THE WORK OF CHARLES CORREA Kenneth Frampton
a narrow dwelling, twelve feet wide, with sloping roofs and vents situated at the point of their intersection, was focused on an internal patio, which in fact was barely open to the sky at all. Clearly the
Over the last three decades India has gradually seen the emergence
of a contemporary
architectural
caliber, one that bears comparison produced
much of
remains unknown and the names of its practitioners
unfamiliar. Perhaps the most significant exception to this is the architect Charles Correa. Like other Indian architects trained in the West, Correa had to adjust his approach socio-economic
in the late fifties to the
realities of Indian society even if these are now
somewhat less restrictive than they were at the beginning career. Despite the evident drawbacks
this introspective
form was to shield the house down
in the heat of the day, thus protecting while simultaneously
with the finest work being
elsewhere. However, outside the subcontinent
this architecture
raison d'etrefor
culture of exceptional
facilitating
its inner volume from the sun,
cross-ventilation.
This last by virtue
of the venturi effect, would pass through the tube to be exhausted as hot-air through the broken ridge between overlapping roofs.
Throughout the first twenty years of Correa's independent practice, these two paradigms - the "open-to-sky space" and the .
"tube dwelling" will manifest themselves largely in the field of
of his
housing, although the use of the former as the nexus for the
of working in a Third World
creation of symbolic public space was implicit from the outset,
country, C,.Q!reah~s alwaysmaintained that, like Le Corbusier, he had been privileged to work in an Indian context with its strong
particularly in two works dating from 1958; these were the
sunlight and plentiful labour, two factors that favored the use of reinforced concrete, not to mention a climate that with the exception
Gandhi Smarak Sangrahalaya Ahmedabad.
he calls "open-to-sky
Handloom Pavilion built in the Pragati Maidan, Delhi and the built at the Sabarmati Ashram in
During the first two decades of his career, "habitat" would
of the monsoon season was usually quite benevolentv This last factor accounts for Correa's preoccupation
pitched
with what
space," a paradigm that, irrespective
of its
remain the dominant discourse through which Correa would manipulate these forms, engaging
in a combinatorial
game with
many variations, is still a pervasive theme in his architecture.
cellular housing patterns of exceptional
However, this was not the only type-form that Correa would derive
of these projects will remain unrealized, including some squatter
from the exigencies of climate. The second crucial formulation,
housing designed for Bombay in 1973. At the same time Correa will
particularly
apply the tube idea in a number of private houses; including the
suited to hot dry climates, was his so-called "tube
house," a form that was conceived
magnificent
as a means for conserving
ingenuity. Regrettably,
Ramkrishna House, Ahmedabad
(1964), that was a
energy in a society that, in the main, cannot afford air-conditioning. This extruded house type stemmed in part from the Moghul tradition
deluxe version of the original tube-house prototype.
and in part from the megaton form adopted the war. .
and concrete Parekh House, Ahmedabad
Correa's first tube house was developed
by Le Corbusier after
type it was the complete antithesis of the open-to-sky concept.
Here
He would
proceed to apply the same notion to the even more articulate brick related to housing designed
in 1962. As a generic
many
(1968), that in its turn was
in 1967 for Cablenagar
Rajasthan. The Parekh House afforded an opportunity
Township in to render the
tube house concept as two different sections, set side by side.
These sections responded.to
at its most elaborate in the 28-story, Kanchanjunga
different summer and winter
apartments
conditions, while being part of the same continuous dwelling
completed
volume. In effect the house was divided down its length into two
capacity for ingenious cellular planning to the limit, as is evident
in Bombay in the same year. Here Correa pushed his
different pyramidal sections. The first with a wide base and a narrow
from the interlock of the one and a half story, split-level, 3 and 4
top functioned as the summer section, thereby closing the house down at the upper level, while the second served as the winter
bedroom units with the two and a half story 5 and 6 bedroom units.
section, since it was, in effect, an inverted pyramid that in opening
Smaller displacements of level were critical in this work in that they differentiated between the external earth filled terraces and the
the house at the top, provided for a lightly shielded roof terrace
internal elevated living volumes. These subtle shifts enabled Correa
covered with a pergola.
to effectively shield these high rise units from the effects of both the
A section organization employed
of a more traditional character will be
by Correa in the lush tropical vegetation of South-East
India. I am thinking in particular of the Kovalam Beach Resort, completed in Kerala in 1974 and of the equally elegant Bay Island Hotel built at Port Blair in the Andaman Islands in 1982. In this last, timber shade-roofs,
suspended
over public terraces, deflect one's
sun and the m0nS00n rains. This was largely achieved by providing the tower with relatively deep, garden verandahs, suspended
in the
air. Clearly such an arrangement had its precedent in the cross-over units of Le Corbusier's Unit habitation built at Marseilles in 1952, although here in Bombay the sectional provision was achieved without resorting to the extreme of differentiating
between up- and
of the earlier Kovalam Beach Resort will descend the slope in a
down-going units. Not all of Correa's high rise apartments were so elaborate, however, as one may judge from his earlier and much
similar way, deflecting
simpler Sonmarg Apartments
vision downward towards the ocean. The stepped
interlocking
roofs
the prospect down towards the sea.
However, the Kovalam Beach building also calls our attention to another feature of Correa's architecture, manipulating
namely his habit of
floor levels so as to create different domesticsettings
at the scale of the micro-space.
Apart from their incidental debt to
Adolph Loos, these displacements
remind one of Jorn Utzon's
perception that in the West one gravitates towards the wall, whereas in the East one turns towards the floor. Thus one may find in Correa's work subtle level changes having a certain oriental . character that simultaneously
serve to articulate different living
housing completed
of 1966 or his five-story CIDCO
in Bombay in 1973.
In terms of the low-rise, high-density premium throughout
housing, at such a
India, Correa's conc~pt of disaggregating
cellular living space implies the possibility of gradually upgrading the unit with incremental additions. Such an ad hoc strategy is inseparable
from Correa's overall attitude towards planning and
urban development. particularly
Close to the pioneering work of John Turner,
in his self-build,
openly acknowledges
low cost housing proposals, Correa
the crisis of perpetual urbanization
in India
zones in a particular vivacious way. We can see this clearly at Kovalam where the kitchenette of each unit is raised above the living
and the fact that housing for the vast majority will never be met
area so as to provide long views over the sea. Correa's Loosian penchant for sectional displacement,
New Landscape
accompanied
where appropriate
by changes in the floor surface, is
through conventional
methods. As he was to put it in his book The
of 1985:
"For too long have we allowed the densities of our cities to be determined
by individual commercial
developers - higher
densities triggering off higher land values, and vice versa, in
resting on square granite bases, set at the four corners of the
an increasingly own tail."1
square. These columns, needless to say support timber trusses
vicious spiral, like a serpent that feeds off its
carrying the impluvium itself with its tiled roofs. This Mediterranean
As Correa continues, this has led to inhuman environments that have stubbornly
ignored the fact that in warm climates space itself is
the primary resource. While recognizing
the punitive constraints
urbanized
class, above all in the prototypical
of the patio perimeter, particularly
in respect of the
studio which is separated from the larger L-plan of the house by a
his ability to design for the housing needs of a newly
lower-middle
running back to Pompei, is at once inflected
by spatial devices of a local origin, above all the ingenious manipulation
attending the realities of urban poverty, Correa would also demonstrate
parti, with antecedents
staggered
housing
corner sequence
reminiscent of the entryways into
Rajasthani havelis. The square micro-stoa that surrounds the central
that he designed for Lima, Peru in 1973. This so-called PREVI two-
open-to-sky
story housing type consisted of an ingenious assembly of T, L, and
its sense of immutable calm is enhanced
S shaped units, although in the final version the built units followed a
displacements
much simpler formation.
studio is extended into the interstices of the enclosed volumes,
Over the last two decades a great deal of Correa's low-rise, high-density
space is not disturbed by this inflection. On the contrary particularly
by these subtle
because the "Iabyrinthic"
wall of the
especially where tiled stairways with stepped balustrades serve the bedrooms at the first floor.
housing has in fact been realized for India's urban'
middle class as in the Tara Housing settlement built on the outskirts
rise up to
The broader implication of Correa's thinking about dwelling
of New Delhi in 1978. Four stories high and clustered about a central
cannot be separated from his activity as an urban planner which is a
community space, the Tara project comprised
crucial aspect of his work. In the company of his colleagues Pravina Mehta and Shirish Patel, Correa first entered the lists as an urban
120 narrow-fronted,
two-story duplexes stacked on top of one another. Accessed
either
at the ground or at the second floor, these relatively standard
planner in the second half of the sixties with extremely pertinent
megaton dwellings all confirmed to the same module; three meters
proposals for the expansion of Bombay; plans which have lost
wide and six meters high.
nothing of their relevance during the thirty years that have elapsed since their initial formulation.
As he has matured Correa has drawn closer to the primordial traditton of the patio house, a type that is as much Mediterranean it is Indian. This reinterpreted
classic paradigm is clearly the basis
for his own house and studio recently completed so-called Koramangala
in Bangalore, the
House. Here an uncanny charm derives
from the simplest of conjunctions. ying-yang
as
In first instance there is the subtle
assembly of the.house and the studio spiraling around a
central square court containing a single tree. In the second instance, there is a reinforcement import of this "open-to-sky"
of the symbolic and practical
space by virtue of cylindrical
columns,
Given the vast commuter-cum-squatter
implosion into and
around the built-up area of Bombay that was already beginning to escalate out of control from the mid-fifties onwards, with workers commuting as much as four hours each way, in order to work in the center, Correa and his colleagues
proposed the creation of a New
Bombay across the harbour. The State Government put this plan into action, and between 1970 and 1974 Correa served as chief architect to then newly created City and Industrial Development Corporation
(CIDCO). The acquisition of some 55,000 hectares of
some two million
the central business district of New Bombay. Once again a future
people by 1985, gave Correa the opportunity of addressing the housing needs of the poorest sector of the population, through the hierarchical articulation of "open-to-sky" spaces within a single story
rapid transit line is to be the central axis of the entire scheme with
land by CIDCO, for the purpose of accommodating
and hence to the city center. Between the villages and the rapid
urban fabric. As he put it: ""...Living
in an Asian city involves much more than the use
transit line lie large maidans to either side, and these spaces are
of a small room. Such a cell is only one element in a whole
further articulated as communal squares, one for each village. The
system of spaces people need in order to live. This system
overall plan is designed to accommodate
is generally hierarchical
population
consisting of four major elements:
seventy percent of the
not more than ten minutes walk from either a tram stop or
a railway station.
space needed by the family for exclusively private use
Unlike the rest of New Bombay, Ulwe is structured as an
such as cooking and sleeping; areas of intimate contact i.e. the front doorstep where children play, you meet your
ecological,
neighbour,
series of retention and holding ponds and the further provision of an
etc.; neighbourhood
places e.g. the city water tap
,where you bec;ome part of your community; and finally, the principal urban area e.g. the maidan (open space) used by Arguing that at least three quarters of the essential activities,
cooking, sleeping, and entertaining,
etc. can take place in private
land-management
elaborate system of drainage
system involving the creation of a and flood control. It is envisaged that
this hydraulic landscape would provide for all sorts of incidental economic
the whole city."2 .
"swags" of train lines picking up the village traffic to either side of the rapid transit and thus bringing the commuters to the rail stations
activities from the cultivation of vegetables
and fruit, to
fish farming and garbage treatment, this last being geared to the production
of bio-gas. Correa envisages all this as an urban
courtyards for seventy percent of the year, Correa proposed a single
equivalent of Gandhi's rural economy program. Brilliantly worked out
story, mud brick, thatched roof residential fabric, interspersed
in many of its details, the Ulwe plan also allows for its phased
with
realization and one only hopes that within a few years it will still be
courtyards of various scales and character. As far as Bombay was concerned,
the second most crucial
factor was the provision of a transportation
network capable of
affording cheap and rapid access to employment
in the center. To
this end Correa projected a complex infrastructure
running out at its
possible to bring it to fruition. Aside from the six story stepped terrace middle-class
.
apartments that Correa built while he was chief arc1litect of CIDCO, the only housing stock that he has so far realized in New Bombay is
extremities to the villages of Taloja, Panvel and Uran and comprising
in the Belapur district. Distancing himself from any particular class
a linear net of looped bus routes, feeding the settlements through a series of short "necklaces" that in their turn would be linked back to
image, Correa designed his Belapur prototype as a combination
a future rapid transit spine feeding directly into the center of
spaces within low bounding walls. Such a cluster formation
Bombay. As a further and more recent development
of the same
plan Correa projected the so-called Ulwe node, comprising 1580 hectares, descending
some
from the hills to the Waghivali Lake, in
of
several "L" shaped pitched roof units enclosing private open-to-sky spontaneously
produced a larger "open center/open
settlement pattern which when combined squares produced
corner" square
with three other such
a further level of aggregation;
a 12 x 12 meter
11
square linking 21 houses. This larger pattern generated a serpentine
Mauritius, built some two years later, also adheres to the same.
Radburn layout, in which the clusters were pulled back from the
principle, although in this instance, the oversailing shade roof and
outer perimeter of the block to provide inset parking, while the
the seven story portico serve to establish the building on its corner
jagged inner open space form was irrigated by a small stream or
site as a classic batiment d'ang/e.
na//ah, provided to drain away storm water. By walling-in the site of each house, Correa was able to cross class and economic
lines by
In his 1986 paradoxical
LlC Center in New Delhi, Correa will
create the parasol as an enormous space frame, running along the
offering units of different size and cost within the same cluster. At
northern side of a long block. Regrettably this is an office building
the same time the house allowed for its subsequent
that in attempting to mediate between two totally conflicting
for the modification
expansion and
of its cellular form. Needless to say, we will find
variations of this same patterning principle, with contiguous walls, in
forces
fails to serve either. On the one hand it is patently not of the same
many other housing schemes including the ACC Township in
order as the high rise development rising behind it, on the other hand it fails to relate to the scale and form of the classical colonnade
Andhra Pradesh of 1986 and the HUDCO Housing project for
running around the perimeter of the nearby Connaught Circle.
Jodhpur of 1986.
Patently influenced by Louis Kahn in its play between the "served"
Among the various typologies that Correa has entertained.
status of the curtain-walled
office space and the "servant" character
during his practice none is more general and partial in its
of masonry shafts, faced in red sandstone, the LlC Center abandons
implications than the large oversailing shade roof or parasol which, while it has assumed different forms in different works, is
the quasi-Loosian,
pierced-window
aesthetic that Correa had
adopted for almost all of his office buildings, up to that point
nonetheless always associated with the various bureaucratic
including the Indian Mission to the United Nations in New York faced
institutions that he has designed during the course of his career.
in red enameled steel and the more recent Alameda Park building,
This element first appears at a large scale in an office complex for
projected in 1996 for Mexico City, as part of a large piece of urban
the Electronic Corporation
renewal area, now in the process of being realized according
Hyderabad
of India Limited (ECIL), built in
in 1968. In this instance a three story complex is made
up of three linked but independent
T-shaped office clusters that
to
Legoretta's eight block master plan. In this instance Correa's cubic office block will be faced throughout in black tufa, with 2 three-story
would fail to attain any kind of corporate unity were it not for the
roof top loggias facing out over the park. It is intended that each of
parasol that envelops them at roof level and runs around the
these monumental volumes will be decorated
perimeter of the building, as a deep overhang, from the southwest to the northeast elevations.
painted by a local artist within the Mexican mural tradition. As with
Much the same formal strategy will be employed for the MRF Headquarters
at Madras of 1991, although here the building is
shielded by a shade roof extending
across the north western arc,
by a full height mural
Correa's other office structures, these crowning loggias will be covered by louvred parasols. Correa first broached what he refers to as a "ritualistic pathway along a shifting axis" in 1958., with his Delhi Handloom Pavilion
from due west to due north. Here as in the ECIL building, the parasol
which consisted of a square, multi-leveled,
L:ontinues across the top of the central/entry
out of sun-dried bricks, open terraces shielded from the sun by
patio. The LlC center in
labyrinthic
podium, built
fifteen cable-supported
canvas parasols (chatri), each covering one
of the sixteen squares into which the podium had been divided. The sole square that remained open in the asymmetrical
"center"
consisted of a garden court around which the spiraling itinerary of the exhibit revolved, doubling back on itself over four different levels that were interconnected
by either ramps or stairs.
whole structure rests on a brick podium that in this instance houses a small museum, Correa will return to the same form in a series of works that
follow in rapid succession, the partially realized Gandhi Darshan,
Correa would take a more strictly tectonic approach to the same theme in his commemorative museum for Mahatma Gandhi that he completed
defined by a series of brick walls leading down as an undulating labyrinth to the samadhi itself. As in the Handloom Museum, the
in 1963 for the Sabarmati Ashram in Ahmedabad.
This
.
Ragighat (1969), the unrealized Indian Pavilion for the Expo '70, Osaka (1969), the Cochin Waterfront project (1974), and finally, the magnificently expansive Bharat Bhavan Arts Center built on the lake
consisted of a strictly gridded space elevated above the ground.
at Bhopal in 1981. Here the natural contours of the site were used to
Rendered in a fair-face brick and concrete syntax but strongly
create an irregular "acropolis"
influenced by Moghul architecture
courts, around which a number of cultural facilities were organized
at its most abstract, (c.f. Fatehpur
Sikri), the Gandhi Museum remains one of the most compelling
comprising
national monuments erected anywhere in this century. As Correa was to put it in 1989:'
and open amphitheater,
", . . the great Islamic mosques of Delhi and lahore
residence.
are at the
of terraced gardens and sunken
galleries, a museum of tribal art, a library, an enclosed workshops and studios for artists in
Following the Cochin Waterfront project, this is the first
occasion on which Correa will make extensive use of stepped
other end of the spectrum: they consist mainly of large areas
terraces in the manner of the traditional stone bathing ghats.
of open space surrounded
Thereafter he will return to this motif repeatedly, first in a small,
by just enough built form to make
one feel 'inside' a piece.of architecture. relationship
(open-to-sky-space
. , . This ying-yang
surrounded
collective meditation space, the so-called Surya Kund built in Delhi
by solid built
in 1986, and then in the Jawahar Kala Kendra, built in Jaipur in 1992
forms, and vice versa) generates figure/ground patterns in which the open spaces can act as areas of visual rest
between enclosed volumes - a principle of enormous
as a Rajasthani crafts museum, dedicated Jawaharlal Nehru.
to the memory of
This last is a complex symbolic work which represents'a
potential for museums. For not only does this pattern create
condensation
the opportunity to provide a combination
a synthesis which he has always sought between popular culture
of concentration
and
of Correa's thought to date and is a demonstration
relaxation, it also opens up the possibility of offering the visitor
and archaic cosmology.
alternate paths through various sections of the museum."3
symbolic central square is left empty and bounded with ghat-like stepped terraces on four sides to create a kund which in this
After the Gandhi Museum, Correa's symbolic "open-to-sky" space assumed a more organic and topographic
character,
As with the Indian Handloom Museum, the
one that
instance is dedicated
was less determined by an overriding architectonic structure. This is at once evident in the memorial that he realised for Mahatma
The visitor's itinerary
Gandhi's wife in Poona, in 1965, where the commemorative
meant to recall the Vedic ritual route of the pradakshina which is
space is
of
to the sun (Surya). The other eight squares or
mahals are each dedicated
to a different planet and its attributes.
weaving its way through these squares is
effected here through openings on the central axis of each mahal.
vaguely recalls Schinkel's loggia in the Altes museum, Berlin; a
However this seemingly "circular" route does not have to be
feature that is backed up by the central courtyard of charbagh on to
slavishly adhered to and the visitor is free to explore the different
which it opens, together with an ornamental garden situated to the
sectors of the compound
rear of an elongated site.
at will.
The most surprising and refreshing aspect of this entire complex is the way in which a radiant, popular architecture, icons, is combined
replete with
with antique lore, while at the same time
retaining the vitality of contemporary
.
Like the Mexican architect Recardo Legoretta, to whom he may
be compared,
Correa seems to be torn at times between pursuing
colorful abstract compositions,
craft activity. The implicitly
regional character of this institution finds expression in the red
vaguely referential to popular culture,
as in his extremely scenographic Cidade de Goa of 1982, and a more direct evocation of an actual vernacular as we find this in the
Rajasthan sandstone with which it is faced, topped by copings in
National Crafts Museum that he finally realized in New Delhi in 1991.
beige Dholpur stone. These are the same materials that were used
Closer in spirit to the Bharat Bhavan in Bhopal than to Jawahar Kala
for the Jantar Mantar Observatory
at Fatehpur Sikri and in the Red
Kendra, this museum is not organized about a strict mandala pattern
Fort at Agra. In each mahal this revetment is enlivened by
and while it is graced by a number of square courtyards,
appropriate
not treated as analogies of the Vedic kund, despite the fact that they
icons inlaid in white marble, black granite, and grey
these are
mica stone. At the same time the interior of the whole is enriched by
are occasionally
local artists who have painted images of Krishna and other cosmic
various courts give access to different exhibits opening off a
figures, together with Jain cosmological
diagrams on the internal
pathway in an informal manner; Village Court, Temple
Court, Darbar Court, etc. As in Bharat Bhavan, the podium is
vaults and walls of the compound. A similar mandala parti, structured
meandering
stepped to create informal arenas. Instead, the
about a central kund, will
elaborated at two levels; on the ground floor through a series of
again appear in Correa's work in the late '80's, first in the new British
courts and above through a set of roof terraces. At the same time
Council at New Delhi and then in the premises of the Jawaharlal
most of the single story accommodation
Nehru Institute of Development buildings
being completed
Banking at Hyderabad
(JNIDB), both
in 1992. Of these two works, the building
provided is totally enclosed.
What is key here, as Jyotindra Jain has written, is that the whole museum is conceived
after the timeless world of the Indian village
for the British Council has the strongest initial impact, largely
where otherwise incompatible
because of its portico which is decorated
how the unofficial folk culture of India has always maintained its
with a striking mural in
crafts exist side by side. Jain shows
white marble and black Kudappah stone, designed by the British artist Howard Hodgkin. This is one of those rare instances in which
anarchic autonomy despite colonialising
the artwork makes the building rather than the other way around. It is
Museum as helping to maintain some resistance to the
a demonstration
homogenizing
dimensions paradoxically
of the way in which a figurative abstraction
can be used to activate a three dimensional emphasizing
in two
space by
its spatial depth. And indee.d the most
rhetorical aspect of this building is its "open-to-sky"
portico,which
character of its production.
efforts tQ regularize the
Jain sees the value of the National Crafts
forces of the late modern world.4
The last in the line of Correa's nine-square mandalas to date is his design for the hew State Assembly in Bhopal, the capital of Madhya Pradesh. Although this work was put in hand in 1983, only
now, after twelve years, is it finally nearing completion;
a delay that
is modified by a diagonal of granite slabs, embedded
is rather typical of the rate at which buildings come to be realized in
conducting
in grass,
the pedestrian to two adjacent courts situated at the
India. Inspired in both plan and section by the hemispherical
extremities of the central space. This landscaped
Buddha stupa at Sanchi and $ituated some fifty kilometers from the
disrupting
city, this building partially represents the mythical mountain of Meru.
centrifuge of energy extending
However, within its circular perimeter the plan is orthogonally
the concept of the kund is totally transformed,
subdivided
plan, arising out of the collegiate typology and the shape of the site
into nine compartments,
matrix being occupied
with the four corners of the
by the circular Legislative Assembly, the
Upper House, the so-called Combined Hall and the Library. For security reasons the mode of circulation contained
independent
in each sector is a self
system. Thus VIPs enter the building via an
diagonal,
the tranquility of the square, is also meant to represent a out towards the limits of space. Thus
no longer conforms to the mandala concept.
just as the organic In many respects this
assembly depends for its cultural legibility on the presence of literal icons, such as statues of Galileo, Newton, Einstein and the Indian Sage Aryabhatta,
who more than fifteen centuries ago established
axis coming from the southeast, while the general public enters from
that the world was round. The two peripheral courts are also
the southwest. These two axial approaches
landscaped
culminate in a central
square which unlike the kund, as this appears in other mandala
in such a way as to represent scientific paradigms;
hostel quad being paved according
the
to a fractal diagram known as
schemes, is covered by a pergola. After passing through a
Serpenski's gasket, while the computer court is structured about a
checkpoint
figure representing
the public may gain access to viewing galleries
overlooking the three main halls through a complex system of ramps and elevated circulation. This promenade
architecturale,
to coin the
Lagrange's
Lobes.
