Architect B.V. Doshi wins Pritzker prize

The eminent jury for the Pritzker Prize, comprising architects and architectural critics from all over the world, stated that “with an understanding and appreciation of the deep traditions of India’s architecture, Doshi united prefabrication and local craft and developed a vocabulary in harmony with the history, culture, local traditions and the changing times of his home country, India.”

On receiving the award, Doshi commented: “My works are an extension of my life, philosophy and dreams, trying to create a treasury of the architectural spirit. I owe this prestigious prize to my guru, Le Corbusier. His teachings led me to question identity and compelled me to discover new regionally-adapted contemporary expressions for a sustainable holistic habitat.”

B.V. Doshi has long been known in India as one of its most eminent architects and has been much sought after internationally to be on various forums, juries and schools of architecture. He received the Padma Shri in 1976. With this latest addition to his accolades, he finally gets an international recognition of his 70 year old practice and its contribution to India.

Doshi is also a great educator and has been responsible for setting up and shaping one of the best schools of architecture in the country (now part of CEPT - Center for Environmental Planning and Technology University).

I have been fortunate to have studied at that school and have had several opportunities to observe and learn from him. For many years, I saw him taking his regular early morning walks, my parental house being only a few streets from his residence. His simplicity, discipline and inexhaustible energy have always been a source of inspiration to me. I was lucky to have had him as the external examiner for the final viva voce of my Diploma Thesis on a comparative analysis between The Matrimandir and The Great Pyramid.

However, I really got to know him better when I was a member of the TDC and he was coming more often to Auroville.

Once when I asked him what he considers his most interesting projects he answered, “I am very lucky. I see my most cherished projects every day - Kamala house where I live, CEPT where I teach and Sangath, where I work.”

Doshi is a storyteller who likes to weave many stories together, each time with a different narrative. In one conversation, when I mentioned how he had given me three completely different stories about his conceptualization of the iconic Hussain-Doshi Gufa in Ahmedabad, he laughed vigorously and said, “You see, I believe that without a good story there is no good architecture!”

One of his most endearing qualities is his insatiable curiosity. He is not one to pretend to know everything; from every situation in life he is ready to learn and move on with greater strength. His trademark little black diary and pen are always ready to take notes wherever he is. Even today, he goes to his studio every day for a few hours. Being the patriarch and inspiring personality that he is, there are six architects in his immediate family (including two grandsons about to graduate). Kamuben, his wife, is a steadfast support, always gracious and kind, keeping in the background, but being a strong presence in his life throughout. They share a 65 year old bond that is astounding.

He first came to Auroville in the early seventies. Later, he recalled, “My first impression of Auroville was related to the purpose of living – an experiment with frugality, reverence, togetherness, tolerance, sharing and searching for an integral way of purposeful life. I was completely bowled over by the kind of architectural experimentation that was happening. Here were houses with thatched roofs, houses built half into the ground and with arches made out of bricks and ferrocement. At that time, Indian architects were asking themselves how to make do with the minimum of resources yet develop something else, like the long-term overall sustainability one sees in nature, biodiverse yet harmonious. When I looked at Auroville then, I thought it was probably the most important architectural pioneering work happening in India.”

After that, he visited Auroville many times, more recently as a Governing Board member, and he continued to observe and critically examine the complexity of manifesting a city like Auroville.

During this time, he often stayed at Afsanah Guest House, where I had the pleasure of bringing him a hot cup of Gujarati chai early in the morning before breakfast. Those were cherished conversations in a quiet atmosphere after his regular practice of_ pranayama_.

Eventually the earlier aura of Auroville waned as he felt that the dynamism was missing from more recent constructions. In fact, he noted that when he first saw images of new apartment buildings in Auroville Today, he thought he was reading a review of buildings in 1950 Germany! “I began to worry because the world has moved on. What happened to Auroville’s spirit? If you build a city like this, will it really be a model for the world?”

At the same time, as his interactions with Aurovilians representing often opposing views about development increased, he began seeing the futility of “planning” a city like Auroville in the normal way. He is reported to have said that one of the biggest things Auroville taught him is patience!

However, he remained optimistic about Auroville’s future. In an interview in 2009, he mentioned that, “The most important thing for you to do is to develop your values, to evolve an Aurovilian way of life. Only then will an Aurovilian way of expressing it evolve. The most important ingredients are belief, faith and perseverance and all of these exist in abundance in Auroville. So if at the moment I’m saddened, in the long-term I’m very optimistic that if Auroville looks at itself afresh, profoundly, it can truly become a project of global heritage.”

Doshi will be delivering his Pritzker Acceptance speech, titled Paths Uncharted (after the autobiographical book written by him with the same title published in 2011), on 16 May this year at the University of Toronto, and the architectural fraternity in India and abroad will be keenly looking forward to his words of wisdom at the age of 90.

With Doshi also being included in Fortune’s 2018 ranking of the top 50 greatest world leaders, this will be a fine culmination of a unique career.