First Visit to HTG, Poojapura

19 May 2007

Today was my first visit to the office of Habitat Technology Group at Poojapura. And what a lovely workplace! From the main road it looks like a small building built in the traditional style - sloping tile-roof, a recessed entrance area strewn with footwear. It is only when your walk in bare feet, towards the Reception that you realise how large the office really is- its three floors; a skylight leading down to a green patch within the building; each nook and corner set in earthly tones.

At 11:00 AM, Achan, DC & I had a brief meeting with Mr. Shankar where he outlined his (preliminary) ideas for rennovating Govindaniketan. He wanted to break down a few walls to create more open, airy spaces inside the house; to add a second bedroom with attached bath, to create a "poomukham" and an open sitout at the entrance, a larget kitchen+dining, etc... It was great to see him so enthusiastic about preserving the old ambience of the house as much as possible.

At the same time, when we asked him about the expenses and the timeframe, he said that we would know for sure only after we removed the tiles and some the wooden beams. He wants to start the work after the monsoons / and expects the work to finish by Jan-Feb 2008.

Mr. Shankar Visits Govindaniketan

13 May 2007

A wonderful new development on Mother's Day - Mr. Shankar visited Govindaniketan.

This was rather unexpected. We had been under the impression that a visit could take place only after Rajesh prepared the detailed sketches. But on 30 April, after taking measurements for the sketches, Rajesh had dissapeared. Then came the abrupt announcement that he was getting married.

Worried that the whole project would be indefinitely delayed, Achan had made a telephone call today to Mr. Shankar. As luck would have it, he was at Chry itself! Since he had some spare time at hand he asked if he could visit Gnktn at short notice. Thankfully Manoj was at home and he quickly took Mr. Shankar around the house.

Manoj later told Achan that Mr.Shankar suggested some broad changes to preserve the ambience of the old house, while at the same time, making it more open and airy -- removing a portion of the kitchen, making a sit-out near the entrance, etc.

Great! A lot of uncertainty has just got blown away...

:)

Rough Perspective

.
A perspective drawing of the house from the north-western corner, next to the main entrance.

Quite crude.... but one has to make a start somewhere! :)



References:

* Perspective Drawing - Basics
* Two-point Perspective Dawings (with two "vanishing points" on the horizon)
- Basics
- How to draw
- Java Sketchpad Perspective Applet

And a view of the area from Wikimapia