What do we have to do?
-Choose an architect we don’t know
-Find information in books and magazines
-Select an opinion (quote) of this architect on architecture
-Briefly introduce the architect in the blog, his opinion and
comment on it
Ustad Ahmad Lahori
During India’s golden age of Mughal architecture, Ustad Ahmad Lahauri, the architect of both the Taj Mahal, a white marble burial tomb on the southern bank of the Yamuna River, and also of the Red Fort in Delhi, a red sandstone imperial residence in the center of the country’s capital, was a Persian builder at the court of Shah Jahan. During the Mughal Empire, Ustad Ahmad Lahori was an architect in present-day India. Its architecture is highly celebrated around the world as a fusion of Persian and Mughal architectural styles, and Taj Mahal is considered one of the ‘wonders of the world’
Ustad Ahmad initially came from Lahore, as his name suggested.
The court stories of Shah Jahan stress his personal participation in the design and it is true that he showed the greatest interest in constructing new majestic structures, having frequent meetings with his architects and supervisors, more than any other Mughal emperor.
The court chronicler Lahori, writes that Shah Jahan would make «appropriate alterations to whatever the skilful architects had designed after considerable thought and would ask the architects competent questions.»
There are two architects named; Ustad Ahmad Lahori and Mir Abd-ul Karim. Ustad Ahmad Lahori laid the base of Delhi’s Red Fort (built between 1638 and 1648). Mir Abd-ul Karim was the former emperor Jahangir’s favorite architect and is listed as the supervisor for the building of the Taj Mahal, along with Makramat Khan.
Quote
«Appropriate alterations to whatever the skilful architects had designed after considerable thought and would ask the architects competent questions.»
The court chronicler Lahori
Because of the antics of my antiqueness, I have not found a quote from him, I have found one of the court chronicler Lahori that refers to Ustad. By this quote what is trying to say is that Ustas has designed such magnificent infrastructure out of thought and everyone asked him questions because they could not understand how he could have done it.