B.V.

DOSHI

“ Rethinking modernism
for the developing
world ”
 B. V. DOSHI NAME BALKRISHNA
VITHALDAS DOSHI
B.V DOSHI, COMPLETED HIS STUDIES
•
AT J. J. SCHOOL OF ART, BOMBAY IN NATIONALITY INDIAN
1950 DATE OF BIRTH AUGUST 26, 1927
PLACE OF BIRTH PUNE, INDIA
HE BECAME A SENIOR DESIGNER ON
•
PROFESSION ARCHITECT,
LEE CORBUSIER’S PROJECTS IN EDUCATOR AND
AHMEDABAD AND CHANDIGARH. ACADEMECIAN

IN 1956 HE ESTABLISHED A PRIVATE

•
PRACTICE IN VASTU-SHILPA,
AHMEDABAD AND IN 1962 HE
ESTABLISHED THE VASTU-SHILPA
FOUNDATION FOR ENVIRONMENTAL
DESIGN.

HE HAS WORKED IN CENTRE FOR

•
ENVIRONMENTAL PLANNING AND
TECHNOLOGY (CEPT, AHMEDABAD)
AND KANORIA CENTRE FOR ARTS,
AHMEDABAD. HE WAS THE FOUNDER
MEMBER OF VISUAL ARTS CENTRE,
AHMEDABAD
 He started his career
by working on projects
in Ahmedabad,
Hyderabad & Kalol.
Then later he took up
projects in Mumbai,
New Delhi and
Lucknow.
He has also worked on
a project in Kuwait.
 CHRONOLOGY
1956-57 Residence for Mr.Kantilal Banker , Ahmedabad
1956 Premabhai Hall; first project; Ahmedabad
1957-60 Ahmedabad Textile Industry’s Research
Association (ATRIA) And Physical
Research Laboratory (PRL) Low Cost Housing
1959-60 Residence for Mrs.Pramila Chinubhai ;
Ahmedabad
1959-61 Architect’s own house; Ahmedabad
1959-62 Science building for Gujarat University ;
Ahmedabad
1957-62 Insititute for Indology ; Ahmedabad
1962-66 Tagore Memorial Theatre ; Ahmedabad
1965-67 Administrative office building for Gujarat State
Fertilizers Corporation ; Baroda
CHRONOLOGY
1966 Bhandari House ; New DelhI
1966-68 School of Architecture ; Ahmedabad
968-71 Township for the Electronics Corporation of
India(ECIL)
1969-73 Bhabha Atomic Research Centre(BARC) ; Heavy
Water Project(Kotah) ; Mumbai
1972 National assembly building ; Kuwait
1973-76 Administrative Building for Indian Farmer’s
Fertilizers Co-operation ; Kalol
1974 Life Insurance Corporation of India , middle- and
low-income group housing ; Hydrabad
CHRONOLOGY
1977-79 Shodan villa
1977-85 Indian Institute of Management (IIM) ; Bangalore
1979-87 Administrative Complex for Madhya Pradesh
Electricity Board (MPEB) ; Jabalpur
1979-81 Sangath , Ahmedabad
1980-1984 Gandhi Labour Institute, Ahmedabad
1983-86 Aranya Low Cost Housing , Indore
1984-86 Residence of Mr. Kantilal Parikh , Nasik
1998 Bharat Diamond Bourse (BDB), Mumbai
1998 Tejal House. Built in Vadodara for his daughter.
1998 Khargar , Mumbai
1998 Bandra-Kurla Complex , Mumbai
 PROJECT - 1

PROJECT : 1

School of Architecture , Ahmedabad (1968)

SCHOOL OF ARCHITECTURE , AHMEDABAD
(1968)

• The Centre for Environmental Planning and

Technology (CEPT) was sponsored by the
Ahmadabad Education Society (AFS), a voluntary
non profit organization established in 1935 devoted
to the cause of educational at all levels in several
branches of learning.

• The School of Architecture was started in 1162,

offering an undergraduate programme in
architecture.

• This was followed by a postgraduate programme in

planning under the School of Planning in 1972.

• In 1982, the School of Building Science and

Technology was established.The school of Interior
Design was founded in 1992.
 ‘An open place with hardly any doors’ : Doshi’s dictum for the school
of Architecture expresses the sense of freedom he seeks in his design.

