I dont know what's the curriculum there now..but in Taliesin , when FLW was alive, every student /intern there had to do a side project which was completely unrelated with anythin to do with arch or construction or art.
When Nari Gandhi was studying there, the side project Frank Lloyd Wright gave him was to try and grow hybrid seedless strawberries !
Hahaha ... hybrid seedless stawberries !! now thats funny. I wonder what Nari had to try to get that .
But I like this side project buisness. wish we had something like that in school.
I think there are two more architects in india who had interned under FLW. One is in Mumbai and he still has a practice. I forget his name, but i remember he was a Parsi.
The other is Mansingh Rana in New delhi. I've heard that he was the one who sharpened the pencils which FLW used to sketch "falling waters" lol ... i dont know how far that's true tho. He was also the first chief architect of "Something" under nehru...
If it were not for the trophy named after him at NASA,i think 90% of our fraternity in our country would have never heard of Nari Gandhi.
So many still don't know..its quite sad.
Mansingh Rana is alive..oops I Thought he was dead !
As far as I know there were 4 in total from taliesin.
Nari Gandhi,Raja Aederi,Mansingh Rana..and the 4th one I forgot
Kudianwala ... i had a collegue had worked under him and he's the one who told me ... ( I just asked him and confirmed it..) .. but find out anyway.
Rana is very much alive... I just met him last summer .. quite a character !! still talks about ol' Frank
Rana was the Founder and Dean of "Sushant school of Art and Architecture" in Delhi. The school supposedly used to follow the same design philosophy ... ie; everything from nature and so forth ..
sporadic...a carpenter i once knew worked for some time under Nari Gandhi.
He told me all this:-
Nari Gandhi made him and his team rub lemon juice and curd on two wooden columns for a month.
That was all the work they had to do...come in the morning apply the paste of curd and lemon juice to the wooden pillars till the evening.
why ?
cos that was Nari Gandhi's formula for giving an old mossy look to wood which is generally attained after many years of decay.
(he wanted that aged look to the pillars and he wanted it fast !)
2)Nari Gandhi once got a leather couch made ..without a single stitch in it.
made just by tucking and folding the leather into the frame !.
3) My Favorite...He designs a 2 feet wide door for Asha parekh or some other whatever.
she tells him : "You expect me to squeeze into this daily ".
He replies "Sure..Since you are an actress this will ensure that you stay in shape ! "
LOL
I visited Arcosanti in 1989 as a young idealistic archiecture student. My sense of the place then - 17 years ago - was that it was populated sparsely by people with any enduring interest in architecture. The bulk of the people there seemed interested in alternative social constructs, manifest in built form or not, and in discussing said social ideas while groovin' on the high desert, really, really stoned.
Again, this was a long time ago, and I recall the institute (is that the proper word?) was on the verge of recovering from some very significant financial disaster that had occurred in the 70s and inhibited their ability to grow. As far as I know, by now the place could be building like mad and reaching a far wider audience due to internet etc. When I visited, it was definitely a place to go disappear from the world for awhile.
I believe Arcosanti didn't really change from 1989: it is still populated by a small community of people that decided to live their life in a different way.
One of my roommates moved to Arco 10 years ago after working for years as a special effect engineer in Hollywood (he was the one that create the snake in Anaconda!)
Living there is pretty cheap: you start doing a 5 weeks workshop that costs around 1000$ and they provide you with a room and food for that period of time; then you can decide to stay longer and work in different departments (construction, woodlab, bakery, mainteinance, design . . . )
The time goes ahead very slow, the desert is a beatiful place: I'll never forget the feeling of being on the arco arches and looking at the sky . . . it was huge . . . and peacefull
Veeeery different from where I ended up living . . . NYC
Liberty Bell :- Did you participate in the group dicaussions with soleri? ..
I imagine it would be very interesting. I was interested in attending one of the short workshops ( timing it with my vacation dates) but I've heard of people who've been staying there for years.
What attracted me most, to it is the hands on experience. and the sense of community living . There's a place in India with a similar concept. It's called "Aurrovile".
I expected a freeway sign or something, tried to find it on I-17 then when the Sedona exit came up I realized it must be 50 miles past where it should be. Oh well.
Feb 8, 06 1:04 am ·
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Arcosanti ...
any opinions?
There was a time when I really wanted to go... But lost track of it later..
It looks quite interesting and if my Financial state was better i would have actually spend some time there !!
sporadic yaar , tu kidhar kidhar se yeh sab dhoondh kar lekar aata hai re ?
sporadic..I dont know how far its true but someoneonce told me that soleri and Nari Gandhi were good friends.
Yaar ... apne college mein yeh banda bahut popular tha !! ...
and i didnt know about his connection with nari gandhi .. but i wont be surprised about it ... the have very similar disign philosophies.
But I like the arcosanti project ... the whole concept is very interesting !!
Yaar ... apne college mein yeh banda bahut popular tha !! ...
and i didnt know about his connection with nari gandhi .. but i wont be surprised about it ... the have very similar disign philosophies.
But I like the arcosanti project ... the whole concept is very interesting !!
Damn this internet speed !!
that's cos both were from Taliesin ,dude !
today the only India architect ( alive ) who interned under FLW is Raja Aederi (mumbai ).heard of him.?
Just something tangential to your topic.
I dont know what's the curriculum there now..but in Taliesin , when FLW was alive, every student /intern there had to do a side project which was completely unrelated with anythin to do with arch or construction or art.
