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Fabulation
SAHANZ XXIX2012

MY TH, NATURE, HERITAGE

THE 29TH ANNUAL CONFERENCE OF THE SOCIET Y OF
ARCHITECTURAL HISTORIANS AUSTRALIA & NEW ZEAL AND

Edited by Stuart King, Anuradha Chatterjee and Stephen Loo

UNIVERSITY OF TASMANIA, LAUNCESTON, AUSTRALIA

5th–8th July 2012
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Of and for the context:

Achyut Kanvinde’s Modern Indian architecture
!
Prajakta Sane
University of New South Wales

Abstract!
Architectural history of post-independent India published from 1980 onwards
traces the triumph of the modernist project as it achieves an appropriate self-
conscious regionalist expression. The rhetoric of ‘Indian identity’ was
proclaimed to be the single most important goal, while the means to achieve it
were arguably vague and questionable at an operative level. Despite being
celebrated locally as an influential architect with a prolific career spanning
over five decades, the late Achyut Kanvinde, one of the foremost modernists
remains largely unacknowledged within this history. With scattered mentions
he is marginalised into functionalist or Brutalist categories, implying that his
works could not fit easily in the dominant narratives of the period. A closer
look at Kanvinde’s works suggests a sensitive interpretation of international
modernism to the Indian context, but with a resistance to obsessive pan-
Indian identity constructions based on imagined pasts. By examining two of
his campus projects, the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) at Kanpur (1960-
66) and National Insurance Academy (NIA) at Pune (1986-91), this paper will
demonstrate that Kanvinde negotiated eloquently between the universal and
the local, engaging with the changing concerns of the time. While his earlier
campus, the IIT project, is synonymous with nation building and development
through the modernist language, it reflects an impending critique of
International modernism with a direct response to local climate, materials and
program needs. Towards the other end of the spectrum, the NIA campus -
designed at the crest of postmodern Indianisation - makes a case for a
specific resistance through a commitment to a modernist ethos emphasising
abstraction over translation of historical precedents. Thus, it could be argued
that a study of Kanvinde’s ‘Indian’ buildings - how he subtly reconfigured the
modernist language without resorting to popular trends, provides an
alternative understanding of the history of modern architecture in India.
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Introduction

Post-independence architecture of India has been much discussed and documented in a

variety of local and international publications. By now a celebrated and legendary
architect of twentieth century India, Achyut Kanvinde is somewhat an unfamiliar figure
worldwide. While most of the publications about post-independence Indian architecture
have acknowledged his work, at best it remains fragmented and scattered." Having built
over four hundred buildings along with his two partners, Shaukat Rai and Murad
Choudhary;2 and over hundred buildings for which he is primarily responsible,3 it is
surprising that his contribution has not received much critical attention.! Though the
reasons for this marginalisation could be debatable, this paper suggests that Kanvinde’s
trajectory challenged prevailing themes and categorisations. However, the point here is
not to demonstrate his larger contribution per se, rather it draws attention to his approach
of ‘coming to terms’ with the postcolonial contextual realities as it bridged the mid-century
promise of development and its subsequent crisis in the post-eighties through case-study
method. In specifically choosing Kanvinde, a prominent figure in the nation-building
phase who arguably finds himself somewhat ‘out of fashion’ from the mid-seventies
onwards with a global questioning of modernised progress and a growing historicism, this
paper situates itself at this nexus.4

The aim of this paper is to show Kanvinde’s sensitivity towards local issues resulting in a
unique vocabulary as seen through two of his key projects: Indian Institute of Technology
at Kanpur (1960-1966) and National Insurance Academy, Pune (1980-84). Using these
two campus projects, I will argue that the boundaries between modern and postmodern
get blurred in Kanvinde’s architecture reflecting the current debates on oversimplified
distinctions.5 While his commitment to principles of modern architecture is discernable,
his buildings are strongly rooted in their context, which forms the analytical focus of this
paper. Also the span of these two campuses offers a longer perspective; the architect’s
approach to campus as building type through changing times and campuses as rooted in
the larger social context.