Needless to say, Correa's architecture
is a product of his
formation; that is to say he has been influenced to an equal degree
Corbusian phrase, as being analogous to the ritualistic
by both the lateral thinking of Richard Buckminster
circumambulation Sanchi.
one of his teachers in the United States, and Le Corbusier, whose
that takes place around the sacred stupa at
The Inter-University
Fuller, who was
stature both as an urbanist and an architect left an indelible mark on Center for Astronomy and Astrophysics
contemporary
Indian architecture.
This last is still evident today in
completed on the campus of the Pune University, near Pune City in 1992, is a much more somber work than the Jawahar Kala Kendra,
the work of Correa, even if today he rarely makes any direct
in the main because the architect attempted to express overtly the
related back to the presence of a similar geometry as this appears
dedication of the work to the exploration of outer space. Hence the "black on black" aesthetic, reminiscent of the American artist Ad Reinhardt, with walls faced in black basalt, capped by dark Kuddapah
stone and a final course of glossy black granite. This
Corbusian reference. However, even the mandala form may be in Le Corbusier's
last work of consequence:
his regrettably unbuilt
project for the Venice Hospital made in 1965. The other ethos that Correa shares with Le Corbusier is his faith in the presence of what Sigfried Gideon called the Eternal Present.
dark masonry revetment, symbolizing astral space, brackets the main entrance, which in its turn frames two concrete columns that
This is the deep source that links Correa not only to his own youth in
imply the axis leading to the central kund. In this instance, the kund
subcontinent
Goa but also tQ the absolutely inexhaustible
history of a
where past, present and future co-exist in an all but
continuum. "We live in countries of great cultural
indistinguishable
heritage," he says, "countries which wear their past as easily as a
sustenance
was for Le Corbusier; the source of a spiritual
that is as universal in its implications
rooted in the geo-physical
conditions
must re-invent the expression of the
mythic images and values on which it is based."6 These two extremely succinct paragraphs
woman drapes her sari"5. Thus India for Correa is like the Mediterranean
happens, architecture
effectively sum up
the full scope of Correa's activities over the past three decades and
as it is deeply
the fact that changes in the technique of building have been far less
and mores of a particular
dramatic in India than in other parts of the world may go some way
place. Like other Indian intellectuals of his generation, Correa will
towards explaining the apparent ease with which Correa has been
find inspirational depth in the mythic and cosmological
able to reinterpret and reintegrate the past into an extraordinary
beliefs of the
body of work.
past. In this way he has been able to elaborate partis that were initially somewhat schematic into works of poetic consequence. In opposition to the stylistic superficiality
of Post Modern
pastiche, Correa postulates three separate levels at which the environment
may be conceptualized
and perceived today;'first,
as
an everyday pragmatic given, second, as a domain where fashionable imagery of one kind or other will inevitably be present and, third, as an all but invisible cultural sub-stratum that rises, from time to time into the architectural
unconscious
Correa argues that this triadic interplay way architecture
of a particular region.
is further modified by the
evolves over time through the dynamic interaction
of climate, technology,
and the emerging aspirations of the society.
Thus of the forces shaping architecture World Correa writes:
in the modernizing
Third
". . . at the deep structure level, climatic conditions, culture and its expression,
its rites and ritual. In itself, climate is the
source of myth: thus the metaphysical open-to-sky
quantities attributed to
space in the cultures of India and Mexico are
concomitants
of the warm climate in which they exist: just as
the films of Ingmar Bergman would be inconceivable
without
the dark brooding Swedish winter. "The fourth force acting on Architecture other art feels its influence so decisively. technology
is Technology.
No
. . the prevailing
changes every few decades. And each time this
References: 1. Charles Correa: "The New Landscape," Book Society of India, 1985, p.46. 2. Ibid, p. 38. 3. Museum Quarterly, UNESCO Review, No. 164, N:4, 1989, p. 223. 4. Dr. Jyotindra Jain: "Metaphor of an Indian Street," Architecture + design, Delhi, Vol. VIII, N:5, Sept-Oct 1991, p. 39-43. 5. "Charles Correa," Concept Media, Singapore, 1st Edition, 1984, p. 9. 6. MASS, Journal of the University of New Mexico, Vol. IX,Spring 1992, p.4-5.
THE BLESSINGS OF THE SKY Charles Correa
Rajasthani chattris
In India, the sky has profoundly affected our relationship to builtform, and to open space. For in a warm climate, the best place to be in the late evenings and in the early mornings, is outdoors, under the open sky. Such spaces have an infinite number of variations: one steps out of a room. . . into a verandah. thence on to a terrace. courtyard, Throughout
human history, the sky has carried a profound and
sacred meaning. Man intuitively perceived Supernatural.
it'as the abode of the
Hence to climb a path to the top of the hill, where the
Gods dwell, is a paradigm of such mythic power that it has been central to the beliefs of almost every society, since the beginning time.
of
Thus the great Hindu temples of South India are not just a collection of shrines and gopurams, open-to-sky
but a movement through the
pathways that lie between them. Such a path is the
essence of our experience
-
it represents a sacred journey, a
pradakhshina, a pilgrimage. And this sense of the sky extends to the architectonic vocabulary as well: as witness the walls around
. . and
. . from which one proceeds to an open
perhaps shaded by a tree. . . or by a large_~9.2!§,
overhead..61.eachQ1oment, subJI§ c.hange2 in ttle qua~ity of light and ambient-.ail:.gepeJ:ateJe..elings within us.- feeliQ.gs_~hi~h are
--
-
'"central to our beings. Hence to us i~ A'sTa,the symbol of Education has never been the Little Red Schoolhouse of North America, but
the guru sitting under the tree. True Enlightenment cannot be
'
achievedwithintheclosedbox of a room- one needsmustbe outdoors, under the open sky. These open-to-sky
spaces have very practical implications
as
well. To the poor in their cramped dwellings, the roof terrace and the courtyard represent an additional
room, used in many different ways
during the course of a day: for cooking, for talking to friends, for sleeping at night, and so forth. And for the rich, at the other end of
Rajasthan palaces and Moghul forts, crowned with patterns that
the income spectrum, the lawn is as precious as the bungalow itself.
interlock builtform with sky - and the wonderfully
Thus in traditional villages and towns all over India, such open-to-
evocative ~is
(umbrellas) along the roofscape, capturing fragments~,?f the infinite heavens above.
sky 1spaces are an essential element in the lives of the people. Examine, for instance, the village of Banni in Kutch, where the
The Red Fort at Agra
The Lord Buddha at Borabudhur
~
AQ~
Diagrammatic section of Red Fort
0 Guru under the tree
House in Banni village
houses consist of a series of circular huts around a central courtyard.
Each hut has a specialised
function: one for visitors,
another for storing grain, a third for sleeping, and so forth. The family moves from one hut to the next, depending
on their need, the time of
day, etc, in a nomadic pattern of astonishing sophistication.
Then again, consider the Moghul Emperors in their magnificent Red Forts at Agra and Delhi, living in a similarp?ly-centric typolog~i: On the roof terraces of these forts, we find truly elegant patterns of free-standing
Gandhi Smarak Sangrahalaya
.
style and natural
pavilions, placed in immaculate gardens, inlaid with
the this pattern is -.'" terrace - -"'- level. .. In the cold ~, but sunny -. -. winters, ---_. reversible: the terrace gardens Qi3Lng used during t~_eday, and the
10w!~~~;I~~rn~-~t night. The result is a brilliant re-inventio~;fthe desert tents of Central Asia from whence the Moghu1scame. These Moghuls generated a life-style as royal as Versailles
..
but
fountains and channels of running water. As in the village of Banni,
with truly aristocratic finesse, their palaces are built on the. scale Qf a
these pavilions are differentiated
tennis court, not a parking lot.
as to use: the Diwan-I-Am for
The typologies
receiving visitors, the Moti Masjid for prayerS, the hamams for
l
bathing, and so forth. Given the cold winters of North India and the annihilating
"-
revealed in these examples are astonishing:
flexible and incremental, achieving great spatial richness through heat of
minimalist means. They exercise a seminal influence on many of the
its summers, how did the Moghuls manage to live in such a
projects in these pages - starting with one of the earliest, the
disaggregated
Gandhi Smarak Sangrahalaya (1958-63) at the Sabarmati Ashram in Ahmedabad. This memorial to the Mahatma is a museum and
pattern of pavilions? The answillJie~[n
the sunken
sourtyardE,-.WbiGl:i give.accesS-tG-aJowBLleyeLof rQQJJ1s.Jn the early morning of the summer months, a velvet shamiana (canopy) is
research centre where scholars come to study his letters, books and
~tretched over the rim of the c.2.ldrtyards-,JrapQing the cold overnight air in the lower level of. rooms. This is where the Moghul Emperor
photographs. --rThese aLe.housed in- a disaggregated ----plan connected by covered and open areas a pattern which not only allows for ~--'--
'Spends~his da;.in
mc:re flexible .growth but also gives to tFi~ users-_areas ~-visu?1 q~iet ~e the-eye can rest and the mind meditate. ~ .. -
Em~er~~ ~d
th;even~n§L ~ami.§.n;js
removed, ~ndthe
his co~r:!..~:::.~eup on to th~ g,a!:ge~and
pavilions of
Instruction, Enlightenme-n
v
Salvacao Church
Jama Masjid, Delhi
Another example is the Salvacao Church (1974-77) in Bombay which speculates on what church typology might have been if Christianity had not been headquartered
in Europe, but had stayed
Kapur Think Tank
in Asia - where it originated, Yet another is the Sen Farmhouse (1972, unbuilt) outside Calcutta which has four caves (living,
.
This concept has also generated the Museld-Olof Archaeology.
sleeping, cooking and washing) placed around a ~QQI2.:fo~ courtyard; at different times of the day, this courtyard can be used in
(1985, unbuilt) Bhopal, wh5're the system of courtyards
conjunction
galleries are built separately and incrementally
with any particular cave, depending
on the activity. The
is first clearly
defined by a continuous masonry wall, and then the exhibition on the other side of
same principle also generates the Patwardhan Houses (1967-69) in
it. This typology of the inside-out sock can also cope more easily
Poona, where the sleeping and cooking functions are housed in
with the constantly fluctuating
square masonry boxes, grouped
economy like India's, since the basic architectural statement - the
in.a pattern which creates breeze-
wall - is completed
ways for the living areas. These typologies were further developed
into a pattern which
budgets and time-tables of an
in the first instance. It places the highest
emphasis on open-to-sky
space - as do the great Islamic mosques,
might be termed the In..§.ide-OutSock. An example is the project for
like the Jama Masjid in Delhi, which is really just a large open
a mud Farmhouse for Mrs. Indira Gandhi (1972, unbuilt) - a concept
courtyard with enough builtform around the periphery to make one
which re-surfaces again in the Kapur Guesthouse (1978, unbuilt) to
feel one is within a piece of architecture.
accommodate
participants
in a high-powered
think-tank discussing
COURTYARDS & TERRACES
India's future. Here the main arena is a square courtyard made of
earth, defined by a high mud wall - with the rooms for each of the visitors as appendages
on the other side of this wall. Each suite of
Open-to-sky space is also of vital importance in housing where it can make a decisive difference between livable habitat and
rooms has a door opening on to the courtyard, in the centre of which the discussions take place - surely a configuration which should
claustrophobia
serve to wonderfully
each family can be provided
focus the mind! What is crucial here are not the
formless rooms that lie on the other side of the wall, but the clarity of the central core - hence the analogy of the sock turned inside-out.
- particularly so for the lowest income groups. Even
in reasonably dense housing, individual terraces and/or gardens for -
as in the Jeevan Bima townships
(1969-72) in Borivli and Bangalore (1972-74), and the low-income ho.using (1971-72) for the Gujarat Housing Board in Ahmedabad.
Kanchanjunga
Low-income housing, Gujarat Housing Board
,\
/
-0::,c'/ \
Masterspaces
'~'<~~i'~~
~..I ~ -
Colonial Bungalow Rallis Apartments
)t,
Porch
\d
Verandah
Jeevan Bima Nagar, Borivili
Such open-to-sky --- - -- spaces-- not only - improve- living conditions, .
~
-
--.
-
r-r--T-' blJt
~e~LiVing ~ed-: I Bed Dining Bed I
cEil also hia'ieCQDsigeCable economievalue-in a de..veloping ~conomy like India, ,where families augment their income by keeping chickens, or goats (or even a buffalo!). Usually such activities are not encouraged
in company-owned
Bath
!
- - ! .,.....
Verandah Bath
townships, but the Malabar
Cements Corporation township (1978-82) was an exception. All the
Plan
families, including those at first floor levels, connect directly to a Another variation that this buffer zone can take is to turn the
small piece of land for their exclusive use. These principles are viable also in the high-rise buildings of Bombay, where the issue is compounded
by the hot humid climate.
An east-west orientation c~che...§ ttt~ prevailing bre;s~ and al1so the best views in the city,. but it also exposes the building to the
verandahintoa garden- preferablyof double-height.Thiswasthe genesis of the Cosmopolis Apartments
the opportunity to actually construct this concept:
blistering sun -- and the monS.OOnrains. The old colonial bungalows
(1970-83), a condominium
solved this problem intelligently by locating the main living areas in
the large terrace-garden
the centre, protected
whole apartment. Double-height
~
periphery
-
by a continuous verandah running along the
a concept used in the Sonmarg Apartments (1962), the
Rallis Apartment~ and later in the DCM Apartments, where a belt of verandahs, studies and bathrooms forms a protective zone around the main living areas.
(1958, unbuilt) in Bombay,
and later of the Boyce Houses (1962, unbuilt) in Pune. Finally came Kanchanjunga
of luxury apartments in Bombay where in the corner forms the central focus for the terrace gardens are also the focus
for each family in Tara Group Housing (1975-78), a high-density complex of maisonettes in Delhi. Here the terraces a!:..~covered bY a ~~ht pergola, since sleeping under the night sky is an age-old ,-custom
in the hot dry climate of North India.
Planning for Bombay
Be)apur Housing, New Bombay
Ulwe.. The CBD of New Bombay URBANIZATION Such open-to-sky
spaces are of course of crucial importance to
the poorest inhabitants: the squatters. For the great wave of distress migration that is engulfing our cities in the Third World poses not just the issue of poverty (in actual fact of course, rural poverty is worse); it is really the brutal and de-humanizing
patterns that this poverty
take.son in the urban context. Obviously there is an appalling
Squatter Housing
mismatch between the way our cities have been built and the way we use them today. For a whole family forced to live in a small all-purpose
room, open-to-sky
space is truly essential for all the (1973, unbuilt) in Bombay, in which
4 units are clustered together under one roof in a pattern which t~
in Third World cities where occupancy
per room
is extremely high), the overall land needed by the city does not
activities for which they cannot find place indoors. Hence the Squatter-Housing
Because such patterns of low-rise housing can be reasonably dense (particularly
Jenerates such a continuum (ranging from the most private to the most public) of open spaces. This was further developed in the
increase very much. In any case, since only about one-third of a city's land is devoted to housing, even doubling this area necessitates only a marginal increase in the overall size of the city but it can make a decisive difference to the lives of the people,
housing units are closely packed (at a density, including open
particularly of the poorest. How do we increase the supply of urban land? The section
spaces and schools, of 500 persons per hectare). Yet each unit is
Planning for Bombay, outlines some possible strategies for
separate, so that it can grow, quite independently
restructuring
incremental
housing at Belapur, New Bombay (1983-86). Here the
Though the housing typologies
of its neighbours.
provided here cover the entire range
the city. Also discussed
is the development
establish affordable housing typologies
introducing
the entire spectrum of our urban population,
significanceto principles,
the Third World) - as well as other equally crucial
such as: people's participation,
identity, pluralism, and so forth.
income ger"ieration,
of Ulwe
(1990), the Central Business District of New Bombay, which seeks to
of income groups, the plot sizes differ only marginally - thus the principle of Equity (an issue of the greatest political
-
and coherent urban form for including the poorest.
In short: by opening up the supply of urban land, one is using Space as a Resource - a principle of fundamental importance to our urban centres.
-~ Resting Writing
\\ Windscoop
Parekh House Tube
Eating House
Patio
houses, Sind
Correa House I
j
mechanism for dealing with the elements (truly, a machine for Ramkrishna House
living!)
-
this is the great challenge and opportunity of the
. developing
world.
In this, the old architecture
-
especially the vernacular - has
much to teach us, as it always develops a typology of fundamental sense. For instance, in the hot dry climate of North India, most Hindustan Lever Pavilion
houses are narrow units with common party walls. The two long sides have no heat input, all ventilation and light enters from the
tHE MACHINE FOR LIVING
short ends and via interior courts. An interesting variation of this
Another equally critical parameter: Energy. In this century, architects
have depended
more and more on the mechanical
engineer to provide light and air within the building.
But in India, we
pattern can be used to develop a section which modulates temperatures through convection currents: as the h~eated air rises, it moves along the sloping surface of the ceiling, slipping out through
---
cannot afford to squander resources in this manner - which is of
a vent at the top, thus drawing in new air from the lower level to
course actually an advantage, for it means that the buildingjtself must, through , its very form, create which the user . ~ the "controls" " .'
replace it. This principle, first developed
needs. Such a !:espon~e necessita!et~ much more than just sunangles and louvres; it must involve the section, the plan, the shape,
(1961) and the Ramkrishna House (1962-64).
in short, the very heart of the buildin~.
township near Kota, Rajasthan, fbr which we devel9P'ed two pyramidal sections, Summer and Winter, to be used at different
Thus the-wonderfully
inventive wind-scoop
houses of Iran, or th~
in the Tube House
(1961-62) also forms the basis for the Hindustan Lever Pavilion The idea progresses further in Cablenagar
(1967, unbuilt), a
Alhambra in Granada - where the courtyards and water pools are
times of the day and seasons of the year. The Summer section (for
not just arbitrary ornamental decorations,
the daytime) entraps and humidifies the dry air, thus cooling it; the
but crucial passive-energy
devices, serving to make this exquisite palace at least 10 degrees cooler than the surrounding
countryside.
In such examples indeed,
Winter Section (for early morning, and at night) opens up to the sky above. These formed the basis of the Parekh House (1966-68) and
the challenges of a difficult climate have triggered off architectural
the Correa House (1968, unbuilt). In order t6 "open-up" the narrow
responses that are not wilful and trivial, but are generated
spaces usually generated between the parallel walls of row-housing,
deep
in the wellspring of the human imagination. Consider that
we developed
fundamental
desert and enter even the humblest such abode is a pleasure
interlocking units which create varying dimensions - internal dimensions - an idea later expanded in the Previ Project (1969-73)
beyond mere photogenic
in Lima, Peru. .
typology: the house around a courtyard. To cross a image-making.
Architecture
as a
for the Gujarat Housing Board (1961, unbuilt)
ECIL Offices, Hyderabad
Section through Padmanabhapuram
Administration Offices, Val/abh Vidyanagar
}
I MRF Headquarters,
Madras
Bay Island Hotel, Andamans WORK SPACES Are these concepts relevant to other building typologies,
as for
instance, work spaces? Earlier attempts to deal with solar prorction involved various forms of brise-soleil- as in the Administratio~ Offices (1958-60) for Vallabh Vidyanagar University at Anand. One soon discovered
that this kind of concrete louvre, while'providing
LEISURE Another marvellously
inventive example of natural ventilation is
the Padmanabhapuram Palace in Trivandrum - the oldest wooden
powerful visual imagery for the builtform, can be counter-productive.
building in India. Here, in the hot and humid c,limate of southern India where cross-ventilation is essential, we-find a truly remarkable
The concrete heats up during the long hot day and then acts as an
sec~on where the pyramidal form of the plinth ri~es parallel to the
enormous radiator in the evening, rendering the rooms unbearable.
slope of the tiled roof above - th~ minimising the need for enclosing walls to keep out the sun and rain. From within the
So the ECIL Offices (1965-68) in Hyderabad, workspace
tries to develop a
in which the very pattern of the builtform itse~ cremes a
sp~ rnigo-climate. Through this and other similar efforts, gradually a kit-of-parts came into existence: the section which facilitates convection currents,. the internal zone of micro-climate,
pavilion, one'sJl0e of vi~onis
deflected_sharply
downwards
to the
\1.I!.~s-arouQ9. (a cool fresh green, blissfully therapeutic on a hot day). This principle formed the genesis of the Bay Island Hotel the
(Andamans,
1979-82) and the Dona Sylvia Beach Resort (Goa,
stepped terraces, the pergola roof. Variations of this kit-of-parts
1988-91). The inner spaces in both these projects are protected not
were used in the MPSC Office Building (1980-92) in Bhopal and the
by enclosing walls but by very large sloping roofs. For centuries,
LlC Centre (1975-86) in Delhi. Other examples are the MRF
sloping tiled roofs have been part of the indigenous architecture
Headquarters
most of South-India - in fact, in most of South-east Asia. And they
in Madras (1987-92), the Nuclear-Power
Corporation
in Bombay (1988, unbuilt) and the LlC Centre (1988-92) in Port
occur throughout these projects, from the Sadiq Futehally House
Louis, Mauritius, where the pergola .pecomes a huge urban gesture,
(1959, unbuilt) in Bombay, the Mascarenhas
protecting
the builtform within and at the same time creating a
much-needed crowded city.
sense of public space in the very heart't)f a
in
House (1964-65) in
Bangalore, and the Kovalam Beach Resort (1969-74) in Trivandrum, to the L&T Township (1982-88) at Awarpur and the houses along the Mandovi riv r at Verem (1982-89).
/
Services
Handloom Pavilion, Delhi
Indip Pavilion, Osaka
understanding
of the subtleties and ambiguities
of such spaces. The
irony is that the very same cultures, which produced the original The Acropolis
at Athens
typologies,
are now happily importing the closed box model
(complete with wallpaper) from the "advanced" THE RITUALISTIC Padmanabhapuram typologies
PATHWAY
north, to fill up their towns and cities - from Athens to Singar?°re to
is important because it is the key to
(and to architectural
countries of the
Tokyo to Sao Paulo.
syntax) quite different from those
developed in the cold climates of Europe and North America
Fortunately, in India one cannot build a closed box (unless one can also afford the air-conditioning
that will make it haqitable). Thus
where life must be protected throughout the long winter by a
this issue was intuitively addressed
head-on, righttrom
sealable weather-resistant
travelers visiting the Parthenon in the 17th and 18th Centuries must
~roject undertaken, the Handloom Pavilion (1958) in Delhi. Though generated by a precise and disciplined plan of sixteen squares, it
-
box. Thus though the wealthy English
the first
have been profoundly moved by the sacred pathway up to the top of
actually creates a highly ambiguous
the Acropolis, they soon realised that the only thing they could really
nor quite uncovered, containing a series of platforms in an
take back and re-cycle within the hostile environment
ascending
in which they
- and then descending
space, neither quite covered - spiral. At some distance above
li~ed Werethe marble columns and pediments - which were rapidly
is a "sky" of hand loom cloth, separated from the peripheral walls by
turned into surface tattooing (mere wallpaper!)
a gap all around. So also the K,asturba Gandhi Samadhi (1962-65) in
to decorate the
outside of the sealed boxes they had to build. Now a box generates a very simplistic architectural
Poona, where the memorial consists of a gently descending equation.
One is either inside this box - or outside it. The transition from one condition to the other is through a precise and clearly defined
path
defined by a series of parallel brick walls, on a shifting axis,
.
c;Jlminating in the Samadhi itself. Other variations on this theme of pedestrian
path, shifting axis
boundary: the~.9oUnsid.e allcLoutside co-exist as opposites, in a'" s~duali1y. How very different from the pluralistic and subtle
and low-key builtform are the Gandhi Darshan (1968-69) in Delhi
variations of air and light conditions
pathway is extended to also cover the roof surfaces. Architecturally,
spaces we have been discussing!
climates of this globe
-
generated by the open-to-sky The old architecture
of the warm
from the acropolis of Athens to the pyramids
of Teotihuacan to the temples of Kyoto were generated
by an
and the India Pavilion (1969, unbuilt) at Osaka, Japan. Here the the form is a kind of "non-building",
given scale principally
the flights of external stairs (echoing the bathing ghats of Benares).
by
l'
",:~--.:;1 Gandhi
Darshan
Darbar Crafts
at Rajghat
. ~. ~/
"4 ~ "
F
Village Crafts National
r
.",. -'!
