A Moment in Architecture

About the Book:

A Moment in Architecture is personal statement - a collection of some moments that architecture has given me. I write as one who has been touched by some ideas inherent in buildings. This in not an analytical professional view of architecture but one that comes from the heart. I have nothing to prove in the book, no hypothesis, no aim in investigating buildings from any given point of view. The practical, structural, historical, symbolic or inspirational qualities of architecture - if they do appear in the text - suggest merely something of how an architect views these things; How, in twenty-five years of looking at buildings, architecture has influenced the life of one architect.

I am grateful to architecture for all it has done for me, for providing me my window to the world. The book is a return offering to architecture.

For the uninitiated, looking at Indian architecture is like viewing a forest. Obscured by the profusion, at first the eye sees only dense vegetation, in a state of confusion, conflict and chaos. Only when the focus narrows to a single tree, a shrub, a blade of grass, does the forest's variety become discernible and an order emerge. Behind the unseemly mess of an Indian city, behind Mughal portals and inside stepwells, in old mountain houses and dark temple interiors, lies another picture of Indian Architecture. The author of this book, an architect himself, takes the reader on a personal journey through its labyrinths, providing insights into structures that dot our lives. He casts his gaze - sometimes lovingly, sometimes despairingly - on buildings as diverse as the stone citadel of Jaisalmer, Rashrtapati Bhavan and the facades of Greater Kailash, on a stepwell at Adalaj, a Corbusier church, a Frank Lloyd Wright house. In so doing, he lays bare ideas and facts about these buildings, while reflection on the sensory and meditative qualities of experiencing each of them. Written from the vantagepoint of a practicing professional, the book is an intimate autobiography of architecture.

About the Author:

A Delhi-based practicing architect, Gautam Bhatia graduated in Fine Arts and did his post-graduation in Architecture at the University of Pennsylvania. He is the recipient of several national and international awards for his architectural work and writings.