Charles Correa, face of contemporary architecture left us: Charles Correa, the face of contemporary architecture and India’s greatest architect, died on June 16, 2015 following a short illness. Born on September 1, 1930, the urban planner was well-known for the Gandhi memorial in Gujarat. He is founder of Mumbai’s Urban Design Research Institute (established in 1984) dedicated to protect the environment and improve lives of urban communities
Correa, who defined post-independence architecture in India, designed Mumbai’s first high-rise residential building – Kanchanjunga. “It is still rated among the top buildings in Mumbai, decades after it was built: this was the impact of his architecture in Mumbai. He put the city on the architectural map of the world.
He also had served as first Chairman of the National Commission on Urbanization and was appointed by then Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi in 1985.
lesser-known facts about him
- Understanding the needs of the urban poor, he used traditional methods and materials to plan the urban designs
- He was just 28 years old when he designed the Gandhi memorial in Gujarat
- In the majority of his designs, he applied the ‘open-to-sky’ concept
- Considering to the needs of the urban poor, Correa came up with low cost designs like Tube House.
His Great Works
- Mahatma Gandhi Memorial Museum at the Sabarmati Ashram in Ahmedabad (1958–1963), Madhya Pradesh Legislative Assembly in Bhopal (1967),
- National Crafts Museum, New Delhi (1975–1990),
- Bharat Bhavan, Bhopal (1982),
- Jawahar Kala Kendra (Jawahar Arts Centre), in Jaipur, Rajasthan (1986–1992),
- British Council, Delhi (1987–92),
- McGovern Institute for Brain Research at MIT, Boston (2000–2005),
- City Centre (Salt Lake City) in Kolkata,
- Champalimaud Centre for The Unknown in Lisbon, Portugal (2007–2010)
Awards and Honours:
- He had been awarded the Padma Shri (1972),
- Padma Vibhushan (2006) by Government of India.
- He was also awarded Royal Gold Medal for Architecture (1984) by the Royal Institute of British Architects,
- 7th Aga Khan Award for Architecture (1998), Praemium Imperiale of Japan.
