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Architecture
Post Colonial India and its Architecture - II
Balkrishna V Doshi:
The Mythical and the Modern
by Ashish Nangia
 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.
Sangath, BV Doshi's Office, 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.
Doshi and Students, CEPT, Ahmedabad
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.
 In the
National Institute of Fashion Design (N.I.F.T.), Delhi, Doshi and the
Vastu-Shilpa Foundation are less successful. While there is nothing wrong
per se in using the form of a step-well (baoli) from Ahmedabad as
conceptual and formal inspiration, what is lacking in the building is the unity
of its parts and overall coherence.
It is almost as if the building design has been given out to several sub-teams
within the office. Each of them has done a competent job, but an overall rhythm
is lacking.
It is entirely possible that Doshi’s office, in its eagerness to keep up with
developments in architectural theory – neglects in this building its core
expertise – that of designing simple, good architecture that works for its users
and helps preserve local building traditions.
One of the by-products of success, of
course, is that one has more time to devote to what the outside
world may call idiosyncrasies.
And so the Husain-Doshi Gufa,
(Husain-Doshi cave), is the collaborative product of two of the most
controversial figures in Indian art and architecture.
 BV Doshi
creates and conceptualises the space, and MF Husain embellishes it with his
painting and sculpture. While possibly being a tourist attraction and even
perhaps a pilgrimage of sorts for students of architecture, the Husain-Doshi
Gufa, Ahmedabad may not, in the end, do justice to the considerable talents
of either of its creators.
In the later
part of his career, Doshi’s work is characterized increasingly by mythical
allegories to religion and dreams. In the Bharat Diamond Bourse and
other projects, the built form and even at times the choice of site is, in
Doshi’s words, the product of ‘non-traditional’ forces. It is doubtful till now
if these allegories have translated successfully into concrete projects, nor
how, in Doshi’s case, a mythical references to architecture have translated into
better user experience.
This is,
really, one criticism of Doshi’s later work – that in the search for a
personally satisfying solution he seems to have compromised on his earlier
careful innovation and respect for the end-user. While Correa has always been
politically astute, Doshi at this stage of his career seems satisfied with his
earlier, spectacular success and gives up primary responsibility to direct his
architecture to allied firms - preferring instead to concentrate on personal
mythology as a medium of expression.
Still, Doshi
remains one of the seminal figures of South Asian architecture and has
contributed in no small way to the evolution of post-independence architectural
discourse in India. Starting off as Le Corbusier’s protégé, Doshi’s
architecture is an eclectic mix of styles and influences that make it unique in
recent history. Whether Doshi’s best is behind him is something that may remain
a subject of debate – that, however, he has already made an indelible mark in
South Asia is already beyond contestation.
February 12, 2006
Images from
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Steele, James Rethinking Modernism for the Developing
World: The Complete Architecture of Balkrishna Doshi, Thames and Hudson,
1998, and
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Curtis, William J.R., Balkrishna Doshi: An Architecture
for India, Rizzoli, 1988
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