Indian Institute of Technology at Kanpur (1960-1966)

Any understanding of Indian modernity does not escape the struggle between its two
opposing ideologies predominantly Gandhian and Nehruvian (Jawaharlal Nehru, the first
prime minister of India); translating into rural and industrial, subaltern and the dominant or
more commonly traditional and modern. After India’s independence in 1947, Nehru’s
government advocated the central role of science and technology and launched massive
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building program to modernise the country based on socialist pattern of democracy. Gyan
Prakash, a subaltern scholar’s reading of Nehru’s blueprint for modern India is highly
relevant as it refutes the orthodox opinion of Nehru’s wholesale adoption of Western
modernity; rather views it as its critique mediated by the internal cultural difference.6 It is
argued that Kanvinde, an architect trained in the Nehruvian model of training technocrats
abroad for the progress of country, returned and worked with the same sensibility,
constantly aware of this dialectic. His architectural journey from 1947 onwards when he
started working for the Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) to the design
of Indian Institute of Technology (1966) at Kanpur in Uttar Pradesh (IITK) is perceived as
a struggle to understand and implement this critique of Western modernism.

The IITK was one of the five technical universities established by the Indian government
with assistance from United States to provide high quality technological education in
order to support the industrial growth.7 The firm of Kanvinde and Rai from Delhi was
selected for master plan of the campus spread over an 800 acre agricultural site on the
outskirts of Kanpur as well as the detailed design of academic complex which is the
present focus.8 The academic complex located centrally in the campus and organised
within a quadrangle of 50 acres was completed within the first phase in 1966. With the
university officials a new concept was evolved wherein individual departments and
disciplines were integrated.9 No separate department buildings were envisioned, rather a
common curriculum and facilities, equality and mutual association fostering a campus
spirit defined the objectives of the architectural program.

Figure 1: Site plan of academic complex of IIT, Kanpur (Source:

Courtesy: Sanjay Kanvinde, KRC India).

For Kanvinde, this integration of sorts led to developing the central idea of his design in
the form of linkages. Broadly defined functions like laboratories and workshops, library,
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lecture halls, computer centre, faculty and administration were grouped in building
clusters which were linked by cross spines. Double level pathways or covered corridors
linked the individual buildings that form a unique feature of this campus even today. While
the vehicular and service movement is restricted to the periphery of the quadrangle,
these pedestrian and bicycle friendly walkways function effectively in the summer and
winter extremes. This idea even gets extended in the lab complex as the walkways get
separated from the main block with the help of light wells and intermittent bridge-like
connections. Along with the service tunnels that run under the lower level walkways and
spatial and visual connections to the exterior landscaped courts, they serve the campus
like ‘arteries’.10 Thus movement is epitomised to encourage mutual interaction between
the students and the faculty as well as the physical setting. At the same time, they help in
unifying the clusters as they branch out from the spines or assist new connections as
buildings get added.

!!!! !

Figure 2: Long corridors connecting admin building and labs

Figure 3: Interconnected double level corridors as seen from the
southern lab complex (Source: Author 2011).!

All individual buildings were developed using modules consisting primarily of ‘lab and
non-lab’ areas excluding lecture halls and library and were laid out in a geometric layout
defined by the pathways.11 These modules were converted into a structural system of
reinforced frame construction with exposed brick infill panels using the local technology.
The tectonic character of buildings was deployed as a strategy in achieving a visual unity
and scale. Within this somewhat rigid framework, individual building types based on their
interior needs like the large workshop sheds, southern labs and multistorey faculty block
were planned. These were connected to the library as a prime centre of knowledge which
formed the core of the campus, retaining its identity even in today’s expansion. Its
centralised form flanked by open plaza and a cooling pool connected seamlessly to stilted
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ground floor, and the stepped self-shaded floors above held sky-lit reading areas on the
periphery creating an imposing structure.

!! !

Figure 4: Library building showing structural framework and infill

brick panels and skylight. (Source: Author 2011). Figure 5:
Southern Lab complex (Source: Author 2011).

