The starting point was rather uninspiring. We shifted to the Nanded City flat only as a stop-gap arrangement when Pranav, Amruta and Nishant came over from USA, and this flat was ready and in our possession. We were all too aware of it being in the wilderness, what with only a handful of people living in the large 700 acre Township under construction, and the distance from the main gate to the apartment building was a whooping 3 kms. There was no public transport within the Township area, and we had only one car - I had sold off my own car when Pranav went to US leaving his car behind.
Nanded City at the time had absolutely no facilities except for water & electricity, and you had to bring almost everything from outside. Fortunately, Pranav & Amruta, having lived in Jacksonville for the last six years, were used to a similar set-up. There was also the small convenience shopping lot near the apartment block with one grocery shop, one selling milk and milk-products, and the third one selling ice-cream and coffee. The fourth shop was taken up by a curtain-maker-indicating that the people had just started coming in because the first thing you need in a new flat-more than anything else-is curtains for privacy. And nowhere else this was more important than Nanded city where most of the flats were designed to have a good look at each other's bedrooms. Incidentally nobody in India knows that architects have anything to do with housing-no builder ever mentions the name of his architect in his advertisements -so it is not really surprising that people are not aware of mistakes made by the architects in design.
As a long-standing teacher in architecture, every year I have delivered a series of lectures on the aspects of privacy in design of housing, and have hoped to make an impact in the future design of housing through its implementation-but students seldom listen to your lectures anyway. Then again, the major advantage in architectural profession is that you never have to live or work in the buildings you design. For most of the buildings that you design, you only need to have a few photographs-mostly taken from outside-to impress your next set of clients-who are typically builders-and interested in the external visual image of the building to help sell it to gullible buyers-they would never even dream of living in them.
So a flat buyer has to fend for himself dealing with all the commissions & omissions of the architect-but while you can manage the interior spaces & most of your old furniture in your new flat, the curtains have to be tailor-made for the windows of the new apartment. Moreover the typical design of the flats in Nanded city-designed for good views of your neighbour's bedrooms, made provision of curtains almost mandatory.
Nanded City at the time had absolutely no facilities except for water & electricity, and you had to bring almost everything from outside. Fortunately, Pranav & Amruta, having lived in Jacksonville for the last six years, were used to a similar set-up. There was also the small convenience shopping lot near the apartment block with one grocery shop, one selling milk and milk-products, and the third one selling ice-cream and coffee. The fourth shop was taken up by a curtain-maker-indicating that the people had just started coming in because the first thing you need in a new flat-more than anything else-is curtains for privacy. And nowhere else this was more important than Nanded city where most of the flats were designed to have a good look at each other's bedrooms. Incidentally nobody in India knows that architects have anything to do with housing-no builder ever mentions the name of his architect in his advertisements -so it is not really surprising that people are not aware of mistakes made by the architects in design.
As a long-standing teacher in architecture, every year I have delivered a series of lectures on the aspects of privacy in design of housing, and have hoped to make an impact in the future design of housing through its implementation-but students seldom listen to your lectures anyway. Then again, the major advantage in architectural profession is that you never have to live or work in the buildings you design. For most of the buildings that you design, you only need to have a few photographs-mostly taken from outside-to impress your next set of clients-who are typically builders-and interested in the external visual image of the building to help sell it to gullible buyers-they would never even dream of living in them.
So a flat buyer has to fend for himself dealing with all the commissions & omissions of the architect-but while you can manage the interior spaces & most of your old furniture in your new flat, the curtains have to be tailor-made for the windows of the new apartment. Moreover the typical design of the flats in Nanded city-designed for good views of your neighbour's bedrooms, made provision of curtains almost mandatory.
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