A designer education

"We are very keen that our young Parsi boys and girls take advantage of educating themselves at our premier multi-disciplinary The University School of Design (USD) in Mysore offering Bachelor’s and Master’s degree in architecture (BArch and MArch),” notes Prof Kersi Daroga, the founder director of this fledgling institute started in September 2002 with 33 students. The logo of the USD draws its inspiration from the three-tiered wings of the asho farohar and instead of the triad of good thoughts, good words, good deeds are inscribed the words "good ideas, good words, good deeds.”

Occupying five of the 1,000 acres owned by the University of Mysore and functioning from the 80,000 sq ft Senate Bhavan, the USD is run by the Asho Farohar Trust and has been granted functional autonomy with regard to the academic, administrative, examination and financial powers in running the courses for a 15-year time frame. Presently only one of their 120 students is a Zoroastrian, mentions Kersi’s wife Yasmen who is the chairman of the Trust. Their co-trustees are son Tusch who is studying hotel management at the Oberoi Centre for Learning and Development and automobile engineer Khushroo Eduljee.

The courses are structured in such a way that the BArch studies are conducted in the giant Design Studio. Around this are the postgraduate courses which the undergraduates get direct exposure to, in the side halls, mezzanine, etc. The postgradua­tion courses are being gradually included starting with MArch in urban design, MTech in building automation, and thus gradually adding to the value chain. Finally they have envisaged a PhD course too. Simple and short certificate courses in fine arts, sculpture, photography are conducted concurrently. Such automatic interface between courses under one roof is envisaged by the School to further its objective of evolving an integrated wheel of design where the green student enters at the hub of the undergraduate BArch degree course and then radiates like the spokes of the wheel to the postgraduate course of his/her choice, notes their promotional literature.

Frontage of The University School of Design

Considering he had "no big dreams” of introducing such an educational venture Daroga is amazed how destiny ensured that everything falls into place. It began in the year 2000 when Daroga shifted base to Mysore and wrote a series of project papers for the Mysore University which did not want another school of architecture but a large multi-disciplinary design institute to be set up with courses like urban design, building automation, landscaping, city planning, product design, textile design, art, etc. As per the recommendations of the 12-member ad hoc committee which included representatives from the University as also city architects Daroga repeatedly revised his project paper until the USD was sanctioned by the University Academic Council and the University Syndicate. The present vice chancellor Dr J. Shashidhara Prasad too guided the project to its fruition, acknowledges Daroga. The Council of Architecture, New Delhi has conveyed its routine approval until 2006.

As per the memorandum of understanding between the University of Mysore and the Asho Farohar Trust (which was specially formed as the University officials could not sign the memorandum with Daroga in his individual capacity but only as a spokesman of an organization) 20 percent of the tuition fees per semester collected by the USD are to be paid to the University as service charges for granting all amenities/facilities at Senate Bhavan to carry out the courses as well as for granting direct recognition.

A personal meeting with Ratan Tata, chairman of Tata Sons, resulted in Daroga earning for the School a grant of Rs 31 lakhs. The Tata Trust grant is meant to finance the cost of infrastructure like interiors, alterations, furniture, equipment, library, computers, etc. Yet another major fillip was received when Dr Guenter Nest of the Berlin School of Design consented to sign a memorandum of understanding with the vice chancellor of the Mysore University and Daroga whereby Nest brings along two of his expert faculty members to teach for eight weeks each semester for three years i.e. until 2007. "As we are autonomous and self financing there was no governing council. Instead a growth and development council is taking shape. This will comprise of an administrator, city industrialists, finance expert, well known designer, an income tax wizard, etc,” explains Daroga.

Former head of the Goa College of Architecture and on the urban design faculty of the School of Planning and Architecture, New Delhi, Daroga’s only regret is that with his new administrative responsibilities he is now left with little time to teach design, town planning, professional practice building as also construction and design thesis as he used to earlier. It was in the Tata township, Jamshedpur, that Daroga spent his childhood with his parents Shirin and Sohrab, when his father worked for the Tata Iron and Steel Company Limited. After his early education at Jamshedpur’s Loyala High School, Daroga did a six-year course in architecture at the Centre for Environmental Planning and Technology, Ahmedabad and a postgraduate diploma in urban design from the Delhi School of Town Planning and Architecture. Besides teaching at the School of Planning and Architecture he worked with the urban design cell of the ministry of works and housing at India Gate, Delhi. Later Charles Correa invited him to the Bangalore Urban Development Authority to work on various shopping center projects and on the planning of the Northern Corridor Extension Plan for Bangalore. Involved with over a dozen prestigious residential projects in Bangalore and an equal number in Kodaikanal, Daro­ga had lent his expertise also for low cost housing pro­jects in Delhi and Karna­taka. Following his four-year contract with the Goa College of Architecture, Daroga opted to settle in Mysore where he was consulted for different educational and medical as also commercial and industrial projects. Currently he is also chairman of the Mysore center of the Indian Institute of Architects, notes his detailed bio data.

Kersi (left) and Yasmen Daroga

He may be deeply engrossed in his architectural commitments but he spares thought for community issues. He is worried about the dwindling numbers and disproportionate assets like in Mysore where there are only 24 Zoroastrians, Goa where there are nearly 60 and the lone Zoroastrian lady in Coorg he knows who is over 80 years old.

Encouraging their students to participate in different conventions, seminars and workshops, the USD takes pride in reporting that when competing for the first time with 14 other colleges from South India at the South Zone National Association of Student Architects Convention, they ranked fourth in the overall tally.

The colorful prospectus announcing the different opportunities available there specifies that students who have secured a minimum aggregate of 50 percent marks with Maths and English as their subjects at the Std XII (second year of junior college) examination and are willing to pay Rs 22,000 per semester as tuition fees are welcome to appear for the aptitude test/interview scheduled for the morning of Sunday, May 28, 2006 at the USD, Mysore. For further enquiries contact the Director, The University School of Design, Second Floor, Senate Bhavan, Manasagangotri, Mysore 570006, Tel: 0821-2414577, e-mail: darogas@ rediffmail.com USD’s sylvan surroundings include mini forests, play fields and even a beautiful lake beyond which extends the vistas of the royal Mysore city with its sprawling palaces and Chamundi Hill. Thus artistic pursuits have found a new home here where creativity and design can be explored.