Oh, and this is the DVD artwork for The Second Chapter. Screening on 20th September, 2019, at Bangalore International Centre.
Sunday, September 1, 2019
So, here we go again!
Wednesday, August 28, 2019
Doshi: The Second Chapter
Doshi: The Second Chapter was screened at the Frame Conclave Modern Heritage Design Conference in August. The response was overwhelmingly positive. The journey marks a serendipitous ten year cycle of cosmic interventions and revelations. Shoot took place on two schedules. First in June 17 & 18 and then July 16, 17, 18 & 19. Editing and Music Production commenced end July and the final cut was ready by August 10th. The premiere took place at the Cardium Auditorium, Dona Paula, on the 18th of August, as a closer to the festival and was attended by several stalwarts in the field of architecture and art. Thank You Ruturaj Parikh for the GaneshHands. :)
Monday, August 5, 2019
Tuesday, June 25, 2019
"Doshi" Review on archdaily.com
Balkrishna Doshi, despite his vast number of completed projects, is a little-known name in the Western world. Directed by Premjit Ramachandran, the documentary "Doshi" allows the viewer to appreciate the vision of this important Indian architect, probing his thoughts while getting to know a number of his projects. Filmed in a frank style of conversation, the documentary reveals an original and creative human being who, even in old age, remains passionate about architecture as well as life and learning.
The film becomes a roundtable with Doshi, his alumni, his contemporaries and even family members, all within the context of his architecture. The camera follows its protagonist through spaces designed by him, while he narrates, recalls and explains his processes of creation. It also reveals how he makes his philosophy an intrinsic part of his own life.
The film becomes a roundtable with Doshi, his alumni, his contemporaries and even family members, all within the context of his architecture. The camera follows its protagonist through spaces designed by him, while he narrates, recalls and explains his processes of creation. It also reveals how he makes his philosophy an intrinsic part of his own life.
Doshi II / The Return To Formlessness
It marks also a full circle 2009 to 2019. I have experienced a thousand lifetimes in these last ten years. We shot using the same Canon XH-A1 that Gautam gifted us back in 2008. Cosmic conclusions floating in the etheric spaces everywhere. And now with the magnetic presence of Arunachalam in my life, this time I am curious to see what comes out of this exercise in timelessness!
Wednesday, March 28, 2012
Doshi Review: Perch
At one point in the documentary Doshi, Balkrishna Doshi explains his influences saying, “ it’s like I’m eating the food by the best chefs, but I am digesting it. How you digest your food and make it part of your blood and body is up to you.” As one of the few Indian architects known and respected internationally, Doshi is often introduced as a man who trained in his craft under Le Corbusier and Louis Kahn, a pronouncement that though accurate, tends to attribute his achievement to their personalities rather than his own talent. Shot in a candid, conversational style, the film overturns this presumption, showing us a highly original, creative human being who at age 84, is still as much in love with architecture as he is with life and learning.
A personal undertaking for architect Premjit Ramachandran with filmmaker Bijoy Ramachandran of 100 Hands, Doshi is a film about an architect, but it is also a film about a teacher and a father. Rather than show us bland shots of buildings, the camera follows him through their spaces as he narrates, reminisces and explains the process of creating them. We enter his home and discover how he made his philosophy an intricate part of his own life. The film becomes a round table discussion with him, his former students, contemporaries and even family members, all in the backdrop of his architecture. I could almost imagine myself sitting under a great big tree in the CEPT courtyard, drinking chai and listen to him talk.
By itself,the film is remarkable for the number of quotable quotes it throws at you and I found myself struggling to keep pace with them all. Ideas like “architecture is about transformation” can sound like glib proselytizing until one realises that these concepts are the result of a lifetime of distillation. Doshi’s ideas are not borrowed, but they come from an open minded – though deliberate – assimilation of influences. “Le Corbusier was like a guru to me,” he says. “And because he was my guru, I decided that I could not copy him.” He freely acknowledges his teachers and perhaps it is only appropriate that through the medium of this documentary, his students willingly acknowledge him as well.
