CONTEMPORARY ARCHITECTURE

09AT5DCCOA

CONTENT COMPILED BY
AR. SAHANA. S
(ASSISTANT PROFESSOR, B.M.S.C.A.)
CHARLES CORREA - LIFE AND WORKS

•Charles Mark Correa - An architect of range and sensitivity.

•Architect, Planner, Activist and Theoretician, Correa has emerged as a major figure in contemporary
architecture worldwide.
•In the lines of those who have contributed significantly to architectural practice and discourse in South Asia is
Charles Correa.
•Over the span of a career starting in the early 1950s till 2015, Correa has evolved a distinctive style of his
own and has been a chief actor or major participant in various influential projects that shape and give
definition to post-colonial South Asian architecture.

•Portfolio
•In a career that spans the design of great buildings and cities to plans for effective, affordable housing, few
can match Charles Correa's accomplishments.
•Correa’s many accomplishments include:
•His first important commission was the Gandhi Smarak Sangrahalaya, Ahmedabad, (1958-63).
•The Jawahar Kala Kendra Museum- a museum and art center in Jaipur. The contemporary building. is based
on ancient ideas of the cosmos.

Gandhi Smarak Jawahar Kala Kendra National Crafts Museum at Bhopal State Assembly
Sangrahalaya, Ahmedabad museum, Jaipur Pragati Maidan New Delhi Building
CHARLES CORREA - WORKS

In the Kanchanjunga Apartments, Mumbai and Previ

Housing project in Lima,Peru, 1969-73 each unit is so
shaped that the prevailing breeze, that enters at one end,
is drawn through the house with the help of double ht.
volumes. In the Previ project, this draft is increased by
means of a louvered air-scoop over the double ht. volume.

In the Tara Apartments, Delhi the

terraces project, because in the hot dry
Gandhi Smarak Sangrahalaya, Ahmedabad, India, 1958-63) climate of north India deep sky
radiation makes such open terraces the
coolest place to sleep out on warm
summer nights.
Tara Apartments, Delhi
Massing of units
Correa uses a network of interconnected open-to-
sky spaces landscaped in different themes, to
recreate the Gandhian ideal of a self-sufficient
village community.
The centre is designed with modular pavilions
grouped asymmetrically around a central water
court in a manner analogous to an Indian village
The result is an elegant solution that is climatically
sound and energy-efficient, uses low-cost material
and finishes, and above all conveys some sense of
the earnestness and dignity appropriate for an
institution dedicated to Gandhi’s life and work.
CHARLES CORREA - WORKS

In his Belapur Housing Complex, Navi Mumbai,1983-86, housing for low income groups uses open-to-sky
space as a trade-off against the cost of producing equivalent covered space, for under Indian conditions
courtyards have a usability coefficient of about half that of a room and verandhas about three quarters.

Cluster of 7 houses

Clusters of 3 x 3 x 7
houses
Cluster of 3 x 7
houses Site plan
CHARLES CORREA - DESIGN PHILOSOPHIES

•Contemporary Regionalism - The Traditional in the Modern

•Correa’s work in India is an adaptation of Modernism to a non-western culture. He attempts to explore a
local vernacular within a modern environment.
•Correa was influenced by the works of Le Corbusier but sought to develop new forms of modernism
appropriate to Indian culture, producing designs that reflect a sensitive understanding of local climate and
living patterns.
•Correa’s work displays an impressive vocabulary and technical ability in responses to the challenges that
explosive urban growth creates.
•Correa’s responses have been outstandingly innovative, displaying an impressive knowledge of tradition from
various sources, an understanding of technique and, perhaps most importantly the power of symbol.
•More often his work is an observation in the pragmatic sense.
•Many of his contemporary buildings are based on ancient ideas of the cosmos.
•Examples: Jawahar Kala Kendra arts centre, Jaipur, Kasturaba Samadhi in Pune & IUCAA (Inter-University
Centre for Astronomy and Astrophysics) , Pune.
•Correa uses stepped platforms in many of his works to generate controlled processional movement- part of
the Indian tradition.
•“Climate plays an important role in design”
•Correa’s designs “respond to the climate of India.” His vocabulary is of today, yet derived from the physical
setting and many traditional values of Indian society.
•All of his works have a special emphasis on prevailing resources, energy and climate as major determinants in
the ordering of space.
•His architecture is of horizontal planes- roofs and platforms, open colonnades, verandahs and courtyards
with water bodies.
•He remarks that religious ceremonies in Asia have always emphasized movement through open-to-sky
space. Indeed central to all Correa’s work is the theme of what he calls, open-to-sky space. It has a number of
variations, but it is nearly always present.
CHARLES CORREA- DESIGN PHILOSOPHIES

