Doshi has long blended a Modernist sensibility with a keen understanding of what his home country needs This year?s Pritzker Prize, architecture?s highest award, has just been announced and the honor is going to 90-year-old architect and urban planner Balkrishna Doshi. The first Indian recipient of the award, Doshi lives and works in Ahmedabad in western India, and is known for his low-cost housing complexes, public projects, as well as educational and cultural institutions all over his home country.
Born in Pune, Doshi trained under iconic Swiss-French architect Le Corbusier in Paris in the 1950s, but returned to India to oversee Le Corbusier?s pioneering city-planning projects in Chandigarh and Ahmedabad. In 1955, Doshi established his own firm Vastu-Shilpa in Ahmedabad. Though Doshi was no doubt heavily influenced by Le Corbusier and Louis Kahn (whom he also collaborated with for over a decade), he worked with a deep understanding of distinctly Indian traditions and needs. His practice has completed over 100 projects in Indian cities, some of the most notable include: the Aranya Low Cost Housing development in Indore, which holds some 80,000 individuals across 6,500 residences, the Centre for Environmental Planning and Technology in Ahmedabad, and Indian Institute of Management in Bangalore.
In selecting Doshi, the Pritzker Prize jury seems to be continuing a theme of celebrating architects who have made tremendous local impact. Last year?s winner, the trio of ...