~
Crafts
Museum,
Temple Crafts
Delhi
Corb and Mies at the Kala Akademi
Bharat Bhavan, Bhopal
This processional open-to-sky,
is also further developed
Bhopal - which is a re-interpretation /
Urban Windows, Mexico City
unfolding of spaces, some enclosed, some in Bharat Bhavan (1975-81),
Cidade de Goa
of the old Pleasure Gardens
which are still the most popular spot for Indian families in the cool
of Kanchanjunga,
hours of sunset and in the early dawn, In the JNIDB in Hyderabad
"urban windows" framing the city, Another, example is the office
(1986-91), the pathway moves like a river through the building,
building in the Alameda Park project in Mexico (1994 - to date) which
connecting
the teaching areas to the Library and Faculty Offices,
and up to the hostel rooms on the sloping site, while in the National
suspended
high above Bombay, which act as
uses these urban windows (floating just above the tree tops of the historic park) to recall th~ great tradition of public art in Mexico City,
Crafts Museum (1975-85), it becomes a continuous pedestrian spine METAPHORS
running through the heart of the museum - a metaphor for the Indian street, taking the visitor from village to temple to palace, In the British Council Headquarters
The relationship of architecture
and Library in Delhi
to the other arts is a crucial one,
In the Hotel Cidade de Goa (1978-82) at Dona Paula, for instance,
(1987-92), this pathway becomes a formal axis, running down the
murals and sculpture are used not just to provide references to local
centre of the site, from the entrance gate right up to the rear
traditions and events, but really to bring back into balance the
boundary, Along it are located three mythic paradigms that have
spatial tensions generated
generated the history of this sub-continent,
the Kala Akademi (1973-83) in Panaji, These projects, both sited in
recalling the historic
by the builtform, This is also attempted
interfaces that have existed between India and England over the
Goa, use elements from the kit-of-parts developed
centuries, The large square cut-outs on the street facade not only encase the Hodgkin mural like a proscenium but also, from within
with abstractcolour
the building, act as, "urban windows" framing views of the city
can adds layers of metaphorical architecture,
outside - a visual and gesture that recalls the double-height
terraces
in
together earlier
and realistic images, setting up a dialectic
between builtform and virtual imagery
-
a complex interaction which
and metaphysical
dimensions to
Vidhan Bhavan
New Baga/kat
by its proximity to the Buddhist Stupa at Sanchi nearby, and by form of the Parliament in New Delhi. Vastu-purush-manda/as
The second is the town of New Bagalkot in the State of Such dimensions
are an essential part of the old architecture
we
Karnataka. Here the principles of equity, affordability, job generation
see around us. These buildLngs possess not only an extraordinary
etc., (discussed
in the section on Ulwe) are developed
within an
beauty of proportion, mate"rials, etc., but they also project, with
overall urban form which has deeper cultural relevance, recalling
astonishing force, polemic ideas about Qurselves and our
Srirangam - the ancient temple town on the river Cauv@ry,built as
relationship with the Non-manifest
set of concentric
the beginning
World. Strange indeed that since
of time, Man has always used the most inert of
materials, like brick and stone, steel and concrete, to express the invisibilia that so passionately
move him. Today our architecture
is
banal - partly because our contemporary existence is so, but also
rectangles,
in the form of a Vedic mandala
-depicting the non-Manifest World. The third is the IN Centre for Advanced
Scientific Research at
Bangalore (1990-94), the new campus for the Indian Institute of Science. Here the centre of the site is occupied
by a forest, with the
perhaps because we do not seek to express anything profound (or
scientists' laboratories, seminar rooms and living quarters on the
deeply felt) about ourselves, or the society in which we live.
other side of the stone wall encircling this forest. Scientists (truly the
The next few projects are really but faltering steps in that direction, metaphors for ounelationship
to something outside (and
new rishis!) crossing through the stone wall to enter the open-to-sky
space in the grove of trees, recall metaphorically
the
beyond) ourselves. The first is the Vidhan Bhavan (1980 - to date), a
withdrawal of the ancient sages into the forest in search of wisdom
highly complex interlock of pathways, builtform and open-to-sky
and enlightenment.
spaces for the new State Assembly of the Government of Madhya
Pradesh. It is a citadel of democracy determined
-
built in a circular form
by its location (on top of a hill in the centre of Bhopal),
Metaphysical
aspects of the sky are also addressed
in the next
two examples:'the Jawahar Kala Kendra (1986-92) in Jaipur and IUCAA (1988-93) in Pune. These two projects, seemingly so different
.
- ---
.
.1 .......
~.
~.
Navgraha:
the symbols and colours of the nine planets
Galaxy in an Expanding
in form and function (one is an art centre, the other an academic
the central paradigms
Universe
through which the ancient vastu-purush-
institution), are not so dissimilar after all. Both seek to project.
mandalas (with their emphasis on the centrality at the vortex) are not
Architecture as a Model of the Cosmos - each expressing a
so different from contemporary
transcendental
Holes of Outer Space. Is this mere coincidence?
programme
reality, beyond the pragmatic
requirements
of the
more fundamental
that caused them to be built. In this sense, they are
quite symmetrical. (like the plan of Jaipur city itself), a contemporary the vastu-purush-mandalas
pleasurable in
- those sacred Vedic diagrams that
have been of seminal importance to Hindu, Buddhist and Jain over many many centuries.
The second, IUCAA (the Inter-University and Astrophysics)
. . which, over all these
centuries, has not changed. And just as the pragmatic
construct based
on an ancient perception of the non-Manifest World, as expressed
Or is there a far
explanation? After all, both theories have been
generated from the same human mind.
The first, the Jawahar Kala Kendra in Jaipur, is double-coded
architecture
scientists' notions about the Black
qualities of open-to-sky
seem to have remained undiminished,
so also its metaphysical
earlier and
mythic qualities as well. Perhaps the reason is not so hard to fathom. The sky, all said and done, is the source of light
Centre for Astronomy
and
space that we discussed
-
which is the most primordial of
stimuli acting on our senses. And across its face, every day, passes
at Pune, seeks to express a totally different mind-
the sun - the origin of Life itself! . . . Small wonder then that man
set, viz., our own 20th century notions of the Expanding Universe in
has always perceived the sky above to be the abode of the gods,
which we live - an understanding generated by the extraordinary
and that down all these many millennia, it has exerted such
scientists (Einstein, Rutherford, Hoyle, and others) who in making
extraordinary
the Universe comprehensible, contemporary
power on us and on the architecture
we build.
have helped generate our own
sensibilities.
The Cosmos - as it was comprehended thousands of years ago and as it is perceived
today. These two projects seem to be based
on two very different mind-sets.
. . or are they? For astonishingly,
Bombay, January 1996
11
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This memorial museum is erected.in the Sabarmati Ashram where Mahatma Gandhi resided from 1917 to 1930, and from which he started on his historic Salt March to Dandi. Built in homage to the Mahatma, and to propagate his ideas, it houses letters, photographs,
and other documents which trace the freedom
movement launched by GaC1.dhiji. The materials used in the construction
are similar to the other
buildings in the ashram: tiled roofs, brick walls, stone floors and wooden dqors. The only additions are the RCC channels which act as beams and as rainfall conduits - and which permit additional conWuction
to be added in future. No glass windows are used
anywhere in the building; light and ventilation being provided by operable wooden louvres. These elements combine to form a pattern of tiled roofs, in a typology analogous to the villages so central to Gandhiji's thinking. They are grouped in a casual meandering
pattern, creating a
pathway along which the visitor progresses towards the centrality of the water court.
The last possessions
Prayer Platform u
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of Mahatma Gandhi
---
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Courtyard
Semi-enclosed
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Section showing channels for carrying rainwater, and for adding new units, Since the collection will, by its very nature, be augmented from time to time, the Sangrahalaya is a "living" structure which can grow and modulate, Recently, some more units were added, extending the pattern, This process will continue, as more photographs, letters and other documents are
~ 3
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collected - each generation of Indiansmaking its contribution, and paying its homage, to the Mahatma,
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Air gap Tiles Battens
The tiled roofs, supported on brick piers, 6 m on centre, are layered for heat control, Wooden boarding fixed to the bottom of the joists (which run parallel to the slope of the roof), is covered with waterproofing and then finished silver-white to reflect back incident heat. Along the top of the joists, lightweight battens support roof-tiles - thus creating between the two layers of the sandwich an air gap (which provides insulation from solar radiation).
Boarding Joists "Channel
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Village women visiting the Ashram
"I do not want my house to be walled on all sides and my windows to be stuffed. I want the cultures of all the lands to be blown about my house as freely as possible. But I refuse to be blown off my feet by any of them." - Mahatma Gandhi
NATIONAL CRAFTS MUSEUM Delhi 1975-90
This Crafts Museum, casual and accepting vernacular, is organised
of the artisan's
around a central pathway, going from
village to temple to palace, a metaphor for the Indian street - in fact, for India herself, where all these different kinds of crafts have always co-existed down the centuries. Walking alongthis
spine, one
catches glimpses of the principal exhibits that lie on either side (the Village Court. Darbar Court, etc.). One can visit any particular exhibit, or alternately, progress through all the various sections in a continuous sequence. Towards the end of the sequence,
the exhibits get larger and
include fragments of actual buildings - since the crafts of India nave always been an essential element of her architecture. exits via the roof terraces - which form an amphitheatre
Finally, one for folk
dances, as well as an open-air display for large terracotta horses and other handicrafts. There are more than 25,000 items of folk and tribal arts, crafts and textiles in the permanent collection.
Less than half of the total
floor area of 5500 sq. metres is open to the public; the rest of the collection is stored in special areas for the use of the very finest craftsmen who are selected from allover
India to come and study
;;.
these archives. In this manner, a potter from Bengal has the opportunity to examine at first hand the best work of his counterparts in Kerala, at the other end of the country, or for that matter, what his own forebears in Bengal had produced
;;;;
two or three hundred years
previously. This is a perspective which has hitherto never been available to traditional Indian craftsmen.
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As the Director of the Museum, Or. Jyotindra Jain has stated: "We call it a museum because it has been dubbed so for a long time, but in reality it does not behave like one, and while hesitating to assume a conventional nature and role, it asks many questions of itse/~ eventually emerging as an institution that strives for identity, but in no hurry to find a slotted definition of itself.
t
'The core collection of the Crafts Museum was put together to serve as reference material for the craftsmen who are increasingly losing touch with their own traditions in terms of materials, techniques, designs and aesthetics of their arts and crafts due to the sudden changes caused by modern industrialisation. Thus, it was primarily addressed to the craftsmen who have now been brought into a close and integral relationship the Museum.
with
"As the traditional social, economic and cultural institutions rapidly disintegrate, 7t is difficult for the craftsmen to be able to support themselves by selling their products regionally. Their visits to the Museum provide them opportunities to meet their new urban patrons. Such patronage is necessary, for the level and potential skill of the millions of craftsmen and handloom weavers in the country is so formidable that if lost, even thousands of formal technical institutions and universities will not be
Kalamkari
worker
Amphitheatre
able to resurrect it at the cost of unlimited money, over many centuries. "Over the last decade, this Museum has been altered time and again - it is being continuously improvised. It has an unconcluded air about it in the sense that it does not appear to be 'finished'so as to make a pretty picture postcard. It is a flexible building in the same sense as an Indian village street would be flexible - affable, accommodative, informal and active. "
Diorama Section showing relationship
Rajasthani
wall paintings
of central spine and courtyards tal
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OARBAR CRAFTS
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TEMPLE CRAFTS
,l VILLAGE , CRAFTS
1
3
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Roof tiles of mythic animals from traditional houses of Bastaar tribals
The street as metaphor - from village to temple to palace
BRARAT BRA VAN Bhopal 1975-81
The site for this Art Centre is on a gently sloping hill overlooking the lake in Bhopal. The natural contour2...Qilhe sJte b.?v~J2.een-used
-
--
- - - --
- -,-
.
to createa seriesof terracedgardensand sunkencour~ds
-
off
which are located a number of cultural facilities, including a museum of Tribal Art, a library of Indian poetry (in all the 17 major languages), galleries for Contemporary lithography and sculpture,
Art, workshops for
and a studio for an artist-in-residence,
In
addition, the 8000 sqm of Bharat Bhavan houses a full-fledged theatrical repertoire company and facilities for the performing including the Antarang (indoor auditorium), air amphitheatre),
overlooking
arts,
,
and the Bhairang (open-
the lake,
Lighting and ventilation within the building are provided
by top
lightS(from the concrete sheli's- and from slots along the terraceparapets),
In addition, the openings to the courtyards
have two sets of shutters: the inner ones consisting
and terraces
of ? combination
of fixed glass and operable panels for light and ventilation; the outer ones consisting of large wooden doors, closed at night for security,
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Viewfrom terrace gardens, looking across the lake ( I
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~ Courtyards and terrace gardens on the slope of the hill
museum of TribalArt
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The amphitheatre (Bfiairang), overlooking the lake
On
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The open-to-sky pathway is structured around three courtyards - from which one enters the various facilities. This feeling of open space is an essential part of the experience of visiting Bharat '11liavan. Progressing through the terraced gardens and courtyards, one comes Rem"" A)(hibitiofJ. spaces, workshops- and dance theatres, in an easy and casual manner, maKingmem accesST5lefOfhe -ctrtzmJErof Bhopal. -
On On
Every evening, whole families, on cycles and scooters, come to stroll around in the terrace
Store
gardens - and perhaps stay on to watch a play, or hear a concert.
On Modern Art {}
Plan
o~~om
The Bhairang
with a performance
in progress
View back towards the main entrance
@
1-
IN CENTRE FOR ADVANCED SCIENTIFIC RESEARCH Bangalore 1990-94
Since time immemori91, holy men and sc~olars inlllcJl?hgW,e renounced the world and gone to live a life of contemplation in forests and high mountains. This age-old pattern was adopted
as a metaphor for g~nerating
the layout of this new campus, an extension of the Indian Institute of Science (the oldest and still the premier Institute of Fundamental Research in India), which has been created to provide research fa~ilities and living accommodation for distinguished visiting scientists and scholars. The traditional renunciation of the world by the rishi (holy man) is here symbolised
by a long curving wall, built
of granite blocks, which encircles a forest in the centre of the site. The various facilities provided (research laboratories, library, residential accommodation, wall-
lecture halls,
etc.) are on the other side of the
;", .:'~ " '
so that during the course of their studies and research, the
scientists (truly the new rishis!) can step through the perforated granite wall, into the forest for wisdom and enlightenment. A service road skirts the outer boundary of the site, providing access to the various facilities. In a second phase, an additional
set
of research laboratories has been added, connected to the znain building dome, celeb~ating the "Bucky Balls' '" by a,Buckminster Fuller ' which constitute the structure of carbon atoms,- a geometry intuitively conceptualised by one who must surely be among the greatest rishis of our 20th century.
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Axonometric ENTRANCEGATE
showing the stone wall encircling
the forest
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Looking out through the stone wall into the forest
Looking out from the hostel, towards the forest
A balcony in the hostel
HOSTEL
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LABORATORIES
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Laboratories
and Hostel
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The Buckminster
Fuller dome, representing
the structure of the carbon molecule
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Library: lower level
Library: upper level '--'~ 0 1
The Library - that ancient symbol of knowledge - "breaks through" the granite wall, establishing closer relationship with the forest
Walking past the Hostel entrance, with the Library ahead
,!: Axonometric
of Library
The zone between work area and forest
"---' 35m
a
~"
Viewfromthe forest, back towards the work areas I
Thewall,made up of blocks of grey granite, quarried locally, through which one steps intothe forest. . .
JNIDB Hyderabad 1986-91
This Institute is set up to train senior managers from banks in India and South Asia, who come in for various types of courses from two weeks to a full year. One of the key objectives
of the programme
therefore is that informal interaction and discussion
among
management trainees and faculty members should be encouraged by the very pattern and layout of the built form itself. Hence the complex system of interdependent organised around a series of landscaped provide the humidified micro-climate
climate of Hyderabad
-
spaces,
courtyards,
so as to
-
necessary in the hot-dry
and very evident in its traditional
architecture. The sequence
of these courtyards
connects the
auditorium to the teaching rooms, and thence on to the faculty offices. Along a cross axis, another sequence the gently ascending
leads one up through
levels of the sloping site, past the lounges and
dining hall to the residential rooms, which are laid out around . smaller courtyards. In the centre of the entire complex is the kund, whose stone steps echo the boulder-strewn
landscape
of
Hyderabad, creating a focus in the centre of the complex - an ideal place for casual conversations, formal occasions.
The landscape
of Hyderabad
as also for concerts and more
Entrance lobby
-
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Site plan
Entrance canopy
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View of faculty
teaching
rooms
from
entrance
plaza
sing
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Axonometric of the main complex
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CentralKund .
The sequence of spaces
--
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A cluster of residential rooms around a small courtyard
4
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cF=t= 01 35m
B
Part plan showing residential rooms around access courtyard To generate interaction between management trainees and faculty, there are two important spatial sequences - the firstleads from the public zones (the teaching rooms, auditorium, etc) to the privacy of the individual hostel rooms. The second continues on from these individual rooms out into the surrounding landscape. Both sequences have been carefully layered, so as to create a series of zones, ranging from the most public to the most private. Thus starting with the monumentality of the entrance hall, the spaces get gradually more casual, so as to encourage the kind of. informal interaction so essential to the programme. From the residential rooms out towards the external landscape, there is an analogous pattern of layering: each room has a small sit-out porch, which in turn relates to the cluster of other such porches,allJocated on terrace gardens, from which one can go out into the surrounding landscape.
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rap-lit lobbies, on way to Dining room
111
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.ooking out towards the rock-strewn landscape of Hyderabad
Access ~orridor around courtyard
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.d~- The outside walls of the complex courtyards glowing from within
are white, with the warm earth colours and the landscaped
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Cluster of faculty houses
The houses for faculty and staff are on the rightI
main plaza, reached through a "darwaza" (or gal which spans over the driveway Besides the Oirf residence (located at the corner), this complex provides accommodation for three categories of houses, from the maintenance staff to the senior faculty, organised around three interlocking COU
Isometric of faculty houses
v
<=
Houses for maintenance staff
' a
' ---', 135m
, Pergola covered
walkway
KALA AKAD EMI Panaji, Goa 1973-83
Located on a site along the Mandovi river in the capital of Goa, this Centre for the Performing Arts provides 10,500 sqm of facilities for visiting artistes and troupes of performers from other cities in India and abroad, as well as for local Konkani and Marathi theatre groups and" musicians who travel around many villages and towns
of Goa - and who constitute a vigorous and essential part of its cultural traditions. The facilities provided are several: they include a 1000-seat auditorium, a 2000-seat open-air amphitheatre, for experimental productions,
.
a special "black box"
and so forth. There are also schools of
Indian Classical Dance, and Indian and European Classical Music, as well as an Exhibition Gallery for Painting and Sculpture. addition, accommodation artistes and musicians. .
In
has been provided for visiting troupes of
The site, which faces the historic Mandovi river, is on the
Campal, a wide tree-lined road running through an old residential area of Panaji. Thus the builtform is low-key and unobtrusive - the main 'event" along the road being the large pergola-covered for the auditorium and the amphitheatre.
foyer
As will be seen from the
plan, this space leads one toward the casuarina trees along the riverfront, so that the building in fact acts as a large breezeway, connecting the Campal to the Mandovi river.
=j Main road
Plan
cf
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The 1O00-seat auditorium has to function u, wide range of conditions, ranging from spe and plays, through sitar and sarod recitals western orchestras. These variations in
acoustical conditions are brought about by manipulating areas of absorbent material a the walls and ceilings of the auditorium. Th, mechanics of these changes are not alway apparent to the audience, since these devi are placed outside a box whose walls are r of materials which are acoustically transpaJ but visually opaque. On the walls and ceilir this inner box is painted the illusion of an 01 Goan theatre, complete with balconies pee with typical locals, drawn by the renowned artist Mario Miranda. To decrease the reverberation time in the auditorium, real CL are pulled behind the figures in the balcom supplemented by other drapes that move (unseen) above the false "ceiling".
The central foyer: a breezeway
that connects
the main entrance to the fylandovi river
At the top left corner of the mural, the stair continuing straight is real - the one turning to the right, an illusion. At the lower right hand Ie Corbusier and Mies van der Rohe come around the corner, to make the world - and Goa, alas! - never the same again.
When the show starts, the house-lights dim gradually, with the illuminated figures in thE balconies fading last of all. At the interval, I process is reversed. However, at the end G performance, just before the balcony-light5 come on, spot-lights illuminate (for a few bl seconds) the ceiling behind the inner box. this surface is painted fragments of the gre jungles of Goa; an experience to remind th audience that all they have witnessed is mt illusion - certainly the play, perhaps also tt own lives - and that the only thing they car sure of is that one day this too will pass, an jungle will reclaim its own.
uditoriuminterior- a visual construct of acoustically transparent materials
Acoustical voiume
Virtual volume (Acoustically transparent visually opaque)
Structure
Jungle scene
Perforated coffers
' 0 Section through auditorium
"r o' 135m
'
KOVALAM BEACH RESORT Kerala 1969- 74
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The purpose of this project, commissioned
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by the Government
of India, was to initiate one of India's most spectacular (but relatively unknown) beaches as a major beach resort area. Thus the facilities specified in the programme
(accommodation
for over 300 guests,
centres for yoga and ayurvedic massage, water sports, and so forth) had to be deployed in a manner which would create a critical mass
~
~
~\
for each activity - and at the same time open up several strategic points on the site so as to increase future growth options. The master plan therefore does not concentrate all the facilities in one
Entry
i
area, but generates a larger number of potential growth points, thus allowing a more flexible response to future demands. The guest rooms come in three configurations.
Firstly, on the
edge of the beach, hidden under the palm trees, are the kudils
-
individual suites for longer stays, with their own cooking facilities, etc. Overlooking the beach is the main hotel with 100 guest rooms. Here, in order to preserve the natural beauty of the site, the facilities are all built into the hill slopes - every room getting its own private sundeck. In between the kudils and the hotel there are clusters of "detached units", offering about the same facilities as the kudils but at slightly higher densities. Throughout the project, the construction is in traditional vernacular of Kerala: viz, white plastered walls with red tiled roofs; other pavilions consist of light bamboo chhatris with coir matting on the floor and local Kerala handicrafts. Plan of hotel on hill slope
,---,
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The guest rooms are arranged in clusters of 12, so that each the water all around, Covered made of padauk, connect the central public areas in casual, patterns,
Translucent
around courtyards, has a clear view of verandahs, also guest rooms to the meandering
sliding screens in the restaurant
Upperdeck, overlooking bay
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Looking across the bay, towards the other islands
75
----
./
/ CIDADE DE GOA Dona Paula, Goa 1978-82
Goa, one of .the oldest trading centres along the west coast of India and for 450 years part of Portugal, is a land of rivers and hills and stunning palm-fringed always been traditionally
beaches. Because Goa's economy has land-based,
million is evenly distributed
-
the population
of seven
one lives in a place because one
either owns land there or is a tenant-farmer
working there. Thus
Goa has no single dominant city, but a balanced
polycentric
system of villages and towns - the largest of which has less than 100,000 inhabitants. This hotel, a few minutes drive from Panaji, is built on a sloping site which descends
L
down to a beach on the Zuari river. During
the process of design,
I
the hotel began to emerge as a sort of
I
I
expressionistic hill town - so the search commenced for a name which would describe
it . . . surely there was a mythical city which
the Portuguese had yearned for, in vain? . . . . an EI Dorado? But alas, historians could find nothing. less metaphysical
(Are Portuguese
perhaps
than Spanish?) Finally a phrase surfaced:
"Cidade de Goa" . . . the original name for Panaji, Goa's capital town. City of Goa.
. a marvellously
which is at times a city abstracted,
evocative phrase.
. a city,
and then again a city"of virtual
imagery, and finally a city of real dwellings and balconies and terraces. The main road is up on the barren ridge of a rocky plateau. One passes beneath the entrance arch and descends long driveway into a lu,sh green valley, to arrive. surrounded
down the
. . in a plaza,
by key symbols and signs which connote: CITY.
Some of these images are the artifacts of a stage set, others the trompe de l'oeil of the cinema poster artist. These facades are layers, one passes through. kaleidoscopic
. . . a highly fragmented,
series of visual sensations and architectural
spaces.
What is real? The object? Or the image? Or the image of the image of the image? Awakening sub-conscious
responses
memory. . . the bitter-sweet saudade of nostalgia. fados of the Alfama, a sardonic art.
