If you want freedom, break away from the normal conventions. Break away from all the rules - Forget history books.” –BV Doshi
There are a few who have walked this Earth and stood as embodiments of an era, whose existence was a source of daily inspiration and whose absence creates a void that none can ever fill. Dr Balkrishna Vithaldas Doshi (BV Doshi), India’s most celebrated architect, who passed away at 95, on Tuesday, January 24, has left an irreplaceable emptiness in the cultural soul of our country along with a rich legacy that generations to come in our country can take pride in.
Making housing affordable
Born in 1927 in Pune, BV Doshi studied architecture at the JJ School of Architecture in Mumbai and went on to design some of the most iconic buildings in India in his long and illustrious career. His journey in architecture began in 1950 when he worked for the renowned architect, Le Corbusier in Paris. On his return to India, he continued to handle Le Corbusier’s projects in the country and ultimately, founded his own architectural practice.
The core of his practice was to provide affordable housing to the Indian population as he had often been deeply shocked in his growing up years by the lack of adequate shelter space in Indian cities. His best known projects that symbolised his commitment to addressing this issue were The Life Insurance Corporation Housing in Ahmedabad in 1973 and the Aranya Low Cost Housing in Indore in 1989. Besides this, he had to his credit more than 100 projects like the Indian Institute of Management, Bangalore and Udaipur, the NIFT Delhi, and many more public institutions in India.
The first Indian architect to be honoured with the prestigious Pritzker Prize in 2018 referred to as architecture’s ‘Nobel’, the 2022 Royal Gold Medal, the Padma Bhushan, and several prestigious recognitions as an architect, BV Doshi was also an accomplished artist. He had in fact embraced art much before his architectural practice took wings. It was while studying art in Pune that his brilliance with line and space prompted his teacher to suggest treading the path of architecture, which eventually saw him enrolling for a degree at the JJ School.
His art practice, however, continued and personified his beliefs and the qualities contained in his architecture.
The artist within him
BV Doshi considered art as his purest form of expression. It was here that his mind was truly free and he could create a world filled with surreal architectural landscapes that were not bound by the theoretical limitations of the real world.
These dream-like compositions often resembled the instantly recognisable familiar spaces around us, like doors or windows, roads and roofs, and yet, the distortion that he lent to its form transformed these shapes into mere implied suggestions, thus giving the viewer a glimpse into his thought process. Perhaps these imagined and unreal expressions were drawn from his childhood where spontaneity took precedence to meaning. The line to him was alive with movement. It was almost like he travelled through his landscapes on his lines and shapes. This movement and the need for dynamism in static drawings may have led to his sculptural practice.
His artworks made his relationship with culture, history, and tradition very evident. Doshi’s practice of both art and architecture was indeed a marriage between the past and the present. He used traditional ideas to create modern spaces while taking inspiration from classic art forms like the Indian miniatures to create his artworks.
Furthering his works
The pandemic years and the lockdowns that followed the initial outbreak furthered his artistic practice and he went forth to experiment with several mediums, especially sculptures in metal. “I’m experimenting with different mediums without any baggage or ideas. So I am constantly discovering the unexpected,” he stated in an interview during the period. The uncertainty and vulnerability of the Covid years certainly made him reflect and understand the interplay between different elements, even the simplest of interactions between line and paper and how a line drawn was in some way influenced by the paper on which it was sketched.
Last year, Delhi-based Vadehra Art Gallery showcased a collection of BV Doshi’s paintings, sculptures and drawings at Art Basel in Switzerland, one of the most prestigious international art fairs that is staged annually. Titled Labyrinth of Dreams, the body of works on display played with movement and emotions through colours and colourlessness, volumes and texture, and forms and abstractions. The memories from various stages in his life, his travels, his ancestral home, objects connected to his past—all found their way into his work, along with the influence of his architectural projects, thus metamorphosing into an intimate experience for the viewer as well.
His paintings have also been shown at the National Gallery of Modern Art in 2014, at Shanghai in 2017, at the India Art Fair in 2019, at Chicago in 2020, and in Delhi in 2021, among many more and are part of international collections. Dr BV Doshi embraced the joys of simplicity and found profound meanings in them. If his life were to be summed up in words, it would read thus: “A great man does not seek applause or place; he seeks for truth; he seeks the road to happiness, and what he ascertains, he gives to others”.
As the nation mourns the loss of one of the greatest architects to have shaped the history of architecture in India, he will continue to live on through his contributions to architecture, art, and the cultural landscape of the country, inspiring future generations. The man who broke away from all normal conventions to carve an extraordinary path for himself will be remembered forever for his greatness and the humility with which he carried it.