Balkrishna vithaldas doshi – Wikipedia

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Indian Institute of Management in Bangalore von 1963 (2006)

Balkrishna vithaldas doshi (Born August 26, 1927 in Pune, Maharashtra, † January 24, 2023 in Ahmedabad, Gujarat) was an Indian architect. In 2018 he was awarded the first Indian architect with the prestigious Pritzker Prize.

Doshi was born the son of a craftsman. [first] From 1947 to 1950 he studied architecture at Sir J. J. School of Art, a school of the University of Mumbai. Together with Kuldip Singh, Raj Rewal, Achyut Kanvinde and Charles Correa, he was an activist of the Indian architecture movement during the decolonization time in India. [2] Doshi was strongly influenced by Le Corbusier, in whose office he worked in Europe in the early 1950s and from 1954 to 1957 in Ahmedabad, where he took over the construction management for four industrial villas planned by Le Corbusier, including that Sarabhai House By Vikram Sarabhai in Ahmedabad. These had an important influence on his first independent work, with which he in parallel in his own architectural office Vastu-shilpa started. He also looked after Louis I. Kahn’s Institute of Management; The interrelation of European and Indian designs shaped him.

His first plans were a housing estate for textile workers in Ahmedabad (1957–1960) and the Indian Institute of Management in Bangalore in 1963. The buildings are two -story of natural stone masonry. The monotonous gray is structured by the incidence of light, which throws shadows in the open and partially covered courtyard. [3] Frequently used doshi barrel vaults, as in the Sangah, His own office and headquarters of the Vastu Shilpa Foundation (the foundation undertakes research in the environmental area), completed in 1981. The white concrete shells are reminiscent of the tonnes of the earliest Buddhist cave monasteries or mounds. The garden is harmoniously designed by terraces, water channels and trees. [4]

As a city planner, Doshi designed Vidyadhar Nagar, a suburb of Jaipur from 1984 to 1986. The city is cited as an architectural example, since it was strictly built as the overall system in the 18th century according to the principles of Vastu Vidya. In Doshi’s concept, the attempt becomes visible to combine a synthesis between the reformist urbanism of Le Corbusier and its emphasis on nature and sun with the tradition of farms and narrow streets. He takes over the 9-field diagram of the Vastu Purusha Mandala, which was used by his predecessor in the 18th century and re-spits dimensions and social division up to the facade design in a contemporary manner. In conversation, he complained about the uniform architecture of modernity and misses the mythical world of the primal man. [5] A different use of the Vastu purusha mandala is the draft for that Computer Science and Engineering Department In 1994 at the Indian Institute of Technology in Mumbai, whereby he uses the diagram rather ritually than literally. By inclusion of natural conditions as part of the concept, for example by using the houses themselves as a shadow dispenser or aligning along the daily daily, the buildings need z. B. no air conditioning and are therefore also sustainable energetically. [6]

In 1989 Doshi planned and built that in Indore Aranya Low Cost Housing , An affordable residential complex on the 85 hectare area with 6,500 residential units, in which more than 80,000 people already lived in 2017. The apartments range from simple rooms to generously dimensioned and luxuriously equipped rooms. [7] Asked about his motivation to build buildings for people who can take care of them, is his answer “If you don’t have awe, then you don’t need to build in the first place”. [8]

Doshi was also known as an educator and university lecturer. He was the first founding director of the School of Architecture, Ahmedabad (1962–72), the first founding director of the School of Planning (1972–79), the first founding dean of the Center for Environmental Planning and Technology (1972–81), founding member of the Visual Arts Center, Ahmedabad, and the first founding director of the Kanoria Center for Arts, Ahmedabad. He was instrumental in the foundation of the nationwide and internationally known research institute Vastu-Shilpa Foundation for Studies and Research in Environmental Design. The institute has done pioneering work in the area of ​​inexpensive housing and urban planning. His work is particularly noteworthy for his pioneering work in housing for the low -income. He is also known for designs that involve the concepts of sustainability in an innovative way. [9]

In 2007 Doshi was awarded the Global Award for Sustainable Architecture. [ten] In March 2018 he was awarded the Pritzker Prize. [11] The jury justified its decision as follows: Doshi had a “deep sense of responsibility and the desire to make a contribution to his country and its people through authentic architecture of the highest quality”. [7] In 2021 he was elected to the American Academy of Arts and Letters. In 2022 he was honored with the Royal Gold Medal of the Royal Institute of British Architects.

Doshi lived in Ahmedabad in the state of Gujarat from the 1950s. [twelfth] There he died on January 24, 2023 at the age of 95. [13] [14]

  1. ↑ Niklas make: Architect Doshi died: another modern . In: Faz.net . ISSN  0174-4909 ( faz.net [accessed on January 31, 2023]).
  2. ↑ Utkarsha larahia: Kuldip Singh, legendary Indian architect, dies at age 86 on Archpaper.com from November 13, 2020, accessed November 17, 2020 (English).
  3. ↑ Vikram Bhat, Peter Scriver: After the Masters. Contemporary Indian Architecture. Mapin Publishing, Ahmedabad 1990, S. 64–67.
  4. ↑ Ashish Nangia: Post Colonial India and its Architecture II: Balkrishna V Doshi – The Mythical and the Modern. Bolojii.com. Accessed on April 17, 2019 (English).
  5. ↑ Doshi in: William Curtis: Balkrishna Doshi. An Architecture for India. 1988, S. 165. NACH: Vibhuti Chakrabarti: Indian Architectural Theory. Contemporary Uses of Vastu Vidya. Curzon Press, Richmond 1998, S. 28, allg. S. 91.
  6. ↑ Philipp Löwe: Authorization architecture: Mr. Doshi builds a better world . In: Mirror online . 17. April 2019 ( Spiegel.de [accessed on April 24, 2019]).
  7. ↑ a b Pritzker price goes to Balkrishna Doshi. In: Daily mirror , March 8, 2018.
  8. ↑ Philipp Löwe: Authorization architecture: Mr. Doshi builds a better world . In: Mirror online . 17. April 2019 ( Spiegel.de [accessed on April 24, 2019]).
  9. ↑ Robin Pogrebin: Top Architecture Prize Goes to Low-Cost Housing Pioneer From India In: New York Times, March 7, 2018 (English).
  10. ↑ Global Award for Sustainable Architecture. City of architecture and heritage, accessed on June 4, 2020 (English).
  11. ↑ Lauretes: Balkrishna Doshi. In: Website des Pritzker Architecture Prize. Accessed on March 7th, 2018 (English).
  12. ↑ Noted architect narrates life in pols. In: The Times of India, December 18, 2010 (English).
  13. ↑ Noted architect Balkrishna Vithaldas Doshi passes away aged 95; PM mourns demise. In: Hindustan Times, January 24, 2023 (English).
  14. ↑ Building master portrait of January 24, 2023: Balkrishna Doshi Pritzker winner died at the age of 95 , accessed on January 24, 2023