Eternal Stone

An anthology comprising twenty-nine essays, Eternal Stone: Great Buildings of India is a collection of meditative moments reflecting the architectýs private understanding of architecture. Having chosen a favourite building or monument, each architect narrates his or her individual experience of it, adding personal insights to illuminate design, historical facts and supplementing these with sketches, drawings and photographs. There are essays on public buildings, privates spaces of worship and of learning. The architects also dwell on aspects of the ancient and the modern, utilitarian architecture and buildings for the sake of beauty alone.
While K.T. Ravindran examines the finer points of Rashtrapati Bhavan, self-confessed ýRoof Collectorý Laurie Baker takes us to the Padmabhapuram Palace, and Gautam Bhatia unravels the mystique of the shadows of the IIM, Ahmedabad. The reader travels across the country, gazing at domes and tombs in Bijapur and Agra and Gothic gargoyles at Victoria Terminus, encountering the geometric precision and magic of the Jantar Mantar, and absorbing the serenity of Hauz Khas. From palaces to temples, caves to churches, forts to stepwells, this is a journey where the architect is philosopher, guide and storyteller.