Modern Architecture in India

History of Architecture (AP313) | Term Paper | 2013

Term Paper for History of Architecture Architecture (AP131)

Saumya Kohli Roll Number: 01816901611 Sushant School of Art and Architecture

The concept of “Modernism” in 20th century Indian architectural development remains difficult to grasp, as it was used within numerous stylistic developments, following the spirit of the day. Starting with the efforts made by Europeans in the 1920s, the idea of “modern architecture” as a revolutionary and innovative force

started to make cautious headway in India in the early 1930s. But at that time any Western thought and practice introduced as a British import was seen as “modern”, as India had no uniform un iform independent independ ent architectural architectura l movement in the early 20th 2 0th century. Ideas influenced by the Bauhaus and Le Corbusier and then brought to India were modern, and the subsequent Art Deco movement, influenced by both regional and exotic motifs, also counted as modern. Even neoclassical architecture was still pronounced modern into the 1950s and even the 1960s. The post-Independence period saw the emergence of three schools of thought in architecture – the Revivalist on a smaller scale, the constructivist Russia and the Modernist on a larger scale. The Revivalists, who advocated "continuity with the past", could not break the shackles of the colonial legacy and left no significant impact on the neo-Indian architecture. The Modernists too depended heavily on the European and American models and tried to adopt Page 1 of 8

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them in India without taking into consideration the regional aspirations, diversities and requirements. The contemporary Indian architecture was also beset with p r o b l e m s vision

among

the

li ke

pop ul ati on

planners,

lack

of

exp lo si on , support

lac k

from

of the

government and a less than satisfactory standard of architecture education. The result was that during the initial years after the Independence, foreign archi tects c ontin ued to play a lead ing r ole i n Ind ian arch archit itec ectu ture re..

The three decades between 1920 to 1950 were a period of political ferment in india as the country painfully but inevitably made its way to political independence. So too in architecture as several streams of thought strove for professional hegemony. The post-Independence period saw the emergence of three schools of thought in architecture – the Revivalist on a smaller scale, the constructivist Russia and the Modernist on a larger scale. The Revivalists, who advocated "continuity with the past", could not break the shackles of the colonial legacy and left no significant impact on the neo-Indian architecture. architecture. The Modernists too depended heavily on the European and American models and tried to adopt them in India without taking into consideration

the

regional

aspirations,

diversities

and

requirements.

The

contemporary Indian architecture was also beset with problems like population explosion, lack of vision among the planners, lack of support from the government






introduced as a British import was seen as “modern”, as India had no uniform independent architectural movement in the early 20th century. Ideas influenced by the Bauhaus and Le Corbusier and then brought to India were modern, and the subsequent Art Deco movement, influenced by both regional and exotic motifs, also counted as modern. Even neoclassical neoclassical architecture architecture was still pronounced modern into the 1950s and even the 1960s. But Modernism in India was more like an overall approach to life. l ife. It meant designing designin g the world positively, pos itively, improving i mproving it, doing better than the required standard, being progressive and inventive, inventive , and this certainly included great visionary minds like Tagore and Nehru.

Jawaharlal Jawaharlal Nehru, decided to build a new city – Chandigarh as a capital for the state Punjab after Lahore was lost to Pakistan. He had envisioned this city to mark India‟s entry into the modern world , would represent India‟s clean break from the colonial

rule of the British. When India became independent, it was found that there were native no trained professionals professional s on city planning. Political leaders hired American architects- Matthew Nowicki, and Albert Mayer to plan the city. The project was handed over to

in the year 1951 by Jawaharlal Nehru. Le

Corbusier led a team that consisted of a French architect Pierre Jeanerette, Englishmen Maxwell Fry and Jane Drew and about twenty Indian architects and developed a new project.

Le Corbusier‟s visionary powers, which he proved in urban developments from the

1920s onwards, seemed to be precisely the right person to Nehru, who said that India needed “a slap in the face.” Working with his cousin Pierre Jeanneret and the






His béton brut, the unrendered surfaces of the buildings, still showing the marks of the rough shuttering, and the expressive and sculptural effect made by solitaire monuments spread over a large area, came as something of a shock to the Indian architects, who had found a new hero for themselves from now on.

