Charles Correa is internationally considered as a major figure in contemporary architecture. An exhibition at London's RIBA entitled "Charles Correa: India's Greatest Architect" is currently celebrating his work and his role in the creation of an architecture for post-Independence India.
Born in 1930 in Hyderabad, Correa studied archtecture at the University of Michigan and at MIT, returning to Bombay in 1956 to set up his own practice. He soon started focusing on projects that could improve the life of many people rather than just the life of a few private and wealthy clients, and began planning and designing new towns across India such as New Bombay, for which he became the chief architect.
Many of his projects, including the Kanchanjunga Apartments tower in New Bombay (1983) with its verandas and double-height terraces, were based on the architectural solutions dictated by climate and necessity that he learnt from rural builders and slum dwellers' shacks.
The architect, planner, activist and theoretician worked throughout his career on a wide range of buildings that include the Mahatma Gandhi Memorial at the Sabarmati Ashram, the Jawahar Kala Kendra in Jaipur and the Madhya Pradesh State Parliament Building in Bhopal (a successor of Louis Kahn's Dhaka National Assembly), plus townships and affordable public housing projects in Delhi, Bombay, Ahmenadabad, Bangalore and other cities in India, all of them grounded in Indian culture, spiritual and symbolic themes.
The Parliament Building features for example a circular lower chamber sitting under a dome inspired by a stupa, the Buddhist symbol of enlightenment, while the Jawahar Kala Kendra art centre references the old city of Jaipur and is based on a nine-square mandala that corresponds to the Navagraha (mandala of the nine planets).
Correa's philosophy is rooted in the rich traditions of India and is also informed by an intimate understanding of place. In his essay "Blessings of the Sky", Correa looks at the Indian relationship to space and sky. As he highlights in the text, "in India, the sky has profoundly affected our relationship to builtform, and to open space. For in a warm climate, the best place to be in the late evenings and in the early mornings is outdoors, under the open sky. Such spaces have an infinite number of variations: one steps out of a room...into a verandah...and thence on to a terrace...from which one proceeds to an open courtyard, perhaps shaded by a tree...or a large pergola overhead. At each moment, subtle changes in the quality of light and ambient air generate feelings within us – feelings which are central to our beings."
Correa's statement is vitally important to understand his aesthetics that rely on the relationship of humanity to the environment and his pioneering work on urbanism issues and low-cost shelters in the Third World, a key topic of discussion especially if we think about the natural disasters that every year affect different areas and countries all over the world (and this should maybe prompt us to refocus a bit on Correa's low-cost shelters, Buckmister Fuller's high performance shelters or Jean Prouvé's prefabricated structures and mix them maybe with more advanced techniques like self-assembling materials).
Curated by Dr Irena Murray, RIBA Sir Bannister Fletcher Curator and designed by internationally renowned architect David Adjaye, "Charles Correa: India's Greatest Architect" features many highlights from the architect's archive (Correa donated thousands of his sketches to RIBA) including signature projects, images, drawings, photographs, models and films, charting a career spanning over five decades.
Charles Correa: India's Greatest Architect, RIBA, London, until 4th September 2013. The event is accompanied by a series of talks and debates, you can check the complete programme here.
Member of the Boxxet Network of Blogs, Videos and Photos
Member of the Boxxet Network of Blogs, Videos and Photos
Comments