Given the opportunity to travel anywhere in the world, Jacob Gines chose the cluttered streets and rich culture of India.
Gines, who received his master’s degree in architecture in 2007 and co-teaches a design studio class at the U, was the most recent recipient of the Roger Bailey Traveling Fellowship, an endowment that allows one master’s graduate the opportunity to travel outside the United States to study the architecture of a different culture.
“I wanted to pick a place that I may never go except if I got the fellowship,” Gines said. “It really was this gut reaction of thinking of a place that has such a rich culture, a rich history and that can offer a lot from their traditional and ancient architecture.”
He received $4,500 and spent two weeks in March touring through Northern India with his father, studying the relationship between ancient and modern architecture. He found that the ancient architecture met his expectations.
“It was rich, it was full of life, it was embedded with meaning, it had a sense of place and culture,” Gines said. “It was infused with this energy.”
But some of the more modern pieces “lacked that richness,” with the exception of the Bahai Lotus Temple, he said.
“It’s such a simple, beautiful form. There’s no ornateness to it,” Gines said. “The way in which they brought light into the space was beautiful and it created an atmosphere that was engaging, enlightening, respectful and spiritual all at the same time.”
The Roger Bailey Traveling Fellowship, named for the first director of the School of Architecture, has been sending graduates across the world since 1987. Among other places, past recipients have traveled to Tibet, Australia, Italy and Argentina.
A board of three past recipients chose Gines from a group of applicants who graduated in 2006, 2007 and 2008.
“All three of them pretty much independently came to the conclusion that Jake was the right person for the job,” said Patrick Tripeny, director of the School of Architecture. “He demonstrated his skills in drawing, but he also demonstrated that this was a place he really wanted to be and how getting the chance to go was going to make a huge difference in his life and in his architecture.”
The overwhelming poverty of the Indian people couldn’t be ignored, and made an impression on Gines.
“The roads are filled with everything that you can imagine8212;cars, trucks, motorcycles, bicyclists, pedestrians, cows, camels, elephants, dogs8212;anything you can think of happens in the street,” Gines said. “It wears on you mentally and emotionally, as well as physically, because they’re always coming and begging and asking for money or food.”
He said he was impressed with the women of India, who worked hard and wore beautiful, brilliant colors amid the gloom of dirt and pollution.
Fellowship recipients are required to keep a sketchbook throughout their travels and to give a speech upon return.
Gines produced about 40 sketches during his trip, and though he said they might not mean much to others, he said he could spend hours looking at just one sketch, remembering the experience and the culture.
“A lot of people think that architecture is something that’s created in a studio somewhere and then plopped on a piece of ground, but I think that with a lot of the buildings that I saw, there was much more of a feeling that it was integrated into culture,” Gines said. “The architecture was amazing but the story was equally as fascinating.”
Scott Woodruff, the 2005 fellowship recipient, was on the board that chose Gines.
“Having gone through the process of putting together a winning proposal, I had an idea of what I thought it took to win: An itinerary that is realistic, subject matter that is worthy of study and evidence of ability in sketching and drawing,” Woodruff said.
Woodruff, who took his wife and three children with him through Europe on his fellowship trip, was drawn to Gines because of his unique proposal.
“I can’t remember his premise, or the reason why he wanted to go to India and I guess looking back that was not a key factor to me,” Woodruff said. “It was the place. I knew I wanted to make that trip myself.”
Although he didn’t plan on going to India unless he received the fellowship, Gines said he is looking forward to going back some day.
“The architecture and the people change if you just travel 10 miles, and…I haven’t even touched southern India, or eastern or western India, so I would absolutely love to go back anytime if I had the money,” Gines said.
For more details about Gines’ trip and the Roger Bailey Traveling Fellowship, visit www.baileytravelingfellowshipindia.blogspot.com.
Jacob GinesThe Teli Ka Mandir in Gwalior fort is one of the many buildings that Jacob Gines studied when he was in Inda for the Roger Bailey Traveling Fellowship. The unique architecture of the Teli Ka Mandir distinguishes it from the other buildings of the time.