Interpretations
Kanvinde’s response to the design of the project can be interpreted at two levels. The
architectural response – principally its three aspects: circulation, geometry and
materiality; and the contextual response at micro and macro levels. Kanvinde’s earlier
buildings during the CSIR tenure espoused functionalism and other formalist tenets of the
International Style mainly as a result of his higher education at Harvard under Walter
Gropius. On the one hand, aligned as he was with Nehru’s thrust of modernisation,
Kanvinde had found a fertile ground for modernist principles in the context of CSIR, in
particular its rational underpinnings and abstract ahistorical forms.12 On the other, in the
late fifties he was drawn into the fermenting debate on its appropriateness to culturally
and historically rich India with its traditional architecture.13 With the completion of
Chandigarh, while many architects in the country were largely influenced by Corbusier’s
Indianised grammar of sculptural forms, parasols and repetitive sun-breakers, Kanvinde
was striving to evolve his own version shaped by emerging concerns. After testing
alternatives in other small-scale projects, this reconfiguration of the modernist idiom
found full expression at IITK.14 Time-wise it stands in comparison with architect Charles
Correa’s Gandhi Memorial Museum (1958-63), a low-key ensemble of square pavilions in
brick and concrete. While Correa’s museum required sensitivity towards the Gandhian
vernacular and austere context, IITK campus set a precedent in using a more humane
vocabulary of local brick at the large scale of a technical campus. Kanvinde has himself
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talked about this shift in terms of self-discovery towards humane spaces in many of his
interviews.15!

Figure 6: View of the double level corridors (Source: Author

2011); Figure 7: View of the curved lecture hall complex at IITK
(Source: Author 2011)

With his specialization and experience in laboratory design under CSIR he was well
versed in its functional aspects and solutions to local problems; which proved to be an
immense advantage in the planning of IITK labs and workshops. Thus geometry derived
out of the square structural grid for non-lab areas (like the library grid: 5m x 5m) and
extension of the same grid for rectangular lab blocks, served to establish the design
framework and integration of services right from the initial design stage and formed the
guiding factors for modular design. This reflected the rational thinking and systematic
solution-based approach to the needs of the program. It has been noted that though the
overall layout makes reference to Graduate Centre at Harvard, the buildings themselves
mark a significant departure.16 Even if the geometric rigour was sustained through the
structural framework and its overt expression reflecting the beginnings of a Brutalist
aesthetic, its subtle variations were achieved through projections and massing. Deviation
from pure forms is evident in the curved lecture-hall complex while plasticity of concrete is
highlighted through the pyramidal concrete skylights, which yield an even lighting in the
library interiors and dominate the skyline from a distance. A deeper consideration of
climate is achieved with clustering of modules enclosing courtyards, local brick walls and
through sunken windows or weather shades discarding the restrictive strip windows,
which opened up proto-regionalist avenues. The dark gloomy corridors were given an
identity of their own by disconnecting them from the main body of the building or
extending them in the landscape whilst retaining a modest scale of a 2.4m wide by 2.5m
high.
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In other university campuses built during the period under similar aspirations, like the IIT-
Kharagpur (1956 onwards), IIT- Madras (1961 onwards), IIT-Delhi (1963 onwards) some
key unresolved issues emerge for example: at IIT Delhi the monumental academic block
in Corbusier language lacks human scale; rigid zoning and lack of movement clarity at
IIT- Madras and a lack of cohesive planning at IIT-Kharagpur which makes IITK
distinctive in many respects.17 Due to the absence of any strong physical context, the
larger context of post-independence progressive aspirations came into play at IITK. With
a fresh beginning, the problem was to create a context - an educational hub or a small
university town, and with the American involvement, a more obvious American university
model became a reference point. Individual buildings set within landscape aside from the
city; anchored by library building, unified with local materials and fostering a sense of
community were translated in the local Indian idiom.18

At the same time, Kanvinde was aware of the traditional models of university campuses
in the country – the Buddhist monastic Nalanda University (300BC - 1200AD) – a
clustered community around a central stupa temple in stone, Ajanta Cave monastery
(200BC - 700AD) – a rock hewn series of chambers completely integrated in the nature
by a singular approach; Aligarh Muslim University (1921) – a grand Islamic garden
campus but largely disintegrated due to lack of a master plan; and Benares Hindu
University (1917) – a progressive university planned geometrically in semicircular arcs
radiating from a unified centre but an overarching Hindu style imposed on buildings and
over-rigidity of geometry defy the original intentions.19 Along with the lessons learnt from
the traditional and western models, a notion of responding to one’s time and place etched
itself on Kanvinde’s mind. Thus Kanvinde played the role not only of an interpreter of
Nehru’s vision of progress but also reinterpreted the imported model of modern
architecture based on local context thus setting up precedents for various educational
buildings and housing schemes in the following decade. IITK also anticipated Louis
Kahn’s still to be completed Indian Institute of Management campus (1962-74) at
Ahmedabad in some aspects and pointed towards the subsequent reassessment of the
style resonating locally and internationally. Recent scholarship on the ‘entangled’
elements of modernity could thus be observed in Kanvinde’s architecture.20