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Goa has. always lived at the interface of many cultures. Even before the Portuguese arrived, it was one of Asia's greatest ports - a vital link on the trade routes. In its history were men like the fabled Adil Khan, and the Kadamba Kings whose ancestor, Trilochana Kadmaba (i.e. the Three-eyed Kadamba) sprang from a drop of Shiva's sweat that fell at the foot of the Kadamba tree. These rich images form the principal themes of the hotel. Beyond the lounge, the pedestrian street begins. As one walks down these covered arcades, past courtyards, one glimpses connecting bridges and short flights of stairs leading to the guest rooms. The shops are not in the main lobby, but along this street (as would occur in a real town), starting with
One of the Oamao guest rooms. The sleeping area consists of a mattress placed on a traditional at/a (raised platform) covered by chattai (rush matting)
the Taverna - a typical Goan bar. The guest rooms reflect the main historic themes. Some of them are 'Casas' based on their prototype in Portugal. Others, called 'Damao', reflect Goa's ancient trading connection with Gujarat - seen in the statues in the Cathedrals of Old Goa, carved by Hindu craftsmen strongly influenced by their own traditional iconography. The metaphor of the city culminates in the Alfama, one of the many restaurants in the hotel, named after the old Moorish quarter of Lisbon. Here we find the city involuted on itself: an indoor city within an outdoor one, with diners seated at various levels in different houses, and at terrace cafes around a miniaturised plaza.
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"house" in the Alfama restaurant ~,
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MRF HEADQUARTERS Madras 1987-92
Madras is a low-rise city, with a quiet and relaxed life-style. These new headquarters for MRF, the leading tyre manufacturer India, gently follows the curve of the road to create a series of terraced gardens,
in
recalling the waves on the seashore of the Marina
along the waterfront in Madras. Rejecting the notion of a high-rise tower to convey the commercial
pre-eminence
monumentality
of the client, this design generates
though a single free-standing
column rising to
support the large pergola that floats above the terraces, protecting them from the sun. Within the building, the various levels of the offices open out onto a central atrium, linked through a casual pattern of connecting wonderfully
stairs, creating a focus for the building - and a
casual way to walk from one department
to another, or
to exit and go home at the end of the working day. At the roof terrace level, one emerges on to a large garden, with the trees and buildings of Madras all around.
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The pergola: 96
the gesture of protection
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jEEV AN BHARATI Delhi 1975-86
This office complex for the Life Insurance Corporation (LlC) is situated on the outer road of Connaught a pivot between the colonnades
of Connaught
of India
Circle, and acts as Place and the new
generation of high-rise towers that now surround it. !hus the building is both proscenium
and backdrop:
stage-set whose faceted glass surfaces trees around Connaught
a twelve-storey
reflect the buildings and
Place, and beyond which the new high-rise
imagery of Delhi can be glimpsed. The two lower levels of the complex consist of shopping
decks
and restaurants, while the upper levels of offices are located in two separate wings, generating metres.
Connecting
long, supported
a total built-up area of 63,000 square
the two wings, is a great pergola, 98 metres
at either end by masonry piers and in the middle by
a single column. A city proposal for an elevated pedestrian walkways (if ever constructed) allowing pedestrians
will pass between the two blocks,
to traverse the building as a great darwaza, i.e.
gateway, defined by the portico-form.
102
From Connaught
Outer Circle
The red sandstone of the piers wraps around the rear facade, culminating in the twin elevator towers which frame the slot for the pedestrian bridge. On this side of the building, the windows are deeply recessed into the masonry so as to protect them from the heat of the Delhi sun.
Exterior clad in red sandstone
The rear facade, with slot leading through to Connaught
104
Circle
;ross from the open green area in Connaught
Place
Bus Terminal
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masonry pillar in the NW corner
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PERMANENT MISSION OF INDIA TO THE U.N. ~\
New York
1985-1992 '.', ,~.,.
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The site, just down the road from the UN Headquarter York, consists streets,
of two Manhattan
city-blocks
connecting
ad
forming a narrow strip of land 60 metres long, with
of 12 metres along 43rd 81. and a mere 6.3 metres along L Into this crevice had to be inlaid a complex programme of the Permanent Mission of India and an Exhibition Gallery ( access from 44th 81.) located in the four levels of the radii surmounted by a tower with residential accommodation fa different categories
of staff, ranging from the security pers
(15.5 sq. metres each) to the Dy. Consul. General (200 sq. trIplex apartment with terrace gardens, at the top of the bL This wide range of apartment sizes were all accommodatE
same envelope (a tower 14 metres wide and 15.5 metre~ I wrapped
in a taut metal-panelled
top are interlocking duplexes
-
skin. The larger apartml somewhat like the Kancha
Apartments in Bombay (1969-83), but with the double-hei! glass-enclosed (so as to remain useable in the North AmE winters).
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Entrance on 43rd Sf.
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B From 44th St. The building fits together like a jigsaw puzzle, not only because of the mix of offices and residences, but also because Government of India regulations specified very precise areas for each apartment, down to the last square metre, for the many
differentcategoriesof staff- and thesecould neither be increased (because of objections from the Ministry of Finance) nor decreased (because of vigorous opposition from the PMI staff).
1& 2
Councillor
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mtrance door on 43rd St., which es wide by 6 metres high, opens tions (two upper and two lower). de door on 43rd St. (leading the apartments in the tower) and ce door to the Exhibition Gallery ., it is made in India of wood and raditional
Rajasthani
craftsmen.
Maquette of Husain sculpture
Apart from the many works of art within the PMI, the eminent Indian artist, M. F. Husain, was specially commissioned to create two pieces The first is a large mural in memory of Mahatma Gandhi which covers the surrounding walls of the main lobby. The other, yet to be installed, is a sculpture for the double-height terrace over the main entrance on 43rd St, which pccording to Husain depicts the 7 mythic horses of the Mahabharata, bursting forth
from the Chakra (wheel) - seen in the Emperor Ashoka's Column, the Official Seal of the Government of India.
The double-height
terrace over the main entrance
on 43rd St., with opening for Husain sculpture
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11
Starting with the lower three floors of the podium (clad in reddish-brown granite from South India), the tower rises to 27 floors, "evaporating" at the top into a cube of pergola-covered terraces - like traditional towers in the hill-towns of Yemen.
Looking " towards
the east river and the UN headquarters
The North facade from 44th SI.
L.I.C. CENTRE Mauritius 1988-92
Mauritius is an Island of Paradise in the Indian Ocean, off the coast of Africa. It has an evenly-distributed human settlements,
poly-centric
pattern of
not unlike Goa. The capital is Port Louis, and
this office complex is situated at the intersection streets in the crowded
of two important
centre of the city. While the boundaries
of the
site are defined by the pergola above and its large supporting column, the building itself steps back in terraces, opening up precious space at this very busy street intersection - a ges!.Ur~ which creates an --- urban lanai, filled witJ:1 the-exetic fJora-of-Mauritius. Apart from the main entrance to the office floors, the programme called for two other important entrances,
,
each one have its own
identity.Thefirst is for the officeof the ConsulGeneralof India- to be entered from a doorway directly off the main driveway, with the Ashoka Column (symbol of the Government
of India) directly above.
The secondis for the Life InsuranceCorporationof India- which is on the first floor and reached via the bridge which stretches out to the pavement in front.
~o plan r Ste
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Office Office Office Office LlC Office Consulate
Longitudinal section through the site
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Terraces overlooking President Kennedy Avenue
Stairs and bridge leading to entrance of LlC headquarters
at first floor
Pergola over main entranCE
'4
A terrace along the North facade
openings along the eastern and western faces 1ebuilding are relatively low-key, but along the 'facade, double-height terraces provide ctacular views of Port Louis harbour, Along the th-western boundary of the site is a arcade ~hprovides protection for pedestrians moving /leen the bus terminal (a block away to the ') and the city centre,
The North facade, facing the harbour
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11
121
ALAMED A PARK PRO }ECT Mexico City 1994 to date
-
by Reichmann
are for offices, with the top three having Executive Suites a
International in the heart of Mexico City, on a site which was largely
This office building is part of a new development
on to terraces with marvellous views of the city through the
destroyed
"urban windows" at the top of the building.
in the earthquake
Plan developed
of 1985. Within the context of a Master
by the noted Mexican architect Riq:!rdo Legoretta,
the design of the buildings national architects
have been entrusted to several inter-
(Caesar Pelli, Aldo Rossi, Fumihiko Maki, etc).
This projeCt is a low-rise building, located along the front of the site, facing the historic Alameda Park. It has the proportions cube
-
of a
the lower two fl.oors of the building contain shops which plug
into the shopping
arcade along the rear of the site. The upper floors
j
From Alameda Park, these openings, floating just aba\ level of the trees, will frame the multi-faceted
work of Deigo Riveira and Orazco. The external walls are c black volcanic rock used in many of Mexico City's oldest t with the mullions of the square windows in a glossy reddisl metallic finish.
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mural, painte
great Mexican tradition of public art, so vividly exemplified
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Site plan ~ 122
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125
KAN CHANjUN GA APARTMENTS
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Bombay 1970-83
In Bombay a building has to be ~te~ east-west to catchJbe QIevajling sea:b[eezes, and to open up the l2est views in the city: the Arabian Sea on one side and the harbour on the other. But these unfortunately are also the directions of the hot sun and the heavy monsoon rains. The old bungalows solved these problems by wrapping a protective layer of verandahs around the main living areas, thus providingthe occupants with two lines of defence against the elements. . Kanchanjunga, an attempt to apply these principles to a highrise building, is a condominium of 32 luxury apartments of four different types, varying from ~.::.to 6 bedrooms each. The interjock of these variations are expressed externally by the shear end walls that hold up the cantilevers. The tower has a:proportion of 1:4 (being /
7
21 metres square and 84 metres high). Its minimalist unbroken surfaces are cut away to open up the double-height
terrace gardens
at the corners, thus revealing (through the interlocking colour) some hint of the complex spatial organisation spaces that lie within the tower.
Typical sect/on, showing interlock of basic units
form and of living
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SONMARG APARTMENTS Bombay 1961-66
This is an early attempt to deal with the context and climate of Bombay.
In order to create two lines of defence against the rain
and sun, a belt of auxiliary spaces (verandahs,
studies, dressing
rooms, etc) is arranged to form a zone of protection
around the main
living areas. The apartment
is on two levels with a difference
between the living room and the main bedrooms. only two apartments
per floor, each unit is open on three sides,
creating through-ventilation
and a subtle ambience
Over three decades of occupation apartment
of 75 cm
Since there are of cross-light.
by the same family, the
illustrated has had to deal with many different changes in
the ages and the space requirements of its users - and this is where the cordon of auxiliary spaces along the western and eastern faces have proved extraordinarily
responsive and flexible, combining
with
the main rooms to deal with a large number of spill-over activities in an easy and economical
Shadow on bamboo
132
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along eastern perimeter
Connecting zones of protection: the door (with the faux Matise) opens to connect the Living Room to the Guest Room.
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jving
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for the Master bedroom
HOUSE AT KORAMANGALA Bangalore 1985-88
The traditional courtyard typology
houses of South India represent a
much older, and really quite different, from that of the
bungalows built by the British - which is usually a long shed (with the Living and Dining rooms down the centre and the Bedrooms on either side), wrapped
around with continuous
result: rooms which are large and generous, light and cross-ventilation. In contrast, the traditional Goa are usually organised
verandahs.
The
but sadly lacking in
old Hindu houses in Tamil Nadu and
around a small central courtyard,
Ji1'f
with a
tree or tulsi plant in the middle. One enters through the front door, intentionally placed off-centre on the main facade, and then moves along a shifting axis to arrive at the courtyard which acts as a central focus, bringing wonderful
bounce-light
and ventilation to the rooms
that surround it. How infinitely more delightful to the somewhat dark and predictable
spaces of the colonial bungalow!
Constructionon this housewasstartedin1986- unfortunately, before user requirements
Entrance
were sorted out. Thus during
construction, the house kept changing
-
really quite fundamental
changes in the number of rooms, in their sizes, in their relationship to each other. These went through more than a dozen incarnations -
the only thing they all had in common was the courtyard in the
centre. Thatnevervaried- and it allowedthe restto keep changing,
right until the end.
These successive complicated
rounds of decision-making
layering - an ambiguity
which would probably
been impossible to achieve in a design conceived through a single round of decision-making designer's
have generated
a
have
and executed
(however complex the
intentions), but which has come about as a natural
fall-out of a process involving consecutive
rounds of decisions
(each hopefully the last!) like the subtle ambience
a
0
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a
of an old town
which has grown organically with time.
L::> ring-yang interlock around courtyard I~
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The living room, with stairs to upper bedroom and terrace
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Roof plan
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Bamboo chiks around the courtyard
The Burma teakwood doors, taken from a turn-of-the-century bungalow that the family use to live in, incorporate the traditional symbol of the tortoise (appearing in various sizes, depending on the width ofthe door). These doors have been hand painted by the architect to celebrate their new incarnation. Studio garden, with granite blocks
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:entrywatchingdoberman crossing courtyard very swiftly
VILLAS AT VEREM Goa 1982-89
Thirty-eight
houses located on a beautiful piece of land along
the Mandovi river, across from the city of Panaji. Because of the elongated
nature of the site, which runs between road and river
bank, it was possible to string out these houses so that all of them get a river view, with still enough land left over to create a shared garden along the river front. Most of the house-owners
are Bombay families who want to
have a second home in Goa. In this sense these are holiday homes, though they can also function as permanent year-round
houses
(and in fact do so for a few resident families). There are two basic house-types, with an equal mix of 2 and 3 bedroom size~. On the river front, the elevations vary, so that families have a certain amount of individual identity, and the view of the clusters from the river has diversity. Simple changes in the floor levels within the houses help define specific areas, while preserving openness cross-ventilation. Construction
and
is of brick bearing walls, finished in stucco and
painted white, with a mezzanine floor of RCC, surmounted
by a roof
of wooden rafters and clay tiles. Shared back-garden,
along the banks of the Mandavi river
~~-----..
::::~~~ -~~ "2"'.
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Site Plan Typical three-bedroom
house
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The basic unit in the Site Plan is a block offourhoo
- and this block can become eitherconvexor con depending on the angle of two bedrooms, placed one centre. This pivot increases central units to 3 bedrooms
the "pivot" (consisting0 over the other), in the I the capacity of thetwo each, while the endOn
remain as 2-bedroom units. Thenuancesofthese \ A block of four houses with hinge in centre
~
subtle movements in the shapes of the blocksfrom concave to convex and back again, animatesthes plan, giving a certain individuality to each house (which, as in the case of the beach hotel DonaSy/ is further augmented through the use of different balconies, porches, etc).
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The house at the eastern end of the site is a holiday home for the architect. The living and dining areas
are wrapped around an atrium
-
which is protected
by a jaffrey, covered with bouganvilla. This allows the Living and Dining rooms to be free of any protective grills, for even when the wooden shutters - of these openings are closed, the rooms continue to be cross-ventilated through this atrium (which acts as a lung for the whole house).
Looking towards the river, from the living room
II
Upper flap, partly open
From the living room one steps out on overlooking the river, through a door ~ flaps. The lowest flap acts like the bot dutch door, while on the upper two is scene of the river and landscape out, when the flaps are closed, the river c( part of the house; and when they are present a somewhat unreal counterp( scerJery.
The living room, looking towards three-flap opening facing the river
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All three flaps open
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INCREMENTAL HOUSING AT BELAPUR Belapur, New Bombay 1983-86
This project, located on six hectares of land about 2 km from the city centre of New Bombay, attempts to demonstrate
how high
densities (500 persons per hectare, including open spaces, schools, etc) can be easily achieved within the context of a low-rise typology. The site plan is generated
by a hierarchy of community
spaces,
starting with a small shared courtyard 8m x 8m around which seven houses are grouped.
Each of these houses is on its own piece of
land, so that the families can have the crucial advantage
of open-to-
sky spaces (to augment the covered areas). Furthermore,
they do
not share any party-walls with their neighbours houses truly incremental,
-
which makes these
since each family can extend their own
house independently: These houses cover almost the entire social spectrum from squatter families to the upper income brackets - yet, in order to maintain the fundamental
principle
of Equity, the sites themselves
vary in size only marginally (from 45 sqm to 70 sqm). The form and plans of these houses are very simple, so that they can be built and extended by traditional employment
masons and craftsmen - thus generating
in the Bazaar Sector of the urban economy (i.e., exactly
where they are needed for the new urban migrants).
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~y I A cluster of seven houses, arrangec
Looking out to shared courtyard
-, Buildable to this boundary edge
The house sites are arranged in pairs
so as to save
-
Water supply and drainage
on plumbing and sanitation costs. The main structure of each house has small but mandatory set-backs on
two adjacent sides
-
and can abut the boundary on
the other two. Windows are allowed only on those walls which are set back and on the main facade which faces the community space in the centre. This pattern ensures that each house will be free-standing with respect to its neighbour, and hence can grow independently.
Shared service lines
Road
Plan of seven houses around the courtyard
Site plan
Road
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20m
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Type A units
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These house plans are merely indicative, 1 construction of the units is simple enough undertaken by local masons and mistrys, , active participation of the owners themse/\ In time these occupants will add their own of colours and symbols, colonizing the pro through their life-styles.
Arriving at a cluster
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adapting
easily to the lifestyles of the inhabitants
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New Bombay
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Type B ..
TypeA
Id axonometric
Type D
.
Type E
/
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drawings
of house
types,
covering
wide
Elevation: Type E
range
of income
groups
Section: Type B
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TITAN TOWNSHIP Bangalore 1992 to date
-
The client, one of the most successful
and enlightened
units in"India, wished to set up housing for their workers form of an isolated company town (with the privileged
-
industrial
,
Types of Clusters
not in the
ghetto
mentality that it usually breeds), but as an integral part of the new urbanisation
taking place outside the small town of Hosur, near
Bangalore. Thus the roads serving these 1500 houses are an integral part of the new urban fabric in that ~rea and the green areas created by Titan are accessible to the public at large. Furthermore, many of the sites and houses are being sold to outsiders (that is, to other than Titan employees)
so that there is a natural mix of populatibn,
right
from the start. Then again, in order to generate the pluralistic ambience
which is such an essential characteristic
.,
of organic
growth, it was decided to entrust the design of the houses to four different architects.
After collaborating
the four architects
on the Master Plan, each of
then made a set of preliminary
house designs -
and then met together to evolve a shared vocabulary and architectural
of materials
language. This in turn has been evolved into a set
of Design Controls for the houses, so that other architects owners can also participate
in the development
and
4 modules,100m
x 100m
'\.,
of tM town.
In such a context, how does one establish a certain modicum of order - and thus hopefully avoid the chaos seen in so much of the Indian urban environment? developed
To begin with, a Master Plan was
which, within the existing pattern of municipal
roads,
inlaid a series of square modules of varying sizes that incorporate shared back-gardens
for the houses, to establish the images of the
new town. The left-over edges of the site were then sealed off with rows of individual plots for sale to those owners who wish to build independent
houses.
The basic square modules are 48 metres by 48 metres - and these are combined
to form clusters of 2,4,8
or 16 modules. The
roads servicing these modules are kept to very short cul-de-sacs, so they can carry an unusually high level of service infrastructure (underground electric lines, cable television, etc) and yet make it such infrastructure affordable in the Indian economic context. In these modules, each house is directly connected at one end and to the community access to these back-gardens entrances community
back-garden
to the public roads
at the other. Outsider
is possible only at certain gate-way.
~
- at which are located public amenities (kindergartens,
.:-.,... ..'"
centres, etc) to provide easy and informal control.
16 modules, 212m x 212m
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Entrance to Sec,
At the main entrance to Sector V, facing the open principal maidan (green area), are located the community facilities: the Club, a restaurant and a small shopping centre - which form a large gateway controlling entry to the back-garden. The other entrances to this back-garden, located at the other cardinal points of the compass, also have community facilities (a kindergarten school, a health clinic, etc) to provide info/mal monitoring at these points of access.
NEW BAGALKOT Kamataka 1985 to date
-
n,
The system of dams now under construction raise the level of the Ghataprabha
in Karnataka will
river, submerging
part of the
existing town of Bagalkot under water. Hence the Government
of
Karnataka's
decision to develop New Bagalkot, presently under
construction
about 10 km further along the National Highway. This
new town being developed
for a population
not only house the displaced is also expected
of 100,000 persons, will
inhabitants from the existing town, but Existing houses in old 8agalkot
to become the major new growth centre in the
region, attracting the distress migration which is otherwise gravitating Hubli.
to other already overcrowded
This assignment of the same principles (Affordability,
cities like Bangalore and
provided the opportunity discussed
Replicability,
to try and apply some
in the planning of Ulwe
etc) to a small town, far more typical of
urban growth in India, using an approach
that generates flexible
street patterns analogous to the existing town of Bagalkot - as also to most traditional organically
over a period of time. Furthermore,
this approach,
.J.
Indian towns that have grown naturally and
the composition
have to be pre-determined
as will be seen, in
of any particular sector does not
by the planners, but can be decided
from time to time, as the town grows, depending
on actual demand.
A vigorous, functional
-
and very beautiful! vernacular
Proposed
Plot Sizes (in sqrn)
EXISTING
N
180
Existing street patterns in old town of 8agalkot
01~050m
EB
PROPOSED I Plot Size (in rn)
% of households
Floor Area (in sqrn)
%of households
Type
0-10
12
A
12
8x9
10-25
38
B
38
8 x12
25-50
30
C
30
12 x 9
50-75
11
D
11
16 x 9
75-100
4
E
4
12 x 18
100+
5
F
4.5
15 x 24
G
0.5
20 x 24
Total
100
100.0
Proposed plot sizes, based on income profile and Government subsidies
.
Assuming a buildin
..J(
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15m
Q. '" (J5
Module
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. Module
Q. '" (J5
Module
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Module
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,modules and strips N
In of New Bagalkot
L--.J , 0 0,5 1,0
.
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\-20m-+ Strip of 250 sqm plots
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First of all, based on social and cultural patterns, as well as the existing income profile and housing plot sizes in the existing town of Bagalkot, a schedule was worked out of area requirements forthe different income groups, These plots were laid out in small sub-assemblies termed "Modules" and "Strips" - which could then be fitted together to form Sectors of 1280 m x 280 m. As will be seen from the Sector plans, joining the access roads and pathways of the various I sub-assemblies (by omitting a few sites) allows a fine-scale mix of different income groups - thus avoiding the cruel segregation of income groups and classes found in most "planned" Indian towns (including Chandigarh),
l~l"~, I
,100m
Module
tr
of 70 sqm plots
Module
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plots
L
Bus stop 24m wide road
Corner 'open space
Shop houses
Open market
pen space
'0
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CD '0 '~ E ro
18m wide main road
I 'sector,showing fine-grained mix of different income groups
LJ~ 0 10
' 30
Darwaza
' 50 m
Bazaar
sector,
with circulation
Pedestrian spine moving
diagonally
across
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Room
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TypeA2
The Demonstration
Sector
(presently
~~ 0 1
35m
Street elevation
under
construction) incorporates typical houses for various sized plots and income groups. Each house is arranged so that the main living spaces focused around a private courtyard for the exclusive use of the family
Toilet
Bedroom
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Living & Dining
Bedroom
Future room
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SURYA KUND Delhi 1986
,.>
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The traditional
kunds, generally located next to temples, are
rectangular
water ponds where the faithful come for ritual
purification
before entering the temple to worship, The sides of these
kunds consist of geometric
patterns of steps, surrounding
this body
of water, During the monsoon, the water in the kund is full; when the hot weather sets in and the water level recedes, more and more
steps get uncovered
-
but the relationship of the devotees to the
water stays constant, allowing them to perform the same sacred rituals along a new layer of steps, The form of these kunds is derived from the vastu-purushmandalas, those ancient Vedic diagrams which con'ceived of Architecture
as a Model of the Cosmos, Like many other aspects of
India,-these
diagrams are both ancient and contemporary,
pragmatic
and metaphysical.
both
Axonometric
Like the thali (the flat circular plate
0
used for eating), their physical form seems timeless. The Surya Kund, a re-incarnation built for a futurologist
of these traditional
kunds, was
who lives on a solar energy farm in Delhi
("Surya" in Sanskrit for the Sun), and who hosts think-tanks on various social and political issues concerning
India, In that sense it
is a tank where one comes to think - and hopefully purify! - oneself. Like its prototypes,
the orientation of the Surya Kund has been
precisely determinecj by the cardinal directions
of the compass.
From the garden
Section 186
===::I
0
1
!:: 3
7ce to the Surya Kund
The peripheral walls, defining the central space, give to the participants of the think-tank a clearly demarcated arena for discussion, one which serves to marvellously focus the mind. In the centre, symbolising the bindu (the Source of all Energy) is the Shri Yantra - the most sacred of all
yantras.
Think-tank in session
BRITISH COUNCIL Delhi 1987-92
This new building for the British Council houses a number of diverse functions, including a Library, an Auditorium, and the Headquarters of their offices in India.
an Art gallery.