The recesses created by the concrete frame

give shade to the side of the
building and to the rooms within.

The long side of the L-

shaped plan is exposed
to the prevailing wind.
ANGLED WINDOWS LET MORE LIGHT INTO DOUBLE-HEIGHT DRAWING STUDIOS,
GIVING A FILLING OF AIRINESS AND SPACE; SHADED MEETING AREAS PROMOTE
FREE SOCIAL INTERACTION.
 CEPT has a 5-acre campus near Gujarat University
accommodating the Vikaram Sarabhai Community
Science Centre, the Hatheesingh Visual Arts Centre, the
Husain-Doshi Gufa and the Kanoria Centre for Arts.

 Doshi's primary concept for the School of Architecture

was that it should be 'an open place with hardly any
doors.

 To do so, he used an L-shaped configuration based on

parallel bearing walls on a north-south axis to capture
and direct prevailing breezes through the studios, offices,
classrooms.

 Working with the hilly contours of a site that was

occupied by brick kilns when it was purchased by CEPT,
Doshi decided to treat both inside and outside as
educational space, refining Le Corbusier’s notion of the
open area under buildings raised on piloti to become
shaded naturally ventilated gathering areas.
A HARD COURTYARD DRAWS A funnel-shaped entrance under
COOLER AIR UP FROM THE GARDEN the south façade is designed to
BY CONVECTION. direct the breeze through the
building

The space underneath is active

and multi-functional, designed for
sun protection and exposure to
the breeze.
Side elevation. The school is recessed into the
landscape.

NORTH ELEVATION
• This complex presents the shortest, solid elevations to the
hottest east-west axis.

• The longer classroom wing extends to the south and

delineates one edge of a harder-surfaced plaza on the opposite
side of the studio wing, which draws cool air contained in the
green area through the open, shaded rooms below.

• While this partially submerged outdoor room is a favorite

meeting place for students, the entire school is extremely
accessible and user-friendly and always hums with activity.

• The studios are high and airy, with north light from angled
glass monitors, and wide doors which serve more as panels
hinged at the third point, giving unhindered visual access to
the outside and allowing a free flow of air.

• The first impression a visitor has of the School is of this

permeability; this extends to Doshi's familiar outdoor covered
'streets' that are an effective way of joining disparate pieces
together in many of his projects.
COVERED STREETS, SHADED PASSAGES AND OUTDOOR ROOMS ALLOW ‘FREE
SCOPE TO TEACH AND LEARN ANYWHERE’. THESE SHELTERED PORTICOES AND
PROMENADES EVOKE AN ANCIENT GREEK STOA.
 The artists’ studios, near the School of Architecture, are even more
permeable. Their logical balance between an interior studio and exterior
equivalent covered by a concrete frame roof reveals Doshi’s
paramagnetism, and reflects similar range of sources.

 The western component here is more contemporary. The parasols and

concrete 'egg crates' used as a shading device on the Mill Owner's house .

 There is less brick used on the studios and so they have not suffered as
much from the hot, humid climate.

 Its brick surfaces have not fared well over time.

Artist’s studio near the school of

architecture.
Outdoor rooms in the cooler air of
the gardens allow work to continue
in extreme weather conditions.
 PROJECT - 2

PROJECT : 2

Indian Institute of Management, Bangalore, (1977-85)

INDIAN INSTITUTE OF MANAGEMENT, BANGALORE,
(1977-85)

 The Indian Institute of

Management (IIM) Bangalore
is one of four institutes
commissioned by the
government shortly after
Independence to train he
future leaders of a new,
industrialized society.

 The rise of a new middle class

in India in the 1990s is
partially a result of that
decision.
DOSHI ADOPTED THE
Louis khan’s IIM Ahmadabad. 1962-74.
TECHNIQUE FOR HIS
INSTITUTE OF MANAGEMENT
the building is ‘wrapped in ruins’: Kahn
AT BANGALORE. built an envelope around a unit, and
pierced it with wide openings to
provide a ventilated insulating layer.
• Balkrishna Doshi’s IIM in Bangalore, which has been described as
‘critique’ of Kahn’s Ahmedabad Institute, deviates from some basic
principles.

