It all Started with a wish to do something better in education. So as we were on the hot seat of board of studies of state government, we were shouldering the responsibility of finding new pedagogical & andragogic tools. These tools were going to help us to mould a syllabus which will be shaping future of many aspirants in architecture throughout the state, which will in return help them to build better situation in building the nation or whichever place they wish to build.

In this urge we came across with CIAT ( Chartered Institute of Architecture Tecnologists) these people were claiming to fill in the difference between education & practice by a practical syllabus which would benefit to be a global student and encash their skillsets anywhere. After trails of emails & organised visits to India by them at different levels in turn of my volunteering I got an invitation from the President Alex of CIAT to join in the AT award functions in London.

As an architect travelling is like reading different books which refreshes one with new ideas and gives him time to reset his goals from another perspective & refocus wisely. I was travelling solo but I was playing few different roles while doing the same. I was travelling with my glasses on for a PhD student, a Teacher and an Architect.

 

As a PhD student, I was looking forward to attend the London Design Biennale, This month-long festival of contemporary design will fill Somerset House with works from over 30 countries which was fortunately scheduled during the visit, my observation started from the flight itself as I started over looking the geographical topography changing from deserts to lush green at a speed of 900km/hr, flying over the cities gave us the understanding of the Urban Planning which was much of my PhD intrests to understand planning from the heights. Travelling in London or maybe other parts of UK was a chilling experience both architecturally and temperature wise, temperatures varied from 17-6 degrees throughout my trip in UK with slight showers of rains in Northern UK with freezing winds. For which I understood why wine and scotch is obvious in their daily routines.

 

As a Teacher, I was overwhelmed to see at Abu Dabhi Layover our classroom discussions on Energy steps practically and Design studio on Concept of sand dunes for Airport which my ASAP/AUM students practiced and studied in their last sem.

Further in quest of understanding the teaching learning processes I was able to fix some courtesy visits at different 6 Universities in UK through the CIAT network. But was amazed to see the facilities and amenities provided in five star education concept students were just learning the same teachings as what we had at our place but the sincerity, passion and enthusiasm was channelized differently with talent and software tools they used. Students learning abroad from foreign countries were supposed to pay the 3-4 times more fees than the UK students, which made education quite expensive. In interaction with faculties to understand the teaching processes, in which frankly speaking I found them on the same page as of ours rather I would promote ours as more intricate as few of my students and friends said whom I met in UK.

 

As an Architect, It was quite mesmerising by the ambitious and historical archiscape all around Apart from climatic odds. People were intensely polite, talkative, receptive and humble which was a kind gesture you would find unanimously throughout UK. The network of Airports, trains, metros and national buses is so well established and interwoven perfectly you just need to walk few blocks to reach one. Go online and you could fetch any bookings for any medium of transport with competitive price anywhere but preplanned bookings may save you considerable amount of pounds while travelling. Also came to know about the architecture which was humongous and very neatly executed all over with a thoughtful process of Urban Design and Planning. You could easily reach any station and you were nearby to some interesting, piazzas, plazas, museums, buildings etc.  So out of curiosity lets guess Architectural facts through Wikipedia-

 

The architecture of the United Kingdom, or British architecture, consists of an eclectic combination of architectural styles, ranging from those that predate the creation of the United Kingdom, such as Roman, to 21st century contemporary. England has seen the most influential developments, though Ireland, Scotland, and Wales have each fostered unique styles and played leading roles in the international history of architecture. Although there are prehistoric and classical structures in the United Kingdom, British architectural history effectively begins with the first Anglo-Saxon Christian churches, built soon after Augustine of Canterbury arrived in Great Britain in 597 Architecture was built .on a vast scale throughout Great Britain and Ireland from the 11th century onwards in the form of castles and churches to help impose Norman authority upon their dominions. English Gothic architecture, which flourished between1180 until around 1520, was initially imported from France, but quickly developed its own unique qualities.

 

Sharing of this Article intends to give you foresight of tourism, education & first hand experiences, my 17 day journey of UK made me more knowledgeable as they say “There is more Knowledge in walking a mile than reading heaps of Books”, hope it helps you to be bit wiser than yesterday.

 

Blog by; 

Ar. Ravindra Sarnaik

M-ARCH (Sustainable Architecture), CA/2010/49519, IGBC-AP, A.I.I.A,