CHARLES CORREA

•Born : September 1, 1930

•Died: June 16, 2015
•Architect,planner, activist and
theoretician.
•Known for his adaptation of
modernist tenets to local climates and
building styles.
•Particularly noted for his sensitivity to
the needs of the urban poor and his
use of traditional methods and
materials.
•His early work combined
traditional architectural values.
•Correa was influenced by le
corbusier’s use of striking
concrete forms.
PRINCIPLES:
Mostly attempted to explore a
vernacular within a modern
environment.
•Incrementality,pluralism, open-
to-sky spaces, disaggregation.
•His building designs include pure
structural expressions, cubic
volumes, climatic sensitivity.
PHILOSOPHY:
“UNLESS YOU BELIEVE IN
WHAT YOU DO, IT BECOMES
BORING”.
Major Works:
•Gandhi Smarak Sangrahalaya.
•Ramakrishna house.
•Jawahar kala kendra.
•Navi Mumbai.
•Kanchen Junga apartments,
Mumbai.
•Mrf headquarters, Chennai.
•Aga Khan Museum.
RAMAKRISHNA HOUSE:

•Is a large brick and

concrete residence built
along one edge of the site to
maximize the garden and the
southern exposure for the
principal living areas.
•The plan sets up a series of
load-bearing walls
punctuated by interior courts
and natural top-lit spaces.
PLAN:
•Is
organized into four main zones:
The family living/entertaining area.
The guest room with its own garden and the service areas.
More private family area and the bedrooms on the upper floor.

GROUND FLOOR

FIRST FLOOR
•The building was divided
into three sections:
The Summer Section-
to be used during daytime;
protects interior from heat.
The Winter Section:
to be used in early mornings
and evenings; opens the
terrace to sky.
The summer section is
sandwiched between winter
section and service section
( kitchen and toilets).
THE DESIGN OF THE HOUSE IS CLOSELY CONNECTED TO
THE CLIMATIC CHALLENGES.
The long and narrow shape as well as the openings in
the roof are important for the flow of air. The number
of doors and windows are minimized to improve the air
movement in the house. The openings in the roof are
angled to minimize the heat that are absorbed inside.
KANCHEN JUNGA APARTMENTS:
•Indian architect Charles Correa
designed the Kanchenjunga
Apartments.
• Located in Mumbai, the 32 luxury
apartments are located south-west
of downtown in an upscale
suburban setting embodying the
characteristics of the upper echelon
of society within the community.
•The Kanchenjunga Apartments are
a direct response to the present
culture, the escalating urbanization,
and the climatic conditions for the
region.
•They pay homage to the
vernacular architecture that once
stood on the site before the
development in a number of ways.
More on Kanchenjunga Apartments
after the break.
•The Kanchanjunga Apartments are a direct response to the
present culture, the escalating urbanization, and the climatic
conditions for the region.
•They pay homage to the vernacular architecture that once
stood on the site before the development in a number of
ways.
• The basic concept behind the design and structure was to
give its residents the sense that they were living in a
bungalow, a luxury unheard of in Mumbai.
•The building is oriented east-west to catch prevailing sea
breezes and to take advantage of the best views of the city.
• Unfortunately, these are also the directions of the hot sun
and the heavy monsoon rains.
• Hence, Correa used the old bungalow solution to these
problems by wrapping a protective layer of verandas around
the main living areas, thus providing the occupants with two
lines of defense against the elements.
•Charles Correa designed 32
apartments stacked over 28 storeys
(85 meters) and 21m x 21m in plan.
• They form an interlock between
the one and a half storey 3 and 4
bedroom units, with the two and
half storey 5 and 6 bedroom units,
and are an example of his
ingenious cellular planning.
• The interlock of these variations is
expressed externally by the shear
end walls that hold up the
cantilevers.
• The tower has a proportion of 1:4
•. Its minimalist unbroken surfaces
are cut away to open up the
double-height terrace gardens at
the corners, thus revealing (through
the interlocking form and color)
some hint of the complex’ spatial
organization of living areas that lie
within.
TYPE A TYPE B
TYPE C TYPE D
• The central core is composed of
lifts and provides the main
structural element for resisting
lateral loads. The central core
was constructed ahead of the
main structure by slip method of
construction. This technique was
used for the first time in India for
a multi-storey building.
• The concrete construction and
large areas of white panels bears
a strong resemblance to modern
apartment buildings in the West,
perhaps due to Correa's western
education. However, the garden
terraces of the Kanchenjunga
Apartments are actually a
modern interpretation of a
feature of the traditional Indian
bungalow: the veranda.
 MRF HEADQUARTERS, CHENNAI:
• Madras is a low-rise
city, with a quiet and
relaxed life-style.
• These new
headquarters for MRF,
the leading tyre
manufacturer in India,
gently follows the
curve of the road to
create a series of
terraced gardens,
recalling the waves on
the seashore of the
Marina along the
waterfront in Madras.
• Within the building, the various levels
of the offices open out onto a central
atrium, linked through a casual
pattern of connecting stairs, creating
a focus for the building - and a
wonderfully casual way to walk from
one department to another, or to exit
and go home at the end of the
working day. At the roof terrace level,
one emerges on to a large garden,
with the trees and buildings of
Madras all around
• Rejecting the notion of a high-rise
tower to convey the commercial pre-
eminence of the client, this design
generates monumentality though a
single free-standing column rising to
support the large pergola that floats
at the terraces, protecting them from
the sun.