National Insurance Academy, Pune (1986-1991)

The National Insurance Academy (NIA) is comparatively a much smaller campus project
done twenty years later in Kanvinde’s career. The NIA was an initiative of the public
sector partnered with the government during the 1980s for building up the insurance and
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finance sector through training, research, consultancy and publications.21 Envisaged as a
self-sufficient educational village, its fairly conventional programme requirements
included residential facilities, library and computer centre, teaching block, administration,
hostel block and other ancillary activities like sports and recreation. A roughly pentagonal
site of 32 acres was chosen was on the outskirts of Pune, a fast developing town with a
rich history of colonial buildings and sprawling educational campuses.

Figure 8: NIA Site plan showing academic and residential

complexes (Source: Courtesy Sanjay Kanvinde, KRC India).

Kanvinde’s response at NIA could be described as a low-lying citadel composed of

multifaceted, interconnected buildings. One of the important design considerations was to
weave in the academic areas with the residential ones such that the entire complex
remains alive with activities. Here I focus on the academic cluster, which is organised on
a diagonal grid to catch the local southwest breezes buffered from the adjoining roads by
placing residential blocks perpendicular to the boundary. A thematic association to the
traditional gurukul system where teaching and living takes place under one roof led to
grouped placement of these functions around a larger open space.22 The decision to site
academic group of buildings on the lowest level of the gradually sloping site was a
deliberate one such that all the storm water could be collected in a central water feature
surrounded by landscape.

Kanvinde’s design relied on modular planning to arrive at a unified solution. However, the
geometry itself had substantially moved from IITK days from purist and visually simple
forms to a more complex and hybrid composition. Octagonal units, as in the library and
dining hall, or chamfered rectangles underlie the structural grid, and the functionality
assumes a subservient position. These modules when joined together do not follow a
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very rigid pattern and the spaces created out of joining exercise are dedicated to service
activities like lobby, toilets and staircase without emphasising their existence unlike his
earlier Kahnian influence. A centralised geometry in the library recalls the Beaux Arts
forms but the exterior treatment defies any such connections. Sloping roofs, series of
skylights, stilted or double height spaces, use of stone grit plaster with horizontal graphic
banding inform the sculptural handling. Sunken windows, pergolas and use of local grey
basalt stone for grit plaster reflect sensitivity towards Pune’s context and a preference for
permanent materials and natural textures.23 A C-shaped pedestrian ring links all the
individual clusters with the help of a continuous street like corridor. Stepped according to
the buildings levels, the corridor gets suspended off the landscaped grounds and water
body forming a bridge while the degrees of enclosure vary encouraging outdoor
interactions and adding to the sense of discovery upon movement. Thus each building
functions as a part of the cluster and as a part of the whole complex in a cohesive
manner.

Interpretations

Reminiscent of IITK linkages which were however much subtle, the corridors at NIA seem
overemphasised with extracted framing details. The same holds true for rest of the
complex – hybrid geometry and overlaying of grids, layering of functions, highly articulate
fenestration of the openings all add to the sculptural quality or hint towards the
‘excessive’ as in the post modern sense. The rational expression of structure turns
selective only to establish horizontality and the columns are drawn out and expressed in
a circular form adding to the articulation. It may be argued that the comparatively small
scale of the project permitted the superfluous elements of design and also reflects the
Kanvinde’s repertoire built over a period of forty years. At another level, the same tools of
circulation, geometry and materiality deployed intellectually call for a larger interpretation.

Nehru’s optimism of the post-independence era had long since evaporated by the 1980s
leaving India to question modernisation and progress based on technology. This period
marks an important shift, a neo-patriotic and populist turn in politics, which focussed on
reflecting the individual reality – an Indian self-consciousness and a need to project
India’s image to the world. This post-colonial identity construction was closely tied to
postmodern thinking and the worldwide questioning of modernism. In architecture, it was
manifested through application of historicist, mythical imagery at a superficial level or
through a deeper approach of regional responses. Extensive use of traditional elements
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and images, renewed interest in the sacred, and the symbolic past of India which was
earlier believed to hamper progress now surfaced with full force.