• The main grouping of the campus, which contains Administration offices,

classrooms, laboratories and a Library, is arranged as a datum in a ladder-
like plan along a longitudinal axis, with students dormitories a short
distance away, organized in interlocking squares at an angle to the axis.
•
• What is most striking, however, are the corridors, more appropriately
described as covered pedestrian streets, that join the diverse elements
together.

• These were designed, according to Doshi, to provide innumerable vistas or

focal points for generating a dialogue with oneself.

• These corridors are sometimes open, sometimes with pergolas and

sometimes topped with a glazed skylight. To further heighten the spatial
experience, the width of the corridors was modulated in many places to
allow for casual eating and interaction to take place.
ABOVE SITE PLAN, INDIAN INSTITUTE OF MANAGEMENT BY DOSHI,
BANGALORE.
THE FORECOURT AND ENTRANCE ARE AT THE LOWER LEFT OF THE
PLAN. DORMITORIES
ARE ARRANGED DIAGONALLY AROUND AN INTERLOCKING SERIES OF
COURTYARDS, IN THE
UPPER PART OF THE PLAN. THE MAIN AREA - CLASSROOMS AND
FACULTY BUILDINGS -
IS A COMPLEX OF COURTYARDS LINKED BY REMARKABLE WALKWAYS
OR INTERNAL ‘STREETS’ ,SOME COVERED, SOME OPEN TO THE SKY,
CREATING 'INNUMERABLE VISTAS OR FOCAL POINTS FOR GENERATING
A DIALOGUE WITH ONESELF (DOSHI).
ELEVATIONS. THE INSTITUTE RESEMBLES CITY IN MINIATURE,
ENCLOSED WITHIN A SINGLE UNIFYING FORM.
ONE INTERESTING ASPECT
OF THE FATEHPUR SIKRI
AS A MODEL IS THAT ON
INITIAL INSPECTION THE
OVERALL SITE PLAN SEEMS
TO BE BASED ON A
PRINCIPLE SIMILAR TO THE
INTERLOCKING CORNERS.
STRIATED LIGHT EFFECTS MAKE
DRAMATIC VISTAS. CORRIDORS OF
Staircase, showing Doshi’s dramatic use of
COLUMNS BENEATH CONCRETE modern materials to create an effect that is
PERGOLAS CREATE A RHYTHMIC simultaneously monumental, airy and light.
PROGRESSION OF LIGHT AND SHADOW.

Windows shaded by
concrete eaves.
 SECTIONS

Plan of pedestrian walkways.

 PROJECT - 3

PROJECT : 3

Sangath, Ahmedabad, (1979-81)

 SANGATH, AHMEDABAD, (1979-81)
 The fame that Balkrishna Doshi enjoys in India
is not universal, but Sangath is the best-known
of all his work internationally.

 Sangath, which means 'moving together through

participation' in Sanskrit, is a village-like enclave of distinct
rectangular volumes aligned along a north-south axis inside
a lush green compound on the outskirts of Ahmedabad.

 The participation it is intended to foster transcends the

production of architecture and is described by the
inherent as 'the encouragement of activities in the fine
and technological arts'.

 Doshi encourages fine-arts exhibitions and has provided

space for craft workshops.

 The name of his firm, the Vastu-Shilpa Foundation, is

Sanskrit for 'design of the environment'.
  The central court and
amphitheatre at Sangath is used for
lectures and discussions under the
green canopy that surrounds and
shades it.

 Water running through a wide trough

spills off the roof in a waterfall just
behind the amphitheatre seating,
contributing to the elemental
framework completed by the
material used to build the office.

 The first two ranks of rectilinear

forms of Sangath on the west are
dug into the earth as physical
Protection against the severe
summer heat.

 The ranks rise up toward the east as

Amphitheatre, Sangath. the deck does, just at the angled
mid-line created by the waterfall.
 The vaults, which are primary architectural features and
impressions of the studio ensemble, are also made of
sandwiched layers of fibrocement and ceramic ‘fuses’,
or strands of clay, which were pressed together to
become the framework for a concrete shell applied by
hand on top of it.

 In one of the first instances of a detail

that has since become a centerpiece of Doshi’s tectonic
language, the waterproofed surface of the shells was
then covered with pieces of broken china.

