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Architecture of India
Post Colonial India
and its Architecture - III
(Page 2)
An Architecture for a
Socialist State
by
Ashish Nangia
 This
experiment with ‘vernacular’ material and scales is continued elsewhere, in the
Indian Institute of Management, Bangalore
by Stein, Doshi and Bhalla, several buildings in Rajasthan (including the
University of Jodhpur - Image below) by Uttam C. Jain, as well as a neo-Corbusian
aesthetic in the Shriram Center and Akbar Hotel, both at Delhi, by Shivnath
Prasad.
Conclusion
To sum up, most of the architectural production of any significance till the
1990s is marked by a certain commonality of factors: firstly sponsored or
commissioned by the State and its organs, and secondly the search for an
appropriate aesthetic fluctuates between two extremes – that of a completely
‘international’ vocabulary of Modernism (such as Prasad’s Akbar Hotel) and an
attempt to reinterpret the vernacular on the other (exemplified by Correa’s
Crafts Village).
Jodhpur University. Notice use of local material
for finishes.
However, most architectural production is a balancing act between these two
poles – a form dictated by the exigencies of universal standards of space (stadia,
exhibition spaces, and convention centres) and construction and aesthetics
influenced by what is actually possible on the site.
These mixes, when juggled elegantly and with flair, has resulted in elegant or
in horribly clunky structures that have only got worse with time. It is perhaps
best here not to point out examples – suffice it to say that many of the larger
cities in India are littered with architectural horrors from this period that
are a blot on the cityscape and serve to efface the many fine and sensitive
examples time that co-exist side by side.
It is ironic that the same State that professed a social agenda has been
responsible, in many cases, for an urban landscape that has done little to help
minimise the inequality that vowed to eradicate. Fortunately this is an issue
that is increasingly being debated in the work of younger professionals today.
April 9, 2006
Images from Bhatt, Vikram and Peter Scriver.
Contemporary Indian Architecture: After the Masters. Ahmedabad: Mapin
Publishing: 1990.
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Architecture of India
The Week of April 9, 2006
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