Figure 9: View of bridge like corridors overlooking landscape

features and leading to the library (Source: Author, 2011). Figure
10: A closer view of an individual block showing hybrid geometry
(Source: Author 2011).
Legitimised by prominent Indian architects’ works and writings like those of Charles
Correa, B.V.Doshi and Raj Rewal amongst others, the sole aim of reflecting Indian-ness
was considered a defining virtue.24 An architectural comparison can be drawn with
Charles Correa’s contemporaneous Inter-University Centre for Astronomy and
Astrophysics (IUCAA) campus in Pune (1988-92) - a scientific facility within the colonial
Pune University area.25 In an attempt ‘to express our contemporary notions of what the
Universe is all about’ Correa resorted to multiple references ranging from the Indian kund
(steps around a traditional water tank) strewn with statues of Newton, Einstein, Galileo,
and the Indian scientist Aryabhatta in the central courtyard, the fractal Sierpinski triangle
in the hostel court, Foucault’s pendulum floor-cut in the faculty offices, an ancient
Ayurvedic pattern under the central dome with night sky stars cut in the roof; all
amounted to populist (but not an Indian) understanding of science reflected through an
obvious collage like superficial imagery. The buildings in the unique colourful ‘Correa
vocabulary’ – a modernist ensemble of clusters around courtyards in striking visual
compositions assume a secondary position. In the international narratives of Indian
architecture, it would be worthwhile to see the framework developed by William Curtis as
an example. Curtis, one of the leading British architectural historians, has written
extensively on modern architecture in a series of publications around 1987, which
predominantly centres on the concept of transformations of modernism using ‘authentic
regionalism.’26
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From Corbusier’s synthesis of ancient and the modern, Curtis builds up his thesis taking
interest in Indian architects like Doshi (an obvious choice since Doshi worked with
Corbusier and Kahn), Correa and Rewal.27 In an article in Architectural Review, he talks
about the multiple roots of early Indian modernism, the first being the historical roots of
subsequent civilisations in the history of India, the second being Achyut Kanvinde who
arrived before Corbusier, bringing the Functionalist philosophy and international
vocabulary, and the third being American architect Joseph Allen Stein. But the main focus
of his essay remained “pivotal Correa” and three buildings by Doshi, Raj Rewal, and
Correa respectively which he believed would make ‘long range contributions to Indian
architecture.’28 At the time he was writing a monograph on Doshi and Correa’s own
monograph was already popular.!29! Curtis’s analytical framework consisted of integrating
the old and the new, the monumental and the folk, the regional and the modern; a theme
which he explored at length in the subsequent editions of his book Modern architecture
since 1900.30! Though Achyut Kanvinde curiously gets mentioned amongst the ‘cross-
breeding’ tendencies in his canonical book, there is no attempt at elaborating it further.31
Most of the prominent publications on Indian architecture published mainly after the
1980s thus built upon the conceptual framework of search for ‘Indian identity’, which was
well aligned to the changing climate worldwide.!#$!

However authenticity, regionalism, fabrication of Indian ethos to gain popularity and

commissions have been recently challenged along with the framework which has defined
them.!These prevailing themes of the time have been taken up by critics like Vikramditya
Prakash raising questions of authenticity targeting Charles Correa’s Jawahar Kala
Kendra Museum in Jaipur (1988-92). He criticises identity construction process without
an attempt at unravelling the ‘true’ or ‘authentic’ identity, which he argues is best left
concealed.33 A.G.K Menon, an architect-critic and educator from India has been writing
about “identity production”; an evaluation he believes is completely based on western
criteria of aesthetic appreciation. He argues for an “independent, hybrid, local framework”
for assessing these architectural developments emerging from local needs and
situations.34 !!
!
Within this strong cultural context, NIA campus by Achyut Kanvinde is a valuable site of
enquiry. A contextual grounding of buildings to create a humane environment seemed to
be the overarching theme of his evolution. However in the process, Kanvinde in contrast,
consciously refrains from making any visible or recognisable references to traditional
elements preferring, on the contrary, increasingly abstract geometric compositions.
Though he used the local stone at NIA it is manipulated in the form of grit plaster. The
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building is not legible through symbols or images but unravels through its actual usage.
Though constantly aware of history and changing trends, Kanvinde increasingly uses
geometric rigour to advance his quest for quality of spaces and environment, which he
believed were a true measure of good and timeless architecture.35 As he has said, ‘Good
architecture did not merely emerge by imitating a so called style of any particular period,
but an honest expression of time backed by human need and knowledge.’36 In that sense,
Kanvinde never left his modernist sensibility, rather extended and evolved its regional
variations. It could also be argued that NIA, like many of Kanvinde’s later buildings,
respond to their immediate context and needs but the growing abstraction through
architectonics was a critique of the larger cultural context challenging the prevailing
themes of the period.

