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Architecture | Share This Page | ||||||||||||||||||
Post Colonial India and its Architecture - I
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by Ashish Nangia |
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Charles Correa - The Traditional in the Modern
Introduction The post-independence generation saw an increasing number of architects from South Asia migrate to Europe and the United States for advanced studies. Some of these would later return, setting up practice and often evolving highly original styles of work, combining Western rationalism and architectural theory with vernacular tradition and an appreciation of the need to preserve and reinvent South Asia’s built heritage for a postcolonial age. ![]() A representative catalogue of his work displays an impressive vocabulary and technical virtuosity that he brings to his work, and is also a fair representation of the evolution of South Asian urban centers and the debate around them - from celebrating and valorizing tradition and heritage, to the need for increasing housing, creating markets for the arts and leisure, and finally responses to the challenges that explosive urban growth creates. Correa’s responses to these questions have been outstandingly innovative, displaying an impressive knowledge of tradition from various sources, an understanding of technique and, perhaps most importantly the power of symbol and myth as a factor in good architecture. Indeed, Correa’s buildings, in their clever semiotic appeal, seem often to be as much gestures to prevailing political ideology as intelligent responses to an architectural problem. Representative Work At the Gandhi Smarak Sangrahalaya, Ahmedabad (1958 – 63), Correa uses a network of interconnected open-to-sky spaces landscaped in different themes, to recreate the Gandhian ideal of a self-sufficient village community. The result is an elegant solution that is climatically sound and energy-efficient, uses low-cost material and finishes, and above all conveys some sense of the solemnity and dignity appropriate for an institution dedicated to Gandhi’s life and work.
Especially remarkable here is Correa’s use of natural light in conjunction with semi-open spaces to create tonal gradations in illumination and shadows. Correa acknowledges a strong debt to Le Corbusier, and this effect of the Frenchman’s influence is clearly visible here. The museum is solemn without being overbearing, is austere without appearing to make an effort to be so.
Continuing the same effort to interpret India’s vernacular architecture in a modern typology, the National Crafts Museum (1975-90) at Pragati Maidan, New Delhi, provides a forum to craftspeople nationwide to showcase their art – and the process of its creation! – to visitors, both resident and alien.
Its spaces massed together to recreate an Indian village, the Museum incorporates extensive use of vernacular material – stone, bamboo, brick, mud, thatch – and uses craftwork as both interior and exterior ornamentation. The result is once again a very impressive series of spaces that hold together as a unit, and display a high degree of functional efficiency. Correa demonstrates here a successful transition of the vernacular to the modern, as also how traditional architectural vocabulary need not be synonymous with ‘backward’.
Conclusion This summary of Correa’s work, while including some seminal examples from his career, leaves out far more than it includes. A few words, however, may be added here about the larger significance of his career. It is fairly representative for a typical architect to handle projects that increase in complexity and volume over time. This fact is a reflection of a professional’s personal development as well as public recognition and confidence in his work, a reputation that is built up over decades and after a body of significant work has been completed. What stands out in Correa’s work, beyond this evolution, is his original fusion of modern typology and South Asian elements, infusing at times almost mythical references in his buildings. It is his skill for translating into built form an acceptable political discourse that has contributed to his success, as much as his obvious ability and aptitude as a professional. |
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18-Dec-2005 | |||||||||||||||||||
More by : Ashish Nangia | |||||||||||||||||||
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Comments on this Article
kazi asadullah al emran 11/16/2012 03:57 AM
richa singh 11/07/2012 14:34 PM
mehrazban 04/29/2012 13:55 PM
zalak patel 04/01/2012 08:44 AM
Nikarika 01/18/2012 11:25 AM
nowreen aftab dristy 12/30/2011 12:50 PM |
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