BV DOSHI

Balkrishna Doshi, in full Balkrishna Vithaldas Doshi, also called B.V. Doshi, (born August 26,
1927, Pune, India—died January 24, 2023, Ahmedabad, India), Indian architect, the first from that
country to be awarded the prestigious Pritzker Prize (2018). In a career spanning about seven decades,
Doshi completed more libraries, art centres, and low-cost housing. His understated buildings adapted the
principles he learned from working with Le Corbusier and Louis Kahn to the needs of his homeland. In
considering India’s traditions, lifestyles, and environment, Doshi designed structures that offered refuge
from the weather and provided spaces in which to gather.Doshi’s grandfather owned
a furniture workshop, and Doshi initially believed he would take up that profession as well. He became
interested in architecture, however, and in 1947 he entered the Sir J.J. School of Architecture in Bombay
(Mumbai). In 1950 he traveled to London, where he met Le Corbusier, and, for the next four years, Doshi
worked in the famed architect’s studio in Paris. He returned to India to oversee the construction of some
of Le Corbusier’s projects, including the Mill Owners’ Association Building (1954) and the Villa
Sarabhai in Ahmedabad (1955). He eventually settled in that city, where he designed his own residence
(1963), named Kamala House after his wife; his studio, Sangath (1980); and some of his most important
projects. In 1956 Doshi founded his own practice, Vastushilpa, which he later renamed Vastushilpa
Consultants. The firm worked on more than 100 projects throughout India, including a collaboration with
Louis Kahn on the Indian Institute of Management Ahmedabad (1962).

Doshi’s early works show the influence of his mentors’ projects in India. The School of Architecture in
Ahmedabad, which Doshi founded and designed in 1966, recalls the grid facade of the Mill Owners’
Association Building, while the use of brick and concrete evokes the Villa Sarabhai. Appreciative of Le
Corbusier’s ability “to create a soft light that makes people’s faces glow,” Doshi included slanted
skylights and sliding doors to manipulate light and to regulate temperature. Ever mindful of India’s heat,
he included recessed plazas shaded by leafy trees throughout the campus to offer spaces where students
could meet in comfort. The school continued to grow in the following decades, expanding to include,
among others, the School of Planning in 1970, the Visual Arts Centre in 1978, and the School of Interior
Design in 1982. It was renamed the Centre for Environmental Planning and Technology (CEPT
University) in 2002. Since Postmodernism was a direct response to Modern architecture, Michael Graves
did not want to abandon historical designs and principles. He instead used them as a guide and an
example of great architecture. Similarly graves always prioritized context and character of the site, i.e. all
of the projects were designed with the surrounding location and history in mind and thus all his buildings
look different and unique. Likewise, his architecture is designed on human scale, unlike the alien modern
architecture, his buildings gave priorities to all human aspects and thus made his buildings and products
accessible to all. He brought intricate design in the homes of people. Michael Graves never forgot about
the users of his buildings. While buildings were getting larger and larger, he wanted to make sure they
were still approachable. One trick he used was called “pavilionizing,” in which he would break down the
facade of a building into smaller sections. This was an approach thinking about a person walking down
the block next to the building. He also believed in having a complete story in the buildings told via the
interiors and exterior
His adherence to the principles of Modernism helped to identify him in the late 1960s as one of the New
York Five, a group of influential East Coast architects who wholeheartedly embraced the Modernist
movement. However, opposition to the coldness and rigidity of that vernacular was rising. At the helm of
this dissention was architect Robert Venturi, who cleverly contested the venerated words of Mies by
pronouncing, “Less is a bore.” As he was a disciple of Modernism, his early architecture in the 1960s was
imbued with its spirit: predominantly white geometric volumes composed with clean, sparse lines with no
ornamentation. Rejection of past reference, such as decoration, was a hallmark of his early style, which
echoed the works of Mies van der Rohe and Le Corbusier and the Miesian motto, “Less is more.”
Examples of Graves’s Modernist sensibilities are evident in the Hanselmann House (1967–71) in Fort
Wayne, Indiana.

ARANY LOW CSOT HOUSING

Doshi quickly became known for his commitment to providing affordable housing throughout India,
where a shortage of homes had plagued cities for decades. Notably, he designed the Life Insurance
Corporation Housing in Ahmedabad (1973) and the Aranya Low Cost Housing in Indore (1989). The
latter, arguably his best-known project, was a township for low- to middle-income families. The master
plan called for a central spine of private businesses and houses constructed on each side. A cluster of 10
residences share a central courtyard, while paved streets and squares break up the ordered space. Doshi
offered future inhabitants a selection of 80 models that ranged from one-room units to larger houses that
suited different needs and incomes. The minimalist designs show Doshi’s dedication to waste little space
and material. The completed township provides 80,000 individuals with 6,500 residences.
CEPT UNIVERSITY

Completed in 1966, The Center for Environmental Planning and Technology is designed to be an
experiment for the perfect balance between humans and nature, with a series of buildings loosely held
together by landscaped courtyards. It utilizes a free plan scheme with careful site planning to direct
sunlight into the studios. Students were actively involved in designing additions to the campus with the
goal to continue to promote collaborative learning across all disciplines.

