Baku – At the threshold of empires

I vaguely remember almost 10 years ago watching a short clip about an ancient fire temple in Baku as part of a travel documentary and thinking to myself – ‘It would be so cool to visit this place one day!’. Over the years I found many more reasons to want to visit Azerbaijan but it always seemed too difficult to get to.

Last month I found the right set of opportunities to take my long awaited trip to Azerbaijan and I was finally able to tick off the World Heritage Site designated Ateshgah (fire temple) and the city of Baku off my bucket list!

As I prepared for my trip I had one strong preconceived idea that since Baku was on one of the historic Silk Routes and due its geographic proximity to Central Asia, these two factors would have the maximum impact on the culture and architecture of the city. However, while reading up and delving a bit more into the history of the city I noticed something different that was confirmed on my visit.

The interesting coincidence that I noticed is probably crucial to really understanding this city – over the ages different empires (ranging from the ancient Persians & Roman to the early Christians & Muslims and finally the Ottomans & Soviets) have all left their imprint on these lands, but Baku/Azerbaijan was never at the heart of any of these empires; it was almost always on the fringe: a constant threshold. A threshold not only between empires (and their cultures) but also for ideas, religions and geographies.

This unique edge condition has made Baku into an interesting collage of utopias overlapped onto each other. The culture & architecture of this city represent not just different historic narratives but sometimes also interesting contradictions that have emerged due to this overlap.

Lastly, if all this history wasn’t enough, the fact that Azerbaijan is now a young independent oil rich nation adds yet another layer of interesting urban fabric! Today in Baku, one is not only able to traverse centuries-old built heritage but it is also possible to see some of unique examples of contemporary avant-garde architecture.

All in all Baku was so much more than I had previously conceived. It is a very interesting short holiday option that packs: a historic city with a lot of character; lovely cuisine (especially great place for meat lovers); legendary local hospitality; and an extremely cosmopolitan atmosphere. Furthermore the city is set amongst a landscape filled with some very unique geological phenomenon (including an eternal burning mountain & lots of active mud volcanoes).

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Travel tips: If you had only three days in Baku here’s my quick itinerary recommendation: 

Day 01| Full day exploring the World Heritage sites of Old City Baku – the historic heart of the city; 

Day 02| The day can be spend seeing the city outside the old walls, you can easily cover some exemplary contemporary buildings including the iconic Baku Flame Towers, the Azerbaijan Carpet Museum and Heydar Aliyev Center (designed by Zaha Hadid Architects) ;

Day 03| Day trip to see some unique sights around Baku including Mud Volcanos, ancient petroglyphs at Gobustan National Park, Ateshgah Fire temple and the Burning Mountain. When you plan a trip to Azerbaijan I would also recommend you to try and club it with neighboring Georgia (it’s easy to do them together as they are well connected by road, train and budget flights). Interestingly, even though both these small nations are part of the same Caucasus region of Western Asia because of their varying historic backgrounds and influences they offer very different kind of sights and cultures. Furthermore for Indian travelers they both currently offer easy e-visa or visa-on-arrival options.

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All photos © Sahil Latheef  | The writer recently gave an elaborate talk based on the theme of this post at the Department of Architecture and Interior Design, Amity University Dubai. 

Collecting space

London… a thriving, bustling metropolis, with endless opportunities for recreation for its denizens. Besides open air attractions, like Hyde Park, there is a plethora of museums that are vibrant, activated and above all, free.

It was not always like this though; by the end of the 20th century, the same-old exhibits and the tired info-graphics had ensured that at least for locals, museum hopping would not be their first choice when it came to whiling away a few hours of their free time. The been-there, done-that feeling was what needed to be gotten rid of, and the much needed impetus for growth/ regeneration came from an unlikely source – the National Lottery. From the late 1990s, funds raised from lottery ticket buyers were pumped into the Arts sector. The moneys collected and injected into the system were unprecedented.

The Millennium Fund supported two major Arts projects in London: the ‘Great Court’ at the British Museum (by Norman Foster)

and the Tate Modern at Bankside (by Herzog & de Meuron)

The Great Court was essentially a project whose aim was to cover the courtyard of the British Museum with a glass & steel roof, while maximizing the space freed up when the British Library’s (seen below) collection shifted to a dedicated new building at St. Pancras.

This covering of an open air space enabled the possibilities of programmes that enlivened and energized the public space. The Tate Modern also did this, not only at a building level, but also at an urban level. The number of visitors to the entire South Bank area of London experienced an exponential increase post- the Millennium.

Inside the Turbine Hall, interactive exhibitions (such as the ones photographed above), made the contemporary art displays more approachable to the general viewer.