Doshi began his career soon after independence. In the early 1950s Jawaharlal Nehru’s vision for a modern, self reliant and confident Indian was the inspiration for a great many institutions and initiatives. The School of Architecture, together with ISRO, NID and IIM, made Ahmedabad a hotbed for innovation and experimentation with its founder Doshi and his counterparts at the vanguard. These institutions sought out a harmonised way forward for modern India, one that would combine Western tendencies with local sensibilities. A deep understanding of the past and a comfortable relationship with the present was the only way that India could invent a sustainable future for herself, was their belief. Explaining his philosophy, Doshi quotes Gandhi, “open the windows but see that your roof is not blown out, make sure that the foundations are strong.”
Combining his early work experience at Le Corbusier’s studio in Paris with his own research into native Indian architecture, he introduced a unique form of modernism to the country that remained sensitive to the Indian context of community and environment. He cites the temples of Madhurai as his learning grounds for lessons on rhythm and composition, just as he attributes his work ethic to Le Corbusier. As the founder Dean of Centre for Environmental Planning and Technology (CEPT) in Ahmedabad he influenced generations of architects in the country: whether as an institution builder, teacher or academician. His own practice, the Vastu-Shilpa Foundation for Studies and Research in Environmental Design pioneered work in affordable housing and city planning. Doshi was eventually awarded the Padma Shri in 1976 in recognition for his services to architecture.
Cut to the present day, and Doshi is disappointed by what he sees around him. It appears to him as though architecture has fallen into the hands of developers as architects themselves find it increasingly difficult to question the demands of anxious capitalism. “What can you give me, for how much money and in how much time?” – these, he says, are the concerns of a culture obsessed with products rather than process. Lamenting the lack of institutions and community spaces he wonders what the legacy of contemporary architecture will be. “Heritage is not just ancient monuments,” he says, “it is everything around us.” He was sitting at the inimitable monument of Sarkhej Roza outside Ahmedabad as he said this, but I felt a resonance with his ideas when I considered the glass and steel buildings one has to encounter on the highway that leads to this historic site.
As a young design student in Ahmedabad it was impossible not to encounter the ripples that Doshi has left in the creative mantle of the city: in every quest to understand space, volume and mass, I was directed to architecture that he had hand in building. Experiencing the CEPT campus, the Husain-Doshi Gufa, the IIM Ahmedabad campus and his studio Sangath became part of my education as a designer. I feel as though Doshi has been my teacher as well. If his buildings are demonstrations in the practice of design, then this film is a discourse in its philosophy. I would recommend it to anyone looking for an Indian way of doing, making, creating and building for there are few people who have so articulately done that very Indian thing that Doshi talks about: sampling the best of everything the world has to offer and making it your own.
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Perch
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Perch
Friday, March 23, 2012
"Doshi" at the 361 degree conference, Mumbai, 17th March, 2012
We had a very nice screening of the film at the Indian Architects and Builders conference 361 Degrees. Here is one of the letters from one of the students who watched the film.
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Tuesday, September 28, 2010
Random Review: MBA Student, IIMB
My batch mate: Sir, what’s the idea behind the architecture of IIMB?
B. V. Doshi: What do you feel? Do you feel free or confined…
My batch mate : Free
B.V. Doshi : Can you see the sunlight changing through the sky? Can you see the shadows playing inside? Do you feel inside the classroom or outside ?
The auditorium erupted in claps…it was the QnA session with Mr. B.V. Doshi after the screening of the movie ‘Doshi’ by Mr.Premjit Ramachandran at the auditorium of IIM Bangalore. Mr. Premjit and Mr. Bijoy Ramachandran, both were present too.
Now, back to the man and the evening. Have you ever felt to really thank God that you were given the opportunity to be somewhere where you would have wanted to be? I felt that way. The word privilege is just not enough. I could actually relate to her daughter when she said in movie that she just felt blessed. Blessings it was. Here was a man sitting in front of us who is undoubtedly one of India’s finest architect,one who has achieved almost everything in life the way he wanted, one who shakes the inside of you while speaking of frugality and simplicity and the heritage of India, yet listen to the words in which he describes himself -
“I am not an architect, that’s the problem…I am not an architect. For me it’s a search, only a search. Search for that unknown that I have not known, neither I know how it will manifest. That’s actually the essence of my work. It begins somewhere, ends somewhere. And in that process, I grow and the work grows. We grow together.”