“Climate plays an important role in design”

He believes that, traditional architecture of India is architecture of indoor and outdoor spaces that merge into
one another and the use of which is determined by the climate / seasons.
Correa remarks that in a warm climate people have a very different relationship to built form.
He singles out the Chatri, an overhead canopy and a traditional Indian form as an example of the minimal
protection required by the climate.
He makes use of this form in several of his buildings, including what is perhaps his most distinguished early
work, Gandhi Smarak Sangrahalaya, Ahmedabad, India.

Cardinal Principles: Navi Mumbai or

New Mumbai, India British Council, Delhi
•Incrementality
•Pluralism
•Participation
•Income Generation
•Equity
•Open-to-sky space
•Disaggregation
IUCAA (Inter-University Jeevan Bharti (Life Insurance
Centre for Astronomy Corporation) headquarters
Kala Academi, Goa Cidade de Goa
and Astrophysics) , Pune. at New Delhi
 CHARLES CORREA- DESIGN PHILOSOPHIES

Tube House: An early example of energy-passive architecture (control air movements)

This entry by Charles Correa won first prize in the national competition for the Gujarat Housing board to
encourage new ideas for low-income housing.

•By using long tube houses, it was possible to get required density
as well as much larger living spaces for each family.

•The heated air rising along the sloped ceiling, escapes

trough a vent at the top. Fresh air, drawn in to replace it, •Thus the bldg. Creates its own micro – climate that
sets up a convention current of natural ventilation - remains cold during summer and warm in winter
controlled by the adjustable louvers next to the entrance without artificial means of cooling or heating.
door.
•In the Tube House and several other examples internal doors are always omitted (visual privacy being achieved by the
use of different levels) to avoid obstructing the air movement.
CHARLES CORREA- RAMAKRISHNA HOUSE, AHMEDABAD

•Based on the model of a long narrow dwelling, clustered about an internal atrium, lit from above yet
simultaneously screened from the sun, the Tube House served as the basic idea behind a number of villas that
Correa designed on a similar theme, most notably the Parekh and Ramkrishna Houses built in Ahmedabad
between 1962 and 1968.
•This Ramakrishna house plan for one of Ahmedabad’s mill-owners is generated by a series of parallel load
bearing-walls, punctuated by interior courts top-lit by cannon, culminating in the main living areas.
•The Ramakrishna house was greatly influenced by the Hindustan –Lever pavilion, a random folded – plate
RCC structure for the International Trade fair at Delhi in 1961 designed by Correa himself.
• The house is placed at the northern end of the site, so as to maximize the magnitude of the garden.
•Internally, the plan is structured by two parallel staircases, the main stairs and the service stairs, rising in
opposite directions to the upper level.
•Family bedrooms are on upper level spanning across the main façade overlooking the garden.
Plan

Section
Parallel walls lit by
overhead ‘cannon’