In 2000, both these buildings opened to the public, and it was not just the building or the interior that was noticeable, but the well-thought out circulation routes and the fresh graphics and signage. The renewed public interest in these museums was sustained through programmatic innovations – temporary exhibitions, evening/ night events (Late Fridays or Nights at the Museum).

On the other hand, the V&A is unique in that there are few paintings on display – it is largely a museum of objects. So from the 5m tall David in the Cast Courts to the designer contemporary everyday items such as scooters and kettles to architectural models of renowned buildings, everything falls under its umbrella.

It managed to sustain itself and grow in popularity purely on the basis of these non-design based interventions, successfully attracting large groups of students, professionals and tourists.

But the process started a few years earlier, when in 1991 the hallowed National Gallery opened the new adjoining Sainsbury Wing, designed by Robert Venturi and Denise Scott Brown. This playful post-modernist take on one of the most ‘British’ of institutions, situated bang on Trafalgar Square, evoked many polarizing reactions.

But it ensured that the building remained firmly in the public eye and visitors came in droves. The new building, while evoking the memory of the main wing, pared down its elements and created fuss-free spaces whose scale was suited to the smaller scale of paintings displayed there.

While infrastructure projects such as the Millennium Bridge, the Millennium Dome and the London Eye helped invigorate London at an urban level, these institutions got down to the brass tacks and made a difference at a human scale and humane level. As a student, I have fond memories of spending many a pleasant weekend afternoon, aimlessly wandering through the numerous ‘rooms’ of the National Gallery or the V&A, happily drinking in the atmosphere and gazing admiringly at the endless Classics, which one had hereto only seen in books. Personally, these visits help cement a lifelong love of Impressionism, and though it was unknown to me at that time, helped in providing an inspiration for many a future project. When the weather outside is cold, the pocket is light and the mind curious, there’s little more a young person can ask for from life,  than a few hours spent at one of these wonderful repositories of Art.

All photos © Sahil Latheef | excluding the photos of the National Gallery, which are from Creative Commons

On a high!

A few years back on a half day transit stop in New York city I calculated that I have just about enough time to visit one place in the city before I had to dash back to the airport in time for my onward journey. Although I had been to NYC a few times before there was one project that I really had to revisit – so I headed west to the meat-packing district to see a landscape project, a kind of newly evolved species among urban gardens.

Like with any other cultural product (art, literature, architecture etc.), landscape too is a constantly changing field and with time it is possible to identify one exemplary example which best expresses the aspirations of an era.

In a lot of ways the High Line park, designed by Diller Scofidio + Renfro (DSRNY), together with landscape architect James Corner and garden designer Piet Oudolf, is ‘the perfect garden’ of our times! The design was the winner of an open design competition that contemplated how the abandoned elevated railway line running through the meat packing district could be reused to benefit NYC. DSRNY designed the entire length of the High line as a series of simple landscapes strips that bring back the joy of walking through wild meadows to the heart of Manhattan.

The garden weaves it’s way between, through and above a series of buildings creating pockets for different programmes but above all creates an opportunity for New Yorkers to de-congest. In an interview a few years back Liz Diller, one of the key designers behind this project, explained beautiful “The high line, if it’s about anything, it’s about nothing, about doing nothing.” The high line offers a very different experience of New York City from plus 30 feet and is an amazing place to while away time watching people doing all sorts of things – walking, snacking, reading, exercising, relaxing and also doing nothing. 🙂

This is one of those amazing and rare projects which is meticulously detailed, yet it doesn’t lose focus of the larger picture. The success of the High Line, it is today one of most visited sights in Manhattan, has spawned countless similar regeneration efforts that mix infrastructure and landscape in innovative ways across the world (a few of the interesting ones being – the Hofbogen in Rotterdam designed by Doepel Strijkers, the Garden Bridge in London designed by Heatherwick Studio, Lines of Life in Singapore designed by Nikken Sekkei Architects, the 11th Street Bridge in Washington DC designed by OMA and the recently opened Skygarden in Seoul designed by MVRDV).

While I stroll on the High Line pondering about all this a rude alarm on my phone reminds me of my waiting flight! On the flight home, I wondered why every urban walkway couldn’t be like this? Imagine if the monstrous sky walks being built around the world (like the ones in our large cities – Mumbai, Delhi or Bengaluru) were treated with this sort of passion, overgrown with greenery waiting for garden lizards and butterflies to recapture their cities. Wouldn’t that be amazing!?!

P.S. I would recommend combining a trip to the High Line with at least half a day exploring it’s immediate context – Chelsea (with some great Art Galleries, the Chelsea market and lots of interesting eateries), seeing some of the great architecture that has come along the garden (including projects by Frank Gehry, Zaha Hadid and Jean Nouvel) and a visit to the new Whitney Museum of American Art.

All photos © Sahil Latheef