CONTEMPORARY INDIAN PLANNERS

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CHARLES CORREA

Architect , Planner, activist and theoretician , Charles Correa is one of thefew contemporary architects of India and urban planner known for adaptingModernist tenets to local climates and building styles. Correa has adapted the language of modern architecture to create low cost,yet humane habitats that are easily constructed from traditional materials. Correa was influenced by Le Corbusier’s use of striking concrete forms. Pioneer to work in urban issues and low cost shelter

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HIS philosophy

Key to Correa’s design approach is his understanding of the unique cultural requirements and needsof his native country. The basic philosophy of Charles Correa in planning the buildings, the architect has tried to givelong corridors and wide arches, which provide shades and ventilation. He has successfully expressed his philosophy combining with regional traditions within a modernenvironment In all of his urban planning commissions, Correa avoided high-rise housing solutions, focusinginstead on low-rise solutions that, in combination with common spaces and facilities, emphasized thehuman scale and created a sense of community. The buildings of Charles Correa are responsive to the environment , especially to the climate. Open to sky space pervasive theme in his architecture

INTRODUCTION

HIS WORKS

The site plan is generated by a hierarchy of community spaces, starting with asmall shared courtyard 8m x 8m around which seven houses are grouped. Each of these houses is on its own piece of land, so that the families canhave the crucial advantage of open to sky spaces.

This project, located on six hectares of land about 2 km from the city centreof New Bombay, attempts to demonstrate how high densities (500 personsper hectare, including open spaces, schools , etc) can be easily achievedwithin the context of a low-rise typology

Furthermore they do not share any party walls with their neighbours whichmakes these houses truly incremental, since each family can extend their ownhouse independently.

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These houses cover almost the entire social spectrum from squatter families to the upper income brackets – yet , in order to maintain the fundamental principle of Equity , the sites themselves vary in size only marginally (from 45 sqm to 70 sqm).

The form and plants of these houses are very simple so thatthey can be built and extended by traditional masons andcraftsmen – thus generating employment in the BazaarSector of the urban economy (i.e., exactly where they areneeded for the new urban migrants.)

The system of dams under construction in Karnataka will raisethe level of the Ghataprabha river, submerging part of the existingtown of Bagalkot under water . Hence the government of Karnatakadecided to develop New Bagalkot town.

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This assignment provided the opportunity to try and applysome of the same principles discussed in the planning of Ulwe(Affordability, Reliability , etc) to a small town, using an approachthat generates flexible street patterns analogous to the existing town ofBagalkot.

The plan of new township provides adequate and reasonable resettlement for theProject Displaced Families (PDF’s) on the one hand and also allows sufficient scopefor further development of the town for additional population on the other hand(including immigrants, industries, business and so on).

Typical modules

Thus the new Bagalkot town is envisaged both asa modern town and as a Rehabilitation center. This new town is being developed for apopulation of 100,000 persons and presently underconstruction As per his plan the entire submergenceportion of Bagalkot Town was proposed to beresettled in an area of 1200 acres. One unit is divided in to 49 Sectors ofapproximately 20 acres each. About 300 acres ofadditional land is used for roads and other civicamenities. Out of the 49 sectors 42 are earmarked forresidential purpose.

Remaining sectors comprise of parks, Hospitals, Stadium, Educational Institutions and Government offices etc.

HIS WORKS

The central business district of new Bombay consists of threeinterconnected nodes with waghavli lake in the center. thesouthernmost of these three nodes ,ulwe has an area of 1580hectares.On this land the development plan envisages a population ofabout 350000 people with an estimated work force of just over140,000 persons .our assignment involved three tasks ofpreparing the master plan the urban design controls anddemonstration housing for 1000 families . the project seeks toaddress the crucial issues of affordability and equity with crucialemphasis on mass transport, coherent urban form , andhousing patterns which use space as resource

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S HIS WORKS

B.V. DOSHI

A teacher, a speaker, an architect— Balkrishna Doshi is a man whohas worn several hats. Along with a handful of pioneers, he isresponsible for bringing modern architecture to India. Over the years Doshi has created architecture that relies on asensitive adoption and refinement of modern architecture within anIndian context. The relevancy of his environmental and urban concerns make himunique as both a thinker and teacher. Architectural scale and massing, as well as a clear sense of spaceand community mark most of his work.

