Features: Magazine | Literary Review | Life | Metro Plus | Open Page | Education Plus | Book Review | Business | SciTech | Friday Review | Cinema Plus | Young World | Property Plus | Quest |

Curves take your home close to nature

— Photo: S. Gopakumar

Beauty in curves: A house with a curved staircase and an elliptical skylight.

Today, one finds houses and commercial buildings with winding staircases and curved rooms, balconies, sit-outs, roof slabs and driveways.

Antoni Gaudi, eminent Spanish architect, once observed that “the straight line belongs to man, the curve to God.”

Gaudi, who is known for his irregular and fantastically intricate designs, claimed that his works were inspired by nature. Throughout his life, he studied nature’s angles and curves and incorporated them into his designs. Some of his greatest works, most notably the La Sagrada Família in Barcelona, have been acclaimed as original works with an almost hallucinatory power.

Challenging task

Creating dramatic architecture can be challenging even for the most accomplished architect. That is perhaps why most modern-day architects have preferred the straight line over the curve despite the advantages offered by computer-aided design.

For the few who have defied conventional attitudes to strike it out on their own, curves are a gift from nature. A number of architects today are willing to experiment with curves. The challenge is creating flamboyance without compromising on function.

Today, one finds houses and commercial buildings with winding staircases and curved rooms, balconies, sit-outs, roof slabs and driveways.

Says G. Viswanathan, city-based architect and landscape designer, “Everything in nature is in curves. Straight lines are the effect of civilisation, they are not reflections of innocence and truth. Curves reflect and resonate with nature. They constitute the original geometry and are flexible, unlike straight lines that are rigid.”

Part of nature

He points out that tribal huts, Eskimo igloos and caves were curved. “Designing a building with curves helps it to blend easily with the natural environment.”

Mr. Viswanathan uses curves liberally in his designs to achieve interesting and energising effects. His own house is a fine example of the use of curves.

“Straight lines began to be used widely only because of the demand of time for architectural solutions. It is easier to draft in straight lines than curves.”

Curves, he explains, divide the inside and outside spaces smoothly. “In conjunction with natural light, they generate so much positive energy inside a building. But unless handled carefully, curves can also disorient the occupants by deflecting and dissipating energy.

After all, the objective of architecture is to create vibrant spaces that are enjoyable,” he points out. Skylights in elliptical or curved shapes are a popular method of bringing natural light into a building to achieve the right harmony with the interior elements.

If straight lines can create rigid, hard, harsh and oppressive spaces, curves generate flexible, soft and smooth spaces. One of the reasons pointed out for poor acceptability of curves as an architectural element is that it creates dead spaces.

“There is reason in the argument that curves create incidental dead spaces but only when it clashes with non-merging, non-assimilating elements. It is also a question of creating coherent space,” says Mr. Viswanathan.

Incorporating curves into the design of a building does not add much to the cost of construction but it needs practised masons. One drawback is that it results in some wastage of material.

Printer friendly page  
Send this article to Friends by E-Mail