Doing the Shiva - Clay-storming with Anna Heringer by Hrisheeta Singh

Doing the Shiva, Clay-storming with Anna Heringer by Hrisheeta Singh

Clay has always been my first choice for making models in school and then in my architecture freshman years. However, it was often looked at as a lazy and vague alternative to the sharp edges of foam and cardboard. After learning ‘cool’ softwares making models felt like a chore let alone a clay one. After years of laser cutting and intricate model-making, aesthetics and grades were the only motivations for making a model. Clay storming with Anna is a refreshing and spiritual experience.

There was music playing in a cold garage, but the spirits of the people and laughter were warming. We did some activities with our eyes closed. The focus was not on what we were making but how we were making it. Sharpening our most essential tool, intuition. This do-first-and-analyse-later strategy developed intuitive muscle memory.

Initial clay sculptures, individually made with our nervous efforts, were met with destruction by Anna, wielding a wooden stick. She looked at me and said, "We are doing the Shiva”, to which I replied, confused: “You mean destroy?”.  Shiva is the Hindu God of transformation, and for transformation, what is futile must be destroyed. We started building the clay sculptures and destroying them again and again to a point where I no longer felt attached to what I was making, yet I was one hundred per cent committed to the process. Something else was destroyed during this exercise: my vain pursuit of perfection. We worked with clay for hours for two days without any strict agenda or brief, just feeling the slippery clay, our hands shaping it with our energy. We would go around in circles and complete each other's work time and again, to the point where we didn’t recognise any of it as ‘mine’ but ‘ours’.

I learned the key ethos of Humanitarian architecture through this workshop. We work with what we have in the middle of a crisis or scarcity, and work with multiple stakeholders and unforeseen circumstances shaping the design. The beauty of the form is in including people, listening to the climate and aligning with the spirit of the land. We design with the community's idealistic future in our hearts. The process of imagining oneself in the clay spaces activates an architecture that doesn’t sympathise but emphasises. Our final proposal doesn’t design a crisis-proof shelter, as one cannot challenge the force of nature. But the design can be crisis-resistant and designed to withstand most unforeseen damage. The force of nature, Shiva, the universe, or whatever name you prefer, has a unique way of operating. We do not control the result, but we do control our commitment to our actions. The time might not be right, but timing always is.

On the last day of our workshop, I wanted to express my gratitude with a cup of Indian Chai. Something I have never made for ten people of different ethnicities in an Italian city. Call it a coincidence: I found Indian tea at the local supermarket, and my roommate happened to have a stash of essential spices. Using my intuition, I practised so heavily in the days before I pulled off not only the best chai I have ever made but also the right quantity. I can proudly say that I have embraced and embodied the workshop's learnings and shared them in an aromatic cup of chai.