Balkrishna Vithaldas Doshi, identity of modern Indian architecture, passes away

Balkrishna Vithaldas Doshi (Puna, 1927 - Ahmedabad 2023), architect, urban planner, teacher, and winner of the Pritzker Prize in 2018 and Riba Gold Medal in 2022, passed away at the age of 95 in Ahmedabad, where he lived and worked, this Tuesday, January 24, 2023.

Doshi combined modernity and tradition, Indianness and internationalism, and universalism and local culture in his architecture.

Today he is considered the greatest Indian architect of the 20th century, he is also a pioneer of green building.

Doshi an atypical architect in the so-called global star system, I mix his rich spiritual life and the recognition of his traditions hybridizing them with modernity.

Upon receiving the Pritzker in Toronto in 2018, Doshi defined himself thus: “a series of events came together like drops of water, first in a stream, then in a river, then in many rivers. That process took me through many lands (...) My life has consisted of absorbing, evolving, reflecting, changing and moving forward, becoming who I am, flowing like a calm river, now advancing slowly towards an unknown ocean".

Portrait of Balkrishna Doshi in his studio, »Sangath Architect’s Studio«, Ahmedabad, 1980. Photograph by Iwan Baan 2018.

Over the past 70 years, Doshi, who is also a 2018 Pritzker Prize recipient, has lifted more than 100 built projects. His work significantly influenced the advancement of architecture in India, both through his achievements and his teaching. "My works are an extension of my life, philosophy and dreams trying to create a treasure trove of the architectural spirit," Balkrishna Doshi shared after receiving the award from him.

Last June, he received the Royal Gold Medal for Architecture 2022 from the Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA). Personally endorsed by Her Majesty The Queen, the Royal Gold Medal was awarded to the well-known Indian architect in a virtual ceremony organized by the organization and President Simon Allford.

Indian Institute of Management campus, Bangalore, India. Photograph by Vinay Panjwani / Vastushilpa Foundation.

Internationally recognized architect for his work, he was also a collaborator of Le Corbusier.

After a decisive meeting with Le Corbusier, during Hoddeson's CIAM congress in 1951, Doshi spent four years in Paris, in the studio at 35 rue de Sevres, before returning to India in 1955, where he supervised the construction of Chandigarh and numerous projects in Ahmedabad including Villa Sarabhai, Villa Shodhan or the Palace of the Spinners. In the same year, he founded his agency there and the Vastu Shilpa Foundation, dedicated to environmental issues.

Balkrishna Vithaldas Doshi.

Born in 1927 in Pune, India, into an extended family of furniture makers, Balkrishna Doshi studied at the JJ School of Architecture, Bombay, before working for four years with Le Corbusier as Senior Designer (1951-54) in Paris and four more years in India to oversee projects in Ahmedabad. He worked with Louis Kahn as a partner to build the Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad, and continued to collaborate for more than a decade. He founded his own studio, Vastushilpa, in 1956 with two architects.

Today, Vastushilpa is a multidisciplinary studio with five partners spanning three generations and has sixty employees. The studio invites dialogue and its philosophy of proactive engagement even applies to its office space, which has an open door, inviting passers-by to come through.

Balkrishna Doshi with Le Corbusier. Photograph courtesy of VSF / Pritzker Architecture Prize.

In 2018, on the occasion of the delivery of the Pritzker Prize, he thus evoked his training with Le Corbusier:

“I owe this prestigious award to my guru, Le Corbusier. His teachings led me to question identity and pushed me to discover new regionally adopted contemporary expressions for sustainable holistic habitat.”

Doshi and Le Corbusier shared the same taste for the vernacular and even more so for Nature, the great inspiration for an ecological and human habitat.

School of Architecture at the Centre for Environmental Planning and Technology (CEPT): »School of Architecture«, CEPT University, Ahmedabad, 1966-68 © Courtesy of Vastushilpa Foundation, Ahmedabad. Photograph by Vinay Panjwani – India.

Exterior view of the concert hall: »Premabhai Hall«, Ahmedabad, 1976 © Courtesy of Vastushilpa Foundation, Ahmedabad. Photograph by Vinay Panjwani – India.

Example of alterations of the architectural structure by inhabitants: »Housing for Life Insurance Corporation« (LIC), Ahmedabad, 1973. Photograph by Vastushilpa Foundation, Ahmedabad.

Interior view of the foyer at the Tagore Memorial Hall: »Tagore Memorial Hall«, Ahmedabad, 1967. Photograph by Vastushilpa Foundation, Ahmedabad.

Tagore Hall, Ahmedabad, taken in 1967. Photograph courtesy of Vastushilpa Foundation.

School of Architecture, CEPT, Ahmedabad, India. Photograph by Vinay Panjwani, courtesy of Vastushilpa Foundation.

The plan’s eye-like shape is meant to encourage visitors to open their own third eye: »Ompuri Temple«, Matar, 1998 © Courtesy of Vastushilpa Foundation, Ahmedabad. Photograph by Vinay Panjwani – India.

Aranya Low Cost Housing, Indore, India. Photograph by John Panicker, courtesy of Vastushilpa Foundation.

Sangath, Architects studio, Ahmedabad, India. Photograph courtesy of Vastushilpa Foundation.

Indian Institute of Management campus, Bangalore, India. Photograph by Vinay Panjwani / Vastushilpa Foundation.

Balkrishna Doshi with Louis Kahn. Photograph courtesy of VSF / Pritzker Architecture Prize.

Doshi in his studio, Sangath. Photograph courtesy of VSF / Pritzker Architecture Prize.

Balkrishna Doshi with Le Corbusier. Photograph courtesy of VSF / Pritzker Architecture Prize.

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More information

Balkrishna Doshi

Balkrishna Doshi. (Puna, 26 August 1927 - Ahmedabad, 24 January 2023) Born into a traditional Hindu family in 1927, Balkrishna Doshi grew up in the atmosphere of the Indian independence movement championed by Mahatma Gandhi and Rabindranath Tagore. He began his architecture studies in 1947, the year India gained independence, at the Sir J.J. College of Architecture Bombay (Mumbai). In the 1950s, he boarded a ship to London, where he hoped to join the Royal Institute of British Architects, and eventually moved to Paris to work under Le Corbusier.

Doshi’s association with Le Corbusier and later Louis Kahn lasted over a decade and made the young architect familiar with the vocabulary of modernist architecture with a special emphasis on elemental forms and building materials. In 1956, Doshi opened his own practice in Ahmedabad and called it Vastu-Shilpa (»vastu« describes the total environment around us; »shilpa« means to design in Sanskrit). At the age of 35, in 1962, he founded the School of Architecture at the Centre for Environmental Planning and Technology (CEPT) in Ahmedabad. In 1978, Balkrishna Doshi established the Vastushilpa Foundation for Studies and Research in Environmental Design with the aim of developing indigenous design and planning standards for built environments appropriate to the society, culture, and environment of India. Doshi is the recipient of numerous awards and distinctions such as the Global Award for Lifetime Achievement for Sustainable Architecture, the Aga Khan Award for Architecture, and the Gold Medal of the Academy of Architecture of France, among others. He is a Fellow of the Royal Institute of British Architects, the Indian Institute of Architects, and the Institut Français d’Architecture, and an Honorary Fellow of the American Institute of Architects. In 2018, he was the first Indian architect to be awarded the Pritzker Prize.

Published on: January 24, 2023

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