Post Colonial India and its Architecture - II

Among the many architects that worked in Le Corbusier’s office at 35, rue de Sèvres, Paris, in the heady 30s and 40s was a young man from India. Trained in an exacting, personalised and highly idiosyncratic tradition, Balkrishna Doshi retained traces of this influence when he returned to India to set up a practice in Ahmedabad, Gujarat. Over the decades he would fulfil many roles – architect, urbanist, traditionalist, and educator, and remains till today one of the most respected names in Indian architecture.

Doshi’s projects in India show a distinct personal and professional evolution, starting from early experiments in applying the lessons of Modern Architecture in an Indian context to increasing interest in South Asia’s vernacular tradition, myth and social diversity. Today Doshi’s practice spans many interests, integrating and incorporating research and building cells, as well as being closely linked to the Centre for Environmental Planning and Technology (CEPT), Ahmedabad.

His own office, Sangath, is composed of vaulted interior spaces linked both internally and externally by gentle changes in level. Here the landscape forms an integral part of the architecture, and Sangath rises up from the ground without actually appearing to leave it. The vaults resist and soften the tendency of the verticals, and anchor the form to the earth while reflecting, in a sense, the line of the sky. The whole composition is softened by landscape elements, welcome additions in an otherwise harsh Gujarat.

The Centre for Environment and Planning Technology (CEPT), incorporates in its four main departments what is still one of the most prestigious architecture and planning schools in the country. Its graduates are known as much for their high levels of commitment to architecture and its practice as their ability to diversify into other allied fields.

At CEPT Doshi creates four wings grouped around a central space. The buildings, in their brick and exposed concrete finishes, are simply finished and make no attempt to be pretentious. What is noticeable, however, is the attention to detail – detail that is surprising and effective in how a comparatively low-cost solution may bring results that are all out of proportion. One example is the creation of a gigantic concrete scale or ruler along the walls of the studios – a symbolic reminder of the essentiality of correct scale and proportion that good architecture demands.