Pune’s ROAD organises memorial lecture for architect Balkrishna Doshi
The memorial lecture was held to mark the 96th birth anniversary of Indian architect Balkrishna Doshi.
Room Open 2 Art Design (ROAD), a community of architects in Pune, organised a memorial lecture ‘Mi Balkrishna Doshi’ Saturday to mark the 96th anniversary of architect Balkrishna Doshi, the first and only Indian recipient of the Pritzker Architecture Prize.
The lecture was held in Kale Hall at Pune’s Gokhale Institute to acknowledge Doshi’s contributions and legacy of architecture, art and philosophy.
The speakers for the memorial lecture were architects Madhusudhan Chalsani, Bijoy Ramchandran and Premjit Ramchandran.
Madhusudhan Chalsani touched upon meritocracy in architecture and how small and big architects are constantly competing for projects. He spoke against hero worship in architectural cultures and said, “As the masters suffer from insecurities, nobody grew under a big tree.”
Bijoy Ramachandran began his address by disagreeing with Chalsani’s statement and said he “worships” Doshi. “I have learnt a lot from him. They don’t necessarily make me a better architect, but I would like to think they make me a better person,” he said.
Further, Bijoy read out a letter Doshi wrote to him in 1994. The letter said: “There are many ways to create architecture, either by integrating into the surroundings, by emphasising or even by alienating. Each is a good solution provided the building is as integrated as a human being, or an animal, or an insect, or a plant, etc. What one needs to do is understand the flow and to know the flow you have to be in contact with yourself and the material which is used as the medium. Good luck!”
Further, Bijoy read out a letter Doshi wrote to him in 1994. The letter said: “There are many ways to create architecture, either by integrating into the surroundings, by emphasising or even by alienating. Each is a good solution provided the building is as integrated as a human being, or an animal, or an insect, or a plant, etc. What one needs to do is understand the flow and to know the flow you have to be in contact with yourself and the material which is used as the medium. Good luck!”
Sharing an anecdote with the attendees, Premjit Ramchandran said that Bijoy suggested making a film on Doshi when the former was exploring his next project after his return to India from Dubai in 2007.
Adding to this, Premjit said he was surprised when Doshi readily agreed to do a film with him even though they didn’t know each other. The sequel to the 2009 film ‘Doshi’ also materialised in 2019 as ‘Doshi: The Second Chapter’, he added.
A few portions of both the films were screened for the audience.
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