Conclusion
In examining the IITK and NIA campus, designed and built during two distinct periods
particular attention was focussed on how Kanvinde approached the contextual issues
through formal and spatial aspects of design. In both the projects he is concerned with
local climate and materials, spatial organisations reflecting users’ needs and integration
of indoor-outdoor as emphasised through articulate movement corridors. This is achieved
through a rational approach of modular planning and structural grid, both imparting order
to the resultant form. While the visual expression remains true to underlying structural
logic, it relies on abstraction as a tool to respond to the changing context. At IITK, he
discovers alternative ways to make his buildings more locally grounded and in the
process negotiates with imported modernity. At NIA, this language of abstraction is
extended further as a critique of ongoing shift towards Indianisation. As seen through
both the projects, there is a definite blurring between the boundaries of modern and
postmodern, the universal and the local, reflecting a unique regional sensibility. Thus
context plays a pivotal role in Kanvinde’s architecture and the way it gets woven in or
challenged proves to be a useful framework for its analysis.

Endnotes!
!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
1
Some notable publications include: Vikram Bhatt and Peter Scriver, After the Masters:
Contemporary Indian Architecture (Ahmedabad: Mapin Pub., 1990); Jon T. Lang, Miki Desai, and
Madhavi Desai, Architecture and Independence : The Search for Identity--India 1880 to 1980,
Architecture & Independence (Delhi ; New York: Oxford University Press, 1997); Kazi Khaleed
Ashraf and James Belluardo, eds., An Architecture of Independence : The Making of Modern
South Asia : Charles Correa, Balkrishna Doshi, Muzharul Islam, Achyut Kanvinde (New York, N.Y.
: Architectural League of New York,1998); Sharveya Dhongde and Chetan Sahasrabudhe, eds.,
Achyut Kanvinde (Pune, India: BNCA Publication Cell, 2009).
2
‘Kanvinde and Rai’ was established in 1955 in Delhi and became ‘Kanvinde Rai and Choudhary’
(KRC) after Murad Choudhary became partner in 1971. Mr. Shaukat Rai was a civil engineer and
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!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
handled the operative aspects of the firm like tendering, bill of quantities, office administration etc
while Kanvinde focussed on architectural design and its execution. This distinction in tasks
remained right throughout their partnership, and continuing even after architect Murad Choudhary
joined as a partner. He and Kanvinde handled most of the projects separately and the projects are
credited accordingly in their office project list. This working method was verified by the author
through various interviews with Kanvinde’s colleagues including Mr. Murad Choudhary.
3
Achyut Kanvinde. Unpublished letter from personal archives of Ram Paradkar, 28th October
1996.
4
Kazi Khaleed Ashraf et al., "Building the Nation: The Architecture of Achyut Kanvinde and
Muzharul Islam," in Crossing Boundaries. (ed.) Geeti Sen (London & Delhi: Sangam, 1997), 208.
5
Sarah Williams Goldhagen and Rejean Legault, eds., Anxious Modernisms : Experimentation in
Postwar Architectural Culture ( Montreal: Cambridge, Masachusetts and London: MIT
Press,2000). Also can be seen extensively discussed in the introduction of Neo-Avant-Garde and
Postmodern : Postwar Architecture in Britain and Beyond, (ed.) Mark Crinson and Claire
Zimmerman (Yale Center for British Art ; London: Paul Mellon Centre for Studies in British Art ;
New Haven, CT : Distributed by Yale University Press, 2010), 7-10. See also Ananya Roy,
"Traditions of the Modern: A Corrupt View," Traditional dwellings and Settlement Review XII, no.
11 (Spring 2001) for the distictions between modern and traditional.
6
Gyan Prakash, Another Reason : Science and the Imagination of Modern India (Princeton, N.J.:
Princeton University Press, 1999), 233.
7
The other universities included were geographically distributed at Kharagpur (1951), Delhi
(1963), Bombay (1958) and Madras (1959). Ross Bassett, "Aligning India in the Cold War Era:
Indian Technical Elites, the Indian Institute of Technology at Kanpur, and Computing in India and
