22Photos courtesy: Vastu Shilpa Consultants and Anuja Khokhani

Dr. B.V. Doshi dons several hats with elan. An architect, artist, teacher and speaker, he’s one of the pioneers who shaped modern architecture in India. His holistic and comprehensive approach to design — he considers architecture a social enterprise — has, over decades, ensured a body of work that anoints him the master of his craft.

The master architect speaks to Teja Lele Desai on how his design sensibilities were forged, why the interior must be relevant to the exterior, and why art, architecture and life need to co-exist.

THE MAESTRO AND HIS MAGIC

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Ar. B. V. Doshi’s architecture is conceived ‘as a place to beinhabited, as a place to facilitate the course of human interaction’

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Born in 1927 in Pune, Doshi studied at the J. J. School of Architecture, Mumbai. He then headed for London, after which he stopped off at Paris where he worked under master architect Le Corbusier. Corbusier was a strong influence on Doshi’s work and life. His years in Paris — 1951–54 — led to a wide range of “exposure”, he says, resulting in strong fundamentals of modern architecture and materials.

Doshi returned to Ahmedabad to supervise Le Corbusier’s numerous projects in the city, working on them from 1955–59. He set up his own studio, Vastu Shilpa (environmental design), in 1955, and also worked closely with Louis Kahn when Kahn designed the campus of the Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad. This was an important period in Indian architecture, one in which Indian architects had to deal with foreign legacies and adapt them to Indian conditions. Doshi’s architecture takes pride of place for “combining certain enduring values of modern archi-tecture with research into the substructure of Indian traditions”. Over the years, he developed his own language of architecture,

forging design sensibilities that were inherent to India’s climate and conditions. Take any of his projects, be it IIM Bangalore, L D Institute of Indology, CEPT Campus, his own residence, all have a sense of scale, proportion and light that’s trademark Doshi. His environmental and urban concerns, and his ability to adapt modern architecture to an Indian context makes his work one of the most important models for modern Indian architecture.

Most of the firm’s projects show that Doshi does not favour the imposition of any particular style, his architecture is conceived “not as a synthesised container of specific activities but as a place to be inhabited, as a place to facilitate the course of human interaction”. The firm also works to conserve energy, human or mechanical, optimize technologies, adopt innovative ways of building and alternative materials, and places an emphasis on urban design.

In Amdavad-Ni-Gufa, a book published by Doshi’s Vastu Shilpa Foundation, the architect writes: “…in true architecture one must experience joy and celebrations, it must affect our inner self. It cannot

be distinguished separately either as modulation of light or surfaces or supporting system. On the contrary, a good design merges floors, walls, ceilings into one contiguous whole and creates an organic space almost like a living being… It then becomes a small universe, a microcosm which we can call paradise.”

The Interior and the Exterior The inside and the outside. Should they be kept at arm’s length from each other or should they co-exist? Doshi believes that during the design process, architects need to keep in mind that the interior and exterior form an integral whole. “Can the interior reflect the exterior? Can the exterior give a clue to the interior? Will they allow the unfolding of experience and imagery?” he asks. “I think about the interior and exterior like a living organism. Like in a body, there should be nothing superfluous, there must be no compartments. All should come together to form a seamless whole,” he clarifies.

Presently, he believes that interior and exterior are often viewed separately by designers. “We often operate on a micro scale, losing sight of realities. We need to function on a macro scale. After all, the exterior is nothing but interior

The IIM Campus in Bengaluru reflects the sense of scale, proportion and lightthat’s trademark Doshi

Sangath, Ahmedabad, was designed to function as Doshi’s studio and visualises traditional Indian architecture in a modern medium

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on a larger scale. So it’s paramount that we expand our vision and horizon, and take a look at all the micro layers that make a design macro,” he says.

Interior — be it the inside of a building or a product — should talk about sustainability, how it relates to the outer environment. Interior is experienced through movements from all sides; like a kaleidoscope, memories and perceptions change. He turns thoughts on their head by posing a question. “What is a street if not the interior between two buildings?” Clearly, says the master architect, the scope of interior design needs to be widened. “It must be more inclusive so as to include large-scale projects such as airports, stations, infrastructure projects and enclosed public spaces within its ambit.”

His Favourites

Doshi favours a tightly knit team when it comes to work, the reason why he’s limited the size of the firm. This also ensures having substantial participation in all projects by the principals. His firm has developed and consistently embraced a design methodology that revolves around design teams framed at the outset of each project to work together — from concept phase to completion.

At Vastu Shilpa, the development of design begins from the conceptual base of the project and generates a formal vocabulary that ultimately

Ar. Doshi believes that architecture ‘cannot be distinguished separately either as modulation of light or surfaces or supporting system’

A good design merges floors, walls, ceilings into one contiguous whole and creates an organic space almost like a living being, Ar. Doshi says

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influences even the smallest details. The firm is not compartmentalised into divisions and so architects involved in the conceptual decisions also develop construction details for the building, review fabrication drawings and observe construction at the job site along with various specialists and consultants.

Does Doshi have any favourites from his vast body of work? He thinks for a moment and responds. “I would say the Husain-Doshi Gufa and Sangath, both of which are interior-wise and space-wise very significant.” Sangath, designed for himself to function as a studio, exemplifies this with a variety of spaces that appear as a part and parcel of traditional Indian architecture and are visualised in a modern medium.

