Report: Pioneer of Modern Indian Architecture

© Vinay Panjwani
© Vinay Panjwani
© Vastushilpa Foundation
© Vastushilpa Foundation
With increasing globalization, the blank patches on the map of world architecture are slowly disappearing. More and more countries are emancipating themselves from the dogma of Western modernism and recalling their traditional roots. Forty years after the founding of the Pritzker Prize, therefore, it is only right and just that it has finally been awarded to an architect from India.

Balkrishna Doshi, now 91 years of age, has played a leading role in shaping the transition from a modernism imported from the West to the work of a generation of self-assured, socially engaged Indian architects. In his 70 years of professional activity, he has implemented more than 100 schemes – from his own small-scale atelier dwelling to large housing developments for 80,000 people.