the United States," Technology and Culture 50, no. 4 (2009).
8
A. P. Kanvinde and James H. Miller, Campus Design in India: Experience of a Developing
Nation, Sponsored by United States Agency for International Development (Manhattan, Kansas,
U.S.A.: Kansas State University, 1969), 107. A flat topography with a canal on one side and major
transport links on other, hot and dry climate, phased development, future expansion, interaction
between diverse activities and segregated movement determined the overall organisation of the
campus. The design of staff and students housing was allocated to Kothari and Associates. The
campus was envisioned for 2400 students and 500 staff with possibility of doubling in the following
years.
9
"Indian Institute of Technology, Kanpur," Design. Bombay 13(1969): 13-18. Kanvinde worked
closely with Professor P.K. Kelkar, director of IITK and Professor Norman Dahl from USA to evolve
the design according to this concept.
10
Achyut Kanvinde, 1968, in conversation with students when asked about so many walkways in
the campus replied that these will function similar to arteries and veins linked to the heart.
Discussion with Ram Paradkar at Pune in January 2011. The use of ‘circulation’ as a scientific
metaphor used extensively in modern architecture could justify Kanvinde’s explanation, see its
discussion in Adrian Forty, Words and Buildings : A Vocabulary of Modern Architecture,
Vocabulary of Modern Architecture (London: Thames & Hudson, 2000), 87-101.
11
"Indian Institute of Technology, Kanpur," 18.
12
Kanvinde’s initial buildings like ATIRA (Ahmedabad Textile and Research Association: 1953)
and PRL (Physical Research Laboratory: 1953) both at Ahmedabad are often seen as best
examples of the imported modernism.
13
A seminar was organised by the Lalit Kala Academy in Delhi to debate and decide a direction for
the future of Indian architecture, which was convened by Kanvinde and attended by Nehru and
other politicians as well as active professional members. "Seminar on Architecture", (New Delhi,
March 1959).
14
The problem of dark and gloomy corridors at ATIRA was resolved with the help of semi-enclosed
corridors as seen in St. Xavier’s School and Carmel Covent School both at New Delhi (1961-63).
Here he also moved away from monolithic blocks and strip windows to create self-shadowing
projecting and receding floors. The tectonics of framed construction got more accentuated as its
openings got interwoven with structural logic. In this process, the surfaces became more
articulat(ed.) A combination of exposed brickwork came into play at the NCAER, Delhi (National
Council of Applied Economic Research: 1961) which developed further at Darpana School of
Dance (1963), Ahmedabad abandoning the white walls. The process of IITK designing started
concurrently with these projects from 1959 onwards.
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15
Ashish M.N. Ganju, "Achyut P. Kanvinde-Doyen of Indian Architecture," in Vistara, (ed.)
Carmen Kagal (Bombay:Tata Press Limited: The Festival Of India, 1986); Harsh Kabra, "An
Architect of the People," The Times of India 27 August 1999; Prabhakar Kulkarni, "Senior Architect
Honoured," The Times of India (1861-current) 1990; "Interview of Achyut Kanvinde by Narendra
Dengle," (Nashik: Indian Institue of Architects: Nashik Chapter, 1997); "Interview of Achyut
Kanvinde by Narendra Dengle", (Pune: FEED 2000). In all these interviews, Kanvinde has
repeatedly talked about human spaces and humane values as the core of his work.
16
Ashraf and Belluardo, eds., An Architecture of Independence : The Making of Modern South
Asia : Charles Correa, Balkrishna Doshi, Muzharul Islam, Achyut Kanvinde, 73.
17
Kanvinde and Miller, Campus Design in India: Experience of a Developing Nation, 97-105.
18
Aaron Betsky, "American Dream," Architect 99, no. 9 (Sep 2010): 56-58.
19
Kanvinde and Miller, Campus Design in India: Experience of a Developing Nation.This book on
campuses published soon after the completion of IITK reflects on the various models of university
campuses, both in India and abroad to arrive at guidelines.
20
Lu Duanfang, "Architecture, Modernity, and Knowledge," Fabrications: The Journal of the
Society of Architectural Historians Australia & New Zealand 19, no. 2 (2010): 153.