These elements are arranged in a series of layers, recalling the historic interfaces that have existed between India and Britain over the last several centuries.
From the main entrance gate, one moves
down the main axis which extends right up to the rear garden wall. The three nodal points along this axis are structured axes mundi, each recalling one of the principle exist in the Indian sub-continent.
around three
belief systems that
At the farthest Wd is the axis
--
mundi of Hinduism, a spiral symbolising Bindu - the energy --- centre of the Cosmos. The next nodal point, located in the main courtyard, is centred around another mythic image: the traditional
Islamic Char
Bagh, i.e. Garden of Paradise. The third nodal point alo~ is a£uropean icon, inlaid in marble and granite, used to represent the -Age- of -Reason, - - including the mythic values of Science and
Progress.
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The 3 axes mundi are placed along the length of the site, connecting the entrance gate to the rear boundary at
the other end.
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Shiva, from whose hair sprang the sacred Ganga river
-
sculpture
by Stephen Cox
DO
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Longitudinal
section through the site
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Portion oftacade facing Kasturba Marg
The walls around the Char Bagh are clad in red Agra sandstone. The head of Shiva and the Bindu at the farthest end of the axis are sculpted in the black rock quarried near the sacred site of Mahaba/ipuram.
ffice
Detail of rear courtyard
At the entrance garden, encompassing all these many layers, is a mural by Howard Hodgkin, made of white Makhrana marble inlaid with black Kuddapah stone. Symbolising the shadows of a tree, Hodgkin's work is a metaphorical image as sheltering and pluralistic as India herself. Apropos of this the critic John Russell has written: "What looks like a flat pattern turns into a force of life that seems to question our very right to be there. Those floppy, elephant-eared black leaves come around the corner as an amalgam of all the vegetable growths that stand for torment and ecstasy in Mughal decoration. . . Without Correa, Hodgkin would have had-to topple over into sculpture to get the use of the third dimension. Without Hodgkin, Correa's building would have looked like an espalier for which someone had forgotten the trees. The building does not prop up the art. Nor does the art infiltrate the building. The two are one
and indivisible. "
VIDHAN BHAVAN, STATE ASSEMBLY Bhopal 1980 - to date
The new State Assembly
for the Government
of Madhya
Pradesh is under construction in the capital city of Bhopal. Many factors determined its form: its site on the crest of a hill; the old Muslim monuments
nearby; as well as of course, the famous
Buddhist Stupa at Sanchi, just 50 kms. from the city. The plan is a series of gardens within gardens. The administrative
offices are used to define a pattern of nine
compartments.
Legislators' Entrance
The five central ones are halls and courtyards
(creating a micro-climate corners occupied
V.l.P. Entr1
of shade and running water), with the four
by the specialised
functions:
the Vidhan Parishad
(Upper House), the Vidhan Sabha (Lower House), the Combined Hall, and the Library. Since the administrative
offices constitute the bulk of the floor
area, they form a decisive part of the architectural in any Assembly
buildings constructed
this circulation
gardens:
double-loaded for the visitor.
buildings,
importance.
In Roof plan
Public Entrance
from which one got a
hence having to wait to meet a
official was a reasonably
contemporary
Combined Hall
in India during the last century,
was usually along verandahs
view of surrounding government
Thus
building, the placing of these offices, and the
manner of reaching them, is of considerable government
experience.
pleasant experience.
however, this circulation
In most
takes the form of
corridors - which create quite intolerable
conditions
assured. For security reasons, the public has to be separatedl the Assembly Members and other VIPs; hence they enter throe the main courtyard on the west, and after passing through the check point, climb ramps to reach the viewing galleries overlq the three main halls. On the way to their galleries, they progre~
In this Vidhan Bhavan, the movement patterns within the
along bridges and ramps (winding around the "Subbhas" like,
building have been carefully studied, so as to form diverse - and
ritual circumambulatory
pleasurable!
progressions
- architectural
sequences.
along the edge of the courtyards,
The circulation
is always
so that light and fresh air are
paths around the Sanchi Stupa),
which allow all the various users to experience t~
principal spaces
-
and dimensions - of this complex.
. - -.. "....
Jillars near Sanchi
Stupa at Sanchi
Hamam at Imamnagar
"11 --
~
~
0
0
0
0
Q9 ~L 0
Ground floor plan: gardens
5
20 m
10
Overleaf: part plan of lower level
within gardens 4' 199
.;,
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,
IUCAA Pune 1988-92
A Model of the Cosmos. beginning
. . this was what Architecture,
of time, has sought to represent.
our own contemporary Inter-University
since the
Is it possible to express
notions of what the Universe is about? The
Centre for Astronomy
and Astrophysics,
located on
the campus of Pune University, is such an attempt. The site consists of three contiguous
pieces of land, with two campus roads passing
between them. One arrives down a road between two swerving black walls of local basalt stone, surmounted deeper black Kuddapah
by courses of a
stone, topped finally by a glossy black
polished granite (which reflects the sky and clouds above). Black on black on black: the visual structure of Outer Space.
These black walls draw one into the entrance, between two columns of exposed concrete which de-materialise
at the top into a
soft blue. Ahead and to the right, lies the kund - here transformed into a metaphor for our Expanding Universe. The~tones along the edges fly apart with centrifugal energy, setting up the diagonals that
--
connect to the other facilities in the centre of the camp':!§.Jhe-
Computer Centre to the Northwest, the Hostel to the southeast and .~
to the~siting Facu y
ousing that lies beyond.
-he central kund
Around the kund itself are located the four major elements of the Institute: the Library. the Faculty---offices, the Lecture Halls and the Student FAr.iliti$s. The larger-than-life figures within the kund represent four extraordinary scientists: Aryabhata (who, more than ten centuries ago, established that our planet was round), Newton (sitting under a tree, looking at the fallen apple), Galileo (gesturing up to the dome of Heaven) and Einstein (time in his pocket-watch, contemplating the relativity of space).
The Expandi!
-instein in the rain
The landscaping
models an image of a black hole seen through a radio-telescope
Granite blocks
209
/
1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10. 11. 12. 13. 14. 15. 16. 17.
Entrance Kund Black Hole Roche Lobes Serpenski's Gasket Faculty Offices Lecture Halls Computer Centre Library Dining Dome Student Hostel Guest Apartments Exhibition Gallery Auditorium Science Park Samrat Yantra
13
Site plan: across the road to the east, a 500-seat Auditorium,
Art Gallery and Science Park
L__r
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,
-
~ "'!'"
,
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"">'~
'~ 30
;""t
',~
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10
,
,.
~""'-
looking' back towards the entrance columns
The twin entrance columns of exposed concrete, touched with blue at the top, de-materialisingi~
-;ourt
ipheral black wall, revealing portion of the Computer
Court
Verandah around the Computer
Court
.;, oucault's
Pendulum
in the faculty offices
@1
@f@ Calibrated
markings
at base of Foucault's
Pendulum:
white marble, inlaid in black and gray granite
t was important that the surface of the main dome :arrya message as crucial to the.scientific values of his century as the Jain cosmograph is to the ancient /edic notions of the Cosmos (as depicted, for rJstance, in the dome of Mangal Mahal at the lawahar Kala Kendra in Jaipur). Since one of the nost fundamental qualities of Science is precision, he astronomers at IUCAA, using a map of the night ;kyon the day that the project broke ground, nodelled the precise position, size and relative Jrightness of the stars by placing small pieces of Ilass (which let through specks of intense daylight, ike stars in the night sky) in the form work of the iome before the concrete was cast.
Inlaidstone pattern on floor below dome is of ancient Ayurvedic origin, linking the seasons with the rashis (constellations).
81
II
~~
,
~J
The Serpenski
Triangle modelled
in the landscape
1-.
of the courtyard
in the centre of the hostel
The configuration of rooms and circulation is based not on conventional dormitory typologies but on the Oxford and Cambridge system of student accommodation, where 2 or 3 rooms are accessed directly off a staircase, 3 or 4 stories
high
-
thus giving to each cluster of 10 rooms or so, a
separate identity. Here this typology is adapted for a ground and one upper storey structure. The circulation at the lower level is around a central courtyard with seating provided in alcoves placed at intervals along the periphery. Each pair of rooms shares a bathroom and verandah. From this level, stairs lead directly to the upper storey, where the circulation switches to the outer periphery of the building (facing the garden) so as to reach a limited access corridor serving 8 to 12 rooms for Faculty, with attached private baths. Here each pair of rooms share a private balcony overlooking the central courtyard.
Hostel's upper level plan
~.
~A
Bathroom (shared by 2 students)
If
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0
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' .'. 1
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1 i,',,~
Sitting I Circulation area
= = '---'~' 0 135m
'
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Hostel's lower level plan Hostel showing cross-over of circulation
.
(/
Axonometric.of type IVhouses
Director
-~---housing
'---' ~ ' 0 5 10
' 20 m
@
To the west are row-houses for the Staff and Faculty, grouped around courtyards. All the various categories provide a generous share of terraces, porches and courtyards for each family
tyard of type V houses
Double height pockets in type IVhouses
215
~ fra
II
II
The Samrat Yantra: for measuring
the Sun's orbit
-
constructed
in black masonry, polished
~
granite and steel
,
Detail of window in Director monitoring
Steps to top of Samrat Yantra
entrance
II
.,
The external wall of black basalt, surmounted by black Kuddapah stone, crowned by polished black
granite
-
black on black on black,
the colour of outer space
217
jAWAHAR KALA KENDRA ]aipur 1986-92
The ruler Maharaja Jai Singh who built the fabled pink city of Jaipur was moved by two seemingly
conflicting
sets of mythic ideas
and images. On the one hand there were the oldest myths of the Navgraha mandala (i.e. the mandala of the nine planets, which scholars believe was the origin of the city plan of Jaipur - with one of the planets moved to the opposite corner in order to avoid an existing hill). Jai Singh was also a profound believer in the newest myths of Science and Progress (as witness the Jantar Mantar, the astronomical
instruments
he constructed
greatest possible accuracy,
If _c~DOD
ODD ODD ODD
L c;DaDO 0 ~~
NavgrahaMandala
0
uare moved Corner sqaf hill because
Genesis of Jaipur
to measure, with the
the movement of sun and stars across
the skies). Thus the city of Jaipur, double-coded truly extraordinary: the principal
like Jai Singh himself, is
the clarity of its main arteries, the positioning
of
buildings, the efficiency of the water management
system, the sure grasp of underlying
socio-economic
patterns and,
above all, its startling relevance to us today of the transformation between past and future, between the material and metaphysical worlds, between the macro and micro scales, that Maharaja Jai Singh sought to synthesise. In these respects,
he seems analogous to another man, born
more than two centuries later: Pandit Jawaharlal
Nehru, India's first
Prime Minister. Guiding the new nation in its first decades Independence,
Nehru also wanted to look backwards
after
and forwards
Jantar Mantar, Jaipur: monitorir.;, sun and stars
the
Jaipur city plan
in one decisive gesture:j.e.=dls..CDlLedogJodia.'.s_past-whilst ~multa!leouslY Jrwenting-a new-future. Thus this Arts Centre, dedicated to Nehru, is really a metaphor
'\
for both men - and for Jaipur itself. Like them, and like the city, it is double-coded:
a contemporary
~
building based on an archaic notion
of the Cosmos: the very same ~9!ah§U!lalldala,
,
.
.
with one of the
squares moved aside, so as to provide a point of entry, and to recall the gesture that created the original plan for Jaipur.
'-
jfT!pli}n
c/M
. if ,-.
i The genesis of the Jawahar Kala Kendra
J /<)(
r
KETU
BUDH
SHANI
RAHU
GURU
~ Plan
'
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ffi
z
...
...
Curved Glass wall and water court in Guru, looking back towards the kund
--
~ model of the Cosmos. From behind us the morning sun rises while ahead the full moon sets
The external walls of the building (including th around the central kund) are clad in red Agra sandstone, topped by a coping of beige Dholpl 1
I
stone - the same materials used for the Jantar Mantar Observatory, in the Red Fort at Agra, ar Fatehpur Sikri.
i .~~
1
Jantar Mantar Observatory.
:'j Study for placing
On these external surfaces, the presence of ea' the planets is expressed by its traditional symb inlaid in white marble (embellished, where necessary, with polished black granite and mic, slate), recalliag again the precisely calibrated surfaces of the astronomical instruments at the
Tantrik drawing
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Jain cosmograph depicting the manifest world
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Mangal Mahal with domed roof
ihe first planet enters is Mangal (which corresponds to Jupiter). Since this planet represents Power (signified by the square symbol and the colour red), it was decided to house the Director and his administrative offices here. This planet becomes
the entry point to the
whole complex - so along the walls of the Mangal Mahal is an explanation of the Navgraha, and on the ceiling under the dome is painted a Jain cosmograph depicting all the rivers, mountains, animals and vegetation of the manifest world around us.
The dome in Mangal Mahal looking towards vehicular entrance
[
~
colour:
Milky White quality: Heart function: Cafeteria
KETU
~
colour:
SHANI (SATURN)
~
RAHU
The nine planets
function:
colour Iridescent quality: Devourer f Restorer function: Rajput Weaponry
lQJ GURU (JUPITER)
colour: Lemon Yellow quality. Knowledge function: Library
~
SHUKRA (VENUS)
Red
quality: Power Administration
colaurV quality : Performing
If the nine planets is represented by a square, 30m, defined by red sandstone walls, 8m high. Dgramme for the Arts Centre is disaggregated into )parate groupings, each corresponding to the myths Irticular planet: for instance the planet Guru (which lises Learning) houses the Library, the planet 'ra (the Moon, which denotes Pleasure), and so forth. Iditional symbol of each planet is expressed in ! and stone inlay in the stone walls that surround it. 'ntral square, as specified in the ancient Vedic 1S,is a void: representing the Nothing - which is the Jurce of all Energy.
Rahu, the imaginary the sun
2956
planet which represents
the eclipse of
2231
m N
0 m N N
11155u
~
Traditional symbol of Rahu (inlaid in black granite, white marble and grey mica slate), depicting quite literally, the Sun being devoured by the Moon
~--~'-..~'" .._~
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/'60
/
/
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~
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t, looking towards entrance to the Planet Shani (i.e. Saturn)
the Moon
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Details of red sandstone in kund steps
Kund, looking through square opening towards curvedgli Diagram showing layers of stone blocks forming kund steps
The exterior walls of each planet are covered in red sandstone. - but the interiors are painted in the auspicious colours, emotions, and mythic imagery traditionally associated with that planet
-a
a
La
--
-
u - U -
--0 --
I,
I I I I
The imaginary planet Rahu, symbolising
black interlocking circles
-
the solar eclipse. Hence the white anc
and in the centre: the Axis of the Universe.
!!'!II!'
\. \ E.C.I.L. Office, Hyderabad
IUCAA, Pune
Salvacao
Church, Bombay
I''I ill III
,'" II II
Belapur Housing, New Bombay
ZWE
~,II :1 1
il
Hindustan Lever Pavilion,
II'
mi
~.~ r
Gandhi Smarak Sangrahalaya, Ahmedabad
~I
, ~
~
c
Kanchanjunga, Bombay
IN Centre, Bangalore
EOO P. M. I., New York
~ a Park, Mexico
,.\
M.R.F. Headquarters,
20
All drawings
at
Madras
40
60m
1: 1234
Vidhan Bhavan, Bhopal
1958
GANDHI
SMARAK
Ahmedabad,
HANDLOOM PAVILION, 1958, Pragati Maidan, Delhi, for the All-India Handloom Board. This temporary pavilion designed and built in six months was the first completed work of the office. Brick and mud walls generate a square plan forming a simple multi-level box, through which visitors move in an easy and continuous flow. The roof of wood umbrellas, covered with hand loom cloth, suffused the internal space with an even light.
I Ii
SANGRAHALA
for the Sabarmati Ashral
Sabarmati Ashram, the historic home0 memorial scholars
which functions -
as a centrE
housing his letters, photogrE
archival materials. (See pages 30-35)
I
I
I I ..
!
i I
II I
,
~ ;~
II
LALBHAI HOUSE, 1959-61, Ahr Hansa and Niranjan Lalbhai. A H house at Hansol along the Sabarmat large orchard garden.
:1
'I i~
CAMA HOTEL, 1958-59, Ahmedab Hotels. Two floors of hotel rooms flank a atrium, open at both ends; thewholevoll by stilts, above a large podium. A thire was
added
during
number of changes
construction.
(particularly at the entrance level) b without reference to the architect.
~, "
II . ~,
III
; Elevation
11_.. UII ... . Section
III
,ii .\1 II
Wood
:11
Handloom & A!kathln
frame
_,II I arth fill
' '"
i~! I ,
.&11 . ,y! I ,..,.
f
.
Ur
have subsequenl
236
'
'~,
0
2
10m
,.fli!iJ-. y:J..
TRATION BUILDING, 1958-60, Anand, for 'idyanagar University. The lower two floors ~dministrative offices and the top floor Jartmentsfor University guests. Because of -west orientation of the site, climate 1 is a major factor. This external walls are as a combination of storage walls and kinds of closeable shutters: the wooden
COSMOPOLIS
APARTMENTS,
Bombay, for the Cosmopolis incarnation
(Unbuilt),
1958,
Housing Society. The first
of the concept which was later to become
the Kanchanjunga
Apartments.
!n directly to the outside and the glazed in axis at right angles to them. This allows ventilation through the open glazed panels Ie the wooden ones are closed to keep In.
Section
Elevation
Glass Shuner
1959 Inside
I $
I I
3800
Detail of openings in external walls
FUTEHALLY HOUSE (Unbuilt), 1959, Bombay, for Rabiaand Sadiq Futehally.Asmall two-bedroom house on the side of Pali Hill is a variation of the design of the twin houses at Bhavnagar, using brick walls and terracotta tiled roofs.
l=DT_~rI --~J
ound floor plan
zW
~~ 0
2
5
10m
W HUMANITIES DEPARTMENT, 1959-60, Anand, for Vallabh Vidhyanagar University. This rural universityis an experiment in education started by nationalists during the Independence struggle. The buildings are simple in construction and built departmentally. This Humanities Department has a square plan with a courtyard in tile centre. The peripheral walls are loadbearing.
SEN HOUSE, 1959-61, Calcutta, for Chini and Sanjoy Sen. A large multi-levelled house, with terrace gardens, opening onto a private garden.
TWIN HOUSES, 1959-60, Bhavnagar, Gujarat, for Mr. & Mrs. Mohamud Merchant. These twin houses were designed for a large joint-family headed by two brothers. Each house is an ascending spiral of spaces; one house turns clockwise and the other anti-clockwise. Their plans based on a grid of 9 squares of 4.5 metres x 4.5 metres each, allow the rooms to interlock around the central square (housing the circulation) which acts as a flue, setting up convection currents through the rooms. The cantilevered balconies of the bedrooms emphasise the ascending spiral of the interior spaces, as also the direction of the contrapuntal "twist" of each house. And although their plans are generically the same, the two houses are not identical - -the areas and position of the varied functions having been adjusted to suit the special requirements of each brother's immediate family.
CRICKET STADIUM & SPORTS COMPLEX, 1959-66, Ahmedabad, for the Ahmedabad Municipal Corporation. The programme, which called for a stadium to seat 35,000 people, an extensive club house and swimming pool, tennis courts and badminton courts, etc., has only been partially completed due to lack of funds.
.
Elevation
,1Sf<
i81 238
NIUM PLANT, 1959-63, Bhabha Atomic :h Centre, Bombay, for the Department of Energy. This plant for processing plutonium, ~ts a unique effort by Indian scientists in the Atomic Energy
GUN HOUSE, 1960-62, Ahmedabad, for the Ahmedabad Rifle Association. The Ahmedabad Rifle Association needed a building to house their offices and showroom. Since their requirements were small and their initial funds limited, they wanted a plan which would provide direct access to independent rentable offices, and which could be added to later on. Thus the building consists of 2 separate blocks each 12 metres x 12 metres. The floor slabs are diagrids, supported by 4 columns placed at the middle of each external wall, augmented by diagonal braces to the corners. This creates an internal office space free of obstruction. The central slot between the two blocks is used for circulation and toilets.
..
--
d Pi
.4
'!"
.. r-
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W ~.._-
ESING HOUSE (Unbuilt) 1960, Ahmedabad, 'nima and Anil Hutheesing. A variation on the gar house with the 3 bays in each direction :Jto a tartan grid of 5 unequal ones, so that :ulation in the centre moves casually and lIy around a garden. Plan
~3m
Q
lor,
N
Kitchen
F
j
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0
OJ Living
II
OJ
--
, I
o
Dining
00
0
c:=J11
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En"y
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LJ01Oil
dn
if
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f
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Kitchen
,-1
20r,
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~239
1961
LOW-INCOME Ahmedabad,
TUBE HOUSING, 1961-62, Ahmedabad, for the Gujarat Housing Board. Also known as the "tube" house, this was first prize winner in an all-India competition for low-cost housing. Though the programme specified walk-up apartments, these row-houses proviGJedthe same density - and larger living space per family. Each unit is shaped so that
HOUSING
(Ur
for the Gujarat Hausin~
of the restrictive parallel walls of A row house, the width of each unit v internal relationship of spaces is mo
unit has an internal courtyard.
.
the hot air rises and escapes from the top-,-setting up a convection currents of natural ventilation. Inside the units there are almost no doors; privacy being created by the various levels themselves, and security by the pergola-grid over the internal courtyard. Section
,--, 0, 0 135m
,
Plan
f---'
AMTS WORKSHOP, Ahmedabad
1961-63, Ahrr
Municipal Transport 5e
workshop
and bus yard for the A~
covering
10 acres in the heart of 1
involved the development of a maste the design ofthe buildings. Inthe main the administrative offices are placed overlooking the two acres of covere( thus providing direct supervision. ThE of RCC folded ventilation.
.,///'
II 240 ~-
plates, allowing in I
"AN LEVER PAVILION, 1961, Delhi, for 1Lever Ltd. The Industrial fairs held annually Jrovided an extraordinary opportunity for to experiment. This is a variation of the ndloom Pavilion. The circulation pattern is Jtthe form has metamorphosed due to the narrow site, and because of the structural ed: random-folded RCC plates, gunited in;ingramps and platformsbelow-and creating nons"which set up convection currents of air Iefractured, scaleless spaces.
SONMARG
APARTMENTS,
1961-66,
Bombay,
for
the Sonmarg Housing Society. This design is an earlier version of the Rallis apartments,
wherein verandahs,
studies, etc., form a zone of protection around the main living spaces. (See pages 132-137)
.
LABORATORY
& PROCESSING
PLANT, 1960-62,
Bombay, for Suhrid Geigy Pvt. Ltd. The laboratory has a flexible system of services for supplying
gas, water
and electricity at each table. Behind it is the work area, roofed over by an RCC plate structure.
1962
..
SEN-RALEIGH POLYTECHNIC, 1962-64, Asansol, for the Asansol Education Society. A training centre consisting of workshops and class-rooms, the spaces organised around a large atrium, so as to encourage through-ventilation.
:tion II:
RAMKRISHNA HOUSE, Ahmedabad, 1962-64 for Mr. & Mrs. Ramkrishna Harivallabhdas. This large residence, built for one of Ahmedabad's millowners, is based on the spatial and climatic concepts developed in the Tube House and the Hindustan Lever Pavilion. The plan sets up a series of parallel bearing walls, punctuated by interior courts and "cannon", climaxing in the living room which opens out onto the main garden to the south. The house is set at the northern end of the site so as to maximise
KASTURBAGANDHISAMADHI,196. the Gandhi Smarak Nidhi. Kasturt Mahatma
Gandhi, was under house
when she died in 1944. This memor the spot where she was cremated. edge
of the Aga
consists shifting
Khan Gardens,
of a gently
descending
axis, open-to-sky,
defined
parallel brick walls, culminating in thE At several points along the path ther, to levels from which the surround
the size of this garden and to enhance the spatial sequence of getting there.
is viewed. The podium created by houses a modest museum devoted te
I'
COu Section
.u Section
111
~ SubtcmneanMuscum
.
Service court
~ .'
.,
Plan
242
,
. "' .";,.. , ".
I
'
,'.
EB ~ ~ 0 2
' 5
' 10m
<>[
~L DARWAZA CENTRE (Unbuilt), 1962, lmedabad, for the Ahmedabad Municipal Transport Jrvices. A major bus interchange for the city, with lopping and offices above. A complex interlock of Irioustypes of vehicular and pedestrian flows. The staurants, shops and other commercial aCtivities are Idecks which connect directly (via over-bridges) to "public garden across the road. -
BOYCE HOUSES, (Unbuilt), 1962-63, Poona, for Dr. & Mrs. Boyce: Second generation incarnations of the Cosmospolis concept. Variations of the basic theme are used to form different prototypes, assembled here as a cluster of town houses.