There was no doubt that to be there inside the marvellous IIM Bangalore campus and listen to the man who created it, was an inexplicable feeling. It was mixing of so many emotions, like the way his designs let sunshine, shadows, breeze, rhythm and freedom to form a subtle harmony. You needn’t be an architect to feel this. Instead the feeling it could grow inside you or me or anyone is one of his greatest achievements, in my point of view.The movie depicted various stages of his life, his early struggle, his achievements in subsequent phases, his lifestyle, his family, his home and many many people awed and inspired and felt blessed by him. But what struck me most what his ideology. He talks about India being not centric, it being the best in achieving beauty through frugality. You could not only see but feel the simplicity. When he talks about God and its creation you feel pious inside. Like when he says–when you make a home for someone, think it as the man’s temple to offer prayer to God. How can you make his temple bad just because he is not so rich? Or when he says- all human beings are inherently compassionate and loveable animal, highly sophisticated. It opens up new horizons in your mind, lets new light come in. Another instance was when in replying to one question he said that the idea of using the word ‘home’ instead of ‘flat’ could actually bring the change in present material mindset towards housings. He told the importance of trees and steps in architecture to him as they tell him about the childhood days. Such simple thinking is so rare to see nowadays. I think his answer to the enquiry about his favourite architectural instance sums these all up best. His answer was - “My home”.
It would never end discussing the man and his life and the evening. I can go on and on and on… but all good things come to an end. So, here are three quotes to draw the curtains…..
“I have learned from Doshi the way to be ….yourself….always” - An admirer (I apologize for my failing memory)
“I think architecture is a matter of transformation. Transformation of all adverse situations into favourable conditions” – B.V.Doshi
“See Corbusier told me once, which I think is important that, even where there is somebody standing behind you, who is better than you and you are answerable to him” – B.V.Doshi
B. V. Doshi: What do you feel? Do you feel free or confined…
My batch mate : Free
B.V. Doshi : Can you see the sunlight changing through the sky? Can you see the shadows playing inside? Do you feel inside the classroom or outside ?
The auditorium erupted in claps…it was the QnA session with Mr. B.V. Doshi after the screening of the movie ‘Doshi’ by Mr.Premjit Ramachandran at the auditorium of IIM Bangalore. Mr. Premjit and Mr. Bijoy Ramachandran, both were present too.
Now, back to the man and the evening. Have you ever felt to really thank God that you were given the opportunity to be somewhere where you would have wanted to be? I felt that way. The word privilege is just not enough. I could actually relate to her daughter when she said in movie that she just felt blessed. Blessings it was. Here was a man sitting in front of us who is undoubtedly one of India’s finest architect,one who has achieved almost everything in life the way he wanted, one who shakes the inside of you while speaking of frugality and simplicity and the heritage of India, yet listen to the words in which he describes himself -
“I am not an architect, that’s the problem…I am not an architect. For me it’s a search, only a search. Search for that unknown that I have not known, neither I know how it will manifest. That’s actually the essence of my work. It begins somewhere, ends somewhere. And in that process, I grow and the work grows. We grow together.”
There was no doubt that to be there inside the marvellous IIM Bangalore campus and listen to the man who created it, was an inexplicable feeling. It was mixing of so many emotions, like the way his designs let sunshine, shadows, breeze, rhythm and freedom to form a subtle harmony. You needn’t be an architect to feel this. Instead the feeling it could grow inside you or me or anyone is one of his greatest achievements, in my point of view.The movie depicted various stages of his life, his early struggle, his achievements in subsequent phases, his lifestyle, his family, his home and many many people awed and inspired and felt blessed by him. But what struck me most what his ideology. He talks about India being not centric, it being the best in achieving beauty through frugality. You could not only see but feel the simplicity. When he talks about God and its creation you feel pious inside. Like when he says–when you make a home for someone, think it as the man’s temple to offer prayer to God. How can you make his temple bad just because he is not so rich? Or when he says- all human beings are inherently compassionate and loveable animal, highly sophisticated. It opens up new horizons in your mind, lets new light come in. Another instance was when in replying to one question he said that the idea of using the word ‘home’ instead of ‘flat’ could actually bring the change in present material mindset towards housings. He told the importance of trees and steps in architecture to him as they tell him about the childhood days. Such simple thinking is so rare to see nowadays. I think his answer to the enquiry about his favourite architectural instance sums these all up best. His answer was - “My home”.