 The hand labour and time required to do this are extensive and
only conceivable and affordable in a country in which
wage levels are very low and there is a well established
history of meticulous detailed handicraft.
GLAZED CERAMIC
FRAGMENTS SET INTO THE
OUTER SURFACE REFLECT
HEAT AND GLARE FROM THE The amphitheatre court.
SUN.
SITE PLAN ,SANGATH
 WATER CASCADES INTO A DESCENDING SERIES OF POOLS
AND CHANNELS.
LIGHT, SHADE, WATER AND AIR ASPECTS OF THE
NATURAL ELEMENTS ARE CELEBRATED IN AND AROUND
THE BUILDING.

Vaulted roofs resemble those Doshi

had seen in Egypt. They cover an
interlinked network of rooms below
the ground; this affords protection
from the heat , and presents a low
profile.
GROUND FLOOR PLAN

First floor plan

SECTIONS AND ELEVATIONS. THE LOW PROFILE OF THE VAULTED
ROOFS CONCEALS A NETWORK OF INTERCONNECTED SPACES,
EXTENDING BELOW GROUND LEVEL. THE VARYING ROOF HEIGHTS
INSIDE, FROM SINGLE TO DOUBLE AND TRIPLE-HEIGHT ROOMS, ARE
REMINISCENT OF UNDERGROUND CAVES.
 IN SHADY GARDENS. TERRACOTTA POTS LINK RUSTIC MATERIALS AND THE
BUILT FORM. TRADITIONAL AND MODERN FORMS ARE HARMONIOUSLY
COMBINED.

Water cascades from a fountain into a The whole building has a satisfying
series of channels, which, like other proportion and balance, yet is also
outer surfaces, are covered with characterized by an uneven rhythm
glazed china pieces. and asymmetry that allies it naturally
with its environment.
 PROJECT - 4

PROJECT : 4
National Institute of Fashion Technology
New Delhi, 1997
NATIONAL INSTITUTE OF FASHION TECHNOLOGY NEW DELHI,
1997

 The fashion industry in India is a

mainstay of its rapidly expanding
economy Its increasing prominence
is a natural consequence of its
historical leadership in textile
design and production, in which it
also retains an impressive
international market share.
 To encourage the last-growing
garment industry, the government
of India decided to establish a
National institute of Fashion
Technology (NIFT) in Delhi to
provide education in clothing design
as a service to the ready-made
garment industry.
 New research in this field in keeping with India's cultural
heritage, and training personnel in the field of garment
marketing were also important objectives of the project.

 The institute was visualized as an international fashion centre

and, more importantly, as a prototypical agency promoting
regional institutes all over India to encourage local talent and
resources, and to enrich the national garment designer and
manufacturing industry.

 It had to be easily accessible to local and foreign professionals,

visitors and buyers.

 A centrally located site of 3.5 acres in Hauz Khas was selected,

but due to encroachments and other technical difficulties, the site
was constricted to 2.87 acres (11,642 square metres).
GROUND FLOOR PLAN. REGULAR OFFICE BUILDINGS ARE WEDDED TO THE
IRREGULAR SHAPE OF THE SITE BY ENHANCING UNEVEN NATURAL FEATURES
IN THE INNER COURT, WHICH DESCENDS IN A SERIES OF STEPS AT THE
CENTRE OF THE PLAN.
THE SITE IS SURROUNDED BY HOUSING AND
INSTITUTIONAL BUILDINGS
A GLAZED WALKWAY OF REFLECTIVE
GLASS LOOKS DOWN INTO THE SUNKEN Angled glazed
COURT. surfaces of the
administration block

Glazed walkways overlooking the sunken court.

THE FACADE, SEEN THROUGH
View from above the
OPEN WALKWAYS.
sunken court.
SECTION SHOWING THE TWO BLOCKS JOINED BY THE
BRIDGE. THE UPPER FLOORS OF THE ADMINISTRATION
BLOCK ON THE LEFT OVERHANGING THE LOWER
FLOORS, AS IN THE ARCHITECTURE OF TRADITIONAL
HAVELIS.
 CONCLUSION
His early association with the two of the most influential ‘form
givers’ in modern architecture, Le-Cobusier & Louis Khan , has
made an indelible impression on him and provides the key to a
substantial understanding of his approach.

Doshi’s work is a compelling mixture of the modern and

the traditional , containing the most fundamental aspects
of each , without being deflected by superficial forms.

He sites that ‘mythical sense of space’ is not simply

confined to open or closed areas. Space can be ‘modified
according to the desire of the perceiver’ and is never
static.