Chasing patterns is exciting; here is one I caught while in HAL Museum with a good combination of sun and the style of the auditorium with contrasting colors …
The city is enjoying good weather after cooling off a bit from pre-monsoon showers good day for a long drive for sure…

For more details:

click here

Calligraphy has a long association with Islam and is less often practiced in the Hindu idiom. But Parameshwar has done a fine job of it, demonstrating a skilled command over the use of his nibs and pens.

There were several works on display, mostly done in red ink, and they have been chosen from eight series, starting from mythology, with thems such as Ganesh, Shiva, Narasimha, Om and so on.

The vowels of the Devanagari script are also treated in a variety of designs and forms:

The forms later evolved into more of abstraction, as in this rendering:

The “Tree” series sees the artist influenced by the flora that surrounds him as an icon of various forms of faith, and the imagination of the trees led him to depict various birds, as well. The Benign Perch series of trees was inspired by a visit to Biligiri Rangana Hills in Karnataka.

The artist learnt the art from Professor S V Pendse, and was inducted to the art of sketching by A K Rama Varma. He is the Director of the Kalahita Art Foundation, Hyderabad.

Ethos Art Gallery is a recent gallery that has come up in South Bangalore, which has a dearth of really good spaces to display art. Ethos was set up by Nagaraj Kapini, and Pranoti Nagaraj; both of them are practising architects. Pranoti, however, has created several murals and artworks, and has been interested in art and design as well as architecture.

The gallery assesses the works of upcoming artists and if it meets their standards, displays the work of the artist for 90 days, for which there is no charge; the payment is a commission on the sale of the piece.

There is a sense of space and leisure about the gallery, which is a house that has been creatively converted by the architects. The pictures are well-hung and lighted, and what impressed me was that, rather than cloister the art in the indoors, Ethos has an open wall where even passers-by can see and appreciate the works of art. This kind of inside-outside viewability is definitely an innovation in this city.

I do hope Ethos goes on to become one of the spaces in the southern part of the city where one can go to look at good art.

For further details,

Their email id is

ethosart@gmail.com

and their telephone numbers are :

26630706, 32524545/6.

Unfortunately, their website at

www.ethosartdesigns.com

does not seem to be working.

The pot was not there to provide a home for birds (in fact, I would say that pigeons and crows rate as pests and are not encouraged there) and it was upended in a net, so that the opening of the pot faced down. I could not find anyone who could give me a reason why it was suspended from the roof of the bus station. Any explanations, anyone?

Since one entire wall is glass, the afternoon/evening sun pours in through it.

This is all very well for cities in cold countries where sunshine is a rare commodity, and buildings need to be heated. But here, where the mercury yesterday was at 34 degrees Celsius, it meant a huge volume of space where things were very uncomfortable.

Here are the staff, who have to sit facing the hot and intense sunlight throughout the afternoon:

The customers also have to sit in the sun, but at least they have their backs to it..and they are there for far less time.

The Airtel office is air-conditioned; I can also guess at the amount of energy and electricity it must be taking to cool down the space heated by the glass design of the building.

The architect who designed Jal Bhavan (it’s the building in the dead centre of that map, next to that “pleated” building) has said that glass is a bad material for architecture in India; it heats up the inside of the buildings, which then have to be cooled down at enormous cost in terms of electricity/energy.

Having been in the Airtel office, I would tend to agree.

If this were modern art, I’d forgive the designer for going all over the place in terms of linear logic. I’d also forgive him (or her) for trying to make a 3-D puzzle for the bored passer-by.

I do hope I’m not sounding over-critical on an issue that could be a creative detour that wants to have an identity of its own. Creative expression, perhaps, that breaks the mould of narrow, limiting thinking. A bold departure, from design that has predictable guidelines.

In case you haven’t seen this building, it’s half-way down St Mark’s Road – at the turning into Vittal Mallya Road.

I’d really like someone to give me a perspective on this.

Here is a famous landmark building on MG Road getting reconstructed, the old structure was quite stylish as seen by the arches of designer corners that once used to hold tapering wooden roof….

Most staircases I know are NOT wheelchair-friendly. Some are…with awkward ramps and ugly railings….

But here’s a fantastic set of stairs where the wheelchair access just blends into the steps themselves, and is so unobtrusive….

I don’t know who designed this…but what a neat,elegant design it is! Definitely shows lateral thinking…

But what really intrigued me was the incredible variety of architectural styles on the campus. I documented some of the buildings….there are 26 of them spread over the campus.

Here’s the newest of the buildings, where the Communications Centre is housed, with a state-of-the-art recording studio

:

And here are two other buildings, one reminiscent of Egypt, and the other a brand-new concept:

Here are some more of the buildings that I saw…

Here’s another style of architecture which is now rather common with IT buldings in this city; the facade is almost entirely glass, with the orange pillars. You can see the Hosur Road traffic reflected in the glass of the new building!

This building, that houses the Bangalore One offices, is a type of “eco-friendly” architecture, with bricks instead of steel and glass making up the facade:

This building is called the “Terminal” building, our guide told us, because it resembles an airport terminal; it contains a food court amongst other things:

Here’s a closeup of the Pyramid Building; the shape is not integral to the building, but is only the framework. That is, the building within is only contained within the pyramid.

Here is one building which is supposed to have been built along the lines of the Sydney Opera House; but the paraboloid structure is one of the most economical and strong ways of constructing a building, and one fairly old building in Bangalore already exists, which uses this….and it is the old crematorium opposite the Lalbagh Gardens just off Double Road (Kengal Hanumanthiah Road) and Hosur Road Junction.

The Library and Amphitheatre are housed in buildings which are more conventional:

This is one of the food courts, with a conventional flat roof, though with a lot of modern glass for the facade:

And here’s a conventional structure, that houses the Hostel for Trainees, reflected in the glass of a more recent architectural idiom:

And here is yet another building, with the 9-hole golf course in front of it:

The variety of architectural styles was truly mind-boggling, and one had to keep adjusting one’s references as one travelled around the campus. Will a separate, distinct “Infosys Style” of architecture evolve from all these different buildings? Only time will tell!

With many thanks to Mr N Chandra Sekhar, who did a superb job of taking us around the campus.