It would never end discussing the man and his life and the evening. I can go on and on and on… but all good things come to an end. So, here are three quotes to draw the curtains…..
“I have learned from Doshi the way to be ….yourself….always” - An admirer (I apologize for my failing memory)
“I think architecture is a matter of transformation. Transformation of all adverse situations into favourable conditions” – B.V.Doshi
“See Corbusier told me once, which I think is important that, even where there is somebody standing behind you, who is better than you and you are answerable to him” – B.V.Doshi
Tuesday, September 14, 2010
Tuesday, August 3, 2010
Monday, June 21, 2010
Doshi/Bristol
In association with Arnolfini, this is the first in a series of screenings which will introduce key international architects.
A labour of love for its director, Premjit Ramachandran, this is an insightful and much-needed portrait of the low-cost-housing pioneer and architect Balkrishna Doshi. Doshi has led the evolution of contemporary Indian architecture, interpreting the modernist ideals of his former boss, Le Corbusier, and working within the constraints of the local conditions of site, climate and available technology.
Link.
A labour of love for its director, Premjit Ramachandran, this is an insightful and much-needed portrait of the low-cost-housing pioneer and architect Balkrishna Doshi. Doshi has led the evolution of contemporary Indian architecture, interpreting the modernist ideals of his former boss, Le Corbusier, and working within the constraints of the local conditions of site, climate and available technology.
Link.
Thursday, June 17, 2010
Friday, May 28, 2010
Review: Sydney Morning Herald
The film “Doshi” follows the life and work of the famous Indian Architect Balkrishna Doshi and was conceived directed and scored by Premjit Ramachandran and Bijoy Ramachandran of 100hands who are based in Bangalore.
Doshi worked with Louis Kahn and Le Corbusier, two of the giants of 20th century architecture. Both had a profound effect on his work and life and modern day India, however he has sought to reinterpret this modernism of Europe and America to local conditions and climate, site and available technology.
At 81 years old Doshi is still very much engaged in building and in life and we are offered more than a simple outline of his work. The film and commentary give you an insight into the history and transformation of one of the 21st Centuries superpowers and the means by which its people have moved from a relatively agrarian and feudal society into a modern and technologically advanced country. It does so through the medium of architecture but I imagine the same may be applied to many areas of intellectual and technological activity.
Le Corbusier went to India to design Chandigarh, a capital city for the newly created state of the Punjab, and a post-independence symbol of progress and modernity. Doshi was a young architect at the time and worked for Le Corbusier on this and other projects in India. He thoroughly learned the lessons of modernism, but in time has modified these models with his particular understandings of the Indian way of life and its people. "India", he suggests contemplatively, "has survived and celebrated through a particular frugalness... by ingeniously finding several ways of using the same thing", this can be applied to clothing, furniture, buildings, music and technology.
His own office Sagath which in Sanskrit means moving together through participation is in essence a village, “trees, gardens and steps” and offers a real insight into how the outside world and influences are consumed, understood and reconstituted as his own. In this building or more accurately institution, you can see the influences, Chinese mosaic, Gaudi, Frank Lloyd Wright, Le Corbusier, “everything is there.... It is like a good food that you enjoy but made by the best chefs, But you are the one that is digesting this food. You have to convert this into your own blood and your own life.. Borrow everything and finally become yourself" ... Gandhi put it this way, “open the windows but see that your roof is not blown out, make sure that the foundations are strong. “…. You have to be deep inside an Indian who is frugal, who can invent, who can take a chance and who can starve”.
His institutional buildings, his schools, his low cost housing, his own home, all show a profound understanding of architecture but also of people, how they live and connect. He is full of reverence and with an Indian take on the meaning of "God", who is still profoundly wound up with his belief system and understanding of life.
“Life is to be lived not regulated” he states. But he has concerns for the future, he laments that much of the architects time is now taken up with mundane survival. “What can you give me, for how much money and in how much time?” The pragmatism of modern capitalism is also being felt in Doshi’s life and work. He notes that increasingly we are interested in conclusions; we have no time to understand process. “How can you enjoy the food if you have not aware of how it was cooked and how it all came together.”
He also asks us to consider the future and the past comparatively. How did people in the past have such profound understandings of material, scale, the size and even the kind of elaboration and joy of working you witness in ancient monuments? A place to sit, a place to rest your hand, “how come we do not think of this public realm today?” he asks.