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HIS philosophy According to him Architecture of a building is conceived not as a container of specific activities but as aplace to be inhabited, as a place to facilitate the course of human environmentThe building profile will have natural light + air +movement + access elements against the sky to expressthe cosmic relationship. The building base will gradually widen towards the ground through platforms, terraces, and steps. The external finish of the building will express one homogenous mass but will have adequatedetails/textures/ surface modulations. The main arrival to the building will be at a higher or raised level- with provision for a lower entry toexpress duality. Casting of shadows, breaking of mass, rhythms in the structure, solids, voids, will be the modeof expression.

INTRODUCTION

Doshi has categorized 8 principles in traditional architecture which he believes would greatly enrich contemporary practice.

1. Doshi belief in the ‘Mythical Sense’ of space often evident in traditional architecture which is not simply confined to open or closed areas. According to him space can be modified according to the desire of the perceiver and is never static.

2. The structural and formal systems that Doshi has adopted led him to assimilate the 2nd principle of Vaastu (environment)-Purusha (energy) Mandala (astrology) to ensure minimum standards of health and hygiene in each project .

3. Transformation of Energy between the building and people using the space for functional use. The Energy takes place between the walls, columns and space of the building. The natural energy produces through sun radiations or natural elements, surroundings, species around it etc

4. Doshi has persisted a deep belief in importance of ‘Human Institutions’, just as Louis-i-Kahn did before him. This belief, is amplified by his own deep cultural experience and popular evolution of new institutions.

5. A more specific principle is to follow ‘flexible rather than rigid approach to the structure’. This is how transformation of space from the mere static container ; to a place where people actually feel a psychic interchange is best achieved

6. The idea of flexibility leads him to a principle, of incorporating “”. He believes that it can only be accommodated by mixture of structural systems. Symbolically charged space symbolism must be designed as receptacle for human activity.

7. Doshi also advocates “Amorphous rather than finite forms” ; used with multiple structural systems so that ‘experience with them may be loose meandering and multiple’. For e.g.- Aranya low cost housing, Indore.

8. As an eighth and final principle, doshi seeks “Timelessness” in his architecture much as Louis khan did when describing his quality in historical precedents as' open endedness’.

PRINCIPLES

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HIS WORKS

The response is achieved by adopting a system of major corridors formovement along which activity areas are disposed. The functional and physical attributes of the design are related to thelocal traditions of pavilion – like spaces, courtyards, and ample provision forplantation.

To further heighten the spatial experience, the width of the corridorswas modulated in many places to allow casual sitting. Access to classrooms and administrative offices was provided throughthese links as well as to generate constant activity.

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Owing to the varying rhythm of the solids and voids, i.e. wall and opening, coupled withdirect or indirect natural light, these links change in character during the different times ofthe day as well seasons and offer the students and the faculty, occasion to feel the presence ofnature even while they are inside. By creating such an environment the activities pursued within the building becomeenriched because they become one with the larger, total world. What makes the building interesting isthat the links appear and disappear, giving a senseof being and not being. In the mornings andevenings, the sun’s golden rays are reflectedin the glazed windows, and the long corridorswith main central court surrounded byclassroom walls “give a feeling of being in a placenot unknown to ones inner being.”

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In the initial stages volumetric spacerequirements were determined . Thisgenerated the spatial as well as the structuraldimensions of the complex. Then thebuilding – site relationship was established. It was felt essential that form, light andspace should be integrated . And so a designcombining functional , climatic andtechnological considerations was evolved.

The approach walkway gradually becomes steps for gathering and through a series of platformsculminates at the terrace where the upper level entrance is situated. Tying the low base and the high roof vaults evokes in an Indian mind a sense of seeing theproportions of the deity’s face with the crown and the tall shikara of a temple with its low base. The sunken floor level at the lower entrance summons the experience of entering the ancientcaves. The articulated edges of the vaults and other surfaces accessible from the low terracesgenerates a firm relationship with the ground like that found in a Buddhist stupa. In order to create a built form to match thedynamic concept of “Sangath”, it appeared thatequally dynamic articulating methods had to bediscovered to give another dimension to thetraditional spaces and to generate experiences ofthe unexpected and the ambiguous. Finally to bring the individual intofocus , it was decided to underplaythe overall scales of the built form

Sangath has two entrances, one at level + 1.8 m and the other at –1.m. Both finally reach the same place,but through different paths.

HIS WORKS

T H A N K Y O U

BIBLIOGRAPHY:-CONTEMPORARY ASIAN ARCHITECT –TASCHEN

-100 CONTEMPORARY ARCHITECT-BILL LACY

Website :

http://www.vastushilpa.org/

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/B._V._Doshi

http://www.charlescorrea.net/

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_Correa#Current_projects