OXLAEYIndia: Chaos Made Visible
Chaos. That’s what you see all around you when you arrive in a major Indian city like Bangalore. Yes, there are cows wandering the streets… as are people, bicycles, cars and carts. Especially in the last few years, the population has grown so fast, the Indian mega-cities are just popping from the gut with housing, buildings and streets.
But it is a good place to live? A human place to live? Is it sustainable?
While I was in Bangalore, I had the good fortune to meet Bijoy Ramachandran. He, together with his wife, run an architectural firm called hundredhands. He is a light, trying to make a small change to India’s architecture – make buildings which use local materials, take advantage of the local climate, express an Indian soul – rather than the same steel and glass copy cutters seen anywhere else in the world.
Bijoy took me on a quick tour of the city – some of the bad… but also some of the good!
Watch the entire interview for more details on hundredhand’s approach and aspirations to change India, one building at a time.
