'India’s Greatest Architect'

Charles Correa

The Kanchanjunga high-rise in Mumbai | Courtesy of RIBA

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India’s most iconic modern architect Charles Correa had a prolific career, having designed almost 100 buildings
in India alone during his lifetime, but whether it was low-income housing or luxury condos, Correa maintained a
universal approach that respected the local conditions, met the practical needs of its inhabitants and
acknowledged the spiritual nature and beauty of his country.

Charles Correa was named by the Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA) as ‘India’s greatest architect’ in
1984 and it’s not hard to see why. While his contemporaries were following in the footsteps of Mies van der Rohe
back in the 1950s, Correa rejected the cold glass-and-steel structural style in favour of a more ‘human’ approach,
designing buildings that have a unique and deep-rooted understanding of India’s rich traditions in terms of both
society and vernacular.
© Cristbal Manuel
While he was undoubtedly influenced by the likes of Le Corbusier while studying architecture at MIT, he cleverly
adapted the principles of modernism to suit a non-Western culture – something that set him apart from the rest
and led him to play a vital role in shaping the urban landscape of post-war India. Unlike some of his
contemporaries, Correa didn’t see tradition and modernity as mutually exclusive – he honoured the ‘sacred
gestures’ and ‘mythic beliefs’ that have informed Indian architecture for thousands of years and wanted to
‘reinvent them in terms of new aspirations’. For example, in his essay ‘The Public, the Private, and the Sacred’,
he questioned why a family living in a hot climate such as India would contain its essential daily activities within
the traditional ‘four walls’ when it could be better served by a home with outside living spaces, such as terraces
and courtyards, that could be used for cooking, socialising and sleeping instead.

As well as being a student at MIT, Correa designed the McGovern Institute for Brain
Research in later life for the institution | ©Vanderwarker9825
Correa, who died in 2015 at the age of 84, embraced the challenge of designing buildings for the urban poor, yet
he never compromised on quality – he treated the low-rise, high-density housing of the Belapur project in ‘Navi
Mumbai’ with the same attention-to-detail as his innovative Kanchanjunga high-rise of luxury apartments
in Mumbai. He respected the Indian vernacular architecture by using local materials that were best suited to the
social needs and environmental conditions. Using resources that were readily available also meant there was no
need to import goods, which helped reduce the expense of each project, but also provided much-needed work for
local craftsmen.

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The Kanchanjunga high-rise in Mumbai | Courtesy of RIBA

Correa commented on this in his essay, ‘Great City…Terrible Place’, which was published in his book The New
Landscape in 1989: ‘A good architect does not have to be fazed by working under severe economic constrains,
however drastic they might be. Having perforce to use only the humblest materials, such as mud or sun-dried
adobe bricks, need not prevent him from creating a joyous and triumphal piece of architecture.’

The Belapur housing project | Courtesy of RIBA

Correa was a firm believer that the buildings he created must respond to their surroundings, taking into
consideration the particular needs of society and understanding and interpreting the local vernacular to create
something truly appropriate. ‘Architecture is not a moveable feast, like music,’ Correa explained in an interview:
‘You can give the same concert in three different places, but you can’t just repeat buildings and clone them
across the world.’

He also understood the importance of being connected to the great outdoors – the sky has a profound sacred
meaning in the Hindu religion – and Correa didn’t want external space to be a luxury only reserved for those who
could afford it. Even the Belapur modular housing solutions he created for the satellite city he designed, ‘Navi
Mumbai’, included shared courtyards for every family to use. This ‘open-to-sky’ concept also incorporates his
innovative passive methods of heating and cooling buildings; often Correa’s work features pergolas, verandahs,
open courtyards and terraces, with a focus on quality of light, circulation of air and plenty of shade.

The British Council in New Delhi was built in 1992 and features a mural by British artist
Howard Hodgkin | Courtesy of RIBA
Correa proclaimed in his essay ‘The Blessings of the Sky’ that: ‘In India, the sky has profoundly affected our
relationship to built-form, and to open space. For in a warm climate, the best place to be in the late evenings and
in the early mornings, is outdoors, under the open sky.

‘To the poor in their cramped dwellings, the roof terrace and the courtyard represent an additional room, used in
many different ways during the course of a day: for cooking, for talking to friends, for sleeping at night, and so
forth. And for the rich, at the other end of the income spectrum, the lawn is as precious as the bungalow itself.
Thus in traditional villages and towns all over India, such open-to-sky spaces are an essential element in the lives
of the people.’
House in Koramangala | Courtesy of RIBA
While Correa’s low-cost housing in Mumbai may have adapted and evolved over time, many of Correa’s
impressive institutional landmarks have a lasting presence in India. One of Correa’s most famous works was also
one of his first – the Gandhi Memorial Museum in Ahmedabad, built in 1963. The building fulfilled a brief that was
also aligned with Correa’s beliefs – it was designed to be a modest space that would reflect the simplicity of
Gandhi’s life, constructed on a human scale with basic materials including brick, stone and tiles. It’s also a prime
example of his ‘open-to-sky’ architecture, with open walls and courtyard spaces that are suited to both social
gatherings and quiet contemplation.

The Gandhi Memorial Museum in Sabarmati, Ahmedabad | Courtesy of RIBA

Another key landmark, the Jawahar Kala Kendra multi-arts centre in Jaipur, responds to what Correa referred to
as the ‘mythical’ qualities of India. The building is based on the traditional Hindu system of architecture, using the
principles of vastu shastra, where both the ‘science of architecture’ and nature are mutually respected and the
ancient beliefs of using geometric patterns (yantra) and symmetry inform the design and layout of the building.
The Jawahar Kala Kendra is inspired by the city plan of Jaipur, but also the nine planets of Navgraha, consisting
of nine squares that surround a central open square.

The Jawahar Kala Kendra arts centre, which is based on the ‘Navgraha’ mantra for the
nine planets | Courtesy of RIBA
The arts centre is a clever fusion of past and present that respects the metaphysics and sacred beliefs of ancient
India while presenting it in a new contemporary form. Charles Correa says in ‘The Public, The Private, and the
Sacred’: ‘Hinduism has always had an astonishing ability to absorb diverse myths — to reinvent them, so to
speak, so that they gain new currency,’ and his architecture also had this powerful propensity to give Indian
architecture a new language through which to tell India’s tales.

Charles Correa and David Adjaye | Courtesy of RIBA

Architect David Adjaye, who designed RIBA’s 2013 retrospective of Correa’s work, two years before the older
architect’s death, summed up the impact his buildings had had on India at the exhibition: ‘Charles Correa is a
highly significant architect, globally and for India. His work is the physical manifestation of the idea of Indian
nationhood, modernity and progress. His vision sits at the nexus defining the contemporary Indian sensibility and
it articulates a new Indian identity with a language that has a global resonance. He is someone who has that rare
capacity to give physical form to something as intangible as ‘culture’ or ‘society’ – and his work is therefore
critical: aesthetically; sociologically; and culturally.’

For a list of all of Correa’s architectural feats, and his written works, visit the Charles Correa Associates website.