Charles correa

"Unless you believe in what you do, it becomes boring," Charles Correa is an Indian architect, planner and activist. Charles Correa was born in Secunderabad (born September 1, 1930), India. He studied architecture at the University of Michigan and at Massachusetts Institute of Technology after which he established a private practice in Bombay in 1958.

Charles Correa is a major figure in contemporary architecture around the world. With his extraordinary and inspiring designs, he has played a pivotal role in the creation of an architecture for post-Independence India .

His work in India shows a careful development, understanding and adaptation of Modernism to a nonwestern culture. His early works attempt to explore a local vernacular within a modern environment.

Kala academy, Goa

Kanchanjunga,mumbai

All of his work-from the planning of New Bombay to the carefully detailed memorial to Mahatma Gandhi at the Sabarmati Ashram in Ahmedabad has placed special emphasis on prevailing resources, energy and climate as major determinants in the Sabarmati ashram,ahmedabad ordering of space.

Over the last four decades, Correa has done pioneering work in urban issues and low cost shelter in the Third World. From 1970-75, he was Chief Architect for New Bombay an urban growth center of 2 million people, across the harbor from the existing city. In 1985, Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi appointed him Chairman of the National Commission on Urbanization.
Charles Correa has held visiting professorships at leading universities including the University of California at Berkeley, Tongji University in Shanghai, and Harvard University, and has been the Sir Banister Fletcher Professor at the University of London, the Albert Bemis Professor at MIT, and the Jawaharlal Nehru Professor at Cambridge.

Awards
RIBA Royal Gold Medal - 1984. He acclaimed design for McGovern Institute for Brain Research at MIT was dedicated recently. Padma Vibhushan (2006) and Padma Shri (1972).

The Kala Academy in Panaji

is Goas premier cultural institution & center for performing arts. The spatial organisation is relatively horizontal, organised around an orthogonal grid with an interesting play of volumes. The grid allowed Correa the flexibility to manipulate spaces to create a very rich sensory experience, while at the same time, meeting the functional require ments of the programme.

Thus, the entrance is through a double height space with an open floor plan in the ground floor drawing one inside. One moves through a very interesting series of spaces, a deliberate internal street derived from the nostalgic past of Goa.

Correa has successfully managed to integrate an elaborate internal street like passage into a relatively formal scheme of a performing arts venue and achieve a delicate balance between inside & outside. One is never really away from the greenery outside, from the cool breeze coming in over the Mandovi river, from the sun, from light & shadow. Correa masterfully unites all these elements to draw one through the space, the circulatory pathway being one of his special focuses. People are made to walk through, made to pause, made to walk faster all through the careful manipulation of volumes, frames, colours, light & dark. Strategically placed platforms & seats allow people to relax and converse & while time away enjoyably till the start of the function, acting out a social function which is getting rarer by the day.

There are walls which have been given depth & life through realistic perspectives of arcaded streets, of projecting balconies, of staircases, of windows, of doorways the walls themselves forming a huge canvas, where the visitor feels as if part of an elaborate set, a walk through time into an old world street. Here, the boundary between reality & illusion blurs in a happy way to transport the visitor to a different experience, one created by the combined collaborative genius of Correa & the Goan artist Mario Miranda

The exterior of the building is of laterite, creating a beautiful texture which is further accentuated in the sun.
One gets subconscious images of the weathered lateritic walls of the great forts of Goa. This, when contrasted with the smoothness of the concrete beams & pergolas, creates an interesting interplay.

He designs always keeping the essence of the traditional alive, while exploring & addressing present day concerns in a contemporary manner. That is what sets Charles Correa apart from the rest. His is an architecture where the indoor & outdoor spaces merge into one another, an architecture of horizontal planes, of courtyards, of verandahs, of platforms, all relating to the site and context... His Kala academy is his interpretation of a contemporary identity of Goa & its culture.

BELAPUR HOUSING

 Project demonstrates how high density housing (500 people per hectare)
can be achieved in a low-rise typology, while including open to sky spaces and services, like schools, that the community requires Overriding principle - to give each unit its own site to allow for expansion (Incrementality) Consequently, families do not share walls with their neighbors , allowing each to expand his own house (Participation)

Houses constructed simply and can be built by traditional masons and

craftsmen - generating employment for local workers (Income generation) several plans exist that cover the social spectrum, from squatters to upper income families (Pluralism) Yet, the footprint of each plan varies little in size (from 45 sqm to 70 sqm), maintaining equity (fairness) in the community

Jawahar kala kendra

British council,Delhi

MIT, Brain and Cognitive Sciences Complex, Cambridge, Charles Correa

 In the course of his projects, a fair amount of negative feedback has gone Correa's way. Bombay's Kanchenjunga, the residential highrise with verandahs and gardens scooped out of its side and Salvacao Church, an arrangement of giant concrete shells, have been strongly criticised. "I take criticism on the chin," admits Correa. "It knocks me out but it makes me stop and think." While Correa is always receptive to feedback, he has never compromised or changed designs he really believes in. "I listen very carefully. But I would rather lose the client than make changes I don't believe in,"

By Arun Thudupunoori 1090100071