When Nari Gandhi was studying there, the side project Frank Lloyd Wright gave him was to try and grow hybrid seedless strawberries !
Hahaha ... hybrid seedless stawberries !! now thats funny. I wonder what Nari had to try to get that .
But I like this side project buisness. wish we had something like that in school.
I think there are two more architects in india who had interned under FLW. One is in Mumbai and he still has a practice. I forget his name, but i remember he was a Parsi.
The other is Mansingh Rana in New delhi. I've heard that he was the one who sharpened the pencils which FLW used to sketch "falling waters" lol ... i dont know how far that's true tho. He was also the first chief architect of "Something" under nehru...
I think the Mumbai guys name was "feroz kudianwala" .. or something like that..
If it were not for the trophy named after him at NASA,i think 90% of our fraternity in our country would have never heard of Nari Gandhi.
So many still don't know..its quite sad.
Mansingh Rana is alive..oops I Thought he was dead !
As far as I know there were 4 in total from taliesin.
Nari Gandhi,Raja Aederi,Mansingh Rana..and the 4th one I forgot
http://www.midglen.com/newsletter/volume5.pdf
(page 4 Rana's name comes above Soleri in decade roster 1940 and Raja Aederi is first in 1950 roster )
I think In all probability you are referring to Nari Gandhi only ( cos Nari Gandhi was parsi)
wtf ?..... Feroze Kudianwala studied under FLW ?...
im not sure..I'll find out
Raja Aederi .. oh yeah .. i forgot about him.
Kudianwala ... i had a collegue had worked under him and he's the one who told me ... ( I just asked him and confirmed it..) .. but find out anyway.
Rana is very much alive... I just met him last summer .. quite a character !! still talks about ol' Frank
Rana was the Founder and Dean of "Sushant school of Art and Architecture" in Delhi. The school supposedly used to follow the same design philosophy ... ie; everything from nature and so forth ..
sporadic...a carpenter i once knew worked for some time under Nari Gandhi.
He told me all this:-
Nari Gandhi made him and his team rub lemon juice and curd on two wooden columns for a month.
That was all the work they had to do...come in the morning apply the paste of curd and lemon juice to the wooden pillars till the evening.
why ?
cos that was Nari Gandhi's formula for giving an old mossy look to wood which is generally attained after many years of decay.
(he wanted that aged look to the pillars and he wanted it fast !)
2)Nari Gandhi once got a leather couch made ..without a single stitch in it.
made just by tucking and folding the leather into the frame !.
3) My Favorite...He designs a 2 feet wide door for Asha parekh or some other whatever.
she tells him : "You expect me to squeeze into this daily ".
He replies "Sure..Since you are an actress this will ensure that you stay in shape ! "
LOL
Arcosanti is a very interesting place. I've lived there for 5 months and I highly suggest to go there: it's a surreal experience!
Ominoliquido ... thats fantastic mate !!! ...
tell us more ... I've always been interested in it .
Tell me how much will it cost us, say on a weekly basis, once we get there.
I visited Arcosanti in 1989 as a young idealistic archiecture student. My sense of the place then - 17 years ago - was that it was populated sparsely by people with any enduring interest in architecture. The bulk of the people there seemed interested in alternative social constructs, manifest in built form or not, and in discussing said social ideas while groovin' on the high desert, really, really stoned.
Again, this was a long time ago, and I recall the institute (is that the proper word?) was on the verge of recovering from some very significant financial disaster that had occurred in the 70s and inhibited their ability to grow. As far as I know, by now the place could be building like mad and reaching a far wider audience due to internet etc. When I visited, it was definitely a place to go disappear from the world for awhile.
I was totally enchanted by it.
I believe Arcosanti didn't really change from 1989: it is still populated by a small community of people that decided to live their life in a different way.
One of my roommates moved to Arco 10 years ago after working for years as a special effect engineer in Hollywood (he was the one that create the snake in Anaconda!)
Living there is pretty cheap: you start doing a 5 weeks workshop that costs around 1000$ and they provide you with a room and food for that period of time; then you can decide to stay longer and work in different departments (construction, woodlab, bakery, mainteinance, design . . . )
The time goes ahead very slow, the desert is a beatiful place: I'll never forget the feeling of being on the arco arches and looking at the sky . . . it was huge . . . and peacefull
Veeeery different from where I ended up living . . . NYC
It is definitely sietd in one of the most beautiful locations on the planet. The desert north of Phoenix is breathtaking.
I have my souvenir Arcosanti cast bronze bell hanging outside my suburban screen porch - and it takes me back to the desert every time it rings.
Ominoliquido, I imagine you can stand still on a crowded corner in NYC and while the city rushes past you feel that huge desert sky in your soul.
recent interview with Soleri on designboom
oops...
not on designboom, but floornature
Liberty Bell :- Did you participate in the group dicaussions with soleri? ..
I imagine it would be very interesting. I was interested in attending one of the short workshops ( timing it with my vacation dates) but I've heard of people who've been staying there for years.
What attracted me most, to it is the hands on experience. and the sense of community living . There's a place in India with a similar concept. It's called "Aurrovile".
Been there nevermore?
very similar in concept ....
I expected a freeway sign or something, tried to find it on I-17 then when the Sedona exit came up I realized it must be 50 miles past where it should be. Oh well.
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