As an architect engaged in teaching and design practice, I strive to infuse theoretical subjects with a touch of design and drama to captivate students' attention. Some subjects, like Construction and History of Architecture, for instance, tend to get somewhat dragging, so I try to approach them creatively. In this exploration too, let us examine walls not just as structural or visual elements but as the most decisive factor which throws or thwarts light in interiors to cast the destiny of our spaces and shape our experiences.

Walls are often perceived as elements that divide or separate functions and spaces. Since both Architecture and Interior Design are involved with finding solutions to multiple functions, walls inevitably are on call to become an essential part of our vocabulary. Another purpose that both these disciplines strive for are, ideal spaces that can move people who experience them. While Interior Design primarily focuses on spaces within buildings, Architecture extends its reach both inward and outward, even to the streets and squares that form our urban fabric.

It is important to be aware that walls play a pivotal role in deciding the destiny of our spatial solutions and sculpting holding ‘the key to light’, its ingress and egress, which determines what one sees and experiences in space.

As designers, we've all faced moments of disappointment when a carefully planned space that was designed with such purpose and passion, falls flat in its experiential quality, losing depth and dimensionality devoid of certain lighting we had in mind. The figure and ground one perceived while designing, are no longer comprehensible as the place loses its depth with no shadows or any dark corners lighted delicately by the walls designed carefully to provide it.

One of the most crucial aspects of wall design is the artful manipulation of light and shadow. This involves providing the desired darkness by walls that eventually may be fractured or invaded by sunlight or introducing a way to ingeniously channel illumination in the most creative ways to cast crisp shadows and render contrasting dark backdrops for wholesome, brilliant experiences. These walls make interiors vibrant and charged, reminiscent of those remarkable places we have visited and that continue to resonate within us long after we've departed. As the day progresses and seasons shift, they transform our spatial experiences, capturing the changing positions of the sun to create a dynamic interplay of light and shadow beautifully.

The circle of bright light and the soft glow around inside the Pantheon in Rome, the beam of sunlight over Mother Mary and Jesus from the high windows at Notre Dame in Paris, and the colourful and charged interiors inside Le Corbusier’s La Tourette, make us want to visit them year after year. In one of our recent study tours to a somewhat nondescript temple in Chettinad, the sunlight reflecting from a distant wall lighting a small shrine inside the dark Mandapa was mesmerising. Similarly, walls enclosing dark places with sunlight from unusual sources make some of the South Indian Temples like Rameshwaram and Meenakshi, equally surreal. The ambulatories around the Garba Griha in Laxmi Narayan Temple at Khajuraho, the Sun Temple at Modhera, as well as the inside of houses in Banaras and Jodhpur, offer equally surreal experiences.

One of the most crucial aspects of wall design is the artful manipulation of light and shadow. This involves providing the desired darkness by walls that eventually may be fractured or invaded by sunlight or introducing a way to ingeniously channel illumination in the most creative ways to cast crisp shadows and render contrasting dark backdrops for wholesome, brilliant experiences.

Sunlight reflecting from Meenakshi Temple walls. | Walls and columns of Sun Temple, Modhera.

Essentially, walls enclose and divide interiors. Besides making enclosures, they also guide movement from one place to another, pause, and reveal surprising views. This is how we experience a place. This is particularly evident in Indian architecture, where the traditional movement is never straight, but of twists and turns, towards and away from the view. When in school, our teachers like Doshi and Raje, would often talk about this Indian movement. And so would Correa plan the movement in projects at the office where I worked. Though I once dismissed this concept in my youth, favouring Western architectural ideals, I now find myself advocating for these very principles.

From the time we started to build, walls would usually support the roof, at times alongside columns, as in large halls or verandahs. As they supported the roof, making openings in these walls was usually very difficult. It needed extra effort and care to pierce holes in them to bring in the much-needed sunlight. No wonder Le Corbusier considered “the history of architecture as the history of the struggle for light.”

As they were usually small, these carefully crafted walls brought in just enough sunlight for the people inside and to provide a drama of light and dark, changing with the time of day and season. This also made the inside charged and vibrant with a play of shadow within sunlight and sunlight within darkness. Further, when the walls were used alongside columns for the structure, the columns produced a parallax with sunlit or dark openings in the walls behind as one moved through spaces creating dramatic progressions.

Along with the oversimplifications of the Modernist works of Wright, Gropius, Corbusier, and Mies, the International Style Exhibition of 1932 at MOMA, New York, turned this mass of wall into a volume of glass. With a framework of steel or concrete supporting the roof, the masonry wall was no longer needed. The extra effort needed to make openings in them, hence, did not arise. Light flowed in from all sides irrespective of the time of the day and seasons. Only the intensity of light changed with time. Light flooded in from all sides, creating a uniform, homogeneous space. Besides, we in India also failed to realise that the intensity of light in Dusseldorf or Dublin was not the same as the intensity of light in Delhi. Nor was the temperature the same.

In pursuit of the free plan concept, Le Corbusier pioneered the separation of space-defining walls from load-bearing columns about a century ago. Louis Kahn further championed this architectural liberation of walls from columns. He is credited with the profound observation: "Consider the momentous event in architecture when the wall parted, and the column became." This statement eloquently captures the significance of walls gaining independence from structural elements. In contemporary framed structures, walls have shed their load-bearing responsibilities, serving primarily to define spaces and guide movement. By fully embracing this independence from structural columns, we unlock the potential to recreate those energetic, vibrant interiors of the past. Liberated from their supporting role, these walls become more versatile. Not only does this make their construction simpler, but it also allows for larger, more dramatic openings to be incorporated with greater ease. This would help make parallax possible again as one moved, as in Ajanta and Ellora.

Unlike the Europeans, we Indians usually like shaded areas and dark interiors most times of the year. These independent walls may now be used to create dark interiors as and when needed. One may let streaks of sunlight fall on these walls to invade or fracture into the darkness to make the interior feel surreal. After all, as Kahn said, “Even a room which must be dark needs at least a crack of light to know how dark it is.” Similarly, the walls may be used to reflect the sunlight that falls on them from the side or above to make interiors bright and cheerful. If shadows happen to fall on these sunlit walls, they change with the hour of the day and season, making the interior engaging all the time.

"Consider the momentous event in architecture when the wall parted, and the column became." - Louis Kahn

Likewise, these walls may be placed outside to reflect sunlight inside rooms to give a soft glow of translucent light into the interiors. Direct sunlight from dark interiors often gives glare. While the sunlight reflecting from these walls, not only limits glare but also gives a frame of dark silhouette against a bright wall. The possibilities for reimagining walls to visually transform and energise interiors are endless. By consciously using walls as a secret code to shape what we see and experience, designers can bring about a revolutionary shift in architectural and interior design. These en'light'ened spaces, sculpted by walls that masterfully control light, have the power to move and inspire, creating lasting memories for those who inhabit them.