Le Corbusier‟s messages became the new gospel for the next generation, who

recognised a new intellectual dimension in them. Le Corbusier was commissioned to build more villas and a museum in . Here he had an Indian at his side who had already worked for him in Paris, . It was Doshi who in the early 1960s got in touch with Louis I. Kahn in order to develop the Indian Institute of Management in Ahmedabad. Kahn was impressed by the offer and realised the project during a period of over 13 years. Kahn was the next significant architect for India: his structures built on pure geometry to illustrate illus trate inherent inhere nt order, his h is turn to a pictorial language for fo r architecture architecture that went beyond functionalism and the use of rough brick for the façade in order to express the nature of the material, added yet another dimension to Indian architects‟ experienc e. Nehru‟s idea for New Delhi was to build large scale industries, central planning, the

application of advanced technologies and huge capital investment, which was heavily drawn from the west and the soviet union. During that time, government authorities like PWDs were the major developing authorities for the cities, which only provided the capital for construction of the government buildings, but also designing and executing them. Thus the chief architect of PWDs played a fundamental and trend setting role for development of any city. , as chief architect of New Delhi, had to play a similar role for the






which was followed by many other architects during that time and also afterwards. His works range from Office buildings to institutional buildings and low rise row housing to high rise housing apartments. Emphasis on functionality, minimal decoration and use of modern materials in the construction were the key features of his rationalist approach to designing, following this he designed many buildings in New Delhi. In most government buildings in New Delhi, one can find similar architectural vocabulary getting repeated everywhere and interconnected between them. They were built with same idealistic approach and philosophy. Architect Habib Rehman has contributed a lot in establishing the image of governmental architecture in the city. Habib Rehman being an MIT student was an architect of CPWD gave new direction to government buildings of many cities.

New chapter really began in the architecture of the New Delhi after Nehru became the president and brought his modernist group of architects in the city. European and mostly American trained Indian architects, for example, Habib Rehman, Achyut Kanvinde an Mansinh Rana were the architects that really brought modernism to india. Their generation was given a responsibility to shape the architecture of he newly independent india that had no particular identity. They and others like them returned to india and began to implement their ideas in an indian context; meeting with substantial resistance from the political quarters., which preferred the insertion






Rehman‟s Indraprastha

Bhawan and Rabindra Bhawan and in Achyut Kanvinde‟s

Azad Bhawan. Their architecture became the inspiration inspirati on for he future generation that substantially lead towards more rational approach of designing. Charles Correa developed his work when these two towering 20th century masters were both building in India. His 1963 memorial memorial for Mahatma Gandhi in Ahmedabad, which is reminiscent of Kahn‟s design for the Trenton Bath House, marks the beginning of his mature work. The most important buildings after that were his Kanchanjunga high-rise apartments in Mumbai, built from 1970 –1983, then the government building in Bhopal, 1980 – 1996 , and the art centre in Jaipur, 1986 – 1992 where he discovered the spiritual dimension of Indian thought and integrated it into his work. Correa is the most important representative of his generation and still India‟s most significant contemporary architect. Alongside Doshi and Correa,

Anant Raje Raj e is another major architect architec t of this thi s generation. generati on. Raje realised the Indian Institute buildings as Kahn‟s right hand and added others in the spirit of Kahn. His work is clearly shaped by Kahn‟s structures, but he interpreted them

independently. Raj Rewal also belongs in this group. Educated in Delhi and London, he was influenced at an early stage by the Japanese Metabolists, but later found his b ased on own identity in India‟s history, pursuing the concept of a Modernism based tradition. His parliament parliament library is one of the outstanding Indian building projects of the last ten years. sought to create buildings that represented modern technology and the machine age Walter Walter gropius gropius was an inspiration inspiration to many works of Achyut Kanvinde, who sought to create buildings that represented modern technology and the machine age.








.Continuous bands of glass are flush with the wall on the north façade.Southern façade has sun shades running across in a continuous line. Kanvinde pioneered the use of flexible concrete column and beam grid. He introduced waffle slabs in the Bank of India building in i n bhadra, Ahmedabad.

1.

A Concise History Of Modern Architecture in India. New Delhi :

Permanent Black, 2002. ISBN 81 7824 0173. 2.

The development of Modernist architecture in India. The Archi

BLog Not Just another

3. The Architect Habib Rehman. [book auth.] Hiralba Jadeja. Architecture of Habib Rehman

4.

Achyut

Kanvinde.

StudyMode.

[Online]

2012.

http://www.studymode.com/essays/Achyut-Kanvinde-1305413.html. 5.

The

City

of

Chandigarh

Le

Corbusier.

dwell.

http://www.dwell.com/modern-world/article/city-chandigarh-le-corbusier.

[Online]






Modern Architecture in India

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