In news– Balkrishna V Doshi, architect, planner, and educator, who passed away recently, gave Indian architecture the legacy of questioning everything.
A brief note on him-
- Balkrishna Vithaldas Doshi was an Indian architect.
- He is an important figure in Indian architecture and noted for his contributions to the evolution of architectural discourse in India.
- Having worked under Le Corbusier and Louis Kahn, he was a pioneer of modernist and brutalist architecture in India.
- In 1950, he went to Europe. He worked closely with Le Corbusier on the latter’s projects in Paris between 1951 and 1954.
- In 1954, he returned to India to supervise Corbusier’s buildings in Ahmedabad, which included the Villa Sarabhai, Villa Shodhan, Mill Owners’ Association Building, and Sanskar Kendra.
- Corbusier is described as having been a major influence on Doshi’s later work.
- His noteworthy designs include FLAME University, IIM Bangalore, IIM Udaipur, NIFT Delhi, Amdavad ni Gufa, CEPT University, and the Aranya Low Cost Housing development in Indore for which was awarded the Aga Khan Award for Architecture.
- In 2018, he became the first Indian architect to receive the Pritzker Architecture Prize.
- He was also awarded the Padma Shri, the Padma Bhushan, and the Royal Institute of British Architects’ Royal Gold Medal for 2022.