THAKORE HOUSE, (Unbuilt), 1963, Bombay, fol Mr. & Mrs. R.Thakore. A 3-bedroom houseand studic facing the sea at Juhu Beach.
Roof garden
Study IU itchen\U
-..
Carpark
Section
~DAJ BUS TERMINAL, 1962-63, Ahmedabad, for JAhmedabad Municipal Transport Services. A large perbolic paraboloid umbrella forms the bus stop, hindwhich is located a canteen for the public and icesand maintenance workshops for the AMTS.
ra I ' " , ,,~:
BATTERY PLANT, 1963-66, Hyderabad, for Union Carbide (India). A manufacturing plant, together with administrative offices and staff canteen.
WRANGPURA BUS TERMINAL, 1962-63, Imedabad, for the Ahmedabad Municipal lnSport Services. Offices and canteen combined h a bus station.
SHUKLA HOUSE, (Unbuilt), 1963, Ahmedabad, for Mr. & Mrs. S. Shukla. A small two-bedroom house with open terraces on the upper floor. 1963
.lM AVENUE HOUSE, 1962-64, Calcutta, for Nilu j Abhijit Sen. Re-modelling of an old mansion, luding addition of some new bedrooms and a new of verandahs on the south, facing the garden.
CATERING INSTITUTE, 1963-67, Bombay, for the Ministry of Food, Government of India. Built on a restricted city site, this project integrates the teaching and residential facilities into one building, arranged in the form of a stepped section. The terraces are accessible from the indoor teaching areas, student lounges, etc., adding considerably to the kind of casual open-to-sky space highly usuable in the warm climate of Bombay: a theme later elaborated in the SNDT campus at Juhu.
6
TEHAllY HOUSE, 1962-64, Bombay, for Zeenat j Abu Futehally. A three-bedroom house on the pe of Pali Hill. Has since been demolished and ,laced by a multi-storeyed apartment building. Plan
~'0f'
3m
243
1964 PLANNING FOR BOMBAY, (1964). The conceptualisation, along with colleagues Shiresh Patel and Pravina Desai, of a new strategy for restructuring the city of Bombay by opening up the mainland
directlyacrossthe harbour- in an areawheremany key location decisions had already been taken regarding the provision of new docks, a major industrial belt, the highway system to the rest of the state, and so forth. In 1970, after the idea had gathered sufficient support, the State Government accepted the plan, notified the 22,000 hectares for acquisition and set up CIDCO (the City and Industrial Development Corporation) to design and develop the new urban centres, to be called New Bombay. (See pages164-171)
ECIL OFFICE COMPLEX, 1965-68, Hyderabad for Dr. Vikram Sarabhai. The client wanted a workspace which, through its very form, generates a controlled micro-climate, obviating the necessity for airconditioning. The brief specified a programme that
Pergola overhang to shield building
"
was incremental- hence the modularunits, which are indented into a cruciform so as to bring more daylight to the workspaces. To minimise heat input,
0
5 10
20 km
the units are sealed along the east;. on the west (which enjoys a panoramic view of the surrounding landscape) shade is provided by the large roof
overhang- consistingpartlyof a slattedpergolaand partly of a thin membrane
MASCARENHAS
HOUSE,
1964-65,
Bangalore,
for
incident
of water which reflects the
heat of sunlight back into the sky.
Plan
Dr. & Mrs. G. Mascarenhas. The long slope of the tiled roof closes off this three-bedroom hous.e from the road and opens it to the main garden at the rear.
1965 DUTTA HOUSE, 1965-66, Hauz Khas, Delhi, for Admiral and Mrs. Dutta. A large muti-Ievel private residence, with terrace gardens.
Offices
Section.
?LlLl
.STRIAN SYSTEM, (Unbuilt),
1966, Bombay, for
Imbay Municipal Corporation.
A scheme to allow
;trians to walk (above vehicular
traffic) straight
, the commuter trains arriving at Churchgate ~ to the offices around Flora Fountain.
lAB GROUP HOUSING, (Unbuilt), 1966-67, Ibur, Bombay, for the Punjab Co-operative ng Society. The Scheme consisted of 60 rowIS(of 2 and 3 bedrooms each) around a central lunity space.
\
0
CABLENAGAR TOWNSHIP (Unbuilt), 1967, Kota, Rajasthan for Oriental Power Cables Ltd. Thick roofs are slow to heat up, but once they do, they continue to radiate heat back into the house all through the night. A better way is to minimise the amount of
"' '
>
j '~~c .
. .....
.
"
Conventional
~_W'(i'
incident sunlightfalling on the roof surface - by a
EZES HOUSE, 1967-68, Poona, for Commander s. H. Menezes.
A tiled-roof
two storey house,
~ flexible grouping of internal spaces, so as to ;able in several different ways by a family with ed children.
~_.
light porous membrane, like a pergola. By raising this membrane, the roof can act as a sheltered terrace. Furthermore, the profile of the internal volumes can be adjusted so as to generate convection currents (as in the Tube and Ramkrishna houses). Units of varying categories were developed for this township, using the local sand-stone throughout: in 3-metre long slabs for the floors (spanning the width of the house), cut into rectangular blocks for the walls, and as strips for the pergolas (which were contiguous over the housing clusters).
with
..,. I~I ~
-3L
Sun-roof
by raising Sun-roof
Volume creating
adjusted for convection currents
HOUSE TYPE F
HOUSE TYPE G
~EIRA HOUSE, 1967-68, Bombay, for Mr. & \I. Ferreira.A four bedroom house with provisions Jditional units on the upper floors for the children I
they grow up. Section
WARDHAN HOUSES, 1967-69, Poona, for $t Mrs. J. H. Patwardhan. Two two-bedroom as, sharing a third bedroom. The living rooms ;entrally placed so as to act as breeze-ways oss ventilation.
Plan
Plan
HOUSE TYPE 0
Service street
~ Typical cluster layout
;;---J;;:~~o
~ m
g
Plan
~ ' '~ 0 2
~ 5 24
PAREKH HOUSE, 1967-68, Ahmedabad, for Mr. & Mrs. Dilip Parekh. From the housing types developed for Cablenagar, came two pyramidal sections: One, termed the Summer Section (to be used in the daytime) protects the interior from the heat, the other, termed the Winter Section (to be used in the early mornings and the evenings) opens up the terraces to the sky. Since this site faced east-west, this house consists of 3 bays: with the Summer Section sandwiched in between the Winter Section on one side and a Service Bay (for circulation, kitchen and toilets) on the other. The bearing walls, made of brick, express directly the climatic concepts which underlie the design.
SNDT
UNIVERSITY
CAMPUS,
Bombay, for the 8mt Nathibai Darr Women's University. A multi-disci~ one continuous structure. The 8, along one perimeter, the Arts alor common facilities placed centrall\ lowest level are located the laborat economical system of flexible due On the next level are classrooms al surmounted in turn by social facilitie~ levels consist of hostel rooms. In section, the levels step back, cr cascading terraces - and also circulation in the lowest two flc laboratories, classrooms and admi top-lighting and through ventila
Winter Section SCIENCE
Summer Section
Section
Garden
1968 GANDHI DARSHAN,
1968-69, Raj(
Gandhi Darshan Centenary. This C consists of 4 pavilions each comme aspects of the teachings of Mahatrr amorphous Ground floor plan
"non-building",
structurE
path moving along a shifting axis U
~~~omzEB
courtyards.
The brief involved pre!
Plan for the four integrated pavilic architectural
246
drawings for two of thE
aded corridors. Students start in these els in the morning, and move upwards 1e complex during the course of the day, the hostel rooms on the upper floors at
HAWKERS PAVEMENTS (Unbuilt), 1968, Bombay, for the Bombay Municipal Corporation. A proposal to modify the profile of some of the main sidewalks in Bombay. In the crowded centres of Indian cities, pavements are used intensively: during the day they are crowded with hawkers so that pedestrians are forced onto the road, blocking the traffic lanes. As evening falls, the hawkers gather their possessions
Today:
3m
19m
3m
and go home- to be replaced by peopleunfolding
ARTS
60r, 18m
their beddings for a night's rest. These night people are not pavement dwellers (who are another group altogether), but mostly domestic servants and office boys who have to share a room in their places of work where they keep their belongings and use city pavements for sleeping. This allows them to economise on their living expenses. Furthermore on hot sultry nights, sleeping outdoors is a more attractive proposition than the crowded airless room: that they have to do so under unhygienic conditions with the public walking right amongst (and over) them is truly reprehensible. This project in 1968 recommended to the Bombay Municipal Corporation an experimental modification in one of the city's principal streets (Dadabhai Naoroji Road) in order to deal with both the hawkers during the day and the sleepers at night. What was proposed was a line of platforms 2 metres wide and 0.6 metre high, with water taps placed at approximately intervals of 30 metres.
Proposed
platforms:
Daily 9am to lpm:
During the day these platforms would be used by
the hawkers- thus clearingthe pavementsand the arcades for pedestrians. (The platform would also act as a safety barrier between pedestrians and vehicular traffic.) In the evening, at about sunset, the taps would be turned on and the platforms washed clean by municipal sweepers. They would then provide convenient otlas (platforms) for people to
Night 9pm to lam:
sleep - out of the path of any pedestrianswalking home at night.
L_I
3m
15m
+---; 2m
3m
CORREA
HOUSE
(Unbuilt),
1968, Ahmedabad,
for
the architect. On this long narrow site, the summer and winter sections of the Parekh house are placed not side by side, but consecutively,
in one linear interlock.
INDIA PAVILION (Unbuilt), 1969, Osaka, Japan, for the Government of India. This project is a further development of the themes of the Handloom and Hindustan Lever Pavilions. Here the maze is extended to cover the roof-surfaces as well - so that one enters and goes into, through, and over and out of a large puzzle-box. The architectural form is deliberately low-key, a "non-building" given scale principally by the flights of stairs (echoing the bathing ghats of the holy rivers of India) and the effigy of the mythological demon Ravana.
IJ Plan and section
N 3{)
n
9m
fO\ U
~ 1969 KOVALAM BEACH RESORT, 1969-74, Kovalam, Kerala, for the Ministry of Tourism, Govt. of India. Development of one of India's most beautiful beaches, using the local vocabulary of plastered brick walls and tiled roofs. (See pages 66-69)
JEEVANBIMANAGARTOWNSHIP,1969-72,Borivili, Bombay, as Consultantto the Architecture Department of the Life Insurance Corporation of India. Housing for 16,000 persons on a 24 hectare site in a suburb of Bombay. The units, which range in size from one room to five, generate a number of typologies (from row-houses to walk-up apartments), all using multiples of the same structural module. The construction (up to 5 storeys high) is of reinforced brick bearing-walls, minimising the use of concrete and steel. In certain cases, the units step back so as to provide open terraces for the occupants. All units have direct access to a central green area of over 20 acres which forms the heart of the project.
L~~. /( ;z //\! ~/\5'"
/ / / Section
(>
'1 HOUSING,
1969-73, Lima, Peru, for the UN
he Government
of Peru. Thirteen
international
ects were invited to submit designs ,etition for a prototypical
housing complex of 1500
)s. Each house had to be incremental, nmodating
in a limited capable of
up to 10 persons (including
grand-
1970
.-. ---
.
.,-.
KANCHANJUNGA APARTMENTS, 1970-Bc Bombay, for T.V, Patel Pvt Ltd. The conce~ originated for the Cosmopolis Apartments (195E finally built some twelve year" after being designee (See pages 126-131)
6-
$§i
hI "-""
N!I -
ItS). ) units, 3 metres wide, broaden \0 6 metres at the 3, in an interlocking
pattern which orients them
.SSE (climatalogically the optimal orientation for . All units have vehicular access from one end porch connecting
to the community
spine at the
=-
11 a small cluster of a dozen units were built of Jfthe 13 entries, The common-wall nodified into a zig-zag
between units
.
(to make it more earth-
~
) resistant) in which are located service elements as stairs and toilets.
... . .
.
~
~'
~
I' ~-'-
General ';"i'an
~7ang
camm;;;;?;
spi~~u
~~~om
0~ HEREDIA HOUSE, 1970-73, Chembur, Bombay, Ie Mr. & Mrs. C. Heredia. This three-bedroom house 01 a gently sloping site in Chembur, a suburb c Bombay, uses tiled roofs and brick bearing walls.
Section
I
~-
~
Plan of units as built
o~~~om
0~
Plan
~~m
EB N
24!
1971 DCM APARTMENTS, (Unbuilt), 1971, Delhi, for the DCM Ltd. The third incarnation of the theme of major and minor living spaces which can be combined through sliding doors in various configurations. (A concept which was first developed for Sonmarg Apartments, and later for the Rallis Apartments).
LOW-INCOME HOUSING, 1971-72, Ahmedabad, for the Gujarat Housing Board. A high density housing project, providing accommodation for 5,000 people in an area of 4.9 hectares. Five different types of designs were developed, each providing the range of 1, 2, and 3 units required by the programme. This gives a variety of configurations, varying from incremental housing on small individual sites, to two-storey walk-ups with open-to-sky terraces.
LJ
LJ
BIMANAGAR TOWNSHIP, 1972-74 Consultant
pattern
1
35m
Der
of India.
where every family
space, (either a garden
of living
conducive
to th
life-style of Bangalore.
_MW
1972 ERANGAL BEACH RESORT (Un built), 1972, Bombay, for the Department of Tourism, Government of Maharashtra. Development of a beach near Mandwa, just North of Bombay, as an international tourist centre.
1973 SQUATTER HOUSING (Unbuilt), for CIDCO (City and Industrial Corporation). The basic module ry units (under a pyramidal roof) is rer a hierarchy of spaces. An idea furtr the Belapur housing (1983-85).
Plan "--'~~
Corporation
15,000 persons, open-to-sky
SEN FARMHOUSE (Unbuilt), 1972, Calcutta, for Nilu and Abhijit Sen. A weekend house for a Calcutta family: 4 caves (for sleeping, cooking" etc.) around a multi-purpose pergola-covered central space.
0
to the Architecture
Life Insurance
MOZUMDAR HOUSE, 1972-74, Delhi, for Riten Mozumdar. This house on a 200 square metres site for one of India's leading textile and graphic designers, combines a studio/workshop and residence.
Site plan
Plan
IS APARTMENTS (Unbuilt), 1973, Bombay, lilis Brothers. Another version of the idea of
1974
No-lines-of-defence" theory first explored in Jnmarg Apartments and then in the DCM nents.
COCHIN WATERFRONT (Unbuilt), 1974, Cochin, Kerala, for the Government of Kerala. Development along the waterfront to create housing and shopping facilities as well as amphitheatre and public promenades.
STRUCTURAL PLAN FOR BANGALORE (not implemented), 1974, for the Government of Karnataka. This project conceptualised a strategy for using Bangalore's enormous growth rate to shift the centre of gravity north of the existing city centre in
the old Cantonment- which is fast beingdestroyed. This was to be done in a series of consecutive each of which uses existing infrastructure
17~9
steps,
(e.g. under-
utilised railway lines) to gradually develop aT-shaped city structure with the new commercial centre at the intersection of the two arms of the T.
JJ
OFFICE (Unbuilt), 1973, Bangalore, for the taka State Electricity Board. Five decks of 3 around a central atrium on a corner site, an important traffic junction in the city. VISVESVARAYA
-
Consultant
CENTRE, 1974-80, Bangalore,
to the Architecture
Life Insurance
Corporation
Department
as
of the
of India. This complex
provides over 20,000 square metres of offices, shops' and parking.
Instead of air-conditioning,
advantage
is taken of the strong wind currents that swirl around
BACKBAYWATERFRONT(Unbuilt), 1974, Bombay, for the Save Bombay Committee. The purpose of this project was to put a stop to the continuing reclamation of land at Nariman Point and Cuffe
]
Parade, an activity which was adding considerably to the already enormous pressure at the southern end
the towers to provide controlled the office areas.
air-circulation
/sliding
within
glass
of Bombay - and generating enormous political corruption in the process. The perimeter of land already reclaimed will be sealed off by a belt of community facilities and promenades along the waterfront. The Government of Maharashtra has ~
NO
officially accepted
this scheme
-
through with its implementation! AKADEMI,1973-83, Panaji, Goa, for the Kala ,mi A performing arts centre, together with , and music schools, along the Mandovi river laji. (See pages 62-65)
.
, ~
Site
plan
~
but has still to follow
Operable louvres for air control
1975
SALVACAO CHURCH, 1974-77, Bombay, for the Archdiocese of Bombay. This church consists of a series of interlinked spaces, some covered, and others open-to-sky. The shell roofs are ventilated at the top, thus setting up continuous convection currents of air. The areas are functionally differentiated, in an analogue of Christ's life. First the years E)f preparation; secondly the years of public life; and finally, the death and resurrection. The skylight in the baptistry is by the noted Indian artist M. F. Husain.
CRAFTS
India organised village
1975,
along aped
to temple to palacE
herself. (See pages 36-41)
BHARAT BHAVAN, 197 Government of Madhya pr; museum, and performing E on a hillslope, overlooking pages 42-45)
Plan
;;--i,~~om
{f] /,
\ I
h
MUSEUM,
Authority of India. Handicra
-j
I
~/~~/
~0
/~~ ~
~y(.>L /'- --.\;" ./-~..:-
\~\
~;:l'~~
--~--~\~ ~~ \'
~V~" ~\"
,\.\\
""-
\
0
~~~~
'~'",
\\"
JEEVAN
BHARATI,
to the Architecture
1975-1
Departm
Corporation
of India. The sit
proscenium
between the ole
Circle and the many new hi~ (See pages 102-107)
'-"I". 252
...
1976
, GROUP HOUSING, 1975-78, Delhi, for the ~o-operative Society. Over 160 two- and threeam maisonettes stacked in two decks, with the ones stepped back so as to form a pergola3d terrace for each family. This configuration ates a central area which allows the units to
WALLENBERG
CENTRE (Unbuilt), 1976, Madras, for
the Western India Match Company. A training centre consisting of low-rise tiled roofed buildings courtyards.
around
each other against the hot dry climate of India (a centuries-old energy-saving pattern) Iso creates a central community area which is caped with trees and running water, so as to ify and cool the dry winds. va-bedroom units cover 84 sq.m and are 3 m 3 m high and 15 m long. The three-bedroom ire 130 sq.m and interlock in an L-shape - so ley use one bay width on one level, and two In the other.
N I~)['
Site plan
(?/
in
~ 0 5 10
SHIMOGA CAMPUS (Un built), 1976, Karnataka, for. Mysore University. The campus on the top of a hill in a
20 m
beautiful region of Karnataka, famed for its thick teak forests,
was designed
vocabulary
STEEL
to use the contextual
TOWNSHIP,
1976-77,
. the Steel Authority, Government plan
for this
developed Section
'
'~
'---"
0
2
5
10 m
rural
of white plastered walls and tiled roofs.
township
in collaboration
Misurata,
Libya, for
of Libya. The master
of 50,000
persons
was
with M.N. Dastur & Co.,
who were the prime consultants
for the development
of the steel plant. Ten sectors of approximately
5,000
persons each were generated, in successive stages, along the arterial roads which run at the northern and southern
boundaries
of the site. Along the centre of
each sector is a spine of public open spaces which contain the schools and neighbourhood mosque. The belt of sand dunes across the middle of the site has been preserved for ecological
balance.
253
1977 PALAYAM SHOPPING CENTRE (Incomplete), 1977, Trivandrum, for the Trivandrum Development Authority. A large shopping-cum-office complex in the centre of the city, involving both urban renewal and new construction,
1978 CIDADE DE GOA, 1978-82, Dona Paula, Goa, for Formento Hotels and Resorts Pvt. Ltd, A 1O0-room
MALABAR CEMENTS TOWNSHIP, 1978-82, Kerala, for Malabar Cements Ltd, A town of 400 housing units on a wooded site at Walayar lake. The client was keen on developing the township in a pattern which would encourage secondary income generation for each family (unusual in a companyowned town). Hence each family (including those on the upper floor) has open to sky-space, both in the form of terraces as well as small kitchen gardens (where they can supplement the family income by keeping chickens or a goat, or even a buffalo - as is commonly done in Kerala),
WalayarL
A Workers village Market
A. Workers village
resort on a beach near Panaji, which seeks (among other things) to create a metaphor of Goa's history. (See pages 76-85) c::F 050
Site plan
~-
~
(
I~CYCLONE-VICTIMS HOUSING, 1978-79, Guntur Andhra Pradesh, for the Government of Andhra Pradesh. Housing for homeless families after the 1978 cyclone, The houses are incremental, the government providing only a single cyclone-proof room of stone walls, with the inhabitants adding on extra rooms in mud, bamboo and country tile,
L~
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;
=0 O~
PI.:';!
{,~:-:.~~.- -
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@
~
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:
r
e
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o?~ V I r--r
~
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. L~~
I I \ I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I \
~
"P':'
Kitchen garden
_I
~
- -,-' -'JC-:;:c;'". I I 10f,':' I
',":
I
Kitchen garden ' ,
13m
,-,:.
Plan Plan, type 'A' houses
254
~ ~' 0 1
35m
'
~ i~ . i~
R THINK TANK (Unbuilt), 1978, Delhi, for j and Jagdish Kapur. Based on an idea Illy developed as a week-end house for Prime ,r Indira Gandhi, this small guest house on a )utside Delhi, was meant to accommodate pants of an annual Think Tank focussing on future.
BAY ISLAND RESORT, 1979-82, Port Blair, Andaman Island, for Bay Island Hotels Pvt. Ltd. A resort hotel on the side of a hill overlooking the entrance to Port Blair harbour. (See pages 70-75)
VIDHAN BHAVAN, 1980
-
Government
Pradesh.
Assembly
of Madhya
to date, Bhopal, for the The new State
located on the crest of a hill, in the centre
of the city. (See pages 198-205)
lain arena is a square courtY9rd made of defined by a mud-wall - with the rooms for )articipant as appendages on the other side ! wall. Every morning, each participant es from his doorway to meet in the centre of Jrtyard for the deliberations. /
)~(~ BD CENTRE (Unbuilt), 1980, Madras, for Indian Express Newspapers Pvt. Ltd. Shopping, housing and offices on a 10 hectare site iCithe centre of Madras. The new development is around the edges of the site, leaving the centre to form a new city plaza around the historic old building which used to house the Madras Club. 1980 PALM AVENUE OFFICES (Unbuilt), 1980, Calcutta, for Sen-Raleigh Ltd. A small office building on a very restricted site. The front profile of the building rotates downward so as to provide turning radius for the driveway. RAKAM RESORT (Unbuilt), 1979, akam, Kerala, for the Kerala Tourism pment Corporation. The site is a hundred ,land, just south of Cochin. Originally a it plantation it was to be developed as a tourist centre with facilities for boat trips 1the tranquil scenic backwaters of Kerala.
:ITY CENTRE (Unbuilt), 1979, Taif, Saudi for the Saudi Real Estate Company. This nent involved preparing urban-form studies new city centre at Taif, which is to consist of o square metres of office, residential, 19 and parking facilities. At the lower two s located a souk for shoppers; the upper s are used as community spaces by the tial units which ring the project; the whole ;ition forming a continuous pedestrian spine in c Islamic tradition.
CALVETTY GROUP HOUSING (Unbuilt), 1980, Cochin, for Forbes Cambell Ltd. Cluster housing of 85 units on a beautiful site over-looking the entrance to Cochin harbour.
BARAPANI RESORT DEVELOPMENT, 1980-84, Barapani, Meghalaya, for the Department of Tourism, Government of Meghalaya. A development consisting of 50 tourist cottages and a restaurant on Lake Umiam.
~
--'
MPSC OFFICES,
1980-92,
Pradesh State Corporation. some of the architectural offices in Hyderabad,
1981
Bhopal, for the Madhya A further development
concepts
It is designed
independent
State Government
BEACH HOUSES (Unbuilt), 198 Mr. G. Khandwala. 10 weekendhO
initiated in the ECIL
this complex
dry climate.
of
is for a similar hot-
to accommodate Corporation
twelve
across the harbour from Bombay,
in four
of the classic - and simplesuited
separate buildings which architecturally form a single mass, focussing round a courtyard, with a fountain at its centre. This courtyard
is covered
mezzanine
by a pergola at roof together
chat,
houses. The Ie
deck (bedroom, bathroe
can be locked up when the fal house after the weekend.
level, which not only protects the internal facades from the sun, but also ties the complex
for beach
visually.
