Practice of architecture in India has always followed a traditional, feudal system. SFA is the first one in India that works predominantly through the Internet. Sabu Francis provides the details ...
License to work
Architects working in India require to have a licence from the COA (Council of Architects) which is a centralised licensing body. The license is mandatory for producing any work that will be officially designated as being the work of the architect in question. People who work under other architects need not have any formal license or even qualifications.
However, in case if employees do have a COA license,then they are as legally liable for their works and actions as their employers. The COA gives licenses to practice as per some pre-qualifications, which primarily looks for a graduation from one of the many colleges of architecture in the country.
Architectural courses typically are conducted as a 5 year under-graduate or diploma program with 3 to 6 months of compulsory internship. Some colleges emphasize on the final year thesis, whereas some consider the grades obtained by the students over all the years in study in order to determine the overall grades. In any case, most architectural firms in India are not particularly impressed by the grades that are obtained by a student (which speaks volumes regarding the nature of education here!). Instead they base their opinion on the 'portfolio' that the student carries with him/her. Some firms (like Sabu Francis & Associates) are also curious about the thesis and viva-voce and other original (even theoretical) works produced by the student.
The Process of Practice
The works produced by any architect are heavily regulated by the statutory building bye-laws that govern the architecture in that region. These bye-laws vary from city to city. However, by and large, in their kernel they are still the crude form of design regulations that were handed down from the times of the British. Often they are policing rules in order to prevent misuse and exploitation of the region. The bye-laws are 'reactive' and not 'pro-active'
For most building bye-laws there are methods of circumventing the negative effects produced by the bye-law. Most of the well established architects attain their position because they happen to extract just that much more while interpreting the bye-laws! The impact of bye-laws on the actual building-scape cannot be over emphasized. This is in stark contrast to the academic environment of college, where the students work in a haze of theoretical, idealistic situations.
However, as India is a developing country - which by definition is continuously in the process of doing more and more works - there is ample scope for intense thinking on architecture to come through. People think that this is not possible. It is. The sheer numbers of works that are being done itself churns out a lot of thinking process. The path to good architecture is littered with architects who gave up half way. Persistence, however is rewarding and any piece of good architecture in India should be many times its worth when compared to equivalent works outside.
There are no clear 'isms' or methodologies that architects adopt while designing here. The country in the current form is only 50 years old - just a flash in the pan in terms of history. It is but natural that the designers have not been able to clearly identify themselves with any particular school of thought. Even the ancient hindu approach to designing using the 'Vastu-Purusha Mandala' does not cut any ice with many young firms (including Sabu Francis & Associates) since the context itself has changed so drastically. International movements like 'post-modernism' do seep into India. But they come in a rarified form -- which may be an advantage, since a lot of the hype associated with such movements get filleted out before they end up here.
Attitudes
Compared to the West, there is an 'attitude' problem in India. Or one could say, that the attitudes displayed by people are usually quite different than what could be expected from an educated society. Many of the attitudes are mutant remanants of old feudal systems.
In most offices, the setup is extremely bureaucratic: Work that could easily be done by an officer is kept pending for the 'peon' (junior office attendant) to tackle. The past association with poverty by the elders of the people who are our business associates, leads to much corruption. So even the 'peon' will ask for a bribe to get some trivial work done. He feels insecure since he has seen his father (or grandfather or...) suffer earlier.
If there is a choice between immediate but low value gains vis-a-vis long term large gains after short term setbacks, most people would adopt the former stance. People do not want short term setbacks under any circumstances; even if there is a reasonable assurance that in the long term the other approach would be much more profitable. The reason is that people see the society as being very fluid: They feel the context which may ensure long term profitability may itself change with time. For example, the ruling government may change or some useful policy may get withdrawn, etc.
People therefore cling on to time tested, labour intensive devices. In most architectural offices, computers are used only for very limited applications. The traditional pyramidcal structure with the chief architect at the top, and all the rest below him in a triangular heap is still the main model for an architectural office. Due to this form, the architectural firms do not grow beyond say 15 to 20 people at the most. There are very few architectural firms in India employing people around 80 - 120 and all of them have broken away from the pyramidical structure.
(In the middle of all this, Sabu Francis & Associates is striking out another path entirely. The office is fully computerized, with the computerization being done from the grass roots level: The technical data is structured around some basic taxonomy developed by Mr. Sabu Francis and uses a software developed in house. The firm is also small, but without a traditonal pyramidcal structure. The end result is that SFA handles almost 3 to 4 times the amount of works handled by other offices of equivalent staff strength. SFA therefore is successful in implementing the traditional resistance to massive growth but at the same time it cuts out the bureaucracy and small office gossip to a large extent.)
There are some positive aspects about the 'Indian' attitude too. Good family values, the inclination to listen to people at a personal level are often tools to get things done here. People here are generally sensitive to human welfare, and any approach in that direction often opens doors. India does not have a throwaway culture. For example, housewives usually carry their own shopping bags to the market. Any plastic bag that does get picked up is re-used time and again. In terms of architectural design, such an attitude comes in handy when ecological issues are involved. It makes sense to the approving authorities, since they have actually experienced such issues at a personal level.. Unfortunately, the computer revolution that is invading India (and SFA!) is often contrary to this attitude, with its built in inclination towards obsolescence!
Challenges
What then are the challenges to an architect working in India? In the current wave of liberalisation, there is a strong soul searching going on amongst many architectural (and other) firms. There is a need to establish a clear identity. Many new management concepts which has been taught to the offspring of traditional moneyed businessmen has opened up a new set of fresh, young clients who are willing to experiment.
The economic liberalisation is affecting the government too: For example, the railways. Konkan Railway Corporation (a client of SFA) is a fledgling government sponsored corporation that has built a railway line over one of the toughest terrain in the world; the west coast of the Indian peninsula, in a record time. (It was featured in one of the episodes of BBC's Tomorrow's World) The government has also opened up Internet access from India, which many firms (including SFA) are using like ducks taking to water.
If you specifically look at SFA, in this context; the challenges are many: Sabu Francis & Associates believes in having a healthy mix of pure architectural research along with down to earth, (earthy?) practice. The two can never get isolated in this firm. In 1991, the chief got the JIIA award for excellence in architectural research for developing a unique taxonomy in architecture. This taxonomy is fully implemented in all the works done by the firm and it forms the backdrop to the architectural practice.
Mr. Sabu Francis has now implemented SFA as an office that predominantly works over the internet. SFA is trying to retain the freshness of a young, dynamic firm which is always in control but having the capability of handling even complex jobs. One distinct advantage of putting the office itself over the internet is that SFA can have a choice of architects who can work for the company. Employment could be given to promising young architects from all over the world instead of being limited to the crop of fresh graduates from the nearby schools.
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