In modern India he laments the lack of institutions, of communities, of civic spaces that inspire you. “What will we have to show as our heritage, our contemporary heritage? Yes you may have a beautiful house but what is outside it? What kind of street? Car parking, hotels, entertainment of a cheap type... we want to be alone isolated and enjoy ourselves, socially relevant architecture I do not think we have anymore, institutional architecture is gone.”
The architectural profession has become submissive and has nothing to do with society at large, Doshi feels, and apart from rare instances this is may also be true in our own society. What value to we place on the public realm? This is a beautiful film that offers some very relevant insights into the production of great architecture, institutions and what age and wisdom brings to a truly creative life.
Link.
Doshi worked with Louis Kahn and Le Corbusier, two of the giants of 20th century architecture. Both had a profound effect on his work and life and modern day India, however he has sought to reinterpret this modernism of Europe and America to local conditions and climate, site and available technology.
At 81 years old Doshi is still very much engaged in building and in life and we are offered more than a simple outline of his work. The film and commentary give you an insight into the history and transformation of one of the 21st Centuries superpowers and the means by which its people have moved from a relatively agrarian and feudal society into a modern and technologically advanced country. It does so through the medium of architecture but I imagine the same may be applied to many areas of intellectual and technological activity.
Le Corbusier went to India to design Chandigarh, a capital city for the newly created state of the Punjab, and a post-independence symbol of progress and modernity. Doshi was a young architect at the time and worked for Le Corbusier on this and other projects in India. He thoroughly learned the lessons of modernism, but in time has modified these models with his particular understandings of the Indian way of life and its people. "India", he suggests contemplatively, "has survived and celebrated through a particular frugalness... by ingeniously finding several ways of using the same thing", this can be applied to clothing, furniture, buildings, music and technology.
His own office Sagath which in Sanskrit means moving together through participation is in essence a village, “trees, gardens and steps” and offers a real insight into how the outside world and influences are consumed, understood and reconstituted as his own. In this building or more accurately institution, you can see the influences, Chinese mosaic, Gaudi, Frank Lloyd Wright, Le Corbusier, “everything is there.... It is like a good food that you enjoy but made by the best chefs, But you are the one that is digesting this food. You have to convert this into your own blood and your own life.. Borrow everything and finally become yourself" ... Gandhi put it this way, “open the windows but see that your roof is not blown out, make sure that the foundations are strong. “…. You have to be deep inside an Indian who is frugal, who can invent, who can take a chance and who can starve”.
His institutional buildings, his schools, his low cost housing, his own home, all show a profound understanding of architecture but also of people, how they live and connect. He is full of reverence and with an Indian take on the meaning of "God", who is still profoundly wound up with his belief system and understanding of life.
“Life is to be lived not regulated” he states. But he has concerns for the future, he laments that much of the architects time is now taken up with mundane survival. “What can you give me, for how much money and in how much time?” The pragmatism of modern capitalism is also being felt in Doshi’s life and work. He notes that increasingly we are interested in conclusions; we have no time to understand process. “How can you enjoy the food if you have not aware of how it was cooked and how it all came together.”
He also asks us to consider the future and the past comparatively. How did people in the past have such profound understandings of material, scale, the size and even the kind of elaboration and joy of working you witness in ancient monuments? A place to sit, a place to rest your hand, “how come we do not think of this public realm today?” he asks.
In modern India he laments the lack of institutions, of communities, of civic spaces that inspire you. “What will we have to show as our heritage, our contemporary heritage? Yes you may have a beautiful house but what is outside it? What kind of street? Car parking, hotels, entertainment of a cheap type... we want to be alone isolated and enjoy ourselves, socially relevant architecture I do not think we have anymore, institutional architecture is gone.”
The architectural profession has become submissive and has nothing to do with society at large, Doshi feels, and apart from rare instances this is may also be true in our own society. What value to we place on the public realm? This is a beautiful film that offers some very relevant insights into the production of great architecture, institutions and what age and wisdom brings to a truly creative life.
Link.