AMDAVAD NI GUFA

In addition to addressing practical needs, Doshi’s work could also be playful, as seen in one of his most
experimental projects, Amdavad Ni Gufa in Ahmedabad (1994). The art gallery features the colourful
work of artist Maqbool Fida Husain within an underground space. The cavernous interior uses irregular
columns that resemble mineral deposits and, like a cave, offers a cool refuge from India’s heat. The
bulbous roof, which is covered in a mosaic of white tiles, is low enough to the ground that visitors can
walk upon it, sit, and interact with one another.

Doshi’s other notable projects included the Institute of Indology, Ahmedabad (1962), Premabhai Hall,
Ahmedabad (1976), and the Indian Institute of Management Bangalore (1977–92). He was a visiting
professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Washington University in St. Louis, the
University of Hong Kong, and other universities. He lectured extensively throughout his career and
published his autobiography, Paths Uncharted, in 2011.
In 2019 a retrospective of Doshi’s work (“Balkrishna Doshi: Architecture for the People”) was organized
by the Vitra Design Museum, Weil am Rhein, Germany, and Wrightwood 659, a private exhibition space
in Chicago. In addition to the Pritzker Prize, Doshi was made an Officer of the Order of Arts and Letters
(2011), France’s highest honour for the arts, and he was the recipient of the 2022 Royal Gold Medal from
the Royal Institute of British Architects, an annual award given to those who have contributed to the
advancement of architecture.

Doshi was born in Pune on 26 August 1927, and moved to Mumbai in 1947 and enrolled in the
architecture course at the Sir J.J. College of Architecture. In 1950, he left on a ship for London and after a
few months there, he moved to Paris to work under Le Corbusier. He returned to India in 1954 to oversee
Le Corbusier’s projects in Chandigarh and Ahmedabad.His life’s practice is tied intrinsically with India's
modern history. His contribution, along with his peers like Achyut Kanvinde, Anant Raje, Mahendra Raj,
Anant Raje, Charles Correa, and Raj Rewal has been immense. He worked with Louis Kahn as an
associate at the Indian Institute of Management Ahmedabad, a collaboration that began in 1962 and
continued for over a decade. He established his own practice, Vastushilpa Consultants, in Ahmedabad in
1955 and the Vastushilpa Foundation for Studies and Research in Environmental Design in 1978. His
time spent working with Buckminster Fuller at School of Architecture in 1965, the making of National
Institute of Design and the influence of the Eameses in the 1970s, his meetings with remarkable patrons
like Dr. Vikram Sarabhai and Sheth Kasturbhai Lalbhai—all of it is part of a history that was not
architectural alone, but inevitably of the larger social, economic, and cultural journey of our country. The
unique language of architecture (and habitat) that was being written in these decades, the thoughts around
space, land, air, light, material, and techniques, and how we use space—in a way, all of it can be studied
and grasped by studying Doshi’s life and its turns, his architectural works, his writings, commentaries.

It’s a vast body of work, but for now, a simple anecdote will remind us of how Doshi used to think. In the
1960s, he began to work on townships. The government agencies had laid rules to create different sets of
homes in these towns, depending on the economic status of the residents to whom these homes would be
allocated. “When I got a chance to do Life Insurance Corporation housing, they said, ‘We have three
categories of policy holders. There are the well to do, the middle income, and the low income. So can you
give us three groups of housing with separate blocks?’” Doshi didn’t want to have that kind of
segregation. He spent two years trying to convince the authorities to mix up the houses. “If you give low-
income families two bedrooms and another income group three bedrooms, at some point, they will all
want to expand to more rooms. I mixed it up and gave options of balconies, break-out spaces, and terraces
that could be enclosed when the need arose. Because in India, as families expand, houses also expand
organically. For us, a house we build or buy is not a temporary place, people put down their roots there.
At least, traditionally, that’s how we live,” he had said in an interview. “A society of human beings is
very similar to nature. It is diverse, with each growing at its own pace. I said, ‘Why don’t we make a
forest, in the form of buildings?’” In his complex plan, Doshi had a talent for simplicity and a joyous
celebration of life. 

