city planning and governance in this most uninspiring setting possible.
Don’t get me wrong, the campus reflected supreme excellence in terms of its organization, maintenance of facilities, hospitality, cleanliness, landscaping and what have you. The rooms were functionally designed and there wasn’t anything tangible to complain about. The Infosys trainees seems happy. They had a pedestrianised campus with great recreational options, good food and accomodation and plenty of greenery.
Parthenon plus Byzantine Dome- everyone who walked by had a shocked disbelieving look!
The problem is it could have been ANYWHERE in the world! As one of the speakers in our conference said, the bar of Mysore Sandal soap found in our rooms was the ONLY reminder of where we were.
I cant help feel that this was truly an opportunity missed for a company like Infosys and a man like Mr Murthy, whom we know to be benevolent, well-travelled, patriotic and sincerely interested in contributing to the work of nation-building. A campus like this could have proved that India could deliver excellent services while being rooted in its own culture and context. It didn’t even try!
Interpreted classical meets mundane modern- what is this trying to say?
Often photographed- the famed Infosys Dome. Some rude people called it the stegosaurus..not me!
There were some pleasing spaces for sure
Let me not even get into what the place looked like. There are pictures here to tell the tale. I’m aware my opinions are very much that of an architect, but I’m hoping my views might get others to also dwell on the importance of building, working, living, thinking in context! Of course, this was hammered in when we took a quick drive through Mysore city on our way out. What a fantastic visual treat of greenery, heritage structures and the modern all more or less harmoniously co-existing…and what a contrast from the campus we had come from!
Take a look below 🙂 And these are regular institutional and residential structures we didn’t even go to the famed Mysore Palace and Tipu Sultan’s fort, etc…..
For those interested in heritage, here’s a video of Mysore’s art deco market…
IN CONTRAST- Colonial, Indo Saracenic and Medeival built form was evident through Mysore. This is the Corporation building
Corporation Office- front
- The Indian Heritage Cities Network (IHCN) has taken up for restoration this wonderful bungalow originally built as a Professor’s home in the Mysore University campus in the early 1800s. This will also be their office!
Posted on November 22, 2011, in Urban Planning & Policy. Bookmark the permalink. 4 Comments.
ramblinginthecity 
All voices need their space for an all round development. The predominant voice in all our discourses has become that of commerce – others just have to shout louder. It is good to see that at least the whispers have started and hopefully become louder.
Yes, the worrying influence of money in development was a BIG discussion at the conference. was heartening, but then the money types were not present really and what would we do without them. IIHS, one of the organisers has been heavily funded by the Nilekani Foundation, as has Yale’s South Asia Institute, also one of the organisers. I’m hoping there is some way to sensitize the rich guys….
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I find it funny when modernist architects, whose stock in trade is to import the rather poor aesthetics and climate unfriendly design patterns of Northern European architecture from the second half of the 20th century, complain about the lack of contextuality of neo-Classical styles. If by context you mean references/resemblance to existing historical buildings, you should have seen the Lalit Mahal Palace in Mysore (now a hotel). With its central dome fronted by a colonnade, it has a striking familial resemblance to the Infosys Education Centre.
And why are the Indo-Saracenic and Art-Deco styles you talk glowingly about so contextual ? Indo-Saracenic is nothing but Gothic Architecture with a few local references thrown in. Gothic is the style of Europe’s great cathedrals. The local references were usually elements of Islamic Architecture such as the bulbous domes. So a style born of the fusion of a European architecture with a Persian sensibility is contextual, but this building with its more rigidly classical aesthetic is not!
As for Art-Deco (not that the Market visible in the linked video looked Art-Deco to me but anyway) Art-Deco, with its cousin Art-Noveau, was refined in the ateliers of Brussels and Paris before being exported to warmer climes like Miami and Bombay. So it is as much an import as any of the other styles.
‘–1–
I find it funny when modernist architects, whose stock in trade is to import the rather poor aesthetics and climate unfriendly design patterns of Northern European architecture from the second half of the 20th century, complain about the lack of contextuality of neo-Classical styles. If by context you mean references/resemblance to existing historical buildings, you should have seen the Lalit Mahal Palace in Mysore (now a hotel). With its central dome fronted by a colonnade, it has a striking familial resemblance to the Infosys Education Centre.
And why are the Indo-Saracenic and Art-Deco styles you talk glowingly about so contextual ? Indo-Saracenic is nothing but Gothic Architecture with a few local references thrown in. Gothic is the style of Europe’s great cathedrals. The local references were usually elements of Islamic Architecture such as the bulbous domes. So a style born of the fusion of a European architecture with a Persian sensibility is contextual, but this building with its more rigidly classical palette is not! Doesn’t sound logically consistent to me
As for Art-Deco (not that the Market visible in the linked video looked Art-Deco to me but anyway) Art-Deco, with its cousin Art-Noveau, was refined in the ateliers of Brussels and Paris before being exported to warmer climes like Miami and Bombay. So it is as much an import as any of the other styles.