21
From the NIA official website: http://www.niapune.com (accessed on 15/11/2011)
22
Kiran Kalamdani, "Design Review: Campuses Revisited," Architecture+Design XII, no. 6 (Nov-
Dec1995): 57. This article by Kalamdani is the only one published which covers this campus
design extensively though it has been featured in a few other instances. Gurukul was a traditional
system of education in India, which involved students going to teachers’ place (a small village like
complex) which was often situated outside the towns in a serene setting.
23
This was amply evident in his preceding campus in Pune for the National Institute of Banking
Management (NIBM: 1980-84) where Kanvinde had used local stone masonry and composite
construction. Interview with Sharad Shah, Bombay, structural consultant for both the projects (NIA
& NIBM), January 2012. Shah talks about the decision to use local basalt stone as chosen by
Kanvinde and the team to respond to the colonial context of Pune. However, over a period of time
it posed leakage problems which thus had to be discarded for grit plaster at NIA.
24
Many of Correa’s articles voice the changing concerns from climate to myths mark this period.
See for example, Charles Mark Correa, "A Place in the Sun," Places, no. 1 (1983); Charles Mark
Correa, "Open to Sky Space," Mimar: architecture in development, no. 5 (1982); Charles Mark
Correa, "The New Landscape," Mimar: architecture in development, no. 17 (1985). Arguments
progressed by Western historians like William Curtis and Kenneth Frampton with respect to
authenticity and regionalism were grounded through monographic works for example William J. R.
Curtis, Balkrishna Doshi : An Architecture for India (New York: Rizzoli, 1988).
25 Charles Correa, (ed.) Charles Correa (London, England : Thames & Hudson, 1996).
26
William J. R. Curtis, "Towards and Authentic Regionalism," Mimar: architecture in development
19(1986).
27
William J. R. Curtis, "Authenticity, Abstraction and the Ancient Sense: Le Corbusier's and Louis
Kahn's Ideas of Parliament," Perspecta 20, no. ArticleType: research-article / Full publication date:
1983 / Copyright © 1983 Yale School of Architecture (1983); Curtis, "The Ancient in the Modern.";
Curtis, Le Corbusier : Ideas and Forms.
28
William J. R. Curtis, "Modernism and the Search for Indian Identity," Architectural review
1086(1987); Curtis, Balkrishna Doshi : An Architecture for India.
29
Charles Correa and Sherban Cantacuzino, Charles Correa, Architects in the third world
(Singapore: Concept Media, 1984)
30
William J. R. Curtis, Modern Architecture since 1900 (London : Phaidon, 1982-96). See chapter
31 and 34 in the third edition.
31
Ibid., p.571.
32
Bhatt and Scriver, After the Masters : Contemporary Indian Architecture; Lang, Desai, and
Desai, Architecture and Independence : The Search for Identity--India 1880 to 1980.
33
Vikramaditya Prakash, "Identity Production in Post-Colonial Indian Architecture: Recovering
What We Never Had," in Postcolonial Space(S), (ed.) Gulsum Baydar Nalbantoglu and Wong
Chong Thai (New York Princeton architectural Press, 1997), 14-15. Ritu Bhatt attributes this
construction of historical narrative to legitimise specific cultural agendas by connecting Correa’s
participation in the Festivals of India and his concurrent building – Jawahar Kala Kendra in: Ritu
Bhatt, "Indianizing Indian Architecture : A Postmodern Tradition” TDSR, XIII, 1 (2001); Newton
D'souza, "Signs That Don't Mime: Re-Examining Correa's Late Architecture," Architecture +
Design (Nov-Dec 2003).
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34
Krishna Menon, "Interrogating Modern Indian Architecture."; A. G. Krishna Menon, "The
Invention of the Modern Architect," Architecture+Design, (March 2008). According to him most of
the architects have only transferred the images of ‘International style but continued to use local
technology in the initial period and later only reinterpreted traditions limited to the planning and
spatial organisation but did not address the development of their architectonic form.
35
Achyut P. Kanvinde, "Kanvinde's Journey in Architecture" - Dialogue with Ar. A. P. Kanvinde "
(FEED Pune, July 1999).
36
Achyut Kanvinde, “Quest for quality in architecture and urbanisation,” in Dhongde and
Sahasrabuddhe, eds., Achyut Kanvinde.