Architect Balkrishna Doshi became the first Indian to win the prestigious Pritzker prize also dubbed as architecture's Nobel equivalent and he vowed to use the award to escalate his campaign for proper housing for the poor.
The 90-year-old told asserted that he had no plans of slowing down after winning the illustrious award. He asserted, “If I as an architect am not able to do something for my people and provide them with what they need, then I should say my job is incomplete.”
In a career spanning over 70 years, B V Doshi trained with Swiss-Franco icon Le Corbusier and became known for the Aranya Low Cost Housing project which accommodates 80,000 people with houses and courtyards linked by a maze of pathways in the city of Indore. He also administered the School of Architecture in Ahmedabad and the Indian Institute of Management in Bangalore.
B V Doshi now works mainly as a consultant and incorporates modernism with functionality to produce what he calls a “holistic habitat” that puts India's army of poor before profit.
He elaborated, “My projects have been participatory in nature and relevant to the people for which it was designed,” and added, “It was not like we have land and we just constructed a building like real estate developers do today.”
He stated, “We need to create affordability, sustainability in terms of local culture and affect people's lives.”
The international Pritzker prize, established by Chicago's Pritzker family in 1979, bestows laureates with $100,000 along with a bronze medallion. The Pritzker jury said about B V Doshi that he “constantly demonstrates that all good architecture and urban planning must not only unite purpose and structure but must take into account climate, site, technique, and craft, along with a deep understanding and appreciation of the context in the broadest sense. Projects must go beyond the functional to connect with the human spirit through poetic and philosophical underpinnings.”
