As a group of construction labourers are busy demolishing a building in George Town on a bright Saturday morning, a bunch of walkers arrive there. A more fitting end to a walk, studying various aspects of the halls, facades and landmarks of Art Deco architecture in Chennai, could not have even been planned this well.
Historian and author V. Sriram, an engaging chronicler of the city, was leading the walk that wound up near the demolition site. Earlier, he spoke about the loss of Art Deco architecture in Chennai and captured the major themes of the walk in two hours, the need for conservation of existing Art Deco buildings, the significance of knowing the history of Art Deco— a movement that began in the 1920s in Europe and the U.S., heralding the advent of the modern age—the need for an engaged citizenry and the challenges in tackling problems of town planning during the development of major infrastructure projects.
At the end of the walk, a few metres away from where a construction labourer was loading debris from the demolition into a lorry, parked along the NSC Bose Road, Mr. Sriram said: “Sometimes I think Art Deco is the worst victim of modernisation. It began as modern, it was finished by modernisation. Indo-Saracenic architecture has survived because it is considered to be antique, because those are all big buildings and people will rise in arms. But when a cinema theatre is demolished, we say it is not that old. We are losing an entire art form. The world has woken up. Miami has now been declared as a UNESCO heritage site. Bombay has already got the entire Art Deco corridor along Marine Drive as a heritage site. I think it is in the first state of approval.” Pointing to the demolition of many heritage buildings in Chennai and the failure of the urban planning agencies in conserving Art Deco structures, Mr. Sriram said, “We could have done it. But now it is very late.”
