Architecture For India

Friday June 2, 2006. Reception 6:00 PM; Lecture and Q/A 6:30 - 8:00 PM

Architecture for India

Location: Center For Architecture, 536 LaGuardia Place R.S.V.P
Sponsored by the AIA New York Chapter International Committee and Committee on Architecture for Education.
Speaker: Prof. Balkrishna Doshi, Hon. AIA

Please come to Prof. B.V. Doshi’s lecture on “Architecture for India” at a time when India is on everybody's mind. He will explore spatial concepts and architectural themes in his work and examine contradictions and challenges posed by India’s unique cultural milieu and rapid urbanization and growth. The subjects will include institutional projects and housing as well as large-scale urban design and planning projects.

Balkrishna Doshi appears to speak to current sensibilities when he said in 1987: "I learned from Le Corbusier to observe and react to climate, to tradition, to function, to structure, to economy, and to the landscape. To an extent, I also understand how to build buildings and create spaces and forms. However, I have in the last two decades gradually discovered that the buildings I have designed seem somewhat foreign and out of milieu; they do not appear to have their roots in the soil. With the experience of my work over the years and my own observation, I am trying to understand a little about my people, their traditions, and social customs, and their philosophy of life."

Balkrishna Doshi, an Indian architect, educator and planner worked with Le Corbusier in Paris from 1951 to 1954 as senior designer, and then in India to supervise Corbusier’s projects in Ahmedabad and Chandigarh. In 1955 he also established the Vastu-Shilpa Foundation for Studies and Research in Environmental Design, known for pioneering work in low-cost housing and city planning. He maintains an office, Vastu-Shilpa Consultants, in Ahmedabad.

Prof. Doshi has been visiting the U.S.A. and Europe since 1958, and has held important chairs in American universities. He has received numerous international awards and honors, including Padma Shri from the Government of India and an honorary doctorate from the University of Pennsylvania. In 1995, he received the Aga Khan Award for Architecture for the Aranya Community Housing in Indore, India.