Built-in harmony

‘Corbusier was in India at the right time and filled a vacuum, but the mindset lineage to Corbusier needs to be broken’

Harsh Kabra

Jimmy CS Lim: Context-sensitive and cost-effective designs.

Harsh Kabra

Malaysian architect Jimmy CS Lim is at his outspoken best when dealing with clients who test him on his knowledge and tell him what to do. “I tell them, if you were having an operation, would you tell the doctor where and how to cut? Likewise, I cater to your needs, aspirations, constraints and delights — and I will come up with solutions for you.”

However, contrary to what such clients may initially make of his response, Lim is not the archetypal architect driven by whims and didactic methodologies. Instead, Lim’s candour, as they discover later, stems from his conviction and insight of how a building must evolve to address the real needs of its occupants. “Architecture is always about people and what they want.” That this is often subordinated to fancy fads or myopic cost concerns is what rankles Lim.

His 1978-born, Kuala Lumpur-based firm CSL Associates is reputed for translating client needs into creative, customised, context-sensitive, and cost-effective designs. Promoting conservation and adaptive reuse, Lim sets store by architecture that is suitable for the context and the environment one lives in. The sexagenarian was in Pune and Mumbai recently to speak at lectures organised by the Forum for Exchange and Excellence in Design, and the JJ College of Architecture. An alumnus of the University of New South Wales in Australia, Lim is the recipient of several prestigious awards, including the 1998 Aga Khan Award and the 1985 Commonwealth Association of Architects National Award, besides now being an advisor on the Aga Khan Award committee.

Lim describes his design approach as the architecture of humility towards Nature, the built environment, and mankind. “Nature is balance; it is the perfect ‘yin yang’,” he says. According to Lim, man is only temporal, while the structures he builds outlast him. He maintains that one must look at the problems of mankind and be sympathetic. “This realisation hopefully can help the architect solve some of the related architectural problems.”

Lim’s modus operandi also derives from Tai Chi, a form of Kung Fu fighting, which taps into the strength of the opponent to overwhelm him. According to Lim, an architect’s real challenge lies in seizing opportunities as they come and transforming the obstacles presented by nature and the environment into advantages. “It is like surfing — your advantage lies in riding with the wave; go against it and you will get into trouble.”

Be it the generous use of recycled timber and other locally available materials, or that of sunlight, wind and water to create comfort for the occupants, Lim’s work is characterised by frugality — a preference to use easily accessible and reusable local, indigenous renewable building materials — and a response to the climate and the environment in ways that promote energy, heritage and ecological conservation.

Lim is disconcerted by the global obsession with the external looks of a building, so much so that the quality of interior spaces, which is what determines the efficacy of that building, is completely overlooked. “When the functionality is made to fit into the design, you’ll find that it doesn’t work,” he says.

Intrigued and dismayed by the Asian obsession for American and European architectural models, Lim says wholesale importation of ideas and icons from the West is too silly to be acceptable.

Likewise, the chaotic look that Asian cities wear today, he explains, is the result of superimposing urban planning theories on the Asian context without evaluating their impact. “Modern cities in Asia have been taken over by the motorcar. Buildings are torn down to make way for these massive motorways… roads have destroyed the fragile urban life which existed before.” According to Lim, people are the most important ingredient in any city. “Local cultures and traditions should not be sacrificed for progress and development.”

Research into the science of building in the tropics is woefully inadequate, laments Lim. With the search for more sustainable and renewable building materials gaining ground, he says the current way of designing high-rise buildings in the tropics has become outdated. “I see the future of high-rise buildings not as ‘energy-chompers’, but rather as ‘energy towers’ that are self sustaining and also supplying energy to the neighbourhood.”

Lim avers that most Indian architects, thanks to their “modernist” training, are living under the influence of Le Corbusier, which is not allowing Indian architecture to change. “Corbusier was in India at the right time and filled a vacuum, but the mindset lineage to Corbusier needs to be broken” he says. “Many younger architects are trying to move from this mainstream to create their own identity based on a symbiotic relationship with nature, history and people. The broader issues of traditional Indian architecture and customs, which I believe also covered countries like Pakistan and Bangladesh, have not taken on a modern make-up to bring them to meet with the values of contemporary Indians.

This has to be the single biggest architectural challenge: A breakaway from traditional thinking.” According to Lim, many of Corbusier’s ideas are already not applicable… except his idea for high-rise modern city, wittingly or unwittingly adopted by Singapore as a solution to mass housing.

The infatuation with American-European models of architecture, he feels, is no less marked in India. “You lose yourself in the search for mediocrity or to imitate Corbusier. As a former colony of the British, all of us from the Commonwealth are placed at a disadvantage.” He explains that very few countries with a history of colonisation have successfully removed the yoke of colonisation. “Perhaps with the help of China, Hong Kong, 10 years after returning to the motherland, is now able to reabsorb western values into the Chinese cultural mainstream without losing its own identity.”

Lim says he enjoys visiting India. “Indian architects are well-educated, articulate, extensively read,” he notes. “Malaysian architects seldom engage in dialogues about architecture and other issues. It is refreshing to have many intelligentsias discussing and exchanging ideas on all issues. But alas, the problem is that few venture beyond the cerebral level, preferring to keep it at the intellectual and verbal planes.”

There is no difference between the architectural professions in Malaysia and India, Lim opines. “Only that in Malaysia we have made more mistakes in the last 30 years than India,” he quips. “We never learnt from our friends. India had the national car since 1948. Malaysia tried to introduce the national car in the late 1980s. You got your design from the victor of the Second World War, we got it from the vanquished of the Second World War… both India and Malaysia must talk to share experiences. After all, there are lots of elements in Malaysian culture that had originated from India.”

Click here to visit Jimmy LIm's website:-

http://www.jimmylimarchitect.com/04-01-whathavewedone.htm