Over the last decade, India has undergone change like no other period in its 60+ years of Independence.

Besides the lifestyle changes, the transformation of the physical realm is going ahead at a shocking pace. Metros are becoming megalopolis and small mofussil towns are now competing for the title of regional hubs. Architecture, once a profession considered to be that of creating spaces with an aesthetic value that will live through the ages has lost its meaning. Infrastructure has not kept pace with this development in the way we would want it. ARE WE LETTING COMMERCIALISM RULE US? In today's world, highly articulate and determined spaces, structures and elevations are often considered dangerous. Even new environmental considerations have made designers see the skin of a building more in terms of its insulation, reflection qualities and radiation factors. To many architects these new restrictions are in fact a kind of liberation. They no longer bother between the relationship of the interiors and the exteriors. This trend is responsible for the emergence of new facade technologies. Various materials have been discovered for the cladding of the exterior facades of the building. The commercialism has replaced creativity in architecture. Various shapes and forms that is Freeform Architecture is no more in an ideal way of design. Architecture is a spiritual field of art. These technological advances have brought a great change in the field of architecture. Commercialism has become the core of design. We as architects must try to preserve the integrity of the Architecture. We should help preserve the principles of architecture that invoke creativity in the designer. Today, young architects barely out of school, attack projects with impatience like a business deal. The quality of architecture is now lost in the adrenaline rush of such architects. Architecture has now become a lifelong materialistic buffet that relies on technology to display newer forms of abundance, and make them available to a growing market of Indian consumers. In the age of malls, cinemas and multiplexes there lies a hunger for novelty and delight. The fate of a building is now that of a commercial commodity. However, there are only some places where we have considered about our vernacular architecture. Rai Rewal designed a village for Asian games in New Delhi in1982 ,it is made of concrete but creates intimate streets and courtyards with reminiscent of traditional villages. Its morphology resembles a traditional village, with cubic solids and voids that are characteristic of the Indian urban fabric . They offer shade and yet remain vitally alive to the pressures and pleasures of the people who live there. his parliamentary library built in 2002 attempts to merge modern technology with regional expressions. Architect B.V.Doshi produces work inspired by modernism but appropriate to the local environment and culture. New Delhi's library takes inspiration from a Hindu temple to create a truly enlightening experience This merging of tradition and technology is an indication among Indian architects to reinterpret traditional Indian architecture. WHY THIS CHANGE? The growth of science and technology has produced immense material benefit and it would be pointless to imagine that the today's world could manage without them. And it is impossible to deny, that there have also been important gains in the social and the political arena.

The twentieth century has introduced a new unbalancing factor; possibly the most serious of all technology, that knows no scale and no limit. That produces more and more with no justification other than that of generating the purely material wealth of a consumerism oriented society. Technology facilitated the growth of dogma, the dogma of automation, of speed, of efficiency and particularly of aggressiveness. As technology changes, the world of architecture and everything that goes along with it changes as well. When technology becomes a part of buildings for the future, you start to see a steady climb in smart houses and buildings that are created utilizing all of the latest gadgets and gizmos. But As technology advances and progresses it gets more difficult to disagree that globalization is inevitable. Today in virtually everything, be it in people, places or commodities, it is easy to see the crossing of national boundaries. The influence of globalization on architecture has just made it another commodity in todays world. Increase in land values and the demand for floor space is without question responsible for putting Architecture on the fast track of change. But more importantly it is the peoples perceptions of style that seems to blame for accelerating this change. The challenge of the coming years is to find ways of establishing a balanced relationship between technology and human existence, and maintaining social equilibrium and the balance. TRADITION VS MODERNISM-WHY DO WE NEGLECT OUR PAST? The ideology of today's modern movement was focused on the cult of newness and purposeful rejection of the past. This took the production of architecture and urban spaces to critical esteem and displaced traditional architecture and urban spaces to history. In most societies this modernist vision raised profound questions, separating the ideals of professionals and the expectation of users. But in developing societies with rich and still fecund building heritage, the situation was particularly poignant because the rejection of the past was detrimental to their well being as well. Thus increasingly, the modern movement was being confronted with reasoned apostasy, promoting the aesthetics of continuity and links with the familiar in the production of new architecture and urban spaces. The new objectives were to heal the rupture created by the modern movement and produce an urban environment more sympathetic to the expectation of society-at-large. WHAT GOES WRONG IN TODAY'S ARCHITECTURE? 1.Architects and urban planners in India accepted the universality of the British experience and adopted their methods, devices and legal instruments to create the built environment. 2.Professionals in India have shown a marked proclivity in their work to adopt patterns and images rather than policies and programes associated with these called universal experience. 3.We have a preponderant bias towards achieving beauty and order rather than dealing with the complexities of Indian urbanism. This is based on a superficial understanding of the City Beautiful Movement. Consequently they ignore the compelling logic of vernacular urbanism. Example-Old Delhi, or Shahjahanabad.

