The doyen of Indian architecture and a great proponent of built forms in contemporary style, Balkrishna V Doshi, passed away in Ahmedabad on January 24, 2023.
Having worked under the urban planner and architect of Chandigarh Le Corbusier, Balkrishna V Doshi had contributed to the planning of Chandigarh. He worked for four years with Le Corbusier as Senior Designer (1951-54) in Paris and four more years in India.
He also worked with Louis Kahn as an associate during the building of IIM-Ahmedabad. and his architectural work as well as his zeal and enthusiasm will always be remembered.
All officers of the Department of Urban Planning, Chandigarh, on behalf of architects and public of Chandigarh, paid their last respects to the departed soul and held a two minute silence as a mark of respect.
Condoling his demise, Prime Minister Narendra Modi tweeted, “Dr BV Doshi Ji was a brilliant architect and a remarkable institution builder. The coming generations will get glimpses of his greatness by admiring his rich work across India. His passing away is saddening.”
He was known worldwide for his contribution to modern architecture through his designs for many famous buildings and campuses in India, the most noteworthy among them being IIM Bangalore , Vidyadhar Nagar, Jaipur and NIFT Delhi.
A pioneer of modern and brutalist architecture in India, he was a highly decorated figure having received the Padma Shri (1976), Padma Bhushan (2020) and many other awards. Born into a family in the furniture business for two generations, he brought pride to the architectural fraternity of India by becoming the first Indian architect to be awarded the internationally-acclaimed prestigious Pritzker Prize in 2018.
Apart from architecture, he also worked on urbanism, academics, urban design as well as arts, the Hussain-Doshi Gufa in Ahmedabad being a famous example of the culmination of art with architecture.
