That the movement of an industrial pencil along scales shaped from plastic, up and down, left and right, on barren sheets of paper can turn into a structure and a city is a mighty wonder in itself. And Henri Fanthome considers himself lucky to be able to fully realise it. “The biggest challenge of designing in a city that’s already been constructed is controlling the need for novelty, something people seem to be chasing incessantly,” he says, talking about the challenges of creation being the same in countrysides and big cities. Fanthome was born in Bhutan and spent his formative years in the stillness of the happy country, before he moved to India at the age of 17.
“The forms that excite me are the vernacular building traditions that emerge in difficult terrains and climates, like Kinnaur, Spiti and Garhwal, where buildings blend into their environment,” says the 35-year-old creator, who holds those building traditions closest to his heart. Fanthome also expresses his dislike for cities overtly constructed, the kind that are “grey and made for cars to move in a straight line”, Chandigarh is one such place. An alumnus of School of Planning & Architecture, he now teaches at the Department of Architecture at his alma mater. His favourite Delhi building is the India International Centre, designed by J A Stein. “I like how the structure tries not to be imposing, and draws you in. Also, the building experience unfolds over time, and every time you walk into it, you notice how it is both versatile and carefully put together,” he says. Among his own creations from the city is the Wishing Chair store in Shahpur Jat which was akin to a dark cave when he started work; he used waste wood to fashion the quaint little store. Another is the walkway canopy that he made for a dentist in Sundarnagar. Pulleys were crafted out of Royal Enfield axel bearings, ribs cut and the whole thing was fabricated and executed by a metal fabricator, who lives in a slum in Malviya Nagar.
“There is a lot of skills available. As architects, we need to identify and channelise,” he says, summing up his craft. And what hinders his craft in Delhi? “The polity of policy and planning,” says Fanthome. Delhi’s architecture, like that of most other metropolitans, is based on exclusionism, with no real space for migrants and the economically disenfranchised, who wish to make a future in the city. He says he does his bit to change that.