Beyond an architect, Doshi was an institution builder. His contribution to academia as founder-director of
the School of Architecture, Ahmedabad (1962-72), School of Planning in Ahmedabad (1972-79), and
building campuses around the country, including the CEPT University in Ahmedabad, NIFT in New
Delhi, and IIM in Bangalore, Doshi was a natural educationist. He was on the jury for several
international and national competitions including the Indira Gandhi National Centre for Arts, Aga Khan
Award for Architecture and the Pritzker Architecture Prize, and a fellow of the Royal Institute of British
Architects. In 1976, he was awarded the Padma Shri; In 2018, he won the 45th Pritzker Prize,
architecture’s highest honour, and India’s first, followed by the Padma Bhushan in 2020, and last year, he
received the RIBA Royal Gold Medal 2022.It will be entirely insufficient to list the achievements of this
man, without mentioning the sea of love he has inspired in people over his lifetime. At the peak of the
pandemic, on his 93rd birthday in August of 2020, the editorial team of Architectural Digest India— all
of us working remotely from our homes—decided to throw him a “virtual” birthday party. We drew up an
ambitious list of people who we thought would love to send their wishes for our favourite, most loved
architect. But we absolutely did not expect the overwhelming response. Those few days, we had a
glimpse of the love that Doshi’s friends, contemporaries, and people from all fields had for him.
We barely had to ask and wishes poured in from around the world, including Tadao Ando, Shigeru Ban,
Fumihiko Maki who sent handwritten letters, Frank Gehry, Martha Thorne, Moshe Safdie, Gurjit
Matharoo, and Jatin Das sent video notes. The enthusiasm was contagious, bewildering, and truly
inspiring.Later that year, when “Insta Lives” were a staple during long weeks of lockdown, we had the
brainwave of inviting Frank Gehry and BV Doshi for a Zoom conversation. We enlisted the help of
Martha Thorne—who used to be on the jury of the Pritzker Prize and now is dean of the IE School of
Architecture and Design in Madrid—to help persuade the two architects and moderate the conversation.
But as we soon realized, we needed no persuasion and no moderation. The two friends, one logging in at
7:00 am from California and the other at 8:00 pm from Ahmedabad, got on like a house on fire, their
laughter interspersed with words of wisdom that the rest of us were left with, while they had jumped on to
their next story. The creative spark of such a man rarely depletes. During those days of lockdown, he had
been busy painting, making sculptures and drawings. Vadehra Art Gallery showed them at Art Basel and
later his granddaughter Khushnu Panthaki Hoof showed a selection of his newer works at Bikaner House
in Delhi. “One of the most important lessons I have learnt from him is to be open, curious, and childlike.
Being open to learning, growing, and sharing is what kept him young,” his granddaughter Khushnu
Panthaki Hoof wrote in an essay in AD’s July-August 2018 issue dedicated entirely to B.V. Doshi, the
year he won the Pritzker Prize. 

Apart from designing one of the finest buildings in Ahmedabad, Doshi also created designs for low-cost
housing. His 1982 project, Aranya Low Cost Housing in Indore won him the 6th Aga Khan Award for
Architecture. In another example of the international recognition of his works, Doshi was awarded
France’s highest honour for the arts, the Officer of the Order of Arts and Letters, in 2011.He graduated
from the Sir JJ School of Architecture in Mumbai in 1950 and left for Europe soon after, beginning his
journey in architecture with Corbusier in Paris between 1951 and 1954. On returning to India, he worked
for Corbusier in Ahmedabad.The celebrated architect authored several books on art and architecture,
including Paths Uncharted (2011), Balkrishna Doshi: Writings on Architecture and Identity (2019),
and Balkrishna Doshi: Architecture for the People (2019). Meanwhile, international architects ended up
writing books on Doshi. This included William J R Curtis’s book Balkrishna Doshi: An Architecture for
India, released in 2014.In his book Paths Uncharted, former Chief Architect of Chandigarh, Sumit Kaur,
points to an excerpt where Doshi wrote: “Frankly, at this stage in life I even hesitate in calling myself an
architect because the more I think about what Architecture is, the less I feel I know about its true calling.
Every time I felt I have mastered it, each new completed project has made me aware of how much more
there is to Architecture. As a result I increasingly see myself more as a person seeking my destiny rather
than just being an architect planner or such.”

SOURCES:
7 Projects You Need to Know by 2018 Pritzker Prize Winner B.V. Doshi | ArchDaily
B. V. Doshi - Wikipedia
Architecture as Celebration: The Philosophies of B.V. Doshi | ArchDaily
Balkrishna Doshi | Biography, Buildings, Works, Architecture, & Facts | Britannica
Balkrishna Doshi Age, Wife, Children, Family, Biography & More » StarsUnfolded