Charles Correa

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

'~'L 5

,,

, ',/

/ '/

>,

/ '!_n

I 1

'"

, 1

1 l~~~~eJ r' J

"'",-,(//

,I

/, //

'

,

/ /1I,

,

}~~

up

/ //

~

On

""

Reading Area

0 Terrace'

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

-

If

53

..

f

-0 OJ 0 a: c: "iiJ

::;:

Site plan

Entrance canopy

r'

View of faculty

teaching

rooms

from

entrance

plaza

sing

1, O'-{~~om

~~"

~ Main entrance

-~-

T

.~

,

...-The kund in the centre

E

"

,

f.~. ..-

l

'I

-d

- -r I.

I

"'"

1 ~..."'(>

~

ro " J("

:::I ,..

~,~

,

~ -Areas for informal encounters

Axonometric of the main complex

. 1

CentralKund .

The sequence of spaces

--

--

A cluster of residential rooms around a small courtyard

4

I

I Seating ,J ~"

, ".

'

."

,

. J!!!!iJ1" "" ".'i

'

,

~~'

s",

,W'J'

,

",

','",

'

, """

"

"~{;t}

'

L '

0,

,__n_n "

, , II 1 1

1 I "1 I' "

1I ,

: :

r

,I

\

1 I I ,

" 1 '-__n_nn

,1

I ,I

<

I I. I

,i, I

,

"" I

,,

:

W~

,I'

,, ,

-- - --- - - -- - - - -- - - - -- - - -- --1

I

I I

IWTlI

~---------------------

: 1

,,

r-j

IW

,, ,I I

I I I I

,,

,, ,I I I 1

,,

,, ,L Three bedroom unit: entrance level

n

Three bedroom unit: upper level ~~~ 0 1

128

"

'-

J

~

'--, --! L, I ,-I 1

~ " 0

Site plan

'~~ 5 10

20 m

L

QQ

\ ,)~

..

1

r""

'"

.

'f [

~ ( (

I!tl -. .

I

-~ Repeating the basic interlock of 3 and 4 bedroom units generated facades that seemed like just so much yardage, Incorporating 5 and 6 bedroom units (created by adding an additional half-level to some apartments), enriched this basic pattern, giving the tower rhythm and energy, like a Tree of Life,

/.

. '

"

~

/

Section showing the interlock of 3, 4, 5 and 6 bedroom

" ;;-sp,.

'

0 2 .5 units

129

'

'10m

~!!I'!! '-!!I ~

~r

-

"'I 8

!!~

,'.,'.';,

."

!!."'!!I

~!!!

.

. .

"

'"

1 """'.

'. " " ,

!! '".~. ."

,

,

m ~.

11

" "

~ ~ ", "",

'

"

.."

"'.

ii. "". ",.,

~ ~!!. ~"~

-. "...;"._*-

~.-.'.'!; '~

r

n

,,""""""

I,

~

f

I

Portionof facade facing Bombay harbour to the east

l

130

.....

-

-Irface cut away to open up the double-height

terrace gardens

at the corners

"

..

--

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

chik

manner.

The living room, looking towards protection zc

133

i~

,

I

II A diwan in the living room, with photograph

of the Gandhi Smarak Sangrahalaya

Plan showing protective

zone along eastern and western -perimeters ~~ 0 1

The main facade facing Napean Sea road

3

'"

"!

..

~

'"

~

~ookingacross fromprotective zone in frontof livingroom, towards master bedroom

"

~

"-

q, ~

~$~ -

r

..1.1

J

~,~.~ I

,,~

"' ;z,'!Iii'" bl ~,~ I

1

~}. ", -:!p

~

tl

~

~H I

The dining room, looking towards zone of protection

along eastern perimeter

Connecting zones of protection: the door (with the faux Matise) opens to connect the Living Room to the Guest Room.

'

;

'~ "

--=.J "'

jving

room, with protective

zone along western perimeter

/'

1

Protection

'.

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

0

a

of an old town

which has grown organically with time.

L::> ring-yang interlock around courtyard I~

House of house and sll

----

r' JI

1-

:=i!

~

Entrance to dining room

The living room, with stairs to upper bedroom and terrace

"

[i~

~

10 co 0 a:

Terrace

"

Ground floor plan

Roof plan

L-""'---'~

0 1

Upper Studio

~

3

5m

~-~

,1 "~:::~~~f"~J ,;,.,,:,>,.,"

c) 140

Entry

.,

I

~

fdi_t f'~'~r .,

~ ,0 ~

,

!

1

I

~

f

J

,

~~~

1I I

-

t

I

n

~

I

'§j ,;,y

-

~~~ --

~~,=-'-

- "- -,

\"J

-~

-

=-..

[

,! .,'tl"':':: ~.

I

-

--

~=.-"

,}'S"

f;'" -"-~.~ ';-~!" rA

r. !,i=-f +~

I

,

towards courtyard from living room

. "'. ~t~l~ 10

!: 3

5m The studio

..

.."",, ,~! , ,:" ~I!

-:

i'

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

...

.,

. .

~~

~

.,.,.A- ---'

...",.J--- - -""',~ __,1- -

: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"'.

r.~. ."~M'

'~.,.~

Site Plan Typical three-bedroom

house

. .