Much of the lighting ofthe office spaces ISfrom windows overlooking
this central space; the external surfaces
are either blank masonry, or double-walls
with deep-
set windows.
each have
The six-storey
their own vertical circulation;
high blocks
at various pOints on the
upper levels they are interconnected driveway swings into the complex,
overhead bridges
-
by bridges. The passing under the
a classic pattern found in historic ]"
sectors of Bhopal city.
Axonometric
----------I II
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/
I
0/
I
'r--(~
I
I
I
I
/
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)--"""
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0
0
~ '0 ~
,
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Plan
0 0
COMPUTER
Courtyard
CENTRE (Unbuilt),
for Tata Elxsi Pvt Ltd. Assemblyfae levels, with work space for the SOftl on the terrace levels.
Section
~,
0
5
10
20m
1982 SHAH HOUSE, 1982-85, Juhu, Bom Rajesh Shah. Five separate dwelling designed for the members of a (each with their own gardens and tE
256
TOWNSHIP, 1982-85, Awarpur, for Larsen & o. New dwelling units, club house, schools .dministration building added onto an existing hip.
BVB CENTRE (Unbuilt), 1982, New York, for the Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan. A new cultural centre for the Indian community in Queens, with facilities for language, dance and music schools clustered around an internal street ascending diagonally across the building towards two corner mirrors which reflect it all back.
BELAPUR LOW-INCOME HOUSING, 1983-85, Belapur, New Bombay, for CIDCO (City and Industrial Development Corporation). A low-rise, high-density housing sector in New Bombay. (See pages 152-157)
MIXED INCOME
1983
Bangalore, (measuring
CRESCENT
for a group
courtyard.
radiate
The precise
ground
comprehend
and -
fanwise
consisting
of ten
because
storey
units
of 290
units
different
types,
in clusters, around a central maidan.
site
1984
from the entry
visual dimensions
one
1983, Indore,
1983,
On the
1,900 square metres in a quiet residential
area) seven houses the
(Unbuilt),
of friends.
(Unbuilt),
Authority. A development
grouped
CUNNINGHAM
HOUSING
for the Indore Development
of each of
is difficult
of the complexity
to
of the
spatial configuration.
CANTONEMENT Archdiocese built over
CHURCH,
of rune a hundered
thunderstorm.
1984-87, rune,
for the
The roof of the original church, years ago.
collapsed
In a
Keeping the outer walls intact. a new
RCC roof was inlaid, with a large central vault butressed
Q9 '---' ~ 0 10
~ 30
50 m
by half-vaults on either side. The cylindrical "cannons"
~~~
Intersect the main vaults to create exquisitely shaped ellipsoids
of light.
~plan
,...h
Section
tion
and plan
I ','
, , I ' , , , 30(, , N ' 9m
" ' " ~O~t Section and plan
u
GYMKHANABAR, 1983, Bombay, for Bombay Gymkhana Ltd. Remodelling of an existing room to recreate a historic moment in Indian sports: the 14 sixers hit by C.K. Nayudu in the first India-England cricket match held in 1932.
.
.I
..
VIHOUSES, 1982-89, Verem, Goa, for Alcon state Company. A linear cluster of 32 houses ;ite along the Mandovi river useable both as I homes as well as year-round residences. ages 144-151)
I
ACC TOWNSHIP, 1984, Wadi for the Associated Cement Companies Ltd. In 1984 the Associated Cement Companies (ACC) commissioned two types of housing to be incorporated into an existing company township. The units designed are strung along the periphery of the sites, rather like a necklace. In both instances there is a progression from the exterior to the interior of the site; from the public and vehicular access domain, to the private internal space of the house itself, to a semi-private 'patio or court, to the large central communal space. The first type of units - Type B - consist of 368 flats, each with an area of 48 square metres. These three structures are arranged in a highly formal manner to form a series of interconnected units, courtyards and gardens. The units decrease on the upper levels to form terraces overlooking the central space. The second type - the larger Type J units - are approximately 65 square metres each. These consist of 45 courtyard houses, ventilated by internal patios, arranged in tightly-knit clusters. Each two-storey unit has a barsati room on the upper terrace level.
1985 BAGALKOT Karnataka, township
TOWNSHIP,
1985 - to c
for the Government of for the 50,000 persons wh
placed by the rising waters of the Gha (See pages 180-185)
A necklace cluster of Type 'B' units
.J~-
£~1r~ ~
MISSION OF INDIA ( 1985, New York, for t~
of India. Offices and residential acco the Permanent Mission of India to the I
~
0
PERMANENT RESIDENCES,
(See pages 108-115)
C:~Ljl Site plan: Type 'B' units
c:FI:= M 020 50 100m'
~
Ground floor plan: Type 'B' unit L.J~ 0 1
' ' 35m
HOUSE AT KORAMANGALA, for the architect.
1985
A residence and st
and one upper floor, around a central, pages 138-143)
~iteplan: Type 'J'Units'---J~' 0 10
Typical elevation:
258
Type 'J' units
30
' M~ 50m'
Cluster plan:
'--'~ '
'
0 2
10 m
5
1986 JAWAHAR Government
KALA KENDRA, 1986-92, Jaipur, for thE of Rajasthan. A double-coded
buildin~
based on the navgraha (nine square) mandala, whicr was the original basis for the planning of the historic city of Jaipur. (See pages 218-232)
:HAEOLOGY MUSEUM (Unbuilt), 1985, Bhopal, the Government of Madhya Pradesh. An Jrtant collection of sculpture and architecture, sed partly indoors and partly in open-to-sky 'tyards. This is really a variation of the "inside-out ,"', with the main ordering element (the high Ie wall) and the first set of museum galleries built Ie initial phase, and the rest of the galleries (all lit courtyards and overhead top-lights) to be structed in subsequent phases, as requirements funds become more clearly defined.
Elevational sketch showing "zone between the two systems".
SURYA KUND, 1986, Delhi, Urmila and Jagdisl Kapur. A further development of the Kapur Thinl Tank built out of brick with mud plaster. (See page: 186-187)
Sectional sketch showing "zone between the two systems".
iies for lighting of interior spaces
JAWAHARLAL
NEHRU
INSTITUTE
0
DEVELOPMENT BANKING, 1986-91, Hyderabac for the Industrial and Development Banking Institutl India. A Management Training Institute for senic management from South Asian banks. (See pagE 52-61)
'.. .'
. '.
.('~ ..,~
:~ oL-r--;~o
Plan
m
0
0}
{~ ?'
-"""
1987 MRF HEADQUARTERS,
E;J.
Ltd. The new Headquarters
1987-92, for one
business houses. (See pages
94-11
'"
HUDCO COURTYARD HOUSING (Unbuilt), 1986, Jodhpur, for the Housing & Urban Development Corporation. Using the basic design principles for the units at Belapur, the units are grouped around a hierarchy of open spaces. The houses cater to four income categories, from lower to mid-level income families. There are, however, only two basic plot sizes. Each unit is independent from its fleighbour which allows for incrementality and upgrading as families become upwardly mobile. The construction materials are those that are readily available. Local stone is used in a centuries-old traditional manner, for both the load-bearing walls and the roof slabs, similar to the Cablenagar Township at Kota. The units themselves are massed in single and double storey blocks. The house designs of the two to four room (excluding service spaces) units remain simple and are influenced by their Rajasthani context in terms of arrangement and construction materials. Because of the hot dry climate, the units are directly built around enclosed courtyards -- quite different from Belapur where the units are freestanding and allow for through-ventilation so essential in the hot wet climate of Bombay.
~ 0'--;'0
260
3~Om
"C/\ \.V
BRITISH COUNCIL, High
D
Commission,
1987-92, od Delhi. The ne
Library and other facilities. (See pa
~u
Section
1988
LlC CENTRE,MAURITIUS,1988~ the heart of the business district.(Se L_r--',
Typical plans
0 135m
,
HEADQUARTERS (Unbuilt), 1988, Bangalore Hindustan Machine Tool Company. A horizontal complex, with terraced gardens, set on a site Ige trees in the 'garden city' Bangalore.
DONA SYLVIA, 1988-91, Cavelossim Beach, Goa. A beach resort on one of the most beautiful beaches in the south of Goa. (See pages 86-93)
INTER.UNIVERSITY CENTRE FOR ASTRONOMY & ASTROPHYSICS, 1988-93, Pune. A research and teaching institution which seeks to project a Model of the Cosmos - as we understand it today. (See pages 206-217)
~
Ib=
1\[ JJ,f"~
----.
1989 STAFF HOUSING, 1989 - to date, Hyderabad, for CCMB (Centre for Cellular and Molecular Biology). Over 150 housing units of various categories and sizes, organised around terraced gardens on a hillside facing the lake. THE MALANKARA ORTHODOX SYRIAN CHURCH, 1989 - to date, Parumala. A new church at the shrine of the principal saint of the Malabar
Plan c::FI::::= 0510
\,i,.;
~~
~
), with a circulatory
EB
Church of Kerala - a Churchwith its own unique rites and rituals, founded by S1.Thomas the Apostle, and older than the Church of Rome.
CQ
-'
HEADQUARTERS, (Unbuilt), 1988, Bombay, Nuclear Power Corporation of India, is a further Jpment of the HMT Headquarters. This large ex to be situated on a spectacular site in the : Energy Establishment at Trombay, is really a )meration of several autonomous units - hence m of the building:
z
20m-
Corporate Finance Corporate Personnel
a number of inter-connected ramp (a true pradakshina!)
Ig around a courtyard
in the centre. Adjacent
) of offices share top-lit atriums (which can be j off with sliding glass panels).
Ramp
Canteen
Section
cF't:=
0 2 5
lO'm
Library
~$"~/~
ProjeqtlGroups
~~n
ProjecjtlGroups
Section
L-J ~ 0 2
' 5
' 10m 261
1990
NEHRU
JAWAHARLAL
CENTR
Bangalore, For the Indian Institut Bangalore, A new campus for scienti work and living facilities, (See pages~
JNC at IISc, 1990-94. Bangalore, for the Indian Institute of Science. The house of the President of the JNC, along with offices, conference facilities and a small guest house for visiting scientists is situated in the old campus of IISc, in a grove of very beautiful old gulmohur trees, is organised around three interconnecting courtyards. One arrives in the largest courtyard in the centre, where located the office of the President together with conference facilities and supporting staff. To the left is the courtyard around which are grouped guest rooms for visiting scientists, and to the right is the courtyard around which are various rooms and activities of the President's house.
TATA ELXSI,1990-93, Bangalore,. creating
software and hardware for a
firm, is in Bangalore and c6mputer Valley",
-
the fastest-graIl
centre of India and knl
The complex
of sloping t
structured around internal courtyards kind of laid-back ambience whicl cantonment
seems to share with Califc
1991 ULWE: The CBD of NEW BOMBAY, for CIDCO
(The City and Industria
Corporation), controls
The Development
Pia
and the building of prototypi
1000 families (at all income levels) ( runs from the waterfront
along the
New Bombay up into the foothills behi 172-179)
TITANTOWNSHIP,1991- to date, Master Plan for a new company town, to be in-laid into an existing network and services, (See pages 158-163)
1992 MADGAON
STATION,
1992 - to dal
Konkan Railway Authority, The princlp new Konkan Railway is located 1 km
r~ '
from the existing urban
.
>
growth,
station so that it I
away
from the crowdec
"',. '\
GUEST HOUSE
\
!
.j '
Plan 262
L.J,
;'
0
5
2
' 10 m
'
---'
\---~:
EBz
010\ ~~~o
I
$
m :v'
'
' \\ :,: :-tl_--: '!
,-..j\ ::::oi
II.MPUS, 1992 - to date, Madras,for the for Management Excellence. This Institute Ig senior management, provides teaching md living a9commodation for 120 trainees j in separate (but parallel) programmes. The mplex is organised behind the polished tone wall that runs parallel to the road, J the facilities from the dust and noise of the oughfareon which it is located.
COCHIN BACK-WATERS, 1994 - to date, Vennala, Cochin, for Shogun Developers. A large housing complex of housing units on three islands in Cochin's back-waters.
CAHAYA, 1994 - to date, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, for EN Realty Sdn Bhd. These luxuriously large houses around a new golf course being developed in the hills around Kuala Lumpur, are part of 300 houses being designed by 12 international architects.
1995 TVS FINANCE, 1995 - to date, Madras. A Headquarters for one of India's oldest and most successful financial businesses in the centre of the city.
.
f '~ff"
CITY MUSEUM, BMRDA, 1995 - to date, Bombay, for BMRDA (the Bombay Metropolitan Regional Development Authority). 10,000 sqm of museum galleries together with 10,000 sqm of office space (as across-subsidy to financethe museumand itsactivities), located at the centre of the new Financial Centre being developed by BMRDA in the Bandra-Kurla Complex.
N
ffi
) Velachery road
~ 0
~ 5
'---' 10
GOBHA, HOUSE, 1995-todate, 20 m
orchard,
~
I
~~~~J~{~~~~~l~~jb::~'~Y;~~~:)~Z~' .
about 150 km north of Bombay.
CAPITAL COMPLEX, Government Complex
1994 E EXPORT PROMOTION Bombay,
for
the
CENTRE, 1993 - to
Textile
Committee,
lment of India, to house Jries and textile exhibition areas.
research
---
1'r
.. r
t
..f.
'I'" . I .. r " ,
.
r
tr i t-
Pradesh. This new Capital
of the State
Assembly,
the
Secretariat and the High Court) is located
on the ridge of a hill in Itanagar - the main town of Arunachal Pradesh, a Himalayan State on the edge of Tibet, in the north-eastern corner of India.
1996
.. ,I'
1995 - to date, Itanagar, for the
of Arunachal
(consisting
Government
GREEN EARTH FARMHOUSES, 1994 - to date, Rewas,' for Ratanlal Parasrampuria. A large integrated development on 200 hectares across the harbour from Bombay.
Golwad, Maharashtra.
A house, studio, pavilion and ziggurat for the noted Indian artist, Mehlli Gobhai, set in a chikkoo fruit
COTTON CORPORATION, 1994 - to date, New Bombay, for the Cotton Corporation of India. This office building, set on the waterfront in New Bombay, continues the theme of the earlier office buildings and generates its form from the same kit of parts.
I
.
.
. "1
. .811. "
e... '" ..
t!!. ...
II'
~-""~
'. l'.
I
!y.~
:DA PARK DEVELOPMENT, 1993 - to date, I City, for Reichman Corporation. This office g is part of a Master
Plan developed
) Legoretta for the rebuilding
of Mexico City. (See pages 122-125)
IJ
by
of this historic
L
.. .. ~I
. .
MAHINDRA RESEARCH CENTRE, 1996, Bombay, for Mahindra and Mahindra Ltd. A major new R&D facility for one of India's leading automobile and jeep manufacturing companies, set in a densely wooded area on the edge of Borivili National Park.
GOPALPUR STEEL TOWN, 1996, Bihar, for TISCO (the Tata Iron and Steel Company, Ltd). This township for the new 10-million ton steel plant being planned by India's pioneering steel company, attempts to create for its inhabitants the pluralism and urbanity associated with larger towns and cities, while providing them access to new information technologies notyet availableto theirurbancounterparts elsewhere in India.
BIODATA
Charles Correa born in Secunderabi'Ld,Jodla, ---on-1sfSeptember t93u. -
--
EDUCATION
1946 - 1948
U~sity
1949 - 1953
~
of Bombay
~~,::;/
University of Michigan
(B.Arch)
~--1953 -1955 Massachusetts Institute of Technology (M.Arch) PROFESSIONAL AFFILIATIONS 1964 - to date
India
1979 - to date Honorary Fellow, American
1972 Presented the Padma Shri, by the President of India.
Member, Bangalore
Institute of Architects
1992 - to date Honorary Fellow, Royal Institute of British Architects
1980 Honorary Doctorate, University of Michigan.
Jury Member, Pahalavi National Libl Iran.
1984 Presented Royal Gold Medal for Architecture of the RIBA at Hampton Court by H.R.H. Prince Charles.
1977.1986 Member, Steering Committee, Aga f Architecture.
Sir Robert Matthew Prize, International Union of Architects (U.IA).
Member, Urban Conservation
1980 - 1984
1984 - 1986 Chairman, Committee for "VISTARA. Architecture of India". 1988 - 1991
1992
1971 - 1974
1993
Chief Architect to CIDCO (Government of Maharashtra) for development of New Bombay.
Honorary Fellow, Royal Institute of British Architects.
1975 - 1989
Master Jury Member, Aga Khan Award for Architecture. 1989
Honorary Foreign Fellow, American and Sciences.
Academy
of Arts
Art A"od";oo
by H.I.H.Pd",
h"'
~ .~
BIO-DATA included in WHO'S WHO, A & C Black, London
'.'
'{ I
,
...
. /,
1975 - 1983 Chairman, Housing Urban Renewal & Ecology Board, Bombay Metropolitan Regional Development Authority (BMRDA).
_/'-.WHO'S WHO IN INDIA, The Times of India, Bombay
1975 - 1994 Executive Committee, BMRDA.
WHO'S WHO IN AMERICA, Marquis, New Providence, N.J.
1985 -1988 Chairman, National Commission on Urbanisation, Government of India.
WHO'S WHO IN THE WORLD, Marquis, New Providence, N.J,
264
1990 Master Jury, Aga Khan Award forAr
i
H;t'
M""h;to
. '
of Karnataka.
Jury Member, Kuwait Pearls Compe Real Estate Company.
1994 Presented with the Praemium Imperiale of the Japan
1975 - 1978 Government
1984 Founder Member, Trust for Urban Design Research 1m
1991 Master Architect Award, JK Industries, India. Honorary Fellow, Finnish Institute of Architect.
Board of Directors, CIDCO (New Bombay).
Economic and Planning Advisory cc Chief Minister, Government of Kama 1983
Invited by the Government of Peru and the UN to design PREVllow-cost housing project in Lima.
for HABITAT.
1982 - 1985 Member,
Founder Member, Indian National TI Cultural Heritage (/NTACH).
Honorary Fellow, United Architects of the Philippines.
Consultant to U.N. Secretary-General
Comn
Urban Development Aut
1981-1988 . Member, Board of Advisors, MIMAR
1987 Gold Medal, Indian Institute of Architects.
1964 - 1965
Architect,
Hyderabad
1986 Chicago Architecture Award, American Institute of Architects.
1990 Gold Medal, UIA (International Union of.Architects).
1975 - 1976
CIDCO (New Bol
1976
1958 - to date In private practice in Bombay.
Consulting
1975 - 1989 Board of Directors,
PROFESSIONAL EXPERIENCE
1969-1971
Urban Arts Carr
1975-1984 Western Board, Reserve Bank of Inc
1979 Honorary Fellow, American Institute of Architects.
International Academy of Architecture, Sofia, Bulgaria.
Prepared alternate Master Plan (with Pravin Mehta and Shirish Patel) proposing twin city of New Bombay.
COMMIT
1975- 1978
1985 Member, Academie d' Architecture Francais, Paris, France.
Fellow, Indian Institute of Architects 1974 - to date Council of Architecture,
BOARD MEMBERSHIPS,
1974 Featured in TIME magazine in cover story on New Leadership (150 persons from around the world).
1939 - 1946 St. Xavier's High School, Bombay
~~er),~lle3~
AWARDS AND HONOURS
CONTEMPORARYARCHITECTS, St. James Press, London
INTERNATIONALWHO'S WHO, Europa Publications, London.
'
/
1991 Jury Member, Samarkand Competition, Uzbekistar 1993 Jury Member, National Landmark for State of Kuwc 1993 Jury Member, Juma AI-Majid Centre for Culture & f 1994 Jury Member, AlA / Otis Housing Competition, Wa1 1992 - to date Jury Member, Pritzker Prize for Architecture.
BLIOGRAPHY
~KS PUBLISHED (in Books) (Buildings in the Commonwealth, Edited by J. M. lards, Architectural Press, London, 1961 Id Architecture, Volume 3, Edited by John Donat, dio Vista Limited, London), 1966
.\~
ding Environment by Balwant Singh Saini, Angus' Robertson, Sydney, 1973 tries Correa: Form follows Climate (Pidgeon lio-Visual), London, 1980 hitecture in the Seventies, by Udo Kultermann, nitectural Press, London, 1980 The office in 1980
itekten der Dritten Welt, by Udo Kultermann, Mont) Buchverlag Koln, 1980 ,rles Correa: Mimar, Singapore,
1983
City in Conflict: Edited by Chris Johnson e Law Book Co. Ltd.), Sydney, 1985
!
dern Architecture, by William R. Curtis, Phaidon 5S, London, 1987 3rles Correa, by Hasan-Uddin Khan, Mimar, gapore, Butterworth, London & New York ,vised Edition), 1987 ntemporary Architecture, St. James Press, icago and London, 1987 -listory of Architecture, by Sir Banister tcher, 19th Edition, Butterworths, London, 1987
After the Masters, by Vikram Bhatt & Peter Scriver, Mapin, Ahmedabad, 1990
"The Michigan Influence in Architecture", Bombay by R. B. Lytle, Michigan Alumnus, Ann Arbor - May, p.53
100 Contemporary Architects: Drawings & Sketches, by Bill Lacey, Thames and Hudson, London, 1991
1962 "Concrete",
Architecture of SARC Nations, by Razia Grover and S.K. Das, Media Transasia (I), Delhi, 1991
Contemporary 1994
Architecture
"Gandhi Smarak Sangrahalaya",
in Asia, KIRA, Seoul,
1964 "Indian Revisions", Architectural Review, LondonApril, pp. 235-236.
Indian Modern, by Herbert Ypma, Phaidon Press, London, 1995
1965 "Gun House", Architectural
The Dictionary of Art, Edited by Jane Shoaf Turner, Macmillan Publishers, London, 1995 Edited by
The Architecture of the Jumping Universe, by Charles Jencks, Academy Editions, London, 1995
1966 "Three in Ahmedabad", Indian Institute of Architects Journal, Bombay - July, pp. 15-21. 1968 "Correa", Architecture Aujourd'hui, Paris - Oct., pp.
WORKS PUBLISHED (in Journals)
"Un Appartement a Bombay", by Pompon Bailhache, La Maison De Marie-Claire, Paris March, pp. 88-89.
1960 "India & Pakistan", by John Writer, Architectural Design, London-April, pp.156-157 "Hindustan Lever Pavilion", Architectural London - July, pp. 57. "Cama Hotel, Ahmedabad", cover and pp. 32-35.
Review,
Design, Delhi - Sept.,
1961 "Indian Pavilion", Architectural Forum, New YorkJan., p. 132. room
July,
-
25 & 32-37.
1959 "Object on View", by Michael Brawne, Architectural Review, London - Nov., p. 246:
,1m tree in conference
Review, London
pp. 59-60.
The Tropical Asian House, by Robert Powell, Select Books, Singapore, 1996
1958 . "Housing atTrombay", Design, Bombay - Aug., pp. 8-9.
.
Indian Institute of.
Architects Journal, Bombay - April, pp. 26-38.
/
\
Forum,
1963 Modern Architecture: A Critical History, by Kenneth Frampton, Thames & Hudson, London, 1992
Crosscurrents - Fifty-one World Architects, Masayuki Fuchigami, Tokyo, 1995
\
by Peter Blake, Architectural
New York - Sept., p. 78.
"Twin Houses", Indian Institute of Architects Journal, Bombay-April, pp. 14-15. .
1970
"Previ Project", Architectural p.198.
Design, London - April,
1971 "INDIA", Architectural Review, London - Dec., pp. 349, 352-353, 365, 369. 1972 "Correa and Kanvinde", Architectural London - August, p. 123.
Review,
1973 "Defeating the Climate", by Peter Blake, Sunday Telegraph Magazine, London - Sept., pp. 82-88.
1974 "Apartments",
Architecture
Plus, New York
-
March,
p.26. 1976 "Experience Indienne", Techniques & Architecture, Paris - Dec., pp. 124-129. ?R'
1977 "Quarttro Lavori di Correa", L'Architectura, RomeMarch, pp. 640-646.
"Charles Correa", by Satish Grover, Arch Design, Delhi - Sept., pp. 15-45. "Charles Correa's Architecture"
1978 "Correa", Art & Architecture,
Tehran
-
by SaraY
Indian Architect & Builder, Bombay- Oc pp. 20-26.
April, pp. 50-59.
1979
"Jawahar Kala Kendra", ArchitecturalOet London, Nov., pp. 92-96
"Crafts Museum", by S. Baxi, Museum, LondonApril, pp. 374-377.
"Report from India: Current work of Correa", by
"Espacos para a India", by Carlos Dibari Armando, Arqitectura Urbanisma, Buenm Dee, pp. 44-51.
