Issue Nº403 – In Memoriam

The passing away of B V Doshi on 24 January 2023, marks the end of an era for Indian architecture. Aged 95 (1927-2023) he lived a full life and was conferred the second highest civilian award of the Republic of India – Padma Vibhushan – a day after he passed away. In 2018, he also became the first Indian architect to receive the Pritzker Architecture Prize, regarded as the unofficial Nobel Prize for architecture.

I have had the privilege to know him since my student days at school of architecture, CEPT, Ahmedabad, and over the years I have been very fortunate to receive some of his gems of wisdom on life and architecture, especially when he was member of the Governing Board and Chairman of the Auroville Town Development Council from 2010 onwards for a number of years.

Doshi aged like good wine – keeping absolutely fit till almost the last days, sharing his insights on life generously, being always available, curious and ready to meet young people and interact with them. One felt that in fact Doshi internalised while externalising his thoughts! He sought out good critics and enjoyed a good debate. He believed in simplicity, yet was sophisticated; had a child-like curiosity and yet was very pragmatic; he saw the infinite in the finite and the infinite in the finite!

Even the last weeks when he was suffering from kidney failure with strict instructions not to be admitted to any hospital, he was happy to receive students and young architects. Doshi was a consummate story teller and his narratives questioned the mysteries of nature, celebration of life and values that sustain an individual within a community. In fact he once told me that “without a good story there is no good architecture!”

His growing family with grandchildren and great grandchildren, many of who are architects, was a great source of strength and joy for him. Most of all his camaraderie with his wife Kamuben was a special delight to see in the last decades.

He will continue to enrich, baffle and inspire us through his legacy of buildings and writings.

I would like to end this small obituary to an iconic legend with a quote by him:

“Remember, without dark night there can never be sunrise, don’t just think only of sunrise and smile or think of only the darkest night and imagine death. They are both a part of you. Accept nature and find the positive and think of it as a journey.”

Matriprasad passed away at the age of 65 in his apartment in Prayatna. His body was found around noon on 26 January; he had earlier informed his colleagues that he felt unwell and wouldn’t come to work for a few days. The cremation of his remains took place at the Auroville Cremation grounds in the afternoon of the next day.

Matriprasad (Marco Zaccanti) came to Pondicherry and Auroville for the first time in 1978 with a group of friends from Italy. In the mid-80s he settled in Auroville in the Existence community and was active with forestry work, the Auroville Council and the Entry Board, of which he was presently a member. He was a silent and persevering presence who will be missed by his friends, colleagues and all those who knew him.

Our condolences go out to his family in Italy and to Ana and her daughters, Jivatma and Amrita, for whom he was a true father figure during his years in Existence. As they put it, “He has been a dearly loved member of our family since our arrival in Auroville and has made our lives brighter with his warmth and affection, his quiet wisdom, and his irrepressible wit, playfulness, and humour. His memory will always remain in our hearts, as will the strength of his faith and commitment to Auroville’s ideals.”

On 24 January Christian Edet passed away in his Promesse home at the age of 62.

Born at Noumea, New Caledonia, Christian came at the age of 46 to Auroville in 2006 and was accepted as an Aurovilian in 2007. During the last 15 years he lived in Promesse.

Starting out with working at Matrimandir, he then worked and lived at Sadhana Forest where he was a quiet, hardworking and appreciated member of the community. In his later years he was active as a gardener in Promesse, and instrumental in the cleaning up of the northern side of Promesse, where village waste had been dumped for decades.

Living mostly in his own world and not socialising much, residents mainly remember him from his bicycle rides over the large distances between Promesse, Sadhana Forest, Kuilyapalayam and elsewhere and back, - usually wearing a flower behind his ear.