Thursday, November 26, 2009
Doshi / BNCA / Pune
'Doshi' was screened in Pune at the IUCAA Auditorium on the 22nd of November. Dr. Bhanuben Nanavati College for Architecture for Women (BNCA) organized the event. The film was shown with 'Beginnings' and 'Karma' as bookends. Mr. BV. Doshi, Mr. Samar Nakhate, Mr. Nachiket Patwardhan and the two of us discussed the film after the show. BNCA has initiated an annual Kanvinde Memorial Lecture and this was the inaugural event along with a lecture by Mr. Doshi on Mr. Achyut Kanvinde's work.
Monday, October 19, 2009
Building Design, London
Doshi
Directed by Premjit Ramachandran
100 Hands
4 Stars
Doshi, directed by Bangalore-based film-maker Premjit Ramachandran, captures the intense energy and enigma behind the seminal Indian architect, now 82. Gripping interviews with Balkrishna Doshi, his former students, practitioners (including Graham Morrison of Allies & Morrison) and family members deal with critical questions on working as an architect within the Indian context.
Doshi has made an immense contribution to contemporary practice and polemic in India, which has been well documented in two monographs and countless publications. What is different about the film is that it is also about the philosophical underpinnings that inform the stuff of life, where architecture has a small but significant place.
Doshi looks with almost mystical wonder at the sequence of events that has led to where he is today. He stumbled into studying architecture at the suggestion of a schoolteacher. Later he travelled to London in 1951 to find himself participating in the activities of the Congrès International d’Architecture Moderne (CIAM). There he was offered his first job with Le Corbusier in Paris, who was designing Chandigarh at the time.
“Corbusier had a profound impact on Doshi”, says Ramachandran, “but he has always sought to interpret Corbusier’s modernism through local conditions of site, climate and available technology.”
Apart from the practice of architecture, his most significant achievements include setting up two important institutions in Ahmedabad, Gujarat: the Centre for Environment, Planning & Technology (CEPT) in 1962, one of India’s best architecture schools; and the Vastu Shilpa Foundation in 1972, which conducts pioneering research into sustainability, traditional Indian settlements and available technology. He was also responsible for inviting Louis Kahn to design a campus for the Indian Institute of Management in Ahmedabad.
The conversations explore the ideological foundations that ground his work. Sustainability, which is fundamental to his thinking, is practised in a holistic way ingeniously working with not only local climate, topography, availability of materials and skills — as seen at Sangath, his studio — but also in the adaptive quality of the built environment. Here the ability for incremental growth means that communities can thrive over generations without losing architectural quality — as seen at the LIC housing project in Ahmedabad.
This aspect, completely alien to UK nimbyism, is also not easily found in the works of Doshi’s contemporaries in India. His fascination with how people behave in public space, including memories of his own childhood “always wanting to be outside, playing” gave spatial order to the campus for CEPT and the Indian Institute of Management, Bangalore. It was here that he set up the right conditions for social interaction between students.
“His ability to at once tackle architecture as both a modern structured and rigorous artefact as well as an intangible, archaic and philosophical idea made the work seem more rooted than his contemporaries,” says Bijoy Ramachandran, who conceived and researched the film.
The film ends with Doshi at Sarkhej, an ambitious 15th century “heritage” complex in Gujarat, asking larger questions on the role of the professional in making a socially relevant architecture, where communities can rejoice in the public realm. Submissiveness to the developer is not a problem restricted to India only, and so his question gains an international significance: “What, ideologically, is our contemporary heritage?”
The film’s only missed opportunity is that it fails to acknowledge the team behind the name. Some of the testimonies are reminiscent of those in My Architect, the film about Louis Kahn, where mesmerised individuals fervently eulogise the film’s subject, which viewers may find difficult. Despite this, the critical content, delectable cinematography and musical score leave you inspired.
Link.
Directed by Premjit Ramachandran
100 Hands
4 Stars
Doshi, directed by Bangalore-based film-maker Premjit Ramachandran, captures the intense energy and enigma behind the seminal Indian architect, now 82. Gripping interviews with Balkrishna Doshi, his former students, practitioners (including Graham Morrison of Allies & Morrison) and family members deal with critical questions on working as an architect within the Indian context.
Doshi has made an immense contribution to contemporary practice and polemic in India, which has been well documented in two monographs and countless publications. What is different about the film is that it is also about the philosophical underpinnings that inform the stuff of life, where architecture has a small but significant place.