A similar void is at working the delineation of modern architecture in India, where every international ism is mirrored in local architectural production as a style ignoring the potential of vernacular architectural practices. 4.We easily absorb bold proposals made by foreign experts .Urban Planners propose these typological models throughout the country. This one size fits all strategy characterizes the narrative of modern architecture in India. The influence of Le Corbusier and Louis Kahn who built in India and the current international stars of the architectural media overwhelm the local architectural imagination. In its current manifestation this genuflection to foreign experts is seen in the practice of engaging foreign architects and urban planners for large projects both in the private and public sector. Professionals in both disciplines have not considered their practice in a self-reflexive manner and thus have continued to pay obeisance to foreign knowledge and expertise. 5.We do not feel responsible for failures of our plans or designs. When Delhi went through the trauma of sealings and demolition because of illegal construction last year, architects and planners merely pointed fingers at politicians, bureaucrats and society-at-large. The Indian strategy for new architecture and urbanism should therefore seek to eliminate this debilitating characteristics of professional indifference by making it necessary for architects and urban planners to dialogue and negotiate with the user/society in the development of their designs and become answerable to them for its success or failure. Definitely,our city planners and the government are also responsible for this change in attitude. Because in todays world, the development planning committee of the city and the city planners are also paying less attention to the heritage and culture of the place while they are more bothered about the globalisation. Architecture did not receive that much of an importance during the post independence era as it has received in the past decade by the government . We cannot blame the architects as a whole. During sanctioning of designs for construction the government and the city planners are more adherent with the structural stability of the building rather than its functional and aesthetical value. WHAT SHOULD WE DO FOR THIS? We have to understand that as in medicine, so in architecture and urban planning, understanding the origins and nature of the disease is the first step to find a cure. Modern architecture and urban planning in India is creating an unequal society of those who can conform to its imperatives, and those who cannot and in India the majority cannot. Thus the Indian perspective on new architecture and urbanism seeks to define alternate modernitys. Its concerns focus on creating a viable and sustainable future for all. Definitely our past has a lot to teach us. What we need is a fusion of modern typology and regional elements. The architect might or might not belong to the city, but the designs should be as suited to that city as it would respectively suit if he designs as if he has designed for himself, for example , Jawahar Kala Kendra building, British council library a Delhi building and all the other projects do belong in place and time where they have been built. The architect must probe the deep structure of traditional and contemporary architecture - albeit not necessarily exclusive to the city, but rely on his architectural imagination to yet again surprise and delight the viewer with his ideology regarding

the site context, on the one hand, and on the other, by accommodating the ornamentation which would suffice the human aspiration with our traditions. Building should be a marriage of art and architecture, achieving an attenuated level of resolution and not just merely slap on a mural on the facade of a building. May be then this globalization trend would not overpower. Today Architecture is both a science and an art. Buildings today have to be styled that they are both efficient as well as attractive. An innovative design is something that is usually copied in the architectural world. Indian history of more than 5000 years of civilization reveals that people were adept to very sustainable practices in the olden times, very little of which are still prevalent. Unfortunately, in the mad race of development, people have lost track of these. One needs to go back to the roots, amalgamate its tested sustainable development practices with the technology to suit to his present day needs and adopt the same. Traditionally, Indian culture has respected nature, ecology and sustainable living. However, with increasing western influences and modern technology Indians are paving the way to environmental degradation and non-sustainable mode of development. In order to achieve sustainability, smooth amalgamations of traditional building practices and modern technologies must be developed and implemented. Efforts must be laid in the development of simple, and small, eco-technology integrated bioarchitecture, which use replenishable fuels with means of recycling, provide environmentally sustainable and economical alternatives. The architects have a major role to play . The new demands of designing for minimum ecological impact will provide an ideal platform from which designers can justify their claims and acknowledge their responsibilities. There is an opportunity for designers to show imagination and leadership, pioneering the way forward and solving real problems. The architects and planners must undergo a change in attitude towards architecture and planning. We architects must try to preserve the integrity of the Architecture. We should help preserve the principles of architecture that invoke creativity in the design and not just be moved by the Globalization.