Most architects design projects in the comfort of their offices, sitting behind their desks, making decisions by looking at their flatscreens, never visiting a construction site, and managing everything remotely. This attitude may lead to a design of a sleek and even objectively beautiful building. But such a solution can’t be anywhere near a genuine response to what any given site may require. How do you even find out? Is it possible to build something new as if it were an extension of what is already there in the most innate, consequential, yet original form? The only way to find out is to start from the site itself, says Vinu Daniel, the founder of Wallmakers, an award-winning architectural practice in Trivandrum, the capital of the southern Indian state of Kerala.
He told me: “An architectural practice should not be about transferring a bunch of papers from the office to the site.” The architect’s work emerges right from the site, from his direct engagement with it in the most tactile ways. It all starts by examining the place and working with materials that are available within walking distance around the site – soil, brick, and all kinds of waste, including tires, beer bottles, and even discarded plastic toys. This disciplined approach has resulted in highly original work – mostly single-family residences – a unique physical response every time.
Vinu Daniel was born in Dubai in 1982 and grew up in Abu Dhabi in a traditional Indian family with two older siblings. His father managed an office supplies business in the UAE. Daniel returned to his ancestral homeland to study at architecture school at the College of Engineering in Trivandrum, after which he spent two years at the Auroville Earth Institute, just north of Pondicherry, where he learned about the engineering processes behind building with soil, cement, and mud blocks. He started his practice in 2007 by teaching his craftsmen traditional building techniques that were lost over time and which he learned in Auroville. His techniques incorporate both modern and traditional practices. Today he employs between 100 and 150 people, mostly craftsmen. He currently works on the design and construction of nearly 20 projects across India, each led by one of his architects stationed directly at each of these sites.
In our interview with Vinu Daniel over Zoom between New York and the outskirts of Bangalore, where he was overseeing one of his projects currently under construction, a farm school, we talked about his mission-like focus on building with waste, the influence of British architect Laurie Baker who practiced in Kerala, working with his own hands, and how to preserve ecology instead of building over it.
Vladimir Belogolovsky: All your projects deal with waste very consciously. This means that every one of your projects is a statement about waste issues, right?
Vinu Daniel: Of course. Isn’t it time for someone to have a strong position about this? Previous generations of architects lived in a different kind of time. Now we have very limited resources and we must be mindful of where building materials come from and at what cost. We need to be intelligent about that. And instead of blaming anyone, we can do something beautiful about it. I see it as an opportunity. Building with waste was never considered a challenge. I see it as a whole new world of fantastic opportunities.
VB: To describe your work, you use such words as simplicity, rationality, and beauty. What other words or short phrases would you use to describe the kind of architecture that you try to achieve?
VD: One word that I always think about is the future. If commercial architects continue to operate the way they do today, the future will be dark. How can architects be sure that whatever they plan in the comfort of their offices somehow would turn out to be okay? And it is not just about individual projects. Projects need to be interrelated and mindful of our environment overall. Architects must get out of their screen spaces more often. We all must work toward a better future.
VB: Who are your clients?
VD: Very different people – from pastors to filmmakers, to politicians and we are now working on a museum on a farm built by a legendary late musician, S.P. Balasubrahmanyam. My initial clients were all relatives.
VB: You said about your work, “We make structures that are both utilitarian and alluring.” So, you are very mindful of how your work looks, right? It must be beautiful.
VD: Of course! Why are products such as Tesla so popular? Not only because of their message of sustainability but more so because of their image. Being sustainable is not about going back in time and doing things the way our ancestors have done. Being sustainable means looking forward to the future, looking forward to new kinds of technologies and techniques that are more progressive and sustainable.
VB: Could you talk about the influence of Laurie Baker on your work?
