Sustainability in design and as part of life: Lakshmi Swaminathan’s ‘A Call To Return, A Journey with Didi Contractor’
Jitesh Malik
Compiled and edited by Lakshmi Swaminathan, ‘A Call To Return, A Journey with Didi Contractor’ presents an intimate journey of a soul, a beautiful mind, in search of deep connections between the higher realms and the material manifestation. This inspiring journey is a collaged work of pieces narrated by Didi herself about her own life experiences, her pictures, sketches and Lakshmi’s reflections as an intern, who is awe-inspired by the master’s life and the processes that shaped her architectural works. Lakshmi has woven it all together very well, from a multitude of manuscripts and transcriptions of Didi’s lectures from the latter years. The book starts with an apt forward by Satish Kumar, reminding us of the necessity of a radical shift in consciousness, which Didi exemplified through her life and works, showing us the various hacks and strategies to tackle the ensuing environmental crisis.
The book is so much more than a story of an individual artist/architect. It is almost a treatise on karma yoga, a guide to approaching everyday life problems and forming connections with people and places, all that with a deeply compassionate and contemplative process of engagement with the ecology and the local culture in all its complexities. Her experiences in New Mexico, Andretta, Bombay and numerous other places, all come together in her chosen home, lower Dharamsala and Sidhbari area.
While this book doesn’t cover any of her projects in detail, it is structured in a thematic way. The first section lays down her formative years, then it opens up one’s mind to the philosophical basis of her works, and goes on to describe her approach to the key ideas of sustainability and the design principles that guided her practice. In a nutshell, her process of design and approach to life is very direct and is inspired by her lived experience, all of which is beautifully captured in the letters that she wrote. These are presented towards the end of the book.
The book is full of stories and anecdotes from her childhood in the US; her growing up in a very creative environment with artist parents and her encounters with theatre; numerous artistic personalities like Hans Hofmann, Frank Lloyd Wright; the story of her name to the stories of her health and of her death. At each juncture, one is enthralled and feels uplifted by how she solves problems and celebrates life.
For me, personally, as an educator and an architect practising sustainability, and a student of integral yoga, the book has many lessons. I am touched by Didi’s generosity, her ability to live life to the fullest, by being in the moment and offering her work, and her learnings of life to so many people. There are many inspiring insights that she shares, but I particularly enjoyed the part where she narrates how she sees and uses light in her architecture. She goes on to describe nuanced details to increase the light with minimal openings, and offers solutions like using papier mâché in plaster to make it stronger. Didi insisted on the use of locally available materials and adapted them with her own imaginative and quirky mind.
Architecture, for Didi, was both an inner journey and a relational process. She connected deeply with her clients, getting to know them well and then offered intuitive solutions.
I was riveted by the connection she establishes between craft and food. The kitchen is the lively core of her design and in the book, there are ample places where she shares recipes and the joy of growing and cooking together. Sustainability doesn’t become a didactic process but a means, a call to living life in celebration with ecology and people as part of the whole.
The book has something for everyone and anyone who is choosing to live life consciously and fully!
