Balkrishna Vitaldas Doshi, master architect, urban planner, teacher, and 2018 Pritzker Prize winner, has died.
And the 2022 quadruple gold medal for the 95th, in Ahmedabad, India on Tuesday January 24, 2023.
This was reported by several Indian outlets and Architectural Digest India on their Instagram page.
Doshi is considered one of the most famous Indian architects who shaped the architecture of India and its neighboring regions.
Heavily inspired by the works of Le Corbusier and Louis Kahn, he “combined avant-garde modernism with vernacular”.
He is best known for his urban planning and social housing projects, Krishna Doshi.
In addition to his academic work as a visiting professor at various universities around the world,
Over his 70-year career, he has built some of India’s most iconic buildings.
Regarded as India’s greatest architect, Doshi forged a distinct architectural philosophy and expression,
informed by both modernist values and local traditions.
He is also the first Indian architect to receive the Pritzker Prize, in 2018.
Doshi’s work has shown a deep appreciation for the architectural traditions,
climate, local culture and crafts of India, as stated by the 2022 RIBA Honors Committee.
His work spans a variety of programs and scales, including administrative and cultural buildings,
educational facilities, residential developments, and apartment buildings.
Some of these projects include the campuses of Shreyas Comprehensive School,
Ahmedabad School of Architecture, Indian Institute of Management Bangalore,
Aranya Low Cost Housing, recipient of the Aga Khan Award for Architecture,
National Institute of Fashion Technology, Delhi,
the Center for Environmental Planning and Technology, the Tagore Memorial Hall,
the Institute of Indology and Premabhai Hall, and the private residence Kamala House.
Architect Balkrishna Vitaldas Doshi
Doshi was born in 1927 in Pune, Bahn, and studied architecture at the GG School of Architecture, Bombay.
Between 1951 and 1954, he worked with Le Corbusier in Paris as senior designer and then for another four years in Hen,
supervising projects in Ahmedabad.
He established a ten-year collaboration with Louis Kahn, which began with the Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad.
In 1956, Doshi founded his firm, Vastoshilpa, with two other architects.
In honor of the lead architect, Martha Thorne, former Executive Director of the Pritzker Prize for Architecture,
wrote on her Facebook page:
It is clear that Balkrishna Doshi is a unique figure in the panorama of twentieth-century architecture.
He was an architect who influenced many people in different ways:
From his works, writings, and teachings, as a guide and role model.
He worked on various scales from town planning to individual buildings.
The incorporation of traditional crafts adapting to new spaces and new uses are just two examples of Doshi’s completeness in his approach to architecture.”
And in an extensive video interview conducted by the Louisiana Channel, filmed a few years ago,
Pritzker Laureate Balkrishna Doshi tells how he became an award-winning architect,
his traditional Hindu beliefs and culture,
And India’s adjacency is nothing to keep up with. A scientist who creates everything.
For more architectural news
