This site uses cookies. By continuing to browse the site, you agree to our use of cookies. Find more information on thishere.

Exhibition

Balkrishna Doshi

Architecture for the People

Fri 29.05.2020 – Mon 29.06.2020
building with round elements and trees

Balkrishna Doshi, Sangath Architect’s Studio, Ahmedabad, 1980
© Iwan Baan 2018

The Indian architect, urbanist and teacher Balkrishna Doshi is among the key proponents of an Indian modernity although he has achieved world ranking and influence well beyond this. His visionary work in the low-cost housing and urban planning sectors as well as his strong commitment to education are central to his approach. In 2018, he became the first Indian architect to be awarded the prestigious Pritzker Prize, the Nobel Prize for architecture.

Video of the Exhibition

 

In over 60 years Balkrishna Doshi (*1927, Pune, India) has realised a wide variety of projects, including the well-known Indian Institute of Management in Bangalore, the Aranya social housing estate and the architecture school he founded in Ahmedabad. Having worked with Le Corbusier and Louis Kahn in the 1950s, he has developed a vocabulary of his own that combines modern principles with traditional Indian techniques. By covering the spectrum from industrial to local craftsmanship, he adapts his architecture to suit local conditions. Doshi’s humanist approach is influenced as much by his Indian roots as by his Western education. The interdependence of the outdoor and indoor spaces, flexibility and openness are recurring motifs. Inspired by Mahatma Gandhi’s teachings, Doshi developed new approaches to social and experimental housing based on the participation of prospective residents and enabling adaptation to changing needs and requirements — keywords “growing house”. His ideas of sustainability, which integrate the social, ecological and economic dimensions of architecture, are highly topical.

The exhibition brings together a wealth of original material, such as architectural models, plans and drawings, as well as Doshi’s famous visualisations based on Indian miniatures. Recent photographs and films show how his architecture goes on living.

The Opening

man with cap and mouth-nose protection knees in front of model
Opening "Balkrishna Doshi. Architecture for the People", 29.05.2020
© eSeL
man with black hat and black clothes in exhibition room
Opening "Balkrishna Doshi. Architecture for the People", 29.05.2020
© eSeL
man with mouth-nose protcetion knees in front of huge model and takes a picture of it
Opening "Balkrishna Doshi. Architecture for the People", 29.05.2020
© eSeL
2 women stand in an exhibition room with mouth-nose protection
Opening "Balkrishna Doshi. Architecture for the People", 29.05.2020
© eSeL
2 women in front of picture with a staircase
Opening "Balkrishna Doshi. Architecture for the People", 29.05.2020
© eSeL
man in front of exhibition wall with photographs and drawings
Opening "Balkrishna Doshi. Architecture for the People", 29.05.2020
© eSeL
screen with photographs of an underground gallery
Opening "Balkrishna Doshi. Architecture for the People", 29.05.2020
© eSeL
2 persons reading on a blue sofa
Opening "Balkrishna Doshi. Architecture for the People", 29.05.2020
© eSeL
green wall with a text about Balkrishna Doshi
Opening "Balkrishna Doshi. Architecture for the People", 29.05.2020
© eSeL

Curator: Khushnu Panthaki Hoof
Curator for the Vitra Design Museum: Jolanthe Kugler

The exhibition is a project by the Vitra Design Museum and the Wüstenrot Foundation in cooperation with the Vastushilpa Foundation.