(previously published in Buildotech, April 2010) Himanshu Burte Buildings can be built well without being carefully crafted. If they are crafted with care, however, they often transcend their gross physicality and become a kind of second nature. The caring may be about people or the planet, but it also has to be about building, for it finds its form there. The architecture of the late Joseph Allen Stein (who was based in New Delhi) over the second half of the 20^th century exemplifies what building with care can achieve. Ashok B Lall, is among those architects who worked with him and learnt Stein’s approach to putting together to crafting excellently detailed buildings on the drawing board, and then on site. In his third decade of independent practice, Lall is now recognized as an important practitioner of a more ecologically and socially responsible approach to architecture than common. Like most thoughtful architects who began practice in an independent India modernizing on the Western model, Lall has been inspired by traditional architectural values in the country. In particular, he has been attentive to the way traditional architecture responds to climate, topography and the opportunities offered by different building materials. Like Stein, however, Lall is equally curious about the possibilities current technologies and materials offer for his purposes. Principles and their interpretation In Lall’s architecture, the rigour of bioclimatic design, and of building well and finely, come together in creative solutions that also connect to contemporary design values. ‘The challenge is to formulate basic design principles and then create a language that has a rooted vibrancy’ says Lall. ‘The principles are not to be treated as dogma. They do get dissolved sometimes in the design decisions you make- which is good! There is always some looseness in following them, and the application is not mechanical. For instance, the quality of light I try to create is not always determined by some strict principle like ‘keep out sun at 10 in the morning’. The experiential aspect is important in itself’. For Lall, thus, the practice of a sustainable approach is still a practice of architecture understood as a craft involving finesse. This is particularly evident in the house he has designed for himself, the Indian Institute of Health Management and Research (IIHMR), Jaipur, as well as Sehgal Foundation, Gurgaon. The recently completed Sehgal Foundation, Gurgaon uses simple old principles and ideas, but in new interpretations. Lall has developed a fresh look for this project using two old ideas: shading and screens (jalis). Lall has solved the perpetual aesthetic problem of the chhajja (sunshade) innovatively. Nylon fabric cut in a long sail-like shape is stretched across a sleek but sensuous metal framework that travels across all storeys. The shape of the fabric is such that it blocks the sun from unwanted angles (especially summer) while allowing it in when needed (in winter). When repeated across the entire façade, the array of these light weathershades counterpoints the sobriety of the Dholpur stone clad masses in a fresh way. The sensuosness of the fabric shape is taken up in other details including the apple-like cutout in what would have been an RCC slab over the courtyard. Social sustainability   The social aspect of sustainability is important to Lall. It expresses itself in two ways: one, the economic support he seeks to provide to local crafts and materials in certain projects, and two, the cultural continuities he tries to build between traditional and modern aesthetics specifically through the use of ornament. Both ways often come together in the same decisions. In the design of IIHMR (a project he won in competition and was built in the early 1990s), Lall decided to use materials from within a 30 km radius of the site as far as possible. His team identified a beautiful pink stone quarried locally to be used in load bearing walls, and also discovered a local capacity for good work in ferrocement. With the help of Mahendra Raj, the structural consultant, they were able to convince the client to build a load bearing structure which reduced the use of capital and energy intensive steel while providing more work to local masons. Similarly, Lall’s office developed ferrocement jalis as shading devices which employed local craft skills while also incorporating a traditional architectural element into a contemporary building. Lall’s approach thus gives a culturally acceptable form to the somewhat radical values of ecological and social sustainability. This is a crucial achievement. Social and ecological responsibility are at the core of the idea of sustainability as an orienting ideal. But it is at the cultural level that we will succeed or fail in moving towards this ideal in a significant way. Cultural values drive architecture in any age through the ‘look’, the materials, and the details that most people find attractive. Developing an attractive aesthetic out of the demands and opportunities of thinking sustainably is thus important. Only when people find a sustainable architecture satisfying as an expression of their cultural values, would it become a mainstream approach. Lall’s contribution can be considered best within this perspective. In the projects mentioned above we can directly see a conversation between traditional architectural values and contemporary technological possibilities. Lall attempts to subject both to critical examination founded upon the basic sciences of sustainability- whether climatology or energy studies. At the same time, a spirit of invention and of the creatively fashioned phrase, attends upon his design process especially at the level of detail. Challenges for the sustainability agenda So what does Lall see as the major challenges for sustainable architecture in India today? Lall believes that 3 interlinked forces are driving us towards a less sustainable model of development. One is urbanization which because of the shortage of space, sometimes does not allow us to use more sustainable older ways of doing things. Two, the market economy, which encourages us to use materials on the basis of monetary cost, even if the real ecological cost is high. And three, the tendency of developing economies and societies like ours to mimic the West- as in the irrational use of glass curtain walls- whatever the ecological or social cost. As a practitioner, even if also a critical thinker, Lall naturally sees the pressing need for all kinds of innovation. But his is not a product driven view of innovation (though he identifies gaps at that level too: for instance, he sees a great market for an external shading device for windows that can be operated from inside the building). He believes we need to find ‘ways of doing things which do not disempower people, do not destabilize societies, and construct new processes of gaining wealth and knowledge’. Lall believes that a large proportion of developmental problems can be best solved with a low-capital intensive, more empowering process of innovation. This kind of innovation is already being practiced by a range of NGOs for instance in many rural areas. Perhaps Lall’s own work can be located in an ‘intermediate’ zone he says lies between the more open approach above and the more closed approach that results in capital intensive, high technological innovation which concentrates wealth and knowledge. Lall’s work emphasizes the value that waits to be tapped through innovation in this ‘intermediate’ zone.