Doshi looks with almost mystical wonder at the sequence of events that has led to where he is today. He stumbled into studying architecture at the suggestion of a schoolteacher. Later he travelled to London in 1951 to find himself participating in the activities of the Congrès International d’Architecture Moderne (CIAM). There he was offered his first job with Le Corbusier in Paris, who was designing Chandigarh at the time.
“Corbusier had a profound impact on Doshi”, says Ramachandran, “but he has always sought to interpret Corbusier’s modernism through local conditions of site, climate and available technology.”
Apart from the practice of architecture, his most significant achievements include setting up two important institutions in Ahmedabad, Gujarat: the Centre for Environment, Planning & Technology (CEPT) in 1962, one of India’s best architecture schools; and the Vastu Shilpa Foundation in 1972, which conducts pioneering research into sustainability, traditional Indian settlements and available technology. He was also responsible for inviting Louis Kahn to design a campus for the Indian Institute of Management in Ahmedabad.
The conversations explore the ideological foundations that ground his work. Sustainability, which is fundamental to his thinking, is practised in a holistic way ingeniously working with not only local climate, topography, availability of materials and skills — as seen at Sangath, his studio — but also in the adaptive quality of the built environment. Here the ability for incremental growth means that communities can thrive over generations without losing architectural quality — as seen at the LIC housing project in Ahmedabad.
This aspect, completely alien to UK nimbyism, is also not easily found in the works of Doshi’s contemporaries in India. His fascination with how people behave in public space, including memories of his own childhood “always wanting to be outside, playing” gave spatial order to the campus for CEPT and the Indian Institute of Management, Bangalore. It was here that he set up the right conditions for social interaction between students.
“His ability to at once tackle architecture as both a modern structured and rigorous artefact as well as an intangible, archaic and philosophical idea made the work seem more rooted than his contemporaries,” says Bijoy Ramachandran, who conceived and researched the film.
The film ends with Doshi at Sarkhej, an ambitious 15th century “heritage” complex in Gujarat, asking larger questions on the role of the professional in making a socially relevant architecture, where communities can rejoice in the public realm. Submissiveness to the developer is not a problem restricted to India only, and so his question gains an international significance: “What, ideologically, is our contemporary heritage?”
The film’s only missed opportunity is that it fails to acknowledge the team behind the name. Some of the testimonies are reminiscent of those in My Architect, the film about Louis Kahn, where mesmerised individuals fervently eulogise the film’s subject, which viewers may find difficult. Despite this, the critical content, delectable cinematography and musical score leave you inspired.
Link.
Saturday, October 3, 2009
Monday, August 31, 2009
Friday, May 8, 2009
Sale
The DVD (+Audio CD) will be available for sale from the 15th of May. Contact Hundredhands at 080-25593606 (or email touch@hundredhands.com) to get hold of a copy. :)
Sunday, May 3, 2009
The Final Cut
The film is now officially complete. No more going back to the drawing board. All the drawing is done, the hands have tired. We went back to the original cut, made it a little tighter (its now 74 minutes long) and added a few more photographs, done a bit of juggling in the structure. I must say its looking quite nice now. I have seen the film over a 100 times and I still enjoy Mr. D's voice (and Bijoy and me know every single word in the film).
There was a screening at MLR Convention Centre on the 1st of May. The response was fantastic. The students loved it and we had a lovely Q&A after. These things feel good. Unfortunately Bijoy wasn't there with me. I took Prakash along instead. We are planning another bigger screening on the 15th. Lets see if it pans out. The DVD's will be available for sale. And as a special extra, it comes along with the original soundtrack of the film and two short films on Doshi's beginnings and his outlook on the Bharat Diamond Bourse collapse. Both very engaging, even more thanks to Mr. Trent Reznor's themes.
So, there...
There was a screening at MLR Convention Centre on the 1st of May. The response was fantastic. The students loved it and we had a lovely Q&A after. These things feel good. Unfortunately Bijoy wasn't there with me. I took Prakash along instead. We are planning another bigger screening on the 15th. Lets see if it pans out. The DVD's will be available for sale. And as a special extra, it comes along with the original soundtrack of the film and two short films on Doshi's beginnings and his outlook on the Bharat Diamond Bourse collapse. Both very engaging, even more thanks to Mr. Trent Reznor's themes.
So, there...
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