VD: It was discovering his work that defined who I am today as an architect. I was lucky to meet him when he invited us, the students, to his home and I got an incredible insight into his world for around four hours, which changed my attitude towards architecture. After that, I started noticing a lot of waste and thinking about its potential as a building material. Baker promoted the revival of regional building practices, relying on local materials, and he emphasized the responsible and prudent use of resources and energy. He was our pioneer of sustainable architecture in the most organic ways. That meeting influenced my beliefs very profoundly. Before that, I had doubts about whether to pursue architecture professionally. Meeting him solidified my choice.
I learned about the five-mile radius material sourcing from him and many of my ideas about architecture are the result of the reflections I had on his practice of architecture. He was our Hercules, so to speak. He moved Kerala out of the traditional mindset. He gave me a direction. If I were in any other state in India, this would not have such a direct impact. But at the time I met him he was not celebrated as a breakthrough architect. He was criticized a lot. It was said about his buildings that they would not last, they were not fit for habitation, they were too open to nature, did not have enough insulation, and so on. But he paved the way for me and many other younger architects to start our practices to explore his pioneering ideas. He was fearless in pursuing his projects despite all the criticism.
VB: Speaking about your work you said, “Very often, I manually handle the mud on site, I work with my hands — I think there is great pleasure in that, and one begins to understand material on a whole new level.” So, you are an architect who builds your own buildings, right?
VD: I am convinced that you can only understand what you are doing as an architect when you start working with your own hands. So many architects without any hesitation, despite not having any previous experience, will design a whole airport on a piece of paper. But if the same person is given a few bricks, they wouldn’t know what to do with them. Architects are masters of pen and paper, but they don’t feel the same with bricks. They feel intimidated. But I feel at home with the brick. Just like others feel at home with pen and paper. All architects have a sketchbook. They can go to any extreme in their drawings. I want the architects to feel as comfortable with the material they intend to work with. The more they work with it the more they will feel at ease. It is important to find the true nature of each material and to be in tune with it. I learn from my workers all the time.
VB: About your IHA Residence in Mananthala, the house you built over a swamp, you said, “I'm more proud of what I didn't build or rather what I was able to preserve than of the house itself. And with every new project, I become a student of the land again, and the site will define the process.”
VD: [Laughs.] That house was a big turning point for me. By then I felt I was the master of building with brick. And I wanted to also master working with landscape. What I discovered is that so many landscapes are entirely artificial. There are so many imported plants there. They may look beautiful, but they don’t feel belonging in the place. And slowly I started to understand that the swamps, pits, and other ecologies that we so often build over are more real and important than whatever we make on the computer to replace them. So, the idea was not to bring new plants but to have the same plants that already exist there. They are beautiful enough. More importantly, the question is — Can the existing ecology be improved?
The house you mentioned had a swamp and two snakes in it. So, we built a special enclosure for them and elevated the house over it in such a way that the snakes could not get into the house easily and no inhabitants of the house would come in contact with them unintentionally. This way the snakes can continue to live their own lives. After all, who are the real inhabitants there? The plants and animals were there first. It is important to recognize their ownership as well. And these snakes are wonderful guardians. They defend the house against infestation of rats, which is often a problem. These snakes must be preserved for our ecology to survive and they feed on their own by preying on frogs, worms, crickets, spiders, mosquitos, and rodents, of course. And they are harmless to people.
VB: You said, “I am a slow builder. I take my time.” Could you elaborate?
VD: [Laughs.] This is absolutely true! Well, I am building brick by brick. It takes time, you know? I am trying to be careful and considerate about what I may be harming by building something. I am being cautious because I am always mindful that construction is a sin. You need to limit the casualties as much as possible. So, be careful and be slow.
VB: And you said, “Architecture is no longer a profession, but it has, in fact, become a hazard.”
VD: Because if we continue building the way we are building today; we will destroy everything. We have so many ecological disasters, but it is we who created these problems in the first place by building very irresponsibly. And doing so we have created so many boundaries between people. We no longer can engage with one another the way we used to. Architects created too many boundaries.
VB: I would like to end with another one of your quotes, “Every new project is different, and every time you pray for a new design epiphany.”
VD: [Laughs.] I really do!