Model Pivoting
front
door

Hindustan –
Lever pavilion
CHARLES CORREA- RAMAKRISHNA HOUSE, AHMEDABAD

South facade

North facade
CHARLES CORREA- MRF HEADQUARTERS, CHENNAI
• The project of designing its main headquarters was given to Charles Correa & Associates.
• The MRF Building is a large horizontal structure with sweeping cantilevers and an internal atrium.
• It is located on a bend of Greames Road and its façade gently follows the street curve, creating a series of terraced
gardens.
• It is comparable to the waves on the seashore of the Marina along Chennai’s waterfront.
• As such, unlike many Modernist buildings, it helps delineate the street.
• Its scale is also surprisingly compatible with its more traditional neighbors and comes from its horizontal massing.
• A major feature of the building is its curving, slatted pergola standing on massive pillars
• Its tower-like monumentality is generated through a single free-standing column rising to support the large pergola
that floats above the terraces.
• Within the building, the various levels of the offices open out onto a central atrium linked through a casual pattern
of connecting stairs. It creates a focus for the building.
• On the ground floor are the common areas; each of the floors above is allotted to one of the company’s major
departments.
• The offices of the senior personnel are along the façade while the general staff are located in an open arrangement
behind.
• At the roof terrace level, one emerges on to a large garden, with trees and buildings all around.
• Within the building, the various levels of the offices open out onto a central atrium, linked through a casual pattern
of connecting stairs, creating a focus for the building.
• A wonderfully casual way to walk from one department to another, or to exit and go home at the end of the
working day.
CHARLES CORREA- MRF HEADQUARTERS, CHENNAI
CHARLES CORREA- KANCHANJUNGA APARTMENTS, MUMBAI

Concept & context:

• The Kanchanjunga building is an exclusive housing development, with spectacular views of both
Bombay skyline and the Arabian Sea. Situated in Mumbai.
• As the location’s most endemic factor, climate provides the designer with legitimate starting point
for architectural expression to design a modern interpretation of a feature of the traditional Indian
bungalow.
• Harmonious relationship between Kanchenjunga and its immediate context is realized as a result of
its inheriting local vernacular. Mumbai having tropical climate asks for east west orientation for the
building to catch the prevailing winds from the Arabian Sea and the city’s best view.
Planning and design:
• The tower has a proportion of 1:4 (being 21 meters square and 84 meters high).
• The tower is the fusion of efficient point-block circulation and spacious housing commonly
applied in low and medium rise blocks. Skip-stop elevators give access to a jagged stack of split
level units.
• Each unit rises and descends from the central core to double height verandahs nicked out of the
corners of the building. The smaller displacements of level are differentiated between the external
earth-filled terraces and the internal elevated living volume.
Layout:
• The layout of the apartments in Kanchenjunga achieves an open floor plan while creating
distinctive spaces through its changes in level.
• It has 32 luxury units of 3 to 6 bedroom flats.
• All the units were are arranged as an interlocking composition with the play of intermediate
split levels.
• 3- 4 bedroom units are one and half story and 5-6 bedroom units are 2 and half storied.
• Its minimalist unbroken surfaces are cut away to open up the double-height terrace gardens at
the corners, thus revealing some hint of the complex’ spatial organization of living spaces that lie
within. The interlock of these variations is expressed externally by the shear end walls that hold up
the cantilevers.
CHARLES CORREA- KANCHANJUNGA APARTMENTS, MUMBAI

Façade:
• Facade has a dramatic effect due to
outer double height terraces and
themes of color palette add the drama
in the aesthetics. The interlocking form
and colors reveals the complex spatial
organization of the livable spaces of
the tower.
• Great deal of transparency has been
achieved by the use of large opening
and deep garden verandahs,
suspended in the air on every floor.
• Whole structure is made of reinforced
concrete with 6.3m cantilevered open
terrace.
• The central core houses lifts and
other services were constructed ahead
of the main structure by slip method
of construction.
• Its concrete construction and large
areas of white panels, bears a strong
resemblance to modern apartment
buildings in the West.
• The garden terraces of Kanchanjunga
Apartments are actually a modern
N interpretation of a feature of the
traditional Indian bungalow: the
verandah.
CHARLES CORREA- KANCHANJUNGA APARTMENTS, MUMBAI
CHARLES CORREA- KANCHANJUNGA APARTMENTS, MUMBAI
CHARLES CORREA- KANCHANJUNGA APARTMENTS, MUMBAI
CHARLES CORREA- KANCHANJUNGA APARTMENTS, MUMBAI
CHARLES CORREA- KANCHANJUNGA APARTMENTS, MUMBAI