In his book, Balkrishna Doshi, An Architecture for India, William J.R.

Curtis writes that Sangath is “a fragment of Doshi’s private dream: a microcosm of his intentions and obsessions. Inspired by the earth-hugging forms of the Indian vernacular, it also draws upon the vault suggestions of Le Corbusier. … [with] interiors derived from the traditional Indian city, it is also influenced by sources as diverse as Louis I. Kahn, Alvar Aalto and Antonio Gaudi. A work of art stands on its own merits and Sangath possesses that indefinable quality of authenticity. Even local labourers and passing peasants like to come and sit next to it, enjoying the low mounds of the vaults or the water-jars overgrown with creepers.”

Doshi’s friendship with artist M.F. Husain culminated in Amdavad-ni-Gufa, an underground art gallery located on the campus of the Centre for Environmental Planning

& Technology (CEPT) in Ahmedabad. Months after he took up the project, the architect did not have any clear image for the Gufa. All he knew was that the Gufa had to be an underground structure without any conventional form. One day, he visited the site to gain clarity. That night, he had a dream about a kurma (a tortoise), who had appeared in his dream eight years earlier.

He writes in Amdavad-Ni-Gufa: “Kurma reminded me of the achievements of the Renaissance and Baroque period. He emphasised how the definition of space and form were gradually being dissolved, three dimensionally, and how the sky was becoming a part of the interior space. He even talked about optical illusions and how they are essential to make us realise that the space and form that we see are part of the infinite, and hence timeless and illusory.”

Doshi went on to envisage a space with wonderful light and structures, unlike anything that had ever been created before. Sketches were doodled, models were made and studies continued over time. The result was a “sustainable, unexpected and unimaginable building”, the now famous Gufa. The form of roof shells is guided by computer design and the structure, built in ferrocement, is in the form of skeletal skin and wire mesh, sandwiched on each side by layers of cement.

“The design is the epitome of freedom of expression. On this,

B. V. Doshi’s friendship with M. F. Husain resulted in Amdavad-ni-Gufa, an underground art gallery located on the CEPT Campus in Ahmedabad

At the Amdavad-ni-Gufa, the form of roof shells is guided by computer design and the structure is in the form of skeletal skin and wire mesh

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Husain and I were both independent and yet inter-dependent. That is why the Gufa is so special,” Doshi says of the structure that represents the first collaboration between art and architecture.

Inspiring Generations

Apart from his international fame as an architect, Doshi is renowned as an educator and institution builder. He was the first Founder- Director of School of Architecture, Ahmedabad (1962–72), first Founder- Director of School of Planning (1972–79), first Founder-Dean of

Doshi, who believes that awareness and interest has grown manifold in recent times, offers simple advice to students who turn to design as a profession. Try a self-exercise and question yourself. Why are you doing this? What is your intent? Do you intensely love this field or are you entering it because someone has recommended it to you? Would you pursue this if you had financial hardships? “For architecture is not merely a hobby, it is a profession that necessitates commitment as it must be a part and parcel of your lives,” he says.

When it comes to interiors, he points out that often many people who work in the field are not professionals, they are people who are there on account of their interest. “Can academics be expanded to include these people in the profession,” he asks. On how institutes and the media can help, he offers a suggestion. “How about identifying an architectural trail in each city, places and buildings that students must visit so that they can

learn and imbibe facets of design, be it proportions, scale, space or light… Education often turns out to be fragmented,” he says. “This will ensure that they take in all facets,” he adds.

Doshi, a Fellow of the Royal Institute of British Architects and a Fellow of the Indian Institute of Architects, was in 1976 awarded the Padma Shri, an esteemed national civilian honour. Apart from a clutch of awards down the years, he has also received an honorary Doctorate of Arts by the University of Pennsylvania (1989) and McGill University, Montréal, Canada (2006), and the Great Gold Medal of the French Academy Institute of Architects.

Doshi continues to remain tireless — about art, architecture and design. “Hindu philosophy talks of Navarasa — the entire diverse expressions and experiences of life come out. Hidden in them are the many functions… that’s why I believe there is no distinction between art, architecture and life,” he ends.

Centre for Environmental Planning and Technology (1972–81), founder member of Visual Arts Centre, Ahmedabad, and first founder director of Kanoria Centre for Arts, Ahmedabad. He was also the force behind the nationally and internationally known research institute Vastu Shilpa Foundation for Studies and Research in Environmental Design, an institute known for pioneering work in low-cost housing and city planning.

Doshi, who has been visiting the United States and Europe since 1958 and has held important chairs in American Universities, has been a continuing inspiration for generations of students who pass out of design schools in India and abroad. Many of them, such as academicians and professors Kurulla Varkey, Saumitro Ghosh, Gurjeet Matharoo, Shivanand Swami, Trilochan Chhaya, Nilkanth Chhaya and Krishna Shastri, have made their mark on the profession of architecture and inspire yet another generations of students.

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Inspired by the earth-hugging forms of the Indian vernacular, Sangath also draws upon the vault suggestions of Le Corbusier’s work

Passers-by and local labourers like to come and sit near Sangath, enjoying the low mounds, the water jars overgrown with creepers and the walkways

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