Once upon a time many centuries ago, in a land called Goa, the people of the land built beautiful houses. They crowned their ornate houses with 'balcaos'. The space at the entrance which served as semi-living space, transmitter cum receiver of village information, the interface 'tween the inner house and the outer world. It was adorned with wrought iron, wooden railings, shell rain-shades and floored with intricate tile patterns.
The master planners and builders of those houses left after the land was liberated from colonial rule and the new planners and architects took over. They built towering apartments and they saw that it was good. And they decided that the balcao was a good thing and a remarkable feature of Goan houses. So they incorporated balconies into every flat and at every floor.They built their towers and painted them and photographed them and saw that they were good and fine-looking. After the residents moved in, they found the balconies dangerous, they feared a child might fall out (as they sometimes did).So they called in the fabricator and fixed a giant box grille onto the balcony.And they felt safe. Some of them designed curved grilles and some other varied shapes and patterns. Then they fitted grilles for the windows. They decided that some space for potted plants was required, so they projected the grilles outside the line of the external wall of the building. So at the end of it all , twenty of the flats had twenty different grilles of different shapes, sizes and patterns all over. The sleek and beautiful building designed by the architect now looked like a Nightmare on Any Street. The architect looked the other way and started work on his next building, with more balconies at every floor. Today Goa's streetscapes are lined with such grilled monstrosities. A little coordination between architect, builder and purchaser could have ensured an uniform and pleasant design of this vital element in the facade of the building. This scenario was abetted by the planning authorities, who in their mistaken fervor, permitted balconies to be free of FAR (floor area ratio). The builders merrily added balcaos wherever they could , adding upto even 12 percent to the saleable floor area. If the balconies had to be included in the FAR, builders might have been less eager to add balconies. The tendency of the flat owner is to immediately grille-in the balcony and then put in aluminium glazed shutters, thereby gaining a new 'room' or enlarging the adjoining one. The building does not stay intact after occupancy is granted and the architect has left. These post-occupancy mutilations take place and an elegant elevation is reduced to a boorish monstrosity. The sharp contrast can best be seen in places like the Chinchinim market in Salcete. The church square is lined with lovely old houses, regal in their bearing. Bang in the centre of all this beauty, stands a recent three-storied building, with a wrap-around verandah on all upper floors. This verandah has been FULLY grilled, giving the entire building an appearance of a giant bird cage. Perhaps some avant-garde architects will argue that these grilled facades are an organic development of our contemporary era and that they have a lived-in charm of their own! But any sensitive soul will see these mutilated streetscapes for the slum mentality and selfish-paranoid-degenerated mood of our times. Mercifully all these multi-storied RCC structures have a finite lifetime and will be torn down within a century of their being erected. One only hopes that we get our act together and that the brave, new architects will create Greater Streetscapes to come. ---- Jose Lourenco __________________________________ Do you Yahoo!? The New Yahoo! Search - Faster. Easier. Bingo. http://search.yahoo.com ########################################################################## # Send submissions for Goanet to [EMAIL PROTECTED] # # PLEASE remember to stay on-topic (related to Goa), and avoid top-posts # # More details on Goanet at http://joingoanet.shorturl.com/ # # Please keep your discussion/tone polite, to reflect respect to others # ##########################################################################