H. Smith, Architectural Record, New York - July, pp. 88-89.
1992
1980
"Contemporary
Architecture
-
Asian Architecture",
"The House Around a Temple Tree", byC
Process
Iyer, Interiors India, Bombay - Annual,pr
20, Tokyo - Nov., pp. 94-118. Entrance
1981
"Mystic Labyrinth", The Architectural Rev London, Jan., pp. 20-26.
to office
"Using the Past to Invent the Future", Spazio e Societa, Milano - Dee, pp. 56-63.
1985
"Architectura- QualeFuturo",Casabella- 474/475,
Tokyo - Summer, pp. 84-88.
Milan-Dec,p.91.
"A Style
for the Year
2001 ", Japan
Architect
"Belapur Housing", Mimar, Singapore
1982
-
/ A+U,
July,
pp. 34-40.
"Faked Facades", by Susan Stephens, New York - July, p. 24.
Skyline,
"Charles Correa: Inspirations
Indiennes",
Techniques
& Architecture, Paris - August, pp. 106-117.
"Cidade de Goa", by Brian Brace Taylor, Mimar,
Singapore - July, cover and pp. 44-49.
"Correa Courts", by Peter Davey, Architectural
"Edificio residenziale
a tone a Bombay",
by
pp.642-651.
cover and pp. 14-21.
1986
1983
"Vidhan Bhavan, Bhopal, Madhya Pradesh", Journal, Bombay-July, Vol. 51, pp. 11-15.
"Cidade de Goa", by Shalini Ramgopal, March, pp. 34-38.
Namaste,
"Bay Islands", Namaste, March, pp. 13-16.
IIA
1987
"Kala Akademi", Mimar, Singapore
-
March,
pp. 27-31. "Mediterranean Metaphors", by Mildred Schmertz, Architectural Record, New York - April, pp. 154-159.
"Kanchanjunga Apartments", Architect, MelbourneDec., pp. 12-13. 1984 "Cidade de Goa" A+U, Tokyo-June,
"Climate as Context", by Mildred Schmertz, Architectural Record, New York - August, pp. 114119. "Variations
pp. 100-107.
"Architecture", Journal of American Institute of Architects, Washington D.C - Sept., pp. 158-159.
and Traditions",
The Architectural
Review,London- Aug, pp. 56-58. 1988 "L'lnde
Intemporelle",
Techniques
"Musee a Jaipur, Inde", Techniques & AI
"Destiny & Design", by Jahanara Wasi, 7 Fountainhead, Bombay - May, pp. 19-23
Constanza M. Pierdominici, Cementa, Rome - Oct.,
"Cidadede Goa",InsideOutside,Bombay- Oct.,
"Squaring the Circle", Architectural ReeD York- March, pp. 98-105.
Paris - April, pp. 24-31.
Review, London - Oct., pp. 32-35.
"Open the Box", by Jim Murphy, Progressive Architecture, New York-Oct., pp.100-104.
"Una arquitectura abierta alcielo", by Jar Glusberg, EI Cronista, Arquitectura & Dis Buenos Aires - Feb., pp. 1 & 8.
& Architecture,
Paris - Feb., pp. 86-97.
"Better Council", by Mina Singh, Inside( Bombay - July, pp. 14-22. "Jawahar Kala Kendra", Interior # 36, Sy' pp.94-105 "Jawahar Kala Kendra", Spazio e Socle Firenze - Oct-Dee, pp. 114-121 "Life Insurance Corporation", Delhi - Nov-Dec, pp. 10-37 1993 "Architektur im modernen Indien", by S. Architekt, BOA, Berlin - Feb, pp. 82-83. "Charles Correa: Ein Museum" by Gauta Der Architekt, BOA, Berlin - Feb, pp. 89. "Public Sector Mass Housing", by Babar Design Ideas, Bombay - April, cover & f "Jawahar
"A Gallery of Art", by Nandini Kapur, Inside Outside,
Bombay - August, cover & pp. 94-101
Architectw
Kala Kendra", Progressive Arc
New York - April, pp. 86-87. "Indian Mission", by Peter Slatin, Oculus N.Y. Chapter - June, cover and p. 7.
1990 "Charles Correa", by Peter Serenyi, Space, SeoulApril, pp. 122-128
"JNIDB", by Mina Singh, Inside Outside, Sep.,pp.14-21.
"Charles Correa", Alam AI Bena, Cairo - April, issue 114, pp. 15-16. "Charles Correa", by Waag Hu, World Architecture
Review,Shenzhen- June,pp. 32-33,68-72. 1991 "EI valor de 10sagrado", Bamboo scaffolding
by Jorge Glusberg,
"Many Villages make a Hotel", by Anupc Inside Outside, Bombay - Dec., pp 140-
1994 "Charles Correa", A+U Vol. 94:01,Tokyc cover and pp. 9-77.
EI Cronista, Arquitectura & Diseno, Buenos Aires -
"IUCAA", by Dr. Jayant Narlikar, Southe.
Sept.,pp.1-3,8.
Weston Creek, Australia - May/June,Pf
"New Bombay - A Dream takes Shape", by Ranji
"Correa Prospects:
Bakshi, Bombay Magazine, Bombay - Aug. 22.
MichaelBrawne,ArchitectsJournal,London-
by Jan.
23, pp. 26-27.
1982 30a", by Chintamani Bhagat, Indian & Builder, Bombay - Aug., Cover and pp.
RIBA Annual Discourse",
"Charles Correa: Housing the Third World", by
"Conversation
Annette Gartland, Building Design, London
Aug. 6,
Khalid, Majallah Akitek, Kuala Lumpur - March.
Sept.
-
pp. 2 & 3.
with Charles Correa", by Ruslan
Ii Astronomia e Astrofiscia", Arbitaire 332, ,bitaireSegesta, Milano-Sept., pp. 180-181.
3, Cover story, pp. 26-38.
"Arkkitehturri ja Perinteen Sisaistaminen - Charles Correa haastateltavana", by K. Broner, Arkkitehti, Helsinki- June-July.
Correa", World Architecture ,sue,Shenzhen- Jan.
1983 "The Spaces which Lie Beyond", by Stephen Games, The Listener, London June 23.
"Charles Correa, Jyvaskylanlntialaisvieras - Koyhan maan modernisti", by P. Holmila, Uusi Suomi, Finland - Aug. 15.
Bombay-
EWSI REPORTS ON CORREA
1984 "Royal Gold for Correa", by Rahul Singh, Indian Express,Bombay- Jan. 11.
)me Housing", by Eunice De Souza, Times
"Gold Medal for Charles Correa", by Neal Morris in Building Design, London - Jan. 13, p. 3
Review 95:01,
-
Itricacy" by Robert Powell, The Architectural. .ondon - Aug., pp. 52-55.
30mbay -
"AsianArchitecture",Asiaweek,HongKong-
May.
"A Profile of Correa", by Peter Murray, RIBA Journal, London - Feb., pp. 21-23.
," (interview), by Dom Moraes, New York 3gazine, New York - Oct. 11.
Torna Vinatore", by Bruno levi, L 'Expresso, Roma - Mar. 11, p. 99.
Review, London - Dec.
Charles Correa",
RIBAJournal,London- May,pp. 16-17
-
Vol.246,#7344,London- May,p. 34. "Medal for a Man with Faith", by Stephen Gardiner, The Observer, London - June 3.
~Better" University News, University of ind, Australia - Aug.
"A Sealed Box - An Open Mind", by Jennifer
Carlson, in Michigan Alumnus, Ann Arbor ,Crowded City", by Lewis M. Simons, ton Post, U.S.A - April 14. arid Architect" by Geoffrey Payne, Building _ondon - Jun 21, p. 12. Correa: Self-Help City" GSD News, Harvard , School of Design, Cambridge - Nov.
"
Bombay-
Nov.
-
"Charles Correa - A Design for Living", by Malvika
Sanghvi, Imprint, Bombay - Dec. "Charles Correa: Seeking the Boundaries of a Vision", by Yogi Aggarwal, Bombay Magazine, Bombay - Apr. 22. "Charles Correa", in Jienchu - Cross-currents
"Indian Gold", by Dennis Sharp, Building Design, Ir N. Gogate, Building Practice, Bombay
"Charles Correa - Historical Symbols and . Problems", by S. Merzhanov, Za Rubzhom, Moscow
1986
"L'lndiano
"Royal Gold Medal for Architecture: mbay", Architectural
"The Master Builder", by David Davidar, Gentleman, October.
- Sept.
"Architecture & Construction", by Jorge Glusberg, La Prensa, Buenos Aires - July 28. "Architect
with a Third World Vision" by Tong Suit
Chee, Business Times, Singapore - Aug. 28. 1987
1985
"Vistara - The Architecture
"Reaching for the Sky", by Sunil Sethi, India Today, Jan 15, pp 43-45.
Architecture+Design, Delhi - Jan.-Feb., pp. 52-59.
"A Passage to India", by Jan Burney, Building Design, Vol. #722, London - Jan.18, p. 2.
Banyan Tree", by A. Chauhan,
of India", in
"Charles Correa - A View from the Chowk with a -
IIA Journal, Bombay
June.
August.
ld than owning", Jericho, Vancouver-
m who helped to shape cities", by Ursula
;ign & Environment, New York - Spring, 1. m the Top", by Bubli Mathur, Bombay e, Bombay - August 22.
arid: It's not what they want, it's what they
y Robert Bond, Surveyor, London - July 31, 5. y", by Lynda Ralph-Knight, in "Building London
-
July 25.
ng a new Lifestyle", Interview of the , bySunilSethi,IndiaToday,Delhi- Aug.
in
Architectural Studies, Hong Kong - pp. 50-53.
Handmade buildings:
Vidhan Bhavan, Bhopal (under construction)
---
1993
1995
"The Seven Wonders",
by E. Jayashree
Kurup,
"Man of the Year", by Ervell E. MenE Panaji - Jan. Cover Story, cover am
Aims", by
"Incrediblel A building becomes a t Panch alee Thakur, Delhi Times, Dell
Saturday Times, Delhi - June 5, p. 2. "A Synthesis of Modern and Traditional Eric Parry, Nov.
"Seeking the Spirit", by Clare Melhuish, Building Design, London - Nov. 26, p. 16. "An Essay", by Kenneth Frampton, in Catalogue for Exhibition" The Ritualistic Pathway", The Architectural Association, London. "Arboreal Architecture", by Howard Hodgkin, Quarterly, Winter, pp. 14-15.
Design
"Charles Correa, Architect par Exce Louella Lobo Prabhu, Insight, Mang pp. 4-5. "Charles Correa and the Recovery c Peter Carl in the Catalogue for Exhit MA, Tokyo - April, pp 10-30. "First Person, Last Word". Interview Tripathi, Asia, Inc, Hong Kong
-
Ma
1994 "Charles Correa: La arquitectura complementa con la puitura", by Jorge Glusberg, LaPrensa, Buenos Aires - July 28. "Charles Correa: Un arquitecto
da
para la mayoria",
"Charles Correa's work on display", Delhi - Feb. 10. "Exploring
by
Rosa Montero, EL Pais, Madrid, Spain - Sept. 6.
Infinite Spaces",
Statesman,
by Sum ita Thapar,
Pioneer, Delhi - Feb. 14, p. 13. "The Journey of an Architect",
Economic
INTERVIEWS
"An Interview with Charles Correa", by Sarayu Ahuja, Oct.
"Charles Correa - The Fate of Man and Architecture
"Opening up spaces for life", by the Design Team, Economic Times, Bombay - Feb. 17, p. 6. "In the Mind of the Architect", by Shanta Ghokale, Sunday Review, Bombay - Feb. 20, p. 5.
1988
"Architect's New Cosmic Idiom", by Sushma Chadha, National Herald, Delhi - Feb. 24, p. 5
& Architecture,
Paris
Mar, pp. 86-97.
(Radio I Television)
1972 ABC TV, "New Bombay" - March, ty 1976
in the East", by H. Khan, Mimar, Singapore - Dec, pp. 60-63.
Techniques
"On the Vanguard of the Contempol Scene", by Riichi Miyake, PraemiulT Japan Art Association, Tokyo, p. 34
Times,
Delhi - Feb. 16. Indian Architect & Builder, Bombay -
"Dear Darling Cosmos", by Brendar Yorker, New York - June 19, p. 93.
PBS TV, "Vancouver Andrew Stern.
Symposium"
-
1983
"Space Explorer", by Ranjona Banerji, Sunday
BBC Radio 3, "Sun and Shadow" -, Stephen Games.
Midday, Bombay - March 13, pp. XII & XIII.
BBC Radio 3, "Skyscraper"
"The Sky Line - Corbu", by Brendan Gill, The New
"Charles Correa's Five Jewels", by D. G. Nadkarni,
1984
Yorker, New York - May 9.
LoksattaChaturang,Bombay- April9, p. 1.
Doordarshan, Dharkar.
"Myth - Creation - The New Landscape",
Architectural Journal, China - May, pp. 31-36.
"Space, Time and Correa", by Adil Jussawala, Afternoon, Bombay - April 29, p. 11.
1986
"A City Where Stark Contrast Is King", by Steven R. Weisman, The Washington Post, Jul. 23, p. 4.
"The Ritualistic Pathway - Five Projects by Charles Correa", by Peter Carl & Eric Parry, AA Files: 27,
1989
The Architectural Association, London - Summer,
Malayalam Manorama, - March, p.126.
Centenary
-
Year, Trivandrum
"Towards a landscape for the future", a conversation with Alan Twigg, The Independent, BombayNov.12,p.3. 1990
pp.67-74. "Child of Bombay", by Graham Vickers, World Architecture, London - Issue #27, pp. 76-78.
PAN AM Clipper Magazine, Nov., p. 28.
"PEOPLE: Japan Cites 5 Winners for Arts Achievements", International Herald Tribune, June 17, p. 24.
1991
"Correa's
"Metaphor
Telegraph, Calcutta - June 24, Section II, p. 1.
"Bombay - City of Superlatives", by Pranay Gupte,
of an Indian Street", by Dr. Jyotindra Jain, Architecture and Design, Delhi - Vol. VIII, No.5, Sept.-Oct., pp. 39-43. 1992 "Bold Break with Tradition",
by Catherine Ormell,
Home-truths",
by Shanta Gokhale,
The
"Asians must not ricochet off the West", by Vibhuti Patel, The Independent, Bombay - June 29, p. 7. "Encounter",
by Shabana Minwalla, Sunday Times,
"Open-to-Sky
1987 Doordarshan, "Vistara: The Architec Nov., by Anil Dharkar. 1994 THE LATE SHOW, BBC, London-A Bernadette O'Brien. 1995 The Human Face of the Urban Envir Socratic Dialogue, The World Bank, D.C., moderated by Charles Ogletre BOOKS BY CORREA The New Landscape: Bombay, 1985.
The Book Soc
HoBBIN NeN3AX:
Hindu, Madras - April 26, p. XII.
"Correa Wins Praemium Imperiale", Progressive Architecture, New York - July, p. 19.
The New Landscape: New York, 1989.
"Profile: Charles Correa", by Madhu Jain, India Today, Delhi - May 15, pp. 100-101.
"The World of Charles Correa", by Asit Chandmal, Times of India, Bombay - Nov. 1, p. 6.
ESSAYS BY CORREA
"The British Council Division", Britain Today, New Delhi - Nov., pp. 12-14.
"Poetry in Concrete", by Ajantha Sen Poovaiah, Debonair, Bombay - Dec., pp. 20-22.
"Working with passion and power", by Gayatri Sinha,
268
Space"
Doordarshan, "Beyond Tomorrow: L Mar 26, by R.K. Mishra.
Bombay- July,p. 4.
Independent, London - April 22.
- Oct.
MockBa CTponn, Butterworth AI
1959 "Architectural Expression", LalitKale Delhi, Seminar on Architecture, pp. .
ier in Chandigarh", Architectural Review, June, pp. 404-412. :es", The Architect and the Community, ernational Centre, Delhi, pp. 47-50.
Conspectus,
::Itsof Architecture",
Delhi.
g for Bombay", Marg, Bombay - April, pp.
les", Seminar, Delhi
,Control",
March, pp. 25-32.
-
Architectural pp. 448-451.
Design, London Exhibition at Gallery MA, Tokyo 1995 1986
1976 TI- A Tourist Destination Area", Indian of Town Planners Journal, Bombay ler, pp. 52-55.
Ekistics, Athens
Jan, pp.
-
33-38.
"GoaPlanningand Conservation"- Design,Delhi,
Architectural London- December,pp. 329-331.
TIme and Priorities",
"Space as a Resource",
The
s of Urban Growth", Architectural
Design,
London- December,pp. 433-434.
pp.33-37.
1987
1977 "The New Landscape", Habitat, London.
"An Essay for JAE", Journal of Architectural Education, Jubilee issue, Vol. 40:2, New York, p. 12.
"Functional and Spatial Planning", Housing Science, Vol.1, London, pp. 273-292. 1980
Ip City", Seminar, Delhi - February, :0. 3n Age of Architecture", The Illustrated 'Jflndia, Bombay, 17, pg. 31.
"Urban Strategies", Habitat International, Nos. 3/4, London, pp. 447-455
Vol. 5,
"Urban Housing in the Third World: The role of the Architect", Open House, London, Vol. 6, pp. 31-35.
,Organization ofMetropolitanAreas" -
"Urban Strategies for Third World Countries", e Societa, 15/16, Milano, pp. 44-55.
ransport" - Seminar, Delhi - Feb, pp. 21-30.
1982 "Architecture in a Warm Climate", Mimar, Singapore -July-September, pp. 31-35.
UN E/ I/SYM/I11/9 , Stockholm - September 26, 1973.
)mbay: The Self Help City", Architectural Vol. 44, London - January, pp. 48-51.
Spazio
'/ Which Makes Itself", Lotus, Milan - June, 111.
1983 "Chandigarh: The View from Benares", Le Corbusier Archive, Vol. XXII, Garland Publishing, New York, pp.9-14.
)ollution", Times of India Annual, Bombay, o.
"A Place in the Sun", Royal Society of Arts Journal, Vol. 131, London, May, pp.328-340.
"Of Frogs,well-done",IndiaMagazine,Delhi- May Icutta", Times of India, Bombay - April 27,
"VISTARA .. The Architecture of India ", essay in Catalogue for the Festival of India, Bombay (1986), Moscow, Leningrad and Tashkent (1987)
1983, pp. 6-7.
1988 "Rajasthan and the Realm of the Sacred", Approach, Tokyo - Autumn, p. 12. 1989 "The Public, the Private, and the Sacred", Daedalus, Journal of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, Cambridge, Mass - Fall, pp. 53-114. "Museum Architecture", pp. 223-229.
Museum, UNESCO, Paris.
1992 "Learning from Marine Drive", Sunday Times of
India, Bombay - Feb. 16, p. 12. "Regionalism in Architecture", MASS, Journal of the University of New Mexico, Vol. IX, Spring, pp. 4-5. 1993 "Tropical Coastal City: The Spare Part and the Machine", China Architecture and Building Press, Haikou, Hainan. 'Vistas ", 1989 Award Book edited by James Steele, Aga Khan Award for Architecture.
Massachusetts- Fall,pp. 40-49.
1994 "Models of the Cosmos", A+U, No. 280, Jan., pp. 12-13.
"Conflict", Architect, Vol. 7, Melbourne - December, pp.10-11.
KEYNOTE ADDRESSES I LECTURES
1984 "Consciousness II", Seminar, Delhi - Jan, pp. 293-
1973 United Nations Symposium on Population Resources and Environment, Stockholm - Nov.
"Chandigarh", Ninety Years On edited by Charlotte Ellis, Architects' Journal, Vol. 179, London - June 27,
1974
pp.47-112.
of London - May.
1985
1976
"The New Landscape", Transactions of The Royal Institute of British Architects, London, pp. 60-67.
Keynote address, The Maharashtra Council, Bombay - April.
"A Place in the Sun", Places, M.IT Press,
296.
.
Sir Bannister Fletcher Memorial Lectures, University
State Women's
Member of Barbara Ward's "Vancouver Symposium",
United Nations Conference
Settlements, Vancouver, Canada
on Human
China- Apr
- June.
1983 The Cubitt Lecture, the Royal Society of Arts, London -Jan. Keynote address,
1993 Keynote address, Tropical Coastal Cities, Haiku,
"Conflict", Royal Australian
Keynote address, TED 4, Conference, Kobe, Japan -Apr Academie D'Architectrure, Paris
-
Nov.
1994
Institute of Architects, Sydney - June. Keynote address, Aga Khan Award for Architecture, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia - July. 1984
Annual Convention, Colombo- Feb.
Sri Lanka Institute of Architects,
Keynote address, The Human Face of Ecological Development, World Bank, Washington D.C. - Sept
The Rowtett Lecture, Texas A & M University, March.
Symposium,PraemiumImperialeKansai,Japan-
The Raoul Wallenberg
Chicago Art Institute, Chicago
CollegeStation-
Lecture, University of
Michigan,AnnArbor- April.
Washington
Keynote address, Cumberland Cumbria - April.
Society of Architects,
of
Architecture,Universityof HongKong,HongKongOct
University, StLouis.
March. - March.
Keynote address, East-West Encounter, University of Hawaii March. Gallery MA, Tokyo & Hiroshima - April.
Architects,London-
Jan.
Keynote address, UIA (International Architects), Cairo - Jan.
Harvard, Cambridge - Fall 1974
Keynote address, National Convention, Indian Institute of Architects, Bangalore - Feb. Design for High-intensity
Development,
Malaysian
1987
Tulane University, New Orleans (Arthur Q. Davis Professor)Fall 1979. MIT, Cambridge,
Keynote address, Silver Jubilee Celebration,
Roorkee University -
Seminar, Paris - April.
School of Architecture,
University of Singapore - Jul.
Cambridge Bombay
-
Sept
-
Sept
University,
Professor) -
U.K. (Jawaharlal
Royal Institute of British Architects,
Danish Institute of Architects, Copenhagan
-
Oct
MIT, Cambridge.
Mass - Fall 1989.
-
Nov
MIT, Cambridge,
Mass. (Visiting Aga Khan
Professor)
1991 March.
University of New Mexico,
Indian Institute of Architects,
July 1987
-
MIT,Cambridge,Mass- Spring 1989.
London
Museumof ModernArt,SanFransisco-
Nehru
Mass - Spring 1987.
National University of Singapore
Biennale, Buenos Aires, Argentina
Spring 1982
-
1985-1986
Harvard, Cambridge,
1990
School of Architecture, Albuquerque - March.
Philadelphia
Columbia University, New York - Spring 1984
Aga Khan Programme,
of Architecture,
Mass - Spring 1981.
University of Pennsylvania,
Feb.
of Architecture,
(
-
"The Ritualistic Pathway", The', Association, London 1994 "The Ritualistic Pathway", The, Bombay and Madras 1995
J.J. School of Architecture, University of Bombay1976.
Instituteof Architects,KualaLumpur- Aug.
A Celebration
1993
MIT, Cambridge, Mass. (Albert Bemis Professor)Fall 1962. University of London (Sir Bannister-Fletcher Professor) - May 1974.
Union of
ONE-MAN SHOWS 1984 Royal Institute of British ArchitE 1984 1984 British Council, India.
TEACHING
1985 Annual RIBA Discourse, Royal Institute of British
"The Blessings of the Sky", Ga
FILMS 1955 Scriptwriter, Animator, Photogr You and Your Neighbourhood, 1976 Director and Scriptwriter for do Water, Films Division, Governrr 1986 Scriptwriter for Audio-Visual VI: Architecture of India. 1995 Scripwriter and Director for Vid the Sky
Fall 1992.
Tongi University, Shanghai - Spring 1993 Washington
University,
St. Louis,
- Spring
1995.
EXHIBITIONS Bombay - April.
1975
Keynote address,
American Institute of Architects Annual Convention, Washington - May. Royal Institute of British Architects,
London
1992
TheGrahamFoundation,Chicago- Oct The Public Building, Rotschild Foundation, Jerusalem-Nov. 270
-
-
Gordon Brown Memorial Lecture, Department
Academy
Nov.
1995
1986 VISTARA,Nehru Centre, Bomt 1987 Festival of India: Moscow, Leni 1989 Festival of India: TheSetagaY8 Japan. 1991 Festival of India: Berlin Culture Germany. 1992 World Architecture Exposition, Nara, Japan.
-
Oct
Contemporary
Architecture
in India, USA.
1982 Venice Biennale, Italy. 1983 Third World Architecture: Institute, New York.
Search for Identity, Pratt
1985 Festival of India. Ecole des Artes, Paris, France.
Still from film' You and YourNeighb
