Art and Architecture: A true happily ever after

Ranna Parikh talks about the marriage of art and architecture

Walter Gropious had famously said, “Architecture begins where engineering ends.” And I couldn’t agree more because everyone has their own visual perception, insight and skill.

The sensitivity that an architect/ designer has is developed on a whole new tangent, and that enhances the spatial characteristics of an engineered structure. My journey as an architect began when the dominance of doctors and engineers were at a peak and, back then, choosing a designer’s approach was lesser known of and also looked upon as futile. Art was a celebrated form while design had a lot of multi-layered apprehensions and, thus, it wouldn’t be wrong to say, architects became the matchmakers for art and architecture, and took responsibility for their “happily ever after”. The love story did not have a very beautiful start, with both practices full of themselves or each constantly trying to overpower the other. But gradually there was a paradigm shift leading to cooperation, and happy compromises unfolded.

It is believed that the ones who start living together start to look a lot alike, and I feel in the marriage of art and architecture, not only do they start coexisting and correlating, they become inseparable in the process. Of course, there are issues and conflicts every once in a while, whether the blues and reds work fine or does the old sculpture needs to have a refurbished shine to fit into the dine. But I reckon, consistency and commitment leads to beautiful creations reflecting a design journey, each being one of its kind and reflecting its time. The narrative has various struggles, differences and even dramatic disintegration of the love they represent, but it comes together through various organising principles, visual elements and most importantly with the mutual intent of being the best version of themselves around each other.

The love that we designers share now in our works are nothing but the results of all the years we acted as Cupid, understanding the behavioural patterns and characteristics of both fields and always give them a reason strong enough to fall back in love with each other, as though there was no other way they could anyway be.