Rolling into the millennium with its 46th year, Rachana's is one of the most sought after architecture colleges. Started by three young architects -- Sumant H Wandrekar, Chandrakant Gumaste and Vidyadhar Mhatre -- in 1955, this school of future forms has had visiting lecturers like Charles Correa, Rusi Khambatta, Uttam jain, late Nari Gandhi and Pheroz Kudianwala. The brains behind the best structures -- Hafeez Contractor, Noshir Talati and Rummy Shroff also graduated from here.

``Here we got the bestof both the worlds,'' says Contractor, whose building Wandrekar, from his office at the institute, eyes with pride. The seven-year part-time course for Contractor was much better than today's degree courses. ``From day one we were exposed to reality. Every morning from 7.30-10.00 am, we spent time with some of the humblest teachers like Rusi Khambatta and Narvekar and then we had the entire day to earn our bread. No time for beer and biryani parties,'' says Contractor.

Over the last four decades, this has taken the academy places.

``Literally,'' fills in Wandrekar. From a school in Dadar to law college in Matunga, the academy had a sojourn at Bharda High School near Victoria Terminus and a municipal school in Parel where noise of shuttling trains gave perpetual company. ``In 1971, the corporation offered us an old silk mill which we had to buy with machinery and tenements for Rs 8 per sq-ft,'' recalls Wandrekar, adding that they operated from a shed here for 17 years.

Today, what stands in its place isa nondescript structure that reveals nothing. Blending well with the houses, it's only when you step inside that the structure unfolds. Five-storeyed, this unobtrusive 60,000 sq ft building has spacious corridors lined with roomy lecture halls, art gallery, library and an auditorium. There's also a basement furnished with a photo studio and a processing laboratory.

The school space was conceived as flexible, says Wandrekar. ``For, one can't design an institute for today. With changing needs and planning concepts, architects have to change, too. Nothing ike Le Corbusier's pigeonhole Chandigarh.'' So, whatever is required is either already there or is created.``In the process, we progressed from a part-time diploma course in `special schools' category to a degree course affiliated to the University of Mumbai.

It has not been easy though,'' says Wandrekar, who himself has completed 50 years in the profession. The founders also started a trust called Rachana Sansad which now also runs the School of InteriorDesign, Textile Design, Applied Art, Photography, besides the Academy of Architecture. The trust will also start a post-graduate course in Environment Design next year.

Over the years, the institute has also seen changes in teaching styles.``Late Bharata Natyam dancer Pravina Mehta went to the US to study architecture and expressed her desire to teach when she came back,'' reminisces Wandrekar. She made students draw forms, colour them and cut and paste them. ``An exercise so basic that it irritated most of us,'' says Noshir Talati, another stalwart who was one of Mehta's students.

``Called Basic Designing, the subject is now an accepted part of curriculum in every school of architecture.'' Even the most innovative of projects have originated from the academy -- conservation and beautification projects, redevelopment of Dharavi and surveys on affordable spaces for education.All this without permitting anyone or anything to dilute its goal of being an educational and a social institution. ``And we plan tostay that way,'' Wandrekar told Express Newsline.