Balkrishna Doshi
There were two recurring names that embodied great architecture in my formative years—Le Corbusier and Balkrishna Doshi. Both were courtesy of my architect brother Trilochan, who first studied under and then worked with Doshi for years. In fact, Trilochan was one of Doshi’s favorite students.
Ahmedabad has had the distinction of being home to some remarkable works by Corbusier and Doshi, for whom it is his hometown. When I heard the news yesterday that the prestigious Pritzker Prize for 2018 had been awarded to Doshi my reaction was somewhat similar to Trilochan’s who said Doshi had recognized Pritzker.
At 90 and with a glorious architectural design and planning career spanning 70 years, for Doshi the Pritzker probably meant a mild sense of joy. Given his standing as a great architect and design thinker I think it was the prize that became him rather than the other way around. I thought Doshi had outgrown honors a long time ago. Nevertheless, it was a good thing that the Pritzker jury finally chose to honor him.
In so much as the prize brings attention to larger existential issues of people and their organic surroundings it serves an important purpose. For as long as I remember Doshi spoke of architecture in the context of life and community and never as just buildings. He defined architecture as “a living organism”, something that “evolves.” It is necessarily a very different view of a profession that often gets lost in form rather than function.
Of course, the aesthetics of the form is essential but it is so in order to serve the larger objective of those who live in and around it. For someone who conceives life visually I have a weakness for form for the sake of form but I see Doshi’s deeper philosophical take.
Since I grew up in Ahmedabad I was always exposed to some truly remarkable designs without fully realizing. For instance, one occasionally went to the School of Architecture (now CEPT University) which Doshi founded and whose buildings he designed. My brother studied there and I remember those visits rather vividly because of Doshi’s design. Every time I visited I wanted to be part of the institution as a student . I have never felt that about my own schools. The other day, I briefly wrote about Sanskar Kendra, the city museum that Corbusier designed, and which happened to be right in front of one of the schools I went to. I went to school often because it was in front of Sanskar Kendra. Doshi was Corbusier’s chief assistant on that building completed in 1954.
Doshi was also Corbusier’s chief assistant on Chandigarh, a project on which he played a significant design role as well.
“More than practicing architecture I am constantly learning about life and behavior of people and places,” Doshi said. “For me architecture is not a single building but a complex of habitations,” he said.
I met Balkrishnabhai a few times over the years but never as a professional journalist. I did seek an interview with him after the Pritzker but for some reason it did not work out.
Sometime in the mid 1990s, Snehlata, my mother, and I were traveling from Mumbai to Delhi. We bumped into Balkrishnabhai at the Mumbai airport. He was a wearing lovely bottle green shirt that was gently starched. "You wear lovely shirts. They are understated like your architecture," I said. He guffawed and said, "That's a first. No one has compared my shirts with my buildings."
He greeted my mother warmly and said in Gujarati, "Chhaya majama? Tajetar ma malyo nathi (How is Trilochan? I have not met him recently)."
Mother responded saying, "Ha tamne pan ghanaa vakhte joya. (Yes, I am meeting you after a long time.) Ekvar jamva avo gher. (Come home for a meal someday.)"
"Chokkas (Definitely)," he replied.
He and I talked a bit about this, that and the other. I mentioned my visit to the (M F) Husain-Doshi Gufa in Ahmedabad and said, "Entering it made me feel as I was returning to my birth."
He seemed touched by my observation, saying, "That is because one living organism entered another."
We shook hands and went our separate ways, Doshi to Ahmedabad and us to Delhi. I never met him after that.