The Looking Glass Years

The touchstone: 50 years. The anniversary: 20 years. And a role reversal. Inside Outside, the countrys premier design magazine celebrated two decades of publishing with an issue on five decades of architectural design somewhat inappropriately titled From Khadi to Lalique, particularly since the opposite seems to have been more true.

However. There is no denying that IO is particularly well suited for documenting the eponymous history of the design movement in India, if indeed such a thing has happened. As Patwant Singh, editor of the now defunct Design magazine of the 50s, says, No one, not even people of any sophistication or understanding knew much about architecture, and so didnt quite know how to go about discussing it.

 

Respectable or not, Indias independence coincided with what was a major architectural movement around the world. Lutyens Delhi was probably the last classically laid city anywhere in the world. The era that followed was that of Le Corbusier and his Chandigarh was to become a major force in Indian architecture, though decades later it seems to have become a point of critical discussion. Louis Kahns presence in Ahmedabad was no less impressive. Sadly, though India was spending crores on buildings, including highrises, the mark of architects like Philip Johnson was hardly felt.

The anniversary issue of IO doesnt start strictly with 1947, but with Rashtrapati Bhawan and Edwin Lutyens, now a point of abiding interest with designer Sunita Kohli whose restoration work on the former viceregal palace and involvement with the trusts and projects studying Lutyens are no secret.

What is interesting is the magazines attempt to trace the architectural design history of the country through the decades, not necessarily as waves of influence but in a more cut and dried and well catalogues fashion.

The 30s had witnessed the dawn of the Art Deco movement in India, as mildly more decorative than the functional Modernism that preceded it. This was seen in the Umaid Bhawan Palace (completed in the mid-40s) in Jodhpur, and in several of the sea facing mansions of Mumbai.

References from this period are the Das residence in Calcutta designed by Martin Burn & Co, exuberant in its Art Deco detailing, and of course the bungalows on Marine Drive that formed the largest Art Deco stretch anywhere in the world with the sole exception of Miami.

The 50s were a period of disturbed architectural leanings, an era when the Revivalists reacted against the Colonial and the Modern. Naturally, government, through its arm, the PWD, created the abysmal Revivalist style, while private practitioners looked to the now emerging International style.

The great doyen of Indian architecture, Achyut Kanvinde was a major figure, while Habib Rahman was responsible for several bold structures such as the New Secretariat building in Calcutta and the Maulana Azad memorial in Delhi. A young architect who would be a major influence in India over the next decades, Charles Correa started off in the late 50s with his commission of the Gandhi Smarak Sanghralaya in Ahmedabad.

Perhaps the grandest of the 50s buildings was one in which Nehru himself took active interest, often jogging across in the mornings as it came up. This was the Ashok Hotel in Delhi, built by B.E. Doctor in the Revivalist style, harking back to jaalis, chhatris and ornamental brackets, but not swamping the building with a profusion of details. Similar features can be seen in the American Embassy designed during the same period in Delhi by Edward Durrell Stone, obviously inspired by the activity he saw around him.

The influence of Corbusier is shrugged off somewhat easily now, but the city was featured in design magazines around the world. In India, the Sarabhai home and Villa Shodhan, both in Ahmedabad, were designed by Corbusier, though Mrinalani Sarabhais house was designed by an acolyte of Frank Lloyd Wright.

Corbusiers 50s gave way to Louis Kahns 60s, and Ahmedabad saw yet another influence take root, as at the Indian Institute of Management. The International style so loathed by the PWD, was now being seen in all urban areas. Joseph Steins India International Centre in Delhi, Habib Rahmans WHO building, also in the capital, and the cusp when the Akbar Hotel, a design icon till recently, were created. B.V. Doshi trained under Corbusier, and Ahmedabad became his base too, his own home representing his ideas best. Later, he was to forge a relationship with Stein and Bhalla to create Vastu Shilpa for major projects in the 80s and 90s, an architecture, he says, belonging to the place and the people.

Big names in the 70s: Ashish Ganju, Charles Correa, C.N. Raghavendran, Uttam Jain. Kahn returned to the States. Laurie Baker and Raj Rewal proved inspirational. It was the decade of the Modern movement, and of the birth of the National Institute of Design. Satish Gujral made his architectural debut with the Daryanani home in Delhi, as did Anil Laul. This was a period when Indian influences became stronger: the search for courtyards, motifs, the philosophy of architecture, all of which became consolidated in the 80s, had their genesis here.

Baker and Ravindran and Gujral continued to blaze a fiery path through the 80s, and the wonderful Bahai Temple was commissioned in Delhi. There was also a sense of internationalism. Philip Johnson and John Burge built the Tata Theatre at the NCPA in Mumbai, Charles Correa the delightful Cidade de Goa in Panjim, while Raja Aederi brought in the reflecting glass style of Europe in the shape of the Le Meridien Hotel. Steinss Sher-i-Kashmir International Convention Centre in Kashmir became a prominent architectural landmark, Raj Rewal designed the Asian Games Village, while Sabiki and Choudhury created the magnificent atriumed Taj Bengal hotel in Calcutta.

Restoration was a major feature, with several ruined homes and citadels being renovated or converted into hotels. This look also created the movement for ethnic spaces, led by Parmeshwar Godrej when she designed the Khyber restaurant in Mumbai. Nari Gandhi used textures to create modern buildings with a layered look. Surendra Patel in Gujarat came the closest to designing homes resembling Indian havelis, bright with colours and resplendent with Indian artifacts.

The 90s continued the trend of global Indian architecture, with a mellower feel. While the stalwarts continued their pursuit, exciting new architects have begun to create a new urban environment: Gerard da Cunha (Nrityagram, Bangalore), Dean DCruz (Nilaya, Goa), Revathi Kamath (mud architecture proponet, in Rajasthan and Delhi), Karan Grover (GE Plastics, Gurgaon), Brinda Somaya, Jaisim, Pradeep Sachdeva, Ramu Katakam, the late Nikhil Arni, Mohit Gujral, Vergis Oomen, K.S. Ranganath all searching for an idiom that is not overtly simple. At the same time, the 80s and 90s have been the period of Hafeez Contractor and his fairytale, colourful, skyscraper mosaics which have given a new meaning to highrise.

It is an issue packed with information, but the details can be sketchy for students. For most readers, however, who want to understand architecture in the simplest terms possible, the compact, well-designed issue comes as a bonus. We have profiled some of the most significant design work that has emerged out of India, says editor Sheila Shahani. Design in India may leave a lot to be desired there is very little good design around, claims Patwant Singh in the same issue but whenever it happens, you can be sure, Inside Outside will reflect it. Even though, as once again we quote Patwant Singh: I find the current design magazines absolutely appalling. Even more than the architecture? Only Patwant and time will tell.