.

~& ..

~~A'

1

.,lJ

~

. !Ci!~~

'I".:!O

_. ...:.;;

-:::=:J --

",

'::

-~ / -~

- - - ~~

---

.

=

~"":~'=-~ /--~====-==-~~. ~

Bellm - Candolim road

-

~

_. ~

. '.

~~

'JLMJ:-~"'"

~. -'

~~~-

-

-

~ ~

- --

~

~

~------

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).

0

'

Verandah ~,I

"----

~ Upper level plans

..

. . . . ..

Mandavi river

~~ !ction down to river franI

"---' ~ 0 1

~ 35m

Interior of living room in house at eastern end of site, looking from atrium across to river bank at right

,

r

~l

0

:

Oi Verandah

'--/\--\'/-~,~'\--

r :

I I \

C---l

I

I! 1

\ \ I \

iI' \ \Living

0

J

~ \

":!, / \ , I, \\

~

Bedroom Bedroom --

: I I I

I

L

\---------

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

II

r

r\

.-~..

I

I

-

_':.:0

, ~11..~lml.~iIi]'ij ,~

All three flaps closed

All three flaps open

~

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).

~

t

I

.1'...

~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

'

' ---',

,

0

5 10

20m

EBN

Type A units

t~".

iii

J~

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

\~ ~ \:J

~

.

,...~~~~~~ ,Wi'

,~

II

. .'" .,.,.

The low-rise houses are "malleable';

adapting

easily to the lifestyles of the inhabitants

i

A general view, with low lying hills surrounding

New Bombay

/ "'-'-

nerioheral

15m

Q. '" (J5

Module

JL

roa

. Module

Q. '" (J5

Module

l

r ,

E a

ro '"

Module

Module

Open

E a a

Q. 'c (J5

I

Module

Module

Q. '" (J5

Module

,

-,(

I 280m Diagram of sector, showing a,ssemblage of ~

,modules and strips N

In of New Bagalkot

L--.J , 0 0,5 1,0

.

!

1r t

\-20m-+ Strip of 250 sqm plots

,

I

'

EB

2km

!~..!,~

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

~

L

f',

,,100m of 100 sqm

plots

L

Bus stop 24m wide road

Corner 'open space

Shop houses

Open market

pen space

'0

'" e

'0 '" e CD '0 '~ E " N

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

r

o~~~om

Room

Room

~

Room

c:: Room

Y/;

Type 81

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

J ~

Living & Dining

Bedroom

Future room

'"

~

6

r

I

-_J

~~~~:jl b--.~~~::1

Type C1: Ground floor

court":.

,

'~"

Type C1: Upper floor '

j

'

',

~ ,

0

1

35m

-\ ~~ Portion of Der

"

,\'

'1

... £

""

"

r

~"'e ""

!LLJ

!I

"'.'

1-

'"

".

\

Q)

"

'j; E ..,. ~

"'" e

c ::< '(ij

OJ ~ 1;5 cr; c Q;

~

Main road (18m wide)

;---'~

'

;'~~.z ffi

SURYA KUND Delhi 1986

,.>

,..

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.

"

\

,. '-.

I.-.

~

I

I I I I I

~.

'\ .

The 3 axes mundi are placed along the length of the site, connecting the entrance gate to the rear boundary at

the other end.

..",... ."

"'*

Shiva, from whose hair sprang the sacred Ganga river

-

sculpture

by Stephen Cox

DO

0 0 .'7

0 Char bagh

0

DO

0

ing

Sel\Vjces

Longitudinal

section through the site

=:F 0 2 190

M~

'

[J I

I

''.'

Iffim

JC n.

'" - .,-

I

II

I

I

I

IlQ I

fti I.T1

,

-Bindtr

1H

,

Ii

n

I

Residence

.-

.

I

I

I I

I

I

I I

I

I

I

1

I

I

'-!=-

I

Maintenance

I I I

E j

FF

"

rT --'

" J...'

t:i::::J

Ch

b

+

,

.

gh

::n.

'

dd

dd

,\4_d_L ddT m_m>LJ

,

dJ

'" F--

J

rooms Meeting IL,

1

I I

I==='E

i== '=--'--'==1ITIl

IR-

u

=,

tl

=,

= =,

Foyer

Exhibition gallery

=, =,

r\

1

I

I

I-

I

Tal

Main

entrance

1b,

I I I I

I,

I I

I

I I I I

I

t::J1

,

= ,= = = =

'cf

I

c-

-

,

I

lJ

--

I

I

I I I

9

I

.II

I

I I I

I I t-l

I

,

---+--

t

I

I

IT

I

I

I

I

I I

,I

I

II ,I

I

I

I

I

,=

I

I

I

III

,= ,= , ,, =

::t

I

I

I

'

,= ,

I

I

'II=

,------,

I

I

,=

=:

-rr=-

r!r'



'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~

0 D

;

=0 O~

PI.:';!

{,~:-:.~~.- -

+J}i

@

~

,...I

="",,

:

r

e

L-~

~ I

E]ri,J;J ~"

o?~ V I r--r

~

c::J

'

'I

. L~~