Image by Anastasia Borisova from Pixabay
Architecture, something that has been giving base to human accommodation across the globe in many societies, even before the scientific principles backing civil engineering and architecture could describe and build a settlement that could fit a family of four comfortably. Architecture could be classified as the science and art of building design and construction, modifying the natural environment to make it habitable for humans. Various architectures have been built in our day-to-day lives that facilitate our existence, and do so daily that we don’t tend to look at their past and their evolution, and the present scenario, and the sociological and psychological conditions on which they act as a base. The science might help in the establishment of structure, but their psychological and sociological aesthetics will define what is the true meaning behind them.
For example, in India, the modern form of education in schools be it private or government, didn’t exist before the colonial era. Previously, before the colonization, education was given primarily in open universities, not secluded under any closed architecture, and close to nature, to further the understanding of the pupils studying there. All that is lost now, because of industrialization and colonization, because we’ve got systems now which primarily disconnect you from your roots in terms of learning, as well as philosophically, don’t let you decide via your intuition and cognition as to what defines your life’s purpose. This could be looked upon psychologically when observing the architecture of modern schools in India, where the pupils are oscillating between the residue of the colonial identity and their native identity. This could also reflect how education in pre-colonial India was just given to certain privileged classes at certain places, but with the establishment of democracy, cheap and reliable sources of knowledge and education became a priority for everyone in the society.
Similarly, when we observe the prison system, we can sense a bit of similarity between the dynamics of power synthesis that exist in schools and prisons. In schools, you’ve got teachers working in tandem with the principal of the school to make sure that those who go astray are brought to be punished so that they don’t indulge in divergent activities once again. Similarly, when one observes the prison architecture, you’ve got a warder observing the multiple cells of the divergent from his building in the centre of the prison, to make sure that the already reprimanded don’t commit the same vices twice. Both schools and prisons might share the same purpose of discipline and reprimand, but one reflects an institution preparing for peace while the other represents the haywire of society.
Similarly, when one observes an ornate high-rise architecture like the Burj Khalifa in Dubai, it represents the power of capitalism as well as a grand stage for celebrations featuring the influx of cultures and diaspora from across the globe.
The modern high-rise buildings also represent the aspirations and desires of the middle class. People who are productive members of society, living with their family members, sending their kids to school, and earning to keep their livelihood stable. A huge sprawling apartment and duplex buildings set amidst beautiful greenery reflect the people who have attained the fine tuning of mental faculties to function in society and help others to keep running the positive cogwheel of society.
We could also observe the structure of the cantonment areas. Built to respond to any sort national threat from outside forces and comprising highly organized structures ranging from training base to hospital to school to artillery to fire station to canteen and not just to respond immediately to outside threat but as well as reflecting the mental fortitude, organization and discipline of the people serving in these areas.
The power and prestige could be extended and observed further in nations such as North Korea, where tourists aren’t allowed to take pictures of under-construction buildings, as they seem to reflect that the nation is underdeveloped. This could be further compared to the famous symbol of power in George Orwell’s 1984 known as Big Brother, where the figure stood as a representation of fascism and being omnipresent via the television screens of the citizens of Oceania and not permitting any one of them to record any data about their personal lives as well as social lives.
Some historical sites or architecture also stand as a medium of marvel and mystery just because of the sheer nature with which they have been built in the past. The Great Pyramids of Giza in Egypt as left engineers and architects perplexed till this very day and they have only been able to dabble in theories to come up with a plausible explanation behind the construction of the great pyramids.
What might seem like an odd comparison between two distinct forms of architecture also reflects the needs and demands of any society under any form of government and at any given point in time in history, and that is, theatres and schools. Entertainment has long existed in human societies to make lives interesting, and some of the primary forms of entertainment are sports, theatre, and movies. If one were to observe the number of seats in educational institutions and compare them to the number of seats in an auditorium, theatre, or sports arena or stadium, they would realize that the number of seats in a theatre or stadium would always be much higher as compared to any educational institution because entertainment would always be much more popular within the masses anywhere across the world as entertainment is meant for the masses and to attract them and when compared to research or intellectual avenues in universities they would always be less popular as people pursuing these fields are rare among the masses and even within these rarities only handful can formulate some sort of an intellectual breakthrough across domains such as science, commerce or humanities. This could be compared to the phenomenon in the early 20th century where the entertainment icon, Charlie Chaplin, had more fame as compared to the man whose name is used as an adjective to define someone with big brains, that is, Albert Einstein. It’s only after Albert Einstein’s name was jotted in history books that we got to know about his brilliance in physics, and during his time, people were much more familiar with Chaplin as compared to him.